The Watts Gallery (G.F. Watts Pre Raf.)

Lord Tennyson

Thank you Musee D’Orsay

Thank you Art and Architecture

I am so glad to hear that The Watts Gallery has been granted funds from the Lottery.

I wish them luck in spending it wisely!!

Three Graces 3

Not too sure about this one, if is yours, sorry for not asking, please let me know. They are wire?

It is time I posted up some 'Three Graces', there are plenty more but few in the 20th or 21c as Chris Miller said.

Good Arts Blog

John Weedon's blog looks promising I must go back and research it properly. His current post beggs a comment.

Arts Blog JW

Drawing techniques, Art and practice

Some books increase in value when second-hand, here is one. There are a myriad of books on drawing. A few are very good. This is one of them and the one I would probably choose if I was only allowed one on a desert island.

Text by Karel Teissig and selection of pictorial material by Jana Brabcova this book has lots of notes and underlings in my pencil indicating agreement. Preaching to the converted? No, not really, just had stuff put into words which would have been useful if I had read them at an early stage! Useful inspiration and aide memoir.

Indeed there are classic remarks which may well be quoted on these pages in the future.

Undergraduates' will not be distracted

Should I ever be an undergraduate attending this splendid university in the future I am quite sure I would be reminded just how wonderful the world of Art is. It will inspire me to work harder and improve my work environment. One thing’s for sure though, the 'beauty' of this sculpture will not be a distraction! Once you've seen a giant's pen holder..........bit like the tee shirt syndrome really.

It is time for the 20c experiment to be laid to rest. Let's move on and find new ground. Story here

More Lady American Sculptresses 4

When I started the posts I had no idea what I had promised to do. There are lot of them and they did a lot of good stuff. There are even a few doing some good stuff today! (Master of the understatement)

I also must mention how impressed I am at the speed with which Melinda Whitmore has crated this work above in only 5 days? Mind blowing, puts us all to shame.

Regular visitors here will know Amanda Sisk, great artist and wit.

Cindy Jackson is another formidable American contemporary sculptress see her blog and website listed on the right. She quite an ‘academic’ too.

More Lady American Sculptresses 3

Today I add some more of Bessie Potter Vonnoh works, a portrait by her husband with her below.

She had a tendancy to add little birds and buterflies. Both the Vonnohs were keen on wild life.

Central park New York, The Secret Garden memorial for Burnett.

Burnett’s story is well worth reading. Her best known is of course here

Finally I have added her best two works to my top 1000, here , they are not included in this post.

More Three Graces- Carpeaux

Here is another Terracotta by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux ‘The Three Graces’ 1874 which I have added to the three graces post however I still think the Daphnis et Chloe of 1875 is a better work. The three graces is big; 31 inches high (79cm). Does anyone have a picture of the other side?

Thank you again Sotheby’s.

Tempera Harry R Mileham

Swallows

Tempera, when oil was ‘invented’

I have posted up a couple of images for you. The first, Vintage Harvest is from the 1995 100th anniversary exhibition brochure held at Leighton House in London. It was a sketch submitted for a competition for a decoration in a public building in 1894 whilst Harry R Mileham was at the Royal Academy Schools.

The other three pictures are of a painting discovered recently behind a portrait of my grandmother. The scruffy frame was to be cleaned up! It is just an intelligent guess that this is part of the same project and includes a ‘blank’ fireplace which suggests that this was a mural design.

I love the texture of tempera, it has perhaps a less vibrant look but often a pastel feel is attractive in its own right. With limited time and equipment I have tried to match the colours to the original.

They are only ‘snap shots’ as we are to do an exhibition in Brighton where he lived for the second half of his life, in September. Better pictures and a full brochure will be available on line for that.

I hope to be better informed by then!

He died in 1957 so all his works are still in copyright.

Perhaps influenced by Leighton just a little! (oil)

Thank you to Christies for this last picture

The Rose In June in the Apple Tree

Amanda Sisk posted a fine picture of roses on her blog a few days ago, I can’t compete but neither can I wait ‘till February. The Rose in June was my Uncle’s boat and gives me an idea for a sculpture, (not a flower or a boat I must add!)

Paul Philippe French Sculptor

This delightful work by Paul Philippe (1870-1930) would do justice to Michelangelo’s adage that one should be able to roll a marble down a hill without the limbs breaking off! 63cm high it is perhaps the best I have seen of his work to date. Thanks to again Sotheby’s

The Birthday Parade

Today was our Sovereign’s official birthday. Her birthday parade went off well in the sunshine with the Taffs trooping.

Next week we celebrate The Royal Meeting.

Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun

Is one allowed to fall in love with a girl who died 166 years ago aged 87?

She was clearly a very colourful lady. She survived the French Revolution despite being very closely connected to the French Queen (25 portraits) and continued on to be a celebrated painter for the rest of her life. Her story is well documented over the internet where you can find much more about her than I can give you.

A quick summary of her life can be found in this pdf

It was she however that tells the story of her impending marriage:

On the way to the church I kept saying to myself ‘shall I say yes? Shall I say no?’ Alas, I said ‘yes’ and changed my old troubles for new ones’.

I owe the black and white self portrait and the above quotation to;

A book, Women Artists, Recognition and reappraisal from the early middle ages to the twentieth century, by Karen Petersen and j.j. Wilson was first published by The Woman’s Press Ltd, in Great Britain in 1978. Lorri Hagman also added a chapter on Lady Artists from China whose importance to Western Art is incalculable. (I could not find an ISBN number). A classic book for the serious Art lover or historian.

And the well known Mother and daughter picture in the Louvre below. (Also a beautiful portrait in The Wallace Collection in London.)

Violence in the arts, Pierre Puget, Milo of Crotona

Violence in the arts is nothing new. The ‘Greek Athlete Attacked By A Lion’ contrasts vividly with Bernini’s Proserpine in dealing with pressure on the flesh which seems to have been quite popular at this time. Had there been added colour in the marble bright red blood would have been flowing freely down the Athlete.

The way Pierre Puget has produced the leg, (angle and tension) is perhaps this work’s strongest point.
His arms and chest are of an athlete, a true representation of a well developed adult male at the height of his athletic training.

I wonder though if his face depicts the pain most of us would have felt in this situation? Perhaps Puget was a master of understatement. Thank you again to Taschen.

Pierre Julien and Augustin Pajou seated figures

The ‘Psyche Abandoned’, ‘Adriadne Abandoned’ and ‘The Bacchante’, by Augustin Pajou (1730-1809) that The French Site has chosen today are of interest. All in very similar pose they show significant differences. The difference in size and the quality of photograph have to be taken into account. Lighting and foreshortening can destroy a carefully considered opinion.

This photo from the Louvre of Adriadne above is perhaps a better photo than the one on the French site but it still indicates a proportional problem. Her head is too small? (A mistake? Like Michelangelo’s David head is too big?) It certainly has less appeal that the famous Psyche above it. No errors of proportion for her.

It is interesting that in Psyche she is without any clothing where the others are clutching at a stitch or two to cover up just a little!

Pierre Julien who lived at much the same time and produced the beautiful Amalthaea (goatgirl) at the top at the time of the French Revolution, has much the same pose but reversed. Psyche is 5’ 11’(178 cm) and Goatgirl is 5’ 8’ (170 cm) in height. My thanks to Taschen who produced one of the best coffee table books on sculpture –this one.

I knew I had a picture of the girl with the Tamberine!