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American taste and money; English art treasures
The British Forbes family originally made its money from trading between North America and China in the C19th. The first Forbes to migrate, Bertie Forbes (1880-1954), left Scotland for the USA in 1904. He founded Forbes magazine, a business and finance magazine, in 1916 and became an American citizen the very next year. Show More Summary
A National Saint
Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake (1843) by the German Romantic painter Hermann Anton Stilke (1803-1860). Stilke was a member of the very religious Nazarene movement and depicted here Joan of Arc in the style of a religious saint painting. To emphasize this intention the painting was part of a bigger Joan of Arc Triptych.
My Dream Home III: I have fallen in love
In writing My Dream Home I: green, airy, full of treasures three years ago, I acknowledged that the concept of a personal dream home had flitted in and out of my consciousness, but it never had any fixed form. That particular blog post helped to clarify and solidify the dream. Show More Summary
Can You Imagine a George Lucas Museum?
“ I’m a storyteller at heart,” Star Wars mastermind George Lucas says at the beginning of his proposal for a new museum to be built on the grounds of San Francisco’s Presidio, “and I understand the power of a visual image to tell a story. Show More Summary
Evil Jezebel
Evil queen Jezebel decorating a pulpcover from about 1963.
Dante: Michelangelo’s Bedtime Reading
Nowadays it’s hard to understand how that long poem, how any poem, could have meant so much to people. Educated men and women knew many verses of the Divine Comedy by heart. Even private letters are filled with quotes and … Continue reading ?
Monet's garden in Giverny - in real life and in art
The Melbourne Winter Masterpiece exhibition called Monet’s Garden: The Musee Marmottan Monet Paris will open for business in May 2013. In light of this upcoming blockbuster, which will attract viewers from across the state and the nation, there are three questions I would like to ask1. Show More Summary
Japanese Woodblock Prints: Great Wave
Of all Japanese woodblock prints, none is more identified with Japanese art than the iconic Great Wave, created by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). During the Edo period or Tokugawa era of 1603 to 1868, Japanese society was marked by: widespread...Show More Summary
Vegan Sugar Cookies
These soft sugar cookies have become a staple in our house. Because they’re made with a mixture of oil and margarine, they have a melt-in-your-mouth quality that makes them a wonderful treat. Also, I find that they stay moist much … Continue reading ?
Will Tech Moguls Save the Art World?
This week’s unveiling of Leo Villareal’s The Bay Lights (shown above), the world’s largest LED sculpture running along 1.8 miles of San Francisco’s Bay Bridge, shone a light on more than just the waters between San Fran and Oakland.Show More Summary
A Dark Hour
The Execution of Torrijos and his companions at Málaga Beach (1888) by the Spanish painter Antonio Gisbert Pérez (1835-1902). Gisbert Pérez was a convinced liberal and depicted here the tragical end of a liberal revolution in 1831. Another forfeited chance to modernize his country.
Why did Breaker Morant and Daisy Bates marry????
Margaret Dwyer (1859–1951) was born into an Irish family. Her mother died when Margaret was still a baby, so she was raised by relatives and given a decent education. But it did not seem to be a happy or stable childhood.Apparently something...Show More Summary
How the Impressionists Dressed for Success
“T he latest fashion... is absolutely necessary for a painting, ” artist Édouard Manetannounced in 1881. “ It’s what matters most. ” When most people think of Impressionism, they may think of flowers, haystacks, water lilies, dancers, and even nude bathers, but rarely of haute couture caught on canvas. Show More Summary
Rethinking historical "truths" eg Richard III
During 1st or 2nd year as an undergrad history student at Melbourne University, a lecturer put a historical novel in the reading list. I had read many historical novels before and since, but it was not clear at the time why reading this...Show More Summary
Is the American Editorial Cartoon Making a Comeback?
A little over a year ago, I wrote about The Herb Block Foundation’s gloom and doom report titled The Golden Age for Editorial Cartoonists at the Nation’s Newspapers is Over. F ounded by legendary editorial cartoonist, Herbert Block,Show More Summary
The War Is Over
Order of release 1746 (1853) by the English painterJohn Everett Millais (1829–1896). Millais depicts here the wife of a rebel Scottish soldier arriving with an order of release for her husband who has been imprisoned after the Jacobite rising of 1745. Finally the war is over. It's kind of typical for Millais that heroism is much more with the civilians, the non-combatants.
Famous Paintings: Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is both the most influential and mocked of all famous paintings in Western art history, even more than 500 years after her creation by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). So how could Mona Lisa be generating headlines again? Turns...Show More Summary
How the Restored Raphael Frescoes Hang over Pope Benedict XVI’s Departure
When the College of Cardinalsconvenes next month in the Sistine Chapel to elect the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, Michelangelo’s majestic ceilingwill hang over them while his Last Judgment passes silent judgment over their deliberations. Show More Summary
Daughters of Lot
The daughters of Lot (1940) by the Italian Futurist painter Carlo Carrà (1881-1966).
Shakespeare and Company Bookshop, Paris: 1919-41
Sylvia Beach (1887–1962) was born in the USA. Then in 1901, the family moved to France when her father became a minister of the American Church in Paris and a director in an American educational institute. Young Sylvie stayed in Paris until 1905, then lived for some time in the USA, then some years in Spain. Show More Summary
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Van Gogh Museum
- Andy Warhol
- National Gallery
- Mona Lisa
- Catholic Church
- Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
- Gustav Klimt
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Johannes Vermeer
- Pablo Picasso
- Court of Milan
- Salvador Dalí
- Musée d'Orsay
- Norman Rockwell
- Caravaggio
- Jacques-Louis David
- Gertrude Stein
- Dutch Golden Age
- Leonardo
