Category: Eye Candy for Today

Birds Resting on Bushes, Léon Bonvin Watercolor with gouache and ink over graphite. In the Walters Art Museum. Click “Explore Object” in upper left for high-res version.

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, John William Waterhouse The title is from the famous first verse of Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time“: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying. On Wikipaintings. Original is…

Medusa, Cagavaggio Merisi On the Google Art Project. Click in the lower right of the image for zoom controls. The original is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Students of drawing and anatomy may feel, as I do, that the mouth of the Medusa is painted as if from a head that is facing the…

Maria Magdalena, Jan van Scorel I love the textures throughout, and the small figures in the background landscape. In the Rijksmuseum. Use the zoom controls, or register for a RijksStudio account to download high-res images. (See my post on the New Rijksmuseum website.)

On the Way between Old and New Cairo, Citadel Mosque of Mohammed Ali, and Tombs of the Mamelukes by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany is better known for his stained glass and decorative works, but was a skilled painter in the orientalist vein. In the Brooklyn Museum. Click “Download” under the image and choose a size.…

Still Life with Roses and Fruit, Henri Fantin-Latour. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use Fullscreen link and Zoom or download arrow. Though I also admire Fantin-Latour’s mature work, I just love the painterly quality of this early still life — a wonderful study in brushwork and edges. To my thinking, there is a direct…