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

The Friday Evening Nudes

Tonight I feature various renditions of Danae The Rembrandt is for my lovely friend Susan. 

Artemisa Gentilesch

Danaë 

(That red blanket takes my breath away.  ~ P.S.)

 Rembrandt
Danaë 
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

Danae
(detail)

Danae
(detail)





In 1985 this painting was viciously slashed and bathed in acid by a deranged man. The restoration proved highly successful. 

Danaë 
Jacob van Loo


Happy Weekend.
(Feeling a bit Sphinx-like),
Gina
:-)

Artist of the Week: M.C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world's most famous graphic artists. His art is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, as can be seen on the many web sites on the internet. full bio here.

  " I believe that producing pictures, as I do, is almost solely a question of wanting so very much to do it well"

 

 The Fall of Man

1920 

woodcut

1948

 
"I am always wandering around in enigmas. There are young people who constantly come to tell me: you, too, are making Op Art. I haven't the slightest idea what that is, Op Art. I've been doing this work for thirty years now"

 1939

 1959

" I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days"

The official Escher website contains everything you ever wanted to know about him, a complete gallery and video interviews.

Glimpses of Amsterdam, Part II - The Rijkmuseum

Thinking back to just a few weeks ago when we were there, I really miss Amsterdam. Were I there today, I would probably be at the Sunday art market. I will post some photos of the markets in a future post.

I love cities for what they offer but unlike my daughter Ursula, who lives in and loves everything about Boston, I don't think I could live in most of them, even if I could afford to. Of those I've visited, there are only two cities I could see myself living in and being happy -  San Francisco and now Amsterdam.

Here are a few more Amsterdam highlights from the Rijkmuseum.

Photo by Gina Duarte

Rijksmuseum

There is restoration work going on in the main building and we almost didn't go on the day we'd decided upon, since it was pouring off and on all day. I'm so glad we braved the rain and went anyway. Because of the renovations, all of the masterpieces of the Golden Age were set up in one room. It was breathtaking. Here are some of my favorites. Photography was strictly forbidden so of course, these images are borrowed from various sources on the internet. They've been credited wherever possible.

 

Johannes Vermeer

The Love Letter

Rembrandt

Self-Portrait as a Young Man

c. 1628-29

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

(1562-1638)

Bathseba

Artist Birthdays in March

 It's artist birthday remembrance for March!

Van Gogh has a birthday coming up March 30 and surely by then I can start thinking if not of Irises just yet, at least of a crocus or two. 

A long before Van Gogh but on the same day,  Francisco de Goya was born in 1746.

March 6 was the birthday of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni ((6 March 1475 – 18 February).

American photographer Diane (Nemerov) Arbus was born on March 14, 1923 and died in 1971, in New York City.

Diane Arbus

Self-Portrait

March 7 was American modernist painter Milton Avery's birthday, born in 1885 in Sand Bank, New York

Self-Portrait

ABC Wednesday and Artist of the Week

Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft, 

b. October 1632, d. December 1675

Dutch Baroque genre painter who lived and worked in Delft, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western
 art.

That I recall, I've seen  four of Vermeer's paintings in person. The first two below at The Frick in New York City where they were exhibited for a short time, along one which part of their permanent collection entitled Soldier and a Laughing Girl. Also one entitled The Concert, which is in the permanent collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

 The Milkmaid

 c.1658-1660

 The Glass of Wine

c. 1658-1660

Woman with a Water Jug

  c.1664-1665

The Concert 

c.1665-1666

Soldier and a Laughing Girl

 c. 1658

 Of the Vermeers I've seen, by far the most stunning is Soldier and Laughing Girl (above). I love the perspective, with the soldier's back turned to us as we gaze at the obviously pleased girl he is talking to. The map on the wall and the window are just right in detail; adding and not distracting from the subjects of the painting. I love how Vermeer paints windows.

 Girl with the Pearl Earring

c. 1665

Sources

Olga's Gallery

Web Museum Paris

Essential Vermeer

To view other takes on letters, visit ABC Wednesday the meme that spells it out (that's corny but I couldn't resist!)