10 Orientalist Paintings by Artists from the 19th Century, with footnotes, #14

Orientalism is a term that is used for the depiction of aspects in Middle Eastern cultures. It refers to the works of the Western artists on Oriental subjects, produced from their travels in Western Asia, during the 19th century. Depictions of Islamic "Moors" and "Turks" can be found in Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art. A creative apprehension of a completely different world with its own laws, customs, special attitude towards life and death, love, feelings, and beauty. Wikipedia/Yana Naumovna Lukashevskaya

David Roberts, R.A., 1796-1864

RUINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE AT KARNAK, SUNSET, c. 1845

Oil on canvas

145 by 237cm., 57 by 93in

Private Collection

‘In this illustrious piece of architecture, the artist has introduced a feeling, poetry and effect, which are among the highest attributes of genius. And yet every figure and feature of the scene are studied with the most perfect accuracy. The sun sets on the Libyan hills and, on the lower grounds, tinging them with a pervading glow of ruddy light, which is marvellously beautiful; and on the left is a sheet of water, deliciously reflecting the cool against the warm colour, and hemmed in by straight lines, so as to be as fine a contrast to the rugged and irregular shapes of the mountains. A splendid work.’ (Literary Gazette, 10 May 1845, p. 298)

In 1845 when his reputation was at its zenith, Roberts exhibited the present picture, one of his largest paintings to be shown at the Royal Academy. Its full title was given in the catalogue, Ruins of the Great Temple of Karnak, in Upper Egypt, Looking Towards the Libyan Chain of Hills, Called Baban el Malouk (the Gate of the Kings) in which the Excavated Tombs of the King of Thebes – Sunset. “Karnac is one of the Five Great Temples still Left of Thebes, the Ancient Capital of Upper Egypt. Profane History is Silent in Respect to it, and Records Only its Capture by Cambyses, King of Persia, son of Cyrus the Great, in the Year 526 B.C., and of its Final Destruction by Ptolomy Lathyrus, After a Protracted Siege of Three Years, 81 B.C. More Great Temple of Karnak

David Roberts RA (b Stockbridge [now a district of Edinburgh], 24 Oct. 1796; d London, 25 Nov. 1864). Scottish painter. He was apprenticed to a house painter, then worked as a scene painter for theatres in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1822 he settled in London and worked at the Drury Lane Theatre with his friend Clarkson Stanfield. From 1833 he travelled widely in Europe and the Mediterranean basin and made a fortune with his topographical views.

He worked in oil and watercolour and published lavishly illustrated books, among them the six-volume Views in the Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia (1842–9). His work can be monotonous when seen en masse, but at his best he combines bold design with precise observation. More David Roberts

Enrico Coleman, 1846-1911, ITALIAN

THE SKIRMISH

Oil on canvas

57 by 94cm., 22½ by 37in.

Private Collection

Enrico Coleman (21 June 1846 – 14 February 1911)  was an Italian painter of British nationality. He was taught to paint by his father. Following the mocking reception of his Una mandria di bufali nelle paludi pontine, a naturalistic painting, at the International Artist's Club in 1872, he reportedly began to paint genre subjects in the manner of the then fashionable Mariano Fortuny. At the instigation of Nino Costa he soon returned to the depiction of the people, animals and landscapes of the Campagna Romana and the Agro Pontino.

In 1885, Coleman was among the founding members of the group In Arte Libertas. Coleman had six paintings in the first exhibition of the group, which took place in 1886.

Coleman had a remarkable collection of indigenous orchids, which he cultivated himself at his house at 6 via Valenziana. He successfully hybridised Orchis provincialis var. pauciflora and Orchis mascula var. rosea; the botanist Fabrizio Cortesi named the hybrid Orchis colemanii Cortesi in his honor.

Enrico Coleman never married. He kept his British nationality throughout his life, but never visited Britain. More Enrico Coleman

John William Waterhouse, 1849–1917

Consulting the Oracle, c. 1884

Oil paint on canvas

1194 x 1981 mm

Tate

Miracles, magic and the power of prophecy are common themes in Waterhouse's art. In this picture he shows a group of seven young girls, sitting in a semicircle round a lamplit shrine, waiting in excitement while the priestess interprets the words of the Oracle.

The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy with the following explanation in the catalogue: 'The Oracle or Teraph was a human head, cured with spices, which was fixed against the wall, and lamps being lit before it and other rites performed, the imagination of diviners was so excited that they supposed that they heard a low voice speaking future events.' The setting is probably imaginary, but has an exotic, middle-eastern flavour, derived from the work of artists such as J.F. Lewis (1805-1876), rather than from personal experience. The atmosphere is heady with incense and the priestess gestures to the women to be silent as she strains to interpret the utterings of the mummified head.

Hobson compares the painting's composition to the shape of a keyhole. As he explains, 'This refers not to some telescopic view of the scene but to the keyhole shape of the figure grouping, in which a ring of spectators concentrate their attention upon another single figure' (quoted in Hobson 1989, pp.31-4). The composition, for all its exoticism, is essentially classical. The series of arched windows, the semi-circular design of the floor and the sweep of the marble step set up a rhythm within the painting. This is counterbalanced by the diagonals of the patterned rugs and the leaning body of the priestess, her hand silhouetted against the daylight, streaming through the open window. The women's varied expressions of apprehension add to the atmosphere of tension as the priestess waits for the oracle to speak.

Contemporary critics remarked on the 'hysteric awe' of the semicircle of women seeking the prophecies of the Teraph and the 'terror' of the priestess as she 'interprets its decrees' (quoted in Hobson 1989, p.34). The Illustrated London News featured the picture as one of the principal works of the year and reproduced it across two pages of an extra supplement. It was bought by Sir Henry Tate, who included it in his founding bequest to the nation in 1894. More on Consulting the Oracle

John William Waterhouse (April 6, 1849 – February 10, 1917) was an English painter known for working in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He worked several decades after the breakup of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which had seen its heyday in the mid-nineteenth century, leading to his sobriquet "the modern Pre-Raphaelite". Borrowing stylistic influences not only from the earlier Pre-Raphaelites but also from his contemporaries, the Impressionists, his artworks were known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend.

Born in Italy to English parents who were both painters, he later moved to London, where he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art. He soon began exhibiting at their annual summer exhibitions, focusing on the creation of large canvas works depicting scenes from the daily life and mythology of ancient Greece. Later on in his career he came to embrace the Pre-Raphaelite style of painting despite the fact that it had gone out of fashion in the British art scene several decades before. More on John William Waterhouse

Henri Rousseau, 1875-1933, FRENCH

CAÏD DKHISSI, OF THE TRIFFAS TRIBE, c. 1925

Oil on canvas

55 by 46.5cm., 21.5 by 18¼in.

Private Collection

The plain of the Triffa is located in the Eastern region of Morocco

Henri Rousseau Henry, Emilien Rousseau (Cairo 1875 - Aix-en-Provence in 1933) is an Orientalist painter. A pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Beaux Arts in Paris, he won the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1900 and a travel grant at the Salon of French Artists. He traveled to Belgium, the Netherlands, North Africa, Spain and Italy where he admired the great masters.

After this initiatory journey, he settled in Versailles and set up his studio at the Villa des Arts in Paris. In 1919 he moved to Aix in Provence with his large family (seven children). Knight of the Legion of Honour in arts. His work  is dedicated to Tunisia, Algeria and especially Morocco, Provence and the Camargue remained its anchor points. His success was with a bourgeois and wealthy clientele, where he sold his work at numerous exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Marseilles. More Henri Rousseau

Adam Styka, 1890 - 1959, POLISH

ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE

Oil on board

44.5 by 53cm., 17½ by 21in

Private Collection

Adam Styka , born April 7, 1890 and died September 23, 1959 in Doylestown (Pennsylvania) , was born in Poland in 1890. He completed his formal education at the French Academy of Fine Arts, and painted closely under the tutelage of his father, Jan Styka. Each year Adam exhibited his paintings in the Paris' Salon de Paris, Champs Des Elysses and others in Europe and countries of both Americas.

After graduating from the French Military Academy in Fontainebleau, Adam served in the French artillery during the World War I. He was decorated with a Cross of Merit. Also as a reward, he was granted the French "Nationality Citizenship" and a special assistance from the French Government to visit French colonies in Northern Africa. As the result of these annual journeys, Adam developed an entire genre of Middle-Eastern and Oriental themes. 

Adam Styka passed away on 23rd of September 1959 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. More Adam Styka

Amadeo Preziosi, 1816 - 1882, MALTESE

THE GRAND BAZAAR, CONSTANTINOPLE, c. 1852

Gouache, watercolour and pencil on paper

36 by 53.5cm., 14 by 21in

Private Collection

The Grand Bazaar  in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. More The Grand Bazaar  

Count Amedeo Preziosi (2 December 1816 - 27 September 1882) was a Maltese painter known for his watercolours and prints of the Balkans, Ottoman Empire and Romania. Amedeo was born into a noble family in Malta.

Amedeo was attracted by the arts from early age and was taught by Giuseppe Hyzler. Amedeo continues his painting studies at the École des Beaux-Arts.

After his return home, Amedeo did not find in Malta a suitable environment for an artist, and chose to leave the island and move to Near East. The year when he left Malta for Istanbul is not known.

The earliest drawings of Istanbul are dated November 1842. In 1844. Preziosi was commissioned by the British Ambassador to Istanbul, to create an album called Costumes of Constantinople, which now is located in the collections of the British Museum.

Amadeo Preziosi, (1816 - 1882)

The Silk Bazaar,  Late 19th Century

Watercolor on paper

Height: 410 mm (16.14 in). Width: 300 mm (11.81 in).

Pera Museum,  Istanbul, Turkey

His workshop was routinely visited by tourists wishing to return home with a souvenir of Istanbul, and among his guests was, in April 1869, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, then the Prince of Wales, who bought several watercolours from him. In 1866, as the new Prince of Romania, Carol I visited Istanbul, he met Preziosi and invited him to Romania to make watercolours of the landscapes and people of the country.

Preziosi came to Romania in June 1868 and began drawing scenes from Bucharest as well as several others across the country. The following year Preziosi spent time again in Romania, his drawings, in pencil, ink and watercolours are found in a sketchbook at the Municipal Museum in Bucharest.

Preziosi was killed by an accidental gun discharge while hunting. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery of Yeşilköy, Istanbul. More Count Amedeo Preziosi

GASTON CASIMIR SAINT PIERRE, (1833-1916) 

Oriental dancer 

Oil on panel 

54 x 38 cm

Private Collection

Gaston Casimir Saint-Pierre, born on 12 May 1833 In Nimes , and died on 18 December 1916 In Paris, was a French painter, and the pupil of Léon Cogniet and Charles Jalabert in Paris. He made several trips to North Africa and Algiers from where he returned with many sketches and drawings.

In 1900, he painted a canvas representing Marseilles to decorate the large room of the restaurant Le Train bleu at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. He created decorative panels for the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Oran .

Gaston Casimir Saint-Pierre was promoted to the rank of officer of the Legion of Honor. More Gaston Casimir Saint-Pierre

CESARE MUSSINI, (BERLIN 1804- FLORENCE 1879)

Malek-Adhel saves Matilda, c. 1830

Oil on canvas

18 7/8 X 15 3/16 IN

Private Collection

Matilda, the young sister of Richard the Lionheart, postpones her commitment to the convent in which she has been raised in order to directly experience the wonders of the Holy Land. She, the Bishop of Tyre, and Bérengère, Richard's consort, are kidnapped by Saladin's brother, Malek Adhel, who instantly succumbs to the conjoined charms of Matilda's beauty and virtue.  Matilda, who has also engineered Bérengère's restoration to Richard, finds her resolve slipping and her virtue imperiled. She flees through a desert to seek the counsel of a hermit. Adhel, fearing for her safety, pursues her and arrives just in time to save her from an attacking band of Bedouins.  On the return journey, Adhel's army mutinies and leaves the lovers stranded in the desert.  Believing themselves dying, both lovers make solemn commitments: Matilda promises to take no husband other than Malek Adhel, and Adhel promises to become a Christian. Miraculously, both are rescued, and shortly thereafter, circumstances compel Adhel to return Matilda to Richard.  Meanwhile, Saladin, believing Adhel to be a traitor to both his faith and his country, raises an army against him.  The Christian armies likewise believe that Adhel may be converted to their cause. Religious leaders, including the Bishop of Tyre, argue that if Adhel can be secured to the Christian cause through Matilda, both religious and military aims would be accomplished. More on Matilda and Malek

Cesare Mussini (Berlin, June 5, 1804 – Florence, May 24, 1879) was a German-Italian painter. He spent many years of his life as a painter in Russia.

He moved to Florence as a young man with his younger brother, and there sought training at the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts. Mussini showed promise as a student. In 1823 he won an award for his watercolor painting. The following year his oil sketch was also awarded by the Academy. He would later become a professor at said Academy. 

Mussini moved to Rome in 1828, where he became friends with French intellectuals and artists such as François-René de Chateaubriand, who was the incumbent ambassador, and Horace Vernet, the director of the French Academy.

Mussini returned to Florence in 1832. He was a sought-after portrait artist, with clients from around the world. From October 1834 he began to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts. That same year he was commissioned by Raphael Finzi Morelli to paint frescoes in his house in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. More Cesare Mussini

Carl Haag, O.W.S. (German, 1820-1915)

A family of wandering Arabs, c. 1866

Watercolor on paper

sight: 19 1/2 x 13 5/8in (49.5 x 35.8cm)

Private Collection

Carl Haag (20 April 1820 – 24 January 1915) was a Bavarian-born painter who became a naturalized British subject and was court painter to the duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Haag was born in Erlangen, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, and was trained in the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg and at Munich. He first practised as an illustrator and as a painter in oils of portraits and architectural subjects; but in 1847 he settled in England, after which he devoted himself to watercolours, and in 1850 was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours before becoming a full member in 1853. He travelled a lot, especially in the East, and made a considerable reputation by his firmly drawn and carefully elaborated paintings of Eastern subjects.

Towards the end of his professional career, Carl Haag left England and returned to the newly united German Empire, where he died in Oberwesel. More Carl Haag 

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11 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #28

Pierre Bonnard , French, 1867 - 1947

The Port Of Cannes, Le Port de Cannes, c. 1926 - 1927

Oil, canvas

Private Collection

Cannes is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune of France located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. .

Pierre Bonnard , French, 1867 - 1947

The Port Of Cannes, Le Port de Cannes, c. 1920

Oil, canvas

Private Collection

In the 10th century, the town was known as Canua. The name may derive from "canna," a reed. Canua was probably the site of a small Ligurian port, and later a Roman outpost on Le Suquet hill, suggested by Roman tombs discovered here. Le Suquet housed an 11th-century tower which overlooked swamps where the city now stands. Most of the ancient activity, especially protection, was on the Lérins Islands and the history of Cannes is closely tied to the history of the islands.

An attack by the Saracens in 891, who remained until the end of the 10th century, devastated the country around Canua. The insecurity of the Lérins islands forced the monks to settle on the mainland, at the Suquet. Construction of a castle in 1035 fortified the city by then known as Cannes, and at the end of the 11th century construction was started on two towers on the Lérins islands. One took a century to build.

Around 1530, Cannes detached from the monks who had controlled the city for hundreds of years and became independent.

During the 18th century, both the Spanish and British tried to gain control of the Lérins Islands but were chased away by the French. The islands were later controlled by many, such as Jean-Honoré Alziary, and the Bishop of Fréjus. They had many different purposes: at the end of the 19th century, one served as hospital for soldiers wounded in the Crimean War. More on Cannes

Pierre Bonnard, French, 1867 - 1947

The Port of Cannes, 1927

Oil on canvas

41 x 65 cm

National Gallery of Canada

Pierre Bonnard (3 October 1867 — 23 January 1947) was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters Les Nabis. Bonnard preferred to work from memory, using drawings as a reference, and his paintings are often characterized by a dreamlike quality. The intimate domestic scenes, for which he is perhaps best known, often include his wife Marthe de Meligny.

Bonnard has been described as "the most thoroughly idiosyncratic of all the great twentieth- century painters", and the unusual vantage points of his compositions rely less on traditional modes of pictorial structure than voluptuous color, poetic allusions and visual wit. Identified as a late practitioner of Impressionism in the early 20th century, Bonnard has since been recognized for his unique use of color and his complex imagery. More

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida - 1899

The Net, c. 1899

Oil on canvas

Height: 50 cm (19.69 in.), Width: 69 cm (27.17 in.)

Private collection

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native land. More

Charles Dixon, 1872 -1934

The Battle of Trafalgar, c. 1903

Watercolour and bodycolour

88.9 x 180.3cm (35 x 71in)

Private collection

The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).

Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under the French Admiral Villeneuve in the Atlantic off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar, in Caños de Meca. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost. It was the most decisive naval battle of the war, conclusively ending French plans to invade England.

The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the eighteenth century and was achieved in part through Nelson's departure from the prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy. 

Nelson was shot by a French musketeer during the battle and died shortly after, becoming one of Britain's greatest war heroes. Villeneuve was captured along with his ship Bucentaure. Admiral Federico Gravina, the senior Spanish flag officer, escaped with the remnant of the fleet and succumbed months later to wounds sustained during the battle. Villeneuve attended Nelson's funeral while a captive on parole in Britain. The Battle of Trafalgar

Charles Edward Dixon (8 December 1872 - 12 September 1934) was a British maritime painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, whose work was highly successful and regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy. Several of his paintings are held by the National Maritime Museum and he was a regular contributing artist to magazines and periodicals. He lived at Itchenor in Sussex and died in 1934. More

William Lee Hankey, (1869–1952) RWS,RI,ROI,RE,NS

CANNES, PORT ET SUQUET

Oil on canvas

61.5 x 74cm

Private collection

Le Suquet, sometimes called Mont-Chevalier, is the oldest district of Cannes , its "old town", situated on a hill west of the bay , Old Port. Lord Brougham played his part to speed up the creation of a port at the foot of the Suquet . For a hundred years, the fishermen demanded a dike to protect themselves from the labech, the south-west wind which can trigger fierce storms. Bewitched by the site, the benefactor intervened with King Louis-Philippe. The grateful city erected a statue in 1898 to this providential man.

But it was another Englishman, the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, the eldest son of Queen Victoria and future Edward VII, who laid the first stone of the pier which bears his name in 1898. Before being crowned, the Prince of Wales had made Cannes his headquarters, More Suquet

William Lee Hankey (1869–1952) RWS,RI,ROI,RE,NS was a British painter and book illustrator. He specialised in landscapes, character studies and portraits of pastoral life, particularly in studies of mothers with young children.

He was born in Chester and worked as a designer after leaving school. He studied art in the evenings at the Chester School of Art, then at the Royal College of Art. Later in Paris he became influenced by the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage, who also favoured rustic scenes depicted in a realistic but sentimental style. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1896 and was President of the London Sketch Club from 1902 to 1904. He stayed in France in the early 1900s, painting many of his works in Brittany and Normandy. From 1904 until well after World War I he maintained a studio at the Etaples art colony.

It was Hankey's black and white and coloured etchings of the people of Étaples, which gained him a reputation as 'one of the most gifted of the figurative printmakers working in original drypoint during the first thirty years of the 20th century'. One that is particularly striking for its stylistic presentation was "The Refugees", his contribution to raising awareness of the consequences for ordinary people of the German invasion of France and Belgium in 1914. He went on to serve with the Artists' Rifles from 1915 to 1918.

In Britain he had been associated with the Newlyn School, a group of English artists based in the titular village in Cornwall who were themselves influenced by the romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Keats. More

Edward William Cooke, 1811 – 1880

French Sloop entering the harbour of Tréport, c. 1869

Oil on canvas

81.3 x 134.6cm (32 x 53in)

Private collection

Le Treport is a coastal port town on the English Channel in northern Seine-Maritime, normandy, and just a few kilometres from Eu and Mers-les-Bains, which falls on the Picardy side of the River Bresle.

A long standing port town, Le Tréport was established as a seaside resort in the 19th century, it was with the arrival of 'paid holidays for all workers' in France in 1936 that the town really started to grow in popularity - it is one of the most accessible seaside resorts from Paris. More Le Treport

Edward William Cooke, R.A., F.R.S., F.Z.S., F.S.A., F.G.S. (27 March 1811 – 4 January 1880) was an English landscape and marine painter, and gardener. Cooke was born in Pentonville, London. He was raised in the company of artists. He was a precocious draughtsman and a skilled engraver from an early age, displayed an equal preference for marine subjects and published his "Shipping and Craft" – a series of accomplished engravings – when he was 18, in 1829. Cooke began painting in oils in 1833, and first exhibited at the Royal Academy and British Institution in 1835, by which time his style was essentially formed.

He went on to travel and paint with great industry at home and abroad, indulging his love of the 17th-century Dutch marine artists with a visit to the Netherlands in 1837. He returned regularly over the next 23 years, studying the effects of the coastal landscape and light, as well as the works of the country's Old Masters, resulting in highly successful paintings. He went on to travel in Scandinavia, Spain, North Africa and, above all, to Venice. In 1858, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician. . More Edward William Cooke

George William Joy, 1844 - 1925

Ships moored in calm waters

Watercolour

17.8 x 26cm (7 x 10 1/4in)

Private collection

George William Joy (July 7, 1844 in Dublin, Ireland – October 28, 1925 in Purbrook, Hampshire) was an Irish painter in London.  He was initially destined for the military and was also an accomplished violin player. After a foot injury at a young age, his father declared him unfit for military service. Joy was then educated at Harrow School and eventually pursued a career as an artist. He studied in London's South Kensington School of Art and later at the Royal Academy.

In 1868 Joy went to Paris where for two years he was a student of Charles-François Jalabert and Léon Bonnat. There he met masters like Gérôme, Cabanel, Jules Breton, Jules Lefebvre und Philippe Rousseau.

Going back to London, Joy established himself as a history and genre painter, and became a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, the Salon des artistes français and the Royal Hibernian Academy. He became a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1895.

To satisfy his early military ambitions, Joy entered the Artists Rifles where he was known as a good shot, representing Ireland several times. He spent many winters in Swanage from 1896 and eventually retired to Purbrook. Both of his sons were killed in 1915 during World War I. More George William Joy

Jan Marti, (1958-) 

Automne sur Honfleur 

Oil on canvas 

50 x 61 cm 

Private collection

Honfleur is a commune in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. Its inhabitants are called Honfleurais.

It is especially known for its old, beautiful picturesque port, characterized by its houses with slate-covered frontages, painted many times by artists, including in particular Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur (Honfleur school) which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement. More Honfleur

Jan Marti was born in 1958 in Savoy, after a few attempts at studying and various jobs that he quickly gives up, he then devotes himself to painting. He channels his connection to the abstract in hectic and elegant strokes. 

The exuberant blaze of colours and elements flatters both sensibility and eyes. His work depicts a naturally suggested beauty. Jan Marti's works are part of numerous exhibitions and private collections in France and abroad. More Jan Marti

Chiharu Shiota

The key in the hand at Japanese Pavillon, 2015 

Chiharu Shiota is a Japanese installation artist born in 1972 in Osaka. She has been living and working in Berlin since 1996.

Shiota studied at the Seika University in Kyoto and at various schools in Germany. Shiota's oeuvre links various aspects of art performances and installation practices. Mostly renown for her vast, room-spanning webs of threads or hoses, she links abstract networks with concrete everyday objects such as keys, windows, dresses, shoes, boats and suitcases. Besides installation works, she frequently collaborates with choreographers and composers. More Chiharu Shiota

JOHN SLOAN, (1871–1951)  

The Wake of the Ferry II, 1907

Oil on canvas

26 x 32 in.

Phillips Collection

John French Sloan began painting The Wake of the Ferry II in 1907, his second version of this scene. The subject may well have been suggested by Sloan’s ferry trips with his wife from Jersey City to Philadelphia for medical treatments.

The stylistic influence of Robert Henri, so pervasive in Sloan's early work, is apparent here; the scene has been broadly conceived, spontaneously conveyed, and boldly brushed, in a limited palette of grays and near-blacks. The composition reinforces the mood; the ferry's tilted angle, framing a view of the rough waters, is arresting, and the diagonal of the wake receding into the mist reinforces the sense of loneliness and distance. In this setting, the small figure on the right, understated and half lost in shadow, becomes the essential actor in this version of Sloan's human comedy and brings into focus its melancholy expression.

In 1971 The Wake of the Ferry II was selected by the United States Postal Service for a stamp commemorating the centennial year of Sloan's birth. More The Wake of the Ferry

John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was a twentieth-century painter and etcher and one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best known for his urban genre scenes and ability to capture the essence of neighborhood life in New York City, often observed through his Chelsea studio window. Sloan has been called "the premier artist of the Ashcan School who painted the inexhaustible energy and life of New York City during the first decades of the twentieth century" and an "early twentieth-century realist painter who embraced the principles of Socialism and placed his artistic talents at the service of those beliefs." More  John Sloan

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13 Paintings, The amorous game, With Footnotes, #3

Johannes Vermeer, (1632–1675)

Officer and Laughing Girl, circa 1657

Oil on canvas

Height: 50.5 cm (19.9 in). Width: 46 cm (18.1 in).

Frick Collection, Manhattan, New York City

Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer (1632 – December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings.

Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.

He was recognized during his lifetime in Delft and The Hague, but his modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death. In the 19th century, Vermeer was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who published an essay attributing 66 pictures to him, although only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today. Since that time, Vermeer's reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. More Vermeer

Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem and studio

JUPITER DISGUISED AS DIANA SEDUCING THE NYMPH CALLISTO

oil on canvas

99.2 x 147.8 cm.; 39 x 58 1/4  in.

Private Collection

This scene of seduction is inspired by an episode recounted by the poet Ovid in Metamorphoses. It shows the bare-breasted nymph Callisto – Diana's favourite – embraced by the god Jupiter in the guise of the goddess herself. In the background looms Jupiter's tell-tale attribute, the eagle, while the crescent moon crowning 'Diana' identifies the imposter. More

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1 October 1620 – 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number of allegories and genre pieces.

He was a member of the second generation of "Dutch Italianate landscape" painters. These were artists who travelled to Italy, or aspired to, in order to soak up the romanticism of the country, bringing home sketchbooks full of drawings of classical ruins and pastoral imagery. His paintings, of which he produced an immense number, were in great demand, as were his 80 etchings and 500 drawings. His landscapes, painted in the Italian style of idealized rural scenes, with hills, mountains, cliffs and trees in a golden dawn are sought after. Berchem also painted inspired and attractive human and animal figures in works of other artists, like Allaert van Everdingen, Jan Hackaert, Gerrit Dou, Meindert Hobbema and Willem Schellinks. More Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem

Ludwig Deutsch, 1855-1935, AUSTRIAN

A STREET CELEBRATION IN CAIRO, c. 1912

Oil on canvas

177 by 203cm., 69½ by 80in.

Private Collection

Ludwig Deutsch, 1855-1935, was born in Vienna to a well-to-do family. He began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts after completing high school. He studied in the atelier of Alselm Feuerbach along with the painter Rudolf Ernst, his contemporary, who was also an Orientalist and lifelong friend. 

Deutsch decided to move to Paris to continue his studies. Deutsch set up a studio on the Rue Pelletier, and sent a portrait to the Paris Salon in 1879. It was in 1881 that he began painting Orientalist works. He began making paintings that focused on single figures instead of the groups of people that he had been painting before. 

Deutsch traveled to Egypt in 1886 for the first time, resulting in a number of paintings of everyday street scenes. He visited again in 1890, and frequently did so over the next few years. 

Deutsch won the Gold Medal at the Paris Salon in 1900. His work sold well, with buyers being drawn to his incredible attention to detail. He continued painting through the next decade and a half till the outbreak of the First World War, when he was forced to flee Paris. 

Deutsch became a French citizen in around 1919e. Though he was a studio-painter, his travels in Egypt lent color and atmosphere that rendered his paintings authentic. Deutsch continued living and working in Paris till his death in 1935. More Ludwig Deutsch

Follower of Reverend Matthew William Peters, R.A.

PORTRAIT OF MISS MORTIMER AS HEBE

Oil on canvas

65.5 x 54 cm.; 25 3/4  x 21 1/4  in.

Private Collection

Miss Mortimer was the sister of the artist John Hamilton Mortimer, a close friend of Peters' who had studied with him in Hudson's studio. The daughter of Zeus and the Greek goddess of youth, Hebe was a popular subject in art in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, particularly as a female personification in portraiture, and even some of the most aristocratic of models allowed for a degree of nudity, such as the exposing of a single breast. Here Miss Mortimer has allowed herself to be portrayed with both breasts exposed, feeding her father Zeus in the guise of an eagle - a representation of eternal youth. In classical mythology the eagle, like the phoenix, was believed to have the ability to renew itself to a youthful state. More

Matthew William Peters (1742 – 20 March 1814) was an English portrait and genre painter who later became an Anglican clergyman and chaplain to George IV. He became known as "William" when he started signing his works as "W. Peters".

Peters received his artistic training from Robert West in Dublin; in 1756 and 1758 he received prizes from the first School of Design in Dublin. In 1759, he was sent by the Dublin Society to London to become a student of Thomas Hudson and won a premium from the Society of Arts. The group also paid for him to travel to Italy to study art from 1761 to 1765. On 23 September 1762 he was elected to the Accademia del Disegno in Florence. Peters returned to England in 1765 and exhibited works at the Society of Artists from 1766 to 1769. 

Follower of Reverend Matthew William Peters, R.A.

Lydia

Oil on canvas

642 x 770 mm

Tate Gallery

This provocative painting of a courtesan lying in bed is one of four known versions of a picture made by Matthew Peters for Richard Grosvenor, later 1st Earl Grosvenor (1731-1802). One of these pictures was almost certainly exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1777 as 'A Woman in Bed', the first and last time Peters exhibited such a frankly sexual subject. Contemporary critics appreciated the work, although they were concerned that it was unsuitable for public display. More Lydia

On 27 February 1769, Peters he was made the grand portrait painter of the Freemasons and the first provincial grand master of Lincolnshire in 1792.  Many of Peters' works were erotic and although these works did not damage his career, according to Simon, Peters later regretted these when he became an ordained clergyman in 1781. 

Iuring these years, Peters also painted religious works, including a ten-by-five foot Annunciation for Lincoln Cathedral and The Resurrection of a Pious Family. He also painted five Shakespearean works for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery and six for the Irish Shakespeare Gallery. He charged 80 guineas for painting full-length portraits. More Matthew William Peters

Evariste Carpentier, 1845 - 1922

Temptation

Oil on canvas laid down on board

27 1/4 x 33 1/4in (69.2 x 84.4cm)

Private Collection

Évariste Carpentier, (1845 in Kuurne - 1922 in Liège), was a Belgian painter of genre scenes and animated landscapes. Over the years, his painting evolved from the academic art to impressionism. He is, alongside Emile Claus, one of the earliest representatives of luminism in Belgium.

Evariste Carpentier was a pupil at the Antwerp Academy. He lived in Paris from 1879 till 1886. The talent and personality of the artist never ceased to develop. After having painted religious subjects and a large number of Vendée scenes, he sought in rustic life and the open air those choice subjects which can only be tackled by artists who have the talent to take on the difficulty of painting the human figure in bright sunshine, in the green countryside, and beneath the ever beautiful, harmonious Flemish sky. Carpentier taught at the Liège Academy and was its director until his death. More Évariste Carpentier

Julius LeBlanc Stewart, AMERICAN, 1855 - 1919

BEFORE THE FIRE

Oil on canvas

152 by 110cm., 60 by 43¾in

Private Collection

Before the Fire was exhibited in 1913 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where some seemed to question the artist’s bold choice of subject, a contrast to his earlier scenes of vibrant contemporary life.  In a review of the exhibition, the Telegraph reported, “This is a glowing picture of a girl unhampered by incidental scenery except a few strands of hair. Her hands are propped under her chin and the picture suggests she has recently come from a bath. There is nothing sinfully alluring in the eyes, the picture is that of innocent well being, but still it is said that objections have been made to this canvas.”  (Telegraph, Philadelphia, Feb. 10, 1913). More Before the Fire 

Julius LeBlanc Stewart (September 6, 1855, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — January 5, 1919, Paris, France), was an American artist who spent his career in Paris. A contemporary of fellow expatriate painter John Singer Sargent, Stewart was nicknamed "the Parisian from Philadelphia".

His father, the sugar millionaire William Hood Stewart, moved the family from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Paris in 1865, and became a distinguished art collector and an early patron of Marià Fortuny and the Barbizon artists. Julius studied under Eduardo Zamacois as a teenager, under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts, and later was a pupil of Raymondo de Madrazo.

Stewart's family wealth enabled him to live a lush expatriate life and paint what he pleased, often large-scaled group portraits. 

He exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon from 1878 into the early 20th century, and helped organize the "Americans in Paris" section of the 1894 Salon. 

Late in life, he turned to religious subjects, but Stewart is best remembered for his Belle Époque society portraits and sensuous nudes. More Julius LeBlanc Stewart 

Eduardo Leon Garrido, 1856 - 1949

A pause for discussion

Oil on panel

22 x 16in (55.8 x 40.6cm)

Private Collection

Eduardo Leon Garrido ( Madrid , 1856 - Caen , 1949) was a Spanish painter. He began his training at the School of Painting in Madrid and as a disciple in the workshop of Vicente Palmaroli . Thanks to a grant from the Provincial de Madrid, traveled to Paris where he attended the workshop of Raimundo Madrazo . Later he traveled to Italy , connecting in Venice with Spanish painters of the likes of Mariano Fortuny and Martín Rico . In 1905 he was appointed professor of the School of Arts and Crafts in Varennes , staying in France the rest of his life. 

His style is influenced by impressionism and for some critics is reminiscent of that of Manet . His work is dedicated to traditional themes, portraits of women wearing elegant clothes of the Belle Époque and reproduction of gallant scenes. He achieved great success in his time and exhibited in Paris, London and Munich .

Some of his paintings can be seen in the Museo del Prado (Madrid), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Argentina) , Bilbao Fine Arts Museum and private collections such as the Bellver Collection of Seville. More Eduardo Leon Garrido

Howard Chandler Christy, AMERICAN, 1873 - 1952

NUDES AT THE BEACH, c. 1930

Oil on canvas

101.5 by 127cm., 40 by 50in.

Private Collection

James Philip Head, author of the artist’s biography, notes: ‘His Christy Girl became an icon in America. Women wanted to be her. Men wanted to marry her’. Depicting a nudist beach, the present  work shows the Christy Girl in her most flagrant incarnation. Unselfconscious and confident, the nude girls wallow languorously, their gaze engaging viewer in a come-hither moment. Similar nudes, painted in the 1930s, hung in the Café des Artistes, New York. More Christy Girl

Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1872 – March 3, 1952) was an American artist and illustrator, famous for the "Christy Girl" -- a colorful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" -- who became the most popular portrait painter of the Jazz Age era. Christy painted such luminaries as Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, and Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, and Truman. Other famous people include William Randolph Hearst, the Prince of Wales (Edward the VIII), Eddie Rickenbacker, Benito Mussolini, Prince Umberto, Amelia Earhart. From the 1920s until the 1940s, Christy was well known for capturing the likenesses of congressmen, senators, industrialists, movies stars, and socialites. More Howard Chandler Christy 

Eduardo Leon Garrido, 1856 - 1949

Oriental dancer

Oil on panel

61 × 48.5 cm

Private Collection

Eduardo Leon Garrido ( Madrid , 1856 - Caen , 1949), see above

Théodore Jacques Ralli, 1852-1909, GREEK

THE OFFERING

Oil on canvas

55 by 47cm., 21½ by 18½in

Private Collection

The present work is one of Ralli's most erotically charged works. Sitting languidly on a throne is a young girl, entirely naked. The incense burning to the left has induced her into a deep sleep, as petals drop to the floor from her open hands. While contemplating this work one cannot disregard the ambiguity of the title and ask oneself what is the offering, whether the flowers, brought to the altar by the young girl, or the girl herself, offering her body to the divinity in a moment of ecstasy. Whatever the meaning, this ambiguity certainly adds a layer of sensuality to this intriguing and beautiful work.  More THE OFFERING

Théodore Jacques Ralli or Theodorus Rallis (Constantinople, 16 February 1852 – 2 October 1909, Lausanne) was a Greek painter, watercolourist and draughtsman, who spent most of his working life in Paris, France and in Egypt.

He painted genre works, portraits, local figures, architectural subjects, interiors with figures and animals. But he is best known for his orientalist paintings.

He was sent to Paris under the patronage of King Otto of Greece and studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy, both known for their orientalist paintings.

Ralli then travelled widely in North Africa and the Middle East, settling for a while in Cairo, Egypt. Here he found his inspiration for the romantic mysticism and suggestive sensuality of his many orientalistic paintings. His other genre paintings were often nostalgic recollections of the life and customs of his Greek homeland, which he portrayed with a delicate and moving reverence. His paintings were elaborated with great attention to detail, with great attention to costumes and facial expressions.

Rallis first exhibition was at the Salon in 1875. From 1879 he regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. He was a member of the Société des Artistes Français, where he received an honourable mention in 1885, and a silver medal in 1889 for his whole work 

After his death he was slowly almost forgotten. It is telling that his name is not even included in the Grove Dictionary of Art. Most of his paintings are still in private collections. Only a few museums ever purchased his works. More on Théodore Jacques Ralli

FLINT Sir William Russell, 1880-1969 (United Kingdom)

Yvette

Watercolor on paper

13 5/8 x 24 1/2in (34.8 x 62.2cm)

Private Collection

Sir William Russell Flint (4 April 1880 – 30 December 1969) was a Scottish artist and illustrator who was known especially for his watercolour paintings of women. He also worked in oils, tempera, and printmaking. He was born in Edinburgh then educated at Daniel Stewart's College and Edinburgh Institution. From 1894 to 1900 Flint apprenticed as a lithographic draughtsman while taking classes at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh. From 1900 to 1902 he worked as a medical illustrator in London while studying part-time at Heatherley's Art School. He furthered his art education by studying independently at the British Museum. 

Flint was elected president of Britain’s Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours (now the Royal Watercolour Society) in 1936 to 1956, and knighted in 1947. More on Sir William Russell Flint

Jack Vettriano, O.B.E., BRITISH, B.1951

DANCER FOR MONEY

Oil on canvas

38 by 30.5cm., 15 by 12in.

Private Collection

Jack Vettriano, otherwise known as Jack Hoggan, was born on 17. of November 1951 in Methil, Fife, Scotland. His parents are of Italian origin. Jack Vettriano has been working for the last two decades as a very successful painter. The style of Vettriano’s art is often described as sentimental, mysterious, and often melancholic.

Jack Vettriano’s birth name is Jack Hoggan. He grew up in the industrial coastal city of Mehil. Vettriano left school when he was 16 years old, to work in the local coal mine. His goal was to becoming a mining engineer.

Vettriano’s first painting was a copy of Monet’s poppy fields – still signed with the name Jack Hoggan. In 1988, Jack changed his name to Jack Vettriano, by adopting his mothers maiden name. Jack exhibited two of his paintings at the Royal Scottish Academy. The submission of his paintings aroused public interest in his work, and Jack soon secured enough income to devote himself fully to being an artist.

Vettriano’s most acclaimed and best-selling work is The Singing Butler. Interestingly, it was dismissed by the summer exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1992. However, sold at auction twelve years later for £ 744,500.00.

Today, Jack Vettriano, works in his studios in London and Kirkcaldy, Scotland. More Jack Vettriano,

Circle of Léon François Comerre, (French 1850-1916)

Odalisque

Oil on canvas 

81 x 54.5cm (31 7/8 x 21 7/16in).

Private Collection

Léon François Comerre (10 October 1850 – 20 February 1916) was a French academic painter, famous for his portraits of beautiful women. Comerre was born in Trélon, in the Département du Nord, the son of a schoolteacher. He moved to Lille with his family in 1853. From an early age he showed an interest in art and became a student of Alphonse Colas at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lille, winning a gold medal in 1867. From 1868 a grant from the Département du Nord allowed him to continue his studies in Paris at the famous École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel. There he came under the influence of orientalism.

Comerre first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1871 and went on to win prizes in 1875 and 1881. In 1875 he won the Grand Prix de Rome. This led to a scholarship at the French Academy in Rome from January 1876 to December 1879. In 1885 he won a prize at the "Exposition Universelle" in Antwerp. He also won prestigious art prizes in the USA (1876) and Australia (1881 and 1897). He became a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1903. More Léon François Comerre

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