The Mysterious Artist

 

I did a post on my Phoenix Daily Photo site about this painting last year after I saw it at the University of Arizona Art Museum in Tucson.  I immediately fell in love with the painting.  The artist is Minda Hess who was born in 1906 and that is pretty much all that I've been able to discover about her.  A search found three other paintings attributed to her that appear on auction sites but I can find no biography of the artist herself.  Even her date of death is unknown.  It's like she simply disappeared. 

The painting is called "Le Grande Place" and it was painted in 1958.  The highest recorded price ever paid for one of her paintings was $1,000.  This particular painting was a gift to University Museum.  

I simply love the painting and feel it deserves another appearance.  I just wish I knew more about the artist. 

A Russian Countess

 

I stood in front of this painting for quite a long time.  There was just something about the way she was staring back with such an unexpected and self-assured look.  It was tinged with just a touch of mischief. This painting was on display at the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House in London.  It was part an exhibit of paintings on loan from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham.  

The painting is a portrait of Countess Golovina and was painted in Moscow by the French artist Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun.  Another artist I had not heard of before however after reading about her, I'm not sure how knowledge of her had escaped me.  During her years on this earth she painted 660 portraits and 200 landscapes in addition to many uncatalogued works in private collections around the world.  

Early in her career she painted several portraits of Marie Antoinette which opened a door to elite society and a vast social circle that spanned several countries.  I have to say that her Wikipedia page is one of the longest I've ever encountered.  She has paintings in the Louvre, Hermitage, the National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to name just few.  

I love this quote from the Barber Institute's website "Countess Golovina sweeps up her shawl and looks at us with startling candor".  What a perfect description.  

In the future, I will be looking for Vigee Le Brun paintings whenever I visit major art museums around the world.

Farm at Waltendlath

 

"Farm at Waltendlath" is a painting by a little known English artist named Dora Carrington (1893-1932). Carrington learned art from an early age and was encouraged by both her parents and her teachers.  It wasn't until the 1970's that her work started to be appreciated.  In 1978, the then director of the Tate Museum said Carrignton was "the most neglected serious painter of her time".  

Reading about her, I feel like she was one of those people who should have been born in another time.  If you are interested, you can read more about her here.

The painting above shows a farm in Keswick in the Lake District of England.  Carrington spent a summer holiday near there.  I found the painting at the Tate Britain in an exhibit featuring little known English artists.  The serenity of the scene appealed to me.

From New Zealand to England

 

This portrait of a young Maori dancer was painted by New Zealand artist Gottfried Lindauer.  Lindauer was born in what is now the Czech Republic but he moved to New Zealand in 1874.  Once there, he made a business of painting portraits of Maori people detailing their facial tattoos.  A series of these paintings featuring chiefs and warriors was shown at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition by Sir Walter Butler.  The Prince of Wales saw this painting of the young girl and was drawn to it so much so that Butler gave the painting to the Prince.  

That explains how it ended up in an exhibition at the Kings Gallery at Buckingham Palace and where I saw it and admired it too.  You can feel a certain warmth and confidence in her attractive face.

Painting the Horses

 

I saw this painting at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford England and the scene intrigued me.  The painting is called "Showing at Tattersalls" and it was painted by Robert Bevan.  He was born into a family of six and his father was Richard Bevan a banker with a firm that is now known as Barclays. He studied art at the Westminster School of Art and in 1889 studied at the Academy Julian in Paris.  Bevan spent a lot of time in what were called the cab yards where horses were housed and traded.  He painted several paintings  around the theme of horses kept in cab yards and mews.  This one was painted in 1919.

An Artists Studio

 

On my most recent trip to London, I visited the new V & A Storehouse.  The warehouse that houses most of the Victoria and Albert Museum's items that are not currently on display in the museum.  While there I saw this painting that tickled my curiosity.  It was painted by Irving Lawrence (1897-1988), an artist I did not know.

The painting is called "Alick Johnstone's Scenic Studios and it represents a studio where stage sets are designed and painted.

Lawrence was the grandson of actor Henry Irving and was trained at the Royal Academy. He became an artist and set designer working on both theatre and films.  He would have known Alick Johnstone's studio very well.  

The backdrops pictured in the painting were used for the final scene of Henry VIII which opened in 1925.

Touched by the Southwest

 

I saw this painting on display at the Laguna Beach Art Museum back in 2014 and my first thought was that it was a Georgia O'Keeffe.  I was wrong, the artist is Anna Katherine Skeele (1886-1963).  Skeele was born in Ohio and moved to New York as a young woman to study art.  She spent time in Florence Italy studying art history and finally moved to California and attended art classes at the California School of Fine Arts.  She soon began teaching art at Pomona College.  

She spent time in the southwest and became fascinated by the people and the places there.  This painting is called "Rancho Church" and it depicts the San Francisco de Asis Mission in Taos New Mexico, a subject that was also painted by Georgia O'Keeffe among others and photographed by Ansel Adams.

An Elegant Woman

 

I enjoy looking at art in all of its forms and I also enjoy learning a little bit about artists I've never heard of.  I was impressed by the beauty of this painting but I had never heard of the artist Louis Anquetin (1861-1932).  The name of this painting is "An Elegant Woman at the Elysee Montmartre".  

Anquetin is a French artist who came to Paris to study art. He met artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  The two artist became friends with other artists one of whom was Vincent Van Gogh.  

Anquetin's work seemed to fall behind as other artists embraced the more modern art movements.  He stayed with the more traditional style of the old masters.  He left behind some beautiful works of art.  You can see some of them on his Wikipedia page.  

This painting is now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

On My Wall

 

I have something a little different this week.  This is an original work of art that is hanging on a wall at my house.  I met this artist in Santa Fe New Mexico the last time I was there and his whimsical paintings and books drew my interest the moment I saw them.  I think it's because they spark the seeds of exploration and wanderlust that bubbles inside of me.  The artists name is Jeffrey Schweitzer and he lives and works in Santa Fe.  He has published several small books (I bought one of those too) along with a collections of illustrations. 

Here is one that was on display in his tiny studio inside the lobby of the Inn at Loretto, the hotel where I was staying.  

That little travel trailer reminded me so much of my many travels with my family when I was growing up.  My family traveled for many years with a travel trailer staying at beautiful and interesting places all over the United States and Canada.

Jeffrey has an Instagram site where you can see more of his wonderful works of art. His books are available on Amazon.com.  

Looking at this little painting always makes me want to hit the road once again. 

Out of This World

Here is a painting I didn't expect to see at the Scottsdale Museum of the West.  This was painted by Robert McCall (1919 - 2010) who worked as an illustrator for Life Magazine back in the1960's.  He created promotional materials for many films including Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey.  Later he worked as an artist for NASA.  

This painting is called "Capriccio".  Capriccio is a term used to describe a piece of music, painting or type of art that is whimsical, fancy or fantastical.  This floating city certainly fits that description.