Mary Stevenson Cassatt - The Tea

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Mary Stevenson Cassatt - The Tea

Tea parties were a real thing back in the day. Starting with Victorians, the afternoon tea was a daily event in any respectable well-off family. The fashion quickly spread all over Europe, and reached the US, during its Gilded Age (the period from the 1870s to about 1900). Here affluent families used teas as debutante parties.

Mary Cassatt was a great admirer of Edgar Degas. Both artists had a long period of collaboration. Cassatt said: "How well I remember seeing for the first-time Degas' pastels in the window of a picture dealer. I would flatten my nose against the window and absorb all I could of his art." Degas would help Cassatt get models for her work. Here one of those models was the woman sitting with Cassatt’s sister Lydia.

Heavy snow and visitors to the Shiba Jingu Palace - Ichiryusai Hiroshige

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Inspired by: Ichiryusai Hiroshige - Heavy snow and visitors to the Shiba Jingu Palace – 1858

Hiroshige was one of the last great ukiyo-e artists. He was a member of the Utagawa school, which was one of the four major schools and stood at the forefront of this 19th century movement. Since Japanese artists often took on the name of their school, for part of his life he was known as Utagawa Hiroshiga.

During Hiroshige’s time, the print industry was booming. Tourism was also on the rise, and these prints became the equivalent of travel postcards for the Japanese. This print was published 1858, the year of Hiroshige’s death. It is part of One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, an illustrated guidebook to the city now called Tokyo.

Ukyo-e first appeared in the West after Japan began trading with the Dutch in 1609. At that time the prints were only used to wrap parcels for shipping. They didn’t gain real attention until they appeared at the Paris world’s Fair of 1855. There, they caught the attention of the Impressionists, who went nuts over them. They were all over the walls in Monet’s home in Givernny. Van Gogh also covered his walls, and made several direct copies of Hiroshige's work.

Thomas Eakins - The Agnew Clinic

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Inspired by: Thomas Eakins - The Agnew Clinic

This painting was commissioned in 1889, to honor anatomist and surgeon David Hayes Agnew, on his retirement from teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. His students put up the $750 (equivalent to $21,600 today) to pay for the depiction. Each student came to Eakins studio to be sketched for placement in the final painting. Eakins placed himself in the painting on the far right behind the nurse – although the actual painting of him is attributed to his wife, Susan Macdowell Eakins.

It depicts a mastectomy, which was a novel procedure. Despite the lack of expectation of cure, it was an attempt to lengthen the life of the patient. The portrayal of a procedure in which a partially nude woman is observed by a roomful of men (even though they were doctors) was controversial. It was denied a spot in 1891's Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and 1892's New York's Society of American Artists. One art critic warned that “delicate women or children suddenly confronted by the portrayal of these clinical horrors might receive a shock from which they would never recover.” Agnew asked not to have as much blood as seen in the Gross clinic (one cause for its rejection). His hands are covered in liquid, which would have been used for sterilization, rather than blood.

To see original: bit.ly/4c9bCJQ

Piero di Cosimo - Portraits da Sangallo

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Inspired by: Piero di Cosimo - Portraits da Sangallo 

Giuliano da Sangallo was an architect along with his father, uncles and his son. Giuliano commissioned these portraits soon after his father’s death. A death mask was probably used to recreate his father’s likeness. This diptych is an early example of a portrait in which the subject’s profession plays a key role. On the table in front of each subject lies the tools of their profession. Giuliano got a pen and dividers for architecture, but Francesco, who was not only an architect but more importantly a musician, got a piece of sheet music. Giuliano was a part of the Renaissance scene. He assisted in the design of St Peter’s Basilica. He was also called upon to help Michelangelo remove mold from the Sistine Chapel ceiling after the younger artist had applied too wet a plaster. Originally Piero di Lorenzo, Cosimo took the name of his master Cosimo Rosselli. He also took his daughter in marriage, and assisted him in his Sistine Chapel frescos. During his lifetime, Piero acquired a reputation for eccentricity. Reportedly, he was deathly afraid of thunderstorms, and so pyrophobic that the only food he cooked was hard-boiled eggs, which he prepared 50 at a time while boiling glue for his artworks. The great historian Vasari wrote, “Through his brutish ways he was rather held to be a madman. He could not stand babies crying, men coughing, bells ringing, or friars chanting,”  See original: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-C-1367

Jacques-Louis David - The Intervention of the Sabine Women

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Inspired by Jacques-Louis David - The Intervention of the Sabine Women

In the 8th century BC, the Romans abducted the Sabine women to increase their child bearing population. They abducted 30 women, including the princess Hersilia, who became the wife of Romulus the Roman leader. Years later the Sabines returned to Rome to get revenge. In the ensuing battle Hersilia, the Sabine women and all their kids intervened to stop the bloodshed. Hersilia is standing between her father Tatius, King of the Sabines and her husband Romulus first king of Rome. In the end the two tribes sued for peace and formed a joint government.

The children in the foreground seem to be oblivious to the battle going on around them. Two of the children are having a wrestling match. The one attacks his brother like they were in a schoolyard brawl. In the middle of all this mayhem, the baby between Romulus’ feet casually sucks his thumb.

Go here for original photo: bit.ly/3vyNqAN

Jacques-Louis David - Napoleon Crossing the Alps

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Inspired by: Jacques-Louis David - Napoleon Crossing the Alps

This was the first of five versions of this painting. When Napoleon became the First Consul he attempted to make peace with Charles IV of Spain. While talks were underway to re-establish diplomatic relations, a traditional exchange of gifts took place. Charles received Versailles-manufactured pistols, dresses and jewels for the queen from the best Parisian designers. In return Napoleon was offered sixteen Spanish horses from the royal stables, portraits of the king and queen by Goya, and this portrait that was to be commissioned rom David. Charles decided to hang it in the palace in Madrid, so Bonaparte instructed David to produce three additional versions. David threw in an extra for himself. This version remained in Madrid until 1812, when it was taken by Joseph Bonaparte after his abdication as King of Spain. During his exile in the United States it hung at his Point Breeze estate near Bordentown, NJ. In truth, this is a pretentious depiction of the event, since Napoleon crossed the Alps on a mule and instead of leading his army into battle, he followed them.

To see the original:bit.ly/4c98K06

Gustave Caillebotte - Paris Street; Rainy Day

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Inspired by: Gustave Caillebotte - Paris Street; Rainy Day

This painting depicts the aftermath of Baron Haussmann’s controversial plan to renovate Paris. His wide boulevards replaced many of the beloved buildings of the city. Caillebotte was in the camp of those who hated his plan, and what it would do to the Parisians. The scene is a grey rainy day, the colors almost monochromatic, which instills a glum feeling in his figures. The canvas is monumental, almost eight feet across, which allows you to study the individual characters. and some are quite whimsical. Two legs of a man appear under an umbrella, there is a man carrying a ladder through the streets, and a woman who is opening an umbrella which seems to be shoved it into the head of the main character. Caillebotte was very wealthy. His father made a fortune supplying Napoleon's army with uniforms, and Gustave inherited that fortune at age 26. He was a close friend of many of the Impressionists, and funded and curated their exhibitions. He loaned them money (in fact, he paid the rent on Monet's studio for a while.) Most importantly, he bought their paintings for top dollar, amassing a collection of more than seventy works of Impressionist friends. His death at the young age of forty-five brought an abrupt end to an evolving career. He donated his Impressionist paintings as well as many of his own to the French State. The bequest specified that all the works should be displayed in the Louvre Museum. This was somewhat problematic, as his art was still not accepted widely by the mainstream artistic establishment.

To see original: https://bit.ly/4bw3KlE

Sandro Botticelli - Venus and Mars

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Inspired by Sandro Botticelli - Venus and Mars - 1483

This painting is as much about the satyrs as the Gods. The little satyrs are playing with Mars’ armor, which he has discarded. The satyr in the bottom right hand corner of the painting, rolling his eyes and sticking out his tongue, has attracted some attention in the art history world. It stems from the curious fruit under his hand. It has been suggested that this is datura stramonium aka Devil’s Snare or Locoweed. A hallucinogen that has induced Mars’ drugged sleep. Experts at Kew Gardens in London, have confirmed that the plant is indeed Datura. I think this is a bigger myth than the Gods themselves,

since Datura is a South American native. Based on the date of the painting Christopher Columbus would’ve had to make a trial run to bring it to Europe. However, the interpretation and significance of this are still being discussed. As wonderful and virtuous most people may think Venus was, this is a scene of adultery. Venus was married to Vulcan, God of fire, who was not so good looking and spent all his time at the forge. She has run away to be with Mars.

To see the original: https://bit.ly/3t1RYhi