painting of the month

Seaside at Agay -- Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927)

eight by the eight on the eighth

They weren't the only artists to depict scenes of winter, but The Eight a/k/a The Ashcan School did seem to have a particularly fine ability to capture snowscapes and cities in the early 20th century.  As evidenced by these eight works, although I included George Bellows (an Eight associate and student of Henri but not an official member) because I wasn't able to find a snowy painting by Arthur B. Davies.  Davies was reportedly one of the least ashcanny of The Eight, however, and seemed to favor more lyrical inspiration vs urban realism.

 

 
Pictured:  Snow in New York -- Robert Henri (1912); Backyards, Greenwich Village -- John Sloan (1914); Cross Streets of New York -- Everett Shinn (1899); Old Grand Central -- Ernest Lawson; Sledding, Central Park -- William Glackens (1912); Winter Night, New York -- George Luks (1930); Snow in April -- Maurice Prendergast (1907); Blue Snow, The Battery -- George Bellows (1910)

painting of the month

 

Cherries in a Silver Compote with Crabapples -- Fede Galizia (1578-1630)

born today

Daniel Koerner -- November 16, 1909 - 1977

Pictured:  West Side Ramp -- circa 1935 (Smithsonian American Art Museum)

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