Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri and Pawnees - Charles Bird King

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Inspired by - Charles Bird King - Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri and Pawnees

Between 1820 and 1842 Charles King painted some 143 of the most famous paintings of American Indian chiefs. This was when they were still at the peak of their glory and reflected the full flowering of their people's culture. The portraits were commissioned by Thomas McKenney, the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. King would paint the chiefs in his downtown studio, when they came to Washington to do business with the department.

Chief War Eagle wears a Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. This was a sign of great status for an Indian and worn at all formal events. Americans as well as Europeans gave out peace metals as far back as the 1600’s. The Jefferson Indian Peace Medal was the first medal to bear the image of an American president. Thomas Jefferson was depicted in profile on the obverse of the medal, with the inscription: "TH. JEFFERSON PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. A.D. 1801." The inscription on the reverse, "PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP," was symbolized by the image of clasped hands and a crossed tomahawk and peace pipe. Federal officials distributed medals when traveling through Indian territories. Lewis and Clark gave out about 87 metals on their expedition. In 1804, a dozen Osage chiefs arrived in Washington City. They were the first to make the long trip at the invitation of Captains Lewis and Clark. They were the first Native chiefs that Jefferson would meet and present with this metal. See original: bit.ly/3fXSerk

Caspar David Friederich - Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

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Inspired by Caspar David Friederich - Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

If you Google Romantcism this painting is one of the first that will appear in the images. Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe, and was in its peak in the early 1800’s. Standing on a high dark rock, while foggy mist swarms over the distant valleys and mountains beyond, a lone figure contemplates his place in the universe,

At the age of 13 Kasper was skating on the Baltic with his brother. He fell through the ice, and hisis brother came to his rescue. Caspar lived but his brother died. This emotional experience haunted him for most of life. He attempted suicide in his adulthood. It may be the reason for the somber feeling in his early paintings. He painted the Wanderer at the age 34. That was also the year he married Caroline Baumar. After his marriage, his paintings became lighter, adding more color and people. Although his people were usually looking away from the painter.

To see original - https://bit.ly/3Q5qn4u

Thomas Eakins - Between Rounds

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Inspired by: Thomas Eakins Between Rounds - 1898-99

Most of Eakins's sporting paintings: rowing, baseball and swimming are from the 1870’s and 80’s. But, he painted three boxing scenes in the late 90’s. These he began after attending professional matches at the Philadelphia Arena, then located diagonally across the street from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He asked several of the participants to pose for him, along with his friends and family who portrayed officials and spectators. Here we find boxer “Turkey Point” Billy Smith in his corner. Billy lost more fights than he won, and in the depicted bout he was knocked out in the third round.

Eakins sports paintings frequently expressed the muscular system of the nude male. He stands as the first American artist to base his art on the close and exacting analysis of the body. He felt it so important that he even studied anatomy at Jefferson Medical College. He began teaching at PAFA (his almamater) in 1876, While there, discontent arose concerning his teaching methods, His insistence on the study of the nude in mixed-sex classes and his frequent use of pupils as models did not please Victorian Philadelphia. While lecturing about the pelvis to a class that included female students, Eakins removed a loincloth from a male model so that he could trace the course of a muscle. Angry protests by parents and students forced him to resign at the request of the Academy board. To see original: https://bit.ly/3z6ufh4

Edgar Degas - Waiting

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Inspired by Edgar Degas - Waiting

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas affected disdain toward the improvised outdoor landscape studies for which many of the Impressionists became known. He clung to the habit of drawing on location in preparation for his pictures and insisted on finishing in the studio routinely with models. Degas considered himself a Realist painter. He attempted to paint things as they were, versus how he perceived them to be. Still, the art world considers him an Impressionist artist as he adopted their loose strokes and play on light.
Degas and the ballet are virtually synonymous. Dancers, shown in every phase of their complex and demanding art form, make up more than fifty percent of his abundant output. He created approximately 1,500 paintings, monotypes and drawings.
He was aware, from an early point in his studies, of the exhaustion of the ballerinas, and the extent to which they pushed the limits of their bodies. He was further conscious of the brevity of a dancer’s career. Here the chaperone’s face still displays youthful features, yet she is more than likely an ex-dancer. The younger woman represents what her forlorn looking companion once was.

To see original: bit.ly/3o4o32n

Édouard Manet - The Balcony

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Inspired by Édouard Manet - The Balcony

All the models are friends or relatives of Manet. Painter Berthe Morisot is the lady sitting on the left. Standing in the back is another painter Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemet. On the right is the violinist Fanny Claus (no kidding). The fourth figure, partially obscured in the interior's background, is possibly Léon Leenhoff, Manet's son. Berthe Morisot was one of the three important female Impressionists. She was one of Manet’s favorite models. This was the first portrait Manet did of her. Then he painted her 11 more times. She would become the wife of his brother, Eugène.

There were many iterations of this painting. It was inspired by Majas on the Balcony by Francisco Goya. Which was very similar, and which Manet gave attribution. This painting was just a redo. and it took Manet a couple of shots at to get it right. In his first version there were two women on a balcony. The name of that painting is Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus (no kidding). In the first version Fanny is seated in the chair and Berthe is standing, back to painter. In this version he added two more characters and made Berthe sit and Fanny stand. Oh, and he threw in a dog with a bow in its hair beneath Morrisot’s chair. Then Surrealist René Magritte painted Perspective II: Manet's Balcony in 1950, a commentary on this work. In Magritte’s version there are four coffins (one "seated") in place of the four people. Magritte said "For me the setting of The Balcony offered a suitable place to put coffins. The 'mechanism' at work here might form the object of a learned explanation, which I am unable to provide.”

The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1869, and then kept by Manet until his death in 1883.

To see original: https://bit.ly/3rtj39s

Georges de La Tour – The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds

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Inspired by Georges de La Tour - The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds

The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds - 1635

Musée du Louvre, Paris

De la Tour created two versions of this painting. One is in the Louvre and the other is in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth Texas. The only difference being the clothes and especially the cheat card. In this painting that card is an ace of diamonds and in the other it is an ace of clubs. You can probably guess the name of the Kimbell version. Like so many paintings from the 17th century, this one is loaded with a moral message from the church. Many artists wished to remind their audiences that sinners were barred from Heaven. As far as sins go this painting includes the three biggies: gambling, drunkenness and lust. The choice of the cheat cards is no accident. The diamond evokes money and commerce of the flesh, while the club symbolizes ill fortune.

De la tour was a very successful painter in the 1600’s, but quickly fell out of favor after his death. His star would not rise again until this painting appeared in a 1934 exhibition at the Louvre. It was the first time his work had been exhibited in almost 300 years. This sparked a growing craze for the artist and his work started popping up everywhere. Despite this new stardom, Pierre Landry, a Paris art dealer, spent 15 years trying to get the Louvre to buy this painting. They finally completed the acquisition in 1972. Maybe he was just asking for too much money.

To see original: bit.ly/3Cx2aiB

Grant Wood – American Gothic

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Inspired by Grant Wood – American Gothic – 1930

Wood's inspiration came from what is now known as the American Gothic House, and his decision to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." When asked what, American Gothic was about, Wood often said that it was really about architecture. The house seemed to him typically American. He found the house in Eldon, Iowa and made several sketches. In the painting the pitch fork and the shirt connect us to the lines of the building behind. The pattern on the woman’s dress relates to the shades in the window. The elongated faces of the models go with the elongated windows.

The figures were modeled by Wood's sister, Nan Wood Graham, and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby. Wood’s first choice for a female model was his mother, Hattie. However, he was concerned that posing at length would be too much for her. So, in her stead his sister Nan sat in. Nan, was embarrassed at being depicted as the wife of someone twice her age - and began telling people that the painting was of a man and his daughter. 

The painting came to be seen in the Great Depression as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit. Wood was quoted as saying, "All the good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."  Wood entered his painting in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago. It received the bronze medal and a $300 cash prize.  As the painting gained attention it was reproduced in newspapers. Iowans were furious at their depiction.  One farm-wife threatened to bite Wood's ear off.  To that Wood said, He didn't paint a caricature of Iowans but rather “a depiction of Americans”.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance

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Inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance

A penciled inscription, in the artist's hand, on the back of this famous painting reads: "The instruction of the new ones by Valentine the Boneless." A nickname given a nimble dancer who instructed the Moulin Rouge rookies in the can-can. Many of the inhabitants of the scene are well-known members of Lautrec's demimonde of prostitutes and artists. At the far right the Irish poet William Butler Yeats leans on the bar. The owner of the Moulin Rouge liked the painting so much he hung it over the bar.

Lautrec was born with serious congenital health condition which could be attributed to aristocratic inbreeding. Even his parents, the Comte and Comtesse, were first cousins. At the age of thirteen, Henri fractured both his femurs. Neither of the breaks healed properly, because of a brittle bone genetic disorder called pycnodysostosis (try and pronounce that!) which is frequently called Toulouse-Lautrec syndrome today. The injuries permanently halted the growth of his legs causing him to develop a full adult torso, while his legs remained child sized.

Lautrec popularized the cocktail. He was known for getting drunk off “earthquake cocktails”, which were a strong mixture of absinthe and cognac. He even hollowed out his cane, so that he could fill it with liquor. One of his drinking buddies was van Gogh, who he painted sipping a glass of absinthe. One evening they were so drunk that Lautrec offered to duel on Van Gogh's behalf, following a dispute with an equally drunken Belgian who had disrespected his Netherlandish friend. The vagaries of this lifestyle caught up with him, and he succumbed to the effects of alcoholism at the age of 36. https://bit.ly/3rgIT1c