Alexandre Cabanel - The Birth of Venus - 1863
“This Venus hovers somewhere between an ancient deity and a modern dream; the ambiguity of her eyes, that seem to be closed but that at a close look reveals that she is awake… a nude who could be asleep or awake is specially formidable for a male viewer.” - Robert Rosenblum, art historian and curator
Espérances by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1885.
via bonjourtableau
Silver Favourites by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1903
Silver Favourites is an outstanding example of Tadema’s contrasting gleaming white marble against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea. The artist obliterated the middle-ground, and the foreground is abruptly juxtaposed with the distant horizon, creating a dramatic effect.
Oil on wood.
Bathsheba by Willem Drost, 1654
Willem Drost is a mysterious figure, closely associated with Rembrandt van Rijn, with very few paintings clearly attributable to him. At the age of 17, he became a student of Rembrandt. At the age of 21, he painted “Bathsheba,” which now hangs in the Louvre, where his tutor’s painting of the same title also resides. He was 25 when he died in the city of Venice.
Drost is considered one of Rembrandt’s most talented disciples, so much so that his 1654 painting titled: Portrait of a Young Woman with her Hands Folded on a Book was attributed to Rembrandt for more than 300 years. In fact, Rembrandt is credited with over 2,000 paintings and etchings, and the authenticity of his paintings is so important that the Rembrandt Research Project was formed in Amsterdam to review the attribution of all his works. They have now reattributed a number of Rembrandt’s paintings to his pupils and associates, such as Drost.
Oil on canvas, the Louvre.
The Nightwatch by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1632
This piece is interesting because Rembrandt depicted the Kloveniersdoelen, the musketeer branch of the civic militia, in an action scene rather than a stately, formal line-up. It is also interesting because parts of the canvas were cut off (approximately 20% from the left hand side was removed) to make the painting fit on the designated wall when it was moved to Amsterdam town hall in 1715. However, the Rijksmuseum contains a smaller reproduction of the work in what is understood to be its original form; the four, foremost figures occupy the painting’s center.
Oil on canvas; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Allegory of Peace and War by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, 1776
Regarded in his maturity as Rome’s greatest living painter, perhaps even the most famous in Europe, Batoni gained such stature through numerous grand portraits and prestigious commissions for religious and historical subjects from popes, emperors, and kings. Yet he painted ‘Peace and War’ without a commission, during a rare interval of peace in Europe.
Oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago.
The Woman with a Pearl by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1868-70
Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre
Nymphs and Satyr by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1873
Bouguereau’s career was a nearly straight up ascent with hardly a setback. To many, he epitomized taste and refinement, and a respect for tradition. But after 1920, Bouguereau fell into disrepute, due in part to changing tastes and partly to his staunch opposition to the Impressionists who were finally gaining acceptance. For decades following, his name was not even mentioned in encyclopedias.
(You will see a lot of Bouguereau’s work in this blog, as he is one of my favorites.)
Oil on canvas, located at the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA
The Song of the Lark by Jules Adolphe Aimé Louis Breton, 1884
Jules Breton was a French Realist painter of the 19th century. This painting inspired the title of Willa Cather’s novel of the same name, published in 1915.
Oil on canvas, located at The Art Institute of Chicago
Flaming June by Lord Frederic Leighton, 1895
Oil on canvas, Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico
