| ART “4”
“2”-DAY 26 November
v.6.a0 |
| DEATHS:
1943 “DE FEURE” — 1882
LECLEAR |
| BIRTH:
1395 PISANELLO |
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Died on 26 November 1943: Georges
Joseph van Sluijters “de Feure”, Parisian
designer and painter, born on 06 September 1868, son of a Dutch architect
and a Belgian mother. — Joseph van Sluyters was known in France under the pseudonym Georges de Feure. Drawn at first to the art of advertising posters, de Feure painted Symbolist compositions of Baudelairian inspiration on the theme of woman, and showed them at the Rose+Croix Salons. Around 1900 he turned to the decorative arts. His contributions to Bing's Art Nouveau pavilion at the Universal Exposition of 1900 were much admired. Gifted with a highly inventive mind, he was as skillful at designing airplanes as theater sets and costumes. — Georges van Sluijters started out as an actor, costumier, and then interior decorator in Paris. In 1894 at the Galerie des Artistes Modernes he exhibited watercolours and paintings of a moderate Symbolist style, typically depicting women in a manner reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley’s work. Capturing the essence of the feminine spirit became his trademark. With Eugène Gaillard and Edouard Colonna he was selected by Siegfried Bing, founder of the Galeries de l’Art Nouveau, to design rooms for his Pavilion Bing at the Exposition Universelle, Paris (1900). De Feure’s carpets, glassware and furniture designs for the boudoir and toilette were based on the theme of woman, emphasizing delicate lines and elegant sensuality. He later left Bing’s gallery and, as an independent designer, created vide-poche furniture, which contained hidden marquetry compartments. This furniture suggested notions of secrecy and coquetry, themes that de Feure pursued throughout his career. — LINKS — La Botaniste (91x72cm) — Swan Lake (1897) Surrounded by flowers and birds, a woman on a boat gazes at her reflection in the water, unable to tear herself away from it. The figure of the peacock, a symbol of vanity, lends meaning to a composition remarkable for its fluid lines and transparent hues. — Les Fleurs du Mal (400x278pix, 48kb) _ Baudelairean characters visualized by the most elegant of the Decadents. The frame, in embossed and gilded leather, is also by the artist. — Fragment d'un tableau “La Voix du Mal” aka Mélancolie (1895; 65x59cm _ ZOOM to 3234x2536pix, 617kb) — La Loïe Fuller dans sa création nouvelle Salomé - tous les soirs à 10 heures à la Comédie Parisienne, rue Boudreau (rue Auber - près l'Opéra) (poster; 640x454pix, 128kb) — Vue d'une Ville (600x736pix) —(050902) |
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Born in 1395 before 27 November: Antonio
Pisanello (or Pisano) di Puccio, Italian painter, draftsman,
and medallist, who died on 08 October (or 14 July?) 1455. — Pisanello was the last and most brilliant artist of the ornate, courtly International Gothic style. Originally named Antonio Pisano, he studied under Gentile da Fabriano, whose graceful, detailed style he inherited. Pisanello produced paintings, frescoes, drawings, and portrait medallions for the courts of Milan, Rimini, Naples, Mantua, Ferrara, and Verona. His well-known small painting, Princess of the House of Este (1443), exemplifies his style; it shows a woman in profile against a tapestrylike floral background and is characterized by elegant long lines, clear colors, and exquisite drawing of details. His frescoes, such as his masterpiece Saint George and the Princess (1438), show to the greatest extent his precise and loving representation of the natural details of human figures, animals, flowers, and objects. His numerous drawings are also fastidiously detailed, and in some of them, particularly those of female nudes, he achieves a strength of three-dimensional modeling that establishes an important link between the Gothic and Renaissance styles. — Pisanello è fra i grandi talenti del Rinascimento; ma non potrebbe dirsi affatto ch’egli ruppe col passato. Egli non ha la vigorosa inquietudine d’un innovatore; ma una raffinatezza, una preziosità, da ultimo rampollo d’un nobile lignaggio. L’evoluzione artistica dette nell’opera di Pisanello lo specchio ideale d’un prodotto parallelo dell’evoluzione sociale: la cavalleria, ormai al tramonto nell’interpretazione dei singoli oggetti del mondo naturale, non restò forse addietro a nessun contemporaneo, di qualsiasi parte del mondo. Dipinse uccelli come soltanto i giapponesi. I suoi bracchi e levrieri, i suoi cervi, non la cedono neppure a quelli dei Van Eyck. Il suo posto, approssimativamente, è fra i tardi miniaturisti medievali franco-fiamminghi; i Limbourg da una parte, e dall’altra i Van Eyck. — LINKS — Ginevra d'Este (1434, 43x30cm) Eseguito nei primi anni del rapporto di Pisanello con Ferrara, il dipinto mostra l’effigie di profilo di una giovane dama, identificata con Ginevra d’Este, sorella di Leonello. Sulla manica dell’abito della dama appare infatti l’impresa estense con il vaso biansato con le ancore, mentre il rametto di ginepro appuntato sull’abito è un chiaro richiamo al suo nome. La presenza della siepe di aquilegie e garofani sullo sfondo, simboli rispettivamente di fertilità, e di amore e matrimonio, e della farfalla, che può assumere la medesima valenza simbolica, ha condotto all’ipotesi che si tratti di un ritratto matrimoniale, eseguito poco prima delle nozze di Ginevra con Sigismondo Malatesta, nel 1434. Ma la valenza simbolica delle aquilegie, interpretabili anche come simbolo di dolore e morte, ha fatto anche ipotizzare una possibile esecuzione del ritratto dopo la tragica morte di Ginevra. L’identificazione dell’effigiata con Ginevra non è comunque unanimemente accettata, alcuni studiosi hanno infatti riconosciuto nella dama un ritratto di Margherita Gonzaga, figlia di Gianfrancesco e moglie di Leonello d’Este dal 1435 al 1439. |
| — Madonna
col Bambino e i santi Antonio abate e Giorgio _ (47x29cm) La tavola,
l’unica firmata tra le poche rimasteci di Pisanello, raffigura, nella parte
superiore, la Vergine all’interno di un clipeo di luce. Nella parte inferiore,
sullo sfondo di un’impenetrabile foresta, appaiono i santi Antonio abate
e Giorgio, entrambi accompagnati dagli animali accomunati al loro culto:
il maiale e il drago. Nei tratti di san Giorgio, perfettamente abbigliato
secondo la moda cavalleresca dell’epoca e con una grande cappello di paglia
in testa, è stato talvolta riconosciuto il ritratto del giovane Leonello
d’Este. Infatti, secondo alcuni studiosi, l’opera deve essere identificata
con la tavola raffigurante la Madonna citata in una lettera di Leonello
d’Este del 1432. Non tutti concordano però sulla datazione, che è stata
da molti posticipata al quinto decennio del secolo, considerando il dipinto
l’ultima tavola nota di Pisanello. — Visione di sant'Eustachio _ Visione di sant’Eustachio 1435-1440 circa tempera su tavola; 65 x 53 Londra, National Gallery Il soggetto del dipinto, la miracolosa visione del crocifisso tra le corna di un cervo apparsa all’ufficiale dell’esercito di Traiano Eustachio durante una battuta di caccia nel bosco, offre a Pisanello l’occasione di impiegare tutte le sue straordinarie capacità di pittore del mondo naturale. Tra tutte le sue opere, infatti, la tavola di Londra è quella per la quale sono conservati il maggior numero di disegni preparatori, che ritraggono dal vero soprattutto i numerosi animali. Anche in questo caso, com’era accaduto per il San Giorgio di Verona, Eustachio appare perfettamente abbigliato secondo i dettami della contemporanea moda da caccia. — Cicogna (1435, 19x21cm) Eccezionale disegnatore, Pisanello riprodusse sovente nei suoi fogli varie specie di animali, seguendo in ciò la pratica dei maestri lombardi. Già Giovannino de Grassi e Michelino da Besozzo avevano infatti mostrato una predilezione per la raffigurazione dal vero del mondo naturale, in particolare animale, che Pisanello deve aver approfondito durante il suo soggiorno a Pavia. Egli si recò nella città lombarda per eseguire la decorazione del castello visconteo, ricordata dalle fonti, ma di cui non rimane alcuna traccia, se non nella successiva produzione del pittore. La Cicogna, messa in relazione da alcuni studiosi con il Sant’Eustachio della National Gallery di Londra, mostra affinità tecniche con i fogli preparatori agli affreschi eseguiti in Sant’Anastasia a Verona. — Madonna della quaglia _ Madonna della quaglia 1420 circa Verona, Museo Civico di Castelvecchio Si tratta della prima opera nota di Pisanello, in cui sono evidenti i legami con l’opera di Michelino da Besozzo, Gentile da Fabriano e i massimi esponenti del “gotico internazionale”. Le affinità maggiori si scorgono con la Madonna del roseto del museo di Castevecchio a Verona, variamente attribuita a Michelino o a Stefano da Verona. Anche la Madonna della quaglia di Pisanello appare in un rigoglioso giardino, sullo sfondo di un roseto, attributo tradizionale della Vergine. I due cardellini rimandano alla crocifissione di Cristo, occasione in cui, secondo la tradizione, si sarebbero macchiati di rosso, mentre la quaglia è simbolo di resurrezione. — San Giorgio, la principessa e il drago _ (1438, affresco, 223x620cm) L’affresco è ciò che rimane di una più ampia decorazione eseguita da Pisanello nell’arco di ingresso della cappella Pellegrini nella chiesa domenicana di Sant’Anastasia a Verona. Le scene perdute raffiguravano l’uccisione del drago da parte di san Giorgio e sant’Eustachio, mentre l’affresco superstite mostra il momento in cui san Giorgio giunge nei pressi della città libica di Silena e si imbatte nella figlia del re, destinata a essere sacrificata a un terribile drago che terrorizzava i cittadini. La storia è narrata nella Legenda aurea di Jacopo da Varagine ed è resa con dovizia di particolari da Pisanello, che, in accordo con la tradizione tardo-gotica, trasforma san Giorgio in un cavaliere del suo tempo e dissemina la composizione di ricercati particolari decorativi. Si conoscono parecchi disegni preparatori alla composizione, tra cui un foglio per le figure degli impiccati, con ogni probabilità preso dal vero. — Saint George and the Princess of Trebizond detail (1430) — Emperor Sigismund (1432) — La lussuria — Studio per la Decollazione del Battista — Madonna col Bambino e i santi Antonio abate e Giorgio — Ginevra d’Este — Visione di sant’Eustachio — Torneo cavalleresco — Ritratto di Leonello d’Este (1441, 28x19cm; 600x381pix, 115kb) _ La piccola tavola mostra Leonello ritratto a mezzo busto, col capo di profilo rivolto verso destra, sullo sfondo di un roseto. La pettinatura “a cappelliera”, che lascia liberi la fronte e la nuca, e la sontuosa veste rossa con sopraveste in broccato, sono rese con grande minuzia e attenzione ai particolari decorativi, come le grandi perle del bordo. L’identificazione dell’effigiato con il principe di Ferrara Leonello non è mai stata messa in discussione, vista l’evidente somiglianza con le medaglie-ritratto eseguite sempre dal Pisanello. Inoltre, in un sonetto di Ulisse degli Aleotti, è ricordata una leggendaria competizione pittorica tra Pisanello e Jacopo Bellini per eseguire il ritratto del principe svoltasi nel 1441: se a parare di Niccolò d’Este, padre di Leonello, Bellini eseguì il ritratto più somigliante, la gara fu vinta da Pisanello, che era riuscito a rendere la “magrezza” e il “candor” del principe, considerati segni di rettitudine e forza morale. — Medaglia di Leonello d’Este — Medaglia di Alfonso V d’Aragona |
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Died on 26 November 1882: Thomas LeClear,
US genre and portrait painter born on 11 March 1818. — Born in Oswego, New York, LeClear had studios in New York City and in Buffalo, New York. Considered one of the major artists of Buffalo's first golden age in the mid 1800s, LeClear is nationally recognized for his portraits of children, which document mid nineteenth-century dress and demeanor. LeClear was mainly self-taught, but did receive some training in New York City. He began his career in Buffalo, London, and Canada, first painting portraits in Oswego, New York, in 1844, and then in New York City from 1845 until 1847. He settled in Buffalo, where he received a commission to paint decorative panels for a steamboat, and soon found himself part of the artistic nucleus that was forming in that city. Like so many other painters in the country at the time, he painted mostly portraits, but made his reputation with his appealing and refreshing scenes of childhood, such as his Marble Players, Young America, Itinerants, and his best known, Buffalo Newsboy (1853). By 1861, Le Clear had left Buffalo and was living in Brooklyn. Two years later he had a studio in Manhattans Tenth Street Studio building, where William Holbrook Beard [1825-1900], noted painter of bears, had lived a year earlier, from 1860 to 1861. Beard was later to marry LeClear's daughter. Despite living in New York City, both Beard and LeClear continued to be closely connected to Buffalo, especially through their involvement with the newly founded Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. LeClear and Beard, along with William John Wilgus and Lars Gustaf Sellstedt, were the major artists of Buffalo's first golden age in the mid-1800s. LeClear taught private students in Buffalo, as did Wilgus and Sellstedt. One of LeClear's students was Albert Samuels, who painted genre and still-life pictures. Buffalo presented its first major art exhibition in December 1861, and a fifth of the works were by Buffalo artists. The exhibition was a financial success and led to the formation in 1862 of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy under the leadership of LeClear and Henry W. Rogers, one of Buffalo's principal art patrons. — Interior with Portraits (1865, 66x103cm) _ This is virtual reality, 19th century-style. For three or four centuries, you hired a painter to capture your loved one's features for posterity. But then, after daguerreotypes were introduced in 1839, suddenly you had a choice. You could have a colorful, often life-sized painted likeness that looked more or less like your relative, or you could have a tiny, monochrome, but startlingly REAL photograph. This picture is unsigned and undated. According to family history it was painted by LeClear about 1865. Supposedly LeClear was commissioned to make the picture by an elder brother of these two children in the picture. The boy had just died when the picture was requested, but he was not then the young child shown here. He was a 26-year-old volunteer fireman who had just died in a hotel fire. His older sister had already died when she was an adolescent, more than fifteen years before the picture was made. The little boy in the picture looks definitely dead, even stuffed. It is likely that the painter, for lack of live models to get likenesses, used a daguerreotype of them as a substitute. If so, he was not one of the many painters who felt threatened by the new photography and vowed never to use photos as aids, claiming that very special qualities made paintings greatly superior. Here's the villain of this game, the photographer himself. Should we read anything into the fact that he's portrayed from the rear and conceals his face from us under his cloth? (Incidentally, his wet collodion camera was not manufactured before 1860, and this helps us date the painting). Landscape painting now becomes merely a background foil for photography. This must have been a rude jibe at all the heroic Hudson River and western landscapes that were dominating the public exhibition rooms just then. This old patriarch with altarlike frame presides disapprovingly over the scene. Could a photographer make a likeness of an ancient patriarch? Unlikely! But now he's almost obscured by the backdrop, relegated to the past. All the paraphernalia of the professional artist is arrayed in this studio, which, by the way, we know was in a famous artists' building called the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York. In this painting there is plenty of evidence that the inhabitant of the sky-lit studio was no mechanical hack. And yet, the artist is being asked to make way for an insolent photographer who has only learned to manipulate mechanical devices and chemicals. So, in this painting, LeClear shows a scene within a scene, and then implies yet another still larger view from outside the canvas. Through this technique, LeClear used the occasion of this commissioned portrait to make an homage to the 17th-century Spanish master, Velázquez, whose Las Meninas used the same device. By implication, LeClear could be said to be paying homage to the art of painting. –- Ulysses S. Grant (standing, 1880, 903x586pix, 29kb) _ Grant posed for this portrait shortly after he returned from a triumphant world tour following his presidency. LeClear painted two portraits of Grant. This one was originally owned by Grant himself, while the second one (sitting, 265x169pix, 45kb gif) became part of the White House collection. In the spring of 1861, Ulysses Simpson Grant [27 Apr 1822 – 23 Jul 1885] hardly seemed destined for greatness. Having resigned his army captain's commission in 1854, this West Point graduate was eking out a living as a clerk in his brother's leather shop. But the Civil War marked a dramatic shift in his fortune. Reenlisting in the army, he was soon made a general. By war's end, he was commander of all Union land forces, and as the chief architect of the South's defeat, he had become one of the country's most admired heroes. Grant's popularity inevitably led to his 1868 election as the 18th President of the US. But here he proved less successful, and his weak control over his administration spawned an outbreak of federal corruption that made "Grantism" synonymous with public graft. Nevertheless, Grant's personal charisma waned but little through his two terms (1869-1877). Had he succumbed to talk of running for a third, he perhaps would have won. _ compare: _ Photo of Grant (1157x939pix, 347kb) _ Another photo of Grant (1720x1401pix, 1059kb) _ Lithograph of Grant (1000x680pix) _ Ulysses S. Grant (1868, oval 74x61cm; 735x610pix, 365kb) by William F. Cogswell [1819-1903] |
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The
Cat's Meal (x800pix, 55kb) the cat seems upset and angry, which may be why
it is not eating, or even looking at the chicken leg in the dish before it. What
did it expect, a live mouse? Probably, according to the pseudonymous Abby Askorpus,
who has provided this picture of what the cat may have been dreaming about >>>. |
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