ArtExpertOnLine

  I always feel the first week of June marks the real beginning of the first week of summer.  So let's look at a very summer painting.    And, isn't this an ideal, idle activity.  We know little, only see the profile of a woman leisurely reclining in a boat on the water.  Has she fallen asleep?  Is she reading? Is she waiting for someone to join her?   She only looks relaxed, and easy for us to envy her.      This is an oil painting by American expatriate artist, John Singer Sargent.  We don't know the location, but best to assume it is in Europe, or Britain as Sargent spent most of his life there.      The composition is pretty straight forward.  Our white subject is just below center,  framed in orange/red against a complementary green setting.  The tree on the right forms a nice structure and the direction of leaf structures help to point the way down to our relaxed lady.   I find the water a joy to admire as I see sunlight and shadows of the trees, boat and red color. 

   This week I give you some heavy eye candy!  This is probably a poor choice as there are a lot of unknowns about this painting, possibly more unknowns than knowns.  But this painting has always interested me.    I first learned of Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) as a student, many years ago, but it wasn't until recent reading that one author called a spade a spade. He acknowledged that Klimt was not a major artist, he broke no ground, did not further any art movement.  He just made pretty pictures.    But, his paintings were so "pretty" Hitler and the Nazi's snatched them up and held on, thus creating new post war conflicts on ownership.    Klimt's family was in the gold business, so it was a natural extension for him to incorporate the metal into paintings, of which this painting is a prime example.  Our figure is positioned straight center, and looking out at us. Obviously, her beautiful porcelain skin has never seen the light of day, and she looks very composed, ple

   This week let us look at an artist who lived a very short life, but has been on the forefront of art history for a long time.  When I think of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901),  I think of an artist, with Vincent Van Gogh, who was enough of an unusual person, that somehow their collected image came to illustrate the stereotype of the artist.   Toulouse-Lautrec was an outsider who because of physical abnormalities never fit in with other persons of his class, and so, he found comradeship in the dance halls and brothels of Paris.   Much has been written about his short life, for he was a dedicated artist, creating a huge number of paintings, drawings, and posters.  His mother was a large influence providing him with a living long before his art began to sell.  Eventually, it was income off posters that gave him money of his own.         Our painting this week is a typical one for him.   We see a group of people, mostly women. Other than the two seated, we have no knowledge of wha

           I am sure most of you have realized that this week we are not looking at a painting, but rather at a photograph.   In seeking new works for this blog, I came across this work and knew I had to include it.  Some of you may know I used to teach photograph at the high school level, so have always been drawn to the medium as an Art form and view it no differently than a painting.  The artist simply created the image using a different process.   In the expanded world of photograph there are several classifications and Art photograph is simply one, and that is the one we discuss this week.       I did not know of Piergiogio Branzi, and since have discovered he was born in 1928 and is still living.  He was born in Florence, Italy, the very location where this image was created.   Since discovering this artist I have looked at many of his creations from this period and have been amazed.  In reading, I learned he was influenced by many but especially Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ansel A

   Let's go back a few years and find a scene of unspoken drama.  Edward Hopper is our artist (1882-1967), a man who lived in New York City and spend many hours going to the movies. Maybe he picked up the idea for this painting from one of them?     Let's pick out some of the elements of the painting that help create this dramatic scene:    First, the window shade, it's moving!  The window must be open and a breeze is coming in to cool a warm room, without air conditioning.  Looking on the floor, beyond and a little behind the desk, we see a paper has blown to the floor.      On the lower left corner is another desk. Since it contains the typewriter, and the man's desk does not have one, it is safe to assume this is the woman's desk and he is her boss or supervisor.  Having both desks in the same room indicates it is a small firm.   Notice her desk is not luminated as his is.     The lighting is very strange.  There appears to be light coming in from outside the win