Category: Eye Candy for Today

Portrait of a boy as saint Sebastian, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio Though the subject of this portrait by Giovanni Boltraffio may look feminine at first glance, the experts assure us by the title that it is, in fact, a boy. It might be pointed out, however, that the experts also attributed the painting to Leonardo da…

Jules Joseph Lefebvre was an academic painter who began his career with history paintings, and later moved to specializing in portraits and female nudes, the latter often in the role of subjects from history or mythology. His work was well received at the Paris Salon, and he became a respected teacher at the Académie Julian.…

Morning in a Pine Forest, Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky. Shishkin supposedly had help from Savitsky in painting the bears, and perhaps some of the layout, but Savitsky’s name was later removed from the attribution. Link is to Wikimedia Commons; click through for a high-resolution version. Original is in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Penelope, Charles-François Marchal In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A wonderful eye for the textures of the fabrics and the yarn.

A View near Volterra, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Wow. I just love these direct, observational landscapes from Corot — filled with light and the feeling of immediate atmosphere. You can see why the Impressionists thought so highly of him. Original is in the National Gallery of Art, D.C. The image on the linked page is zoomable. Click…