Art Museum - Info

I've been re-exploring art history after a long disconnection. I wanted to assemble a little virtual museum for pieces that I found interesting and want to return to.

I'm keeping it to stuff that's older than like 90 yrs.

Click on the paintings to see links to higher resolution images and further reading.

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Modern interpretation of an Altamira cave bison

Artist Unknown

35,000 to 11,000 BC

The Cave of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain, contains many paintings of fauna from the Upper Paleolithic period.

Cave of Altamira - Wikipedia Take a virtual visit of the Altamira museum and replica cave

Nuppeppo from Bakemono no e

Artist Unknown

1660

This cute guy is, I guess, a stinky blob of meat.

Bakemono no e (illustrations of bakemono) - Wikipedia Nuppeppō - Wikipedia>

Mrs T in Cream Silk no. 2

George Bellows

1920

George Bellows was an American painter. As the museum description says, Mrs. T is wearing her wedding dress for this portrait, and her family found it improper.

George Bellows - Wikipedia Mrs T in Cream Silk no. 2 - Wikipedia

Silence of the Forest

Arnold Böcklin

1885

Arnold Böcklin was a symbolist painter from Switzerland.

The look on her face! She looks disgusted. And the unicorn looks crazy. Look at the horn on that thing. Its also like a mule-icorn. I love it. Wish there were a better image online, though.

Arnold Böcklin - Wikipedia

The Forest

Bokuyō Katayama

1928

Bokuyō Katayama was a Japanese Nihonga painter. Born in 1900, he died tragically young in 1937.

Bokuyō Katayama - Wikipedia

Weaning the Calves

Rosa Bonheur

1879

Rosa Bonheur was a French realist painter of animals.

Bonheur seems to have been a very interesting person. And she paints a slavering bull like no other.

Rosa Bonheur - Wikipedia Weaning the Calves - The MET

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair

Mary Cassatt

1878

Mary Cassatt was an American artist. She primarily painted images of women and girls.

Mary Cassatt - Wikipedia Little Girl in a Blue Armchair - National Gallery of Art

Nude Descending a Staircase, no.2

Marcel Duchamp

1912

The famous Modernist painting by the legendary urinal master.

Nude Descending a Staircase, no.2 - Wikipedia

Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette

Vincent van Gogh

1885–86

Everyone can enjoy a skeleton smoking a cigarette. Makes a perfect dorm room poster. And maybe that's fitting - van Gogh painted it because he disliked the skeleton anatomy studies he had to do in school.

Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette - Wikipedia

Vuelode brujas "Witches' Flight"

Francisco de Goya

1798

Witches' Flight - Wikipedia

Portrait of Alexander Sakharoff

Alexej von Jawlensky

1909

A very androgynous portrait of dancer Alexander Sakharoff.

Alexander Sakharoff - Wikipedia Alexej von Jawlensky - Wikipedia

Buffalo Scene

Emil W Lenders

1922

Emil Lenders was born in Germany in 1864, and, after attending art school in Berlin, immigrated to the United States to paint images of the American West.

Paintings of bison tend to feature them getting hunted or otherwise imperiled. Its nice to see these bison slorping up some tasty blue water at this golden oasis. No stampeding here. Just a nice orderly stroll to the water hole.

Buffalo Scene - Smithsonian

Moonrise

Stanisław Masłowski

1884

Stanisław Masłowski was a Polish landscape painter.

Moonrise - Wikipedia

The Blind Girl

John Everett Millais

1856

The Blind Girl - Wikipedia

Gnomes by the Castle Wall

Luise Begas-Parmentier

1850-1920

Luise Begas-Parmentier was born in Austria and lived in Germany, but largely painted Italian landscapes and architecture. She was also a famed host of salons.

Luise Begas-Parmentier - Wikipedia

The Crying Spider

Odilon Redon

1881

Look at it! Its sad!

The Crying Spider - Wikimedia

The Cyclops

Odilon Redon

1898-1914

Depicts Polyphemus pining for Galatea.

The Cyclops - Wikipedia

Unicorn

Osmar Schindler

1897

Osmar Schindler Unicorn - Wikimedia

Self-Portrait as Pierrot

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova

1911

Zinaida Serebriakova was a Russian painter.

Zinaida Serebriakova - Wikipedia

Gnome Watching Railway Train

Carl Spitzweg

1848

A cute gnome watching a train, reflective of the technological advancements that displace the fantasy imagery of Romanticism.

Gnome Watching Railway Train - Wikipedia

The Banjo Lesson

Henry Ossawa Tanner

1893

Henry Ossawa Tanner was an American painter that painted realist depictions of common domestic life as well as religious scenes. This painting is one of several that show parents teaching their children.

The Banjo Lesson - Wikipedia

Portrait of Sebastián de Morra

Diego Velázquez

1644

Little people were employed and enslaved by nobility for centuries and filled a number of courtly roles, most commonly as jesters. Though there were potentially some compensations, it meant contending with dehumanization by nobles that thought of them as pets. Sebastián de Morra was a jester of King Philip IV's court.

Portraiture can be a bit bland, since oftentimes they are just the wealthy subject that commissioned it. They can be beautifully rendered, and they're essentially historical documents of the upper class. But they're a bit emotionally empty to me. This portrait is the opposite. His head is cocked, his gaze is intense, his fists are clenched.

De Morra was apparently given by Philip IV to his son Baltasar. Baltasar died of an illness (smallpox maybe) in October 1646. De Morra died the same month. I don't know any further information, but it certainly sounds like they died of the same sickness. What a profound unfairness.

Portrait of Sebastián de Morra - Wikipedia Court dwarf - Wikipedia