From his first self-portrait when he was 29, through his wild years in Munich and Berlin, his stroke in 1911, and the First World War, to his last shortly before his death 100 years ago.
Category Archive: Life
Originally extracted from the madder plant, and turned into a pigment by laking, its colour could fade within months. Later purified to alizarin it proved no better, and is now used as a measure of non-lightfastness.
The red that lasts hundreds of years without fading, but it’s a highly toxic salt of mercury. Used in European paintings from the Romans to the late 19th century.
From the foundation of Troy, the start of the war with the Judgement of Paris, the death of Achilles, the sack of Troy, and Aeneas journey to found the precursor to Rome, and on to the age of Augustus.
Maids toiling at food preparation and washing clothes in the sculleries and utility rooms in the basement. Among them is Vermeer’s Milkmaid, and some of Degas’ working women.
Paintings of police from lictors in ancient Rome, through ‘Peelers’ in London, to those regulating prostitution and trying to control striking workers.
Hay carts and the last working horses in central London, houses of the rich in St John’s Wood, country views from East Devon during summer visits.
In his last year of intensive painting, he concentrated on landscapes of the Walchensee, his family, and final narratives of the Trojan Horse and Balzac.
Three views by the elusive Elisabeth Grüttefien, and the paintings of Nikolai Astrup, the only artist among these who lived in the fjords for much of his life, and was buried there.
From the founding father, JC Dahl, through Hans Gude, to the prolific Adelsteen Normann, who lured tourists by selling them paintings of the spectacular fjords.
The Eclectic Light Company 