On 9 Aug, 2015 With
Whistler’s Oil Painting Technique Whistler’s approach to portraiture in his late maturity was described by one of his sitters, Arthur J. Eddy, who posed for the artist in 1894: “He worked with great rapidity and long hours, but he used his colours thin and covered the canvas with innumerable coats of paint. The colours increased in depth and intensity as the work progressed. At first the entire figure was painted in greyish-brown tones, with very little flesh colour, the whole blending perfectly with the greyish-brown of the prepared canvas; then the entire background would be intensified a little; then the figure made a little stronger; then the background, and so on from day to day and week to week, and…
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On 30 Jun, 2015 With
Rossetti did not have the natural technical talent that is seen in the small detail and brilliant color of a typical Pre-Raphaelite painting, and his early oil paintings, the Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849) and the Ecce Ancilla Domini (1850), were produced only at the expense of great technical effort. In the less demanding technique of watercolor, however, Rossetti clearly revealed his imaginative power. The series of small watercolors of the 1850s produced such masterpieces as Dante’s Dream (1856) and the Wedding of St. George and the Princess Sabra (1857). In almost all of Rossetti’s paintings of the 1850s he used Elizabeth Siddal as his model. Discovered in a hat shop in 1850, she was adopted by the Brotherhood as their ideal of feminine beauty. In 1852 she…
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On 30 Jun, 2015 With
Newly-discovered Velazquez portrait A Trinity College Dublin lecturer has discovered a previously unknown painting by the artist Diego Velazquez. The 300-year-old portrait of a man was thought to belong to a minor 19th century British artist until Dr Peter Cherry identified it as the work of the Spanish master. Velazquez is regarded as one of the greatest painters of all time. There are only 100 known paintings by him worldwide. The painting was offered for sale among other more ordinary works at an auction in Oxford. But the auction house contacted Dr Cherry of Trinity’s Department of Art and Architecture after some details in the painting aroused interest. A former student of Dr Cherry’s worked at the auction house, Bonhams….
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On 30 Sep, 2012 With
Portrait and Figure Palette White. Cadmium. Chinese Vermilion. Orange Cadmium. Light Red. Yellow Ochre. Rose Madder. Transparent Gold Ochre. Raw Umber. Cobalt. Blue Black. Terre Verte. PREVIOUS PART NEXT PART
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On 16 May, 2012 With
The work in question is a 1538 painting by Girolamo de Romani, also known as Romanino, depicting an image of Jesus Christ in an unusual copper-colored robe, carrying the cross on his right shoulder while being dragged by a soldier. It was held in private collections by European families until 1914, when Gentili purchased it. When the Nazis marched into France, many of Gentili’s heirs fled — but weren’t able to take the family patriarch’s art collection and many other valuables. Vichy French authorities auctioned off the property, including more than 70 pieces of art, and barred the family from returning to claim the art work in 1941. The Romanino painting was acquired by the Italian government-run museum Pinacoteca di…
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On 2 Feb, 2012 With
The Restoration of a Velázquez In 1973, for reasons still not clear to me, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York undertook a sweeping reassessment of many of its holdings, resulting in the downgrading of 300 old master paintings from attribution to the master to attribution to “workshop of”, “circle of” or “follower of”, removing them from the canon of those masters’ works and significantly depleting the value of the museum’s collection. Some of those pieces have been again reassessed, both in the light of continued scholarship and as the result of subsequent cleanings and restorations. Last year the Met cleaned and restored Velázquez’s Portrait of a Man, and in the process restored it to it’s original attribution — originating…
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On 25 Jan, 2012 With
Secrets of Rembrandt’s Painting Technique Rembrandt’s paintings have transfixed viewers for centuries, but now a new study reveals a scientific explanation for their calming beauty. By painting more detail in and around the eyes of his subjects, Rembrandt tapped into an innate human attraction to the face. This creates a more calming and immersive experience for the viewer. To figure out Rembrandt’s painting secret, scientists used computer rendering to match photos of current models (and a scientist) with four of Rembrandt’s portraits. They manipulated four regions of the portraits: regions centered about each eye, on each side of the chin, and the region where the collar meets the skin of the neck. CREDIT: Steve DiPaola, James Enns, Caitlin Riebe. Steve…
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On 14 Dec, 2011 With
Limited Palette of Anders Zorn Anders Zorn is the most well-known Swedish painter. Palette: Flake white, Yellow Ocher Vermilion Cool black (Ivory + cobalt blue) Warm black (Ivory + burnt Sienna)
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On 30 Aug, 2011 With
Palettes of Famous Painters Some artists follow Whistler, who believed the management of the palette to be the basis of good painting; others stick to Isaac Newton’s theory of colour. Some artists mix every gradation of colour they will need for a painting before they start, others as they need them. “My freshly arranged palette, brilliant with contrasting colors, is enough to fire my enthusiasm,” noted Delacroix in his Journal in 1850. The French artist was meticulous in his arrangement of colours, and when unwell, would take his palette to bed and spend the entire day just mixing new shades.
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On 22 Aug, 2011 With
Anders Zorn is the famous Swedish painter. He is famous for his paintings of the people of Dalarna, the part of Sweden where he was born, and his nudes in the open space. He earned a world-wide reputation as a portraitist. He made seven journeys to the USA. His models included three different American presidents. His art made him wealthy and he was thus able to build up a considerable collection of art. The objects were not only bought in his native country but also during the many travels he made abroad. In their joint will, Anders and Emma Zorn donated their entire holdings to the Swedish State. Some of his most important works can be seen at the National…
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