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 Handsome Michallon

Leon Cogniet (French, 1794-1880)
Portrait of Michallon, about 1818-19
Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans
image: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/achille-etna-michallon


What a handsome young man! I started out looking for a work by the painter Achille-Etna Michallon (1796-1822), the subject of our painting today and quickly discovered this portrait. This young man was only ever handsome as he sadly, only made it to the age of 26 due to illness.

A quick search for additional work by Cogniet shows that this may be, in my humble opinion of course, one of his better works. I seem to only find his portraits aesthetically pleasing, as he captures a wonderful face. More works... and yes, my source is Google images as I can't find more than a couple of his works in any one place. This may also be due to the fact that Cogniet was an academic painter, never my first love.

Camera Obscura

Jasmijn, to the light, 2008
Richard Learoyd (British, b.1966)
unique camera obscura Ilfochrome photograph
h: 71.1 x w: 60.2 in
image: http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425986868/396/richard-learoyd-jasmijn-to-the-light.html

I browse through art magazine dog-earing images that catch me eye, and this is one from today. On first glance I thought it was a painting, the softness, the light, look on the woman's face. Currently part of the exhibition, Unique Photographs at the McKee Gallery in NYC, Learoyd's photographs are more than life size.

"Created with a camera obscura, each image is projected directly onto giant pieces of Ilfochrome, and each glossy print is unique. The lack of a negative yields an almost overwhelming clarity and one needs to see the prints in person to truly appreciate them." (Brea Souders Photography: A Place for New Projects and Updates blog)

Portrait of a Woman

Portrait of a Woman
Roman from the province of Egypt
Tempera on panel, about A.D. 200
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1971.130
Toledo Museum of Art

Yes, once again I disappeared from the blogosphere. No excuses, and I do hope that I am back regularly now. I had some family visit recently and of course we went to my museum. A favorite of the collection was this portrait of a woman. What is so amazing to discover when looking a little further is that this portrait was made, around 200 A.D.! Funeral portraits were placed upon the head of mummies. They represented the human who once was. "When a person died, the portrait panel was placed over the face of the mummy with parts of the outermost wrapping holding it in place. This implies Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife." (metmuseum.org)

"The earliest so-called mummy portraits were painted about A.D. 50, but the practice ended in 392 when the Christian emperor Theodosius outlawed mummification." (Toledo Museum of Art)

Often referred to as Fayum portraits (as they are commonly found in the Faiyum Basin), they were painted on wood panel or directly on the linen mummy case. The paint was either egg tempera or encaustic.

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I
"The Darnley Portrait", c. 1575.
by Unknown artist
oil on panel, circa 1575
44 1/2 in. x 31 in. (1130 mm x 787 mm)
© National Portrait Gallery, London.
image: http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizface2.htm

Ah, Queen Elizabeth I, the subject of many a wonderful portrait. I discovered this wonderful website full of portraits of this historical figure in her early, mid and late years. I wandered through all of them trying to pic a favorite. "The Darnley Portrait" won out. Looks like I have a good eye, as this is considered one of the best portraits of Elizabeth and one of the few thought to be painted from life (which might have something to do with the richer element of realism in her face).

The attribution, "The Darnley Portrait" is after a previous owner of the painting.

Green tinted spectacles

Nathaniel Olds, 1837
Jeptha Homer Wade (American, 1811-1890)
oil on canvas
Cleveland Museum of Art 1991.134.2
image: http://www.clemusart.com/explore/work.asp?cid=243518&msgActCnt=1&mode=&tab=2&display=&addrmvmsg=true&msgColCnt=2&recNo=0

Look at those glasses! We walked into the American art gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art this weekend and were simply delighted by this awesome portrait of a man in futuristic looking glasses!

We almost didn't read the caption because we were enjoying making up all kinds of wonderful stories about the glasses but alas we gave in. Who would have guessed it had to do with whale oil and Western Union?! The caption says it all (and it's interesting to boot) so here it is (links added by me):

"The green-tinted spectacles worn by Olds were designed to protect the eyes from the intensity of Argand lamps, a type of indoor light used during the early 1800s. These lamps burned whale oil, and many people worried that its bright flames might damage eyesight.The painter of this portrait founded the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1854 and soon became one of Cleveland’s wealthiest industrialists. His grandson, Jeptha Wade II, was a founder of the Cleveland Museum of Art and donated the land upon which it stands as a Christmas gift to the city in 1892." (Cleveland Museum of Art website: http://www.clemusart.com/explore/artistwork.asp?artistLetter=W&recNo=1&woRecNo=1)

I discovered a neat feature in the online collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museums are always looking for ways to make their collections online as relateable to seeing the real thing as they can. From zooming capabilities to dimensions. If you click on "how big is it" you see the art work next to the silhouette of an average height man. It gives you a better perspective of the scale of the piece than just reading the dimensions. Unfortunately you don't really know how tall the "man" is, but I think its a great idea nonetheless. See it here:
http://www.clemusart.com/explore/scale.asp?woID=3550

Madame X

Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1883–84
John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925)
Oil on canvas

82 1/8 x 43 1/4 in. (208.6 x 109.9 cm)
Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1916 (16.53) Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of my mom's favorite artists, John Singer Sargent's portraits never cease to delight the viewer.

The portrait of the young socialite in Paris, Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, was requested by Sargent instead of commissioned. Gautreau agreed to the portrait but it resulted in a scandal for the artist. "The image's erotic suggestion is of a distinctly upper-class sort: unnaturally pale skin, cinched waist, severity of profile and an emphasis on aristocratic bone structure all imply a distant sexuality "under the professional control of the sitter", rather than offered for the viewer's delectation.^{[16]" (}Prettejohn, Elizabeth. "Interpreting Sargent", page 25. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1998.) The painting was originally shown and denounced at the Paris Salon of 1884 and at this time the right shoulder strap of the Madam's dress fell down her shoulder (Sargent later repainted its position). The painting remained in Sargent's studio (see above) for a number of years and was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1916, where it is today.

Madame X

Lady with an Ermine

Lady with an Ermine, c.1489-1494
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-
oil on wood
Czartoyski Museum, Krakoq, Poland

The Mona Lisa is uber well-known, but Lady with an Ermine may not be as familiar to everyone. Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, 15 year old mistress of Ludovico Sforza, patron of da Vinci. Galle = ermine, the ermine is also the heraldic animal of Ludovico il Moro.

Such a wonderful portrait.

Poet's Fair

Poet's Fair ca.1953/54
Jules Aarons (1921-2008)
Image: linternaute.com

I discovered Jules Aarons when visiting the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA, 6 years ago. His work struck me in such a way that I brought a catalog of his show of photographs that day. I came home last night, headed over to my shelf of art books, and pulled this one off.

A physicist and engineer by trade Aarons also excelled at the art of photography. With his background in science he found the technical aspects of photography interesting, mastering them on his own. Luckily for us, he also studied the history and art of photography. Unfortunately his work is not known far beyond his home of Boston, but his rich, sympathetic and earnest photographs hold their own alongside known greats such as Henri-Cartier Bresson... Aarons spent much of his time photographing the neighborhoods of the West End and North End in Boston as well as documenting his travels around the world. A great street photographer catches moments, snapshots of life, they see the unique wonder in what many allow to pass them by. This wonderful parallel portrait, Poet's Fair, taken while on a Fulbright to Paris embodies this.


Jules Aarons Collection at the Boston Public Library.

January 20, 2009

Tension, 2008
Michael Murphy
2'x2'x9' - 1000 feet of steel high tension wire, black enamel and poplar base
image: mmike.com

I've looked for Obama art before but this is the first time I've come across the fantastic blog,
The Obama Art Report. There were endless works to choose from and I went with Michael Murphy as he actually has been focusing on making art with Obama as a focus.

The significant amount of inspiration that this election and Obama himself has causes is amazing. Works range in levels of artistic merit, but regardless of their placement in the world of "art" just knowing that the events taking place are warranting such an outpouring of artistic creation is wonderful.

From profiles to head shots, paintings, drawings and more, there aren't too many sculptures that I've come across. On Murphy's website you can see the drawings that led to the sculpture which stems from a simple silhouette. The emergence of the face of Obama out of what appears to be a tangle of wires is striking. The transition of a 2D drawing to a 3D drawing (as I see this sculpture) creates not just a physical depth to the image but a visual and emotional one as well.

I was going to share a straight up fun image using the techniques I am working on in my own work so check out Pez Prez here.

I have never been particularly eloquent so I won't be able to provide any good testament to the significance of today, Inauguration day, but I will be watching the Inauguration speech at my computer at work tomorrow, sending out hugs and smiles and shouts to my friends and family who were able to make it to D.C. to be a part of a better history to come.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. (unknown date)
Tracy A. Sugarman


Tracy Sugarman is a freelance artist and illustrator who, as a WWII naval office was never far from his drawing tools. See a collection of his works at the Library of Congress Veterans History Project in addition to a wonderful collection of archival material. A simple, yet rich portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sugarman was active in the civil rights movement and hist artistry brought us portraits of historical figures and events. "In 1964, he accompanied the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to work with the black community in the Mississippi Delta, recording the nonviolent civil rights struggle in drawings and photographs." (Rediscovery films). Sugarman was the only artist/photographer allowed in the courtroom of the trial of the murderer of Malcolm X.


The Civil Rights Movement through One Man's Eyes - slide show of Sugarman's work with accompanying audio.

Drawing Conclusions: An artist discovers his America - Book

Victoria Dubourg

Portrait of Victoria Dubourg, ca.1866-68
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Oil on canvas
81.3 x 64.8 cm
Toledo Museum of Art
image by me.


One of my favorite paintings at TMA is not what one expects from Degas. While I've always thought Degas paintings were nice to look at, I was never a fan of the focused subject matter of the ballerina (I've learned there is more, but we get so blinded by the popular). This painting shifts far from that focus. There is something intriguing about this wonderful portrait. It is one of those works that simply caught my eye as I was on my way to look at something else, now I can't walk by it without giving it a little attention.

Paintings can be realistic in that they give us a faithful reproduction of what one may see in real life, but this oftentimes is only topical in its realism. Portraits are often dolled up, the sitter overly aware that this is a portrait, they looking what they may consider their best (this a choice of the artist and/or the sitter). Here, with her relaxed position, her gaze towards the viewer, she could be simply be listening to a companion's story or just shifting leaning in because someone called her name. I think this portrait achieves an additional layer of realism, one in which you can really get a taste of this woman, who she might be. Victoria Dubourg is a fellow painter )of flowers) as well as the wife of Henri Fantin-Latour another peer of Degas.

Celebrity Portrait

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer, Cumberland Island, Georgia, 1990
Annie Leibovitz
chromogenic print, photograph
http://www.corcoran.org/leibovitz/index.htm

In the process of cataloging a new volume on Annie Leibovitz I was dismayed to discover that this was the first book to be placed under Leibovitz's cutter number (just in case you wanted to learn a little about where those pesky numbers on library books come from :). Since this is the first significant volume to go into our collection dedicated to Leibovitz (and it's a rather short volume too) I wanted to give today's Art Dose to Leibovitz.

Leibovitz is well-known for her unique celebrity portraits as well as her documentary photography. This photo of Baryshnikov is one of the over a hundred that are part of the internationally travelling exhibition, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005, organized by the Brooklyn Museum and currently at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Close

Philip Glass, 1969
(part of his first series of B&W portraits)
Chuck Close

In keeping with my photo-realist theme, one cannot leave out the work of Chuck Close. I grew up seeing a Chuck Close painting every time I visited the Albright Knox Art Gallery and was always fascinated by the stature and detail in the painting. Close's portraits are of family and friends (many well known artists). Chuck Close is good friends with Philip Glass and produced many portraits of Glass over the years, most from the same photograph of a young Glass with tousled hair.

The image here gives you a better understanding of the commanding size of most of Close's portraits (though Close is 6' 3"). Using the a grid in which to translate a small polaroid to a large-scale painting, Close later on begins to bring the grid out into the forefront, treating each square on its own (with swirls, patterns etc.) but still pulling together a final representational image (his technical abilities were severely debiliated after a sudden blood clot left him partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair in 1988 and he brought himself back as a painter and continued his portraits on the same grand scale). The grid makes one think of the pixelation that is so common in technology today, yet Close remains true to his form and is well-known as a techna-fobe.

Contemporary Portrait

Le Roi a La Chasse
Kehinde Wiley
oil on canvas
8' x 6'
2006

Another new find of mine, the work of Kehinde Wiley. We have one of his paintings at the TMA and I recently came across a catalog for the show, RECOGNIZE! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture that included his work.

The poses and objects in his work reference portraits throughout the history of art. His models choose poses from his collection of art books, in turn the paintings often represent something within the model himself (Ice T chose a portrait of Napoleon). Modern African American men melded with art historical references, these paintings are life size and commanding. Wiley simplifies the setting of the portraits, prettifying them in a way, which seems to make a bit of fun of the process as a whole at the same time as commenting on the reception of stature in history.

Le Roi a La Chasse is after Anthony van Dyck's portrait of Charles I of England.


Anthony van Dyck
Charles I of England
c. 1635
Oil on canvas
266 x 207 cm (104 3/4 x 81 1/2 in.)
Musée du Louvre, Paris

A Marriage?

Arnolofini Portrait, 1434
Jan van Eyck
oil on panel, 82x59.5 cm.
National Gallery, London
courtesy of wikipedia


In honor of my friend's wedding tomorrow, a "wedding portrait" of the day. Thought to be a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, possibly in their room, the identity of the women is not sure. Full of illusion, and exquisite detail, this painting has sparked discussion and thought for hundreds of years.

There is debate over whether this is a portrait of a betrothal, a partial memorial (if the wife died previous to the painting), or an actual legal document recording a marriage. Check out this discussion of the painting on the BBC/Open University.

I need to go get things ready to head on out to Maine for the wedding tomorrow, so I must cut this a bit short. Have a wonderful holiday weekend, and art should return on Monday (possibly Tuesday!)