Peter Fiore, 1955 | Abstract Landscape painter

May 11, 2016, 10:22 am

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Peter Fiore is an American landscape painter who is best known for painting light and his striking use of color. Previously, he worked as a professional illustrator where he collaborated on thousands of projects and won numerous awards. Today his landscape paintings are widely collected and are in many corporate and private collections. He has won numerous awards and has been featured in a number of publications including Fine Art Connoisseur as an "Artist to Watch".

Peter was born in Teaneck NJ in 1955. He studied at Pratt Institute and the Art Students League of New York. He has been on the faculty at Pratt Institute, Syracuse University and presently teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Peter has given numerous guest lectures and workshops on painting. His work is represented in prestigious galleries across the country. Peter lives and works along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania.

Artist's Statement

I am interested in making the simple profound, always searching for that universal moment in the world around us. I draw inspiration for my landscape paintings from many places, but most of it comes from the fields and meadows near my home in rural Pennsylvania along the Delaware River. I used to think that I had to travel far to find interesting motifs, but now I just walk out my door and it's all there.
The abstract marks that I make are used to interpret nature's tangle. Making visual sense and constructing order by structuring shape, form, tone, color and rhythm to create a palpable reality.
I like to visit a motif over and over again. I am especially drawn to the winter landscape. It is a time when the earth loses its leafy covering and reveals it's true self. Covered in snow, the world reflects light and creates a spectrum of colors that are both dramatic and beautiful.
The true subject in any of my paintings is light and how it defines and endlessly changes the landscape around us. For me, light is more than a visual tool, it is an emotional subject. It is through the manipulation of light - how it falls, changes, sculpts, colors and creates various moods on a subject - that intrigues and inspires me.

Awards

- American Art Collector Award of Excellece
Art Renewal Center Salon 2013/14
The first year ARC offered this award, juried by the magazines' editor Joshua Rose.
- Art Renewal Center's 9th Annual
International 2013/14 Salon Competition
Finalist, Landscape
Finalist for Landscape in the Art Renewal Center’s 9th Annual International 2013/14 Salon Competition.

- Southwest Art
Artistic Excellence: Honorable Mention
December 2013
- ARC: Living Master
Art Renewal Center
Peter has been named a Living Master by the Art Renewal Center. ARC defines a Living Master as one who has the rare talent, experience and expertise to create great humanistic works of art that are seemingly executed with effortless perfection.

- ACOPAL: Grand Prize Winner
America China Oil Painting Artists League
Grand Prize Winner in ACOPAL's competition. "Winter Storm Clearing will be exhibited along with members and other winners at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio from December 18th-February 26th.

- Art Renewal Center's 8th Annual
International 2011/12 Salon Competition
Finalist, Landscape
Top finalist for Landscape in the Art Renewal Center’s 8th Annual International 2011/12 Salon Competition.

- Art Renewal Center's 7th Annual
International 2010/11 Salon Competition
First Place, Landscape
First Place for Landscape in the Art Renewal Center’s 7th Annual International 2010/11 Salon Competition as well as an honorable mention and 2 finalists.

- Art Renewal Center's 6th Annual
International 2009/10 Salon Competition
Finalist, Landscape
Top finalist in the Art Renewal Center’s 6th Annual International 2009/10 Salon Competition. Two paintings, "January Awakening" and "Morning Light, Winter Stream" were chosen from the 1700 plus entries received from around the world.

- Art Renewal Center's 5th Annual
International 2008/09 Salon Competition
Honorable Mention and Finalist, Landscape
Honorable Mention and top finalist in the Art Renewal Center’s 5th Annual International 2008/09 Salon Competition. Two paintings, "Autumn Evening" and "January Shade" were chosen from the 1600 plus entries received from around the world.

- The Artist's Magazine 2007 Competition
First Place and Finalist for Landscape
December 2007
"Refreshing color. A painter's eye was there. I was engaged by the blue foreground, the golden-lit focal area with the red barn. This is a painterly work".
Art Renewal Center's 4th Annual

- International 2007 Salon Competition
Finalist, Landscape
Selected as one of the top 100 finalists in the Art Renewal Center’s International 2007 Salon Competition. Three paintings, "January Snow, Early Morning", "Winter Sun", and "November Meadow, Sunset" have been judged and selected to be among the best out of the 1600 plus entries received from around the world.

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Simeon Nijenhuis, 1969 | Impressionist painter

May 12, 2016, 5:50 am

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Simeon Nijenhuis is transforming reality, creating a metaphor, for him the main function of the visual arts. Simeon is also someone who paints from his feeling. From his inner urge he depict topics that fascinate him as vividly as possible. Often, captivating shades, fabric expressions or special light falling on an object, are the reason for making a painting.
Spontaneous and intuitive, he then gets to work to capture this atmosphere. Here he plays with an impressive variety of brushstrokes, subtle shades and textures in the paint. Continuing until the right dynamics versus harmony is found and the optimal power of expression is reached.

A painting has to be an experience for Simeon Nijenhuis, it needs to "live" and touch your senses. If you look at a painting of chestnuts, you should be able to smell the autumn. In order to meet its own standards, Simeon Nijenhuis must therefore work thorough. Each new topic means many studies before and he is continually exploring new possibilities.

He is not only concerned to master the technique, but also to develop his own vision. And it may be said that Simeon Nijenhuis has more than succeeded in this. His paintings are compelling, contemporary and very personal. And my senses at least ask for more.

Simeon Nijenhuis studied at the Academy Minerva Groningen, The Netherlands.

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Édouard Manet | Le déjeuner sur l'Herbe, 1863 | Art in Detail

May 12, 2016, 9:21 am

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Rejected by the jury of the 1863 Salon, Manet exhibited Le déjeuner sur l’herbe under the title Le Bain at the Salon des Refusés (initiated the same year by Napoléon III) where it became the principal attraction, generating both laughter and scandal.

Yet in Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, Manet was paying tribute to Europe's artistic heritage, borrowing his subject from the Concert champêtre - a painting by Titian attributed at the time to Giorgione (Louvre) - and taking his inspiration for the composition of the central group from the Marcantonio Raimondi engraving after Raphael's Judgement of Paris.

But the classical references were counterbalanced by Manet's boldness. The presence of a nude woman among clothed men is justified neither by mythological nor allegorical precedents. This, and the contemporary dress, rendered the strange and almost unreal scene obscene in the eyes of the public of the day. Manet himself jokingly nicknamed his painting "la partie carrée".

In those days, Manet's style and treatment were considered as shocking as the subject itself. He made no transition between the light and dark elements of the picture, abandoning the usual subtle gradations in favour of brutal contrasts, thereby drawing reproaches for his "mania for seeing in blocks". And the characters seem to fit uncomfortably in the sketchy background of woods from which Manet has deliberately excluded both depth and perspective. Le déjeuner sur l'herbe - testimony to Manet's refusal to conform to convention and his initiation of a new freedom from traditional subjects and modes of representation - can perhaps be considered as the departure point for Modern Art. | © Musée d'Orsay

Rifiutata dalla giuria del Salon del 1863, La Colazione sull'erba viene esposta con il titolo Il Bagno al "Salon des Refusés" autorizzato quello stesso anno da Napoleone III. L'opera, motivo di dileggio e fonte di scandalo, divenne la principale attrazione di detto evento.

Tuttavia, per La Colazione sull'erba, Manet rivendica l'eredità dei maestri del passato e si ispira a due opere del Louvre. Il Concerto campestre di Tiziano, all'epoca attribuito al Giorgione, suggerisce il soggetto, mentre la disposizione del gruppo centrale trae ispirazione da un'incisione ispirata ad un'opera di Raffaello: Il giudizio di Paride.

Tuttavia, in Colazione sull'erba, la presenza di una donna nuda in mezzo a uomini vestiti non è giustificata da alcun pretesto mitologico e allegorico. La modernità dei personaggi rende oscena, agli occhi dei suoi contemporanei, questa scena quasi irreale.

La cosa divertiva Manet che aveva soprannominato il suo quadro "Lo scambio di coppie".

Lo stile e la fattura scandalizzarono quasi quanto il soggetto. Manet abbandona le consuete sfumature per lasciare spazio ai violenti contrasti tra luce ed ombra. Egli viene anche aspramente criticato per la sua "mania di vedere tramite macchie". I personaggi della tela non sembrano perfettamente integrati in questo sottobosco che funge da scenario e che, invece di essere dipinto, -è più che altro abbozzato e dove la prospettiva viene ignorata e la profondità è assente.

Con La colazione sull'erba, Manet non rispetta nessuna delle convenzioni ammesse tuttavia, egli impone una nuova libertà rispetto al soggetto e ai tradizionali modelli di rappresentazione. | © Musée d'Orsay

Marcantonio Raimondi - The judgement of Paris, 1510-1520

Tiziano Vecellio, (inizialmente attribuito a Giorgione) Concerto campestre, 1509, Parigi, Museo del Louvre

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Daniel Courbois | Romantic Impressionist painter

May 12, 2016, 4:04 pm

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Daniel Courbois belongs to one of the finest Impressionist painters in France. His paintings are on show at Gallery France which is located in Beynac et Cazenac. Dordogne, France.

Daniel Courbois travels throughout France and paints his romantic paintings plein air but uses also sheds as atelier which he encounters on his travels.

Daniel is an eccentric who doesn't like promoting himself and he has no permanent place or residence.

During 2014 we discovered Daniel by accident while he was working in the Dordogne area. | © Gallery France

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Rex Preston, 1948 | Abstract Landscape painter

May 13, 2016, 1:15 pm

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Born in Yardley, Birmingham, Rex Preston is one of Britain's leading landscape artists. He trained at Newcastle under Lyme School of Art and then Derby College of Art. Rex Preston has lived in Derbyshire for most of his life and although his home area of the Peak District and Pennines has exerted a huge influence on his painting, he travels the country searching for favourite subjects like Cornwall or the Lake District.

Working principally in oil, Rex Preston began painting professionally in 1969.

He loves to walk with his sketchbook and loves the more remote areas.

I spend as much time as possible out in the countryside looking for subjects. When the weather allows, I paint on location and just walk until something catches my eye. Sketching is also very useful to record fleeting light effects and atmosphere.

In the past few years Rex Preston has had much success with his abstracted landscapes. These more abstract paintings use all the same skills as his more traditional landscapes, but focus on the mood and colour in a subject rather than detail. He has enjoyed the challenge of concentrating on a small part of a landscape such as the reflections in water or the sunlight coming through the clouds lighting up a small area of landscape.

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Rembrandt | Portrait of an Old Man, 1645 | Art in Detail

May 13, 2016, 2:31 pm

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In this painting, Rembrandt turned his attention to the subject of old age, a recurring theme in his work that was also the focus of a large number of self portraits. The identity of the figure in the painting is, however, unknown. The rich costume that he is wearing gives no indication of the old man’s occupation or social status. Rather, it appears to be an accessory belonging to the painter’s studio that he used as a powerfully effective decorative element.

Rendered in a highly intimiste style, the work calls to mind other pieces by the artist in that it marries the simplicity of Dutch taste with the Italian predilection for warm colours. Realistic, expressive, psychologically dense and emotionally suggestive, the portrait reveals a new form of pictorial narration through which the spectator is given a sense of the spiritual space inhabited by the figure. This aspect is further highlighted by the painter’s prodigious use of chiaroscuro.

Like Pallas Athena, another painting by Rembrandt which Calouste Gulbenkian bought from the Hermitage Museum in 1930, this work formed part of the collection of Catherine II of Russia. | © Museo Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbonne

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Diane Millsap | Cityscape painter

May 14, 2016, 2:47 pm

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Diane Millsap is a full-time, professional artist. Born in Southern California, and raised in the Chicago area, she and her husband now live in rural northern Illinois. She received her formal art training at Western Illinois University and from her mother, an accomplished watercolor artist. After a career in furniture design, she now paints full time.

Over the past decade, Diane has painted, sketched and photographed the mysterious and beautiful city of New Orleans. It has become the main focus of her work, and she and her husband have made it their favorite travel destination. In addition to her original oils, many of her New Orleans street and jazz scenes are now in print.

As her art of New Orleans grows in popularity, collectors of her work have sent her photos, shared family stories, and welcomed her on her visits.

As she says:

I have become enchanted with New Orleans because it offers and endless flow of images to paint. This city has a depth of soul and a love of life that reaches out to everyone.

Diane's paintings hang in many private and corporate collections across the country and abroad. Her style is constantly evolving, but a love of color and emotional expression is a common thread which runs through each piece.

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Fernando Fader | Post-impressionist painter

May 14, 2016, 4:44 pm

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Fernando Fader (April 11, 1882 - February 25, 1935) was a French-born Argentine painter of the Post-impressionist school.

Fernando Fader was born in Bordeaux, France in 1882. His father, of Prussian descent, relocated the family to Argentina in 1884, settling in the western city of Mendoza before returning to France a few years later. Graduating from secondary school, Fader returned to Mendoza in 1898, where he first practiced his skill as an artist painting urban landscapes. Fader relocated to Munich in 1900, where he enrolled at a local vocational school. This training allowed him enrollment at the prestigious Munich Academy of Fine Arts, where he was mentored by Heinrich von Zügel, prominent in Europe's Naturalist Barbizon School.

He returned briefly to Buenos Aires, where his work was first exhibited at the Costa Salon in 1906. His landscapes quickly established him as a Post-impressionist painter at a time when local critics were still partial to Impressionism, however, and this motivated Fader to join other artists similarly out of favor with conservative Argentine audiences, such as Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós, the sculptor Rogelio Yrurtia and Martín Malharro (whose earlier, Impressionist work had - ironically - established the genre locally in 1902).

Their Nexus group struggled until around 1910, when Malharro's atelier became the most influential in Argentina shortly before his sudden passing. Fader settled in Buenos Aires in 1914, where he obtained a first prize at the Fourth National Art Bienale. He toured art galleries in Spain and Germany and earned a gold medal at the Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, in 1915. An onset of tuberculosis, however, forced him to relocate to the drier climates of the Argentine Andes foothills.

His stay in Córdoba refocused his work along more Impressionistic lines, employing a greater use of sunlight contrasts. His new surroundings also gave him ample bucolic inspiration, and he created many of his most well-known works during this period, many of which romantically portrayed farm life. This productive period was cut short by a sudden worsening of Fader's breathing difficulties around 1921, which by then had become chronic asthma and precluded outdoor work. This led Fader to turn to still life, nudes and self-portraits, resulting in a third, distinct period in the artist's prolific body of work.

Though forced into reclusion by ill health, Fader never lost the following he had acquired during his heyday around 1915, and the National Academy of Fine Arts organized a retrospective of his work in 1924. The Buenos Aires community of art galleries organized a 1932 retrospective of 119 works in honor of Fader's 50 th birthday, by which time he was too ill to attend.

Fernando Fader died in Ischilín Department, Córdoba at age 52, in 1935. His former home in the rural hamlet of Loza Corral is maintained as a museum.

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Dario de Regoyos | Plein air painter

May 15, 2016, 3:49 am

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Darío de Regoyos y Valdés was born in Ribadesella (Asturias) in 1857 and died in Barcelona in 1913. He spent his childhood and teenage years in Madrid. He began his artistic training in 1877 as a pupil of Carlos de Haes in the landscape department, receiving classes in landscape drawing. His eagerness to travel and learn about emerging foreign art movements spurred him in 1879 to visit Brussels, where his musician friends Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Fernández Arbós were then staying.

On the advice of Carlos de Haes, while in Brussels he contacted the man who had been Haes’s master years earlier, the Belgian painter Joseph Quinaux (1822-1895).

Regoyos received classes at his studio for two years and Quinaux became his master, as Regoyos would recognise years later. At the same time he also enrolled for a course taught by Van Sevendonck in drawing heads after the antique at the École Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels for the academic year 1879-1880.

Regoyos trained as a painter in Belgium, where he spent long periods until the 1890s.

In 1881 he joined the L’Essor circle and the group of artists who later on, in 1883, founded the outstanding and now highly regarded circle of Les XX that spearheaded the liberation of art in Belgium. Regoyos was the only non-Belgian founding member. The group split up in 1893 as the members felt they had achieved their chief aim of gaining “acceptance for free art in Belgium”; its dissolution gave rise to the creation of La Libre Esthétique, a circle that existed for 20 years and in which Regoyos showed his work on several occasions. In 1914, after his death, a major exhibition was staged as a tribute to him, promoted by the poet Émile Verhaeren and the painters Théo van Rysselberghe and Ignacio Zuloaga with the support of the circle’s director, Octave Maus.

Regoyos’s style progressively developed through his constant contact with his artist friends, among them the painters Camille Pissarro, Whistler, Seurat, Signac, Ensor, Van Rysselberghe, etc., and the poet Émile Verhaeren, with whom he collaborated in publishing La España negra and travelled around Spain, France and Italy.

His painting spans various stages: the first is connected more closely with the Belgian period, in which he produced many portraits; the second, known as the España Negra series and focused on Spain of the black legend, is a more philosophical or pre-Symbolist stage; and the third, in which his style and palette show stronger affinities with Impressionism, is the best known.

Regoyos showed his work primarily at group exhibitions aimed at promoting freedom in art. He exhibited in France (often at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris and at the Galeries Durand-Ruel), Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Argentina.

In Spain he exhibited in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and San Sebastian. He was often relegated to the so-called “Sala del Crimen” at the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts for being an “Impressionist”. His early death shortly before the age of fifty-seven prevented him from seeing how his efforts to overcome the predominance of academicism were finally understood, and a posthumous tribute was paid to him at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid eight years later. | © Juan San Nicolás, Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga

Dario de Regoyos (Ribadesella, 1º novembre 1857 - Barcellona, 29 ottobre 1913) è stato un pittore Spagnolo, che ha rinnovato l'arte del paesaggio in Spagna in chiave impressionista.

Darío de Regoyos y Valdés nacque nelle Asturie, figlio di un noto architetto, Darío Regoyos Molenillo, si trasferì giovanissimo a Madrid dove dal 1878 fu alunno di Carlos de Haes alla Reale Accademia di Belle Arti di San Fernando.

Su consiglio del suo maestro, che era di origine belga, nel 1879 si recò a Bruxelles dove conseguì il diploma nella locale Scuola Reale di Belle Arti e dove aveva per amici musicisti come Enrique Fernández Arbós e Isaac Albéniz.

Il pittore belga Joseph Quinaux (1822-1895) fu il suo vero maestro in questo periodo. Nel 1895 sposò Henriette de Montguyon a Bilbao.

Soggiornò a più riprese in Belgio dove organizzò attività culturali volte a diffondere l'arte moderna in quel Paese. Partecipò a varie esposizioni collettive in diversi Paesi europei fra cui l'Italia così come in Messico e Argentina.

Durante questo periodo l'arte di Regoyos si evolse dal naturalismo al pre-simbolismo per approdare negli anni della sua maturità artistica a uno stile molto vicino all'impressionismo e al puntinismo.

In questi anni si colloca la sua ampia produzione di paesaggi del Nord della Spagna di cui si possono ammirare alcuni capolavori al Museo di Belle Arti di Bilbao e alla Collezione Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza di Madrid.

Il valore artistico di Regoyos non fu pienamente apprezzato quando era in vita ma a otto anni dalla sua morte gli fu dedicata un'esposizione commemorativa nella Biblioteca Nacional de España, di Madrid e successivamente gli sono state intitolate delle strade a Oviedo, Ribadesella, Bilbao, Irún e Azuqueca de Henares.

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Lucien Fontanarosa | Post-Impressionist /Expressionist painter

May 16, 2016, 7:25 am

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Lucien Fontanarosa (1912-1975) was born to Italian parents in Paris where his father worked as a tailor. Fontanarosa grew up in Paris and also in Padua, Italy. He showed interest in art as a child, and spent his free time sketching the streets of Paris as a boy along the banks of the Seine. He took classes in these early years in Classical Art at the Academie Julian.

Though his family accepted his love of art, Fontanarosa was still encouraged to learn a trade, so he turned to lithography and took classes at the Ecole Estienne in Paris. He is awarded a scholarship by the Ecole Estienne in 1931 which allows him to travel to Tunisia. Here is able to flex his Orientalist side.

That same year he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was able to set up a studio in an abandoned shop.

Fontanarosa is inspired by the work of the Cubists at this time, however, he would essentially become a Post-Impressionist /Expressionist painter.

In 1932, he began to exhibit more and more, and the following year he met fellow art student Annette Faive who would become his wife.

From 1937-1939, Fontanarosa lived and worked in Rome where he worked in Ingres' studio. He would also take his work outdoors and paint around the city at various famous monuments and regions of Italy, especially Tuscany.

In 1939, Fontanarosa was drafted into the army, but his time in service did not prevent him from exhibiting his work at this time. His stint fighting in World War II was brief, but impacted him emotionally. When he returned in 1940, Fontanarosa destroyed a large portion of the work he had left behind in his studio and started his career anew.

Throughout his career, Fontanarosa was commissioned by the French government to paint a number of frescoes and other artistic decoration in various buildings. Some of these decorations, such as the Richelieu Lecture Theater in Poitiers have since been destroyed.

During his lifetime, Fontanarosa found great success as an artist, and had many patrons besides the French government. He traveled extensively around Europe, working and exhibiting in Italy, Holland, Luxembourg and other European countries.

His work has also been exhibited in London and even in the United States. He worked on interesting projects, such as creating the cover for Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and won a number of decorations and awards as an artist. Fontanarosa was a highly prolific artist and continued to work nearly until his death in 1975, and he is buried today among so many other artists at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Lucien Fontanarosa (1912-1975), figlio di Francesco Fontanarosa e Stefania Lucchin, entrambi italiani, nasce a Parigi, dove i genitori si sono da poco trasferiti, il 19 dicembre 1912. Durante l’infanzia del futuro pittore la famiglia compie tuttavia frequenti viaggi in Italia, in particolar modo in Veneto, a Padova, e nella cittadina ligure di San Remo, dove i Fontanarosa si stabiliscono dal 1921-1923 per tornare poi definitivamente a Parigi.

I genitori assecondano la sua precoce passione per il disegno, permettendogli di iscriversi dapprima all’ École Estienne di disegno litografico, dove il giovane Lucien vincerà un premio che gli permetterà di compiere un viaggio in Tunisia, e quindi all’École nationale des Beaux-Arts, nel 1931. Allo stesso tempo apre il suo primo atelier di pittura, dove lavora per lo più in solitudine e si interessa al movimento cubista.

A seguito dei primi riconoscimenti ufficiali attribuiti alla sua arte - tra cui il "Grand Prix d’Afrique du Nord" conferitogli dalla città di Parigi nel 1935-, fra il 1934-1939 viaggia costantemente tra la Spagna, il Marocco e soprattutto l’Italia (in particolare Villa Medici a Roma), dove nel 1939 sposa la sua compagna Annette Faive. Non sarà l’ultimo viaggio del pittore in Italia, paese dove Fontanarosa tornerà più volte nel corso della sua vita.

Nel corso degli anni la sua fama cresce soprattutto in Francia, dove gli vengono commissionate numerose opere, tanto dallo stato quanto da privati : tra le altre ricordiamo la composizione intitolata Le Brabant (1941), che abbellisce oggi la Caisse Nationale del Crédit Agricole a Parigi ; il quadro Fleurs (1948) per la Cancelleria della Légion d’Honneur ; la decorazione di uno dei soffitti del Lycée de l’Ouest a Nizza ecc.

Soggetti principali della sua arte, che richiama al classicismo ma non per questo pecca di mancanza di originalità, sono Venezia con le sue strade d’acqua ed i suoi scorci suggestivi (Venise - La Salute au soleil couchant), ma anche il canale Saint Martin o gli splendidi paesaggi della Provenza. Accanto al paesaggio, la natura morta è un altro dei temi ricorrenti della pittura di Fontanarosa, così come l’esecuzione di soggetti inerenti la musica (Les deux guitaristes) o la danza (Ballerines, fond bleu).

Non va inoltre dimenticata la sua continua attività di illustratore, soprattutto di opere quali Terre des Hommes di Saint-Exupéry, L’amante di Lady Chatterley di D.H. Lawrence, il Germinal di Zola e Delitto e castigo di Dostoïevski, solo per citarne alcune, nonché di alcune banconote per lo stato francese, come quelle da 500 e da 100 franchi (il celebre "Delacroix").

Espone e riceve commenti entusiasti in Europa e nel mondo, in particolare in Giappone (1961), in Germania ed in Florida (1963). Nel corso degli anni gli vengono conferiti prestigiosi riconoscimenti, tra i quali meritano di essere menzionati l’elezione a membro dell’Accademia di Belle Arti dell’Institut de France (1955) e la nomina a cavaliere della Legione d’Onore per l’Educazione Nazionale (1957).

Artista completo, affermato in Francia e oggi, forse, troppo spesso dimenticato - soprattutto in Italia - Lucien Fontanarosa muore a Parigi il 27 aprile 1975.

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Laura Knight | Avant-Garde painter

May 16, 2016, 3:36 pm

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Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) was one of the most popular and pioneering British artists of the twentieth century. Her artistic career took her from Cornwall to Baltimore, and from the circus to the Nuremberg Trials. She painted dancers at the Ballets Russes and Gypsies at Epsom races, and was acclaimed for her work as an official war artist.

Knight used portraiture to capture contemporary life and culture, and her paintings are remarkable for their diverse range of subjects and settings.

Early years and Cornwall

Growing up in Nottingham, Laura Johnson’s precocious talent was encouraged by her mother, herself an amateur artist. Aged thirteen, Laura enrolled as a full-time student at Nottingham Art School where she met her future husband Harold Knight. The couple married in 1903 and based themselves in the Yorkshire fishing village of Staithes, painting the hard-working ‘fisherfolk’. They also spent time at an artists’ colony in Laren, Holland. By 1908, the Knights had settled in Cornwall, among the community of artists that had grown up around the Newlyn Art School, founded in 1899.

Laura Knight’s experience of the Cornish landscape transformed her work. The couple discovered in Cornwall ‘surroundings such as we had never dreamed of; a carefree life of sunlit pleasure’. Knight’s confidence grew and she developed a vigorous plein air technique. With the encouragement of artist friends, who were also willing models, she was able to study the human figure in greater depth, and it was at this point that portraiture asserted itself as an important theme in her work.

Ballet and Theatre

In 1919, Laura and Harold Knight moved to London, seeking new artistic challenges and markets for their work. For Laura, evenings spent watching the Ballets Russes during their London seasons at the Alhambra or Coliseum theatres provided "complete satisfaction for every aesthetic sense". Incorporating set and costume designs by artists including Henri Matisse, these productions helped introduce European modernism into Britain. However, unlike some artistic contemporaries, Knight sought inspiration in the more intimate experience of the dancers backstage, an approach pioneered in the nineteenth century by the French artist Edgar Degas.

Granted unique backstage access, Knight set up her easel in the cramped dressing room of prima ballerina Lydia Lopokova. Following the company’s departure from London in 1922, Knight worked backstage at the Regent Theatre painting, among others, actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as she prepared to play Juliet. Knight felt a kinship with female performers, whom she identified as "fellow workers"; women whose dedication to their art mirrored her own commitment to painting.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

Knight travelled to America in 1926, to join her husband who was working on a number of portraits for the Johns Hopkins Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. She sought permission to work in the hospital wards which, at that time, were racially segregated, making a group of drawings of black patients. Knight’s interest in this group of sitters was part of a wider fascination in Europe during the 1920s with what was called ‘Negro’ culture, stimulated by the popularity of jazz music. Although some of the patients are named by Knight, nothing further is presently known about them.

During her visit, Knight became increasingly aware of the struggle for racial equality in Maryland. One of her sitters, Pearl Johnson, a hospital secretary, took her to a civil rights lecture and a concert where Knight was the only white person present. Knight’s liberal attitude was nevertheless shaped by her time, and she continued to freely use terms such as ‘picanniny’ and ‘darky’ when naming her works. When she returned to London, she told the Evening Standard that there was ‘a whole world to explore’ in the lives of this group of sitters.

Circus

The circus was a popular national entertainment in the 1920s, and Knight visited both Fossett’s Circus at the Islington Agricultural Hall and Bertram Mills’ Circus based at Olympia. Mills invigorated the British circus tradition by presenting a polished, glamorous show with international performers that attracted a celebrity audience, including Sir Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw. For Knight, the physically audacious performers in spectacular costumes were irresistible subjects.

When her painting Charivari, a depiction of multiple performers at Mills’ Circus, was exhibited at the Royal Academy it was criticised and satirised in the press. Undeterred, Knight joined Mills and his company when they embarked on a national tour in partnership with Great Carmo’s circus. Knight shared temporary lodgings with the clowns and acrobats, drawing and painting the performers at work and rest over an intense four-month period. The more reflective portraits made at this time demonstrate a deeper understanding of the life and experiences of the travelling performer.

I was as much a part of the circus as anyone in the show, used to putting up with anything, living solely in its atmosphere.

Gypsies

In the late 1930s, Knight made a remarkable series of portraits of English Gypsies based at Iver in Buckinghamshire. They lived in painted wagons and tents sited on a field belonging to the local farmer, for whom they did agricultural work. The artist focused on one family, the Smiths. These portraits are the result of many months spent with her sitters, an immersive approach Knight had developed when working with dancers and circus performers.

Knight was invited to Iver by Granny Smith, a matriarchal figure who became one of her favourite sitters. They had met at the Epsom Derby while Knight was painting the crowds of spectators and the Gypsies, for whom the Derby was a significant annual event. A press image of Knight using a rented ‘antique’ Rolls-Royce as a cramped studio, from which she painted numerous portraits of Gypsy women, helped define her in the public imagination as lovably eccentric.

As one of the most popular artists in Britain, it was imperative that the War Artist’s Advisory Committee, under the direction of Sir Kenneth Clark, secured Knight’s services. However, this sustained period of patronage challenged the artistic autonomy Knight had enjoyed for over forty years, and she wrangled with the committee over subject matter and remuneration. Knight succeeded in making a remarkably powerful and diverse group of paintings, which are unique records of wartime experience.

Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring, depicting an outstanding Welsh munitions worker, was commissioned to encourage more women to work in factories, and was one of a series of portraits of women who had distinguished themselves through acts of bravery and skill. For these high-profile works, Knight developed a smooth and precise painting style that would reproduce well.

When the war ended, Knight suggested to the committee that she should be flown to Germany as a war correspondent, to record the trial of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, another immersive project that challenged her entire approach to portraiture.

The Royal Academy and Patronage

When Laura Knight was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1927 and the first female full member in 1936, she fulfilled a lifelong personal ambition, and helped paved the way for greater recognition for women in the arts.

However, avant-garde artists no longer chose to exhibit at an institution which they perceived to be old-fashioned. Knight, in contrast, embraced the status for which she had fought so hard, and used the Academy’s annual summer exhibition as the main showcase for her work throughout her career. The portrait commissions she was able to secure led to financial stability, and she was freed from the anxiety which had dominated her impoverished childhood.

During her lifetime, Knight’s extraordinary achievements were well-known and she was regarded as a role-model, appearing in books aimed at career-minded young women, alongside the doctor Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and aviator Amy Johnson. She rejected modernism, but she embraced contemporary life and culture in her work.

Her portraits provide a bold and distinctive view of life in the twentieth century.

‘I remember [my mother] saying when I was only a few years old, "You will be elected to the Royal Academy one day". | © National Portrait Gallery, London

Laura Knight | The Nuremberg Trial, 1946

Laura Knight, (4 agosto 1877-7 luglio 1970) è stata una pittrice impressionista Inglese molto nota soprattutto per i suoi soggetti legati al teatro, al circo ed al balletto.

Nel 1929, fu fatta Dame Commander dell'Ordine dell'Impero Britannico, e nel 1936 divenne la prima donna eletta alla Royal Academy.

Dopo la guerra, fu l'artista ufficiale al processo di Norimberga dei nazisti criminali di guerra. Ha continuato a dipingere fino al 1960.

Ha prodotto oltre 250 opere nella sua vita così come due autobiografie, Grease (1936) e La magia di una linea (1965).

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Rembrandt | Self-Portrait, 1658 | Art in Detail

May 17, 2016, 2:17 am

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Of the many self-portraits Rembrandt painted over a lifetime, this is perhaps the greatest, not only for its poignant revelations of the self, but for his sure handling of paint. The initial effect on viewers is daunting, as though they are confronting an ill-tempered monarch. The strange costume he wears is timeless. In place of a crown, he wears a large velvet artist's beret. He holds a painter's stick as though it were a scepter. Yet this feeling of uneasy confrontation diminishes as we study the face.

The wariness and impatience seem like a veil shadowing the man's real expression, which is blurred and scarred - by time, by sorrows, and by illness. Yet Rembrandt was only fifty-two in 1658 when he signed and dated this portrait. He was also a small man, but he portrayed his figure in monumental dimensions. It is almost as though he decided to pack his entire life into this image of himself, both what had gone before, and what lay ahead. The gigantic hands that loom before us are crucial to the portrait's effect, reminding us of Rembrandt's dependence on them. | © The Frick Collection, New York

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Archibald Thorburn | Naturalism wildlife painter

May 17, 2016, 7:56 am

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Archibald Thorburn (31 May 1860 - 9 October 1935 Hascombe, Surrey) was a Scottish /British animal painter and bird illustrator, painting mostly in watercolour.

He regularly visited Scotland to sketch birds in the wild, his favourite haunt being the Forest of Gaick near Kingussie in Invernesshire. His widely reproduced images of British wildlife, with their evocative and dramatic backgrounds, are enjoyed as much today as they were by sportsmen and birdlovers of a century ago.

Peacock and Peacock Butterfly

Archibald was born at Viewfield House, Lasswade, Midlothian, the fifth son of Robert Thorburn (1818-1885), portrait miniaturist to Queen Victoria. His first education was at Dalkeith and in Edinburgh, after which he was sent to the newly founded St John's Wood School of Art in London. His stay there was only brief, since on the death of his father he sought the guidance of Joseph Wolf. It was his commission in 1887 to illustrate Lord Lilford's Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Isles, for which he painted some 268 watercolours, that established his reputation.

He illustrated numerous sporting and natural history books, including his own. He taught Otto Murray Dixon and Philip Rickman (both in Nature in Art's collection), and he encouraged the young Donald Watson when he came to visit him in Dumfries and Galloway. Thorburn was friends of other eminent bird illustrators including George Edward Lodge and John Guille Millais with whom he collaborated on a number of works including: Natural History of British Feeding Ducks; British Diving Ducks and British Game Birds.

His paintings were regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy and he designed their first Christmas card for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 1899, a practice that he continued until 1935. He was Vice-President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. In the 1890s Thorburn became disheartened by the British Institution and had his work shown at A. Baird Carter of 70 Jermyn Street.

On his marriage to Constance Mudie, Thorburn moved to High Leybourne in Hascombe in 1902, where he was to spend the rest of his life. In the 1930s he refused to make use of electric lighting, preferring natural light for his painting, and making use of lamps and candles. His grave is at St John the Baptist church in Busbridge, Godalming.

Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) è stato un artista Scozzese, pittore ad acquerello e illustratore di animali, soprattutto uccelli.

Ha regolarmente visitato la Scozia per delineare gli uccelli in natura, nel suo luogo preferito, la foresta di Gaick vicino Kingussie in Invernesshire. Le sue tele ritragono la fauna selvatica britannica, con il loro background suggestivi e drammatici.

I suoi dipinti sono stati regolarmente esposti alla Royal Academy of Arts ed è stato vicepresidente della Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Sì rifiutò ostinatamente di installare l'elettricità a casa sua in Hascombe, continuando ad usare lampade e candele.

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Stanhope Forbes | Plein Air /Genre painter

May 17, 2016, 2:54 pm

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Tate, London / Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857-1947) Painter of realistic genre, frequently in the open air, historical subjects and landscapes. Born 18 November 1857 in Dublin, son of a railway manager and a French mother. Studied at Lambeth School of Art, the R.A. Schools 1874-1878 and for two years in Paris under Bonnat. Influenced by Bastien-Lepage and painted in Brittany with La Thangue 1880. Settled in Cornwall 1884 and became a leading member of the ‘Newlyn School’.

Foundation member of the N.E.A.C. 1886. Began exhibiting at the R.A. 1878, A.R.A. 1892, R.A. 1910. Married Elizabeth Armstrong, painter, 1889, and founded with her the Newlyn School of Art 1899. Painted two historical scenes for the Royal Exchange 1897 and 1921. Visited Brittany 1891, Holland 1894, the Pyreneees 1898. Died at Newlyn 2 March 1947. | © Tate, London

FORBES, Stanhope Alexander - Pittore, nato il 18 novembre 1857 a Dublino. Studiò nella Royal Academy School e negli anni 1878-9 presso Léon Bonnat a Parigi. Espose nel 1878 nella Royal Academy.

Nel 1894 visitò per la prima volta Newlyn nella Cornovaglia, che dal 1899 divenne la sua residenza permanente. Nel 1889 sposò Elisabetta Adela Armstrong, la sua compagna di studi a Newlyn e buona pittrice.

Fra i suoi quadri che figurano in molte gallerie pubbliche in Inghilterra e nelle colonie ricordiamo:

Brindisi alla fidanzata (1889; Londra, Tate Gallery), Il faro (Museo di Manchester), Barca peschereccia (1885; Museo di Liverpool) e un affresco importante del grande incendio di Londra nel 1666, che forma la decorazione della Borsa a Londra.

Profondamente influenzato dalla scuola dei pittori francesi del plein air e soprattutto dal Bastien-Lepage, divenne uno degli esponenti più significativi di questa maniera in Inghilterra. | di Arthur Popham © Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana

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Thomas Gainsborough | The Mall in St. James Park, 1783 | Art in Detail

May 18, 2016, 3:44 am

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National Gallery, London /Thomas Gainsborough was, with Reynolds (his main rival), the leading portrait painter in England in the later 18th century. The feathery brushwork of his mature work and rich sense of colour contribute to the enduring popularity of his portraits. Unlike Reynolds, he avoids references to Italian Renaissance art or the Antique, and shows his sitters in fashionable contemporary dress.

He was a founding member of the Royal Academy, though he later quarrelled with it over the hanging of his pictures. He became a favourite painter of George III and his family.

He was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, the son of a wool manufacturer. He trained in London, and set up in practice in Ipswich about 1752. In 1759 he moved to Bath, a fashionable spa town, attracting many clients for his portraits. He settled in London in 1774. His private inclination was for landscape and rustic scenes, and his amusing letters record his impatience with his clients' demands for portraits.

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Thomas Gainsborough | Rococo Era /Romantic painter

May 18, 2016, 6:04 am

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Tate, Britain / The portrait and landscape painter Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was born at Sudbury, Suffolk, the fifth son of a cloth merchant. He was apprenticed at the age of thirteen to a London silversmith, and was taught by Hubert Gravelot, a French book-illustrator. By 1745 he had established his own studio in London. He married Margaret Burr in 1746, and by 1748 had taken up residence in Suffolk. He moved to Ipswich in 1752, and settled at Bath as a portraitist in 1759. He took as an apprentice his nephew, Gainsborough Dupont (1754-97) in 1772.

There are no records of any other pupils or assistants. In 1774, established as a fashionable portrait painter, he moved to London, living at Schomberg House, Pall Mall. Despite his great success as a portraitist, he always maintained that he preferred painting landscapes.

He wrote to a friend, William Jackson:

I'm sick of Portraits and wish very much to take my Viol da Gamba and walk off to some sweet Village, where I can paint Landskips and enjoy the fag End of life in quietness and ease (in Woodall, p.115, no.56).

Gainsborough exhibited at the Society of Artists from 1761 to 1769, and became a foundation member of the Royal Academy in 1768. He first exhibited there the following year, but in 1773 quarrelled with the Academy over the hanging of his pictures, and did not exhibit there again until 1777. In 1784 he again quarrelled with them over the same subject, and never again exhibited at the Academy, instead organising a series of annual exhibitions in his studio at Schomberg House.

He received commissions from the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland in 1777, and from the King and Queen in 1781. He toured the West Country with Gainsborough Dupont in about 1782, and visited the Lake District with Samuel Kilderbee in 1783. Gainsborough died in London after a reconciliation with his great rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, who eulogised him at the Royal Academy, commenting that 'whatever he attempted he carried to a high degree of excellence' (R. Wark, ed., Sir Joshua Reynolds: Discourses on Art, New Haven and London 1975, p.254).

He is buried in Kew Churchyard. A posthumous sale of his pictures and drawings was held at Schomberg House in 1789.

The Tate owns a portrait of the artist by Johann Zoffany (c.1772, Tate Gallery N01487), which is on a long-term loan to the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Thomas Gainsborough (Sudbury, 14 maggio 1727 - Londra, 2 agosto 1788) è stato un pittore Inglese, attivo soprattutto come ritrattista e paesaggista.

homas Gainsborough nacque a Sudbury, nel Suffolk, il 14 maggio 1727. Figlio del mercante di tessuti John, Gainsborough trascorse la fanciullezza insieme ai fratelli John e Humphrey in quella che oggi è la Gainsborough's House: già dai primi anni respirò un'atmosfera satura di arte, tanto che in questo periodo realizzò numerosi disegni, tutti a tema paesaggistico.

Compiuti 14 anni nel 1740, Gainsborough fu mandato a Londra, dove prese probabilmente lezioni da Hubert-François Gravelot e da Francis Hayman, che gli insegnarono l'importanza delle finezze grafiche e ne rafforzarono la predisposizione artistica, il talento e l'interesse per la natura.

In questi anni si invaghì di una donna, tale Margaret Burr, a tal punto da farla sua sposa: i due si unirono in matrimonio nel 1746. Nonostante ciò, questo non si trattò di un periodo felice per il Gainsborough: i suoi dipinti infatti non riscuotevano successo, e la situazione economica si era fatta a dir poco catastrofica. Per sopperire alla mancanza di denaro i due coniugi nel 1748-1749 fecero ritorno nel Suffolk per tentare di vendere più opere, e da lì si trasferirono dapprima a Ipswich (stavolta insieme alle due figlie appena nate), ove ebbe a protettore Philip Thicknesse, e poi nel 1759 a Bath, dove rimase fino al 1774. È in questo periodo che coincide il periodo più felice della sua produzione artistica, tanto che eseguì numerosi ritratti dei vari dandy che si recavano alla stazione termale locale; nel 1768 fondò addirittura la Royal Academy of Arts, esponendovi proprie tele alle mostre degli anni 1769-1772.

In seguito ad un'aspra disputa sorta col Thicknesse, anch'egli facente parte dei primi trentasei soci dell'Accademia, nel 1774 Gainsborough si trasferì a Londra, dove assunse il ruolo di pittore preferito del re e della corte e, quindi, di ritrattista di corte. Dal 1784 si acuirono le divergenze con l'Accademia, già iniziate nel 1773; esposti gli ultimi lavori nelle mostre dal 1777 al 1782, Gainsborough cessò definitivamente le proprie attività all'interno della Royal Academy, decidendo di esporre le sue opere nel suo studio privato.

Tre anni dopo si ammalò di cancro, che lo condusse alla morte l'anno successivo: Thomas Gainsborough spirò il 2 agosto 1788, all'età di 61 anni. Oggi le sue spoglie riposano nella chiesa di Sant'Anna, a Kew, nel Surrey, al fianco del famoso botanico Francis Bauer.

Stile e produzione pittorica

Gainsborough è ricordato dallo storico d'arte Michael Rosenthal come «uno degli artisti più proficienti e, al contempo, dediti alla sperimentazione dei suoi tempi».

L'artista era noto per la velocità alla quale dipingeva le proprie tele, attingendo direttamente dal vero, mediante l'osservazione della natura, rigettando categoricamente il freddo accademismo: la sensibilità quasi poetica dei suoi lavori è tale che fece affermare a John Constable:

Guardando le opere di Gainsborough, i nostri occhi si commuovono riempendosi di lacrime, senza sapere esattamente perché questo avviene.

Fu lo stesso Gainsborough a sottolineare il proprio entusiasmo per la pittura paesaggistica:

Sono stanco dei ritratti, e desidero ardentemente [...] passeggiare per qualche bel villaggio, dove posso dipingere paesaggi ed apprezzare la bellezza della vita, agevolmente, e quietamente.

In effetti, seppur occasionalmente realizzava ritratti, l'artista preferiva la pittura di paesaggio: rarissime, invece, sono le pitture a soggetto (di cui l'unico esemplare è l'incompleto Diana e Atteone).

La produzione pittorica di Gainsborough è per il resto scandita in tre periodi: quelli corrispondenti ai soggiorni in Suffolk ed a Bath ed infine quello londinese. Tra le opere più note della giovinezza vi sono i ritratti di Joshua Kirby e della moglie, e i ritratti non finiti delle sue figlie; in queste opere emerge la maniera di Godfrey Kneller, proseguita poi da Fayman e Hogarth. I paesaggi (in particolare, degno di nota è Il bosco di Cornard nel Suffolk) sono invece realizzati sul tipo degli olandesi Jacob van Ruisdael e Wynants.

Al successivo soggiorno a Bath, nella piena maturità artistica del Gainsborough, risalgono il Sagrestano, il ritratto di Mrs. Graham, i ritratti di Elisabetta e di Maria Linley (1772?) e di Samuele Linley, il Ragazzo Azzurro ed il celebre Carro del Mercato, oggi esposto alla National Gallery di Londra. Peculiarità delle anzidette opere sono «la grazia un po' femminile e le qualità liriche» che ricordano molto da vicino le tele di Van Dyck e Fragonard.

I lavori del periodo londinese differiscono da quelli precedenti per una «maggiore fluidità coloristica»: degni di nota sono Il duca e la duchessa di Cumberland in Kew Gardens, Mrs. Siddons, Il passeggio pubblico (The Mall), Musidora bathing her feet, Mrs. Moody e i suoi bambini, e L'Abbeveratoio (The Watering Place).

I migliori ritratti del G[ainsborough] mostrano una straordinaria facilità di composizione e agilità di tocco; e pare che fossero rassomigliantissimi. Ogni quadro per il G[ainsborough] era occasione a una fresca improvvisazione, e l'esecuzione brillante e la facile padronanza artistica di rado degeneravano in manierismo. I suoi colori, in contrasto coi toni opachi usati dal suo rivale Reynolds, sono chiari e scintillanti, e, nonostante l'impasto sottilissimo, di profondità sorprendenti. Le sue pennellate caratteristiche, brevi, poste in senso diagonale erano un mezzo di possibilità artistica illimitata -Popham

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Rembrandt | The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1668 | Art in Detail

May 18, 2016, 2:18 pm

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In the Gospel According to Luke (15: 11-32), Christ relates the parable of the Prodigal Son. A son asks his father for his inheritance and leaves the parental home, only to fritter away all his wealth. Arriving at last at sickness and poverty, he returns to his father's house. The old man is blinded by tears as he forgives his son, just as God forgives all those who repent. This whole work is dominated by the idea of the victory of love, goodness and charity. The event is treated as the highest act of human wisdom and spiritual nobility, and it takes place in absolute silence and stillness.

The drama and depth of feeling are expressed in the figures of both father and son, with all the emotional precision with which Rembrandt was endowed. The broad, sketchy brushstrokes of the artist's late style accentuate the emotion and intensity of this masterly painting.

This parable in Rembrandt's treatment is addressed to the heart of everyone:

We should be glad: for this son was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

Il Ritorno del figliol prodigoè un dipinto a olio su tela (262x206 cm) di Rembrandt, databile al 1668 e conservato nel Museo dell'Ermitage di San Pietroburgo.

Il quadro si ispira alla parabola del figlio prodigo contenuta nella Bibbia, Nuovo Testamento. La parabola dell'evangelista Luca (15, 11-32), rappresentata in questo quadro, viene anche ricordata come "Parabola del Padre misericordioso".

La scena raffigura la conclusione della vicenda, ovvero il perdono del padre nei confronti del figlio pentito della propria condotta. Il giovane, vestito di stracci logori, è in ginocchio dinnanzi al padre, di cui ha sperperato le sostanze. L'anziano lo accoglie con un gesto amorevole e quasi protettivo. Sulla destra, osserva la scena un personaggio identificato col figlio maggiore, mentre sullo sfondo si distinguono due figure non ben identificate.

La luce scivola dai personaggi secondari per soffermarsi sulla scena principale e catturare così l'attenzione dell'osservatore, che si trova con gli occhi alla stessa altezza del figlio pentito, come se il pittore volesse suggerire un'identificazione tra finzione e realtà.

Tuttavia, il particolare forse più importante di questo quadro, sono le mani del Padre misericordioso; se le si osservano attentamente possiamo notare che non sono uguali, ma sono una maschile ed una femminile. In questa rappresentazione non sono presenti donne poiché il "Padre misericordioso" che è il Dio che accoglie tutti, specialmente i peccatori redenti, non è solo il "nostro" Padre ma è anche la "nostra" Madre, Lui è il tutto.

Altro particolare notevole sono gli occhi del Padre, occhi di cieco; il Padre, Dio che ama l'uomo, ha consumato gli occhi nel guardare l'orizzonte in attesa del ritorno del figlio.

Il Dio misericordioso, immaginato da Luca e mirabilmente rappresentato in questo capolavoro di Rembrandt, rappresenta un salto impressionante nella modernità; la loro visione mistica contempla un Dio che perdona chi ha il coraggio di chiedere perdono invitando ad una visione più umana di religione. Al figlio maggiore, infatti, non basta aver "servito" il Padre, se non si rende conto di essere veramente "fratello" del peccatore (lo chiama "questo tuo figlio" nel dialogo col Padre) e se non riesce a cogliere la conversione ed il perdono per quello che è: un'occasione di festa per il ritorno alla vera vita.

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Danny Ferland, 1975 | Portrait painter

May 19, 2016, 7:24 am

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Danny Ferland was born in Quebec City, Quebec. He was self taught for many years before discovering the magnificence of figurative art during a European trip in 2002. Seeing the historical artworks in countless museums is what made him realize the outmost importance of genuine academic training.

In 2008 he moved to New York city after being accepted into the Janus Collaborative school of art. The curriculum was based on working exclusively from the live model. After months of dedication, he realized that his main interest lied in portraiture, one of the most complex and demanding forms of art. The balance of strong drawing skills and the sensitivity needed to produce an image with truth and soul is what drove him to pursue the art of portraiture.

I am trying to establish a subtle bridge between myself and the model, one that is built with trust and generosity. Moreover, this connection enables me to extract a beauty, a story and a spirit that is unique to every subject. If I can convey even a small part of this truth, I know that it will trigger a memory that is lost somewhere in the poetry of the human experience.

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Camille Lambert | Post Impressionist painter

May 19, 2016, 1:32 pm

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Camille-Nicolas Lambert (1876-1963) was born in Arlon, Belgium in 1874. He was a student of the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Liége and Anvers.

He won the second place Prix de Rome in 1898, and third place Prix de Rome in 1901 and 1904. Lambert exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He was a member of circle Pour l'Art, and he exhibited in 1912 at the 20th Salon.

Lambert painted portraits and genre scenes; he also painted seascapes and was a watercolorist.

His style and technique was in the Belgian Post Impressionist and Luminist tradition.

Lambert is represented in the collections at the Musée d'Arlon, Ixelles, Léige amd Mons.

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François Boucher | The Four Seasons | The Frick Collection

May 20, 2016, 4:47 am

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Source: The Frick Collection, New York | - The son of a painter, François Boucher (1703-1770) was born in Paris and trained first with his father, then briefly with François Lemoine.
In 1723 he won the Academy’s first prize for painting but was denied the sojourn in Rome that normally resulted from the competition. To earn his living the young artist produced reproductive engravings throughout the 1720s, notably after drawings and paintings by Watteau. Returning from a prolonged stay in Rome - where he went on his own - Boucher was accepted into the Academy in 1731, and three years later he was made a full member.

François Boucher - The Four Seasons, Autumn, 1755

Portrait of François Boucher by Gustaf Lundberg, 1741

Eventually he held the Academy posts of Professor, Rector, and finally Director. Boucher’s marriage in 1734 resulted in two daughters, who married the artists Deshays and Baudouin, and a son, Juste-Nathan, who would specialize in drawing architectural fantasies. Boucher’s work appeared at the Salon of 1737 and frequently thereafter.

While his virtuoso productions were much admired, the artist had his critical detractors as well, particularly Diderot, who lamented his lack of naturalness. Boucher was awarded many commissions by the King (including the painting of his Easter eggs) and by Madame de Pompadour. He also held high posts at both the Beauvais and Gobelins tapestry factories and was named “premier peintre” to Louis XV in 1765.

Although the content and style of Boucher’s art suggest a sybaritic character, the artist often worked twelve hours a day. He died in his studio in the Louvre. Among his many pupils were Deshays, Fragonard, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, and Ménageot.