Art

30
Nov
2020

Andrea Palladio

Today is the birthday (November 30, 1508) of Andrea Palladio whom many think is one of the most influential individuals in the history or architecture. He designed churches and palaces but is best known for his country houses and villas such as the Villa Foscari above. His father was a miller and, when Palladio was 13 he was apprenticed to a stone cutter. When his apprenticeship was finished he moved to Vicenza and began working as a stone mason.

When he reached the age of 30 he was engaged by Gian Giorgio Tressini to rebuild his villa. Tressini was very interested in ancient Roman architecture and brought Palladio to Rome to study some of the monuments there. Trissino also gave him his name – Palladio – an allusion to the Greek goddess of wisdom, Pallas Athena.

the Palladian style was very popular and widely imitated. Paladio employed classical elements clearly expressing the function of each part of the building by its form. As much as possible he simplified the forms and particularly elevated the ‘main floor’, often outlining it with rows of a different color as above. His villas had a main, ceremonial section often dominated by a strong center and symmetrical wings. He also included utilitarian portions and portions for family use.

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia is a good American example of the Palladian style

Monticello

He also added his name to a particular architectural feature called the ‘Palladian Window’. It consists of a large, arched central window symmetrically flanked by two shorter windows. Here is an example of a palladian window in the White House.

Palladian Windows At The White House — Williesbrewn Design Ideas from "palladian window with Frequent Options" Pictures

Palladio died in 1580 but his influence lives on.

Posted by Tom in Art
14
Nov
2020

Claude Monet

Impression, Sunrise 1872

Today is the birthday (14 November, 1840) of one of my favorite artists – Claude Monet. Along with Camille Pissaro, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Édouard Manet he was one of the founders of French Impressionism. Indeed, the movement was named after the above painting – Impression, Sunrise.

Monet was very interested in how changes in light affected what he saw and he often painted the same scene many times to capture the changes. He and other impressionists focused on using broken color and rapid small brush strokes painting en plein air to capture the effects of light.

He may be best known for his paintings of water lilies which he painted some 250 times during the last years 30 years of his life. He suffered from cataracts during part of this period.

One of my favorite Monet paintings is this one of Waterloo Bridge, which hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Claude_Monet_-_Waterloo_Bridge_-_National_Gallery_of_Art.jpg/1024px-Claude_Monet_-_Waterloo_Bridge_-_National_Gallery_of_Art.jpg
Waterloo Bridge, 1904

I also like this painting of his garden with his son. I think the colors look particularly vibrant.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Claude_Monet_-_Monet%27s_garden_at_V%C3%A9theuil_%281880%29.jpg/808px-Claude_Monet_-_Monet%27s_garden_at_V%C3%A9theuil_%281880%29.jpg
Monet’s garden at Vétheuil

Both of these paintings are at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Go and see them next time you are in Washington.

Posted by Tom in Art
30
Oct
2020

Alfred Sisley

Portrait of Alfred Sisley and his wife by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Today is the birthday (30 October, 1839) a British impressionist painter who spent most of his career in France. He focused almost exclusively on painting landscapes en plein air and never really deviated from impressionism. He lived mostly off the sale of his paintings and, as they were not popular at the time, he lived mostly in poverty, dying in 1899.

I think his paintings are a bit subdued, but I like them. This one, The Meadow, hangs in the National Gallery of Art. Go see it next time you’re in DC.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Meadow%2C_Alfred_Sisley%2C_1875.jpg/1024px-Meadow%2C_Alfred_Sisley%2C_1875.jpg
Posted by Tom in Art
04
Oct
2020

Jean-François Millet

Today, October 4, is the birthday in 1814 of Jean-François Millet, French Realist painter. He was born into a farming family and, as a boy, worked on the farm mowing, making hay, binding the sheaves, spreading manure, threshing, winnowing and so forth. Much of his work reflects his life on the farm and the lives of peasants.

The Gleaners

This painting, The Gleaners, is one of his most famous. It depicts three peasant woman engaged in the backbreaking activity of gleaning – gathering the leftover grain missed by the farmer after harvest. Gleaning by the poor and homeless was a legal right in parts of Europe for many years. Millet tried to display the repetition and fatigue in the peasants’ daily lives. Contrast the meager amounts they have gathered with the farmer’s huge stacks of grain on the horizon.

I like this painting; I like the light and contrast of the women against the light background. I think he does a good job of representing their backbreaking labor and the miserable return they get. This particular painting is hung in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Go and see it next time you are there. You can find images of many of his other paintings in Wikimedia Commons by clicking HERE.

Posted by Tom in Art
20
Sep
2020

Anton Mauve

I missed the birthday (September 18, 1838) of Anton Mauve – Dutch Realist painter. He painted a whole lot of paintings of animals and peasants in the fields and I kind of like much of his work. Apparently, his paintings of sheep were very popular in America, so much so that a price differential developed between ‘sheep coming’ and ‘sheep going’. Here’s one called ‘The Return of the Flock’.

Mauve was married to Vincent van Gogh’s cousin, Arriette, and Mauve was a major influence on Van Gogh. He helped teach Van Gogh the use of watercolors and oils and later lent him money to rent and furnish a studio. Mauve later turned cold to Van Gogh over the latter’s relationship with a prostitute, ‘Sien’. Van Gogh continued to revere Mauve, though and, upon Mauve’s sudden death in 1888, dedicated one of his most iconic paintings to him – this painting of peach trees in bloom which he titled ‘Souvenir de Mauve’. You can see it in the Kröller-Müller Museum the next time you are in the Netherlands. I like it a lot.

Posted by Tom in Art