Category: Eye Candy for Today

Breakfast-Time, Hanna Hirsch Pauli There is an often overlooked sub-genre of painting that I particularly enjoy; for lack of a better term, it might be called “outdoor still life”. I’m hard pressed to think of a better example than this stunningly beautiful painting of a 19th century breakfast table in a sun-dappled garden by Swedish…

The Breakfast Table, Solomon J. Solomon On Google Art Project, original is in the Ben Uri Gallery in London, which also counts several other paintings by Solomon in its collection, including the portrait of the artist’s daughter on a pony, which is seen at an angle, hanging on the wall to the right, in this…

Melancholy, Constance Marie Charpentier On Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Musée de Picardie, Amiens, France. Charpentier is another of those fine French painters from the 18th and 19th centuries about whom we know little, likely because they were female — even though Charpentier won gold and silver medals in the Pais Salons of 1814…

Dancer Adjusting her Slipper, Edgar Degas Pencil on colored paper, 13×10 inches (33x24cm). In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Degas did numerous studies, drawings, pastels and paintings of dancers preparing; this seemingly simple pencil drawing has always been one of my favorites. Straightforward and direct, we see Degas seeking out his model’s form and gesture,…