Painting topics

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Accessing this blog – news feeds and pages

Articles about painting and visual art:

Notable recent articles:

Helen of Troy: victim or villain? 1
Helen of Troy: victim or villain? 2
Paintings by a Baltic Beach 1 – coming soon
Paintings by a Baltic Beach 2 – coming soon
Paintings of the fallen woman: 1 Downward slope – coming soon
Paintings of the fallen woman: 2 Salvation or decline? – coming soon
In memoriam Anna Palm de Rosa: painting the card game – coming soon
Celebrating the 200th birthday of London’s National Gallery 1 – coming soon
Celebrating the 200th birthday of London’s National Gallery 2 – coming soon
Woman in Trouble: Paulus Bor’s mythical portraits – coming soon
In memoriam Fritz Roeber, an artist lost in history – coming soon
Rising fog in paintings 1 – coming soon
Rising fog in paintings 2 – coming soon
Heroines: 1 Penelope in Ithaca – coming soon
Heroines: 2 Abandonment, suicide and scandal – coming soon

The Truthful Vision of Jean-Léon Gérôme – a series marking his bicentenary

1, 1846-55
2, 1857-60
3, 1861-70
4, 1872-77 – coming soon
5, 1882-95 – coming soon
6, 1895-1902 – coming soon
The Quest for Visual Truth: the bicentary of Jean-Léon Gérôme – coming soon

A to Z of Landscapes – a new series of topics about landscape painting

Aerial perspective
Bridges
Cloudscapes
Dawn and Dusk
Earth
Flowers
Greens
Hedges
Ice and snow
Japan
Kayaks and canoes – coming soon
Lakes – coming soon
le Midi – coming soon
Nocturne – coming soon
Oil sketch – coming soon

Sea of Mists – a new series on Caspar David Friedrich and German Romantic painters

Influences on Caspar David Friedrich and Romantics
Caspar David Friedrich to 1820
Caspar David Friedrich 1820-30
Caspar David Friedrich 1830-40
Carl Gustav Carus 1816-25
Carl Gustav Carus 1826-50
JC Dahl 1818-1827
JC Dahl 1829-1856
Philipp Otto Runge
Carl Friedrich Lessing 1828-36 – coming soon
Carl Friedrich Lessing 1837-78 – coming soon
Rückenfigur – coming soon
Nocturnes – coming soon
Ships – coming soon

Changing Paintings – a new series on Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Introduction
1 Creation and Lycaon’s cannibalism
2 The flood and the Python
3 Daphne becomes the laurel
4 Io as a cow, the eyes of Argus, and Syrinx
5 Fall of Phaëthon
6 Callisto victimised
7 Gossip and the death of Coronis
8 Aglauros turned into stone
9 The abduction of Europa
10 Cadmus and the founding of Thebes
11 Actaeon changed into a stag
12 Death of Semele and Jupiter’s surrogate pregnancy
13 Echo and Narcissus
14 Death of Pentheus
15 Pyramus and Thisbe
16 Adultery and Unrequited love – coming soon
17 Hermaphroditus – coming soon
18 Ino and the fall of the house of Cadmus – coming soon
19 Perseus rescues Andromeda – coming soon
20 Perseus kills Medusa – coming soon

Women in major narrative paintings

Susanna and the Elders 1
Susanna and the Elders 2
Susanna and the Elders 3
Paintings of Bathsheba and King David: voyeurism rewarded 1
Paintings of Bathsheba and King David: voyeurism rewarded 2
Judith and Holofernes: 1 Murder
Judith and Holofernes: 2 Target or trophy
The rape of Lucretia in paintings
The abandonment of Ariadne on Naxos in paintings
Who had John the Baptist killed? 1 Herodias
Who had John the Baptist killed? 2 Salome
Rescued from the sea-monster: Paintings of Andromeda
Rescued from the sea-monster: Paintings of Angelica
Deianeira’s abduction, the revenge of Nessus, and the point of view
Heretic or heroine of France? Joan of Arc, the call
Heretic or heroine of France? Joan of Arc, the martyr
Mad, bad and dangerous to know: Paintings of Medea 1
Mad, bad and dangerous to know: Paintings of Medea 2
Who was the hero: Marat or Corday? 1 Marat
Who was the hero: Marat or Corday? 2 Corday
Paintings of Mary Magdalene: Gospel times
Paintings of Mary Magdalene: Penitent and legendary

Reading visual art – iconography and the reading of visual art

1 Introduction
2 Wings of Angels
3 The Grim Reaper
4 Danse Macabre
5 Evil serpents
6 Virgin of the Snake
7 One arm raised
8 Both arms raised
9 Gaze, looking towards
10 Gaze, looking away
11 Judgement by body language
12 Long hair and the spirit
13 Hair in secular paintings
14 Bring on the clowns
15 Punch and Judy
16 Circe and sorceresses
17 Medea as sorceress
18 Spinning
19 Weaving
20 The face covered
21 Footwear
22 Feet
23 Transformation 1
24 Transformation 2
25 Dreams classical
26 Dreams modern
27 Eagle and owl
28 Peacock and dove
29 Motion and billows
30 Frozen motion and blur
31 Two or more scenes in one image
32 Up to 23 scenes in one image
33 Picture in a picture, landscapes
34 Picture in a picture, stories
35 Chimeras and devils
36 Modern chimeras
37 Fables to 1800
38 Fables in the 19th century
39 Major Norse deities
40 Minor Norse deities, the Wild Hunt
41 Signatures and dedications
42 Words in the story
43 What’s wrong in that painting? 1
44 What’s wrong in that painting? 2
45 Eyes wide open
46 The eyes have it
47 Shadow play
48 In the spotlight
49 Heaven
50 Hell
51 Hercules and changing gender
52 The capital crime of cross-dressing
53 Music A
54 Music B
55 Lions
56 Tortoises
57 Tridents and bidents
58 Sickles
59 Aegis
60 Crescent moon
61 Cupids, putti, cherubs
62 Cornucopia
63 What’s drawing that chariot?
64 Damned to impossible tasks
65 Wells
66 Herms and terms
67 Unicorn
68 Eyes ≠ 2
69 Faces > 1
70 Ladder
71 Skull
72 Thyrsus
73 Gloves
74 Size
75 Cats
76 Dogs A, Workers
77 Dogs B, Companions
78 Shepherds and sheep
79 Pigs and swineherds
80 Horse with wings
81 Language of flowers A
82 Language of flowers B
83 Hammers in myth and religion
84 Hammers at work
85 Ravens and crows A
86 Ravens and crows B
87 Rope A
88 Rope B
89 Oil lamps A
90 Oil lamps B
91 Markets A
92 Markets B
93 Dawn or dusk?
94 Time of day
95 Ghosts A
96 Ghosts B
97 Fairies A
98 Fairies B
99 Feasts sacred
100 Feasts secular
101 Fishing A
102 Fishing B
103 Sport old and mythical
104 Sport genteel and modern
105 Telescope and microscope
106 A life in bed, love
107 A life in bed, sickness and death
108 Candles as symbols
109 Candles for effect
110 Lyre A
111 Lyre B
112 Constellations A
113 Constellations B
114 Bottle of potion
115 Bottle of trouble
116 Wicker basket A
117 Wicker basket B
118 The box, Pandora
119 The box, others
120 Rainbows narrative
121 Rainbows landscape
122 Vanitas in the 17th century
123 Vanitas in more recent times
124 Frogs and toads in myth
125 Frogs in other stories
126 Snail
127 Mouse
128 Donkey
129 Heron – coming soon
130 Wand – coming soon
131 Reed pipes – coming soon
132 Aulos, pipe or flute – coming soon
133 Bagpipes – coming soon

Painters with anniversaries in 2024

Next Year in Paintings: Géricault, Gérôme, Boudin and more
Shipwreck paintings: 1 to 1850
Shipwreck paintings: 2 from 1850
Commemorating the Death of Théodore Géricault: 1 Foundation
Commemorating the Death of Théodore Géricault: 2 The Raft
Commemorating the Death of Théodore Géricault: 3 Madness and Death
In memoriam Maurice Prendergast who died a century ago
Almost an Impressionist: Commemorating the death of Jean-François Raffaëlli 1
Almost an Impressionist: Commemorating the death of Jean-François Raffaëlli 2
Barbizon in Boston: the bicentenary of William Morris Hunt

Ukraine – artists and paintings with 🇺🇦 Ukrainian connections

High – paintings of mountains

Contents and locations
Introduction
Grand tourists and wanderers
Explorers and surveyors
Vanishing glaciers
Waterfalls
Summer pasture and the transhumance
Caucasus Mountains
Andes
Himalaya
Norway
Volcano
Ascent
Hot and cold in Spain’s Sierra Nevada
Haute Route in the Alps
Castles
Fauna
Huts
Passes
Down Under
Bierstadt’s Rocky Mountains
People
Scottish Bens
Alpine Miscellany

Arthur – paintings of Arthurian legends

Summary and Contents
Introduction
1 The sword in the stone
2 Excalibur and Guinevere
3 Two dangerous women
4 Sir Lancelot’s arrival
5 Tristram, Isode and the potion
6 Death of Tristram
7 Galahad and the quest
8 Galahad’s sword and shield
9 The quest completed
10 Elaine of Astolat
11 The Lady of Shalott
12 Division and treachery
13 The death of Arthur
14 Deaths of Guenevere and Lancelot

Painters with anniversaries in 2023

Next Year in Paintings: Joaquín Sorolla, Alexandre Cabanel, Sir Joshua Reynolds and more
In Memoriam Pierre-Paul Prud’hon 1: Joséphine
In Memoriam Pierre-Paul Prud’hon 2: Nemesis
In Memoriam Benjamin Williams Leader and his perfect landscapes
In Memoriam Ernest Normand, Henrietta Rae’s husband
Into the Arctic: A celebration of the paintings of William Bradford 1
Into the Arctic: A celebration of the paintings of William Bradford 2
The 300th anniversary of the birth of Joshua Reynolds: 1 Perfect portraits
The 300th anniversary of the birth of Joshua Reynolds: 2 Experiments in paint
The 300th anniversary of the birth of Joshua Reynolds: 3 The Royal Academy of Arts
Bicentenary of Théodule Ribot: 19th century chiaroscuro
Centenary of the death of Joaquín Sorolla 1
Centenary of the death of Joaquín Sorolla 2
Centenary of the death of Joaquín Sorolla 3
In Memoriam Gerard David who died 500 years ago 1
In Memoriam Gerard David who died 500 years ago 2
The bicentenary of Alexandre Cabanel: 1
The bicentenary of Alexandre Cabanel: 2
The bicentenary of Alexandre Cabanel: 3 Pupils
Commemorating the 500th anniversary of Luca Signorelli’s death
Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the death of Sir Godfrey Kneller
Commemorating the centenary of the death of Eleanor Norcross
The 100th anniversary of Reginald Frampton’s death: A late Pre-Raphaelite
Celebrating 300 years since the birth of Gavin Hamilton, Scottish painter in Rome
Commemorating the 500th anniversary of the death of Pietro Perugino

Painting on the edge – blur in paintings

Introduction
Vermeer
Spinning wheels
Depth of field
Vermeer reinvented
Edge hierarchies
How do you blur an edge?
Overview and contents

Paintings of Eugène Delacroix – a series on the life and paintings of this major artist

0 Contents and summary
Introduction
1 Beyond Neoclassicism
2 First success
3 Massacre at Chios
4 The offence of Sardanapalus
5 Liberty
6 Women of Algiers
7 The Jewish Wedding
8 Ophelia and histories
9 A farrago of stories
10 Two libraries
11 Rubens and his hunts
12 Sky, sea, flowers
13 Tales and tempests
14 Saint-Sulpice
15 Final narratives
16 Seasons
17 Masterworks
18 The colourist

Trojan Epics – the Epic Cycle and its paintings

0 Contents
Introduction
1 Zeus’s plan and a wedding feast
2 Paris and his Judgement
3 Helen and her abduction
4 Troy and the Greek expedition
5 Achilles recovered and a stinky snakebite
6 Achilles and the princess
7 Greeks in trouble
8 Achilles returns
9 The death of Hector
10 The death of Achilles
11 Paris killed and the Trojan Horse
12 Extinguishing the line
13 The Sack of Troy
14 Odysseus and Polyphemus
15 Escape from Circe
16 Sirens and Calypso
17 Meeting Nausicaä
18 Returning to Ithaca
19 Reclaiming the throne
20 Agamemnon’s fate
21 Flight of Aeneas
22 Dido in Carthage
23 The Cumaean sibyl
24 Latium and deification
25 Death of Odysseus

Hard Reality – examining the challenges in the development of Realism

Introduction
1 Surface textures
2 Shade and shadow
3 Cast shadows in figurative painting
4 Cast shadows in landscapes
5 Mirror play
6 Reflections in the landscape
7 Strange landscapes
8 The illusion of depth
9 Linear perspective projection
10 Different projections
11 Timeline

Not Like That – a series on paintings that have changed

Introduction
Reynolds’ ill-fated experiments
Fading into the past
Pigments bogus and destructive
Failed media
Abandoned
Broken up
Vanished under varnish
Lost completely

Sunrise on Impressionism – artists of the First Impressionist Exhibition

0 Contents
1 Introduction
2 Giuseppe De Nittis
3 Henri Rouart
4 Armand Guillaumin
5 Édouard Béliard
6 Adolphe-Félix Cals
7 Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic
8 Félix Bracquemond
9 Zacharie Astruc
10 Gustave-Henri Colin
11 Stanislas Lépine
12 Johan Barthold Jongkind
13 Eugène Boudin
14 Alfred Sisley
15 Berthe Morisot
16 Camille Pissarro
17 Pierre-Auguste Renoir
18 Frederic Bazille
19 Edgar Degas
20 Paul Cézanne
21 Ghosts
22 Claude Monet
23 Paintings of the First Impressionist Exhibition

Paintings of William Shakespeare’s Plays

Contents
0 Introduction
1 Romeo and Juliet
2 Macbeth
3 The Tempest
4 Measure for Measure
5 King Lear 1
6 King Lear 2
7 A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1
8 A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2
9 Othello
10 Julius Caesar
11 The Merry Wives of Windsor
12 Henry VIII (All Is True)
13 As You Like It
14 Hamlet 1
15 Hamlet 2
16 Hamlet 3
17 Henry IV part 1
18 Henry IV part 2
19 Twelfth Night
20 Antony and Cleopatra
21 Two Gentlemen of Verona
22 Cymbeline
23 Coriolanus
24 Much Ado About Nothing
25 The Taming of the Shrew
26 The Merchant of Venice
27 All’s Well that Ends Well
28 The Comedy of Errors
29 King John
30 King Richard II
31 King Richard III
32 Troilus and Cressida
33 Titus Andronicus

Painters with anniversaries in 2022

Next Year in Paintings: Rosa Bonheur, Piero di Cosimo, Léon Bonnat and others
In memoriam Antoine Coypel 1
In memoriam Antoine Coypel 2
Coming Genius: the short art of René Beeh 1
Coming Genius: the short art of René Beeh 2
In memoriam Paul Durand-Ruel: was he the inventor of Impressionism?
The 200th anniversary of Herman ten Kate, Reminiscences 1
The 200th anniversary of Herman ten Kate, Reminiscences 2
In memoriam Karl Isakson, the Nordic Modigliani 1
In memoriam Karl Isakson, the Nordic Modigliani 2
Animalière Extraordinaire: the bicentenary of Rosa Bonheur 1
Animalière Extraordinaire: the bicentenary of Rosa Bonheur 2
Painting in Italy around 1500 1: Tradition
Painting in Italy around 1500 2: Change
In memoriam Piero di Cosimo, who died 500 years ago, 1
In memoriam Piero di Cosimo, who died 500 years ago, 2
In memoriam Piero di Cosimo, who died 500 years ago, 3
Knights in Shining Armour: in memoriam Edmund Blair Leighton 1
Knights in Shining Armour: in memoriam Edmund Blair Leighton 2
Rich Media: In memoriam Georgette Agutte
In memoriam Léon Bonnat: Painter 1
In memoriam Léon Bonnat: Painter 2
In memoriam Léon Bonnat: Teacher
In memoriam Douglas Fox Pitt, painter of London-on-Sea
Painting landscapes from Rome to Paris
In memoriam Achille Michallon, a bright star over the landscape 1
In memoriam Achille Michallon, a bright star over the landscape 2
Painting landscapes from Corot to Cézanne
Celebrating the tercentenary of Johann Heinrich Tischbein, painter of Hermann the German
Next to Rembrandt: In Memoriam Adriaen van der Werff 1
Next to Rembrandt: In Memoriam Adriaen van der Werff 2
In Memoriam John William Godward: Fleeting beauty 1
In Memoriam John William Godward: Fleeting beauty 2

Painted Stories in Britain – the history of British narrative painting

1 Introduction
2 Before Hogarth
3 Hogarth’s early series
4 Hogarth extended
5 Joseph Wright, the enlightened artist
6 Benjamin West and Modern Histories
7 Benjamin West’s revolution fails
8 Shakespeare
9 William Blake
10 JMW Turner
11 John Martin
12 William Dyce
13 Enter the Pre-Raphaelites
14 British poetry and Arthurian legend
15 Human panoramas
16 Open narrative and problem pictures
17 The end of history
18 Towards a history (with contents of the whole series)

Colour Notes – looking in detail at various topics centred on colour and visual art

Introduction, what we see
Light-dark 1: Chiaroscuro in paintings to 1700
Light-dark 2: Chiaroscuro in paintings after 1700
1 Red and green should never be seen
2 Limited palettes
3 Colour temperature and constancy
4 Under no illusions
5 Fauvism in mainstream painting
6 One man in ten
7 Colourspaces and rendering
8 The scarlet woman
9 Chroma, class and the modern
10 Colour-coding gender
11 Alas ColorSync Utility!
12 Monochrome paintings
13 What colour is the sky?

Paintings of Paul Signac – covering this major Neo-Impressionist in detail

1 Becoming Divisionist
2 Les Andelys
3 To the water
4 Two deaths and marriage
5 Colour and anarchy
6 Consumption and demolition
7 Rivers of France
8 Venice
9 The Golden Horn
10 War
11 The Twenties
12 Pointillism
13 Watercolours to 1918
14 Watercolours 1918-1924
15 Watercolours 1925-35
16 Cézanne’s influence
Overviews and contents:
17 1883-95 Boats and the Bourgeoisie
18 1896-1935 Colour and Reserved Space

Other Neo-Impressionists of Note

Paintings of Henri-Edmond Cross 1: Dots and colour
Paintings of Henri-Edmond Cross 2: Water and light
A Weekend with Maximilien Luce’s ‘muscular’ paintings 1
A Weekend with Maximilien Luce’s ‘muscular’ paintings 2
Glowing with the Paintings of Théo van Rysselberghe 1: 1880 to 1908
Glowing with the Paintings of Théo van Rysselberghe 2: 1908 to 1926

Rivers

A Weekend on the River Seine in paintings: 1 Saint-Mammès to La Grande Jatte
A Weekend on the River Seine in paintings: 2 Argenteuil to Le Havre
A weekend on the River Thames in paintings: 1 Maidenhead to Battersea
A weekend on the River Thames in paintings: 2 Lambeth to the estuary

Painters in Pastels

Pastel painters: History and contents of the series
Pastel Portraits of Rosalba Carriera
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun: surviving by her portraits
Perfect pastels by Jean-Étienne Liotard
In the shadow of Manet: The forgotten art of Eva Gonzalès
Édouard Manet’s pastel paintings
King of Pastels: Paintings of Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Odd Man Out: pastels of Edgar Degas
Mary Cassatt’s pastels
Pure Colour: Pastels of Odilon Redon
Pastels among the Nabis: Roussel, Ranson, Vuillard
Symbolist pastel paintings of Alphonse Osbert and Edmond Aman-Jean
Pastel paintings of Eugène Delacroix
Pastel paintings by Ants Laikmaa
Pastels by Helleu
Pastel Paintings of Firmin Baes

Sheer Delight – examining the depiction of fabrics, textiles and clothing materials

0 Contents
Introduction to fabrics in paintings
1 Classical folds
2 Texture in oils
3 Raphael and Veronese
4 Gone with the wind
5 Fooling the brain
6 Flesh and fashion
7 Uniformity and dissolution
8 Rags and tatters
9 Into thin air
10 Beyond reality with John Singer Sargent
11 Sorolla and Zorn
12 Costumbrism to Frou-frou
13 A short history of clothes and fabrics in paintings

Don Quixote – the story of Cervantes’ novel in paintings

Introduction
Overall summary and contents
Book 1 summary and contents 1
Book 1 summary and contents 2
Book 2 summary and contents 1
Book 2 summary and contents 2
Book 2 summary and contents 3
Book 1
1 The making of a knight
2 Those books are to be burnt
3 Windmills
4 Victory and goatherds
5 A Burial
6 Nightmare at the haunted castle
7 Armies of sheep and spectres of the night
8 The cloth mill and Mambrino’s helmet
9 The chain gang and the dead mule
10 Madness in the mountains
11 Rescue party
12 A quest for a princess
13 The wronging of rights
14 Testing a virtuous wife
15 Slaying the giant
16 Quest for a giant abandoned
17 The captive’s tale
18 Escape and reunion
19 The footman and the judge’s daughter
20 Attempted arrest and imprisonment
21 Spellbound
22 Madness confirmed
23 Fighting a goatherd and penitents
Book 2
24 Fame
25 Preparing for the third sally
26 Off to El Toboso
27 Sancho’s deception
28 Duel with the Knight of the Spangles
29 Facing the lions
30 Rest and a duel
31 The wedding trick
32 What happened in the cave
33 The village of braying, and a performing ape
34 The puppet massacre and a retreat
35 By boat on the Ebro
36 Guests of the Duke and Duchess
37 The washing of beards
38 The hunting party and the first trick
39 Sancho’s letter
40 The bearded duennas
41 Flying a wooden horse
42 The governor and the wooed
43 The judge and an angry cat
44 A governor starved and a knight pinched
45 Rounds and a present
46 Attacked by night
47 Refusing riches
48 Victory but no blood spilt
49 Trampled by bulls
50 With outlaws into Barcelona
51 The enchanted bust
52 Galleys and defeat
53 Going home
54 Trampled by pigs
55 Resurrection
56 The penance paid
57 Don Quixote’s death

Painting Everyday London – about the Camden Town Group

0 Contents and Index
Introduction
1 Spencer Gore started
2 Spencer Gore concluded
3 Harold Gilman
4 Robert Bevan 1
5 Robert Bevan 2
6 James Dickson Innes
7 Malcolm Drummond
8 Douglas Fox Pitt
9 James Bolivar Manson
10 Pissarro, Lightfoot, Taylor
11 Walter Sickert before
12 Walter Sickert after
13 Camden Town Group

Altogether Now – complex multiple narrative paintings

0 Narrative structure and contents
Introduction
1 Hans Memling’s Passion, 1470
2 Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, c 1500
3 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters, 1565
4 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559
5 Jacopo Tintoretto, The Crucifixion, c 1558
6 William Powell Frith, Derby Day, 1856-8
7 William Powell Frith, The Railway Station, 1862
8 Ford Madox Brown, Work, 1863
9 Hieronymus Bosch, The Haywain Triptych, 1510-16

Art and Science – the relationship between painting, science and technology

0 Contents
Introduction
1 Geometry and realism
2 Synthetic pigments
3 Enlightenment
4 The struggle with yellow
5 Colour theory
6 Heroes of science
7 Technology
8 Medicine
9 Seurat’s Neo-Impressionism
10 Neo-Impressionism after Seurat
11 New paint
12 Colourmen and tubes
13 Pseudoscience
14 Back to alchemy
15 Permanence of colour

Characters in Painted Stories – plots and characters in narrative painting

0 Summary and contents
1 Introduction
A life of Perseus in paintings 1
A life of Perseus in paintings 2
A life of Theseus in paintings: 1 Whose are those sandals?
A life of Theseus in paintings: 2 Killing the Minotaur
A life of Theseus in paintings: 3 Fights and failed relationships
2 Perseus and Theseus
3 Rags to riches
The Painted Story of the Aeneid: 1 From Troy to Carthage
The Painted Story of the Aeneid: 2 From Carthage to Apotheosis
Jason and the Golden Fleece 1
Jason and the Golden Fleece 2
Homer’s Odyssey in paintings: 1 Polyphemus and Circe
Homer’s Odyssey in paintings: 2 The Sirens, Calypso and Nausicaä
Homer’s Odyssey in paintings: 3 Return to Ithaca
4 The Quest
5 Voyage and Return, Orpheus and Eurydice
6 Comedy, the tale of Demodocus
7 Tragedy, Orestes 1
8 Tragedy, Orestes 2
9 Rebirth in folk tales
10 Oedipus
11 The moment of change
12 Telling a familiar story
13 Telling a new story

Landscape Composition – how landscape paintings have been composed

0 Artists and contents
1 Introduction
2 Beginnings
3 Poussin’s modes
4 Dutch Horizons
5 Real landscapes
6 Constable not copying
7 Turner’s revolution
8 Tearing the book up with trees
9 One piazza, eight views
10 Through a lens
11 Reduction
12 Directing light
13 Little people
14 Nocturnes
15 Rhythm
16 Reflections
17 A short history

Impressionist painting in Britain – discovering unknown Impressionist artists in Britain

0 Artists and contents
Introduction
1 Foundations
2 Walter Sickert
3 The New English Art Club
4 Philip Wilson Steer
5 Elizabeth Forbes
6 John Lavery
7 Jacques-Émile Blanche
8 Algernon Talmage
9 Edward Stott
10 Paul Maitland
11 William Nicholson
12 George Clausen
13 Henry Tonks
14 Wynford Dewhurst
15 Henry Herbert La Thangue
16 John Singer Sargent
17 Alice Fanner
18 Towards a history

Francisco Goya – his art and career

Spanish painting in the late eighteenth century: before David
Spanish painting in the late eighteenth century: after David
0 Contents
1 Zaragoza and Rome
2 Royal cartoons
3 Enter the Maja
4 Family life
5 Four seasons
6 The new king and rural humour
7 Gathering darkness
8 Lives of Saints
9 The dangerous Majas
10 The story of Friar Pedro
11 War
12 Rebellion
13 Repaying debts
14 Black Paintings 1
15 Black Paintings 2
16 Ivory miniatures
17 Last paintings
18 A life in paintings

Reject – major paintings which were rejected from exhibition

Contents
Introduction
The refused portrait
Whistler’s White Girl
Eakins’ unsightly medical history
Mary Cassatt’s Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
Gustave Caillebotte’s Parquet Planers
Gustave Courbet, The Painter’s Studio
John Brett’s breathtaking view of Florence
Jules Bastien-Lepage’s Annunciation to the Shepherds
Carl Larsson’s last sacrifice
Ferdinand Hodler’s Night
Manet’s picnic

Still Life History – the history and reading of still life paintings

Still Life History: 0 Contents
1 Birth of a new genre
2 Clara Peeters the pioneer
3 The Dutch Golden Age
4 Rays, copper, and scythes in the 18th century
5 The rise of Impressionism
6 Impressionists
7 Paul Cézanne
8 Vincent van Gogh
9 Into the twentieth century
10 Modern times
11 A place at the table
12 Deceiving the eye
13 A is for apple
14 Eccentricities
15 Flowers
16 Fish
Why paint a still life? 1 Warming up
Why paint a still life? 2 Sales
Why paint a still life? 3 Therapy

Painting within Tent – paintings and drawings from expeditions and explorers

Contents and indexes
Introduction to a new series
Biard’s gripping tales
Penguins by Edward Adrian Wilson
Icefast on the coast of Greenland
In Desolation Camp with Ludwig Becker
Naval surgeon and artist, John Linton Palmer
John Turnbull Thomson painted all he surveyed
John Auldjo’s ascent of Mont Blanc
Godfrey Vigne painting his way out of trouble
William John Burchell’s long treks for plants
Philip Georg von Reck in Georgia
The Prince in Brazil
Sydney Parkinson’s posthumous masterpieces
Nicholas Roerich in the Himalaya
Jan Brandes in the East Indies
Marianne North’s plants of the world 1
Marianne North’s plants of the world 2
Thomas Baines, Artist and Storekeeper 1
Thomas Baines, Artist and Storekeeper 2
Painting Within Tent: Maria Sibylla Merian’s metamorphoses 1
Painting Within Tent: Maria Sibylla Merian’s metamorphoses 2
Edward Lear in the Land of the Jumblies 1
Edward Lear in the Land of the Jumblies 2
Frederic Edwin Church in detail 1
Frederic Edwin Church in detail 2
Albert Bierstadt in the Rockies 1
Albert Bierstadt in the Rockies 2
Frances Anne Hopkins in Hudson’s Bay
Audubon’s birds 1
Audubon’s birds 2
How Titian Ramsay Peale has been overlooked
William Hodges with Captain Cook

Rebirth – a short history of the Renaissance in paintings, a new series

0 Contents
Paintings of Florence: 1 History
Paintings of Florence: 2 Landscapes
1 Was there art before the Renaissance?
2 A Gothic introduction
3 What changed in the Renaissance and when?
4 Was perspective essential to the Renaissance?
5 Changing to oils
6 How patrons shaped the Renaissance
7 Fabrics and materials
8 The rise of narrative painting
9 Composition
10 Manuals and learning
11 The end of the Renaissance
12 A timeline in paintings

God/Goddess of the Week – paintings of ancient Greek and Roman deities

Goddess of the Week: A guide and contents
God of the Week: A guide and contents
Gods and goddesses of the week, a new series
Nyx (Night)
Thanatos (Death)
The Fates
Chronos and Aion (Time)
The Hesperides
Nemesis (retribution)
Eris (discord)
The Erinyes (Furies)
Mnemosyne (memory)
Uranus and Cronos (Saturn)
The Birth of Aphrodite (Venus Anadyomene)
Aphrodite (Venus)
Eros (Cupid)
The Muses
Graiai and Gorgons
Hecate
Leto (Latona), mother of Apollo and Artemis
Zeus (Jupiter)
Hera (Juno)
Poseidon (Neptune)
Demeter (Ceres)
Hades (Pluto)
Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus
Hestia (Vesta) and her virgins
Hephaistos (Vulcan)
Ares (Mars)
Athena (Minerva)
Apollo
Artemis (Diana)
Hermes (Mercury)
Dionysus (Bacchus)
Pan (Faunus)
Psyche
Persephone (Proserpine)
Phaethon
Echo and Narcissus
Hebe
Horai (Horae), the Seasons or Hours
Janus
The Charites or Graces
Asclepius (Aesculapius)
Bellona (Enyo), War
Hemera (Dies), the Day
Chloris (Flora), transformation
Chloris (Flora), Spring
Cybele (Magna Mater), Mother of the Gods
Iris, the rainbow
Selene (Luna), the Moon
Thetis, Achilles’ mother
Eos (Aurora), the dawn
The Likeness of Truth 1
The Likeness of Truth 2
Paintings of the winds 1: Zephyrus
Paintings of the winds 2: Boreas

The Faerie Queene – stories from and paintings of Edmund Spenser’s epic

Contents and summary of books 1-3
Contents and summary of books 4-7
Introduction to a new painting series
Its illustrators
Book 1: Una and the Redcrosse Knight
1 The Redcrosse Knight and Una
2 The lion and seven deadly sins
3 Duels and capture by a giant
4 Release and the Cave of Despair
5 The Dragon
Book 2: The Legend of Sir Guyon
6 Sir Guyon
7 Furor and Phaedria
8 Saved by Prince Arthur
9 Acrasia’s Bower of Bliss
Book 3: The Legend of Britomartis
10 Britomartis
11 Belphoebe, Amoret, Florimell
12 Florimell lost at sea
13 Rescuing Amoret
Book 4: The Legend of Cambel and Telamond
14 Cambell and Triamond
15 Tournament and a troth plighted
16 Two monsters slain
17 The Temple of Venus, and Florimell released
Book 5: The Legend of Artegall
18 Sir Artegall’s quest, and the fate of a horse thief
19 Defeat and slavery
20 Artegall released and Duessa brought to trial
21 Two tyrants overthrown, and order restored
Book 6: The Legend of Sir Calidore
22 Sir Calidore, courtesy, and the Blatant Beast
23 The healing hermit, and Turpine corrected
24 Disdain, cannibals and bucolic love
25 Pastorella captured and the Beast subdued
Two Cantos of Mutabilitie: Of Mutability
26 Of Mutability

A History of Rome in Paintings – the legendary story of Rome

Overview and Contents
1 Trojan Origins
2 Etruscans
3 Foundation
4 Kings
5 The last king’s downfall
6 War with the Tuscans, and defending the bridge
7 Rome saved by a mother
8 Sacked by Gauls
9 Pyrrhic victories
10 War with Carthage
11 The Road to Civil War
12 Civil War
13 Hail Caesar
14 Assassination
15 Peace in the age of Augustus
16 Disaster and death
17 Murder and martyrs
18 Four Emperors in a Year
19 More martyrs
20 The Capitoline Hill and Tarpeian Rock
21 The Forum
22 The Colosseum
23 Aesculapius comes to town
24 The Senate

Paintings of 1920

Portraits
Narrative and figurative
Genre and landscapes 1
Landscapes 2
Landscapes 3

The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood – the most important women responsible for the Pre-Raphaelite Movement

The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood: an index of its members
Introduction
Sophie Gengembre Anderson: Elaine of Astolat
Annie Louisa Swynnerton: The Sense of Sight
Marianne Stokes: Madonna and Child
Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale: The Forerunner
Evelyn De Morgan 1: Night and Sleep
Evelyn De Morgan 2: The Cadence of Autumn
Marie Spartali Stillman 1: Love’s Messenger
Marie Spartali Stillman 2: The Enchanted Garden
Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite Sisters 1
Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite Sisters 2
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters: Muses and Models 1
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters: Muses and Models 2

Patrons and dealers – their role in the history of painting

Calling the Tune: patrons, donors and dealers in paintings 1
Calling the Tune: patrons, donors and dealers in paintings 2
Painter by Proxy: The art of Isabella d’Este
The Patron Pope: Julius II
Constable’s French connection
Rubens the diplomat
Titian and the bluestocking poet
The collector who taught Poussin classics
Dealers and painters: Durand-Ruel the architect of Impressionism
Mantegna at the Mantuan court
The short lives of Modigliani and his dealers
The Prime Minister’s Music Room, Perseus and Andromeda
The consul, the connoisseur and Cleopatra
How Tintoretto flourished by giving a painting away
The Habsburg King and his friend
The critic as patron: John Brett’s Pre-Raphaelite landscapes
Critics and painters: Fry, Bell and the twentieth century

Symbolism – a series looking at this popular movement

Symbols in painting before Symbolism 1400-1800
Symbols in painting before Symbolism 1800-1860
The Symbolist Landscape: Giovanni Segantini 1
The Symbolist Landscape: Giovanni Segantini 2
The Fading Dreams of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes 1
The Fading Dreams of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes 2
Painting the Dream 1
Painting the Dream 2
Salammbô and Symbolism
Mysterious Places of Arnold Böcklin 1
Mysterious Places of Arnold Böcklin 2
Death on the Wing: Crows and ravens in paintings 1
Death on the Wing: Crows and ravens in paintings 2
Eugène Jansson’s low light landscapes 1
Eugène Jansson’s low light landscapes 2
A Song at Twilight: Paintings of John Atkinson Grimshaw 1
A Song at Twilight: Paintings of John Atkinson Grimshaw 2
Paintings of Léon Frédéric: 1 Rural poor
Paintings of Léon Frédéric: 2 Mystical nature
The Crepuscular Henri Le Sidaner 1
The Crepuscular Henri Le Sidaner 2
The gentle surrealism of Paul Nash 1 Unit One
The gentle surrealism of Paul Nash 2 International Surrealist Exhibition
Far from home: Paintings of Frances Hodgkins 1
Far from home: Paintings of Frances Hodgkins 2
Carlos Schwabe: 1 Flowers of Evil and the Rosicrucian
Carlos Schwabe: 2 Artist of the Soul
Desert, skulls and steelworks: Paintings of Eugen Bracht 1
Desert, skulls and steelworks: Paintings of Eugen Bracht 2
Profound Tranquility: the paintings of Alphonse Osbert
Portraiture and Symbolism: Edmond Aman-Jean 1
Portraiture and Symbolism: Edmond Aman-Jean 2
Félicien Rops: The Irreverent Symbolist 1
Félicien Rops: The Irreverent Symbolist 2
The demons and stories of Mikhail Vrubel 1
The demons and stories of Mikhail Vrubel 2
Gustave Moreau and Symbolism: Oedipus and the Sphinx
Gustave Moreau and Symbolism: Salome
Gustave Moreau and Symbolism: Jupiter and Semele
Agaves and the Country Estate: paintings of Victor Borisov-Musatov
Russian Folk Tales of Viktor Vasnetsov 1
Russian Folk Tales of Viktor Vasnetsov 2
Symphonic visions – paintings of Mikalojus Čiurlionis 1
Symphonic visions – paintings of Mikalojus Čiurlionis 2
The first American Symbolist painter Elihu Vedder 1
The first American Symbolist painter Elihu Vedder 2
The first American Symbolist painter Elihu Vedder 3
Odilon Redon’s Vision 1
Odilon Redon’s Vision 2
Knight of Symbols: paintings of Jacek Malczewski 1
Knight of Symbols: paintings of Jacek Malczewski 2
Symbolist painting at the time of the Salons de la Rose + Croix 1
Symbolist painting at the time of the Salons de la Rose + Croix 2
Soul and Light: the paintings of Louis Welden Hawkins 1
Soul and Light: the paintings of Louis Welden Hawkins 2
Henri Martin: the Divisionist Symbolist 1
Henri Martin: the Divisionist Symbolist 2
Henri Martin: the Divisionist Symbolist 3
Swirling Strokes of Gaetano Previati (Symbolist painting)

Skying – a history of painting the sky

An introduction to a new series
1 Big skies, low countries
2 The open sky
3 John Constable
4 JMW Turner
5 When near Rome
6 Pre-Impressionism
7 Impressionism
8 Post-Impressionism
9 A brief history

Paradise Lost – paintings and illustrations for Milton’s epic

Summary and Contents
Invitation to a new series
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
Book 10
Book 11
Book 12

Orlando Furioso – telling this thrilling epic in paintings

Background
Painting the Distant Past: Charlemagne 1
Painting the Distant Past: Charlemagne 2
Introduction

Summary
Plot summary and best paintings 1
Plot summary and best paintings 2

The Story
1 Lovers and hippogriffs
2 Sorcery and Scotland
3 More deception and the talking myrtle
4 Enchanted knights and the lecherous hermit
5 The orc’s vile appetite, and skewered Frisians
6 A wife marooned and Angelica fed to the orc
7 Angelica rescued and the orc slain
8 Magic castles and the vanishing Angelica
9 Saracens attack Paris, and a self-healing monster
10 Rinaldo in combat, and Charlemagne’s palace under threat
11 Escaping another orc, and a cowardly imposter
12 Rodomonte diverted, and a woman regains her armour
13 Resuscitation and Angelica’s passion
14 Carving their names on trees
15 Out of the storm into captivity
16 Treachery, reunion, and madness
17 Punishment, and an imposter caught out
18 Discord among the Saracens
19 Insatiable women and the ultimate self-sacrifice
20 Saracens forced to retreat to Arles
21 The quest of jealousy, and the flight of the hippogriff
22 To the moon and back, and settling scores
23 Twins discovered, and a misogynist unseated
24 Duel and disaster
25 Biserta sacked, and Orlando set up
26 Death on Lampedusa
27 Orlando victorious, and Rinaldo in pursuit of Angelica
28 Travellers’ tales
29 A Funeral but no Wedding
30 Jailbreak and a deceptive duel
31 A wedding interrupted

The Art of Anders Zorn – commemorating the centenary of his death

In Swedish Country: In Memoriam Anders Zorn (1860-1920)
The context of Anders Zorn’s paintings in Sweden and beyond
1: Portraits of success
2: Far places and near death
3: Switching to oils
4: High life and low life
5: Portraits and prints
6: Presidents and Saunas
7: The White House and legacies

Raphael and Painting – marking the 500th anniversary of his death

1 The state of the art in 1500
2 School of Perugino
3 Becoming Raphael
4 First frescoes in Rome
5 Roman portraits and Madonnas
6 Stanze and Sibyls
7 The Sistine Tapestries
8 Prophets and Popes
9 The Loggia Frescoes
10 Last easel paintings
11 In memoriam Raphael
Pro-Raphaelite…
… or Pre-Raphaelite

Painters with anniversaries in 2021

In Memoriam Eugène Burnand: Alpine meadows
In Memoriam William Blake Richmond, an Aesthetic
In Memoriam: George Dunlop Leslie, one of the St John’s Wood Clique
In Memoriam Johann Friedrich Engel, and the Bavarian Pocahontas
The Last History Painter: In memoriam Jean-Paul Laurens 1
The Last History Painter: In memoriam Jean-Paul Laurens 2
In Memoriam Vardges Sureniants, father of Armenian narrative art
In Memoriam William Strang: Painter of the times
Celebrating the bicentenary of Ford Madox Brown: 1 An uncertain start
Celebrating the bicentenary of Ford Madox Brown: 2 The hard road to success
Celebrating the bicentenary of Ford Madox Brown: 3 Successful work
In Memoriam John Crome: Revolt in the provinces 1
In Memoriam John Crome: Revolt in the provinces 2
In Memoriam Abbott Handerson Thayer and his angels 1
In Memoriam Abbott Handerson Thayer and his angels 2
Into the Rococo: In Memoriam Antoine Watteau 1
Into the Rococo: In Memoriam Antoine Watteau 2
Thomas Seddon: bicentenary of a Pre-Raphaelite landscape painter
Painting the Merovingians: the bicentenary of Évariste Vital Luminais 1
Painting the Merovingians: the bicentenary of Évariste Vital Luminais 2
In memoriam Francisco Pradilla Ortiz 1
In memoriam Francisco Pradilla Ortiz 2
In memoriam Eugen Bracht 1
In memoriam Eugen Bracht 2
In memoriam Fernand Khnopff

Painters with anniversaries in 2020

Next year in paintings: Raphael, Anders Zorn, Modigliani and more
Animal Sentiments: In memoriam Briton Rivière 1
Animal Sentiments: In memoriam Briton Rivière 2
Piranesi’s 300th anniversary: 1 Antiquities
Piranesi’s 300th anniversary: 2 Imaginary Prisons
Landscapes for All Reasons: Paintings of Aelbert Cuyp 1
Landscapes for All Reasons: Paintings of Aelbert Cuyp 2
Landscapes for All Reasons: Paintings of Aelbert Cuyp 3
In Memoriam Luc-Olivier Merson, storyteller in paint

Benjamin West – marking the 200th anniversary of his death

Benjamin West and Modern History 1
Benjamin West and Modern History 2
Benjamin West and Modern History 3
Benjamin West and Modern History 4
Benjamin West and Modern History 5
In Memoriam Benjamin West, History Painter

Amedeo Modigliani – commemorating his death a centry ago

1 1907-1914
2 1915-1916
3 1917-1919
In Memoriam Amedeo Modigliani and Jeanne Hébuterne

Ford Madox Brown

Not a Pre-Raphaelite History Painter: Ford Madox Brown 1842-55
Not a Pre-Raphaelite History Painter: Ford Madox Brown 1855-60
Not a Pre-Raphaelite History Painter: Ford Madox Brown 1861-90
Ford Madox Brown constrained by Pre-Raphaelite ideals

Paintings of 1919 – short survey of notable paintings from exactly a century ago

Paintings of 1919: Narrative
Paintings of 1919: Landscapes
Paintings of 1919: War and Work
Paintings of 1919: Figures and Flowers

Work in Progress – the making of great paintings

Masaccio’s Holy Trinity
The Wilton Diptych
John Everett Millais ‘Ophelia’
van Eycks’ Ghent Altarpiece
Pierre Bonnard’s Coffee and The Bowl of Milk
Lucas Cranach’s Martyrdom of St Catherine
Claude Monet’s Grainstacks series
JMW Turner’s landscapes
John Singer Sargent ‘Simplon Pass: The Tease’
Rembrandt’s Bathsheba
Vermeer’s Milkmaid
Vincent van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses
Cézanne in the Midi
Renoir’s Judgement of Paris

Commemorating the Centenary of Renoir’s Death

1: 1860-67
2: 1868-75
3: 1876-80
4: 1881-85
5: 1886-90
6: 1891-95
7: 1896-1900
8: 1901-1905
9: 1906-1910
10: 1911-1919
Auguste Renoir as landscape painter
Commemorating the centenary of Auguste Renoir’s death

Pure Landscapes – the landscape paintings of Pissarro and Sisley

Camille Pissarro, to 1870
Alfred Sisley, to 1870
Camille Pissarro, 1870-74
Alfred Sisley, 1870-74
Camille Pissarro, 1875-79
Alfred Sisley, 1875-79
Camille Pissarro, 1880-84
Alfred Sisley, 1880-84
Camille Pissarro, 1885-89
Alfred Sisley, 1885-89
Camille Pissarro, 1890-94
Alfred Sisley, 1890-94
Camille Pissarro, 1895-99
Alfred Sisley, 1895-99
Camille Pissarro, 1900-03
Pissarro and Sisley

Visual Riddles – illustrated history of ‘problem pictures’

Summary and contents
Beginnings 1850-60
Across continents
Fame
Refinement
Puzzles for the people
Collier’s controversies
Decline and fall
Twentieth Century Vermeer: William McGregor Paxton

Dante’s Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy: Overview and list of articles
Introduction to Dante’s Divine Comedy
Hell in paintings
Paradise in paintings
Inferno
1 Into Hell
2 Crossing with Charon
3 In Limbo, and the Harrowing of Hell
4 Lust
5 Gluttony
6 Avarice, Wrath, and more
7 The Furies and Heresy
8 Murderers, bandits, suicides
9 Blasphemy, sodomy, usury
10 Pimps, soothsayers, the corrupt
11 Barrators, hypocrites and thieves
12 The fraudulent
13 Treachery
14 From treachery to cannibalism
15 Lucifer
16 An overview of Hell
Purgatory
1 Starting the ascent
2 The murder of Pia de’ Tolomei
3 The valley of kings
4 Pride and Envy
5 Wrath, Sloth and Avarice
6 Gluttony and Lust
7 Dante’s dream of Leah and Rachel
8 Matelda, Beatrice in her chariot
9 Final preparations for Paradise
10 An overview of Purgatory
Paradise
1 The moon and broken vows
2 Fame and love
3 The wise and warriors
4 The just and the contemplative
5 Into the Empyrean
6 An overview of Paradise
The best-known unknown woman in art: Beatrice Portinari 1
The best-known unknown woman in art: Beatrice Portinari 2
The best-known unknown woman in art: Beatrice Portinari 3

The Nabis: a history in painting

The Nabis: A brief account
1 Beginnings
2 Infancy
3 Peak
4 Divergence
5 Destinations – Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, Sérusier
6 Destinations – Roussel, Vallotton, Ranson, Lacombe, Rippl-Rónai

Misfit: the paintings of Henri Fantin-Latour

1 First flowers
2 Manet in his studio
3 Absent friends
4 Music
5 Ethereal
6 Group portraits
7 Flower painter

Medium Well Done – a survey of different media used in painting, and their effect on art

0 Introduction and terminology
1 Fresco and secco wall painting
2 Encaustic, painting in hox wax
3 Glue Tempera (distemper)
4 Egg Tempera
5 Watercolour and gouache
6 Oils
7 Pastels
8 Crayons, oil pastels, and more
9 Ink and casein
10 Acrylics
11 Wood panels
12 Stretched canvas
13 Paper and cardboard
14 Copper and other sheets
15 Ground
16 Varnish
17 Putting it all together

Gustave Courbet – celebrating the bicentenary of his birth

Bicentenary of Gustave Courbet, a founding father of modern art
1: The Desperate Man
2: The group
3: Allegory
4: The erotic
5: Waves and caves
6: Into exile

Commemorating the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci

In Memoriam Leonardo da Vinci: Pure Genius
Leonardo the Apprentice: Verrocchio and his Studio
Leonardo the Apprentice: Verrocchio’s pupils
The Master’s Master 1
The Master’s Master 2
The Master’s Master 3
The Master’s Master 4
The Master’s Master 5
The Master’s Master 6

More Than Portraits: the paintings of Diego Velazquez

9 The revolutionary paintings of Diego Velazquez
Painting in Spain at the time of Velázquez 1
Painting in Spain at the time of Velázquez 2
1, early bodegone
2, to court
3, the challenge of narrative
4 From Mars to Venus
5 Sibyl and Spinners
6 Spinners
7 Late Portraits and Myths
8 Las Meninas

Goethe’s Faust

0 Introduction
1 Faust meets the black dog
2 A pact with the devil
3 Auerbach’s Tavern and lust
4 The seduction of Gretchen
5 Gretchen’s fall
6 Walpurgis Night
7 Gretchen sentenced to death
8 Part two
9 The story of Gretchen by Ary Scheffer & James Tissot

Les Nabis – see also Pierre Bonnard below

The Dutch Nabi: Meijer de Haan
The beautiful icons of Maurice Denis 1
The beautiful icons of Maurice Denis 2
Much more than the Nabi Sculptor: Georges Lacombe
Paul Ranson: the heart of the Nabis 1
Paul Ranson: the heart of the Nabis 2
József Rippl-Rónai 1: The Hungarian Nabi
József Rippl-Rónai 2: Father of modern Hungarian painting
A Peculiar Beauty: the paintings of Ker-Xavier Roussel 1
A Peculiar Beauty: the paintings of Ker-Xavier Roussel 2
Paul Sérusier: 1 The Talisman
Paul Sérusier: 2 Harvest
Paintings of Félix Vallotton 1 The Foreign Nabi
Paintings of Félix Vallotton 2 Mysterious Interiors
Paintings of Félix Vallotton: 3 Myth and Mists
Paintings of Félix Vallotton: 4 War and the Land
An unsettling eye: Félix Vallotton’s domestic interiors
Like an obelisk: Nabi paintings of Jan Verkade
Le Nabi Zouave: Édouard Vuillard 1
Le Nabi Zouave: Édouard Vuillard 2

Pierre Bonnard – one of the great painters of the twentieth century

Japonisme and the Nabis, 1888-1892
Oil sketching and Marthe, 1893-1895
Bustling Paris and the bedroom, 1896-1899
Light and Travel, 1900-1904
Pleasure and Patrons, 1905-1907
Light and Mirrors, 1908-1909
Le Midi, 1910-1911
Form or Colour, 1912-1914
Tea, coffee, and models, 1915-1917
Domestic Symphony, 1918-1920
Beaches and Bathing, 1921-1923
Marriage and the Coast, 1924-1926
Fruit and French Windows, 1927-1930
Bathrooms and tabletops, 1931-1936
At home with Marthe, 1937-1943
Mimosa and memories, 1944-1947
Marthe
Pierre Bonnard’s Journey into Light: Landscapes 1894-1946
On Reflection
The world beyond
Related:
Misia: muse and patron to painters and the arts

Painting Reality – the history of Naturalist painting and arts

9 Summary and Index
1 Emergence (1883)
2 Origins
3 Spread
4 Art and the State
5 Growth of the city
6 Science and technology
7 Decline
8 Outcome
Sorolla’s Naturalist paintings 1: Fishermen and white slaves
Sorolla’s Naturalist paintings 2: Science and the sea

Artists with Anniversaries in 2019

William Powell Frith 1: Dickens and Social Panoramas
William Powell Frith 2: Moral series
Carl Larsson: 1 Finding the idyllic family
Carl Larsson: 2 Success and rejection
John Ruskin, Godfather to the Pre-Raphaelites, was born 200 years ago today
In Memoriam Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes 1 Finished paintings
In Memoriam Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes 2 Oil sketches
Poussin’s Inheritance: the 400th anniversary of Charles Le Brun 1
Poussin’s Inheritance: the 400th anniversary of Charles Le Brun 2
In Memoriam Helen Hyde, American Japoniste
The First Impressionist? Johan Jongkind’s Bicentenary – first period in France
The First Impressionist? Johan Jongkind’s Bicentenary – Impressionism
The First Impressionist? Johan Jongkind’s Bicentenary – Decline
Calm meadows: the bicentenary of Henri Harpignies 1
Calm meadows: the bicentenary of Henri Harpignies 2
The Napoleon of Painting: the bicentenary of Théodore Chassériau 1
The Napoleon of Painting: the bicentenary of Théodore Chassériau 2
Commemorating 300 years since the death of Jan Weenix
Distant panoramas: The 400th anniversary of Philip de Koninck 1
Distant panoramas: The 400th anniversary of Philip de Koninck 2
Commemorating the 700th anniversary of Duccio’s death
Henry Clay Frick and his collection
Why Géricault’s shipwreck changed the course of art 1
Why Géricault’s shipwreck changed the course of art 2

Boccaccio’s Decameron in paintings – particularly popular in the 19th century

Index to stories and the finest paintings
Invitation to a new series
Scourge of the Early Renaissance: the Black Death 1
Scourge of the Early Renaissance: the Black Death 2
Nastagio Degli Onesti, the penalty of the pure in body
Cimon and Iphigenia, a tale mostly untold in paint
Temptation of a faithful wife
The flowerpot’s grisly secret
The wrong way to a man’s heart
The hundred and first story
The suffering of Griselda

Jerusalem Delivered – three centuries of paintings of Torquato Tasso’s epic

1 Introduction to a new series
2 The start of the First Crusade
3 Jerusalem
4 Clorinda saves Sophronia and Olindo
5 Clorinda fights Tancred, and Armida meets Godfrey
6 Erminia and the Shepherds
7 Tancred and Rinaldo lost, and Clorinda killed
8 Armida abducts Rinaldo
9 In Armida’s Garden
10 Rinaldo rescued
11 Erminia saves Tancred
12 Rinaldo saves Armida, and Jerusalem is delivered
13 Summary and highlights
14 Heroes and heroines

Paintings of 1918 – short survey of notable paintings from exactly a century ago

War
Looking back
Narrative and Figurative
Landscapes

The Naturalist Andersens – a new series looking at the paintings of HA Brendekilde and LA Ring

HA Brendekilde 1883-1889
LA Ring 1882-1889
HA Brendekilde 1889-1894
LA Ring 1890-1894
HA Brendekilde 1895-1906
LA Ring 1895-1906
HA Brendekilde 1906-1914
LA Ring 1906-1914
HA Brendekilde 1915-1942
LA Ring 1915-1933
Moments of Genius

Commemorating the centenaries of the deaths of Kolo Moser and Egon Schiele

Radical Views: Egon Schiele 1, 1907-1911
Radical Views: Egon Schiele 2, 1912-13
Radical Views: Egon Schiele 3, 1914-15
Radical Views: Egon Schiele 4, 1915-16
Radical Views: Egon Schiele 5, 1917-18
Between Klimt, Mucha, and Hodler: The art of Kolo Moser 1, 1891-1898
Between Klimt, Mucha, and Hodler: The art of Kolo Moser 2, 1899-10
Between Klimt, Mucha, and Hodler: The art of Kolo Moser 3, 1911-13
Between Klimt, Mucha, and Hodler: The art of Kolo Moser 4, 1914-18

Tintoretto: celebrating the 500th anniversary of his birth

0: Introduction and contents
1: The Fables of Ovid
2: Tradition and success
3: Washing and Genesis
4: Saints and sinners
5: First work for the Madonna dell’Orto
6: Crucifixion and the Choir
7: Assumptions and Saint Mark
8: The Albergo and its Crucifixion
9: Passion and Treasurers
10: Last Suppers and the Doge
11: Old Testament visions of the Sala superiore
12: Back to mythology for the Doges
13: Three rapes and a Senator
14: The life of Christ in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco
15: The Sala terrena of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco
16: Paradise
17: The Last Suppers
18: The Hallmark of Genius

Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme

1, 1846-1852
2, 1853-1859
3, 1859-1862
4, 1864-1872
5, 1873-1881
6, 1882-1892
7, 1893-1896
8, 1897-1902
Related:
Hail Caesar: paintings of the Colosseum and its spectacles, 1
Hail Caesar: paintings of the Colosseum and its spectacles, 2
Painting Truth: When did she emerge from a well?

Other ‘Naturalist’ or ‘social Realist’ painting in the late nineteenth century

The Franco-Prussian War: Depicting defeat
The Franco-Prussian War: Destruction of Paris
The Franco-Prussian War: Aftermath
Alexandre Cabanel and his pupils: the master
Alexandre Cabanel and his pupils: the pupils
Jules Bastien-Lepage: Avatar of Naturalism, 1
Jules Bastien-Lepage: Avatar of Naturalism, 2
Painting and Photography: the work of Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret 1
Painting and Photography: the work of Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret 2
The Naturalism of Gustave Caillebotte 1
The Naturalism of Gustave Caillebotte 2
Surgery, sinners, and soirées: the paintings of Henri Gervex
Gleaners, Markets and Scientists: Paintings of Léon Lhermitte 1
Gleaners, Markets and Scientists: Paintings of Léon Lhermitte 2
Erik Henningsen: the thirsty man
The Last Naturalist: Émile Friant, 1
The Last Naturalist: Émile Friant, 2
The Real Jules-Alexis Muenier: 1 Paintings
The Real Jules-Alexis Muenier: 2 Painting from photographs
A German Naturalist? Fritz von Uhde 1
A German Naturalist? Fritz von Uhde 2
The Organ Rehearsal: The paintings, friends, and collection of Henry Lerolle
Strikes, Politics, and Zola’s ‘Germinal’: Paintings of Alfred Roll
A Civic Starkness: Paintings of Eugène Buland
The painted politics of Édouard Debat-Ponsan
Street Urchins: Paintings of Fernand Pelez
Down and Out in Catania: paintings of Antonino Gandolfo
Alberto Pasini’s Oriental World, 1
Alberto Pasini’s Oriental World, 2
Berthold Woltze and his problem pictures
Albin Egger-Lienz: early Naturalism, 1887-1903
Albin Egger-Lienz: Work and War, 1904-1926
Ripples in Reality: The Landscape Paintings of Frits Thaulow, 1
Ripples in Reality: The Landscape Paintings of Frits Thaulow, 2
Erik Henningsen: the thirsty man
Aksel Johannessen’s street women and drunkards, 1
Aksel Johannessen’s street women and drunkards, 2
Peace and War: Paintings of François Flameng 1
Peace and War: Paintings of François Flameng 2
Down and out: Vagrants
Down and Out: Homeless
The drowned man
Utonula, the drowned woman
The Tables Turned: Painters paint photographers
By the Sweat of their Brow – people at work 1
By the Sweat of their Brow – people at work 2
All Out! Paintings of strikes
The Rise of the Clinic: 1, family medicine
The Rise of the Clinic: 2, hospitals
Anatomy lessons, autopsies, and surgery: they’re different
In Hospital: 1, Doom
In Hospital: 2, Light
Jean Geoffroy: the world of the child
Painting the Class: schools from 1640 to 1860
Painting the Class: schools from 1860 to 1907
Faites vos jeux: gambling on canvas 1, to 1850
Faites vos jeux: gambling on canvas 2, after 1850
The Murder of Marat: Painting politics and perception
Fly Like a God: Paintings of flight before Blériot
Fly Like a God: Paintings of flight after Blériot
The Art of the Law: paintings of courts 1, to 1903
The Art of the Law: paintings of courts 2, Forain and court artists
Woman Sewing: By hand 1
Woman Sewing: By hand 2
Woman Sewing: Slave to the sewing machine
Fire, Fire 1: Brandjes and Napoleon
Fire, Fire 2: London and Frederiksborg Castle are burning
Umbrellas: Stop the rain
Umbrellas: Stop the sun
Amsterdam for Real: Paintings of George Breitner 1
Amsterdam for Real: Paintings of George Breitner 2
No Greater Naturalist: Paintings of Bruno Liljefors, 1
No Greater Naturalist: Paintings of Bruno Liljefors, 2
Sorolla’s Naturalist paintings 1: Fishermen and white slaves
Sorolla’s Naturalist paintings 2: Science and the sea

A Hard Reality: the paintings of Christian Krohg

1 – beginnings
2 – the fatigued and the fallen
3 – family and famine
4 – sailors and models

Seeing History – a series looking at how human visual experience has changed, and how that affects paintings and their perception

1, The long dark night (light and lighting)
2, Colour and class (colour)
3, Static views
4, Motion and photographic artefact
5, Every picture tells two stories
6, Illusions of the real
7, Is perspective learned or natural?
8, Don’t believe your eyes – visual fidelity and belief
9, Towards a timeline

Pigment – looking at pigments in paintings

0, Introduction and contents
1, Cobalt Blue, the 19th century sky
2, Asphalt, an unfortunate habit
3, A tale of two yellows, Indian and Chrome
4, Vermilion, the red of heaven
5, Copper rust, Verdigris and Copper Resinate
6, Arsenic, Orpiment and Realgar
7, Ground glass (Smalt)
8, Crimson, Madder and Alizarin
9, Indigo the unreliable
10, Blackest Black
11, The Forgotten Yellow of the Masters (lead-tin yellow)
12, A white less toxic, Chinese white
13, The first modern pigment, Prussian Blue
14, The blue from over the sea, Ultramarine
15, Poison Greens, Scheele’s and Emerald Greens
16, Red Lead, protective but poisonous
17, The unusual green of Malachite
18, In Monet’s shadow, Chromium Oxide and Viridian
19, Controversial Cadmiums, yellow to red
20, Azurite Blue, the mainstay
21, the green earth of Cyprus
22, What used to be Naples Yellow
23, Two whites, lead and chalk

Coast: landscape paintings of the coast

Introduction
Visiting the beach
Storms, 1 Magnasco to Aivazovsky
Storms, 2 Bierstadt to Bellows
On a clear day – from the cliff, Friedrich to Gude
On a clear day – from the cliff, Homer to Hills
When the boat comes in – 1, Under way
When the boat comes in – 2, Landing the catch
Flatlands
Scottish seas by William McTaggart
To the lighthouse
To the end of the earth with Peder Balke
Clarkson Stanfield’s spectacles of sea and sky
Ice, the Arctic Art of William Bradford
The Cornish Riviera in the nineteenth century
The Cornish Riviera in the twentieth century
Wintering in Capri 1, to 1880
Wintering in Capri 2, from 1881
Maine 1, nineteenth century
Maine 2, twentieth century
At the Shrine of Benzaiten, Enoshima, Japan
Henry Moret’s Brittany
By the light of the moon, 1 before 1850
By the light of the moon, 2 after 1850
The spectacle of Vesuvius, 1 to 1800
The spectacle of Vesuvius, 2 after 1800
Strangeness on the strand
Dieppe, the painter’s resort
The harvest of the sea
With Claude at the coast
The drowned man
Utonula, the drowned woman

Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas – the best paintings of Ovid’s myths

0 – index and bibliography
The best of the first half – six of the best stories and finest paintings from Daphne to Echo and Narcissus
The best of the first half – five of the best stories and finest paintings from Pyramus and Thisbe to the Calydonian boar hunt
The best of the second half – six of the best stories and finest paintings from Nessus, Deianira and Hercules to the Greeks attacking Troy
The best of the second half – six of the best stories and finest paintings from the Lapiths and the Centaurs to the death of Julius Caesar
Book 1
1 – Lycaon, cannibalism, and werewolves
2 – Deucalion, the flood, and Python
3 – Daphne, and how the laurel became the crown
4 – Jupiter & Io, Mercury & Argus, Pan & Syrinx. Rape, murder, cows, and peacocks
Book 2
5 – Phaëthon, the Heliades, Cycnus
6 – Jupiter and Callisto
7 – The Raven and Crow, and more
8 – Turned into stone, Mercury and Aglaurus
9 – The abduction of Europa
Book 3
10 – Cadmus and the Dragon’s Teeth
11 – Actaeon’s fatal mistake
12 – Semele and Jupiter’s Surrogate Pregnancy
13 – Tiresias, Echo and Narcissus
14 – Pentheus and Bacchus
Book 4
15 – Pyramus and Thisbe
16 – Venus and Mars, Leucothoe and Clytie
17 – Salmacis and Hermaphroditus
18 – Athamas and Ino
19 – Cadmus and Harmonia
20 – Perseus and Andromeda
21 – Perseus and Medusa
Book 5
22 – Perseus’ Wedding Feast
23 – Minerva and the Muses
24 – The rape of Proserpine
25 – Arethusa
26 – Triptolemus and Lyncus
Book 6
27 – Arachne and Minerva
28 – Niobe and the slaughter of her children
29 – Lycians turned into frogs
30 – Marsyas and Pelops
31 – Tereus, Philomela and Procne
32 – Boreas and Orithyia
Book 7
33 – Jason, Medea, and the Golden Fleece
34 – Medea rejuvenates Aeson
35 – Medea and Pelias
36 – Medea and Theseus
37 – Aeacus and the Myrmidons
38 – Cephalus and Procris
Book 8
39 – Scylla and Minos, and the Minotaur
40 – Daedalus and Icarus
41 – Meleager, Atalanta, and the Calydonian Boar
42 – The Death of Meleager, and the Feast of Achelous
43 – Philemon and Baucis, virtue rewarded
44 – Shape-shifters and death by gluttony
Book 9
45 – How came the Horn of Plenty
46 – Nessus, Deianira, and Hercules
47 – the birth of Hercules
48 – Dryope, and an incestuous couple
49 – Transgender marriage
Book 10
50 – Orpheus and Eurydice
51 – How the cypress tree is for grief
52 – Hyacinthus killed by a discus
53 – Pygmalion and his statue
54 – The making of myrrh
55 – Hippomenes’ race with Atalanta
56 – The death of Adonis
Book 11
57 – Orpheus battered to death by Bacchantes
58 – The Midas touch and ears
59 – Troy and the birth of Achilles
60 – Daedalion, Ceyx and Halcyone turned into birds
61 – Aesacus and Hesperia
Book 12
62 – The Greeks attack Troy
63 – First casualties at Troy, and gender change
64 – The Lapiths and the Centaurs
65 – Periclymenus and the Death of Achilles
Book 13
66 – The Judgement of Arms
67 – The Fall of Troy
68 – The death of Memnon and flight of Aeneas
69 – Aeneas on Delos
70 – Galatea’s lover crushed by jealousy
71 – Glaucus and Scylla
Book 14
72 – Scylla transformed
73 – Dido and Aeneas, and the origin of the apes
74 – The Shrinking Sibyl
75 – The Wrath of Polyphemus
76 – Ulysses’ crew turned into pigs
77 – Circe’s bad habit
78 – Aeneas in Italy, and with the gods
79 – Pomona Seduced and Anaxarete Petrified
80 – Romulus and Hersilia become gods
Book 15
81 – Pythagoras and vegetarianism
82 – The death of Numa, and a nymph turned into a spring
83 – Augury and pestilence
84 – The death of Julius Caesar
85 – The Age of Augustus, the final episode

Love, myth, and exile: the life of Ovid in paintings
Parallel hypertext: Storyspace metamorphosed 2, including a full Latin and English version of Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 1 in Tinderbox/Storyspace format
Parallel hypertext: Storyspace metamorphosed 3, includes the illustrated version of Book 1 in Tinderbox/Storyspace format

Ovid’s Heroides: Letters from heroines

Heroines: Ovid’s ‘Heroides’, fictional letters from great women – an index and more
Love’s Restless Fear: Penelope’s story (letter 1)
The Over-Exposed Warrior, the Suicide Pact, and the Almond Tree: The story of Phyllis and Demophoon (letter 2)
Pride and Petulance: How one woman almost saved Troy: The story of Briseis and Achilles (letter 3)
The Largest Salon, the Wicked Stepmother, and a Fatal Lie: The story of Phaedra and Hippolytus (letter 4)
President’s Park, the Titanic, and a Name on a Tree: The story of Oenone and Paris (letter 5)
Bigamy, sorcery, and rotting timbers: was Jason just another rat? The story of Hypsipyle and Jason (letter 6)
It wasn’t their fault: Dido and Aeneas as a doomed couple (letter 7)
Spouse-swapping, matricide, and Harry Potter: Hermione and Orestes (letter 8)
A Troubled Woman, Centaur’s Blood, and Hercules as Martyr: The story of Deianira and Hercules (letter 9)
Cross-Dressing, Feminism, and the Greek Demi-God: An odd turn in the story of Deianira and Hercules (letter 9)
All’s Well that Ends Well: Ariadne’s story (letter 10)
Secrets of the Vatican and Nelson’s Dockyard: Canace and Laodamia (letters 11, 13)
Sorcery Seldom Succeeds: Painting Medea and Jason (letter 12)
Fifty Brides for Fifty Brothers, and their Unexpected Wedding Night: Hypermnestra and Lynceus (letter 14)
Sappho and the perpetuation of legend (letter 15)
The Face that Launched a Thousand Artists: Helen (and Paris) (Heroides, letters 16, 17)
Lovers die swimming the Hellespont: the tragedy of Hero and Leander (letters 18, 19)
A Message on an Apple, and Two Abandoned Lovers: The story of Cydippe and Acontius (letters 20, 21)
Love, myth, and exile: the life of Ovid in paintings

Plutarch’s Lives in Paint – looking at paintings based on the biographies of famous Greeks and Romans

0 Introduction to a new series
1a Theseus, to the killing of the Minotaur
1a Theseus, from the flight to Naxos
1b Romulus, to the founding of Rome
1b Romulus, from the rape of the Sabines
2a Lycurgus
2b Numa
3a Solon
3b Publicola
4a Themistocles
4b Camillus
5a Aristides
5b Cato the Elder
7a Pericles
7b Quintus Fabius Maximus
9a Alcibiades
9b Coriolanus
10 Philopoemen and Flaminius, transition to the Roman Empire
11a Pyrrhus
11b Caius Marius
16 Agesilaus and Pompey
17a Alexander (the Great) 1
17a Alexander (the Great) 2
17b Julius Caesar 1
17b Julius Caesar 2
18a Phocion
18b Cato the Younger
20a Demosthenes
20b Cicero
From Theseus to Caius Marius
From Alexander the Great to Cato the Younger

Loving Beauty: commemorating the centenary of the death of Gustav Klimt

In Memoriam Gustav Klimt, 1862-1918
1, decorator and painter
2, portraits and vacations
3, burnish and beeches
4, the Golden Phase
5, textures and patterns
6, life and death
Gustav Klimt’s colleagues: paintings of the Vienna Secessionists
Among the Hutsul: the oils and pastels of Teodor Axentowicz

Ferdinand Hodler – commemorating the centenary of the death of this major Swiss artist

Early Realism, to 1885
Transition, 1886-94
Distant mountains, 1895-1902
View to Infinity, 1903-1906
Rhythmic Landscapes, 1906-1910
Unanimity and Change, 1911-1914
Death and Eternity, 1915-1918
In Memoriam Ferdinand Hodler 1853–1918: an appreciation

Telling Modern Stories: the narrative painting of Benjamin West – a new series looking at the modernisation of history painting

1, 1766-1768
2, The Death of General Wolfe
3, Penn to the Death of Chatham
4, Major religious works
5, Back to classics
6, The Death of Nelson
7, Conclusion

In the Angels’ Kitchen: celebrating the 400th anniversary of Murillo

1, to 1650
2, 1650-1665
3, from 1665

Edgar Degas – commemorating the centenary of his death

Edgar Degas: an appreciation
A life in twelve paintings
Narrative paintings to 1865
Narrative paintings from 1866
Landscapes
Dancers 1, Form and movement
Dancers 2, Lessons and rehearsal
Portraits of the Modern Woman
Woman bathing

Degas’ Circle:
Before Impressionism
After Impressionism
Mary Cassatt, 1 Early days
Mary Cassatt, 2 Painter and print-maker
Mary Cassatt, 3 Prints perfected
Danseuses: 1 Largely innocent
Danseuses: 2 The social message
The Nearly-Impressionist Jean-François Raffaëlli
A Different Kind of Impressionist: Pierre-Georges Jeanniot

Context:
A Woman’s Work 1: Laundry in a Landscape
A Woman’s Work 2: Portrait of a Laundress
Painting pure colour: a short history of pastels 1
Painting pure colour: a short history of pastels 2

Richard Dadd – the bicentenary of his birth

1 Family and faeries (1832-42)
2 Travels and Tragedy (1843-45)
3 Bethlem 1846-1855
4 Bethlem 1856-1859
5 The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke
6 To Broadmoor 1860-1886
7 An appreciation

Fra Bartolomeo: commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death

An appreciation 500 years after his death
1. to 1500
2. 1504-1512
3. 1513-1517

Artists with Anniversaries in 2018

A Traveller among Mountains: the landscape paintings of Wu Li – commemorating the 300th anniversary of his death
Travellers among Mountains: the Six Masters of the Early Qing
Moved by Gauguin: In Memoriam Władysław Ślewiński
The Second Most Famous Georgian: Niko Pirosmani, 1 Animals
The Second Most Famous Georgian: Niko Pirosmani, 2 People and Places
Louisa Beresford: a truly vanished Pre-Raphaelite
And When Did You Last See William Frederick Yeames? – commemorating the centenary of his death
Ordering Colour: Albert Henry Munsell (1858-1918)
In memoriam: Charles Edward Perugini 1839-1918
Fjords and Munch: In memory of Adelsteen Normann 1
Fjords and Munch: In memory of Adelsteen Normann 2

Artists with Anniversaries in 2017

JW Waterhouse: Allure and magic 1, to commemorate the centenary of his death
JW Waterhouse: Allure and magic 2
Charles-François Daubigny: the first Impressionist? 1, to commemorate his bicentenary
Charles-François Daubigny: the first Impressionist? 2
Carolus-Duran: Portraits and pupils 1 – to commemorate the centenary of his death
Carolus-Duran: Portraits and pupils 2
George Frederic Watts: influence and ideas 1, to commemorate his bicentenary
George Frederic Watts: influence and ideas 2
Alexander Cozens: experimental painter – his tercentenary
The Golden Home: 400th anniversary of Gerard ter Borch, 1
The Golden Home: 400th anniversary of Gerard ter Borch, 2

Tom Thomson: Canada from a Canoe – commemorating the centenary of his sudden death

1 1905-1914
2 1915 part 1
3 1915 part 2
4 1916
5 1917

Totems and trees: Emily Carr’s paintings

1 1892-1911
2 1912-1913
3 1914-1930
4 1931-1936
5 1937-1945

Carl Larsson’s Ideal Home

1 France 1877-1885
2 Sweden 1886-1898
3 Books and Murals 1899-1919

Edvard Munch’s Frieze of Life

A life in paintings 1884-1892
A life in paintings 1893-1909
A life in paintings 1910-1944
The Frieze of Life 1, Berlin, 1895
The Frieze of Life 2, Seeds of Love
The Frieze of Life 3, Flowering and Passing of Love
The Frieze of Life 4, Life Anxiety
The Frieze of Life 5, Death
The Frieze of Life 6, Conclusions and index
see also
The Baltic shore, Norwegian fjords, and outrage in Berlin: 1, Peace on the shore
The Baltic shore, Norwegian fjords, and outrage in Berlin: 2, Outrage in the city

Jean-François Millet: Ploughing a lonely furrow

1 1837-1852
2 1852-1855
3 1856-1861
4 1861-1868
5 1869-1875
Different Fields: Jules Breton and Jean-François Millet

Jules Breton’s Eternal Harvest

1 1850-1859
2 1860-1869
3 1870-1876
4 1877-1889
5 1890-1906
Different Fields: Jules Breton and Jean-François Millet

Franz von Stuck’s Thoroughly Modern Histories

1 1887-1891
2 1892-1900
3 1901-1909
4 1910-1913
5 1914-1928

Paul Nash – from ancient to surreal, strange landscapes

1 – to 1920
2 – 1920-1930
3 – 1931-1938
4 – 1939-1942
5 – 1943-1945
Two Roads to Magical Landscapes: Paul Nash and Nikolai Astrup

Nikolai Astrup: Dark Sunlight – his Norwegian landscapes

1 – to 1905
2 – 1906-10
3 – 1911-19
4 – 1920-24
5 – 1925-28 and prints
Two Roads to Magical Landscapes: Paul Nash and Nikolai Astrup

Changing Times: the paintings of Lovis Corinth

1 – to 1890
2 – 1891-1897
3 – 1898-1900
4 – 1901-1904
5 – 1905-1909
6 – 1909-1911
7 – self-portraits and 1912
8 – 1913-1914
9 – 1915-1919
10 – 1920-1923
11 – 1924-1925
Self-portraits and nudes 1886-1925
Narrative paintings 1890-1924

Hesiod’s Brush, the paintings of Gustave Moreau

1 Gathering storm, to 1860
2 Distant rumbles, The Suitors, The Daughters of Thespius, and Tyrtaeus Singing during the Combat
3 The thunderclap, Oedipus and the Sphinx, and The Young Man and Death
4 After the storm, Diomedes, Orpheus, and more
5 Before the war, The Chimera, Prometheus, Jupiter and Europa, and more
6 Back in favour, Sappho, Saint Sebastian and the Angel, Hercules and the Lernean Hydra, and more
7 Salome’s success, Salome, The Apparition, and their relatives
8 Into the sky
9 The final Salon
10 Grief and recovery
11 Mythical animals and cities
12 For the museum
13 Jupiter and Semele
14 Overview and index
Jules-Élie Delaunay: fragments of history
Théodore Chassériau: Brief brilliance
The Oblivion of Ary Renan

Landscapes of the Ancients: John Linnell and Samuel Palmer

John Linnell, early landscapes
John Linnell, harvest and sunset
Samuel Palmer, early visions
Samuel Palmer, Rome and Wales
Samuel Palmer, etchings and sunsets

Tyger’s Eye: the paintings of William Blake

1 – the challenge
2 – The Ancient of Days
3 – Biography
4 – Pity, painting Shakespeare’s similes
5 – The large prints, 1795
6 – Tempera paintings, 1799-1800
7 – Tempera paintings 1800-1810
8 – Last tempera paintings
9 – Jacob’s Ladder and the stairway to heaven
10 – Whirlwinds and cars
11 – A Revelation of beasts
12 – Grand Designs
13 – Decoding the Epitome of Hervey
14 – Fragments of mythology
15 – The Last Judgement
16 – A miscellany
The Story in Paintings: Henry Fuseli, Swiss Gothic
William Blake’s role models and peers – Barry, Flaxman, Mortimer, Stothard
From William Blake to the Ancients and moderns

The Story in Paintings: who killed John the Baptist?

1 Herodias
2 Doubt
3 Salome
The Salome Story: first full release version for Storyspace and Tinderbox

John Singer Sargent

Sargent’s Summer with Rosina
Watching: Sargent’s paintings of painters painting
Sargent’s Allusion to an Absent Dog
Sargent’s prim ladies reach for Priapus and Bacchanalia
John Singer Sargent’s ‘Gassed’: more allusion than fact?
Sargent’s Furies: a rare but powerful story
11 – John Singer Sargent, Dolce Far Niente, 1907
23 – USA: John Singer Sargent
Should we be rehabilitating Sargent, or his critics?
Dancer: John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, and James Carroll Beckwith

Odilon Redon – commemorating his centenary 1840–1916

Into the Light: Odilon Redon’s unique eye, 1 – to 1894
2 – 1895-1904
3 – 1905 on

The Poem of the Soul (Le Poème de l’âme) – possibly the greatest epic narrative painting series, by Louis Janmot

1 Oil paintings 1-9
2 Oil paintings 10-18
3 Charcoal drawings 19-26
4 Charcoal drawings 27-34

Pre-Raphaelite Landscapes

1: Emergence
2: Truth
3: Development
4: John Brett 1
5: John Brett 2
6: British landscape painting in the 19th century
7: Ruskin’s role
Hans Gude and the grandeur of Norway

After the Pre-Raphaelite – the Aesthetic movement in painting

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic
Frederic, Lord Leighton: Classic and Aesthetic
Val Prinsep, the oriental Aesthetic
John Roddam Spencer Stanhope: a different Pre-Raphaelite
Sir Edward Poynter, a British Gérôme? 1, to 1879
Sir Edward Poynter, a British Gérôme? 2, 1880 onwards
John Everett Millais: only briefly Pre-Raphaelite
Lawrence Alma-Tadema: classics go Aesthetic, 1
Lawrence Alma-Tadema: classics go Aesthetic, 2
Alma-Tadema at Fries Museum, the Netherlands, and in Vienna, and London
Anna Alma-Tadema: An eye for detail
Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema: the woman’s world
Into the Light: John Godward, Aestheticism in the extreme
Dolce far niente: the apogee of Aestheticism
Into the Light: Frederick Sandys, Rossetti’s shadow?
Into the Light: Annie Swynnerton
Vanishing Pre-Raphaelite: Charles William Mitchell

Marie Spartali Stillman (1844–1927): the forgotten Pre-Raphaelite

Part 1 – to 1883
Part 2 – to 1892
Part 3 – from 1892
also
Louisa Beresford: a truly vanished Pre-Raphaelite

Alchemy: a brief history of oil painting

1 – overview
2 – the origin of oil painting
3 – oils in the northern Renaissance
4 – how oils came to Italy
5 – the High Renaissance, canvas, and counting brushstrokes
6 – Rubens and control of paint viscosity
7 – Rembrandt and surface texture
8 – Bladders and Megilp
9 – Turner and tubes
10 – the direct and the dangerous; Impressionists and Pre-Raphaelites
11 – intent overrides craft
12 – novel resins, water, and the uncertain future
13 – milestones, an overview
See also
The first Italian Master in oil: Antonello da Messina 1
The first Italian Master in oil: Antonello da Messina 2
The first Italian Master in oil: Antonello da Messina 3
Who invented oil paint?
Fat over lean – understanding oil paint
Painting outdoors in oils: a brief summary history
A tentative history of visible brushstrokes in paint
Summary of pigment use and its effect on style

Wet in Wet: a brief history of watercolour

1, origins to 1800
2, 1800-1850
3, 1850-1890
4, After Impressionism

Painting pure colour: a short history of pastels

Part 1
Part 2

Painting the Impossible – responses to classic challenges

Smell
Gone with the Wind – land and sea (Wind)
Gone with the Wind – people (Wind)
Music
Touch
Taste
Sight

James Ward (1769–1859): between Constable and Turner

Part 1, to 1810
Part 2, 1811-1818
Part 3, 1819 on

Important Women Painters – significant articles, arranged in alphabetical order of the artist’s last name

Women painters before 1800: 1 to 1630
Women painters before 1800: 2 1630-1800
Into the Light: Helen Allingham’s eternal countryside
Anna Alma-Tadema: An eye for detail
Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema: the woman’s world
Review: The body real (Ellen Altfest)
Fair Maids: the paintings of Sophie Gengembre Anderson
Beyond the French Impressionists – Denmark (Anna Ancher)
Sophonisba Anguissola: My family and others
Into the Light: Harriet Backer, inside and out 1
Into the Light: Harriet Backer, inside and out 2
Brief Candles: Marie Bashkirtseff
Into the Light: Cecilia Beaux’s perceptive portraits, 1 – to 1898
Into the Light: Cecilia Beaux’s perceptive portraits, 2 – from 1898
Louisa Beresford: a truly vanished Pre-Raphaelite
Into the Light: Tina Blau, the first Post-Impressionist?
Into the Light: Rosa Bonheur, animalière extraordinaire
Sisters in Light: Hanna Hirsch-Pauli and Eva Bonnier
Post-Impressionist Paintings of Olga Boznańska 1
Post-Impressionist Paintings of Olga Boznańska 2
Into the Light: Louise Upton Brumback, all things bright and colourful
Mary Cassatt, 1 Early days
Mary Cassatt, 2 Painter and print-maker
Mary Cassatt, 3 Prints perfected
Beyond the French Impressionists – Finland (Fanny Churberg)
In an Ancient Light: Héva Coomans and family
Emma Lampert Cooper, the invisible wife
Children and the sea: the paintings of Virginie Demont-Breton
Into the Light: Susan Macdowell Eakins, more than the artist’s wife
Lavinia Fontana: the first woman Master?
Faces of the Distant Past: Botticelli, the Medicis and ephemeral beauty – Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale: the last Pre-Raphaelite?
Favourite paintings – Artemisia Gentileschi, Allegory of Painting, c 1638-9
The Story in Paintings: Lucretia, the hardest narrative of all (Artemisia Gentileschi)
The Story in Paintings: Off with his head! (Artemisia Gentileschi) (Warning: contains gruesome images)
Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer (and Dora Wheeler Keith)
Into the Light: Anna Hills and California light
Sisters in Light: Hanna Hirsch-Pauli and Eva Bonnier
Far from home: Paintings of Frances Hodgkins 1
Far from home: Paintings of Frances Hodgkins 2
Dora Wheeler Keith (and Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer)
The perfect landscapes of Emilie Mediz-Pelikan
Anna Lea Merritt: Art locked out
The Story in Paintings: Evelyn De Morgan 1, to 1880
The Story in Paintings: Evelyn De Morgan 2, 1881 on
Favourite paintings – Berthe Morisot, La Lecture (Reading), 1888
Forgotten Flower: In Memoriam Mary Moser
Elizabeth Nourse and Family Life 1: 1883-1892
Elizabeth Nourse and Family Life 2: 1895-1910
Moor Colour: Fritz and Hermine Overbeck – Hermine Overbeck-Rohte
The Riches of the Table, and the Futility of Life: Clara Peeters’ still lifes
Henrietta Rae and the academic nude
In Between: the paintings of Anita Rée, 1
In Between: the paintings of Anita Rée, 2
Brief Candles: Elisabetta Sirani, 1
Brief Candles: Elisabetta Sirani, 2
The Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite: Marie Spartali Stillman, 1 – to 1883
The Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite: Marie Spartali Stillman, 2 – to 1892
The Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite: Marie Spartali Stillman, 3 – from 1892
Into the Light: Marianne Stokes
Into the Light: Annie Swynnerton
Brief Candles: Susan Watkins, the Woman in White
Kirsty Whiten’s Wronger Rites – contemporary stories and rituals about life

Figures in a Landscape

0 Introduction
1 Little people in grand views
2 Figures, narrative, ground
3 Seeing the Andes
4 Drawing a line under Turner
5 Pissarro and the human landscape
6 Constable’s gestures
7 Among skyscrapers
8 Nicolas Poussin
9 Pieter Brueghel the Elder
10 Canaletto, Master of Staffage
11 A helping brush
12 Renaissance realism
13 Conclusions and contents

Into the Light – representational painting in the 20th and 21st centuries

The only Austrian Impressionist: Theodor von Hörmann
A Weekend with Joseph Stella 1, to 1918
A Weekend with Joseph Stella 2, 1919-25
A Weekend with Joseph Stella 3, 1926 on
The Painter, his Patron, and their Museum: the Impressionist paintings of Torajirō Kojima
After The Rain: The Impressionist streets of Lesser Ury, 1
After The Rain: The Impressionist streets of Lesser Ury, 2
Post-Impressionist Paintings of Olga Boznańska 1
Post-Impressionist Paintings of Olga Boznańska 2
Pont-Aven Artists’ Colony: a brief history – 1, before Gauguin
Pont-Aven Artists’ Colony: a brief history – 2, Gauguin and Bernard
Pont-Aven Artists’ Colony: a brief history – 3, after Gauguin
A snapshot of 1916 in paintings and painters
A snapshot of 1917 in paintings
George Clausen’s transformation, through rural naturalism to Impressionism in the 1890s
George Clausen, Post-Impressionist, development of a full Post-Impressionist style
Adrian Scott Stokes in St Ives and Hungary
Marianne Stokes, a major woman artist
Harriet Backer, inside and out 1
Harriet Backer, inside and out 2
Eilif Peterssen, a Norwegian Impressionist
Maximilen Luce and the reality of life
Fernand Khnopff, more than a portrait
Jean-Louis Forain, nightlife and highlife
Jean-Louis Forain, courts and studios
The brilliance of Jacek Malczewski
Colin Campbell Cooper, 1 the sky’s the limit
Colin Campbell Cooper, 2 the colour of beauty
Henry Ossawa Tanner, to 1902 – the first well-known African-American painter
Henry Ossawa Tanner, from 1903
Anna Hills and California light
Friedrich Eckenfelder on the farm
John Ferguson Weir, Yale’s founding father
Jean Béraud and his Paris chronicle
Tina Blau, the first Post-Impressionist?
Alfred Stevens, more than just a pretty face?
Henri Martin, the French Post-Impressionist 1
Henri Martin, the French Post-Impressionist 2
Enrique Simonet, Death and the countryside, up to 1900
Enrique Simonet, Death and the countryside, after 1900
Arturo Michelena, a Venezuelan master
Louise Upton Brumback, all things bright and colourful
George Wesley Bellows, up to 1914
George Wesley Bellows, after 1914
Marsden Hartley, 1 experiments to 1921
Marsden Hartley, 2 mature landscapes
Emma Lampert Cooper, the invisible wife
Edward Charles Volkert, the pastural painter
Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer and Dora Wheeler Keith
Charles Demuth, Precisionism, and flowers
Carroll Beckwith, the under-age model, and the jealous husband
Robert Henri and the Ashcan School
Frank Duveneck, silent companion
Frederick Frieseke’s flickering females
Rosa Bonheur, animalière extraordinaire
Paul Helleu and high society
The Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite: Marie Spartali Stillman, 1 – to 1883
The Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite: Marie Spartali Stillman, 2 – to 1892
The Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite: Marie Spartali Stillman, 3 – from 1892
Thomas Eakins: the centenary of his death
Susan Macdowell Eakins, more than the artist’s wife
Julian Onderdonk – bluebonnets and pseudonyms
Cecilia Beaux’s perceptive portraits, 1 – to 1898
Cecilia Beaux’s perceptive portraits, 2 – from 1898
Henry Tonks, surgeon, painter, professor
City Life: 1 Eakins and Chase
City Life: 2 Henri, Cooper, and Bellows
Val Prinsep, the oriental Aesthetic
Anna Alma-Tadema: An eye for detail
John Godward, Aestheticism in the extreme
Hans Gude and the grandeur of Norway
Frederick Sandys, Rossetti’s shadow?
Ivan Aivazovsky, Master Mariner
Henrietta Rae and the academic nude
Annie Swynnerton
Helen Allingham’s eternal countryside
Odilon Redon’s unique eye, 1 – to 1894
Odilon Redon’s unique eye, 2 – 1895-1904
Odilon Redon’s unique eye, 3 – 1905 on
Osman Hamdi Bey
Haloes and Fans: the forgotten paintings of Louis Welden Hawkins
Vanishing Pre-Raphaelite: Charles William Mitchell
Landscapes and myths of Hans Thoma, 1862-83
Landscapes and myths of Hans Thoma, 1886-1917
Further North: paintings of Iceland by Þórarinn B. Þorláksson
From the Vienna Opera to Mountains of the Mind: Georg Janny and scenery painting
Moor Colour: Fritz and Hermine Overbeck
The Art of the Brain and a family of portraits
Impressions from Spain: The work of Marià Fortuny, 1860-69
Impressions from Spain: The work of Marià Fortuny, 1870-74
The Missing Mona Lisa: Louis Béroud painting painters painting paintings
The Eclectic Georges Clairin: elegance, corpses, and frou-frou
Sarah Bernhardt: Portraits of a superstar
Twilight of the Soul: Jakub Schikaneder 1
Twilight of the Soul: Jakub Schikaneder 2
Kirsty Whiten’s Wronger Rites – contemporary stories and rituals about life
The Story in Paintings: New narratives from Paula Rego, Peter Doig, and Stuart Pearson Wright
The body real – paintings by Ellen Altfest

Brief Candles – painters whose lives were cut short

Frédéric Bazille – figure in a landscape, 1
Frédéric Bazille – figure in a landscape, 2
Richard Parkes Bonington, 1
Richard Parkes Bonington, 2
Brief Candles: Dennis Miller Bunker – American Impressionist
Thomas Girtin, 1
Thomas Girtin 2
Masaccio part 1
Masaccio part 2
Giorgione, part 1, to 1504
Giorgione, part 2, 1505-1510
Jules Bastien-Lepage 1
Jules Bastien-Lepage 2
Marie Bashkirtseff
Elisabetta Sirani, 1
Elisabetta Sirani, 2
Paulus Potter
Adriaen van de Velde
Charles Laval was not Paul Gauguin
Henri Regnault, the history painter who became history
Brief Candles: Susan Watkins, the Woman in White

Narrative in Painting

Painters of Farm and Domestic Animals

Paulus Potter
Adriaen van de Velde
George Morland: genius, debt, and mistaken identity
James Ward, Part 1, to 1810
James Ward, Part 2, 1811-1818
James Ward, Part 3, 1819 on
Constant Troyon: landscapes with animals
Rosa Bonheur, animalière extraordinaire
Edward Charles Volkert, the pastural painter
Friedrich Eckenfelder on the farm
Geese 1: Farmyards and wetlands
Geese 2: The Goose Girl

Hieronymus Bosch – his 500th anniversary

Hieronymus Bosch: an Index to articles – complete with illustrations of his works
Hieronymus Bosch: the life of a great Master
Five hundred years of Bosch: the wisdom of his owls
Funnels, Jewish hats, and wizardry: the influence of Bosch’s visual inventions
A Summer of Bosch – books and exhibitions for his 500th
Book Review: Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman: Catalogue Raisonné, Ilsink and Koldeweij
The Adoration of the Magi (New York) (c 1470-80)
Ecce Homo (Städel) (c 1475-85)
Saint Jerome at Prayer (Ghent) (c 1485-95)
Saint John the Baptist (Madrid) (c 1490-95)
Saint John on Patmos, Passion Scenes (c 1490-95)
The Story in Paintings: Story circles – narrative form in Passion Scenes
The Crowning with Thorns (London) (c 1490-1500)
Calvary with Donor (c 1490-1500)
Saint Christopher (Rotterdam) (c 1490-1500)
Adoration of the Magi (Prado) (c 1490-1500)
Christ Carrying the Cross and Christ Child (c 1490-1510)
The Hermit Saints Triptych (Venice) (c 1495-1505)
Christ Carrying the Cross (San Lorenzo) (c 1495-1505)
Saint Wilgefortis Triptych (c 1495-1505)
The Garden of Earthly Delights (c 1495-1505) part 1
The Garden of Earthly Delights (c 1495-1505) part 2
The Last Judgement (Bruges) (c 1495-1505)
The Last Judgement (Vienna) (c 1500-1505)
The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Lisbon) and The Temptation of Saint Anthony (fragment, Kansas City) (c 1500-1510)
The Wayfarer Triptych (fragments) (c 1500-1510)
Visions of the Hereafter (1505-15)
The Haywain Triptych (1510-16)
Owls and the reading of Bosch’s paintings 1
Owls and the reading of Bosch’s paintings 2
Hieronymus Bosch and Richard Dadd: kindred spirits?
The Story in Paintings: The temptation of Saint Anthony, before 1560
The Story in Paintings: The temptation of Saint Anthony, after 1570

William Merritt Chase – his centenary

William Merritt Chase, 1849-1916: in memoriam
William Merritt Chase: a life in painting, 1, to 1883 – well-illustrated biography
William Merritt Chase: a life in painting, 2 1884-1890
William Merritt Chase: a life in painting, 3 1891-1900
William Merritt Chase: a life in painting, 4 1901-1916
A snapshot of 1916 in paintings and painters
Books and exhibitions to celebrate his centenary
Dancer: John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, and James Carroll Beckwith
William Merritt Chase paints history, for a brief moment
In William Merritt Chase’s Studio: insights and informal portraits
Meet the family: William Merritt Chase at home
Family portraits by William Merritt Chase
Shinnecock summer: William Merritt Chase in the country
Students of Chase: his greatest legacy
The spontaneous or methodical: Chase and Eakins at work
Prizes, performance and still life
City Life: 1 Eakins and Chase
City Life: 2 Henri, Cooper, and Bellows

His colleagues and friends:
Students of Chase: his greatest legacy – an overview of 20 former students
Carroll Beckwith, the under-age model, and the jealous husband
Robert Henri and the Ashcan School
Frank Duveneck, silent companion

His pupils:
Louise Upton Brumback (1867-1929)
George Wesley Bellows (1882–1925), up to 1914
George Wesley Bellows (1882–1925), after 1914
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), 1 experiments to 1921
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), 2 mature landscapes
Emma Lampert Cooper (1855-1920), the invisible wife
Edward Charles Volkert (1871-1935), the pastural painter
Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer (1873-1943) and Dora Wheeler Keith (1857-1940)
Charles Demuth (1883–1935), Precisionism, and flowers
Julian Onderdonk – bluebonnets and pseudonyms

Thomas Eakins – his centenary

Thomas Eakins: the centenary of his death
Into the Light: Susan Macdowell Eakins, more than the artist’s wife
The spontaneous or methodical: Chase and Eakins at work
Skiffs, sculls, and rowing regattas
City Life: 1 Eakins and Chase
City Life: 2 Henri, Cooper, and Bellows

Vanished French Impressionists

The Italian Impressionist: Giuseppe De Nittis – 1, to 1879
The Italian Impressionist: Giuseppe De Nittis – 2, 1880-1884
The Italian Impressionist: Giuseppe De Nittis – 3, various paintings
The Italian Impressionist: Giuseppe De Nittis – 4, discussion and conclusions
Index to the series, illustrated
1 – Introduction
2 – Eugène Boudin
3 – Zacharie Astruc, Antoine-Ferdinand Attendu, and Édouard Béliard, a sculptor and critic, a still life painter, and an Impressionist who became a mayor
4 – Bracquemond, Brandon, Bureau, a major print-maker and designer of porcelain, and two career painters, one of whom died tragically young.
5 – Cals, Colin, Debras, three significant artists, one of whom painted landscapes as good as those of Monet or Pissarro.
6 – Armand Guillaumin, a major innovator and influence who should be much better known today.
7 – Latouche, Lepic, Lépine, an art dealer and colour merchant who has vanished, a marine painter, and a pre-Impressionist
8 – Levert, Meyer, de Molins, Mulot-Durivage, de Nittis, a painter in enamel, three landscape painters, and probably the most gifted painter of the entire group
9 – Ottin, Ottin, Robert, Rouart, an established sculptor, his son who made stained glass, a painter who has vanished completely, and a successful industrialist who was also an Impressionist and patron
10 – why are they forgotten? Some conclusions.

Winslow Homer’s Stay in Cullercoats, 1881-2

Winslow Homer in Cullercoats: 1 Purpose and place
Winslow Homer in Cullercoats: 2 Watchers
Winslow Homer in Cullercoats: 3 Women at work
Winslow Homer in Cullercoats: 4 Boats and the beach
Winslow Homer in Cullercoats: 5 Puzzles and achievements
Winslow Homer in Cullercoats: 6 The bigger picture
Winslow Homer in Cullercoats: 7 Missing months

Trees in the Landscape

Index to the series, illustrated
Winter special, effets de neige (effects of snow), including works by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, van Ruisdael, Courbet, and several Impressionists
1 – Introduction to the new series, a historical overview
2 – John Constable as the bridge from old to new
3 – Corot, the crossroad to modern art
4 – Pissarro, from Barbizon to Post-Impressionism
5 – Vincent van Gogh and swirling cypresses
6 – Paul Cézanne and constructive strokes
7 – Alfred Sisley and the poplars of Moret-sur-Loing
8 – Claude Monet and his poplar series
9 – Théo van Rysselberghe and vibrant pines
10 – Thomas Gainsborough and cloud canopies
11 – Jacob van Ruisdael and ancient oaks
12 – Nicolas Poussin and his leafy oaks

Visible Brushstrokes: a tentative and unofficial history of visible marks in paintings

1 – 1400-1700, including van Eyck, Rubens, and Rembrandt
2 – 1700-1865, including Constable, Turner, Corot, Jongkind, and Delacroix
3 – after 1865, and some puzzles, including Monet, Bolding, Sargent, Signac, van Gogh, and Cézanne
4 – the curious case of Francesco Guardi, a Venetian painter who looks quite impressionist, but was a century before Monet
5 – Book review: Brushstroke and Emergence, James D Herbert
6 – Titian, Bassano, Veronese, El Greco: how Venetian painting anticipated styles of the nineteenth century
7 – Painterly marks beyond Venice, including Dosso Dossi, Bellini, del Piombo, and Parmigianino, in the 1500s
8 – Painterly portraits, with painterly work by the finest portrait painters of the 1700s and 1800s, including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Angelica Kauffmann, David, Ingres, and Tissot
9 – A tentative history at last, evolution from 1400-1900, and the illusions involved.

Reflections in Art – the depiction in paintings of reflections on water

1 – Turner’s wobbly water, Crossing the Brook (1815), in which JMW Turner has puzzling discrepancies in his reflections
2 – How to paint perfect reflections on water, exploring the optical rules of reflections
3 – Cézanne’s conundrums, looking in detail at three of his paintings of reflections
4 – Cézanne has more problems, looking at six more paintings, spanning his career
5 – Explaining Cézanne’s discrepancies, were they intentional, the result of diabetes, or what?
6 – How we paint from the brain examines the mechanisms in the brain which are involved in painting

Pigments + technique → style – how choice from available pigments, coupled with the way in which the pigment was applied to the ground, relates to painting styles

1 – introduction, a quick look at the colours found in paintings by van Eyck, Rembrandt and Poussin, against those of Monet, Pissarro and Signac
2 – up to 1700, tracing the history of pigments and technique from Classical times, through the Renaissance, up to 1700
3 – up to 1850, going through the period in which the first ‘modern’ pigments started to arrive, up to 1850
4 – after 1850, covering the Impressionists and post-Impressionists
5 – a better method, looking at a more objective and robust method of analysis
6 – results and conclusions, completing this series

Critics and criticism

Should we be rehabilitating Sargent, or his critics?
Carl Larsson: how a loved and popular painter became lost in controversy
Art promotion by the Bloomsbury Group: 1 – How Roger Fry changed history
Art promotion by the Bloomsbury Group: 2 – Clive Bell and Significant Form

Differing Views – paintings by different artists of the same locations

Index to the series, illustrated
Saint Mark’s Square, Venice, Italy – Piazza San Marco (from Landscape visions series)
Tuileries Gardens, Paris, France – Les Jardins des Tuileries
The Palace of Westminster, London, England – the Houses of Parliament

From silk to canvas – the story of the ‘Westernisation’ of Japanese painting

1 – The forgotten Renaissance in Japan – introduction, chronology, history, references
2 – Saints and namban screens – 1543-1638
3 – ranga and mass-market prints – 1638-1868
4 – yoga v nihonga – 1868-1920
The suppression of great art

Landscape visions

1 – What’s in your landscape? An introduction to this new series on artistic vision in landscape painting
2 – Landscape contained in a cameo or vignette seen through a window, or a painting in a painting
3 – Landscapes of awe, the Burkean sublime, and literally awesome
4 – Breath-taking panoramas
5 – Vision beyond, Romantic vision in Friedrich and Palmer
6 – figures, staffage, and Advent Calendars
7 – maps and inventories
8 – Just as it is, Piazza San Marco, Venice – 25 landscapes from 19 artists over 400 years
9 – Constructing space – how Seurat assembled views into series which help assembly into 3D space
10 – All the rest, and Summary

$able or ¢ynthetic – which hair for watercolour brushes?

1 – does it matter what hair is in a watercolour brush?
2 – test method
3 – the best brushes, the first sets of results
4 – error and flat brushes, with practical recommendations to improve performance
5 – size 12, round, complete, a buyer’s guide to 11 brushes

Favourite paintings

1 – Jan van Eyck, The Rolin Madonna, 1435
2 – Albrecht Dürer, The Willow Mill, 1498 or after 1506
3 – Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with a Calm, 1651
4 – Rembrandt, Bathsheba with King David’s Letter, 1654
5 – Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes and Thomas Jones, Plein Air, c 1782
6 – Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, 1842, and Norham Castle, Sunrise, c 1845
7 – Camille Pissarro, Setting Sun and Fog, Éragny, 1891
8 – Berthe Morisot, La Lecture (Reading), 1888
9 – Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhône, 1888
10 – Paul Signac, Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (La Bonne-Mère), Marseille, 1905-6
11 – John Singer Sargent, Dolce Far Niente, 1907
1-11 – Overview

12 – Anonymous, Funerary Portrait of a Woman (‘The European’), c 80 – 200 CE
13 – Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, c 1658-1661
14 – Artemisia Gentileschi, Allegory of Painting, c 1638-9
15 – Gustave Caillebotte, Skiffs on the Yerres, 1877
16 – Alfred Sisley, Fog, Voisins, 1874
17 – Camille Corot, View of Rome: Castel Sant’Angelo, 1826-7
18 – Sandro Botticelli, Primavera (Spring), c 1482

Occasional paintings – a miscellany of interesting works and history

Shipwrecked art history: Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa
Carl Larsson: how a loved and popular painter became lost in controversy
Turner’s wobbly water, Crossing the Brook (1815), in which JMW Turner has puzzling discrepancies in his reflections
Botticelli’s unique nativity
Shame on you, Smithsonian: paint tubes did not determine Impressionism
Painting outdoors in oils: a brief summary history
The oldest landscape paintings in the world?
Janet Fish: Glass & Plastic, the Early Years: exhibition at DC Moore Gallery
Japonism(e) and Ukiyo-e
Carlo Crivelli and his cryptic cucumbers
Illusions of reality: the paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme
Kirsty Whiten’s Wronger Rites – contemporary stories and rituals about life
Huw Wystan Jones: the Welsh Impressionist – an April fool
Huw Wystan Jones: the April Fool – the truth
Between Turner and the 20th century: Alfred William Hunt
Georges Seurat’s Poseuses: new wine in an old skin?
A personal language: Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s unique portraits
A painter’s journey by train the importance of railways to painters, and their depiction in paintings
A painter’s changing streets: cycles and cars
Lavinia Fontana: the first woman Master?
Life and paintings of James Tissot: an overview
A portrait of revenge: hell hath no fury like a painter scorned
The Story in Paintings: Wiertz’s weird tales
Sargent’s Allusion to an Absent Dog
Sargent’s prim ladies reach for Priapus and Bacchanalia
John Singer Sargent’s ‘Gassed’: more allusion than fact?
Over the Rainbow: getting the colours right
Other Gardens: The Vegetable Patch on Canvas
Fooled you! The deception of the trompe l’oeil
Rubens in Retirement: The late landscapes
When in Rome: 1 Paul Bril and Agostino Tassi
When in Rome: 2 Agostino Tassi, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Claude Lorrain
Travels with Edward Lear: 1 Italy, Greece, Albania
Travels with Edward Lear: 2 Israel, France, India
Scottish Highlands and Islands on canvas: 1, Scottish artists
Scottish Highlands and Islands on canvas: 2, visiting artists
If you go down to the woods: leaf-peeping
It takes two: The model and the artist
It takes two: The Pettigrew sisters and Aestheticism
Sargent’s Summer with Rosina
Monkeying Around: Painting apes 1
Monkeying Around: Painting apes 2
Out of the Shadows: Form and figures
Out of the Shadows: Limits and controversy
The Four Seasons: Before Poussin
The Four Seasons: Poussin to Mucha
Painting and the Unconscious: Carl Gustav Carus 1
Painting and the Unconscious: Carl Gustav Carus 2
The Alhambra: 1 History
The Alhambra: 2 Landscapes 1767-1883
The Alhambra: 3 Landscapes 1886-1913
Landscapes of Martín Rico: 1 1852-1872
Landscapes of Martín Rico: 2 1873-1908
Out of darkness, light: The development of chiaroscuro 1
Out of darkness, light: The development of chiaroscuro 2
Collins and Copping: Words, paintings, and Charles Dickens
The Annunciation, old and new
The Modern Christmas, paintings 1867-1921
Teacher of John Singer Sargent, Edvard Munch, and more: Léon Bonnat
The Women in the Life of Jules Joseph LeFebvre 1
The Women in the Life of Jules Joseph LeFebvre 2
From revenge at the Salon to the Nabis: the Robert-Fleurys 1
From revenge at the Salon to the Nabis: the Robert-Fleurys 2
Glaciers and Views of Awe by Caspar Wolf
Glaciers: vanishing motifs
Three Women in Church and a Christening
Rolling Thunder: lightning in the landscape
The Great Wave 1, Vernet to Hokusai
The Great Wave 2, Courbet to Gauguin
Arteries of Industry: paintings of canals 1
Arteries of Industry: paintings of canals 2
Bridges in paintings: Before Impressionism
Bridges in paintings: Impressionism
Bridges in paintings: Beyond Impressionism
Paintings of Caves 1: Sacred to Mythical
Paintings of Caves 2: Views, Birth, and Fantasy
Victor Hugo, the unknown painter
Soul in Flight: paintings of butterflies to 1860
Soul in Flight: paintings of butterflies after 1860
Footnote: Feet and footwear in paintings 1
Footnote: Feet and footwear in paintings 2
Fan Club: painted fans in European art 1
Fan Club: painted fans in European art 2
Virtuoso Performance: glass in paintings 1
Virtuoso Performance: glass in paintings 2
Crown Jewels: Precious stones in paintings 1
Crown Jewels: Precious stones in paintings 2
Autumn Trees 1
Autumn Trees 2
Bring on the Elephants – in European painting 1
Bring on the Elephants – in European painting 2
The best-known unknown woman in art: Beatrice Portinari 1
The best-known unknown woman in art: Beatrice Portinari 2
The best-known unknown woman in art: Beatrice Portinari 3
I Saw Three Ships: sailing ships in paintings 1
I Saw Three Ships: sailing ships in paintings 2
There’s no smoke without painting 1
There’s no smoke without painting 2
The Missing Mud of Winter 1
The Missing Mud of Winter 2
Paintings of breakfast
Paintings of lunch
Novel Nativities old and modern
Paintings of the flight to Egypt
Martyrs’ Mountain: Paintings of Montmartre 1
Martyrs’ Mountain: Paintings of Montmartre 2
Painting in the Rain 1: 1587-1890
Painting in the Rain 2: 1890-2006
Dawn or Dusk? How can you tell when it was painted?
Dawn or Dusk? Challenging paintings
Willard Metcalf, American Impressionist 1
Willard Metcalf, American Impressionist 2
Where? Maps and charts in paintings 1
Where? Maps and charts in paintings 2
Realist Paintings of Piet Mondrian 1
Realist Paintings of Piet Mondrian 2
Realist Paintings of Piet Mondrian 3
Tilting at Windmills – in paintings, 1
Tilting at Windmills – in paintings, 2
Rural Midwest: paintings of Grant Wood
A Blossom Festival in paintings 1
A Blossom Festival in paintings 2
Mark of the Unicorn in paintings 1
Mark of the Unicorn in paintings 2
Magic Carpet: Carpets in paintings 1
Magic Carpet: Carpets in paintings 2
Wedding Paintings 1: Classics
Wedding Paintings 2: Other stories
Wedding Paintings 3: Others
Mother and baby in paintings 1
Mother and baby in paintings 2
River power: Paintings of watermills 1
River power: Paintings of watermills 2
The Sight of Music: Concerts in paintings 1
The Sight of Music: Concerts in paintings 2
Maids a-milking: Milkmaids in painting 1
Maids a-milking: Milkmaids in painting 2
Finale: The Exposition Universelle of 1900, 1
Finale: The Exposition Universelle of 1900, 2
Visual illusions in paintings: Glare and Venus Effects
Visual illusions in paintings: Foreshortening
Only When I Laugh: laughter in paintings 1
Only When I Laugh: laughter in paintings 2
Covering the face in painting 1
Covering the face in painting 2
Covering the face in painting 3
American Landscapes: a celebration 1
American Landscapes: a celebration 2
Is this a racist image, or is there a more complex account?
Painting the end of slavery
In the limelight, paintings of the theatre 1: players
In the limelight, paintings of the theatre 2: audience
Is that a mandolin or a lute in that painting?
Silk and canvas: Japan and Europe in painting 1
Silk and canvas: Japan and Europe in painting 2
Whiskers: beards in paintings 1
Whiskers: beards in paintings 2
Nicholas Chevalier: Painter of Record 1
Nicholas Chevalier: Painter of Record 2
The Wanderer in paintings 1
The Wanderer in paintings 2
The Wanderer in paintings 3
The cypress tree in paintings 1
The cypress tree in paintings 2
Here be Dragons in paintings
Here be Monsters in paintings
Here be Orcs and Sea Monsters in paintings
Harvest Home in paintings – the harvest
Harvest Home in paintings – gleaners
From Toulouse to the Pyrenees in paintings
Quiet Landscapes: watercolours of Eric Ravilious 1
Quiet Landscapes: watercolours of Eric Ravilious 2
Anyone for Badminton? Its early history in paintings 1
Anyone for Badminton? Its early history in paintings 2
Distant snowline: the coming of autumn in the mountains 1
Distant snowline: the coming of autumn in the mountains 2
Painting sculpture: 1 Senses, rude Romans, and sculptors
Painting sculpture: 2 Pygmalion and Gérôme
On the road: Itinerants and travellers in paintings 1
On the road: Itinerants and travellers in paintings 2
Rhythm in paintings: Depth and patterns
Rhythm in paintings: Poplars and people
Paintings of reading and books 1: Learning and devotion
Paintings of reading and books 2: Woman reading
Paintings of reading and books 3: Tranquil or dangerous
Paintings of writing 1
Paintings of writing 2
Aerial Perspective in paintings: 1 Ground rules
Aerial Perspective in paintings: 2 Development and rejection
In Serbian Country: the paintings of Sava Šumanović
Palm Saturday: Palm trees in paintings 1
Palm Sunday: Palm trees in paintings 2
The Art in Painting: 1 art and craft
The Art in Painting: 2 Classical Methods
The Art in Painting: 3 Cameras
Nativity: Invention
Nativity: Innovation
Christmas trees in paintings
The Californian Coast of Granville Redmond
Life is Short: 1 Brilliant painters killed by tuberculosis
Life is Short: 2 Painters killed in pandemics
The Painter of the Moment, Eugène Lepoittevin
Étretat, cradle of Impressionism 1 Before 1880
Étretat, cradle of Impressionism 2 Monet and after
Odoardo Borrani’s histories and landscapes
Late Great Masters: 1 Rembrandt and Turner
Late Great Masters: 2 Courbet, Cézanne, Hodler, Signac
Léon Bakst, artist to the Ballets Russes
Paintings in a Country Churchyard 1
Paintings in a Country Churchyard 2
From world view to panorama: 1 World views
From world view to panorama: 2 Popular panoramas
Full Steam Ahead: 1 Paintings of the steam revolution
Full Steam Ahead: 2 Part of the revolution in art
Full Steam Ahead: 3 Everyday life
Paintings of the Four Elements: 1 to 1600
Paintings of the Four Elements: 2 after 1600
Where did you get that hat? 1 Paintings of hat history
Where did you get that hat? 2 Paintings of hat society
Comical Canvases: Humour in paintings 1
Comical Canvases: Humour in paintings 2
The gold-digger who painted Australia: 1 From Vienna to Victoria
The gold-digger who painted Australia: 2 From the sublime to the distressed
Gloves in paintings: 1 Meaning
Gloves in paintings: 2 Fashion
The bicentenary of Rhys Terfel Talog
Rhys Terfel Talog: the April Fool
Barefoot painting 1
Barefoot painting 2
Staffs in paintings: 1 Myth, Age, Travellers
Staffs in paintings: 2 Shepherd’s crooks
Staffs in paintings: 3 Power
Eating al fresco: paintings of outdoor meals 1
Eating al fresco: paintings of outdoor meals 2
So to bed: paintings of beds 1
So to bed: paintings of beds 2
Down on the farm: paintings of farmyards 1
Down on the farm: paintings of farmyards 2
Something’s cooking: Paintings of the kitchen
Fruit of the Sea: Paintings of seashells 1
Fruit of the Sea: Paintings of seashells 2
Still Life ++ : paintings of the artist’s studio 1
Still Life ++ : paintings of the artist’s studio 2
Selfies: self-portraits to cherish 1
Selfies: self-portraits to cherish 2
The Likeness of Truth 1
The Likeness of Truth 2
Crème de la Crème: Winners of the Prix de Rome for painting 1
Crème de la Crème: Winners of the Prix de Rome for painting 2
How the Other Half Live: paintings of stately homes 1
How the Other Half Live: paintings of stately homes 2
River in Flight: paintings of waterfalls 1
River in Flight: paintings of waterfalls 2
Landscape embedded 1
Landscape embedded 2
Blur in paintings: 1 perspective and edges
Blur in paintings: 2 depth and movement
To the beach! 1
To the beach! 2
Channel Coasts: 1 England
Channel Coasts: 2 France
Harvest moon: Palmer’s enchanted countryside
Painting the surreal before Surrealism 1
Painting the surreal before Surrealism 2
The 700th anniversary of Dante’s death: 1 His life
The 700th anniversary of Dante’s death: 2 His writing
By the Azure Sea: Paintings of the Côte d’Azur 1
By the Azure Sea: Paintings of the Côte d’Azur 2
Autumn Leaves 1
Autumn Leaves 2
Autumn Views 1
Autumn Views 2
Winter is Coming: Paintings of Frost
Winter is Coming: Paintings of Fog
A short history of shadows in paintings 1
A short history of shadows in paintings 2
Good knights in paintings 1
Good knights in paintings 2
Sailing by: yachts in paintings 1
Sailing by: yachts in paintings 2
A Weekend in Wales: paintings 1
A Weekend in Wales: paintings 2
Painted Deserts 1
Painted Deserts 2
Paintings of 1921: 1 People
Paintings of 1921: 2 Interiors and exteriors
Paintings of 1921: 3 Landscapes and the future
Christmas Eve in paintings
With ox and ass: traditional paintings of the Nativity
Paintings of the Adoration of the Shepherds
An illustrated Christmas Carol
The New Year in paintings
The Thread of Time in paintings 1: The Fates
The Thread of Time in paintings 2: Threads
Paintings of drawn carts 1
Paintings of drawn carts 2
Paintings of guinea pigs and goldfish
Silent Hunters of the Night: paintings of owls 1
Silent Hunters of the Night: paintings of owls 2
The Animals Went in Two by Two in paintings
The Complete Angler in paintings 1
The Complete Angler in paintings 2
Painted cupids for Valentine’s Day
Paint fast, paint slow
Paintings of Thatched Cottages 1
Paintings of Thatched Cottages 2
Paintings of Nils Jakob Blommér: 1 Norse Myths
Paintings of Nils Jakob Blommér: 2 Landscapes
A short history of animal painting 1
A short history of animal painting 2
A cavalcade of colour: 1 yellow to blue
A cavalcade of colour: 2 green to white
The Start of the Year: Paintings of Spring 1
The Start of the Year: Paintings of Spring 2
Barbizon, the road to Impressionism 1
Barbizon, the road to Impressionism 2
Easter: Crucifixion
Easter: Resurrection
The Open Door 1: paintings 1400-1890
The Open Door 2: paintings from 1890
Alongside Tintoretto: Paintings of Andrea Vicentino
The Meiji Renaissance: Antonio Fontanesi and Japanese painting 1
The Meiji Renaissance: Antonio Fontanesi and Japanese painting 2
Painting the Fountain of Life 1
Painting the Fountain of Life 2
Paintings of painters painting 1: John Singer Sargent
Paintings of painters painting 2: Louis Béroud and the missing Mona Lisa
Gorgeous Landscapes 1: Wolf to Cole
Gorgeous Landscapes 2: Lessing to Hodler
Carroll Beckwith’s paintings 1: Paris and the under-age model
Carroll Beckwith’s paintings 2: The Spanish dancer and a jealous husband
Sargent’s Portraits 1: Three prim ladies and an orgy
Sargent’s Portraits 2: The New Woman and her surrogate dog
Bewitched: Paintings of witches 1
Bewitched: Paintings of witches 2
Shipwrecks in paintings 1
Shipwrecks in paintings 2
Paintings of the Vienna Secession 1: Gustav Klimt
Paintings of the Vienna Secession 2: Von Alt to Mucha
Glue tempera paintings 1: Renaissance and William Blake
Glue tempera paintings 2: Nabis
Dolce Far Niente: Paintings of blissful laziness 1
Dolce Far Niente: Paintings of blissful laziness 2
Paintings of the revolution in agriculture 1
Paintings of the revolution in agriculture 2
From horseback to aircraft: painting the revolution in transport 1
From horseback to aircraft: painting the revolution in transport 2
Paintings of fans
Paintings on fans
Painting the fruitfulness of Autumn/Fall 1
Painting the fruitfulness of Autumn/Fall 2
Paintings of Children at Play 1
Paintings of Children at Play 2
Portrait of the artist’s wife 1
Portrait of the artist’s wife 2
A Weekend on Capri 1
A Weekend on Capri 2
Let there be light 1 Painting by gaslight
Let there be light 2 Painting by electric light
Weekend Reflections: 1 Landscapes
Weekend Reflections: 2 Nocturnes and mirrors
A moment in time: clocks and time in paintings 1
A moment in time: clocks and time in paintings 2
Fools and jesters in paintings
Painting the Ship of Fools
Paintings of Late Autumn
Painting the vegetable garden 1
Painting the vegetable garden 2
The President’s Park and the Titanic: paintings of Francis Davis Millet
The Titanic and the Taj Mahal: paintings of Colin Campbell Cooper
Coming home to a real fire in paintings 1
Coming home to a real fire in paintings 2
Paintings of Egypt 1: History
Paintings of Egypt 2: Scenery
Modern Christmas paintings: The Annunciation
Modern Christmas paintings: Nativity
Modern Christmas paintings: Adorations
Paintings of 1922: Narrative
Paintings of 1922: Figurative and portraits
Paintings of 1922: Landscapes
Paintings of 1922: Landscapes and Still Life
Ondine, her curse and breathing
Pioneers painting New Zealand 1
Pioneers painting New Zealand 2
Paintings of the Bay of Biscay 1
Paintings of the Bay of Biscay 2
All the fashion: 1 Seamstress
All the fashion: 2 Milliner
When history is fiction: painted inventions of Pierre Guérin
Paintings of Swiss Lakes: Geneva
Paintings of Swiss Lakes: Lucerne and Thun
Amazons at War
Amazon Queens
February fill dyke in paintings: Noah’s Flood
February fill dyke in paintings: Other floods
Paintings of pigs 1
Paintings of pigs 2
A Weekend in Algeria: History and Places
A Weekend in Algeria: People
A Weekend in the Eternal City: Paintings of the Palatine and Capitoline
A Weekend in the Eternal City: Paintings of the Tiber and Villa Borghese
Laundry: paintings of washing clothes
Laundry: paintings of drying clothes
A blossom festival in paintings 1
A blossom festival in paintings 2
Suppers, Veronese and the Inquisition
Paintings of eggs
The Crucifixion in modern paintings
The Resurrection in modern paintings
Painting Pandora’s story 1
Painting Pandora’s story 2
Paintings of the flatlands of England 1
Paintings of the flatlands of England 2
Paintings of Forbidden Love: Hero and Leander
Paintings of Forbidden Love: Pyramus and Thisbe
A weekend with painters in Skagen 1
A weekend with painters in Skagen 2
A weekend on the Isle of Wight in paintings 1
A weekend on the Isle of Wight in paintings 2
Folk Tales in Paintings: Robin Hood and other merry men
Folk Tales in Paintings: Lady Godiva and Wanda
Paintings of the most famous piazza in the world: to 1840
Paintings of the most famous piazza in the world: 1880-1908
Dressed for the beach 1600-1890
Dressed for the beach 1892-1922
Midsummer in Paintings: Midsummer Eve
Midsummer in Paintings: Midnight Sun
Theban Myths in Paintings: from dragon’s teeth to a dead stag
Theban Myths in Paintings: from surrogate pregnancy to snakes
Painting Scotland: 1 Native artists
Painting Scotland: 2 Visitors
Legends of Orpheus in paint: 1 To the underworld
Legends of Orpheus in paint: 2 Loss and death
Painting on two wheels
Lighthouses in paintings: Fair weather
Lighthouses in paintings: Storm
Asleep in the Fields: 1 Paintings of Iphigenia and myths
Asleep in the Fields: 2 Paintings of snoozes and siestas
Painting from a canoe 1
Painting from a canoe 2
Painting aerial views 1
Painting aerial views 2
Paintings of wetlands 1
Paintings of wetlands 2
Back to the viewer: Rückenfigur in paintings 1
Back to the viewer: Rückenfigur in paintings 2
Paintings of Sicily as a legendary land 1
Paintings of Sicily as a legendary land 2
Harvest Gold: painting the harvest in England 1
Harvest Gold: painting the harvest in England 2
Blazing leaves: paintings of autumn 1
Blazing leaves: paintings of autumn 2
Painting the blustery wind 1
Painting the blustery wind 2
Paintings of twilight
Gérôme’s Vision: Paintings about vision, truth and photography 1
Gérôme’s Vision: Paintings about vision, truth and photography 2
Paintings of Honfleur: Corot to Monet
Paintings of Honfleur: Seurat to Vallotton
End of the Earth: paintings of the far west of Brittany 1
End of the Earth: paintings of the far west of Brittany 2
Christmas Eve in paintings
The origins of painted Nativity scenes
Paintings of 1923: 1 Narrative
Paintings of 1923: 2 Portraits, Still Life
Paintings of 1923: 3 Landscapes
Paintings of 1923: 4 Landscapes
Paintings from Pont-Aven: 1860 to Gauguin
Paintings from Pont-Aven: Laval and Sérusier to 1900
Map or painting?
Cornish Riviera Express: Paintings of the Cornish Coast 1
Cornish Riviera Express: Paintings of the Cornish Coast 2
Paintings of Pompeii: 1 Before the eruption
Paintings of Pompeii: 2 The city remembered
The Breaking Wave in Paintings 1
The Breaking Wave in Paintings 2
Painting the circus: performance and spectacle
Painting the circus: performers and melancholy
Gambling in paint: Vice
Gambling in paint: Virtue
Pushing back landscape paintings 1
Pushing back landscape paintings 2
Memorable paintings of the Crucifixion
Paintings of the Harrowing of Hell and the Supper at Emmaus
Blossom festival 2024: 19th century
Blossom festival 2024: 20th century

Beyond the French Impressionists – painting outside France in the period 1870-1914, was it impressionist or as ‘modern’?

The peri-Impressionists – an index of the 38 main painters covered in this series
1 – The Macchiaioli: overview (Italy, 1848-1879)
2 – The Macchiaioli: Giovanni Boldini (Italy, 1842-1931)
3 – The Macchiaioli: Giovanni Fattori (Italy, 1825-1908)
4 – The Macchiaioli: Federico Zandomeneghi (Italy, 1841-1917)
5 – Belgium: Guillaume Vogels (1836-96)
6 – Belgium: Émile Claus (1849-1924)
7 – Belgium: Théo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926)
8 – The Netherlands: Jongkind (1819-1891)
9 – Germany: Blechen, Liebermann, Corinth, Slevogt
10 – Romania: Nicolae Grigorescu
11 – Denmark: Skagen Painters
12 – Finland: Churberg, Edelfelt, Gallen-Kallela
13 – Sweden: Anders Zorn
14 – Russia and The Ukraine: Ilya Repin, Valentin Serov
15 – Spain: Pinazo, Sorolla
16 – Britain: Turner, Steer
17 – USA: George Inness
18 – USA: Whistler
19 – USA: Winslow Homer
20 – USA: William Merritt Chase
21 – USA: Childe Hassam
22 – USA: Robinson, Twachtman, Weir
23 – USA: John Singer Sargent
24 – Australia: Roberts, Streeton, Conder
25 – Japan: Asai, Kuroda, Kume
26 – The rest of the world: nine additional painters, from Argentina to Turkey, covered in brief
27 – What makes an Impressionist painting?
28 – Who started it, and how did it spread?

Information and Communication Theory

Did you miss this toolset? Information and communication theory – introduction
Compressing the information in an image – how JPEG compression works, and how to get the best out of it

Strength in Numbers – investigating series paintings by Monet, Pissarro, and Sisley

1 – Series Paintings by Impressionists – introduction, the Grainstack series, definitions and history
2 – Camille Pissarro
3 – Alfred Sisley
4 – Monet’s series – serial colour
5 – Conclusions – about Impressionist series, self-portraiture, and more
6 – Pissarro revisited, based on his catalogue raisoné

Making space – depicting space in drawings and paintings

1 – Turning 3D into a 2D drawing or painting – the importance of depth order
2 – Size, distance, position
3 – Texture, shading, and shadow
4 – Aerial perspective
5 – Linear perspective
6 – Summary
Pushing it back: depth and repoussoir 1
Pushing it back: depth and repoussoir 2

From pigment to painting – colour

1 – Why we treat colour the wrong way
2 – Let there be lightness, hue, and chroma
3 – Lightness, 50 shades of grey
4 – Hue, I can sing a Rainbow
5 – Chroma, chromatic scales
6 – Pigments, the purpose in paint
7 – Summary and conclusion
With Complements – colour complements and harmony
Ordering Colour: before the 20th century
Ordering Colour: Albert Henry Munsell (1858-1918)

Beyond words and pictures – rhetoric in painting

1 – The quest for tropes
2 – Metaphor
3 – Metonymy and synecdoche
4 – Modern painting, and conclusions

History of landscape painting

Opening fields: the origins of Western landscape paintings
The oldest landscape paintings in the world?
Between Turner and the 20th century: Alfred William Hunt
A painter’s journey by train the importance of railways to painters, and their depiction in paintings
Rubens in Retirement: The late landscapes
When in Rome: 1 Paul Bril and Agostino Tassi
When in Rome: 2 Agostino Tassi, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Claude Lorrain
The Baltic shore, Norwegian fjords, and outrage in Berlin: 1, Peace on the shore
The Baltic shore, Norwegian fjords, and outrage in Berlin: 2, Outrage in the city
Paintings of Autumn 1: 1573-1895
Paintings of Autumn 2: 1898-1931
Fog: Turner to Homer
Fog: Pissarro to Ury
Founders of Modern Landscape Art: Claude Joseph Vernet
In Memoriam Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes 1 Finished paintings
In Memoriam Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes 2 Oil sketches
Landscape oil sketches from Valenciennes to Pissarro
British landscape painting before Turner: the 18th century
British landscape painting before Turner: 1800-1820

Truth in (landscape) painting

1 – Reynolds and Constable
2 – Helmholtz and Impressionism
3 – Cézanne, Pissarro
4 – late Cézanne
5 – conclusions

Technical

Colour charts for artists’ paints and crayons
Cadmium blues
Cadmium blues 2 – proposals
Cadmium blues 3 – outcome and analysis
Fat over lean – understanding oil paint
Who invented oil paint?
Shipwrecked art history: Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa
Affinity Photo in action: basic RAW to JPEG development
Affinity Photo in action: adjusting distortion, and cropping – ideal for taking good photos of your art
Who was first: 1 robust timestamping of documents
Who was first: 2 using OriginStamp via its RESTful interface
IR revolution: the FLIR One™ – a cheap way of getting high-quality infra-red images
So how well does the FLIR One™ IR camera work?
IR images of the day: Stately Home
Painting from memory – can you improve it, and it is a worthwhile skill?
Painting outdoors in oils: a brief summary history
The online catalogue raisonné: a fundamental tool in art
Marking Time: introducing the timeline
Marking Time: Timeline 3D
Marking Time: Aeon Timeline
Marking Time: Storyspace and Tinderbox
Marking Time: other routes to timelines
Marking Time: making good timelines
Recommended art history reading
Achieving the right perspective: the early history of linear perspective in painting
Over the Rainbow: getting the colours right

Comment

Luc Tuymans, copyright, and artistic creation
Art for all – how copyright law should change
The Lily Crucifix, Godshill Parish Church, Isle of Wight; c 1450, wall painting
Open source Europe? The EU copyright report – proposed changes to copyright law in the EU
Monet’s signature begs more questions – is this Grainstack painting really an authentic Monet?
Mark-making is not abstraction
With Complements – colour complements and harmony
Shipwrecked art history: Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa
Copyright, common sense, and copying
Comic tech – technology and graphic novels, etc.
Getting copyright right
The suppression of great art
Sun struck – the importance of the sun, and JMW Turner
Should we be rehabilitating Sargent, or his critics?
Doing it in style: crafting your way past technology
History needs to be more complete, and better integrated
The Art Fund: a UK charity which can save you more than you give
How copyright disserves almost everyone
Making paintings popular again
Panama paintings: how the rich impoverish art
Palmyra, paintings, and cultural vandalism
What you see is what you’ve not got – extraordinary optical illusions
Someone is likely to be profiting from your public domain content
Industrial copyright abuse

Reviews

Movie: Mr. Turner (2014), Mike Leigh, starring Timothy Spall
Book: The Cambridge History of Painting in the Classical World, edited by JJ Pollitt
Book: Akademie X: Lessons in Art + Life
Movie: Rembrandt (2015), Exhibition on Screen, Kat Mansour and Phil Grabsky
Book: Ravilious, James Russell
Two Books: “Inventing Impressionism” and “Paul Durand-Ruel”; Saint or Sinner?
Book: The Work of Art, Anthea Callen – plein air landscape painting from inception to Impressionism
Book: Keeping an Eye Open, Julian Barnes, a collection of essays on 19th and 20th century art
Book: Poussin et Dieu (Poussin and God), Milovanovic and Szanto
Book: We Go to the Gallery, Miriam and Ezra Elia
Book: Lost in Translation, Ella Frances Sanders
Book: Georges Seurat The Art of Vision, Michelle Foa
Book: Samuel Palmer, William Vaughan – an extended review with ten paintings by Palmer, Blake and Linnell
Paintings and Book: The body real – paintings by Ellen Altfest
Book: Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye, Morton and Shackelford
Book: Van Gogh and Nature, Kendall, van Heugten and Stolwijk
Book: Impressionism, Reimagining Art, Norbert Wolf
Book: The Book of Legendary Lands, Umberto Eco
Book: Picturing the Americas, Landscape Painting from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic, Brownlee, Piccoli & Uhlyarik (eds)
Book: Frederic Church, The Art and Science of Detail, Jennifer Raab
Book: Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art, Patrick Noon and Christopher Riopelle
Book: The Wilton Diptych, Gordon et al.
Book: Monet’s Trees, Ralph Skea
Book: Eric Ravilious, Masterpieces of Art, Susie Hodge
Book: Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Kasper Monrad et al.
Book: Monet – Lost in Translation, Suzanne Greub (ed)
Triple Book: Richard Mabey and a cavalcade of plants
Book: Brushstroke and Emergence, James D Herbert
Book: Inspiring Impressionism, Daubigny, Monet, van Gogh, by Ambrosini et al.
Book: The Spirit of Indian Painting, B N Goswamy
A Summer of Bosch – books and exhibitions for his 500th
Book: Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman: Catalogue Raisonné, Ilsink and Koldeweij
Book: The Vincent Van Gogh Atlas, Denekamp and van Blerk
Book review and exhibition: Australia’s Impressionists, ed. Riopelle
Exhibition: Come to London to see Venice through Canaletto’s paintings

All my own work

Narrative in the landscape
Stag-head horse chestnut, Spring – the first plein air of the season
St Martin’s Down, watercolour on paper, plein air

External links

Jackson’s Art Supplies (also a fine blog) – the best and most comprehensive art materials supplier
Williamsburg Oils – the best
QoR Watercolours – the best
Making a Mark – Katherine Tyrrell’s excellent blog for artists
Painter’s Table – offers its own excellent content, and a wide range of links to items on other blogs
Painters on Paintings – many fascinating accounts of paintings which have most influenced individual painters
Painting Perceptions – about perceptual painting, a modern version of realism
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK
WikiArt – the best and largest collection of images of paintings
PubHist – publications on Art History and many paintings
Art Renewal Centre (ARC) – another superb collection of images
Handprint watercolours – Bruce MacEvoy’s vast and comprehensive resource of information on watercolours, notable for its tests of lightfastness and much more

15Comments

Add yours

1

Matt M. on August 1, 2015 at 1:12 pm

This is an amazing resource for someone such as myself who has just recently taken an interest in painting. Thanks for putting this together, I suspect I will be here reading through it all quite frequently.

One note: I’ve only had time for a quick glance, but no mention of Edward Seago?

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2

hoakley on August 1, 2015 at 4:46 pm

Thank you for your kind words.
I am afraid that for the moment, it is hard to cover Edward Seago. I love his paintings (so much so that I seem to have bought the book about them twice!), and they would be an appropriate continuation to coverage of Sargent and his contemporaries. However his work is still covered by copyright, so there do not appear to be any images of them in the public domain. This applies to many others artists too.
Sometimes I am able to obtain permission to use images which are still in copyright, and greatly enjoy doing so. Unfortunately those that are most difficult are usually where the artist is dead, but their heirs now own the rights (as they will, in the UK, for the 70 years after the death of the creator). Many of the copyright holders that I have tried to obtain releases from do not even reply, and some seem untraceable.
I am sure that Edward Seago would be only too happy to see his paintings here, of course.
Howard.

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3

Meighan Maley on December 14, 2018 at 12:58 pm

What an incredible resource! Your curiosity about and love of art is palpable. Thank you.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 4
  
  hoakley on December 14, 2018 at 1:19 pm
  
  Thank you for your kind words.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
5

Jonathan Tucker on April 16, 2019 at 4:24 pm

This is a marvellous resource. It’s so varied and wide-ranging. Something of a labour of love with posts every day. In case you run out of topics (!), perhaps you would you look sometime at the impact of Japanese painters (Foujita, Orguiss etc) working in Europe. Obviously much has been written about the Impressionists and other European artists ‘discovering’ Japanese prints, but little (so far as I can see) the other way round. What impact, if any, did Japanese painters working alongside their European counterparts have on their artistic tradition back home. Or, would this, like Seago, be ruled out by copyright law?

Well, whatever, your site offers a really interesting and informative read. So, thank you.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 6
  
  hoakley on April 16, 2019 at 5:25 pm
  
  Thank you for your kind words.
  I have been fascinated by the interactions between Western and Eastern art, particularly those in Japan. Unfortunately there isn’t a great deal of literature, and I don’t recall seeing anything which considers the ‘other way around’ in that sense.
  Yes, there is always the problem of works which are still in copyright. I have in the past obtained approval to use some, but it’s a laborious process and many of those who own copyright don’t even bother to reply to requests.
  But I will see what I can turn up, thank you.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
7

Keith on April 20, 2019 at 6:35 am

Hello Howard,

Your knowledge of Art and Artists looks encyclopedic!

This might sound low-brow but I am interested in the works and evolution of comic artists.

I walked into a comic book shop and was stunned by a full-sized poster of a book they had in stock. I had never seen anything like it. It was astonishing in detail and shrouded in the magical mists of time.
I offered the store owner $50 for the poster, he wouldn’t sell. I offered $100. Nope. My last offer was $200 dollars as I couldn’t afford that, but I had to. The answer was, ‘No’.

I did purchase a hard-bound and a soft-bound copy of the book. I left empty-handed for the poster. I’ve always wanted a print of it.

The poster was the announcement of “The Mabinogion” by Alan Lee. This was many years before he became involved in the production of The Lord of the Rings movies.

To this day I still reverently and in awe page through it and drink in all the details.

cheers!

Keith

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 8
  
  hoakley on April 20, 2019 at 6:39 am
  
  Thank you for your kind words.
  No, I don’t think that comic book or BD art is any less worthy for its popularity. Indeed, I love a lot of it, and have quite a collection. My preference is for artists, mainly French, who work in more continuous tone rather than for process colour.
  The tragedy with almost all such works is that they are still covered by copyright, which is good for the artists but prevents me from including any of their work in articles here. Otherwise I’d love to be much more inclusive.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
9

Pedroxypto on June 6, 2019 at 8:46 pm

I’ve reached your web page because of Jules Breton, and found your comparasion Jules Breton x Millet very appropiate to better understand both painters approach & styles. Till now I’ve payed much more attention to Millet (because of Van Gogh after’s and Musée d’ Orsay Angelus & Gleaners) , and I also have seen at MET a fantastic Breton (The weeders) that now with your comments, I put on the correct perspective. Your analysis over Millet and Breton individually also was very well developed and helped to complete my Millet references and expanded a lot my light over Breton. I also appreacite that you use very well defined cronological order to expose the evolution of life and style of each painter. In a simple comment – Thank you very much for such a valuable and well structured reference on Art – I’m going to come to your page very frequently – for sure.

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  hoakley on June 6, 2019 at 9:54 pm
  
  Thank you for your kind words. I hope that you enjoy the articles here.
  Howard.
  
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11

David B. on August 2, 2019 at 12:09 pm

Hello Howard

I saw this recently – and thought of you!

Work of Art Pain Scale

Just a bit of fun! 🙂

David

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  hoakley on August 2, 2019 at 12:11 pm
  
  Thanks – I’d never associated them with pain before!
  Howard
  
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13

Corpely.com on August 21, 2019 at 10:24 am

This week we are very excited to welcome Dr. Howard Oakley of The Eclectic Light Company blog. Howard describes himself as a Former MacUser writer, RN doctor, survival medicine specialist; now blogger and painter.

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14

thoolb on September 3, 2020 at 12:10 pm

Dear Howard, not that I would miss anything in your impressive, rich online museum – but just in case: This large museum of ancient paintings through 7 centuries decided to continue its online exhibition “daheim” (“at home”) of a weekly changing painting. The project was initially started in spring 2020 because of the C19 lockdown:

About the museum:
https://www.wallraf.museum/en/the-museum/visitors-information/information/

The project “Walraff daheim”
https://www.wallraf.museum/en/exhibitions/now/wallrafdaheim/wallrafdaheim/
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/wallrafdaheim

Hopefully the only German texts about the paintings won’t reduce interest or enjoyment.

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  hoakley on September 3, 2020 at 5:36 pm
  
  Thank you – that’s wonderful. I’ll take a look and may post a short note this weekend.
  Howard.
  
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