Category Archives: Painting

June 15

Enrico Baj: Anarchist at Heart

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On the 15th of June 2003, Italian painter, sculptor, writer and anarchist Enrico Baj died in Vergiate, Italy. In his works he focused mainly on politically engaged themes such as the threat of nuclear war or the political situation in Italy under Berlusconi. Baj was one of the founders of the Nuclear Art Movement that […]

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June 14

Mary Cassatt as Muralist

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On the 14 of June 1926, American Impressionist expatriate Mary Cassatt died in Château de Beaufresne, near Paris, at the age of 82. Usually remembered as a painter of sentimental images of mothers and children, Cassatt is not generally considered as an artist of radical beliefs. In Eve’s Daughter/Modern Woman (University of Illinois Press, 2004), […]

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June 02

The Portrait Miniature: Art-Object-Memory

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On the 2nd of June 1804, Danish 18th century Court miniaturist and Royal Danish Academician Cornelius Høyer died in København, Denmark. The works Høyer executed for the Danish and other European courts were diminutive in size, often 40 mm × 30 mm or approximately 1-1.5 inches, oval or round in shape. Among his best known […]

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May 11

Inorganic vs Organic in Paul Nash’s ‘Totes Meer’

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On the 11th of May 1889, British Surrealist painter and war artist Paul Nash was born in London. The older brother of the artist John Nash, he started his professional education at the Chelsea Polytechnic, from which he moved on to the London County Council School of Photo-engraving and Lithography. Eventually, after being spotted by […]

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April 26

Simonetta Vespucci and Quattrocento Femininity

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On the 26th of April 1476, Simonetta Cattaneo de Candia Vespucci died from tuberculosis in Florence, Italy, aged just 23. An Italian Renaissance noblewoman from Genoa, at the tender age of fifteen she married Marco Vespucci, son of Piero, close to the Florentine Medici family, as well as a cousin of the Florentine explorer and […]

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April 07

Was El Greco Astigmatic?

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On the 7th of April 1614, the famous painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance El Greco, née Doménikos Theotokópoulos, died in Toledo, Spain. Adored by many and criticised by some, during his lifetime he had undergone a long journey starting with Crete, the place of his birth, through Venice, then Rome where he […]

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April 05

The Art of Swinging According to Jean-Honoré Fragonard

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  On the 5th of April 1732, the French painter and printmaker Jean-Honoré Fragonard was born in Grasse, France. He was one of the greatest French painters in the two brilliant and productive pre-Revolution decades; although, due to his highly individual style, he was officially less recognised than, for example, his teacher, Boucher. In his […]

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March 14

Parallelism in Ferdinand Hodler’s Symbolist Painting

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On the 14th March 1853, Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler was born in Gürzelen, canton of Berne. Hodler’s friend, Symbolist poet Louis Duchosal described him as “a mystic and a realist, a duality which disconcerts and disorients …. He excels in rendering the things of the past or of the dream and the realities of life.” […]

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March 13

The Mystery of ‘The Fortune Teller’ by Georges de la Tour

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On the 13th of March 1593, the French Baroque painter Georges de la Tour was born in the town of Vic-sur-Seuille, a few miles from Nancy, France. In 1620, when he was already a practicing painter, he moved to Lunéville, Lorraine, an independent duchy between north-east France and the German states. That is where he […]

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February 08

Inverting the Female Nude: Paula Modersohn-Becker

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On the 8th of February 1876, German Expressionist artist Paula Modersohn-Becker, the first recognised European modern female artist to paint the female nude, was born in Dresden-Friedrichstadt, Germany. Becker grew up in a well-to-do, cultured family in Dresden, was privately art tutored in Worpswede, London, Bremen and at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, trained under […]

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