Tagged: famous painters

Top 7 Art Destinations Around the World

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The Louvre, Paris

Artists can get inspiration from everywhere. But, if you want to see magnificent artworks from celebrated artists to inspire you in your next art on canvas, here is a list of art destinations that you can include in your bucket list.

Goreme Open Air Museum, Turkey. The Goreme Open Air Museum can be compared to a compound of monasteries. Visitors will be amazed at the chapels and churches carved into the rock formations with beautiful wall paintings (frescoes). Since 1984, the Goreme Open Air Museum has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as the “Met,” is the largest museum in the United States. Established in 1870 in New York City, the Met houses over 2 million objects, and only tens of thousands are available for public viewing. Its permanent collection includes artworks from Ancient Egypt; pieces from almost all of the European masters such as Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, and Johannes Vermeer; and collections from American artists.

Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid. Museo Reina Sofia is Spain’s national museum dedicated to 20th century art. The museum houses an immense collection of artworks from Spain’s greatest masters, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. The most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso’s “Guernica,” a painting created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village, in 1937.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum which exhibits art works from The Netherlands. Its collections consist of 1 million objects, 8,000 of which are displayed for the public. Visitors can see paintings done during the Dutch Golden Age, from famous painters which include Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, and Rembrandt.

Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Santa Maria delle Grazie is a church and a Dominacan convent that also houses priceless masterpieces, including Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” During World War II, aerial attacks hit the church which destroyed almost all of the walls containing precious artworks. Fortunately, The Last Supper was spared and protected.

The Louvre, Paris. The Louvre is home to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” It is one of the world’s largest museums, occupying an area of more than 60,000 sq.m. It exhibits an extensive collection of about 35,000 artifact and artworks from prehistory until the 21st century. More than 8 million people visit the Louvre each year, making it the world’s most visited museum.

Vatican Museums, Vatican City. The Vatican Museums showcase art pieces from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. Most of its artworks are from the Renaissance period, including Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, Leonardo da Vinci’s “St. Jerome in the Wilderness,” and Raphael’s “The School of Athens.”

To get the whole list of these art destinations, you can read here.

Image source: www.travelchannel.com

Dutch Master Rembrandt and His Most Famous Works

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Today is Rembrandt’s 407th birthday!

Born Rembrant Harmenszoon van Rijn in 1606, he is the most celebrated Dutch artist and is considered as one of the greatest painters in European art history. Most of his masterpieces are self-portraits, portraits of other artists, and depictions of religious and historical themes. Art experts claim that Rembrandt was able to create more than 600 paintings, 400 etchings, and 2,000 drawings, but these figures are not certain.

Here are some of Rembrandt’s most famous works:

The Return of the Prodigal Son. This is an oil on canvas painting finished circa 1669. It is one of Rembrandt’s final works. The Return of the Prodigal Son depicts a parable from the Bible about a prodigal son returning to his father after wasting his inheritance. In the painting, you’ll notice the ragged state of the son’s clothing, kneeling and repentant in front of his father who was garbed in rich clothing. The expressive lighting and coloring in the painting effectively evoke repentance, compassion, and forgiveness.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. Rembrandt was commissioned to paint this group portrait, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. The painting portrays a group of surgeons, surrounding a table while studying a corpse. Specialists have commended Rembrandt for the accuracy of the muscles and tendons of the corpse’ dissected arm. Rembrandt was 26 when he created this painting. The painting is displayed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, c. 1669.
The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, c. 1669.

Danaë. Rembrandt portrayed Danaë, the mother of Perseus in Greek mythology. The 1636 painting shows his interpretation of the myth where Danaë waits for Zeus who impregnated her. It is a life-size painting, measuring 185 cm × 203 cm. Danaë is housed in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Jacob de Gheyn III. Jacob de Gheyn III is a portrait of one of Rembrandt’s contemporaries who was a Dutch Golden engraver. The painting measures 29.9 x 24.9 centimeters and because of its small size, it has been stolen four times since 1966. It is called “takeaway Rembrandt” due to the numerous theft incidents, the most recorded of any painting.

Belshazzar’s Feast. Belshazzar’s Feast is a 1635 painting portraying the Biblical story of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall. The setting is at a banquet wherein the characters show alarm, surprise, and amazement as they look at the handwriting on the wall. Rembrandt effectively used the technique called Chiaroscuro, wherein he manipulated light and shadow to give contrast and create volume and give a three-dimensional effect on objects.

The Night Watch. The Night Watch is the best known painting housed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The painting was commissioned by Captain Frans Banning Cocq who was one of the main characters in the artwork. It is widely known for its size (11.91 ft × 14.34 ft), effective use of Chiaroscuro, and perception of motion.

Image source: www.wikipedia.org

Most Famous Women in Paintings in the World Part 2

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The Darnley Portrait

Yesterday, I listed the women who were immortalized through paintings by famous artists. Now is the second half of this list.

6. The Darnley Portrait (circa 1575) by Unknown Netherlandish artist
The Darnley Portrait became the official template or face pattern of England’s Queen Elizabeth I in the 1590s. This portrait was constantly reused for all of the Queen’s official paintings in the said period. It shows the Queen with her crown and scepter, the symbols of sovereignty.

7. Girl with a Pearl Earring (circa 1665) by Johannes Vermeer
The Girl with a Pearl Earring is an oil on canvas masterpiece by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is considered the “Mona Lisa of the North” and the “Dutch Mona Lisa.” As with Vermeer’s other works, the true subject of this painting is unknown. There are several theories as who is the girl in the painting and many say that it is Vermeer’s eldest daughter Maria Magdalena.

8. Fritza von Riedler (1906) by Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt mainly painted with women as subjects and one of his paintings is Fritza von Riedler. It is one of the first portraits that Klimt created which shows a woman who is sitting and is adorned with frothy lace in her gown and satin ribbons on her head. The painter filled the canvas with decorative elements, similar to the Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer. Not much is known about the woman behind the painting but it is one of his most famous paintings.

9. L’Arlésienne: Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux (1888-89) by Vincent van Gogh
The subject of Vincent van Gogh’s L’Arlésienne painting was Marie Ginoux, the owner of the Café de la Gare in Arles, France where the painter lived for a few months. Van Gogh created several versions of the painting which depicts Marie seated at a table with books. The first version was painted on burlap and the second version was on a pre-primed canvas and instead of books, Van Gogh put a parasol and gloves in the painting.

10.Portrait of Madame X (1884) by John Singer Sargent
The Portrait of Madame X, also known as Madame X, is a portrait of a young socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau. The subject was in a standing pose with her head turned to the left, creating a profile. The painting created a scandal among the Parisian elites as it showed the socialite in a low-cut black satin dress, unflattering white make-up, and one dress strap hanging off one shoulder.
Image source: http://www.npg.org.uk/

Most Famous Women Paintings in the World Part 1

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Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

With unlimited subjects and inspiration in the world, famous artists at some point in their careers have created paintings of women. Here’s a list of the most famous of them all:

1. Mona Lisa (1503-1519) by Leonardo da Vinci
Who doesn’t know the Mona Lisa? The woman’s identity is still a mystery and there are different speculations made about the painting’s subject, including that it’s Leonardo da Vinci in female form. But the most accepted and highly plausible explanation is that the Mona Lisa is the portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo who may have commissioned the art. Many are fascinated with this masterpiece because of the subject’s ambiguous expression, subtle forms, and illusionism. Also, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris, emphasizing the piece’s value and its importance in art history.

2. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) by Gustav Klimt
The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is oil, silver, and gold on canvas. It is one of the most expensive paintings sold in 2006. The portrait depicts Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of a wealthy industrialist, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer who commissioned the art. Klimt used the Jugendstil style, also known as the Art Nouveau, in creating the portrait.

3. Dora Maar au Chat (1941) by Pablo Picasso
This painting depicts Pablo Picasso’s lover, Henriette Theodora Markovitch, also known as Dora Maar. It shows the subject sitting on a chair with a small cat on her shoulders. It is one of the world’s most expensive paintings, being  sold at $95.2 million and currently valued at $109.5 million.

4. Whistler’s Mother (1871) by James McNeill Whistler
The original name of Whistler’s Mother is Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 and it is displayed at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It is one of the most famous works of an American artist outside the US and is considered an American icon. The woman in the oil painting is of the painter’s mother sitting since she got uncomfortable posing while standing for long periods.

5. Portrait of Gala (1931) by Salvador Dalí
The Portrait of Gala depicts Salvador Dalí’s wife, Gala Dalí. The painter adored his wife who acted as his business manager and he said that she saved him from madness and untimely deaths. Unlike the previous paintings of Gala, this portrait lacks the usual sympathetic and adoring images of his wife due to Gala’s extramarital affairs which left him insecure.

Image source: www.britannica.com