Art Blog: October 2023

1 Painting, The art of War, Alkis Keramidas' The massacre of Distomo, Macedonia, with footnotes

Alkis Keramidas (1905 - 1980)

The massacre of Distomo

Oil on hardboard

50 X 50 cm

Private collection

On June 10, 1944, one of the most brutal events in all of World War II took place in the tiny village of Distomo on the Greek mainland.

According to survivor testimony, Nazi SS troops went door to door and massacred 218 Greek civilians.

Survivors said that the Nazis bayoneted babies in their cribs and stabbed pregnant women and beheaded the village priest. It was a two-hour killing spree ordered by the Germans in retaliation for rebel activity in the area.

Following the massacre, a Secret Field Police agent accompanying German forces told authorities that, contrary to an official report from Nazi commander Fritz Lautenbach, German troops had come under attack several miles away from Distomo — not nearby.

The Secret Field Police said that the Germans had not been fired upon “with mortars, machine-guns and rifles from the direction of Distomo.”

Lautenbach later admitted that he had surpassed standing orders, but a tribunal ruled in his favor. The tribunal found that he was not motivated by negligence, but instead a sense of responsibility for his men. More on The massacre of Distomo

Keramidas Alkis was born in High Fthiotida in 1905 and died in 1980. He was a prolific Greek artist with hundreds of paintings currently in public and private art collections in Greece, Europe and the US. In addition to his paintings, his work included theater sets, fabric designs, book illustrations and pottery.

He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1924-1932). He moved in the frames of naturalistic tendencies, often with a gullible way and in certain work, particularly those of last period, with an intensely decorative perception of so much drawing of what colour. He presented his work individually and took part in group exhibitions as well. He taught for many years in the secondary education as well as in the pedagogic school of Athens University (1933-1976). He was member of the team “Free Artists” and EETE. More on Keramidas Alkis

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1 Painting, The art of War, Stanley Spencer's Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol, Macedonia, with footnotes

Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)

Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916, c. 1919

Oil on canvas

H 182.8 x W 218.4 cm

IWM (Imperial War Museums)

Spencer was commissioned to create this painting in April 1918 by the British War Memorials Committee. In his owns words Spencer wanted to show ‘God in the bare real things, in a limber wagon, in ravines, in fouling mule lines.’ Of those he depicts he said ‘during these nights the wounded passed through the dressing stations in a never ending stream.’ More on this painting

Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE RA was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small village beside the River Thames where he was born and spent much of his life. Spencer referred to Cookham as "a village in Heaven" and in his biblical scenes, fellow-villagers are shown as their Gospel counterparts. Spencer was skilled at organising multi-figure compositions such as in his large paintings for the Sandham Memorial Chapel and the Shipbuilding on the Clyde series, the former being a First World War memorial while the latter was a commission for the War Artists' Advisory Committee during the Second World War.

As his career progressed Spencer often produced landscapes for commercial necessity and the intensity of his early visionary years diminished somewhat while elements of eccentricity came more to the fore. Although his compositions became more claustrophobic and his use of colour less vivid he maintained an attention to detail in his paintings akin to that of the Pre-Raphaelites. Spencer's works often express his fervent if unconventional Christian faith. More on Stanley Spencer

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1 Painting, The art of War, Tony Robert-Fleurys The Last Day of Corinth, with footnotes

Tony Robert-Fleury

The Last Day of Corinth, c. before 1870

Oil on canvas

H. 401.0; L. 602.0 cm.

Musée d'Orsay

In 146 BC, the Greek city of Corinth fell to Rome. Robert-Fleury depicts the moment when the Roman army enters the sacked city.

The women of Corinth, fearing the fate reserved for them, took refuge at the foot of the statue of Athena.

The work of the young artist, who took three years to complete his twenty-four square meter painting, was rewarded at the Salon with a medal of honor. The criticism is nevertheless severe with regard to the painting: "We look, we admire, we are not gripped" (C. Lemonnier). More on this painting

Tony Robert-Fleury (1 September 1837 – 8 December 1911) was a French painter, known primarily for historical scenes. He was also a prominent art teacher, with many famous artists among his students.

He was born just outside Paris, and studied under his father Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury and under Paul Delaroche and Léon Cogniet at the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris.

In 1870, he painted a canvas of Le Dernier Jour de Corinthe (Last Day of Corinth), which depicted the last day before the Roman legions looted and burned the ancient Greek city, according to Livy. This painting was purchased by the Musée du Luxembourg, and is now on display at the Musée d'Orsay. In 1880, he painted a ceiling for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, representing "The Glorification of French Sculpture."

Robert-Fleury painted Pinel a la Salpêtrière (1876), which depicts the famed Father of Modern Psychiatry among the inmates of the asylum. Philippe Pinel had been named chief doctor at the asylum in 1795, and had instituted more charitable and rational treatments.

In 1875, Robert-Fleury painted Charlotte Corday at Caen, which shows the woman coming to the conclusion that Marat needed to be murdered. In 1882, he painted Vauban donnant le plan des fortifications de Belfort where the celebrated engineer is represented in Louis XIV costume reviewing maps and designs, while in the background laborers are building.

Robert-Fleury taught as a professor for many years at the Académie Julian in Paris.

Robert-Fleury became president of the Société des artistes français in succession to Bouguereau. He was honoured with Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1907. In 1908, he was elected president of the Taylor Foundation, a position he held until the end of his life. He acquired a great reputation and is renowned for his historical compositions, portraits and genre scenes; at his atelier he taught several well-known painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries from various countries, including Lovis Corinth, Édouard Vuillard, Louise-Cécile Descamps-Sabouret and Sir George Clausen. More on Tony Robert-Fleury

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1 Painting, The art of War, Constant Meyer's Recognition, with footnotes

Constant Mayer (1829–1911)

Recognition, c. 1865

Oil on canvas

height: 173 mm (6.8 in) ; width: 237.5 mm (9.3 in)

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Recognition: North and South is a painting of a Union soldier who is dying on the battlefield. The reason it is called Recognition is that there is a Confederate soldier holding him, supposedly his brother who was fighting for the Confederacy during the same battle. This powerful painting captures the sorrow of the Civil War (c. 1861-1865), one of the darkest chapters in the history of the United States, brilliantly. More on this painting

Constant Mayer (October 3, 1829 – May 12, 1911) was a French painter who emigrated to the United States.

Mayer was born in Besançon, France . He studied in Paris in the École des Beaux-Arts and under Léon Cogniet, and followed his profession in that city until 1854, when he moved to New York City. Mayer worked as a colorist at the photography studio of Jeremiah Gurney and CD Fredericks, at 340 Broadway, in Manhattan. With his own studio, at 1155 Broadway, he became known for his genre or historical paintings based on literature, and particularly for his portraits. He also created many sketches and drawings. His sentimental Civil War-themed painting, "Recognition" of 1865, drew considerable attention over the years. In 1869, Mayer was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He had been elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1866, and was also a member of the American Art Union.

Mayer left the U.S. in 1869 for Paris, where he died in 1911. Several of Mayer's works appear in the collections of world-renowned museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. More on Constant Mayer

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1 Painting, The art of War, Howard Pyle's The Shell, with footnotes

Howard Pyle, (American, 1853 - 1911)

The Shell, c. 1908

Oil on canvas

30 1/4 × 20 in. (76.8 × 50.8 cm)

The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art

In his painting The Shell, Howard Pyle depicts the caves dug into a hillside as bomb shelters by families in Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the city’s Civil War siege. The great danger of these cave is described in detail in a first-hand account by William W. Lord, Jr. in "A Child at the Siege of Vicksburg," published in Harper’s Monthly in December 1908. Despite the fact that the caves were shelters for non-combatants, errant shells caused collapses of the tunnels carved into the earth. In addition to this painting, the article was also illustrated with photographs, foreshadowing the demise of the use of illustrations in the popular media. More on this painting

Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator, painter, and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.

In 1894, he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry (now Drexel University). After 1900, he founded his own school of art and illustration named the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. Scholar Henry C. Pitz later used the term Brandywine School for the illustration artists and Wyeth family artists of the Brandywine region, several of whom had studied with Pyle. He had a lasting influence on a number of artists who became notable in their own right; N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Thornton Oakley, Allen Tupper True, Stanley Arthurs, and numerous others studied under him.

His 1883 classic publication The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood remains in print, and his other books frequently have medieval European settings, including a four-volume set on King Arthur. He is also well known for his illustrations of pirates, and is credited with creating what has become the modern stereotype of pirate dress. He published his first novel Otto of the Silver Hand in 1888. He also illustrated historical and adventure stories for periodicals such as Harper's Magazine and St. Nicholas Magazine. His novel Men of Iron was adapted as the movie The Black Shield of Falworth (1954).

Pyle travelled to Florence, Italy in 1910 to study mural painting. He died there in 1911 of a sudden kidney infection. More on Howard Pyle

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1 Painting, The art of War, John Singer Sargent's Gassed, with footnotes

John Singer Sargent

Gassed, c.

Oil on canvas

Height 2310 mm, Width 6111 mm

Imperial War Museums

A side on view of a line of soldiers being led along a duckboard by a medical orderly. Their eyes are bandaged as a result of exposure to gas and each man holds on to the shoulder of the man in front. One of the line has his leg raised in an exaggerated posture as though walking up a step, and another veers out of the line with his back to the viewer. There is another line of temporarily blinded soldiers in the background, one soldier leaning over vomiting onto the ground. More gas-affected men lie in the foreground, one of them drinking from a water-bottle. The crowd of wounded soldiers continues on the far side of the duckboard, and the tent ropes of a dressing station are visible in the right of the composition. A football match is being played in the background, lit by the evening sun. More on this painting

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.He was trained in Paris prior to moving to London. Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, although not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his "Portrait of Madame X", was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but it resulted in scandal instead. From the beginning his work was characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. He lived most of his life in Europe. More on John Singer Sargent

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02 Paintings, The art of War, Gottfried Helnwein's The Disasters of War 3 and Eyes That Knew No Shade of Sin or Fear, with footnotes

Gottfried Helnwein

The Disasters of War 3, c. 2007

Mixed media (oil and acrylic on canvas)

200 x 293 cm / 78 x 115''

Private collection

Gottfried Helnwein

Eyes That Knew No Shade of Sin or Fear

Oil & acrylic on canvas

59 1/8 x 55 7/8 inches

Private collection

Children are the heroes of Helnwein’s Disasters of War series. His emphasis on the child is sincerely rooted in his own deficient childhood, which the artist describes as a gray period. Portrayed in psychologically intense poses or wounded and bandaged, the children in this series are symbols of hope, never sordid fantasy. They are starkly portrayed in order to radicalize our vision and jolt us from complacency. Helnwein demands that the quality of their life ought to be a universal responsibility and asks that we do the same. More on this painting

Gottfried Helnwein (born 8 October 1948) is an Austrian-Irish visual artist. He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor, installation and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media.

His work is concerned primarily with psychological and sociological anxiety, historical issues and political topics. His subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art is dominated by the image of the child, particularly the wounded child, scarred physically and emotionally from within. His works often reference taboo and controversial issues from recent history, especially the Nazi rule and the Holocaust. As a result, his work is often considered provocative and controversial.

Helnwein has produced artworks for rock bands the Rolling Stones, Scorpions and Rammstein. He has also partnered with Marilyn Manson in the production of The Golden Age of Grotesque and other projects.

Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna. He lives and works in Ireland, where he owns the Castle Gurteen de la Poer, and Los Angeles. More on Gottfried Helnwein

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01 Painting, The art of War, Peter Paul Rubens, Consequences of War, 1638-1639, with footnotes

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640

The Consequences of War, c. between 1637 and 1638

Oil on canvas

height: 206 cm (81.1 in); width: 342 cm (11.2 ft)

Pitti Palace

Consequences of War, also known as Horror of war, serves as a commentary on a European continent ravaged by the Thirty Years' War, and the artist employed numerous symbols, both contemporary and ancient, to deplore the state of the continent.

Mars the Roman god of war charges with shield and sword as well as breastplate and helmet. The figure's skin and cape are dominated by the color red to further emphasize his identity as the Roman god of war.

Underneath Mars's feet lie a book and a drawing. These represent the manner in which the arts and letters are forgotten and destroyed in the chaos and violence of war.

To the far left of the painting, the Temple of Janus appears with its door ajar. In Ancient Rome, the Temple of Janus would be closed to indicate times of peace while an open door denoted war.

Venus, the Roman goddess of love endeavors to restrain Mars and maintain peace. Her arm is looped ineffectually around his in a physical gesture. Her expression, meanwhile, plaintively entreaties Mars to stop his charge. More on this painting

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. More Sir Peter Paul Rubens

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01 Painting, The art of War, Dean Cornwell's Wartime Evacuation, with Footnotes

Dean Cornwell (American, 1892-1960)

Wartime Evacuation, c. 1939

Oil on board

40 x 29-1/2 inches (101.6 x 74.9 cm)

Private collection

Estimate for $10,000 - $15,000 in Nov 2023

Dean Cornwell (March 5, 1892 – December 4, 1960) was an American illustrator and muralist. Cornwell was born in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Charles L. Cornwell, was a civil engineer whose drawings of industrial subjects fascinated Cornwell as a child. He began his professional career as a cartoonist for the Louisville Herald. Soon thereafter he moved to Chicago, where he studied at the Art Institute and worked for the Chicago Tribune. In 1915 he moved to New Rochelle, New York, a well known artist colony, and studied in New York City under Harvey Dunn at the Art Students League of New York. Eventually he traveled to London to study mural painting as an apprentice to Frank Brangwyn.

Cornwell taught and lectured at the Art Students League in New York. He served as president of the Society of Illustrators from 1922 to 1926, and was elected to its Hall of Fame in 1959. In 1934, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician, and became a full Academician in 1940. He served as president of the National Society of Mural Painters from 1953 to 1957.

Cornwell died on December 4, 1960, in New York City at the age of 68. More on Dean Cornwell

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01 Painting, The amorous game, Adolf Humborg (Austrian, 1847-1913), with Footnotes #88

Adolf Humborg (Austrian, 1847-1913)

A chance meeting

Oil on canvas

21 x 17 in. (54.6 x 44.5 cm.)

Private collection

Sold for USD 5,520 in Oct 1998

Adolf Humborg (January 18, 1847 Oraviţa - April 14, 1921 Munich) was an Austrian painter. Humborg studied at the Art Academy in Vienna between 1867 and 1872. He then completed his studies at the Academy of Arts in Munich, where he attended the class of professor Alexander von Wagner (1838-1904).

Humborg specialized in painting scenes of monastic life and was renowned for capturing scenes of monks that were humorous in nature. The Glaspalast in Munich frequently exhibited his work between 1879 and 1911. Based on his success there, Humborg decided to become a permanent resident of Munich in 1913. He also exhibited in London, where he was awarded the silver medal in 1893 and the bronze medal in 1894 for his work. More on Adolf Humborg

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04 Paintings, The art of War, The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents, by Gustave Doré, Guido Reni and Peter Paul Rubens, with footnotes

Gustave Doré

Massacre of the Innocents, ca. 1869

Pen, ink and ink wash heightened with white on wove paper

22 × 33 in | 55.9 × 83.8 cm

New York Academy of Art

Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré (6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, printmaker, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving.

Doré was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832. By age five, he was a prodigy troublemaker, playing pranks that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in cement. At the age of fifteen Doré began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper Le Journal pour rire, and subsequently went on to win commissions to depict scenes from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante.

In 1853, Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated Bible. In 1856 he produced twelve folio-size illustrations of The Legend of The Wandering Jew.

Doré's illustrations for the Bible (1866) were a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. This exhibition led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in Bond Street, London. Doré was mainly celebrated for his paintings in his day. His paintings remain world-renowned, but his woodcuts and engravings are where he really excelled as an artist with an individual vision.

Doré never married and, following the death of his father in 1849, he continued to live with his mother, illustrating books until his death in Paris following a short illness. The government of France made him a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1861. More on Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré

Guido Reni (1575–1642)

Detail; The Massacre of the Innocents, c. 1611

Oil on canvas

268 × 170 cm (105.5 × 66.9 in)

Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Before a landscape bathed in light, but set with dark and heavy architecture, a group of eight adults and eight children (including the putti distributing the palm fronds of victory) has been skilfully arranged. The unusual vertical format, rarely used for this theme, and above all the symmetrical structure of figural counterparts indicate that Reni was particularly interested in a specific problem of composition: that of achieving a balance between centripetal and centrifugal movement while combining them in a static pictorial structure. Reni also seeks to achieve this equilibrium in his expression of effects and in the distribution of colour accents. More on this painting

Guido Reni (4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style. Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. When Reni was about twenty years old he migrated to the rising rival studio, named Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the "newly embarked", or progressives), led by Lodovico Carracci. He went on to form the nucleus of a prolific and successful school of Bolognese painters who followed Annibale Carracci to Rome. Like many other Bolognese painters, Reni's painting was thematic and eclectic in style. More on Guido Reni

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

The Massacre of the Innocents, c. between 1611 and 1612

Oil on oak panel

height: 142 cm (55.9 in); width: 182 cm (71.6 in)

Art Gallery of Ontario

Massacre of the Innocents c. 1611 – 12, has always been a popular theme in the visual arts, particularly during the Renaissance, when artists were rediscovering the antiquity and reinterpreting mythological and biblical narratives. The horrific depiction of infanticide ordered by King Herod to prevent the prophesied new King of the Jews taking over the throne was rendered by numerous masters from different epochs.

In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. More Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

Detail; The Massacre of the Innocents, c. between 1611 and 1612

Oil on oak panel

height: 142 cm (55.9 in); width: 182 cm (71.6 in)

Art Gallery of Ontario

The near-naked soldiers are slaying the babies while the mothers are fiercely trying to save them. The central figure is a woman in blood-red dress falling backwards under the weight of an older woman about to be pierced by the soldier. She is desperately scratching another soldier’s face with her right hand and barely holding the baby with her left. It’s a struggle for survival. A tug of war where the stake is human life. She is pushing away the soldier as he is seen grasping at the baby’s loin cloths almost taking possession of the child. More on this painting

The Massacre of the Innocents is the subject of two paintings by Peter Paul Rubens depicting the episode of the biblical Massacre of the Innocents of Bethlehem, as related in the Gospel of Matthew.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

The Massacre of the Innocents, circa 1638

Oil on oak panel

height: 198.5 cm (78.1 in); width: 302.2 cm (118.9 in) Edit this at Wikidata

Alte Pinakothek

The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is an incident in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Christians venerate them as the first Christian martyrs,[2] but a majority of Herod biographers, and "probably a majority of current biblical scholars" consider the story fabricated or unhistorical

This is followed by a reference to and quotation from the Book of Jeremiah: A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." (Matthew 2:17–18). The relevance of this to the massacre is not immediately apparent, as Jeremiah's next verses go on to speak of hope and restoration. More on The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents

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