Gustave Courbet (1819-77), the French Realist painter, created four versions of this with minor differences while staying in Trouville in 1865 with fellow artists James McNeil Whistler and Joanna Hiffernan, the Irish sitter for the portraits. Jo is painted examining her luxuriant red hair and complexion in a mirror at close proximity to the picture …
Dinner at the Ball is an 1878 genre oil on canvas painting by prominent German artist Adolph Menzel. Menzel (1815-1905) has been variously characterized as a Realist or a ‘proto-Impressionist’ painter and such is the diversity of his output that both of these descriptions are appropriate. In Dinner at the Ball (also often referred to …
Luncheon in the Studio is an 1868 Realist Genre painting by leading French Impressionist artist Edouard Manet. Luncheon in the Studio is enigmatic like many of Edouard Manet’s Genre paintings in the Realist style. The 16-year-old Léon Leenhoff, son of Suzanne Leenhoff who was to later marry Manet, stares out beyond us in the pose …
An After Dinner at Ornans is an 1848 painting by French realist artist Gustave Courbet. It is located in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, France. Analysis of An After Dinner at Ornans Here we see the elevation of the humble peasant life to the level of a subject worthy of a large canvas at …
Snap the Whip is an 1872 painting by American Realist artist Winslow Homer. It is located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, United States. Analysis of Homer’s Snap the Whip Painted six years after the American Civil War during which American painter Winslow Homer depicted the lives of the soldiers, Snap …
The French Carolus-Duran’s 1870 Genre and Realist painting Merrymakers, captures a scheme of humor and fun in a cafe. Carolus-Duran whose full name was actually Charles Auguste Émile Durand (1837-1917) was a painter of the high society of the French Third Republic. In Merrymakers, we can see four well-dressed people – a woman laughing with …
American Genre painter Thomas Le Clear was commissioned by banker Franklin Sidway to paint Interior with Portraits in 1865. It depicts Sidway’s two siblings James and Parnell posing in front of a previously painted background while the artist takes a reference photograph. The painting is notable for the fact that the likeness of a young James …
George Caleb Bingham’s 1849 genre painting Country Politician depicts four people, in a house or perhaps a shop where three men are having a conversation. The man on the right-hand side of the frame is a campaigning politician. The man in the middle appears to be a businessman or other higher member of society and …
American Eastman Johnson spent some time in Europe where he studied the works of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish masters. Interesting News, with its theme of a girl, reading, the map motif, and the subtleties of light, reminds the viewer of Vermeer in particular. In a highly descriptive Realist style, Eastman Johnson’s Interesting News from 1872 …
The Life Line is a genre oil on canvas painting by American artist Winslow Homer. It was painted in 1884 in the American Realist style. This work is located in the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Analysis of The Life Line Winslow Homer’s The Life Line from 1884 is a marked contrast between …
