Caravaggio, Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy, 1606
The Mary Magdalene is a stark image of exile, of anguish, and guilt … Caravaggio had killed a man, and come close to death himself, and the first instinct of a Catholic was to make an act of contrition. His Magdalene is the sinner who spent many years in solitary penitence; she conveys the sense of desolation and abandonment that is part of the mystical experience; and the divine light creates a dazzling darkness. — Helen Langdon
(via wine-loving-vagabond)
Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885)
The Poor Poet
Oil on canvas
1837
Private collection___
Spitzweg depicts a writer living out the familiar image of the starving artist in wretched conditions in a small room in an attic. The painting contains many significant images. The Poor Poet, with his rimmed glasses, top hat, walking stick, umbrella, and cravat has become a symbol for an era – the Biedermeier period (1815-1848) which centered on the private life and is marked by the growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a rising middle class. This new audience wanted to experience a more simple and realistic art than that of the then-popular but rather fussy Romantic style.
Everyone loves a good beheading.
Top: Judith beheading Holofernes by Artemisa Gentileschi
Following are three by Caravaggio: Judith and Holofernes, The Sacrifice of Isaac (1603) and David with the head of Goliath (1607).
Eduard Manet (1832-1883)
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
Oil on canvas
1881-1882
131 x 96 cm
Courtauld Institute Galleries (London, United Kingdom)___
“Suzon stands alone in a crowded room. The look on her face is detached, melancholy, distracted from her job serving at the bar in the vast crowded room reflected in the glass behind her. There is a locket around her neck that is a token of another life, a love a long way from this job.
The dislocation of Suzon’s world is deliberate. Paris is a hall of mirrors where Suzon floats helplessly, clinging to her bar. The flowers are a touching attempt to preserve a little humanity, as are her neat blue clothes and whole demeanour.”
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Portrait of Edouard and MarieLoise Pailleron
Oil on canvas
1881
175.3 x 152.4 cm
(5’ 9.02” x 4’ 12”)
Des Moines Art Center (Iowa, United States)___
“The Pailleron children evince no childish appeal - they look haughtily at the viewer. They display no signs of affection or awareness of each other: it is almost as if Sargent painted two portraits on the same canvas rather that a double portrait of siblings. Marie-Louise is entirely self-possessed and looks almost regal, seated on her pile of oriental carpets. Her father remarked that she looks like ‘Joan of Arc hearing the voices’.”
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, 1833.
Frantisek Kupka, “Piano Keys,” 1909 Oil on canvas
Woman in a White Shirt, 1956-1957
Woman before an Aquarium, 1921–23.
(Source: namelesshere)
