2014年4月24日星期四

Dance

The Dance are two related paintings made by Henri Matisse between 1909 and 1910. The first, preliminary version is Matisse's study for the second version. The composition or arrangement of dancing figures is reminiscent of Blake's watercolour "Oberon, Titania and Puck with fairies dancing" from 1786.

The Fortune Teller

The Fortune Teller is a painting by Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It exists in two versions, both by Caravaggio, the first from 1594 (now in the Musei Capitolini inRome), the second from 1595 (which is in the Louvre museum, Paris).

Madame de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour,created by artist François Boucher in 1756.Alte Pinakothek.
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour (29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764) was a member of the French court and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death. She was trained from childhood to be a mistress, and learned her trade well. She took charge of the king’s schedule and was an indispensable aide and advisor, despite her frail health and many political enemies. She secured titles of nobility for herself and her relatives, and built a network of clients and supporters. She paid careful attention not to alienate the Queen, Marie Leszczyńska. She was a major patron of architecture and such decorative arts as porcelain. She was a patron of the philosophes of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire. Hostile critics at the time said she was responsible for the Seven Years' War, and generally tarred her as a malevolent political influence. Historians are more favourable, emphasizing her successes as a patron of the arts and a champion of French pride.

Nymphs and Satyr

Nymphs and Satyr , created by artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1873.
Nymphs and Satyr was exhibited in Paris in 1873, a year before the Impressionists mounted their first exhibition. Purchased by the American art collector and speculator John Wolfe, it was displayed in his mansion for many years alongside other high-style French academic paintings. It was sold at auction in 1888, after which the painting was displayed in the bar of the Hoffman House Hotel, New York City until 1901, when it was bought and stored in a warehouse, the buyer hoping to keep its 'offensive' content from the public. Robert Sterling Clark discovered the piece in storage and acquired it in 1942.

2014年4月23日星期三

Portrait of Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov

Barbe Dmitrievna Mergassov Madame Rimsky-Korsakov (1864), oil on canvas, 117 × 90 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Winding the skein

In 1867 Leighton visited Lindos on the Greek island of Rhodes, and sketched local models on the roof terrace of a whitwashed house, as well as recording views of the wide bay and the hills beyond the town. He returned to these sources in about 1877 after travelling to Spain in search of a beautiful October sky to accompany this two-figure composition of girls winding a skein of worsted. The weather on that trip was disappointing — he artist noted that he had a right to expect "the clear, keen autumn weather, after the air has been well swept and purged by the equinoctial broom and pail" — so the more distant recollection of golden sunlight over the Bay of Lindos was presumably closer to what Leighton had in mind for this painting. The location is clearly identifiable by the so-called Tomb of Cleobolos which may be seen at the end of the promontory that juts out to the far right.
In 1895 Ernest Rhys remarked that subjects of this kind, the "idealization of a familiar occupationÑso that it is lifted out of a local or casual sphere, into the permanent sphere of classic art, is characteristic of the whole of Leighton's work." Yet it also had the distinct classical association with the Fates (Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos — who drew, measured and cut their thread). One of Leighton's regular models, a girl called Connie Gilchrist, posed for the figure of the child. She appears in two famous paintings of the previous year, Music lesson (London, Guildhall Art Gallery) and Study: At a reading desk (Liverpool, Sudley House). . . . The picture was engraved, and went to the Royal Academy in 1878.
 

They did not Expect Him

Repin’s masterpiece of the revolutionary genre, They Did Not Expect Him, was exhibited at the 12th Peredvizhnik exhibition in 1884–85 in St. Petersburg and Moscow and immediately found itself at the centre of a fierce debate. To contemporaries it seemed clear that the fate of the returning exile, presumed to be a political prisoner, was linked to the assassination of Tsar Aleksandr II on 1st March, 1881. It was not accidental that the artist placed a photograph of the Tsar in his coffin on the right-hand wall, and on the wall behind the exile a large engraving of The Golgotha by Charles de Steuben and the portraits the poets Nikolai Nekrasov and Taras Shevchenko. The picture’s title heightens the sense of surprise at the exile’s unexpected return but also adds to the ambiguous sense of what is left unresolved by the painting. The main character remains enigmatic. Contemporaries wondered about his identity, his age and what emotions were supposedly conveyed as he enters the family room? Repin repainted the main character’s face three times between 1883–88 seeking to get this crucial aspect as he desired it, but without success. In the final version the returning exile looks out from the painting like a man broken by fate, slightly lost and hesitant, and most importantly with a palpable sense of vulnerability. In depicting this man who ‘was not expected so soon’ Repin raised the issue of seeking meaning and sense in the existence of a single human life. The hero’s predicament poses the perennial moral question – ‘what is to be done?’ He is not necessarily intent on saving the world or redeeming mankind, but is instead searching for an answer to the ethical question: how should I best live in order to understand life? There is no definitive solution to this, and the power and value of Repin’s painting resides in this unresolved dilemma, which for well over a hundred years has consistently fascinated and enthralled successive generations.

The Turkish Bath

The Turkish Bath is an 1862 painting by the 82-year-old Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, showing nude women in a harem. Originally rectangular, it was altered to its present tondoform by the artist in 1863. Its erotic content did not provoke a scandal (as compared, say, withManet's publicly exhibited 1863 Déjeuner sur l'herbe) since for much its life it has remained in private collections. It is now in the Louvre.

2014年4月22日星期二

Whistler's Mother

Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, famous under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is a painting in oils on canvas created by the American-born painter James McNeill Whistler in 1871. The painting is 56.81 by 63.94 inches (144.3 cm × 162.4 cm), displayed in a frame of Whistler's own design in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, having been bought by the French state in 1891. It is now one of the most famous works by an American artist outside the United States. It has been variously described as an American icon and a Victorian Mona Lisa.
 

Morning in a Pine Forest

The Morning in a Pine Forest is a painting by Russian artists Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky. Savitsky has painted the bears,but the art collector Pavel Tretyakov effaced his signature, stating that "from idea until performance, everything discloses the painting manner and creative method peculiar just to Shishkin" so the painting is now credited solely to Shishkin.
The Morning in a Pine Forest turned very popular, being reproduced on various items, including the "Clubfooted Bear" chocolates by Krasny Oktyabr. According to one poll, the painting is the second most popular in Russia behind Bogatyrs by Viktor Vasnetsov. Shishkin's similar paintings are the Forest in Spring (1884) and The Sestroretsk Forest (1896).
It is believed that Shishkin painted the pine trees near Narva-Jõesuu in Estonia, where he often liked to rest in summers.
 

Bal du moulin de la Galette

Bal du moulin de la Galette is an 1876 painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It is housed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and is one of Impressionism's most celebrated masterpieces. The painting depicts a typical Sunday afternoon at Moulin de la Galette in the district of Montmartre in Paris. In the late 19th century, working class Parisians would dress up and spend time there dancing, drinking, and eating galettes into the evening.
Like other works of Renoir's early maturity, Bal du moulin de la Galette is a typically Impressionist snapshot of real life. It shows a richness of form, a fluidity of brush stroke, and a flickering light.
From 1879 to 1894 the painting was in the collection of the French painter Gustave Caillebotte; when he died it became the property of the French Republic as payment for death duties. From 1896 to 1929 the painting hung in the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. From 1929 it hung in the Musée du Louvre until it was transferred to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986.
 

Spring 1873

Spring is a paintings by French artist Pierre Auguste Cot, completed in 1873. Currently on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the painting was commissioned from the artist in 1880 by Catharine Lorillard Wolfe under the guidance of her cousin John Wolfe, one of Cot's principal patrons.

2014年4月21日星期一

The Storm

The Storm is a painting by French artist Pierre Auguste Cot, completed in 1880. Currently on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the painting was commissioned from the artist in 1880 by Catharine Lorillard Wolfe under the guidance of her cousin John Wolfe, one of Cot's principal patrons.

The Fifer

Manet painted The Fifer after a trip in Spain that he made in 1865, where he discovered the work of Diego Velázquez. The painting, in which Manet reflected the influence of Spanish painting, was rejected by the jury of the Paris Salon in 1866. The painting was exhibited in 1867. In 1884, it was present at the major retrospective exhibition of his work organized as a tribute, after Manet's death in 1883.
The rejection by the Salon jury prompted the writer Émile Zola to publish a series of articles in defense of Manet in the newspaper L'Événement.
Between 1873 and 1893, the painting was held by Jean-Baptiste Faure, French composer and baritone, friend of Manet. In 1893, it returned to the collection of Durand-Ruel, and was acquired the next year by Count Isaac de Camondo, remaining in his collection until 1911, then was delivered to the French state as a donation. The painting was intended for the Musée du Louvre, where it was not exhibited to the general public until 1914. In 1947, it was moving to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, a showroom located in the Jardin des Tuileries and belonging to the Louvre. It remained there until 1986, when it was brought to the Musée d'Orsay, like the rest of the collection of Impressionist paintings in the Louvre. It can currently be seen in room 14 of level 0 of the Musée d'Orsay.

The Broken Pitcher

The Broken Pitcher, c.1772-73 (oil on canvas), Greuze, Jean Baptiste (1725-1805) / Louvre, Paris, France / Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library
 

Phryne revealed before the Areopagus


Phryne revealed before the Areopagus,A depiction of Phryne, a famous hetaera of Ancient Greece, being disrobed before the Areopagus. Phryne was on trial for profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries, and is said to have been disrobed by Hypereides, who was defending her, when it appeared the verdict would be unfavourable. The sight of her nude body apparently so moved the judges that they acquitted her. Some authorities claim that this story is a later invention.

2014年4月18日星期五

The Young Ladies of Avignon

The Young Ladies of Avignon is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The work portrays five nude female prostitutes from a brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó in Barcelona. Each figure is depicted in a disconcerting confrontational manner and none are conventionally feminine. The women appear as slightly menacing and rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes. Two are shown with African mask-like faces and three more with faces in the Iberian style of Picasso's native Spain, giving them a savage aura. In this adaptation of Primitivism and abandonment of perspective in favor of a flat, two-dimensional picture plane, Picasso makes a radical departure from traditional European painting. The proto-cubist work is widely considered to be seminal in the early development of both cubism and modern art. Demoiselles was revolutionary and controversial, and led to wide anger and disagreement, even amongst his closest associates and friends.

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa painting, thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel, and is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506, although Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at The Louvre museum in Paris since 1797.

Sleeping Venus

Sleeping Venus painting, one of the last works by Giorgione, portrays a nude woman whose profile seems to follow that of the hills in the background. Giorgione put a great deal of effort into painting the background details and shadows. The choice of a nude woman marked a revolution in art, and is considered by some authorities one of the starting points of modern art. The painting was unfinished at the time of his death. The landscape and sky were later finished by Titian, who later painted the similar Venus of Urbino.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Portrait of an Unknown Woman is a painting by the Russian artist Ivan Kramskoi, executed in 1883. The identity of the model is unknown and depicts a woman of "quiet strength and forthright gaze".It is one of Russia's best-known art works, although a number of critics were indignant when the painting was first exhibited and condemned what they saw as a depiction of a haughty and immoral woman. Its popularity has grown with changes in public taste.

2014年4月1日星期二

Polish artist carol park paintings


Carol park (Karol Bak) was born in Poland in 1961.In the period from 1984 to 1984 in the central academy of fine arts (ASP) now studying oil painting, graduated with high honors.He is very famous painter and graphic artist in Poland.

2014年3月31日星期一

Stolen 63 painting exhibition

27 the Baltimore museum of art in 63 years ago stolen a French famous painter Pierre le nuba small oil paintings.
The theft of the Seine river in 1951 for le nuba creation in 1879, only 23 cm long and 14 cm wide.The Baltimore museum of art on the same day with the subject of the painting held a named "return" le nuba works exhibition, 30 is scheduled to open to the public.
Collectors "YiDi May 1925 in the French capital Paris bought the painting and lend the Baltimore museum of art, then give the museum is more than 800 works of art.