Johannes Vermeer - Dutch Painter of the Dutch Golden Age

The Artist Studio (Detail)

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Woman with a Water Jug

 

Mistress and Maid

 

Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He seems never to have been particularly wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings.

Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, using bright colors and sometimes expensive pigments; with a preference for lapis lazuli and Indian yellow. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.

Recognized during his lifetime in Delft and The Hague, his modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death; he was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbraken's major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting (Grand Theatre of Dutch Painters and Women Artists), and was thus omitted from subsequent surveys of Dutch art for nearly two centuries. In the 19th century, Vermeer was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who published an essay attributing 66 pictures to him, although only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today.Since that time, Vermeer's reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

Woman in Gold - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is a 1907 painting by Gustav Klimt

(Detail)

Woman in Gold - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

(Full Image)

Woman in Gold - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

 

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is a 1907 painting by Gustav Klimt. The first of two portraits Klimt painted of Bloch-Bauer, it has been referred to as the final and most fully representative work of his golden phase. Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881–1925) was a refined art-loving Viennese salon lady, a patron and close friend of Gustav Klimt.

The painting was appropriated by the Nazis, and its ownership was subsequently contested between the heirs of the original owners and the Austrian state, finally being settled by a panel of Austrian judges in favor of the family members. According to press reports, the work was later sold for US$ 135 million to Ronald Lauder for his Neue Galerie in New York City in June 2006, which made it at that time the most expensive painting for about 4 months.It has been on display at the gallery since July 2006.

 

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. In addition to his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he painted landscapes. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt was the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.

Authenticated Rembrandt self-portrait (1635

 

Britain's National Trust has snagged their first Rembrandt. Well, to be fair, they have owned the painting for nearly four years. But, thought to be a fake or a copy, the work was left in storage at Devon's Buckland Abbey, the former home of Sir Francis Drake.
Now, after eight months of testing, restoration, and analysis, researchers have determined that the self-portrait from 1635 is indeed the work of the Dutch master. Rembrandt's first-ever ‘selfie,' which depicts the artist at the age of 29, the work is estimated to be worth in the realm of £30 million ($50 million). Though, the National Trust says they'll never sell.

  

Donated to the trust from the estate of Edna, Lady Samuel of Wych Cross in September 2010, the painting has been the subject of a rowdy authentication debate for nearly 50 years. Lady Samuel's husband purchased the painting in the 1960s. In 1968, Horst Gerson, a noted Rembrandt specialist and the Rembrandt Research Project expressed their collective doubts regarding the self-portrait's authenticity. They thought that it was the work of one of Rembrandt's students, if it had any connection to the painter at all.

 

That judgment stuck until 2005 when a subsequent Rembrandt expert, Ernst van de Wetering began to take interest in the work and question whether his colleagues had got it wrong. He went to see it in person in 2013 after which, he told the Independent “I was pretty certain the painting was a Rembrandt." But more tests and empirical data were needed to properly authenticate the work. So, it was sent to the renowned Hamilton Kerr Institute (HKI) in Cambridgeshire.

Parmagianino - Bow-Carving Armor, 1535

Bow-Carving Armor, 1535 (detail)

 

Parmagianino or Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, also known as Francesco Mazzola or Parmigianino or sometimes "Parmigiano", was a prominent Italian Mannerist painter active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma

Parmigianino was a prominent Italian Mannerist Painter - Lucretia 1540

Parmigianino, Lucretia - 1540

 

Parmigianino, Lucretia  (detail)

 

Parmagianino or Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, also known as Francesco Mazzola or Parmigianino or sometimes "Parmigiano", was a prominent Italian Mannerist painter active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma

 

 

Georgia O'Keeffe Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 sold for $44.4 million at Sotheby's, far above the estimated $10–15 million estimate.

Georgia O'Keeffe Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 sold for $44.4 million at Sotheby's, far above the estimated $10–15 million estimate.
Photo: courtesy Sotheby's.

 

The Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, is responsible for last year's record-breaking Georgia O'Keeffe sale, as well as a major Jasper Johns purchase, reports Lee Rosenbaum on CultureGrrl. Clearly, the Qataris aren't the only people attempting to keep news of their big-ticket art purchases on the down low (see  Paul Gauguin Painting Sells for Record $300 Million to Qatar Museums in Private Sale and Does Qatar's $300 Million Paul Gauguin Acquisition Hide a Dark Secret?.

O'Keeffe's  Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 sold for $44 million at the Sotheby's Evening Contemporary sale in November. This set the record both for the artist and for a work by a female artist (see  O'Keeffe Painting Sells for $44 Million at Sotheby's, Sets Record for Work by Female Artist, topping  Joan Mitchell's Untitled, which sold for $11.9 million at Christie's New York this past May. The work nearly tripled its $15 million high estimate. Crystal Bridges also reportedly picked up Johns's Flag (1983) at the same auction for $36 million.

Founded and primarily funded by Alice Walton, the Crystal Bridges museum opened in late 2011 after a flurry of major, high-priced American art purchases by the Walmart heiress. Many of these acquisitions remained a secret until the museum's public unveiling, a lack of transparency that upset many in the art world.

Although the museum's collecting has slowed of late, the purported O'Keeffe and Johns sales demonstrate a renewed commitment to acquisitions, and a return to secretive practices. Rosenbaum is critical of the museum's decision not to announce the purchase of either painting, arguing that it "demonstrates a misunderstanding of the responsibility of museums to make information about the works in their collections (not to mention the objects themselves) available to the public."

The sale cemented O'Keeffe's place at the top of the marketplace for female artists and landed her among the year's most impressive auctions (see Who Are the Most Expensive Women Artists at Auction? and The 10 Most Expensive Auction Trophies of 2014.

 

Bal au Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir #art for art lovers

 

Bal au Moulin de la Galette (1876) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Sold at Auction in 1990, for $78.1 million. This Renoir masterpiece, the most expensive example of Impressionism ever sold, portrays a Sunday afternoon dance in a Montmartre dance garden. It is one of the most best-known Impressionist paintings, and highlights the artist's unique skill in capturing dappled light, which infuses the whole work with a soft-focus quality. Own a fine art Masterpiece without paying the million dollar price. #paintingstogo.com Trusted expert of inspired hand painted oil canvas reproductions.

Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) by Paul Gauguin was reportedly sold for a record $300 million.

Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) a 1892 oil on canvas by French artist Paul Gauguin was reportedly sold for a record $300 million.

The oil-on-canvas was produced in 1892 during Gauguin's first visit to French Polynesia. It features a pair of Tahitian girls seated next to a tree.

A work by French painter Paul Gauguin, who died penniless in 1903, has reportedly smashed the record books as the most expensive ever sold. The piece, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (Will You Marry Me?) is believed to have fetched $300 million. It is believed to have been purchased by the state-financed Qatar Museums and to have topped the previous record, also set by Qatar, which reportedly bought Cezanne's The Card Players in 2011 for $259 million. #art oil canvas reproductions, own priceless art without the million dollar price.

Le Bassin aux Nynpheas by Claude Monet - #Art Own a Masterpiece without the million dollar price.

Le Bassin aux Nynpheas by Claude Monet - One of the great Impressionistic landscape paintings by one of the world's best landscape artists this painting is an outstanding large-scale example of Claude Monet's Water lilies series. Influenced by Japonism, it features the famous Japanese bridge in Monet's water garden at Giverny, demonstrating his fascination with plein-air painting and his pursuit of pure Impressionism. One of the Worlds Most Expensive Paintings ($80.5m) (2008) #Art Own a Masterpiece without the million dollar price 

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci #PaintingsToGo.com Custom Created Reproductions

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Reputedly the most valuable painting in the world. Best paintings in general, most of the world's best #art resides in famous churches, museums, or galleries. This certainly applies to works by Old Masters like Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, Rembrandt and Vermeer, few of which are in private hands, and most of which are priceless. Estimates of the value of the Mona Lisa, vary from $700 million to $1 billion. #art oil painting reproductions Let PaintingsToGo.com bring the love of art into your life.

Rembrandt - The Man with the Golden Helmet - 1650, #PaintingsToGo®

 

 

The Man with the Golden Helmet - 1650

Claude Monet - Grand Canal - Impressionist Art is Enjoying Renewed Interest #art makes a timeless gift.

Claude Monet - Grand Canal #art makes a timeless gift. Impressionist art is enjoying renewed interest. Throughout history art has been described in as many ways as it has genres: harmony, life distilled, thought expressed through form, a habit-forming drug, and even revolt and even a revolt against extinction. And to be sure art has had a deserved and important place throughout human history. #PaintingsToGo®

Piero di Cosimo, The Liberation of Andromeda (1510/ 1513).

 

Piero di Cosimo, The Liberation of Andromeda (1510/ 1513).
Photo Uffizi Gallery.

 

Nearly 500 years after his death, Piero di Cosimo (1462–1522), an Old Master painter and inspiration to surrealists including André Breton, will be having his first solo exhibition, reports the Art Newspaper.

The exhibition, which will open at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. February 1, will be a comprehensive look at the idiosyncratic artist and his work offering up 34 original works by Piero and four attributed paintings.

Giorgio Vasari, a 16th century painter and art historian known for penning the seminal art historical text The Lives of the Artists, once described Piero as an unhygienic, solitary person, "more animal than human." Vasari reported that Piero died alone, having been found by his few friends at the base of his staircase. Curator at the National Gallery, Gretchen Hirschauer and associate professor of Italian Renaissance art at NYU, Dennis Geronimus, wanted to pull back the veil of mystery that shrouds the underrated Piero, a contemporary of Botticelli, Leonardo, and Michelangelo.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec - At the Moulin Rouge - The Clowness Cha-U-Kao

 The Clowness Cha-U-Kao

 

 

When the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. His mother had left Paris and, though Henri had a regular income from his family, making posters offered him a living of his own. Other artists looked down on the work, but Henri was so aristocratic he did not care. The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his paintings. Among the well-known works that he painted for the Moulin Rouge and other Parisian nightclubs are depictions of the dancer Louise Weber, known as the outrageous "The Glutton" who created the "French Can-Can".

Auguste Renoir Paintings

 

Renoir's paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. The female nude was one of his primary subjects. In characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with one another and their surroundings.

Georgia O'Keeffe Blossom

 

 

O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916. She made large-format paintings of enlarged blossoms, presenting them close up as if seen through a magnifying lens, and New York buildings, most of which date from the same decade. Beginning in 1929, when she began working part of the year in Northern New Mexico—which she made her permanent home in 1949—O’Keeffe depicted subjects specific to that area. O'Keeffe has been recognized as the Mother of American Modernism

The Battle of Trafalgar

 

Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson

 aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships.

 

 

The Victory Breaks the French Line. The Battle of Trafalgar naval engagement fought by the Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the War of the

Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was the most decisive naval victory of the war.

Dale Chihuly, is an American Glass Sculptor

 

Dale Chihuly, is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur.

His works are considered unique to the field of blown glass,

"moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture,".

The House of Fabergé made Imperial Faberge Eggs - Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II gave to their wives and mothers.