Your Daily Art

Tag: Museum of Fine Arts Boston

  • Preferring Art to War

    Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk Emperor Huizong, 11th cantury, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

    Emperor Huizong is the one of the most famous of the Song Dynasty emperors. He followed the Taoist religion and was known to be a fine artist, poet, and writer who surrounded himself with others who shared his interests. His interests in things artistic led to his downfall when his army, such as it was, was easily overtaken and he was replaced as emperor by the Jin forces.

  • Happy Birthday Gustave

    Fruit Displayed on a Stand by Gustave Caillebotte, 1881-2, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
    Caillebotte existed on the fringes of the Impressionist group, as he was both a benefactor and a member of the group. He was a painter himself, but lived as a lawyer, solider, and engineer. He did not adhere closely to the painting by light and loose brush strokes of the Impressionists and his work belies his realistic-style training, however, he allowed enough of the looser, less studied style of the Impressionists to enter his work, that it was given a lightness, that more realistic work lacks.
    Even in death he supported the Impressionists, leaving his vast collection to the French Government on the condition that it be displayed, not stored away. The artists and their work had not yet been embraced by the French people, and the government and they rejected that condition, but ended up accepting a portion of the work which they did display, making it the first time the artists of the group were displayed in a government exhibition.