Elihu Vedder
The Patrician
oil on canvas
22 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.
Private collection
Patrician is a term that originally referred to a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. Although the distinction was highly significant in the early republic, its relevance waned after the Struggle of the Orders (494 BC to 287 BC) and by the time of the Late Republic and Empire, membership in this group was of only nominal significance.
After the fall of the Western Empire it remained a high honorary title in the Byzantine Empire. Medieval patrician classes were once again formally defined groups of leading burgess families in many medieval Italian republics, such as Venice and Genoa, and subsequently "patrician" became a vague term used for aristocrats and the higher bourgeoisie in many countries. More
Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley
The apache dancer, Miss Beatrice Collins
oil on canvas
77 ¾ x 49 ¾ in. (197.5 x 126.4 cm.)
Private collection
Apache, or La Danse Apache, Bowery Waltz, Apache Turn, Apache Dance and Tough Dance is a highly dramatic dance associated in popular culture with Parisian street culture at the beginning of the 20th century. More
Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley MC RA (31 March 1880 – 6 May 1952) was an English portrait painter and royal portraitist in the early part of the 20th century. Birley was born in New Zealand while his parents were on a world tour. Upon returning to England, he was educated at Harrow School, London and Trinity College, Cambridge.
He served in France in World War I, first with the Royal Fusiliers, later transferring to the Intelligence Corps, obtaining the rank of captain and being awarded the Military Cross in 1919. During World War II he served with the rank of major in the Home Guard.
A favourite of the Royal Family, he was well known for his portraits of King George V, Queen Mary, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and the present monarch Queen Elizabeth II.
He painted several highly regarded portraits of his friend Sir Winston Churchill (to whom he also gave lessons), and also a life-size portrait of Mahatma Gandhi which was the first to be hung in the Lok Sabha shortly after Indian Independence on 28 August 1947.
He was knighted in 1949. More
Christian Krohg
Ung kvinne, young woman
Oil on canvas
46x38 cm
Private collection
Anonymous
Portrait d’Agnès Sorel, favorite du roi de France Charles VII, 16th century
apparently inspired by Jean Fouquet's "Mary and child" (below)
Oil on panel
130 × 97 cm (51.2 × 38.2 in)
Private collection
Agnès Sorel (1422 – 9 February 1450), known by the sobriquet Dame de beauté, was a favourite mistress of King Charles VII of France, by whom she bore three daughters. She is considered the first officially recognized royal mistress. She was the subject of several contemporary paintings and works of art, including Jean Fouquet's Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels (below).
Jean Fouquet, (1420–1480)
Madonna Surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim, circa 1452-1458
Oil on panel
Height: 94.5 cm (37.2 in). Width: 85.5 cm (33.7 in). Depth: 1.2 cm (0.5 in).
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Jean (or Jehan) Fouquet (1420–1481) was a preeminent French painter of the 15th century, a master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature. He was the first French artist to travel to Italy and experience first-hand the early Italian Renaissance.
Upon his return to France, while retaining his purely French sentiment, he grafted the elements of the Tuscan style, which he had acquired during his period in Italy, upon the style of the Van Eycks, forming the basis of early 15th-century French art and becoming the founder of an important new school. Near the end of his career, he became court painter to Louis XI.
His work can be associated with the French court's attempt to solidify French national identity in the wake of its long struggle with England in the Hundred Years' War.
One example is when Fouquet depicts Charles VII as one of the three magi. This is one of the very few portraits of the king. According to some sources, the other two magi are the Dauphin Louis, future Louis XI, and his brother (below). More
Jean Fouquet (1420–1480)
The Adoration of the Magi, circa 1452-1460
Illumination on parchment
21 × 15 cm (8.3 × 5.9 in)
Musée Condé
The three wise men are approaching the manger where they found Joseph and the Virgin holding Christ on her lap. Before them kneels one of the kings represented as Charles VII, on a fleurdelysé carpet, hat at his feet and surrounded by armed guards. In the background is shown in a battle near a castle, topped by a star. This miniature illustrating the beginning of the excerpt from the Gospel according to Matthew's book of hours.
The daughter of soldier Jean Soreau and Catherine de Maignelais, Sorel was twenty years old when she was first introduced to King Charles. At that time, she was holding a position as a maid of honour to Duchess of Lorraine. Sorel then went on to serve as the lady-in-waiting for Marie d'Anjou, Charles VII of France's wife. She would soon become his mistress. The King gave her the Château de Loches (where he had been persuaded by Joan of Arc to be crowned King of France) as her private residence.
Soon, her presence was felt at the royal court in Chinon where her company was alleged to have brought the king out of a protracted depression. She had a very strong influence on the king, and that, in addition to her extravagant tastes, earned her powerful enemies at court. Sorel would become the first officially recognized royal mistress.
She is credited with starting a fashion when she wore low-cut gowns at court with one breast fully bared.
While pregnant with their fourth child, she journeyed from Chinon in midwinter to join Charles on the campaign of 1450 in Jumièges, wanting to be with him as moral support. There, she suddenly became ill, and after giving birth, she and her child died on 9 February 1450. She was 28 years old. She was interred in the Church of St. Ours, in Loches. Her heart was buried in the Benedictine Abbey of Jumièges.
Her cousin Antoinette de Maignelais took her place as mistress to the king after her death (below). More
Anonymous (France)
Portrait of Madame de Montespan (1640-1707)
Oil on canvas
37 × 29 cm (14.6 × 11.4 in)
Palace of Versailles
Antoinette de Maignelais (1434–1474) was the chief mistress of Charles VII of France from 1450 until his death. The Baroness of Villequier by marriage, she replaced her cousin Agnès Sorel as the king's favourite mistress after Sorel's sudden death in 1450. Later in life she was the mistress of Francis II, Duke of Brittany. More
After Michiel Jansz. van Miereveldt, late 17th Century
Portrait of Amalia van Solms -Braunfels
Oil on panel
26.6 x 19.6cm (10 1/2 x 7 11/16in).
Private collection
Amalia of Solms-Braunfels (31 August 1602, Braunfels – 8 September 1675, The Hague), was a regent of Orange-Nassau. She was the wife of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, and the daughter of count John Albert I of Solms-Braunfels and countess Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein. She was born into the House of Solms, a ruling family with Imperial immediacy, spent her childhood at the parental castle at Braunfels. After imperial forces defeated Frederick V, she fled from Prague with the pregnant queen to the west. Shelter was denied to them along the way because the emperor forbade it as Frederick had been placed under an Imperial ban. Elizabeth went into labour during their flight and Amalia helped her with her delivery of Prince Maurice at Küstrin castle
Gerard van Honthorst.
Amalia von Solms-Braunfels as Diana, c.1632.
Oil on canvas
Koninklijke Verzamelingen, Den Haag,
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, the moon, and nature being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. More
Gerard van Honthorst (4 November 1592 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who became especially noted for his depiction of artificially lit scenes. Early in his career he visited Rome, where he had great success painting in a style influenced by Caravaggio. Following his return to the Netherlands he became a leading portrait painter. More
The end of their journey was The Hague, where stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, uncle of the elector gave them asylum in 1621. They often appeared at his court, where Maurice's younger half-brother Frederick Henry became infatuated with Amalia in 1622. She refused to become his lover and held out for marriage.
Gerard van Honthorst
Amalia von Solms as "Flora"
Portrait of Amalia van Solms (1602-1675) with her two eldest children, ca. 1629
Oil on canvas
204 x 154 cm
Sitting on a terrace, Amalia with two children and a putto with a garland above. Her dark hair pinned with flowers, imaginary satin gown with a Romiens' straitjacket, drapery around the shoulders. In his left hand a rose, the right hand on the shoulders of her daughter. Her son, dark hair, in "Roman dress": tunic and sandals. In both hands a basket of fruits. Her daughter, dark hair, dress trimmed with pearls leaning against the legs of her mother. Putto identified in the past as Henriette Amalia (born and died 1628). More
In Roman mythology, Flora was a Sabine-derived goddess of flowers and of the season of spring, a symbol for nature and flowers. While she was otherwise a relatively minor figure in Roman mythology. More
When Maurice of Nassau died, he made his half-brother Frederick Henry promise to wed. Frederick married Amalia on 4 April 1625. Suddenly she, an impoverished noble, found herself married to one of the most wealthy Princes of her era. Their marriage produced five children who lived to adulthood, and four who died young.
HONTHORST, Gerrit van, (b. 1590, Utrecht, d. 1656, Utrecht)
Amalia van Solms-Nassau and daughters, spectators at the Triumph (below), c. 1650
Royal Collections, Den Haag
This mural in the Orange Hall Huis ten Bosch in The Hague shows Amalie as a widow with her daughters at the Triumph, of her deceased husband Frederick Henry. Behind her an angelic figure indicates to the Triumph actual, shown in the neighboring paintings (below). More
JORDAENS, Jacob, (b. 1593, Antwerpen, d. 1678, Antwerpen)
Triumph of Frederik Hendrik, c. 1647-52
Oil on canvas
Huis ten Bosch, The Hague
At Frederik Hendrik's death in 1674, Amalia conceived a plan to honour the life, deeds, and memory of her late husband in the Oranjezaal, her own new palace. The decorations cover the walls of the cross-shaped central hall with chamfered inner corners from floor to ceiling and were executed by Pieter de Grebber, Salomon de Bray, Caesar van Everdingen, Pieter Soutman, Gerrit van Honthorst, and Jacob van Campen. Jacob Jordaens, who completed the largest canvas in 1652, Triumph of Frederik Hendrik. With its programmatic mixture of mythology, allegory, and actual historical events. More
Govert Flinck (1615-1660)
Hope Comes to Amalia van Solms at the Tomb of Frederik Hendrik, c. 1654
307 x 189 cm
Oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague
This allegorical painting in the Orange Hall shows Amalia as a widow with her daughters watching the triumphal procession of her deceased husband Frederick Henry. Amelia's mourning is symbolized by the dark looming female figure in the background. The angelic figure above her points to the procession, which can be seen on the neighboring painting. © Royal Collections, Den Haag / Sate of the Netherlands
Govert Flinck, (born January 25, 1615, Kleve, Brandenburg [Germany]—died February 2, 1660, Amsterdam, Dutch Republic [now in the Netherlands]) Baroque painter of portraits, genre, and narrative subjects, one of Rembrandt’s most-accomplished followers.
Flinck first studied in Leeuwarden and later entered Rembrandt’s studio. As a painter of biblical and allegorical subjects, he at first modeled his style closely on Rembrandt’s. Later he developed a more florid and oratorical manner, in which he appears to have been influenced by Peter Paul Rubens. Flinck’s most successful works were portraits, and he was especially successful in his group portraits. More When Frederick Henry became stadtholder after the death of his half-brother Prince Maurice, his influence grew substantially, as did Amalia's. Together Frederick Henry and Amalia succeeded in expanding court life in The Hague. They had several palaces built, including Huis ten Bosch. Amalia was a great collector of art and amassed many jewels, which were inherited by her four surviving daughters. She was described as intelligent, arrogant and ambitious, not beautiful but with a fresh and appealing appearance.
Amalia was the prime mover of several royal marriages, including that of her son William II to Mary, Princess Royal of England and Scotland (daughter of King Charles I of England) and of their daughters with several German princes.
She had a large influence upon policy; she acted as the political advisor of Frederick, and after he became sick in 1640, she openly participated in politics and received foreign diplomats. Her influence is regarded to have contributed to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. As a recognition, King Philip IV of Spain granted her the area around Turnhout in 1649.
Atelier Gerard van Honthorst, (Utrecht 1592-1656 Utrecht)
Portrait of Amalia van Solms as a widow with skull, ca. 1650
Oil on Panel
85 x 83 cm octagonal
Amalia van Solms wearing a black dress over a white shirt with wide sleeves. Her neck is adorned with a pearl necklace and her earrings, each containing a pearl. Her head is covered with a thin black veil. In her hands she holds a skull. The light falls from the right and throw left her a shadow on the brownish background. The octagonal table at the show is a cord with pretzel-shaped buttons, supposedly a widowed cord. More
Gerard van Honthorst (4 November 1592 – 27 April 1656), see above
Gerard van Honthorst and studio of Gerard van Honthorst
Portrait of Amalia van Solms, c. 1650
She points to the left to Frederick Henry on the oval small format portrait in her right hand.
This Painting replaced the above portrait of Frederick Hendrik as a skull
Oil on Panel
85 x 83 cm octagonal
After the death of her son William II in 1650 she became the main guardian of her grandson William III (Prince William III of Orange and later also King William III of England). She kept this position until 1672. More
Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt was born and died in Delft, as a son of a goldsmith, who apprenticed him to the copperplate engraver Hieronymus Wierix. He subsequently became a pupil of Willem Willemz and Augusteyn of Delft, until Anthonie van Montfoort invited him to enter his school at Utrecht.
He registered as a member of the Guild of St. Luke in The Hague in 1625. Devoting himself first to still lifes, he eventually took up portraiture, in which he achieved such success that the many commissions entrusted to him necessitated the employment of numerous assistants, by whom hundreds of portraits were turned out in factory fashion. Today over 500 paintings are or have been attributed to him. The works that can with certainty be ascribed to his own brush are remarkable for their sincerity, severe drawing and harmonious color, but comparatively few of the two thousand or more portraits that bear his name are wholly his own handiwork. So great was his reputation that he was patronized by royalty in many countries and acquired great wealth. The king of Sweden and the count palatine of Neuburg presented him with golden chains; Albert VII, Archduke of Austria gave him a pension; and Charles I vainly endeavoured to induce him to visit the English court.
Though Mierevelt is chiefly known as a portrait painter, he also executed some mythological pieces of minor importance. Many of his portraits have been reproduced in line by the leading Dutch engravers of his time. He died at Delft More
Unknown
JOSEPHINE EARP
An iconic American photograph, long debated to have been of Josie Earp, wife of the famed gunslinger, and possibly taken while drunk at Tombstone in 1881. The image as first published in 1914 became a popular pin-up during WWI and was later used in 1960s psychedelic rock posters. More
Josephine Sarah "Sadie" Earp (1860 - December 19, 1944) was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp, a famed Old West lawman and gambler. She met Wyatt in 1881 in the frontier boom town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, when she was living with Johnny Behan, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona.
Josephine was born in New York to a Prussian family; her father was a baker. They moved to San Francisco, where her father had difficulty finding work. The family moved in with her older sister and brother-in-law. Josephine ran away and traveled to Arizona, where she had an "adventure". Much of her life from about 1874 to 1880 is uncertain; she worked hard to keep this period of her life private. There is some evidence that she lived in Prescott and Tip Top, Arizona Territory under the assumed name of Sadie Mansfield, and worked as a prostitute from 1874 to 1876.
She traveled to Tombstone using the name Josephine Marcus in October, 1880. She wrote that she met Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan when she was 17 and he was 33. He promised to marry her. He reneged but persuaded her to stay. Behan was sympathetic to ranchers and certain outlaw Cowboys, who were at odds with Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers, Wyatt and Morgan. Josephine left Behan in 1881, before the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which Wyatt and his brothers killed three Cowboys. She went to San Francisco in March 1882 and was joined that fall by Wyatt, with whom she remained in a common-law marriage for 46 years until his death. More
"In an interview with director Gail Levin for her documentary, Making 'The Misfits' (2002), Morath recalled the difficulty of photographing actors such as Monroe, who 'knew all the tricks about how to pose.' The photographer's task was to capture how they worked, the element of surprise that they delivered to a scene, without getting in the way. What she wanted, Morath told Levin, was to photograph 'the unposed person,' so she watched and waited for the actor to expose his or her vulnerability." – John P. Jacob, Inge Morath: On Style, Abrams, 2016. More
Edouard Charles de Beaumont, French, 1812-1888
A Special Treat
Oil on canvas,
11 x 14 inches (28 x 35.5 cm)
Private collection
Charles Edward Beaumont (better known under the name of Edward de Beaumont), born in Lannion in 1821 , died in Paris on 12 January 1888 , was a French painter and lithographer.
Charles-Édouard de Beaumont is the son of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Beaumont 1 . His father placed him as a student with the painter Antoine-Felix Boisselier where he learned drawing and watercolor. He tried to sculpture realizing some statuettes. He went to visit Italy until 1847. On his return he devoted himself to genre painting. He exhibited again at the Salons between 1853 and 1868.
He gained his reputation as an illustrator, watercolorist and lithographer. Charles Edward Beaumont created all the illustrations of the picturesque Revue , the Devil lovers , the famous dwarves and the publishing of 1845 Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo.
In 1879, he co-founded the Society of watercolor with Vibert, and became its president. Beaumont bequeath his collection of weapons in the Cluny Museum in Paris.
Charles Édouard de Beaumont lived as a hermit, his only noted friend being Alexandre Dumas, who bequeathed him enough money to maintain a standard of living. Founder of the Societe d'Aquarellistes Francais in 1879, when he exhibited five watercolours. More
Edouard Charles de Beaumont, French, 1812-1888
Reading to the Children
Oil on panel
10 5/8 x 14 inches (27 x 35.5 cm)
Private collection
Edouard Charles de Beaumont, French, 1812-1888 see above
Charles-Édouard de Beaumont (1821–1888)
The Captain's Share of the Booty, c. 1868
hauteur : 61 cm. largeur : 96 cm.
Gallery of the Luxembourg
The painting was owned by the French government by 1889.
“One of his best known pictures, dated 1868, "The Part of the Captain," in the Luxembourg Gallery, exemplifies these strongly; is an excellent example of the warmth and richness of his palette, and of the true painter's happy knack of refining the most atrocious subject. At the foot of a stake in the courtyard of the pillaged castle are flung down, indiscriminately, swords, tapestry, articles of jewelry and two women, — the captain's portion of the plunder. His followers, scattered around, regard the spoils with eyes of indifference, of covetousness, and of rage; it is the very vulgarity of war. Painted by M. Manet the scene would be insupportable; painted by M. de Beaumont it is a delight to the eye by its dramatic force, its glowing color and skillful design.” —Earl Shinn, Etudes in Modern French Art, 1882
Charles-Édouard de Beaumont (1821–1888)
The Captain's Share of the Booty, c. 1868
Detail
“It is a scene of riot and pillage, and a scene which we, who live in happier times, look on with disgust and dismay. But such scenes in times of war and anarchy, were of common occurrence. This picture is one of the grandest in the Luxembourg, and illustrates the artist's power in his best and strongest points, the rendering of the nude. The central attraction is the two female captives tied to a stake in the market-place, against which either the Captain or some witty friend has hoisted a rude advertisement, "La Part du Capitaine," and in the painting the bare pole is decorated with a palm-branch, the bright green leaves of which make a beautiful colour contrast with the yellow hair and flesh tints of the unfortunate girls. The tout-en-semble is all in keeping, although to the Captain has fallen the lion's share ; yet other prizes are evident. The duck hoisted aloft, the pig, red-eared and fat, tied by a string to the short trooper, who is stretching his short neck to get a look at the Captain's prize.”
—The masterpieces of French art illustrated : being a biographical history of art in France, from the earliest period to and including the Salon of 1882
Edouard Charles de Beaumont, French, 1812-1888 see above
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