Can you believe it? It's the 500th anniversay of Raphael's death today

René Magritte

René Magritte was a Belgian artist – he was born at the end of the 19^th century and died in 1967. His mother died by her own hand when he was just 13.

His art is described as surrealist. To me this means that his paintings are sort of dreamy and unreal but real at the same time.

The painting at the top of this post is called The Son of Man – it is supposed to be a self portrait.  I think that the apple is a biblical reference but haven't found any authority that suggests this. You can just see part of his eyes peeking over the apple.  This work was done in 1946 – just after the war.

The Human Condition II (1935) features a painting within a painting – but the image and the painting merge pretty much seamlessly.  I have no idea what the dark ball is about.

I'll finish off with this weird one called The Therapist  - it looks like a man at the seaside hiding from the sun with a birdcage on his knee.  But to me his entire middle is replaced by the cage. There are 2 birds – one in the cage and one outside it.  Any ideas?

Ambrosius Benson – Young Woman in Orison Reading Book of Hours

I came across this painting on a blog I follow (Girl with Her Head in a Book).  I think the picture is really engaging.  The artist was unknown to me.

Ambrosius Benson was an Italian painter in the early 16^th century. Benson doesn't seem to be a particularly Italian name.  He did move to what is now Belgium.

He was one of the very first artists to feature women reading in his art.

The title refers to Book of Hours – this is usually an illuminated devotional manuscript.  And Orison is an old word for Prayer.

Isabella by Millais

Today's painting dates back  to the 1840's .  The painter, Millais, was part of the Pre-Raphaelites.  You can see that he has put "PRB" on the seat on which Isabella is sitting – this stands for the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The painting is based on the gory story of Lorenzo and Isabella – Lorenzo is the chap extending his rather shapely leg towards Isabella – a bit weird!  But Isabella's dress is just fabulous.

Millais used his friends and family to model for the scene.  He sold the painting to a tailor in return for a suit of clothes and £150 – a lot of money, I guess, in those days.

Cubism

Cubism was an art style that developed from 1907 in France.  Cubist paintings are often very difficult to understand.  The artist takes a subject and then deconstructs it.

Picasso was the first cubist.  The first cubist painting he did was Les Demoiselles d'Avignon – the figures have been simplified to an extreme degree.  This painting took his art off in a bold new direction.

The work was not like by the critics or even other artists.  There was one other artist, though, who saw the potential in cubism – Georges Braque – who then worked in partnership with Picasso to develop cubism.  Braque was an ex-fauvist.

This painting is Houses at L'Estaque by Braque – it is a landscape simplified into geometric shapes.  The painter Matisse didn't think much of it and said that it was just made up of small cubes – and this is how Cubism got its name!

Cubism wasn't actually a very good name for it – because the art style is not about showing three dimensions (like cubes) but was very much two dimensional.

 

This painting is Violin and Palette done in 1909 by Braque.  You can see the violin at the bottom and an artist's palette at the top.  The violin is broken up into several pieces and then loosely re-assembled.  You can see it from several angles all at once.

All this change in art was happening around the same time that Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity.  The theory and existence of a fourth dimension was well known to Picasso and Braque and was the subject of much debate.

 

Other artists picked up on the new style – like Juan Gris.  The pic above is of his Still Life with Flowers (1912) – this painting has a guitar in it that is almost unrecognisable.

Cubism was an important waypoint on the way to Abstract Art.

To help viewers understand his work Picasso started to add words to it – this was new territory for the art world.  Amazing that it was so new given how important words are in the works of so many modern artists!  The painting above is Ma Jolie (1911-12) by Picasso.

Picasso and Braque then started incorporating mass manufactured items into their work – a sort of collage approach.  Yet another major innovation!

And then they went to 3 dimensional collage – see Guitar (1912)

Cubism only lasted about a decade but its influence on subsequent art was just immense.

Degas

La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans

Another really famous artist for you today – Degas.  It's just as well he is usually identified just by surname since his first name was Hilaire-Germain-Edgar!  For some reason, he was just called Edgar.  He was born in Paris in 1834. 

 Therese – the painter's sister

He came from a well off family and was the oldest of 5 children.  His mother died when he was just 13 years old.

 

Dance class 1871

Two Dancers Resting

Degas never married.  He is famous for his ballet scenes – he did over 600 works about ballet! 

  Race Horses 1866

He also did works about horses at the racetrack.

Trotting Horse

He not only painted but he sculpted – guess what – horses and dancers of course!

Edmond Duranty 1879

 He also painted a lot of nude women – which you can Google to see if you want.

Portrait of a Young Woman 1867

Degas died at the age of 64 before the end of WWI.  His grave is in Montmartre Cemetery.