Friday, 17 December 2010

  • Paul Cézanne, The Bathers

    French post-impressionist Paul Cézanne painted a number of paintings of bathers. Among these, The Bathers (French: Les Grandes Baigneuses) was the largest canvas. While progressing with his series of Bathers, Cézanne moved further away from the traditional presentation of paintings. This created works that would not appeal to novice viewers, and were unaffected by current fads in order to make the paintings more timeless and enjoyable for future generations. This paved the way for later artists to do the same in their art.
     
    In The Bathers, the female shapes are depicted in an abstract way that lends density and tension to the painting. The overall coloring remains harmonious and the use of blue lends immense appeal and beauty to the painting. The Bathers is today considered one of the true master pieces of modern art and is by many considered to be Cézanne’s best work and available as an oil painting reproduction.
     
    While the other paintings in the Bathers series can be found at the Museum of Modern Arts in New York and the National Gallery in London, the masterpiece The Bathers (the Big Bathers) can be found at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

     

Wednesday, 01 December 2010

  • Of Arms and Adam

    Views on the famous painting by Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam. A look at the inspiration for the painting and examination of some of the parts and why the paintings is still considered one of the best works of art in history. read the full article of Of Arms and Adam.

  • The Artist Self Portrait

    It is often mentioned how the mental state and feelings of an artist is expressed through their art. Indeed, the artists paintings as a depiction of their very soul has been mentioned on many occasions. However, many artists take this one step further and paint themselves. This offers the added angle of not only presenting the artists feelings and mental state, but also offering the artists view of themselves with make great options for oil painting reproductions.
     
    Among the artists who have produced numerous self portraits, we find timeless masters like Rembrandt and Van Gogh. For Rembrandt, his self portraits offer us a unique biography of his life, seen directly through the eyes of the artist himself. An example of these self portraits is Self Portrait by Rembrandt from 1660. Van Gogh was likewise a prolific painter of himself. In the period 1886-89, he painted more than thirty self portraits. Among them we find famous pieces like Self-Portrait Without Beard from 1889 which sold at auction at Christies in 1998 for USD 71.5 million, an immense sum for a painting.
     

    Of course, not all artists have been as prolific in producing self portraits. No all supply us with the broad biography of Rembrandt, or the short explosion in self depictions, including several with a bandage over his left ear after he cut off piece of it, the way Van Gogh paintings did. But many artists, from Picasso to Klimt, still did the occasional self portrait. These give us an exciting way to see not only the moods and periods of the artist but also their personal view of themselves.

Thursday, 11 November 2010

  • Francisco Goya’s La Maja Goya

    The female form has always been among the favorite subjects for the artist. Whether clothed or, even better, in a state of undress, such subjects have always attracted and inspired artists.
     

    One of the most famous paintings of the nude female form is Francisco Goya’s La Maja Desnuda (the Nude Maja). It depicts a nude woman lying in a seductive pose on a chair. Her hands are behind her head and she is completely naked. Painted in the period 1797-1800, the painting led to Goya being summoned in 1815 by the Spanish Inquisition to tell them who had commissioned this obscene piece of art. The inquisition also stripped him of his title as the Spanish court painter as a result of this incident.

    In 1803, Goya also painted La Maja Vestida which depicts the same Maja lying on the same chair in the same position but this time fully clothed.

    Both paintings were initially in the collection of Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy, Duke of Alcudia. It has therefore been speculated whether the woman was in fact his young mistress. A well known womanizer, it is said that de Godoy has the two paintings hung in the same space, with La Maja Vestida in the front. A simple pull of a mechanical device moved that painting and revealed La Maja Desnuda behind it.
     

    Both La Maja Desnuda and La Maja Vestida can today be seen hanging next to each other at the Prado museum in Madrid, Spain. Reproduction paintings of both these works are availible at Art Reproductions. 

Monday, 25 October 2010

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