Robert Lewis Reid was an American painter active in the late 19thand early 20th centuries. He was a member of the Ten American Painters, a group that broke away from the established and tradition-bound Society of American Artists to pursue the new styles of painting being explored in Europe by the Impressionists and others.

Like his compatriots in in the Ten, who included Edmund Tarbell, Childe Hassam, J. Alden Weir, John Henry Twachtman, Willard Metcalf and Frank W. Benson, Reid took what he liked from the European painters, and merged it with his own unique and quite American sensibilities.

Reid was known in particular for his depictions of young women, often in gardens or otherwise surrounded by flowers, though he also painted landscapes and other subjects.

Like Hassam, Frederick Carl Frieseke and some of the other American Impressionists, Reid experimented with high-key palettes and reduced value contrast to capture the effects of daylight.

Rembrandt: The Late Works is a landmark exhibition of paintings, drawings and etchings of the 17th century Dutch master on view at the National Gallery, London, until 18 January 2015.

There are some great works in the exhibition, including the two remarkable self-portraits I recently highlighted here and here, along with other masterpieces.

Among the prints and drawings the deceptively simply drawing of a woman sleeping (above, bottom, with detail) which — in its blend of European and Asian sensibilities, keen draftsmanship and calligraphic brushwork, simplicity and elegance — I have long thought to be one of the most beautiful drawings in the history of art.

The National Gallery website has a short feature about the exhibition, but not much in the way of associated image galleries. I’ve tried to provide resources below for the images I’ve featured here.

Isle of the Dead, Arnold Böcklin

Today is Halloween, or Hallow’een, short for “All Hallows’ Evening” — the evening before a day dedicated to remembrance of the dead (and marked by costumery and other activities meant to mock death itself).

With the theme of the dead in mind, here is one of five different versions of a famous painting by Swiss Symbolist Arnold Böcklin, each titled Isle of the Dead (“Die Toteninsel” in German), and differentiated in their titles by the museum or gallery in which they currently hang.

The version shown here, now in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin (and at one time owned by Adolf Hitler), was the third version painted, and the most famous — partly due do an etching based on it by Max Klinger (images above, bottom), and widely reproduced versions of lower quality.

The link I’ve given for the painting is to the Google Art Project zoomable image. There is a high resolution downloadable file of that image on Wikimedia Commons, along with images of the other versions of the painting (images above, bottom, above Klinger’s etching). The fourth version was destroyed in WW II, and only a black and white photo remains.

Isle of the Dead was extraordinarily popular and influential, inspiring numerous artists, including other Symbolists, the Surrealists and subsequent generations of fantasy painters.

There is an entry on the five paintings on Wikipedia, and another about them on Tor.com. In the latter article, John Coulthart explores some of the pop culture references to the painting, including the notion that it was the inspiration for the views of the approach to Skull Island in the original King Kong.

See also my post on Arnold Böcklin.