艺术天地画廊

献给热爱艺术和热爱生活的人们!




Bouguereau,Adolphe William


    Bouguereau,Adolphe William布格罗(1825--1905),他一生获得多种殊荣,以神话和寓言题材的绘画吸引大批追随者,成为当时法国最著名的画家。其作品以高度完整、技法全面和擅长表现多愁善感的题材为特征。在人物造型处理上,为了追求高度的优美,舍弃技法创新,维护官方正统的艺术,排斥其他艺术流派,因而被现代批评家指责为保守的画家。 

 



    Tissot雅姆·蒂索(1836 —— 1902),法国 维多利亚 新古典主义画派重要画家。
出生在法国南特(法国西部港口城市)一个中产阶级家庭。 他最初在巴黎的 Beaux 艺术学习艺术。 他的早期画主要是历史,最有成就的是伦敦社会生活的绘画,这其中诞生了著名的画作“Too Early”。一个伟大的艺术家与他美丽堕落的女人及其一个悲惨的爱情故事。这就是他的一生。 



Artists advocate return to classics




The Value of Copywork


    Edward Burne-Jones伯恩·琼斯(1833-1898 )是拉斐尔前派理想的热情支持者与实践者。拉斐尔前派艺术中中世纪的神秘的元素深深吸引了原本就喜爱神话传说的伯恩-琼斯。伯恩-琼斯以亚瑟王传说,圣经故事,希腊神话为主题创造了一大批充满浪漫主义情调的杰作。清晰的肌肉描绘,无力的姿态和中性的人物造型是伯恩·琼斯画风的特点,他用这些要素创造出了一个非人间的、超世俗的艺术氛围。代表作《梅林的诱惑》、《国王与乞食少女》。 
  伯恩·琼斯在给友人的信中说:“我在我的作品中创造一个美丽而浪漫的梦境,它不曾存在过,将来也不会存在。那光线比任何现实中的光线都要美,那片大陆不存在与任何人的记忆中,形式庄严而美丽,你能想象么……"





    Frank Dicksee 迪科塞尔(1835 - 1928 )成长在一个艺术家庭里,他的父亲,兄弟和姊妹玛格丽特(Margaret)都是众所周知的画家。在1870年中期他的作品被英国皇家艺术会员展示并在著名的Grosvenor 画廊展览。1877年名为“协调”的画作在艺术学院的展示给Frank Dicksee带来了无比的荣誉。他的作品开始被私人购买收藏。 
    1881年Frank Dicksee 被选举为英国皇家艺术会会员。并且在随后的十年之内一直保持该荣誉。大部份他的画作是戏剧性的历史和传奇的故事。同时他也以在绘画中完美表现优雅时髦的女人肖像而著称。完美的肖像绘画艺术使得当时的贵族妇女以能够成为Frank Dicksse 的肖像画模特儿为时髦。他也有许多风景画作品。
    1924年Frank Dicksee 被选为英国皇家艺术院院长。1925年他被授以皇家爵士爵位。1928年去世。



Letter to the Editor




Raoul Dufy

    Raoul Dufy 杜飞(1877~1953年)生于法国北部港都勒阿弗尔。
    20世纪初,Raoul Dufy——一位在阳光照耀、海风吹拂中成长的青年,满怀着对艺术的热爱来到巴黎。在进入美术学校学画、看画展、与画友交往之间,杜飞先从印象派入手,后来又尝试立体派的绘画,最后加入野兽派青年画家行列,与马蒂斯、甫拉曼克、佛利埃斯等共同活跃在当时画坛。杜飞的际遇真可谓如鱼得水,从一开始就步入绘画的坦途,而他一生的画家生涯也充满欢乐与光彩,为20世纪初叶的绘画,创作了鲜丽的一章。
    他作画先从印象派入手,后来又尝试立体派的绘画,最后加入野兽派青年画家行列,擅长风景画和静物画,留下许多杰出代表作。

 



    Lawrence Alma Tadema 罗伦斯.阿玛.泰德玛 (1836-1912)是个荷兰人,而且只在三十多岁的时候来英国待过。然而,这位伟大的亲英派画家,不仅是英国皇家艺术学院的重要创始人之一,更在一八九九年获颁骑士爵位。他早期的艺术风格,深受George Ebers,著名的埃及古物学家的影响,而阿玛.泰德玛自己也画了一些古埃及风景画,其中一幅即是著名的“Pastimes in Ancient Egypt”(1864)。后来他的画作主题,完全转到了古希腊罗马的世俗生活写照。
    他第二任妻子Laura Epps那红棕色的卷发、玫瑰般的面颊、和强健的体态和女儿们的身影常出现在他的画中。大理石则是其画中的另一个特征,而他也是这项素材最重要的画家。Ruskin对他画中充满了精确的考古学上的考证,大加赞赏。 

 


Lawrence Alma Tadema




John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism

    John William Godward  England, Victorian Neoclassicism, b.1861 - d.1922
    The serene beauty and astonishing technical execution of John William Godward's paintings contradict the fact that this important artist has received virtually no critical acclaim or art historical recognition. We know little about this artist's private life, which is not betrayed by his art. Melancholy, kindly, reclusive, handsome, talented and shy, J. W. Godward's life is still a mystery, a censored book, protected by himself and sealed by his family. Unlike most Olympian Classicists before him, he preferred anonymity and privacy.



    纳兰霍是当代西班牙著名艺术家中最负盛名的画家。在他的很多创作中,富有诗意般的想象和恰如其分的对梦幻的忧虑,清晰的思维和潜意识的费解等方式表现天地宇宙的想象,同时又保持了超现实主义历史经验的积极因素。在他的作品里,美感无处不在,无论是油画还是素描,无论是裸体肖像还是其他绘画,都是精益求精,十分严谨,调子丰富,柔美虚幻,给人一种迷蒙淡雅的美感。


Pandora's Box: Part I




Frederic Leighton


    弗雷德里克·莱顿(Frederic Leighton,1830——1896)是19世纪末英国最有声望的学院派画家,他辉煌的艺术光芒甚至冲淡了雷诺兹的影响,成了英国皇家学院派的代名词。不像19世纪大部分画家那样,莱顿并没有在皇家艺术学院学习,他在布鲁塞尔、巴黎、法兰克福接受绘画训练,1852年他搬到罗马居住,古典艺术给了他很大影响。1855年,他回到英国,他的作品Cimabue's Madonna展出并被维多利亚女王购买,这是他事业的转折。1878年,莱顿当选为(英国)皇家艺术学院院长。1896年受封为男爵。他是英国唯一获此殊荣的画家。他于同年去世。




    毕加索(1881~1973)出生在西班牙,是当代西方最有创造性和影响最深远的艺术家,他和他的画在世界艺术史上占据了不朽的地位。毕加索是位多产画家,据统计,他的作品总计近 37000 件,包括:油画 1885 幅,素描 7089 幅,版画 20000 幅,平版画 6121幅。
跟一生穷困潦倒的文森特·凡高不同,毕加索的一生辉煌之至,他是有史以来第一个活着亲眼看到自己的作品被收藏进卢浮宫的画家。在1999年12月法国一家报纸进行的一次民意调查中,他以40%的高票当选为20世纪最伟大的十个画家之首。
对于作品,毕加索说:“我的每一幅画中都装有我的血,这就是我的画的含义。”面对勤奋的毕加索和天才的创作,你会不会毕恭毕敬呢?


Louvre Buys Bouguereau




William Whitaker

    威特肯(William Whitaker)美国现代著名画家,擅长以饱含情韵的笔触描绘梦幻般的少妇形象。
    他的作品,无处不在追求美的发现,无论是油画还是素描,无论是少妇裸体还是自然绘画,都是精益求精,认真严谨,色彩丰富,柔美虚幻,给人一种清新淡雅的美的享受。




    雷诺阿(1841-1919),法国印象派代表人物。善于以明快温和的色调描绘青年妇女、尤其是裸体形象,也善于表现天真无邪的儿童。肖像画在雷诺阿的作品中占很大比重。为了生计,他为很多生活富足的人画了肖像。在他的作品中,人们仿佛过着神仙一样的悠闲自在的生活。40岁以后,他的生活逐步改善,有机会去意大利等地旅行。参观了文艺复兴以来的名作和庞贝古城的壁画,这使他受到很大震动,并对安格尔的古典主义产生了热情。研究者称1881-1888年为雷诺阿的“安格尔式时期”。雷诺阿后期的女人体绘画在数量和质量上都大大提高,肌肤画得流淌着珍珠般的光泽,神情天真可爱,荡漾着青春的风韵,少数女人体略有一分野性的单纯,使人联想到鲁本斯的艺术。令人敬仰的是,晚年的雷诺阿身体瘫痪,饱受病痛折磨。因为不能拿起画笔,所以只能把画笔绑在手腕上,坐在轮椅上画出充满生命欢乐的杰作。代表作有:《夏班提埃夫人和她的孩子们》、《包厢》、《金发浴女》等。 


D.A.Renoir




E.Degas


    德加 (E.Degas 1834-1917)法国画家,印象画派代表人物。在巴黎出生和去世的爱德加·德加是银行家之子.生来便是大资产阶级,他对古典主义的浓厚兴趣和他行为的谨慎似乎与出身十分合拍.不过,他那异常强烈的个性和独立自主的思想却又把他抛入革命阵营.他在美术学院安格尔弟子拉莫特的班级里习画,并且,始终对安格尔极为敬仰.不管他的天才如何演变,他却从不背弃过去.毫无疑问,这种对于人类创造的崇敬,对于行善的明确意识是其性格的基础,也是人们指责他的根源.其画风的演变也比较清楚地表明德加对印象主义采取了一种非常特殊的立场.他的绘画作品都无可争辩地面对着素描严谨、古典之极的艺术.这种手法渐渐地让色彩占据越来越重要的地位.不过,这种色彩始终为现实主义服务.天才的德加赋予它以扩大的视野和独特的画面布局,并永远地离开了学院主义,其作品意义远远超过人们在印象派中给予他的地位。




    1853年3月30日,凡高出生于荷兰乡村的一个新教牧师家庭,1890年7月,他在精神错乱中开枪自杀,年仅37岁。
    梵高的一生,充满世俗意义上的“失败”。它名利皆空,情爱亦无,贫困交加,受尽冷遇与摧残。在生命最后的两年,他与巨大而暴戾的病魔苦苦搏斗,拼死为人间换来了艺术的崇高与辉煌。
    如果说梵高的奇迹,是天才加上精神病;那么,梵高至高无上的价值,是他无与伦比的艺术和为艺术而殉道的伟大的一生。
    真正的伟大的艺术,都是作品加上他全部的生命。


Vincent Willem van Gogh




Michelangelo Bounaroti


    米开朗基罗.博那罗蒂(Michelangelo Bounaroti, 1475-1564),作为文艺复兴的巨匠,以他超越时空的宏伟大作,在生前和后世都造成了无与论比的巨大影响。他和达芬奇一样多才多艺,兼雕刻家、画家、建筑家和诗人于一身。他得天独厚活到89岁,度过了70余年的艺术生涯,他经历人生坎坷和世态炎凉,使他一生所留下的作品都带有戏剧般的效果、磅礴的气势和人类的悲壮。



    列奥那多·达·芬奇(Leonardo Da Vinci,1452年4月15日—1519年5月2日),意大利文艺复兴时期最负盛名的艺术大师。他是人类智慧的象征,他怀有神灵般的无限理想,试图重新创造世界的美,量度世界的广大无垠,解释世界的奥秘。可是他只有常人的生命和力量。他的抱负是发现一切、研究一切、创造一切。他的生命是一条没有走完的道路,路上是撒满了崇高的未完成作品的零章碎片,他在临终前心酸地说过:“我一生从未完成一项工作。”


Leonardo Da Vinci




The Painter in Oil


    76岁时的安格尔,创作了《泉》这幅作品,反映了画家对美的全新观念,即用精湛的技巧去创造古典美感是十分必要的。《泉》实现了他对人体美与古典美完美结合的形式追求。在这里,他展示了人类普遍赞美的恬静美、抒情美和纯洁美。他描绘一位举罐倒水的裸体少女,身躯略呈S型,婀娜多姿,双目透出清纯,虽然身体袒露,却让人觉得她如清泉般圣洁。
    在世界大师的画笔下,人体与自然得到了完美和谐的展现,那典雅秀美的人体艺术,那样浪漫的诗意,让人感受到一种前所未有的神秘的呼唤。




After a short slump after September 11th, when many items failed to sell in New York and London, the market for 19th century Academic and Naturalist painting came surging back. A Boldini portrait sold for over $1,400,000 at Sotheby's April 24th, and two out of three minor Bouguereaus sailed past their estimates, selling solidly for $270,000 and $510,000 respectively at Christie's the day before. Young Girl Holding Flowers was half painted by his student, which had worried those running the sale, who had attributed the work to both Doyen and Bouguereau. But it didn't phase collectors, who bidded the work well beyond the $300,000 to $400,000 estimate. We are all waiting to see what a major Bouguereau will bring in the sales room, considering that even his minor works continue to climb in value ...


Resurgence of the 19th Century Market at April Sales




Meaningful Art in a Meaningful Universe: the Fallacies of Abstractionist Ideology


Human beings take a natural delight in form and pattern. Our eyes and visual cortex are designed to pick out shapes and hints of half-hidden presences, and to recognize the colors, textures, and fine details of natural objects. These are the necessary skills of a hunter-gatherer species, adapted to follow the obscure tracks of fleeing prey, to resolve the outline of a camouflaged animal in hiding, to remember and find again a nutritious berry, root, or herb. Nature rewards the exercise of such skills, which require concentration and work, with a pleasure that modern birdwatchers, naturalists, and scuba divers know well ...




In a recent New Yorker article Louis Menand cites a poll on the definition of art and shares the answer given by several well-known people "in the arts" (curators and critics, but no artists). The unanimous concensus is that everything is art. This poll is used to confirm what Mr. Menand calls "pluralism," an art theory of all-inclusion. Mr. Menand subtly undercuts some of the assumptions of this theory, but like all printable journalists in this age of "fairness" he does not strongly advance his opinion, or any opinion. He makes a few observations: leaving us to our own greater wisdom, one supposes ...


The Art of the Last Man




John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism


The serene beauty and astonishing technical execution of John William Godward's paintings contradict the fact that this important artist has received virtually no critical acclaim or art historical recognition. We know little about this artist's private life, which is not betrayed by his art. Melancholy, kindly, reclusive, handsome, talented and shy, J. W. Godward's life is still a mystery, a censored book, protected by himself and sealed by his family. Unlike most Olympian Classicists before him, he preferred anonymity and privacy.

Ignored by the quickly changing tastes of the art critics, Godward became the climatic figure of English classical-subject painting as this genre itself shriveled under the blaze of the 20th century avant-garde. He was the best of the last great European painters to straight-forwardly embrace classical Greece and Rome in their art. Herein lies his significance to art history. With him and his colleagues, we see the nightfall of five hundred years of Classical subject painting in Western art ...




William Bouguereau is unquestionably one of history's greatest artistic geniuses. Considering his consummate level of skill and craft, and the fact that the great preponderance of his works are life-size, it is one of the largest bodies of work ever produced by any artist. Add to that the fact that fully half of these paintings are great masterpieces, and we have the picture of an artist who belongs like Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Carravaggio, in the top ranks of only a handful of masters in the entire history of western art ...


Biography of William Bouguereau




SORA: Classical Training in Downtown Chicago


The School of Representational Art (SORA) is located in Chicago's River North area, a renovated neighborhood of galleries, restaurants and condominiums north of The Loop in downtown Chicago. Founder and Director Bruno Surdo established the school in 1992. "We started out up on Howard Street in Evanston," says Bruno, "and we were there for three years. But we needed to improve the facility, and have more space, and a skylight for life drawing. When I approached the real-estate agent and told him where I wanted to go and how much I had to spend, he laughed at me. But somehow we got it done, and we've been in our current facility ever since ..."




Over one-hundred years ago Impressionism appeared on the scene. It is my understanding that it was created as a reaction against the classicist 'Salon' painting of the period, which was endorsed by the state and appreciated by the public. Impressionism claimed to show the seen world more truly, in a less artificial and stylized manner. It also was supposed to bring painting out of the studio and into the open air of the outdoors. It usually preferred to celebrate everyday life and the pleasures of real middle-class people, rather than to draw its subjects from mythology, historical episodes from the past or other escapes from everyday reality. The contemporaneous Naturalist movement, on the other hand, painted down-to-earth laboring people and the suffering poor ...


Impressionism Revisited




Letters to ARC


In the fourteen months since the Art Renewal Center was created, we have received a voluminous correspondance from visitors to the website. Some are professional artists, some students struggling to acquire the techniques denied them in a modernist education. Others are collectors and scholars, while hundreds are simply art lovers in the purest sense.

From out of the thousands of letters we've received, we thought we would select a few and share these with you. These are letters that we find particularly touching. Our thanks go out to all who have written to us ...




As faithful readers know, I am a true Renaissance man. Humani nihil a me alienum puto, and there is no sphere of human endeavor into which I have not, at one time or another, peered inquisitively, grasped the fundamentals more or less immediately, and formed a well-rounded opinion which, of course, I am ready to defend to the death. I am willing to admit, though, that while I know something about everything, I know much more about some things than others; and among those topics about which my stock of knowledge is perilously close to the minimum required to pontificate confidently, is art ...


The Nincompoop Prize




When Art Becomes Inhuman


Many of today抯 avant-garde artists, I抳e decided, have modeled themselves on that well-known societal fixture, the snot-nosed teenager. Since the 1960s, the hippest modern art has aspired to exactly what every garden-variety 13-year-old brat aims for: maximum opportunities to shock, flout, insult, and otherwise chuck rocks at polite society ...




Art in the 21st century will draw its inspiration from traditions that were largely neglected during modernism's 20th-century heyday, say artists, critics and collectors who advocate a return of classical ideals.

"I look at modern art as very much like what happened with communism - it was an idea that was a house of cards and couldn't work," says Allan Banks, president of the American Society of Classical Realism and vice chairman of the American Society of Portrait Artists ...


Artists advocate return to classics




Atelier Studio Program of Fine Art and Bougie Studios


The Atelier and The Bougie Studio are two schools of traditional drawing and painting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, run by former students of Richard Lack. The principle instructors at The Atelier are Dale Redpath and Cyd Wicker. At The Bougie Studio, it is Brian Lewis and myself. We were all students of Lack at varying times from the late nineteen-seventies through the mid nineteen-eighties, at a time when Atelier Lack was one of only a handful of places in the world where a structured traditional training program could be found ...




In 1900 at the Universal Exposition in Paris, it is reported that Degas and Monet were approached by a newspaper reporter who asked who, in their opinion, would most likely be considered the greatest 19th century French artist in the year 2000. After a brief debate, both agreed on one man - William Bouguereau.

What did these two geniuses of French Impressionism see that their chief followers and supporters over the next hundred years did not? For Bouguereau, a true genius of the art of painting, was soon to fall so far from grace that art history students in the 1940s through to the 1980's could study 19th century art and never hear his name, or see one of his paintings ...


Bouguereau and the "Real" 19th century




Collecting: 19th Century is the Place To Be!


Soaring ever higher in prices, more collectors are recognizing, that the 19th century is the place to be. While prices for the art of other periods has languished or in some cases even fallen, paintings created between 1840 and 1910 have increased in value at breathtaking speed over the last 25 years ...




Michael John Angel Studios (MJAS) are amongst a mere handful available in an art world that has been decimated by several generations of Modernist ideology. A figurative and actual voice in the wilderness, this oasis of sanity and preserved knowledge is a private institution that teaches drawing and painting in the old master tradition. Thus students learn the skills needed to express and portray the reality of contemporary life, as well as timeless themes about humanity and the world. While this tradition has its roots at least as early as 14th century Italy, the curriculum and the teaching techniques are grounded on those of the 19th century European academies and are the result of over 30 years of research and experiment by the school's founder, Michael John Angel. The resulting, step-by-step process successfully teaches the student to thoroughly appropriate the skills needed for representational painting ...


Michael John Angel Studios




Bad Art/Good Art: Pulling Back the Curtain


June 7, 2001 -- Fred Ross, Chairman of the Art Renewal Center, addressed a crowd of over 700 portrait artists, gallery owners and members of the press today at America's premier institution of art, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, at the American Society of Portrait Artists (ASOPA) Conference. Mr Ross was interrupted at least 10 times to thunderous applause or peals of laughter as he blasted Modernism and its chief icons, Picasso, Mattisse and DeKooning, with some of the most biting, yet truthful, satire that has ever been heard in those sanctified halls ...




Woven into the graceful folds of Greek mythology, are the classic concepts, motifs, and markings which Western civilization has adopted as its own. The Greeks possessed an inherent joy and adoration for the arts. Despite the passage of centuries, Greek literature has retained its freshness and relevance, its ability to pierce to the heart of human situations in matters of love or war. On most subjects, the Greeks said it first and said it well. The story of Cupid and Psyche is no exception. This is clearly a romance that has transcended time. Images of this couple are still depicted on modern day posters and on most Valentine's card ...


But where's the art?




Why we must keep the traditions alive


Traditional academic education has become a touchy subject in the contemporary debate over what an art education should be. In the second half of the 20th century, the majority of art schools rejected the traditional approach in their programs, creating not only confusion and chaos in students' minds, but a diminished appreciation of fine art in viewers' eyes.

Going back through centuries of art history, generations of artists agreed that traditional studies were a "must" for every art student, encompassing all "views" and "visions", Art, just like a house, needs a strong foundation to prevent it from falling apart in the future, and an academic education provides that foundation ...




Woven into the graceful folds of Greek mythology, are the classic concepts, motifs, and markings which Western civilization has adopted as its own. The Greeks possessed an inherent joy and adoration for the arts. Despite the passage of centuries, Greek literature has retained its freshness and relevance, its ability to pierce to the heart of human situations in matters of love or war. On most subjects, the Greeks said it first and said it well. The story of Cupid and Psyche is no exception. This is clearly a romance that has transcended time. Images of this couple are still depicted on modern day posters and on most Valentine's card ...


Cupid & Psyche




The Atelier Concept


Our visual culture was enriched because the European classical tradition taught us to see, and moreover to see in an enhanced way.  If we return to primitivism, as modern art is directing us, then that advanced culture which lasted five hundred years will be lost.  This happened in the past in the great swing against Classicism in the Third Century AD.  It did not begin to recover until the Italian Renaissance and it took until the time of Bernini for the skill of the ancients to be equaled ...




While web-surfing a bit last night, I stumbled upon an article at Artnet.com by Thomas Hoving. He's the former Director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The article is titled My Eye and contains his description of some of his favorite works of art. I proceeded to read what could only be described as a pathetic and brainless parroting of decades of Modernist propaganda and misinformation ...


Reviewing the Reviewers : A Hoving Eye




Nelson Shanks : Humanist Realist


"Dramatic use of color, harmonious design, the interplay of light and shadow across a variety of textures, the portrayal of the figure and other subject matter that reflects the sophistication and beauty I find in nature - all presented from a unique point of view - can only be successfully achieved with a sound command of the painter's craft. Each painting I paint represents my attempt to achieve these lofty goals - history will determine how successful I have been." -- Nelson Shanks ...

Nelson Shanks   Humanist Realist, by Kathryn Manzo, Copyright by the Classical Realism Journal. Reproduced courtesy of the Classical Realism Journal and the American Society of Classical Realism.





It falls to us now, those of us who do understand the deep purposes of education, to save the future of our country. We can do this by returning our children, one by one, back to the sea of structured creativity, where each individual child - by nature of being a child - can be taught to swim smartly, successfully, and joyfully toward the promise of adulthood. To accomplish this task, I propose that we incorporate art education into the mandatory school curricula. I propose art instruction because only art educates the whole person as an integrated individual: it educates the senses, it educates the mind, and it educates the emotions. It educates the soul ...

THE FOURTH "R" IN EDUCATION: Reading, WRiting, ARithmetic and ARt, by Alexandra York. Reproduced with the kind permission of Alexandra York.



The Fourth "R" in Education




Presence of Light


In this 1996 interview, the late Frederick Hart expressed some of his views on modern aesthetics, the role of tradition in art, and the role of artists, especially artists creating public art, in culture. This excerpt features those remarks ...




William Bouguereau is unquestionably one of history's greatest artistic geniuses. Yet in this century, he has undergone one of the most pervasive and systematic attempts at character assassination and artistic libel that has ever been perpetrated. He was painted as the arch-villain by modernist ideologues for nearly a century, who accused him of not recognizing the Impressionists. His work was successfully suppressed and his name almost completely banished from the art history texts ...


William Bouguereau: Genius Reclaimed




Repin, Shiskin and Kramskoi


Not long ago I had the opportunity to visit St. Petersburg, Russia, to see some of the less accessible treasures of 19th Century painting. These Russian works are very much a part of the traditions and achievements of that very fertile artistic period in Western art. The Hermitage Museum on the banks of the Neva River in Petersburg houses a vast collection of some of the greatest names in European painting, but it is the nearby Russian Museum where the finest achievements of Russian painting can be found ...


Repin, Shiskin and Kramskoi, by Steven Levin, Vol. II, Issue 2, Copyright 1995 by the Classical Realism Journal. Reproduced courtesy of the Classical Realism Journal and the American Society of Classical Realism.





The reputation of Robert Hale Ives Gammell has been rising of late: an exhibit of his series of imaginative paintings, The Hound of Heaven, is touring the country; his writings are more widely read and his influence noted; and the tradition that he alone carried through the middle years of this century -- when there was almost no tolerance for representational painting -- continues to be handed on through his students and his students' students ...

Gammell and his Students, by Peter Bougie, Vol. II, Issue 2, Copyright 1995 by the Classical Realism Journal. Reproduced courtesy of the Classical Realism Journal and the American Society of Classical Realism.



Gammell and His Students




The Story of Springtime


A beautiful young maiden hangs from her lover's neck, coquettish and devoted, she smiles warmly to meet his protective gaze. The two are seated on a swing, hanging on heavy ropes suspended from large unseen branches in a thick forest bathed with glowing primordial light. Her gown, diaphanous and white, more than slightly reveals her perfect sensual form. His arms hold tightly to the ropes, which supports them. Springtime is arguably the single greatest image of young romantic love ever conceived, poignantly touching the hearts of millions over the last 125 years ...




During most of the 20th Century, the type of propaganda that has been hurled at academic artists is so insidious that people have been literally trained to discredit, out-of-hand, any work containing well-crafted figures or elements, or any other evidence of technical mastery. All the beauty and subtlety of emotions, -- interplay of composition, design and theme, -- the interlacing of color, tone and mood, -- are never seen. The viewer has been taught that academic painting on a prima facie basis is bad by definition -- bad by virtue of its resorting to the use of human figures, themes or stories and objects from the real world ...


Death by Character Assassination




The Collection of Fred and Sherry Ross


If one were to ask educated Americans for a one-word definition of 19th Century European art before the opening of the Musee D'Orsay in Paris in 1986, the response would likely have been "Impressionism." If one were to consult art history textbooks of the same era, one would find several chapters relegated to artists like Monet, Seurat and Cezanne. And if one were to ask art students about 19th Century studio techniques, the terms broken color, optical mixing and pointillism would likely roll off their tongues ...

The Collection of Fred and Sherry Ross, by Kathryn Manzo, Vol. III, Issue 2, Copyright 1997 by the Classical Realism Journal. Reproduced courtesy of the Classical Realism Journal and the American Society of Classical Realism.





The serene beauty and astonishing technical execution of John William Godward's paintings contradict the fact that this important artist has received virtually no critical acclaim or art historical recognition. Melancholy, kindly, reclusive, handsome, talented and shy, John William Godward's life is a mystery, a censored book, self-protected and sealed by his family. Unlike the great Olympian classicists before him, he preferred anonymity and privacy.

Godward and the Death of Greco-Roman Painting, by Vern Swanson, Vol. III, Issue 2, Copyright 1997 by the Classical Realism Journal. Reproduced courtesy of the Classical Realism Journal and the American Society of Classical Realism.



Godward and the Death of Greco-Roman Painting




Clarion Call


The great Spanish painter, Joaquin Sorolla once said, "The only way to be happy in life is to be a painter." Having been in pursuit of the painting profession from the earliest years of my childhood to the present, I realize that these words ring true. Yet questions arise for many on how to go about it, whom to study with, and where to go to get started. In 1880, there was no pondering the issue; the answers were clearly to be found in Paris. Paris of the 19th century represented all that an aspiring artist could wish for. The great Salon offered a showcase for one's art to an eager public and peers. The potential of official recognition from government purchase could bring further rewards ...

Clarion Call, by Allan Banks, Vol. I, Issue 1, Copyright 1994 by the Classical Realism Journal. Reproduced courtesy of the Classical Realism Journal and the American Society of Classical Realism.





While all the hoopla was going on in Brooklyn, leave it to the mainstream press to completely miss a really groundbreaking event. After all, there's nothing new anymore about outrage and slop. There is something new, however, about recognizing that it was the academic masters in the late 19th Century, and not the modernists, who opened the doors of the French Academy schools to women artists ...


The Real Show In Town: Overcoming All Obstacles




P.A.J. Dagnan-Bouveret and the Illusion of Photographic Naturalism


When the following essay appeared in Arts Magazine (April, 1982) on the work and contribution of Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929) it represented a concerted effort to reveal the ways in which Dagnan-Bouveret had made significant changes to the evolution of naturalist painting and, by implication, to the academic tradition of which he was then considered a primary proponent.




Technical Essays




Why is this book called a dictionary? When you encounter an unfamiliar word and wish to learn its meaning, you can look it up in the dictionary. In the same way, when you are working from the live model, or from imagination, and don't understand the body part you are painting or drawing, you will be able to 'look it up' in this visually presented, analytic dictionary. Additionally, just as the words we know constitute a vocabulary that permits us to express complex ideas and feelings, structure is our 'vocabulary' of human form. It is necessary to know structure in order to be able to freely express in art, our ideas and feelings about the body ...


Dictionary of Human Form




Bouguereau at Work


To fully appreciate the art of Bouguereau one must profess a deep respect for the discipline of drawing and the craft of traditional picture-making; one must likewise submit to the mystery of illusion as one of painting's most characteristic and sublime powers. Bouguereau's vast repertory of playful and poetic images cannot help but appeal to those who are fascinated with nature's appearances and with the celebration of human sentiment frankly and unabashedly expressed ...




Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn, whom many consider the greatest artist of all time, learned all that was then known about oil painting while still a very young man, surpassing his teachers very early in his career, and then proceeded to add his own discoveries to the technical knowledge of his time. To this day his best works remain unsurpassed, and serve as inspiration to the rest of us who paint. This being the case, any book on advanced techniques must address Rembrandt separately and at such length as the author's knowledge allows ...


The Technical Innovations of Rembrandt




Caravaggio


There has been a lot of near-nonsense written over the past few years by art historians and modern artists, neither of whom have any background in the practical aspects of realistic figure painting, about the incised lines in Caravaggio's paintings. The main idea seems to be that Caravaggio, instead of sketching his placements with a charcoal or a brush, used a sharp stick to gouge the placement lines into the plaster ...




I took this photo at the end of the first painting session. With neither face nor hands to slow me down, I was able to bring it this far pretty easily. Given the Ingres-like neck and back, I decided to give it the classical treatment. I took special care because I want the painting to look "finished" at every stage ...


A Classical Painting Demonstration




Technical Column


As part of the Art Renewal Center's mission to restore high standards of performance to the Fine Arts, and particularly painting, I will begin my first column as a guest contributor by stressing the importance of a conscientious attitude toward the craft aspect of painting. Had not the Old Masters considered it important to use the best, most permanent materials they could find, in the proper manner, we would not know their works today, and could not learn their exquisite lessons, so essential to the perfecting of our own art ...


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