Category: Eye Candy for Today

The Dead Goldfinch (“All that was left to love”), George Elgar Hicks; oil on canvas; roughly 24 x 30 inches (62 x 75 cm). Link is to zoomable image on Google Art Project; downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons, original is in the Art Gallery of South Australia. Genre painting, which became popular in the 18th…

Still Life with Peach, Apricot, Grapes and Hazelnuts on a Tablecloth, Emelie Preyer 19th century German still life painter Emelie Preyer shows her characteristic touch with the textural surface and beautifully balanced color of these simple fruits and nuts. Her composition is thoughtfully conceived, and the value and color relationships lead your eye inexorably around…

Woodland Stream, Hugo Darnaut, oil on panel, roughly 18 x 12 inches (46 x 32 cm); link is to downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in a private collection; image via Dorotheum auction. Austrian painter Hugo Darnaut (AKA Hugo Fix), who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gives us a…

The Guitar Player, Joseph Rodefer DeCamp; oil on canvas, roughly 50 x 45 inches (126 x 115 cm); in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which offers a downloadable version of the image. On closer inspection, this beautiful and serene image by Boston School master Joseph Rodefer DeCamp reveals much less detail…

The Edge of the Woods at Monts-Girard, Fontainebleau Forest, Théodor Rousseau, oil on wood, roughly 32 x 48 inches, (80 x 122 cm), in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has zoomable and downloadable versions of the high-res image. Rousseau was one of the primere painters of the Barbizon School, painting in…

Summer Bloom by Joaquim Vayreda, roughly 52 x 104 inches (130 x 263 cm). Link is to Google Art Project; downloadable image on Wikimedia Commons, original is in the Museu Nacional D’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona. We can start the summer with this beautifully idyllic pastoral scene by 19th century Spanish painter Joaquim Vayreda. The wide…