#Edouard Manet
#French art
#Impressionism
#gallery
#portrait
#Madame Masnet
Born to quite well to do parents, Sisley was initially sent to London for business studies; however he soon changed his mind and became a pupil of the Swiss artist Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre. In his studio he met and became friends with Frédéric Bazille, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. They were even called The Four Musketeers ;)
Here are three paintings of Sisley by his friend Renoir : Sisley and his wife, 1868 and two portraits, one from 1875 and one from a year after that. This last one was exhibited in 1877 impressionist exhibition, the only portrait that identified the sitter.
Liszt at the Piano, painted in 1840 - regarding Franz’s birthday yesterday, by Josef Danhauser
Danhauser (1805-1845) was an Austrian Biedermeier artist from Vienna, known also for painting the death mask of Beethoven soon after he passed away. Although appointed professor to the Academy in Vienna, he preferred travelling around Europe with his patron. Unfortunately he died young of typhus, at the age of forty.
The painting of Liszt and friends was painted for piano maker Conrad Graf; it’s not a depiction of any real event, since people on it had never been in Vienna all at the same time. It is an ideal group portrait of people that belonged to Liszt’s Parisian circle - George Sand, Dumas the father and Victor Hugo; Nicolo Paganini, Gioachino Rossini and Liszt. Liszt is playing the piano on which stands a huge bust of Beethoven, which he indeed had in his room, only smaller, and to which all three musicians of the group are looking at. On the wall, as a painting within a painting, there is a portrait of the poet Lord Byron, another heroic presence in absence.
Sitting on the floor, with her head against the piano, is Countess Marie Catherine d’Agoult, who reportedly always took that position when Liszt preformed, falling into some sort of trance ;) She was a writer that used pen name Daniel Stern and held a famous salon where many famous musicians played, including Liszt; the two fell in love and, after she abandoned her husband, lived together in Switzerland. They had three children together aming which one Cosima, the future Cosima Wagner :) Another lady of the group, George Sand, is not depicted as a lady at all - true to her self devised image she is dressed like a man and is smoking a cigar; her hand is on Dumas’ open book, while her leg rests on another - a particularly interesting detail which should suggest that there should be silence while the music is being preformed.
Liszt preformed series of concerts in Vienna in winter 1839-40 on Graf piano; it is however a bit odd that great champions of Graf pianos - most notably Chopin and Clara Wieck Schumann were omitted, especially since both of them used Graf’s pianos much more than Liszt.
Last Saturday we had birthday of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, born in 1854 - a teenage poet which Victor Hugo called an infant Shakespeare; he gave up writing before he was twenty but influenced entire generations of poets and artists to come. Living the life of a libertine and a decadent with poet Verlaine, he later abandoned that life for travelling : first he traveled around Europe on foot, and then he enlisted into the army so that he can travel free of charge to more distant places like Java; soon he deserted running off into the jungle ;)) After living in Cyprus and in Yemen, he died young at the age of only 37 in November 1891, from cancer.
In memory of him here is one interesting painting - Arthur Rimbaud in bed after Paul Verlaine shot him in the wrist, by Jef Rosman, 1873
To end for now with Umberto Boccioni’s birthday posting, here is one more of my very favourites by him : the Portrait of Ferruccio Busoni, Italian composer, pianist and conductor, best known for transcriptions of Bach’s music to piano. And, since it is Emil Gilels birthday as well today - here is his rendition of these transcriptions to accompany the painting :-) Not the best video but, well, it was 1969 after all, when this was filmed ;)
Gilels - Bach-Busoni - Prelude & Fugue in D major, BWV 532 - Prelude (1/2)
Gilels - Bach-Busoni - Prelude & Fugue in D major, BWV 532 - Fugue (2/2)
Hans Holbein, Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, 1527-1528, The National Gallery, London
On stylistic grounds, and judging by the English style of her clothes, it is believed this courtly lady was painted during Holbein’s first visit to London, but her identity is unknown. The starling and squirrel could refer to a family coat of arms, but none has been traced. Even more intriguingly, her hat is similar to one worn by Thomas More’s stepdaughter, Margaret Griggs, in a Holbein drawing in the Royal Collection, but the two portraits don’t look alike at all.
from A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, Holbein by Jonathan Jones
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2001/mar/10/art
You are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing. — e. e. cummings
Marion Morehouse by E.E.Cummings, his last lover and possibly his third wife. Marion was a fashion model, often photographed by the great Edward Steichen, and a photographer herself.
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
by e. e. cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Listen: there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go.
— e e cummings
Birthday of American poet E.E.Cummings, who also did some painting :) I like his landscapes the best but also some portraits, including self portrait with a notebook and the portrait of his mother that I am sharing. In 1926, when he was 32, his parents had a car accident, in which his father had tragically lost his life. His mother however survived. This is how he described in a lecture given at Harvard 25 years after :
A locomotive cut the car in half, killing my father instantly. When two brakemen jumped from the halted train, they saw a woman standing – dazed but erect – beside a mangled machine; with blood spouting (as the older said to me) out of her head. One of her hands (the younger added) kept feeling her dress, as if trying to discover why it was wet. These men took my sixty-six year old mother by the arms and tried to lead her toward a nearby farmhouse; but she threw them off, strode straight to my father’s body, and directed a group of scared spectators to cover him. When this had been done (and only then) she let them lead her away.
from - i: six nonlectures series
Read about his paintings and see them here :http://www.eecummingsart.com/prosp/?p=1
François Boucher was a French Rococo painter born in 1703 in Paris; talented son of a lace designer, Boucher was to become the favourite painter of Madame de Pompadour, famous mistress of King Louis XV. Other than painting in Madame Pompadour favourite style, Boucher designed theater costumes and tapestries.
Here are his Self portrait in studio (1730-35) and two portraits of Madame de Pompadour (1750 and 1756). Madame de Pompadour’s real name was Jeanne Antoinette Poisson; she became Louis’ official mistress when she was 24 and remained that until her death at the age of 42. Well educated she recited entire plays by heart, painted, acted and played clavichord beside being very beautiful ;)
Birthday to one of my most favourite artists in whole of art history, as I am sure he is to many : Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio :-) born on this day in 1571.
No need to write much about him, but I will post some paintings of his that I’ve been lucky enough to see in person; with that two documentaries, first of those being The Power of Art episode about him, by Simon Schama.
Happy Birthday Michelangelo Merisi !!!
Simon Schama’s Caravaggio_1 of 4
Simon Schama’s Caravaggio_2 of 4
Simon Schama’s Caravaggio_3 of 4
Simon Schama’s Caravaggio_4 of 4
Portrait of Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni, c 1621
The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees in himself. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also refrain from painting what he sees before him. Otherwise his pictures will be like those folding screens behind which one expects to find only the sick or the dead. — Caspar David Friedrich
Birthday to the painter who, according to the French sculptor David d’Angers discovered the tragedy of landscape - generally very popular and also one of my personal favourites - Caspar David Friedrich. Extremely popular during his younger years Friedrich later fell out of fashion and was almost forgotten; new appreciation for his work came with the German Expressionists, but especially through Surrealists to whom he was a star. he is best known for contemplative, allegorical landscapes set in or around Gothic churches, graveyards, on mountains or in woods.
Portrait of Caspar David Friedrich, Gerhard von Kügelgen c. 1810–20
To give a body and a perfect form to one’s thought, this - and only this - is to be an artist. — Jacques-Louis David
Interestingly just one day after Ingres’ birthday comes one of his teacherJacques-Louis David, the most influential French artist of his time. David’s name equals with Neoclassicism - he almost personally put an end to rather silly art of Rococo, going back to Classic arts of (then known) Greece and Rome and Vinckelmann’s writings. After visiting Pompeii in 1779, he decided to revolutionize painting. And that he did.
Here are two very famous paintings, both masterpieces - Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his wife (1788) and The Death of Marat (1793), that have a connection between them other that the fact David painted them. Lavoisier was a chemist that is often regarded as “the father of modern chemistry” - he helped constructing metric system, named oxygen and hydrogen, and even put together the first extensive list of elements. His wife Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze was a pupil of David and the one who ordered this portrait; she was rather young when she married Antoine, but the marriage was extremely happy - taking interest in science of her husband Marie-Anne learned chemistry and participated in experiments, making drawings of lab work and translating scientific literature for her husband. The portrait shows all that - it is usually mentioned as the portrait of unusual intimacy and bonding, in which man and a woman are equal partners. His laboratory was the best in whole Europe and has, amazingly enough, survived to this day :)
Unfortunately this important man and scientist fell victim to the Revolution, which is where the connection to the other painting becomes clearer - Jean-Paul Marat was a French Revolutionary, a friend to the people that was the sole source of misfortune to many that lost their heads in those times, which we call, quite fittingly, Terror. Among them was unfortunate Lavoasier whom Marat personally charged and with more than silly charges too - he, among other things, accused him of not letting enough air flow with his very high walls. Lavoasier was, of course, found guilty and eventually guillotined at the age of 50. The Republic needs neither scientists nor chemists; the course of justice cannot be delayed. said the judge; mathematician Lagrange however had another opinion : It took them only an instant to cut off his head, he said, but France may not produce another such head in a century.
The Death of Marat was an icon of the revolution, Marat becoming revolutionary martyr - and quite literary so - the painting was paraded through the streets of Paris in a manner not much different to a religious procession. He was killed by one Charlotte Corday sitting in a bathtub - in which he spent most of his time due to some skin disease. Charlotte Corday pretended that she came to denounce some people, was let in and, as she planned, stabbed him. Without even trying to run away she was taken to jail, tried and executed. In later times she was to become a hero called the Angel of Assassination. Soon however the times changed again, Robespierre was killed, David himself not in favour for participating in Terror and so the painting was given back to him, Marat the martyr no longer needed or even welcome. After David’s death his closest pupil *Antoine Gros* hid it and it is now in Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, where david lived his last years in exile, after Napoleon’s demise.
It is interesting also to think why Marat wanted Lavoasier dead so much that he would fabricate such silly accusations; it all sounds almost personal, especially since it was a person more interested in science than politics. The answer is that before becoming a revolutionary Marat very desperately wanted to become - a scientist. He tried very hard to achieve this in many ways, but to no success. As far as I understood it he even came to Lavoasier with some of his ideas, but was almost laughed at. It is possible that Marat really had a personal grudge against the chemist.
David was first backed by the Academy and aristocracy, then by revolutionaries - Robespierre being his personal friend -and then by Napoleon too; his political involvement - spanning from signing capital punishment lists during the revolution but then painting Napoleon’s crowning - was such that at one point even his wife divorced him. Not particularly charming man. However, his importance as a painter cannot be overestimated and his genius is not possible to deny. So - Happy Birthday, Jacques-Louis David
For another depiction of Marat’s death, the one featuring Charlotte - now as hero, see http://goo.gl/w0aBk by Baudry
Drawing is not just reproducing contours, it is not just the line; drawing is also the expression, the inner form, the composition, the modelling. See what is left after that. Drawing is seven eighths of what makes up painting.
— Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Birthday to Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres born on this day in 1780 - who worshiped Raphael and his teacher David, and was in turn worshiped by none other than grumpy Degas, who collected his drawings. All he wanted was to be the painter of histories in grand manner of David and the keeper of Classicism against the Romantic current of Delacroix that he abhorred; instead he was constantly criticized by not only contemporary art critics but by David himself - his painting constantly being called “Gothic” and were, ironically, liked only by the Romantics. Thus he vowed never to return to France or exhibit at Salon again; of course, he eventually did both and spent the last 25 years of his life in France quite successful; but before that he did spend quite long time in Rome, especially during his younger years, depending almost entirely on drawing portraits of tourists that came to Italy. These are the ones I decided to share today :)
There are about 450 of these drawings that Degas admired so much in existence today; tourists - mainly the English on their Grand Tour through Italy - would come to his door asking Is this where the man who draws the little portraits lives? much to Ingres’ dismay; No, the man who lives here is a painter !he would answer, but then would still agree to take their commission because they were his only source of income. Most usually he would go to lunch with them, so they would relax and he could catch a glimpse of their true character. Even after becoming all that he yearned to be as a painter, in his time as well as now, his portraits were regarded as his true masterpieces, painted or drawn. The ones that he did in Rome are particularly interesting because of the chosen background - usually St. Peter’s basilica or some other famous scenery - not unlike the places people choose today when getting photographed. Very similar also to why I mentioned yesterday Goethe took artists with him through his Italian journey - it was the only way then to get some journey memorabilia.
Ingres never stopped drawing portraits and these I share today are not just those from his years in Rome; my favourites are many but perhaps the two I love the most are the one of Niccolò Paganini, who was his friend and with whom he played Beethoven string quartets; and that of the young Franz Liszt who thought Ingres’ playing was charming and had intended to play Mozart and Beethoven violin sonatas with him :) Ingres did learn to play the violin as a child and played passionately throughout his life; some say that he loved it even more than painting itself. That is why there is an expression violon d’Ingres meaning the second skill of a person. Other than these two I also love the portrait of his first wife Madeleine Chapelle whom he proposed to without ever meeting her :) On his friends’ recommendation Ingres started a correspondence with Madelaine which then soon turned to courtship; he then proposed and she accepted :) It was an unusually happy marriage that lasted until her death in 1840s. Before all this Ingres was in fact engaged to a woman he had seen and which was a painter and musician, but the engagement was broken after he decided never to return to Paris in 1806, just at the beginning of his career, when he was scorned for the first time at The Salon. This woman never married someone else - she said : When one has had the honor of being engaged to M. Ingres, one does not marry. ;)
Happy Birthday, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres !
