John Singer Sargent – Zaidan Gallery

30 works – Art and the Egyptian Woman over the decades

Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann
A young Egyptian woman, c. E. Jerichau 1870
Pencil on paper
26 x 29 cm
Private collection

In the winter of 1869–1870, Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann traveled to Constantinople, Athens, Smyrna, Alexandria and Cairo. It was on this trip that she, as one of the first painters ever, got access to a harem in Constantinople.

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 Jerichau-Baumann 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.

At the age of nineteen, she began her studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf which at the time was one of the most important art centres in Europe and her early subject matter was drawn from Slovak life. She is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. She began exhibiting there and in 1844 attracted public attention for the first time. After she moved to Rome, her paintings were primarily of local life. When Baumann was not travelling, she spent many hours a day in her studio in Rome. She was particularly fond of the Italian painters. Baumann had great success abroad, however, and had a special following in France where she was twice represented at the World Fair in Paris, first in 1867 and again in 1878. In 1852 she exhibited some of her paintings in London, and Queen Victoria requested a private presentation in Buckingham Palace. Among the portraits presented to the Queen was her painting of Hans Christian Andersen, completed in 1850. More on Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann…

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09 Paintings of the Canals of Venice by Amédée Rosier, Francesco Guardi, John Singer Sargent, Konstantin Ivanovich, Martín Rico y Ortega, OLIVER DENNETT GROVER, THOMAS MORAN, with foot notes. #7

Thomas Moran, 1837 – 1926
VIEW OF VENICE, c. 1897
Oil on canvas
11 1/8 by 17 1/8 inches, (28.3 by 43.5 cm)
Private collection

Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) from Bolton, England was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth, took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner’s Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.

Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group. More on Thomas Moran

12 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova, VIVIEN LEIGH, Empress Maria-Theresa, Rosina Ferrara, and Catherine de Médicis, Gabrielle d’Estrées, with Footnotes. #11

**Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova, (1884-1967),**
Self portrait, c. 1921
Private collection

Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova, (1884–1967), was a Modernist Russian painter, and was one of the best known and most highly regarded of her time. She was the daughter of the sculptor Evgenii Lanceray and was said to have been raised in an environment that helped to foster a love of the arts. The Lanceray family was said to be one of the most cultured lineages in all of Czarist Russia…

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01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, John Singer Sargent’s Nancy Witcher Langhorne, Viscountess Astor, with Footnotes. #140

John Singer Sargent, (1856–1925)
Nancy Witcher Langhorne, Viscountess Astor CH, MP, c. 1908
Oil on canvas
Height: 150.5 cm (59.2 ″); Width: 99.7 cm (39.2 ″)
National Trust

Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor, in full Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor of Hever Castle, née Langhorne, (born May 19, 1879, Danville, Virginia, U.S.—died May 2, 1964, Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, England), first woman to sit in the British House of Commons, known in public and private life for her great energy and wit.In 1897 she married Robert Gould Shaw of Boston, from whom she was divorced in 1903, and in 1906 she married Waldorf Astor, great-great-grandson of John Jacob Astor. When her husband succeeded to his father’s viscountcy and thus relinquished his seat in the House of Commons, Lady Astor, who had been his constant comrade-in-arms in his constituency at Plymouth, was adopted as Unionist candidate in his place and, after a stirring campaign, was elected by a substantial majority on November 28, 1919. Lady Astor was returned for Plymouth at subsequent general elections until her retirement from Parliament in 1945.

Apart from questions relating exclusively to women, her chief parliamentary work was done for a progressive educational policy, for temperance, and for the extension of the Trade Boards Acts. She constantly advocated the raising of the school-leaving age and in 1923 carried through the Intoxicating Liquor (Sale to Persons under 18) Bill. She also maintained a continuous agitation for improved conditions in certain branches of the distributive and catering trades. More on Nancy Witcher Langhorne

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American artist, considered the “leading portrait painter of his generation” for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

His parents were American, but he was trained in Paris prior to moving to London. Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, although not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his “Portrait of Madame X”, was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but it resulted in scandal instead. From the beginning his work was characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. He lived most of his life in Europe. More John Singer Sargent

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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13 Classic Works, Art and the Egyptian Woman, with Footnotes

Wilhelm Kotarbiński, (1848–1921)
Cleopatra
Oil on canvas
135 × 246 cm (53.1 × 96.9 in)
Private collection

Wilhelm Kotarbiński (born 30 November 1848, Nieborów; died 4 September 1921, Kiev) was a Polish Symbolist painter of historical and fantastical subjects who spent most of his working life in Ukraine. He began his studies at the Warsaw School of Art from 1867 to 1871. Afterward, he enrolled at the University of Warsaw, urged on by his parents who were opposed to an artistic career, but stayed for only a short time before borrowing money from his uncle and moving to Italy. The following year, he was able to arrange a stipend from the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and enrolled at the Accademia di San Luca, where he studied with Francesco Podesti until 1875, living in poverty and barely surviving a case of typhoid…

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29 Portraits – Art and the Egyptian Woman over the decades

It is said that Scota was in fact Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Pharoah Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti…

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13 Classic Works of Art, Egyptian Women. With Footnotes

Wilhelm Kotarbiński, (1848–1921)

Cleopatra

Oil on canvas

135 × 246 cm (53.1 × 96.9 in)

Wilhelm Kotarbiński (1848–1921)

Egyptian, c. 1900

Oil on canvas

125 x 63 cm

After graduating, with more help from the Imperial Society, he was able to set up his own studio in Rome and held his first solo exhibition. His first commission came from the art critic Vladimir Stasov, who engaged him to copy a 14th-century manuscript from the Vatican Museums. He soon acquired many wealthy customers.

In 1888, he left Italy to go to Kiev and work on an upcoming project, and began painting in the local churches. Although he was Catholic, he did decorative work at the Orthodox St Volodymyr’s Cathedral from 1889 to 1894. Under the supervision of Adrian Prakhov, an expert on old Russian and Byzantine art, he worked on 84 individual figures and 18 full paintings, including a large painting of the transfiguration of Christ.

In 1890, he joined the Union of South Russian Artists and, in 1893, together with Jan Stanisławski and others, founded the Society of Kiev Painters. He was named an Academician of the Imperial Academy in 1905. More

John Singer Sargent, (1856–1925)

Egyptian Woman or Coin Necklace, c. 1891

Oil on canvas

64.8 cm (25.51 in.), Width: 50.8 cm (20 in.)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

John Singer Sargent, (1856–1925)

Egyptian Woman, c. 1890–91

Oil on canvas

25 1/2 x 21 in. (64.8 x 53.3 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He was trained in Paris prior to moving to London. Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, although not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his “Portrait of Madame X”, was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but it resulted in scandal instead. From the beginning his work was characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. He lived most of his life in Europe. More

John Singer Sargent – 1891

Nude Study of an Egyptian Girl

Painting – oil on canvas

Height: 190.5 cm (75 in.), Width: 61 cm (24.02 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago (United States)

The nude Egyptian Girl, I believe, is the only female nude that Sargent did in oil. As the name implies, the painting was done in Egypt on his trip there to do research for the Boston Public Library murals. In some ways it harks back to the Velazquez’s Venus at her Mirror. Like Sargent, this was Velazquez’s only female nude and both men paint their subject facing away. Although it is not known for sure that Venus at her Mirror was the painting that influenced Sargent’s Egyptian Girl, the importance of Velazquez work in influencing Sargent’s art is well documented and if it wasn’t on his mind, the coincidences are remarkable. Notice, particularly, the very delicate modulation of skin color in Sargent’s painting which Velazquez used as well. More

Karel Ooms (1845–1900)

The woman of Cairo, c. 1865-1900

Oil on canvas

Height: 65.5 cm (25.8 in). Width: 46 cm (18.1 in).

Karel Ooms (27 January 1845, Dessel – 18 March 1900, Cannes) was a Belgian painter of portraits, genre paintings and history paintings. He was also known for his Orientalist scenes and Oriental landscapes. He was born in Dessel. At school his extraordinary talent for drawing was discovered. When he was twelve his hometown provided financial support which allowed him to study at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts.

Karel Ooms settled as an independent artist in Antwerp around 1871. He quickly established a reputation as a portrait painter. In addition he received commissions for religious paintings and history paintings. He gained particular recognition with two large paintings he made for the criminal courtroom of the Antwerp Courthouse.

Karel made many travels in Europe and the Middle East. His travels to Palestine and Egypt are documented through the landscape paintings he made on location. In the Middle East he found abundant inspiration for his Orientalist paintings. More

Luis Ricardo Falero, (1851–1896)

Egyptian Woman with Harp, c. 1874

Oil on panel

39 x 23.5 cm

Luis Ricardo Falero (1851 – December 7, 1896), Duke of Labranzano, was a Spanish painter. He specialized in female nudes and mythological, oriental and fantasy settings.[1] Most of his paintings contained at least one nude or topless female. His most common medium was oil on canvas.

Falero was born in Granada and originally pursued a career in the Spanish Navy, but gave it up to his parents’ disappointment. He walked all the way to Paris, where he studied art, chemistry and mechanical engineering. The experiments that he had to conduct in the latter two were so dangerous, however, that he decided to focus on painting alone. After Paris, he studied in London, where he eventually settled.

Falero had a particular interest in astronomy and incorporated celestial constellations into many of his works, such as “The Marriage of a Comet” and “Twin Stars”. His interest and knowledge of astronomy also led him to illustrate the works of Camille Flammarion. More

Michelangelo

Cleopatra, c. 1533-34

Black chalk on paper

225 x 170 mm

Casa Buonarroti, Florence

This highly decorative, virtuoso drawing was one of a series of gifts for Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, a young artist whom Michelangelo wished to teach and of whom he was deeply fond. The elder painters’s celebrated draftsmanship is visible in the extreme twist of head and neck, known as ‘serpentinata’ – perhaps a play on words, given the fatal, coiling asp.

In many of his drawings Michelangelo created ideal portraits of women, in which he frequently emphasized the beauty of the female figures with imaginative hair styles plaited with scarves, other fabrics, or pieces of jewellery and adorned with exquisite headdresses and similar accessories. These portraits were in keeping with Florentine traditions, influenced by the works of Sandro Botticelli, Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Piero di Cosimo. More

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 1475 – 18 February 1564), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with contemporary rival and fellow Florentine Medici client, Leonardo da Vinci.

A number of Michelangelo’s works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence. His output in every field of interest was prodigious; given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences taken into account, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century.

Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before the age of thirty. Despite his low opinion of painting, Michelangelo also created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library. At the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan, the western end being finished to Michelangelo’s design, the dome being completed after his death with some modification.

In his lifetime he was also often called Il Divino (“the divine one”). One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur, and it was the attempts of subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelo’s impassioned and highly personal style that resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. More

Henri Guillaume Schlesinger, (1814-1893)

An Egyptian Girl Preparing for the Bath

Oil On Canvas

-1869

90 x 117.5 cm, (35.43″ x 46.26″)

Private collection

Henri Guillaume Schlesinger (6 August 1814 in Frankfurt am Main , died on 21 February 1893 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) was a German painter of portraits and genre. Besides his oil painting, he used watercolor painting, and miniature painting on ivory.

Schlesinger studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he was active initially. He oved to Paris and continued his artistic education. In the period 1840-1889, he exhibited his work at the Paris Salon . Henri Guillaume Schlesinger in 1837 realizes several official portraits including a large equestrian portrait of Sultan Mahmud II . In 1870-1871 years he lived in London .

Schlesinger received the Legion of Honor in 1866, and his French citizenship in 1870. More

Franz Xavier Kosler (Austrian ,1864-1906)

Portrait of a young Egyptian girl, Cairo 1900

Oil on canvas

23 3/4 x 17 1/4 in. (60.3 x 43.8 cm.)

In Egypt Kosler opened a one-man exhibition, in Cairo, in 1894. The show was a great success and secured Kosler many wealthy Egyptian clients including Prince Said Halim Pasha, the grandson of Mehemet Ali Pasha, the future Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, who commissioned a series of portraits from the artist.

Franz Xavier Kosler (Austrian, 1864-1905), born in Vienna in 1864, was one of the most celebrated Orientalist painters of his generation. Kosler began his artistic studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (The Academy of Fine Arts) in Vienna, studying under the renowned Austrian Orientalist artist Leopold Carl Müller. Highly influenced by his work Kosler went on to follow in his tutor’s footsteps travelling abroad to paint the Near East firsthand, depicting richly coloured genre scenes and tender close-up portraits of young sitters dressed in traditional clothing, echoing the work of his mentor. Setting off in 1886, Kosler travelled to Dalmatia, Montenegro, Albania and Egypt, returning to the latter two years after he had returned to Vienna in 1866, sponsored by Archduke Ferdinand Karl. More

Jacques Clement Wagrez, French. 1846-1908

Cleopatra.

oil on canvas

Wagrez Jacques Clement , born in 1846 or 1850 in Paris where he died in 1908, is a genre painter , illustrator and designer. Jacques Clement followed the course of Fine Arts under the direction of master Isidore Pils and of Henri Lehmann , a pupil of Ingres . He enrolled in the studio of Jules Eugène Lenepveu before leaving Italy for a study tour. The Venetian and Florentine renaissance inspired his subjects and scenery. In 1870 he sent to the salon his first watercolors and portraits that earned him great fame. More

Guido Bach, (1828-1905)

An Egyptian Woman Carrying a Brace of Chickens, Cairo, 1876

Watercolor

Height: 54 cm (21.26 in.), Width: 37 cm (14.57 in.)

Private collection

Guido Bach (1828-1905) was a German portrait and genre painter and watercolorist. He studied from 1843 to 1847 at the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden in Julius Hübner, mainly with the watercolors. Guido Bach visited Italy, Bohemia and Egypt. He created portraits and images from the Italian village life, as well as images from the life of the North African Arabs.

Since 1862 he lived in London. There he exhibited his works at the Royal Institute and at the Royal Academy of Arts (1880 and 1883), and at the Grosvenor Gallery from. His works “The Golden Age” and “Feathered Friends” found recognition at the Royal Academy. At the Dresdner watercolor exhibition he participated 1887th. More

Guido Bach, (1828-1905)

An Egyptian Mother and her Children, 1876

Watercolor

Height: 59.5 cm (23.43 in.), Width: 44.5 cm (17.52 in.)

Private collection

Laetitia Mathilde, Princesse Bonaparte

Une fellah, c. 1861

92 x 63 cm

Huile et détrempe sur papier

Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Mathilde Laetitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte, Princesse Française (27 May 1820 – 2 January 1904), was a French princess and Salon holder. She was a daughter of Napoleon’s brother Jérôme Bonaparte and his second wife, Catharina of Württemberg, daughter of King Frederick I of Württemberg. More

Statue of an Offering Bearer of wood

Middle Kingdom, Dynasty:Dynasty 12

Reign:early reign of Amenemhat I

Gesso, paint from Egypt

Metropolitan Museum of Art

This masterpiece of Egyptian wood carving was discovered in a hidden chamber at the side of the passage leading into the rock cut tomb of the royal chief steward Meketre, who began his career under King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II of Dynasty 11 and continued to serve successive kings into the early years of Dynasty 12. Together with a second, very similar female figure (now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) this statue flanked the group of twenty two models of gardens, workshops, boats, and a funeral procession that were crammed into the chamber’s narrow space. More

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

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05 PAINTINGS OF THE CANALS OF VENICE BY THE ARTISTS OF THEIR TIME, WITH FOOT NOTES. #13

David Roberts, R.A., EDINBURGH 1796 – 1864 LONDON

VENICE, APPROACH TO THE GRAND CANAL, c. 1855

Oil on canvas

25 1/2 by 45 1/2 in.; 64.8 by 115.6 cm.

Private Collection

David Roberts RA (b Stockbridge [now a district of Edinburgh], 24 Oct. 1796; d London, 25 Nov. 1864). Scottish painter. He was apprenticed to a house painter, then worked as a scene painter for theatres in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1822 he settled in London and worked at the Drury Lane Theatre with his friend Clarkson Stanfield. From 1833 he travelled widely in Europe and the Mediterranean basin and made a fortune with his topographical views.

He worked in oil and watercolour and published lavishly illustrated books, among them the six-volume Views in the Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia (1842–9). His work can be monotonous when seen en masse, but at his best he combines bold design with precise observation. More David Roberts

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925)

Santa Maria della Salute, c. 1904

Translucent and opaque watercolor and graphite, with graphite underdrawing

18 3/16 x 22 15/16in. (46.2 x 58.3cm)

Brooklyn Museum

Sargent’s underdrawing for the church is meticulously executed in straight ruled graphite lines, whose end points are visible at the bottoms and tops of columns. Horizontal ruled lines of the stairs are visible through the washes of the figures in the boat. In contrast, the boats and figures in the foreground have minimal underdrawing and are rendered in loose, mostly wet washes. Sargent used a sharp tool to scrape off paint and create the squiggly highlights on and around the boats. This is the largest Sargent watercolor in Brooklyn’s collection. More on this painting

Santa Maria della Salute, commonly known simply as the Salute, is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located at Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the city of Venice, Italy.

It stands on the narrow finger of Punta della Dogana, between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, at the Bacino di San Marco, making the church visible when entering the Piazza San Marco from the water. The Salute is part of the parish of the Gesuati and is the most recent of the so-called plague-churches.

The dome of the Salute was an important addition to the Venice skyline and soon became emblematic of the city, inspiring artists like Canaletto, J. M. W. Turner, John Singer Sargent, and Francesco Guardi. More on Santa Maria della Salute

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925)

Venice in Grey Weather, c.1880 – c.1882

Oil, canvas

50.8 x 68.6 cm

Private Collection

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925), see above

Thomas Bush Hardy, 1842 – 1897

Boats in Venice

Watercolor

26 x 20 cm.

Private collection

Thomas Bush Hardy (1842, Sheffield – 1897, Maida Vale, London) was a British marine painter and watercolourist. As a young man he travelled in the Netherlands and Italy. In 1884 Hardy was elected a Member of the Royal Society of British Artists. He exhibited with the Society and also at the Royal Academy.

His paintings feature coastal scenes in England and the Netherlands, the French Channel ports and the Venetian Lagoon.

Hardy had nine children. His son Dudley Hardy was a painter, illustrator and poster designer. His daughter Dorothy received an MBE after working as a nurse in the First World War. He died on 15 December 1897 in Maida Vale, London. More on Thomas Bush Hardy

Jacques-Louis-Jules David, 1829-1886, FRENCH

VENITIAN AT HER TOILET, c. 1860

Oil on canvas

148 by 96cm., 58¼ by 37¾in.

Private collection

Jacques-Louis-Jules David, 1829-1886, was the grandson of the immensely influential neo-classical Jacques-Louis David. Additionally, Jules David was an art historian in his own right, and among his grandfather’s first biographers. He entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1849 where he studied with Cogniet and Picot. More on Jacques-Louis-Jules David

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05 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, of the 18th & 19th C., with Footnotes. #24

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, (1805-1873), German

Elisabeth Kaiserin von Österreich, c. 1865

Oil painting on canvas

117 × 158 cm (46.1 × 62.2 in)

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Elisabeth of Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, and many others (see Grand title of the Empress of Austria) by marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Born into the royal Bavarian house of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of sixteen. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. Early in the marriage she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth’s daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy. The birth of a male heir, Rudolf, improved her standing at court considerably, but her health suffered under the strain, and she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria–Hungary in 1867.

The death of her only son Rudolf, and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, which were already legendary during her life. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress of Austria, at 44 years. More on Elisabeth Kaiserin von Österreich

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, (1805-1873), German

Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, c.1864

Oil painting on canvas

Hofburg in Vienna, Austria

Portrait of Elisabeth depicting her long hair, one of two so-called “intimate” portraits of the empress; although its existence was kept a secret from the general public, it was the emperor’s favourite portrait of her and kept opposite his desk in his private study

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 – 8 July 1873) was born in a small village in Germany’s Black Forest, Franz Xaver Winterhalter left his home to study painting at the academy in Munich. Before becoming court painter to Louis-Philippe, the king of France, he joined a circle of French artists in Rome. In 1835, after he painted the German Grand Duke and Duchess of Baden, Winterhalter’s international career as a court portrait painter was launched. Although he never received high praise for his work in his native Germany, the royal families of England, France, and Belgium all commissioned him to paint portraits. His monumental canvases established a substantial popular reputation, and lithographic copies of the portraits helped to spread his fame.

Winterhalter’s portraits were prized for their subtle intimacy, but his popularity among patrons came from his ability to create the image his sitters wished or needed to project to their subjects. He was able to capture the moral and political climate of each court, adapting his style to each client until it seemed as if his paintings acted as press releases, issued by a master of public relations. More on Franz Xaver Winterhalter

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925)

Rose Marie Ormond, c. 1912

Oil, canvas

80 x 58.4 cm

Private Collection

Rose-Marie (later Madame Robert André-Michel 1893-1918), was the niece to John Singer Sargent, daughter to Violet Sargent Ormond. Widow of Robert André-Michel killed at Saint-Gervais, on Good Friday, 1918 by German bombardment. More on this painting

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925)

Winifred, Duchess of Portland, 1902

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Winifred Anna Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland DBE JP (née Dallas-Yorke; 7 September 1863 – 30 July 1954) was a British humanitarian and animal welfare activist. Born at Murthly Castle, Perthshire. She served as a canopy bearer to HM Queen Alexandra at the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, and was Mistress of the Robes from 1913 until Alexandra’s death in 1925. She married William John Arthur James Cavendish-Bentinck on 11 June 1889. They had three children.

The Duchess of Portland was a passionate animal lover, who kept stables for old horses and ponies, as well as dogs needing homes. In 1891, she became the first president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and was vice-president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She was also president of the ladies committee of the RSPCA.

In 1889, she persuaded the duke to use a large portion of his horseracing winnings to build almshouses at Welbeck. She cared greatly for the local miners and supported them by paying for medical treatments, and organising cooking and sewing classes for their daughters. She also sponsored a miner, with an interest in art, to study in London.

In honor of her support, the Nottinghamshire Miners’ Welfare Association petitioned the king on her behalf; and in 1935 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on his silver jubilee. She was also made a Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa in Spain. More on Winifred, Duchess of Portland

John Singer Sargent, (American, born Italy, 1856-1925), see above

Donato Creti, CREMONA 1671 – 1749 BOLOGNA

A SIBYL

Oil on canvas

28 1/4 by 23 1/8 in.; 72.4 by 58.7 cm.

Private Collection

The sibyls were women that the ancient Greeks believed were oracles. The earliest sibyls, according to legend, prophesied at holy sites. Their prophecies were influenced by divine inspiration from a deity; originally at Delphi and Pessinos, the deities were chthonic deities. In Late Antiquity, various writers attested to the existence of sibyls in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor. More on The sibyls

Donato Creti (24 February 1671 – 31 January 1749) was an Italian painter of the Rococo period, active mostly in Bologna.

Born in Cremona, he moved to Bologna, where he was a pupil of Lorenzo Pasinelli. He is described by Wittkower as the “Bolognese Marco Benefial”, in that his style was less decorative and edged into a more formal neoclassical style. It is an academicized grand style, that crystallizes into a manneristic neoclassicism, with crisp and frigid modeling of the figures. Among his followers were Aureliano Milani, Francesco Monti, and Ercole Graziani the Younger. Two other pupils were Domenico Maria Fratta and Giuseppe Peroni. More on Donato Creti

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02 Painting, Streets of Paris, by John Singer Sargent, Part 14 – With Footnotes

John Singer Sargent, (1856–1925)

A Parisian Beggar Girl, circa 1880

Oil on canvas

64.5 × 43.7 cm (25.4 × 17.2 in)

Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL

By ‘79 Sargent begins his major portraits and he never particularly showed any desire to paint scenes of Parisian life, opting for more exotic locals for his subject paintings, this was probably done when he was studying with Carolus-Duran’s atelier.

Carmela Bertagna has been identified as the model in the Parisian Beggar Girl, which is hanging at the Terra Museum in Chicago. Carmela posed for many of Sargent’s dancers and figures in interiors. More on this painting

A Parisian Beggar Girl was first exhibited in 1906 as Spanish Beggar Girl. The confusion of the two titles may be explained by the possibility that the model, Carmela, was a Parisian of Spanish or Italian descent who posed for a portrait by Sargent dated to around the time he painted A Parisian Beggar Girl. More on this painting

John Singer Sargent, (1856–1925)

Carmela Bertagna, c. 1879

Oil on canvas

59.69 x 49.53 cm (23.5 x 19.5 in.)

Columbus Museum of Art

Very little is known about Carmela’s life, except that she lived with her mother and brother. Her father is unknown. She and her family had to work in order to make ends meet for themselves. She is of Spanish descent and modelled with various artists, including John Singer Sargent. Her Mediterranean Latin looks fascinated Sargent, who was captivated by magnificent Rosina Ferrara of Capri a year earlier. More on Carmela Bertagna

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07 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, with Footnotes. #20

John Singer Sargent, 1856 – 1925

A Fellah Woman

Oil on canvas

22 x 18 in

Private collection

Fellah is a farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for “ploughman” or “tiller”.

Due to a continuity in beliefs and lifestyle, the fellahin of Egypt have been described as the “true” Egyptians. More on Fallah

Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau, (American, 1837-1922)

La Confidence, ca. 1880

Oil on canvas

68 x 47-1/8 in.

Georgia Museum of Art, Athens

Elizabeth Jane Gardner (October 4, 1837 – January 28, 1922) was an American academic and salon painter, who was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. She was an American expatriate who died in Paris where she had lived most of her life. She studied in Paris under the figurative painter Hugues Merle (1823–1881), the well-known salon painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911), and finally under William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905). After Bouguereau’s wife died, Gardner became his paramour and after the death of his mother, who bitterly opposed the union, she married him in 1896. She adopted his subjects, compositions, and even his smooth facture, channeling his style so successfully that some of her work might be mistaken for his. More on Elizabeth Jane Gardner

Head of the ptolemaic queen Berenice II (reign between 246–221 BC).

Glyptothek, Munich

Berenice II (267 or 266 BC – 221 BC) was a ruling queen of Cyrene by birth, and a queen and co-regent of Egypt by marriage to her cousin Ptolemy III Euergetes, the third ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.

In approximately 249 BC, her father died, making Berenice ruling queen of Cyrene. Soon after Berenice was married to Demetrius the Fair, a Macedonian prince.

After Demetrius came to Cyrene, he became the lover of her mother, Apama. In a dramatic event, Bernice had him killed in Apama’s bedroom. Berenice stood at the door and instructed the hired assassins not to hurt her mother while she attempted to protect her mother’s lover.

Berenice is said to have participated in the Nemean Games and the Olympic games at some unknown date. She had a strong equestrian background and was accustomed to fighting from horseback. When Berenice’s father Magas, king of Cyrene in modern day Libya, and his troops were routed in battle, Berenice mounted a horse, rallied the remaining forces, killed many of the enemy, and drove the rest to retreat.

After the death of Demetrius, Berenice married Ptolemy III, the third king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt..

Bernardo Strozzi, (1581–1644)

Berenice, before 1644

Oil on canvas

86.5 × 71 cm (34.1 × 28 in)

Private collection

Berenice II, Queen of Egypt, when she cut off her long hair to dedicate it to the goddess Aphrodite in order to ensure the safe return of her husband, Ptolemy III.

Bernardo Strozzi, named il Cappuccino and il Prete Genovese (c. 1581 – 2 August 1644) was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver. A canvas and fresco artist, his wide subject range included history, allegorical, genre and portrait paintings as well as still lifes. Born and initially mainly active in Genoa, he worked in Venice in the latter part of his career. His work exercised considerable influence on artistic developments in both cities. He is considered a principal founder of the Venetian Baroque style. His powerful art stands out by its rich and glowing colour and broad, energetic brushstrokes. More on Bernardo Strozzi

Bernardo Strozzi, (1581–1644)

Berenice, c. 1640

Oil on canvas

El Paso Museum of Art

During her second husband’s absence on an expedition to Syria, she dedicated locks of her hair to Aphrodite for his safe return and victory in the Third Syrian War, and placed the offering in the temple of the goddess at Zephyrium, on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey . By some unknown means, the hair offering disappeared when Ptolemy returned to Egypt, Conon of Samos explained the phenomenon in courtly phrase, by saying that it had been carried to the heavens and placed among the stars. The name Coma Berenices or Berenice’s hair, applied to a constellation, commemorates this incident. This made the locks of Berenice the only war trophy in Greco-Roman sky.

The city of Euesperides was refounded by her and received her name, Berenice (near the location of Benghazi). The asteroid 653 Berenike, discovered in 1907, also is named after Queen Berenice. More on queen Berenice II

Andrew Geddes, ARA (British, 1783-1844)

Portrait of a Lady, reputed to be Charlotte Nasymth

Oil on canvas

72 x 60 cm. (28 3/8 x 23 5/8 in.)

Private collection

Charlotte Nasmyth (British painter) 1804 – 1884 was a member of a large and gifted family, Charlotte was the sixth daughter of the landscape painter Alexander Nasmyth. All the girls were talented artists, trained to draw and paint by their father so that they could run art classes from their Edinburgh home and eventually support themselves independently. Charlotte painted romantic landscapes which were widely exhibited. More on Charlotte Nasymth

Andrew Geddes ARA (5 April 1783 – 5 May 1844) was a Scottish portrait painter and etcher.

Geddes was born in Edinburgh. After receiving a good education in the high school and in the University of Edinburgh, he was for five years in the excise office, in which his father held the post of deputy auditor.

After the death of his father, who had opposed his desire to become an artist, he went to London and entered the Royal Academy schools. His first contribution to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, a St John in the Wilderness, appeared at Somerset House in 1806, and from that year onwards Geddes was a fairly constant exhibitor of figure-subjects and portraits. He alternated for some years between London and Edinburgh, with some excursions on the Continent, but in 1831 settled in London, and was elected associate of the Royal Academy in 1832; and he died in London of tuberculosis in 1844. More on Andrew Geddes

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06 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, of the 18th & 19th C., with Footnotes. #18

JOHN SINGER SARGENT (FLORENCE, 1856 – 1925, LONDON)

MADAME GAUTREAU DRINKING A TOAST, c. 1882-1883

Oil on panel

32 x 41 cm (12 5/8 x 16 1/8 in.)

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Madame Pierre Gautreau, born Virginie Avegno (1859–1915), was Madame X, the statuesque sitter in Sargent’s most notorious portrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) (below). Critics considered the portrait in scandalously bad taste, and the sitter’s mother asked Sargent to withdraw the painting from the Salon of 1884, which he refused to do. This much smaller and more intimate painting was done a year earlier, and was given by Sargent to Madame Gautreau’s mother. More on this painting

John Singer Sargent, (American, Florence 1856–1925 London)

Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), c. 1883–84

Oil on canvas

82 1/8 x 43 1/4in. (208.6 x 109.9cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madame Pierre Gautreau (the Louisiana-born Virginie Amélie Avegno; 1859–1915) was known in Paris for her artful appearance. Sargent hoped to enhance his reputation by painting and exhibiting her portrait. Working without a commission but with his sitter’s complicity, he emphasized her daring personal style, showing the right strap of her gown slipping from her shoulder. At the Salon of 1884, the portrait received more ridicule than praise. Sargent repainted the shoulder strap and kept the work for over thirty years. When, eventually, he sold it to the Metropolitan, he commented, “I suppose it is the best thing I have done,” but asked that the Museum disguise the sitter’s name. More on this painting

Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau (née Avegno, 29 January 1859 – 25 July 1915) was born in New Orleans but grew up from the age of eight in France, where she became a Parisian socialite known for her beauty. She occasionally posed as a model for notable artists. She is most widely known as the subject of John Singer Sargent’s painting Portrait of Madame X (1884). It created a social scandal when shown at the Paris Salon.

Virginie Avegno became one of Paris’s conspicuous beauties. She attracted much admiration due to her elegance and style. She also attracted much amorous attention that she did not discourage, and her extramarital affairs were so well known that they became the subject of tabloid scandal sheets and gossip handbills. One of her lovers was a Dr. Pozzi. Sargent, anxious to popularize himself by capitalizing on Virginie’s notorious reputation, asked Dr. Pozzi to introduce him to Virginie, which the doctor did

Virginie married Pierre Gautreau, a French banker and shipping magnate. She had a daughter named Louise Gautreau (1879–1911).

Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois, (1852–1923)

Portrait de Madame Gautreau, c. 1891

This work was painted seven years after Sargent’s portrait, and the falling strap and décolletage raised nary an eyebrow.

Gustave-Claude-Étienne Courtois ( 18 May 1852 in Pusey, Haute-Saône – 1923 in Paris) was a French painter, a representative of the academic style of art. Courtois was born to an unwed mother who was devoted to him. Early in life, Courtois revealed an interest in art and entered the École municipale de dessin in Vesoul.

He taught painting at Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Académie Colarossi, Paris. His paintings can be seen in the art galleries of Besançon, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Luxembourg. He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. More on Gustave-Claude-Étienne Courtois

José Cruz Herrera, (1890-1972)

Desdemona, c. 1942

Oil on canvas

136 X 103cm (53 9/16 X 40 9/16 IN.)

Private collection

Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeare’s play Othello (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare’s Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a black man several years her senior. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the Republic of Venice, Desdemona accompanies him. There, her husband is manipulated by his ensign Iago into believing she is an adulteress, and, in the last act, she is murdered by her estranged spouse.

José Cruz Herrera (1 October 1890 – 11 August 1972) was a Spanish painter who concentrated principally on genre works and landscape art. He worked in Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, France and especially Morocco, where he lived for much of his life in Casablanca.

His talent was soon apparent and he began formal training in Cádiz. He continued his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Madrid before being awarded a grant to study in Paris and Rome in 1915. He subsequently received several more awards. He concentrated on genre works and landscapes, but he is best known as an orientalist painter, with a particular faculty for producing atmospheric depictions of scenes of everyday life in Morocco.

Cruz Herrera travelled to Montevideo in Uruguay and Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1922. He went to Morocco in 1929. He subsequently established a studio at Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris, and contributed to collective exhibitions in 1934, 1935 and 1936 at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He also exhibited solo at various times in Madrid, Barcelona and London in 1912, Antwerp in 1931, Casablanca in 1933, and Paris in 1934.

After the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, he returned to Morocco. The following year Spain awarded Cruz Herrera a Knight’s Cross in the Order of Isabella the Catholic, followed by a knighthood in the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise in 1958. He died on 11 August 1972 in Casablanca but his remains were transferred back to La Línea to be buried there. More on José Cruz Herrera

COLIN, Alexandre-Marie, (b. 1798, Paris, d. 1873, Paris)

Othello and Desdemona, 1829

Oil on canvas

51 x 61 cm

Private collection

Colin may first have become interested in depicting Shakespearean subjects when he visited London in 1824 in the company of Delacroix and Bonington. The Othello and Desdemona is a bravura work, faithful to the text, and full of energy and colour.

A student of Girodet and a great friend of Delacroix and Bonington, Alexandre-Marie Colin participated in the Paris Salon starting in 1819 until the end of his life, obtaining a second-class medal in 1824 and 1831, and a first-class medal in 1840.

Colin entered the École des Beaux Arts in 1814, first as a pupil of Girodet, but then joining Guérin’s studio in 1816, in which the young Delacroix had also enrolled. He and Delacroix both attracted the attention of their teachers, winning drawing and composition prizes.

Known as a great portraitist, he portrayed well-known figures and also depicted romantic subjects, views of Italy, and scenes illustrating the struggle for independence in Greece. His religious and historical paintings are characterised by a style based on a careful study of the old masters, while his genre pieces are vigorous and lifelike. More on Alexandre-Marie Colin

Antonio Mancini, (1852–1930)

Resting, circa 1887

60.9 × 100 cm (24 × 39.4 in)

Art Institute of Chicago

Antonio Mancini (14 November 1852 – 28 December 1930) was an Italian painter born in Rome and showed precocious ability as an artist. At the age of twelve, he was admitted to the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, where he studied under Domenico Morelli, a painter of historical scenes who favored dramatic chiaroscuro and vigorous brushwork, and Filippo Palizzi. Mancini developed quickly under their guidance, and in 1872, he exhibited two paintings at the Paris Salon.

Mancini worked at the forefront of the Verismo movement, an indigenous Italian response to 19th-century Realist aesthetics. His usual subjects included children of the poor, juvenile circus performers, and musicians he observed in the streets of Naples.

In 1881, Mancini suffered a disabling mental illness. He settled in Rome in 1883 for twenty years, then moved to Frascati where he lived until 1918. During this period of Mancini’s life, he was often destitute and relied on the help of friends and art buyers to survive. After the First World War, his living situation stabilized and he achieved a new level of serenity in his work. Mancini died in Rome in 1930 and buried in the Basilica Santi Bonifacio e Alessio on the Aventine Hill. More on Antonio Mancini

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07 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, of the 18th & 19th C., with Footnotes. #15

Ismail Gulgee, 1926 – 2007, PAKISTANI

UNTITLED (DANCING WOMAN), c. 1967

Oil on canvas

120 by 90 cm.; 47 1/4 by 35 3/8 in.

Private collection

This large-scale work of a dancing woman is an excellent example of Ismail Gulgee’s early painterly style, highlighting the artist’s sensitive treatment of colour. The rendition of the jewellery and the human form itself, as well as the manner in which he captures her graceful movements are all testaments to his talent. More on this painting

Ismail Gulgee – The Gulgeez (25 October 1926 – 16 December 2007) was an award-winning, globally famous Pakistani artist born in Peshawar. He was a qualified engineer in the US and self-taught abstract painter and portrait painter. Before 1959, as portraitist, he painted the entire Afghan Royal Family. From about 1960 on, he was noted as an abstract painter influenced by the tradition of Islamic calligraphy and by the American “action painting” idiom. More on Ismail Gulgee

Adrien Thevenot, (French, 1889-1922)

The surprised bather (Baigneuse surprise)

Oil on canvas

143 x 99cm (56 5/16 x 39in).

Private collection

Henri Adrien Tanoux ( Marseille , 18 October as as 1865 – Paris , 1923 ) was a French painter. He dedicated himself to landscapes , nudes and oriental scenes .

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris where he was a pupil of Léon Bonnat . He exhibited his works regularly at the Paris Salon and received an honorable mention at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889. More on Henri Adrien Tanoux

Léon-François Comerre, (1850 – 1916)

A Star, c. 1882

Oil on canvas

Height: 180 cm (70.87 in.), Width: 130.2 cm (51.26 in.)

Private collection

M. Comerre’s painting, exhibited at the Salon of 1882. . A dancer sits on a narrow blue satin stool. She has her arms outstretched, her fists fixed on her hips. The right leg crosses over the knee of the left leg, leaving her shape to be drawn in the fabric of a pink jersey.

The dancer has the physiognomy of her profession. The features of the face denote courage and boldness. If the painter gave all his work an unbearable accent of licentiousness. But she is conscious of nothing but the free way in which she abandons herself in her strength to enjoy a moment’s repose. This picture also has the merit of the difficulty overcome. More on this painting

Léon François Comerre (10 October 1850 – 20 February 1916) was a French academic painter, famous for his portraits of beautiful women. Comerre was born in Trélon, in the Département du Nord, the son of a schoolteacher. He moved to Lille with his family in 1853. From an early age he showed an interest in art and became a student of Alphonse Colas at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lille, winning a gold medal in 1867. From 1868 a grant from the Département du Nord allowed him to continue his studies in Paris at the famous École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel. There he came under the influence of orientalism.

Comerre first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1871 and went on to win prizes in 1875 and 1881. In 1875 he won the Grand Prix de Rome. This led to a scholarship at the French Academy in Rome from January 1876 to December 1879. In 1885 he won a prize at the “Exposition Universelle” in Antwerp. He also won prestigious art prizes in the USA (1876) and Australia (1881 and 1897). He became a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1903. More Léon Comerre

Arthur Melville, A.R.S.A., R.S.W. A.R.S., 1858-1904

OLD ENEMIES, c. 1880

Oil on canvas

165 by 112cm., 65 by 40in.

Private collection

Depicting a protective mother comforting her children from an inquisitive rafter of turkeys, this picture was probably based upon sketches made in the market at Granville on the French coast in the summer of 1878. The naturalism of the costumes and setting is combined with the sentiment and drama of the scene, reflecting the influence of the plein air painters that Melville would have encountered during his time at the artist’s colony at Grez-sur-Loing in 1880. More on this painting

Arthur Melville (1858–1904) was a Scottish painter, best remembered for his Orientalist subjects. He was born in Guthrie, Angus in 1858 and brought up in East Lothian. He attended the Royal Scottish Academy Schools before studying in Paris and Greece. The colour-sense which is so notable a feature of his work developed during his travels in Persia, Egypt and Turkey between 1880 and 1882. To convey strong Middle Eastern light, he developed a technique of using watercolour on a base of wet paper with gouache applied to it.

Melville, little known during his lifetime, was one of the most powerful influences in the contemporary art of his day, especially in his broad decorative treatment with water-colour, which influenced the Glasgow Boys. Though his vivid impressions of color and movement are apparently recorded with feverish haste, they are the result of careful deliberation and selection. He was at his best in his watercolors of Eastern life and colour and his Venetian scenes, but he also painted several striking portraits in oils. More on Arthur Melville

John Singer Sargent, American, 1856-1925

Madame Paul Escudier (Louise Lefevre), 1882

Oil on canvas

129.5 x 91.4 cm (51 x 36 in.)

Art institute of Chicago

John Singer Sargent painted at least two portraits of Louise Escudier (see below). He may have met her through her husband, a lawyer who sometimes worked on behalf of artists. This picture grew out of a series of freely rendered views of women in darkened interiors that the artist produced in Venice between 1880 and 1882. It combines the Impressionists’ loose brushwork with a heightened chiaroscuro drawn from Spanish Old Masters such as Diego Velázquez. These portraits helped to establish Sargent’s reputation in Paris as an exciting and original painter. More on this painting

John Singer Sargent, American, 1856-1925

Madame Paul Escudier, c. 1882-1884

Oil on canvas

73.2 x 59.5 cm (28 3/4 x 23 1/2 in.)

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

John Singer Sargent, American, 1856-1925

Nude Egyptian Girl, c. 1891

Oil, canvas

58.42 x 185.42 cm

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, US

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12 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, of the 18th & 19th C., with Footnotes. #11

Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova, (1884-1967),

Self portrait, c. 1921

Private collection

Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova, (1884-1967), was a Modernist Russian painter, and was one of the best known and most highly regarded of her time. She was the daughter of the sculptor Evgenii Lanceray and was said to have been raised in an environment that helped to foster a love of the arts. The Lanceray family was said to be one of the most cultured lineages in all of Czarist Russia.

Serebriakova’s first major influence in art came from a visit to Venice, Italy. Venice was one of the major art centers of the world, and Serebriakova found herself inspired. Soon thereafter in 1901 she was attending classes at the School of the Princess Maria Tenisheva, and then studied in Paris at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere.

Serebriakova enjoyed a relatively successful career as a precocious young and talented artist, until her family fortunes were ravaged due to the Revolution. Her husband died in 1921, leaving her to struggle in order to make a living, and as a result, had to move out of the country. Thus, Serebriakova began to travel widely, including ventures into North Africa, while keeping Paris her base home.

Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova, (1884-1967),

The bather (Self portrait), c. 1911

Oil on canvas

The State Russian Museum – Saint Petersburg

Serebriakova became known for her stunning nudes, executed with a style that art historians say differentiated from that of most other Russian artists of her time. Her style is most closely related to that of Expressionism. It is said that her art is driven by the pursuit of female beauty, and that she demonstrated a strong sense of color, particularly in blue and red. More on Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova

Dietz Edzard, 1893 – 1963

MISS VIVIEN LEIGH IN ‘THE MASK OF VIRTUE’

Oil on canvas

72.5 by 53cm.; 28½ by 21in.

Private collection

Vivien Leigh (born Vivian Mary Hartley, and also known as Lady Olivier after 1947; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967) was an English stage and film actress. She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her iconic performances as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London’s West End in 1949. She also won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway musical version of Tovarich (1963).

After her drama school education, Leigh appeared in small roles in four films in 1935 and progressed to the role of heroine in Fire Over England (1937). Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that her physical attributes sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress. Despite her fame as a screen actress, Leigh was primarily a stage performer. During her 30-year career, she played roles ranging from the heroines of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw comedies to classic Shakespearean characters such as Ophelia, Cleopatra, Juliet, and Lady Macbeth. Later in life, she performed as a character actress in a few films.

At the time, the public strongly identified Leigh with her second husband Laurence Olivier, who was her spouse from 1940 to 1960. Leigh and Olivier starred together in many stage productions, with Olivier often directing, and in three films. She earned a reputation for being difficult to work with, and for much of her adult life she suffered from bipolar disorder as well as recurrent bouts of chronic tuberculosis, which was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s and ultimately claimed her life at the age of 53. More on Vivien Leigh

Roger Furse, 1903 – 1972

VIVIEN LEIGH READING WITH TISSY

Watercolour, pen and ink and pencil on paper

40 by 35cm.; 15¾ by 13¾in.

Private collection

Dietz Edzard, 1893 – 1963, studied at Max Beckmann in Berlin from 1911 onwards . He worked in the Netherlands. In 1927 he went to France in Provence . In 1929 work was exhibited by him in the Jeu de Paume , a collection of Impressionist art in Paris. In 1930 he returned to Berlin. Later, however , he went to Paris , where he settled and lived and exhibited until his lifebloom (Galerie Durand-Ruel). In the Second World War, he was in the Les Milles internment and deportation camp in southern Franceinterned. His works include museums in Grenoble , Bremen, Hamburg and Wuppertal as well as in many American and Canadian private collections, where he sold most of his works. His themes: theater, circus, women and children, dancers, Venetian still life, flowers. The historian Birgi Neumann-Dietzsch found in research that five paintings of the painter were regarded as degenerate and destroyed under the Nazis. More Dietz Edzard

The work of Edzard is artistically inspired by French Impressionism.

Roger Kemble Furse (11 September 1903 – 19 August 1972) was an English art director and costume designer of stage and film, educated at Eton and the Slade School of Fine Arts.

A frequent collaborator with Laurence Olivier, Furse won two Oscars in 1948, one each for his art direction and costume design of Olivier’s version of Hamlet. His other film credits include Henry V (1945), Odd Man Out (1947), Ivanhoe (1952) and The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1961).

He was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1961 for his set design of the Broadway hit drama, Duel of Angels. More on Roger Kemble Furse

Circle of Andreas Møller, (Danish, 1664–d. after 1752)

Portrait of Empress Maria-Theresa, Queen of Hungary

Oil on canvas

99 x 84.5 cm. (39 x 33.3 in.)

Private collection

Her title after the death of her husband was: Maria Theresa, by the Grace of God, Dowager Empress of the Romans, Queen of Hungary, of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, etc.; Archduchess of Austria; Duchess of Burgundy, of Styria, of Carinthia and of Carniola; Grand Princess of Transylvania; Margravine of Moravia; Duchess of Brabant, of Limburg, of Luxemburg, of Guelders, of Württemberg, of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Milan, of Mantua, of Parma, of Piacenza, of Guastalla, of Auschwitz and of Zator; Princess of Swabia; Princely Countess of Habsburg, of Flanders, of Tyrol, of Hainault, of Kyburg, of Gorizia and of Gradisca; Margravine of Burgau, of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Countess of Namur; Lady of the Wendish Mark and of Mechlin; Dowager Duchess of Lorraine and Bar, Dowager Grand Duchess of Tuscany.

Andreas Møller (1684–1762)

Erzherzogin Maria Theresia, (1717-1780), c. 1727

Oil on canvas

94 × 75 cm (37 × 29.5 in)

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Andreas Møller (30 November 1684 – c. 1762) was a Danish portrait painter and pioneer of miniature painting who worked at many European courts.

Born in Copenhagen, Møller was the first Danish painter of international standing. Andreas was the son of Dthe drawing teacher of King Frederick IV. In his youth he spent much time abroad, particularly in London, winning early renown as an accomplished artist.

He e finally left Denmark to work in Vienna, Kassel, Dresden, London, Paris, Florence, Mannheim, Leipzig and Berlin, where are most of his works.

His works include mainly portraits of members of European royal and princely houses, including a 1727 portrait of Maria Theresa (directly above), Holy Roman Empress as a girl aged 11. For the imperial family in Vienna, he made several portraits and miniatures.

Described as a versatile and elegant man, as well as a fine patriot, Møller spent his remaining years in Berlin, where he probably died in 1762. More on Andreas Møller

John Singer Sargent, (1856–1925)

Capri Girl on a Rooftop, c. 1878

Oil on canvas

50.8 × 63.5 cm (20 × 25 in)

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Rosina-Capri (1878), shows a 17-year-Rosina Ferrara dancing the tarentella on a rooftop of (probably) Sargent’s hotel., accompanied by a female musician with a tambourine. More on this work

“At the invitation of Frank Hyde, an English painter working in Capri, Sargent established a studio in the abandoned monastery of Santa Theresa. It was there that Hyde introduced him to a famous local model, Rosina Ferrara, who appears in the present painting. Sargent described her as ‘an Ana Capri girl, a magnificent type, about seventeen years of age, her complexion a rich nut-brown, with a mass of blue-black hair, very beautiful, and of an Arab type’. Rosina became the artist’s favorite model during his sojourn on the island, appearing in a number of other paintings.The present painting is one of two very similar versions of the same subject, showing the young Rosina dancing the tarantella on the rooftop of the Marina Hotel, accompanied by a female musician playing a tambourine.” The other version (below), is a bit more detailed and less atmospheric. More on this painting

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)

Capri Girl on a Rooftop, c. 1878

Detail

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American artist, considered the “leading portrait painter of his generation” for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

John Singer Sargent — American painter

View of Capri, c. 1878

Oil on academy board

10 x 13 1/4 in

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn

Rosina Ferrara (1861–1934) was an Italian girl from the island of Capri, who became the favorite muse of American expatriate artist John Singer Sargent. Captivated by her exotic beauty, a variety of 19th-century artists, including Charles Sprague Pearce, Frank Hyde, and George Randolph Barse made works of art of her that are now owned by private collectors and museums. Ferrara was featured in the 2003 art exhibit “Sargent’s Women” at New York City’s Adelson Galleries, as well as in the eponymous book published that year.

At about the age of thirty, Ferrara married Barse and they moved to the United States, settling in Westchester County, New York. More on Rosina Ferrara

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)

Rosina Ferrara, Head of a Capri Girl, 1878

Oil on cardboard

12 7/8 x 9 7/8 in

Berger Collection

Sargent painted this intimate study of Rosina Ferrara, whom he met on the island of Capri, off the coast of Naples, during the summer of 1878, when he was only twenty-two. Rosina was his most frequent model and muse that summer. He was introduced to her by a fellow artist, Frank Hyde, to whom Sargent inscribed a dedication at the lower right of the picture. More a sketch than a finished painting, it combines careful brushwork in the depiction of Rosina’s delicate features with freely drawn outlines describing her back and upper body. Sargent made numerous sketches of Rosina as well as several finished paintings. More on this work

Annonimus

Portrait of Catherine de Médicis, c. 1556

Oil on Canvas

Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy,

Catherine de’ Medici (13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589), Born to an Italian father and a French mother, both of whom died within weeks of her birth, Catherine of Medici grew to be arguably the most powerful woman in 16th Century Europe. The Medici family were very wealthy, while her French mother was from an exceptionally powerful French noble family. This combination of wealth and status made for a turbulent and often dangerous life for the young Caterina.

In 1533, at the age of fourteen, Catherine married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France. She was Queen consort of France from 1547 to 1559. Throughout his reign, Henry excluded Catherine from participating in state affairs. Throughout his reign, Henry excluded Catherine from participating in state affairs and instead showered favours on his chief mistress, Diane de Poitiers (below), who wielded much influence over him.

François Clouet, (1515–1572)

A Lady in Her Bath, (probably depicting Diane de Poitiers), circa 1571

Oil on oak

Height: 923 mm (36.34 in). Width: 812 mm (31.97 in).

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Henry’s death thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail fifteen-year-old King Francis II. When he died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son King Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life.

Clouet François, (vers 1515-1572)

Catherine de Médicis, reine de France (1519-1589)- c. 1556

Oil on wood

H 0.31 m, W: 0.22 m

Versailles, châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon

François Clouet (c. 1510 – 22 December 1572), was a French Renaissance miniaturist and painter, particularly known for his detailed portraits of the French ruling family. He was born in Tours. François Clouet studied under his father.

In 1541 the king renounces for the benefit of François his father’s estate, which had escheated to the crown as the estate of a foreigner. The younger Clouet is said to have followed his father very closely in his art. Like his father, he held the office of groom of the chamber and painter in ordinary to the king. Many drawings are attributed to this artist, often without perfect certainty.

As the praises of François Clouet were sung by the writers of the day, his name was carefully preserved from reign to reign, and there is an ancient and unbroken tradition in the attribution of many of his pictures. To him are attributed the portraits of Francis I at the Uffizi and at the Louvre, and various drawings relating to them.

He died on 22 December 1572, shortly after the massacre of St Bartholomew. His daughters subsequently became nuns. More on François Clouet

The problems facing the monarchy were complex and daunting but Catherine was able to keep the monarchy and the state institutions functioning even at a minimum level. At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Protestants, or Huguenots, as they became known. Later she resorted, in frustration and anger, to hard-line policies against them. In return, she came to be blamed for the excessive persecutions carried out under her sons’ rule, in which thousands of Huguenots were killed in Paris and throughout France.

Her authority was always limited by the effects of the civil wars. Her policies, therefore, may be seen as desperate measures to keep the Valois monarchy on the throne, and her patronage of the arts as an attempt to glorify a monarchy whose prestige was in steep decline. Without Catherine, it is unlikely that her sons would have remained in power. More on Catherine de’ Medici

Gustave Jean Jacquet, (French, 1846-1909)

Portrait of a lady, said to be Madame la Marquise d’Estrées

Oil on canvas

61 x 51cm (24 x 20 1/16in)

Private collection

Gabrielle d’Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux (French 1573 – 10 April 1599) was a mistress, confidante and adviser of Henry IV of France. She persuaded Henry to renounce Protestantism in favour of Catholicism in 1593. Later she urged French Catholics to accept the Edict of Nantes, which granted certain rights to the Protestants. It was legally impossible for the king to marry her, because he was already married to Margaret of Valois, but he acknowledged Gabrielle as the mother of three of his children, and as “the subject most worthy of our friendship”. More on Gabrielle d’Estrées,

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12 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, with Footnotes. # 24

Pedro Sáenz y Sáenz

Chrysanthemums/ Madame Butterfly, ca. 1900

Oil on canvas

81 x 55 cm

Propiedad de la Excma. Diputación Provincial de Málaga

Madame Butterfly: In 1904, a U.S. naval officer named Pinkerton rents a house on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan, for himself and his soon-to-be wife, “Butterfly”. Her real name is Ciocio-san. She is a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he is marrying for convenience, since he intends to leave her once he finds a proper American wife, and since Japanese divorce laws are very lax. The wedding is to take place at the house. Butterfly had been so excited to marry an American that she had earlier secretly converted to Christianity. After the wedding ceremony, her uninvited uncle, a bonze, who has found out about her conversion, comes to the house, curses her and orders all the guests to leave, which they do while renouncing her. Pinkerton and Butterfly sing a love duet and prepare to spend their first night together.

Three years later, Butterfly is still waiting for Pinkerton to return. The American consul, Sharpless, comes to the house with a letter which he has received from Pinkerton which asks him to break some news to Butterfly: that Pinkerton is coming back to Japan, but Sharpless cannot bring himself to finish it because Butterfly becomes very excited to hear that Pinkerton is coming back. Sharpless asks Butterfly what she would do if Pinkerton were not to return. She then reveals that she gave birth to Pinkerton’s son after he had left and asks Sharpless to tell him.

The next morning Sharpless and Pinkerton arrive at the house, along with Pinkerton’s new American wife, Kate. They have come because Kate has agreed to raise the child. But, as Pinkerton sees how Butterfly has decorated the house for his return, he realizes he has made a huge mistake. He admits that he is a coward and cannot face her, leaving Suzuki, Sharpless and Kate to break the news to Butterfly. Agreeing to give up her child if Pinkerton comes himself to see her, she then prays to statues of her ancestral gods, says goodbye to her son, and blindfolds him. She places a small American flag in his hands and goes behind a screen, cutting her throat with her father’s hara-kiri knife. Pinkerton rushes in, but he is too late, and Butterfly dies. More on Madame Butterfly

Pedro Saenz Saenz ( Malaga , 14 as October as 1863 – Malaga , October as January as 1927 ) was a Raphaelite painter, belonging to the Malaga school of painting . Disciple of Bernardo Ferrándiz , he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando .

He completed his training in Rome in 1888, where he met other Spanish painters such as Simonet , Sorolla or Viniegra . At this stage he is also influenced by Art Nouveau and Catalan modernism .

His work can be considered academic , but has a predilection for the themes of romantic symbolism, as in The grave of the poet or Stella Matutina , both at the Museum of Málaga and both made him a medal in 1901.

Among his works predominate portraits and female nudes, luminous and detailed, and some portraits, such as those of the Town Hall of Malaga . Some other of his paintings to review are: The amateur , Carlota or the Portrait of the Marchioness of Loring. More Pedro Saenz Saenz

ANDY WARHOL, (1928-1987)

Hélène Rochas, c. 1974

Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas

101.6 x 101.6 cm. (40 x 40 in.)

Private collection

Helene Rochas (1921 – 2011). Nelly Brignole studied dance and acting before meeting at 19, the fashion designer Marcel Rochas whom she soon married and became Hélène – much more elegant than Nelly. Beautiful and graceful, she perfectly embodied the Femme Rochas, she was her husband’s ideal muse and model and had to renounce to her acting career even though she was offered a role in Jacques Becker’s Golden Helmet. When her husband died in 1955, she proved she was not only a pretty face and took over his perfume brand and managed to make it become an international flourishing company. His death also helped ‘La Belle Hélène’ grow free of her Pygmalion’s influence and she could finally decide what to wear and developed her own artistic taste – more modernist and subtle. The friend and inspiration of many fashion designers such as Hubert de Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent, she imprinted contemporary art’s mythology with the portrait Andy Warhol depicted of her in 1975. More Helene Rochas

Andy Warhol (born Andrew Warhola; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertising that flourished by the 1960s.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Warhol initially pursued a successful career as a commercial illustrator. After exhibiting his work in several galleries in the late 1950s, he began to receive recognition as an influential and controversial artist.

Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. The Andy Warhol Museum in his native city of Pittsburgh, which holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives. Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable. More on Andy Warhol

Anders Zorn, Swedish, 1860-1920

Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice, c. 1894

Oil on canvas

91 x 66 cm (35 13/16 x 26 in.)

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

While visiting the Gardners in Boston in February 1894, Anders Zorn made an etching of Mrs. Gardner, which neither of them considered to be a complete success. Later that year Zorn and his wife visited the Gardners in Venice, staying for several weeks as their guests in the Palazzo Barbaro. He attempted again to make a portrait of Mrs. Gardner, but continued to struggle with the task. One evening, Mrs. Gardner stepped out into the balcony to see what was happening outside, and as she came back into the drawing-room, pushing the French windows open, Zorn exclaimed (according to Morris Carter): “Stay just as you are! That is the way I want to paint you.” He went instantly for his materials, and then and there the portrait was begun. More on this painting

Isabella Stewart Gardner (April 14, 1840 – July 17, 1924) was a leading American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. She founded the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Isabella Stewart Gardner had a zest for life, an energetic intellectual curiosity and a love of travel[citation needed]. She was a friend of noted artists and writers of the day, including John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Dennis Miller Bunker, Anders Zorn, Henry James, Okakura Kakuzo and Francis Marion Crawford.

Gardner created much fodder for the gossip columns of the day with her reputation for stylish tastes and unconventional behavior. The Boston society pages called her by many names, including “Belle,” “Donna Isabella,” “Isabella of Boston,” and “Mrs. Jack”. Her surprising appearance at a 1912 concert (at what was then a very formal Boston Symphony Orchestra) wearing a white headband emblazoned with “Oh, you Red Sox” was reported at the time to have “almost caused a panic”, and remains still in Boston one of the most talked about of her eccentricities. More on Isabella Stewart Gardner

Anders Leonard Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920) was one of Sweden’s foremost artists. He obtained international success as a painter, sculptor and etcher. From 1875 to 1880 Zorn studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm. Members of Stockholm society approached him with commissions. Zorn traveled extensively to London, Paris, the Balkans, Spain, Italy and the United States, becoming an international success as one of the most acclaimed painters of his era. It was primarily his skill as a portrait painter that gained Zorn international acclaim based principally upon his incisive ability to depict the individual character of his model. At 29, he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur at the Exposition Universelle 1889 Paris World Fair. More Anders Leonard Zorn

Kerri-Jane Evans, South Africa, born in 1967.

Winter Portrait

Oil on board

60 x 60 cm

Everard-Read Gallery, Johannesburg

In this age of cybernetics, cynicism and simulacra, there exists the misconception that art should say big things about big issues. It is a discourse driven by ‘the idea’ and lubricated by the nutrients of parody, commentary and critique. The paintings of Kerri-Jane Evans move against this flow. And the term ‘flux’ is central to her vision because, like the constant shifts of light and colour that determine and regulate the cycles of day and night, colour and brushstroke in her paintings ebb and flow, and her forms seem to morph from solid and substantial to the ethereal. It is as though Evans is reluctant to impose too much authority or ownership on the paintings.

She never completes one painting before starting another. She works – or rather reworks – on all simultaneously. Each work in inherently, deliberately incomplete. In places her mark is stylized and linear, only to be subverted by her loose brushstrokes and unpredictable palette. For Evans the greatest challenge is to accept the paradox of incomplete endings. “The image never reaches completion; rather it stops at the point where it is taken away, almost like a small death.” More on Kerri Evans

Jeremy Mann, b. 1979

The Muse, c. 2012

Oil on panel

48 x 48 in.

Private collection

“A muse is anything but a paid model. The muse in her purest aspect is the feminine part of the male artist, with which he must have intercourse if he is to bring into being a new work. She is the anima to his animus, the yin to his yang, except that, in a reversal of gender roles, she penetrates or inspires him and he gestates and brings forth, from the womb of the mind. Painters don’t claim muses until painting begins to take itself as seriously as poetry. Andrea del Sarto, an Italian painter born in 1486, was famously married to his muse, Lucrezia, whose features so closely approached his ideal that he made all his female figures in her likeness, at a time when most other painters were building their beautiful female images on the well-loved bodies of boys. Since then, artists as different as Rubens, Bonnard, Renoir, Charles Blackman and Brett Whiteley have painted their wives over and over again, but their wives were their subjects rather than their muses.” More on a muse

Jeremy Mann (American, b.1979) is a painter best known for his moody, dark cityscapes. Mann graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Fine Art painting, and later attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Working on wood panels, Mann employs various techniques when creating his pieces, including staining the surface, wiping away paint with solvents, and applying broad marks with an ink brayer. Mann uses vivid, atmospheric colors, and is often inspired by the city of San Francisco, where he currently lives and works. In addition to his urban scenes, he also paints still lifes, and portraits of young women in his characteristically impressionistic manner. He has exhibited at venues around San Francisco and throughout the United States, at galleries such as John Pence Gallery, the Studio Gallery, Christopher Hill Gallery, and Principle Gallery, among others. More on Jeremy Mann

John Singer Sargent, American, 1856-1925

Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner, c. 1888

Oil on canvas

190 x 80 cm

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Mrs. Gardner sat for Sargent during his visit to Boston in January 1888. He was paid $3000 for the portrait, which was exhibited to great acclaim at Boston’s St. Botolph Club. The work also inspired gossip and legend: someone jokingly titled it “Woman: An Enigma,” while others believed that the sensuous display of flesh deliberately echoed the scandal recently created by Sargent’s Madame X. Mrs. Gardner herself said that she rejected eight renderings of the face until she was satisfied. Jack Gardner seems to have asked his wife not to publicly show the portrait again while he was alive, and indeed the portrait was placed in the Gothic Room, which remained private until Mrs. Gardner’s death. More on this painting

John Singer Sargent, American painter

Caterina Vlasto, (or Catherine), c. 1897

Oil on canvas

148.6 x 85.4 cm (58 1/2 x 33 5/8 in.)

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Caterina (or Catherine) Vlasto, born. 30 July 1875 Londen, UK, the eighth of nine children and died 3 June 1899 London, UK. She was the second youngest of her siblings.

When Sargent painted her she would have been 22. The piano is identified (by Ormond and Kilmurray) as the Bechstein which was in Sargent’s Tite Street studio.

The ancestors of the Vlasto family have been traced back to the island of Chios (Greece) and Constantinople (Turkey) of the 15th century. They were a noble family but were scatted in the 16th century to escape persecution from the Turks. By the 1800’s they were all over Europe. Although Catherine was born in London, her father — Alexandre (Antoine) Vlasto — was born in Trieste, Italy (1833), and his father was born on the Greek island of Chios (1804). More Caterina Vlasto

Georges Moreau de Tours, (1848 – 1901, French)

Blanche de Castille, 19e siècle

Nevers ; musée de la Faïence

Blanche of Castile (Spanish: Blanca; 4 March 1188 – 27 November 1252) was Queen of France by marriage to Louis VIII. She acted as regent twice during the reign of her son, Louis IX: during his minority from 1226 until 1234, and during his absence from 1248 until 1252. She was born in Palencia, Spain, 1188, the third daughter of Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, and Eleanor of England. Eleanor was a daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Louis VIII and Blanche were crowned on August 6. Upon Louis’ death in November 1226 he left Blanche, by then 38, regent and guardian of his children. Of her children Louis was the heir — afterwards the sainted Louis IX — he was twelve years old. She had him crowned within a month of his father’s death in Reims and forced reluctant barons to swear allegiance to him. St. Louis owed his realm to his mother and remained under her influence for the duration of her life.

In 1248, Blanche again became regent, during Louis IX’s absence on the Crusade, a project which she had strongly opposed. In the disasters which followed she maintained peace, while draining the land of men and money to aid her son in the East. She fell ill at Melun in November 1252, and was taken to Paris, but lived only a few days. More on Blanche of Castile

Georges Moreau de Tours (4 April 1848, Ivry-sur-Seine – 12 January 1901, Bois-le-Roi) was a French history painter and illustrator. In 1865 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Alexandre Cabanel. He was a regular exhibitor at the Salon from that time until 1896. In addition to his canvas paintings, he produced three scenes for the wedding chamber at the Town Hall in the Second Arrondissement. More on Georges Moreau de Tours

Circle of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Bruges 1561-1635 London)

Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Elizabeth Throckmorton

Oil on panel, trimmed

108.7 x 78.4cm (42 13/16 x 30 7/8in)

Private collection

Elizabeth “Bess” Raleigh, (16 April 1565 – circa 1647), née Throckmorton, was Sir Walter Raleigh’s wife and a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Their secret marriage precipitated a long period of royal disfavour for both her and her husband.

Queen Elizabeth first became aware in May 1592 of the secret marriage. She first placed Bess and Raleigh under house arrest, then sent them to the Tower of London, in June 1592. Raleigh was released from the Tower in August 1592 and Bess in December 1592. Elizabeth expected the couple to sue for pardon, but they refused to, and Raleigh remained out of favour for five years.

The couple remained devoted to each other. Due to Raleigh’s frequent absences, whether on expeditions, diplomatic duties, or in prison, Bess had to shoulder an unusual level of responsibility for a woman of her time.

The couple’s third son was born in January 1605, by which time Raleigh was a prisoner in the Tower of London. He was christened within the walls of the Tower in the church of St Peter ad Vincula. After Raleigh’s execution in 1618, Bess worked tirelessly to re-establish her late husband’s reputation and, in 1628, saw a Bill of Restitution restore the Raleigh name ‘in blood’, which allowed her one surviving son to inherit.

Bess is said to have had her husband’s head embalmed and to have carried it around with her for the rest of her life. An account from 1740 claims that, after Bess’ death, Raleigh’s head was returned to his tomb in St Margaret’s, Westminster. More on Elizabeth “Bess” Raleigh

Jeanne Fourquet Jeanne Laisné Jeanne Hachette Résistance Beauvais

Watercolor engraving engraved in 1841

26 x 17 cm

Original document of the XIXth century

Jeanne Laisné (born 1456) was a French heroine known as Jeanne Fourquet and nicknamed Jeanne Hachette (‘Joan the Hatchet’). She was the daughter of a peasant.

She is currently known for an act of heroism on 27 June 1472, when she prevented the capture of Beauvais by the troops of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The town was defended by only 300 men-at-arms, commanded by Louis de Balagny.

Illustration H. Grobet

Jeanne Hachette, heroine of the Siege of Beauvais, 1472

History of France

The Burgundians were making an assault, and one of their number had actually planted a flag upon the battlements, when Jeanne, axe in hand, flung herself upon him, hurled him into the moat, tore down the flag, and revived the drooping courage of the garrison. In gratitude for this heroic deed, Louis XI instituted a procession in Beauvais called the “Procession of the Assault”, and married Jeanne to her chosen lover Colin Pilon, loading them with favours. A statue of her was unveiled on July 6th, 1851. More on Jeanne Laisné

Doreen Southwood, b. 1997

The Dancer, 1997

Bronze, steel, enamel paint and fabric

70 x 45 x 50 cm each

Private collection

Doreen Southwood (born 1974) is a South African artist, designer, and boutique owner based in Cape Town. She works in a wide variety of media in her artwork, producing sculptures, objects, prints, film, and more, which she often bases on personal experiences and self exploration. Her Afrikaans upbringing inform much of her work.

In 2003, Southwood was named the overall winner of the Brett Kebble Art Awards for her painted bronze sculpture, “The Swimmer.” (Below) The sculpture featured a young woman gazing blankly ahead as she stands on the end of a diving board.

In 2001 she opened a shop in Cape Town called Mememe, which seeks to make the work of African fashion designers available to the public. Southwood’s own designs have been featured in fashion weeks in Johannesburg and Cape Town and are known for embodying features of the feminine and nostalgic. More on Doreen Southwood

Doreen Southwood, b. 1997

The Swimmer, 2003

Painted bronze

175 cm x 42.3cm x 232 cm

Private collection

Acknowledgement: Bonhams and others

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