18 Works, March 23rd. is artist Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #81

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609–1664)
God Creating the Animals
Oil on canvas
101 ¼ x 117 ¼ ( 258 x 298 cm.)
Private collection

Myths of creation occur in Mesopotamian and Canaanite literature and it is from these bodies of literature that the Old Testament book of Genesis derived some of its motifs surrounding the acts of creation. Genesis contains an account of eight works of creation that were actually spread over six days, the first four of which are known as the Works of Division and the second as the Works of Ornamentation. The subject of Castiglione’s painting, God’s Creation of the Animals, took place on the sixth day, when the creation of man also took place. The subject of the creation was extremely popular during the High Renaissance and was treated on a monumental scale by both Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel and Raphael in the Vatican Logge. More on this painting

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (baptized 23 March 1609–5 May 1664) was an Italian Baroque painter, printmaker and draftsman, of the Genoese school. He is best known now for his etchings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monotyping. He was known as Il Grechetto in Italy and in France as Le Benédette…

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17 Works, Today, March 3rd. is artist Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps’ day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #062

Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps
Warrior with bow and arrow
Oil on canvas
31 x 51 cm
Private collection

Decamps was born in Paris. In his youth he travelled in the East, and reproduced Oriental life and scenery with a bold fidelity to nature that puzzled conventional critics. His powers, however, soon came to be recognized, and he was ranked along with Delacroix and Ingres as one of the leaders of the French school. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 he received the grand or council medal…

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20 Works, Today, February 25th. is artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #056

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1841 – 1919
The Skiff (La Yole), c. 1875
Oil on canvas
71 x 92 cm
National Gallery

This sunlit scene on the river Seine is typical of the imagery that has come to characterise Impressionism, and Renoir includes several familiar Impressionist motifs such as fashionably dressed women, a rowing boat, a sail boat, and a steam train crossing a bridge. The exact location has not been identified, but we are probably looking at the river near Chatou, some ten miles west of central Paris, which was a popular spot for recreational boating.

Renoir creates an effect of summer heat and light by using bright unmixed paint directly from the tube and by avoiding black or earth tones. In placing the bright orange boat against the dark blue water, Renoir has deliberately used complementary colours, which become more intense when seen alongside each other. More on this painting

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (25 February 1841–3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that “Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau.”

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19 Works, TFebruary 20th. is artist Mihály Munkácsy’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #051

Mihály Munkácsy (20 February 1844–1 May 1900) was a Hungarian painter. He earned international reputation with his genre pictures and large-scale biblical paintings.

Munkácsy was a bureaucrat of Bavarian origin. After being apprenticed to itinerant painter Elek Szamossy, Munkácsy went to Pest (Budapest), where he sought the patronage of established artists. With the help of the landscape artist Antal Ligeti, he received a state grant to study abroad. In 1865, he studied at the Academy of Vienna under Karl Rahl. In 1866, he studied at the Munich Academy, and in 1868 he moved to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf to study with the popular genre painter Ludwig Knaus. In 1867, he travelled to Paris to see the Universal Exposition…

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16 Works, Today, February 10th. is artist Francesco Hayez’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #041

Francesco Hayez (1791–1882)
Odalisque, c. 1867
Oil On Canvas
82 x 68 cm – 1867
I have no further description, at this time

An odalisque was a chambermaid or a female attendant in a Turkish seraglio, particularly the court ladies in the household of the Ottoman sultan. In western usage, the term came to mean the harem concubine, and refers to the eroticized artistic genre in which a woman is represented mostly or completely nude in a reclining position, often in the setting of a harem. More on An odalisque

Francesco Hayez (10 February 1791–12 February 1882) was from a relatively poor family from Venice. Francesco was the youngest of five sons. He was brought up by his mother’s sister, who had married Giovanni Binasco, a well-off shipowner and art collector. Hayez displayed a predisposition for drawing since childhood.

His uncle, having noticed his precocious talent, apprenticed him to an art restorer in Venice. Hayez would later became a pupil of the painter Francesco Maggiotto with whom he continued his studies for three years.

He was admitted to the painting course of the New Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1806, where he studied under Teodoro Matteini. In 1809 he won a competition from the Academy of Venice for a one year residency at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

He remained in Rome until 1814, then moved to Naples where he was commissioned to paint a major work depicting Ulysses at the court of Alcinous. In the mid-1830s he attended the Maffei Salon in Milan, hosted by Clara Maffei. Maffei’s husband would later commissioned Hayez a portrait of his wife (See below). In 1850 Hayez was appointed director of the Brera Academy.

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08 Works, January 17th is Pieter van Bloemen’s day, his story, illustrated #017

Pieter van Bloemen, (1657–1720)
Detail; Battle with knights
Oil on canvas
cm 67×48
Private collection

Pieter van Bloemen, also known as Standaart (bapt. 17 January 1657–6 March 1720), was a Flemish painter. He was a gifted landscape and animal painter and was very successful with his compositions depicting equestrian, animal and market scenes…

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19 Works, Today, January 14th is Artist Alice Pike Barney’s day, her story, illustrated #014

Alice Pike Barney
Dreamland, ca. 1906
Pastel on paper
22 x 18 1⁄2 in. (55.9 x 47.0 cm)
Smithsonian American Art Museum

Alice Pike Barney (born Alice Pike; 1857–1931) was an American painter. Defying social and family expectations, the wealthy, often eccentric Alice Pike Barney zestfully committed herself to the arts and became known for her lively art salons, bohemian lifestyle, and unusual family. Her two daughters were the writer and salon hostess Natalie Clifford Barney and the Baháʼí writer Laura Clifford Barney…

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09 Works, January 13th is Jan van Goyen’s day, his story, illustrated #013

Jan van Goyen, (1596–1656)
Detail; The skater, c. 1641
I have no further description, at this time

Jan van Goyen, Goyen also spelled Goijen, in full Jan Josephszoon van Goyen, (born January 13, 1596, Leiden, Netherlands — died April 27, 1656, The Hague) was a Dutch landscape painter. Like many Dutch painters of his time, Jan van Goyen studied art in the town of Haarlem. At age 35, he established a permanent studio at The Hague. Van Goyen’s landscape paintings rarely fetched high prices, but he made up for the modest value of individual pieces by increasing his production, painting thinly and quickly with a limited palette of inexpensive pigments…

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12 Works, January 4th is Augustus Edwin John’s day, #004

Augustus John OM 1878–1961
Lyric Fantasy, c.1913–14
Oil paint and graphite on canvas
2380 × 4720 mm
Tate

This is one of four murals commissioned in 1909 to decorate the hall of the house in Chelsea. John designed the composition using his own family and friends as models, including at the right his wife Ida, who had recently died. It was painted from a full size drawing. John then painted out a figure at the centre, and suggested alterations to compensate.

Lyric Fantasy was not displayed, nor given its title, until 1940. John devoted his early career to these decorative murals, which he based on drawings and colour sketches. More on this work

Augustus Edwin John OM RA (4 January 1878–31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain.

At the age of seventeen he briefly attended the Tenby School of Art, then left Wales for London, studying at the Slade School of Art, University College London. He became the star pupil, and even before his graduation he was considered the most talented draughtsman of his generation…

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20 Works, December 24th. is Fernand Cormon’s day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #254

Fernand Cormon
Bacchanalia of nymphs and satyrs
Oil on canvas
90 x 130 cm
Private collection

Fernand Cormon (24 December 1845–20 March 1924) was a French painter born in Paris. He became a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel, Eugène Fromentin, and Jean-François Portaels, and one of the leading historical painters of modern France.

His father was the playwright Eugène Cormon. His mother was Charlotte Furais, the actress…

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23 Works, December 18th. is Frank O. Salisbury’s day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #251

Frank O. Salisbury (British, 1874–1962)
Onward Christian Soldiers, c. 1911
Oil on canvas
63 x 90 cm. (24.8 x 35.4 in.)
Private collection

Painted in 1911 it is a figurative landscape of soldiers on the battlefield. The two central characters, the ‘Christian Soldiers’ from the early crusades have halos and ride through the chaos on white horses. Shafts on light with angels illuminate them and also a crucifix. A very powerful Edwardian religious oil painting and an excellent example of O’Salisbury’s work. painted in oil and illuminated in gold leaf.

Francis (“Frank”) Owen Salisbury (18 December 1874–31 August 1962) was an English artist who specialised in portraits, large canvases of historical and ceremonial events, stained glass and book illustration. In his heyday he made a fortune on both sides of the Atlantic and was known as “Britain’s Painter Laureate”. His art was steadfastly conservative and he was a vitriolic critic of Modern Art — particularly of his contemporaries Picasso, Chagall and Mondrian. His father, Henry Salisbury, described himself as a “plumber, decorator and ironmonger” (his mother was Susan Hawes), yet his son Frank would become one of the greatest society artists of his generation…

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11 Works, Today, March 1st. is artist Nikolaos Gyzis’ day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #060

Nikolaos Gyzis (1842–1901)
Historia, c. 1892
Oil on panel
Private collection

Nikolaos Gyzis (1 March 1842–4 January 1901) was considered one of Greece’s most important 19th-century painters. He was most famous for his work Eros and the Painter (See below), his first genre painting. It was auctioned in May 2006 at Bonhams in London, being last exhibited in Greece in 1928. He was the major representative of the so-called “Munich School”, the major 19th-century Greek art movement…

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20 Works, December 12th. is Karl Bryullov’s day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #248

Brulloff Karl (1799 – 1852)
Juliet Tittoni as Jeanna D’Ark, c. 1850-1852
Oil on canvas
Tittoni family private collection

Having become close in Italy with the Tittoni family, Bryullov created portraits of almost his entire family, and in 1852 he painted a portrait of Juliet Tittoni.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (12 December 1799–11 June 1852), original name Charles Bruleau, also transliterated Briullov and Briuloff, was a Russian painter. He is regarded as a key figure in transition from the Russian neoclassicism to romanticism…

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11 Works, November 22nd. is Consuelo Fould’s day, her art, illustrated with footnotes #239

Consuelo Fould
La semeuse d’étoiles/ The star sower, circa 1925
Oil on panel
Musée Roybet Fould

Consuelo Fould, born November 22, 1862, in Cologne (Germany), arrived in France in 1864, with her parents, Valérie Simonin and Gustave Fould. She trained very young with her mother, a former actress who practiced sculpture with Mathieu-Meunier, also professor of Sarah Berhnardt…

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12 Works, November 21st. is Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann’s day, her art, illustrated with footnotes #238

Elisabeth Baumann (1819–1881)
An Egyptian Pot Seller at Gizeh, c. between 1876 and 1878
Oil on canvas
Height: 92 cm (36.2 in); Width: 114 cm (44.8 in)
Statens Museum for Kunst

The picture is a concentrate of observations on travels 1869–70 and 1874–75 to Turkey, Greece and Egypt and must be described as one of Jerichau Baumann’s masterpieces. It is carried by a sensuality and coloristic boldness that is atypical of the Danish art of the period, but less marked by the pointed ethnocentrism that characterizes contemporary international orientalism.

The scene is rich in colour and contrast; the glorious hues of the rug catch the eye. The nude body beneath sheer silk and the exotic jewellery add a sensuous quality that still impresses. Of Polish-German descent, Jerichau Baumann had a wider outlook than most Danish artists of the time. More on this painting

Anna Maria Elisabeth Lisinska Jerichau-Baumann (21 November 1819–11 July 1881)

was a Polish-Danish painter. She was married to the sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau.

Elisabeth was born in Żoliborz, a borough of Warsaw. Her father Philip Adolph Baumann (1776–1863), a mapmaker, and her mother, Johanne Frederikke Reyer (1790–1854), were of German extraction…

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19 Works, November 15th. is Aniello Falcone’s day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #235

Aniello Falcone (1607–1656)
Roman Soldiers in the Circus, circa 1640
Oil on canvas
Height: 92 cm (36.2 in); Width: 183 cm (72 in)
Museo del Prado

Aniello Falcone (15 November 1600–1656) was an Italian Baroque painter, active in Naples and noted for his painted depictions of battle scenes. Some sources refer to him as Ancillo Falcone.

Born in Naples the son of a tradesman, he showed his artistic tendency at an early age. He first received some instruction from a relative, before becoming one of the most prominent pupils of José de Ribera…

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26 Works, November 13th. is Byam Shaw’s day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #234

Byam Shaw (1872–1919)
Love the Conqueror
Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time

107 famous historical and literary figures are indicated and are represented in the painting, all belonging to the army of the Conqueror Love.

John Byam Liston Shaw (13 November 1872 – 26 January 1919), commonly known as Byam Shaw, was a British painter, illustrator, designer and teacher…

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10 Works, October 6th. is William D. Washington’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #218

William D. Washington (1833–1870)
The Burial of Latané, c. 1864
Oil on canvas
Height: 38 in (96.5 cm); Width: 48 in (121.9 cm)
The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina

In June 1862, twenty-nine-year-old Captain William Latané of the 9th Virginia Cavalry was the only Confederate killed during J. E. B. Stuart’s famous ride around Union general McClellan’s army during the Peninsula Campaign. After Latané’s death at Old Church in Hanover County, his brother John Latané removed the body to the Westwood plantation two miles away. The plantation’s white men were all away serving the Confederate army, but Mrs. William Spencer Roane Brockenbrough, the mistress of the house, assured John Latané that his brother’s remains would be rendered proper care and a Christian burial…

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19 Works, October 4th. is Maximilian Lenz’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #216

Maximilian Lenz (1860–1948)
Herbstgold/ Autumn Gold, c. 1904
Oil with gold relief on canvas
102 x 230.5 cm
Private collection

Maximilian Lenz (4 October 1860, Vienna — 19 May 1948, Vienna) was an Austrian painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Lenz was a founding member of the Vienna Secession; during his career’s most important period, he was a Symbolist, but later his work became increasingly naturalistic. He worked in a variety of media, including oils, watercolours, lithography and metal reliefs…

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11 Works, October 2nd. is Willy Jaeckel’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #214

Willy Jaeckel
Portrait of a Girl with a Red Scarf, c. 1926
Oil on canvas
Berlin, Bröhan-Museum

Willy Jaeckel (10 February 1888, Breslau — 30 January 1944, Berlin) was a German Expressionist painter and lithographer.

Jaeckel’s father was a public lands manager and he originally intended to become a forest ranger, but poor health forced him to change his plans. From 1906 to 1908, he studied at the art school in Breslau, then enrolled at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, under the direction of Otto Gußmann, an ornamental painter. In 1913, he moved to Berlin to work as a free-lance artist and became a member of the Berlin Secession in 1915. Four years later, he was elected a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts and became a teacher at the University of the Arts in 1925…

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