Art Museum - Info

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.

Nuppeppo from Bakemono no e

Artist Unknown

1660

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

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.

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.

The Forest

Bokuyō Katayama

1928

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

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.

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair

Mary Cassatt

1878

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

Nude Descending a Staircase, no.2

Marcel Duchamp

1912

The famous Modernist painting by the legendary urinal master.

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.

Vuelode brujas "Witches' Flight"

Francisco de Goya

1798

Portrait of Alexander Sakharoff

Alexej von Jawlensky

1909

A very androgynous portrait of dancer Alexander Sakharoff.

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.

Moonrise

Stanisław Masłowski

1884

Stanisław Masłowski was a Polish landscape painter.

The Blind Girl

John Everett Millais

1856

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.

The Crying Spider

Odilon Redon

1881

Look at it! Its sad!

The Cyclops

Odilon Redon

1898-1914

Depicts Polyphemus pining for Galatea.

Unicorn

Osmar Schindler

1897

Self-Portrait as Pierrot

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova

1911

Zinaida Serebriakova was a Russian painter.

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.

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.

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.