Images: Edward Hopper
I had heard of Edward Hopper before, but it wasn’t until a summer or two after high school, when I … Continue Reading Images: Edward Hopper
Images: Gustave Courbet
Take a look through some of the best paintings of Gustave Courbet (1819-1877). Is the general claim true, that in … Continue Reading Images: Gustave Courbet
Images: Caspar David Friedrich
Three weeks ago I’d barely heard of the painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). Awhile ago I had noted down that … Continue Reading Images: Caspar David Friedrich
Images: Jean-François Millet
Unfinished Michelangelo (poem)
Unfinished Michelangelo The impossible bodies of apostles, messiahs and slaves, statues that couldn’t have stood had he finished them, faces … Continue Reading Unfinished Michelangelo (poem)
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 Past is Not Dead: There is Only Continuity
from Peter Ackroyd, at the end of his first volume of the history of England: Other forms of continuity are … Continue Reading The Past is Not Dead: There is Only Continuity
History is An Accident
from Peter Ackroyd, at the end of his first volume on the history of England: When we look over the … Continue Reading History is An Accident
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
Picasso & Sex
from John Richardson’s biography of Picasso: When questioned much later about his earliest sexual experience, Picasso claimed that his sex … Continue Reading Picasso & Sex
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
Heat & Light at Lascaux
The environment in which some of humanity’s first–and still best–works of art, in the cave of Lascaux nearly thirty … Continue Reading Heat & Light at Lascaux
Memento Mori
The Mind as a Mountain & Creativity its Tree
A drawing from 2015 that I suddenly found again today:
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
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
Week of Van Gogh: Town & City
Click on each picture to enlarge, or watch the video:
Week of Van Gogh: Still Life
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Week of Van Gogh: Landscapes
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Week of Van Gogh: Portraits
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Week of Van Gogh: Self-Portraits
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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: 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: The Earliest Stone Buddhas
Among the earliest sculptures of the Buddha, from Heinrich Zimmer’s Art of Indian Asia. Click on each to enlarge:
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
Marc Chagall Struck by Lightning
The artist Marc Chagall, meeting his wife Bella Rosenfeld in 1909; they were together for the next 35 years: … Continue Reading Marc Chagall Struck by Lightning
The Hooded Lady of Brassempouy
from Randall White’s Prehistoric Art: The best known of the statuettes from Brassempouy is the 25,000 year-old “dame à la … Continue Reading The Hooded Lady of Brassempouy
We Were All Animals Once: The Beginning of Anthropomorphic Thinking
from Steven Mithen’s The Prehistory of the Mind: This propensity to think of the natural world in social terms is … Continue Reading We Were All Animals Once: The Beginning of Anthropomorphic Thinking
Humanity’s Earliest Rituals
Three passages on prehistoric religion from the book Becoming Human: One of the pervasive themes of [this book] is … Continue Reading Humanity’s Earliest Rituals
The Archaeology & Mythology of Caves
The archaeologist Jean Clottes writes that, besides the more famous paintings in the ice-age caves of France and Spain, it … Continue Reading The Archaeology & Mythology of Caves
Neanderthal Compassion, Neanderthal Burials
from the book Becoming Human: Innovation in Prehistoric Material and Spiritual Culture: Caring for severely disabled members of the community … Continue Reading Neanderthal Compassion, Neanderthal Burials
The Invention of Harmony
from two essays on the origins of the aesthetic impulse in Becoming Human: Innovation in Prehistoric Material and Spiritual Culture: … Continue Reading The Invention of Harmony
Michelangelo & Leonardo da Vinci
From Walter Isaacson’s recent biography of da Vinci, here is about as concise and colorful a summary of how true … Continue Reading Michelangelo & Leonardo da Vinci
Unfinished Michelangelo (poem)
Unfinished Michelangelo The impossible bodies of apostles, messiahs and slaves, statues that couldn’t have stood had he finished them, faces … Continue Reading Unfinished Michelangelo (poem)
Female Figurines and a Shipwreck: Two Poems from “Bone Antler Stone”
Here are two of my favorite poems from Bone Antler Stone: one on the famous ice age “Venus” figurines from 20-30,000 … Continue Reading Female Figurines and a Shipwreck: Two Poems from “Bone Antler Stone”
Images: The Act of Writing
Albrecht Dürer
Entries in the Anthology series organize my favorite anecdotes about artists, writers, and historical events, and are always being updated. … Continue Reading Albrecht Dürer
Edward Hopper
Entries in the Anthology series organize my favorite anecdotes about artists, writers, and historical events, and are always being updated. … Continue Reading Edward Hopper
