Washington Crossing the Delaware - Emanuel Leutze

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Inspired by Emanuel Leutze - Washington Crossing the Delaware

There are three versions of this painting. The first was painted when Leutze lived in Germany. It was damaged during a fire in his studio, but was subsequently restored. It was acquired by the Kunsthalle Bremen, but during World War II, it was destroyed in a British Royal Air Forcebombing raid  FDR said the raid was Britain's final retaliation for the American Revolution. A full-sized replica of the first canvas, was painted and

placed on exhibition in New York in 1851. At this showing Marshall 0. Roberts, collector and Board member of the Met, bought the canvas for the then enormous sum of $10,000. There was an additional copy painted, which is in the West Wing of the White House. It was recently sold for $45,000,000

One of the bow oarsmen is Black. He is probably William Lee who was Washington’s slave and at his side through most of the revolution. He was the only one of Washington’s slaves set free by decree in Washington’s will.This boat is filled with hardened militiamen. America’s woodsman gone to war. But they are all clean-shaven, there is not a whisker on any face.  Also, this American Flag did not exist at the time of the crossing. It was designed six months later.

To see original:  https://bit.ly/4aJCGSk

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - At the Moulin Rouge-

Inspired by: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

A penciled inscription, in the artist's hand, on the back of this famous painting reads: "The instruction of the new ones by Valentine the Boneless." A nickname given a nimble dancer who instructed the Moulin Rouge rookies in the can-can. Many of the inhabitants of the scene are well-known members of Lautrec's demimonde of prostitutes and artists. At the far right the Irish poet William Butler Yeats leans on the bar. The owner of the Moulin Rouge liked the painting so much he hung it over the bar.

Lautrec was born with serious congenital health condition which could be attributed to aristocratic inbreeding. Even his parents, the Comte and Comtesse, were first cousins. At the age of thirteen, Henri fractured both his femurs. Neither of the breaks healed properly, because of a brittle bone genetic disorder called pycnodysostosis (try and pronounce that!) which is frequently called Toulouse-Lautrec syndrome today. The injuries permanently halted the growth of his legs causing him to develop a full adult torso, while his legs remained child sized.

Lautrec popularized the cocktail. He was known for getting drunk off “earthquake cocktails”, which were a strong mixture of absinthe and cognac. He even hollowed out his cane, so that he could fill it with liquor. One of his drinking buddies was van Gogh, who he painted sipping a glass of absinthe. One evening the two were so drunk that Lautrec challenged an equally drunken Belgian to a dual after he desrespected his Netherlandish friend. To see original: https://bit.ly/4pr4Kh2

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - Raphael and the Fornarina

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Inspired by: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - Raphael and the Fornarina

For Ingres, Raphael was the pinnacle of artistic achievement. Frequently borrowing from the oeuvre of Raphael, Ingres positioned himself as the modern-day descendent of the revered painter. In this painting, we are given a glimpse of the personal life of his idol.

Raphael had a thing for a woman known as “La Fornarina”. She was his model, muse and lover and he painted her many times. According to the biographer Giorgio Vasari, who documented the lives of many of the Renaissance painters, this relationship led to the young artist’s death (aged 37) from “excessive passion”. Here we find ourselves in Raphael's studio. His latest canvas barely begun on the easel before him. La Fornarina

has risen from her pose to embrace the artist, sitting on his knee and looking out to the viewer. Her confident look says he is mine. Raphael’s gaze is firmly fixed on his painting telling us that the artist must not abandon the high calling of art to pursue the pleasures of love.

Ingres was amongst a litany of artist enamored with Raphael and his mistress. Picasso created several etchings, that depict them In flagrante delicto. He added Michelangelo spying on them from behind the draperies or under the bed. And sometimes the Pope is peeping through the keyhole.

To see the original:  https://bit.ly/4q3honz  

The Life Line

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Inspired by: Winslow Homer - The Life Line – 1884

In 1881 Homer spent a year in the coastal town of Cullercoats, England. A fishing village, and an artist’s colony, which attracted painters to its beautiful landscapes and the sea. There he witnessed the life brigade rescue of a floundering ship. It was the essence of man against the sea, the driving force of his early marine paintings.

Two years later, in Atlantic City, new Jersey, he saw a demonstration of the breeches buoy, a recent innovation in lifesaving technology. Secured firmly to ship and shore, the device permitted the transfer of stranded passengers. The following year he painted The Life Line, one of several he did at that time on the rescue theme. In 1866, the apparatus was first used when the brigantine Tenterden, escaping a hurricane, floundered at the mouth of the Tyne in England. The local life brigade rescued the crew along with the Captain’s wife and child. Could this be the wife?

To see original: https://bit.ly/3JzEHVW https://bit.ly/3JzEHVW

Winslow Homer - A Huntsman and Dogs

Inspired by: Winslow Homer - A Huntsman and Dog

Homer and his brother were avid hunters and anglers. They spent forty years in pursuit of their avocation. In 1886 they joined the Northwoods Club. An Adirondack hunting and fishing preserve for the well to do from NY and Boston. It was there that he created his sports paintings using members and their guides as his subjects.

When we think of Homer’s Adirondacks we see lush streams and forests, but that began to change. In the 1880’s a movement arose to save the Adirondacks from the spread of lumbering, railroads and factories. In many respects this painting is his protest banner.

The mountainside has been denuded, and the huntsman steps over the base of a tree felled by loggers. It was painted one year before the Forrest Preserve legislation provided for the establishment of the Adirondack Park. Two years later at the New York Constitutional Convention, they drew up a covenant which stated the Adirondack Forest Preserve would be "forever wild."

Katsushika Hokusai - Kajikazawa in Kai Province

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An Anglicized title for this print is “Fishing in the surf at Kajikazawa”. This print was the first in the series, “Thirty Six Views of Mt Fuji”. The most famous print in this series was “The Great Wave of Kanagawa”. These images were sold as travel postcards.
The first impression of this print was all blue. The number of colors was increased in later additions. Hokusai was one of the early adopters of this auzuri-e technique (idigo technique). The development of the process is associated with the import of the pigment Prussian blue from Europe. Artists rarely carved their own woodblocks for printing and instead production was divided between: the artist, the carver, the printer. All printing was done by hand, allowing for effects like blending or gradation of colors, which weren't achievable using machines.
The French composer Claude Debussy's tone poem La Mer, is believed to have been inspired by Hokusai's print The Great Wave. The composer had an impression of it hanging in his living room and specifically requested that it be used on the cover of the published score.
To see original: https://bit.ly/47c7CYX

Winslow Homer - The Gulf Stream

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Inspired by: Winslow Homer - The Gulf Stream

Homer painted Gulf Stream the year after his father’s death. It may be an expression of his feelings of abandonment and vulnerability, or it could have been a shot at the critics. This painting was very important to him. When standing for a photo in his Prouts Neck studio (a very rare event) he chose it as his background.

When it was first exhibited, many critics were more interested in the “frolicking” sharks than the plight of the mariner. When asked for an explanation of the painting, Homer said: "I regret very much that I have painted a picture that requires any description.” That might seem a touch curt, but toward the end of his life, Homer became a bit of a recluse. Like his paintings, he became isolated, and promoted the image of “the hermit of Prouts Neck”. He didn’t want visitors at his studio when he was working, and it’s said that he would raise a flag when he was ready for his lunch order to be delivered from the nearby Black Point Inn. 

To see the original: http://bit.ly/4net9po

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer

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Inspired by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer

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Lawrence Alma-Tadema was one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century. He became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Greek and Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled Interiors. He was born in the Netherlands as Laurens Tadema, but he emigrated to England in 1870. When he tried to make his niche in the art world, he changed the spelling of his first name to the more English “Lawrence”. He included his middle name “Alma” as part of his surname, so he would be listed amongst the “A’s” in exhibi-tion catalogues.

His meticulous archaeological research into Roman architecture, led to his paintings being used as source material by Hollywood directors in such films as: “Ben Hur”, “Cleopatra” and “Gladiator”. For “The Ten Commandments” Cecil B. DeMille would customarily spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to indicate to his set designers the look he wanted to achieve.

He became one of the wealthiest painters of the 19th century. He was even knighted in 1899. But like so many great painters his work was mostly ignored after his death. His painterly prowess was not reestablished until fifty years later. One of his most celebrated paintings “the Finding of Moses” was sold in 1960 for $400, the same painting sold for $36,000,000 at Sotheby’s in 2010. If you bought $400 of Apple stock in 1980 it would

only be worth $280,000 today.

To see original: http://bit.ly/3HzGnhe