Frank Holl - The Song Of The Shirt [1874]

Frank Holl (July 4, 1845 – July 31, 1888), English painter, was born in London, and was educated chiefly at University College School. Holl originally painted genre pictures, sometimes addressing social evils of the day. These paintings include ‘The Deserter,’ and ‘Newgate-Committed for Trial’ the second being an effective though grim social document. Holl then changed course, to become a leading painter of portraits. Famous sitters included Gladstone, Leverhume, and Joseph Chamberlain. He also painted a portrait of Millais, who remarked that Holl was a ‘nice man,’ but applied too much paint. The rather humble Holl was overawed by the great painter, and his ostentatious surroundings, rather to the surprise of the genial Millais. Holl was an unassuming rather nervous character, and the move to portrait painting whilst successful financially, was disastrous for him personally, and was felt by his family to have contributed to his premature death.

Tina Tobiassen - Dream

Born July 14, 1963 in Oslo, Tina Tobiassen is an experienced artist and designer. Graphic design was her focus for many years. She won numerous awards for her designs and has acted as a juror at several prestigious national and international design awards. In 2002 she moved to The United Arab Emirates and has devoted all her time to art inspired by the differences between Arabic and Western cultures. Her art is about bridging between cultures. She uses mixed media on canvas; acrylic paint and sand from Hatta desert for texture, and pastel or charcoal for text and effects.

See: http://www.tinatobiassen.com

[Mixed media on canvas, 80 x 80 cm]

John William Waterhouse - Hylas and the Nymphs

Waterhouse's depiction, overtly sexual, positions the nymphs as femme fatales, the cause of Hylas's demise and eventual death. The naked flesh of the sea-nymphs, coloured in the vibrant hues familiar in PRB works, radiate out of the canvas clearly drawing the attention of the viewer. The nymphs, bathed in light stand out, while the figure of Hylas almost blends into the background patches of colour. The bodies of the nymphs, vibrant and alive contrast the darker figure of Hylas, perhaps suggesting his impending death. The nymphs seem unaware of their sexual nature, in that they do not attempt to cover or hide their bodies, while at the same time seeming fully in control of their sexual prowess coyly cocking their heads, reaching and grasping Hylas and toying with their hair.

Waterhouse, who seems fascinated with the hypnotic power of beauty and youth, utilized the setting of mythology and fiction as an acceptable medium through which he could explore erotic forms. The female nude stands, adored by Waterhouse, as the ultimate expression of the organic and natural aesthetic. Women, capable of possessing power through their sexuality, become free from the domestic interior, embracing nature and themselves.

John R Grabach - Vanity

John Grabach (Newark, New Jersey, 1886 - Irvington, New Jersey, 1981) was a dynamic American painter with a strong spirit of nationalism whose work appears to have been crafted with an effortless mastery of materials. He worked to portray American life at a period in history that, though difficult due to the Great Depression and the coming winds of World War II, appears today as a romantic adventure. Grabach worked on views of the American city from neighbourhood to urban centre. In 1981, Grabach died at the age of 101. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC honoured him with a one-man show followed by an exhibition at the Graham Gallery in New York City in 1981 and 1984.

[Oil on canvas mounted on wood, 50.7 x 40.6 cm]

Pieter Aertsen - The Egg Dance [1552]

There's a cheerful atmosphere in the tavern. Everyone is having fun, dancing and drinking. What is the man in the foreground doing with his left hand nonchalantly resting on the shoulder of the young woman next to him? She seems to accept his advances and points out the drunkard - the man dancing on eggshells in the middle of the room. Pieter Aertsen has packed his Egg Dance, a work dating from 1552, full of double meanings.

Egg dancing was a popular game played during the springtime folk festivities. First a chalk circle was drawn on the floor. Then, accompanied by bagpipe music, the player would use his feet to roll an egg out of a bowl, keeping it inside the circle, and turn the bowl upside down on top of the egg. All this had to be done without touching the flowers, leaves or anything else - and of course the egg had to remain whole. The first to succeed would win a prize: usually a basket of eggs. Here the basket is shown in the foreground.

At the back of the room an old man is playing the bagpipes. Because of its shape, the instrument often symbolised the male genitalia. In the window is a jug containing a leek, a vegetable of the onion family. A sixteenth-century viewer would immediately have realised that the scene was a room in a brothel. Onions were supposed to be a stimulant. All around lie onion flowers, leek leaves and mussels, which were supposed to have the same quality. It was also thought to be true of eggs, the theme of the painting.

Pieter Aertsen has given this piquant scene a moral message that appears to reflect his own moral reservations. A joker is depicted on one of the wooden boards on the table, left, and on the other a goat jumping. These are cards in a Tarot set. In the sixteenth century everyone would have understood that these symbolised drunkenness and lust. The reel above the fireplace on the right is a sign of folly: in fact 'reeling' is still used today to describe a person swaying or staggering from the effects of alcohol.

Henry Golden Dearth - The Blue Coat [c.1912]

Henry Golden Dearth (April 22, 1864 – March 27, 1918) was a distinguished American painter who studied in Paris and continued to spend his summers in France painting in the Normandy region. He would return to New York in winter, and became known for his moody paintings of the Long Island area. Around 1912, Dearth changed his artistic style, and began to include portrait and still life pieces as well as his paintings of rock pools created mainly in Brittany. A winner of several career medals and the Webb prize in 1893, Dearth died suddenly in 1918 aged 53 and was survived by a wife and daughter.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema - The Finding of Moses

According to the book of Exodus, Moses was born to a Hebrew mother who hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and ended up being adopted into the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave master, he fled and became a shepherd, and was later commanded by God to deliver the Hebrews from slavery. After the Ten Plagues were unleashed on Egypt, he led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, where they wandered in the desert for 40 years. Despite living to 120, he did not enter the Land of Israel, as he disobeyed God when instructed on how to bring forth water from a rock in the desert.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (January 8, 1836, Dronrijp, the Netherlands, – June 25, 1912 Wiesbaden, Germany) was one of the most renowned painters of late nineteenth century Britain. Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean Sea and sky. Universally admired for his superb draftsmanship and depictions of classical antiquity, during his lifetime, he fell into disrepute after his death and only in the last thirty years has his work been re-evaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century English art.

Isaak Levitan - Evening Bells [1892]

Isaac Ilyich Levitan (August 30, 1860 – August 4, 1900) was a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the mood landscape. Isaac Levitan was born in a shtetl of Kybartai, Kaunas region, Lithuania, into a poor but educated Jewish family. His father Elyashiv Levitan was the son of a rabbi completed a Yeshiva and was self-educated. He taught German and French in Kaunas and later worked as a translator at a railway bridge construction for a French building company. At the beginning of 1870 the Levitan family moved to Moscow.

Levitan's work was a profound response to the lyrical charm of the Russian landscape. Characteristic of his work is a hushed and nearly melancholic reverie amidst pastoral landscapes largely devoid of human presence. Though his late work displayed familiarity with Impressionism, his palette was generally muted, and his tendencies were more naturalistic and poetic than optical or scientific. He was buried in Dorogomilovo Jewish cemetery. In April 1941 Levitan's remains were moved to the Novodevichy Cemetery, next to Chekhov's necropolis. Levitan did not have a family or children.

John William Waterhouse - A Naiad

In Greek mythology, the Naiads were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolid. Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean; but because the Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap.

The essence of a Naiad was bound to her spring, so if a Naiad's body of water dried, she died. They were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age dedicated their childish locks to the local Naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their waters' ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there. Oracles might be sited by ancient springs.

Alexandre Cabanel - Albayde

Alexandre Cabanel (1823 - 1889) was a painter of portraits and historical subjects in the academic style. He entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of seventeen. He exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1844, and won the Prix de Rome in 1845. His painting Naissance de Venus, was shown at the Salon in 1863, and was bought by Napoleon III for his own personal collection. That same year he was made a professor of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Cabanel's erotic imagery, cloaked in historicism, appealed to the propriety of the higher levels of society. He was a determined opponent of the Impressionists, especially Manet, although the refusal of the academic establishment to realize the importance of new ideas and sources of inspiration would eventually prove to be the undoing of the Academy.

Cornelis Springer - Zuiderhavendijk, Enkhuizen [1868]

An everyday scene by a canal in the North Holland town of Enkhuizen: people walking along the street, poultry, dogs and a horse. A peasant leads his horse and the woman on the right sells vegetables from a stall. Cornelis Springer, was a specialist in townscapes. He aimed as far as possible to portray exactly what he saw, painting with a fine brush to obtain the utmost precision. Each leaf and each brick is minutely defined.

[Oil on panel, 50 x 65 cm]

Kara Hendershot - Daydreamer 2009

“I live in my art studio/loft in downtown St. Paul with my boyfriend Josh and my 2 cats. I paint late at night, when it feels like the rest of the world is asleep. I am beginning to make a small splash in the local art scene, as I search for new ways to exhibit and promote my work throughout the Twin Cities. Having recently taken up an internship at an awesome Minneapolis gallery, I am eager to further connect myself to the local art scene. I enjoy living here, although Minnesota can definitely be a strange place! But I've learned that the Twin Cities can be great or small, it is what you make of it. I have met some really great people here. This art shit consumes a lot of my time, but I still have to wait tables at a local brew pub to help pay the bills. I hope to find more time to create art. However, my job connects me to awesome co-workers who are extremely fun to work with! Every day at "work" is like going to the playground. Hmm, maybe someday I'll have a real job.”

See: www.mnartists.org/Kara_Hendershot

[Acrylic and oil on 5 canvasses, 70 x 60 inches]

Edward John Poynter - The Cave of the Storm Nymphs [1903]

Sir Edward John Poynter (March 20, 1836 – July 26, 1919) was a British painter, designer, draughtsman and art administrator. The son of Ambrose Poynter, an architect, he was born in Paris. He was educated at Ipswich School and Brighton College before studying in London, in Rome (where he became a great admirer of Michelangelo) and with Charles Gleyre in Paris (where he met James McNeill Whistler). He became best known for his large historical paintings.

From the turn of the century Poynter's paintings declined both in numbers and quality, his main priority being the running of the Academy. He lived to see the death of classicism, and the total eclipse of his own artistic standards, and those of his contemporaries. He adopted the approach of ignoring new developments of which he did not approve. Unhappily Poynter outstayed his welcome. There was, though, something splendid about the way he remained consistent to the last, resisting what he saw as the corruption, and denigration of all that was beautiful in art. He may even have been right.

Ibram Lassaw - Untitled [1970]

Ibram Lassaw was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Russian émigré parents; he went to America in 1921. His family settled in Brooklyn, New York. He became a US citizen in 1928. He first studied sculpture in 1926 at the Clay Club and later at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York. He made abstract paintings and drawings influenced by Kandinsky, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and other artists. He also attended the City College of New York. He died in East Hampton, New York in 2003.

[Silkscreen, 66.7 x 54.0 cm]

Rembrandt - The Night Watch [1642]

The Night Watch, the most famous painting in the Rijksmuseum, actually has another title: the 'Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'. The picture is a militia painting: a group portrait of a division of the civic guard. Rembrandt depicted the group of militiamen in an original way. He did not paint them in neat row or sitting at their annual banquet, rather, he recorded a moment: a group of militiamen have just moved into action and are about to march off.

The names of the eighteen militiamen portrayed in the painting are on a shield above the gate. A company comprised more members, but only those who paid were included in the group portrait. The drummer was hired and was therefore allowed to be in the painting for free. Rembrandt added the others to enliven the painting. Three people on the left of the picture disappeared in the eighteenth century when part of the canvas was cut off. We are now only able to match a few names to the faces in the portrait.

But where are they going? Although the militiamen in the Night Watch may appear to be positioned at random, Rembrandt has constructed the composition with great care. The drawing shows the positions and movement of the figures through the space, seen from above. The militiamen are coming out of the gate and moving towards us. The captain and the lieutenant form the vanguard, with two men directly in their wake. The man who is shooting behind the captain and the two girls are walking from left to right, crossing the line of movement of the militiamen.

Hannah Mizen - Laguna Verde [2009]

“Since graduating from Bath School of Art and Design in 2004 I have worked as an artist, regularly exhibiting in London. I have continued to develop my work, inspired by the natural landscape and heavily influenced by the process art movement. My work consists mostly of large-scale paintings in acrylics on raw canvas.”

See: http://www.hannahmizen.com/

[Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, 100 x 100 cm]

Gustav Klimt - The Kiss [1907-08]

In a mass of patterns and shapes, the form of a kissing couple emerges from a field of flowers. Gold dominates the colour scheme, punctuated by the bright colours of the flowers and the rich decorative designs on the clothing. The eroticism of the image is conveyed through sensuous line, bold patterns and luscious colours which create a dream world that is also luxurious and decadent.

Essentially a decorator, Klimt was a leader of the Vienna Seccession, a group of artists and craftsmen who revolted against the conservative and moralising works of the previous generation. Their new style is often called Art Nouveau. He produced a number of portraits, mainly of women, and some large allegorical and mythical paintings. Although Klimt was most successful as a designer for the applied arts (such as mosaic), his murals for Vienna University were unpopular and considered pornographic at the time.

Ian Strawn - I'm So Adjective I Verb Nouns [2008]

Born in San Bernardino, California to parents who are both artists, Strawn pursued a nomadic life across the United States and New Zealand, which fed his fascination with the people around him. Strawn’s paintings combine a deadpan photo-realistic sense with a graphic approach, offering an arresting visual analysis of the cross-section of humanity one encounters in the streets. His work has been shown in galleries in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, New York City, and London.

[Oil and acrylic on birch panel, 100 x 100 cm]

William Bouguereau - The First Mourning [1888]

The dead body of Abel lies across Adam's lap in the same manner as Christ is often depicted lying across Mary’s (such as in Michelangelo’s Pieta). Adam clutches his heart out of grief fearing it will break and Eve kneels by his side crying uncontrollably, her face buried in her hands. The image is truly heart wrenching, causing the viewer to feel a great sense of compassion for the grieving couple.

Bouguereau can capture the look of death with almost frightening directness. He was no stranger to death or to grief. He had five sons, four of whom died before him. First Mourning was painted directly after the death of his second son. This piece is well titled as The First Mourning because it is the first time a human has had to suffer the loss of a loved one.

The grief is only magnified by the fact that their son did not just die, but was murdered by their other son Cain, making this also the first act of murder. Cain then fled, leaving Adam and Eve once again alone. Bougureau also cleverly used a play on words in titling this work, because not only are Adam and Eve mourning, but dawn approaches. It is the first 'morning' after the death of Abel. The paining has the same theme as the sculpture First Mourning by Barrias which is located at the Petits Palais in Paris. Bouguereau and Barrias lived and worked during the same period, and both these works were masterpieces that helped to define their creators.

Giovanni Segantini - Return of the Wood

Giovanni Segantini (January 15, 1858 – September 28, 1899) was an Italian painter. He was born at Arco in the Trentino. His mother, who died in 1863, came from an old mountain family. His father, a commoner, left for Milan, to seek his fortune with another son, leaving Segantini behind. At age seven he ran away and was later found perishing of cold and hunger; he began to earn his bread by herding flocks in the hills and there he spent his long hours of solitude in drawing. As news of his fame reached the ears of a syndic, Segantini was sent back to Milan; unable to endure domestic life, he soon escaped again, and led the life of wanderer until, at Arco, he met up with his half-brother, who offered him the job of cashier in his grocery store. After more flights and more returns, Segantini finally settled in Milan to attend classes at the Brera. In Milan he was able to earn a living by teaching art and painting portraits.

Edwin Harris - Arranging The Irises [1897]

Edwin Landseer Harris (1858 – 1901) was an American artist born in Rochester, New York State. His obituary read:

Sudden Death of a Prominent Artist of this City

Edwin Landseer Harris, one of Rochester’s well known artists, died suddenly in this city yesterday from an attack of heart disease. The announcement of his death will be read with a deep feeling of regret by a host of friends and acquaintances. The diseased is survived by two brothers, Carl Harris of Mexico and Claude Harris of this city, and a sister, Mrs. Genevieve Crawley of Rochester. Mr. Harris inherited his taste for art from his father who gained wide distinction as an artist, his specialty being allegorical subjects. During the rage for posters a few years ago the decease made several of those productions, which were distributed through this country and also abroad. When the demand for posters decreased he devoted his time to the study of water and oil colours in which he soon gained a high proficiency. His works were noted for their great technique, boldness of manipulation, daring and masterful colouring, and also for the masterful interpretation of nature in many moods. For several years Mr. Harris was a member of the Rochester Art Club and his pictures were always one of the attractions at the annual exhibit of that organization. In addition to his representations, some of the subjects of his productions included studies of peasant life which he made while recently visiting England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Holland. The Deceased was also a member of the Painter’s Club. He will be missed by the members of both these organizations.

[The Rochester Union and Advertiser, October 1901]

Kelly Fitzpatrick - Watermill [1934]

John Kelly Fitzpatrick was born in 1888 near Wetumpka, Alabama. After a brief stint at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and a few months of training at the Art Institute of Chicago, Fitzpatrick enlisted in the Army in 1918 for active duty in France. Following only four months of service, Fitzpatrick suffered severe wounds from shrapnel, permanently scarring his face, neck and chest. The war and the wounds he received profoundly influenced Fitzpatrick's work. He told one student "I had been through the furnace of war and I knew that nothing mattered but the Spiritual things of this world." The pastoral beauty and vibrance of his work are a marked counterpoint to the destruction and pain that he experienced. After the war he returned to Wetumpka and actively painted. He attended the Academie Julian in Paris briefly in 1926 before returning home to Alabama. Fitzpatrick's contributions to the arts in Alabama is immeasurable. He died in 1953.

[Oil on fibreboard, 76 x 91 cm]

Isaac Soyer - Art Beauty Shoppe [1934]

Russian-American genre scene painter, Isaac Soyer, specialised in portraits, interiors and dancers. He was born 1902 in Tombrov, Russia and along with his family emigrated to the United States in 1912. Isaac had two older twin brothers, Raphael and Moses Soyer who were also artists. They settled in New York City, inspired by everyday attitudes, thoughts, and gestures of people doing everyday tasks. Isaac Soyer died in New York City in 1981.

[Oil on canvas, 106.7 x 125.7cm]

Paul Cezanne - The Temptation of Saint Anthony [c.1870]

One of the preconditions of Cézanne’s greatness is his constant readiness to change. In this sense The Temptation of St. Anthony, a very strange work in itself, is highly typical of Cézanne. The painter, around thirty years old, fated for a business career by his ambitious father, is still a youthful tyro. Without any real academic training, which he had not obtained in the Académie Suisse in Paris, he relies on finding models among the old masters.

Creative restlessness drives him in this picture to flightiness, his Provençal preference for the Baroque to stilted poses and theatrical gestures. The female nudes with their uncouth limbs appear bloated; drapery frames them like rococo shells. In front of this turbulent appearance of the four temptresses is St. Anthony, bearing the features of the young Cézanne, retreated into the left background, without the artist’s having succeeded in making it clear in terms of perspective. Cézanne’s rough brushwork, called by the artist himself his "manière couillarde", "slinging style", renounces all differentiation and slaps down the chalky white figures directly on to the dark background.

Cézanne was occupied with the theme of the temptation of St. Anthony several times in the 1870s. The crouching nude in the foreground with her hair falling behind becomes a richly varied component of his "Bathers" down to the great compositions done at the end of his life.

Deletion of Posts

Sorry folks, but I've had to delete some older posts because Google have managed to delete the hyperlinks to the images. This blog means nothing without it's images, and to have the hyperlinks deleted is probably an act of aggression against art on Google's part. I'm a bit pissed off with the situation, but I hope you will all understand my disappointment.

Arthur Hacker - The Temptation of Sir Percival [c.1894]

Arthur Hacker (September 25, 1858 – November 12, 1919) was an English classicist painter. Born in London in 1858, Hacker was the son of Edward Hacker, a line engraver specialising in animal and sporting prints (who was also for many years the official Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths for Kentish Town in the St Pancras registration district, north London). In his art he was most known for painting religious scenes and portraits, and his art was also influenced by his extensive travels in Spain and North Africa. He studied at the Royal Academy between 1867 and 1880, and at the Atelier Bonnat in Paris. He was twice exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1878 and 1910. He died in London on November 12, 1919.

Uab Sanasen - Silent

“A retrospective art exhibition by Uab Sanasen, a nationally recognized painter and a respected art teacher, will be held at The Queen’s Gallery on Ratchadamnoen Klang Road, Pan Fah Bridge, Bangkok, from November 26, 2007 through to January 31, 2008. Uab Sanasen, who is well known among art connoisseurs, turns 72 this year. The exhibition is meant to celebrate this occasion and for the general public, students, and art lovers to have a chance to view this master’s life-time works through his paintings and photographs. This will be Arjarn Uab’s first solo exhibition in almost 20 years. It is a rare opportunity for the general public to be able to view his masterpieces from various private and institutional collections, as well as from the artist and his family’s own intimate and beloved paintings.”

[Oil on canvas, 75 x 90 cm]

Red Grooms - Mimi In Green [1962]

Red Grooms, born Charles Rogers Grooms (June 7, 1937), is an American multimedia artist best known for his colourful pop-art constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life. Groom was given the nickname "Red" by Dominic Falcone (of Provincetown’s Sun Gallery) when he was starting out as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Provincetown and was studying with Hans Hofmann. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee during the middle of the Great Depression. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, then at Nashville's Peabody College. In 1956, Grooms moved to New York City, to enrol at the New School for Social Research. A year later, Grooms attended a summer session at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in Provincetown, Massachusetts. There he met experimental animation pioneer Yvonne Andersen, with whom he collaborated on several short films.

[Watercolour on paper, 38.1 x 43.18 cm]

Henri Lebasque - Bather [1920]

Henri Lebasque (1865 - 1937) was born at Champigné (Maine-et-Loire). He started his education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts d’Angers, and moved to Paris in 1886. Here, Lebasque started studying under Léon Bonnat, and assisted Humbert with the decorative murals at the Panthéon. Around this time, Lebasque met Camille Pissarro and Auguste Renoir, who later would have a large impact on his work.

Lebasque's vision was coloured by his contact with younger painters, especially Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, founders of the The Nabis' Group and the Intimists who first favoured the calm and quietude of domestic subject matter. From his first acquaintance with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, Lebasque learnt the significance of a colour theory which stressed the use of complementary colours in shading. Lebasque had some commercial success during his lifetime. He worked on the decorations at the theatre of the Champs-Elysées and of the Transatlantique sealiner. Lebasque died at Cannet, Alpes Maritimes in 1937.

Mervin Jules - The Bar At Rosy's [1977]

Born in Baltimore, Mervin Jules received artistic training at Baltimore City College and the Maryland Institute College of Art, graduating in 1934. Prior to his study, in Baltimore Jules designed silk prints, painted china, cared for children and helped in his father's clothing shop in order to make ends meet; he received a scholarship to attend MICA in 1932 at the age of 18. Jules typically used dramatic and evocative lighting where sinewy figures emerge from darkened backgrounds, much like the paintings of Daumier. Like other social realist artists, his subjects are most often depictions of the plight of the poor and disadvantaged. Jules' works also encompassed satires against fascism and social ills. He died in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1994.

[Oil on canvas, 101.0 x 151.7 cm]

Michael Flohr - Night Life

Michael Flohr is a young California artist, currently living and working in San Diego where he was born and raised. With his parents’ encouragement, he began painting at the young age of five and later on pursued a degree at the San Francisco Academy of Art College, graduating in 1999. He has also been recognized into New York’s Society of Illustrators, joining the ranks of legendary predecessors such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth.

Depicting ordinary moments in extraordinary ways, Michael Flohr’s work displays an artistic mastery of colour, perspective, technique and vision. Largely urban in content with a European flair, his paintings cover subject matter ranging from nightlife scenes, cityscapes, still lifes and figurative portraiture.

Inspired by the works of master impressionists, Flohr prefers to paint in oils and comments, “I love oil paint because of its durability and the richness it brings to the canvas. I also believe that most people with an appreciation for art respect an artist’s use of this classic medium.”

Vasily Krillovich Nechitailo - Brigadier Of Communist Workers [1964]

Vasili Kirillovich Nechitailo was born in Nikolaevskoe, the province of Rostov-on-Don, in 1915. In 1931 he began his study of art at the Krasnodar Art Tekhnikum where he remained until 1935. In 1935 the artist entered into preparatory art courses at the Surikov Institute. After approximately two years of preperation, Nechitailo enrolled in the Moscow Art Institute as a full time student under the tutelage of the revered professor Gerasimov. He attended the Institute from 1937 to 1942. The artist then enrolled in their graduate program in 1942. In 1943, while still attending the Surikov, Nechitailo and 11 other academically accomplished artists were evacuated to Samarkand, Uzbekistan for the duration of the war. It looked like Moscow might fall to the Germans so the Soviet government decided to evacuate their most promising artists who they saw as cultural assets. He returned and completed his graduate degree in 1944. He was honoured with the opportunity to teach at the Surikov Institute from 1948 until 1956. Vasili Nechitailo began to actively exhibit in 1945. Nechitailo died in Moscow in 1980.

[Oil on canvas, 80.50 x 100.50 cm]

Romaine Brooks - The Charwoman [1904]

For further information please click the artist's label.

Charles Demuth - The Figure 5 in Gold [1928]

Charles Demuth (November 8, 1883 - October 23, 1935) was an American water-colourist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism. Demuth suffered either an injury when he was four years old or may have had polio or tuberculosis of the hip that left him with a marked limp and required him to use a cane. He later developed diabetes and was one of the first people in the United States to receive insulin. He spent most of his life in frail health, and he died in Lancaster at the age 51 of complications from diabetes.

This painting pays homage to a poem by William Carlos Williams. Williams' poem The Great Figure describes the experience of seeing a red fire engine with the number five painted on it racing through the city streets. While Demuth’s painting is not an illustration of Williams’ poem, we can certainly sense its "rain and lights" and the "gong clangs, siren howls, and wheels rumbling." The bold 5 both rapidly recedes and races forward in space, and the round forms of the number, the lights, the street lamp, and the arcs at the lower left and upper right are played against the straight lines of the fire engine, the buildings, and the rays of light, infusing the picture with a rushing energy that perfectly expresses the spirit of the poem.

Tom Wesselmann - Bedroom Face

Tom Wesselmann (February 23, 1931, Cincinnati - December 17, 2004) was an American pop artist who specialized in found art collages. Wesselmann's series Great American Nude (begun 1961) first brought him to the attention of the art world. The series incorporated representational images with an accordingly patriotic theme, such as American landscape photos and portraits of founding fathers.

He worked constantly on the Bedroom Painting series, in which elements of the Great American Nude, Still Lifes and Seascapes were juxtaposed. With these works Wesselmann began to concentrate on a few details of the figure such as hands, feet, and breasts, surrounded by flowers and objects. The Bedroom Paintings shifted the focus and scale of the attendant objects around a nude; these objects are small in relation to the nude, but become major, even dominant elements when the central element is a body part.

Bryan Larsen - Deliberation

"I have been drawing as long as I can remember. By the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be an artist, although at the time I didn't have a clear idea of how exactly I would use my talents to make a living. As I continued studying art, I began to suspect that fine visual art was dead. No one seemed interested in teaching students how to draw well, or paint well. More often than not, my own skills exceeded those of my instructors. The only field left that seemed to require good drawing, painting, and compositional skills was illustration, and therefore I began studying illustration at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. In my second year at Utah State, I met Damon Denys. In discussing Art with him I realized that there were other people who believed that technique and subject matter were indispensable components of any work of art. I then decided that I would work to develop my own painting skills with the purpose of creating artwork that I considered worthy of being called Fine Art.”

[Oil on linen, 38 x 30 inches]

Paul Gauguin - The Milkmaid [1889]

Gauguin produced this painting by applying egg tempera onto canvas. Egg tempera is a painting process that uses egg yolk to bind pigments. The artist must manufacture the paints him or herself by the simple process of mixing finely ground pigment, water and dilute egg yolk. Tempera is normally applied in thin, semi-opaque or transparent layers. When dry, it produces a smooth matte finish. Because it cannot be applied in thick layers as oil paints can, tempera paintings rarely have the deep colour saturation that oil paintings can achieve. On the other hand, tempera colours do not change over time, whereas oil paints darken, yellow, and become transparent with age.

Sergio Rangel - Beautiful Deterioration

Sergio Rangel was a student at Pasadena Memorial High School, when he won ninth place for this painting in the 2008 Culture Shapers Visual Arts Contest.

The annual Culture Shapers Visual Arts Contest enables student artists to compete for nearly $70,000 in cash prizes in six categories... drawing, painting, electronic media, mixed media, photography and sculpture. The contest takes place in the autumn, and is open to all High School Students in Harris, Waller, Liberty, Chambers, Galveston, Brazoria, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties.

Culture Shapers jurors are a combination of educators and professionals, who come highly recommended to us by other notable organizations, such as the Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE), as well as others. Many of our jurors have experience both in and out of the classroom, which gives them a unique and valuable perspective on evaluating student artwork.

Ethelyn Cosby Stewart - Sung Tranquillity [1936]

Ethelyn Cosby Stewart (Arlington, New Jersey, 1900 – 1972) was an American artist.

[Oil on canvas, 92.7 x 102.5 cm]

Roselina Hung - The Return Home

Roselina Hung received an MA Fine Art in Painting from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, and a BFA from the University of British Columbia. She also spent a year at L’Ecole National Superieure des Beaux-Arts, in Paris. Her work has exhibited internationally and can be found in private collections around the world. Born in 1980, Vancouver, Canada; she currently lives and works in Vancouver.

[Oil on oak, 31.7 X 38.7 cm]

See: http://www.roselinahung.com

Donald M Mattison - Portrait of the Davico Sisters [before 1934]

Donald M Mattison (Beloit, Wisconsin, 1905 - Indianapolis, Indiana, 1975) was an American artist.

[Oil on canvas]

Gladys Nilsson - Arytystic Pairanoiya [1978]

Gladys Nilsson (born 1940) is a Chicago artist, one of the original Chicago Imagists, a group in the 1960s and 1970s who turned to representational art. Her paintings "set forth a surreal mixture of fantasy and domesticity in a continuous parade of chaotic images." She is married to fellow-artist and Hairy Who member Jim Nutt.

[Watercolour and pencil on paper sheet, 63.9 x 102.4 cm]

John Lewis Krimmel - The Quilting Frolic [1813]

Krimmel (American, born Germany, 1786–1821) gathered information for his paintings in the field, observing local habits, rituals, and ceremonies in Philadelphia, so even though he took his compositional formats from British models, popular prints made after paintings by the satirical artists William Hogarth and David Wilkie, he keyed his subject matter to his potential audience at the Pennsylvania Academy. In this canvas, a richly detailed parlour, which evokes the burgeoning middle-class consumer culture, provides the setting for the narrative: a group of smartly dressed folks, accompanied by a minstrel, have burst in to celebrate the completion of a quilt before the seamstresses have cleaned up their scraps of fabric and sewing implements or changed into party attire. A critic applauded in 1813: "The subject is good and executed with great judgment, and if Mr. Krimmel only perseveres in the path he has chosen, we are decidedly of opinion that his labours will contribute largely towards giving character to the arts in our country."

František Kupka - Vertical Plains Blue and Red [1913]

František Kupka (September 23, 1871 - June 24, 1957) was a Czech painter and graphic artist. He was a pioneer and co-founder of the early phases of the abstract art movement and orphic cubism (Orphism). Kupka's abstract works arose from a base of realism, but later evolved into pure abstract art. František Kupka was born in Opočno, eastern Bohemia (now Czech Republic). Kupka had a strong interest in colour theory; around 1910 he began developing his own colour wheels, adapting a format previously explored by Sir Isaac Newton and Hermann von Helmholtz. This work in turn led Kupka to execute a series of paintings he called "Discs of Newton" (1911-12). Kupka was interested in freeing colours from descriptive associations. His work in this area is thought to have influenced other artists like Robert Delaunay.