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Guess the Artist
Your clues this week are:
- The artist was not born in the US, but became a citizen in 1920.
- The Art Students League in New York, with instructors William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, and Heatherly's Art School in London were where the artist was trained.
- The photographer Edward Weston (1886-1958) was a great friend of the artist's. They were both fascinated by capturing the art-nature connection, and wound up living near one another in the flora and fauna surrounding Carmel, California.
And
- Some well-intentioned -- but criminally stupid -- friends had the artist committed to a mental institution after noticing the artist's studio was messy. (As if tidy artists' studios are the norm!) The friends then apparently forgot what they had done, because the artist languished there, forgotten, until death provided an escape. This incident may or may not have given rise to the expression, "With friends like that, who needs enemies?"
Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!
Last Week's Answer:
Who knew how many of you are fans of Gaetano Previati (Italian, 1852 -1920)? I obviously did not, but quickly learned. Paola pounced on the correct answer in record time, well before Ms. Six-Time-Zones-Earlier-than-Rome could even drag herself out of bed. Very well done, Paola. After my brain finally woke up, it registered great admiration for your art-historic knowledge base!Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 03:46:51. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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René Magritte
Thanks to the recent exhibition René Magritte: The Pleasure Principle, and the unforgivable fact that there was no Magritte biography written (!), I spent a few weeks getting cozy with the gentleman in the bowler hat. (Well, as cozy as one can get buried in a stack of books while keeping 20+ tabs of interviews and articles open in one's browser.) Do I understand René Magritte now? Probably as well as I ever will. He is a classic hard "read," and whenever he tried to explain ... pretty much anything ... it only served to muddy my water. He probably would have been one of those visual artists that write incomprehensible artists' statements. Well, you could read a few quotes by René Magritte and see what you think. Oh, by the way -- if anything about him makes perfect sense to you, please feel free to leave your thoughts in comment form. I'll be grateful for your input.
Image Credit:
René Magritte (Belgian, 1898-1967)
Man with a Newspaper, 1928
Oil on canvas
115.6 x 81.3 cm (45 1/2 x 32 in.)
Tate Collection
© Charly Herscovici, Brussels - 2011© VBK Vienna, 2011René Magritte originally appeared on About.com Art History on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 22:49:14. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
Did you miss the Show of Shows at London's National Gallery? Oh, it's not over yet -- not until this Sunday -- but we hear that all hope of getting a ticket between now and then is a lost cause. (Unless you know a scalper and are prepared to part with mega-bucks, of course.) Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan has been such a roaring success that "they" are calling it the exhibition of the year, the decade, and even the century. The last declaration seems a bit premature to me, but one thing is certain: we are not likely to see this many Leonardo paintings under one roof ever again.
Now, assuming that you and I are two of the billions of people who couldn't attend in person, we do have quite a few of the works here in an image gallery ... including the "new" painting, Salvator Mundi, both versions of Virgin of the Rocks, and a boatload of studies for the paintings Leonardo made while in Milan. And even more good news: starting just over two weeks from now (on February 16), Leonardo Live -- a movie of the exhibition -- will be broadcast to theaters around the world. Keep your eyes peeled for your own virtual private tour, filmed the evening before the show opened.
Image Credit:
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519)
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist ('The Burlington House Cartoon'), ca. 1499-1500
Charcoal (and wash?) heightened with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas
141.5 x 104.6 cm (55 11/16 x 41 3/16 in.)
Purchased with a special grant and contributions from The Art Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organized by The Art Fund, 1962
NG6337
© The National Gallery, London
Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan originally appeared on About.com Art History on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 20:39:08. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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Guess the Artist
Your clues this week are:
- The artist was Italian, and the second child of a master baker from Ferrara. (Hey, quit giggling. I said "baker.")
- Best known for a vast output of religious paintings, the artist executed three versions of the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross). The Vatican Museums own one of them.
- The artist died on the Italian Riviera southeast of Genoa, about 100 miles (as the crow flies) NNW from the island of Giglio -- scene of the recent Costa Concordia shipwreck.
And
- In addition to being at the forefront of two Modernist movements in Italy, the artist also illustrated two books: The Betrothed (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni, and a private, Italian edition of Edgar Allen Poe's Tales. Poe had a major influence on this artist, who read Tales over and over again in its original English.
Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!
Last Week's Answer:
I asked more than one question, and Super Reader Val answered them all. First, the artist was Cincinnati native Elizabeth Nourse (American, 1859-1938) whose 1888 canvas La Mère (Mother and Child) was last week's "Guess the Artist" image. Second, her English immigrant, widower, designer in-law was Benn Pitman (1822-1910), who took Elizabeth's twin sister Adelaide (1859-1893) as his second wife in 1881. Benn was a minor celebrity in his own right for acting in the capacity of stenographer throughout the 1865 trials of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. And, finally, Benn knew how to be a stenographer due to having helped his brother, Isaac, refine Pitman shorthand. (If you ever took shorthand, whether Pitman or Gregg, now you know who to either praise or blame.) Val, you put Nancy Drew to shame!Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 02:16:06. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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Guess the Artist
Your clues this week are:
- The artist was American, but moved to Europe at age 27 and, with the exception of one brief return trip to the US, lived as an expatriate for 51 years.
- The artist attended the Académie Julian in Paris for only three months because Gustave Boulanger (French, 1824-1888), a professor there, advised that nothing remained to be taught or learned in the artist's training.
- The artist was born a twin. While the twin married and had children, the artist (a devout Roman Catholic) remained single and celibate, and lived with another sibling who did the same.
And
- The artist had an in-law who was (1) a leader and teacher in the Cincinnati Art-Carved Furniture Movement, and (2) originally immigrated to the US from England not to create furniture, but to promote a phonographic writing system developed by his brother. Can you identify the furniture designer and his brother?
Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!
Last Week's Answer:
Lin sent the short and sweet email, "Seurat" for the win last week. Yes, it was our guy Georges' 1881 drawing The Harvester ... although it did resemble both van Gogh and Millet (so don't feel chagrined if you sent either of those gents' names; many readers did). Congratulations, Lin!Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 03:56:47. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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Guess the Artist
Your clues this week are:
- Though this is a drawing and the artist is best known for painting, the first formal art instruction this French artist received was in sculpture.
- More than anyone had before, the artist studied color theory and optical effects by reading chemical and mathematical treatises.
- A major influence on the artist was the 1827 book Essay on the Unmistakable Signs of Art by the author -- and I am not making this up -- Humbert de Superville.
And
- The medium (Conté crayon) and support (Michallet paper) seen above are important clues. Michallet paper has two sides: smooth and ribbed, with a heavy "tooth." The
artist always used the toothy side.
Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!
Last Week's Answer:
Tui was the first person to email the correct answer: Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789). By the way, last week's picture was actually a trompe l'oeil painting. Kudos, Tui!Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 16th, 2012 at 04:59:49. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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Guess the Artist
Your clues this week are:
- The artist was a French Huguenot, born and raised in Switzerland following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
- The artist was famous for portraiture ... a long time ago. Today the artist's name is fairly obscure.
- An inveterate traveler, the artist spent four years in Constantinople and wore Turkish clothing (including a fez) forever afterwards.
And
- Among the artist's many sitters were: Pope Clement XII; Bonnie Prince Charlie; the Empress Maria Theresa; Madame de Pompadour; Augusta, Princess of Wales; the Earls of Sandwich
and Bessborough; the French royal family; and the House of Orange.
Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!
Last Week's Answer:
Last week's winning answer came courtesy of Jeanne, who knew that the artist's name was Jan Gossaert (Flemish, ca. 1472-1532), also known as Mabuse. His painting The Three Children of Christian II of Denmark (1526) depicts exactly that. The youngest child was Christina of Denmark (1521-1590), who actually had two marriages: first, by proxy, to Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (1495-1535), who died before the couple even met, and second to Francis I, Duke of Lorraine (1517-1545). Well done, Jeanne!Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 05:06:48. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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Guess the Artist
Your first clues for 2012 are:
- The artist was born in France, but only according to modern boundaries.
- A "Northerner," this artist was the first non-Italian to travel to Rome and sketch its antiquities.
- The artist kept the Prince-Bishop of Utrecht, Philip of Burgundy, well supplied with erotic nudes. (Well, erotic in their day. Now? Not so much.)
And
- The three sitters in this portrait are royals whose father was known by the sobriquet "The Tyrant" due to murderous actions in Sweden. Of the three, only the two girls made it adulthood, and the youngest girl -- the baby here -- had her portrait painted again about 15 years later, when Henry VIII had his scouts poking around Europe for a fourth wife. Do you know who she was and who she went on to marry instead, after rejecting England's offer? (There's another clue for you: she was smart enough to like keeping her head attached to her body.)
Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!
Last Week's Answer:
Nancy was first last week with the artist's name: Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). His painting Working In Marble or The Artist Sculpting Tanagra (1890) supplied the name I sought in its title: Jean-Léon Gérôme (a.k.a. "The Artist"). Our clever friend Val sent that answer in at the speed of light, and an astounding number of you sent in the titles of every artwork shown in this peek at Gérôme's studio. Congrats to Nancy and Val, and kudos all around!Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 04:55:50. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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I Guess They ARE Making New Leonardos
I kid, I kid! Once upon a time Yours Truly jokingly said, "They're not making new Leonardos these days," never guessing that "they" might, however, discover some. Here I will point you towards "Salvator Mundi - The Newly Attributed Leonardo da Vinci Painting," wherein we both learn how to spot a priceless piece by the Florentine Master. Actually, the spotting sounds like the easy part. It appears to be the cleaning and authenticating that takes years and beaucoup bucks.
Image Credit:
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519)
Christ as Salvator Mundi, ca. 1499 onwards
Oil on walnut
65.5 x 45.1 cm (25 3/4 x 17 3/4 in.)
Private collection
© 2011 Salvator Mundi, LLC.
Photo Tim Nighswander/Imaging4Art
I Guess They ARE Making New Leonardos originally appeared on About.com Art History on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 22:51:10. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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On Miss Frankenthaler's Passing
Helen Frankenthaler died on December 27, 2011. A spokesperson said her passing came "after a lengthy illness," so it likely wasn't peaceful, or tranquil, or any of those words of good intent we use in place of "quick." Considering how Miss Frankenthaler moved so composedly throughout the rest of her life, her death was the last of a list of contradictions.
You see, when you come to "know" an artist -- not only as an artist but as a human being with a life story -- sometimes things turn up that ... well, they don't exactly dovetail with one's idea of who this artist is or was. Take Helen Frankenthaler. Over the past few days, much has been made of her "acceptance" by the naughty boys club known as the Abstract Expressionists. To me, "acceptance" was a no-brainer. Yes, of course, she was a gifted painter, but more than that she was (1) beautiful, (2) independently wealthy, (3) her boyfriend was an art critic with the power to make or break careers and, most importantly, (4) with the confidence that comes from a privileged background, she probably assumed she would be accepted. Nothing succeeds in gaining approval like not trying to curry it.
And then there is Feminism, another contradiction. ...On Miss Frankenthaler's Passing originally appeared on About.com Art History on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 20:20:38. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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