Favorite Painting of All Time

I was looking through some Renaissance stuff the other day and was reminded of this portrait by Bellini. His depiction of the garments is unbelievable.

 

Rembrandt - The Syndics, 1662

Great, great exhibition of late Rembrandt works in London at the moment: http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/rembrandts-late-works-at-national.html

 

"One dog goes one way..."

 

What do you want from me?

 

Poor thing got it's hoof stuck!

 

"Looks like somebody we know".

 

Ten great works by William Blake.
http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/william-blake-ten-best-artworks.html
My favourite's The Ancient of Days.

 

This is not a pipe


it's a painting

 

And here's author Philip Pullman talking about Blake:

http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/william-blake-appreciation-by-philip.html

 

I agree with wiki. They aren't even close to the same. I love Trompe L'oeil and tend to dislike photo realism, especially when they mimic the depth of field of a photograph. I went to an American 19th Century exhibition at the Corcoran in DC back in the 80. They had a couple of trompe l'oeil paintings that had big signs next to them to not touch because they looked so real. They were both papers tacked to a wall. The papers really looked like they curled up from the wall. They were truly amazing. I realize photorealism takes enormous talent to do, but ascetically, it's not for me.

 

For those who like Pre-Raphaelites, the Wyeth family, and illustration from Maxfield Parrish's teacher and fellow students (and unfortunately only a few Parrish paintings), Wilmington, DE is a great place to visit. The Brandywine Museum just accross the border in Pennsylvania is essentially the Wyeth family museum. The Delaware museum of art has one of the largest Pre-Raphaelite collections outside of the UK. They also inherited the collection of Howard Pyle. Pyle was an illustrator in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He also taught at Drexel. Among his students were Parrish and N. C. Wyeth.

Here are a couple of Pyle's paintings that I love. This is from the DMA web site and they are on permanent display there.

An Attack on a Galleon, 1905 For Howard Pyle, “The Fate of a Treasure Town.” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, December 1905 Oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches


The Mermaid, 1910 Oil on canvas, 57 7/8 x 40 1/8 inches


Their Pre-Raphaelite exhibit is interesting because the collection includes works from the related British Arts & Crafts movement, so it really puts the paintings in context with the wider arts movement.

 

"The Tribuna of the Uffizi" It's not necessarily my favorite, but I've always found it rather poignant. The artist was commissioned to paint the gallery of the Uffizi in Florence for King George III, and this was the result. In an unintended sense, I find that it works as a commentary on Italy's rich artistic legacy. Among being the center of the Renaissance, Italy is steeped in art to the point that it is often difficult to build new structures in the country because they often find historic ruins when excavating. There's more great art in the country than they have room for.

 

At the moment, probably this Lucian Freud self portrait

 

The Grand Salon in the Renwick in DC is like that, though to a much less degree.



They had a great exhibit of George Catlin paintings there for a number of years.

 

Saw those - some of them - in London last year.

 

Turner: Rome, from Mount Avenue

Just sold for £30.3 million - and I only had £30.2. Damn.

Here's the story: http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/mr-turners-rome-from-mount-avenue-snip.html

 

I was at a large, special event in Balboa Park way down south San Diego, and the museums were open until 10PM.

Of course, I headed straight for the Monets (which were scattered in different sections), but I took this shot - not Monet.

In the San Diego Museum of Art, I gravitated towards this painting in the corner, but then realized, this really needed a caption:

"Who likes BJs??"



Jeff

 

Hate it when that happens. I missed out on a sublime Rothko at Sotheby's a few weeks ago. I was short rather more than $0.1 MM, but it hurt just the same

 

He has a Better version od this same Image

 

Great exhibition of John Singer Sargeant paintings at the national Portrait Gallery in London:

http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/john-singer-sargeant-at-national.html



Madame X - no less...

 

Try to guess who's the painter or try to date this masterpiece...

 

Ad Reinhardt, 1962.

 

Sublime.

 

An interesting piece on Madame X, excerpted from David McCullough's book on Americans in Paris:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...om-david-mcculloughs-the-greater-journey.html