Clown figures including Harlequin, Pulcinella and Pierrot are derived from the commedia dell’arte, a favourite of Watteau and other painters.
Daumier
They meet 12 convicts, who Don Quixote frees before they stone him. On the run, they head for the mountains where they come across gold and a dead mule.
Starting a new series, looking at paintings of the first modern European novel. With its deep humour, Cervantes’ masterpiece has been extensively painted.
Paintings of people watching plays, by Daumier, Degas, Renoir, Mary Cassatt, and others.
Examples from William Blake, Caspar David Friedrich, Delacroix, and an enigmatic painting of Wales.
Never shown to the public in traditional paintings, a vital layer which goes between paint and the support. White, colour, chalk or oil.
From the eighteenth century, organised circuses toured cities, and some were established to operate year-round. Here are paintings to make you gasp with wonder.
Introduction to a series looking at different painting systems. Establishes how their key components are the support, ground, pigment, binder and diluent and explains terms.
Were Turner’s and Cézanne’s late paintings becoming more abstract? What distinguishes representational painting from abstract?
From cautionary tales for judges to Daumier’s wicked satire, courts of law have been an important theme for the artist, including Poussin, Rowlandson, and Gérôme.
The Eclectic Light Company 