Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Landscape Views Painted by 19th-century Scandinavians

Olof Arborelius
Lake view at Engelsberg, Västmanland
1893
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

"This view of a lake is captured in the clear light of a typical, still Swedish summer's day.  Painted in 1893, it was purchased for the Nationalmuseum the following year.  Since then this has been one of the Museum's best-loved paintings, its designation by the Swedish Tourist Association in 1935 as the quintessential 'Picture of Sweden' helping to make it famous.  Arborelius's painting is also the work in the Museum's collection most often copied by visiting artists and art students." 

– curator's notes from the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Anders Zorn
The Port of Hamburg
1891
watercolor
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Christen Dalsgaard
Landscape
1849
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Anna Wengberg
Haystacks in Åland
1888
oil on canvas, mounted on panel
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Alfred Bergström
Winter scene from the Stockholm waterfront
1899
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

"Sleigh-loads of snow are being tipped over the Blaseiholmen quayside.  In the background looms southern Stockholm.  Alfred Bergström captures the effects of light on the snowy urban scene.  In the foreground, the colours of the drifts range from dazzling high-lights to violet blue shadows.  His attention to reflected light suggests an influence from Impressionism gained during the artist's travels abroad in the mid-1890s." 

– curator's notes from the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Gustaf Wilhelm Palm
View of the Riddarholmskanalen, Stockholm in 1835
1880
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Anna Boberg
Night over Store Molla - Study from Lofoten
ca. 1895
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Berndt Lindholm
View of the Kattegat
1890
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Robert Thegerström
Plein-air painter at the coast
1881
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Frederik Sødring
Study of the ruins of the Brahehus near Jönköping (Sweden)
before 1852
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Carl Fredrik Hill
Moorland with Carriage
1878
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Christian Ezdorf
The Icelandic Coast
before 1851
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

August Strindberg
Sunset
1892
oil on paper
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

August Malmström
Dancing Fairies
1866
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

"The moon illuminates a still landscape through which a river flows sedately.  Trees appear as dark silhouettes against the sky.  Hand-in-hand, the fairies sweep like a wispy mist through the landscape, their movements like a ring dance.  One kisses the surface of the water or is reflected in it.  Like the others, she has long flowing hair and is wearing a garland.  . . .  According to Swedish folklore, fairies were often to be seen dancing around hills, burial mounds, mountains and forests.  People were warned to remain watchful and avoid them, as they could cause illness.  August Malmström's painting became a widely-recognised image through versions and reproductions in magazines and illustrations."

– curator's notes from the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Friday, December 15, 2017

Seasons in Pictures and Words

attributed to Hendrik van Balen
Cybele and the Seasons, with Garland
ca. 1615
oil on panel
Prado, Madrid

Giuseppe Maria Crespi
Apotheosis of Hercules, with the Four Seasons
ca. 1700
ceiling fresco
Palazzo Pepoli-Campogrande, Bologna

Bartolomeo Manfredi
Allegory of the Four Seasons
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio

ALL WORLDLY PLEASURES FADE

The winter with his griefly stormes no lenger dare abyde,
The pleasant grasse, with lusty grene, the earth hath newly dyde.
The trees have leves, the bowes down spread, new changed is the yere.
The water brokes are cleane sanke down, the pleasant bankes apere.
The spring is come, the goodly nymphes now dance in every place
Thus hath the yere most pleasantly of late ychangde his face.
Hope for no immortalitie, for wealth will weare away,
As we may learne by every yere, yea howres of every day.
For Zepharus doth mollifye the colde and blustering windes:
The somers drought doth take away the spryng out of our minds.
And yet the somer cannot last, but once must step asyde,
The Autumn thinkes to kepe his place, but Autumn cannot bide.
For when he hath brought furth his fruits and stuft the barns with corn,
The winter eates and empties all, and thus is Autumn worne.
Then hory frostes possesse the place, the tempestes work much harm,
The rage of stormes done make al colde which somer had made so warm
Wherefore let no man put his trust in that, that will decay,
For slipper wealth will not continue, pleasure will weare away.
For when that we have lost our lyfe, and lye under a stone,
What are we then, we are but earth, then is our pleasure gon.
No man can tell what god almight of every wight doth cast,
No man can say to day I live, till morne my life shall last.
For when thou shalt before thy judge stand to receive thy doom,
What sentence Minos doth pronounce that must of thee become.
Then shall not noble stock and blud redeme thee from his handes,
Nor sugared talke with eloquence shal lowse thee from his handes.
Nor yet thy lyfe uprightly led, can help thee out of hell,
For who descendeth downe so depe, must there abyde and dwell.
Diana could not thence deliver chaste Hyppolitus,
Nor Theseus could not call to life his friende Perithous.

– translated anonymously from the Odes of Horace and published (1557) in Tottel's Miscellany

Nicolas Poussin
Four Seasons (Spring) - Garden of Eden
1660-64
oil on canvas
Louvre, Paris

Nicolas Poussin
Four Seasons (Summer) - Ruth and Boaz
1660-64
oil on canvas
Louvre, Paris

Nicolas Poussin
Four Seasons (Autumn) - Return of the Spies
1660-64
oil on canvas
Louvre, Paris

Nicolas Poussin
Four Seasons (Winter) - The Deluge
1660-64
oil on canvas
Louvre, Paris

Francesco Foschi
Winter Landscape with Figures
ca. 1750-80
oil on canvas
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Francesco Foschi
Winter Landscape with Peasant Family
ca. 1750-80
oil on canvas
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Denys van Alsloot
Winter Landscape
1610
oil on panel
Louvre, Paris

Francisco Goya
Tapestry cartoon - Snowstorm
1786
oil on canvas
Prado, Madrid

William Williams
Thunderstorm with the Death of Amelia
(illustration of 'Summer' from James Thomson's poem, The Seasons)

1784
oil on canvas
Tate Britain

Caspar David Friedrich
Monk by the Sea
ca. 1808-10
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin

John Singer Sargent
Mannequin in the Snow
ca. 1891-93
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Saturday, October 22, 2016

17th-century Landscape Drawings, British Museum

attributed to Domenico Piola
Landscape with four figures
17th century
drawing
British Museum

Adriaen van Ostade
Village scene
ca. 1673
drawing, watercolor
British Museum

Jan Lievens
Milking cows among trees
1660s
drawing
British Museum

Jan Lievens
Pollard willows in a glade
1660s
drawing
British Museum

Jan Lievens
Shepherd among trees
1660s
drawing
British Museum

Jan Lievens
Clearing in a forest
1660s
drawing
British Museum
 
Jan Lievens
Homestead in a forest
1660s
drawing
British Museum

Jan Lievens
Forest scene
1660s
drawing
British Museum

Jan Lievens
Forest scene
1660s
drawing
British Museum

Jan Lievens
Sandpit with barns
1660s
drawing
British Museum

Jan Lievens
Landscape with houses
1660s
drawing
British Museum

Aniello Falcone
Ruins of the Roman Arena at Pozzuoli
17th century
drawing
British Museum

Aniello Falcone
Landscape with a ruinous Roman arch 
17th century
drawing
British Museum

We have been exposed here before to the fanatical antiquarianism of Aniello Falcone (1607-1656). His drawing of of a ruinous Roman arch (immediately above) documents the decay that overtook most such monuments. This final skeleton  still standing in the 17th century  did not survive into the present.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

French Landscapes at the Metropolitan Museum

Théodore Géricault
Evening Landscape with Aqueduct
1818
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny
Edge of a Wood
ca. 1850
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Regarding the lofty mission of the public art museum, Edmond de Goncourt wrote a note that was printed after his death in 1896. The following text appeared at the head of the sale catalog when the collections built up throughout his lifetime were dispersed 

"My wish is that my drawings, my prints, my curios, my books, the things that have been the happiness of my life, not suffer the cold tomb of the museum and the stupid gaze of the indifferent passerby: I ask that they all be dispersed under the auctioneer's hammer and that the pleasure each one of them afforded me be given again to those who inherit my tastes."

Antoine Félix Boisselier
Gorges of Amalfi
ca. 1811
oil on paper
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jean Victor Bertin
Classical Landscape with Figures
1803
oil on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Léon Pallière
View of the Garden at the Villa d'Este
ca. 1814-17
oil on paper
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alexandre Desgoffe
View of the Roman Campagna
19th century
oil on paper
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Claude Monet
Palm Trees at Bordighera
1884
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jean-François Millet
Haystacks : Autumn
1874
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anonymous French painter
Landscape
19th century
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alfred Sisley
Road from Versailles to Louveciennes
ca. 1879
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gustave Courbet
View of Ornans
1850s
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Camille Pissarro
Poplars, Éragny
1895
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Auguste Renoir
View of the Seacoast near Wargemont in Normandy
1880
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Georges Seurat
View of the Seine
1882-83
oil on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art