01 Painting, Streets of Paris, Jean Béraud's Le Pont Neuf, with footnotes, Part 85

Jean Béraud, French, 1849 - 1935
Le Pont Neuf
Oil on canvas
 24.2 by 33cm., 9½ by 13in.
Private collection

Estimate for 100,000 - 150,000 GBP in December 2009

Here, Béraud captures the spirit of the moment, as workers, bankers in top hats, bakers, an upholsterer carrying a chair on his head, and cabbies make their way across Paris's oldest bridge, even in Béraud's day a listed monument. Shoppers flock to the capital's recently opened retail emporium, the La Samaritaine department store, overlooking the Seine immediately behind the artist's vantage point. It is intriguing to speculate about the possible identity of the moustachioed artist carrying a stretched canvas under one arm and his paint box under the other. Could he be Béraud himself, the observer observing himself. More on this painting

The Pont Neuf is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, the birthplace of Paris, then known as Lutetia and, during the medieval period, the heart of the city.

The bridge is composed of two separate spans, one of five arches joining the left bank to the Île de la Cité, another of seven joining the island to the right bank. Old engraved maps of Paris show that the newly built bridge just grazed the downstream tip of the Île de la Cité; since then, the natural sandbar building of a mid-river island, aided by stone-faced embankments called quais, has extended the island. Today the tip of the island is the location of the Square du Vert-Galant, a small public park named in honour of Henry IV, nicknamed the "Green Gallant".

The name Pont Neuf was given to distinguish it from older bridges that were lined on both sides with houses, and has remained after all of those were replaced. Its name notwithstanding, it has long been the oldest bridge in Paris crossing the Seine. It has been listed since 1889 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. More on The Pont Neuf

Jean Béraud (January 12, 1849 – October 4, 1935) was a French painter, noted for his paintings of Parisian life during the Belle Époque. He was renowned in Paris society due to his numerous paintings depicting the life of Paris, and the nightlife of Paris society. He also painted religious subjects in a contemporary setting. Pictures of the Champs Elysees, cafés, Montmartre and the banks of the Seine are precisely detailed illustrations of everyday Parisian era of the "Belle Époque". More on Jean Béraud




Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at  deviantart and Aaroko

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.


02 Works, The Art of War, Firelei Báez's Patterns of Resistance, and Frank Angels' The Souvenir of Paris, with Footnotes

Firelei Báez, b. 1981
Patterns of Resistance, c. 2015
Acrylic and Sennelier ink on Yupo paper
30 by 24 in., 76.2 by 61 cm.
Private collection

Estimated for 40,000 - 60,000 USD in Feb 2025

"My works are propositions, meant to create alternate pasts and potential futures, questioning history and culture in order to provide a space for reassessing the present." Firelei Báez

One of the most exciting painters of her generation, Firelei Báez delves into the historical narratives of the Atlantic Basin. Over the past twenty years, she has made work that explores the multilayered explorations of the legacy of colonial histories and the African diaspora in the Caribbean and beyond. She draws on the disciplines of anthropology, geography, folklore, fantasy, science fiction and social history to unsettle categories of race, gender and nationality in her paintings, drawings and installations. Her exuberant paintings feature finely wrought, complex and layered uses of pattern, decoration and saturated colour, often overlaid on maps made during colonial rule in the Americas. Báez’s investment in the medium of painting and its capacity for storytelling and mythmaking informs all her work, including her sculptural installations, which bring this quality into three dimensions. More on Firelei Báez
Frank Angels
Souvenir of Paris, c. 1968
Enamel on paper applied on canvas
cm 210x200
Private collection

Sold for 150,000 EUR in April 2019

Souvenir de Paris is part of the extraordinary series of works created in 1968 by Franco Angeli dedicated to the student protests of May 1968, marches and protests that broke out across Europe, against the Franco regime, against the war in Vietnam, more generally in support of political and social demands. 

The artist reproduces, in a concise and flat way, photographs disseminated by the press, exalting their meaning through the use of red, black and gray, as if to give new life to what is represented as well as a historical responsibility to the new generations that the work will compare with. More on this work

Angeli was born in Rome in 1935. He comes from a family of a solid, socialist tradition. Self-taught, it was through the sculptor Edgardo Mannucci by which he was faced with the work of Burri. His works will therefore influence Angeli with his informal poetics. Angeli’s first works (1955-1957) included monochrome and material canvases in dark tones covered with torn nylon socks, which symbolizes poverty and pain. Because he was politically active (he joined the Communist Party), he met Tano Festa and Mario Schifano in 1955, with whom he established a deep relationship of friendship and cultural exchange.

Together with Francesco Lo Savio, Pino Pascali, Jannis Kounellis, and Fabio Mauri they will give life to School of Piazza del Popolo, which has La Tartaruga by Plinio de Martis in its galleries. The evident influence of American pop art is overcome by using ancestral symbols and ideological emblems (the scythe and the hammer, as well as the swastika) that act directly on the unconscious of the observer.

He also participated in the Venice Biennale presented by Maurizio Calvesi and, the following year, at the IX Roman Quadrennial. It participates in 1967 at the São Paulo Biennial of Brazil. At the end of the 1960s Angeli was involved in the Vietnam war. Later in the 1980s his artistic career approached figuration where he utilized stylized shapes and portrayed symbols of his childhood, obelisks, deserted city squares, and capitals. More on Frank Angels




Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at  deviantart and Aaroko

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.


01 Work, The Art of War, Sir John Everett Millais' The Order of Release, with Footnotes

Sir John Everett Millais Bt PRA (1829-1896)
The Order of Release, c. 1852-53
Oil on canvas
1029 x 737 mm
Tate Britain

Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720-1788) was defeated by the English at Culloden on 16 April 1746 and many of his supporters were imprisoned. The subject of this picture is the release of one of these Jacobite rebels from prison. The rebel's wife, supporting their small child and comforting her exhausted, wounded husband, hands an order of release to the gaoler. The expression on her face is inscrutable. She appears strangely detached from the action, and the suggestion is that she may have been forced to sacrifice her virtue in order to save her husband. The picture's original title was The Ransom and early sketches reveal that Millais originally showed a purse of money being handed over. However, in the finished work he substitutes the order of release which gives the painting its current title. The signature on the document is clearly visible as that of Sir Hilgrove Turner, who encouraged Millais's artistic talent from an early age.

Millais painted the picture in intricate detail and went to great pains to make the scene authentic. Jacobite wears the Gordon tartan and the little girl the Drummond, presumably the mother's clan. The only indication of a setting is provided by the prison door. The faded primroses which have fallen from the child's hands indicate the time of year, and also symbolise her youth. Millais used a professional model called Westall for the father and his future wife, Effie Ruskin (with her hair darkened) for the woman. He had tremendous problems with the child, who, according to Millais, 'seemed so obstinate that she would not do anything I wanted, and when forced, by Westall's superior strength, squalled and foamed at the mouth'(quoted in Parris, p.108).

Millais sold the picture to the lawyer Joseph Arden for £400. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853 it proved so popular that a policeman had to be installed in front of the picture to move the spectators on. The Illustrated London News reported that Millais had attracted 'a larger crowd of admirers in his little corner than all the Academicians put together' (7 May 1853). More on this painting

A founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Sir John Everett Millais was internationally renowned during his lifetime, and his career culminated in his election as President of the Royal Academy in 1896.

As a child, Millais displayed a precocious artistic talent. In 1838 a meeting with Martin Archer Shee, the then President of the Royal Academy, led to Millais enrolling at Henry Sass’s private drawing school in London. In 1840, aged only eleven, he became the youngest artist ever admitted to the Royal Academy Schools. Known to his fellow students as ‘the Child’, Millais won his first RA silver medal in 1843.

While studying at the Royal Academy Schools, Millais and a group of like-minded colleagues including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt established the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the first avant-garde group in the history of British art. The PRB reacted against the prevailing view at the RA, and elsewhere, that Raphael and the later Renaissance tradition represented the artistic ideal. Instead, they drew inspiration from earlier artists including Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer whom they believed to have drawn more directly from nature.

Millais’ early statement of PRB principles, Christ in the House of his Parents, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1850. Intended as a realistic corrective to traditional ‘Raphaelite’ depictions of the Holy Family, it met with almost universal disdain - Charles Dickens was amongst its strongest critics, warning his readers that the painting depicted ‘the lowest depths of what is mean, odious, repulsive, and revolting’. Subsequent paintings such as Ophelia and A Hugenot (both exhibited at the RA in 1852) were received more positively, however, and paved the way for Millais’ election as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1853.

After his marriage, Millais and Effie lived in Perth for six years, and his art moved away from the tight observation of his earlier work to more generally atmospheric scenes like the one portrayed in Autumn Leaves. In 1861 the family returned to London and Millais was elected a Royal Academician in 1863. By this time Millais had acquired a taste for the Old Masters which ran contrary to his early PRB ideals—his RA diploma work was even titled A Souvenir of Velasquez.

In later years, portraiture became increasingly central to Millais’ practice, while reproductive prints provided a lucrative way of disseminating his work. In 1896, Millais succeeded Frederic Leighton as President of the Royal Academy, although he was seriously ill with cancer of the larynx, and died only six months after his election. More on Sir John Everett Millais




Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at  deviantart and Aaroko

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.


02 paintings, The amorous game, Hayv Kahraman's Persian Couple 1 & 2, with Footnotes #96

Hayv Kahraman
Persian Couple 2, c. 2009
Oil on linen
106.7 by 172.7 cm. 42 by 68 in.
Private collection

Sold for 52,920 GBP in October 2022

Hayv Kahraman (American/Iraqi, born 1981)
Persian Couple 1, c. 2009
Paintings, Oil on linen
68 x 42 in. (172.7 x 106.7 cm.)
Private collection

Hayv Kahraman is an Iraqi artist born in 1981. At the age of 11, her family left Baghdad during the Gulf War and settled in Sweden for several years, where her status of refugee became a catalytic experience for her artistic practice. Having studied graphic design at the Accademia di Arte e Design di Firenze, Italy, Kahraman uses a variety of media including sculpture, drawing and painting to address difficult issues relative to gender inequalities, war and the migrant experience. Channeling refined aesthetics inspired from Islamic arts, Art Nouveau and Japanese paintings to confront the viewer with controversial scenes, the artist engages with the notion of femininity in Middle Eastern cultures. Her approach to gender roles and female identity encapsulates how women are persecuted in their own culture through systematic submission to the male gaze, physicality and politics. More on Hayv Kahraman




Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at  deviantart and Aaroko

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.


03 Paintings, Streets of Paris, François Gall's Montmartre, At the Cafe, with footnotes, Part 96

François Gall, French, 1912-1987
Montmartre, At the Cafe
Oil on canvas
8 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Private collection

Estimate for  $3,000 - $5,000 in June 2023

Montmartre is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is 130 m high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its artistic history, for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit, and as a nightclub district. More on Montmartre


François Gall (FRENCH, 1912-1987)
Montmartre
Oil on canvas
19¾ x 24 in. (50.2 x 61 cm.)
Private collection

Sold for USD 4,375 in Aug 2012.

Montmartre is talked about by Parisians the way New Yorkers talk about the Village: It's not what it used to be, It's like Disneyland, the artists can't afford to live here anymore, too many tourists etc. There is some truth to these opinions, but there are two ways of approaching this incredibly unique village within the metropolis. The first is to follow the herd instinct and stampede your way up the famous hill, take a picture of yourself on the steps of the basilica, buy an overpriced crepe at the Place du Tertre, get conned into having your portrait sketched, and walk back down clutching newly bought key-rings, postcards, gaudy T-shirts feeling a little mystified about what all the fuss is about. More on Montmartre

François Gall (French/Hungarian, 1912-1987)
Montmartre
Oil on canvas
21 x 251⁄2 in. (53.3 x 64.8 cm.)
Private collection

Sold for USD 12,500 in May 2020.

François Gall (1912 - 1987) , Hungarian by birth, became an impressionist painter in the pure French tradition after he moved to Paris in 1936. He began his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rome while working in menial jobs to secure a living. Support came in 1939 when the Hungarian government awarded Gall with a scholarship.

Six years later, François Gall established himself in Paris and became a student of Devambez at the National Academy of Fine Arts. The artist greatly admired the first generation impressionist and adopted their concepts for his own interpretations. Parisian scenes and portrayals of women engaged in typically feminine activities were among his preferred subjects.

The artist participated in various Salon exhibitions in Paris and became a favorite with the public. In 1963, he was honoured with the Francis Smith Prize. He died in 1987. More on François Gall




Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at  deviantart and Aaroko

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.


Gaza - The Return


 

01 painting, The amorous game, Vicente Palmaroli y Gonzales' A Secret Love, with Footnotes #96

Vicente Palmaroli y Gonzales (Spanish, 1834-1896)
A Secret Love
Oil on panel
54½ x 25¾ in. (138.4 x 65.4 cm.)
Private collection

Sold for USD 38,400 in Oct 2005

 In the present work, Palmaroli, inspired by the anceint world, depicts two classical figures. He possessed a great sensitivity to rendering the human figure and has carefully considered the way the drapery of their togas fall on the body of the man and woman. More on this painting

Vicente Palmaroli González (5 September 1834 – 25 January 1896) was a Spanish portrait and genre painter.

He was born in Zarzalejo, the son of Gaetano Palmaroli, an Italian painter and lithographer, who was his first teacher. After his father's death in 1853, he took over his official position at the royal art collections. He requested leave in 1857 to go to Rome and complete his education. He participated in the National Exhibition in 1862 with two works he created in Italy, winning a First-Class Medal. The following year, he returned to Italy and remained until 1866.

After his return to the Court, he won a Gold Medal at the National Exhibition of 1867. That same year, he accompanied the Spanish delegation to the Exposition Universelle in Paris. While there, he met Ernest Meissonier, who would have an influence on his later work. Over the next few years, he would become a renowned portrait painter. In 1872, he was named a Professor at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. A year later, he settled in Paris and specialized in creating "tableautins"; small format paintings on amusing or pleasant themes designed to be hung in the home. In 1883, he moved to Rome to become Director of the Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma.

He returned to Madrid in 1894 when he was appointed Director of the Museo del Prado, a position he would hold until his death. Most of the works added to the Prado during his tenure were later moved to the collection at the new Museo de Arte Moderno.

He suffered a stroke while attending a theatrical performance, became an invalid, and died several months later in Madrid, aged 61. More on Vicente Palmaroli González




Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at  deviantart and Aaroko

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.


15 Works, The amorous game, Fifteen artists imbedded with Francesca de Rimini et de Paolo Malatesta, with Footnotes #101

Vitale Sala (1803 – 1835)
Dante meets Paolo and Francesca, c. before 1823
Oil on canvas
height: 162.5 cm (63.9 in); width: 228.5 cm (89.9 in)
Brera Academy

Differently from the usual representations of the famous Dante episode, Sala, in a convulsive visionary representation of Dante's circle, chooses the moment in which the poet fainted, moved by the recollection of that damned love. A happy choice, this, which decreed the positive evaluation of the judging commission which, in fact, "had to praise (...) a richer and more expressive composition accompanied by much ease of execution". In the canvas, the violent expressionism of Giuseppe Bossi and the lesson of Palagi emerge, of whom Sala was a pupil at his workshop in via Camperio; as Sandra Pinto rightly pointed out, through Palagi, Sala probably had the opportunity to get to know the French paintings of "Ossianic" theme that the master had seen in Rome, and the successful aquatints dedicated to Dante themes made by Palagi himself. More on this painting

“Vitale Sala is not an exceptional painter but in 1823 he introduced in this canvas a fundamental element, namely the fact  that Francesca  physically supports Paolo,  who covers  his face  as a sign of  desperation. Francesca takes on a dominant role in the couple not only as a narrator, but also because she consoles Paolo. In the twenties the dominant role of Francesca will be met with extraordinary success” (Valivi. 2015). Sala chose the moment in which the poet fell unconscious, moved by the re-enactment of that damned love. More on this painting

There is very little information about the artist, Vitale Sala, who died at the age of thirty-two. Author of portraits, historical, literary and religious subjects between neoclassicism and romantic taste, Vitale Sala trained in Milan between the Brera Academy and Pelagio Palagi's studio. From 1816 to 1823 he participated in academic competitions and in 1823 was awarded with the work Dante meets Paolo e Francesca (Milan, Brera Academy). 

He was mainly active as a frescante, working essentially between Piedmont and Lombardy: in Milan, in the church of San Vincenzo with Palagio Palagi, in the basilica of Santo Stefano and in the church of San Nazaro (1820-1830); in Novara, in the Cathedral (1831-1834); again with Pelagi, in the Savoy residences of Stupinigi and in Racconigi (1833-1835).  More on Vitale Sala

JOHANNES JACOBUS MARIA DIT JAN BOGAERTS (BOIS-LE-DUC 1878 - 1962 WASSENAAR)
Paolo and Francesca, c. 1902-07
Oil on canvas
101 x 150 cm. (39 ¾ x 59 in.)
Private collection

Sold for EUR 50,000 in Jun 2019

Dante tells the story of Paolo and Francesca, lovers as famous and ill-fated as Hero and Leander, Eloise and Abelard or Romeo and Juliet.

Of great beauty, Francesca da Rimini was promised to Gianciotto Malatesta, a condottiere of noble blood, violent and lame. The union, intended to seal a political alliance between the two families, had to be by consent to facilitate the young girl's agreement. Paolo, Gianciotto's brother, was charged with bringing the news to Francesca who fell in love with him, believing he was meeting her future husband when in reality he was only the messenger. More on this painting

Johannes Jacobus Maria (Jan) Bogaerts ( 's-Hertogenbosch , 6 July 1878 - Wassenaar , 2 November 1962 ) was a Dutch painter.

Jan Bogaerts went to the Royal School for Useful and Visual Arts in 's-Hertogenbosch at the age of 15, and started working in Van Welie's studio. The symbolist style that his teacher painted would prove to be of great influence on his work. After four years, he continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp . In 1903, he returned to his birthplace, but the dreamy atmosphere that his paintings evoked did not catch on in 's-Hertogenbosch. In 1906, he went to work in Meerssen for a year . He painted many landscapes, parks and fairytale figures there. In 1918, he moved to Teteringen . His style gradually changed to realistic flower still lifes and still lifes of domestic objects. He had the talent to realistically depict characteristics such as shine, dullness, fluffiness or hardness. Yet his work still retains a dreamy atmosphere. With these realistic still lifes he is seen as a precursor of the hyperrealism movement . In 1922 he settled in Wassenaar and lived there until his death in 1962. He painted most of his still lifes there. 

He was a member of, among others, the artist associations Pulchri Studio and Sint Lucas. More on Jan Bogaerts

Sir Frank Dicksee, P.R.A. (1853-1928)
Paolo and Francesca, c. 1894
Oil on canvas
52¼ x 52¼ in. (130 x 130 cm.)
Private collection


Sold for GBP 409,250 in Dec 2008

Sir Francis Bernard Dicksee KCVO PRA (27 November 1853 – 17 October 1928) was an English Victorian painter and illustrator, best known for his pictures of dramatic literary, historical, and legendary scenes. He also was a noted painter of portraits of fashionable women, which helped to bring him success in his own time.

Dicksee enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in 1870 and achieved early success. He was elected to the Academy in 1891 and became its president in 1924.

He was knighted in 1925, and named to the Royal Victorian Order by King George V in 1927. In 1921 Dicksee exhibited at the first exhibition of the Society of Graphic Art in London. More on Sir Francis Bernard

Henry Treffry Dunn  (1838–1899) 
After Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Theodore Watts-Dunton Folding Press Bed: Paolo and Francesca da Rimini, between circa 1896 and circa 1898
Oil on oak wood
height: 68.5 cm (26.9 in); width: 44.5 cm (17.5 in)
Wightwick Manor © National Trust

Henry Treffry Dunn (1838–1899) was Dante Gabriel Rossetti's assistant and a painter in his own right. Dunn's memoirs are a valuable source for the lives of the Pre-Raphaelites. He was paid to be Rossetti's factotum and to create copies of Rossetti's paintings. It has been said that the painting Lady Lilith in the Metropolitan Museum of Art was actually painted by Dunn and only "touched up" by Rossetti.

Dunn left Rossetti's house because he was owed his salary. After Rossetti died, Dunn received the money that was owing to him. He died while living with the poets Algernon Charles Swinburne and Theodore Watts-Dunton. More on Henry Treffry Dunn

Auguste Rodin 1840–1917
Le Baiser/ The Kiss
Pentelican marble
1822 × 1219 × 1530 mm, 3180 kg
Tate

The original title for Rodin's famous sculpture 'The Kiss' was 'Francesca da Rimini' before he was persuaded to change its name. The subject matter of this brave piece made it controversial for many years as Rodin intended to show that women were not just passive subjects when it came to sexual relations. He wanted to show that women also had sexual desires but the prevailing prudish attitudes of the time meant that his statue was often concealed from view. 

There is one other aspect about this statue, the lips of the lovers are not actually meeting in a kiss ... almost as if he is implying that Francesca and Paolo were killed before they could consummate their love. More on this Sculpture

Auguste Rodin (born November 12, 1840, Paris, France—died November 17, 1917, Meudon) was a French sculptor of sumptuous bronze and marble figures, considered by some critics to be the greatest portraitist in the history of sculpture. His The Gates of Hell, commissioned in 1880 for the future Museum of the Decorative Arts in Paris, remained unfinished at his death but nonetheless resulted in two of Rodin’s most famous images: The Thinker and The Kiss. His portraits include monumental figures of Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac. Rodin’s enduring popularity is evident by the numerous posthumous casts of his sculptures that continue to be made. More on Auguste Rodin 

Joseph Anton Koch  (1768–1839)
Paolo da Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini surprised by Gianciotto Malatesta, c. between 1804 and 1805
Pen, ink and watercolor on paper
height: 26 cm (10.2 in); width: 33.5 cm (13.1 in)
Thorvaldsen Museum

Joseph Anton Koch was born in Obergiblen, in the Lechtal in Tyrol, Austria, in 1768. He studied for two years at the Catholic seminary in Dillingen and with the court sculptor in Augsburg before moving to Stuttgart in 1785 to accept an opening at the Hohe Karlsschule, a strict military academy. There he became infused with the ideas of the French Revolution and began drawing caricatures. Fearing punishment, he left the school in 1791. He first went to Strasbourg and from there to Basel, where he drew additional political caricatures until 1793. In 1794 he was awarded a stipend for a three-year sojourn in Italy. He first headed for Naples and then settled in Rome, where he came into contact with other German painters, among them the Nazarenes. He produced numerous etchings, drawings and oil paintings. With only a few exceptions Koch spent the rest of his life in Rome. He attracted a circle of young German artists who imitated his painterly realism. He died in Rome in 1839. More on Joseph Anton Koch 

Joseph Noel Paton
The Murder of Paolo and Francesca, c. before 1901
Oil on canvas
35.6 x 42.5 cm. (14 x 16.7 in.)
Private collection

Sir Joseph Noel Paton FRSA (13 December 1821 – 26 December 1901) was a Scottish artist, illustrator and sculptor. He was also a poet and had an interest in, and knowledge of, Scottish folklore and Celtic legends.

Paton attended Dunfermline School and then Dunfermline Art Academy, further enhancing the talents he had developed as a child. He followed the family trade by working as the design department director in a muslin factory for three years. Most of his life was spent in Scotland but he studied briefly at the Royal Academy, London in 1843. While studying in London, Paton met John Everett Millais, who asked him to join the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. More on Joseph Noel Paton

Gaetano Previati  (1852–1920) 
Paolo e Francesca, circa 1887
Oil on canvas
height: 98 cm (38.5 in); width: 227 cm (89.3 in)
Accademia Carrara

Gaetano Previati is one of the protagonists of Italian Divisionism and one of the most sensitive interpreters of Symbolist themes. The painting belongs to the painter's first season, linked to the late Romantic taste and the Scapigliatura, which precedes the conversion to the technique of color division. The story of Paolo and Francesca - told by Dante and widely exploited by the nineteenth-century figurative repertoire - is not depicted didactically: Previati aspires to paint emotions and ideas. From the claustrophobic horizontal format, occupied by the figures of the two unhappy lovers, lying on their deathbed and pierced by the same sword, a vigorous and dark image emerges, which is distinguished by its melodramatic emphasis and exasperated naturalism. More on this painting

Gaetano Previati (Ferrara, 1852 – Lavagna, 1920) was a student at the Scuola di Belle Ari in Ferrara, where he followed the courses of Gerolamo Domenichini and Giovanni Pagliarini, he attended the atelier of Amos Cassioli in Florence, and then concluded his training at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of Giuseppe Bertini between 1877 and 1880. 

His academic manner that characterized the paintings of historical subjects of the 1870s and 1880s was gradually replaced by a looser and more luminous paintings.  From 1889 his work evolved towards Divisionism, following his encounter with Vittore Grubicy. The filamentary and broken brushstrokes and the symbolic character of Maternità , presented amid controversy at the Brera Triennale in 1891, marked a turning point in his career and projected him into the European panorama. Alternating his activity as a painter with that of an illustrator, from 1899 Previati freed himself from economic worries. A rich exhibition season took him to Berlin in 1902, to Munich in 1905, and to Paris in 1907, taking part in the Salon des Peintres Divisionnistes Italiens organized by Grubicy himself. During these dates he spent long periods in Lavagna, where his painting turned to clear and luminous colors, always supported by a very personal use of chromatic decomposition. A theoretician of divisionism, he wrote in 1896 Memoirs on the technique of paintings, in 1905 The technique of painting, in 1906 Scientific principles of divisionism, in 1913 On painting. Technique and art . Distraught by a series of family bereavements, in 1917 he stopped painting. More on Gaetano Previati

Alexandre Cabanel
Mort de Francesca de Rimini et de Paolo Malatesta, c. 1870
Oil on canvas
H. 184,0 ; L. 255,0 cm.
 Musée d’Orsay, 

This painting exhibits all the typical elements of the classical tradition which Alexandre Cabanel stayed true to. The composition is scholarly, the painting smooth and the drawing precise; care has been taken over the iconographic details. The book that has dropped from Francesca's hands is a reminder that the lovers were reading Lancelot, a story of courtly love, at the time of the murder, while the murderer hidden behind a thick hanging is still clutching his bloody sword. More on this painting

Alexandre Cabanel (28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French painter born in Montpellier, Hérault. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. According to Diccionario Enciclopedico Salvat, Cabanel is the best representative of the L'art pompier and Napoleon III's preferred painter.

Cabanel entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of seventeen, and studied with François-Édouard Picot. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1844, and won the Prix de Rome scholarship in 1845 at the age of 22. Cabanel was elected a member of the Institute in 1863. He was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1864 and taught there until his death.

He was closely connected to the Paris Salon: "He was elected regularly to the Salon jury and his pupils could be counted by the hundred. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation to form the character of belle époque French painting". His refusal together with William-Adolphe Bouguereau to allow the impressionist painter Édouard Manet and many other painters to exhibit their work in the Salon of 1863 led to the establishment of the Salon des Refusés by the French government. Cabanel won the Grande Médaille d'Honneur at the Salons of 1865, 1867, and 1878. More on Alexandre Cabanel

George Frederic Watts (1817–1904)
Paolo and Francesca, c. 1872–1875
Oil on canvas
H 152.4 x W 129.5 cm
Manchester Art Gallery

Scene from Dante's Inferno depicting Paolo and Francesca. Semi-naked Francesca, to the left, reclines in the arms of Paolo, to the right, who holds her in a protective embrace. He is naked but for grey robes swathed about his legs and over his head and shoulders. She rests her head on his right shoulder and they hold hands. They appear to be caught in a strong wind, which blows the drapery and her long blonde hair around them. The background is dark and rust-coloured, with heavy grey clouds. Two small figures in drapery appear suspended in the bottom right corner, the larger of which is the figure of Dante. He is in profile to the right, sobbing with his head in his hands. Two small figures in drapery appear suspended in the bottom right corner, the larger of which is the figure of Dante. He is in profile to the right, sobbing with his head in his hands. The other small figure, presumably Virgil, is drifting off, facing away from the viewer. . More on this painting

George Frederic Watts was born in Marylebone, London, the delicate son of a poor piano-maker. He showed promise very early, learning sculpture from the age of 10 with William Behnes and enrolling as a student at the Royal Academy at the age of 18. He came to the public eye with a drawing entitled Caractacus, which was entered for a competition to design murals for the new Houses of Parliament at Westminster in 1843. Watts won a first prize in the competition, which was intended to promote narrative paintings on patriotic subjects, appropriate to the nation's legislature. In the end Watts made little contribution to the Westminster decorations, but from it he conceived his vision of a building covered with murals representing the spiritual and social evolution of humanity.

Visiting Italy in the mid-1840s, Watts was inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel, but back in Britain he was unable to obtain a building in which to carry out his plan. In consequence most of his major works are conventional oil paintings, some of which were intended as studies for the House of Life. More on George Frederic Watts

Ary Scheffer, Dutch 1795 - 1858
Paolo and Francesca
Oil on panel
14 ¾ by 19 ½ in.; 37.5 by 49.5 cm
Private collection

Estimate for 20,000 - 30,000 USD in February 2025

In the first volume, Inferno, of The Divine Comedy, Dante and Virgil meet Francesca and her lover Paolo in the second circle of hell, reserved for the lustful.

The paintings show a scene from Dante's Inferno, of Dante and Virgil in the shadows to the right viewing the murdered lovers Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta in Hell. More on this painting

Ary Scheffer (10 February 1795 – 15 June 1858) was a Dutch-French Romantic painter. He was known mostly for his works based on literature, with paintings based on the works of Dante, Goethe, Lord Byron and Walter Scott, as well as religious subjects. He was also a prolific painter of portraits of famous and influential people in his lifetime. Politically, Scheffer had strong ties to King Louis Philippe I, having been employed as a teacher of the latter's children, which allowed him to live a life of luxury for many years until the French Revolution of 1848. More on Ary Scheffer


Jean-François Millet (1814–1875)
The Shooting Stars, c. 1847–1849
Oil on board
H 18.7 x W 34.5 cm
National Museum Cardiff

This cabinet painting of 1847–1849 depicts the lovers Paolo and Francesca, whose doomed souls are described in Dante's Inferno as 'across the sky in long procession trailing'. Millet may have been influenced by Ary Scheffer's academic painting of this subject (see above) which was well received at the 1835 Salon. More on this painting

This purely imaginary subject is unusual among Millet’s works. It refers to Dante’s Inferno which in one section describes the souls of the lustful being whirled endlessly around the skies of hell by a great gale. The epic poem was a common source of inspiration for artists and Millet here recognises this academic tradition. A later example is Auguste Rodin’s The Kiss. More on this painting

Jean-François Millet,  (born October 4, 1814, Gruchy, near Gréville, France—died January 20, 1875, Barbizon), French painter renowned for his peasant subjects.

Millet spent his youth working on the land, but by the age of 19 he was studying art in Cherbourg. In 1837 he arrived in Paris and eventually enrolled in the studio of Paul Delaroche, where he seems to have remained until 1839.

After the rejection of one of his entries for the Salon of 1840, Millet returned to Cherbourg, where he remained during most of 1841, painting portraits. He achieved his first success in 1844 with The Milkmaid and a large pastel, The Riding Lesson, that has a sensual character typical of a large part of his production during the 1840s.

The peasant subjects, which from the early 1850s were to be Millet’s principal concern, made their first important appearance at the Salon of 1848 with The Winnower, later destroyed by fire. In 1849, after a period of great hardship, Millet left Paris to settle in Barbizon, a small hamlet in the forest of Fontainebleau. He continued to exhibit paintings of peasants, and, as a result, periodically faced the charge of being a socialist. Letters of the period defending Millet’s position underline the fundamentally classical nature of his approach to painting. More on Jean-François Millet

Giuseppe Frascheri
Meeting of Dante with Paolo and Francesca, c. 1850
Oil on canvas
123 x 81 cm;
Museo dArte di Palazzo Gavotti

Paolo and Francesca are encountered by Dante, who had actually known both Paolo and Francesca's brother, in the second circle of Hell, where carnal lovers are punished, and Francesca tells him how their reading of a romance about Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot had precipitated their affair. As she puts it in Laurence Binyon's translation,

One day together, for pastime, we read
Of Launcelot, and how Love held him in thrall.
We were alone, and without any dread.
Sometimes our eyes, at the word's secret call,
Met, and our cheeks a changing colour wore.
But it was one page only that did all.
When we read how that smile, so thirsted for,
Was kissed by such a lover, he that may
Never from me be separated more
All trembling kissed my mouth...
...We read no more that day.

Giuseppe Fraschieri (1808–1886) was an Italian painter.

He was born in Savona. He initially trained at the Accademia Ligustica of Genoa, but then, under a stipend of the city of Savona, he went to study in the studio of Giuseppe Bezzuoli in Florence. In 1829, his drawing of the invention of painting won a first prize at the Accademia of Florence. He moved back to Sestri Ponente after a few years in Florence, interrupted by stays in Rome and London. In 1838, he was named Academic of Merit and Regent of the Painting classes at the Ligurian Academy. In 1842, he became director. From 1852 to 1869, he taught painting and color. His style was Romantic and among his pupils were Giacomo Ulisse Borzino, genre painter and portraitist; Antonio Caorsi; Giuseppe Ferrari; and Biagio Torrielli. In London he gained a number of portrait commissions. He died in 1886 in Sestri Ponente, Genoa. More on Giuseppe Fraschieri

STYLE OF ARY SCHEFFER
DANTE AND VIRGIL MEET FRANCESCA DA RIMINI AND PAOLO MALATESTA
Oil on canvas
28 ½ by 40 in.; 72.4 by 101.5 cm
Private collection

Estimate for 10,000 - 15,000 USD in June 2020

In the Inferno, the couple are condemned to float in an eternal whirlwind, forever swept through the air just as they allowed themselves to be swept away by their passions. In this work, Dante calls out to the lovers who briefly pause before him. Francesca shares a few oblique details of her life and Dante remembers her and identifies the couple. Francesca shares with Dante and Virgil the story of the couple’s damnation, which affects Dante so strongly that he faints out of pity. More on this painting

Ary Scheffer (10 February 1795 – 15 June 1858) was a Dutch-French Romantic painter. He was known mostly for his works based on literature, with paintings based on the works of Dante, Goethe, Lord Byron and Walter Scott, as well as religious subjects. He was also a prolific painter of portraits of famous and influential people in his lifetime. Politically, Scheffer had strong ties to King Louis Philippe I, having been employed as a teacher of the latter's children, which allowed him to live a life of luxury for many years until the French Revolution of 1848. More on Ary Scheffer

Nicola Monti
The meeting of Paolo and Francesca, c. 1810
Oil painting on canvas
Uffizi Galleries

Here Monti paints his version of Ary Scheffer's painting shown above!

Nicola Mónti or Niccola Monti (August 28, 1780 - 1863) was an Italian painter, active in a neoclassical style, painting mainly historical subjects.

Monti was born in Pistoia, where his initial training was with Jean-Baptiste Frederic Desmarais. He moved to Florence where he worked for Pietro Benvenuti, and also attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. For the church of the Umilta in Pistoia, he painted a fresco depicting Cain cursed by God and San Felice exorcises an witch. He also worked in Poland and St Petersburg, Russia in 1818–1819.[2] He returned to Florence to fresco a hall in the Palazzo Pitti. For the basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, he frescoed a Resurrection of Lazarus. He painted a historical canvas depicting Michelangelo suspends work of the Sculpture of Moses, now in private collections. He published an autobiography titled Memorie Inutile (1860). He died in Cortona. More on Nicola Mónti




Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at  deviantart and Aaroko

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.