Alfred Thörne

Sven Alfred Thorne, Swedish landscape painter
When I came across the work of Swedish painter Sven Alfred Thörne recently, I was surprised that I hadn’t encountered it before, but pleased to have found another Scandinavian landscape painter to add to my list of favorites.

Thörne was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He studied at the Royal Academy in Stockholm and extended his studies on a traveling scholarship to France, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

He painted with an open, painterly realism and nicely naturalistic palette, with lots of water views and scenes of small cottages and houses. I particularly like his handling of the textures of foliage and rocks.

The largest images I’ve found for Thörne are on the Bukowski’s auction site, along with the Elogio di Michelagnolo blog.

Eye Candy for Today: Bartolomeo Montagna Renaissance portrait

Saint Justina of Padua, Bartolomeo Montagna (Bartolomeo Cincani)
Saint Justina of Padua, Bartolomeo Montagna (Bartolomeo Cincani)

In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use the “download or Enlarge links under the image on their site.

Though this is technically a religious work, not a portrait, I think the beautifully drawn and delicately rendered face has the look of a real person, not an imagined ideal.

I like the wonderful detail in the texture of the iris of the eyes, and the highlight in the eye (which, for reasons beyond me, some artists in later centuries would leave out).

The values in which the face is modeled are subtle but the face feels well defined and geometrically strong.

Montagna’s style shows the influence of Venetian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, and it’s speculated that he may have been a student or apprentice of Bellini at some point.