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Dance of the Seven Veils
Dance of the Seven Veils by the French painter Gaston Bussière (1862-1929). The painting is a simple copy of his Salomé (1914) he only added some veils and changed the back a little.
Detecting disease in 17th century portraits
Several years ago I heard a conference paper on the signs of disease and illness in famous C17th portraits. Art historians in the audience knew that the painters generally attempted to show their sitters in the best light possible, presumably because the artists hoped to have more royal or noble commissions in the future. Show More Summary
Downton Abbey, the Art Exhibition?
The appeal of the British drama/high-class soap opera Downton Abbey for American audiences has long been a subject of great speculation. Simon Schama called the show “cultural necrophilia” for bringing to life a time he saw as long dead and rightfully so for all its elitism and iron-clad class consciousness from the bottom up. Show More Summary
Historical Genre Painting
Proclamation of an Edikt in Venice (1891) by the French artist Jacques Clement Wagrez (1846-1908). Wagrez specialized in historical genre paintings mostly settled in the Italian renaissance. They are well done, but mostly without any further intention that to be a nice piece of decoration.
Has the Greatest Art Theft Ever Finally Been Solved?
On the morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves dressed as Boston police walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and 81 minutes later walked out with an estimated $500 million USD worth of fine art, including Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galileeand Vermeer’s The Concert (shown above; detail). Show More Summary
Australia's amazing aerial medical service: 1928
The founder of one of Australia’s most beloved organisations was the Reverend John Flynn, a minister of the Presbyterian Church. In 1912, he established the Australian Inland Mission to minister to the spiritual, social and medical needs of people in the Outback. Show More Summary
Color Field Painting
Helen Frankenthaler not only pioneered color field painting but also enjoyed critical acclaim during her lifetime. That's phenomal for any painter, let alone a woman at a time when female artists were still rare. Clement Greenberg (1909-1994),...Show More Summary
Is Charles Krafft’s Nazi-Inspired Art Ironic or Not?
Artist Charles Krafft’s enjoyed a dark, edgy, “don’t you see the irony” reputation for more than 20 years now. Krafft’s Nazi-inspired ceramics (such as his portrait bust of Adolf Hitler’s head turned into a teapot titled Hitler Idaho; shown above) appear in exhibitions and museums across America. Show More Summary
Famous Paintings: El Jaleo
Boston's love affair with John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) stems in part from one of Sargent's most famous paintings, El Jaleo, housed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston. Sargent was born in Florence, Italy, and received little traditional schooling. Show More Summary
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.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Van Gogh Museum
- Andy Warhol
- National Gallery
- Mona Lisa
- Catholic Church
- Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
- Gustav Klimt
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Henri Matisse
- Johannes Vermeer
- Pablo Picasso
- Court of Milan
- Salvador Dalí
- Musée d'Orsay
- Norman Rockwell
- Caravaggio
- Jacques-Louis David
- Gertrude Stein
- Dutch Golden Age
