The Kiss, Francesco Hayez, oil on canvas, roughly 43 x 35 inches ( 110 x 88 cm); link is to image file page on Wikimdeia Commons, original is in the Pinacoteca di Brera (Brera Art Gallery) in Milan.

In this beautiful painting by mid-19th century Italian painter Francesco Hayez, the woman’s stunning gown is the first thing to attract our attention. The shimmering blue material (satin?) is offset by the bright red of the man’s leotards as he leans her back in romantic embrace.

They are standing on what appears to be a stairway landing. The shadowy silhouette of what looks to be a maid descending the lower staircase adds a bit of implied intrigue.

Look at the wonderful range of color Hayez has worked into various areas of the stone wall.

Portrait of Marthine Cappelen Hjort, b. Kiær, by Asta Nørregaard, pastel on canvas; roughly 48 x 33 inches (122 x 85 cm); link is to Wikimedia Commons; original is in the collection of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo Norway, which has a zoomable and downloadable version of the image.

This wonderful portrait by late 19th, early 20th century Norwegian artist Asta Nørregaard is one of those wonderful pastel “paintings” that belies the idea of pastel as a “drawing” medium. Depending on how finely you want to hash the semantics, pastel is both — sometimes simultaneously.

It helps remind us that our definitions are often inadequate to constrain the range of possibilities in art mediums.

In this beautifully realized portrait, Nørregaard has surrounded the finely rendered face and figure with more textural marks, the roughly circular direction of which combines with her control of value in the background to draw the eye inexorably to the sitter’s face.

The Little Park, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, gouache on parchment, roughly 8 x 10″ (20 x 24 cm); in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum, NY.

I had the pleasure of seeing this delightful little gouache painting by the 18th century French Rococo painter in a show at the Morgan several years ago. I was aware of the larger oil of the same subject in the Wallace Collection in England (which I will feature in a subsequent post), and assumed this was a study for that painting.

However, the Morgan Library’s description indicates that this is a “small replica” of the larger work, presumed to have been done a year later than the oil.

Both the oil and this gouache painting have a great deal of visual charm, each in a way that takes good advantage of the respective strengths of the medium. There is also an etching of the same subject.