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The Story in Paintings: Nessus and Deianeira, the point of view
I have always thought that there is a preponderance of abduction and rape scenes in narrative painting. Although some – such as the rape of Europa – have resulted in wonderful works of art, they surely...
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Tyger’s eye: the paintings of William Blake, 13 – decoding the Epitome of Hervey
Several of William Blake’s paintings contain many different figures, and so far I have carefully avoided trying to identify them, and explain their significance and reading. This article takes one...
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Movement in Painting: migrant artists
This year has seen the rise of proposals to slow or even halt migration in Europe and America. This is seen as a recent phenomenon which some claim to be destroying societies and our economies. It...
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Hesiod’s Brush, the paintings of Gustave Moreau: 3 The thunderclap
By 1864, Gustave Moreau had determined that he was going to paint a new type of history painting, but three attempts to produce a major work for the Salon had each run into difficulties and been...
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Tyger’s eye: the paintings of William Blake, 14 – fragments of mythology
William Blake built an extensive and very personal mythology, which is expressed in greatest detail in his illuminated books. As I illustrated in the first article in this series, that mythology also...
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Hesiod’s Brush, the paintings of Gustave Moreau: 4 After the storm
Gustave Moreau’s Oedipus and the Sphinx had been the talk of the Salon in 1864, but the following year his two entries were lost in the noise surrounding Manet’s Olympia. Moreau needed to do much...
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Tyger’s eye: the paintings of William Blake, 15 – The Last Judgement
William Blake started painting works showing the Last Judgement, as described in florid detail in the book of Revelation, in about 1805-6. This series of drawings and paintings culminated in a large...
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Hesiod’s Brush, the paintings of Gustave Moreau: 5 Before the war
In 1867, two of Gustave Moreau’s paintings were shown at the Exposition Universelle: Orpheus and The Young Man and Death. Neither won any awards or recognition there, so he pressed on preparing his...
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Deep and crisp and even: some seasonal snow on canvas
In the temperate and colder zones of the northern hemisphere, the Christmas holiday is traditionally associated with snow. To celebrate that, here is a selection of some of the best snow scenes which I...
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Unusual nativities by Bosch, Botticelli, and Blake
The vast majority of European painting is Christian, and much depicts the events described in the New Testament. This poses the European painter the problem of painting traditional scenes in a way that...
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Winter Fairs and Gatherings
For much of northern Europe and North America, the winter is a time when all who can, stay indoors. In the past, when food became scarce and semi-starvation was almost an annual event, those who could,...
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Changing Times: Lovis Corinth, to 1890
Lovis Corinth (1858–1925) has proved to be one of the most influential German painters of the early twentieth century. Prolific across several contrasting genres, he is now best known for figurative...
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Tyger’s eye: the paintings of William Blake, 16 – A miscellany
This article considers some of Blake’s watercolours which I find particularly appealing or interesting, but which have so far not been covered properly in previous articles. I consider them in...
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Analysing and telling changing narrative in Storyspace 1
Stories change over time. Trying to tell such changing stories in essentially linear media, such as printed or even electronic books, is not easy for the author or the reader, and often involves...
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Hesiod’s Brush, the paintings of Gustave Moreau: 6 Back in favour
Once Gustave Moreau had recovered from the traumas of the Franco-Prussian War, he completed some unfinished paintings, and got started on his next major works. He had been invited to join the select...
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Analysing and telling changing narrative in Storyspace 2
In the last article, I laid out the two main stories concerning Herod, Herodias, Salome, and John the Baptist: that from the Gospels, and that given in Wilde’s play. Each consists of a chain of writing...
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Changing Times: Lovis Corinth, 1891-1897
By 1890, Lovis Corinth was financially independent, had his own studio in Königsberg, the city near his home village, and was starting to become a successful artist. His Pietà (1889, tragically...
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Highlights of the painting articles of 2016
I have no idea how many painters and paintings I have featured in articles here this year, but I have greatly enjoyed learning about them, and I hope that you have enjoyed them too. Here is a whirlwind...
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The coming year in painting: Degas, Murillo, and more
The new year has some anniversaries of major painters which I will be marking with articles here. Here is a sampling of some of the painters whose work I will be looking at, and a few examples of the...
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Analysing and telling changing narrative in Storyspace 3
In the previous article, I built a composite story to provide scene-by-scene comparison between the traditional Biblical account of Herod, Herodias, Salome, and John the Baptist, and the new version...
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