Art History Archives – Page 15 of 16

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts V

July 9, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. Antoni Gaudi was hit by a tram in 1926 and he looked so ragged and poor, that nobody recognized him or helped him to a hospital. Gaudi was eventually taken to a hospital for the poor, where he wasn’t recognized until his friends found him there the following day. They wanted to move him but Gaudi refused, insisting that, “I belong here amongst the poor.” He died of his injuries three days later.

2. For about as long as humans have created works of art, they’ve also left behind handprints. People began stenciling, painting, or chipping imprints of their hands onto rock walls at least 30,000 years ago. Analyzing hand stencils dating back some 28,000 years in Spain’s El Castillo cave, archaeologist Dean Snow concluded many of El Castillo’s artists had been female. His findings suggest women’s role in prehistoric culture may have been greater than previously thought.

3. The first ready mixed paint was patented by D.R. Averill of Ohio in 1867, but it never caught on. The Sherwin-Williams company spent ten years perfecting the formula where fine paint particles would stay suspended in Linseed oil. In 1880 they succeeded in developing a formula. It was then that emulsions based on similar formulae, were produced and marketed as ‘oil bound distempers’. By 1880 the new paints were readily available in tins, in a wide range of colours, and came to be exported all over the World.

4. The meaning of the word “cartoon” (from the Italian “cartone” and Dutch word “karton”, meaning strong, heavy paper or pasteboard) has evolved over time. Its original use was in fine art, and meant a full size preparatory drawing for a piece of art such as a painting, stained glass, or tapestry. Cartoons were typically used in the production of frescoes, to accurately link the component parts of the composition.

5. Art crime is the third highest grossing criminal enterprise worldwide, behind only drugs and arms trafficking. It brings in $2-6 billion per year, most of which, since the 1960s is perpetrated either by, or on behalf of, international organized crime syndicates. They either use stolen art for resale, or to barter on the black market for an equivalent value of goods or services. Individually instigated art crimes are rare, and art crimes perpetrated for private collectors are rarest of all.

Sources: Barcelona Life, National Geographic, Brenda Semanick, Wikipedia, ARCA

Théophile Steinlen: Le Chat Noir

July 5, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

I was thinking about Paris today and it brought to mind Théophile Steinle’s, Le Chat Noir – a poster that I’m particularly fond of. French for “The Black Cat”, Le Chat Noir was a 19th-century cabaret in the Montmartre district of Paris. It was opened on 18 November 1881 by the artist Rodolphe Salis, and closed in 1897.

Enjoy your Sunday image everyone!

John Trumbull: American Revolution

July 4, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Happy Fourth of July to all my American friends out there! Today, I thought it appropriate to write a post on a prominent artist during the time of the American Revolution.

One of the first important American painters, John Trumbull was born on June 6, 1756, in Lebanon, Connecticut. The son of a Governor, Trumbull aspired to be a painter against his father’s wishes and was sent instead to study at Harvard University. Trumbull graduated from Harvard in 1773 and in 1775 he enlisted as an aide-de-camp to George Washington, where he drew strategic maps for the Revolutionary War.

In 1777, Trumbull resigned to pursue his art studies in Boston. In 1780 he traveled to London and studied under Benjamin West, who encouraged him to paint images of the War of Independence and miniature portraits. After completing several more paintings in London, Trumbull returned home in 1789 to paint portraits of American generals and prominent figures.

Trumbull traveled to London again in 1794 where he married Sarah Hope Harvey in 1800. They returned to New York in 1804 but then moved back to England in 1808 where they remained until 1816. Trumbull was president of the American Academy of the Fine Arts from 1816 to 1825.

Later in life, Trumbull agreed to sell his paintings to Yale University in exchange for a lifetime annuity. He eventually settled in New Haven and published his well-known autobiography two years before his death on November 10, 1843. He was originally buried (with his wife) beneath the Yale University Art Gallery at the foot of his portrait of George Washington. In 1867, his collection and remains were moved to Street Hall. Part of the inscription on his tomb read “To his Country he gave his SWORD and his PENCIL”.

Sources: Currier Museum, Wikipedia, National Gallery of Art

Canada Day: The Group of Seven

July 1, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Happy Canada Day all you fellow Canucks and fans of Canada out there! I thought what better day to post about some of the most well known artists in Canadian history – The Group of Seven.

Most famous for its paintings of the Canadian landscape, The Group of Seven began in Toronto in the 1910s and initially included: Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald, Frank Johnston, F.H. Varley, and Frank Carmichael. The paintings of friend Tom Thomson, who died before the Group of Seven was formed, were often included in their exhibitions as well. Emily Carr was also closely associated with the group, but was never officially a member.

The members were all professional artists, who met through friends or work (Grip Ltd design firm). Through conversations, sketching trips, and meetings at local art clubs, they discovered that they shared a dissatisfaction with the Canadian art scene at the time.

Members of the group were searching for a new way of painting that would allow them to express what they believed were the unique qualities of Canada. Influenced by Post Impressionism, the artists rebelled against the limitations of 19th-century naturalism and Impressionism. They shifted emphasis away from imitation towards the expression of their feelings in their paintings, creating bold and vividly-colored canvases.

In 1920, they held their first exhibition as the Group of Seven and during their day, they dominated the Canadian art scene. However, The Group of Seven did not exist for very long. F.H. Varley left to pursue his own interests in 1926. He was replaced by water-colourist, A.J. Casson. In the early 1930s, two other artists, Edwin Holgate and L.L. FitzGerald, joined the Group, bringing its membership to nine.

The Group’s influence was widespread and by the end of 1931, they no longer found it necessary to continue as a group. As well, the death of J.E.H. MacDonald contributed to the dissolution. At their eighth exhibition in December of 1931, they announced that they had disbanded and that a new association of painters would be formed, known as the Canadian Group of Painters.

I remember learning about the Group of Seven in elementary school and making what seemed like an incredibly long trek up to Kleinburg, Ontario to see the works at the McMichael Gallery. I also remember liking Lawren Harris’s works most of all, though at the time, I didn’t know why. Today, he is still my favourite of the group. I love his vivid colours and the spiritual element of the paintings. As well, my tendency to like abstract art, draws me to his work more than the others.

If you’ve never visited the McMichael Gallery, I highly recommend it. It’s actually a short trip (from Toronto), they exhibit 100% Canadian art, and it is located on 100 beautiful acres of wooded conservation land overlooking the East Humber River Valley. I can’t wait to go back next time I’m in town.

Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Mount Alliston University Images: Courtesy of Art History Archive

M.C. Escher: 1898-1972

June 17, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Maurits Cornelis Escher, best known for his mathematically inspired prints, was born on June 17, 1898 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Escher spent much of his childhood in Arnhem where he attended school. Though he did well at drawing, Escher did not excel in other subjects and received poor grades. From 1919 – 1922, Escher attended the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem where he initially studied architecture but shifted to drawing and printmaking.

After finishing school, Escher traveled through Italy, where he met Jetta Umiker, whom he married in 1924. For the next 11 years, Escher traveled throughout Italy, sketching for the prints he would make back in Rome. The couple remained in Rome until 1935 when growing political turmoil (under Mussolini) prompted them to move first to Switzerland and then to Ukkel, a small town near Brussels, Belgium. In 1941, as German troops occupied Brussels, they moved once again to Baarn, Netherlands, where Escher lived until 1970.

During his lifetime, Escher created 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches. His work portrays mathematical relationships among shapes, figures and space and many of his drawings are composed around interlocking figures (tessellations) and impossible objects. Escher used vivid contrasts of black and white to enhance different dimensions and integrated into his works were mirror images of cones, spheres, cubes, rings and spirals.

By the 1950s Escher had become highly popular and gave lectures around the world. He received the Order of Oranje Nassau in 1955. In 1958 he was featured in Time magazine and had his first important exhibition in Washington. Escher’s work continued to be popular and he traveled several times to North America for lectures and to see his son George who was living in Canada. In 1970 he moved to Rosa-Spier house in Laren, Netherlands, a retirement home for artists, where he died on March 27, 1972.

I remember as a teenager being amazed by M.C. Escher after receiving a book of his drawings. At that time, I was more interested in how cool the optical illusions were. These days, my appreciation for his work goes deeper than that. I am in awe of the skill and imagination it would have taken to create the drawings. His ability to create works of art that master perspective and dimension, reality and fantasy, make him (in my view) one of the greatest graphic artists of all time.

For more information on M.C. Escher visit MCEscher.com or for a more in depth biography visit The Escher Pages.

Sources: MCEscher.com, Erols.com, Wikipedia

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts II

May 30, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream was vandalized with lightly scrawled graffiti that reads in Norwegian, “Could only have been painted by a madman.” It is unclear whether it was Munch himself or a visitor at an early exhibit that wrote the words.

2. Vincent van Gogh was not a successful artist during his lifetime and sold only one painting while he was alive. “The Red Vineyard” was sold to impressionist painter Anna Boch for 400 francs a few months before his death.

3. The pencil is a descendant of the ancient Romans who wrote with a thin metal rod called a stylus, which produced a light marking. Other early styluses were made of lead. The core of a pencil is still called the “lead” though it is now made from graphite.

4. Salvador Dali painted “The Persistence of Memory” in 1931 after seeing some Camembert cheese melting in the heat on a hot summer day. Later that night, he dreamt of clocks melting on a landscape. The small work (24 cm x 33 cm) is one of the most famous of the surrealist paintings.

5. The term ‘Art Nouveau’ is French for ‘new art’. The name originated from the Maison de l’Art Nouveau (House of New Art), a gallery opened in 1895 by German art dealer Samuel Bing in Paris. It is also known as Jugendstil – German for ‘youth style’, and named after the magazine Jugend that was founded in 1896 by Georg Hirth.

Sources: NY Times, Van Gogh Gallery, Pencils.com, MOMA, Wikipedia

Art-E-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts

May 23, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

1. The term Impressionism originated from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant). Critic Louis Leroy coined the term in a satiric review published in Le Charivari in the 1860s.

2. The colour yellow, when seen from a distance or when used with a dark background, is easiest to see, but when used alone, it is the most difficult color for eyes to process. Research has shown that people lose their tempers more often in yellow rooms and infants cry more when surrounded by yellow.

3. In 1961, Matisse’s Le Bateau (The Boat) hung upside-down for 47 days in the Museum of Modern Art, New York – none of the 116,000 visitors had noticed, including the art dealer Pierre Matisse, the artist’s own son.

4. The first permanent colour photograph, was conceived by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861. Thomas Sutton, inventor of the single-lens reflex camera, photographed a tartan ribbon three times, each time with a different colour filter over the lens.

5. The Louvre was originally constructed as the fortress of Philippe Auguste in 1190. Charles V oversaw the first modernisation process in the 1300s which resulted in what was to be the beginnings of one of the largest palace complexes in the world. Located on the right bank of the Seine River in Paris, the Louvre is the most visited Museum in the world.

Henri Rousseau: The Dream

May 21, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Born in Laval, France on May 21, 1844, Henri Rousseau is considered to be the archetype of the self-taught artist and one of the first of the Naïve or Primitive artists. Following high school, Rousseau worked for a lawyer and studied law but joined the army in 1863 after committing a minor perjury. In 1868, Rousseau moved to Paris after the death of his father and took a job with the Paris government as a custom’s official.

Rousseau took his own art very seriously, however, many critics at the time often ridiculed his work as childish and untutored. Today, Rousseau is celebrated for his dream like jungle paintings with their bold and primitive style, incredibly detailed with lush animal and plant life. His exotic scenes did not originate from any worldly travels. In fact, Rousseau never left France. His paintings were based on images adapted from printed sources, and from visits to the Paris Natural History Museum, and the Jardin des Plantes, a botanical garden and zoo.

Rousseau retired from work in 1893 to devote more time to painting and supplemented his income with a variety of part-time jobs including teaching painting and drawing. In the same year, he moved to Montparnasse, a centre for artistic activity in Paris.

As his career progressed, Rousseau exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1905 where he met Avant-Garde artists such as Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay, Picasso and others. Unfortunately, on September 2, 1910, as his work was beginning to gain recognition, Rousseau, died after suffering from an infected leg wound.

It is a shame that the conservative critics of Rousseau’s time could not see the value in his works. At least he had the Society of Independent Artists who held exhibitions that Rousseau could take part in. Today, his paintings are considered genius to some and influential to several generations of artists and movements of the 20th century. I have seen “The Dream” (shown below) at the MOMA in New York. Its richness and depth of colour and expression drew me into Rousseau’s “Dream,” and kept me there for quite some time.

Sources: MOMA, New York Times, Wikipedia

Happy Birthday Salvador Dali!

May 11, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Salvador Dali

One of the first times I was ever moved by a piece of artwork was as a teenager when I saw a print of “The Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali. He has been a favourite of mine ever since. Dali was one of the most prolific, imaginative, and flamboyant artists of the 20th century.

Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain near the French border. He was a student at the San Fernando Academy of fine Arts in Madrid but was expelled for encouraging students to rebel and for withdrawing from an exam because he said the teachers were not qualified to judge his work.

Dali quickly gained recognition in 1925 after a solo show in Barcelona, in 1928 when his works were shown at the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh, and in 1929 when he held his first solo show in Paris. It was at this time that Dali joined the ranks of the surrealists and met his future wife, Gala Eluard.

Dali painted “The Persistence of Memory” in 1931 after seeing some Camembert cheese melting in the heat on a hot summer day. Later that night, he dreamt of clocks melting on a landscape. The small work (24 cm x 33 cm) is one of the most famous of the surrealist paintings. During this time and inspired by Freud, Dali used his “paranoiac-critical method” to create his art. The painting has been owned by the MOMA in New York since 1934.

During the 1930s Dalí’s political indifference alienated him from the other Surrealists who were mainly leftist. In 1937 he painted an unusual series of Adolf Hitler that were considered to be in bad taste and partly led to his expulsion from the movement.

Dalí and Gala spent World War II in the United States, where he became a popular figure. He painted portraits, dressed shop windows, created a dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Spellbound” and created a cartoon, “Destino”, with Walt Disney.

Dalí returned to Europe in 1948 and was completely disconnected from Surrealism. He painted mainly in Spain, with an eclectic approach focusing on history, religion, and science. Dali worked in numerous mediums, including oils, watercolors, drawings, graphics, sculptures, films, photographs, performance pieces, jewels and much more.

Dali was greatly affected by the death of his wife Gala in 1982. After that time, he lost much of his passion for life, his health began to fail, and he painted very little. On January 23, 1989, at the age of 84, Salvador Dali died from heart failure with respiratory complications. He is buried in his Theater Museum in Figueres.

Sources: MOMA, Salvador Dali Museum, Wikipedia

Spring – Armand Guillaumin

April 23, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Impressionist painter (Jean-Baptiste) Armand Guillaumin was born on February 16, 1841 in Paris, France. Guillaumin studied at the Academie Suisse in 1861 where he formed life-long friendships with Cezanne and Pissarro. Guillaumin exhibited at the Salon des Refusés in 1863 and later became a friend of Vincent van Gogh, meeting him through his brother Theo, who sold some of his works.

Guillaumin had no private income and had to perform menial work to support his vocation. In 1891, he won in the National Lottery, which enabled him to concentrate on his painting and to travel throughout France and to Holland.

Guillaumin is remembered for his landscapes of Paris, the Creuse département, and Les Adrets-de-l’Estérel in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of France. He never achieved the fame of his contemporaries, however, critics agree that he and select others (Monet, Pissaro, and Morisot) represent true classic impressionism.

Armand Guillaumin died on June 26, 1927 in Orly, Val-de-Marne just south of Paris. His works can be seen at major museums around the world. To view his complete works visit the Armand Guillaumin Virtual Gallery.

Sources: Impressioniste.net, Wikipedia, ArmandGuillaumin.org, getty.edu