The Fruit of Love

"If music be the fruit of love, play on,

Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die. "

Twelfth Night Act 1, scene 1, 1–3

William Shakespeare

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Edouard Manet

Music Lesson

1870

Add caption

 Gerard ter Borch

Judith Leyster

Leighton

Add caption

 Renoir

 Dali

Caravaggio

Mary Cassatt 

Marc Chagall

Georges Braque

Vermeer

Miro

 Picasso

 Henri Matisse

Vermeer

ABC Wednesday and Artist of the Week - Georges Seurat

S is for Seurat

(2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891)

 French Neo-Impressionist; founder of the Pointillism school (also known as "Divisionism")

George Seurat, quiet and intense, had been classically trained at the École des Beaux-Arts. He was attracted to the Impressionists, with their different approach to art. His feeling that Impressionism lacked discipline (combined with study of scientific writings on color theory) led him to create a new style: pointillism. In this, tiny, detached brushstrokes (dots, really) of pure color are placed closely to one another on the canvas. Together they create a shining, harmonious whole composition.

“Some say they see poetry in my paintings; I see only science.”

Un Dimanche d’été à l’Île de la Grande Jatte 

(his most famous work) 

1884–1886

Seurat spent over two years painting A Sunday Afternoon, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park. He reworked the original as well as completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches. He would go and sit in the park and make numerous sketches of the various figures in order to perfect their form. He concentrated on the issues of colour, light, and form. The painting is approximately 2 by 3 meters (6 ft 10 in x 10 ft 1 in) in size.  Read more about this painting here.

Un Dimanche d’été à l’Île de la Grande Jatte

Detail

Bathing at Asnieres
 1884

The Siene at la Grande Jatte 

1888

 La Siene a Courbevoie

c. 1885-86


“Under a blazing mid-afternoon summer sky, we see the Seine flooded with sunshine . . . people are strolling, others are sitting or stretched out lazily on the bluish grass.”  ~ Georges Seurat

 Pierrot with a White Pipe. (Aman-Jean) 

1883

“Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist.”

 The Channel of Gravelines, the Direction to the Sea

1890

Young Woman Powdering Herself

c. 1888-1890.

 Invitation to the Sideshow (La Parade de Cirque). 

1887-89

Sources:

George Seurat - The Complete Works


Web Museum Paris

Thinkexist.com

 ABC WEDNESDAY 

 

Babar Spoofs The Masters

Above:  a "reworking" of Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - 1884

Laurent de Brunhoff  (1900-1937) , the son of Babar's creator, Jean de Brunhoff, picked up where his father left off, continuing to create new storybook adventures for Babar and his friends. Although Jean de Brunhoff created Babar with his art, it was the imagination of his wife, Cecile, from which Babar originated. She originally invented Babar as a character in bedtime stories which she told to her sons. Meet the family that gave us Babar

The watercolors depicted here are a few of several illustrations in a book called Babar's Museum of Art.The original works were also part of an exhibition geared toward children which toured U.S. museums and galleries in the summer of 2009.

 Shown in the exhibition are illustrations created for the children’s book Babar’s Museum of Art. “The book tells the story of how Babar the Elephant and his wife Celeste transform an old train station into an art museum,” says Tomio. “In the book, de Brunhoff pays tribute to artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Paul Cezanne, and Picasso by adorning the museum’s walls with classic works of art with a clever twist – the characters depicted in those works of art are all elephants.”

 

That must have been some job to cut the ear of an elephant version of Van Gogh. ;-)

de Brunhoff's version of The Dream by Henri Rousseau

What's Goin On

I have been rather dry on ideas for art posts lately and I do apologize to anyone who comes here just for the art images and their accompanying tidbits. The weather is good now and that means that I'm out there enjoying it and taking lots of photos. Those of you who visit regularly know my fondness for my camera and the occasional good photo it sometimes surprises me with.

I do have two art posts in the works right now:  one feature on the work of Georges Seurat and another in the series A Letter from Vincent. The latter is a mixture of excerpts from the letters of Van Gogh to his brother Theo and corresponding images of the paintings he was working on or those by other painters that fueled Vincent's intensity and passion.

 On June 23rd, I'm leaving for Santa Barbara to visit my daughter (SG1) and her wife, whom I call Beloved. I haven't seen SG1 since August of 2009, so I'm very much looking forward to spending time. I'll be back on July 6, which means I'll be celebrating my 51st birthday in sunny Santa Barbara, as well as the 4th festivities. SG1's Americorp stint will be over for the summer (she's enlisted for another year) and Beloved will have a light class load at UCSB, where she finished the master's portion of her degree and will begin work on the phd part in the fall. All is going according to plan for the happy couple, I'm pleased to say.  :-)

A week or so later, WP and I are leaving for the fairy cottage in Nova Scotia until the end of July. I plan on being home all of August to work on some house projects and enjoy my yard, the river and a few day trips here and there. We may even sneak in a visit to New York City, as there are lots of cool things going on at MoMA.

Peace, love and all groovy things,
Pagan Sphinx

For now, here are two images for you to enjoy - one each from Van Gogh and Seurat. 

Georges Seurat

The Seine at Courbevoie  

c1886

Flower Pot with Chives

Art Animalia - The Horse

Bathing of a Red Horse
Kuzma Petrov Vodkin

Boy Leading Horse
Picasso

Seurat
Horse in a Field

Franz Marc

Yellow Horses

Edgar Degas
Racehorses