Painting Expressions

Two Sisters (On the Terrace) 1881 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) Art Institute of Chicago Details of the faces  

San Salvador, the flagship of the first European fleet to enter the San Diego Bay, September 28, 1542 with the expedition leader, Spanish conquistador Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo. The two other ships were La Victoria and San Miguel, the smallest ship. Cabrillo named the bay San Miguel. He had departed from Porta de Navida, Mexico on June 27, 1542. They had anchored off  Point Loma on the evening of September 27th in sight of the watch fires. The next evening they entered the bay with a storm approaching. Contact with natives was established and they departed on October 3rd. Historians believe he anchored his flagship, the San Salvador, on Point Loma's east shore near the land that becomes Cabrillo National Monument.   (My watercolor C1156, April 13, 2021, with Point Loma, their landing location.)

Landscape with a river in the distance and bay, 1835, William Turner. Louvre Museum Painter of Light His watercolors Before 1750, maritime areas hardly attracted other than sailors; Then a process of familiarization to which the success of the great over-land voyages and the development of West European merchant navies contribute. A growing number of doctors prescribe a stay at the sea for its salty air and cold baths. The sea attracts romantics, melancholics and all "those who, for fear of the miasma, come to rub shoulders with the foam". This new attraction is reflected in 19th century painting. The observer likes to let his eye wander, get lost in these infinite expanses that no visual limit limits. William Turner's painting evokes a desire to escape. Its simple palette animates with shimmers and vibrations an amphibious landscape where the earth, the sea and the sky, indistinct surfaces, interpenetrate within a deliberately unstructured composition. Meanders, wet sand...

Mary Cassatt's 'A woman and a girl driving' YouTube commentary A Cup of Tea, 1880, the model is her sister Lydia Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly 1880

  Lina Cavalieri (December 25, 1874 - February 7, 1944) was an Italian operatic soprano.    She became one of the most photographed stars of her time. Frequently referred to as the "world's most beautiful woman," she was part of the tightlacing tradition that saw women use corsetry to create an "hourglass" figure. YouTube - Movie Legend pictures My watercolor sketch of Lina Lena Cavalieri by the Italian artist, Giovanni Boldoni Vittorio Matteo Corcos,  oil painting

  A Parisian Beggar Girl, 1880 The model in "A Parisian Beggar Girl" (left side) is said to be Carmela Bertagna, a humble Parisian girl (right side). But are these two models the same person? The paintings were done about the same time. The hair styles are identical. At first glance I thought no, but looking closer maybe yes. What do you think?  "A Parisian Beggar Girl", 1880, The Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago "Carmela Bertagna", 1880, Columbus Museum of Art Carmela Bertagna, c.1879, oil on canvas, 59.7 x 49.5 (23.5 x 19.5 in.), inscribed upper L: à mon ami Poirson; upper R: John S. Sargent; lower L: Carmela Bertagna/rue du/16 Maine. Bequest F.W. Schumacher. The picture’s history is muddled by the sitter’s questioned identity (a professional model, possibly Carmela B.), its stylistic clues (no later than 1880), diverse inscriptions (to later friends) and exactly from whom it was acquired before it was given to the Columbus Museum of Fine Arts. (by ...

"Cashmere", 1908, John Singer Sargent, The painting is of Sargent's niece, Reine Ormond, in an exotic cashmere shawl in seven different poses. Reine Ormond would have been about 11 years old.   Shawls came to be considered the exclusive domain of married women.  Two Girls Fishing,  1912  A painting of Sargent's two nieces: Rose-Marie and Reine Ormond, during their trip to the French Alps in 1912 when, according to the Cincinnati Art Museum, they all were staying in the village of Abriès. The two girls are perched on the side of an eddy from the cold snow-melt of a mountain stream. They sit crouched, partly on rocks, in the quiet contemplation of fishing. The pose is so organic to any family trip --  you can sense its honesty.  Drawn into its participation, as if WE, the viewer, are the girls' uncle. Each, presumably, had Sargent bait their hook, and can't you feel their calmness knowing that he's right there painting them from the grassy bank behi...