Coming this New Year are the tercentenary of the birth of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the bicentenary of the birth of Alexandre Cabanel, and the centenary of the untimely death of Joaquín Sorolla.
Cabanel
Paintings of the death of Ophelia, from the first by Delacroix in 1838 to an etching from 1889. The most popular scene which happens entirely off-stage.
How well do paintings of the stories of Perseus and Theseus fit Booker’s Seven Basic Plots? As he gives these as examples of Overcoming the Monster, do his stages work?
A banquet with a river god, a pitched battle at his friend’s wedding which turned into a full-scale war, a relationship involving incest, suicide and violent death, and the abduction of Helen – quite the career of a Greek hero.
A nymph cursed by Hera to repeat the words just spoken to her, and a youth who falls in love with his own image. Together the result in some of the finest narrative paintings.
The Gauls took the whole city of Rome, apart from its Capitol, but were then effectively put under siege themselves. The city was looted and sacked.
Some of the greatest figurative artists including Botticelli, Titian, Poussin, Boucher, Ingres, Moreau, and Joseph Stella.
Millais’ wonderful painting of Ophelia wasn’t the first such work. From West and Delacroix to Rossetti and Bastien-Lepage, here she is.
Four years of landscapes, becoming increasingly painterly. Early views of major Impressionist themes around Paris and the coast at Étretat, over a decade before Monet.
The Second Circle of Hell, in which those whose sin was lust are blown by eternal storms. The story of Paolo and Francesca, and many wonderful paintings.
The Eclectic Light Company 