Gunnie Moberg's "Duncan McLean and Irvine Welsh"

Nationality: Scottish

Born-Died: 1941-2007
Creation Date: 1993

Size: 9.8 x 15.2 inch (25 x 38.5 cm)

Media: Color photograph

Location: The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, UK

It is not often we have the opportunity to see a true masterpiece on this blog. 

Unless you have been living under a rock, you are probably aware that today’s work of Art finds it’s home in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, where it continues to draw spectators from all over the world, year after year.  I have often wondered if it is indeed possible to mine the depths of this seemingly impenetrable image which appears to us so complex and yet so simple as it holds us (as subject) in it’s uninhibitedly profound gaze. 

Often called "Moberg's Masterpiece" Duel Portrait of McLean and Welsh

William Holbrook Beard's “Santa Claus”

Nationality: American
Born-Died:1824 -1900

Creation Date: c. 1862

Media: Oil on canvas (?)

Location: RISD Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Merry Christmas!

Norman Rockwell's "The Gift"

Nationality: American
Born-Died: 1882-1925

Creation Date: 1935

Media: Oil on illustration board (?)

Robert Duncan's "Way Up North"

Nationality: American
Born-Died: 1952-
I assumed this was a painting of Santa Claus but now that I really look at it I don't know if that's who it's supposed to be.

Art for Reason's Harvest: Willem Claesz Heda's "Breakfast Table with Blackberry Pie"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1594-1680

Creation Date: 1631

Size: 21.3 x 32.3 in. (54 x 82 cm)

Media: Oil on panel

Location: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany

I guess this isn't the ideal Reason's Harvest image,  but perhaps if someone wanted to thank themselves with something nice you can't go wrong with blackberry pie.  I love Dutch still lifes from the Baroque era; not only are they amazingly painted, but they are very often celebrations of material wealth.

Jean-François Millet's "Autumn Landscape with a Flock of Turkeys"

Nationality: French
Born-Died: 1814-1875

Creation Date: c. 1872-1873

Size: 31.875 x 39 in. (81 x 99.1 cm)

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA

Detail photos by me.

John Michael Wright's "Mrs. Salesbury with her Grandchildren"

Nationality: English-Scottish
Born/Died: 1617-1694
Creation Date: c. 1676
Size: 88 in. (129.5 x 133.6 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Tate Collection, London, UK

I can only guess what she's going to do with those children! Happy Halloween!

Richard Ansdell's "The Auld Farmer's New Year's Gift to His Auld Mare Maggie"

Happy New Year!

Andrew Wyeth's "Jack-Be-Nimble"