Monday Morning Museum: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Self-Portrait, circa 1771-1775 by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes – Sunday 30 March 1746 Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain to Wednesday 16 April 1828 Bordeaux, France
Spanish Rococo Era / Romantic Painter and Printmaker

Don Manuel Osorio Manrique De Zuniga (1784-1792), circa 1790s

“The sitter is the son of the Count and Countess of Altamira. Outfitted in a splendid red costume, he is shown playing with a pet magpie (which holds the painter's calling card in its beak), a cage full of finches, and three wide-eyed cats. In Christian art birds frequently symbolize the soul, and in Baroque art caged birds are symbolic of innocence. Goya may have intended this portrait as an illustration of the frail boundaries that separate the child's world from the forces of evil or as a commentary on the fleeting nature of innocence and youth.” – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Francis William Edmonds
Next Monday’s Artist – John White Alexander
“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Springtime

Sun, sunflower, grass.
Blooming colors of Springtime,
Yellow, orange, green.

- Adrean Darce Brent
Monday 19 March 2012

"Vernal Equinox 2012" graphic created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: Francis William Edmonds

Self Portrait, circa 1835-1840, by Francis William Edmonds

Francis William Edmonds – Saturday 22 November 1806 Hudson, New York to Saturday 7 February 1863 Bronxville, New York
American Genre Subjects Painter

The New Bonnet, 1858

“This work, the last the artist exhibited at the National Academy of Design, exemplifies his gently moralizing approach to genre painting. In a setting influenced by the established formulas of seventeenth-century Dutch masters, Edmonds contrasts the daughter's extravagant purchase with the faults of her disapproving parents. The father's bottle and glass and the mother's mirror imply indulgence in drink and vanity, respectively. The poor delivery girl serves as an added moral gibe to the comfortable middle-class family. The elderly man in this painting may depict or be based on Edmonds's brother, Judge John Worth Edmonds. The view through the door may represent Irving Place, where the judge lived until his death in 1872. The figure of the woman standing beside the old man is almost identical to a figure appearing in a number of works by Edmonds and may have been based on his mother.” – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – James Peale
Next Monday’s Artist – Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: James Peale

James Peale Painting a Miniature, 1795 by Charles Willson Peale

James Peale – 1749 Chestertown, Maryland to Tuesday 24 May 1831 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
American Colonial Era Still Life Painter

Still Life: Balsam Apple and Vegetables, circa 1820s

“This painting dates from a peak period of James Peale's career. While he typically used somber colors and linear forms, his use of vivid colors and painterly execution in this work suggest that it is a somewhat experimental exercise. With its focus on lavish vegetable forms, this work resembles still lifes of the Spanish school. The vegetables are, from left to right, okra, blue-green cabbage, crinkly Savoy cabbage, Hubbard squash, eggplant, balsam apple, tomatoes, and purple-red cabbage.” – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Gustave Courbet
Next Monday’s Artist – Francis William Edmonds
“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: Gustave Courbet

Self-Portrait (Man with Leather Belt), circa 1845-1846 by Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet – Thursday 10 June 1819 Ornans, Doubs, France to Monday 31 December 1877 La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland
French Realist Painter

The Calm Sea, 1869

“Courbet's first encounter with the Mediterranean, in 1854, resulted in a group of seascapes. He returned to the genre during a prolific three-month period in Trouville in 1865. There, in the company of James McNeill Whistler and Claude Monet, he executed, by his own count, thirty-eight canvases, including twenty-five seascapes. Returning to Étretat along the coast of Normandy in August 1869, he painted this view of the Channel coast at low tide. The composition, in which an immense sky reduces the landscape to narrow bands of sea and shore, is one that Courbet favored for his seascapes.” – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist - Édouard-Denis Baldus
Next Monday’s Artist – James Peale
“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent