Vivien, Frederick Sandys

Link is to Wikimedia Commons, original is in the Manchester Art Gallery, which doesn’t seem to have an image online. The Study for Vivien at bottom is in the Norwich Castle collection.

In this striking portrait, Pre-Raphaelite painter Frederick Sandys portrays his companion, Koemi Gray, as the character Vivien from “Idylls of the King”, Tennyson’s series of poems that draw on the King Athur legend.

Vivien is one of the interpretations of “The Lady of the Lake”, who proffers Excalibur to Arthur, and is presented by Tennyson as the temptress who beguiles Merlin. The apple with which Sandys’ portrays her may be a symbol of temptation, carried froward from the story of Adam and Eve.

I admire the way Sandys has used the tilt of the head and the lowered eyelids to give suggestion of the nature of the character, and yet still retains his obvious affection for the beauty of his model. The sensitive depiction of the hands, particularly the delicate sweep of the left wrist, is just wonderful. You can see the attention he has given them in his study.

I also love the distinctive touches of red on the lips, earring, necklace and foreground rose, as well as the touch on the apple, balanced out by the complementary greens throughout.

Naples, Antonino Leto

Link is to Wikimedia Commons page that has a link to a large image; original is in a private collection.

Leto’s view of the Bay of Naples and a smoky Mt. Vesuvius is a study in atmospheric effects. I love the difference between the intensity of the color in the foreground water and the soft graduated atmosphere that ranges from the base to the peak of the volcano.

Rembrandt Peale was named by his father, pioneering American artist Charles Wilson Peale, after a famous European artist from the past, like his brothers Raphaelle Peale, Rubens Peale and Titian Peale.

Like his father, Rembrandt Peale painted important figures of the American Revolution, who they associated with at the time, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. He painted the portrait of Thomas Jefferson at top here in Philadelphia in 1800, when the city was the temporary capital of the young nation, and Jefferson was Vice President to John Adams.

The second portrait was painted in D.C. at the White House in 1805, at the end of Jefferson’s first term as president.

Both paintings are in the collection of the White House.

There is a high res image of the first on Google Art Project, with a downloadable version on Wikimedia Commons. That image appears overly dark compared to the image on the White House Historical Association; and there is also a somewhat lighter but lower resolution images on Wikimedia. I’ve lightened the large image to be closer to the other.