Unknown Artist - Woman at a Window [c.1510-30]

Unknown Artist - Woman at a Window [c.1510-30], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

Scholars had already changed their minds about the Italian Renaissance painting ‘Woman at a Window’ several times. Was it a portrait by Palma Vecchio, showing the artist’s daughter? Or even a painting by Lorenzo Lotto? In 1978 a routine restoration revealed a secret lying underneath the paint. Suspected damages to the under-layer in the woman's brown hair prompted further investigation. But as the subsequent conservation report found, this was not a damaged under-layer at all. It was the original painting.

It was now clear that ‘Woman at a Window’ had been covered with a later repainting. Conservators removed the repainting stage by stage, revealing a woman with a radically altered appearance. Far from being a demure brunette, she was a seductive blonde. Her jawline had been softened, her breasts less discreetly veiled, and even her eyes had lost their sultry edge. The painting that was revealed was hardly a likely portrait of an artist’s daughter. It might even be a courtesan. Nor does the painting look much like a work by Palma Vecchio. It is now attributed to an unknown Italian artist.

[Oil on wood, 51.4 x 41.6 cm]

Paris Bordone - A Pair of Lovers [1555-60]

Paris Bordone - A Pair of Lovers [1555-60], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

The painting has been entitled Daphnis and Chloe, presumably because the man's tentative advances suggest the problems which this pair of lovers had, as related in the Greek pastoral romance of that title by Longus, probably of the 3rd century AD. But many other subjects are possible. Bordone (1500 - 1571) was from Treviso, but spent most of his life in Venice, where he was established by 1518. Few of his paintings are dated and as his style seems to have evolved very little, the chronology of his work is uncertain.

[Oil on canvas, 139.1 x 122 cm]

François Gérard - Portrait of Joséphine [1801]

François Gérard - Portrait of Joséphine [1801], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

François Gérard (March 12, 1770 - January 11, 1837), one of the most popular society painters during the periods of the Consulate and the First Empire, painted this portrait of Joséphine in 1801. It represents a new type of more accessible portrait, lacking in official pomp. The First Lady is seen in relaxed pose, with thoughtful gaze, on the open terrace of the palace at Malmaison as she perhaps takes a rest after a walk.

The park landscape and bunch of flowers on the sofa create an atmosphere of sentimental poetry, emphasizing the inner state of the sitter. The idealization of the model and the static composition built upon a balance of horizontal and vertical lines are very much within the traditions of Neoclassicism.

[Oil on canvas, 178 x 174 cm]

Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans - The Blind Beggar [1853]

Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans - The Blind Beggar [1853], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

A blind man accompanied by a young girl sits outside a church. Through the doorway can be seen a crucifix lit by a lamp. An old woman comes out, clutching her prayer book and the old man himself is fingering the beads of a rosary. The subject has echoes of Jacques-Louis David's famous painting of Belisarius, the blind general begging for alms. This picture is the artist's second version of a painting of 1852 which is now in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. It was extremely popular in the 19th century, and much copied.

[Oil on mahogany, 50.3 x 46.5 cm]

Juan de Flandes - Crucifixion [1509-18]

Juan de Flandes - Crucifixion [1509-18], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

Juan de Flandes (Flanders, c.1460 – 1519) was an early Netherlandish painter who was active in Spain from 1496 to 1519 – his actual name is unknown. His colouring is refined, "with a preference for rather acid hues", and "while his feeling for space and light is sophisticated, a tendency to divide space into a succession of thin planes becomes a mannerism in his late works."

[Oil on wood, 123 x 169 cm]

Fernand Toussaint - A Young Woman Holding A Bouquet

Fernand Toussaint - A Young Woman Holding A Bouquet, originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

Fernand Toussaint, the celebrated Belgian painter of still lifes and figurative subjects, was born in Brussels, 1873. At the age of fifteen he entered the Academy of Fine Arts of his native city where he studied under Jean Portaels, an innovative and demanding teacher who attached prime importance to the art of drawing. Toussaint formulated his own individual style, combining elegance and fine draughtsmanship with a free impressionistic handling of paint. In 1929, art critic Mario de Marchi wrote of him "Toussaint is the undisputed master at capturing the grace and charm of women." Fernand Toussaint passed away in 1956.

Alfred Sisley - Barges in Billancourt [1877]

Alfred Sisley - Barges in Billancourt [1877], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

Billancourt was a small village when Alfred Sisley painted there. His work is notable for an incomparable sensitivity to the subtlest nuances of weather and sunlight, a superb example of which is the present picture. He had a persistent fascination with painting barges. Some recent commentators note, perhaps with justification, that the frequent depiction of such a subject as barges indicated the wish to be contemporary, common to all the Impressionists. Yet there does remain one other important reason for an artist to return to such a theme so persistently: for Sisley, the masts of the barges served as convenient reference points in arranging the pictorial structure of the landscape.

[Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 56.3 cm]