Edgar Degas - Biography Of The French Artist Renowned For His Figure Painting
June 5, 2008
The career of Edgar Degas was a long one - about 60 years out of his total 83. And his style, unlike that of most famous artists who worked into their old age, never ceased developing, always seeking out new means of expression and technique.The art dealer Ambroise Vollard one day asked him why he had never married, to which he replied that he would live in constant fear that, whenever he completed a new painting, he would hear my wife say ‘That’s so pretty what you’ve done there!’. In fact, despite today’s almost universal appreciation and popularity of his images,... Read more »
Klimt: video on ‘The Kiss’ & his love for Women
April 19, 2008
This is a short informational video lecture about the classic impressionist painting ‘The Kiss’ by Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918). The video pulls together strands of his background, his passion, his travels, and shows you how these inputs translate into his painting. It comes as no surprise that Klimt’s favorite subject to paint was women. As a prominent member of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement, Gustav Klimt made major artistic contributions in paintings, murals, sketches and objects d’art. Many of his works can be found in the Vienna Secession... Read more »
Analysis of The Sunflowers - Vincent van Gogh
March 14, 2008
Vincent’s Sunflowers “The sunflower is mine in a way.” –Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” are among his most famous paintings, but few people realize he did many sunflower pictures, not just the most famous “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” and “Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers.” These were canvases he made to decorate the Yellow House in Arles in anticipation of his friend Paul Gauguin’s visit, and in the hope that other artists would follow and form a Utopian art community. Some of Vincent’s sunflower paintings are all but... Read more »
The Life and Art of Paul Gauguin
March 2, 2008
French painter Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was born in Paris in 1848 and then moved to Peru with his family when he was only three years old. Growing up in Peru provided much excitement and had a great impact on him as little boy. When he turned 17, he joined the Navy and went to sea for about six years. He returned to France after his voyages, more mature and filled with impressions of strange and beautiful lands. Read More →
The French Art Revolution
February 25, 2008
By Marcus Smith In the middle of the 19th century fine paintings of noblemen and dramatic historical events were bought by the wealthy to decorate their homes and demonstrate how rich and important they were. Paintings were all done in a certain, formal way - trying to paint the subject as accurately and in as much detail as possible. But a revolution was coming. This classical form of art had become boring, and was never seen by 99% of the population. It lacked excitement and interest. Three important developments took place to turn this situation around. The first break with tradition was due... Read more »
Edgar Degas - Biography of the French Artist Renowned for his Figure Painting
January 9, 2008
The career of Edgar Degas was a long one - about 60 years out of his total 83. And his style, unlike that of most famous artists who worked into their old age, never ceased developing, always seeking out new means of expression and technique.The art dealer Ambroise Vollard one day asked him why he had never married, to which he replied that he would live in constant fear that, whenever he completed a new painting, he would hear my wife say ‘That’s so pretty what you’ve done there!’. In fact, despite today’s almost universal appreciation and popularity of his images,... Read more »
French Impressionism In The Heart Of Paris
January 1, 2008
By M. Davies It’s safe to say that for many of us, when we think of the centuries of art that have served to fix Paris as the cultural capital of Europe, what comes to mind above all else, perhaps even the soaring towers of Notre Dame and the Place de la Concorde’s gold capped obelisk, is the work of the French Impressionists. Manifesting a sense of urban bustle that is unexpectedly punctuated by moments of aesthetic sublimity, it is no wonder that these painters of light have come to define a collective and indelible visual representation of the City of Light’s true vibrancy. The term impressionism... Read more »
