beside the easel

The Palace Guard, 1900 Ludwig Deutsch was born on the 13th of May, 1855 in Vienna, Austria. He studied in Vienna briefly before moving to Paris in his twenties, where the Academic art of that period focused on Orientalism. Deutsch's work is characterized by high attention to detail, both in architecture and costume, dynamic color contrasts and effortless compositions. His use of body language in how it defines his subjects is also a key ingredient in his work that we'll be exploring more here. In The Palace Guard above, Deutsch uses a full toolbox of painter expertise to narrate this scene. Observe the textures in this painting. The roughness of the stone walls with architectural details in the floral motifs at left. The intricate contrasts of materials in the man's costume is truly mesmerizing here: a black mesh underdress with an orange sash and green patterned headdress and scarf. Note the recurring motif of patterned circles in the ...

The Interrupted Pilgrimage (The Sick Pilgrim), 1858 Born on January 15, 1793 in Vienna, Austria, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller was a 19th century painter from the Biedermeier period. One of Austria's most well-known artists in his day, sadly today he is quite obscure but his incredible talent for detail and beautiful colors make him particularly unique from most of the artists I've written about here. It seems like many artists, especially today, fall into either landscape or figures, but not both. Waldmüller wielded both with a musical ease...his use of sunlight is among the most natural and vibrant I can ever remember any artist ever painting. Looking at Waldmüller's work one feels a deep optimism and overall gratifying peacefulness, without the sentimentality that often accompanies art from this era. He has an epic sensibility yet embraces common people instead of heroes and religious figures of the past, a natural storyteller that includes women and children as key ch...