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About fairies, Part 1
As always, the first thing I do when I research a new topic is to turn to Wikipedia. Today is not different. I had the idea to talk about fairies. It is Novembre, while creepy season is officially over but let’s be real: the spooky vibes are still strong! So I thought that I’ll write about some harmless and fun supernatural topic before I turn to serious art stuff. Als always I found out that there is a lot (and I mean A LOT!) more to learn about fairies than I anticipated. I also found out that fairies were not always seen as some harmless and fun entities. In fact,…
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James Ensor, Oyster Eaters
Let’s talk about James Ensor’s Oyster Eater today. James Ensor is one of the most important Belgian painters of the late 19th and early 20th century. His paintings were considered scandalous during the 19th century. The Belgian art critic Octave Maus wrote about his work: “Ensor is the leader of a clan. Ensor is the limelight. Ensor sums up and concentrates certain principles which are considered to be anarchistic. In short, Ensor is a dangerous person who has great changes. … He is consequently marked for blows. It is at him that all the harquebuses are aimed. It is on his head that are dumped the most aromatic containers of the…
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The three Vedutisti: Canaletto, Canaletto, and Guardi – And what is a veduta anyway?
I am currently plagued by a condition called „Wanderlust“. It is summer. It is warm enough at my place but there is a growing desire to see new places, to escape the daily life, to relax and forget the mundane and endless cycle of work, household chores, and rising early. It is not possible at the moment so I enjoy a vicarious satisfaction by looking at paintings of places I would love to see. Mainly Venice. I don’t know why Venice in particular. Maybe because it’s beautiful? Because it resonates with me? I don’t know. (And to be completely honest: Venice in pictures and paintings is superior to being at that…
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Elisabetta Sirani, the forgotten painter
Most of you probably know Artemisia Gentileschi. Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the few female painters in the 16th century who was highly regarded and is still well-known today. One might think that she was completely unique by being a painter in a time where women were regarded as inferior to men (and let’s be honest: they still are). But there were others: One of them was Elisabetta Sirani. Elisabetta Sirani was born in 1638 in Bologna into a family of artists and craftspeople. Her father Giovanni Andrea Sirani was an art merchant, an art teacher, but also worked in Guido Renis workshop. So naturally, Elisabetta and her two younger…
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Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was born on the 14th May 1727 and was one of the most important British artists in the second half of the 18th century. He was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1769 but the relationship to the Royal Academy was not the best and he stopped sending his paintings to the Academy’s exhibitions in 1773. He was widely known for his portraits and indeed one of the most sought-after portrait painters of his time. He was always in competition with the then more famous Sir Joshua Reynolds whose paintings were a bit more conservative and less experimental than Gainsborough’s works. Gainsborough…
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Impression Soleil Levant – the Birth of Impressionism
Perhaps you have asked yourself one or two times how the impressionist movement came to be called „Impressionism“. In fact, painter Claude Monet was directly responsible for this name. And, in fact, it was meant as an insult for the raw, quick and seemingly unfinished style of the paintings shown in the „Painters, Sculptors, Engravers etc. Inc“-exhibition of 1874 You may probably know all of this but I talk about this nevertheless. Because – why not? Claude Monets painting „Impression, Sunrise“, shows the harbour of Le Havre, a french town in the Normandy where Monet grew up. Monet left the town in 1859 but would always return for a visit.…
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François-Auguste Biard, Magdalenefjorden, View from Gravneset, north of Svalbard
François-Auguste Biard is one of the lesser known painters of the french romanticism. So why did I chose this particular painting of all things? Well, last summer my son and I visited Paris. Of course we also paid a visit to the Louvre. My son is not particularly interested in art so he was a little bit bored. He liked the Roman and the Greek statues, adored the works of the ancient sculptors but was bored with the beautiful paintings. In his view the hype around the Mona Lisa is plain ridiculous and incredibly funny to watch – not that I would disagree with his sentiment. We walked around for…
