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 "View of Delft"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1659-1660
Creation Date: c. 1660-1661
Size: 26.1 × 30.1 inch (98.5 × 117.5 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands

Johannes Vermeer's "The Milkmaid"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: c. 1657-1658
Size: 17.875 × 16.125 inch (45.5 × 41 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

This was the first Vermeer painting that I ever saw in person.  I am happy to acknowledge (now) that this painting is absolutely amazing, but when I saw this painting in person the experience was unfortunately ruined by two things...

Johannes Vermeer's "The Little Street"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: 1657-1658
Size: 21.4 × 17 inch (54.3 × 44 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Johannes Vermeer's "A Girl Asleep" or "Girl Asleep at a Table"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: 1656
Size: 34.5 × 30.1 inch (87.6 × 76.5 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA

Some interesesting facts about this painting:

1. When this piece was painted the practice of including a doorway or window was quite common and was called a doorkijkje. 

2. The painting of cupid on the wall behind the girl was used in another one of Vermeer's paintings called Young Girl Standing at a Virginal. 

3. According to x-ray photographs taken of this painting, subjects such as a man and a dog were originally included in the image, but were later painted out. 

4. At this time it was not uncommon for works to have multiple titles since titles were more like cataloging descriptions rather than avenues for artistic expression.  In 1696 this painting was recorded as Drunken, Sleeping Maiden at a Table. 

Starting the Year with Johannes Vermeer: "The Procuress"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: 1656
Size: 56 × 51 inch (143 × 130 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany

It has been speculated that this scene which depicts a "music hall" (a kind of bar/brothel) with a man picking up a prostitute also includes a self-portrait of Vermeer on the left.  I would hate to think of that drunk with the dirty grin on his face was the brilliant and subtle artist Johannes Vermeer!  That being said, this painting has many, many visual virtues. 

It might seem strange to us to see carpeting on a table, but that was commonplace in Delft at that time.  Also, although much speculation has been written about it, it is unknown why the blue jug is so precariously placed on the edge of the table. 

Hendrick Avercamp's "Winter Landscape"

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: c. 1585-c. 1634

Creation Date: c. 1630

Size: 11.25 × 16.61 inch (28.6 × 42.2 cm)

Media: Oil on copper

Location: The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Photo by me.  I'll bet Amsterdam is fun when the canals freeze over.

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

Utagawa Hiroshige's "Night Snow at Kambara"

Nationality: Japanese
Born-Died: 1797-1854

Creation Date: 1834

Media: Woodblock print (ink on paper)

From the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido.

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.

Jean-Étienne Liotard's "The Chocolate Girl"

Nationality: Swiss
Born/Died: 1702-1789

Creation Date: 1743-1745
Size: 82.5 × 52.5  in. (99 × 83 cm)
Media: Pastel on parchment
Location: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany

Arthur Hacker's "Imprisoned Spring"

Nationality: English
Born/Died: 1858-1919
Creation Date: 1911
Size: 36.2 x 28.1 in. (92 x 71.5 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Private Collection

The shadows and sunlight on the table and the way the figure looms out of the darkness are particularly striking.

Unknown Work by Richard Treaster

Nationality: American

Richard Treaster was an artist from the Cleveland area but few people that I know there know his work. Apparently he enjoyed a long, successful career and was so successful he was able to leave his day-job teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art--a feat repeated by few there. I have only seen a few of his watercolors in person and I assume most of them are in private collections, but the few that I have seen were very nice. I think his critics say he was "too commercial" but since that criticism is completely irrational I simply dismiss it outright.

Ironically, after college I had the good fortune to be friends and roommates with Treaster's grandson for many years and I could see right away that my friend's mom had been painted in several portraits.

Works by Henry G. Keller

Nationality: American
Born/Died: 1869-1949

Media: Various
Location: The Cleveland Artists Foundation, Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Since I've been going through the images I took of works from the Cleveland Artists Foundation's collection lately I thought I would post Henry G. Keller's work. Some of his work is better than others, but the good ones are very good. I was suprised to learn that Keller exhibited in the famous Armory Show in 1913. There is even a drawing scholarship in his name.

Apologies for the blurry images.

Figure Sketches by Jean and Paul Ulen

Nationality: American
Born/Died: Jean: 1900-1988, Paul: 1894-1976

Media: Graphite on paper
Location: The Cleveland Artists Foundation, Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Jean and Paul Ulen were also artists from the Cleveland area who are hardly well known today. Their drawings were incredibly sensitive and their standards have certainly influenced my studio practice.

I believe that the most common criticism of their work was that they were merely technically skilled and lacked a unique artistic style. I would agree with this criticism to some extent, but many of their "figure studies" included many interesting and subtle stylistic decisions. I consider myself lucky to have had the privilege to catalog and photograph their work for the Cleveland Artists Foundation's archives. Below are some of my photographs of their work.

Bouguereau x 2 Week - "The Little Marauder" and "Pastourelle"

On this Day in the History of Art: Dante Gabriel Rossetti born (1828)

This week I'm going to post two images per day of Bouguereau’s work--one piece that I like and one that I don't.

Short and sweet--one I like and one I don't.

Nationality: French
Born-Died: 1825-1905

The Little Marauder
Creation Date: 1900
Size: 48.75 x 27.5 inches (124 x 70 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Private Collection

John Singer Sargent's "Repose"

On this Day in the History of Art: First commercial motion picture house opens in NYC for first public showing of Edison's kinetoscope (1894), Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony performed first time (1895), John Singer Sargent died (1925)

Nationality: American
Born/Died: 1856-1925

Creation Date: 1911
Size: 25 1/8 x 30 in. (63.8 x 76.2 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA

A wonderful painting by my favorite artist, John Singer Sargent. Detail photographs taken by me.

Albert Samuel Anker's "Schoolboy"

Lucian Freud's "Reflection"

This statement by Ayn Rand is pertinent when discussing Lucien Freud--a brilliant and masterful artist, yet a deeply disturbed individual with deplorable ethics.

"The fact that one agrees or disagrees with an artist’s philosophy is irrelevant to an esthetic appraisal of his work qua art. One does not have to agree with an artist (nor even to enjoy him) in order to evaluate his work...Since art is a philosophical composite, it is not a contradiction to say: 'This is a great work of art, but I don’t like it,' provided one defines the exact meaning of that statement: the first part refers to a purely esthetic appraisal, the second to a deeper philosophical level which includes more than esthetic values."

-Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto, p. 42

Unknown painting by Delphin Enjolras