Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Groups - III

Ansgar Larssen
Family Portrait
ca. 1950
oil on canvas
KODE (Art Museums Complex), Bergen, Norway

August Sander
Working Class Students
1926
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Ludomir Śleńdziński
Group Portrait
1925
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Karl Klefisch and Günter Fröhling
Kraftwerk - Konzerthaus Elzer Hof
1981
lithograph (poster)
Röhsska Museet, Göteborg

Emil Schult and Pit Franke
Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator
1981
lithograph (poster)
Röhsska Museet, Göteborg

Abraham van Diepenbeeck
The Four Doctors of the Church
ca. 1660
oil on panel
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

Peter Paul Rubens
The Four Evangelists
ca. 1614
oil on canvas
Bildgalerie von Sanssouci, Potsdam

Irving Penn
Dusek Brothers
1948
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Gerhard Keil
Gymnasts
1939
oil on canvas
Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden

Christian Krohg
Studio at Ankertorvet
1885
oil on canvas
Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Norway

Otto Dix
Portrait of Fritz and Erna Glaser
with children Agathe and Volkmar

1925
tempera and oil on panel
Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden

Julius Exner
Portrait of Jenny Raphael Adler with her daughters
1868
oil on canvas
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen

Edgar Degas
The Bellelli Family
1858
pastel on paper
(study for painting)
Ordrupgaard Art Museum, Copenhagen

Thomas Gainsborough
The Marsham Children
1787
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Leopold Kalckreuth
Children with Christmas Tree
ca. 1910
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Nicolas de Largillière
The Artist with his Family
ca. 1704
oil on canvas
Kunsthalle Bremen

"At the head of the procession came the sacrificial animals, led on the halter by the men who were to perform the holy rites, countryfolk in country costume.  Each wore a white tunic, caught up to knee length by a belt.  Their right arms were bare to the shoulder and breast, and in their right hands they each brandished a double-headed axe.  Each and every one of the oxen was black: they carried their heads proudly on powerful necks that thickened to a hump of perfect proportions; their horns were flawlessly straight and pointed, on some gilded, on others wreathed with garlands of flowers; their legs were stocky, their dewlaps so deep that they brushed their knees.  There were exactly one hundred of them – a hecatomb in the true sense of the word.  Behind the oxen came a host of different sorts of beasts for the sacrifice, each kind separate and in its due place, while flute and pipe began a solemn melody as prelude to the sacred ceremony."

"After the animals and the cowherds came some Thessalian maidens, in beauteous raiment girdled deep, their hair streaming free.  They were divided into two companies: half – the first company – carried baskets full of flowers and fresh fruit, while the others bore wickerwork trays of sweetmeats and aromatics that breathed a sweet fragrance over the whole place.  They balanced their baskets on their heads, leaving their hands free to link arms in a formation of diagonal rows; thus they were able to dance and process simultaneously.   They were given the signal to begin by the second group launching into the introduction to the ode, for this group had been granted the privilege of singing the hymn through from beginning to end.  The hymn was in praise of Thetis and Peleus, and their son and finally their son's son."

– Heliodorus, from The Aethiopica, or, Theagenes and Charikleia (3rd or 4th century AD), translated from Greek by J.R. Morgan (1989)

Morton Schamberg

Morton Schamberg
Fanette Reider
ca. 1911
oil on canvas
Williams College Museum of Art,
Williamstown, Massachusetts

Morton Schamberg
Estella
1912
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Morton Schamberg
Self Portrait
1912
platinum print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Morton Schamberg
Self Portrait
ca. 1912
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Morton Schamberg
Figure
1913
oil on canvas
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Morton Schamberg
Composition
 1916
pastel on paper
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Morton Schamberg
Composition
1916
pastel on paper
Dallas Museum of Art

Morton Schamberg
Painting
1916
oil on canvas
Yale University Art Gallery

Morton Schamberg
Painting IV (Mechanical Abstraction)
1916
oil on panel
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Morton Schamberg
Painting VIII (Mechanical Abstraction)
1916
oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Morton Schamberg
Telephone
1916
oil on canvas
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio

Morton Schamberg
Untitled (Mechanical Abstraction)
1916
oil on panel
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Morton Schamberg in collaboration with
Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
'God'
1917
gelatin silver print
 (Dada sculpture of found materials) 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Morton Schamberg
View of Rooftops
1917
gelatin silver print
(unique print, formerly owned by Charles Sheeler)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Morton Schamberg
Fruit Bowl
1917
drawing
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Morton Schamberg
Bowl of Flowers
1918
watercolor on paper
(Schamberg died in the flu epidemic of 1918) 
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

The Fifth Ode

What lissom boy among the roses,
Sprinkled with liquid scents, proposes
To court you in your grotto, fair
Pyrrha? For whom is your blond hair

Bound with plain art? Alas, how often
Will he bid changed gods to soften,
Till, poor landlubber, he finds
The sea so rough with inky winds:

Who now, poor gull, enjoys your gold
And always careless, always bold
To love, hopes on and never knows
The gold is tinsel. Sad are those

For whom you shine, untried. For me,
Beholden to the great god of the sea
A votive tablet will recall
Drenched garments on his temple wall.

– Horace (65-8 BC), translated by Keith Douglas (1940)

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Groups - II

Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti)
Family Portrait
ca. 1590
oil on panel
National Museum, Warsaw

Willem Pietersz Buytewech
Jovial Company
ca. 1622-24
oil on canvas
Frick Collection, New York

Cornelis de Vos 
Family Portrait
1631
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Jean-Antoine Watteau
The Italian Comedians
ca. 1715
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Louis-Léopold Boilly
Woman displaying her Portrait
ca. 1790
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

François-Xavier Fabre
Portrait of the Duchesse de Feltre and her Children
1810
oil on canvas
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris

Pieter Christoffel Wonder
Interior with the De Bruijn de Neve family
1813
oil on panel
Dordrechts Museum

Gustave Adolf Hippius
The Artist with his Family
1829
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Eduard Ihlée
Portrait of Gertrude Eggena with her Children
1850
oil on canvas
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Gustav Wentzel
Morning Atmosphere
1885
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Guglielmo Plüschow
Family Portrait
ca. 1890
albumen print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Jens Ferdinand Willumsen
The Artist and his Family
1912
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Thérèse Schwartze
The Artist's Housemates
ca. 1915
oil on canvas
Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

Arvid Fougstedt
Back to Varennes
1928
watercolor on paper
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Antanas Sutkus
Young Pioneers
1966
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Anders Kristensson
The Mattsson Family outside B&W Hypermarket, Göteborg
1990
C-print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

"We had reached the altar, the priest had spoken the introductory prayer, the young man was on the point of commencing the ceremony, when from the inner shrine the voice of the priestess of the oracle rang forth.

One who starts in grace and ends in glory, another goddess-born:
Of these I bid you have regard, O Delphi!
Leaving my temple here and cleaving Ocean's swelling tides,
To the black land of the Sun will they travel,
Where they will reap the reward of those whose lives are passed in virtue:
A crown of white on brows of black.

So spake the god, but the bystanders were completely nonplussed and quite at a loss to explain the meaning of the oracle. They each tried to extract a different interpretation from it; each understood it in a sense that matched his own wishes.  As yet not one of them had discovered its real meaning, for by and large the interpretation of dreams and oracles depends on the outcome.  In any case, the people of Delphi were in too much of a hurry, for they were highly excited at the prospect of this pageant for which such magnificent preparations had been made: no one took the time to investigate exactly what the oracle signified."

– Heliodorus, from The Aethiopica, or, Theagenes and Charikleia (3rd or 4th century AD), translated from Greek by J.R. Morgan (1989)

Picabia

Francis Picabia
Edtaonisl: Ecclesiastic
1913
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago


Francis Picabia
Entrance to New York
1913
watercolor on paper
Art Institute of Chicago

Francis Picabia
New York
1913
watercolor and gouache on paper
Art Institute of Chicago

Francis Picabia
The Child Carburetor
1919
oil and enamel on panel
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Francis Picabia
Prenez Garde à la Peinture
ca. 1919
oil and enamel on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Francis Picabia
Untitled (Match Woman I)
1920
oil on canvas with found objects
Art Institute of Chicago

Francis Picabia
Toreador
1922-23
watercolor, crayon and graphite on paper
Art Institute of Chicago

Francis Picabia
Portrait of Arthur Craven
1923
watercolor and ink on paper
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Francis Picabia
Femmes Espagnoles
ca. 1925
gouache on board
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Francis Picabia
L'Acrobat
ca. 1925
watercolor, ink and collage on paper
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Francis Picabia
Le Vent
1929
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Francis Picabia
Self Portrait
1929
gouache, crayon and ink on paper
Art Institute of Chicago

Francis Picabia
Woman looking at a Photograph
ca. 1930
colored pencil, ink and graphite on paper
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Francis Picabia
Youth with Jug
1935
oil on canvas
Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins

Francis Picabia
Portrait of a Doctor
ca. 1935-38
oil on canvas
Tate Modern, London

Francis Picabia
Spring
ca. 1937-43
oil on panel
Menil Collection, Houston

Francis Picabia
Danger de la Force
1947-50
oil on canvas
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

To Pyrrha (the Fifth Ode)

Say what slim youth, with moist perfumes
        Bedaubed, now courts thy fond embrace,
There, where the frequent rose-tree blooms,
        And makes the grot so sweet a place?
Pyrrha, for whom with such an air
Do you bind back your golden hair?

So seeming in your cleanly vest,
        Whose plainness is the pink of taste 
Alas! how oft shall he protest
        Against his confidence misplac't,
And love's inconstant pow'rs deplore,
And wondrous winds, which, as they roar,

Throw black upon the altered scene 
        Who now so well himself deceives,
And thee all sunshine, all serene
        For want of better skill believes,
And for this pleasure has presaged
Thee ever dear and disengaged.

Wretched are all within thy snares,
        The inexperienced and the young!
For me the temple witness bears
        Where I my dropping weeds have hung,
And left my votive chart behind
To him that rules both wave and wind.

– Horace (65-8 BC), translated by Christopher Smart (1767)