tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14405804071266249232012-01-31T01:57:22.007-08:00One artist/art historian's random take on the world's great paintings.Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125ChristopherVolpehttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-12317904395996572082012-01-30T07:53:00.000-08:002012-01-30T07:59:22.566-08:002012-01-30T07:59:22.566-08:00

Casper David Friedrich, The Monk By the Sea, 1810 "No situation in the world could be more sad and eerie than this—as the only spark of life in the wide realm of death, a lonely center in a lonely circle..." wrote an early admirer of this painting. "Since in its monotony and boundlessness it has no foreground except the frame, when viewing it, it is as if one's eyelids had been cut away."

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-25820671231924026362012-01-26T20:22:00.000-08:002012-01-27T09:21:07.669-08:002012-01-27T09:21:07.669-08:00

Jan Vermeer's View of Delft (1660-1661) may just be a perfect landscape painting. Once you've really looked at it, you realize it's the kind of thing you don't forget, that you could spend hours - a lifetime! - dreaming over it and still not have your fill. I've never seen the actual painting, but I'm captivated by the images of it that I've seen. No great painting emerges out of pure

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-32469379254239585512011-12-09T07:15:00.001-08:002011-12-10T06:29:15.066-08:002011-12-10T06:29:15.066-08:00

Aspiring artists often imitate an admired artist’s style. It's a great way to learn to paint and permanently  adds to one’s store of available techniques.  Rembrandt. Self-portrait. 1666 Paradoxically, in most cases the admired work ultimately came to the admirer’s attention because it resonated with enough people as unique, deep, or original.... So not only the technique but the quality of

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-88768600903153579292011-12-01T08:50:00.001-08:002011-12-09T12:01:28.165-08:002011-12-09T12:01:28.165-08:00

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Peasant Boy at a Market (l), Peasant Girl Catching a Flea (r). c. 1715. These two caught my eye at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts the other day. I love their simplicity. I think it's a large part of their power.  The painter, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, is remembered as a successful artist of the late Baroque/Rococo period (c. 1680-1750). He studied with

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-20130993232860294482011-11-14T06:54:00.001-08:002011-12-08T09:01:46.731-08:002011-12-08T09:01:46.731-08:00

Evening landscape by George Innes, 1890, produced by glazing. In his biography of his father, American landscape painter George Inness, Jr., recounts the following anecdote concerning a demo his father performed for a student who'd come to call: He squeezed a lot of raw umber on his palette, picked up the largest brush he could find, and with the aid of a medium that looked like Spaulding's

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-78410952701740299922011-10-28T09:16:00.000-07:002011-10-28T09:16:18.262-07:002011-10-28T09:16:18.262-07:00

Albert Bierstadt's large (10 feet by 15 feet) landscape The Domes of Yosemite (1867) is permanently housed in a gallery that had to be built around it. The display includes a skylight (currently being rebuilt) and a special "viewing balcony" to recreate the original lighting and exact location from which Bierstadt painted his sketches of the scene. Albert Bierstadt's Domes of the Yosemite is

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-41752700795155113682011-10-12T09:19:00.000-07:002011-10-14T19:33:52.263-07:002011-10-14T19:33:52.263-07:00

Twisted! Thomas Cole's painting (right) c. 1850, is very similar in composition to that of Claude's, c. 1650, (left). They're even the same size.  The Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, MA, is hosting a traveling exhibition of nineteenth-century American landscapes on loan from the New York Historical Society. Salem is the only New England stop on the tour, and definitely worth a visit, if

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-42516194979076570772011-09-13T12:51:00.000-07:002011-09-13T12:51:09.046-07:002011-09-13T12:51:09.046-07:00

Is it just me or do van Gogh's trees seem "haunted?" Maybe it's because of how the massive roots and trunks in this painting dwarf the parallel-leaning, doll-like figure! Look how the trunks in this oddly aligned trio seem to want to lift themselves right out of the ground by their roots. To do what?? File these branches under "wildly gesticulating." One gets the impression of

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-67237484629322884622011-08-04T09:00:00.000-07:002011-08-04T09:10:26.784-07:002011-08-04T09:10:26.784-07:00

Mystery painting, signed "JTW 1870" lr (sorry I don't have a higher res pic) Here's a painting that's a bit of mystery. It came up for auction last year and sold for around $1500, a decent sum for a painting of unknown origin. It's signed "JTW" and dated 1870 by the artist. Period paintings by shadowy or forgotten artists abound in small auctions all over the country (this one was from Julia).

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-27745167060040792272011-06-02T08:32:00.000-07:002011-10-12T17:34:09.421-07:002011-10-12T17:34:09.421-07:00

A wild, expressionistic seascape by 19th century Maine landscapist Maria a'Becket. In the 1890s, very few American artists (and even fewer "women painters") dared to wield such thick, gestural chunks of paint.  On a breezy spring day in 2006, I was poking around among contemporary and 19th century landscape paintings at the Banks Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, when the above painting

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-54656447503696296072011-05-24T20:01:00.000-07:002011-05-27T07:06:19.962-07:002011-05-27T07:06:19.962-07:00

I’ve written before (and here too) about the shimmery grays in Corot’s landscapes, which I find so utterly charming and bewitching. His gauzy, atmospheric veils shimmer with pearlescent grays composed of carefully toned neutral blues, ochres, greens, and violets ... his foliage trails into sky-brightness like forgotten music …   But it’s only recently that I came across a write-up by the National

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George Nick, Indian MemoriesPart of what draws anyone to a fascination with painting is how artists can imbue their work with a powerful, expressive reality quite apart from the representation of subject matter. I'd like to think the essence of “pure painting” is the exuberant exploration of color and form.Forget about how realistically someone can paint; pure painting involves giving form to an

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-41538766124613687632011-04-13T12:45:00.000-07:002011-04-16T13:15:54.563-07:002011-04-16T13:15:54.563-07:00

A twilight landscape by 19th century Tonalist Alexander WyantNebulous and uncharted, twilight is the interposition of the veil, a fluid borderland between light and darkness. Twilight bears the same relation to daylight as poetry to prose. Its visual mode is indeterminacy, the elusive: objects softened to indistinct outlines, things half on their way to becoming thoughts.Like all cosmic

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-30165009310121653232011-04-08T20:23:00.000-07:002011-04-13T12:45:14.978-07:002011-04-13T12:45:14.978-07:00

George Inness, Early Autumn, Montclair, 1891In "pure" landscapes - those with minimal, or no human figures - trees as often as not become the principal actors, or "characters," of the picture. No wonder - they do resemble us in odd ways; their rooted trunks and outstretched, straining branches suggest the human condition as well as any other "objective correlative" (in early American landscapist

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-88558179841891389612011-03-22T15:24:00.000-07:002011-03-23T07:39:23.845-07:002011-03-23T07:39:23.845-07:00

Gertrude Horsford Fiske. Nude. 1922. Oil on canvas, 40 1/4 x 50 1/4 inches.I came across a reproduction of this Gertrude Fiske painting while flipping through a slick sales catalogue that arrived in the mail today from Vose Galleries in Boston. The painting struck me first as startling, then intriguing, and finally, as quite possibly a great and enduring work of art. Maybe I lead a very interior

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-77229391444870854402011-03-04T09:55:00.000-08:002011-03-04T12:54:17.741-08:002011-03-04T12:54:17.741-08:00

Martin Johnson Heade, Sailing By Moonlight, c. 1860Virtually unknown during his lifetime, Martin Johnson Heade is now recognized as one of the more innovative American landscape painters of the nineteenth century.Martin Johnson Heade, Seascape, c. 1858He's all about eerie color, contrast and mood. There's plenty that's unusual about Heade: he excelled both at emotive panoramic landscapes and

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-21297918880095558412011-02-26T15:17:00.000-08:002011-02-26T18:42:15.820-08:002011-02-26T18:42:15.820-08:00

Browsing through some upscale gallery websites recently, I started feeling like someone at a gourmet restaurant receiving course after course of delicious rarities. Inundated with a surfeit of gorgeous imagery, I was wondering how one proceeds as an artist beyond simply adding to the already immense smorgasbord of gorgeousness, when I stumbled on this work by minor 19th century German artist,

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-31964383633556623472011-01-02T16:34:00.000-08:002011-01-05T06:17:26.650-08:002011-01-05T06:17:26.650-08:00

John H. Twachtman, Winter Harmony, 1890-1900American painter John Henry Twachtman created this sumptuous composition of gauzy grays, pinks, blues, and rust-colored leaves on the 17-acre home he bought for his wife in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1890 after landing a commercial illustration gig with Scribner's and a teaching position at the Art Students League.On display at Washington D.C.'s National

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Bruce Crane stands out as one of the most sensitive and ethereal of the American Tonalist painters who saw themselves as carrying the torch of the American landscape tradition after the demise of the 19th century Hudson River School style. Crane helped found a colony of landscape painters at Lyme Connecticut. Most active as a community during the first decades of the 20th century, they blent

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-69182722220716928412010-12-21T05:16:00.000-08:002010-12-27T13:19:30.341-08:002010-12-27T13:19:30.341-08:00

The great American expat painter John Singer Sargent officially closed his portrait studio in 1907. He'd worked hard to become the most sought-after portrait painter for the United States elite, and he was now a wealthy man who could do as he pleased.A few months later, he was in paradise: living in warmth and leisure on the tiny unspoiled Spanish island of Majorca in the Mediterranean Sea.His

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-39996165999450302162010-11-24T15:37:00.000-08:002010-12-16T20:06:06.738-08:002010-12-16T20:06:06.738-08:00

I stumbled upon this ancient marble relief while poking around in the online collection of the Museum of Fine Art (Boston). They've catalogued the entire collection, near as I can tell. The only problem is that it's difficult to find and not easy to navigate. You can take your chances on it here. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-18579457-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview'])

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The Long Trail, Chauncy Foster Ryder, 1934A largely forgotten master landscape painter created this large oil on display at the Currier Museum in Manchester, NH in 1934. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-18579457-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:

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Flowers in A Persian Porcelain Water Bowl, 1861John LaFarge had the kind of restless innovator's talent that drives someone from obsession to obsession. LaFarge (1835-1910) broke ground in color theory, stained glass (he invented opalescent glass), illustration, printing (he pioneered the huge influence of Japanese silk screens on American artists), criticism, landscape painting (some of his

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-60414062502932516642010-11-08T14:05:00.000-08:002010-11-09T07:51:31.627-08:002010-11-09T07:51:31.627-08:00

Dennis Miller Bunker, The Brook at Medfield, 1889I once owned a children's book that turned any ordinary kitchen into a playground. The unspoken premise was that boredom is learned; we get used to being involved in this or that pre-existing activity, so that, thrown back on our own resources, we miss the inborn creative ability to turn cooking utensils into airplanes, robot parts, and percussive

Christopher Volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169170001831304788noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1440580407126624923.post-1661325127054768972010-11-03T16:12:00.000-07:002010-11-12T19:40:19.117-08:002010-11-12T19:40:19.117-08:00

Antonio de Coreggio was by all accounts an introverted character prone to fits of melancholy. A post-High Renaissance artist, he was born into a large, poor family in rural Italy, and while he married a local girl, she died ten years after their union. Specific origins for his enormous skills are hard to trace, and he's considered something of an enigma because there's not much of a thread to

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