beside the easel

A Fire on Kultorvet, 1900 Born in Copenhagen on July 22, 1860, Paul Gustav Fischer was a Danish Naturalist painter. Fischer has a palette and tone that is more British than many of his fellow countrymen, although his depiction of everyday life in pure Naturalist form is definitely Danish. His work has an atmosphere, a narrative that asks questions more than it illustrates—in short, he conveys presence. I love A Fire on Kultorvet above. Look at how we are placed right in the middle of the action, without explanation, as if happening right in front of us. This painting works on so many levels: historically, compositionally, atmospherically, and of course visually in terms of palette and texture. Off to the right a firefighter feeds coal into a steam-powered fire engine, a complex and very heavy machine...revolutionary for its time. Note off to the far left a firefighter operates what was back then a modern invention, the fire hydrant. The huge crowd watching is conveyed br...

"Laughing Man" Study for a self portrait. Chalk, early 1800's Born July 5, 1761 Louis-Léopold Boilly was a prolific French portrait painter and draftsman. If there was ever an artist who whose biography would inspire a truly entertaining movie, Boilly would be the one. His career was active throughout the French Revolution and Napoleon, and yet his keen portrayal of the French middle class has a unique charm that makes him very likeable. As a draftsman, Boilly was one of a kind, probably better than his paintings, and his numerous oil sketches are excellent studies in themselves. Looking at his self-portrait above, you can instantly sense the vivacity and humor of this man without even reading a biography. Entrance to a free show at the Ambigu-Comique Theatre, 1819 Here we can immediately grasp Boilly's brilliant sense of group composition, action and space. Boilly takes a horizontal arrangement of figures and groups them by foreground, middle and backg...

The Family of the Artist, ca.1621 Born on May 19, 1593, Jacob Jordaens was a Flemish painter from the Baroque era who worked together on occasion with Anthony Van Dyke under the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens . Jordaens' style, having been taught by Adam van Noort, the same teacher as Rubens, is often difficult to discern between the two and today several drawings and oil sketches require scholarly interpretation to identify the artist. His paintings however are a Rubenesque-Caravaggio Baroque flavor that is uniquely Jordaens with his strong dramatically-lit figures, dynamic composition and vibrant palette. Having never travelled to Italy, Jordaens' artistic inspiration came from studying copies or originals available within his vicinity. His work has an immediacy and depth that is more inviting than his Flemish counterparts, and you can see this in person studying his work in that he relies on color and chiaroscuro. Jordaens, like Rubens, most often painted on a massive sc...

Self-Portrait, 1730 click here for larger version Born near Avellino on October 4, 1657, Francesco Solimena was a giant of the Baroque, both painter and architect, who made Naples his home in his early twenties. His figures seem to have a musicality to them, his compositions inspiring, and his sense of color and chiaroscuro is majestic. The fact that he was not a northerner like his contemporaries makes him also unique, and he helped to establish Naples at that time as one of the painting capitals of the world. His career was quite successful and his studio also became an academy for several artists including Francesco De Mura and Gaspare Traversi. His Self-Portrait above shows a man of confidence and stature, someone who took his craft seriously and enjoyed the discipline of his hard work. Sitting in a rather noble red chair, Solimena is showing us that artists need not feel any shame in who they are or whom they work for, that artists contribute much to society and can be w...

The Victory of Joshua over the Amalekites, ca.1624 Born on June 15, 1594, Nicolas Poussin was another giant of French painting whose attention to composition, line and color make him easily identifiable as one of the greats. I wanted to do a post of him earlier but ran out of time due to a new work schedule (better late than never, I always say!) Poussin is unique in that he could more than hold his own in Classical, landscape and historical painting...his name is synonymous with harmony and perfection, which would have a massive influence on French art from the Academic style right up until the Cubists. The painting above is an extremely busy composition, and very atypical of Poussin's usual balanced, quiet subject matter. In this particular battle, Joshua and the Hebrews are determined to completely destroy the Amalekites , a ruthless tribe who were considered even worse than the Philistines, who attacked the Hebrews shortly after they fled Egypt. So, under commandment by Go...