Christina's World, 1948 by Andrew Wyeth, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Wyeth's painting of a young woman who, unable to walk, often crawled around the house in Maine where she lived and where Wyeth stayed and which he painted many times.
Sun Soak
People in the Sun by Edward Hopper.
Hopper is famous for the loneliness in his paintings and even though this is a group of people, the chairs are staggered so each person is alone as they enjoy the sun.
Lakeside Protection
Fort Mackinac, Michigan, 1872 by Seth Eastman.
Located on Mackinac Island, Fort Mackinac was founded by the British in 1870. It remained an active fort until 1895 and went back and forth between the Americans and the British for years.
Glow Up
Red and Gold, 1915 by Frank Weston Benson.
One of the leaders in the American Impressionist style, Benson had a very long and prosperous career as a leader in the American Impressionist movement.
We are the 80's
Men in the Cities series, 1984 by Robert Longo.
The Men in the Cities series first brought Robert Longo to the public's attention when it was featured in movies, television and magazines in the 1980's.
Kindred Spirits
The Flatiron, 1920 by Alfred Stieglitz.
Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe were married in 1924. By this time his career as an innovative photographer had been established and hers as a painter, was beginning.
Lone Tree
Oak Tree Sunset City by Ansel Adams,© The Ansel Adams Gallery.
Ansel Adams is best known for his black and white photographs of sweeping landscapes, however he also did portraits and smaller still lifes.
Influences
Aboriginal, 1984 by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
One of the popular artists of the 1980's who rose to prominence and was considered the star of the group that included Julian Schnabel, Keith Haring, Robert Longo, and Mark Kostabi (among others). Basquait died at age 28 of a drug overdose. Recently, his artwork has become highly desirable and this has brought the sale prices for his work to new heights.
Paradise Revisited
Island Feast, 1940 published 1953 by Eugene Savage, S.S. Lurline, Matson Line.
Savage created a set of nine murals for the Matson ship line (which sailed to Hawaii) in 1940 but they were not used until the early 1950's because the ships had been requisitioned for service in WWII. Savage received awards for his artwork which was so popular among the tourists it was reproduced in a set of prints and as Aloha attire.
Sand in Your Shoes
Children Playing on the Beach, 1884 by Mary Cassatt.
Mary Cassatt is well known for her paintings of children where she presents the children naturally as opposed to being idealized or as mini adults.
The Simple Life
Still Life with Rose Wall and Compote 1973 by William Bailey.
Bailey still lifes are among my favorites. The simplicity appeals to me and the compositions look random, but you can tell are studied.
Recovering
The Recovery of his Majesty in the Year 1789 by Benjamin West.
West was born in Philadelphia and was largely self-taught, although he did study painting. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait he painted and eventually moved to England to paint for King George III who is pictured here. Don't you love the heavens shining as the he returns to the throne.
Following Fashions
Spring Flowers, c. 1889 by William Merritt Chase.
Chase considered himself an observer of life and which was a French method he applied to American landscapes and settings. This work also refers to the fashion of Japanese styles adapted in American households.
Family Dinner
Old Fashioned Dinner Party, by Varnette Honeywood.
Although the two images of Honeywood's work I have depicted here on YDA have revolved around church life, she actually chooses to portray a lot of different types of settings in her artwork, such as this extended family preparing a meal together.
The Subject of Women
Two Girls Fishing, 1912 by John Singer Sargent.
Sargent frequently choses women as subjects and although he painted many on commission, he also painted them when the work he was doing was for himself. He seems to empower them through the beauty with which he portrays them.
Provenance Not The Only Thing Unclear
Number 1, 1950 by Jackson Pollock.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding a recent collection of Jackson Pollock's work. Read more about the paintings to be attributed to him. Provenance
Arts & Crafts
Covered Box by Lucia K. Mathews.
The Arts & Crafts movement began in England in the late 19th century and became popular in the United States a few years later. The followers of the movement sought-out the hand-made production methods of the past, as a reaction to the industrial age. California had their own take on the Arts & Crafts philosophy which manifested itself in the architecture of Greene & Greene and the work of many small artisans like Mathews.
Bonding Through Art
Arthur Frank Mathews, Spring Dance c. 1917.
Mathews and his wife Lucia were followers of the Arts and Crafts movement as it manifested in California. His training as both an artist and an architect led to beautiful painting surrounded by equally beautiful frames of his design.
Protecting Nature
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, 1872 by Thomas Moran, Yellowstone National Park Museum.
Moran was another artist working in the same vein as Bierstadt. His paintings of the American West were even more idealized. His work was presented to Congress as evidence that Yellowstone needed to be protected as a National Park which caused them to establish the National Park Service in 1916.
Manifest Destiny 2
Niagra Falls, by Albert Bierstadt.
Bierstadt painted panoramic, idealized scenes of the United States. His main subjects were places in the the American West which was being touted as the promised land and his beautiful landscapes helped to sell it as the place to explore and settle. Manifest Destiny