beside the easel

The Wedding Dance, ca.1890's Born March 6, 1847 in Florence, Federico Andreotti was a genre and aristocratic painter. Andreotti's work is characterized by a vivid palette with elegantly dressed Rococo figures, revolving around the themes of flirtation and music. There is a spontaneity and naturalism in his figures that is contagious, even with the incredible detail and well-conceived compositions. Andreotti was astute enough to realize his era had already let go of the noble themes of his predecessors and he gleefully accepted. His style is very reminiscent of Eugene de Blaas , a contemporary from Rome and Vittorio Reggianini from Modena. Up close, however, Andreotti had a fairly loose brush and that sense of fun is evident in his modelling and blending. In The Wedding Dance above, Andreotti depicts a country wedding in the lush outdoors. Look at the young couple kicking up their heels. Andreotti creates movement and alacrity while taking us back in time. I love how t...

Open Air Interior, 1892 Born on January 4, 1866 in Barcelona, Ramon Casas i Carbó was a Spanish portrait painter and graphic designer. He was a contemporary of Santiago Rusiñol , both founders of the Spanish art movement modernisme . Where Santiago painted pensive interiors and moody landscapes, Casas focused more on the portrait and figure with a penchant for costume and posture. His palette often consists of more muted tones with vibrant color accents. Casas enjoyed a lengthy and prominent career throughout Europe and South America where he often exhibited in shows with his friend Rusiñol. In Open Air Interior above, Casas encapsulates a quiet moment outdoors during tea time. I love these kind of paintings for their calm visual intensity. The way that man sits in his chair, lost in thought while his wife carefully stirs her tea...this is the kind of mindfulness in the subjects that makes us, the viewer, envision ourselves in this scene. Casas paints the far ...

Man with the Cat (Henry Sturgis Drinker), 1898 Born on May 1, 1855, Cecilia Beaux was an American portrait artist from Philadelphia. Often compared to John Singer Sargent for her loose brushwork, Beaux studied in Paris under Tony Robert-Fleury and William-Adolphe Bouguereau to craft a style that was distinctly her own. Beaux developed a less formal sensibility than Sargent, except in her commissioned portraits, yet she maintains a human warmth in her subjects that is more spontaneous at times, whereas Sargent composed his paintings with an austere elegance. Where Sargent experimented with light and costume Beaux held an empathy with her sitters that reveals a more relaxed style of portraiture. Beaux was known to be a very independent and headstrong woman who lived a full life with many lovers yet never lost her sensitivity for her subjects. In Man with the Cat above, Beaux takes a rather ordinary pose and through her incredible brushwork transforms this painting into magic. He...

Portrait of a Man (possible self-portrait?), ca.1518 click here for zoomable version One of my favourite Renaissance painters, Andrea Del Sarto, who was called by Vasari as the artist "senza errori"—without errors—represents a Classicism with a poetic sensibility that borrows from Raphael and Da Vinci but evolved into his own brand of genius. Michelangelo was a good friend and one of his biggest fans, ultimately recommending him as a teacher to Vasari himself. Del Sarto has a way of synthesizing beauty and perfection with vivid color and a full-range of values that may have had an influence on Baroque painters much later on. Although another underrated artist today, his work really does have few faults. In fact, he would have made a formidable sculptor, judging by his confident anatomy and figures, with real facial and hand expressions that are hypnotic. The above portrait shows a young man of uncertain identity, yet somehow the prevailing art historians believe it is ...

The original painter of light, Rembrandt van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden, Netherlands. He is one of the most imitated painters in terms of brushwork, although his particular use of chiaroscuro is truly unique and personal. His etchings are also what make him one of the greatest in that genre, producing an enormous amount in his lifetime, and lastly, his self-portraits are among the most famous of any artist in history for their sincerity and penetrative insight. Of the many he painted the example above is one of his finest, in my opinion, for its execution and presence: he was 34 years old, towards the peak of his success. Years ago I watched the film of his life made in 1936 by Charles Laughton , and is still the best film I've seen on an artist to date. Laughton was perfect for the role. Danaë, ca.1636-47 Rembrandt's interpretation of this often painted mythological scene is intimate and real, and Danaë's body language is what makes this painting so ...

Self-Portrait, ca. 1645 Yesterday was the birthday of Spain's greatest painter, Diego Velázquez, the man who inspired the awe of several painters from his own era right up to the modern day including Manet, who referred to him as the "painter of painters". And justly so. It is hard to overestimate the influence of Velázquez as portraitist and allegorical painter. Everyone from art critics to philosophers have written about him; his Las Meninas changed art and painting in a way that still ripples deeply today, and it's meaning is not entirely certain. Having been born in the same year as Anthony Van Dyck, Velázquez lived a full nineteen years longer and unlike Van Dyck who painted the aristocracy exclusively, Velázquez painted everyone from King Philip's court including dwarfs, court fools, giants, dancing bears, and gypsies. In his self-portrait above we see a man with full confidence. What makes Velázquez so unique is how he varies his brushwork in such a ...