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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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It’s our Easter Holiday. At last, the long cold winter is over and spring is finally here.
Tomorrow is the Easter hunt in the woods by the school. It will be such fun! Last year, the sounds of excitement filled the forest. My friends and I laughed until we hurt. It was beautiful—the air was filled with a sweet scent of wild flowers and the birds were singing their hearts out. I loved the crackling sound of the twigs beneath our shoes as we frantically searched here and there.
And what treats await us! Colored eggs, Easter gifts, and chocolates lie hidden in hedgerows, in the tangled roots of the mighty beech trees, and amongst the pockets of pale yellow primroses.
We were really busy today preparing for tomorrow’s Easter hunt. Grandpa helped us dye the Easter eggs.
We dyed and painted three dozen chicken eggs and put them in a basket filled with straw to look like a bird’s nest.
Grandpa showed us how to make different colors for the eggs by boiling them with leaves or onions. We got red by boiling with onion skins and beetroot, gold with marigold flower, violet with mallow flower, and green with periwinkle leaves.
Then all the parents and teachers went out to hide them in the woods—for us to find tomorrow morning.
It’s so exciting! How can I possibly sleep tonight?
After we finished coloring the eggs, Mother said a prayer for them and picked some wild flowers to make our egg basket the prettiest you ever saw!
Lord, let the grace of your blessing come upon these eggs, that they be healthful food for your faithful who eat them in thanksgiving for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.from the Roman Ritual
Before dinner, Mother wrote the Easter Greetings cards to all our family and friends.
She said it’s thanks to Sir Rowland Hill for creating the Uniform Penny Post that we can afford to send twenty cards this year! It costs a penny to send each one. All we have to do is put the cards into an envelope and fix a stamp to it.
Grandpa remembers the old days before stamps, when he used to have to pay to receive cards. How nice it is to live in the modern Victorian era! Mother always says we must count our blessings—I’m so lucky and thankful!
These are our cards that we chose together at the post office. The lady behind the counter was so nice and friendly. She even helped us choose some of the cards.
My favorite card is the last one—the little chicks are admiring a huge pink egg.
Mother told me and my little brother a bedtime story about some special eggs made for the Russian Royal family. Some day I want to see them—just like a real princess. Hope that’s my dream tonight.
Goodnight dear diary. Sleep tight …
Sources wikipedia.org The Roman Ritual. Part XI, Blessings and other sacramentals.
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.
Helen Allingham (1848 – 1926) was an English watercolour painter and illustrator of the Victorian era.
Displaying a talent for art from an early age, she drew inspiration from her maternal grandmother Sarah Smith Herford and aunt Laura Herford—both accomplished artists.
She attended the National Art Training School in London—now the Royal College of Art.
In 1874, she produced 12 illustrations for the serialised version of Thomas Hardy‘s novel “Far from the Madding Crowd“.
In 1890, she became the first woman to become a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society.
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Cornelis Springer (1817-1891) specialised in the arrangement and accurate representation of town scenes. His paintings were in such high demand that he had a two-year waiting list.
Raised in a family of architects and building contractors, he learned early to appreciate the beautiful buildings of Amsterdam.
Learning perspective drawing from his brother Hendrick—a professional architect—he completed his studies at the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts under instruction from Kaspar Karsen, a famous townscape painter.
Cornelis Springer’s beautiful scenes depict people going about day-to-day life—gathering at the fish market, unloading horse-drawn carts, merchants selling goods, or businessmen in conversation outside elegant canalside buildings.
With a keen eye for the social and economic activities that drive a city, Springer brings to life the beauty of Dutch architecture.
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.
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Franz Unterberger (1837 – 1902) was an Austrian painter specializing in architecture, water scenes and landscapes in the romantic style. Best known for his scenic paintings of Italy’s coasts and cities, his credo was “il puro vero”, meaning “pure truth”, which he tried to convey by contrasting magnificent vistas with day-to-day life. The viewer is drawn initially to the splendor of the setting, and then to the people going about their daily lives in beautiful surroundings.
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.
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.
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.