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Still Life History: 7 Paul Cézanne
A great deal happened in and to still life painting in the nineteenth century, and one of most important of them was the prolific painting of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), who today is better known for his...
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Francisco Goya: 1 Zaragoza and Rome
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes* was born in the small hilltop village of Fuendetodos, near Zaragoza (often Anglicised to Saragossa) in the north-east of Spain, on 30 March 1746. His father was a...
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Reject: The refused portrait
For a well-connected and competent artist, painting portraits may look like easy money, but as many like John Singer Sargent would have told us, it can get very tricky. Striking the right balance...
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The Likeness of Truth 1
In my recent series looking at paintings of classical deities, you might have wondered why I didn’t include any goddess of truth. Although sometimes named as Aletheia (Greek ἀλήθεια) or Roman Veritas,...
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The Likeness of Truth 2
In the first article of this pair, I traced the early history of paintings of the personification of Truth, in which she evolved from a fairly straightforward nude woman, to one emerging from a well...
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Don Quixote 16: Quest for a giant abandoned
In the previous episode, the priest continued to read The Tale of Inappropriate Curiosity to the group at the inn, while Don Quixote was asleep upstairs. In that story, Anselmo’s wife Camila was...
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Painting Within Tent: William Hodges with Captain Cook
Captain James Cook (1728-1779) made three exploratory voyages in the Pacific. The first, between 1768-1771, took the brilliant artist Sydney Parkinson (c 1745-1771), who tragically died at sea during...
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Still Life History: 8 Vincent van Gogh
After Cézanne, the other great Post-Impressionist painter of still lifes was Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Still Life with Two Sacks and a Bottle (November 1884), oil on...
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Francisco Goya: 2 Royal cartoons
By the early 1770s, Francisco Goya (1746–1828) was making a name and reputation for himself as a provincial painter in his home city of Zaragoza, Spain. His attempts to get recognition with the court...
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Reject: Whistler’s White Girl
Over the winter of 1861-62, the American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) worked on a near-life-size full-length portrait of his mistress and manager Joanna Hiffernan, which was to...
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Crème de la Crème: Winners of the Prix de Rome for painting 1
In Europe, 1666 was an eventful year. The Great Plague entered its second year in London, then on Sunday 2 September the city caught fire, destroying its mediaeval heart completely, and burning until...
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Crème de la Crème: Winners of the Prix de Rome for painting 2
During the eighteenth century, the Prix de Rome had been awarded to a few who went on to become painters of great distinction – David and his pupil Ingres are perhaps the best examples, but most...
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Don Quixote 17: The captive’s tale
In the previous episode, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza were still at the roadside inn when there arrived four masked horsemen escorting a woman, also with her face covered. It transpired that the woman...
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Painting within tent: Contents and indexes
This series has looked at paintings of expeditions and exploratory journeys around the world. This article provides a table of contents linking to each article in the series, together with an...
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Still Life History: 9 Into the twentieth century
Despite concentrating on landscape painting, the French Impressionists and several Post-Impressionists continued to paint still lifes, some quite prolifically. But as the nineteenth century drew to a...
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Francisco Goya: 3 Enter the Maja
Soon after being summoned to Madrid in early 1775, Francisco Goya (1746–1828) had painted nine cartoons of hunting scenes to be turned into tapestries to hang in the dining room of the Prince and...
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Reject: Eakins’ unsightly medical history
Too much art is judged by people without vision, those who often can’t bear to look, and just hide their eyes. The art and career of Thomas Eakins (1844–1916) was repeatedly thwarted by narrow-minded...
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How the Other Half Live: paintings of stately homes 1
Until the nineteenth century, at least, most paintings were commissioned or bought by the wealthy, many of whom lived in palaces, mansions and other stately homes. Today and tomorrow I look at a...
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How the Other Half Live: paintings of stately homes 2
In the first of these two articles looking at paintings of palaces, mansions and other stately homes, I looked at a selection up to 1864. This article shows further views until well into the twentieth...
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Don Quixote 18: Escape and reunion
In the previous episode, the group at the inn listened to the man from Algiers tell his life story, which started when he was given his inheritance, became a soldier and rose to the rank of captain. He...
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