Up Close: William Orpen's Adrian Carton de Wiart

Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen (1878-1931), Wikipedia entry here, is perhaps best-known for his portrait work and Grear War related paintings.

Combining those was a series of sketch-portraits of senior British officers, some of which I featured here.  One of those portraits was of Adrian Carton de Wiart (1880-1963), an incredibly brave recipient of the Victoria Cross.  Wikipedia mentions: "He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War.  He was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; was blinded in his left eye; survived two plane crashes; tunnelled out of a prisoner-of-war camp; and tore off his own fingers when a doctor declined to amputate them.  Describing his experiences in the First World War, he wrote, 'Frankly, I had enjoyed the war.'"

I also noted that portrait here.

In September of this year I once again found myself in London's National Portrait Gallery.  Instead of using my Nikon Coolpix that nearly always gave me trouble photographing paintings accurately, I now used my iPhone.  Three images I took of that 1919 portrait are shown below.

Gallery

The whole thing.  Better-framed images of it can be found elsewhere on the Internet.

The part dealing with the subject.  Orpen took care depicting the face, but things become sketchier farther down.

Closer view of the sketchy part.  For me, an interesting lesson on technique.

Tadema's Women of Amphissa Up Close

I've shown close-up views of some Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) paintings here and elsewhere. But given his talent and stage-setting ability, why not more?

The excellent Clark museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts has a nice example of his work. It is "The Women of Amphissa" (1887); the museum page for the painting is here.

Below are some iPhone photos I took of it when I visited the Clark last September. Click on images to enlarge.

Gallery

An image of the painting found on the Internet.

My establishment shot, showing how it appeared to the camera under the gallery's lighting conditions. Tadema was something of a miniaturist, and you can glean a sense of its scale by comparing its size to the plaque fragment to the right of it.  Some detail photos are below.

Up Close: Boldini's Crossing the Street

The Clark museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts has a number of first-class paintings dating from the late 19th century, and I have featured some of them in this blog.

One painting I saw there that wasn't first-class, but nevertheless very good and an interesting example of the artist's work is "Crossing the Street" (1873-75) by Giovanni Boldini. Its Clark page is here.

Boldini is most famous for his later flashy style of portrait painting, so this work is notable as a good example of what he was doing on his way to it.

Gallery

Image of the painting found on the Internet.

My iPhone establishment shot. This is a small painting: compare to its plaque.

Detail iPhone picture: click to enlarge. Note the leering man in the carriage at the left.

Up Close: Two Sargent Scenes of Venice

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was a first-rate painter best known for his portrait work. He also had a deft touch when making oil sketches.

The Clark art museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts had two fine examples on display when I visited in September. One is titled "Street in Venice" (Clark link to it here), the other is "A Ventian Interior" (link here). Both were painted circa 1880-82.

Some photos I took are below: click on the images to enlarge.

Gallery

Image of "A street in Venice" from the Clark web site.

As it appeared in the gallery: compare to the size of the plaque.

Zooming in on the figures. The actual sizes of the woman's face and hands are quite small: again compare to the plaque.

Clark image of "A Venetian Interior."

As it appeared.

Once again, Sargent is close to miniaturist mode when doing the foreground faces.

Finally!! I Got to See Klimt's Judith II

This was a twenty-year epic struggle for me. Okay, I exaggerate -- but the twenty-year part is true.

Since the late 1990s I've been fortunate enough to view most of the important paintings by Gustav Klimt. But one eluded me. It was the second of his paintings dealing with the Biblical subject Judith beheading Holofernes.

The painting is housed in Venice's Ca' Pesaro museum located on the Grand Canal, but not close to the main tourist zones.

The first time I visited Venice, in the late 1990s, the museum was undergoing renovation and so the painting was inaccessible. My second visit was while on a bus tour with my late wife, and I could not fit visiting it due to all the tour group activities. I was on a cruise the third time I got to Venice. But arrival was delayed until early afternoon due to heavy fog, so I simply hung out in the tourist zone, having limited time available. About a week ago I arrived via another cruise ship and bought a one-day vaporetto pass that made getting to and from Ca' Pesaro easy. And, Happy Day!!, the painting was on display and not off on loan (unlikely, because it is perhaps the museum's most famous possession).

The image at the top of this post and most of those below were taken by me using an iPhone. Click on them to enlarge.

Gallery

Klimt's 1901 Judith I.

Image of Judith II (1909) found on the Internet.

As seen by my iPhone.

Lower part of painting featuring Holofernes.

Detail of Judith.

Bouguereau's Nymphs and Satyr Up Close

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) was an artist whose technical capabilities I greatly respect. On the other hand, most of his paintings hold little appeal due their subject matter and somewhat static compositions.

A major exception to that criticism is his Nymphs and Satyr (1873) at the Clark art museum in Williamstown in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. If you are interested in late-19th and early 20th century painting, the Clark should be a "Must" destination.

I was last there in September and took some iPhone photos for your viewing pleasure.

Gallery

Nymphs and Satyr - image from Clark site.

As seen in its gallery. A large painting: note its scale via the size and placement of the plaque as well as the floor.

Detail image.  Click on it to enlarge.  I find the expression on the face of the nymph facing the satyr especially well done.

Up Close: Sargent's Portrait of Carolus-Duran

The reputation of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) has been on the mend for several decades. I've been noticing that references to him are not apologetic, though they might have been in decades past.

The Clark art museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts had at least four of his works in the gallery reserved for the collection's prime works on my most recent visit. One of these is his 1879 portrait of his teacher Carolus-Duran. The link to the museum's commentary on it is here.

Sargent was only about 23 years old when it was painted, and he clearly must have wanted to make a good impression. But whereas Carolus-Duran tended to include a fair amount of hard-edge detailing in portraits he painted, Sargent's treatment of him is quite soft, as the photos I took indicate. Click on images to enlarge.

Gallery

Clark image of the painting.

My establishment shot.

Sargent reserved most of the sharp detailing for the face.

And there are a few crisp spots on the hands and cane.

Up Close: Sargent's Fumée d'ambre gris

Fumée d'ambre gris 1880, is one of John Singer Sargent's most interesting paintings.

It and some outstanding works by Sargent and others can be seen at the Clark art museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts at the northwest corner of the state.

Here is what the Clark website has to say about the painting.

Below are some photos I took in September using my iPhone. The room where Fumée and the other stars of the collection are displayed was too dark for my regular camera to take photos without the (prohibited) flash.

Click on images to enlarge.

Gallery

Image of the painting found on the Internet.

As seen in the museum. The size of the plaque at the right offers a sense of the scale of the painting.

Zooming in a little.

Closer ...

Showing the woman's face and arms. This area of the painting is not large -- a little more than a foot (30 cm) wide.

The source of the fumes. Note the extreme-perspective treatment of the rug pattern and floor tiles: not something he simply dashed off.

Pre-Rapahelites Up Close: Some Snapshots

A large exhibit of Victorian art from Birmingham, England is touring the USA, currently parked at the Seattle Art Museum. Part of that exhibit is of paintings by Pre-Raphelite artists whose works are well-represented in Birmingham.

As I have mentioned from time to time, I'm not a big fan of hard-edge, highly detailed painting. I can respect it, and I prefer it to most modernist painting, but don't love it for the most part.

While visiting the exhibit I took snapshots using my iPhone of reference images followed by close-ups of Pre-Raphaelite painting on display. Some are shown below: click on them to enlarge considerably to view that painstakingly detailed work.

Gallery

The Blind Girl (1854-56) by John Everett Millais
Millais later painted more conventionally -- many portraits -- and eventually became president of the Royal Academy.

Note the many blades and other details on this fairly small painting.

Pretty Baa-Lambs (1851-59) by Ford Maddox Brown
Another fairly small painting.

Detail everywhere -- from the quilted garment to the wool and grasses.

Elijah and the Widow's Son (1864) by Ford Maddox Brown
A "finished study for a picture" Brown stated.

Being a study, it's not hard-core Pre-Raphaelite. But it's essentially a complete work and pleasing to me because detailing is less intense. Note the Hebrew writing around the door.

Work (1859-63) by Ford Maddox Brown
A well-known Pre-Raphaelite painting that yet again isn't large.

Even the tiny sign slogans are depicted.

Perspective on the boy' head seems a bit off, but hey, Pre-Raphaelite's weren't normally painters of action scenes.

Detail, detail, and more detail here in this small segment.

Medea (1866-68) by Frederick Sandys
Not strictly Pre-Raphaelite style aside from being hard-edge.

The painting's plaque notes the Japanese influence on the background.