The Flagellation – 14th Century Italian Embroidery

One of Twelve: Life of Christ The Flagellation is one of twelve panels attributed to Geri Lapi depicting the life of Christ, of which nine are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This embroidered panel representing the Flagellation is a remarkable expression of the Florentine Gothic style. While the needlework has been attributed to the…

Read More

Jan van Kessel: Butterflies, Moths and More… (1654)

Cabinet of Curiosities in Paint Often produced as pendants, Jan van Kessel’s detailed depictions of insects, flowers and plants were sought after by collectors. They should be seen in the context of cabinets of curiosities. Van Kessel belonged to a famous dynasty of painters and is indebted in style and technique to his grandfather, Jan Brueghel…

Read More

The Gypsy Roan – The Peaceful Pub

There is a storm gale in her eyes and the stillness of her mane waiting to gust the field in leaf-red motion. Her back carries the weight of my mind — seated light, set to inhale the morning chase. She seeks that strain of abandon I love — a brisk wind enflamed by trees, stories […]…

Read More

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876)

Snapshot in Time This painting is doubtless Renoir‘s most important work of the mid 1870’s and was shown at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877. Though some of his friends appear in the picture, Renoir’s main aim was to convey the vivacious and joyful atmosphere of this popular dance garden on the Butte Montmartre. The study…

Read More

Edouard Vuillard: Deux Femmes dans Interieur (1892)

From the collection of Berkshire Museum Edouard Vuillard, “Two women in an interior”. Watercolor over pencil and paper. Not dated.Christies, “A very rare Nabis watercolor is very complete, in very good condition and is a desirable subject for Vuillard’s early years (his mother and his sister). Signed and indistinctly dedicated lower right.   Details Title:…

Read More

Édouard Vuillard: Garden at Vaucresson (1923)

According to Colta Ives (2018), “The enormous appeal of gardens in the early twentieth century, especially to women of means, found frequent expression in the work of Édouard Vuillard, ” (C. Ives, p. 94). This painting was begun in 1920 at Vaucresson, a residential suburb west of Paris, where Vuillard’s friends Lucy and Josse (Jos) Hessel…

Read More

Edouard Manet: The Balcony (1868-1869)

When Manet painted this piece, scenes of bourgeois life were in vogue, yet The Balcony went against the conventions of the day. The painting tells no story or anecdote; the protagonists are frozen, as if isolated in an interior dream, evidence that Manet was freeing himself from academic constraints, despite the obvious reference to Majas on the Balcony by Francisco Goya,

Henri Lebasque: Marthe et Pierre Lebasque dans un intérieur, (1913-14)

Painter of ‘Joy and Light’ Painted in 1913-1914, Marthe et Pierre Lebasque dans un intérieur by Henri Lebasque continues his theme of painting interiors, often including his own family members. This painting depicts Lebasque’s children Marthe and Pierre. As Lisa Banner observes, ‘Intimism, a term which best describes Lebasque’s painting, refers to the close domestic subject…

Read More