Eye Candy for Today: Vigée Le Brun self portrait

Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun self portrait
Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun self portrait (details) with preliminary sketch and Rubens painting that was her inspiration.

Self portrait in a Straw Hat,, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun; oil on canvas, roughly 39 x 28 in. (99 x 70 cm); in the collection of the National Gallery, London. There is a high resolution image available from this page on Wikipedia.

Vigée Le Brun was a renowned 18th centry portait painter. Her subjects included the queen, Marie Antoinette, who considered Vigée Le Brun to be her favorite portraitest.

Vigée Le Brun is thought to have flattered her sitters — not uncommon among portrait artists — but whether that was the case here, I don’t know. It was possibly a moot point, as she was reportedly quite beautiful.

I think it’s a wonderful portrait. Look at the delicacy of the modeling, the light under the chin and the greens in the skin tones.

There is a pencil and study for the portrait — with the head in a slightly different position — in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY (images above, second from bottom).

Vigée Le Brun is quoted as saying she was inspired to do a self portrait in this motif after seeing Peter Paul Rubens’ portrait of Susanna Lunden (images above, bottom).

 
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Eye Candy for Today: Chardin still life with coper pot

Chardin still life with coper pot, oil on wood

Chardin still life with coper pot, oil on canvas

Ustensiles de cuisine, chaudron, poêlon et oeufs, Jean baptiste Siméon Chardin, oil on wood, roughly 7×15″ (17 x 38 cm), in the collection of the Louvre.

Another of Chadin’s marvelous little still life paintings, that I find elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary.

I love the way Chardin paints copper. The white markings along the left of the pot may be a damaged area of the painting; I dont know. The Louvre’s page doesn’t mention it.

The page lists the translation of the title as: Kitchen utensils, cauldron, frying pan and eggs, with a former title of: Cauldron of tinned red copper, pepper pot, leek, three eggs and frying pan placed on a table.

The “frying pan” (or “skillet” in Google translation) looks odd to me for that description, but perhaps it was specialized for cooking eggs. My knowledge of 18th century cookware is certainly limited. I’m wondering if the apparently hollow handle served to keep it cool enough to pick up.

The other object, not mentioned in the title, may be a pepper grinder.

 
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Eye Candy for Today: Ludwig Richter’s Genoveva

Genoveva, Ludwig Richter, 19th century watercolor
Genoveva, Ludwig Richter (details and alternate image), 19th century watercolor

Genoveva, Ludwig Richter, watercolor on paper, roughly 12 x 7 in (31 x 18 cm); in the collectin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has both a zoomable and downloadable version of th elarge image.

This painting by 19th century German painter and printmaker Adrian Ludwig Richter depicts the legend of Genoveva, a woman falsely accused of adultry while her husband was off to war. Condemmed to death, she sought refuge in the forest of Ardennes, where she and her son found shelter in a cave and were fed by a deer for six years.

In the version of the painting in the images above, bottom, I’ve done something I’ve often complained about others doing: taking an image of an artwork and cranking up the saturation to make it look “better” and “more modern”. Hopefully, in this case, I’ve done so judiciously with the intention of giving an indication of what I think the painting may have looked like when originally painted.

It’s my understanding that many watercolors from the 19th century are faded, partly from exposure to light for pigments that were less than lightfast, and partly from exposure to sulpher compounds from the pollution caused by the burgeoning industrial age, which interacted in particular with lead-based whites, yellows and reds. I’m just guessing that the painting was originally more vibrant than it is at present (perhaps even more than my rough approximation).

 
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Eye Candy for Today: Richard Emile Miller’s Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea, Richard Emile Miller, oil on canvas
Afternoon Tea (details), Richard Emile Miller, oil on canvas

Afternoon Tea, Richard Emile Miller; oil on canvas; roughly 39 x 32 in (99 x 81 cm).

This 1910 painting by American Impressionist Richard Emile Miller is in Newfields, part of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The museum has a nicely large image of the painting (4596 x 5636 pixels, over 15mb) that can be both zoomed and downloaded.

You can zoom in even further then my detail caps above and see the artist’s individual brushstrokes, part of his very painterly style.

I particularly enjoy the passages in which he’s used a textural scumble to create broken color.

 
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Eye Candy for Today: Maxfield Parrish landscape

Autumn Brook, Maxfield Parrish, oil on board
Autumn Brook, Maxfield Parrish, oil on board (details)

Autumn Brook, Maxfield Parrish, oil on board, roughly 23 x 18 in (60 x 46 cm). Link is to past auction on Christies; large image here.

Another beautifully realized imaginary landscape by the great American painter and illustrator, Maxfield Parrish.

 
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Eye Candy for Today: Ingres pencil portrait of Mme Lethiere

Madame Guillaume Guillon Lethiere, née Marie-Joseph-Honoree Vanzenne, and her son Lucien Lethiere, pencil portrait drawing by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Madame Guillaume Guillon Lethiere, née Marie-Joseph-Honoree Vanzenne, and her son Lucien Lethiere (details), pencil portrait drawing by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Madame Guillaume Guillon Lethière, née Marie-Joseph-Honorée Vanzenne, and her son Lucien Lethière, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres; graphite on paper; roughly 9 x 7″ (24 x 19 cm); in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

I’m a great admirer of Ingres’ sensitive pencil portrait drawings. This one is a bit unusual, more finished than most, and featuring a background of Roman architecture.

 
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