Jean-Léon Gérôme's "Woman with a Veil"

Nationality: French

Born-Died: 1824-1904

Creation Date: c. 1891

Size: 23.8 x 12.8 in (60.5 x 32.7 cm)

Media: Bronze 

Location: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

White Artists Painting 25 Beautiful Skin Tones

This post is a response to recent controversies involving the racist professor, Derrick Bell, and numerous discussions I have had with artist-friends of mine regarding the topic of race.  There is a horrible and utterly ignorant view in the minds of many that all white people are automatically racist.  Some even hold that all members of all races are automatically racist--that we are all tainted with the "original sin" of racism from birth.  These are views that only racists can hold and there is no excusing such views under any circumstances.  Lack of education does not make such views "okay" and neither do PhD's.  These days, anti-white views are unfortunately all-too-common in the arts industry.  Such views reveal an ominously "concrete-bound" mentality in a group that prides itself on independent, rational thinking.  I would like to draw attention to this disconnect.

Racism is a concept, and as such it's meaning is communicable and it's application can be appropriate in many contexts independent of historical, cultural and economic factors.  The concept "racist" is appropriately applied to anyone of any race independent of any other factors about his own race.

To contrast the false views above I am posting 25 details of paintings all made by white artists that show an incredible appreciation for--and even love for--skin tone variety.  Many of these paintings are well over 100 years old. The oldest is about 400 years old.

It is more than okay to appreciate these skin tones.  It is more than okay to think, "I love the look of this very dark skin" or "I love the look of this very pale skin" and everything in between.  It is no more necessary to criticize pale skin as "pasty" or "blindingly white" than it is to criticize some other skin-tone for being it's shade. 

I can only hope that this post will help combat those hurtful, irrational and indefensible ideas.

I hope you enjoy these beautiful skin-tones as much as I do!

All the best,
- Justin 

Osman Hamdi Bey's "The Tortoise Trainer"

Nationality: Turkish
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: 1906Size: 87.2 × 47.2 inch (221.5 x 120 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey

This wonderful painting seems to have some kind of message and I wish I knew what it was.

Joshua Reynold's "Mrs. Baldwin"

Nationality: English
Born/Died: 1723-1592

Creation Date: 1489-1490
Size: 43.5" x 53.94 in. (110.5 x 137 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas

Charles Bargue's "Bashi-Bazouk"

Nationality: French
Born/Died: 1825/7-1883
Creation Date: 1875
Size: 18.25 x 13.125 in. (46.4 x 33.3 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA

A wonderful painting of a man enjoying a little drink--at least that is my uninformed interpretation of it. I am not sure if there are fashion cues that indicate otherwise. Detail shots by me.

Henri Regnault's "Execution without Trial"

On this Day in the History of Art: Rosa Bonheur died (1899), "Star Wars" released (1977)

Nationality: French
Born-Died: 1843-1871
Creation Date: 1870
Media: Oil on canvas
Size: 119 x 57.5 in. (302 x 146 cm)
Location: Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France



This is a grim painting with many artistic virtues, but one in particular involves the technique with which it was painted. Of course the paintings of Jackson Pollock do not qualify as art from the Objectivist standpoint (instead I would call them terrible works of design), but it wasn't because of his splatter/drip technique. While most of the subjects depicted here were rendered in a more-or-less traditional way, some of the blood was rendered by dripping and splattering the paint in a way that is not essentially different from Pollock's technique. The difference is that in Regnault's painting the paint has been carefully integrated into the subjects.