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Painting Within Tent: Albert Bierstadt in the Rockies 2
When he sold his large painting of The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak in 1865, Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) was at the height of his career, and of financial and critical success. What his public and...
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Still Life History: 4 Rays, copper, and scythes in the 18th century
After the blossoming of still life painting during the Dutch Golden Age, the eighteenth century was very different. In the main, the genre fell into relative obscurity, although floral arrangements...
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Fruit of the Sea: Paintings of seashells 1
It’s that time of year when, in the northern hemisphere, we feel that strange urge to head for the coast, expose bodies which have spent the best part of the last year concealed under clothing, and...
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Fruit of the Sea: Paintings of seashells 2
In the first of these two articles yesterday, I showed examples of paintings featuring seashells, drawn mainly from classical Mediterranean mythology and vanitas painting in the Dutch Golden Age. These...
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Don Quixote 13: The wronging of rights
In the previous episode, the mission to rescue Don Quixote from the mountains, consisting of Sancho Panza, the priest and the barber, had almost reached him, and met up with Cardenio, the distressed...
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Painting Within Tent: Frances Anne Hopkins in Hudson’s Bay
Many of those whose paintings I have featured in this series only came to be explorers by accident. In the case of Frances Anne Hopkins (1838-1919) it was by marriage. Daughter of an artistic family,...
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Still Life History: 5 The rise of Impressionism
The nineteenth century brought radical change to painting not seen since the Renaissance, with the rise of two apparently opposing schools: Impressionism, with its emphasis on atmospheric landscapes...
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Spanish painting in the late eighteenth century: before David
This year, I will be looking at the art and career of Francisco Goya (1746-1828), one of the great Spanish masters, and a major figure in European art history. I suspect that, like me, you’re familiar...
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Spanish painting in the late eighteenth century: after David
In yesterday’s article I showed paintings which had been successful in Spain between 1757-1775, a period in which King Carlos III’s taste for Anton Raphael Mengs’ work dominated Spanish art. Shortly...
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Still Life ++ : paintings of the artist’s studio 1
There’s one common relative of the still life painting which doesn’t readily fit into any other genre: a view of the artist’s studio. Like a still life, it can be painted at almost any time, and with...
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Still Life ++ : paintings of the artist’s studio 2
In the first of these two articles, I looked at some paintings of artists’ studios prior to the Franco-Prussian War, including complex and challenging works by Horace Vernet and Gustave Courbet. In the...
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Don Quixote 14: Testing a virtuous wife
In the previous episode, the group escorting Don Quixote from the mountains had been steadily descending as the knight and his squire repeatedly argued. Dorotea, pretending to be the Princess...
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Painting Within Tent: Audubon’s birds 1
Of all the expeditionary artists I’ve featured in this series, John James Audubon (1785–1851) must be the most famous today, both through his paintings of birds, and for his rich legacy to ornithology...
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Painting Within Tent: Audubon’s birds 2
In the first of these two articles about the paintings of John James Audubon (1785–1851), I ended with the publication of his huge collection of coloured prints of The Birds of America, and its...
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Still Life History 6: Impressionists
In my brief history of still life painting, I have now reached the core group of French Impressionists, and the height of their movement in France. As there was never an Impressionist manifesto, and...
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Reject: 1 Introduction
During the eighteenth century, European painting underwent major change in the way that it was viewed, criticised and sold. Instead of relying on a system of patronage, and a direct relationship with...
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Selfies: self-portraits to cherish 1
If you’ve visited the Uffizi in Florence, you’ll be aware of its unique collection of self-portraits of artists. Although many of these are exhibited on the walls of the Vasari Corridor, currently...
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Selfies: self-portraits to cherish 2
In the first of these two articles looking at self-portraits, I ended with paintings of Charles Laval and Armand Guillaumin, who have now been largely forgotten. Today I start with the tragic story of...
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Don Quixote 15: Slaying the giant
In the previous episode, the group escorting Don Quixote back to his village had reached the inn where Sancho Panza had been tossed high in the air. Don Quixote went straight to bed, and while he was...
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Painting Within Tent: How Titian Ramsay Peale has been overlooked
Audubon wasn’t the only American naturalist painter of the nineteenth century, although he’s by far the most famous as a result of his books and their lasting appeal. Neither is his reputation entirely...
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