Tag: Oil Paintings

Maximilian II, His Wife, and Three Children by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

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Maximilian II, His Wife, and Three Children by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Maximilian II, His Wife, and Three Children
1563
Mannerism

After Arcimboldo was appointed to the Habsburg Court he painted a port Maximilian II with his wife and children. It is an important work in Arcimboldo’s oeuvre as it illustrates the intermediate phase in the artist’s transition to the full Mannerist style.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo 1527-1593

Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Mannerism
Born: 1527, Milan, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 11 July 1593, Milan, Italy

Arcimboldo was a painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made from objects such as fruit, vegetables, fish, books, and flowers. However, he was also a conventional painter of portraits, including three Holy Roman Emperors, religious subjects, and exotic animals. Arcimboldo’s still-life portraits were intended as curiosities, whimsical in nature produced to amuse the court.

Landscape with River and Angler by Alexei Savrasov

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Landscape with River and Angler by Alexei Savrasov

Landscape with River and Angler
1859
Realism
Oil on canvas
Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia

“Landscape with River and Angler” depicts the River Moskva near the village of Arkhangelsk where Savrasov lived and worked in the summer of 1859. It is considered a forebear of the development of Russian Landscape as a genre with its simultaneous authenticity as a depiction of nature and an expression of the artist’s own emotional experience.

Alexei Savrasov 1830-1897

Alexei Savrasov
Realism
Born: 24 May 1830, Moscow, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Died: 8 October 1897, Moscow, Russia

Savrasov was a landscape painter and is credited with being the creator of the lyrical landscape style

Landscape with Green Trees by Maurice Denis

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Landscape with Green Trees by Maurice Denis

Landscape with Green Trees
1893
Les Nabis
Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

One of the best-known works by Denis, “Landscape with Green Trees” exemplifies the work of the Nabis whilst expressing the artist’s unique spirituality. A group of elegant tree trunks against a cloudy white sky with a low wall in a darker green counterbalances the verticality of the composition. Between the trees mysterious robed figures flit whilst a winged figure in white can be seen beyond the wall. Resonances of Breton Folklore and symbolism of the Virgin communicating with an angel demonstrate Denis’ ability to combine Christian and mythological iconography in his work

Maurice Denis 1870-1943

Maurice Denis
Symbolism, Les Nabis, Post-Impressionism, Japonism
Born: 25 November 1870, Granville, France
Nationality: French
Died: 13 November 1943, Paris, France

Unique amongst the avant-garde painters of the late 19th century, Denis combined their commitment to formal and stylistic innovation with an equally profound sense of tradition in art, culture, and religion. His bright and vibrant paintings express a commitment to abstraction and a reliance on the inner life of the soul. Unlike his peers, Denis had a soul shaped by his faith which would also lead to activities such as church renovation and altarpiece design

Klar Juninatt by Nikolai Astrup

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Klar Juninatt by Nikolai Astrup

Klar Juninatt
1905-07
Landscape
Oil on Canvas
The Savings Bank Foundation DNB / KODE

In “Klar Juninatt” Astrup portrays a lush green landscape at the foot of a mountain. A water-lily-speckled pond is surrounded by vibrant green grass leading to a field of sunny yellow buttercups. A small cluster of log cabins points to human life within the idyllic setting of Ålhustunet in Jølster and Alhus vicarage where the artist resided for a time.

Nikolai Astrup 1880-1928

Nikolai Astrup
Expressionism
Born: 30 August 1880, Bremanger, Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Died: 21 January 1928, Førde, Norway

Astrup was a modernist painter with a distinctive and innovative style noted for its intense use of colour depicting the landscapes of Vestlandet and the traditional way of life in the region

Kjerringa med Lykta by Nikolai Astrup

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Kjerringa med Lykta by Nikolai Astrup

Kjerringa med Lykta
1895-99
Expressionism
Oil on trouser fabric
The Savings Bank Foundation DNB / KODE

Created by Astrup in his youth “Kjerringa med Lykta” (Old Woman with a Lantern) is painted on used trouser fabric suggesting the artist was struggling financially and unable to afford canvas. The painting depicts a hunched old woman dressed in black carrying a lantern between two dark brown log cabins. The setting is a winter scene during heavy snowfall. The painting exemplifies the neo-romantic use of landscape and weather conditions as a method of conveying strong memories and emotions as evoked by nature. Astrup, in his early works, depicted snow as a natural adversary to be endured and overcome.

Nikolai Astrup 1880-1928

Nikolai Astrup
Expressionism
Born: 30 August 1880, Bremanger, Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Died: 21 January 1928, Førde, Norway

Astrup was a modernist painter with a distinctive and innovative style noted for its intense use of colour depicting the landscapes of Vestlandet and the traditional way of life in the region.

Julia Strachey by Dora Carrington

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Julia Strachey by Dora Carrington

Julia Strachey
1928
Portraiture
Oil on Canvas
Private Collection

This impressionistic portrait of the writer Julia Strachey depicted in a bold and vibrant palette and a golden light is typical of some of Carrington’s earlier works. The subject’s guarded expression and steady gaze suggest a woman with a clever wit and a critical eye. The severity of her expression balanced by the softness and colour of her clothing provides a visual balance between softness and strength, between the intellectual and the more worldly.

Dora Carrington 1893-1932

Dora Carrington
The Bloomsbury Group Artists, Proto-Feminist Artists
Born: 29 March 1893, Hereford, England
Nationality: British
Died: 11 March 1932, Newbury, England

Carrington was a painter and decorative artist, associated with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton Strachey. She was known simply by her surname as she considered “Dora” to be vulgar and sentimental

In the Loge by Mary Cassatt

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In the Loge by Mary Cassatt

In the Loge
1878
Impressionism
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA

“In the Loge” depicts a stylish woman attending a matinée performance at the Comedie Françoise theatre in Paris. Cassatt sets off the woman’s profile against the red velvet a gilt décor of the box seats behind her as she raises her opera glasses to her eyes. A male figure several boxes down is observing her through his own glasses showing Cassatt’s perception of the fact that members of the well-dressed audience are putting on their own performances for one another.

Marry Cassatt 1844-1926

Mary Cassatt
Impressionism, Proto-Feminist Artists
Born: 22 May 1844, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 14 June 1926, Oise, France

Cassatt was a painter and printmaker. Born in Pennsylvania, USA she lived most of her adult life in France where she exhibited with the Impressionists such as her close friend Degas. Cassatt is considered to be one of the three great ladies of Impressionism

Four Seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

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Four Seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Four Seasons
1563-73
Mannerism
Oil on canvas
Louvre Museum, Paris, France

A series of four paintings “Four Seasons” is probably Arcimboldo’s most famous work. It is the epitome of the Mannerist style emphasising the close relationship between humanity and nature. Each portrait is representative of one of the seasons and is made up of objects that are characteristic of that time of year. Only Winter and Summer survive from the original series, however, Arcimboldo’s patron, Emperor Maximilian II, commissioned a second set in 1573 as a gift and it is that second set that remains intact

Giuseppe Arcimboldo 1527-1593

Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Mannerism
Born: 1527, Milan, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 11 July 1593, Milan, Italy

Arcimboldo was a painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made from objects such as fruit, vegetables, fish, books, and flowers. However, he was also a conventional painter of portraits, including three Holy Roman Emperors, religious subjects, and exotic animals. Arcimboldo’s still-life portraits were intended as curiosities, whimsical in nature produced to amuse the court.

Flora by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

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Flora by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Flora
1589
Mannerism
Oil on board
Private Collection

“Flora” is a portrait of the Roman Goddess of flowering plants, fruit, and spring. Typically for Arcimboldo, she is composed of whole flowers, buds, petals, leaves, and stems. However, it stands out from its predecessors due to the artist’s subtlety and delicacy of technique, adhering more to traditional understandings of beauty rather than the grotesque.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo 1527-1593

Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Mannerism
Born: 1527, Milan, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 11 July 1593, Milan, Italy

Arcimboldo was a painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made from objects such as fruit, vegetables, fish, books, and flowers. However, he was also a conventional painter of portraits, including three Holy Roman Emperors, religious subjects, and exotic animals. Arcimboldo’s still-life portraits were intended as curiosities, whimsical in nature produced to amuse the court.

Fjøsfrieri by Nikolai Astrup

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Fjøsfrieri by Nikolai Astrup

Fjøsfrieri
1904
Expressionism
Oil on Canvas
The Savings Bank Foundation / KODE

“Fjøsfrieri” (In a Cowshed Courting) gives a deep focus down the corridor of a barn housing several cows. A young couple in a romantic embrace is shown in the left-hand foreground. The man is dressed in black with a liquor bottle (possibly Dutch courage) poking out of his pocket and his arms wrapped around the woman who is barefoot. Her right arm hangs down by her side but her left is draped around her suitor’s shoulders and there is a deep blush on her cheek. In the upper centre right the couple are being spied on by a male figure in the hayloft. Astrup combines romantic love with the codes of Romanticism. Passion is obvious to the viewer while a glimpse of the outside world through the barn window suggests a springtime landscape. Perhaps a foreshadowing of Astrup’s two years later when he falls in love with a farm girl.

Nikolai Astrup 1880-1928

Nikolai Astrup
Expressionism
Born: 30 August 1880, Bremanger, Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Died: 21 January 1928, Førde, Norway

Astrup was a modernist painter with a distinctive and innovative style noted for its intense use of colour depicting the landscapes of Vestlandet and the traditional way of life in the region

Female Figure Lying on Her Back by Dora Carrington

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Female Figure Lying on Her Back by Dora Carrington

Female Figure Lying on Her Back
1912
Life Art
Oil on Canvas
University College London Art Museum

“Female Figure Lying on Her Back” was painted during Carrington’s time as a student at the Slade School of Art in London. She entered it into a university contest and won second prize and a two-year scholarship to continue her education. Slade was the first school in the UK to permit female students to use nude models for their paintings, albeit with restrictions such as male and female students sketching the models in separate rooms, and male models for female students were, for the sake of modesty, partially covered.

Dora Carrington 1893-1932

Dora Carrington
The Bloomsbury Group Artists, Proto-Feminist Artists
Born: 29 March 1893, Hereford, England
Nationality: British
Died: 11 March 1932, Newbury, England

Carrington was a painter and decorative artist, associated with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton Strachey. She was known simply by her surname as she considered “Dora” to be vulgar and sentimental

Elisabeth of Valois by Sofonisba Anguissola

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Elisabeth of Valois by Sofonisba Anguissola

Elisabeth of Valois
1561-65
Portraiture
Oil on canvas
Museo Nacional del Prado, Spain

“Elisabeth of Valois” is a large-scale painting in which Anguissola captured the image of the newly married Queen of Spain, dressed in swaths of expensive black cloth and bejeweled with pearls and rubies from neck to hem. A wealthy Renaissance queen the numerous pearls symbolize wealth and fertility, the latter rather unfortunate as it was her fourth pregnancy and second miscarriage that ended the queen’s short life.

Sofonisba Anguissola
Mannerism, Baroque
Born: 1532, Cremona, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 16 November 1625, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Sofonisba Anguissola 1532-1625

Anguissola was a Renaissance painter, born to a poor but noble family. She received a well-rounded education including the fine arts and her apprenticeship with local painters of the time set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art

Farm at Watendlath by Dora Carrington

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Farm at Watendlath by Dora Carrington

Farm at Watendlath
1921
Landscape
Oil on Canvas
Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom

Carrington’s subjects were mostly intimate portraits and landscapes during the late 1910s. ”Farm at Watendlath” depicts Watendlath Farm, near Keswick in the Lake District, England, where she and her husband had spent a holiday with their friends in 1921. Especially poignant and meaningful to Carrington as it was whilst on this trip she met the writer Gerald Brenan who became one of her lovers. Typical of Carrington’s landscape paintings the image of the small farm creates a sense of intimacy and pleasant escapism.

Dora Carrington 1893-1932

Dora Carrington
The Bloomsbury Group Artists, Proto-Feminist Artists
Born: 29 March 1893, Hereford, England
Nationality: British
Died: 11 March 1932, Newbury, England

Carrington was a painter and decorative artist, associated with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton Strachey. She was known simply by her surname as she considered “Dora” to be vulgar and sentimental

Descent of Noah from Ararat by Ivan Aivazovsky

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Descent of Noah from Ararat by Ivan Aivazovsky

Descent of Noah from Ararat
1889
Christian Art
Oil on Canvas

Aivazovsky was increasingly subject to criticism from advocates of a realist style throughout his career. This younger generation of Russian artists with Ilya Repin at its forefront represented a growing social conscience among some artists. A comparison of Repin’s “Barge Haulers” and “Descent of Noah from Ararat” revealed their temperamental differences and Aivazovsky’s conservatism. He creates an illusion around the Old Testament story of Noah and his family as they load the animals down from the postdiluvian resting place of the ark sustained by supposedly eternal truths and uncorrupted by radical human dissent from those truths. This implied message of reassurance would have been an anathema to artists like Repin who believed art should question and not reassure.

Ivan Aivazovsky 1817-1900

Ivan Aivazovsky
Romanticism
Born: 29 July 1817, Theodosia, Ukraine
Nationality: Ukrainian
Died: 20 May 1900, Theodosia, Ukraine

Aivazovsky was a Romantic painter. He is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Following his academic education at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Aivazovsky travelled to Europe and briefly lived in Italy in the 1840s

Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra) by Henri Matisse

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Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)
1907
Fauvism
Oil on canvas
The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Cone Collection, USA

Working on the sculpture, “Reclining Nude I,” Matisse accidentally damaged the piece. Before repairing it, he painted it blue against a palm fronds background. Hard and angular, the nude is a tribute to both Cézanne and a sculpture Matisse saw in Algeria. She is also an intentional response to the soft and pretty nudes seen in the Paris Salon.

Henri Matisse 1869-1954

Henri Matisse
Fauvism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Primitivism in Art
Born: 31 December 1869, Le Chateau-Cambrésis, France
Nationality: French
Died: 3 November 1954, Nice, France

Matisse is regarded as the greatest colourist of the 20th century and rivalled Picasso in the importance of his innovations. As a Post-Impressionist and leader of the Fauvism movement, he sought to use colour as the foundation for expressive, decorative, and monumental paintings. Throughout his career, still-life and the nude were his favoured subjects with North Africa as an important inspiration

Chelsea from the Thames at Battersea Reach, London by Canaletto

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Chelsea from the Thames at Battersea Reach, London by Canaletto

Chelsea from the Thames at Battersea Reach, London
1751
Capriccio
Oil on canvas
The Lothian Collection (National Trust), Blickling Hall, England

The River Thames dominates “Chelsea from the Thames at Battersea Reach, London.” From the swath of land in the foreground two boats are being pushed into the river whilst in the background is the view of Chelsea buildings. Canaletto’s approach to English landscape helped his reputation grow in Northern Europe with the River Thames a frequent subject. It shows Canaletto’s characteristic command of perspective, attention to detail and realism.

Canaletto 1697-1768

Canaletto
Baroque, Rococo
Born: 28 October 1697, Venice, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 19 April 1768, Venice, Italy

Canaletto was a painter from the Republic of Venice and is considered an important member of the Venetian School of the 18th century. He was a painter of veduta of Venice, Rome, and London as well as imaginary (capricci) views. He was highly successful in England due to the patronage of Joseph “Consul” Smith, a British merchant and connoisseur

Chaos (The Creation) by Ivan Aivazovsky

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Chaos (The Creation) by Ivan Aivazovsky

Chaos (The Creation)
1841
Romanticism
Oil on Canvas

Mawkish to the modern eye “Chaos (the Creation)” was painted when Aivazovsky was living in Rome after his studies at the Imperial Academy in St Petersburg, Pope Gregory XVI who had it hung in the Vatican despite its portrayal of a literal divine presence. Whether mischievously pandering to literal-minded taste or his own beliefs the painting was a blockbuster for an ambitious young artist.

Ivan Aivazovsky 1817-1900

Ivan Aivazovsky
Romanticism
Born: 29 July 1817, Theodosia, Ukraine
Nationality: Russian
Died: 20 May 1900, Theodosia, Ukraine

Aivazovsky was a Romantic painter. He is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Following his academic education at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Aivazovsky travelled to Europe and briefly lived in Italy in the 1840s

Veduta ideata with Roman Ruins by Canaletto

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Veduta ideata with Roman Ruins by Canaletto

Veduta ideata with Roman Ruins
1720-21
Baroque, Rococo
Oil on canvas
Private Collection

“Veduta ideate with Roman Ruins” portrays ancient Roman monuments in various states of decay. In the background, along the Tiber River additional architecture is visible including Trajan’s Column and a faint dome of the Castel Sant’Angelo. It is an early piece of Canaletto turning towards dramatic landscapes after giving up theatrical sceneries.

Canaletto 1697-1768

Canaletto
Baroque, Rococo
Born: 28 October 1697, Venice, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 19 April 1768, Venice, Italy

Canaletto was a painter from the Republic of Venice and is considered an important member of the Venetian School of the 18th century. He was a painter of veduta of Venice, Rome, and London as well as imaginary (capriccio) views. He was highly successful in England due to the patronage of Joseph “Consul” Smith, a British merchant and connoisseur

Young Virgin by Salvador Dali

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Young Virgin by Salvador Dali

Young Virgin
1954
Surrealism
Oil on canvas
Private Collection

Demonstrating Dali’s style of exaggerating the representation of the female form within an abstracted background this painting is undoubtedly focused on sexual allusion. Overtly phallic rhinoceros horns, and form the components of the central buttock, and the disparate images threatening it. The title of the painting reinforces Dali’s conflicting views of women as mysterious objects of power, fear, and seduction.

Salvador Dali
Surrealism, Surrealist Sculpture, Biomorphism, Assemblage
Born: 11 May 1904, Catalonia, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Died: 23 January 1989, Catalonia, Spain

Salvador Dali 1904-1989

Dali was a surrealist artist known for his technical skill, precision draftsmanship, and the striking and often bizarre nature of his images. Initially influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance he became increasingly interested in Cubism and the avant-garde movements of the time. By the late 1920s, he joined the Surrealist group of artists and became one of its leading exponents.

Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola by Sofonisba Anguissola

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Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola by Sofonisba Anguissola

Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola
1559
Mannerism
Oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, Italy

In a dark studio Campi looms out of the shadows to make eye contact with the viewer as he paints a portrait of his elaborately dressed student, Anguissola. This may be the first time Anguissola is the subject of her own work so portrays herself as fashionable and jovial instead of the usually stoic and contemplative artist portrait.

Sofonisba Anguissola
Mannerism, Baroque
Born: 1532, Cremona, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 16 November 1625, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Sofonisba Anguissola 1532-1625

Anguissola was a Renaissance painter, born to a poor but noble family. She received a well-rounded education including the fine arts and her apprenticeship with local painters of the time set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art

Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart by Franz Hals

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Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart by Franz Hals

Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart
1623
Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

“Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart” depicts a couple in a tavern, he is raising a glass with a smile while a dog is resting its head in his left hand. A half-opened curtain reveals another room. It is the only surviving Hals’ artwork that Is dated with an inscription on the canvas. The title was given to the piece in the 18th century with Yonker meaning young gentleman, however, the woman is more likely to have been a prostitute than his lover. The subject of long debates among art historians, the meaning of the painting is suggested to be a moral message on the perils of excess, as was common in genre pieces of the time. However, whatever the meaning behind the portrait it offers the viewer of today a peek into everyday life in 17th-century Haarlem

Franz Hals
Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Born: 1582/83, Antwerp, Flanders
Nationality: Dutch
Died: 26 August 1666, Haarlem, Dutch Republic

Franz Hals 1582/3-1666

Hals was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Particularly known for his portraiture, he lived and worked in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Hals played a vital role in the evolution of 17th-century group portraiture and his known for his loose brushwork

A Couple by Franz Hals

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A Couple by Franz Hals

A Couple
1622
Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

“A Couple” was probably painted to celebrate the marriage of Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen in 1622. Unusual for the time it portrays the couple in relaxed poses and an outdoor location which was at odds with usual commissioned works to celebrate marriages with their formal and carefully posed format. The couple is seated and laid back beneath a tree both smiling knowingly at the viewer. Their open body language and direct gazes give the painting a sense of intimacy rarely present in other works of the time.

Franz Hals 1582/3-1666

Franz Hals
Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Born: 1582/83, Antwerp, Flanders
Nationality: Dutch
Died: 26 August 1666, Haarlem, Dutch Republic

Hals was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Particularly known for his portraiture, he lived and worked in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Hals played a vital role in the evolution of 17th-century group portraiture and is known for his loose brushwork

Vertumnus by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

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Vertumnus by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Vertumnus
1590-91
Mannerism
Oil on panel
Skokloster Castle, Sweden

“Vertumnus” is portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, depicted by Arcimboldo as the Roman god of the seasons, growth, gardens, fruit trees, and metamorphosis in nature. Typical of Arcimboldo’s portraits the composition of a human subject using natural forms is symbolic of the harmony between the rule of the Emperor and the rule of nature. The abundance of produce represents the return of the Golden Age under Rudolf II

Giuseppe Arcimboldo 1527-1593

Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Mannerism
Born: 1527, Milan, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 11 July 1593, Milan, Italy

Arcimboldo was a painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made from objects such as fruit, vegetables, fish, books, and flowers. However, he was also a conventional painter of portraits, including three Holy Roman Emperors, religious subjects, and exotic animals. Arcimboldo’s still-life portraits were intended as curiosities, whimsical in nature produced to amuse the court

Vegetables In a Bowl or The Gardener by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

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Vegetables In A Bowl Or The Gardener by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Vegetables In a Bowl or The Gardener
1587-90
Mannerism
Oil on wood
Museo Civico “Ala Ponzone”, Cremona, Italy

“Vegetables in a Bowl or the Gardener” is one of several paintings by Arcimboldo that can be viewed in reverse, revealing a still-life in one perspective and a portrait in the other. X-ray evidence shows that the painting process often required Arcimboldo to repaint and change the positions of some of the objects.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo 1527-1593

Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Mannerism
Born: 1527, Milan, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 11 July 1593, Milan, Italy

Arcimboldo was a painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made from objects such as fruit, vegetables, fish, books, and flowers. However, he was also a conventional painter of portraits, including three Holy Roman Emperors, religious subjects, and exotic animals. Arcimboldo’s still-life portraits were intended as curiosities, whimsical in nature produced to amuse the court

Self-Portrait (No. 13) by Ivan Albright

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Self Portrait (No. 13) by Ivan Albright

Self-Portrait (No. 13)
1982
Magic Realism
Oil on hardboard
The Art Institute of Chicago, USA

“Self Portrait (No. 13)” is one of twenty-four self-portraits by Albright between 1981 and his death in 1983. They were painted at the invitation of the Galleria Degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy which has a 400- year history of collecting self-portraits of artists. The paintings carried on Albright’s stylized legacy of presenting the human form in a highly detailed, brutal, and uncompromising manner.

Ivan Albright
Magic Realism, American Realism
Born: 20 February1897, Illinois, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 18 November 1983, Vermont, USA

Ivan Albright 1897-1983

Albright was a painter, printmaker, and sculptor best known for his self-portraits, still lifes, and character studies. Considered to be the master of the macabre Albright is categorized among the Magic Realists due to his techniques and dark subject matter

The Door by Ivan Albright

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The Door by Ivan Albright

The Door
1931-1941
Magic Realism
Oil on canvas
The Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Standing at eight feet tall and three feet wide “The Door” took ten years of painstaking work and was based on a collection of found objects. The painting went on to earn first-place awards at major exhibitions in New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia in 1941. Albright portrays an ornate door hung with a funereal wreath.

Ivan Albright 1897-1983

Ivan Albright
Magic Realism, American Realism
Born: 20 February1897, Illinois, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 18 November 1983, Vermont, USA

Albright was a painter, printmaker, and sculptor best known for his self-portraits, still lifes, and character studies. Considered to be the master of the macabre Albright is often categorized among the Magic Realists due to his techniques and dark subject matter

Great Masturbator by Salvador Dali

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Great Masturbator by Salvador Dali

Great Masturbator
1929
Surrealism
Oil on canvas
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain

A depiction of a shoreline scene similar to Dali’s home in Catalonia with a large, distorted face at its centre. A nude female representing Dali’s muse Gala rises from the head symbolizing the male fantasy conjured when engaging in the activities suggested by the painting’s title. Her position suggests impending fellatio while he is cut and bleeding at the knees signifying a stifled sexuality and may represent Dali’s lifelong phobia of female genitalia. The painting also includes the motifs of a grasshopper as a beacon of sexual anxiety, ants symbolising decay and death, and an egg to represent fertility.

Salvador Dali 1904-1989

Salvador Dali
Surrealism, Surrealist Sculpture, Biomorphism, Assemblage
Born: 11 May 1904, Catalonia, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Died: 23 January 1989, Catalonia, Spain

Dali was a surrealist artist known for his technical skill, precision draftsmanship, and the striking and often bizarre nature of his images. Initially influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance he became increasingly interested in Cubism and the avant-garde movements of the time. By the late 1920s, he joined the Surrealist group of artists and became one of its leading exponents

The Ninth Wave by Ivan Aivazovsky

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The Ninth Wave by Ivan Aivazovsky

The Ninth Wave
1850
Romanticism
Oil on Canvas
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

“The Ninth Wave,” possibly Aivazovsky’s most famous work, is a huge canvas of 3.3 metres by 2.2 metres that depicts a group of people clinging to the flotsam of a wrecked ship. The title is a reference to the nautical belief that the ninth wave is the last, largest, and deadliest wave in a series, at which point the cycle begins again.

Ivan Aivazovsky 1817-1900

Ivan Aivazovsky
Romanticism
Born: 29 July 1817, Theodosia, Ukraine
Nationality: Ukrainian
Died: 20 May 1900, Theodosia, Ukraine

Aivazovsky was a Romantic painter. He is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Following his academic education at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Aivazovsky travelled to Europe and briefly lived in Italy in the 1840s.

The Night Watch by Rembrandt

~ JezzieG ~ 2 Comments
The Night Watch by Rembrandt

The Night Watch
1642
Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Oil on Canvas – Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Often referred to as a ‘corporation portrait’, “The Night Watch” is uniquely Dutch. Rembrandt painted this large canvas between 1640 and 1642 as a commission for the musketeer branch of a civic militia, a wealthy segment of Amsterdam’s society. Members could be assigned to put out fires, guard gates, police the streets, and maintain order. They were required to attend parades for visiting royalty and festive occasions. Rembrandt presented a bustling and somewhat confused scene of members preparing for an event.

Rembrandt 1606-1669

Rembrandt
Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Born: 15 July 1606, Leiden, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch
Died: 4 October 1669, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Rembrandt’s life and work were fuelled by an intense psychological study of people, objects, and their surroundings and a strong Christian devotion. Incredibly gifted, Rembrandt became a master of portraiture, historical, mythological, and biblical sense from a very young age. His techniques and use of materials were sensitive and spontaneous. His everchanging approach to colour, composition, and shadow produced powerfully moving and natural moments of human existence. His mastery of light and texture emphasized emotional depth and weaved a common theme through all his work confirming his status as one of art’s greatest and most innovative masters

Malle Babbe by Franz Hals

~ JezzieG
Malle Babbe by Franz Hals

Malle Babbe
1633-35
Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

“Malle Babbe “ is an unusual portrait depicting a woman sitting at a table holding a beer jug in her right hand and perched on her left shoulder sits an owl. She is laughing with her head turned to her left. Plainly dressed in brown with white collar and cuffs. It is considered that the subject was a real citizen of Haarlem and, using the translation of the Dutch “Malle Babbe” (“Malle” being crazy and “Babbe” a diminutive of Barbara), who is likely to suffer from a mental illness.

Franz Hals 1582/3-1666

Franz Hals
Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Born: 1582/83, Antwerp, Flanders
Nationality: Dutch
Died: 26 August 1666, Haarlem, Dutch Republic

Hals was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Particularly known for his portraiture, he lived and worked in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Hals played a vital role in the evolution of 17th-century group portraiture and his known for his loose brushwork

Landscape inspired by the View of Frascati by Achille-Etna Michallon

~ JezzieG
Landscape inspired by the View of Frascati by Achille-Etna Michallon

Landscape inspired by the View of Frascati
1822
Romanticism
Oil on canvas
Louvre Museum, Paris, France

“Landscape Inspired by the View of Frascati” was the winner of the Prix du Rome for historical landscape in 1822. Michallon created the piece in the studio using his first impressions of the natural view of Frascati. Michalllon’s familiarity with the work of 17th-century landscape artists is evident in his use of a panoramic perspective and the picturesque quality of the figures

Achille-Etna Michallon 1796 – 1822

Achille-Etna Michallon
Romanticism
Born: 22 October 1796, Paris, France
Nationality: French
Died: 24 September 1822, Paris, France

Michallon was a prodigiously talented artist who tragically died at the incredibly early age of 25. He was the son of a sculptor and studied under Jacques-Louis David and Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes. In 1817, he won the Prix de Rome for landscape painting. He studied in Italy for two years but died of pneumonia before he could develop what he had learned

Pieta by Titian

~ JezzieG
Pieta by Titian

Pieta
1575-76
High Renaissance
Oil on canvas
Gallerie dell’ Accademia, Venice, Italy

One of the last paintings by Titian “Pieta” was created to hang over his grave and depicts the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Christ. She is accompanied by Nicodemus and Mary Magdalene. It is believed that Nicodemus is a self-portrait and that Titian is viewing his own imminent death in Christ and touching his body in the hope of eternal salvation. Unfinished at Titian’s death the painting was completed by Palma il Giovane.

“Pieta” is darkly atmospheric, a possible indication of Titian’s fear of death. It is lit by shafts of moonlight and a putto carrying a torch. This allows the artist to use bold chiaroscuro, with the light illuminating the image of a pelican, symbolic of the Passion of Christ and redemption. In the right-hand corner, there is a small picture within the picture of Titian and his son Orazio in prayer, possibly asking to be spared from the plague ravaging Venice at the time and eventually killing both of them. Statues of Sybil and Moses flank the image and seemingly overwhelm the depiction of the mourners and indicate the frailty of life.

Titian 1490-1576

Titian
Renaissance, Mannerism
Born: 1490, Pieve di Cadore, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Died: 27 August 1576, Venice, Italy

Titian was a painter and regarded as one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, combining Mannerist and High Renaissance ideas to develop a style that is remarkable ahead of his time. His creativity dominated Venetian art and the city rivaled the artistic centres of Rome and Florence

The Nobleman With his Hand on his Chest by El Greco

~ JezzieG
The Nobleman With his Hand on his Chest by El Greco

The Nobleman With his Hand on his Chest (El caballero de la mano en el pecho)
1580
Mannerism
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

“The Nobleman With his Hand on his Chest” depicts an unknown nobleman or knight of about 30 years old. He is dressed in traditional Spanish attire holding a sword in one hand while the other is poised across his heart. He stares intensely out of the painting at the viewer in a manner that is profound in its realism yet also imaginative. El Greco’s work possesses technically accurate features such as the beard combined with his own stylized elements of elongated fingers and torso. The white ruffles contrast with the muted dark colours of El Greco’s palette which he uses to create emotional and psychological depths to define the subject.

El Greco 1541-1614

El Greco
Mannerism
Born: 1 October 1541, Crete, Greece
Nationality: Greek-Spanish
Died: 7 April 1614, Toledo, Spain

El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was a nickname giving reference to his Greek origins, but he normally signed his paintings in his birth name, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, in Greek. Born in Candia, now known as Crete, which was part of the Republic of Venice, Italy, and the centre of post-Byzantine art, El Greco trained and became a master of that tradition before travelling to Venice at age 26. He moved to Rome in 1570, where he opened a workshop ad produced a series of works whilst enriching his style and techniques with elements of Mannerism and Venetian Renaissance. He moved to Toledo, Spain in 1577where lived and worked until his death

Interior with Woman at Piano, Strandgade 30 by Vilhelm Hammershøi

~ JezzieG
Interior with Woman at Piano, Strandgade 30 by Vilhelm Hammershøi

Interior with Woman at Piano, Strandgade 30
1901
Symbolism
Oil on canvas
Private Collection

Hammershøi’s wife Ada sits at a piano with her back to the viewer in “Interior with Woman at Piano, Strandgade 30”. The woman’s lowered arms suggest she is not playing the piano but is reading the score perched on the stand. The score and the paintings on the wall are indistinct as they are withholding secrets from the viewer, likewise, any sensuous pleasure that might be garnered from the meal table is lacking as the plates are empty. Only the butter stands as a marker of the sensual appetite hidden in the room.

Vilhelm Hammershøi 1864-1916

Vilhelm Hammershøi
Symbolism
Born: 15 May 1864, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality: Danish
Died: 13 February 1916, Copenhagen, Denmark

Hammershøi was a painter best known for his poetic and subdued portraits and interiors. His early works in their simplicity recorded the banality of everyday life and received critical acclaim. Hammershøi was sought out by both artists and literary figures of the time, including Rainer Maria Rilke who noted the artist’s retiring manner and reluctance to talk

Landscape at Le Cannet by Pierre Bonnard

~ JezzieG
Landscape at Le Cannet by Pierre Bonnard

Landscape at Le Cannet
1945
Post-Impressionism
Oil on canvas
Musée Bonnard, Le Cannet, France

“Landscape at Le Cannet” initially appears to be a totally abstract painting with an emphasis on the flat surface of the painting rather than the depth of the landscape. Bonnard’s brushy shape areas remind us that shapes do not need outlines and can be seen as mere changes of colour. An example of Bonnard’s late works it follows the stylistic trajectory of increasing abstraction similar to that of the Impressionists.

Pierre Bonnard 1867-1947

Pierre Bonnard
Post-Impressionism, Les Nabis, Symbolism
Born: 3 October 1867, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
Nationality: French
Died: 23 January 1947, Le Cannet, France

Bonnard was a painter, illustrator, and printmaker, particularly known for the stylized qualities of his paintings and his bold use of colour. Bonnard was a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painter Les Nabis, and Paul Gauguin is a strong influence on Bonnard’s early work. Bonnard was a leading figure in the transition from Impression to Modernism

Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill) by Thomas Cole

~ JezzieG

Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill)
1825
The Hudson River School
Oil on canvas
Allen Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA

One of Cole’s earliest works “Lake with Dead Trees” depicts the landscapes of the Catskill Mountains in south-east New York State. Two deer are roused into action at the edge of a motionless lake surrounded by dead trees with a background of dark peaks and streams of sunlight emerging through a cloudy sky. Often interpreted as a meditation on life, death, and the passage of time in nature it was one of five paintings exhibited in 1825 in New York City upon Cole’s return from a major tip along the Hudson Valley.

Thomas Cole 1801-1848

Thomas Cole
The Hudson River School, Romanticism, Naturalism, The Sublime in Art
Born: 1 February 1801, Bolten-le-Moors, UK
Nationality: British-American
Died: 11 February 1848, New York, USA

Cole’s paintings stand as monuments to the dreams and anxieties of emerging America during the mid-19th century. Born in England Cole emigrated to the USA as a young man and sought to capture the beauty of the American wilderness. He is the first artist to bring the perspective of a European Romantic landscape painter to those environments and reflect his own idealism and religious sensitivities.

Guitar Lesson by Balthus

~ JezzieG ~ 6 Comments

Author’s Note: I find this painting somewhat disturbing, however, in the 1930s it blew open a taboo and made difficult conversations happen, which in turn made the world a little bit safer for young women and it is for that reason I have covered it. As adults, we have to have these difficult conversations in order to protect and guide our children in an ugly world

Guitar Lesson by Balthus

Guitar Lesson
1934
Symbolism
Oil on canvas
Private Collection

Balthus was raised in a creative home, it is not surprising that he challenged the limits of morality and acceptability simply because he could. With his elegant and nuanced violations of the taboo, his conservative figure art won enthusiastic esteem in the Surrealist and devoutly libertine Parisian avant-garde of the 1930s. A prime example of how Balthus and his painting courted discomfort and controversy in some viewers’ “Guitar Lesson” more than hints at the sexual dalliance between a woman and a younger female. The woman is sitting as if playing the guitar with the guitar being the young girl. Balthus suggests the roles of dominance and authority with the younger female in her limp state having little or no agency. The seated woman is in control of the situation and her downward gaze is implicit of her dominance over the younger female. Balthus makes references in this painting to the preceding historical works of Pieta. Whilst Michelangelo’s Holy Virgin looks down lovingly on her dead son, the woman in “Guitar Lesson” has a more predatory, less emotional gaze

Balthus 1908-2001

Balthus
Interwar Classicism
Born: 29 February 1908, Paris, France
Nationality: French
Died: 18 February 2001, Rossiniere, Switzerland

Balthus was a modern artist, best known for his erotically charged images of young women in dreamlike imagery. He rejected the traditional art world conventions, insisting his paintings should be seen and not simply read about, and he resisted all attempts to build a biographical profile.

Head of Dylan Thomas by Eileen Agar

~ JezzieG
Head of Dylan Thomas by Eileen Agar

Head of Dylan Thomas
1960-62
Surrealism
Oil and acrylic on board
Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom

“Head of Dylan Thomas” Agar used the profile-portrait style composed n white flowing lines on a canvas filled with abstract motifs to render an impression of the neo-Romantic poet and close friend of the artist. Thomas was a key figure in literary surrealism and the free compositional style of this work is perhaps a homage to the free spirit of the man himself.

Eileen Agar 1899-1991

Eileen Agar
Surrealism, Modern Photography, Performance Art
Born: 1 December 1899, Buenos Aries, Argentina
Nationality: British-Argentinian
Died: 7 November 1991, London, UK

Agar was a painter and photographer most often associated with the Surrealist movement. As with many female artists of the time, Agar has often been defined by the male company she associated with rather than her creative output. In reality, she was one of the most adventurous and influential Surrealist artists in Britain, with a prolific working energy that she sustained well into her eighties. Agar’s free-flowing practice through painting, photography, sculpture, and collage was diverse yet bound together by her emphasis on the germinal power of the imagination.

La Nuit by Henri Fantin-Latour

~ JezzieG
La Nuit by Henri Fantin-Latour

La Nuit
1897
Realism
Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

One of Fantin-Latour’s later paintings, “La Nuit” garnered significant critical approval. In keeping with his earlier operatic-themed paintings, the work is purely from Fantin-Latour’s imagination. With free and fluid brushstrokes and a delicate palette, the central figure is a reclining female nude whose sensuality symbolizes the night.

Henri Fantin-Latour 1836-1904

Henri Fantin-Latour
Realism
Born: 14 January 1836, Grenoble, France
Nationality: French
Died: 25 August 1904, Bure, France

Fantin-Latour was a painter and lithographer particularly known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian writers and artists. Although he was associated with many Impressionists Fantin-Latour’s own work remained conservatists

The Black Sea by Ivan Aivazovsky

~ JezzieG
The Black Sea by Ivan Aivazovsky

The Black Sea
1881
Romanticism
Oil on Canvas
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

In “The Black Sea” the depth of the sea is unmediated by the presence of boats or human figures, in fact, the only vessel is far off on the horizon. The viewer is virtually in the water as the waves roll around and the impression of movement is almost irresistible.

Ivan Aivazovsky 1817-1900

Ivan Aivazovsky
Romanticism
Born: 29 July 1817, Theodosia, Ukraine
Nationality: Ukrainian
Died: 20 May 1900, Theodosia, Ukraine

Aivazovsky was a Romantic painter. He is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Following his academic education at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Aivazovsky traveled to Europe and briefly lived in Italy in the 1840s

The Evangelists by Natalia Goncharova

~ JezzieG
The Evangelists by Natalia Goncharova

The Evangelists
1911
Religious Art
Oil on canvas
Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

“The Evangelists” is one of Goncharova’s works dedicated purely to a religious subject in a depiction of the four evangelists of the gospels. Each figure fills a narrow panel and is adorned with a white halo unfolding a scroll. Painted in the Neo-Primitivist style the work was exhibited at a 1914 solo exhibition in Saint Petersburg and both the painting and Goncharova were condemned resulting in the painting being banned by the Ecclesiastical Censorship Committee who also condemned Goncharova as an artistic anti-Christ, most likely because she was a woman.

Natalia Goncharova 1881-1962

Natalia Goncharova
Rayonism, Russian Futurism, Performance Art, Proto-Feminist Artists, Neo-Primitivism
Born: 21 June 1881, Nagaevo, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Died: 17 October 1962, Paris, France

Goncharova was an avant-garde artist, painter, writer, costume designer, set designer, and illustrator. Her lifelong partner was the fellow avant-garde artist Mikhail Larionov with whom she invented Rayonism. She was also a member of the German art movement Der Blaue Reiter. She moved to Paris in 1921 where she lived until her death. Her work profoundly influenced the Russian avant-garde

Homage to Delacroix by Henri Fantin-Latour

~ JezzieG
Homage to Delacroix by Henri Fantin-Latour

Homage to Delacroix
1864
Realism
Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

“Homage to Delacroix,” painted a year after the death of Eugène Delacroix is an early example of Fantin-Latour’s group portraits. With a muted palette, a group of ten gentlemen is seated around a portrait of Delacroix with Fantin-Latour in white holding a palette. Also included is James Whistler stood next to Fantin-Latour, and Edouard Manet who stood behind Charles Baudelaire who sat with his arms crossed.

Henri Fantin-Latour 1836-1904

Henri Fantin-Latour
Realism
Born: 14 January 1836, Grenoble, France
Nationality: French
Died: 25 August 1904, Bure, France

Fantin-Latour was a painter and lithographer particularly known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian writers and artists. Although he was associated with many Impressionists Fantin-Latour’s own work remained conservatists

The Encounter by Johannes Itten

~ JezzieG
The Encounter by Johannes Itten

The Encounter
1916
Bauhaus
Oil on canvas
Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland

Painted before Itten’s arrival at the Bauhaus the colour abstraction “The Encounter” includes many of the fundamental principles that would be central to his teaching there. It is a preview of his later interests including the use of geometric shapes, a dominant spiral, and repeated circles and rectangles as well as an exploration of the colour spectrum. Although the painting is non-objective, it is layered with personal and symbolic meaning and forms part of a series of paintings of similar composition and palette from 1915-1918.

Johannes Itten 1888-1967

Johannes Itten
Bauhaus
Born: 11 November 1888, Surderen-Linden, Switzerland
Nationality: Swiss
Died: 25 March 1967, Zurich, Switzerland

Itten was an expressionist painter, teacher, designer, and theorist associated with the Bauhaus school. Under the direction of the architect Walter Gropius, he was part of the core of the Veimar Bauhaus, along with the painter Lyonel Feininger and the sculptor Gerhard Marks

Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Petit-Gennevilliers by Gustave Caillebotte

~ JezzieG
Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Petit-Gennevilliers by Gustave Caillebotte

Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Petit-Gennevilliers
1893
Realism
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Caillebotte imbued his still-life paintings with his own style, combining realism and unconventional views. With its naturalistic palette “Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Petit- Gennevilliers” allows the viewer to imagine they are standing amongst the flowers. The odd flatness of the painting is as though Caillebotte eliminated the modeling and contrasts of light and dark that provide the illusion of depth resulting in the seemingly cascading flowers, leaves, and stems across the painting.

Gustave Caillebotte 1848-1894

Gustave Caillebotte
Realism, Impressionism
Born: 19 August 1848, Paris, France
Nationality: French
Died: 21 February 1894, Gennevilliers, France

Caillebotte was a painter and a member and patron of the Impressionists, although his own work is more Realist in nature. He was known for his early interest in photography as an art form.

The Ecstasy of St. Francis of Assisi by El Greco

~ JezzieG
The Ecstasy of St. Francis of Assisi by El Greco

The Ecstasy of St. Francis of Assisi
1600
Mannerism
Oil on canvas

“The Ecstasy of St Francis of Assis” depicts a popular subject of classical art, of the scene from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, the legendary 12th-century saint, who two years before his death in 1224, embarked on a journey to Mount la Verna for forty days of prayer and fasting. One morning while he was praying he went into a religious ecstasy and received the stigmata from an angel or seraph. El Greco depicts this moment of ecstasy, portraying St Francis with a face full of emotions of devotion, pain, and surrender. In front of him is a skull, a symbol of mortality. El Greco creates a dark and sombre atmosphere echoing the painful and dramatic experience of the saint.

El Greco 1541-1614

El Greco
Mannerism
Born: 1 October 1541, Crete, Greece
Nationality: Greek-Spanish
Died: 7 April 1614, Toledo, Spain

El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was a nickname giving reference to his Greek origins, but he normally signed his paintings in his birth name, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, in Greek (Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος). Born in Candia, now known as Crete, which as part of the Republic of Venice, Italy, and the centre of Post-Byzantine art, El Greco trained and became a master of that tradition before travelling to Venice at age 26. He moved to Rome in 1570, where he opened a workshop and produced a series of works whilst enriching his style and techniques with elements of Mannerism and Venetian Renaissance. He moved to Toledo, Spain in 1577 where he lived and worked until his death

Black Place, Grey and Pink by Georgia O’Keeffe

~ JezzieG ~ 2 Comments
Black Place, Grey and Pink by Georgia O’Keeffe

Black Place, Grey and Pink
1949
American Expressionism
Oil on canvas
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Rather than focusing on the finer details, O’Keeffe’s landscape paintings more often capture the essence of nature as felt and seen by the artist. “Black Place, Grey and Pink” places the emphasis on the wide open spaces and emptiness around her ranch in New Mexico.

Georgia O’Keeffe 1887-1986

Georgia O’Keeffe
Early American Modernism, Proto-Feminist Artists
Born: 15 November 1887, Wisconsin, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 6 March 1986, New Mexico, USA

O’Keeffe played a major role in the development of American Modernism and its relationship with the European movements of the early 20th century. Over seven decades she produced a substantial body of work in which she sought to capture the motions and power of objects through abstraction of the natural world. Identified as the first female American modernist, whose paintings of flowers, barren landscapes, and still lifes have now become part of American iconography.

The Village of Becquigny by Théodore Rousseau

~ JezzieG
The Village of Becquigny by Théodore Rousseau

The Village of Becquigny
1857-1867
Naturalism
Oil on mahogany panel
The Frick Collection, New York, USA

A man semi-hidden by the shadows of a tree is walking between rows of thatched cottages beneath an azure blue sky. “The Village of Becquigny” resonates with the man’s apparent loneliness. Inspired by Rousseau’s travels through Picardy in 1857, his approach to the work is almost anthropological exotica. However, Rousseau avoids over-emphasizing the human dwellings so the cottages appear as hilly extensions of the soil foreground.

Théodore Rousseau

Théodore Rousseau
The Barbizon School, Naturalism, Romanticism
Born: 15 April 1812, Paris, France
Nationality: French
Died: 22 December 1867, Barbizon, France

Rousseau was renowned for his unconventional nature-based painting. He was regarded as a pioneer of the Barbizon School of landscape art. Rousseau was one of the earliest artists to venture outdoors to observe and analyze natural forms directly. Painting landscapes for their own sake Rousseau elevated its status from mere background to that of an independent entity.

Woman Reading by Henri Fantin-Latour

~ JezzieG
Woman Reading by Henri Fantin-Latour

Woman Reading
1861
Realism
Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris

“Woman Reading” was the first of Fantin-Latour’s paintings accepted into the Salon de Paris. He often chose his models from his own family, and the sitter for this portrait is the artist’s sister. In stark contrast to the emerging French avant-garde, Fantin-Latour took his lead from 18th Century Dutch paintings.

Henri Fantin-Latour
Realism
Born: 14 January 1836, Grenoble, France
Nationality: French
Died: 25 August 1904, Bure, France

Henri Fantin-Latour

Fantin-Latour was a painter and lithographer particularly known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian writers and artists. Although he was associated with many Impressionists Fantin-Latour’s own work remained conservatists

A Basket of Roses by Henri Fantin-Latour

~ JezzieG
A Basket of Roses by Henri Fantin-Latour

A Basket of Roses
1890
Realism
Oil on canvas
The National Gallery, London

“A Basket of Roses” is among the numerous commission for floral still lifes that Fantin-Latour received during his career. He produced more than 500 such pieces of art, 100 of which were roses. In this piece, a dozen or so roses appear in and around a basket. They appear as if tossed aimlessly into the scene, yet their position is intentional. The roses are presented to vaunt Fantin-Latour’s artistry, each flower being arranged so the heads of the blooms emphasize its uniqueness of colouration, structure, and quality

Henri Fantin-Latour

Henri Fantin-Latour
Realism
Born: 14 January 1836, Grenoble, France
Nationality: French
Died: 25 August 1904, Bure, France

Fantin-Latour was a painter and lithographer particularly known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian writers and artists. Although he was associated with many Impressionists Fantin-Latour’s own work remained conservatists

A Studio in Les Batignolles by Henri Fantin-Latour

~ JezzieG
A Studio in Les Batignolles by Henri Fantin-Latour

A Studio in Les Batignolles
1870
Realism
Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

“A Studio in Les Batignolles”, one if Fantin-Latour’s group portraits, is a tribute to Manet, who is at the centre of the canvas. Manet is shown, sitting at his easel with brush and palette, as a mentor to the artists observing him at work, including Claude Monet, Otto Schölderer, and Auguste Rodin. All members of the Batignolles Group. The painting is seen as Fantin-Latour’s support for the group which faced ridicule and lack of support from the art establishment and the public. Exhibited in the 1870 Salon de Paris it is perhaps ironic that a work defending artists at the height of their rejection was selected for exhibition

Henri Fantin-Latour

Henri Fantin-Latour
Realism
Born: 14 January 1836, Grenoble, France
Nationality: French
Died: 25 August 1904, Bure, France

Fantin-Latour was a painter and lithographer particularly known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian writers and artists. Although he was associated with many Impressionists Fantin-Latour’s own work remained conservatists