Friday, August 25, 2017

Painted Nineteenth Century (European, Second Half)

Carl Heinrich Bloch
Actor Kristian Mantzius in his study
1853
oil on canvas
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen

When we have ceased to care
The Gift is given
For which we gave the Earth
And mortgaged Heaven
But so declined in worth
'Tis ignominy now
To look upon –

Ferdinand von Rayski
Portrait of Count Haubold von Einsiedel
1855
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Gustave Courbet
The Mediterranean
1857
oil on canvas
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Camille Pissarro
Still-life with peonies and mock orange
ca. 1872-77
oil on canvas
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Max Liebermann
Orphan Girls in Amsterdam
1876
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Cleopatra
1877
oil on panel
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

Her face was in a bed of hair,
Like flowers in a plot –
Her hand was whiter than the sperm
That feeds the sacred light.
Her tongue more tender than the tune
That totters in the leaves –
Who hears may be incredulous,
Who witnesses, believes. 

Auguste Renoir
Bouquet in a vase
1878
oil on canvas
Indianapolis Museum of Art

Ernst Josephson
Water Sprite
1882
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

John Everett Millais
The Captive
1882
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Edward Burne-Jones
The Wheel of Fortune
1883
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The joy that has no stem nor core,
Nor seed that we can sow,
Is edible to longing,
But ablative to show.

By fundamental palates
Those products are preferred
Impregnable to transit
And patented by pod. 

Adolph Menzel
Decorating an Altar
1885
bodycolor
British Museum



George Hendrik Breitner
Reclining Nude
ca. 1887
oil on canvas
Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

Charles Louis Verboeckhoven
Harbor by Night
before 1889
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

John William Waterhouse
Circe Invidiosa
1892
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Did life's penurious length
Italicize its sweetness,
The men that daily live
Would stand so deep in joy
That it would clog the cogs
Of that revolving reason
Whose esoteric belt
Protects our sanity.

– poems are by Emily Dickinson, edited by R.W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1998)