Art Sunday; My favourite figure paintnigs.

This is an idea I formed after saying I liked one of the paintings on Nemos site so much that I would happily hang it on my wall. I started thinking about which, of the hundreds of paintings we have all shown and seen here, would I be happy to hang on my wall and look at every day. I started out wanting ten, but the list grew and grew and now I’ve divided them into subject matter, and these are the figure paintings I would have on my wall. Next week I’ll show the seascapes I would love to hang on my wall. Not surprisingly, most of these are from Scottish painters, but that’s probably because these are the paintings and artists I am most familiar with and the ones I automatically think of as my favourites. I have shown most of these before and I’m sorry there is so little ‘new’ here, but I think its nice to sort out the ‘favourites’ and put them all together. In chronological order, oldest first, they are;  

1. From the collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Princess Elizabeth 1635-1650 and Princess Anne 1637-1640, by Sir Anthony van Dyck.  
This is an oil study for the painting ‘The Five Eldest children of Charles 1’, and shows two year old Elizabeth and baby Anne. Neither child survived into adulthood, they both suffered tuberculosis and Anne died as an infant. Elizabeth survived until her teens when she died, partly as a result of being imprisoned during the civil war and partly as a result of ill health. The painting for which the study was made showed the children of Charles 1 and Henrietta Maria and is still held by the Royal family. I find this one of the most sensitively drawn child portraits ever produced. These children lived and died in the seventeenth century but they could be any child living today.


2. Now held in The Beit Collection, Russborough, Co. Wicklow, Sir Henry  Raeburn 1792; Portrait of Sir John and Lady Clerk of Penicuik. I’ve already written a blog on this man here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/158/Art_Sunday_henry_Raeburn
This was Raeburn's first picture to be exhibited in London, being shown at Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in 1792. The background is the estate at Penicuik, and the landscape that inspired Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd. I’ve loved this painting from the first time I set eyes on it. I’ve not seen the original and if I ever visit Ireland, this is something I would make a point of seeing. This man was one of the greatest Scottish portrait painters who ever lived and to me, this painting could not be any where other than Scotland, Scotland has a light all of its own, a quality of light not experienced any where else, and he captures it perfectly here.
Sir John was a patron of the arts and the old mansion house became a meeting place for others including Allan Ramsay. Sadly, the new mansion house built by Sir James during the 1760s was gutted by fire in 1899 and is now a ruin. Sir Robert Clerk is continuing the tradition of his forebears by pursuing a programme of improvements to the estate. More of that here

http://www.eskvalleytrust.org/penestate.html

Work is being carried out at present to make the outward structure of the building secure, offering the opportunity to create work experience and training in the use of traditional building methods. After the fire, the stables and courtyard were converted into the family home and garden and remain so today. I think the loss of this great house is a sad loss to Scotlands architectural heritage.


3. The Hinds Daughter, 1883, by Sir James Guthrie, I’ve written about James Guthrie here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/613/Art_Sunday_Sir_james_Guthrie
A Hind is an old Scottish word for ‘farm servant’ or agricultural worker and this is a painting of one of the workers daughters cutting cabbages.  
( list of old Scottish occupations here)
http://www.scotsfamily.com/occupations.htm
I’ve always liked this painting because, again, to me this could only be Scotland. If I left my house and travelled a couple of miles into the country I would see vegetable gardens and/or fields  full of cabbages that looked just like this.The tawny light would be the same, the old white outbuildings would be the same, the wooden fences, rickety and broken are still there, the earth is the same rich reddy brown and the sky the same pale grey. James Guthrie was one of the original ‘Glasgow Boys’ who changed the face of painting, design and architecture in the northern hemisphere.


4. "Child With A Dove" 1901. (also known as "Child Holding a Dove") is one of Pablo Picasso's most easily recognizable paintings and one of my few favourites from a non Scottish artist.  Standing next to her ball, a child holds a white dove to her chest. I included this in my recent blog on Picassos ‘blue period’
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/744/Art_Sunday_Picassos_Blue_paintings._
Although she is in white and her ball is full of colour there is an overall feeling of ‘blue’ to the image. This was the very first of what became known as his ‘blue period’ paintings. He uses the innocence of child a with the universal symbol of hope, in the form of the dove and creates a painting that crosses language and culture boundaries to portray an universal image of innocence and hope for the world.  
All of Picasso's paintings are described in terms of a series of overlapping periods. In this his "blue period" (1901-4), he depicted the world of the poor. Predominantly in tones of blue, these melancholy paintings (such as The Old Guitarist, 1903; Art Inst. of Chicago) are among the most popular art works of the century. I first came across this image on a card when I was a child. I knew nothing of art but I think the symbolism of innocence and hope touched me even at that young age. I kept the card for years, I had it pinned to my wall. I think this image is maybe one of the first to initiate my lifelong love or art. Maybe without this image, I would never have become so interested in the art world. Oh how sad that would have been.



5. Anna Pavlova, 1910,  by Sir John Lavery, on permanent exhibition at Kelvingrove Gallery Glasgow. This is one I am fortunate enough to have stood in front of and admired.  I wrote about it here.
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/188/Art_Sunday_John_Lavery_and_Anna_Pavlova
If you are ever fortunate enough to stand in front of this apinting you will see why I have chosen it. The scarlet shouts at you across the room and as you approach the painting, it’s almost as if she is there and about to leap from the wall, a truly remarkable painting.


6. The Orange Blind, 1928, by Frances Cadell, one of a group of Scottish artists known as ‘The Colourists’. I wrote quite a long blog about this painting here.
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/55/Art_Sunday_Drinking

This is more of an ‘interior’ painting than a figure painting, but this is another of my favourites that I’ve been fortunate enough to actually stand in front of at the Kelvingrove gallery in Glasgow. To stand in front of this is truly mesmerizing. The composition is perfect, the blast of orange is wonderful, the whole scene glows with reflected light and I just love the way the side of the piano is lit up by the light coming through the blind. It’s a painting of social commentary, showing a particular class of person and a particular type of interior.

Next week; ...........my favourite seascapes.

Art Sunday Sir Henry Raeburn.

Sir Henry Raeburn;

Scotlands greatest portrait painter,
March 1756 – 8 July 1823)

He was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, a former village now within the city of Edinburgh.

Orphaned, he was supported by his older brother and placed in Heriot's Hospital, where he received an education. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and various pieces of jewellery, mourning rings and the like, adorned with minute drawings on ivory by his hand, still exist.

 Soon he took to the production of carefully finished portrait miniatures; meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil painting, at which he was self-taught.

The goldsmith watched the progress of his pupil with interest, and introduced him to David Martin, who had been the favourite assistant of Allan Ramsay the Latter, and was now the leading portrait painter in Edinburgh. Raeburn was especially aided by the loan of portraits to copy.

Soon he had gained sufficient skill to make him decide to devote himself exclusively to painting.

Read more here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Raeburn

Art Sunday; Sir Henry Raeburn

Art Sunday; henry Raeburn

MY ARTIST FOR THIS WEEK IS

Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823)

PLEASE LOOK IN MY ALBUMS FOR MORE OF HIS BEAUTIFUL PAINTINGS.

This painter was the best and most famous Scottish portrait painter of his own time and beyond.  He was born in Stockbridge, Edinburgh on 04/03/1756. His father, a mill owner, died while Raeburn was quite young and he was raised by an elder brother and educated at Heriot's Hospital. He began his working life in 1772 when he was apprenticed to a jeweller, Mr James Gilliland. Fairly soon into his apprenticeship he became distracted from the jewellery trade and began painting miniature water colour portraits of his friends. His talent was noticed and nurtured by one of Edinburgh’s leading portrait painters David Martin.  Under guidance from Martin, Raeburn turned to painting in oil and his own distinctive style soon emerged, his work became instantly recognisable, partly due to his representation of the soft Scottish light. In 1778, he married a wealthy widow whose personal income freed him from the financial restraints of earning a living and allowed him to devote his time entirely to painting.  This marriage also bestowed on him the Deanhaugh Estate in Stockbridge. Later, once his reputation as a portrait painter gave him financial security without relying on his wife’s private funds,  he purchase the neighbouring St. Bernard's estate. Eventually he amassed quite a small fortune by feuing for building the Stockbridge extension of Edinburgh's New Town. In 1784 he met Sir Joshua Reynolds while travelling to London.  He was already an admirer of Reynolds work but after the meeting Raeburn’s work was seen to be influenced by the style Reynolds work. Following Reynolds's advice, Raeburn spent the following two years studying in Italy as did many Scottish artists of that generation. Raeburn returned to Edinburgh in 1787, he set up a studio in George Street, Edinburgh and became the leading portraitist of Edinburgh. His work often featured full length portraits of the prominent and influential people of Scottish Society of that time. From here it didn’t take long for his fame and popularity to spread south of the border. He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1815. He was knighted by King George IV during his visit to Scotland in 1822 and, shortly before his death in 1823, was appointed His Majesty's Limner for Scotland. The two pillars of Scottish Painting and founders of the ‘Scottish School’ of painting are still considered to be Sir David Wilkie and Sir Henry Raeburn.

My own personal favourite is Sir John and Lady Clerk, I love this painting because it is a perfect example of the soft reflected light so typically Scottish. I often say one of the things I love most about Scotland is the quality of the light. Unless you live here, or you have spent some time here that statement may not make much sense, light is light most people tend to think. I think there is such a thing as ‘Scottish Light’, a quality to the light that is not found any where else. This is one of the reasons so many artists paint here, because the light is so special, and this painting, in my mind, shows that special quality better than any other painting I can think of.