Four months being bitten to death by midges, then a winter of immersing the model in a bath of tepid water. This masterwork didn’t come easy for anyone.
Millais
Never shown to the public in traditional paintings, a vital layer which goes between paint and the support. White, colour, chalk or oil.
References to Botticelli’s Primavera and Poussin by Tiepolo, and in the late 19th century: Flora and the Spring.
From Dante Gabriel Rossetti, through Lovis Corinth, to Alphonse Mucha and Christian Krohg – modern masterpieces.
A protégé of Frederic, Lord Leighton, he joined Dickens’ circle and in 1874 married Kate, Dickens’ youngest daughter.
Two painters: one married Charles Dickens’ daughter and stopped painting, the other became a prolific illustrator, including books by Dickens’ grand-daughter. The Victorian Web at work.
Three brothers murder their sister’s lover. A grisly story turned into a poem by John Keats, and a formative painting for the Pre-Raphaelites, and others.
The most frequently-painted of Boccaccio’s hundred stories, shown here from Rubens to Frederic, Lord Leighton. But there’s much more to the story than that.
Set in a framing story of the Black Death striking Florence, its ten characters each tell ten stories over two weeks. Many fine paintings result.
Transition from paintings of an elderly couple struggling to survive a harsh winter, to well-dressed girls sewing in the sun.
The Eclectic Light Company 