Your Daily Art

Category: Artists

  • Green Dress

    Jeune fille en vert, 1930 by Tamara de Lempicka.

    Lempicka has come to represent the Art Deco period in painting because of the fluid lines, rich colors, and sensuousness of her paintings. She was inspired by, and part of, the bohemian scene in Paris in the 1920’s and the Hollywood scene in the late 1930’s and 40’s. She liked socializing and being a part of the most popular groups. She disliked the 1970’s era, feeling it was inferior to the ones that preceded it, but ironically, in the 1970’s her artwork was discovered once again, after a retrospective of her work was shown in Luxembourg and she has remained popular with collectors, since then.

  • Art Therapy

    Flower Beds in Holland, 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh.

    One of the 150 paintings the Van Gogh produced while living in the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. He had converted a cell next to his into a studio so he could continue to work.

  • 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.

  • Honor

    Oath of the Horatii, 1785 by Jacques-Louis David.

    By painting an ancient historical subject, David was hoping to encourage people to look back at the ancient world and model their actions on that society which had been held-up by many at this time as an example to be emulated. This work helped launch the Neoclassical movement.

  • Bad Hair Day

    Medusa, c. 1598 by Caravaggio.

    Medusa has always been a popular character in art. The combination of female and monster seems to have been so tantalizing that most ancient and Renaissance artists had to take their turn. This work is a depiction of a ceremonial shield where the Gorgon is used to frighten enemies; a usage common in ancient art.

  • 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.

  • Sick in Bed

    The Land of Counterpane by Jessie Wilcox Smith

    The Land of Counterpane by Robert Louis Stevenson

    When I was sick and lay a-bed,

    I had two pillows at my head,

    And all my toys beside me lay,

    To keep me happy all the day.

    And sometimes for an hour or so

    I watched my leaden soldiers go,

    With different uniforms and drills,

    Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

    And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

    All up and down among the sheets;

    Or brought my trees and houses out,

    And planted cities all about.

    I was the giant great and still

    That sits upon the pillow-hill,

    And sees before him, dale and plain,

    The pleasant land of

    counterpane

    .

  • 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.

  • Beautiful Agony

    The Ecstacy of St. Teresa, 1645-1652 by Bernini, Cornaro Chapel.

    “I saw an angel beside me toward the left side, in bodily form…He was not very large, but small, very beautiful, his face so blazing with light that he seemed to be one of the very highest angels, who appear all on fire. They must be those they call Cherubim…I saw in his hands a long dart of gold, and at the end of the iron there seemed to me to be a little fire. This I thought he thrust through my heart several times, and that it reached my very entrails. As he withdrew it, I thought it brought them with it, and left me all burning with a great love of God. So great was the pain, that it made me give those moans; and so utter the sweetness that this sharpest of pains gave me, that there was no wanting it to stop, nor is there any contenting of the soul with less than God”.

    St Teresa