Known for his city night-scenes and landscapes, John Atkinson Grimshaw was a Victorian artist described by British art historian Christopher Wood as a “remarkable and imaginative painter”.
Hailing from Leeds in England, Grimshaw’s first job was as a clerk for Great Northern Railway.
Much to the dismay of his parents, he left the job at age 24 to pursue a career as a painter.
Leaving a steady job with a growing industry must have seemed foolhardy, but Grimshaw’s passion and talent for art were all he needed to make a success of his life.
Exhibiting for the first time just a year later under the patronage of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, he showed paintings of birds, fruit, and blossom.
It wasn’t until the 1870s that his career really took off.
Influenced primarily by the Pre-Raphaelites, he painted landscapes with precise use of colour and lighting, often focusing on the changing seasons or the weather to bring vivid detail and realism to his work.
But it is the moonlit views of cities and suburban streets, of Docklands in London, Hull, Liverpool, and Glasgow that he is best remembered for.
paintings of dampened gas-lit streets and misty waterfronts conveyed an eerie warmth as well as alienation in the urban scenePhilip J. Waller.
Sharply focused, almost photographic, Grimshaw poetically applied the tradition of rural moonlit scenes to the city, with its rain puddles, mists, and the smoky fog of late Victorian industrial England.
Grimshaw evokes the very feeling of chill in the night air or the damp of mists at dawn’s early light.
John Atkinson Grimshaw was the Painter of Moonlight.
A time to reflect on the changing of the seasons from growth to decay.
Each year is a cycle of life that repeats.
Mother Nature bears the fruits of her labor, celebrating life in a festival of colour before the long winter months set in.
It’s as if nature is reminding us that life is to be enjoyed, that there is so much to be grateful for, and that we can look forward to renewal again in the spring.
Artists through the centuries have been inspired by the beauty and melancholy of autumn.
Here are 40 beautiful paintings of the season of red and gold along with quotes from poets and writers.
And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch-hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question ‘Whither?’ Robert Frost, The Poetry of Robert Frost
Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love – that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one’s very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.George Eliot
The Sussex lanes were very lovely in the autumn . . . spendthrift gold and glory of the year-end . . . earth scents and the sky winds and all the magic of the countryside which is ordained for the healing of the soul.Monica Baldwin
There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!Percy Bysshe Shelley
Autumn Days
Yellow, mellow, ripened days,
Sheltered in a golden coating;
O’er the dreamy, listless haze,
White and dainty cloudlets floating;
Winking at the blushing trees,
And the sombre, furrowed fallow;
Smiling at the airy ease,
Of the southward flying swallow.
Sweet and smiling are thy ways,
Beauteous, golden Autumn days. Will Carleton
Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.Robert Browning
You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen.Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks
Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn–that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness–that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.Jane Austen, Persuasion
The tints of autumn…a mighty flower garden blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.John Greenleaf Whittier
It was one of those days you sometimes get latish in the autumn when the sun beams, the birds toot, and there is a bracing tang in the air that sends the blood beetling briskly through the veins.P.G. Wodehouse
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run John Keats, Complete Poems and Selected Letters
Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.Leo Tolstoy
Give me juicy autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard,Walt Whitman, The Complete Poems
All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn, Led yellow Autumn, wreath’d with nodding corn.Robert Burns, Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns
Such days of autumnal decline hold a strange mystery which adds to the gravity of all our moods.Charles Nodier, Smarra & Trilby
The goldenrod is yellow,
The corn is turning brown…
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down. Helen Hunt Jackson
The gold and scarlet leaves that littered the countryside in great drifts whispered and chuckled among themselves, or took experimental runs from place to place, rolling like coloured hoops among the trees.Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel
the fallen leaves in the forest seemed to make even the ground glow and burn with lightMalcolm Lowry, October Ferry To Gabriola
Every season hath its pleasures;
Spring may boast her flowery prime,
Yet the vineyard’s ruby treasures
Brighten Autumn’s sob’rer time. Thomas Moore
In Heaven, it is always AutumnJohn Donne
Methinks I see the sunset light flooding the river valley, the western hills stretching to the horizon, overhung with trees gorgeous and glowing with the tints of autumn — a mighty flower garden blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.John Greenleaf Whittier, Tales and Sketches
The leaves were more gorgeous than ever; the first touch of frost would lay them all low to the ground. Already one or two kept constantly floating down, amber and golden in the low slanting sun-raysElizabeth Gaskell, North and South
.
And every year there is a brief, startling moment
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;
It is the changing light of fall falling on us. Edward Hirsch, Wild Gratitude
Famed for his paintings of bustling 19th-century Parisian life, pretty women and sensual nudes, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s eye for beauty captured the day’s fashions and scenes of contented domestic bliss.
Celebrated as a colorist, Renoir (1841 – 1919) was masterful at capturing the interplay of light and shadow as seen in the dappled sunlight of dancers at the Moulin de la Galette.
In the 19th century, Le Moulin de la Galette was a pleasant diversion for Parisians seeking entertainment, a glass of wine and bread made from flour ground by the famous windmill of the same name.
Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.Pierre Auguste Renoir
Click here to learn more about Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Painting for two months in the summer of 1869 at a boating and bathing complex outside Paris called La Grenouillère, Renoir and his friend Claude Monet captured the effects of the sun streaming through the trees on the rippling water.
Using broad, loose brushstrokes in a sketch-like technique and a brightened palette, they developed what would become known as the Impressionist aesthetic.
Organized with the help of friends Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, and Camille Pissarro, Renoir and Monet held exhibitions dedicated to Impressionism as a means to bypass the strict tradition of the more conservative Salon de Paris—the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Although a founding member of the Impressionist movement, Renoir ceased to exhibit after 1877.
His love of portraiture and images of well-dressed Parisian pleasure seekers created a bridge from Impressionism’s more experimental aims to a modern, middle-class art public.
On a trip to Italy in 1881, Renoir became enamored with the “grandeur and simplicity” of High Renaissance artists like Raphael and his figures consequently became more crisply drawn and sculptural in character.
Integrating more line and composition into his more mature works, Renoir created some of his era’s most timeless canvases.
Painting dozens of nudes, Renoir specialized in marble-like figures against quickly improvised impressionistic backgrounds.
Renoir’s combination of modernity and tradition was highly influential on the next generation of artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Maurice Denis.
Join us as we celebrate Renoir accompanied by the music of Chopin.
Beautiful places, beautiful people, beautiful clothes—Francois Flameng loved to paint them all.
Born in an art studio in Paris in 1856, Flameng may have known from an early age that he was destined to be an artist.
Indeed, in many ways, he had everything going for him.
Paris was the center of the art world and his father was a celebrated engraver who had once wished to be a painter.
All of his father’s regrets were channeled into making his son a success.
Specializing in history painting and portraiture, Francois Flameng became a professor at the Académie des Beaux-Arts—the premier institution of fine art in France.
If you’d like to add a little atmosphere as we view a gallery of Flameng’s work, press play.
Many of his studies in Italy are rich in architectural detail in the most vivid light and color.
Flameng would often use a camera lucida to create an optical superimposition of his subject.
Allowing him to duplicate key points of the scene on the drawing surface, it would aid in the accurate rendering of perspective.
Once he had the sketch to ensure proportion and perspective were correct, he would paint rapidly yet with such fine detail that within an hour he had what took most artists four hours to complete.
I have always thought that portraits ought to be arranged as pictures.Francois Flameng
Flameng said that fashions and hairstyles changed so often that the exact likeness captured in a portrait was gone within a few short years.
Therefore, he said, portraits should aim to be pleasant works of art that one would purchase to adorn the wall of a drawing room, even if it were not a portrait of one’s own image.
Flameng found that he learned as much about the social aspects of his work as he did the actual practicing of his art.
Making sittings more agreeable for models he had to learn their tastes and habits, likes and dislikes.
That way, he could encourage them to pose in ways that reflected their personality and remain in one position for a long time without noticing it as much.
Of equal importance to remaining true to his artistic integrity was producing a work that was pleasing to the subject and also to her friends and acquaintances.
When subjects disagreed with his choice of arrangement or style of composition, he would use all his skill to gradually encourage her to see his point of view without contradicting or offending, always admitting she was right, but gently helping her drop her own preconceived mental image.
Even the ordinary woman is a thousand times more worthwhile to paint than the ordinary man. But women are never ordinary.Francois Flameng
Flameng painted the colors and pageantry of war.
But he was no stranger to its violence.
At age 14, he was playing with fellow students at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, when a bombshell exploded in the courtyard.
It was a gift from the Prussians to mark the onset of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and it prompted him to enlist.
Accepted in the ambulance corps, when Paris fell to the Prussians, he saw seven children killed under the window of his father’s house in Montparnasse.
A portrait painter should not only be endowed with talent, but also possess the qualities of a philosopher, of an observer, of a psychologist, and be provided with inexhaustible patience.Francois Flameng
Francois Flameng didn’t only paint beauty.
Renowned for his paintings that showed some of the horrors of the First World War, he was an accredited documenter for the War Ministry and named honorary president of the Society of Military Painters.
Flameng’s war paintings were derided by many critics for being too realistic and not including heroic drama.
Skagen is a village in the northernmost part of Denmark.
From the late 1870s until the turn of the century, a group of Scandinavian artists descended on Skagen every summer.
It was the light that drew them.
A translucent light that merged the sea and the sky—especially during the evening “blue hour”.
Influenced by the “en plein air” techniques of French Impressionist painters like Claude Monet, they broke away from traditions taught at the academies and developed their own unique styles.
The long beaches stretched for miles and miles …
Listen to Claude Debussy’s haunting Clair de Lune as we travel back in time to late 19th-century Skagen through the eyes of the Skagen Painters.
Nor moon nor stars were out.
They did not dare to tread so soon about,
Though trembling, in the footsteps of the sun.
The light was neither night’s nor day’s, but one
Which, life-like, had a beauty in its doubt;
And Silence’s impassioned breathings round
Seemed wandering into sound. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, A Sea-Side Walk
I have loved hours at sea, gray cities,
The fragile secret of a flower,
Music, the making of a poem
That gave me heaven for an hour Sara Teasdale, I Have Loved Hours At Sea
Rendering light with paint in such a way that it makes you feel you are there and you need to squint at the sun’s reflections on the water.
One of the shared interests of the Skagen painters was to paint scenes of their own social gatherings—eating together, celebrating, or playing cards.
As if you could reach out and touch them, Krøyer’s characters are full of movement, full of life.
The group gathered together regularly at the Brøndums Inn in Skagen, which still operates as a hotel today.
Filled with the paintings the artists donated to cover the cost of board and lodging, the Brøndums’ dining-room became the center of their social life.
Can you feel the excitement in the air and hear the clinking of glasses?
Deep in concentration, an after-dinner game of cards continues into the small hours.
Many of the Skagen painters are depicted here enjoying Midsummer Eve celebrations on Skagen beach around a bonfire, traditionally lit to ward off evil spirits believed to roam freely when the sun turned southward again.
The painting includes Peder Severin Krøyer’s daughter Vibeke, mayor Otto Schwartz and his wife Alba Schwartz, Michael Ancher, Degn Brøndum, Anna Ancher, Holger Drachmann and his 3rd wife Soffi, the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén and Marie Krøyer.
Anna Ancher was the only one of the Skagen Painters to be born and grow up in Skagen.
Her father owned the Brøndums Hotel where the artists stayed during the summer months and she married Michael Ancher, one of the first members of the Skagen colony of artists.
Expressing a more truthful depiction of reality and everyday life, she was a pioneer in observing the interplay of color and natural light.
They love the sea,
Men who ride on it
And know they will die
Under the salt of it Carl Sandburg, Young Sea
Combining realism and classical composition, Michael Ancher painted heroic fishermen and their experiences at sea.
Becoming known as monumental figurative art, his strict training at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts was tempered by his wife Anna’s more naturalistic approach.
Painted in 1885, Michael Ancher’s ‘Will He Round the Point?” (below) earned him and the Skagen colony particular attention since it was sold to King Christian IX of Denmark.
Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Life was hard.
A fisherman’s life was not an easy one.
Better to die surrounded by people who would give their life for you.
That’s what close-knit communities were made of.
Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with that there is Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
The Skagen artists also painted each other and their children going about everyday aspects of life—collecting flowers, walking the dog, reading in the shade of the garden or inside the house, meal times with the children, and saying prayers before bed.
For Victorians, flowers were the language of love.
Proclaiming feelings in public was considered socially taboo, so the Victorians expressed intimacy through flowers.
Myriad market stalls and street sellers sprang up to cater to the Victorians’ need to communicate covertly.
Learning the particular meanings and symbolism assigned to each flower gave Victorians a way to play the subtle game of courtship in secret.
Coded into gifts of blooms, plants, and floral arrangements were specific messages for the recipient, expressing feelings that were improper to say in Victorian society.
Alongside the language of flowers was a growing interest in botany.
Housing exotic and rare plants, conservatories enjoyed a golden age during the Victorian era, while floral designs dominated interior decoration.
Dedicated to the “language of flowers” were hundreds of guide books, with most Victorian homes owning at least one.
Often lavishly illustrated, the books used verbal analogies, religious and literary sources, folkloric connections, and botanical attributes to derive the meanings associated with flowers.
The appearance or behavior of plants and flowers often influenced their coded meanings.
Plants sensitive to touch represented chastity, whereas the deep red rose symbolized the potency of romantic love.
Pink roses were less intense than red, white suggested virtue, and yellow meant friendship.
To express adoration, a suitor would send dwarf sunflowers.
Myrtle symbolized good luck and love in a marriage.
At her wedding in 1858, Princess Victoria, the eldest child of Queen Victoria, carried a sprig of myrtle taken from a bush planted from a cutting given to the Queen by her mother-in-law.
Thus began a tradition for royal brides to include myrtle in their bouquets.
In the royal wedding of 2011, Catherine Middleton included sprigs of myrtle from Victoria’s original plant in her own wedding bouquet.
Displaying small “talking bouquets” or “posies” of meaningful flowers called nosegays or tussie-mussies became popular.
Decorative “posy holders” with rings or pins allowed them to be worn and displayed by their owners.
Made from brass, copper, gold-gilt metal, silver, porcelain, glass, enamel, pearl, ivory, bone and straw, the holders often had intricate engravings and patterning.
Other Flower Meanings
Burdock
Importunity. Touch me not.
Buttercup (Kingcup)
Ingratitude. Childishness.
Camomile
Energy in adversity.
Carnation, Striped
Refusal.
Chrysanthemum, White
Truth.
Coltsfoot
Justice.
Crocus
Abuse not.
Daffodil
Regard.
Daisy
Innocence.
Jasmine
Amiability.
Dandelion
Rustic oracle.
Dogwood
Durability.
Dragonwort
Horror.
Ivy
Fidelity. Marriage.
Everlasting Pea
Lasting pleasure.
Elderflower
Zealousness.
Fennel
Worthy all praise. Strength.
Lemon Blossoms
Fidelity in love.
Flytrap
Deceit.
Foxglove
Insincerity.
Anemone
Forsaken.
Lavender
Distrust.
Marigold
Uneasiness.
Hemlock
You will be my death.
Hibiscus
Delicate beauty.
Honeysuckle
Generous & devoted affection.
Who will buy?
The film versions of Oliver! and My Fair Lady made the London flower sellers famous, but their life was far harsher than their Hollywood depictions.
So high was the demand for flowers that it created many opportunities for street traders and the exploitation of child labour.
Victorian social researcher Henry Mayhew wrote about flower sellers in his book London Labour and the London Poor, 1851—a groundbreaking and influential survey of the city’s poor:
Sunday is the best day for flower selling, and one experienced man computed, that in the height and pride of the summer four hundred children were selling flowers on Sundays in the streets. The trade is almost entirely in the hands of children, the girls outnumbering the boys by more than eight to one. The ages of the girls vary from six to twenty, few of the boys are older than twelve, and most of them are under ten. They are generally very persevering and will run along barefooted, with their, “Please, gentleman, do buy my flowers. Poor little girl!” or “Please kind lady, buy my violets. O, do! please! Poor little girl! Do buy a bunch, please, kind lady!”
William Merritt Chase was an American painter who thrived during America’s Gilded Age.
He is best known for his portraits and landscapes in the impressionist “en plein air” (painted outdoors) style.
He captured the domestic comforts of his own family and the blissful lifestyle of some of the wealthy.
While working in the family business, Chase showed an early talent for art, studying under local, self-taught artists in Indianapolis, who urged him to further his studies at the National Academy in New York.
Declining family fortunes cut short his training and he left New York to join his family in St Louis—working to help support them, but continuing his art.
Catching the eye of wealthy St Louis art collectors, Chase was sent on an expense-paid trip to Europe in exchange for some of his paintings and help in procuring others for their collections.
As one of the finest centers for art training in Europe, Chase joined the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where his figurative and impressionist loose brushwork began to shine.
Further travels in Italy rounded out his skills and he returned to the United States as one of a new wave of highly accomplished European-trained artists.
American statesman Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin once said of Chase’s style,
A noble sense of color is perceptible in all his works, whether in the subtle elusive tints of flesh, or in the powerful rendering of a mass of color. In the painting of a portrait he endeavors, sometimes very successfully, to seize character
Whether relaxing in the country, strolling in the park, playing with children at the beach, boating on a summer afternoon or simply contemplating life, his paintings show us a slice of American life at a beautiful time. A time tinted with gold. A Gilded Age.
The story of shepherding begins some 5,000 years ago in Asia Minor.
As the name implies, a shepherd is a sheep herder — derived from the Old English sceaphierde, where sceap means sheep and hierde, herder.
Kept for their milk, meat and most importantly their wool, sheep flock together for fear of danger and instinctively follow any of their group that takes the lead.
It is this herding characteristic that made sheep farming comparatively easy and low cost for most of the year.
With just a crook and a dog, a lone shepherd could control a flock and lead them to market for shearing in the spring.
The sheepdog helped keep the flock together and protect it from predators such as wolves.
But when winter came, it was a different story.
Cold, lonely, and bleak.
Since the fertile lowlands and river valleys were used to grow grains and cereals, sheep farming was restricted to the rugged upland and mountainous areas.
One such area was the Highlands of Scotland.
Constantly on the move, the flock grazed as best it could, navigating woodlands, streams, open fields, stone walls, and wooden fences.
Blizzards. Deep snow. Snow on snow.
Until the thaw arrived once more in the spring.
19th-century artist Joseph Farquharson captured the shepherd’s winter struggle perfectly.
There is something ethereal in these windswept, yet romantic paintings from the Scottish Highlands.
Perhaps someone was watching over the shepherd, his flock, and his trusty dog.
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA (1723 – 1792) was an influential eighteenth-century English portrait painter.
He promoted the “Grand Manner” of painting which idealized subjects to convey a sense of nobility.
Knighted by King George III in 1769, Reynolds was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts.
Although he had little technical training as an artist, he possessed an instinct for color and composition. His figures appear in a natural attitude of grace and he gives them an air of distinction. Even the most ill-tempered sitters were elevated to a position of dignity.
Reynolds had a gift for capturing the personality of the sitter—what critics called “realizing their individuality.” Using his imagination, he would weave a story into each portrait.
His compositions have a symmetry of outline and flow of lines reminiscent of Raphael. In fact, he borrowed from many sources: Rembrandt’s lighting and color harmonies; Rubens’s splendor; Titian’s decoration.
Yet to all his works, he added his personal touch that makes them uniquely Reynolds.
Which is your favorite 18th-century lady painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds?
Depicting the most glamorous ladies from the court of King William III and Queen Mary II, the Hampton Court Beauties are a series of portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller, commissioned by the Queen herself.
They adorn the state rooms of King William III at Hampton Court Palace.
… the principal Ladies attending upon her Majesty, or who were frequently in her retinue; and this was the more beautiful sight, because the originals were all in being, and often to be compar’d with their pictures.Daniel Defoe
Queen Mary II was a fashion trendsetter and a collector of fine china, particularly blue and white porcelain. Her household account book of 1694 lists 31 mantuas and gowns, taffeta, velvet and satin fabrics, satin shoes with gold and silver lace, gloves, furs, fringes, ribbons, and fans.
The late 17th century was a decadent, sensual era when great beauty could be an instrument of ambition, a passage to pleasure, and a ride to riches.
Handsome rewards lay ahead for royal mistresses like Nell Gwyn, the long-time mistress of King Charles II of England and Scotland. Her son by the King was made the Duke of St Albans and married into the established aristocracy.
Capturing beauty in portraiture became a preoccupation of portrait artists who developed their own techniques to heighten natural beauty. Dutch artist William Wissing had a particular way of bringing a fashionable blush to a lady’s cheeks. He would take her by the hand and dance her about the room until the exercise gave the desired complexion.
Vote for your favorite beauty from the court of Queen Mary.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I may receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products or services that I believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
The rags to riches story of Czech Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha.
Living alone in Paris in 1894, Alphonse Mucha barely made enough money to feed himself.
There had been better times. Back home in Moravia, he had worked in a castle restoring portraits and decorating rooms with murals. Those were the days. His employer, the Count, had encouraged Mucha to take formal studies and had provided financial support.
Now, at 34, with his savings gone, Mucha was scraping a living from his artwork, taking small commissions from magazine pictures, designs for costumes in operas and ballets, and book illustrations.
But his fortunes were about to change.
Just before Christmas 1894, he happened to drop into a print shop and heard that Sarah Bernhardt—the most famous actress in Paris—was starring in a new play, Gismonda.
The promoters needed a poster to advertise the production, and so Alphonse Mucha offered to deliver a lithograph in two weeks.
It was an overnight sensation. Bernhardt was so pleased with the success of this first poster that she offered him a six-year contract.
Alphonse Mucha had brought Art Nouveau to the people of Paris.
For the next 10 years, Alphonse Mucha kept busy with commissions for posters, book illustrations, programs, and calendars.
Abounding with ornamental pictorial elements with crisp curvilinear contours, the stylized graceful women of “Style Mucha” became synonymous with the whole Art Nouveau movement.
Mucha’s work captured the worldliness and decadence of the fin de siècle (turn of the century) and the belle époque (“The Beautiful Era”)—a time when Paris was the resplendent cultural capital of the world.
Mucha grew up in a small village in Moravia in what is now the Czech Republic. When he was a boy, it was part of the Habsburg Empire. Poverty and suffering were a part of everyday life—five of Mucha’s brothers and sisters died from tuberculosis.
Coming from a deeply religious family, the Church was a big influence on Mucha’s early life. From church decorations to the mysticism of religion, he remained fascinated by spiritualism throughout his life and even dabbled in the occult.
After Paris, Mucha spent four years in the United States before returning to his home country, settling in Prague.
He started work on a fine art masterpiece—a history of the Slavic peoples. Called The Slav Epic, it comprises 20 huge canvases up to 26 ft wide and 20 ft high.
When the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, Mucha was among the first to be arrested. Weakened by interrogation and suffering from pneumonia, he died shortly after being released.
But his art lived on in the hearts of admirers the world over.
The Regency (1795–1837) was a period when King George III of England was deemed unfit to rule and his son, the Prince of Wales, ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent. On the death of his father in 1820, the Prince Regent became George IV.
It was a time of great elegance and achievement in the fine arts and architecture, shaping and altering the societal structure of Britain and influencing the world.
Upper-class society, in particular, flourished in a Renaissance of culture and refinement.
Here are 12 men from the Regency Era—some war heroes, some artists, but all embodying the proud spirit of the age.
1. Alexander Ivanovitch, Prince of Chernichev (1786-1857) by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1818
Growing up in the popular Victorian family seaside resort of Great Yarmouth, England, it might have been happy childhood memories that helped Charles Burton Barber become such a successful Victorian artist of children and pets.
Such was the high regard for his skill, that in 1883 Barber was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters—the only art society dedicated to the Victorian artist specializing in oils.
His particular talent was for sentimental portraits of dogs, which helped win royal commissions from animal-lover Queen Victoria.
Barber succeeded Sir Edwin Landseer as the Queen’s court painter. One of his most renowned works is of Marco—a beautiful Pomeranian she bought on a trip to Florence, Italy, in 1888.
The next two paintings, “In Disgrace” and “A Special Pleader”, are two of Victorian artist Barber’s most famous works.
You may notice something similar—it’s the same little girl wiping her tears, having been sent to stand in the corner for naughty behavior.
In each painting, Barber captures the special relationship between dogs and humans. The little puppy is sharing her punishment, while the border collie appears to be pleading with her parents to forgive her.
Demand for Barber’s work is reflected in auction prices. In Disgrace fetched $639,964 at Christie’s in 2007, with A Special Pleader having been sold for $442,500 ten years earlier.
Painting animals with human-like expressions was a popular style for the Victorian artist.
Barber knew how to not only convey expressions like excitement, longing, sadness, and protection, but also to render them in a more natural, animal-like way.
The painting “Suspense” shown below was owned by rival soap manufacturers Pears and Lever Brothers. It depicts a beautiful young girl saying grace over breakfast with her pet cat and Jack Russell gazing longingly at the feast before her.
On a windy summer’s day in 1875, Claude Monet painted his wife Camille with their son Jean out for a stroll in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris.
Splashes of color and Monet’s use of light help capture a moment of spontaneity.
Holding her parasol tightly against the wind, Camille is set against an azure sky with wispy white clouds, looking down at Monet from a rise in the meadow.
Camille was modeling for a theme that Victorians loved—”Lady With a Parasol”.
Victorian poet Emily Dickinson likened a lady opening a parasol to a butterfly spreading its wings in the warmth of the sun.
From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
As Lady from her Door
Emerged—a Summer Afternoon—
… Her pretty Parasol be seen
Contracting in a Field
—Emily Dickinson.
We most often associate the beautiful image of a lady with a parasol with the Victorian and Edwardian Eras. But as far back as the 5th century BC, the Ancient Greeks thought parasols were an indispensable accessory for a lady of fashion.
The Ancient Chinese attached collapsible parasols to their ceremonial carriages and the Ancient Egyptians used a fan of palm-leaves on a long handle, similar to those now carried ceremoniously in papal processions.
Roman maid-servants saw it as a post of honour to carry a parasol over their mistresses.
According to Ancient Indian legend, in around the 4th century BC, a skilled bowman named Jamadagni practiced shooting arrows and his wife Renuka helped recover them so that he could continue practicing and become the best bowman in all India. Jamadagni fired one arrow so far that it took Renuka a whole day to find it, the heat of the sun exhausting her. In anger, Jamadagni fired an arrow at the sun. Begging for mercy, the sun gave Renuka the gift of a beautiful parasol.
Nature has been providing us with parasols since the dawn of mankind. Tree canopies absorb the sun’s ultraviolet rays, providing natural shade.
Parasol Pines are native to Southern Europe and the Middle East, their shape resembling a parasol.
Parasols came in many shapes, sizes, designs, and colors—most were personal hand-held devices, others were larger for sharing.
Whatever shape or size, they are beautiful objects that are still admired today. Let’s take a closer look at some from the Victorian era.
The above parasol is typical of the 1850s, with its tiered canopy echoing the shape of the skirt. The fabric was woven à la disposition—specifically for the shape of the parasol.
The “marquise parasol” above was originally designed for Madame de Pompadour—the chief mistress of King Louis XV at Versailles. With its tilting top that could be angled for flirtatious effect and its embossed floral motif lining the edge, it was the perfect accessory for the art of coquetry.
Made for the wife of a prominent Civil War general from New York, the parasol above features an exquisitely carved ivory handle depicting the idealized Greek female form and the shell-like curves typical of Rococo.
Parasols were often matched to the attire of the wearer. This Edwardian-era example was made of eyelet fabric—popular for a number of summer garments.
Often seen at the races, this type of parasol not only showcased the latest fashion but also displayed the wealth and social status of the owner.
Parasol covers could be patterned with complex forms—usually floral with curvilinear scrolling. The chain link motif shown below was unusual for covers, being found more often on handle designs in the last quarter of the 19th century.
The Belgian appliqué net lace shown below would have been used on a very expensive parasol. Attaching the separately-made covers was the last stage of the manufacturing process.
The marbleized handle tip of the beautiful French-made parasol below has intricate metal and enamel accents. Luxury parasols had fine quality finishes on the inside. Each rib and stretcher has been individually covered with fabric. The shank is as beautifully made as the handle, with a high-quality polished wood finish.
To Victorians and Edwardians, parasols were very special accessories that not only performed an important function but were also an expression of personal taste, wealth, and social class.
Café society was the name given to the “Beautiful People” and “Bright Young Things” who gathered in fashionable cafes in New York, Paris, and London beginning in the 1890s.
But the history of cafes goes back much farther.
During the middle ages, coffeehouses spread across the Ottoman Empire, starting in what is now Saudi Arabia, then opening in Syria, Egypt, and Istanbul.
Describing the Persian coffeehouse scene in the 17th-century, French traveler Jean Chardin wrote:
People engage in conversation, for it is there that news is communicated and where those interested in politics criticize the government in all freedom and without being fearful since the government does not heed what the people say.
Chardin noted that games like chess and checkers were played, along with poets and preachers telling stories in verse or as moral lessons.
Trade with the Ottoman Empire brought coffeehouses to Europe via the Republic of Venice in around 1629, with the first coffeehouse in England opening in Oxford in 1652.
Here, at what is now the Grand Café in Oxford, 17th-century luminaries gathered to discuss a whole range of ideas based on reason—what we now refer to as the Enlightenment.
Whether you visit alone to think and contemplate, or to join friends and chat about life, work, and the ways of the world, the next time you settle in at Starbucks or Costa Coffee or a host of other modern cafés, take a moment to pause and reflect on what these places actually represent.
They are where our modern ideas of liberty, progress, tolerance, and fraternity were born.
Hans Dahl (1849 – 1937) was famous for painting breathtaking Norwegian landscapes with sheer-sided fjords and sweeping valleys.
Within those settings, he painted pretty young women going about their everyday work in the surrounding fields—gathering leaves and grasses to feed cattle and sheep, fishing, making hay, or picking wildflowers to sell at market.
Born in the village of Granvin on Hardangerfjord, the second longest fjord in Norway, Dahl showed early promise as an artist.
After military service, he apprenticed with landscape painter Johan Fredrik Eckersberg and studied under romanticist painter Hans Gude.
But it was Dahl’s training at the Düsseldorf school of painting that would characterize his work—finely detailed, yet dreamlike, idealized landscapes.
What better music to accompany Hans Dahl’s work than that of a fellow Norwegian—the composer Edvard Grieg.
Born in Trujillo, Peru, in 1851, Albert Lynch moved to Paris to study at one of the most prestigious and influential art schools of the 19th century—l’École des Beaux-Arts.
Working under the guidance of Jules Achille Noël, Gabriel Ferrier and Henri Lehmann, Lynch reached a standard that was good enough to show at the Paris Salon in 1890 and 1892, and also the Exposition Universelle of 1900, where he was awarded a gold medal.
Preferring pastel, gouache and watercolor, Lynch painted society women “in the spirit of the Belle Époque”. He also illustrated some high profile novels of the period including Camille by Alexandre Dumas, fils (the son of Alexandre Dumas of The Count of Monte Cristo fame), Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac and La Parisienne by Henry Becque.
This is the story of how a series of exquisite handmade dolls, representing the history of French haute couture made their way to the United States as an expression of gratitude.
The year was 1948 and France was still suffering from the effects of World War II. Housed in boxcars and dubbed the “Friendship Train”, American aide organizations had sent large-scale relief the year before.
Read more …
Now it was France who wished to show its gratitude for America’s generosity by creating the “Gratitude Train”—a set of 49 box cars filled with French-made gifts, like handmade toys and priceless works of art.
The French fashion houses banded together to create something very special.
They tasked their most talented designers with creating a set of fashion dolls that would show the evolution of French fashion.
Measuring 24 inches tall with bodies made from open wire, the designers used human hair to fashion the hairstyles.
Using period paintings, literature, and fashion plates as references, each designer chose a year between 1715 and 1906.
Representing their creative interpretations, the designers used the same level of care and attention to detail as they did for full size work.
It was a unique moment in the history of French couture.
“1715 Doll”. Marcel Rochas (French, 1902–1955)
“1733 Doll”. Jean Bader (French)
“1755 Doll”. A. Reichert (French)
“1774 Doll”. Jean Dessès (French (born Egypt), Alexandria 1904–1970 Athens)
“1779 Doll”. Lucille Manguin
“1785 Doll”. Maggy Rouff (French, 1896–1971)
“1787 Doll”. Mendel
“1791 Doll”. Martial & Armand
“1808 Doll”. Madame Grès (Alix Barton) (French, Paris 1903–1993 Var region)
“1820 Doll”. House of Patou (French, founded 1919)
“1828 Doll”. Henriette Beaujeu (French)
“1832 Doll”. Marcelle Dormoy (French)
“1866 Doll”. Marcelle Chaumont (French)
“1867 Doll”. Jacques Fath (French, 1912–1954)
“1873 Doll”. Madeleine Vramant (French)
“1884 Doll”. Nina Ricci (French, 1883–1970)
“1892 Doll”. Germaine Lecomte
“1896 Doll”. Bruyère (French, founded 1928)
“1902 Doll”. Robert Piguet (French, born Switzerland, 1901–1953)
More than 100 years ago, high above the banks of the Seine River in Rolleboise, France, Daniel Ridgway Knight set up his easel to paint working women in the fields, vineyards, and gardens surrounding the beautiful valley.
Today, if you were to sit and have lunch at the restaurant of Hotel Domain de la Corniche, you would be overlooking the same stretch of river depicted in several of Ridgway Knight’s paintings.
Born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1839, Knight trained in Paris under Gleyre at the École des Beaux-Arts. Gleyre taught a number of prominent artists, including Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Whistler.
After some years working under Meissonier, a painter of immensely detailed Napoleonic military scenes, Knight bought a house and studio in Poissy on the Seine.
Winning several awards at the Paris Salon, the Exposition Universelle, 1889, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Daniel Ridway Knight is best remembered for his soulful depictions of women going about their daily work in and around the Seine River valley—sometimes stopping to talk, to rest, and to dream.
Known for his highly detailed landscapes and influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite movement, John Brett studied under James Duffield Harding and Richard Redgrave before joining the Royal Academy in 1853.
Inspired by Pre-Raphaelite ideals on scientific landscape painting he visited Switzerland in 1858 where he painted The Val d’Aosta (below).
The “Stonebreaker” became his most celebrated work, depicting a young boy smashing stones in a brightly-lit and highly detailed landscape. Embodying a moral message about child labor, the Stonebreaker was lauded by famed art critic John Ruskin.
Travelling the Mediterranean during the 1860s, Brett painted many landscapes with scientific precision.
In the 1870s and 1880s, he painted scenes of Cornwall, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight, and most notably the coastline of Wales.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti—even his name is a work of art.
It is said that to understand him, we must first understand that although he is best remembered for his paintings, he was first and foremost a poet.
O lay your lips against your hand
And let me feel your breath through it,
While through the sense your song shall fit
The soul to understand.
Early life
Born in London to an English mother and Italian father in 1828, Rossetti’s childhood was suffused in the atmosphere of medieval Italy. As a literary scholar, his father obsessed over the works of Dante and spoke mostly Italian.
Home schooled, Rossetti often read the Bible, along with the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, and William Blake. He became fascinated with the Gothic horror stories of Edgar Allan Poe.
These influences would become a major source of artistic inspiration for Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Attending preparatory art school followed by the Royal Academy, Rossetti soon grew tired of the mechanistic approach to teaching and preferred to stay at home painting what he desired.
He saw early Victorian art as trivial, sentimental and unimaginative and yearned for a return to pre-Renaissance purity of style and aim.
When in 1848 he met William Holman Hunt, an artist who shared the same ideals, they formed a movement called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood along with fellow artist John Everett Millais.
The brotherhood believed that Renaissance artist Raphael’s Classical compositions had corrupted academic teaching of art. They felt it was time to bring back the abundant detail, intense colors and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art that predated Raphael, hence the name “Pre-Raphaelite”.
Poetry and image are closely intertwined in Rossetti’s work. Appreciating female beauty through art was sacred to him. In both poetry and painting, he explored his own fantasies and conceptions about earthly and spiritual love through the theme of female beauty.
In 1850, Rossetti met Elizabeth Siddal, who would become an important model for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. First spotted by a friend in a London hat shop, she became Rossetti’s muse, passion, and eventually his wife.
It would be 10 years before Rossetti finally married Elizabeth after a relationship that had grown hot and cold. By this time, Elizabeth’s health had declined. She had long suffered from depression, believing with some justification that Rossetti would leave her for a younger muse.
After two failed pregnancies, it was all too much for her. She overdosed on laudanum and Rossetti found her unconscious and dying in bed.
Suicide was both illegal and immoral in the Victorian era—denying the victim a Christian burial. And so her death was ruled accidental and a suicide note burned.
Many think the melancholy in Rossetti’s Prosperine (below) reflects his own feelings of personal torment over the loss of his wife. But then many others found melancholy in all his paintings. It was part of who he was.
When vain desire at last and vain regret
Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain,
What shall assuage the unforgotten pain
And teach the unforgetful to forget?
Join us in the Gallery as we listen to DeBussey’s La damoiselle élue—influenced by the life and work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
One of the greatest American Impressionist painters, Frederick Childe Hassam produced over 3000 works in oil, watercolor, etchings, and lithographs.
Pronounced “child HASS’m”, he demonstrated a talent for drawing and watercolor while at primary school.
At 17, he turned down an offer from his uncle to pay for a Harvard education in favor of working as a wood engraver.
Proving to be a proficient draftsman, he produced engravings for letterheads and newspapers before becoming a freelance illustrator with his own studio.
Read more …
Specializing in illustrations for children’s stories in magazines such as Harper’s Weekly and Scribner’s Monthly, he held his first solo exhibition in Boston in 1883.
Advised by a friend at the Boston Art Club, he took a two-month “study trip” to Europe in the summer of 1883.
Forming the basis of his next exhibition in 1884 were 67 watercolors from his trip to Europe.
Influenced by the Barbizon school—an art movement for Realism in the context of the Romantic Movement—Hassam focused on the use of atmosphere and light in his landscapes.
French master Jean-Léon Gérôme had these words of advice for Childe Hassam, which he never forgot:
Look around you and paint what you see … render the intense life which surrounds you.
Taking to heart the words of a noted Boston critic “very pleasant, but not art”, in 1886 Hassam returned to Europe with his wife, settling in a studio in Paris at the center of the art community.
Here, he studied figure drawing and painting at the prestigious Académie Julian but found the teaching stifling,
the Julian academy is the personification of routine … crushing all originality out of growing men. It tends to put them in a rut and it keeps them in it.
Using an innovative change of palette, Hassam painted two versions of Grand Prix Day in 1887. Inspired by the work of French Impressionists, he painted softer, more diffuse colors, full of light, with free brush strokes.
The completed works garnered attention back home in Boston, with one critic writing,
It is refreshing to note that Mr. Hassam, in the midst of so many good, bad, and indifferent art currents, seems to be paddling his own canoe with a good deal of independence and method. When his Boston pictures of three years ago…are compared with the more recent work…it may be seen how he has progressed.
Exhibiting four paintings at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris, he won a bronze medal, then moved back to the States to take up residence on New York’s Fifth Avenue, painting the genteel neighborhoods within walking distance of his apartment.
New York is the most beautiful city in the world. There is no boulevard in all Paris that compares to our own Fifth Avenue … the average American still fails to appreciate the beauty of his own country.
Hassam’s career went from strength to strength, earning him as much as $6000 per painting in 1909 (equivalent to roughly $160,000 today).
As New York’s architecture changed, with skyscrapers supplanting stately mansions, Hassam lamented a simpler time when gracious horse-drawn carriages ferried people up and down Fifth Avenue.
He tired of the bustling subways, elevated trains, and motor buses, and traveled to Oregon, with its high desert, mountains , and rugged coastline.
In later life, Hassam produced some of his most distinctive paintings. Inspired by America’s involvement in World War One, he painted the “Flag series” in 1916. Being an avid Francophile, so enthusiastically did he embrace the war effort to help protect French culture that he even volunteered to record the war in Europe, but was declined.
Chosen by Barack Obama to hang in the Oval Office, the Avenue in the Rain is Hassam’s most famous work from the Flag series. As though viewing through a rain-smeared window, Hassam’s broad brushstrokes make a patriotic statement without overt reference to parades or war.
In his final years, he received a Gold Medal of Honor for lifetime achievement among other awards. However, for denouncing the avant-garde modern art trends of Cubism and Surrealism, some critics viewed him as static and repetitive.
He died peacefully in East Hampton at the age of 75, his legacy, an “abandoned genius” from a bygone time.
In the 1960s and 70s, the resurgence of interest in Impressionism saw his work fetch stratospheric prices.
How could we begin without first mentioning the granddaddy of all ceiling frescoes that influenced so many others that followed—the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
Painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel exemplifies High Renaissance art—a period of exceptional creativity during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Nine scenes from the Book of Genesis take center stage, of which The Creation of Adam is the best known, deservedly enjoying an iconic status equaled only by Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Anyone who’s tried to paint a ceiling at home will know it’s back-breaking work. All that looking up. But imagine painting that way for 4 years solid!
Contrary to popular belief, Michelangelo didn’t lie on his back but painted in a standing position.
The work was carried out in extremely uncomfortable conditions, from his having to work with his head tilted upwards.Giorgio Vasari (1511 - 1574)
The ceiling rises to 44 ft (13.4 m) above the main floor, so, what does a 16th-century sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer do to reach such lofty heights?
You guessed it—he designed his own scaffold. But instead of building from the floor up, he saved on wood by making a flat platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall near the top of the windows.
Besides his own heavenly creations, Michelangelo would inspire later artists like Austrian Paul Troger (1698 – 1762), whose illusionistic ceiling frescoes are notable for their dramatic vitality of movement and light color palette.
Here are 8 examples of heavenly baroque frescoes from 18th-century Austria.
1. Melk Abbey, Austria
Melk Abbey is a Benedictine abbey originally founded in 1089 overlooking the town of Melk in Lower Austria.
Today’s Baroque abbey was built between 1702 and 1736.
2. Herzogenburg Monastery, Austria
The Augustinian Herzogenburg Monastery in Lower Austria was founded in 1112 by Augustinian Canons, and refurbished in the Baroque style in 1714.
3. Sonntagberg Basilica, Austria
Sonntagberg Basilica is a baroque church in Lower Austria, Built between 1706 and 1732, Pope Paul VI gave it the title Minor basilica in 1964.
4. Altenburg Abbey, Austria
Altenburg Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Lower Austria. It suffered numerous invasions and attacks, and was destroyed by the Swedes in 1645.
The present Baroque abbey replaced the earlier Romanesque structure, and is said to be one of the finest in Austria.
5. Seitenstetten Abbey, Austria
Originally founded in 1112, Seitenstetten Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Lower Austria that was lavishly refurbished in the 18th century in the Baroque style.
6. Jesuit Church, Austria
Also known as the University Church, the Jesuit Church is a two-storey, twin-tower church in Vienna, Austria. It was remodeled using Baroque principles in the early 18th century.
The first church in the Austrian market town of Maria Taferl was built around a shrine to the Holy Mother, which is the origin of the town’s name.
7. Maria Taferl Basilica, Austria
Built between 1660 and 1710, the baroque Maria Taferl Basilica features ornate gold leaf decoration and the frescoed ceiling shown below.
8. Göttweig Abbey, Austria
Göttweig Abbey is a Benedictine monastery near Krems in Lower Austria.
Founded in the 11th century, the abbey burned down in 1718 and was rebuilt on a grander, more lavish scale.
The fresco decorating the imperial staircase (shown below) is considered a masterpiece of Austrian Baroque architecture.
In 1894, famed art critic Gustave Geffroy described Berthe Morisot, Marie Bracquemond, and Mary Cassatt as “les trois grandes dames” (the three great ladies) of the Impressionist movement.
Born into a wealthy bourgeois family from Bourges, France, Berthe Morisot learnt how to paint at an early age, having private lessons along with her sisters.
As art students, Berthe and her sister Edma would spend hours in the Louvre copying the great works.
While marriage and family life ended Edma’s art career, Berthe continued to paint, and in 1864 at age 23, she exhibited at the prestigious Salon de Paris—the official, annual exhibition of the Académie des beaux-arts in Paris.
Then in 1874, she stopped exhibiting with the academy and joined the Impressionists, which included Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.
Regarded as a “virtuoso colorist”, Berthe created a sense of space and depth with color, painting what she saw and experienced in everyday life. But there is a message in her work—one that tells a story of the class and gender restrictions of the 19th century.
Focusing on family life, her portraits often feature her own daughter, Julie, from her marriage to Édouard Manet’s brother, Eugène.
Frederic Edwin Church loved to dream. He dreamed of mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets. He dreamed of exotic lands shrouded in mist, of waves crashing against craggy cliffs, of reflections in the stillness of dawn’s first light.
Church was a pupil of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School of American landscape painters—an art movement influenced by romanticism.
Romanticism was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment that emphasized an emotional connection with nature. Romantic paintings used a luminous quality of light to convey idealized scenes depicting the richness and beauty of nature.
Church shows us the wild, untamed frontier landscapes of an unsettled America that were fast disappearing and the dramatic natural wonders he experienced on his travels around the world.
We are reminded of just how small we are in comparison with the magnificence of nature.
The following content contains Amazon affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Thanks for supporting our work.
Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 – 1900) loved the sea. Considered one of the greatest marine artists in history, during his 60-year career he created an astonishing 6,000 beautiful paintings.
Sweeping seascapes, golden sunsets, moonlit nights—Aivazovsky surprises and delights.
He paints mighty ships of the line ploughing through rough waters at full sail, or drifting in the stillness of a calm sea.
He captures the grandeur of the Imperial Russian fleet at anchor in the Black Sea ports.
He caresses the canvas with delicate brushwork and translucent layers of diffuse light.
Warmed by the rising sun, great buildings appear from behind morning mists. Anchored tall ships sit shrouded in glowing fog. Incandescent moonlight shimmers across the calm waters of Black Sea bays.
So admired was his work by Russians, that the saying “worthy of Aivazovsky’s brush” described something “ineffably lovely.”
Press “play” to add atmosphere to your sea voyage as you scroll through Aivazovsky’s beautiful paintings.
Contains affiliate links
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I may receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products or services that I believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Further Reading
Discover more about Ivan Aivazovsky at Wikipedia.org
Claude Monet loved nature — and what better time to enjoy it than its reawakening after a long, cold winter.
He loved to paint “en plein air” — outdoors in the open air — enjoying the fresh light and colors of spring, with the scent of blossoms drifting on the spring breeze.
Here are 10 paintings by Monet that feature “spring” in the title.
The Impressionist painter Frank Myers Boggs loved France.
He loved the quays and monuments along the Seine in Paris. He loved the old harbor and the pretty townhouses in Honfleur. He loved the marina, the fish market, the stepped streets, and the tranquil squares of Marseille.
Myers Boggs was one of several young American artists who crossed the stormy seas of the North Atlantic in the 19th century to live, breathe, and paint the “old world” that is France.
He used a somber tonal palette and restrained impressionist technique to capture marine, harbor, and street scenes.
If you love moody skies, if you love the way golden afternoon light falls on old stone buildings, if you love the pale light of misty mornings, the stillness of reflections and cities filled with spires, then you will love the work of Frank Myers Boggs.
Here are 30 Impressionist paintings to feed your soul today.
German-born American artist Albert Bierstadt (1830 – 1902) was best known for his paintings of the American West.
A member of the mid 19th-century American art movement known as the Hudson River School, he focused on romantic landscapes.
Traveling westward with land surveyors and authors, he captured sketches to develop into large-scale paintings back at his New York studio.
In the 1860’s he became a member of the much-vaunted National Academy—an honorary association of American artists. He received medals as he traveled extensively in Europe and even had a private reception with Queen Victoria.
Demand for his work was so high that by 1865 his paintings were fetching $10,000 – $25,000 (worth approx $280,000 – $700,000 today)
When in 1872, his drawings of Yellowstone convinced Congress to pass the Yellowstone Park Bill, he was firmly established as the preeminent painter of the American West.
Bierstadt used light to glorify the romance of sweeping landscapes, depicting the untamed West as a land full of promise, of Manifest Destiny, and the American Dream.
Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch’ is arguably the most famous painting in the Netherlands.
It was painted in 1642, during the Dutch Golden Age—a time when Dutch trade, science, military, and art led the world.
With the largest fleet of merchant ships, the Dutch Republic had built a vast colonial empire, and the County of Holland had become the wealthiest and most urbanized region in the world.
This was a time when militia groups in Amsterdam—elite citizens who had helped defend the city against the Spanish Empire—paraded ceremoniously in public displays of civic pride.
It was one such group—the Amsterdam civic guard company of musketeers—that commissioned Rembrandt to paint “The Night Watch.”
But there’s something odd about the name “Night Watch”: it was not the name of the original painting.
By the end of the 18th century, the painting had accumulated so many layers of varnish and dirt, that it looked like the scene took place at night—and hence, it was misnamed “The Night Watch”.
The below image depicts how it might have looked when obscured by the build up of varnish.
Art historians believe the original name would have been similar to other contemporary portraits, essentially named after the most prominent subjects in the painting: “Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh.”
When the painting was cleaned, it was clear that although still dark because of the Italian Baroque style, it depicted a daytime event.
In the Night Watch, Rembrandt takes group portraits in a new and exciting direction. He imposes a hierarchy on the figures, throwing the two central figures in a glowing baroque light to make them stand out. It’s almost as though a spotlight is casting a dark shadow of the captain’s outstretched hand onto the dazzling pale yellow uniform of his lieutenant.
There is so much going on in the painting to emphasize movement. There is a story unfolding.
Skill with the musket was this militia group’s specialization, and we see three stages in the use of the firearm.
There’s an interesting narrative around the strangely glowing figure of a girl to the left of center. She is believed to be a mascot for the musketeers. At her waist, she carries a dead chicken, the prominent claws of which symbolize the emblem of the Musketeers.
Shown below is the chain of the Amsterdam Company of Arquebusiers (musketeers). Some of the links are decorated with claws—the emblem of the musketeers, as depicted by the little girl mascot above.
The Musketeers would hold shooting contests, and the winner–the “king” of the guild–was allowed to wear the chain for a year.
Rembrandt skillfully involves the viewer in the story—almost as if the figures are interacting with us. The spear of the lieutenant and the Captain’s hand have almost a 3D quality and appear to enter the space of the onlooker.
As the dog barks at the excitement of the drumming (below, bottom left), and the standard-bearer hoists up the flag of the militia, the captain is calling together the group—to stop what they are doing and move forward.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the history lesson from Rembrandt as much as we have.
Click to see the real painting hanging in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam thanks to Google Maps
Sources wikipedia.org. Khan Academy. Rembrandt’s Nightwatch: the Mystery Revealed by Georges Boka, Bernard Courteau.
Alfred Stevens was one of Belgium’s leading 19th-century artists who specialized in paintings of fashionable young women in elegant interiors.
Read more …
As a young boy, Alfred Stevens (1823 – 1906) was surrounded by art: his father was an art collector and his grandparents ran a cafe in Brussels that was a meeting place for artists and writers.
At age 14, he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and at 20 was admitted to the most prestigious art school in Paris—the École des Beaux-Arts.
By 1851, at the age of 28, three of his paintings were admitted to the Brussels Salon, the most exclusive art exhibition in Belgium. Two years later, he was awarded a medal at the Paris Salon—the most important art event in the world.
It was here, in Paris, that he would find fame and fortune painting elegant modern women.
Here are 20 exquisite paintings from Alfred Steven’s repertoire that show his meticulous attention to contemporary dress and decor.
Art is not what you see, but what you make others seeEdgar Degas.
And “make us see” is what he does with exquisite aplomb. He renders the beauty of fleeting movement, of ballerinas in mid-performance, with a luminous quality. But he also captures the human side of ballerinas, in their simplest, most intimate moments—warming up, stretching at the bar, practicing positions, or talking in the dressing room.
At the ballet, Degas found himself. It satisfied his penchant for classical elegance and put to use his rigorous academic training from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris—one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious fine art schools.
He frequented the Palais Garnier—the home of the Paris Ballet and Opera, lurking in the wings and foyer hoping to befriend the influential patrons who might gain him access to the private world of ballerinas.
Mimed poetry, dream made visible.
Degas’s paintings of ballet performances capture the essence of what makes ballet special—the balance, poise, and precision of movement. A contemporary critic called ballet “mimed poetry, dream made visible.”
Degas became a familiar sight for the young ballerinas—some poor, dreaming of becoming the princesses of the stage. One said he “used to stand at the top or bottom of the many staircases . . . drawing the dancers as they rushed up and down.” He noticed everything—from the most difficult of choreographed sequences to the smallest errors—making notes as he went.
In later life, Degas became a recluse, believing that “the artist must live alone, and his private life must remain unknown“. His eyesight was failing him and he spent his last years, almost blind, wandering the streets of his beloved Paris.
He wrote to a friend,
with the exception of the heart, it seems to me that everything within me is growing old in proportion, and even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes.
Like the dancing shoes, Degas himself faded away in September 1917, but his work lives on in brilliant color.
Listen to Steven Gutheinz as we marvel at the dancers of Degas.
The images below connect you with Amazon and contain Affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Thanks for supporting our work.
Lev Lagorio (1828–1905) loved the way light plays with the beauty and drama of sea and mountains.
Known for his seascapes, Lagorio studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Influenced by the great marine artist Ivan Aivazovsky, Lagorio went on a sea voyage in 1845 aboard a Russian warship, where he studied the arrangement of ships—many of which feature in his work.
He spent eight years in Italy, his paintings of which earned him a professorship on returning to Russia.
In his later years, Lagorio painted coastal views of Finland and Norway.
1. Caucasian canyon, 1893
2. Normandy Beach, 1859.
3. Landscape with trees, houses and river, 1878
4. Moon light on the Neva, 1898
5. On the Caucasus Mountains, 1870
6. On the island of Capri. Coastal cliffs. 1859
7. On the island of Capri. Fisher’s house, 1859
8. Batum (a seaside city on the Black Sea coast), 1881
9. Defense of Bayazet during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878
The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1300 to 1870 when Europe and North America experienced much colder winters than we do today. Paintings from the Little Ice Age show us what it was like.
There were two phases, the first of which ran from about 1300 to 1500. Then came a slightly warmer period in the 1500s, followed by the second phase when climate deteriorated substantially.
Temperatures plummeted, crops failed, heavy snowfalls and glaciation consumed small villages and farms. Most waterways and lakes in Europe froze over.
Temperatures wouldn’t reach pre-Little Ice Age levels until the 20th century.
To make matters worse, there was significant volcanic activity. In 1815, Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies erupted—one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history.
So much volcanic ash was forced into the atmosphere that it partially blocked the sun’s warming rays, leading to the “Year Without a Summer” of 1816.
Snow fell in New York in June, Massachusetts had frosts in August, and ice still floated in the lakes and rivers of northwestern Pennsylvania during August.
But art flourished, and provides us with a visual record of weather conditions.
Here are 20 of the best winter paintings from the Little Ice Age.
1. The Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565
2. Adoration of the Kings in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1567
3. Winter Landscape with a Windmill by Hendrick Avercamp, c.1615
4. The Castle of Muiden in Winter by Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten, 1658
5. Dutch Snow Scene with Skaters by Jan Griffier, c.1695
6. Rome with snow by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1730
7. The Four Seasons: Winter by François Boucher, 1755
8. Winter by Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes, 1786-1787
9. Snowy Landscape by Francesco Foschi, c.1770
10. The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, attributed to Henry Raeburn, 1790s
11. Breaking the Ice by George Morland, 1792
12. Winter Landscape by Caspar David Friedrich, 1811
13. Santa Trinità dei Monti in the Snow by Andre Giroux – c.1830 (Rome, Italy)
14. Winter Landscape with Ice Amusements by Frederk Marinus Kruseman, 1850
15. Playing in the Snow by Thompkins H Matteson, 1856
16. Winter Scene by Louis Remy Mignot, 1856
17. La Diligence in the Snow by Gustave Courbet, 1860
18. Snow Scene in the South of France by Joséphine Bowes, c.1867
19. Deer in a Snowy Landscape by Gustave Courbet, 1867
It was April 15, 1874, on the boulevard des Capucines, Paris, France.
Monet waited nervously for people to arrive at his new exhibition, organized with the help of friends Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and others.
The well-known photographer Nadar (the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) had recently moved to a new location and offered his studio to Monet and friends to use for their exhibition.
Times were hard. The artists were constantly in need of money. An economic slump had hit the art market and the scant sales through art dealers had all but dried up.
The young artists had banded together to form a guild-like association and called themselves “Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs” (Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers).
They wanted to show their work as independent artists, free from any restrictions imposed by the increasingly conservative Salon de Paris.
Exhibition at the Salon de Paris was considered essential for any artist to achieve success in France.
But the Salon’s jurors had snubbed Monet and the group of artists, and refused to exhibit many of their works. They opposed the artists’ shift away from traditional styles.
It was the rejection of his larger paintings, like Women in the Garden (below) that finally convinced Monet of the need for his own exhibition.
Now was the opportunity to proudly show another of his larger works—The Luncheon. It too had been turned down by the Paris Salon.
Altogether, 165 works were exhibited, including 9 by Morisot, 6 by Renoir, 10 by Degas, 5 by Pissarro, 3 by Cézanne, and 3 by Guillaumin.
But it was Monet’s own painting, Impression, Sunrise that would lead to the new name for the group.
What was intended as an insult by art critic Louis Leroy to describe the vague forms and incomplete appearance, was taken as a token of esteem by the group of artists, who would become known as “Impressionists”.
In his article “The Impressionist Exhibition”, Louis Leroy tried to ridicule the Impressionists by writing from the imaginary perspective of a traditional artist who was shocked at seeing their work:
‘Ah! This is it, this is it!: he cried in front of n. 98. ‘This one is Papa Vincent’s favorite! What is this a painting of? Look in the catalogue.’ ‘Impression, Sunrise.’ ‘Impression– I knew it. I was just saying to myself, if I’m impressed, there must be an impression in there… And what freedom, what ease in the brushwork! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more labored than this seascape!”
During the exhibition, Monet talked about his technique for landscapes in an interview with Maurice Guillemot for La Revue Illustrée:
A landscape is only an impression, instantaneous, hence the label they’ve given us– all because of me, for that matter. I’d submitted something done out of my window at Le Havre, sunlight in the mist with a few masts in the foreground jutting up from the ships below. They wanted a title for the catalog; it couldn’t really pass as a view of Le Havre, so I answered: “Put down Impression.” Out of that they got impressionism, and the jokes proliferated….”
Followers of Impressionism argued that it represented how the eye sees subjects—not in terms of lines and contours, but through the interplay of light and color to form an impression.
Although initially skeptical, the public came to believe the Impressionists had developed their own highly original style.
Impressionism changed the world of painting by disrupting the conventions of the past. It paved the way for a number of later styles, including Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism.
The Groundbreaking Impressionist Exhibition of 1874
Monet tried to sell Impression, Sunrise at the exhibition for 1000 francs but failed.
In 2008, at a Christie’s auction, Le bassin aux nymphéas from the water lillies series sold for $80,451,178.
At one time, especially between 1815 and 1915, the horse and buggy was the primary mode of short-distance transportation in America.
Horsemanship was largely confined to wealthy landowners, western pioneers, and the military.
But as long as there were rudimentary roadways, the low skill requirement of horse and buggy gave freedom of mobility to thousands more.
Until Henry Ford made automobiles affordable for the working class, horse-drawn buggies were the most common means of getting around towns and surrounding countryside.
Edward Lamson Henry (1841 – 1919) was an American painter who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to Paris at the age of 19 — a time of Claude Monet, Pierre-August Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.
His great attention to detail and membership of the New York Historical Society won him admiration from contemporaries who viewed his work as authentic historical reconstructions.
Who better to show us American life in the time of the horse and buggy than Edward Lamson Henry. To enhance the atmosphere of these beautiful paintings, optionally play the music.
Whether a quaint novelty ride around Central Park or a touch of Cinderella magic to a storybook wedding, we can still experience the joys of a horse and buggy ride today.
In a dusty old Parisian apartment in 2010, a startling discovery was made.
No one had set foot on the premises for 70 years.
Hidden, as if in a time capsule, was a portrait by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.
It was of Marthe de Florian, a French actress and demimondaine during the Belle Époque. She was known for having famous lovers including a string of French premiers—Georges Clemenceau, Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, Paul Deschanel, and Gaston Doumergue.
The apartment belonged to de Florian’s granddaughter, who left Paris to live in the South of France at the outbreak of World War 2, and never returned.
Evidence of the painting’s authenticity lay in a love-letter and a biographical reference dating it to 1888, when the actress was 24.
Boldini is best known for his dazzling, elegant depictions of fashionable high society women.
A 1933 Time magazine article called Boldini the “Master of Swish”—one look at his striking, fluid brushstrokes explains why.
He was preeminently the artist of the Edwardian era, of the pompadour, the champagne supper and the ribbon-trimmed chemiseTime Magazine.
Born in Ferrara in 1842, the son of a painter of religious subjects, he moved to Florence to study painting when he was 20 and met the “Macchiaioli”—Italian precursors to Impressionism. It was their influence that set him on a course initially as a landscape artist, then as a portraitist.
On moving to London, he found fame painting society members including the Duchess of Westminster and Lady Holland.
From 1872, he lived in Paris, where he befriended Edgar Degas and became the most fashionable portraitist in Paris.
He lived to be 88, having married only two years earlier. At his wedding breakfast, he made a little speech:
It is not my fault if I am so old, it’s something which has happened to me all at once.
Vote for your favorites from the “master of swish” as you listen to The Swan by Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns.
Can’t see the music player or the Boldini paintings? Your ad blocker might be blocking them—try switching it off.
Susan Catherine Moore Waters was a self-taught artist who had little formal training.
She paid her way through seminary school in Friendsville, Pennsylvania by producing drawings.
Married at 17 to William Waters, she relocated often according to her husband’s work and Quaker connections.
When her husband’s ill health meant that he could no longer work, she became the sole provider—and this is where her career as an artist blossomed.
Susan started painting commissioned portraits and giving lessons. Her early work earned enough to provide some financial security.
This painting of three of the twelve children of Otis Lincoln, an innkeeper from Newark Valley (near Binghamton), New York, is widely regarded as one of her finest achievements.
The three little girls (Laura Eugenie, age nine, Sara, age three, and Augusta, age seven) are arranged in a pyramid.
Wearing fancy dresses, ornamented with eyelet and lace, the girls hold pieces of fruit and a book—common in mid-19th-century child portraits and meant to convey their sweetness and enthusiasm for school.
The handsome furnishings, expensive-looking carpet, pretty plants and charming puppy—with its neatly aligned paws—create a pleasing image of domestic bliss. Contrast this with the startlingly serious expressions of the children.
She also wanted to develop as an artist.
In addition to portraits, she started painting landscapes and animals.
In 1866, after years of moving between temporary residences, the Waters finally settled in Bordentown, New Jersey, where she would create some of her best-known works of domesticated animals in pastoral settings.
These paintings would earn her recognition in her own lifetime, including an exhibit at the prestigious Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.
For a married woman in the 19th century, succeeding at being sole provider was a remarkable achievement.
To become recognized for her artistic talent in the male-dominated world of art was extraordinary.
Susan Waters’ strength of character would help her become a forward-thinker in the women’s suffrage movement and an animal rights activist.
Garden of the Princess (Louvre) by Claude Oscar Monet is one of his earlier works from 1867—before the term “impressionism” came into being.
It can be considered “pre-impressionism”, incorporating hints of the impressionist style that would follow.
The sky, in particular, has the distinctively visible brush strokes, and the sense of movement that are crucial elements of impressionism.
The people and horse-drawn carriages in the street also share the same technique of dabs and blobs of paint.
However, the foreground—the Garden of the Princess—is painted in a more realistic style.
In this painting, we see the beginnings of a transition for Monet—from the realism of painting details and well-defined outlines, to the impressionism of painting the overall visual effect.
Enjoy this 5-minute discussion from expert curator Dr. Andria Derstine, the John G. W. Cowles Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum that houses the work.
Claude Monet had been exiled to England during the Franco-Prussian War.
Now he was traveling in Holland, staying in Zaandam, a picturesque little town near Amsterdam.
During his stay, he painted about 20 views of the town and its environs.
The weather was mostly overcast, and he conveyed the atmosphere by limiting the range of colors, as was the style among contemporary Netherlandish landscape painters.
In a letter to his friend Camille Pissarro, who was living in England at the time, Monet wrote,
There are the most amusing things everywhere. Houses of every colour, hundreds of windmills and enchanting boats, extremely friendly Dutchmen who almost all speak French…. I have not had time to visit the museums, I wish to work first of all and I’ll treat myself to that later.
Years later, in May 1886, the French Embassy in Amsterdam invited Monet to visit Holland again.
He spent about a month in the Hague, traveling through Rijnsburg and Sassenheim and painting the beautiful tulip fields.
Unlike his last visit in 1871, the weather was good, and is reflected in the more vivid colors.
Before the Impressionist movement, most paintings were created in a studio. By painting en plein air “in the open air”, the Impressionists could capture the transient effects of light more effectively. Instead of focusing on details, they painted the overall visual effect, with brushwork and color that created a more dynamic representation of life.
Impressionism is like the images at the edge of our vision … the images in our dreams … the windmills in our minds.
Enjoy the Windmills of Monet as you listen to Michel Legrand’s “Windmills of Your Mind”.
Monet sought to break away from the traditional subjects favored by academic art. He was drawn to the countryside and natural landscapes, and windmills were often found in rural settings, offering the opportunity to depict nature and rustic scenes.
Windmills have distinctive shapes and blades that can create interesting patterns of light and shadow, especially during different times of the day. Monet was fascinated by the transient effects of light, and windmills provided an ideal subject for exploring these effects.
Other Impressionist artists, like Pissarro, also loved to paint windmills. The rotating blades of windmills added a sense of movement and energy to the scenes, contributing to the dynamism of the paintings. This dynamic quality allowed artists to experiment with capturing motion and spontaneity in their works.
Windmills have a unique and recognizable silhouette, making them stand out in a composition. The artists could use these shapes to experiment with form and composition, emphasizing the abstract qualities of the subject.
From humble beginnings in the Victorian era, Currier and Ives became a successful New York-based printmaking firm that produced more than a million prints of hand-colored lithography.
Catharine Esther Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, authors of American Woman’s Home (1869) considered Currier & Ives prints essential for proper homemaking:
The great value of pictures for the home would be, after all, in their sentiment. They should express the sincere ideas and tastes of the household and not the tyrannical dicta of some art critic or neighbor.
Lithography is a method of printing reliant on the fact that oil and water don’t mix. The process allows precise control over where ink will adhere to a print plate. The result is beautifully detailed artwork.
Currier and Ives made prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were then colored by hand.
Lithographic prints were inexpensive to buy and the firm labeled itself “Publisher of Cheap and Popular Prints” and advertised “colored engravings for the people”.
Nathaniel Currier from Massachusetts started the firm in 1834 when he was 21. Having apprenticed with Pendletons of Boston to learn the trade, he found success creating lithographs of local and national events.
In 1857, Currier’s bookkeeper James Merritt Ives became a partner. Ives had a keen sense for gauging what the public wanted and helped select the images that the firm would publish.
Employing celebrated artists for original works, Currier and Ives prints were among the most popular wall hangings of the Victorian era.
The 1872 Currier and Ives catalog proclaimed:
… our Prints have become a staple article… in great demand in every part of the country… In fact without exception, all that we have published have met with a quick and ready sale.
Just as we bury our faces in our mobile devices on the morning commute, so too did Victorians with the latest penny fiction.
The increased literacy rate from schooling, cheaper production, and broader availability of books through libraries all benefited reading.
Towards the latter half of the 19th century, gas and electric lighting also meant that reading after dark didn’t have to be by candlelight or messy oil lamps.
Novels were often serialized in monthly parts, making them more easily accessible and shared. Weekly or monthly segments often ended on a “cliff-hanger” to keep readers hooked and anticipating the next installment.
Perhaps the best know serialized novels were the “Penny Dreadfuls”. Costing just one old penny, they focused on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities.
The price of new books—often only available as a set of three—was out of reach for most working class people, so they borrowed from circulating libraries such as Mudie’s (founded 1842), which dispatched books all over Britain for a modest subscription fee.
For the wealthier classes who could afford first editions, reading from their own collection would be an everyday occurrence.
Six months after the original publication, books became cheaper, being issued as single volumes. And the growth of the rail network helped make novels cheaper still at railway stations.
There would always be something new to read for a long journey.
Fiction was thought to hold influential power over readers. George Eliot wrote that people are,
imitative beings. We cannot, at least those who ever read to any purpose at all . . . help being modified by the ideas that pass through our minds.
The 18th-century view that reading contemporary novels was a time-wasting leisure activity gave way to 19th-century ideals on their ability to educate.
Victorians believed that although novels lacked the cultural seriousness of classical texts, they did nevertheless bring awareness of historical periods and places that might help bring about social reform and develop Christian moral values.
By the mid-1800’s, the most widely read novel in England was the anti-slavery Uncle Toms Cabin of 1852 by American Harriet Beecher Stowe.
But if novels could influence for the good, they could also influence for the bad.
Novels were thought to corrupt the working classes by giving them ideas above their station or encouraging them to emulate the life of fictional criminals.
Cultural opinion leaders were particularly concerned about fiction’s effect on women. They argued that women were more susceptible to excitement and often over-identified with characters in novels that could make them more dissatisfied with their lives.
Thank goodness the novelists themselves started to push back against the disillusioned ideology of the critics. They assumed readers could make up their own minds and did not need protecting. George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, George Gissing, and George Moore trusted their readers’ sense of responsibility.
By the late 19th century, novels had become a pleasurable pastime with the freedom to read anywhere.
The Avenue des Champs Élysées is a boulevard in Paris 1.9 km (1.2 mi) long and 70 m (76 yds) wide, which runs between the Obelisk of Luxur at Place de la Concorde, and the Arc de Triomphe at Place Charles de Gaulle.
Champs Élysées means “Elysian Fields”—the final resting place for heroes from Greek Mythology.
In France, they call it la plus belle avenue du monde “the world’s most beautiful avenue”.
Listen to Gabriel Fauré as we travel back in time down the Avenue des Champs Élysées.
Atop the Arc de Triomphe, one hundred years unfolds in the following two images.
Where once cobbles clattered and horse-drawn carriages danced, where the air hummed with the melody of strolling musicians and the lively bustle of Parisians in elegant hats and flowing robes, engines now roar, neon signs hiss, and the air pulsates with the murmur of a million conversations.
Whispering stories of a bygone era, the Avenue has become a vibrant tapestry of lives, a melting pot of cultures, and a testament to the ever-evolving soul of Paris.
From the Place de la Concorde to the Rond-Point, we travel through the Jardin des Champs Élysées (Gardens of Champs Élysées), a park which has the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Théâtre Marigny, and several restaurants, gardens and monuments.
Before Louis XIV, the area of the Champs Élysées was fields and kitchen gardens.
In 1667, French landscape architect André Le Nôtre, who had designed the gardens of Versailles, extended the Tuileries Garden to form the Champs Élysées gardens—together, a place where Parisians celebrated, met, promenaded, and relaxed.
By the late 18th century, the Champs Élysées had become a fashionable avenue. Trees on either side formed elegant rectangular groves.
Gardens of townhouses belonging to the nobility backed onto the formal gardens of the Champs Élysée. The grandest of these was the Élysée Palace, which became the official residence of the Presidents of France during the Third French Republic.
Le Nôtre planned a wide promenade, lined with two rows of elm trees on either side and flowerbeds in the symmetrical style of the French formal garden.
In 1828, footpaths and fountains were added, then later gas lighting.
In 1834, under King Louis Philippe, the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff was commissioned to redesign the Place de la Concorde and the gardens of the Champs-Élysées.
The main monument of the Boulevard, the Arc de Triomphe, was commissioned by Napoleon after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz.
After Napoleon’s fall from power in 1815, the Arc de Triomphe remained unfinished—eventually being completed by King Louis Philippe in 1836.
Emperor Napoleon III selected the park as the site of the first Paris international exposition—the Exposition Universelle of 1855.
Covering 322,000 sq ft, a giant exhibit hall once stood where the Grand Palais is today.
Following the Exposition, in 1858, the gardens were transformed from a formal French design into a picturesque English-style garden, with groves of trees, flower beds and winding paths.
Beautiful rows of chestnut trees replaced the old tired elms.
In 1860, merchants along the Avenue joined together to form a syndicate—the oldest standing committee in Paris—to promote commercial interests along the Champs Élysées.
Traditionally home to luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Lancel, Guerlain, Lacoste, Hôtel de la Païva, Élysée Palace and Fouquet’s, the Champs Élysées now also hosts popular chain stores.
James Tissot (1836 – 1902), was a French painter and illustrator.
He painted scenes of Paris and London society—and especially fashionably dressed women.
Click here to continue learning about James Tissot
Born in Nantes, France, his father was a drapery merchant and his mother designed hats. Their involvement in the fashion industry influenced his artistic flair for painting the finer details of women’s clothing.
Tissot enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts to study in the studios of Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe—both known for their decorative art skills. It was here that Tissot became acquainted with Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet and James Whistler.
In 1863, Tissot found the niche that would bring him critical acclaim and wealth: portraits depicting modern life.
He moved to London in 1871, where he quickly developed his reputation for painting elegantly dressed, fashionable women.
The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists quotes Edmond de Goncourt in 1874 as writing that Tissot had ‘a studio with a waiting room where, at all times, there is iced champagne at the disposal of visitors”.
Tissot’s popularity among wealthy British industrialists gave him an income usually reserved for the top strata of society.
a studio with a waiting room where, at all times, there is iced champagne at the disposal of visitorsPhilip J. Waller.
Tissot painted elegant ladies from high society in enchanting everyday scenes. Vote for your favorites from this list of 20 beautiful Tissot paintings.
Sport says a lot about how far society has come. Leading social historian Harold Perkins once put it this way,
The history of societies is reflected more vividly in the way they spend their leisure than in their politics or their work. Sport in particular is much more than a pastime or recreation. It is an integral part of a society’s culture (and) gives a unique insight into the way a society changes and impacts on other societies.
When you watch Wimbledon this year, you will be watching a sport that is probably the closest there is to gender equality. Wimbledon gives male and female tennis players equal screen time and equal pay.
According to this article in the Atlantic, only three women appear on Forbes’ list of the 100 highest-paid athletes—all of them are tennis players.
It was the Victorians who first recognized the importance of women’s tennis. The world’s oldest tennis tournament, the Wimbledon Championships, added Ladies Singles to the roster in 1884.
In 2007, Wimbledon and the French Open joined other Grand Slam tournaments in giving equal prize money to men and women—tennis has broken down the gender pay gap.
But it wasn’t always that way.
In 1973, Billie Jean King had the weight of the world on her shoulders as she played against former number-one-ranked Bobby Riggs in a US-televised tournament dubbed “Battle of the Sexes”.
In 1973, a woman could not get a credit card without her husband or father or a male signing off on it. —Billie Jean King.
Billie Jean King triumphed that day and said it wasn’t about winning at tennis, but about showing that women were confident, strong and equal.
89 years before Billie Jean King’s historic win, there was another historic moment taking place at Wimbledon, as Maud Watson faced Lillian Watson (her sister) to become the first female Wimbledon Champion.
Imagine Maud facing one of today’s players, such as Maria Sharapova, and it becomes abundantly clear that Victorian women played with a significant handicap—their clothing!
Victorian Society dictated that arms had to be covered and ankles hidden by gowns that almost touched the ground. Furthermore, women had to endure three starched petticoats under the dress to make it blossom out. Think how hot it must have been!
Naturally, the infamous Victorian corset was also a requirement to maintain an hourglass figure at all times. Not to mention the expense of the entire ensemble.
Heeled boots, a rigid whalebone collar, and a wide-brimmed hat rounded out the sporting attire.
Now imagine trying to run to the net for the drop shots … and dash back to the baseline to return a lob.
Anyone for tennis? Contains affiliate links
Enjoy a trip down the tennis memory lane with these images of a bygone time.