Stanhope Forbes, Irish Poet of the Brush

The Health of the Bride, 1889

Irish painter Stanhope Alexander Forbes was born in Dublin on November 18, 1857. He was a founding member of the Newlyn School, which was an art colony of British artists in southwestern England that became very popular in the 1880's. They painted primarily en plein air to capture the majestic light and interesting characters of this small, modest fishing community—a theme that would recur throughout Forbes' career. What distinguishes Forbes from the rest of his artist colleagues was his naturalism, and a strong sense of narrative reminiscent of Joaquín Sorolla in being able to understand people and body language with an innate sense of group composition.

I was fortunate enough to see The Health of the Bride above in Tate Britain in September and I was awed by its simple power and drama. Off to the right a sailor raises his glass to the bride and groom seated at the table while friends and family around the table are poised to sip from their glasses. Note how Forbes uses both white and the natural light coming through the window to indicate three focal points of the story: the sailor, the bride, and the wedding cake, all aligned diagonally from right to left:

Note also the figure silhouetted against the window in a dark suit contrasts with the sailor in white, in an almost mirror-like reflection in posing. Through perspective and the lower placement of his glass he is a less important figure, even though he is the only other man standing in the painting. Look at the grouping of the figures, how all the figures on the left seated at the table are foreshortened in perspective while those on the right spaced wide apart and grouped in two, except for the old woman seated alone, probably a widow. The grandfather is arranged in a triangle with the two young grandchildren, who we understand by two arm gestures: feeding water to the boy and his arm around the girl. The bride herself gazes into her bouquet timidly, in contrast to her confident husband beside her. Narrative is in the details, and Forbes knew exactly how to use them.

The Seine Boat, 1904

Forbes depiction of the working class—fishermen mainly, in Newlyn—has such presence that we feel we are on the boat with these men, swaying in the ocean on a windy summer afternoon. What is the man pointing at? Has he spotted fish in the distance? Someone they recognize? Forbes creates a slight mystery in this narrative with an important lesson in that a narrative doesn't necessarily need to be explained clearly, as in Health of the Bride above. The figures themselves are the story. Forbes once again arranges his figures in perspective while portraying multiple generations, side by side. What is particularly interesting is the warm blue palette of the water, how it contrasts with the warm, dark tones of the fishermen and the large net the boy is sitting on. Presence.

Safe Anchorage

I find this painting so relaxing to look at, like a meditation. Beneath this quiet composition is an astonishing mastery of color temperature and light that, despite a photographic-like appearance, has real depth and presence. Fishermen at the end of the day, the last of a group collecting their catch before the sun sets. Forbes uses quite a loose brush in this painting, ironically, and it works so well. Value and color is more important than detail. And that art is, fundamentally, a meditation for the eyes and spirit. Forbes may be an obscure Irish painter, but his eye was a true poet that made the ordinary truly inspiring.

Orazio Riminaldi

Samson defeats Philistines, 1625 A painter from Pisa, Orazio Riminaldi was a Baroque tenebrist born in 1586 on September 5th. Riminaldi was unfortunately one of many painters who died young, in his case from the plague in 1630, but it is what he accomplished in those brief years that merits attention. Riminaldi's expressive faces and body language, along with superb skin tones and dramatic skies, take his art to a deeper level than some his contemporaries, who were perhaps more cautious in their techniques. Look at the fury of the scene above. It is quite rare in painting to see a pile of bodies with a warrior like Samson no less, stepping on top of one while grabbing the hair of another. And yet Riminaldi manages to make it look majestic and noble. The anatomy of the figures shows foreshortening combined with Caravaggio's chiaroscuro in a tight yet carefully arranged composition. By making it vertical, in a triangular design, it heightens the sense of drama while requi...

Bouguereau

Nymphs and Satyr, 1873 If there is one artist today that hardly needs an introduction, it would be William-Adolphe Bouguereau , supreme giant of 19th century Academic art. Born on November 30, 1825 in La Rochelle on the southwest of France, his talent would define the era he lived in only to fall into obscurity for decades after his death in 1905 until as recent as the early 1980's, shockingly. Today he has the distinction of being lionized by the Art Renewal Center as one of the greatest artists of all time while at the other end of the spectrum vilified by modernists as artificially perfect and sentimental. In fact it is quite rare to see such polarization over an artist of a calibre like Bouguereau, whose bravura is difficult to equal yet at the same time thematically his work admittedly tends toward women and children, a subject matter that sold well and he had endless patience for. Over the vast array of his oeuvre, some 820 paintings, I have tried to fi...

Carl Holsøe, Master of Rooms

The Artist's Wife sitting at a Window in a sunlit Room, ca.1900 Carl Vilhelm Holsøe was born on the 12 of March, 1863 in northeast Denmark. Holsøe studied in Copenhagen and under the Danish Master Peder Krøyer . Unlike many painters who worked outdoors and favored the majestic landscapes of their environment, Holsøe chose the psychological mood of the domestic interior and the way light spills into rooms. Although Holsøe is often compared to his contemporary and friend, Vilhelm Hammershøi , Holsøe is more authentic and less vacant emotionally. His use of sunlight captures the mindfulness of the moment in a way that is reminiscent of Dutch Masters, utilizing the power of quiet and reading as emotionally satisfying and tranquil. In the painting above, his wife sits in a kitchen chair looking out the window. On the table are cups of tea and a teapot that Holsøe gently lights the rims. The drapes are of a texture so thick it almost seems like pastel. Look at the greenish reflect...

beside the easel

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