Art display – Page 46 – my daily art display

The Lute Player by Orazio Gentileschi

My Daily Art Display offering today is The Lute Player and is one of the most famous works by the Italian artist, Orazio Gentileschi.

Gentileschi was born in Pisa in 1563. At the age of thirteen he moved to Rome. The first word we have of him is when, along with a large number of artistic collaborators, he decorated the Vatican Library in 1588. His collaboration on works of art continued but remained unheralded. It was around this time in Rome that the young Caravaggio came to the forefront of the Art scene with his revolutionary new style of painting. It was from around the early 1600’s that we find that Gentileschi is influenced by him and became one of the few Caravaggisti who was also one of his inner circle of friends. After Caravaggio fled from Rome, Gentileschi’s style changed somewhat and his pictures became lighter in colour and more precise in subject detail. In 1621 he moved Genoa where he received commissions from Giovanni Battista Sauli, a Genoese nobleman. He stayed for two years and thereafter went to Paris where he carried out commissions for Marie de Médici and other royal and noble patrons. At the time he was regarded as one of the leading Italian painters residing in France. In 1623 he travelled to England and became court painter to Charles I. He died in London in 1639.

It was in 1626, whilst in London that he painted The Lute Player. As a Caravaggisti, he would have been aware of Caravaggio’s own painting of The Lute Player (c.1596). In Gentileschi’s painting we see a graceful young woman with her back to us. Dressed in a white blouse and a flowery yellow dress with her hair in braids, she sits with her face turned towards us. She is sitting at a table with the pear-shaped body of the lute almost touching her ear as she listens intently to the resonance of a note. She appears totally immersed in her work. At this time she maybe in the process of tuning the instrument before a musical performance. On the table, covered by a velvet cloth, we can see a songbook and other instruments including a shawm and a violin. The way in which Gentileschi paints the textures of her dress and the cloths covering the table and her stool is masterful and it is said that Dutch painters famous for their reproduction of fabrics in their works improved by scrutinising the works of Gentileschi.

American Gothic by Grant Wood

My Daily Art Display offering today is the oil on beaverboard painting by American artist Grant Wood entitled American Gothic which hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. This is said to be one of the most famous paintings in the history of American art.

Grant Wood was born in small town America, in Anamosa, Iowa in 1892. During his early artistic life his works of art showed no one distinguishable style but he enjoyed painting the “niceties” of American Midwestern life with all its small villages and their white-painted churches. That all changed in 1927 after he spent some time in Munich on a commission supervising the putting together of stained glass windows for the Cedar Rapids Veterans Memorial Building. Whilst in Munich he visited the large art gallery, Alte Pinakothek and was introduced to the Early Netherlandish works of art and witnessed first hand the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement in German paintings which reflected the resignation and cynicism of the post-war period. In all he made four trips to Europe and after each journey he returned home with a much greater appreciation of the Midwest lifestyle, culture and its traditions and this love of Midwest America was transformed into his paintings.

On his return home his painting style changed and his paintings took on a more painstaking and sharply detailed style. As is the case in today’s painting Wood liked to paint ordinary every day people and their commonplace lifestyle in the Midwest of America. His style of painting was often termed Regionalism and exuded a sense of patriotism and nostalgia and in some ways was an artistic record of the history of small town America. He hoped that this style of his art and the subjects he displayed would, in some way, act as a boost to the morale of people who were suffering badly during the Great Depression, reminding them that they should retain their self belief and steadfast American pioneer spirit. American Regionalism opposed the European abstract art and the art which was very popular at the time on the East Coast of America and California and preferred depictions of homely rural America and its people

In American Gothic we see a farmer and his spinster daughter standing in front of their late nineteenth century Gothic Revival styled house with its distinctive upper window. The actual building in Eldon, Iowa, is still standing and is a popular tourist attraction. The figures were modelled by the artist’s dentist, Doctor Byron McKeeby and Wood’s sister, Nan. They are both dressed in clothes dating from the 1890’s. The man, because of the way he is dressed, and the fact he is holding a three-pronged pitchfork , one believes him to be a farmer but he also has the studious look of a banker’s clerk. Maybe the pitchfork is there to signify man’s traditional role as hard working but it also gives him a slight air of hostility and someone who has a bad temper. There is something puritanical in his look. In contrast, the woman exhibiting a side-long glance seems more prim and dowdy with her colonial-print apron with its white collar. She conveys an air of domesticity. The precise realism of the rigid frontal arrangement of the man and woman was probably inspired by the Northern Renaissance Art Wood saw when he was in Europe. There is a definite similarity with van Eyck’s double portrait, The Arnolfini Portrait, (see Nov 27th) and also the way mystery surrounds the symbolic meaning and interpretation of both works.

However with regards symbolism and interpretation maybe we should leave the last word to the artist for when asked about the satirical nature of his painting and the two characters he merely replied that “they were the kind of people I fancied should live in that house”.

Wood entered the painting in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago and although it was not liked by all the judges, it achieved a bronze medal and the Institute bought the work of art. Copies of the painting were published nationwide in many newspapers and all was well until the local newspaper in Cedar Rapids, Iowa published it. The locals were up in arms at the depiction of the couple as “pinched, grim-faced Bible-thumpers”. Woods’ sister was embarrassed and horrified as being portrayed as the wife of somebody old enough to be her father and was quick to state that the couple were indeed father and daughter.

It is a strange painting but one, like the Arnolfini Portrait, which may hold symbolic messages and is open to many interpretations despite the artist himself denying any hidden meaning to his famous work of art.

The Kiss by Francesco Hayez

“……….A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes unnecessary……”

Ingrid Bergman Swedish movie actress (1915 – 1982)

With the possible exception of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, the most famous painting featuring a kiss is Il Bacio by Francesco Hayez, as it is entitled in the Pinacoteca Brera in Milan, but to most of us, is known simply as The Kiss. This masterpiece, painted by the Italian artist in 1859, is his most famous work and a prime example of Italian Romanticism.

Francesco Hayez was born in Venice in 1791. He was the youngest of five sons and was brought up by his maternal aunt who was married to Giovanni Binascoa a prosperous ship-owner and an avid art collector. Living in this household the young Francesco showed a love for drawing and so his uncle arranged an apprenticeship for him with an art restorer. At the age of eighteen, after studying under the Venetian artist Francisco Magiotto and the Italian artist Teodoro Matteini, he won a competition, the prize for which was a one year placement at the Academia di San Lucia in Rome. He lived in Rome until 1814 and then moved to Naples. In the mid 1830’s he moved once again, this time to Milan where in 1850 he was appointed director of the Academy of Brera. For many years he taught at the Brera and he exercised great influence on his pupils. The Academy of Brera has a large collection of his paintings including My Daily Art Display’s featured painting, The Kiss. Francesco Hayez died in Milan in 1882 aged 91.

Although the two characters in the painting are dressed in 14^th century costumes the painting was intended to celebrate the Risorgimento (resurgence), which was the nineteenth century movement that brought together all the separate Italian states and by so doing, bring about the unification of Italy. The red and green of the man’s clothes along with the white of the cuffs of the woman’s dress are the three colours of the Italian tricoloured flag (il Tricolore). The man supporting the woman passionately kisses her. It is not known who the characters are as the artist wanted the main focus of attention to be on the kiss itself rather than who were doing the kissing.

All in all it is probably the most sensual and spell-binding kiss ever to grace a canvas.

The Island of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin

The Island of the Dead by Arnold Bocklin (1880-1886)

My Daily Art Display today is The Island of the Dead, a painting by the Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin. He painted five versions of this work between 1880 and 1886 but curiously never gave any a title. It was his Berlin art dealer Fritz Gurlitt who invented the name for the painting. For me, today’s offering exudes a sinister air of menace. For some reason, it reminds me of death and it permeates a feeling of foreboding. It is believed that the English Cemetery in Florence, where his baby daughter was buried, and which was close to Böcklin’s studio was part of the inspiration for this painting.

The earliest version of this picture was commissioned by Marie Berna whose husband had recently died. The predominate feature of the painting is the high-cliffed rocky island, viewed at night across an expanse of water. The centre of this island is dominated by cypress trees which were customarily associated with graveyards. Dark storm-like clouds gather in the background. Approaching, and almost at the island, is a small row boat carrying a white figure who is standing ready to alight from the craft.

Should we look for an interpretation of this picture? Should we seek some symbolism for various facets of the painting? According to the artist himself there is no need, as this, as he termed it, was simply “a dream picture”. Böcklin liked people to find their own meanings in his paintings. A number of themes used in his paintings stemmed from classical literature and many believe the upright figure dressed in white in today’s painting resembled Charon the boatman who ferried the souls of the dead across the river Styx to Hades.

Arnold Böcklin was born in 1827 in Basel. He studied in Dusseldorf. At the start of his artistic career he concentrated on landscapes and travelled extensively through Europe where he studied Renaissance art and discovered the wonders of Mediterranean landscapes. He returned to his homeland in 1871 but spent the last days of his life in Fiesole a town near Florence where he died in 1901 at the age of 73.

Today’s painting inspired many people. Rachmaninoff after seeing the painting in Paris in 1907 composed a symphonic poem (Op.29) as did Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen and Max Reger. The artist and his works were a favourite of Adolf Hitler who at one time owned eleven of Böcklin’s paintings. I have also read that in the series finale of the TV drama series Lost a driver from Oceanic Airways wears a uniform with the name tag ‘Bocklin,’ presumably referencing this painting.

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Casper David Friedrich

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

My Daily Art Display painting today is a mesmerising scene of a young man, believed to be a portrait of the artist himself, with his back to us perched on a rocky outcrop gazing out reverentially over a landscape which is almost hidden by thick swirls of fog and clouds. He is bedecked in a green frock-coat, leaning slightly on his walking stick, his curly blonde hair caught by the wind. We, the viewer, look with the eyes of this young man and can just make out, through the thick pervading grey fog, a middle ground with its small clumps of trees which stand atop a rocky escarpment. Further into the background one can see the tall greyish-blue toned mountains, lightly shrouded by the clouds, above which we are able to observe the sky with its slight glowing hue indicating that we are witnessing either the start or end of the day.

Casper David Friedrich, the German Romantic artist, painted Wanderer above the Sea of Fog in 1818 and it can be found in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg. It is one of the great Romantic landscape paintings of its time. The setting for his painting is a fusion of various mountains in the Saxony and Bohemia region. The outcrop of rocks on which the man stands is on the Kaiserkrone. The painting draws attention to the smallness and insignificance of an individual in comparison to the untamed and possibly hostile natural setting. Many of Friedrich’s paintings let people share his captivation with encountering nature in solitude whether it be from a rocky outcrop as in today’s painting or the frozen arctic as depicted in his painting The Arctic Sea. He was a Romantic artists and their belief was that any artist who wanted to explore his own emotions, had necessarily to stand outside of the throng of money-making, political gimmickry, and urban noise in order to assert and maintain their positions.

Caspar David Friedrich was born in Greifswald, Germany in 1774. At the age of twenty, he began his studies at the Academy in Copenhagen. In 1798 he moved and settled down in Dresden but travelled extensively throughout Germany. His landscapes, like that of his painting today, were based entirely of those of northern Germany and show in detail the breathtaking magnificence of the hills, harbours and weather conditions of that area which Friedich had observed. Many of his scenes are devoid of people and concentrate on menacing ravines, intimidating cliffs and terrifying seas of ice. One can see that in his landscape paintings, Friedrich gave more emphasis to threatening landscapes rather than the benign beautiful ones often painted by other artists.

David d’Angers, the French sculptor and contemporary of Friedrich said of Caspar David Friedrich, “Here is a man who has discovered the tragedy of landscape.”

Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth

The other day I came across what I thought was a simple landscape painting, which at first glance was a simple rural scene with a solitary figure, seemingly resting, in the foreground. I had guessed it was an American landscape. My mind went back to the photographs of the Mid-West plains. I was half right in as much as it was an American landscape but not of the Mid West but of Maine. The female figure in the foreground was of a young woman, and my perception was that she was just raising herself from the ground after a pleasant lie in the meadow-like surroundings. Maybe I should be forgiven for jumping to conclusions from just a fleeting glance but it was simply my first impression. Look and see what you make of it after you have taken that first momentary look.

In fact this is not as simple a painting as one might have first believed. Christina’s World was painted in 1948 by the American artist Andrew Wyeth and despite me having never seen it before, it is said to be one of the best known American paintings of the mid twentieth century and is presently hanging at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The girl whom I took to be just simply raising herself from the ground after a period of relaxation is in fact a young woman afflicted with polio from early childhood which had paralysed her lower body and is actually crawling across a field to her home which can be seen in the distance.

The artist was inspired to create this painting when looking through a window of his summer house in Cushing Maine and he saw his young neighbour, Anna Christina Olson, who suffered from infantile paralysis, which resulted in her inability to walk, gazing up at her house from the large tree-less field in front of it. The model he used for the picture of the girl was not Christina herself, who was in her mid-fifties at the time of the painting, but Andrew Wyeth’s young wife Betsy who was in her mid-twenties. The painting of the young woman in a pink dress with wasted limbs has a haunting quality to it. The landscape and the rural house are all painted in great detail. Wyeth’s attention to detail is amazing. Each blade of grass and each strand of the woman’s hair is painted individually. The style of the painting has been termed “magic realism”which is defined as an artistic genre in which meticulously realistic painting is combined with surreal elements of fantasy or dreams. Wyeth commenting on his artistic style said:

“I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it…I always want to see the third dimension of something…I want to come alive with the object.”

Of the picture in general, Wyeth commented:

“The challenge to me was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless.”

Have you a favourite painting which you would like to see on My Daily Art Display?

If so, let me know and tell me why it is a favourite of yours and I will include it in a future offering.

The Moneychanger and his Wife by Marinus Claeszoon van Reymerswaele

The Moneychanger and his Wife by Marinus Claesz van Reymerswaele (1539)

Yesterday’s painting by Jan Gossaert was termed an “occupational portrait” and today I offer you another one. This painting entitled The Moneychanger and his Wife was painted by the Dutch artist Marinus Claeszoon van Reymerswaele in 1539. It is almost certainly an adaption of a painting of a similar name painted in 1514 by the Dutch painter Quentin Massys whom he met whilst in Antwerp,. Marinus was born in 1490 in the “lost coastal city” of Reimerswaal , which was flooded in 1530 and totally lost to the sea in 1634. He studied at the University of Leuven in 1504 and trained as a painter in Antwerp in 1509. He was known for his satirical paintings.

It is interesting to note that the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration (Associatión Española de Contabilidad y Administración) (AECA) adopted a section of this painting as a symbol of their association.

The reason they wanted to use it was given as:

“The painting which has inspired our logotype is internationally famous as an image of financial activity during the Renaissance: it shows a scene typical of the counting house of a banker of the period. The subject of the pair of moneychangers shows us a new profession which has appeared in the period, a profession related to the world of finance, taxes and commercial accounts. Reymerswaele adapts the subject of the banker and his wife from Massys’s painting now in the Louvre in Paris. In Reymerswaele’s painting, the bourgeois married couple are seen counting out gold and silver coins, and the husband is weighing them with great care in a small set of scales, since most of them would be clipped or scraped. The coins are probably the product of tax-collection, an exchange of foreign currency or the repaying of a loan. This would imply the use of the abacus which the banker has at his right on the table, and then the setting out of accounts in the accounts book which the wife is holding in her delicate fine hands.”

Take a close look at the two figures in the painting. They both exude an air of elegance in their wearing of expensive and lavish clothes. There is a definite air of opulence. Puyvelde, the Flemish art historian, wrote that the realist portrait of the Moneychanger and his Wife is a caricature of rapacious and greedy business people commenting that “the profit motive is more clearly marked in the faces and thin fingers” In sixteenth century painting, long curved fingers was a sign of greed or even avarice. Long fingers and long noses were also used to represent Jews. The male person in this painting could well be Jewish and at this time, as it is nowadays, the Jews played a very important part in the economic activity of Flanders. In those days the main bankers were Italian Lombards but the Jews acted as money lenders to the less wealthy members of the public such as butchers and bakers. Unfortunately, many of those who borrowed the money had trouble repaying their loans and this probably reinforced the strong anti-Semitic feeling which was prevalent at the time.

The Prado museum guide comments on the painting:

“In this painting we find all the characteristics of Northern European painters: minute detail, fine quality raw material, an empirical approach to reality, and above all, the naked sordidness with which Van Reymerswaele approaches one of the principal evils of his time: usury, the greater of all possible sins in a commercial society such as Flanders. Corruption and fraud affected all levels of society, even the clergy, producing a critical reaction on the part of writers, theologians and artists”.

Most art historians have seen in Reymerswaele’s paintings a satirical and moralising symbolism, The Money Changer and his Wife being the representation of greed. Others think that the picture shows economic activity in a respectable way. Flanders at that time was the centre of a flourishing industrial and commercial activity, and also was the centre of a mercantile trade in works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable professions. The second view is the one implicitly shared by economists when choosing this picture to illustrate many books on economics or business

So, what do you make of the picture?

Portrait of a Merchant by Jan Gossaert

Today’s featured painting is by the a Netherlandish artist who was also known by his place of birth. Jan Gossaert was born around 1478 in the town of Maubeuge a town which now lies in present day France, from which his other name, Mabuse, derived. He worked around Bruges in the early days and in 1503 was in Antwerp where he became a master in the painter’s guild. Five years later he entered the service of Philip of Burgundy and travelled with him and his entourage to the Vatican. In 1509 he moved back to the Netherlands to Philip’s castle in Middelburg where he remained until 1517. In that year Philip was made Bishop of Utrecht and Gossaert went with him to Duurstede Castle. Philip of Burgundy died in 1524 and Gossaert returned to Middelburg where he entered the service of Philip’s half-brother Adolf of Burgundy as court painter. He spent most of his last days here and in the Zeeland area in the South West of Netherlands. Jan Gossaert died in Antwerp in 1532 aged fifty four.

My Daily Art Display today is Gossaert’s Portrait of a Merchant, an oil on panel painting, which he completed around 1530 just two years before his death. The painting belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC but is likely to be included in an exhibition of the artist’s work at the National Gallery, London in March 2011.

This work of art is termed an “occupational portrait” and were traditional forms of art at this time in northern Europe. The subject of this work is believed to be Jeronimus Sandelin a businessman and later a tax collector in Zeeland. In the foreground we see the businessman’s tools of his trade; writing implements, sealing wax, scales and a pile of coins. Behind him are two sheaves of papers, one marked “Alrehande Missiven” (miscellaneous letters) and the other is marked “Alrehande Minuten (miscellaneous drafts)

As is the case nowadays, successful businessmen and bankers in those days were viewed with great wariness and mistrust even though they were a necessity of life. Look closely at the expression on the face of the subject. How would you describe his facial expression? Is it an almost haughty arrogance in his look towards us? Maybe it could be described as a furtive look. On the other hand is his arrogant gaze a counter to his insecurity felt by many of his kind who were aware of their own unpopularity.

The sixteenth century Dutch humanist and theologian Erasmus questioned the morality of such businessman asking “ When did Avarice reign more largely and less punished”

Sounds like something we would read in today’s newspapers !!!!!!

The Beggar known as the Club-foot by Jusepe de Ribera

Jusepe de Ribera, the Spanish painter, also known as José de Ribera was born in Játiba near Valencia in 1591. After visiting Parma, Padua and Rome, he settled down in Naples in 1616, which in those days was under the control of Spain. It was here that he spent most of his career. His developed style of painting owed a lot to the influence of the Italian artist of the day, Caravaggio. Ribera became a painter to the Spanish Viceroy who was later succeeded by the Duke of Monterey, a person who secured many commissions for him from the Augustine Monastery in Salamanca. Ribera remained in Naples where he died in 1652.

His painting Boy with a Club Foot, which can be found in the Louvre, Paris, is today’s featured work of Art and was completed in 1642 and highlights his more mature style both through its composition and also because of the subject. It is believed a Flemish art dealer had commissioned this painting as the theme of beggars in paintings such as The Beggars by Bruegel the Elder and Murillo’s The Young Beggars had become very popular.

The painting, which is typical of his more mature style, shows a disabled Neapolitan beggar, probably a dwarf (originally the painting was entitled The Dwarf) with a club foot, clutching a piece of paper with the words “ Da mihi elimosinam propter amorem dei” which translates to “For the love of God give me alms”. The reason for this piece of paper to be held by the young beggar could be that it was his licence to allow him to beg, which was mandatory in Naples in those days. It also could be, as some have interpreted, that he, the boy, suffered from speech problems and was unable to voice his request for help. It is interesting to see how Ribera has portrayed the beggar, not as a grovelling child, looking downcast and miserable in some dark and grubby alleyway. Here before us is not a down-trodden child but a youngster, standing upright, with a cheeky smiling face and a look of defiant pride as he almost gaily carries his crutch over his shoulder, set against a light and tranquil background. The boy is shown close up and we are looking at him from a low viewpoint which gives the subject a sort of monumentality and self-esteem which would normally have been afforded to a noble person.

The Burial of Atala by Girodet

The Burial of Atala by Anne-Louis Girodet (1808)

A novella written in 1801 by the French writer Francois-René de Chateaubriand entitled Atala tells of the tragic love story of Chactas, a Natchez Indian and Atala the half-caste Christian daughter of Simagan, the chief of the Muscogees, an enemy Indian tribe, who had captured and sentenced Chactas to death. Atala eventually frees him from captivity and they run away together. They are helped by Père Aubry, a Christian missionary and hermit, who takes them to his cave and gives them refuge. Atala falls in love with Chactas, but cannot marry him as she has taken a vow of chastity. In despair she takes poison. Père Aubry assumes that she is merely ill, but in the presence of Chactas she reveals what she has done, and Chactas is filled with anger until the missionary tells them that in fact Christianity permits the renunciation of vows. They tend her, but she dies.

My Daily Art Display for today is the painting completed in 1808 entitled The Burial of Atala by the French artist Anne-Louis Girodet who was inspired by the poignant story of the would-be lovers Chactas and Atala. The death scene, set inside the mouth of the cave, is a representation of the traditional paintings of the “burial of Christ” but in this instance the emotions of passion, love and death are all entwined. The monumental arrangement of the three figures, the setting of the grotto and the solitary cross seen in the background against the sky reminds one of his earlier painting The Dead Christ Supported by the Virgin.

Girodet, usually known as Girodet-Trioson, a name he took in honour of a surgeon Dr Trioson, who adopted him after he was orphaned, was born in Paris in 1767. He started school and studied architecture and military studies before concentrating on art. He became a pupil of Jaques-Louis David one of the greatest Neoclassical painters. Girodet was looked upon as a star pupil winning a number of prestigious prizes for his works of art. As was the case in today’s painting, Girodet often preferred literary themes for his paintings. He also gained a reputation as a first class portraitist and many of his works revolved around the power and glory of Napoleon.

When he was 48 his adopted father, Dr Trioson died leaving him a sizeable inheritance. From then until his death in 1824 Girodet had no need to earn money by selling his paintings and instead concentrated on his other love, the writing of poetry.