Category: Eye Candy for Today

Queen Elizabeth Gate, Paul Sandby Link is to zoomable image on Google Art Project; downloadable high-res file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Yale Center for British Art. Gouache and watercolor on paper, roughly 14 x 18 inches (36 x 47 cm). A wonderful effect of being precise without being stiff. Sandby appears to…

Bateau-Lavoir prés du Pont-Neuf, Paris; Johan Jongkind From our vantage point in time, we have a tendency to call paintings like this one — with its loose, painterly brushwork, depiction of everyday events, and contrasting complementary colors — “impressionistic”. It’s another reminder that the characteristics we associate with French Impressionism were not invented out of…

The Tower of Babel, Marten van Valckenborch the Elder The link is to a zoomable version of the image on Google Art Project; there is a downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons; the original is in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden State Art Museums. Flemish Renaissance painter Marten van Valckenborch painted a number of complex compositions…

Still Life with Fruit, Jacob van Walscapelle Link is to zoomable version on Google Art Project; downloadable high-res file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the National Gallery of Art, DC, which also has zoomable and downloadable versions of the image. Compared to some of Van Walscapelle’s more elaborate 17th century still life paintings, this…

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden, John Constable Link is to zoomable version on Google Art Project; downloadable version on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Frick Collection, NY. Constable painted the Salisbury Cathedral a number of times, from several different points of view. This view is the most familiar, and is deservedly one of…