From the brilliant pioneer animal painter Paulus Potter to the short and intense star of Amedeo Modigliani, King Death shortened the art of far too many painters.
Bastien-Lepage
Although painting and sculpture are closely allied, it’s curious to depict sculpture in painting. Examples range from early grisailles to ribald depictions of the Roman god Priapus.
Having painted in Realist, Naturalist and Impressionist styles, from about 1893 she settled with the Pre-Raphaelite, even making egg tempera her main medium.
The inscription on her gravestone reads “I have known love and the light of the sun.” Both shine through in ‘The Sense of Sight’.
Initially successful with Naturalist paintings similar to those of Bastien-Lepage, around 1890 he became a leading Symbolist.
He became extremely popular, with his genre scenes containing animals, particularly dogs. A selection from the early years of his career.
Independent and aloof, cats train their humans and think that they’re still large and ferocious. Paintings from Carpaccio to Bonnard.
Mud was a common problem in the streets of cities, and on all the roads, tracks and paths of the country. Why isn’t it seen more in paintings before 1850?
A fantasy self-portrait naked with a skeleton on his lap, and one of the most haunting depictions of rural deprivation. A very unusual artist indeed.
Feet in social history, from Winslow Homer, Jules Bastien-Lepage, Jules Breton, Bonnard, Schiele, Degas, and others.
