Favorite Paintings

[Kitty]

Interesting that multiple painters did the triple portrait thing.

[donnie]

The triple portrait spotlights just how much the impression a person gives can be completely different in profile, or even between the left and right profiles. The Richelieu on the left looks to me like a possibly genial father-figure, the one on the right, similar, though maybe more keen and animated; but the man in the middle—that's somebody you don't want to mess with.

And this triple portrait reminded me of another famous one of Charles I of England. This one was painted by Van Dyck in either 1635 or 1636.

[donnie]

Speaking of triple portraits, here's a more modern one: Norman Rockwell painting himself painting himself.

[Kitty]

Ha! That one is fun!

[donnie]

The Drama by Honoré Daumier. I think this gives a feeling of what it might have been like seeing a melodrama on stage in the gaslit 19th century theatre.

[Kitty]

The rapturous looks on everyone's faces is priceless!

[donnie]

This is a striking painting I saw a long time ago, and recently remembered it and looked it up. It is a portrait of the (somewhat obscure) early nineteenth-century composer Luigi Cherubini complete with Muse. This was painted by Ingres in 1842 and hangs in the Louvre.

It's interesting how severe damage from cracking has occurred on the figure of the Muse, but not anywhere else. I know that certain pigments, or certain pigment mixtures, as well as the use of some mediums commonly led to cracking. But I wonder what Ingres might have done in just that one section of the painting that he didn't do elsewhere. If he'd used something in combination with lead white in the skin tones, it seems some damage would be in the Cherubini figure as well. It would be interesting to see a digital restoration of the damaged section—seems it would be relatively easy to do.

[Kitty]

That's pretty!

[donnie]

Woman Reading by the Window by Carl Holsøe (1863-1935). Holsøe was a Danish artist I just learned about. He seems to have specialized in interiors with quiet scenes, many of which feature a woman seen from the back or side and sunlit windows. I think his work is beautiful and has a special feeling of serenity.

[Kitty]

Gorgeous! It does have a serene, quiet feeling. I'm guessing this is oil?