so said cezanne

 Painting from nature is not copying the object, it is realizing sensations. 

Pictured:  Le Lac d'Annecy -- Paul Cézanne, 1896 (Courtauld Gallery, London)

a bit of ruskin

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. 

This observation by British critic, author, poet and artist John Ruskin seems rather positive and pithy, but he obviously never lived in Chicago, particularly during this past "zero is warm" Polar Vortex winter.  Or in various other extreme arctic/desert climes. Weather forecasting aside, as a creative and critical being, Ruskin was diverse and prolific.  From Modern Painters to the autobiographical Praeterita, he clearly was a man who let little thought or time go to waste.  And then there was that whole nasty spat with Whistler.

Ruskin's life -- particularly the eventual love triangle of his ambiguous marriage  -- continues to inspire other artistic efforts, including two films made almost 100 years apart (1912's The Love of John Ruskin and 2013's Effie).  Love him or hate him, he's kept some people thinking since he first formed a cohesive opinion, which probably involved critiquing the arrangement of wooden alphabet blocks in his nursery.

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. -- John Ruskin

(Pictured:  Little Ruskin by John Nortcote, 1822; Ruskin by John Everett Millais, circa 1853; Self-Portrait from 1875; Ruskin by W.G. Collingwood, 1897)

will he was

Today brings the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare, or rather the day that Shakespeare's birthday is celebrated.  Actual birth records weren't always clear back then, but since Shakespeare was baptized around this time and died on April 23rd, the same date is used to mark his birth.  Nonetheless, Shakespeare was of course a poet, iconic playwright, perhaps a Taurus, and the man responsible for keeping generations of actors busy portraying characters in his major works, as well as portraying Shakespeare himself.   (Most of the actors have been British but then again, Shakespeare was a fellow Englishman.)

Shakespeare's plays have also inspired artists to paint scenes from his plays, several of which are featured below.  And personally my favorite Shakespearean passage is from Macbeth and found to be nightly true:  "Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care. The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath. Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast."

Pictured after Shakespeare:  Portia by John Everett Millais, 1886; The First Madness of Ophelia by D.G. Rossetti, 1864; Othello and Desdemona by Antonio Muñoz Degraín, 1880; and Miranda - The Tempest by John William Waterhouse, 1916

painting of the month

Still Life with Fruit and Flowers (detail) -- David de Koninck, late 17th century

beaux color

 

Nothing might seem more obvious than color, but one cannot reach

it as a subject without being led through interminable corridors of existence.  

-- Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942)

Pictured:  Man with the Cat (Henry Sturgis Drinker) -- Cecilia Beaux, 1898

painting of the month

 Early Spring -- Tom Thomson (1917)

[Wikimedia Commons/Art Gallery of Ontario ]

all in the family

 

Today would have been the birthday of Irish artist John Butler Yeats (1839-1922), who with his wife Susan brought to life six children, one of whom just happened to be poet William Butler Yeats and another the painter Jack B. Yeats.  The passion and words of William Butler Yeats sparked the Irish Literary Revival, and W.B. Yeats also was the first Irishman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.  Jack B. Yeats developed a distinct artistic style during his long career while remaining strongly attached to his native Ireland.  John Butler Yeats' daughters Lily and Lolly were creative forces as well, Lily for needlework and textiles, and Lolly for art education, bookbinding and printing.  So without accusations of bosh or blarney, it can be claimed that the Yeats family truly did have quite an impact on Ireland's cultural heritage.

That said, a Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all....

I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eyes
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.

William Butler Yeats, "The Coat" (1914)

Pictured:  Portrait of William Butler Yeats -- John Butler Yeats, 1900 and The Swinford Funeral -- Jack B. Yeats, 1918 (The Walters Art Museum)