John Atkinson Grimshaw (English, 1836-1893) – A Reverie, in the Artist’s House, 1878 (Oil on canvas) – Painted in a colour-scheme of jade, rose, gold and kingfisher-blue emphasised by the dark flooring and wall panelling, which echoes the hues of the kimono draped casually over the sofa and embroidered with scenes of Japanese women. Grimshaw probably painted his wife Frances Theodosia Grimshaw (known as Fanny) wearing a beautiful silk gown with a pleated front…
Marc Chagall (Russian, later French, 1887-1985) – I and the Village (Moi et le village), 1911 (Oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York) – This early work clearly shows both the Cubist and Fauvist influences at play in Chagall’s canvas, yet unlike the works of Picasso or Matisse, Chagall is far more playful and liberal with decorative elements, creating a pastoral paradise out of the Russian countryside. It is an early sign of the approach that would make the artist famous and influential: a blend of the modern and the figurative, with a light, whimsical tone… Chagall depicts a fairy tale in which a cow dreams of a milk maid and a man and wife (one upright,one upside down) frolic in the work fields…
James Tissot (French, 1836-1902) – Room Overlooking the Harbor, c.1876-78 (Oil on canvas) – Perhaps at tea at a vacation destination on a harbor, the woman reads a book and the man a newspaper. While the view and balcony are both enticing, the reading holds their attention…
Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774 -1840) – The Sea of Ice, 1824 (Oil on canvas. Kunsthalle, Hamburg) – German painting’s great romantic, Friedrich here depicts the shipwreck of the HMS Griper, a British vessel on an expedition to the North Pole. The iceberg totally dwarfs the ship; it is a gravestone as much as an obstacle. As so often in Friedrich’s art, nature here is at once sublimely beautiful and totally indifferent to human life…
Wassily Kandinsky – Winter Landscape, 1911 (Oil, cardboard. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia) Early in his career Kandinsky developed a theory of colours that ascribed synesthetic, nearly mystical powers to certain combinations of tones. In this depiction of a snow-blanketed country landscape, one of his last figurative compositions before turning entirely to abstraction, the yellow sky hums with effects of green and white, the path to the small house in the centre glows pink, and the hillside is a riot of improvised coloured daubs…
Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917): Nude from the Rear, Reading, c.1880-85 (Pastel, Private Collection) – His paintings were exhibited at the Paris Salon beginning in 1865, but they attracted little attention, and his subject matter slowly transitioned from history paintings to more contemporary subjects… Although he is considered one of the founders of Impressionism, and he indeed worked with impressionist artists, such as Edouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, he rejected the label “Impressionist.” He detested the scandals brought about by their Impressionist Exhibitions, and he mocked them for painting outdoors…
René Magritte (Belgian, 1898-1967): La Reproduction Interdite, 1937 (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Rotterdam) – Surrealist patron Edward James allowed Magritte to stay rent free in his London home and pint. James is featured in La Reproduction Interdite, an oil painting also known as Not to be Reproduced… During 1947-48, Magritte’s “Vache Period,” he painted in a provocative and crude Fauve style. During this time, Magritte supported himself through the production of fake Picassos, Braques and Chiricos, a fraudulent repertoire he was later to expand into the printing of forged banknotes during the lean postwar period…
Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917): Two Ballet Dancers, c.1879 (Pastel and gouache on paper, Shelburne Museum, Vermont) – Degas shows two dancers in an abrupt, expressive design. The young dancers are spent and the one on the left massages her foot indicating discomfort. They are far removed from the magic illusion of the stage and performance that many expected of Degas…
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973): Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle, 1914 (Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London) – Picasso’s Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle is typical of his Synthetic Cubism, in which he uses various means – painted dots, silhouettes, grains of sand – to allude to the depicted objects. This combination of painting and mixed media is an example of the way Picasso “synthesized” color and texture – synthesizing new wholes after mentally dissecting the objects at hand. During his Analytic Cubist phase Picasso had suppressed color, so as to concentrate more on the forms and volumes of the objects, and this rationale also no doubt guided his preference for still life throughout this phase. The life of the cafe certainly summed up modern Parisian life for the artists – it was where he spent a good deal of time talking with other artists – but the simple array of objects also ensured that questions of symbolism and allusion might be kept under control…
Karl Hofer (German, 1878-1955): Girl with Vinyl Record, 1941 (Oil on canvas. Albertina, Vienna) – The vinyl record is held by a half-naked young woman, while another, smaller disc and a gramophone are on the table. While the dominant background palette matches the girl’s lackadaisical and sad countenance, the stark red and purple round labels of the records stand out. The presence of records is an act of ‘integrating the elements of modern life’ portrayed against the background of ‘listlessness and resignation of the picture’s protagonist.’…
NégyArt 