Picasso’s Blue Sympathies
Picasso’s Blue Period–or basically anything he did before Cubism–has always struck me as more powerful than anything he did later, … Continue Reading Picasso’s Blue Sympathies
The Impressionists Get to Work
Mothers, Ironers, Workers at a Cotton Office, Farmers, Floor Strippers, Writers, Waitresses, Stonebreakers, Gleaners, Apple Pickers, Sowers….
Manet the Mystic
Manet’s 1862 painting The Old Musician is a great human riddle. Just what everybody is doing here, and why they’re … Continue Reading Manet the Mystic
Caravaggio’s Dirty Feet
The affront that many of Caravaggio’s greatest paintings presented to their first audience must have been astonishing: casting a local … Continue Reading Caravaggio’s Dirty Feet
Images: Dürer’s Self-Portraits
From childhood through old age: Albrecht Dürer, “Self-Portrait” (1484) Albrecht Dürer, “Self-Portrait” (1493) Albrecht Dürer, “Self-Portrait” (1498) Albrecht Dürer, “Self-Portrait” … Continue Reading Images: Dürer’s Self-Portraits
A Gallery of Greeks & Romans
Here are a few dozen faces I always go back to, from the collection of Greek & Roman sculpture I … Continue Reading A Gallery of Greeks & Romans
Memento Mori
The German Origins of Michelangelo’s Pietà
from Thomas Cahill’s Heretics & Heroes: …. [Michelangelo’s] next work displays a grasp of human anatomy seldom seen in the … Continue Reading The German Origins of Michelangelo’s Pietà
Vermeer’s Window on the Left, Vermeer’s Late Afternoon Light
As I’ve written elsewhere: “Except for his earliest work, there were no grand subjects in Vermeer, and very little else … Continue Reading Vermeer’s Window on the Left, Vermeer’s Late Afternoon Light
The Mind as a Mountain & Creativity its Tree
A drawing from 2015 that I suddenly found again today:
The Mysteries of Mérode
For some reason the Mérode Altarpiece, painted in the late 1420s by Robert Campin, has become an obsession of mine. … Continue Reading The Mysteries of Mérode
The Melancholy of William Blake
No matter how poor he got, and no matter what of his belongings he had to sell to get by, … Continue Reading The Melancholy of William Blake
The Brutal Paintings that Predicted the 20th Century
The Austrian artist Egon Schiele’s brutal self-portraits, many dating from before World War One, seem to presage all the carnage … Continue Reading The Brutal Paintings that Predicted the 20th Century
The Earliest Photographs of Paris
Among the earliest photos taken of Paris were those of Eugène Atget, beginning in the late 1800s. Here is only … Continue Reading The Earliest Photographs of Paris
Claude Lorrain’s Nostalgia for What Never Was
I first came across Claude Lorrain’s fantasies of classical Greece and Rome on the cover of an old paperback of … Continue Reading Claude Lorrain’s Nostalgia for What Never Was
The Painting that Lit a Million Conspiracy Theories
It’s too bad Nicholas Poussin’s Shepherds of Arcady/Et in Arcadia (Even in Arcadia, there am I) can’t get much attention … Continue Reading The Painting that Lit a Million Conspiracy Theories
Aldous Huxley Saves the Day
from Thomas Cahill’s Heretics and Heroes: In a collection of travel essays published in 1925, Aldous Huxley had called Piero … Continue Reading Aldous Huxley Saves the Day
Images: The Saint & the Lion
One of the great jazz standards of Medieval & Renaissance art, here’s only a selection of all the depictions of … Continue Reading Images: The Saint & the Lion
One of the Most Haunting Paintings
At least for me, John Singer Sargent’s “The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit” is one of the more haunting paintings. … Continue Reading One of the Most Haunting Paintings
Images: The Painting Salvador Dali Couldn’t Get Away From
The way I heard it, Salvador Dali saw a reproduction of Millet’s Angelus in his classroom during childhood, and it … Continue Reading Images: The Painting Salvador Dali Couldn’t Get Away From
Images: Picasso Mostly in Pencil
Taken from John Richardson’s biographies of Picasso. Click on each to enlarge:
Images: Manet’s Muse, Victorine Meurent
The French painter and model Victorine Meurent (1844-1927) appears in some of the most famous of Édouard Manet’s paintings. Click … Continue Reading Images: Manet’s Muse, Victorine Meurent
Images: Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits
The number of Rembrandt’s self-portraits alone far outnumber the entire output of many artists. Here is only a fraction of … Continue Reading Images: Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits
Images: Watch Picasso’s “Guernica” Emerge
Scroll through this selection of preliminary studies & photos of the canvas as it was worked on & completed. Pretty … Continue Reading Images: Watch Picasso’s “Guernica” Emerge
Images: The Act of Writing
