Venus born surrounded by colourful fish, in the element water, in a feeding frenzy by Turner’s Slave Ship, with mermaids, and brought ashore ready to eat.
Thoma
They tried to lure Odysseus and his crew to their deaths, and the same with Jason and his Argonauts. With the head of a beautiful woman and the legs of a bird, their singing was alluring to sailors.
In Gérôme’s early success The Cock Fight, Rembrandt’s Night Watch, Murillo’s Adoration of the Shepherds, and many farmyard paintings.
That well-muscled man brandishing a large olive-wood club and wearing a lion-skin can only be the ultimate high-testosterone uncouth hero, Hercules.
Flax for linseed oil, walnut too, Parsifal’s romp with Flowermaidens, a Spring Fairytale from Hans Thoma, the Malibu coast, and one of the last Divisionist landscapes.
A dance to the music of time, the hours, Muses, sirens, winged putti, faeries, maidens fearing death, mid-summer feasts and folk dancing.
Laomedon refuses to pay the gods for helping built the walls of the first city of Troy. The Peleus marries Thetis, with a feast of the gods that sets up the Judgement of Paris.
Boudin’s beach paintings heralding Impressionism, the turn of the plough, the flax harvest, stave churches, an early mermaid, Turner’s white rabbit, and more.
Knitting and crochet as a sign of history, Welsh identity, the bored chaperone, the height of a party, or a peaceful and productive pastime.
He finally achieved success in 1890, and even became a member of the State Parliament. Here’s his curious mix of landscapes and mythology.
The Eclectic Light Company 