Thursday, December 28, 2017

05 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, of the 18th Centuary; 19th C., with Footnotes #24

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, (1805-1873), German
Elisabeth Kaiserin von Österreich, c. 1865
Oil painting on canvas
117 × 158 cm (46.1 × 62.2 in)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Elisabeth of Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, and many others (see Grand title of the Empress of Austria) by marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Born into the royal Bavarian house of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of sixteen. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. Early in the marriage she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth's daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy. The birth of a male heir, Rudolf, improved her standing at court considerably, but her health suffered under the strain, and she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria–Hungary in 1867.

The death of her only son Rudolf, and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, which were already legendary during her life. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress of Austria, at 44 years. More on Elisabeth Kaiserin von Österreich

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, (1805-1873), German
Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, c.1864
Oil painting on canvas
Hofburg in Vienna, Austria

Portrait of Elisabeth depicting her long hair, one of two so-called "intimate" portraits of the empress; although its existence was kept a secret from the general public, it was the emperor's favourite portrait of her and kept opposite his desk in his private study

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 – 8 July 1873) was born in a small village in Germany's Black Forest, Franz Xaver Winterhalter left his home to study painting at the academy in Munich. Before becoming court painter to Louis-Philippe, the king of France, he joined a circle of French artists in Rome. In 1835, after he painted the German Grand Duke and Duchess of Baden, Winterhalter's international career as a court portrait painter was launched. Although he never received high praise for his work in his native Germany, the royal families of England, France, and Belgium all commissioned him to paint portraits. His monumental canvases established a substantial popular reputation, and lithographic copies of the portraits helped to spread his fame. 

Winterhalter's portraits were prized for their subtle intimacy, but his popularity among patrons came from his ability to create the image his sitters wished or needed to project to their subjects. He was able to capture the moral and political climate of each court, adapting his style to each client until it seemed as if his paintings acted as press releases, issued by a master of public relations. More on Franz Xaver Winterhalter

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925)
Rose Marie Ormond, c. 1912
Oil, canvas
80 x 58.4 cm
Private Collection

Rose-Marie (later Madame Robert André-Michel 1893-1918), was the niece to John Singer Sargent, daughter to Violet Sargent Ormond. Widow of Robert André-Michel  killed at Saint-Gervais, on Good Friday, 1918 by German bombardment. More on this painting


John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

His parents were American, but he was trained in Paris prior to moving to London. Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, although not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his "Portrait of Madame X", was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but it resulted in scandal instead. From the beginning his work was characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. He lived most of his life in Europe. More John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925)
Winifred, Duchess of Portland, 1902
Oil on canvas
Private collection

Winifred Anna Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland DBE JP (née Dallas-Yorke; 7 September 1863 – 30 July 1954) was a British humanitarian and animal welfare activist. Born at Murthly Castle, Perthshire. She served as a canopy bearer to HM Queen Alexandra at the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, and was Mistress of the Robes from 1913 until Alexandra's death in 1925. She married William John Arthur James Cavendish-Bentinck on 11 June 1889. They had three children.

The Duchess of Portland was a passionate animal lover, who kept stables for old horses and ponies, as well as dogs needing homes. In 1891, she became the first president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and was vice-president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She was also president of the ladies committee of the RSPCA.

In 1889, she persuaded the duke to use a large portion of his horseracing winnings to build almshouses at Welbeck. She cared greatly for the local miners and supported them by paying for medical treatments, and organising cooking and sewing classes for their daughters. She also sponsored a miner, with an interest in art, to study in London.

In honor of her support, the Nottinghamshire Miners' Welfare Association petitioned the king on her behalf; and in 1935 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on his silver jubilee. She was also made a Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa in Spain. More on Winifred, Duchess of Portland

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925), see above

Donato Creti, CREMONA 1671 - 1749 BOLOGNA
A SIBYL
Oil on canvas
28 1/4  by 23 1/8  in.; 72.4 by 58.7 cm.
Private Collection

The Sibyls were women that the ancient Greeks believed were oracles. The earliest sibyls, according to legend, prophesied at holy sites. Their prophecies were influenced by divine inspiration from a deity; originally at Delphi and Pessinos, the deities were chthonic deities. In Late Antiquity, various writers attested to the existence of sibyls in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor. More on The sibyls

Donato Creti (24 February 1671 – 31 January 1749) was an Italian painter of the Rococo period, active mostly in Bologna.

Born in Cremona, he moved to Bologna, where he was a pupil of Lorenzo Pasinelli. He is described by Wittkower as the "Bolognese Marco Benefial", in that his style was less decorative and edged into a more formal neoclassical style. It is an academicized grand style, that crystallizes into a manneristic neoclassicism, with crisp and frigid modeling of the figures. Among his followers were Aureliano Milani, Francesco Monti, and Ercole Graziani the Younger. Two other pupils were Domenico Maria Fratta and Giuseppe Peroni. More on Donato Creti





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Saturday, December 23, 2017

09 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Raphael's muse Margarita Luti Part 1, with Footnotes. #22

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (March 28 or April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.


Raphael, (1483–1520)
“Woman with a veil (La Donna Velata)”, c. 1516
82 by 61 cm (32 by 24 inches)
Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy

La Donna Velata may not be Raphael's most famous painting to the layman, but it's considered to be in par with Leonardo's Mona Lisa. One of Raphael's distinctions is his attention to the clothing of the subjects of his portraits, this one depicting opulence. More on this painting

Margarita Luti (also Margherita Luti or La Fornarina, "the baker's daughter") was the mistress and model of Raphael. The story of their love has become "the archetypal artist-model relationship of Western tradition", yet little is known of her life. Of her, Flaubert wrote, in his Dictionary of Received Ideas, "Fornarina. She was a beautiful woman. That is all you need to know.


Raphael, (1483–1520)
Madonna della Seggiola/ Mary with Christ Child and John the Baptist, c. 1513-1514
Oil on panel
Diameter 71 cm
Pitti Palace, Firenze

Painted during his Roman period, this Madonna does not have the strict geometrical form and linear style of his earlier Florentine treatments of the same subject. Instead, the warmer colors seem to suggest the influence of Titian and Raphael's rival Sebastiano del Piombo. More on this painting
From 1517 until his death, Raphael lived in the Palazzo Caprini in the Borgo, in rather grand style. He never married, but in 1514 became engaged to Maria Bibbiena, Cardinal Medici Bibbiena's niece; his lack of enthusiasm seems to be shown by the marriage not having taken place before she died in 1520. He is said to have had many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was "La Fornarina", Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker from Siena.

She was referred to as La Fornarina. In a letter of 1806, Melchior Missirini recounted the tale of their first meeting, of how Raphael fell in love after watching her as she bathed her feet in the Tiber in the garden beside his house in Trastevere, only to discover that "her mind was as beautiful as her body"


Raphael, (1483–1520)
Madonna di Foligno, c. 1511
Oil on wood, transferred to canvas
320 cm × 194 cm (130 in × 76 in)
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City

This painting was executed for Sigismondo de' Conti, chamberlain to Pope Julius II, in 1511. In 1799 it was carried to Paris, France by Napoleon. There, in 1802, the painting was transferred from panel to canvas and restored. In 1815, after the Battle of Waterloo, it was returned to Italy. 

Rather than sitting under a canopy, of the Umbrian or Florentine style, the Virgin is seated on clouds, embracing Jesus, while surrounded by angels. They look down upon Sigismonde de' Conti, kneeling in a red, fur lined cape. Conti is presented by St. Jerome on the right with his lion, appealing for the Virgin's protection. More on this painting


Raphael, (1483–1520)
Madonna di Foligno, c. 1511
Detail

Raphael was a "very amorous man and affectionate towards the ladies". He is said to have painted portraits of his mistress and to have assigned the engraver il Baviera to serve as her page. When commissioned by Agostino Chigi to decorate the Villa Farnesina, he was unable to dedicate himself properly to his work due to his infatuation - until she was allowed to come to live at his side. According to Vasari, it was Raphael's immoderate indulgence in "amorous pleasures", one day taken to excess, that brought on the fever which led to the young artist's death in 1520. On his deathbed he sent his mistress away "with the means to live an honest life".


Raphael, (1483–1520)
The Transfiguration, c. 1516–20
Tempera on wood
405 cm × 278 cm (159 in × 109 in)
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City

The Transfiguration is the last painting by Raphael. Commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de Medici, the later Pope Clement VII (1523–1534) and conceived as an altarpiece for the Narbonne Cathedral in France, Raphael worked on it until his death in 1520. The painting exemplifies Raphael's development as an artist and the culmination of his career. Unusually for a depiction of the Transfiguration of Jesus in Christian art, the subject is combined with an additional episode from the Gospels in the lower part of the painting.


In the first, the Transfiguration of Christ itself, Moses and Elijah appear before the transfigured Christ with Peter, James and John looking on In the lower register, Raphael depicts the Apostles attempting to free the possessed boy of his demonic possession. They are unable to cure the sick child until the arrival of the recently transfigured Christ, who performs a miracle. More on this painting


Raphael, (1483–1520)
The Transfiguration, c. 1516–20
Tempera on wood
Detail, the lower register

Two portraits by Raphael are identified as those of Margarita, La Fornarina (Below), where she is naked from the waist up, and La donna velata (Top). The former was already the subject of several early testimonies before featuring in a 1642 inventory of the Barberini collection. X-ray analysis during restoration work at the beginning of the twenty-first century revealed a ring with a ruby on the third finger of her left hand. She wears a ribbon with the artist's name; the ring may hint at betrothal and the depth of their bond. The latter work is identified as a portrait of Raphael's mistress, "whom he loved until he died, and of whom he made a most beautiful portrait, which seems spirited and alive". She also served as his model for the Virgin and in other religious works: her features have been traced in the Madonna della seggiola (Above), the Madonna di Foligno (Above), the kneeling figure in the Transfiguration (Above), the Stanze di Raffaello (Below), the Ecstasy of St. Cecilia  (Below), and in Galatea (Below)


Raphael,  (1483–1520)
Adam and Eve (ceiling panel), c. 1509 and 1511
Fresco
Height: 120 cm (47.2 in). Width: 105 cm (41.3 in).
Apostolic Palace, Rome

Raphael,  (1483–1520)
The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia/ St. Cecilia Altarpiece, c. 1516–1517
Oil transferred from panel to canvas
220 cm × 136 cm (87 in × 54 in)
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna

Completed in his later years, around 1516-1517, the painting depicts Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians and Church music, listening to a choir of angels. St. Cecilia's companions are identified in part by their attributes. Immediately to her right, John the Evangelist has an eagle, his usual symbol, peeking out around his robes. Beside him, Paul leans on the sword with which he had come to be identified in medieval art. Augustine of Hippo holds his crosier. Mary Magdalene holds the alabaster jar by which she is most commonly identified. More on this painting


Raphael,  (1483–1520)
The Triumph of Galatea, c. 1514
Fresco
9' 8" x 7' 5".
Villa Farnesina, Rome

Galatea; "she who is milk-white", was a sea-nymph, the fairest and most beloved of the 50 Nereids. In Ovid's Metamorphoses she appears as the beloved of Acis. When a jealous rival, the Sicilian Cyclops Polyphemus, killed him with a boulder, Galatea then turned his blood into the Sicilian River Acis, of which he became the spirit. According to Athenaeus, the story was first concocted by Philoxenus of Cythera as a political satire against the Sicilian tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse, whose favourite concubine, Galatea, shared her name with the nymph. Others claim the story was invented to explain the presence of a shrine dedicated to Galatea on Mount Etna. More on Galatea

Raphael did not paint any of the main events of the story. He chose the scene of the nymph's apotheosis. Galatea appears surrounded by other sea creatures whose forms are somewhat inspired by Michelangelo, whereas the bright colors and decoration are supposed to be inspired by ancient Roman painting. At the left, a Triton abducts a sea nymph; behind them, another Triton uses a shell as a trumpet. Galatea rides a shell-chariot drawn by two dolphins. Galatea was his only major mythology

When asked where he had found a model of such beauty, Raphael reportedly said that he had used "a certain idea" he had formed in his mind.  More on this painting











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Saturday, December 16, 2017

03 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Fokina, Vera, Graziella, and Thérèse, with Footnotes. #20

Konstantin Korovin, (1861–1939)
Portrait of Vera Fokina
Oil on canvas
82 × 66 cm (32.3 × 26 in)
Private collection

Fokina, Vera (1886–1958), a Russian ballerina. Born Vera Petrovna in 1886; died in New York on July 29, 1958; graduated from the St. Petersburg Ballet School in 1904; married Michel Fokine, in 1905 (died 1942); children: one son, Vitale Fokine.

Vera Fokina supported the reforms of her husband Michel Fokine and danced in many of his ballets under the aegis of the Diaghileff company. In 1918, she formally resigned from the Maryinsky Theatre and, in 1924, settled with her husband in New York, where they formed their own company. During the 1920s, Fokina made many concert appearances in America, while also traveling widely with her husband who worked for numerous companies. She retired from the stage around 1928. After her husband's death in 1942, her health began to deteriorate, and she died in 1958. More on Vera Fokina

Konstantin Alekseyevich Korovin (1861 – 1939) was a leading Russian Impressionist painter. Konstantin was born in Moscow. In 1875 Korovin entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

In 1885 he then traveled to Paris and Spain. "Paris was a shock for me … Impressionists… in them I found everything I was scolded for back home in Moscow", he later wrote. In 1888 he traveled to Italy and Spain. He painted in the Impressionist, and later in the Art Nouveau, styles.

Korovin's subsequent works were strongly influenced by his travels to the north. Korovin painted a large number of landscapes. The paintings are built on a delicate web of shades of grey. The etude style of these works was typical for Korovin's art of the 1890s. 

In 1900 Korovin designed the Central Asia section of the Russian Empire pavilion at the Paris World Fair and was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government.

In 1905 Korovin became an Academician of Painting and in 1909–1913 a professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

During World War I Korovin worked as a camouflage consultant at the headquarters of one of the Russian armies. In 1923 he moved to Paris to cure his heart condition and help his handicapped son. There was supposed to be a large exhibition of Korovin's works, but the works were stolen and Korovin was left penniless. For years, he produced the numerous Russian Winters and Paris Boulevards just to make ends meet.

In the last years of his life he produced stage designs for many of the major theatres of Europe, America, Asia and Australia, the most famous of which is his scenery for the Turin Opera House's production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel.

Korovin died in Paris on 11 September 1939. More on Konstantin Alekseyevich Korovin

Jules Lefebvre  (1834–1912)
Graziella, c. 1878
Oil on canvas
78 3/4 x 44 1/4 in. (200 x 112.4 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the second half of his life, Lefebvre's meticulously executed portraits and paintings of nudes were regularly shown in the Paris Salons. He won many awards, including the prestigious Prix de Rome, three Salon medals, and the French Legion of Honor. The American collector Catharine Lorillard Wolfe—who bequeathed to the Museum 143 pictures, commissioned "Graziella" in 1878. It depicts the Neopolitan fisherman's daughter, who is the heroine of Alphonse de Lamartine's novel of the same name. A smoking Mount Vesuvius is visible in the background. More on this painting

Graziella is an 1852 novel by the French author Alphonse de Lamartine. It tells of a young French man who falls for a fisherman's granddaughter – the titular Graziella – during a trip to Naples, Italy; they are separated when he must return to France, and she soon dies. Based on the author's experiences with a tobacco-leaf folder while in Naples in the early 1810s, Graziella was first written as a journal, and intended to serve as commentary for Lamartine's poem "Le Premier Regret".

First serialised as part of Les Confidences beginning in 1849, Graziella received popular acclaim. An operatic adaptation had been completed by the end of the year, and the work influenced paintings, poems, novels, and films. The American literary critic Charles Henry Conrad Wright considered it one of the three most important emotionalist French novels. More on Graziella

Jules Lefebvre, (1834–1912)
Detail; Graziella, c. 1878
Oil on canvas
78 3/4 x 44 1/4 in. (200 x 112.4 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jules Joseph Lefebvre (14 March 1834 – 24 February 1912) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist. Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1834. He entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet.,He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1861. Between 1855 and 1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon. In 1891, he became a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts.

He was professor at the Académie Julian in Paris. Lefebvre is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils. Among his famous students were Fernand Khnopff, Kenyon Cox, Félix Vallotton, Ernst Friedrich von Liphart, Georges Rochegrosse, the Scottish-born landscape painter William Hart, Walter Lofthouse Dean, and Edmund C. Tarbell, who became an American Impressionist painter.

Lefebvre died in Paris on 24 February 1912. More on Jules Joseph Lefebvre


Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski) (French, Paris 1908–2001 Rossinière)
Thérèse Dreaming, c.1938
Oil on canvas
59 x 51 in. (149.9 x 129.5 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

With closed eyes, Balthus's pubescent model is lost in thought. Thérèse Blanchard, who was about twelve or thirteen at the time this picture was made, and her brother Hubert were neighbors of Balthus in Paris. She appears alone, with her cat, or with her brother in a series of eleven paintings done between 1936 and 1939. More on Thérèse Dreaming

A petition to cease displaying this provocative painting by Balthus on the walls of New York’s Metropolitan Museum has struck a raw nerve at a moment when US society is publicly, painfully grappling with issues of sexual harassment and misconduct. More on the petition

An unusual figure in the history of twentieth century painting, Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski) (French, Paris 1908–2001 Rossinière) both traveled among and drew upon the work of other major artists of his time, while at the same time following a unique individual trajectory. He was mentored by, friends of, and/or even collaborated with seminal creative figures from different eras, while cultivating his own highly refined style of painting. The scenes he usually depicted were very ordinary bourgeois interiors or outdoor settings, which nonetheless managed to reveal the heightened inner states of his subjects (often young females) as well as the states of mind of those who might be viewing them. More on Balthus





Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

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Friday, November 24, 2017

10 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY FROM EGYPT, with Footnotes. #20

John Singer Sargent, 1856 - 1925
A Fellah Woman
Oil on canvas
 22 x 18 in
Private collection

Estimated for US$1,200,000 - US$1,800,000 in  October 2023

Fellah is a farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for "ploughman" or "tiller".

Due to a continuity in beliefs and lifestyle, the fellahin of Egypt have been described as the "true" Egyptians. More on Fallah

Sargent travelled to Egypt embarking on a research expedition lasting a full three months. 1891 saw him in Alexandria and Cairo, where he rented a studio. He travelled in Upper Egypt: Denderah, Luxor, Thebes, Aswan, Philae and El Faiyûm.

He was voracious and inclusive, copying illustrations in books and objects in museums to build up his portfolio of Eastern imagery.

During this visit, he was particularly interested in the human form, painting a full-length portrait Life Study (Study of an Egyptian Girl) (See below).

John Singer Sargent
Egyptian Woman, c. 1891
Oil on canvas
25 1/2 x 21 in. (64.8 x 53.3 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

John Singer Sargent
Egyptian Woman with Earrings, c. 1890–91
Oil on canvas
28 x 24 1/2 in. (53.3 x 64.1 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

He depicted the same woman four times, exploring the pictorial possibilities of her face. There are three oils (two are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and one pencil study (Yale University Art Gallery). This is the only profile study and it is more highly charged, almost as if Sargent is painting the woman in character. She wears a heavy necklace consisting of a single row of light-struck coins closely strung and hung from pod-like metallic lozenges, with a central, clustered drop of coins. It is a traditional Eastern necklace and may have been a studio prop.

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

His parents were American, but he was trained in Paris prior to moving to London. Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, although not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his "Portrait of Madame X", was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but it resulted in scandal instead. From the beginning his work was characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. He lived most of his life in Europe. More John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent
Life Study (Study of an Egyptian Girl), c. 1891
Oil on canvas
190.5 × 61 cm (75 × 24 in.)
Art Institute of Chicago

The identity of the woman who posed in Cairo for this full-length figure study is not known. She assumes a complicated posture, placing her weight on her right foot while twisting her upper body to the left. Instead of using the bravura painterly style of swift, visible brushstrokes that characterizes his society portraits, Sargent returned to his academic training, carefully modeling the human form and a range of flesh tones. Life Study was widely exhibited, including at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. More on this painting

Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau, (American, 1837-1922)
La Confidence, ca. 1880
Oil on canvas
68 x 47-1/8 in.
Georgia Museum of Art, Athens

This painting depicts an intimate, whispered secret between two young peasant girls. The painting was given to the Lucy Cobb Institute, an all-girls school in Athens, Georgia. Hung in the drawing room parlor of the school, the work was beloved in the school’s collection and was viewed as having a “moralizing purpose” for the young girls enrolled in the finishing school. More on this painting

Elizabeth Jane Gardner (October 4, 1837 – January 28, 1922) was an American academic and salon painter, who was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. She was an American expatriate who died in Paris where she had lived most of her life. She studied in Paris under the figurative painter Hugues Merle (1823–1881), the well-known salon painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911), and finally under William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905). After Bouguereau's wife died, Gardner became his paramour and after the death of his mother, who bitterly opposed the union, she married him in 1896. She adopted his subjects, compositions, and even his smooth facture, channeling his style so successfully that some of her work might be mistaken for his.  More on Elizabeth Jane Gardner

 Head of the ptolemaic queen Berenice II (reign between 246–221 BC).
Glyptothek, Munich

Berenice II (267 or 266 BC – 221 BC) was a ruling queen of Cyrene by birth, and a queen and co-regent of Egypt by marriage to her cousin Ptolemy III Euergetes, the third ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.

In approximately 249 BC, her father died, making Berenice ruling queen of Cyrene. Soon after Berenice was married to Demetrius the Fair, a Macedonian prince.

After Demetrius came to Cyrene, he became the lover of her mother, Apama. In a dramatic event, Bernice had him killed in Apama's bedroom. Berenice stood at the door and instructed the hired assassins not to hurt her mother while she attempted to protect her mother's lover. 

Berenice is said to have participated in the Nemean Games and the Olympic games at some unknown date. She had a strong equestrian background and was accustomed to fighting from horseback. When Berenice's father Magas, king of Cyrene in modern day Libya, and his troops were routed in battle, Berenice mounted a horse, rallied the remaining forces, killed many of the enemy, and drove the rest to retreat.

After the death of Demetrius, Berenice married Ptolemy III,  the third king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.. More on Berenice II

Bernardo Strozzi,  (1581–1644)
Berenice, before 1644
Oil on canvas
86.5 × 71 cm (34.1 × 28 in)
Private collection

Berenice II, Queen of Egypt, when she cut off her long hair to dedicate it to the goddess Aphrodite in order to ensure the safe return of her husband, Ptolemy III.

Bernardo Strozzi, named il Cappuccino and il Prete Genovese (c. 1581 – 2 August 1644) was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver. A canvas and fresco artist, his wide subject range included history, allegorical, genre and portrait paintings as well as still lifes. Born and initially mainly active in Genoa, he worked in Venice in the latter part of his career. His work exercised considerable influence on artistic developments in both cities. He is considered a principal founder of the Venetian Baroque style. His powerful art stands out by its rich and glowing colour and broad, energetic brushstrokes. More on Bernardo Strozzi

Bernardo Strozzi, (1581–1644)
Berenice, c. 1640
Oil on canvas
El Paso Museum of Art

During her second husband's absence on an expedition to Syria, she dedicated locks of her hair to Aphrodite for his safe return and victory in the Third Syrian War, and placed the offering in the temple of the goddess at Zephyrium, on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey . By some unknown means, the hair offering disappeared when Ptolemy returned to Egypt, Conon of Samos explained the phenomenon in courtly phrase, by saying that it had been carried to the heavens and placed among the stars. The name Coma Berenices or Berenice's hair, applied to a constellation, commemorates this incident. This made the locks of Berenice the only war trophy in Greco-Roman sky.


The city of Euesperides was refounded by her and received her name, Berenice (near the location of Benghazi). The asteroid 653 Berenike, discovered in 1907, also is named after Queen Berenice. More on queen Berenice II

Andrew Geddes, ARA (British, 1783-1844)
Portrait of a Lady, reputed to be Charlotte Nasymth 
Oil on canvas
72 x 60 cm. (28 3/8 x 23 5/8 in.)
Private collection


Charlotte Nasmyth (British painter) 1804 - 1884 was a member of a large and gifted family, Charlotte was the sixth daughter of the landscape painter Alexander Nasmyth. All the girls were talented artists, trained to draw and paint by their father so that they could run art classes from their Edinburgh home and eventually support themselves independently. Charlotte painted romantic landscapes which were widely exhibited. More on Charlotte Nasymth

Andrew Geddes ARA (5 April 1783 – 5 May 1844) was a Scottish portrait painter and etcher.

Geddes was born in Edinburgh. After receiving a good education in the high school and in the University of Edinburgh, he was for five years in the excise office, in which his father held the post of deputy auditor.

After the death of his father, who had opposed his desire to become an artist, he went to London and entered the Royal Academy schools. His first contribution to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, a St John in the Wilderness, appeared at Somerset House in 1806, and from that year onwards Geddes was a fairly constant exhibitor of figure-subjects and portraits. He alternated for some years between London and Edinburgh, with some excursions on the Continent, but in 1831 settled in London, and was elected associate of the Royal Academy in 1832; and he died in London of tuberculosis in 1844. More on Andrew Geddes



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