Artworks Damaged/Destroyed by Islamic Totalitarians: Various Works from the Mosul Museum

Location: Mosul Museum, Mosul, Iraq

Here are a variety of works recently damaged or destroyed by the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq.  I am trying to find "before and after" images of the same works, but this is difficult as many of these works look similar and the Mosul Museum does not appear to have a website.  If you can offer help in this regard, please feel free to do so in the comments.  Additionally, many of these works have been damaged over the centuries, so I can't assume every imperfection was caused by ISIS.

Works Destroyed/Damaged by ISIS:

St. Giles Cathedral, Day 3: Tomb of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose

Nationality: Scottish
Media: Marble
Location: St. Giles Church, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Giovanni Boldini's "Count Robert de Montesquiou"

Nationality: Italian
Born-Died: 1842-1931
Creation Date: 1897
Size: 45.5 × 32.5 inch (115.5 x 82.5 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

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.

"Qianlong Emperor" by Unknown Artist

Nationality: Chinese
Media: Ink(?)  on paper
Location: The Palace Museum, Beijing, China

Johannes Vermeer's "The Geographer"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: c. 1668
Size: 20 × 17.9 inch (52 × 45.5 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, Germany


Another wonderful "Romantic" painting by Vermeer.  It has been suggested that the model might have been Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek (see below), the father of microbiology.  Vermeer and Leeuwenhoek certainly knew one another.  Not only is there a historical account of Vermeer having the chance to look through one of Leeuwenhoek's microscopes to see microbes within a drop of water, but Leeuwenhoek was hired to manage Vermeer's estates after he died.  

Do you see any similarities between these two paintings?

Johannes Vermeer's "The Astronomer"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: c. 1668
Size: 20 × 18 inch (51 × 45 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

This is one of my favorite Vermeer paintings.  The character here reminds me of Howard Roark or Equality 7-2521.

Like "The Art of Painting" this painting was at one time owned by the Nazis.  I recently read that they stamped a swastika on the back and I am dying to know if it is still there.  I'm sure it would have been small, but that is still strange.

Johannes Vermeer's "The Art of Painting" or "The Allegory of Painting"

Nationality: Dutch Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: c. 1666
Size: 51 × 43 inch (130 × 110 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

This is one of the most famous Vermeer paintings and there exists a great deal of writing about it's history and meaning.  Incidentally, between 1942 and 1945 this painting was owned by...Adolph Hitler!

Johannes Vermeer's "The Concert"

Nationality: Dutch Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: c. 1664
Size: 28.5 × 25.5 inch (72.5 × 64.7 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Unknown!

MISSING! 

Have you seen this painting? This painting was stolen in 1990 and it's whereabouts are currently unknown.

Johannes Vermeer's "The Wine Glass"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: c. 1658-1660
Size: 26.1 × 30.1 inch (66.3 × 76.5 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

Johannes Vermeer's "Officer with a Laughing Girl"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: c. 1657
Size: 19.875 × 18.125 inch (50.48 × 46.04 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Frick Collection, New York City, New York, USA

Every time I go to New York I spend all my time at the Met and I never get to see the other great art collections there.  However, I am hopefully going back in July so I'm considering making a point to visit the Frick.

Starting the Year with Johannes Vermeer: "Diana and Her Companions"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: c.1653-1556
Size: 38.8 × 41 inch (98.5 × 105 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

Authorship of this painting has been disputed over the centuries, but many art historians now believe it was painted by Vermeer.  The original signature read "J.V. Meer" which would seem to indicate Johannes Vermeer (when he was younger he would sometimes sign his name "van der Meer.") Johannes was not the only painter named "Vermeer" in Delft, which has fueled the flame of mystery, but it is considered likely to be by Johannes Vermeer. 

Unfortunately, this painting has been manipulated a great deal since it's creation: portions of it have been re-painted and it has been cropped.  Manipulation of paintings is more common than you might think.

Starting the Year with Johannes Vermeer: "Christ in the House of Martha and Mary"

Since there are only 30+ paintings attributed to Johannes Vermeer along with a handful of disputed works, I thought it would be fun to post one every day to start out the new year. I will post the ones I like the least first and the ones I like the best last. 

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date:  before 1655
Size: 63 × 55.9 inch (160 × 142  cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

This is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, known Vermeer works. Unfortuately, it is really nothing special as Vermeer paintings go. I have seen this work in person several times and it has never impressed me when I compared it to similar works from the same time period. It is quite large and the vivid, lush surface distinctive of Vermeers later work isn't there. Scenes of this kind, called "history paintings," were considered the loftiest subject for an artist tackle and it is believed that an ambitious, young Vermeer sought to tackle it as well. The theme of Jesus in the house of Mary and Martha was one that many artists in Vermeer's region and time period painted as well.

Rand described Vermeer as a "Naturalist" and this is one of the many Vermeer paintings that doesn't really fit that categorization.

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.

George Bellow's "Boy in a Blue Coat"

Nationality: American
Born-Died: 1882-1925

Creation Date: 1915

Size: 36 × 24 inch (91.5 × 61 cm)

Media: Oil on canvas

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

Art I Hate and Why: Lovis Corinth's "Samson Blinded"

Nationality: German
Born-Died: 1858-1925

Creation Date: 1912

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: Nationalgalerie, Berlin , Germany

This is not merely an illustration of Samson, a character from the Old Testament.  Its value as art lies in the fact that what it represents is much more fundamental: a view of man—an opinion about the nature of all men embodied in the image of one man.  The view of man offered in this painting is the following: man is weak, groping blindly, crushed, sickly, incapable, brutish, and (at best) formerly powerful. 

Art I Hate and Why: Paul Cézanne's "Bathers"

Nationality: French
Born-Died: 1839-1906

Media: Oils on canvas

Amidst all the discussion in the arts industry about how great these paintings are, no one ever seems to express the opinion that Cézanne's “Bather” paintings are incredibly bad—so that is what I am doing here.  They are very bad.  Their color is terrible, the brushwork is sloppy at best—it’s very often pointlessly brushy--and in many cases the figures are as awkwardly rendered as the drawings of a high school student (independent of attempts at perceptual effects--see below.)

Art I Hate and Why: John Silk Deckard's "Eternal Vigilance"

Nationality: American
Born-Died: 1938-1994

Creation Date: 1978

Size: 25.125 x 34.875 inch (63.8 x 88.5cm)

Media: Larger than life size

Location: The Erie Art Museum, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA

I have never seen a less inviting work of art adorning the entrance of any building, let alone an art museum.  I would be lying if I said I felt anything but loathing for this sculpture, which is appropriate considering it stems from a loathing of man and of self.  It sits outside the old entrance of the Erie Art Museum in Erie, Pennsylvania.  The museum’s collection is small but nice, the new wing is beautiful and I even am proud to have briefly worked there.  However, I would shudder at the thought if going inside if I only saw this sculpture without knowing that the Erie Art Museum is such a nice place.