Peggy Guggenheim

Franz von Lenbach
Peggy Guggenheim, ca. 1903
Oil on board, 128.9 x 92.7 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Venice
Purchase 98.5247

I came across this painting at the back of an art journal, listing acquisitions by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. I loved the expression on the girl's face and then once I realized it was a portrait of Peggy Guggenheim herself, I was quite interested particularly due to the style of the painting since it doesn't mesh well with my thoughts of the 20th century in which the majority of Guggenheim's life spans.

Peggy Guggenheim is a legend in the art world. She amassed one of the foremost collections of Modern art and gave Jackson Pollock his first show and support when she ran The Art of this Century Gallery in NYC. She later moved to Venice where she opened her collection to the public, Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

The painter, Franz von Lenbach, is a new one to me. Born in Schrobenhausen, Bavaria, he eventually settled in Munich and became internationally successful painting portraits like this one of society personalities. In 1900 he won the Grand Prix for painting in Paris. Lenbach's painting is world away from the Modern art that Guggenheim so loved and promoted.

The Automaton

Paolo Ventura
The Old Man from The Automaton

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love the work of Paolo Ventura. I was lucky enough to wander into the Hasted Kraeutler Gallery in Chelsea on my last trip to NYC. I saw Ventura's work in an art magazine not too long before the trip and thank goodness for glass windows, as I saw the work through the gallery window and headed inside.

The entire gallery was filled with a series of photographs telling the story of The Automaton of Venice. Each photograph is a snippet or a scene of the story. The photographs are enchanting and once you realize that isn't just a photograph of a man but of a handmade maquette, the photographs become even more engrossing. Ventura creates detailed scale model sets which he then photographs.

Check out more of his work

Working with imagined worlds as well as small ones is quite fascinating and many other fabulous artists today are working this way. Ventura was part of the exhibition: Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities
Definitely check the website out, it showcases all of the works in the exhibition. I am sure I'll cover some of the artists here in the future.

Rhinoceros

Pietro Longhi (Italian, 1702-85)
Rhinoceros, 1751
Oil on canvas 23x19
Ca' Rezzonico (museum dedicated to 18th c. Venice)
Image: Wikipedia

A painting that caught someone's eye in my Rococo to Revolution. Longhi was known as a bit of a truth teller in his art. Nothing fancy, nothing unique, he just painted it like he saw it which at the time in Venice was Venetians at play. As a result his people don't always mesh, they appear more as placeholders. This particular painting is interesting due to the rhinoceros of course, which while seeming odd is actually a depiction of a real rhinoceros who found herself in Venice, brought to Europe in 1741. Clara, the rhinoceros even has her own wikipedia page!