SEE FIRST

Andrew Loomis (1892 – 1959)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:35:00 +0000

My Cup Runneth Over
Mermaid
Now That April’s Here
Girl
Two Women
Nude
This Is America
Zip! Sweet As Can Be
Two Young Women Lounging On Porch Swing
The Dionne Quintuplets
Smokin’
This Week (Los Angeles Times magazine)
Ladies’ Home Journal (cover)
We’re All Important Now!
Standard Plumbing Fixtures

Kris Lewis (1978)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:29:00 +0000

Red Carnation
Rose Zephyr
The Amber Woods
Intrepid Drift
Promise Broken
Deconstruction Period
Baltic Sea
Fire Tower
Clock Watching
Weathered Oak
Scintillating Venuses
More Than A Glimpse
Untitled
With The Wind
We’re Going South

OLD PORTRAITs

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:03:00 +0000

NATALIA ALEXANDROVA PUSHKINA (1836-1913), Countess of Merenberg, daughter of Alexander Pushkin
Portrait: Ivan Kuzmic Makarov

MARIE-ANTOINETTE (1755-1793), Queen of France
Portrait: Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun

IVAN GONCHAROV (1812-1891), Russian writer
Portrait: Ivan N. Kramskoy

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882), American poet
Portrait: Thomas Buchanan Read

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865), President of the United States
Portrait: William Willard

HORTENSE de BEAUHARNAIS (1783-1837), French noblewoman, daughter of Josephine de Beauharnais and wife of Louis Bonaparte
Portrait: Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Triosson

JOHN SUTTER (1803-1880), Swiss-born American pioneer
Portrait: Samuel Stillman Osgood

JAMES MONROE (1758-1831), President of the United States
Portrait: Samuel Morse

ISABELLA TEOTOCHI ALBRIZZI (1760-1836), Italian writer
Portrait: Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun

FRANCIS SCOTT FITZGERALD (1896-1940), American writer
Portrait: David Silvette

RUDOLF II (1552-1612), Holy Roman Emperor
Portrait: Hans von Aachen

Madame DU BARRY (1743-1793), French courtesan and mistress to Louis XV
Portrait: Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun

LUCRETIA BORGIA (1480-1519), Italian noblewoman
Portrait: Bartolomeo Veneto

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON (1773-1841), President of the United States
Portrait: Albert Gallotin Hoit

JOHN UPDIKE (1932-2009), American writer
Portrait: Alex Katz

FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY (1809-1847), German composer
Portrait: James Warren Childe

LOUISE AUGUSTA (1776-1810), Queen of Prussia
Portrait: Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun

BILL CLINTON (1946), President of the United States
Portrait: Simmie Knox

NEIL YOUNG (1945), Canadian songwriter
Portrait: Roland Diehl

ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX (1565-1601), favourite of Elizabeth I
Portrait: William Larkin

OLD PORTRAITs (PART 1)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:53:00 +0000

CHESTER NIMITZ (1885-1966), American Admiral
Portrait: Adrian Lamb

FRANCOIS-RENE’ de CHATEAUBRIAND (1768-1848), French writer
Portrait: Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Triosson

NIKOLAI GOGOL (1809-1852), Russian writer
Portrait: Alexander Ivanov

GOLDA MEIR (1898-1978), Prime Minister of Israel
Portrait: Boris Chaliapin

NANETTE HEINE (1812-1876), niece of Heinrich Heine
Portrait: Joseph Stieler

ALFRED TENNYSON (1809-1892), English poet
Portrait: Helen Allingham

MARLENE DIETRICH (1901-1992), German-born American actress
Portrait: Marland Stone

PHILIP II (1527-1598), King of Spain
Portrait: Sofonisba Anguissola

DeWITT CLINTON (1769-1828), Governor of New York
Portrait: Samuel Morse

JOHN C. FREMONT (1813-1890), American explorer
Portrait: William Smith Jewett

Princess MARGARET (1930-2002), sister of Queen Elizabeth II of England
Portrait: Boris Chaliapin

ZACHARY TAYLOR (1784-1850), President of the United States
Portrait: James Reid Lambdin

DEBORAH KERR (1921-2007), Scottish actress
Portrait: Jon Whitcomb

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811-1896), American writer
Portrait: Alanson Fisher

OTTO von BISMARCK (1815-1898), Prussian statesman
Portrait: Franz von Lenbach

BERNARD MONTGOMERY (1887-1976), English Army Officer
Portrait: Boris Chaliapin

GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL (1685-1759), German composer
Portrait: Balthasar Denner

CECILIA GALLERANI (1473-1536), Italian noblewoman
Portrait: Leonardo da Vinci

HENRIETTA MARIA of France (1609-1669), Queen of England
Portrait: Sir Peter Lely

RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883), German composer
Portrait: Franz von Lenbach

OLD PORTRAITs (PART 2)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:46:00 +0000

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806-1861), English poet
Portrait: unknown artist

REMBRANDT (1606-1669), Dutch painter
Portrait: Jan Lievens

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894), English poet
Portrait: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878), American poet
Portrait: Daniel Huntington

FRANCISCO de GOYA (1746-1828), Spanish painter
Portrait: Vincente Lopez y Portana

SHARON STONE (1958), American actress
Portrait: Stephen Bennett

JOANNA of CASTILE (1479-1555), Queen of Castile
Portrait: unknown artist

JACQUELINE KENNEDY (1929-1994), First Lady of the United States
Portrait: Boris Chaliapin

POCAHONTAS (1595-1617), Native American woman
Portrait: Simon van de Pass

SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784), English essayist
Portrait: Joshua Reynolds

JEFFERSON DAVIS (1808-1889), President of the Confederate States of America
Portrait: Daniel Huntington

WALTHER RATHENAU (1867-1922), German Foreign Minister
Portrait: Edvard Munch

THOMAS ALVA EDISON (1847-1931), American inventor
Portrait: Abraham Archibald Anderson

ISAAC ASIMOV (1920-1992), Russian-born American writer
Portrait: Rowena Morrill

CECILE MENDELSSOHN (1817-1853), French painter, wife of Felix Mendelssohn
Portrait: Eduard Magnus

ARTURO TOSCANINI (1867-1957), Italian conductor
Portrait: Boris Chaliapin

MILLARD FILLMORE (1800-1874), President of the United States
Portrait: unknown artist

GIOVANNI PAISIELLO (1740-1816), Italian composer
Portrait: Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun

CARLOS III (1716-1788), King of Spain
Portrait: Francisco Goya

OLD PORTRAITs (PART 3)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:41:00 +0000

EVA GONZALES (1849-1883), French painter
Portrait: Edouard Manet

FERENC RAKOCZI II (1676-1735), Prince of Transilvania
Portrait: Adam Manyoki

GEORGE ROOKE (1650-1709), English Admiral
Portrait: Michael Dahl

JOHANN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN (1717-1768), German archaeologist
Portrait: Anton Raphael Mengs

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (1767-1848), President of the United States
Portrait: John Caleb Bingham

JANET LEIGH (1927-2004), American actress
Portrait: Jon Whitcomb

ALEXANDRE DUMAS, fils (1824-1895), French writer
Portrait: Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier

JOHANN I JOSEPH (1760-1836), prince of Liechtenstein
Portrait: Johann Baptist Lampi the Younger

ALFRED de MUSSET (1810-1857), French writer
Portrait: Charles Zacharie Landelle

BILLIE HOLIDAY (1915-1959), American singer
Portrait: Nannette Harris

LEONARDO da VINCI (1452-1519), Italian painter and inventor
Portrait: Francesco Melzi

GERALD FORD (1913-2006), President of the United States
Portrait: Everett Raymond Kinstler

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE (1837-1909), English poet
Portrait: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

ALBERT GALLATIN (1761-1849), American Secretary of the Treasury
Portrait: Daniel Huntington

CAROLE LOMBARD (1908-1942), American actress
Portrait: Charles Gates Sheldon

WINSTON CHURCHILL (1874-1965), British Prime Minister
Portrait: Frank Mason

CLEMENTE IX (1600-1669), Pope
Portrait: Carlo Maratti

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865), President of the United States
Portrait: Mort Kunstler

EMILE ZOLA (1840-1902), French writer
Portrait: Edouard Manet

ELIZABETH II (1926), Queen of the United Kingdom
Portrait: Ricardo Macarron

OLD PORTRAITs (PART 4)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:35:00 +0000

JOHN WAYNE (1907-1979), American actor
Portrait: Everett Raymond Kinstler

ELISABETH of Bavaria (1837-1898), Empress of Austria
Portrait: Franz Xaver Winterhalter

NAPOLEON (1769-1821), French Emperor
Portrait: George Baxter

INNOCENZO X (1574-1655), Pope
Portrait: Diego Velazquez

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750), German composer
Portrait: Elias Gottlob Haussmann

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894), Scottish writer
Portrait: William Blake Richmond

CARLOS V (1500-1558), King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor
Portrait: Bernaert van Orley

HORATIO NELSON (1758-1805), British Admiral
Portrait: George Baxter

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865), President of the United States
Portrait: Charles Wesley Jarvis

MARLENE DIETRICH (1901-1992), German-born American actress
Portrait: Christiane Vleugels

SAMUEL MORSE (1791-1872), American inventor and painter
Portrait: Daniel Huntington

JOHN F. KENNEDY (1917-1963), President of the United States
Portrait: Norman Rockwell

RICHARD NIXON (1913-1994), President of the United States
Portrait: Norman Rockwell

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (1473-1543), Polish astronomer
Portrait: Jan Matejiko

FRANCOIS RABELAIS (1494-1553), French writer
Portrait: unknown painter

BOB DYLAN (1941), American songwriter
Portrait: Merryl Jaye

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886), Hungarian composer
Portrait: Wilhelm von Kaulbach

ERASMUS of Rotterdam (1466-1536), Dutch philosopher
Portrait: Quentin Massys

JOHN BROWN (1800-1859), American abolitionist
Portrait: Ole Peter Hansen Balling

OLD PORTRAITs (PART 5)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:30:00 +0000

CHARLES de TALLEYRAND (1754-1838), French Prime Minister
Portrait: Jean-Baptiste Greuze

PHILIP IV (1605-1665), King of Spain
Portrait: Diego Velazquez

ANDREW JOHNSON (1808-1875), President of the United States
Portrait: Washington B. Cooper

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (1882-1945), President of the United States
Portrait: Henry Salem Hubbell

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809), Austrian composer
Portrait: Thomas Hardy

ANGELICA SINGLETON VAN BUREN (1818-1877), daughter-in-law of American President Martin Van Buren
Portrait: Henry Inman

THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928), English writer
Portrait: Reginald Grenville Eves

THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858-1919), President of the United States
Portrait: Adrian Lamb

PEGGY HOYT (1893-1937), American writer
Portrait: Charles Sheldon

CHARLES I (1600-1649), King of England
Portrait: Anthony van Dyck

CHILD PAINTINGS

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:10:00 +0000

Feeding The Geese

Milk And Eggs

Team Work

Blossoms

Hanna

The Promise

Indian Stories

Emmie’s Chick

Strawberry Girl

Tangerines

Alsacienne berçant son enfant

The Lesson

Mother’s Pride

The Centre Of Attention

The Huntsman’s Home Coming

The Reading Lesson

The Watchful Mother

La Pensierosa

The Childhood Of Saint Cecily

A Little Girl And Her Sheltie

A Special Pleader

In Disgrace

Suspense (Saying Our Prayers)

Serenade (The Broken String)

A Mischievous Puppy

The Two Invalids

Time To Wake Up

Compulsory Education

Off To School

In Disgrace

Monster (The Tiger Girl With Pug)

Any Port In A Storm

The Little Baker With Her Two Assistants

The Hiding Place

Summertime Gloucestershire

Her New Brown Shoes

Gathering Plums

CHILD PAINTINGS (PART 1)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:05:00 +0000

The Torn Hat

Juvenile Ambition

Madame Brujere And Child

Portrait Of Mrs. Robb And Her Three Children

Mother And Son

Child Asleep

L’homme est en mer

Le foyer

Les petits goelands

Femme de pecheur venant de baigner ses enfants

Miss Cicely Alexander

At The Piano

The Little Rose Of Lyme Regis

The Child Miranda

Kinder beim Mittagessen

After Class

The Nurse

The Children’s Story Book

Windfalls

The Turtle Dove

A New Friend

The Time Of The Lilacs

When The Heart Is Young

Foundling Girls In Their School Dresses At Prayer In The Chapel

title unknown

Christmas Time…Here’s The Gobbler!

The Lace Handkerchief

Passe-temps dans l’après-midi

Music Lesson

Mother And Child

Study At A Reading Desk

Light Of The Harem

Sisters

Sketch Of A Boy

Children’s Pastimes

Baba And Billy

CHILD PAINTINGS (PART 2)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:02:00 +0000

Les deux amis

Artist’s Daughters With A Cat

The Painter’s Daughters, Mary And Margaret

John And Henry Trueman Villebois

The Misses Sloper

Cottage Girl With Dog And Pitcher

Master John Heathcote

The Marsham Children

Painter’s Daughters

Breakfast Time – Morning Games

Florence Cope Saying Grace At Dinnertime

The Village Schoolmaster

George Herbert And His Mother

A Life Well Spent

News From Sebastopol

Motherhood

A Portrait Of Margaret, May And Emily Atkinson

The Music Lesson

The Necklace-Maker

Little Seamstress

Kitty’s Breakfast

A Donkey Ride Along A Woodland Path

A Toy Boat

La petite glaneuse

A Young Girl Wearing A Turban And A Furtrimmed Coat

Marion Hiller Fenno At Nine As Mandolinata

Mother And Child In A Boat

Mrs. Slater And Her Children

Mother And Child In Pine Woods

Paul Wells

The Lesson

The Young Photographers

Ready For Bed

Playing A Doctor

The First Sewing Lesson

A Festive Treat

Kiss Goodnight

Early Sorrow

CHILD PAINTINGS (PART 3)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:59:00 +0000

Bedtime Story

Admiration

The Precious One

After The Bath

Four O’ Clock

Heroes Of The West

The Late Show

The Thoughts Of Youth

Feeding Time

Children Feeding Geese

The Sad Message

On The Way To The Field Work

Brezelbub auf dem Glacis

Das Gewitter

Kaiserhaus

Das Abendgebet

The Princess Elise And Fanny Liectenstein
With Their Governess Mlle Verneille

Schlechte Zeiten

Fast Friends – Year Of The Horse

Peek-a-Boo – Year Of The Tiger

Cock’s Crow – Year Of The Rooster

A Flower For My Lady – Year Of The Sheep

Maude Baille

Portrait Of A Young Girl Holding A Kitten

Girl With Flowers

Grandpa’s Garden

The Bathing Pool

Fooling Around

The Baptism

Quiet Day On The Seine

CHILD PAINTINGS (PART 4)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:50:00 +0000

Little Anne

First Lesson

Boy With A Crow

Sleeping Beauty

The Three Sisters

A Little Schoolgirl

Contemplation

An Interrupted Moment

The Butterfly

Das lesende Madchen (Young Girl Reading)

Madchen mit Wasserkrug (The Young Water Carrier)

Hide And Seek

The Rabbit Seller

The Guardian Angel

Undressing The Baby

Le printemps

Première Communion

Virginitas

Little Red Riding Hood

Old Neighbour Gone Bye

A Music Party

title unknown

Wonderland

Edward Robert Hughes As A Child

James Wyatt And His Grandaughter Mary

My First Sermon

My Second Sermon

A Souvenir Of Velazquez

For The Squire

Cinderella

Ruling Passion

Leisure Hours

Cherry Ripe

Sleeping

Message From The Sea

Portrait Of Gracia Lees

Christ In The House Of His Parents

The Boyhood Of Raleigh

The Piper

The Two Princes (Edward And Richard) In The Tower

John Wycliffe Taylor

Hugh Cayley of Wydale

A Russian Beauty

The Pink Bonnet

Sisters

Spring Flowers

Little Girl

Mignon

Little Girl With Head-Dress

Faraway Thoughts

Flower Girl

The Flower Seller

The Red Bonnet

Young Girl In A Green Tunic

Young Girl Before A Blue Background

The Flower Girls

Sympathy

Imprisoned

The Last Spoonful

His Only Friend

Devotion

Stolen Kisses

title unknown

A New Game

A Little Girl

Dorothea And Francesca

Little Lamerche

Cecil Kent Drinker

Ernesta (Child With Nurse)

CHILD PAINTINGS (PART 5)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:50:00 +0000

On The Plain

On The Way Home

Las Infantas Isabella Clara Eugenia y Catalina Micaela

Prince Don Carlos of Austria

Infanta Isabella, Daughter of King Philip II of Spain

Madeleine Juliette Gérome et ses poupées

The Snake Charmer

Motherhood

Mother’s Flower

title unknown

Lullaby

Young Girl

The Young Shepherdess

In The Land Of Nod

Motherly Love

Holiday In Essex

Equestrian Portrait Of A Boy

Girl With Dog

Portrait Group

Family Group

Janie Corbin And “Old Jack”

The First Pledge Of Allegiance

Singer Family

Prairie Kitchen

Days Of Splendor

Beaded Headband

ART OF WOMEN

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:25:00 +0000

The Water Girl

William Adolphe Bouguereau

Dahesh Museum of Art

Petites Mendiantes

William Adolphe Bouguereau

Syracuse University Art Collection

Portrait of Anne-Marie Dagnan, 1880

Gustave Claude Étienne Courtois

Gustave Claude Étienne Courtois (1859-1923) painted this portrait of his father's cousin in 1880, as a presentation piece to her and her husband, Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929). Courtois and Dagnan-Bouveret were classmates at the École des Beaux-Arts, and were both students of Jean-Léon Gérôme. The two young artists also shared a studio in Paris, and spent summers together in the country, where Courtois first introduced his great-uncle's daughter, Anne-Marie, to his good friend, Dagnan-Bouveret. Anne-Marie and Dagnan-Bouveret were married by 1879, and his wife became the subject of many of Dagnan-Bouveret's paintings to come.

Both Courtois and Dagnan-Bouveret held successful careers, Courtois as a historical and genre painter, and the sometime portraitist, and Dagnan-Bouveret as a member of the French Naturalist movement.

Portrait of his Fiancée, Anne-Marie Walter, 1878

Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret

St. Cecilia - John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse's painting, St. Cecilia, has recently been sold to an "unknown Russian buyer," and will enter into his private collection. The painting, which holds the record for the highest auction result for a 19th Century, non-Impressionist work, was purchased by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation in 2000 for £ 6.6 million, or roughly, $10,000,000 USD. This new sale to a Russian buyer reflects the current trend in art purchases as more and more 19th Century masterworks are transferring into the private hands of discerning Russian collectors.

Recent developments in Russia and in other Republics of the former Soviet Union have created an influx of extreme wealth. Forbes magazine reports that the number of billionaires in Russia alone has climbed to 110 this year, from 36 in 2004. These newly rich are protecting their assets while at the same time celebrating their country's long established love of the arts through the creation of these private collections.

The former Soviet Union, perhaps because of the Communist Regime and the subsequent "distance" it held from the rest of the world, did not experience the art trends of the 20th Century to the same degree as did the countries of the Western world. Outside of large urban centers like Moscow, the tastes remained more conservative, and realist art, such as that produced by the Academics of the late 1800's, was still awarded high regard. Now that these new millionaires (and billionaires) have the money to purchase luxury items, it is natural that they are collecting paintings from this artistic era.

The Golden Mountain - Mian Situ

I wonder if next we will see Chinese collectors following the same trend. China too, because of their self-imposed isolation under Communist rule, saw little of the Modern art movements. Their art schools froze after the Russian Itinerant artists moved east and began training the Chinese in the European academic manner. Many artists that we prize today in America, like Mian Situ, received their training at schools where the People's Republic fostered 19th Century Western techniques. Though China has their own rich cultural heritage, with their increasing wealth, it may be possible that they too acquire as many of these paintings which appeal more to their sensibilities than they have to collectors in the West.

Paintings which suffered ill regard under Western museum directors, and which have been de-acquisitioned in order to clear space for more Modern pieces, are likely to disappear from our shores. Even during the recent resurgence of interest in Realism, the major attention here still goes to contemporary artists like Damien Hirst whose "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" (aka A Dead Shark... really) sold at auction for $12 million in 2005. Meanwhile, museums like the Minneapolis Institute of Art, hides, then sells off an iconic Bouguereau painting like Bohémienne. In the blink of an eye, much of the work from this wonderful period of art could be lost to us, as it is spread about the private galleries of those who truly appreciate its artistry, and can now finally afford to collect it.

Bohémienne - WA Bouguereau

I do not deny these new collector's rights to purchase these works. I do envy them their ability to do so, that is granted. I am just saddened that these paintings are not better appreciated here, so that I wouldn't have to fear their disappearance from public view.

By the time of his death in 1937, Philip de László had achieved international fame as a portraitist. He "held twenty-two orders and seventeen medals of merit bestowed upon him by royal and presidential sitters throughout the western world."1 The awards for which he was most proud, however, were when King Edward VII appointed him Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1909, and when he was elected President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1930. Despite this success and renown, de László was largely forgotten by the time World War II ended, and is nearly unknown today.

Maria Peers

Charlotte Snoxall

Since then, Daily divides his time between his home in New York state, and in Great Britain, creating portraits on both sides of the Atlantic. It just goes to show you what timing, a little bit of luck, and a large heaping of prodigious talent will do for you!

Portrait of Kathryn

In nearby Dublin, there was an art colony in the late 19th century which gathered around such artists as George de Forest Brush, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Rockwell Kent, and Frank W. Benson.

Peterborough is home to the McDowell Colony, the first artist residency of its kind in the United States. Founded in 1907, it offers temporary room, board, and studio space for the artists accepted into the colony. Previous residents include: Milton Avery, Aaron Copeland, Thornton Wilder, and Leonard Bernstein.

Also in Peterborough is award-winning artist, Karin Wells, who paints portraits reminiscent of the 1700's.

(MALIK 4 U)

ART OF WOMEN (PART 1)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:56:00 +0000

Rockwell's initial technique was learned through courses of study begun at age 15, when he left high school and enrolled in two art schools simultaneously. His mornings were spent at the National Academy of Design, and his afternoons, spent at the Art Students' League, where he was under the tutelage of George Bridgman and Thomas Fogarty. From the age of seventeen, when he did his first paid illustrations, through age twenty-two, when he began doing covers for the Post, and for the next twenty years of his career thereafter, Rockwell worked exclusively from life. He worked at his easel drawing directly on his canvas, and painting with his models in situ, altering nothing. "It has never been natural for me to deviate from the facts of anything before me," he says, "so I have always dressed the models and posed them precisely as I have wanted them in my picture; then I have painted the thing before me. If a model has worn a red sweater, I have painted it red - I couldn't possibly have made it green. I have tried again and again to take such liberties, but with little success."†

Rose and Blue

William McGregor Paxton, 1913

"(William McGregor Paxton) crowned the edifice of nineteenth century Impressionism by carrying their logical principles to their logical conclusion. This is not to say that he was the greatest artist among its practitioners but that he achieved their proclaimed objectives more completely in all respects than anyone else. His unsurpassed visual acuity combined with great technical command enabled him to report his impressions with astounding veracity. Of all the painters whose color perception had been sharpened by plein air study he was the most accurate draftsman and he never slackened his efforts to render both shape and color just as they appeared to the artist's eye. Paxton opined that all painters, excepting Vermeer at the top of his form, permitted some tonality absent in nature to tinge their pictures. He constantly pointed out that the invisible atmospheric envelope through which we look is limpid, 'like a glass of pure water' and he responded to that challenge. His best indoor paintings are distinguished by an ambient lucidity we do not find to a like degree in the pictures of other men. Let no one confuse this with photographic imitation, which it in no way resembles. Effects of this kind are only captured when the artist visualizes the depicted scene as an entity all of whose colors are accurately observed in their mutual relationship, a singularly difficult feat only understood by the talented after years of study."

- R.H. Ives Gammell, The Boston Painters 1900 - 1930

The Finding of Moses, 1904

We are fortunate that Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema is one of those rare Victorian artists of whom there is much information available, though that was almost not the case. Soon after his death in 1912, Tadema's popularity greatly diminished, and he faced being relegated to obscurity by the Modernist politicos. Luckily, nearly sixty years after his passing, Tadema's reputation and art were saved by the most unlikeliest of heroes.

A Greek Woman

Spring (detail), 1895

Sadly, Funt was forced to liquidate his entire collection in 1973, when he found himself without any savings, the victim of his accountant's embezzlement of $1,285,826 from the TV personality. The paintings fetched $570,000 at Sotheby's Belgravia (London), and Funt was left with only photographs of his beloved paintings, and several of the original frames, custom-designed by Tadema, which, unfortunately, Funt had separated from their proper artworks. Today, a single painting by Alma-Tadema, such as The Finding of Moses, which Funt sold in 1973 for $72,000, is valued in the millions (The Finding of Moses sold at Christie's Auction House for $2,500,000 in 1995).

(detail)

Cherries (detail)

Vercingétorix Throwing His Weapons at the Feet of Caesar

Lionel-Noël Royer, 1899

The Girl at the Gate 1889 oil 67.5" X 54.5"

George Clausen, although a respected teacher at the Royal Academy and though eventually knighted, never really got the recognition in his home country that he deserved. He was a Naturalist, which meant to his critics and detractors, that he was a painter of ugliness: ugly people doing ugly things, painted in ugly colors. To those who appreciated truth and representational paintings, he was a hero, who introduced England to an innovative manner of painting, which not only elevated the arts, but also man's relationship to the natural environment.

It is hard to imagine now that the paintings of the Naturalist movement were radically new in their time. The painters of this movement, though closely aligned with the academic tradition, consciously made a decision to break with the precepts of the past. Their works might not have been as startling as those being created contemporaneously by the avant-garde Impressionists, but the Naturalists were nevertheless challenging the face of art.

These artists were among the first to disassociate themselves with the convention of executing their paintings of landscapes in the comfort of their studio using a formulaic approach. Instead, they would either paint their canvases out-of-doors, in direct observation of their subject, or they would paint multiple studies outdoors from life, to bring indoors to complete. Some even had special outdoor closets constructed in which to work, or had glass houses made so that they could paint their models in full natural light, but free from wind and insects. Gone were the warm shadows and cool light learned while working in the studio and which earlier plein air painters of the Barbizon School were never able to eschew. In their stead came the warm light and cool shadows of a bright, sunlit day, or the even more subtle pearlescent color effects obtained when observing their subjects under an overcast sky.

It was the aim of these Naturalist painters to present the regions where each lived in a truthful, objective manner. They wanted to portray their contemporary world, unedited, with all of its foibles laid bare. These paintings of laundrywomen, street urchins, and field workers were not intended to make political commentary, per se, but were meant to present "slice-of-life" pictures of a section of modern society that had previously been ignored by historical and religious painters of the Academies. Instead of painting symbolic archetypes of the poor or downtrodden, which would have read as critiques on the human condition, the Naturalists painted detailed portraits of these subjects without interjecting any of their own personal feelings of their subject's position in life.

Photography, which had made significant advances in portability over the previous decades, became an essential tool for the Naturalists, and shaped how these artists executed their work.

First and foremost, it was an aid in recording daily life, and the Naturalists used their photographs more like sketches for a final composition. They were able to carry their cameras into locations, such as farm fields, and document laborers at work, in un-rehearsed poses. These more casual arrangements became the basis for new pictorial compositions unlike those traditionally put forth by previous, academically-trained artists. It also led to cropping the figures in their paintings in unusual ways, in mimicry of what these artist/photographers were encountering in their photographic negatives.

The Naturalists were the first Photo-Realists, which as a classification, must be examined in relation to the time period they lived and worked, and not judged from a modern perspective.

After all, these artists were limited by the technological advancements of photography to that date, and often by their own mastery of that burgeoning field. Their paintings were not marked by universal detail, because their photographic reference was often limited in clarity. What the photographs brought to the paintings, and what marked their canvases as having relied upon photo reference, was the judicious use of detail in the foreground, and the lack of focus in the distance; a direct influence of limited depth of field in the images made with the portable cameras. In fact, the artists of the earlier, Realist movement, who did not rely on photographs, created much more exacting pictures than did most Naturalists, and the Naturalists themselves probably did more finely detailed work in their own student academies then they did when fully immersed in the Movement.

What the public found in these Naturalist canvases was a hyper-reality. The figures in the Naturalist paintings represented frozen moments of daily life, just as the photographs did in which the gallery-goers had by then been versed. These were real people as painted subjects, not idealized allegorical caricatures. For many, the actions described in the images were familiar, and enabled the viewers to relate to the paintings in a way they never could to the heroic and romanticized depictions of political persona, or to the unflawed characters of myth and religion. Often, the individuals peopling these art works were painted life-size, as the artists were creating large compositions in hopes that their pictures would be purchased by the government for public display: these fully-realized figures appeared as actors on a stage and only added to the verisimilitude. The colors used were studied direct from life, and came closer to representing the natural world than had the paintings of the studio systems of the past. If photographs were amazing two-dimensional glimpses at reality, then these paintings were photographs nearly made corporeal; they were so like life, that at some exhibits, visitors would actually gather at a single painting and not move, waiting to catch the person in the frame finally breathe.

Jules Bastien-Lepage

Joan of Arc Listening to the Voices 1879

Oil 100" X 109.25"

It is uncertain where or exactly when George Clausen was first introduced to the Naturalist paintings being created in France, but it is clear that his exposure to their movement, and particularly to the work of their premier painter, Jules Bastien-Lepage, made an indelible mark on his career. What is known is that sometime in the early 1880s, Clausen participated in the art colony at Quimperlé on the Brittany coast, where like-minded artists interested in Naturalist painting gathered to paint the local region. Between his studies there, and in Paris while in the studio of William Bouguereau, Clausen had assimilated the developing working methods of this novel group of artists.

(MALIK 4 U)

ART OF WOMEN (PART 2)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:46:00 +0000

David Mueller was born September 23, 1963 into a family of artists. His mother taught ceramics, needlepoint, and macramé; his uncle worked for Hana Barbara Studios on animated projects such as Spider Man; and David's father, Robert, was a largely self-taught cartoonist who had a natural gift for touching people through his work and imagination. Despite this environment of artistic nurturing, David didn't decide to really pursue his own art until he was enrolled in a course of liberal arts classes at a local college, and finally realized that his true passions lay in drawing and painting.

For the next two-and-a-half years, Muller diligently studied figure drawing from the live model, while working on all of his other practical skills to enable him to be a successful commercial artist. Though he finished his course schedule on time, and had a portfolio to present, Mueller decided to stay at the school an extra semester in order obtain further training from oil painting instructor Ted Smuskiewicz, watercolorist Irving Shapiro, and from artist Richard Schmid, who would often come into the classes to give painting demonstrations.

After graduating in 1987, Mueller spent the next couple of years working as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, before seeking out a position in a Chicago-based advertising agency. This position proved to be a disappointment to David, who ended up being nothing more than a "gopher" and not the "illustrator's apprentice" for which he thought he had been hired. Luckily for David, a job offer from Gibson Greetings in Cincinnati soon presented itself, and he happily accepted their offer.

For the next three years, Mueller created paintings for Gibson Greetings. Though he feared he might end up painting cute little scenes and comic characters for the card company when he was first hired, David found himself in the enviable position of exclusively painting impressionistic landscapes, still lifes, and figural work. He had found a job for himself, or perhaps it had found him, where he was creating the exact kind of art he had wanted to paint since his classes at the American Academy.

Scott Burdick

Paul Newton

Chris Saper

Ying-He Liu

Laurel Boeck

Ann Mary Kenyon

Thomas Nash

Rich Nelson

Vasudeo Kamath

(MALIK 4 U)

ART OF WOMEN (PART 3)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:37:00 +0000

For several years, Fechin enjoyed much happiness and success in Kazan. He was well-known in Russia, and was popular amongst his students who enjoyed his less-structured classes. His art was winning him much acclaim. In 1913, he married Alexandra Belkovitch, the daughter of the school's director, and in turn, had a daughter of his own, Eya. Life was good for Fechin, until World War I, and the later domestic Russian political upheaval, which brought turmoil to Fechin's family and life.

In California, Fechin once again found success. He started taking on students, and soon had eighty pupils. His later style, unlike that which he employed during his time in Taos, was now slick and more realistic, but was popular among his wealthy clientele. Portrait commissions were numerous and he became once more, a wealthy man.

Catalan painter, Ramon Casas i Carbó, was born into a family of means on January 4, 1866. His mother, Elisa Carbó i Ferrer, was from an affluent bourgeoisie family in Barcelona, and his father, Ramon Casas i Gatell, was a Torredembarran businessman who had made a fortune in Matanzas, Cuba. With the safety of his family's wealth behind him, strong artistic talent, and a learned business acumen, Ramon Casas i Carbó put his home of Catalan on the art world's map, and on the same stage as the art world's center, Paris.

While in Paris, Casas began his studies with Charles Auguste Émile Durand, better known as Carolus-Duran. Carolus-Duran headed one of the most successful ateliers in Paris, producing many students of talent, including the well-known American portraitist, John Singer Sargent. Though French by birth, Carolus-Duran was heavily influenced by Spanish art, particularly the work of Velázquez, making him a natural fit for the teen-aged Ramon, if on aesthetic preferences alone.

Casas continued to show his work in solo shows, and in group exhibitions with his Catalan friends until his death in 1932, but by the 1920's, Ramon Casas i Carbó was no longer producing work with ties to the avant-garde movements of the day. In the end, Casas returned to the methods and techniques of his youth, producing work of a stronger academic influence than he had made when he was in his twenties. By the time of his passing at the age of sixty-six, though not quite forgotten, Casas had already been relegated to the past, as Spain looked to the future that Casas had made possible in his youth.

Jeremy Lipking's homage to Ramon Casas i Carbó

Over time, the myth altered, and Lamia came to be considered a succubus, seducing young men and feeding on their blood. According to some versions of the story, Lamia's evil deeds and/or grief distorted her features, making her a hideous monster, often portrayed with serpent-like features.

Waterhouse's 1909 Lamia, however, is most likely based upon John Keats' poem of the same name from nearly a century earlier. Keats' Lamia, though still a daemon, is more sympathetic. She seduces a young man, Menippus Lycius, and convinces him to stay with her, and eventually to marry. They are happy together, until the philosopher Apollonius, a guest at the wedding, discovers Lamia's true identity as a serpent, upon which the illusion is broken, and Lamia, her house, and her belongings all disappear. With the death of Lamia, Lycius too dies, bringing this sad, romantic tale of this beguiling phantasm to an end.

This was not Waterhouse's only exploration of the tale of Lamia. In 1905, he painted another version in which a beautiful, supplicant Lamia kneels before an Arthurian Lycius. Evidence also indicates that the surviving painting from 1909, is actually a reduction of the much-larger original. In all, it is supposed Waterhouse visited the Lamia myth no fewer than six times.

Waterhouse was not alone in his interest in the motif of this particular femme-fatale. In 1909, Herbert Draper, Waterhouse's former student, also exhibited a painting entitled Lamia, though Draper chose to portray the daemon with the serpentine features alluded to in earlier versions of the myth.

MALIK 4 U

WOMEN PAINTINGS (PART I)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:22:00 +0000

Abbott Handerson Thayer, Winged Figure, 1889

Kenyon Cox, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1908

Edmund Charles Tarbell, Reverie (Katharine Finn), 1913

Joseph Rodefer de Camp, The Blue Cup, 1909

William McGregor Paxton, Tea Leaves, 1909

Jules Bastien-Lepage, The Communicant, 1875

Thomas Cooper Gotch, Death the Bride, 1894-95

Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret, A Woman from Bern, Switzerland, 1887

Frederic Lord Leighton, The Music Lesson, 1877

William Adolphe Bouguereau, Le Jeune Frere, 1902

Artistically speaking, it may be said that the perfectly symmetrical head is lacking in "character."

The oval face; the dual features the counterpart of each other; the measurement from the top of the head to the brows, from the brows to the base of the nose, from the base of the nose to the end of the chin, which are all fairly equal in length; the bow-shaped mouth; the eyes parted by the length of one eye, and so on, would constitute a symmetrical head.

Although some such standard of measurement and regularity, both of face and in a similar way of the body, might serve the ends of the painter and sculptor of cold classic figures and certain decorative schemes, they can only help the painter who is a student of nature as so many points of departure, for you will rarely find in real life anything approaching the regularity of the classic figures. Still, underlying all our personal observations, there is a consciousness more or less developed of the "perfect," for when we talk of a man with a long nose, of a woman with a sort aristocratic upper lip, of a lean person or a short-limbed one, we are, perhaps unconsciously but no less certainly, comparing these features and characteristics with a set symmetrical standard of which we are conscious, and it is the variations from the standard- let it be of a leaf, of a hand, or of a face- that make for character.¹

The following examination of the colors present in John Singer Sargent's paintings was conducted by the Conservation Department of the Tate Britain, London.

The information we do have has come from examination of his pictures and direct analysis of his paint. The same commonly available range of pigments is seen in virtually all of the Tate's later portraits and on existing palettes. The range is quite wide but does not include every pigment available at that time. He regularly used Mars yellow (a synthetic iron oxide) and cadmium yellow; viridian and emerald green, sometimes mixed; vermilion and Mars red, both alone and mixed; madder; synthetic ultramarine or cobalt blue; and ivory black, sienna, and Mars brown. The dark backgrounds of many portraits include a mixture of ivory black, Mars brown,and a generous quantity of paint medium: a combination that produces a color similar to the traditional Van Dyke brown. A pale shade of chrome yellow, cerulean blue, red lead, cadmium red, and cobalt violet were found on occasion, but not in every portrait examined. There is a more limited selection of blue and yellow pigments in the later portraits than in the earlier ones. This narrow range of blues, yellows, and greens in his palette went some way to create a color harmony and to fix a cool or a warm overall tone to each painting.

Sargent mixed lighter colors such as flesh tones by adding to lead white, vermilion, and a selection of other pigments including bone black, on occasion rose madder, and even green viridian. Mixing them together roughly on the palette, he then worked them into and onto adjacent brushstrokes on the canvas to give more subtle variations in tone.

(Jacqueline Ridge and Joyce Townsend; "How Sargent Made it Look Easy"; American Artist magazine; August, 1999, page 29)

In 1910, work was completed on Curran's home, Winahdin, and he and his wife, Grace, settled happily into the congenial Cragsmoor Colony. This environment, which one journalist described in 1906 as "a harmonious community... active-minded and deeply interested in the best art, literature, drama and music,"³ was a constant source of inspiration for Curran's Impressionistic canvases. He spent the next 30 years of his life painting the land around his home, and participating in the overseeing of the colony.

November 9, 1942, the artist passed away in New York City, leaving behind a large catalog of paintings which can still be seen in many of the nation's great collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

¹ Steve Shipp, American Art Colonies, 1850-1930: A Historical Guide to America's Original Art Colonies and Their Artists (Greenwood Press, 1996), p. 25.

² Shipp, p. 25. (Quote attributed to Judge George Brown).

³ Shipp, p. 25. (From an article from The Cragsmoor Journal, 1906).

I've ordered from Hamilton several times, and have had no problems. If you send them a check by mail, using the order form generated by their website, you will get the lowest price. When using a credit card, there is an additional fee.

WOMEN PAINTINGS (PART II)

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:03:00 +0000

On page 36 of Gil Elvgren: The Complete Pin-Ups, Charles Martignette wrote of Elvgen's processes:

Gil Elvgren's ability to capture the spirit of American feminine beauty was unsurpassed. His pin-ups were pictures of real girls in real, everyday situations. Sometimes they were a bit exaggerated, but they always worked. Painting with thirty-two colors on his palette, he mostly used canvas measuring 30 X 24" (76 X 61 cm) placed on a large wooden easel. While painting, Elvgren usually sat in a chair on wheels, so he could move about and look at the work in progress from every angle. A mirror on the wall behind him enabled him to see the painting over his shoulder. During the years in Winnetka and for several years after they moved to Florida, young Drake prepared his father's painting materials each day.¹

¹ Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, Gil Elvgren: The Complete Pin-Ups, (Tashen Publishing, Los Angeles, 1999), p. 36.

There has been much interest over the years in the models John William Waterhouse used for his paintings. It is most likely that his fans are enthralled by the Waterhouse ideal- the certain, repeated, recognizable qualities which the artist imposed upon his characterization of the models- and the romance with which he portrayed them. He was not a representational artist, but one who had a personal concept of beauty, and an idiosyncratic formula for rendering his female subjects.

However much Waterhouse modified the features of his models, he was still likely to choose a sitter who naturally came closest to his archetype. It is interesting to note, therefore, that, in a 1908 poll conducted in The Strand Magazine, four other artists with very differing styles from Waterhouse all preferred the looks of the same model from a collection of eight photographs.

Artists and Beauty: The Opinion of Eminent Painters

The beauty of women appeals to all men, but not to all men alike; and artists, particularly those who have devoted themselves to the limning of the human figure, are supposed to have strongly pronounced preferences of their own. With a view of putting these preferences to the test, we have submitted a selection of beautiful women of to-day to a number of representative figure painters. The result is indicated in the following pages.

Fildes

Collier

One of these photographs, which we have numbered "3", is awarded the palm by no fewer than five artists, these being Sir Luke Fildes, R.A., Mr. J.W. Waterhouse, R.A., Mr. Arthur Hacker, A.R.A., the Hon. John Collier, and Mr. Byam Shaw. The one point on which all these authorities agreed was the beauty of the lady's eyes.

Image #3

"If I had to select one of these ladies," said Mr. Waterhouse, "as a model for painting, I should have no hesitation about my choice. The lady of my preference, indeed, reminds me very much of one of my models. After she had been sitting to me for some time she went on the stage, and succeeding in obtaining fairly important parts, she naturally did not care to resume her former profession, and for some time I have lost sight of her. She sat only for the face. The face, as in this photograph, is so singularly beautiful that I was very sorry to lose the opportunity of painting it, and I have written once or twice lately to the lady's old address but without obtaining a reply."¹

... many artists have recorded how impossible they have found the search for any one model to embody all the graces and charms of womanhood as they exist in the ideal woman of their imagination. A painter has this among other advantages over the photographer- that he can quite conveniently produce his picture from several models. The photographer, in the production of his picture, is limited by the mechanical action of the camera to one. To him may, therefore, well be denied that presentiment of a perfect vision of loveliness which becomes almost a commonplace achievement on the part of the painter.²

When people ask me how I became a successful artist, I tell them you have to not need much. If you live raw and bare, you can make it work. If you have no money to start with, you better decide you're not going to need much.¹

~ Rose Frantzen, Portrait of Maquoketa

I first came across Harvey Dinnerstein's painting, Parade, in an issue of Smithsonian magazine back in the '80s. There was no article to accompany the image, just Dinnerstein's name, and the title of the piece. I assumed then that the painting was in the Smithsonian's collection, but as the painting was in the private collection of Dr. and Mrs. Mohammad Khavari as recently as the winter of 2008, I can only assume now that the magazine had included Dinnerstein's art solely as an example of important American work: it is doubtful to me that the Smithsonian would have deascensioned the piece had it ever been theirs.

Initially, I thought it was a contemporary painting which referenced 1960s America, but was soon surprised to learn that this artwork, despite being representational in style, was painted in the early 1970s.

Spring (1894)

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

The Progress of Spring (1905)

Charles Daniel Ward

The Pardon in Brittany, 1886

Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret

Florentine Fete (single panel from series)

Maxfield Parrish

Garden of Hope

James Gurney

Dinosaur Parade

James Gurney

The Daphnephoria (1874-1876)

Frederic Lord Leighton

Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence

(1853-1855)

Frederic Lord Leighton

Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna (detail)

Frederic Lord Leighton

La Jeunesse de Bacchus (1884)

William Adolphe Bouguereau

La Jeunesse de Bacchus (detail)

William Adolphe Bouguereau

La Jeunesse de Bacchus (detail)

William Adolphe Bouguereau

Paul McCormack Daughter of Hope Watercolor

This past Sunday, I attended the Awards Reception of the Allied Artists of America 96th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club in New York City. It was a fantastic turnout, and I heard often how high was the caliber of the paintings in this year's juried show. I am so very honored to have been included in the 250 piece show, and I can only hope that I will be able to participate again in a future exhibit.

The winners of this year's awards are as follows:

OIL PAINTING

The Allied Artists of America Gold Medal of Honor ($1000)- Raymond Thornton

The Allied Artists of America Silver Medal of Honor ($600)- Ray Olivere

The Alden Bryan Memorial Medal Award for Traditional Landscape ($3000)- Peter Schnare

The Len G. Everett Memorial Award ($500)- Patton Wilson

Mary Jane Q. Cross Sing Over Me Oil

(Fingerpainting in oils!)

The Gary T. Erbe Award ($500)- Mary Jane Q. Cross

The John Young-Hunter Memorial Award ($500)- Richard Pantell

The Florence & Ernest Thorne Thompson Memorial Award ($350)- K. Gray

Dr. Clifford Wheeler Mills Memorial Award ($300)- Oleg Radvan

The Ethel Gilmore - Charles J. Romans Memorial Award ($300)- Marcia Mead Bailey

The Aileen & Manuel de Torres Award for Still Life ($300)- Inga Polistur

The Butler Institute of American Art Award ($250)- John Paulus Semple

The Jerry A. Berger Award ($250)- Joel Tidey

The American Artists Professional League Award for Traditional Realism ($200)- Del-Bourree Bach

The Mervin Honig Memorial Award for Traditional Painting ($100)- Sharon Florin

Amy Kann Self Portrait in Field of Birch Bas Relief

SCULPTURE AWARDS

The Allied Artists of America Gold Medal of Honor ($1000)- Paige Bradley

The Allied Artists of America Silver Medal of Honor ($600)- Eunnye Yang

The Pietro & Alfrieda Montana Memorial Award ($500)- John Balsamo

The Lindsey Morris Memorial Award ($500)- Joy Kroeger Beckner

The Allied Artists of America Members & Associates Award ($500)- Roger Reutimann

The Ranieri Sculpture Casting Award ($350)- Miryam S. Ginsburg

The Leonard J. Meiselman Award (Traditional) ($350)- Sherry Salari Sander

The Elliot Liskin Memorial Award ($300)- Lee Hutt

The Josephine Beardsley Sandor Memorial Award ($300)- Judeth Davis

Linda Gross Brown Footsteps #3 Pastel

WATERMEDIA, PASTEL & GRAPHIC AWARDS

The Allied Artists of America Gold Medal of Honor ($1000)- Linda Gross Brown

The Allied Artists of America Silver Medal of Honor ($600)- John Salminen

The Mary Bryan Memorial Medal Award for Watercolor ($3000)- Paul W. McCormack

Dianne B. Bernhard Gold Medal Award in Pastel ($1000)- Peter Seltzer

Dianne B. Bernhard Silver Medal Award in Pastel ($500)- Akiko Hoshino

The Joung Young-Hunter Memorial Award ($500)- Richard Brzozowski

The Allied Artists of America Award for Graphics ($500)- Jacques Bredy

Hunter Editions Giclée Art Material Award ($450 value)- Tim Saternow

The Jane Peterson Memorial Award ($450)- Chris Kupinski

The Mary Lou Fitzgerald Memorial Award ($400)- Anne A. R. Massie

The Loring W. Coleman Award for Watercolor ($300)- Lalit K. Masih

The Henry Gasser Memorial Award ($250)- Antonio Masi

The Kent Day Coes Memorial Award for Watercolor ($250)- Laurin McCracken

The David Wu & Elsie Jeck-Key Memorial Award ($200)- Weiqing Yuan

The Allied Artists of America Award for Pastel ($200)- Barbara S. Groff

The Winsor & Newton Art Materials Award- Jinnie May

The Pastel Society of America Award for Pastel ($150)- Rainie Crawford

The National Arts Club Award for Graphics ($150)- Rich Tartaglio

The Pauline Law Memorial Award for Graphics ($150)- Bruce McCombs

The Connecticut Pastel Society Award ($150)- Sangita Phadke

The Dale Meyers Cooper Medal for Watercolor ($200)- Dean Mitchell

The Salmagundi Club Award for Graphics ($250)- Karen Whitman

The Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts Graphic Award ($100)- Steve Wilda

William Seccombe Cyrk Oil

Although Waterhouse received much recognition and acclaim for the work he created during this early part of his career, he was not without his detractors. Choosing to focus on Roman antiquity, as can be seen in the first room, Waterhouse brought upon himself the inevitable comparison to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and sadly fell short in an area important to many critics: historical accuracy. Still, his quality was evident, and collectors sought his work, so Waterhouse's eventual change in subject matter may have likely been caused by a shift in popular tastes. Where an older artist like Alma-Tadema could still make sales portraying the classical antique, younger artists who did not make their careers with such a subject, were forced to look elsewhere for inspiration.

There are two paintings in this chamber which I find quite interesting from the perspective of Waterhouse's technique. Most of the paintings reflect Waterhouse's recent Academic training, with a limited palette, and a traditional process of picture-making. Paintings such as After the Dance, and A Sick Child Brought Into the Temple of Aesculapius, for example, have held up very well in comparison to Waterhouse's later work. The Favourites of Emperor Honorius, however, shows possible material and procedural experimentations on Waterhouse's part. His manner of paint application, which recent analysis of several paintings shows it consisted of a dozen layers or more in some areas, resulted in alligatoring and cracking in the figure of the Emperor when the artist did not allow a sufficient drying time between strata. Perhaps Waterhouse may have adulterated his paint too much in this particular painting as well, as the uncharacteristic matte finish of this particular work might indicate an addition of wax to his pigments, which in the case of the color used for the Emperor's robe, could have possibly led to the damage.

The other painting which caught my attention was Miranda of 1875. It is the only painting in the room which does not feature an architectural element, and perhaps because of this, Waterhouse felt the freedom or the need to be freer with his colors. In his rock formation there were bright yellow greens and a surprising scarlet scumble which possibly forecast what was to become of his colors in his later works. The juxtaposition of modern color handling, and a stylistic drawing reminiscent of the generation prior to Waterhouse's own, was unusual to discover.

The painting of Cleopatra was done as an illustration to accompany a feature on Shakespearean heroines in The Graphic magazine, and with this commission, Waterhouse had joined such prominent peers as Leighton and Alma-Tadema, who had also participated in the series. Whether Waterhouse had limited time to work on this particular painting, or he adjusted his technique knowing the final output would be reduced and altered, I am uncertain, but the quality of this piece does not match other works of his from that time. The paint application looks rushed, and less polished.

Mariamne, on the other hand, is terribly impressive in composition, technique, and sheer size. The canvas, without frame, is 8½ feet tall, which by my calculations, makes the figure of Mariamne 4'4" tall, though her statuesque appearance makes her seem much taller in person. No matter how many times I read the size of the painting while looking through books, I was not prepared to be so bowled over by its immensity. The painting has also recently been cleaned, and the dress fairly glows on the canvas. Waterhouse's subtle use of blues, pinks, violets, and greens to produce the "white" gown is brilliant.

The next room was the only room in the exhibition, other than the gift shop, which was fully lit. In the center of the room was an easel, chair, and small table, all painted black, and lining the walls were Waterhouse's drawings, painted sketches, and sketchbooks. Nothing here was surprising, but it was great to see in person his draftsman's abilities, and also his plein air sketches.

If the exhibition had ended right there, which is what I first thought, I would still have been quite happy. There was a movie showing behind a curtain in the next section called Out of Our Minds, with moody music by Melissa Auf Der Maur (bassist for The Smashing Pumpkins) pumping through the room (Auf Der Maur wrote the film, and was also in the film. It was interesting, but a bit out of place). I expected that all that was left was the movie and requisite gift shop, but to my surprise, there were a dozen more paintings to go.

The gift shop had quite a range of books, posters, and postcards relating to Waterhouse and the Pre-Raphaelites, but most of the items were disappointing. The books can be purchased for less in other places, with the exception of the catalog, which I purchased at Amazon.com for the pre-release price of under $50, but which is now selling for over $150: at the exhibit it was $75. The images in the catalog, as well as on the posters and post cards are way too dark, with the deeper values all compressing to pure black. Still, the catalog does have a few decent images, and as far as exhibit catalogs go, it is quite substantial (I'd still recommend Peter Trippi's monograph over the catalog as most of the same images are in both, yet Trippi's book has a more complete biography). I purchased a couple of stereoscopic postcards, which were neat, and a poster print of the show announcement before exiting.

London, which was by then the richest and most powerful city in the world, was the center for art collecting, but the art establishment in England was conservative, and believed too strongly in the superiority of their own, British art. Movements originating in other countries were eschewed, especially those which had had their origins in France. Artists who were too highly influenced by the "flashy" styles coming out of Paris soon found themselves out of favor with the Royal Academy's exhibiting body, and therefore further from potential patrons. Succeeding in England meant turning a blind-eye to innovation for the sake of selling work that was mostly tried and true.

SIMPLE LIVING

noreply@blogger.com (IMRAN AWAN) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:29:00 +0000

"I'm just a simple person", my mother used to say. And at the time she quietly but firmly uttered these five simple words, I did not understand why she had settled for less. Now I know why.

After you've walked long enough over the surface of life, the pathways that survive the test of time and remain to be a thing of beauty are what we frequent the most when we need direction, a new challenge to climb

or just simply need to find peace.

Simplicity, is a relative term. What is understated but genuine to one person might be ordinary to another, lacking that certain je ne sais quoi. But if you look close enough

and then stand back, what is often times revealed is not so ordinary.

Each one of us has a particular view, talent and style that embellishes who we are

and makes us sparkle.

As you reinvent yourself and cook up a new plan for your life this year

don't forget to take the time to be still, think about what is really necessary

and that each and every one of us brings something different to the table,

and that in the "Essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty and in all things, love." - Attributed to St. Augustine

All images from the magazine Maison Côte Sud