beside the easel

Elegante au sofa, 1895 Continuing on this series of sensual artists of French background is Julius Leblanc Stewart , born on September 6, 1855. He was a Philadelphia-born artist who lived and painted most of his life in Paris, earning him the nickname " the Parisian from Philadelphia ." Stewart's family had moved there when he was only 10 years old, and from the wealth of his father's Cuban sugar plantation Stewart lived and painted to his heart's content. One teacher who had considerable impact on him was Gérôme . His father's wide influence as businessman and prominent art collector helped to secure Stewart's place in the Parisian art world within a relatively short period of time. Stewart's breadth of work ranges from the social life of the belle epoque to sensuous yet fun outdoor female nudes. Elegante au sofa above is an sophisticated yet natural portrait of a woman seated in a warm room with simple furnishings. I love the contrast in textur...

La Vérité, 1870 Born on March 14, 1836 in Tournan-en-Brie, France, Jules Lefebvre was a French figure painter and respected teacher, whose students include names such as Kenyan Cox, Edmund C. Tarbell, and Paul Cornoyer . Lefebvre is well-known for his highly sensual female nudes, yet looking deeper into his work we see a keen insight into personality and character, creating mood and atmosphere as an essential ingredient in all of his paintings. A contemporary of William Bouguereau , Lefebvre approached the feminine form unabashedly and without the sentimentality of children nor the predictable satyrs and nymphs prancing about in lush landscapes. Lefebvre's women are unique and charming, as he was more keen on capturing who they were first and their physical beauty second. La Vérité above, was modelled after a famous actress of the time, Sophie Croizette: La Vérité reveals an aesthetic visual manifesto of sorts on the superiority of beauty and Classicism. Although m...

Last week I returned from an amazing two week journey through London, France, Belgium and Spain that was life-changing. Last year I was awed and overwhelmed by Paris and London, whereas this year it felt like something more. It felt like home. Above is a small sample of some original drawings I had the honour to hold in my hands and study from, thanks to the fine collections of the print rooms at Windsor Castle and the Louvre. Over the course of my travels and various new museums I discovered in Belgium and Spain I was reminded of the importance we have as artists to simply make time for our art and do it! And do it to the best of your ability. Because the rich legacy we have available to us and what we can learn from it, how it can inspire us today is invaluable. Those drawings have a freshness that seems like they were drawn yesterday, and yet every stroke, every line taught me something. Art is about discovery and expression, something that we need to share with the world becau...

Sortie Du Maitre, 1914 Born December 16, 1832 in Paris, Jules Worms was an illustrator, lithographer and painter. Worms is considered a relatively obscure artist by today's standards—he has no Wikipedia article in English—but his craft nonetheless deserves merit for its freshness and spontaneity, attention to background detail, and his particular use of color and light. In Sortie Du Maitre above, translated as the Exit of the Master, infidelity was a recurring motif in his paintings and as we see here the wife helping her husband with his coat while turning to admire a more handsome man—possibly the landlord or boss—who is coming down the stairs making an exit. Note the incredible body language and storytelling ability of Worms here in how natural the figures are, not posed at all. The expression on her face is as natural as real life. Note the indignation and jealousy in her husband's face, in contrast to the admiring glance of the "master" at his wife...

Marten Looten , 1632 by Rembrandt van Rijn July is a month in art history that has produced some of the most idiosyncratic, passionate, sensitive and rebellious artists of all time. If you don't believe me, consider these names: Rembrandt , Artemisia Gentileschi (and her father Orazio) , Camille Pissarro , Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot , Edgar Degas , Salvator Rosa ...all born in July. All rebellious in their own particular way. All brilliant. Let's explore a few of these great painters and find out why... Marten Looten was a wealthy Dutch merchant from Leiden who commissioned this portrait. Although understated compared to some of his less formal portraiture, Rembrandt creates here a likeness that is painted with such sensitivity and depth that those penetrating eyes, tight lips, and thick hands convey a person who breathes through the paint. Normally Rembrandt loved using texture in his sitter's clothing to describe and identify their very soul, yet here the ma...

Korean author Young-ha Kim gives entertaining talk on art and why it is an intrinsic part of all our lives:

Italian landscape, ca. 1645 Born around 1615 in Utrecht, Netherlands, Jan Dirksz Both was a painter and etcher whose dramatic landscapes influenced Dutch painting deeply. Both spent time in Rome and Venice where he discovered several Masters, including the vibrant landscapes of Claude Lorrain. Where Lorrain used Classicism heavily in his paintings, with Roman architecture and figures, Both concentrated more on the luminous effects of light and elevated trees to a noble kind of natural architecture. Both also created atmosphere and mood with perspective in a way that not only depicts a view, but invites us to share a beautiful moment of fleeting sunlight. In Italian landscape above, Both leaves much of the foreground in shadow, something most landscape painters would never do. Note how the light is coming from the far left, beyond the frame of the painting. Look at how it falls across the rustic path—Both creates a sliver of light where his figures stand, on horseback, pos...

A fascinating look at the genius of Velázquez in this BBC documentary

"When an artist begins to count strokes instead of regarding nature he is lost. This preoccupation with technique, at the expense of truth and sincerity, is the principal fault I find in much of the work of modern painters." Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida Self Portrait, 1904 Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida was born on February 27, 1863 in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. Known for various subject matter including landscapes, portraiture, and social themes, the key recurring themes in his body of work would be the ocean, sunlight, and children. Few artists have observed sunlight and innocence in quite the way Sorolla has, with his juicy brushwork and mastery of color blending. Sorolla's use of color in particular, is inspirational in how he creates mood and defines his subject by color. In the following examples we'll explore this motif in his work. In his Self Portrait above, Sorolla depicts himself with stern honesty. Note the subtle shades of ...

Piazza Navona, Rome 1699 Caspar van Wittel was a Dutch veduta painter born on 1653 in Amersfoort, a medieval city in central Netherlands. He lived most of his life in Italy, specifically in Rome— becoming a member of the Accademia di San Luca— although he travelled all over the country. Wittel is considered among the very first to spur the veduta genre, even before Canaletto and Panini, making detailed studies from nature and pioneering the format we know today as the panorama, or wide-view of scenery. Affectionately known in his day as Gaspare degli Occhiali , (Caspar of the Eyeglasses) his views of the Italian countryside combined with beautiful architecture with local figures helped forge a rich , seductive genre that would have an immense impact on landscape art. In Piazza Navona above, (painted when Canaletto was about two years old) Wittel offers us a view that, even though we know it well to this day, here it still appears fresh and interesting to us. The cont...