Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer

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Inspired by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer

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Lawrence Alma-Tadema was one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century. He became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Greek and Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled Interiors. He was born in the Netherlands as Laurens Tadema, but he emigrated to England in 1870. When he tried to make his niche in the art world, he changed the spelling of his first name to the more English “Lawrence”. He included his middle name “Alma” as part of his surname, so he would be listed amongst the “A’s” in exhibi-tion catalogues.

His meticulous archaeological research into Roman architecture, led to his paintings being used as source material by Hollywood directors in such films as: “Ben Hur”, “Cleopatra” and “Gladiator”. For “The Ten Commandments” Cecil B. DeMille would customarily spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to indicate to his set designers the look he wanted to achieve.

He became one of the wealthiest painters of the 19th century. He was even knighted in 1899. But like so many great painters his work was mostly ignored after his death. His painterly prowess was not reestablished until fifty years later. One of his most celebrated paintings “the Finding of Moses” was sold in 1960 for $400, the same painting sold for $36,000,000 at Sotheby’s in 2010. If you bought $400 of Apple stock in 1980 it would

only be worth $280,000 today.

To see original: http://bit.ly/3HzGnhe

Painter’s Triumph

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Inspired by: William Sidney Mount, Painter’s Triumph

Mount started his career as a sign painter, but quickly switched to portraits and historical paintings.  When later he transitioned to rural scenes, he found his niche, becoming America’s first major genre painter. Many of his works were engraved and distributed in the US as well as Europe giving him wide recognition.

He was born and died in Setauket, on the north shore of Long Island. There he sketch-ed extensively in notebooks and painted plein-air oil sketches, devising a studio-wagon in which he travelled all over the island. Many of his paintings include vividly realistic images of his friends and neighbors. His personal belief regarding his work, "Never paint for the few but for the many," gave average Americans the chance to view themselves, for the first time, as subjects of art. He painted Painter’s Triumph when he was 31 and used himself as the model for the artist. The characterization of the gap-toothed, awestruck farmer is comical, but he also pokes fun at himself in this spoof of the artistic personality.

Although he was an accomplished painter, he had many other talents, such as playing the fiddle. Born into a musical family, Mount’s preoccupation with American indigenous folk music became both a hobby and an important artistic muse. He wrote and published quite a few Fiddle tunes. He also designed and patented a novel type of violin, which he called "The Cradle of Harmony."

See original: bit.ly/3TBvMVi

The Cradle

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Inspired by: Berthe Morisot  -  The Cradle

Berthe Morisot was the only female painter who took part in the first Impressionist exhibition in Nadar’s studio, in 1874. She exhibited pastel and watercolor works and four paintings, including “The Cradle”. It depicts her sister Edna watching her sleeping daughter Blanche. It's Morisot’s first painting depicting motherhood, which would later be one of her favorite subjects. Berthe built strong friendships with other painters and writers. Monet and the poet Mallarmé were buddies. Renoir was also a loyal companion, and only one month younger. Édouard Manet, spent a great deal of time with Morisot. He painted her 12 times. They often painted together, but Berthe was seen as Manet’s student. Manet was happy with this idea, but it angered Berthe.
Years later she would marry Eugène Manet, Edouard’s brother. Morisot was barred
from a formal arts education, because of her gender. For this reason, she was almost self-taught, making studies of old master paintings at the Louvre. she rarely painted outdoors like the other Impressionists. It was a practice which invited scandal. At that time, women were expected to leave home with a chaperone. For this reason, she was relegated to painting in the homes of the wealthy. Although the critics liked her, Morisot’s gender played a role in how she was perceived. They used terms like “flirtatious” and “charming” to describe her work. Like other women of her time, she could not have a real career. Painting was considered just another female leisure activity, and as a woman, she was seen as an amateur. Morisot was well aware of her skills. She suffered in silence and spoke with her brush.

To see original painting:  https://bit.ly/4ms05uS

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - The Night Wat

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Inspired by: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - The Night Watch

The Night Watch acquired its title in the 1790s. By then the painting’s varnish had darkened so much it looked like a night scene. Before then it was known by several titles, one being The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch. Captain Cocqcommissioned the painting of his men, but only 18 of the 34 characters in the painting are portraits, the remaining are symbolic.

In 1642 the painting was hung in the club house of the civil militia. It stayed there for 70 years. In 1715 the painting was moved from there to the Town Hall. It didn’t fit there so it was cropped on all four sides to fit between the building’s narrow columns. Fortunately, Cocq had ordered a small copy to be made and The Riksmuseum used this smaller version to recreate the missing parts, which can now be seen again (the Santa Classic is the old version of the painting).
Rembrandt loved to stick himself and family members in his paintings. He is way in the back, and all you can see is his profile from the neck up. The little girl who functions symbolically as the group' mascot is daughter Saskia. Son Titus’ ear is just behind her.
Museum fires have caused the loss of great works of art, so Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has gone to great lengths to protect Rembrandt’s masterpiece. To preserve The Night Watch in emergencies, in 1934 the Rijksmuseum installed a trap door complete with escape slide. 
To see the original: https://bit.ly/4jSxLAf

Mariana - John Everett Millais

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Inspired by: John Everett Millais - Mariana

This painting was inspired by an Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem. The Pre-Raphaelites based many of their paintings on Shakespeare and Tennyson’s themes. Millais used Tennyson’s “Mariana” to create a narrative for his painting. It tells the story of Mariana, a character in Shakespeare's “Measure for Measure”. In the play, she is rejected by her fiancé Angelo, after her dowry is lost in a shipwreck. In Shakespeare’s version, Mariana ends up seducing Angelo and getting him to marry her. In contrast, Tennyson dwells on her isolation and loneliness, which is never resolved. Millais hung the poem along with his painting at its first showing,
The Pre-Raphaelites focused much of their work on single female figures. These women were typically based on tragic heroines sourced from myths or literature. The women always possessed a remarkable and distinctive kind of beauty often coupled with a mystical power or dominance over men. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) originated in 1848 with seven members. They studied painters who came before Raphael, hence the “Pre- Raphaelites”. They set up camp in Dante Rossetti’s mothers house, and put a plaque with PRB on front door. Some people thought it stood for “please ring bell”. See original: bit.ly/42E5A1w

Michelangelo - The Torment of Saint Anthony

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Inspired by: Michelangelo - The Torment of Saint Anthony – 1487-88

Anthony was a religious hermit, who lived for twenty years in solitude on a mountain by the Nile. There he
began his long struggle against the temptations of the devil, which became a legend of Christian history. This painting depicts one of his visionary levitations. He is being attacked by the devil, who is disguised in the form of animals and beasts.
This is the first known painting by Michelangelo, painted when he was thirteen years old. The work is one of only four easel paintings generally regarded as having come from his hand. This may have been a practice painting, since it is a colorized version of an existing engraving by the fifteenth-century German master Martin Schongauer.
The engraving had no background, so Michelangelo added his own. His background is filled with water, even a boat, but St Anthony was a desert dweller. I guess young Michelangelo didn’t do his homework.

To see original: https://bit.ly/3XCdndj

Winslow Homer - The Fog Warning

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Homer lived in Boston until his early twenties. He was mostly self-taught. His mother, a gifted watercolorist, got him started. After a short apprenticeship with a commercial lithographer, he began his career in illustration. For the next twenty years, he made his living working for magazines like Harper’s Weekly. He subsequently picked up a paint brush. His love was oils, but his watercolors were cheaper, they sold well, and brought him greater recognition.
He loved the ocean, and in the 1880s, he moved to Prouts Neck on the coast of Maine. It was here that he began to paint his water scenes. He not only painted the sea itself, but pitted "man against the elements" to show how powerful the water could be. He later stopped painting human figures all together and just focused on the sea. Today, Homer is known as the foremost American marine painter.
This painting was inspired by a trip to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Canada. There, aboard fishing vessels, he watched men, cast adrift on the open sea, take their chance with the waves and weather. To see the original painting:   https://bit.ly/4hSO2DK

The Ambassadors

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In 1533 Henry III divorced Catherine and married Anne Boleyn. The Pope refused to annul his first marriage and recognize the second. In 1534, Henry broke from the Catholic church and made himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Francis I of France was not sure whether to side with the Pope or strengthen his alliance with England. He sent two of his most trusted men, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, to test the waters. Dinteville being a seasoned diplomat and de Selve a young Bishop.

This painting is filled with symbols. The items on the table represent the two main characters. The top represents the heavens and those on the bottom represent the affairs of the world. The most intriguing item is the skull at the bottom of the painting. Its inclusion is a memento mori, literally a reminder that we all must die. The skull is rendered in anamorphic perspective, a technic by which an object looks distorted when viewed from one angle, but normal from another. The first examples of this technique appear in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. This skull can only be discerned when viewed from upper right or lower left. For this reason, it is thought it was to be hung on a stairway. To see original: https://bit.ly/4aID6pU