Quick Post: Art from the Museum: "Willam Fraser Reelig,"

"William Fraser Reelig"

Artist: Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823)

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

While some aspects of this painting are dated in the technique, I still love the blending, the youthful expression the artist achieved.

Quick Post: Art from the Museum: Sketch from the Perugina school

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Quick Post: Art from the Museum: "Head of a Spanish Peasant"

Artist: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942)

Medium: Bronze

Title: Head of a Spanish Peasant (Adolphe Ramon)

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

The power of this sculpture is palpable. It is such a strongly composed piece that is exquisitely executed.

Quick Post: Art from the Museum: Saint John the Baptist

Artist: Mino de Fiesole (1429-1484)

Medium: Marble

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

I stop at this bust every time.. it is exquisitely carved. The delicate treatment of the subject surprised me at first because usually John the Baptist is portrayed as a rough and tumble boy/man with animal skins to depict his wild life style.  Whatever the artists reasoning, his portrayal is successful

Quick Post: Art from the Museum: Girl in White

Artist: Robert Henri (1865-1929)

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of my favorites in the American wing

Quick Post: Art from the Museum: "Midas Washing at the Source of the Pactolus"

Aritst: Bartolomeo Manfredi 1582-1622

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

What I loved with this painting was the beautiful brushwork and shadows...excellent chiaroscuro technique.

Quick Post: Art from the Museum:"Study Head of a Young Woman"

"Study Head of a Young Woman," 

Artist: Anthony van Dyck

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Quick Post: Art from the Museum: "Young Woman"

"Young Woman,"  Marble

Artist: Francesco Maurana (born 1420 Croatia-died 1502 Marseilles)

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

An absolutely exquisite marble sculpture.

Quick Post: Art from the Museum: Serena Pulitzer Lederer by Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt, Serena Pulitzer Lederer, 1899

Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Quick Post: Art from the Museum: "Portrait of a Young Woman in Red"

Circa 90-120 A.D. Egypt
Venue: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Encaustic on Limewood with gilded wreath and traces of gilt on background.

This portrait from the late antiquity was small but breathtaking, haunting.

Web link: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/547860

More Musings on 19th European Century Paintings in the Permanent Collection at the Metropolitan Museum off Art

Gustave Courbet's "Alphonse Promayet." 1881:

Reference Photo (c) Karmen Elsen

I have stopped at this painting several times when browsing the European Painting section.  Here's the Metropolitan Museum link: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/436008

The painting is much darker and moody than my photo and that is probably why I was drawn to it. This is a painting of Courbet's violinist friend Alphonse Promayet. I studied how he rendered the shadows and the dark side of the face and figures. I am drawn to portraits and subjects in deep shadows in my own artwork and immediately gravitate toward artwork that has deeply dark subjects. I love to study how artists have accomplished bringing the figure, animal or object out of the dark without losing the life and color hidden in the depths. For me, mastery of the darkness without losing the life beneath the shadows is the ultimate goal. Keeping the shadows alive without losing the focus of the subject - that's an art. The shadows cannot be flat as they would be if you used black paint but alive with color no matter how subdued it is. The value of the darks must still be maintained. And Courbet does it so well. 

I hadn't really explored Courbet much but my husband is a fan and has pointed his work out many times.  

I think my recent deep readings on Caravaggio have given me a new found appreciation of how to paint the dark side WELL. It is not that I hadn't seen these works, I just DISCOVERED the luminosity, the depth and the masterful observation Caravaggio and painters like Courbet, Corot, De La Tour, Diego Ribera, and Fantin LaTour.  They did tend towards high contrast paintings that many call tenebrism.  

(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenebrism )

My recent close up study of this painting left me peering into the darkness to see the violin emerge and to see exactly how he managed the effect. Perring through the shadows to find the deep set eyes.  Just pure mastery.  Worth a look at the Metropolitan Musuem of Art...


Fantin LaTour's "Portrait of a Woman."  1885:

Reference (c) Karmen Elsen

Here is another painting that I stare at for a long time from every angle - closeup and from afar. LaTour has not sought to capture his subject enveloped in shadow but he has used such beautiful neutrals and rich darks in her gown that I stop in my tracks every time I pass it.  I think that it is also the expression of the sitter that keeps meenthralled. There is such feeling and emotion there amidst all of the neutrals and darks of his palette of colors.  Her expression  is imperious, haughty, disdainful and for me at least, there is much more beyond those eyes.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art knows little of the sitter and quotes Fantin LaTour's wife as relating in her notebook that the sitter referred to herself as Madame LeRoy but all suspected that was not her real name. She was someone of position no doubt as her companion/husband commissioned a portrait of himself from LaTour the following year.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/436295?=&imgNo=0&tabName=gallery-label

Oil Painting Demo by Ricky Mujica

Well my mind is still reeling from the oil painting demo of Ricky Mujica last night at the Art League of Nassau County.  www.artleagueofnc.org

Check out Ricky's work here:  http://www.rickymujica.com/

THANK YOU RICKY!!

What an exhilarating experience it was. Ricky explained his process and taught us how to observe the form with such a sensitivity that was "mind-blowing" for me.  I totally connected with how he "felt" the form and on a certain level I felt a kindred spirit.  So many observations gave me "A-HA" moments... He worked from a live model lit with dramatic light on her face.  He talked about the skin tones just really being shades of grey all in relation to the most well lit spot. Not sure but I may have heard it before but last night... i GOT it. 

He was also talking about getting flesh tones from complements  (which do create grey)- yellows/purples, orange/blues, reds/greens. Another "A-HA" moment. I have been struggling the last year and a half since I started portraits with finding the "right mix" for flesh tones in watercolor. There are a million "perfect" mixes... but I never got GREAT results with those "perfect" mixes and it is only the last month or two that I found my own color mixing successes and guess what??? often what I go to intuitively lately are those very complements Ricky talked about.. YES - validation. I happened to have painted a sketch this Wednesday of a women half in shadow... I started with the dark side background with Diox. Violet and my brush went to Aureolin (although I've used yellow ochre as a substitute previously). Well it was such a beautiful color that I brought the beautiful purple/yellow mixture  into the face and created the initial shadow shapes of the face with that same color. The rest of her face was painted using just a little more water and a little more of the yellow and a little burnt sienna for warmth. Final touches had a cad red light glaze for the pink in her cheeks and forehead. What a beautiful and radiant flesh color I got. I was not even conscious that I'd used complements. I just reach for colors instinctively most of the time.The light bulb went off when Ricky said that about complements. He uses them and constantly moderates the "grey' adding a little cad red here for warmth and alizarin for cool  and so on always moderating between the warmth and the cool - pushing the color 'til it is right.   What rich colors  he achieved with his palette of greys created by complements.

He explained and showed us how to view the forehead forms making us "SEE" that it is composed of a ball and two ridges at the bottom for the brow... I never really noticed that before but it is so true! Everyone has that but some people are more pronounced then others in that area. 

What was truly amazing was to watch his brush ever so gently dance across the painting surface barely touching yet leaving the perfect mark at the right time.  His brushstrokes were not haphazard but carefully following the form as it curved around the planes of the face.  Often painters talk about blocking in the shapes of the face in various angular brush strokes to get the shadow shapes. Ricky created these shapes differently by following the curve of the cheekbone let's say how it curved around the face and went toward the temple. The brush work was going around but not vertical/angular strokes per say.  He followed the muscles and bones underneath... if they went vertical so did his brush, if they curved so did his brush...  i cannot say if it is unique but last night I NOTICED it, I UNDERSTOOD it.   I could go on and on with all of the "A-HA" moments but I will be pondering this demo for a LONG time.

I do know that I have a long long way to go to perfect my art making and rendering the human form with paint and dry media, but I am not daunted by the challenge... I am excited and raring to go with my artistic enthusiasm recharged by Ricky Mujica!


I was most struck by his sensitivity - sensitivity in his manner of speech, sensitivity in observation and in his sensitive skill with the brush.  I think that is the quality that made me feel in the presence of a kindred spirit - his sensitivity.

Reference Website:

We stumbled upon this website that has a lot of information about Master and their paintings:

http://www.artble.com/

I was looking up Caravaggio as a test case and found the article on him very interessting and informative. I like that the author of the website provides sections on the artist's technique, his critics and his followers.  Photographs of the artist's artwork is provided as well.

While the site is not exhaustive, it has most of the major representation Master European artists.

Take a look!

A Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: On Second Look: Browsing Renaissance and 19th Century Paintings and Scupu

Well, after some sketching of the Finelli and Buzio scultpures yesterday, I realized that I was just not getting into my art groove. The museum was crowded and that particular hallway was a point of departure for the guided museum tours. Within an hour or so, hundreds of tourists browsed Finelli's Cardinel stopping in front of it as I was drawing while they listened to the audio on the guided tour headphone. I was also over-tired from waking up at dawn unplanned. So I decided to walk around the surrounding rooms which feature medieval and nineteenth century painting.

Last month, we accomplished an in-depth eight hour browse through these rooms so I had seen many of the pieces and had taken lots of photographs of all of the ones that fascinated me. I took a second look at a few yesterday.

Continuing my Musings ...

Renaissance period:

Artist: Titian (died 1576)
Title: Portrait of A Man

Photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

Titian is an old favorite painter. Until recently, I had a very eclectic taste in what I liked in art but at least I could always say that there was a common denominator of realism with the exception of my love of El Greco. I did not know or like much after Velasquez but have learned so much since I was young. 

Titian's portraits were always my favorites and still are. He is known for other types of painting but I think he achieved the height of his brilliance in portraiture. The realistic skin tones are what draw my eye along with his draftsmanship in portraiture. With this painting, I see it as a transitional piece hearkening  back to its medieval predecessors but also forward looking in its strive for a more realistic portrayal of the human form by staying true to a more classical rendering. The painting is a masterful example of what could be achieved by direct observation, by careful study of nature and the live model.  Somehow, for me, the eyes remind me of those you find in medieval portraiture and very early renaissance portraiture where perspective is not always carried through in a three-quarter view on the subject's left side. Far be it from me to criticize at all since many an art student still make that mistake. However,my comment is not a criticism; it is an observation that Titian's portraiture emerged in a very fluctuating time where old forms were mutating and transforming into new forms; a time when the old and the new coexisted.

Artist: Giovanni Battista Moroni (died ca. 1578)
Title:: Bartolomeo Bonghi (died 1584), a noted legal scholar.

photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

This painting stands out from across the room. It has such presence. I believe the reason why it has such presence is that Moroni has mastered the realism of the clothed figure so well that the viewer thinks he could get up from his chair and step out from the painting at any moment. What a master of color and lighting!  The background landscape viewed from the window is equally realistic. Perhaps the WHY of why I like it is that it reminds me of a painter that I have loved since I was a pre-teen - Holbein, who captured all of those Tudors and their statesmen so well. Both Holbein's paintings and this Moroni painting have a strong light source so that there is a definite highlighting in key areas. One doesn't think of that kind of light effect in painting until the modern times when a spot light could be used. Or at least that is what the lighting reminds me of, a very modern lighting condition. I have to wonder how they set this up with the lighting sources that they had available in the sixteenth century.  Yet another little research project for me. (This art blog is certainly creating little side research topics for me!)

detail of painting. Photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

If you take a look at the details of the fabric and the fur, the lighting is superb showing the different textures of  satin and sable against the coarser worsted fabric of his coat. Look at the sheen on the reds!

Regarding the flesh tones and turning of the form, he captures the ruddy complexion of the sitter which has the subtle blues underneath.

As with my post on Finelli and Buzio sculptures, I am awestruck at the technical leaps these artists made in developing their representational style in such a sort time and it was due to DaVinci, Titian and later Caravaggio who stressed the importance of painting from life and observation of nature as it was rather than the mannered and idealistic paintings of prior centuries where the artist relied on stock imagery and on imagination as reference. 

I cannot help thinking that, if you did not know that this was painted in the sixteenth century, this painting could very well be painted today with a model dressed in costume. It has such a modern and contemporary feel to it.  These painters, I think, were centuries ahead of their time.

Artist: Federico Barocci (died 1612)

Title: Saint Francis

Photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

Somehow, I cannot escape my background in Medieval history and remember lectures from back in the day about Early Christian and Mediveal art and my twenty year later academic specialization religious thought and comparative religion. Barocci's painting depicts the Franciscan story of Saint Francis receiving the stigmata while meditating on the crucifixion in the cave of Mount Verna. Lest his audience not understand who his subject is and what the theme of the painting is, he leaves lots of clues, e.g., the stigmata on his hand identifies him as Saint Francis. The artist conjures up an image of Saint Francis that is in his head  and in a setting that he contrives to honor the subject. The theme is an old one by Barocci's time. Yet. his treatment of it places his painting firmly in the Renaissance/Baroque period. Religion-centered themes were de rigueur in the counter-reformation period. Uplifting religious themes were sanctioned while self-centered and mundane society portraiture was deemed lacking in piety and vain-glorious.  His lighting and the realism he achieves demonstrate his firm control of anatomy, perspective and current artistic sensibilities. There is such depth in the painting both in the shadows and in the aerial perspective in the distance. Somehow, this piece does remind me of more modern nineteenth and early twentieth century illustration in the way he handles the turning of the form and  in the clothing. His colors seem fresh and lack the muddiness that often stems from over mixing and reliance on earth pigments.

All of these things made me go back and look at this painting again and again. And then, in addition to these things that call me to this painting, it is also Saint Francis. I have liked some of the verse ascribed to Saint Francis since high school. So again I come back to my early days but with a fresh eye and appreciation.


Late Baroque and Early Neo-Classical Period:

Artist: Gaetano Gandolfi (died 1802
Title: Head of a Bishop

Every time I walk by this painting I stop. I write it down as a Tiepolo but it is not. I am surprised. it has such a mark of Tiepolo perhaps in the rendering of the features. The brushwork is also exceptional and departs from the more refined and smoothed textures one typically sees in the Tiepolos and the Gandolfis. I love the diagonal design of the composition and juxtaposition of the hard and soft edges as well as the way Gandolfi moves from warm tones to cool and back to warm color scheme all over the painting. Drama in the design. Drama in the lighting. Drama in the fixed heaven centered gaze. We want to know who he is and what is his call. Is he a martyr and a saint? What turmoil surrounds him and urges him to send a prayer heaven bound? I would love to master what he has mastered here.

Time for a break.... 

A Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - August 2014: Musings on Finelli and Buzio Busts

We made an impromptus visit to the the Met yesterday. I was up at dawn catching up on correspondence and planning to continue my reading on Caravaggio or doing some artwork  - a drawing or a watercolor. But instead my husband wanted to pack up our sketch things and take a jaunt to the museum. Normally my most favorite thing to do lately whether to view only or to sketch. We caught a bit of traffic and did not arrive until about 11:30am. I knew which spot I wanted to go to for sketching in the European Painting section.  There are two statues that I recently discovered that I adore.

The first is Giuliano Finelli's bust of Cardinal Scipione Borghese.

Statue at the Metropolitan Museum photo by Karmen Elsen (C)

 I discovered this bust a month ago and have been studying it ever since...I think about this sculture all the time and since I took dozens of photographs of it last time, I do FEEL this piece, it inspires me and it will become the subject of a piece of my artwork very soon. Anyway, I went to the hall where this is. It is exquisitely carved.  I love the translucency of marble especially this pure white kind without any veins of other colors.

In the biography that I am reading on Caravaggio, there is a photograph of a very similar bust done of the same Cardinal Borghese by Gianlorenzo Bernini.

website: http://www.atlantedellarteitaliana.it/artwork-3784.html

website: www.giovannidallorto.com

However, to really appreciate Finelli's work, look at the detail. Here is Finelli's Cardinal:

Finelli bust detail. photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

Here is Bernini's bust detail:

Bernini detail from wtfarthistory.com

While impressions are often subjective, I find Finelli's treatment much more sensitive and refined. Look at the way he sculpted the strands of hair and the emotion he captured. I am sure that both captured a likeness. How could they not as both works are almost carbon copies of each other! But Bernini captured an aloof, imperious Cardinal who exudes haughtiness and a bit of coolness. Finelli, by lowering the head and treating the brow area the way he did, gives the Cardinal what can be an introspective look but yet a look that says do not trifle with me. I do not see imperiousness and the haughtiness in this one. Here, I see power and determination but the lines are so different to me than those on the Bernini's Cardinal. With the subtleties of the form Finelli created while fleshing out the face in the cheek bone area and the jowl area, it is so tenderly and gingerly done but yet the sculpture screams - Power. There is an unbridled intensity of emotion behind the facade. Bernini's Cardinel seems to me to hide behind the cool exterior showing none of the intense emotion that I see in Fernini's Cardinal.  I haven't yet done any reading or real research on the two busts or Cardinal Borghese himsef but have just expressed my own impressions of them. I will do more scholarly research and get back to you on the two from an art history standpoint at a later date. In the meantime, I cannot wait to work on my own piece based on Fernini's Cardinal.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 8, 2014: Two developments on my entry on Finelli's Cardinal Scipione Borghese. First, I looked up  who he was and he was a student of the same Bernini who did the other famous bust of Cardinal Borghese.  The Wikipedia article on Finelli discusses the two busts but unfortunately the article's author did not hold Finelli's work in high regard. All of the negative things that he mentioned of Finelli's work are why I like it better than Bernini's. Finelli's exquisite attention to detail, the subtleties he finds in molding the face, the nuances of expression all make his work far superior in my opinion. BUT taste is very subjective and all I can say is that I adore Finelli's bust.

Check out the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuliano_Finelli

Second, I finished my own painting inspired by Finelli's bust. I think it will be the first of many. It was just that inspiring to me.  Here's a link to my Painting. 

http://karmensart.blogspot.com/2014/11/detail-of-finellis-cardinal-scipioine.html

The other sculpture that I re-visited yesterday that has inspired me  is Ippolito Buzio's Luisa Deti.  I cannot wait to work on a piece of artwork based on it but it will have to wait while Fernini's Cardinal muse calls me!

Buzio Bust photos by Karmen Elsen (c)

I cannot say why this bust mesmerizes me exactly but I could look at it for hours.  It speaks on so many levels and is certainly multi-layered from a figurative and emotional standpoint. What immediately draws one in is a face, totally enveloped in shadows. You must walk closer to see who is behind those layers and layers of veils and pieces of fabric. She appears to be in deep mourning and sorrowful. At first she appears to be a Roman or Greek but on close inspection, the hairstyle and clothing around the neckline tell us it is a woman of a later period. Who was she? A cursory google search only pulls up the sculpture. So more dogged research will ensue on my part. Back to my impressions of this stature. The only facial feature that emerges from the deep shadow is her nose no matter what your angle is. She is not a classic beauty but that is not the story that this artist wants to tell.  The haggard lines, the blank stare in front of her, the very heavy fabric on top of her head all reveal a woman weighted down by her situation. There is not one glimmer of happiness or hope that I see... just despair, numbness, tiredness... All of this emotion jumps out at me from pure marble stone.

Another thought on these Renaissance sculptures: they have such a modern feel and strive for a realism most find awe-inspiring. It is hard to imagine that a century or two before these artists, few European artists of that time had re-discovered perspective,or worried about correct human proportions. Realism was not their goal. But more on that later....  

UPDATE OF NOVEMBER 2, 2014: Well, I finally found out who Luisa Deti was. She was the mother of Pope Clement VIII (of the noble Aldobrandini family) and died in 1557. The bust was commissioned of Buzio to be included in the Aldobrandini family villa. The Aldobrandini family wanted sculptures of the Pope's parents. At the last minute, instead of a bust of the mother, they installed a reclining sculture of the mother instead of Buzio's bust. For the interesting history of the sculpture and how they identified the artist and subject, here is a link to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's article on the sculpture.

http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/A_Portrait_Bust_of_Luisa_Deti_by_Ippolito_Buzio_The_Metropolitan_Museum_Journal_v_32_1997?Tag=Biography&title=&author=&pt=&tc=&dept=&fmt=

What I find interesting as well is that these two sculptures Fimelli's Cardinal Borghese and Buzio's Luisa Deti are placed near each other at the Met and that subjects that were intimately connected. The Borghese family was a branch of Aldobranini family. They were currant at the same time.  AND since I have been reading about Caravaggio these past six months:  the Aldobrandini family was in power at the time of Caravaggio as well. What coincidence: my chance discovery of these two inspiring sculptures at the time when I am reading about Caravaggio.

My two current muses "side-by-side:"....

I will continue this post...

New Blog

I have been reading some very interesting things on art lately and I thought that I'd share  my thoughts on what I am reading in the art field, museum exhibits as well as musings and new learning experiences, AHA moments ... I hope that you will enjoy.