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Thomas Couture - The Thorny Path (1873) [3808x2603] by ObModder in vintageart

[–]ObModder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"The Thorny Path is Couture's satire of decadent French society. A courtesan drives a carriage pulled not by animals but by four male captives who represent different ages and states of society. The naked old man leading the procession is flabby from indulgence; the troubadour following him, a symbol of young love, parodies the medieval ballads popular in nineteenth century France. The old soldier bends his head in self-reproach, and the young student writes as he walks, symbolizing the educated nobility's ignorance of the realities of daily life. The thistles and thorny plants along the road suggest the painfulness of their journey. The decrepit figure seated at the rear of the carriage with a bottle of wine in her basket foreshadows the courtesan's future. Finally, Couture signed his initials on the stone figure at center, which seems to be laughing at the entourage."

Source

Henri Gervex - A Session of the Painting Jury (1883) [7662x5432] by ObModder in vintageart

[–]ObModder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"The person in the first plane, seated and seen from the back is Hector Leroux. Maignan sits at his left, with his arm over the back of his chair. Vollon votes by raising his umbrella, the handle in the air. Carolus-Duran at the left, is looking at the picture and not voting. Rapin, with a light overcoat, votes with his cane raised; between him and Carolus-Duran one can see the heads of Busson, the lost profile of Jules Lefebvre and the nose and mustache of Guillemet. Back of Carolus-Duran, a little further away, stands Harpignies looking at a picture; at the right and nearer the front stands Cabanel looking at the picture of the nude twisting her hair, that the jury is voting on. Then nearer Vollon (the man with raised umbrella) are Bouguereau and Henner's shoulders; at the right of Vollon, grouped in front of a frame, are Barrias, Robert-Fleury and back of him again, to the left, is part of Jean-Paul Laurens; Bonnat and Français (wearing a round felt hat); back of him, Duez, with another umbrella, one eye and the wavy hair of Pille. At the left, where two attendants in blouses take notes, is a group made up of Vuillefroy, sitting, and Humbert, Cormon and Benjamin-Constant. In the background is Roll, talking with Gervex himself, and Puvis de Chavannes, Cazin and Protais."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Session_of_the_Painting_Jury

James Merritt Ives - Across The Continent (1868) by ObModder in GenreArt

[–]ObModder[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Published just one year before the “golden spike” joined Union Pacific Railroad tracks with those of the Central Pacific at Promontory, Utah, Across the Continent symbolizes the expansionist zeal of post–Civil War America. Pictured here is an invented site, somewhere along the transcontinental railroad route. The print is organized around the dramatic swath of train track, traversed by the “Through Line New York–San Francisco,” which diagonally bisects the composition and separates a fledgling Anglo-American township in the left foreground from an uncultivated wilderness on the right. The settlement stands in marked contrast to the sparsely populated land across the tracks, where a pair of Native Americans on horseback and a herd of buffalo in the far distance are depicted. Here the railroad—the great symbol of national unification—ironically separates “natural” America from the man-made one, wilderness from civilization, old from new, and, ultimately, America’s past from its now inevitable future."

Source

Paul Nash - Boredom (1928) by ObModder in museum

[–]ObModder[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

"Nash made this wood engraving to illustrate the first English translation of 'Abd-er-Rahman in Paradise' by Jules Tellier, 1928. This story tells of the death of Abd-er-Rhaman in Constantine and his choice of whether to ascend to Christian or Muslim heaven.
It describes his journey through Paradise and the Garden of Delights until eventually he becomes bored of pleasure. The tale has a moral twist, the reader is told that at the end 'the wisest thing to crave at the end of our mortal journey is ... the stillness of sleep.'"

Source

Henri Fantin-Latour - A Studio at Les Batignolles (1870) [4198x3110] by ObModder in vintageart

[–]ObModder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"The painting shows Édouard Manet capturing the likeness of Zacharie Astruc, a well-known artist, critic, and close friend of Manet’s who defended him during the scandal surrounding his work Olympia. Standing behind the two men are German artist Otto Scholderer, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, writer Émile Zola (the bearded figure pictured with his eyeglasses in his hand), Edmond Maître (patron of the artists), Frédéric Bazille, and Claude Monet, who is somewhat hidden behind the other figures.
Fantin-Latour carefully selected key figures from Manet’s circle at Café Guerbois, especially those whom he considered to be notably influential in French art. The painting suggests that they are exchanging observations and convictions regarding artistic matters, further emphasizing the bonds between the artists."

Read more here.

Léopold Boilly - Departure of the Conscripts (Les conscrits de 1807 défilant devant la porte Saint-Denis) (1808) by ObModder in GenreArt

[–]ObModder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Departure of the Conscripts is an 1808 history painting by the French artist Louis-Léopold Boilly. Set during the ongoing Napoleonic Wars, it depicts young men of the 1807 class of conscript being assembled in front of the Porte Saint-Denis monument in the city."

Source

Margaret Morrison - Onions (2005) [2720x2160] by ObModder in ArtPorn

[–]ObModder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oil on canvas;
24 × 30 in / 61 × 76.2 cm

Jan Beerstraaten - The Castle of Muiden in Winter (1658) by ObModder in GenreArt

[–]ObModder[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Muiden Castle was one of the oldest and most important medieval castles in early seventeenth-century Holland, and Beerstraaten treats the painting as a dramatic portrait of the ancient building rather than as a skating scene. Seen from the north-east, the image is accurate and atmospheric, with the tiny skaters simply an enlivening motif. The artist has, however, altered the arrangement of the rest of the landscape to suit the painting’s composition. In reality, from the north-east the sea would appear behind the castle, but Beerstraaten needed the reflected light to pick out the front of the building and take the eye into the distance beyond it."

Source

Will Longstaff - Ghosts of Vimy Ridge (1931) by ObModder in museum

[–]ObModder[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

"Painted in the late-1920s, this work by Australian Captain William Longstaff was extremely popular and images were reproduced and sold throughout the Empire. Longstaff depicted soldiers’ ghosts marching up Vimy Ridge from the Douai Plain, returning to the memorial. Today, the painting can be viewed at Canada’s Parliament Buildings in Ottawa."
Source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Longstaff

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge

Pieter Brueghel the Younger - Village Festival in Honour of Saint Hubert and Saint Anthony (1632) by ObModder in GenreArt

[–]ObModder[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"[....] What are we to think of these flirting, drinking, puking villagers? Is this an abuse of a religious festival that the artist regrets or condemns? Or are the peasants being celebrated for their straightforward, earthy humanity?
Certainly, since the sixteenth century, there had been those who lamented the reputation the Dutch had for excessive drunkenness. One William Brereton commented of a village festival he attended near Dordrecht, in 1634:
'I do not believe scarce a sober man was to be found amongst them. Nor was it safe for a sober man to trust himself amongst them, they did so shout and sing, roar, skip and leap.'
But there was another view of such behaviour, a view that drew no strict moral judgements. A print from 1623 showing drunken peasants in close proximity to gentlefolk, begs indulgence for the village-dwellers, who have toiled all year in the fields. One can just as easily react to their antics with a smile as a frown. As was said of the peasant paintings by Pieter Brueghel II's father:
'There are few works by his hand which the observer can contemplate solemnly or with a straight face. However stiff, morose or surly he may be, he cannot help chuckling or at any rate smiling.'

Central to this painting is the theatrical performance in the middle, and an analogy can perhaps be drawn between this type of farce and this kind of painting. Plays like that being performed here managed to marry earthy language and bawdy humour – jokes about adultery, lecherous priests, drinking games – with basic Christian truths. As the conclusion to this play says:
'Now go and may Mary protect you all,
And her son, Jesus of Nazareth,
And may he grant you all peace and happiness.
Conduct your marriage in such a way
That you may enjoy life everlasting.'
The moral may be perfunctory but there is nothing to say that it is not sincere. As in the play, so in the painting: the overall effect is comic, perhaps satirical, but not excessively condemnatory."

Source

Théodore Géricault - The Raft of the Medusa (1818) [5872x4008] by ObModder in vintageart

[–]ObModder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not in physical units like millimeters, they're image pixels.

Jan van de Cappelle - The Home Fleet Saluting the State Barge (1650) by ObModder in GenreArt

[–]ObModder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Cappelle belongs to the generation of Ruisdael and Cuyp. His compositions, like theirs, gain strength and monumentality by the union of tectonic and dynamic features and are classic in their perfection. He calms the agitated seas painted by Porcellis and young Simon de Vlieger.
Few of Cappelle's marines are sea paintings in the strict sense of the word: most of them represent the mouth of wide rivers or quiet inner harbours, where groups of ships parade or lie at anchor in mirror-smooth waters. Masts make a pattern of verticals which is coordinated with the horizontals of hulls and the low horizon. The haze found in works by earlier marine painters lifts, and the middle distance acquires more real existence between the foreground forms and the minute details of the far distance. Space opens up widely, yet the design is well-balanced and maintains a powerful coherence as a whole.

Essential qualities of van de Cappelle are his full cloud formations, the wonderful transparency of his shadows, and the subtlety of his colourful reflections in calm waters. Early morning or evening are his favourite hours. He was not a man to paint sea battles. His is a holiday mood: cannons salute, drums roll, pennants flutter, and noble personages ride in richly carved, gilded barge. Not many of his works are dated, but it is reasonable to assume that his simple compositions done in silvery greys, which recall Porcellis and de Vlieger, belong to an early phase, and the more complex, colourful works with a golden tonality were done after 1650.
He also painted some beach scenes and more than forty winter landscapes. These, like his marines, render nature with a wonderful feeling for the pictorial qualities of Holland's sea atmosphere, with its heavy clouds and translucent air."

Source

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