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Richard Dadd: 5 The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke
If you know one work by Richard Dadd, it is his masterpiece The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, on which he probably worked for nearly a decade. Even so, this painting now in the Tate Gallery appears...
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Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas, 34 – Medea rejuvenates Aeson
Ovid opened Book 7 of his Metamorphoses with a brief summary of the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, with emphasis on the role of Medea, the sorceress. He continues his cycle of Jason and Medea...
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Figures in a Landscape: 12 Renaissance realism
Most real landscapes contain real figures. Just as the Renaissance brought the realism of surface textures and optical effects to paintings, so it brought real figures to its realistic landscapes. Not...
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Witchcraft, Birds of a Feather, and Faeries
Radical originality in painting is rare, even among the Masters. It’s something which characterises the work of Hieronymus Bosch, for example, but not Peter Paul Rubens. And I think it is manifest in...
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Richard Dadd: 6 To Broadmoor 1860-1886
While Richard Dadd continued to work on his masterpiece The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke (1855-64), he completed several other paintings, in both watercolour and oils. Richard Dadd (1817–1886), Christ...
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The Spartan Way of Life
For all the untold number of paintings of classical myths, there are but a tiny number of works which strive to show historical events and scenes in the great classical civilisations. Even fewer of...
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The Oblivion of Ary Renan
Today, Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon may seem like isolated mavericks in a sparkling sea of Impressionism, against a conservative background of conventional realists who filled the Salons of late...
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Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas, 35 Medea and Pelias
So far in Book 7 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Medea’s sorcery has worked for the good, in enabling Jason to win the Golden Fleece, and in making his father Aeson young again, at no cost to Jason’s...
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Richard Dadd: 7 An appreciation
Two centuries ago today, 1 August 2017, Richard Dadd was born in Chatham, Kent, England. In the previous six articles in this series, I have shown as many of his paintings that I have been able to...
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Coast: Introduction to a new series on landscape painting
The coast is where land, sea, and sky meet, bringing together three of the four ancient ‘elements’. When the weather’s fine, it is one of the most sought-after places to be. With the advent of modern...
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Figures in a Landscape: 13 Conclusions and contents
Narrative or landscape? The earliest landscape paintings could not stand alone, but formed the backdrop to other genres, particularly narrative works. In the great majority of cases, artists leave...
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Alexander Cozens: experimental painter – his tercentenary
Landscape painting blossomed into the most popular genre in the nineteenth century, thanks largely to pioneers in the previous two centuries. One of those pioneers developed methods which were not...
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When in Rome: 1 Paul Bril and Agostino Tassi
For a long time, Italy was the focal point in European painting. Cities like Florence and Rome had been the nurseries of the southern Renaissance, Venice and others were of great importance too. The...
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When in Rome: 2 Agostino Tassi, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Claude Lorrain
In 1611, Agostino Tassi, who had been a pupil of Paul Bril in Rome, was working with Orazio Gentileschi, painting frescoes in the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome. Orazio had a daughter,...
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Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas, 36 Medea and Theseus
Ovid has traced the downfall of Medea in Book 7 of his Metamorphoses, eventually taking her to the court of King Aegeus in Athens, whom she marries. He has one final story to tell us about Medea and...
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Degas’ Circle: Mary Cassatt, 1 Early days
The most significant anniversary this year in art history is the centenary of the death of Edgar Degas (1834-1917). In preparation for a series in which I will try to cover his work, I thought it might...
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Coast: Visiting the beach
Our ancestors didn’t go to the beach for pleasure, not until the eighteenth century, and many didn’t get there until the nineteenth. Until then, the only people who saw much of the beach were those who...
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Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas, 37 Aeacus and the Myrmidons
Progressing through the second half of Book 7 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Medea has been despatched into oblivion following her attempt to poison Theseus, whose career was summarised at breakneck pace....
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Degas’ Circle: Mary Cassatt, 2 Painter and print-maker
Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) worked hard to master her print-making techniques during the winter of 1879-80, under the guidance of her mentor and close friend Edgar Degas (1834–1917). Some of her incentive...
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Danseuses: 1 Largely innocent
Next month sees the centenary of the death of the greatest painter of the ballet, Edgar Degas. About half of his lifetime’s work consisted of paintings and drawings of the ballet. To put this into...
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