Picasso, Pablo
Still Life with Skull, Leeks, and Pitcher1945oil on canvassize unknownFine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA, USA"Painting is not there merely to decorate the walls of flats. It is a means of waging offensive and defensive war against the enemy." (Picasso) Still lifes preoccupied Picasso at the time of the death of so many people in the last years of the Second World War. These works are powerful meditations on mortality, combining a sense of despair and melancholy with Picasso’s political...
Niceday's wonderfu...
Klee, Paul
Hot-Blooded Girl1938oil on Masonite31.9 x 24.8 cmMilwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USAColor possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter. (Klee)Paul Klee (1879 - 1940) was born in Switzerland, into a family of musicians, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His childhood love of music was always to remain profoundly important in his life and work.His highly...
Valetova, Nina Tokhtaman
Solar Wind2011oil on canvas75 x 61cmNina Petrovna Valetova, or Nina Tokhtaman Valetova, born in 1958, is a Russian-American metaphysical realism painter.She was born in Berdyash, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union and graduated as a Specialist from the Faculty of Arts and Graphics of Bashkir State Pedagogical Institute in Ufa. She immigrated to the United States in 1993.Professional association membershipInternational Arts FundRepresentationAmasin Art...
Klimt, Gustav
Portrait of Helene Klimt (his niece)1898oil on cardboard60 x 40 cmMuseum of Fine Arts Berne, Switzerland, loan from private ownerThe portrait of Helene Klimt shows the 6 year old niece of Klimt. He was the legal guardian of Helene. The composition is influenced by James Whistler. "I have never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women...There is nothing special about me. I am a painter who paints day after day...
Chagall, Marc
The Lovers 1914oil on canvas109.2 x 134.6cmThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things that revolve around love. (Chagall)Chagall's preoccupation with this theme which he addressed beginning from his early paintings, undoubtedly originates in his great love for his first wife Bella. From the moment they met, Bella instantly became his favorite model and greatest inspiration.Marc Chagall (1887 - 1985), was a Belorussian-French artist...
Raffaello Sanzio
La Donna Velata (Woman with a Veil)c.1515oil on canvas82 x 60.5 cmGalleria Palatina, Florence, ItalyThe subject of this painting, La Fornarina was Raphael's preferred model and most probably his mistress. La Fornarina means "the bakers little wife or little daughter", she was from Siena and her name was Margherita Luti. The "Donna Velata" is Raphael's answer to Leonardo's "Mona Lisa", together with the "Portrait of Maddalena Doni" in 1506 (see July 7, 2011 exhibit). This painting shows greater...
El Greco
Marie-Madeleine pénitente (La Penitencia de Maria Magdalena)1578-1580oil on canvas108 x101 cmWorcester Art Museum, USAEl Greco (1541 - 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. He was born on Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He is the most unusual painter in 16th-century Europe. He combined the strict Byzantine style of his homeland, Greece, with influences received during his studies in Venice and...
Anker, Albert Samuel
La Reine Berthe et les fileuses (Queen Bertha and the Spinners)1888oil on canvas86 x 126 cmMusee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, SwitzerlandQueen Bertha of Swabia (907 - c.966), Queen consort of Burgundy, sometimes called the "Spinning Queen", was renowned in her own time and beyond for her strong intellect , industry, and noble nature. "One has to shape an ideal in one's imagination, and then one has to make that ideal accessible to the people." (Anker)Albert Samuel Anker (1831 - 1910) was...
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
Berthe the Deaf in the Garden of Monsieur Forest (Woman with an Umbrella)1889Gouache, watercolor and tempera on cardboard76.7 x 57.5 cm The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia Berthe, who came from Brittany to make a living in Paris, wound up in the Green Parrot whorehouse that Lautrec used to visit. It was not hard to persuade her to pose. Berthe looks as if she dressed up for a formal portrait, with an expensive hat of fine straw, an umbrella, and a gown with lace trimming. She undoubtedly...
Macke, August
Indianer1911oil on canvas88 x 70 cmprivate collectionAugust Macke (1887 - 1914) was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter). He was born in Westphalia. His father was a building contractor and his mother came from a farming family in Westphalia. He lived during a particularly innovative time for German art which saw the development of the main German Expressionist movements as well as the arrival of the successive Avant-garde movements...
Klimt, Gustav
Farm Garden with Crucifix1912oil on canvas110 x 110 cmDestroyed in 1945 (private collection)Farm Garden with Crucifix was destroyed by a fire set by retreating German forces in 1945 at Schloss Immendorf, Austria. This painting marks the beginning of a group of works where the tendency goes toward a transition of the individual form and color as well as an involvement with linearisme. The crucifix does not exist any more, but we know that it was situated near the snack-bar between Kammerl and...
Seurat, Georges
Peasant Woman Seated in the Grass (Paysanne assise dans l'herbe)1883 oil on canvas38.1 x 46.2 cm (15 x 18 in.)Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA"Some say they see poetry in my paintings; I see only science." (Seurat)Georges-Pierre Seurat (1859 - 1891), Post-Impressionist painter, born into a very rich family in Paris, is one of the icons of 19th century painting. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and his teacher was a disciple of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Young Seurat was...
Monet, Claude
The Seine at Vetheuil1879oil on canvas80.3 x 60 cmMusee des Beaux-Arts et de la Ceramique, Rouen, FranceFascinated by water, by its transparency and its reflects, Claude MONET always lived close to the Seine River. From Le Havre to Giverny he settled successively in Paris, Argenteuil, Poissy, and Vetheuil."I'm never finished with my paintings; the further I get, the more I seek the impossible and the more powerless I feel." (Monet)Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) was a founder of French...
Hassam, Childe
Boston Common at Twilight1886oil on canvas106.7 x 152.4 cm Museum of Fine arts, Boston, MA, USAFrederick Childe Hassam (1859 - 1935) was a prominent and prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. He was born in Dorchester (now part of Boston), into a family descended from settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, he was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums....
Durer, Albrecht
Adoration of the Magi1504oil on wood100 x 114 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence, ItalyThe elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony ordered this painting for the church in the castle in Wittenberg. The three kings arrived at this slightly elevated space from the back and after having climbed two steps. The Madonna is clad in azure clothes and cape, a white veil covering her head. She is holding out the infant, who is wrapped in her white veil, to the eldest king. He is offering the infant a gold...
Jongh, Ludolf de
Scene in a Courtyardc.1663Oil on canvas67 x 82 cmMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USALudolf Leendertsz de Jongh (1616 - 1679), the son of a shoemaker, was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He studied with Delft portraitist in Rotterdam and his work shows a strong influence from the Utrecht school of Caravaggio admirers. In 1650's he was one of the most fashionable painters of Rotterdam. He experimented with various innovations in portraiture in this period, both from a psychological perspective...
Karnauhov, Yuriy*
title: Spanish Patioyear: 2011technique: Oildimensions: h 90cm x w 100cmstyle: Impressionismgenre: Still lifelocation: Irkutsk, private collectiondescription: Сочинён в Испании В Албир .*Active Artist today is: Karnauhov, Yuriyyear of birth: 1957nationality: Russiawork location: Irkutskbiography: Born in the city of Irkutsk in 1957. Irkutsk Art School in 1986. In 2005 he joined the "Union of Russian Artists' works are in the Irkutsk Regional Museum im.Sukacheva VP, as well as in private...
Vermeer, Johannes
Girl with the Red Hatc.1666oil on panel23.2 × 18.1 cm (9.1 × 7.1 in)National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA"Truth is the daughter of time, and I feel no shame in being her midwife." (Vermeer)Girl with a Red Hat is one of a number of Vermeer's tronies - Dutch term which refers to paintings of busts or heads, generally wearing hats or exotic clothes and depicting anonymous or fictive characters. Among all of Vermeer's paintings, this is perhaps the one which comes closest to the type of...
Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig
Artistin Marzella1910oil on canvas101 x 76 cmBrucke-Museum, Berlin, Germany"A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things." (Kirchner )Kirchner was known for his energetic and emotive works, differentiated by an audacious use of colors, the vigor, and angular moulds. He wanted to avoid and stay away from existing creative traditions. He charted a new road, leading to fresh ideas and the novel modes of artistic...
Millais, John Everett
The Blind Girl1856oil on canvas62.2 x 82.6 cmBirmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UKThis painting depicts two itinerant beggars, presumed to be sisters, one of whom is a blind musician, her concertina on her lap. They are resting by the roadside after a rainstorm, before traveling to the town of Winchelsea, visible in the background. The elder of the two girls, with her eyes closed, is blind. She is homeless and forced to beg for sustenance by playing her concertina, which we see on her lap. Her...
Leger, Fernand
Woman with a Book1923oil on canvas116 x 81.4 cm (45 3/4 x 32 1/8")Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA"I had broken down the human body, so I set about putting it together again," (Leger) The smooth surfaces of this volumetric woman, bunch of flowers, and book evoke mechanical parts assembled together. The metallic sheen and tight geometry are stylistic treatments that recur in many of Leger's paintings of this period. Leger believed that the mechanical age had the capability of...
Miro, Joan
Still Life with Old Shoe1937oil on canvas81.3 x 116.8 cm (32 x 46")The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USAWhen started the Spanish Civil War Miro was going to his house of Mont-roig del Camp in Catalonia, Spain for a while. Then Miro went to France. On 16 December 1936 he arrived in Paris with his wife and little daughter. They lived in a very small living space with a complete lack of a place to work. At the time, Miro could do nothing but collect ideas and write them to litle sketch cards....
O'Keeffe, Georgia
Deer's Skull with Pedernal1936oil on canvas91 x 77 cm (36 x 30 in.)Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA "One can not be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work." (O'Keeffe) Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (1887 - 1986) was an American artist. She was born in a farmhouse on a large dairy farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She distinguished herself as one of America's most important modern artists, a position she...
Lempicka, Tamara de
La clé et l'oeuf1946oil on canvasboard27.8 x 21 cmlocaion unknownIn March 1939, Lempicka arrived in New York. After her last exhibition in Los Angeles, in 1941, the spread of war relegated such mundane events as opening receptions to the sidelines. Consequently, Lempicka withdrew to her country house in Connecticut. Here, she devoted herself to a series of still lifes comprised of commonplace objects, vegetables and fruits, affording her occasion to attain a state of peace far removed from the...