11 Paintings, Streets of Paris, by its Artists from 1850-1910 - Part 8 - With Footnotes

Paris, France's capital, is a major European city and a global center for art, fashion, gastronomy and culture. Its 19th-century cityscape is crisscrossed by wide boulevards and the River Seine. Beyond such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and the 12th-century, Gothic Notre-Dame cathedral, the city is known for its cafe culture and designer boutiques along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Wikipedia

Claude Monet, (1840-1926)
The Rue Montorgueil in Paris. Celebration of 30 June 1878, c. 1878
Oil on canvas
H. 81; W. 50 cm
Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay), Paris


The Rue Montorgueil, like its twin painting The Rue Saint-Denis (below), is often thought to depict a 14 July celebration. In fact it was painted on 30 June 1878 for a festival declared that year by the government celebrating "peace and work". This was one of the events organised for the third Universal Exhibition in Paris a few weeks after it opened, and intended to be a symbol of France’s recovery after the defeat of 1870. As well as demonstrating nationalist enthusiasm, the celebrations of 30 June 1878 were also an opportunity to strengthen the position of the Republican regime, still fragile only a few months after the major confrontations of 1876-1877 between its supporters and the conservatives. It was only two years later, in 1880, that 14 July was designated the French National Day.

This painting proposes a distanced vision of an urban landscape by a painter who did not mix with the crowd, but observed it from a window. The three colours vibrating in Monet's painting are those of modern France. More Rue Montorgueil

Claude Monet, (1840-1926)
Rue Saint Denis, fête 30 juin 1878, c. 1878
Oil on canvas
H. 81; W. 50 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen

The chroniclers noted the enthusiasm of this day of Sunday 30 June when the tricolor flag triumphs in the streets of Paris. According to Goncourt, even the hearses taking their dead to the cemetery were flagged. 

The street is shown, stormed by the jubilant people of Paris, into a plunging view, with a strong perspective, the dark triangle of the crowd rising towards the inverted triangle of the sky. Set with a quick touch, in flames of pure colors, the flags float, slam, Twist and become masters of space.  More Rue Saint Denis

Oscar-Claude Monet (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.

Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works. In 1899 he began painting the water lilies, first in vertical views with a Japanese bridge as a central feature, and later in the series of large-scale paintings that was to occupy him continuously for the next 20 years of his life. More Oscar-Claude Monet


Theo Tobiasse
Paris est un théâtre
Oil on canvas
51 x 62 cm
Private collection

Theo Tobiasse was born in Palestine in 1927 to Lithuanian parents. Due to financial difficulty, at a young age, Tobiasse was forced to move to Kovno then Paris, where his father attempted to find work as a typographer. These moves greatly affected Tobiasse, and the themes of exile and displacement are often found in his works. 

Tobiasse began his formal artist training at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, but his education was cut short during World War II when discriminatory laws forced him to leave school for confinement in his family’s apartment for two years. When the war was over, Tobiasse had amassed a plethora of drawings that helped him launch a career in design and advertising, which he did for fifteen years in Paris and Nice. Tobiasse devoted himself entirely to painting in 1962 after a successful exhibition in Nice.

Theo Tobiasse lived and worked in Saint-Paul de Vence. He died on November 3, 2012. More Théo Tobiasse

Camille Pissarro, 1930 - 1903
La Place du Théâtre-Français et l’avenue de l’Opéra, effet de pluie, 1898. 
Huile sur toile
73, 6 x 91, 4 cm
Minneapolis, Institute of Art, fonds 

Camille Pissarro (10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.
In 1873 he helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the "pivotal" figure in holding the group together and encouraging the other members. Art historian John Rewald called Pissarro the "dean of the Impressionist painters", not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also "by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality".  More Camille Pissarro

Luigi Loir, (French/Austrian, 1845-1916)
Devant la Musee
Gouache, chalk and graphite on cardboard
10" x 14"
Private collection

Luigi Loir, (French/Austrian, 1845-1916), was born in Austria of French parents employed by the French Royal Court in exile. In 1847 the family relocated to the Duchy of Parma, where the young man was to enter l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts at the astonishing age of 9. Upon the completion of his studies, Loir moved to France to train under Jean Amable Amedee Pastelot (1810-1870). He had his debut at the Paris Salon in 1865; though he did not receive any medals, his work caught the attention of critics and patrons, and he spent several lucrative years working as a muralist, ceiling painter, and illustrator before deciding to concentrate on landscapes in 1870. Enthralled by the vigorous urban progress of Belle Epoque France, Loir soon tuned his meticulous attentions to the architecture and denizens of Paris. One of the first to concentrate on such scenes of the bustling and energetic city, Loir influenced such later artists as Eugene Galien-Laloue (1854-1941) and Edouard Cortes (1882-1969). Considered the official painter of the boulevards of Paris, his depictions of his adopted city were admired for their authenticity and attention to architectural detail. Loir's technique included meticulous underdrawings that he frequently allowed to come through the paint surface. The success of this technique, and the impression of immediacy it creates, can be seen in the stunning painting offered here where Loir has intentionally rendered the central building - ostensibly the main subject - in graphite and chalk, with only hints of additional pigment. While such an approach was unusual for the period, it has the effect of immediately drawing the viewer's eye into the complexity of the composition. This effect is only enhanced by the masterful juxtaposition of the linear draftsmanship of the colonnade and the painterly impasto of the sky. Loir received numerous awards and accolades, including a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1889, was named to the prestigious and influential Office d'Academie in 1889, and made a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in 1898. More Luigi Loir

Giuseppe De Nittis, 1846 - 1884, ITALIAN
L'ARC DE TRIOMPHE, PARIS
Oil on canvas
53 by 40.5cm., 21 by 16in.
Private collection

In this quintessential evocation of the Belle Epoque, De Nittis captures a couple out on their morning ride along the Avenue Foch. Dressed in the latest Parisian fashions, they canter at a leisured pace, their destination perhaps the Bois de Boulogne, the vast green recreational expanse to the west of Paris. More on this painting

Giuseppe De Nittis (February 25, 1846 – August 21, 1884) was an Italian painter whose work merges the styles of Salon art and Impressionism. De Nittis was born in Barletta, where he first studied under Giovanni Battista Calò. In 1863 he launched his career with the exhibition of two paintings at the 1864 Neapolitan Promotrice. De Nittis came into contact with some of the artists known as the Macchiaiol.

In 1867 he moved to Paris. After gaining some visibility by exhibiting at the Salon he returned to Italy where he produced several views of Vesuvius.

In 1872 De Nittis returned to Paris and achieved a success at the Salon with his painting Che freddo! (Freezing!) of 1874. In that same year he was invited to exhibit at the first Impressionist exhibition, held at Nadar's. De Nittis was not accepted by all of the Impressionists, and did not participate in their subsequent exhibitions.

Giuseppe De Nittis,  (1846–1884)
La place des Pyramides, c. 1875
Medium oOht: 92.3 cm (36.3 in). Width: 75 cm (29.5 in).
Musée d'Orsay

A trip to London resulted in a number of Impressionistic paintings. In 1875 De Nittis took up pastels, which became an important medium for him in his remaining years and which he helped popularize. Back in Paris, he executed pastel portraits of sitters including De Goncourt, Zola, Manet and Duranty. 

De Nittis exhibited twelve paintings in The Exposition Universelle of 1878, and was awarded a gold medal. In that same year he received the Légion d’honneur.

In 1884, at the age of 38, De Nittis died suddenly of a stroke at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. More De Nittis

Built between 1806 and 1836, the Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon I and based on the Arch of Titus in Rome. Following damage in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Arch underwent restoration work in the mid 1870s (fig. 1). In his celebrated views of Paris at this time, De Nittis was particularly drawn to subjects which represented the city reborn, rising Phoenix-like from its troubled recent past. Painted the same year as the present work, La Place des Pyramides juxtaposes Frémiet's new gilded bronze sculpture of Joan of Arc against the reconstruction of the west wing of the Louvre, following arson during the Commune of 1871. More on this painting

Edmond Grandjean, 1844 - 1908, FRENCH
LE BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS, c. 1876
Oil on canvas
77 by 126cm., 30 by 49½in.
Private collection

While the Haussmanian architecture and wide tree-lined boulevard remains recognisable today, the buildings to the right of the scene were subsequently demolished to connect the top of the Boulevard des Italiens to the Boulevard Haussmann, which was not completed until 1922. A number of the boulevard’s celebrated cafés disappeared in the 20th century to be replaced by banks, however the Café du Cardinal visible on the left remains to this day, its entrance then as now surmounted by a bust of Cardinal Richelieu. More Boulevard des Italiens

Edmond Grandjean, 1844 - 1908, FRENCH
LE BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS, c. 1876
Detail

Edmond Grandjean, 1844 - 1908, FRENCH, was a painter of genre scenes, portraits, animated landscapes and town views. 

Pupil of the Paris School of Fine Arts (1862). He studied under Adolphe Yvon, Emile Signol and Isidore Pils. He exhibited at the Paris Salon and from 1865 till 1906 at the 'Salon des Artistes Français'. He was awarded an Honourable Mention in 1881, received a Third Class Medal in 1888, a Second Class Medal in 1898 and another Honourable Mention in 1900 at the 'Exposition Universelle'. 

He mostly painted genre scenes and animated landscapes with horses. More Edmond Grandjean


Max Beckmann, b. 1884, Leipzig, Germany; d. 1950, New York City
Paris Society, c. 1931
Oil on canvas
43 x 69 1/8 inches (109.2 x 175.6 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Paris Society is Max Beckmann’s portrait of émigrés, aristocrats, businessmen, and intellectuals engaged in disjointed festivity on the eve of the Third Reich. Beckmann painted the work on an invitation from the German embassy in Paris.

Guests nclude the central figure, Beckmann’s friend Prince Karl Anton Rohan; the Frankfurt banker Albert Hahn, at the far right; the music historian Paul Hirsch, seated at the left; the German ambassador Leopold von Hoesch, at the lower right, with his head in his hands; and possibly Paul Poiret, the French couturier, standing at the left. But why they are together in this scene and what their peculiar postures denote remain a matter of speculation. More Paris Society

Giovanni Boldini, (1842-1931)
Celebration also known as Celebration at the Moulin Rouge, Circa 1889
(with familiar faces in the background!)
Oil on canvas
H. 96,8; W. 104,7 cm
Musée d'Orsay,

Here, Boldini is certainly depicting the Moulin-Rouge just after it opened in 1889. The establishment quickly became one of the hot spots of Parisian nightlife. The vigorous and dynamic brushstrokes and the liveliness of the red recreate the feeling of fun and freedom, sweeping along diners and dancers alike in a brilliantly rendered composition.
Before the Musée d'Orsay acquired it in 2010, this painting, certain parts of which remain as in sketch form, had only ever been exhibited once, in 1933 in New York. More the Moulin-Rouge

Giovanni Boldini (31 December 1842 in Ferrara, Italy – 11 July 1931 in Paris, France) was an Italian genre and portrait painter. According to a 1933 article in Time magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting. Boldini was born in Ferrara, the son of a painter of religious subjects, and in 1862 went to Florence for six years to study and pursue painting. He only infrequently attended classes at the Academy of Fine Arts, but in Florence, met other realist painters known as the Macchiaioli, who were Italian precursors to Impressionism. 

Moving to London, Boldini attained success as a portraitist. He completed portraits of premier members of society. From 1872 he lived in Paris, where he became a friend of Edgar Degas. He also became the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris in the late 19th century. He was nominated commissioner of the Italian section of the Paris Exposition in 1889, and received the Légion d'honneur for this appointment.

A Boldini portrait of his former muse Marthe de Florian, a French actress, was discovered in a Paris flat in late 2010, hidden away from view on the premises that were unvisited for 70 years. The portrait has never been listed, exhibited or published and the flat belonged to de Florian's granddaughter who went to live in the South of France at the outbreak of the Second World War and never returned. A love-note and a biographical reference to the work painted in 1888, when the actress was 24, cemented its authenticity. The full length portrait of the lady in the same clothing and accessories, but less provocative, hangs in the New Orleans Museum of Art. More



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

Adolf Fessler, 1826 - 1885, RUSSIAN
THE ENTRANCE TO THE GOLDEN HORN, CONSTANTINOPLE
Oil on canvas
44.5 by 97cm., 17½ by 38¼in.
Private Collection

Fessler Adolf Ivanovich, 1826 - 1885 was born in Bohemia, but began studying in Feodosia Aivazovsky. After graduating from the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture never returned to the city. Fessler became famous as a copyist of works by Aivazovsky, and also of his works.

In 1859 he painted two paintings; Coastal species of Simeiz, on the other - Sudak. This unusually humble artist had mastered techniques of painting. His seascapes of Yalta were amazing! Faessler talent was now appreciated, and in 1860 he was decorated by Aivazovsky Great Livadia Palace. More Fessler Adolf Ivanovich

Adolf Ivanovich Fessler (1826-1885)
View of Yalta 
Oil on canvas
40 x 50cm (15 3/4 x 19 11/16in)
Private Collection

Yalta is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. 

The existence of Yalta was first recorded in the 12th century by an Arab geographer, who described it as a Byzantine port and fishing settlement. It became part of a network of Genoese trading colonies on the Crimean coast in the 14th century. Crimea was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1475. Yalta was then annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783. 

In the 19th century, the town became a fashionable resort for the Russian aristocracy and gentry. More Yalta

Reginald Marsh, American, 1898-1954 
Tugboats, 1936 
Watercolor on paper 
14 x 20 inches 
Private Collection

Reginald Marsh (March 14, 1898 – July 3, 1954) was an American painter, born in Paris, most notable for his depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Crowded Coney Island beach scenes, popular entertainments such as vaudeville and burlesque, women, and jobless men on the Bowery are subjects that reappear throughout his work. He painted in egg tempera and in oils, and produced many watercolors, ink and ink wash drawings, and prints. More Reginald Marsh

Sanjay Harmalkar
Fisherwoman
30" x 38" (76cms x 97cms), 2017
Oil on canvas

Sanjay Harmalkar is synonymous with portrait paintings; many of his works adorn the walls of noted institutes and organisations.

Realistic paintings are very rare to find but Sanjay Harmalkar has been painting realistically for over three decades with dedicated zeal and immense passion. He paints with a dash of cinematic approach and includes strokes exuding popular appeal. Academically inclined, Sanjay is a method artist.  

Each of Sanjay’s paintings is given life with the near perfect physical resemblance to the subjects and the refined luminous hues he uses add to the life-like quality. More Sanjay Harmalkar

Henri Lebasque, (1865-1937, FRANCE)
Bathers in the Sea
oil on canvas 
Private collection

Henri Lebasque (25 September 1865 – 7 August 1937) was a French post-impressionist painter. He was born at Champigné (Maine-et-Loire). He started his education at the École régionale des beaux-arts d'Angers, and moved to Paris in 1886. Around this time, Lebasque met Camille Pissarro and Auguste Renoir, who later would have a large impact on his work.

Lebasque's vision was coloured by his contact with younger painters, especially Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, founders of the Nabis' Group. From his first acquaintance with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, Lebasque learnt the significance of a colour theory which stressed the use of complementary colours in shading.

Henri Lebasque
La baignade à Préfailles, circa 1922
Oil on panel
27 x 34 cm
Signed
Private collection

Lebasque was a founding member of the Salon d'Automne in 1903, with his friend Henri Matisse, and exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants. Two years later, a group of artists exhibited there including Georges Rouault, André Derain, Henri Ottmann, Édouard Vuillard, and Matisse. 

His time in South of France would lead to a radical transformation in Lebasque’s paintings, changing his colour palette forever. Other travels included the Vendée, Normandy, and Brittany. More Henri Lebasque

Nikolay Nikanorovich Dubovskoy, 1859 - 1918
Seascape, c. circa 1910
Oil on canvas
54 × 70 cm (21.3 × 27.6 in)
Private collection

Nikolay Nikanorovich Dubovskoy (17 December 1859 — 28 February 1918) was a Russian landscape painter, associated with the Peredvizhniki. Together with Isaac Levitan, he helped create what came to be known as the "Landscape of Mood". He displayed artistic talent at an early age. His uncle, a local artist, taught him how to draw from memory. 

In 1877 he began auditing classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts. Upon graduating in 1881, he was apparently displeased with his instruction at the Academy and refused to participate in the customary competition for a gold medal. He chose to exhibit at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts instead, winning several medals and achieving his first public recognition. In 1884 his painting, "Winter" was acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery. Following that, he began to exhibit regularly with the Peredvizhniki (a group of Russian realist artists) and became a member in 1886.

Nikolay Nikanorovich Dubovskoy, (1859–1918)
"Hushing" (Calm Before the Storm), c. 1890
Oil on canvas
86 × 143 cm (33.9 × 56.3 in)
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow 

The year 1888 found him touring the Black Sea coast in Georgia. In 1890, his painting "Hushing" was purchased by Tsar Alexander III for his collection at the Winter Palace.

In 1898, he became one of the leaders of the Peredvizhniki. During this period, he was increasingly influenced by French Impressionism. Later in 1898 he was named an "Academician" by the Imperial Academy and became a full member in 1900.

He began teaching there in 1908 and became head of the landscape painting workshop. In 1915, he became a member of the Academy's governing council. In 1918, he died of heart failure. During the Soviet era, except for one exhibition in 1938, he was largely forgotten. More Nikolay Nikanorovich Dubovskoy

Arthur James Wetherill Burgess, [1875-1957]
Naval Convoy at Sea
Watercolour
38 x 53cm
Private collection

Arthur James Wetherall Burgess (1879-1957) Australia. Born in New South Wales, Burgess studied in Australia and England. Best known as a historical marine painter, Burgess exhibited widely in Europe and Australia. In 1913 he was commissioned to paint the Australian Fleet entering Sydney Harbour for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where his work is now represented. He died in 1957. More Arthur James Wetherall Burgess

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, (1825–1905)
La Vague/ The Wave, c. 1896
Oil on canvas
121 × 160.5 cm (47.6 × 63.2 in)
Private collection

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter and traditionalist. In his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. Throughout the course of his life, Bouguereau executed 822 known finished paintings, although the whereabouts of many are still unknown. More William-Adolphe Bouguereau 






Acknowledgement: Sotheby's, and others

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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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