beside the easel

Bluff-bowed Fishing Boat on the Beach at Scheveningen, 1899 Jacob Hendricus Maris was a Dutch painter born on August 7, 1837 in The Hague, Netherlands. A key member of the Hague School , a group of Dutch landscape artists in the late 1800's known for their subdued, low-key palette, which gave them the nickname the Gray School . Not every single painting was gray, of course, but it was rather the way in which they used gray as inspiration for mood in depicting pastoral scenes. Clouds became the focal point instead of just a background element. Using gray to its fullest range, experimenting with temperature and values created beautiful and pensive landscapes that furthered the incredible work a couple of generations before in France with the Barbizon School and in particular the brilliant work of Corot . In Bluff-bowed Fishing Boat on the Beach at Scheveningen above, we quickly understand how Maris used gray to full effect. We can almost hear those seagulls hooting in the di...

Ville d’Avray, 1867 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was born in Paris on July 16, 1796. He was a giant of the Barbizon school and humbled his contemporaries with brushwork that almost defies description along with a poet's understanding of light. His landscapes speak. The trees themselves are like figures in a scene. And yet he could also paint people quite well, bathing women in soft light and delicate features like the landscapes of his French countryside. In the Renaissance and Baroque the landscape was often depicted in sunrise or glowing sunset, as if revealing the untapped potential of humanity itself, whereas with Corot overcast skies and trees blowing in the wind foreshadow the progress of man looming over nature. He still manages to make breathtaking work in the process. In Ville d’Avray he makes the ordinary surreal, using strong horizontals but makes the two trees vibrate with his characteristic blurred brushstrokes that are even more impressive seen in person. Corot re...