Winter Landscape with Skaters is a 1608 painting by Hendrick Avercamp where the Dutch artist, who was a deaf mute, carefully portrayed a harsh winter day in 17th century Netherlands. On the surface of this traditional winter scene we can see the townspeople enjoying themselves, choosing the spend the day in leisure, ice skating and …
Winter Landscape with Skaters: Hendrick Avercamp Read More »
Death of Marat is a 1907 loose tribute or reworking of the same subject by eighteenth-century Neoclassicist Jacques-Louis David and bears a similar arrangement of space. Norwegian Edvard Munch, however, includes the murderess in the picture looking out at the viewer. The scene has been seen as a personal statement of loss and hurt at …
Sarah Waiting for Tobias by Dutch master Rembrandt contains beautifully subtle effects of shading on the skin of the woman peering out from the bed. The 1643 painting also has different textures, from the gold of her tiara to the rich fabric that Sarah lifts with her left hand – expertly painted, emphasizing the illusion …
Portrait of Johanna Staude by Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt is one of his final works, completed in the year of his death in 1918, and is thought to be unfinished. The decoration is still evident but confined to the outfit of his sitter. The background is much simplified although still nuanced with reds. His …
Girl at a Window is a 1645 painting by Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn which leaves much of its interpretation entirely up to the viewer. Here we see a young girl staring out at the viewer. She is leaning against a table or ledge and there aren’t really any other standout characteristics other than her …
Aurora is a 1621 mythological fresco painting by Italian Baroque artist Guercino. Aurora Analysis: Guercino, also known as Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, painted Aurora on the ceiling of the Villa Aurora, a historical building in Rione Ludovisi in Rome, Italy. It was painted in 1621 for art connoisseur Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Pope Gregory …
Portrait of Fritza Riedler was painted in 1906 in the midst of Gustav Klimt’s golden period during which he made extensive use of the gold leaf. Typically, it is highly decorative and loosely in the style of Art Nouveau – as is shown here in the use of flowing forms. The decorative headdress of the …
Jealousy is one of eleven versions of the theme that Norwegian artist Edvard Munch painted. In this 1907 version, there are three figures – two suitors and the desired woman. In typical Expressionist style, Munch uses non-naturalistic colors in the faces to signal differing emotional states with the face of the man looking out at …
In this 1661 double portrait titled Two Moors, Dutch artist Rembrandt affords dignity to two black men by the fact that they are the sole subject of the work. At this time, the only depictions of black people were as servants – both occupationally and artistically, as they were usually bit-part players to a ‘larger’ …
Goldfish is a 1902 symbolist Art Nouveau painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. Goldfische in Dutch, this is a riposte to Gustav Klimt’s critics after his Faculty paintings were decried as pornographic. This 1902 oil painting carries his highly ornamental style and a colorism typical of his ‘gold period’. This is supplemented with the foreground …
Two Old Men Disputing is a very early 1628 work by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt. It is in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. Analysis of Two Old Men Disputing This work depicts two scholars, or by many art historians, of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in the midst of a debate. …
Retrato de Nina (or Nina’s portrait in English) is a 1640 portrait of an unknown girl by Spanish court painter Diego Velazquez (1599-1660). In this likely unfinished painting, he combines a realistic likeness with an acute ability to bring out the quiet intelligence of the girl. Analysis of Retrato de Nina Retrato de niña or …
The Rape of Europa is a 1562 Mythological Renaissance painting by the founder of the Venetian School, Titian which belonged to a mythological series that he called ‘poems’. The Rape of Europa depicts Europa, a Phoenician princess of divine descent, whose tale was popularised by Ovid’s Metamorphoses but which likely originated in archaic Greece (8th-6th …
In The Deer in Petworth Park by the English painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), the objects and creatures of the external world are treated as if a vehicle for self-expression. Pentworth Park in West Sussex, South East England is renowned for having the largest herd of Fallow deer in the world. The deer of the title …
The Death of Cleopatra is a highly finished scene at the border between classical composition and naturalistic style by French painter Jean-André Rixens (1846-1925). It is located in the Museum of the Augustines in Toulouse, France. Analysis of Rixen’s Death of Cleopatra The composition painted early in his career in 1874 at age 28 is …
At the Café Concert: The Song of the Dog was painted in 1877, three years after the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris. In it we can see the Impressionist concern with modern city life and a lack of clarity in terms of perspective and visual effects that go against the conventional demand for realism at …
At the Café Concert: The Song of the Dog: Edgar Degas Read More »
1892’s Despair by Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) shows an obscured figure turning away from both the social world of the picture space, as shown by the two men walking away in the background, and turning from the spectator. The overall scene of wavy colors seems to be a contribution to the sense of …
Spanish Painter Jusepe de Ribera painted Martyrdom of St Lawrence in Italy in 1624 where he produced all of his works throughout his lifetime. Here he is painting an event whereby St Lawrence, protector of the Holy Grail is accepting his inevitable fate of death for refusing to hand over the church’s treasures to Roman …
Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), a giant of twentieth-century art, painted The Actor in 1904 at the age of twenty-three at the beginning of his Rose Period. The work shows a concern with a modern kind of Mannerism where the limbs are extended and gesture exaggerated. The suits the subject as we watch the actor …
