Artists' Most Famous Paintings - Part 2

This post and a previous one deal with the most famous paintings by well-known artists who painted many fine works.

By "most famous," these are judgment calls by Your Faithful Blogger, though I imagine that readers might agree with many of my choices.

Featured below are paintings by Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910), James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009).

Gallery

Paseo a orills del mar (Walk on the Beach) - 1909 by Sorolla
This is my favorite Sorolla painting. It has appeared on the cover of a book about the artist, so I suspect others agree with my opinion. It can be seen in the Madrid museum devoted to him. What attracted me to this work is the depiction of face of his daughter, shown on the right.

Unfinished Portrait of George Washington - 1796 by Stuart
For some reason, for many, many decades this portrait of Washington has been considered the standard depiction of the USA's first president. A version of this pose is on the state seal and state flag of Washington State, where I live. It seems to be a case of being famous because it was always famous.

Seated Demon - 1910 by Vrubel
Vrubel is well-known in Russia. I'm note sure this is his most famous painting, but it is part of a series he made with the demon as the subject, and that series is probably what he is known for.

Whistler's Mother (Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1) - 1871 by Whistler
Another instance of a painting famous because it has always been famous. What is not clear to me is why it became famous in the first place.

Christina's World - 1948 by Wyeth
I think most people would agree that this is Wyeth's most famous painting. I believe it has to do with the mood it evokes via its composition (the subject is a comparatively small element in a relatively featureless background) and its ambiguous psychology (one might wonder what the story here is).

Some Alphonse Mucha Drawings

Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939) is best known for his Art Nouveau era posters. He also made historical paintings, the series of huge Slav Epic works. In addition, he designed objects of various kinds. For me, almost everything he did is interesting.

His lengthy Wikipedia entry is here.

I mostly show paintings in this blog. But for a slight change of pace, the present post features a variety of Mucha's Art Nouveau period drawings.

Gallery

A this 'n' that page.

Metal décor designs.

More designs.

A very preliminary layout study.

"Decorative Figures"

Many of his posters featured a circle as part of the design. This drawing includes a circle to aid in the composition aspect of the proposed work.

Study for Medea poster.

Medea poster.

An elaborate drawing.

Finally, a color drawing -- something apparently rare unless he was working out that aspect of a poster design (which this freestanding figure is not).

Artists' Most Famous Paintings - Part 1

For often inexplicable reasons, some famous artists who painted many outstanding works have a most-famous painting. One that stands out from the rest, not necessarily in terms of excellence.

Just for fun, this post and a following one present some of those famous paintings that come to my mind.

The artists featured here, in alphabetical order, are Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquess of Dalí de Púbol, best known as Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), and Edvard Munch (1863-1944).

Gallery

Paris Street on a Rainy Day - 1877 - by Caillebotte
Maybe it has to do with the daring vertical split at the middle. Or perhaps the mood depicted. Then again, it could be the slightly simplified details that provide a slightly poster-like impression for modern eyes. Let's just say it might be all three possibilities along with a few more intangibles.

The Persistence of Memory - 1931 - by Dalí
My guess is that it was the melting watches and that this was a fairly early Surrealist work by Dalí that generated initial notoriety. The fact that it's part of the New York Museum of Modern Art's collection and usually is on view contributes to its fame. Regardless, when I think of Dalí paintings, this one often comes to mind.

Nighthawks - 1942 - by Hopper
I chalk this painting's fame to the scene being depicted with its contrasts and psychological overtones.  It can make viewers wonder what might have been happening there besides the obvious.

The Kiss - 1908 - by Klimt
All that gilt, the ornamental detailing, the general abstraction of the composition.  But the keys are the in-contrast depictions of fragments of people and the subject action.

The Scream - 1893 - by Munch
It happens that I dislike this painting. As best I can tell, its fame has to do with the popularity of Freudian psychology decades ago and linkages people can make between the two.

Bernard Hailstone, Postwar Portraits

Bernard Hailstone (1910-1987) was essentially a portrait artist whose works from around 1945 and later either contain the very slightest wisp of Modernism or else aren't top-notch depictions in many instances. I don't think much of them. But perhaps you might, hence this post.

His Wikipedia entry is here.

Hailstone painted royalty and other prominent Britons, though his portraits of Royals were for entities with which they were associated, and not the royal collection. Some of his portraits of senior military officers are in the Imperial War Museum collection, as he was a war artist sent as far as Burma.

Gallery

Charles, Prince of Wales - 1977

Princess Anne - c. 1979

Prince Andrew - 1980

Admiral Lord Louis Montbatten

Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports - 1955

Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey - 1946
Dempsey, later promoted to General, was one of the best British generals in World War 2.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park - c. 1946
Park and Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding were the key Royal Air Force commanders during the Battle of Britain. These portraits of Dempsey and Park are decent likenesses, but I find Hailstone's brushwork detracts from what they might have been.

Sir John Barbirolli - 1964
Orchestra conductor.

Sam Johnson, DCM, Docker - 1943
Hailstone made many paintings of dock workers, merchant seamen and such during the early years of the war. This strikes me as a better painting than most of those above.

Portrait of a girl
A pleasing oil sketch, though her forehead seems a bit off. Ditto her hairdo.

Loading Aeroplane Parts for Overseas - c.1943
An example of his wartime non-portrait work.

George Bridgman, Teacher of Anatomy Drawing

George Brandt Bridgman (1864-1943) was born someplace in Ontario (the links below are vague about just where) and spent most of his career teaching anatomy at New York City's Art Student's League. There are several books he authored and illustrated that remain in print.

A useful summary of his career is here, and his Wikipedia entry is brief but has a long list of artists who studied under him.

Those former students include: McClelland Barclay, Will Eisner, Lee Krasner, Andrew Loomis, Paul Manship, John Cullen Murphy and Norman Rockwell. For a while Rockwell served as his classroom assistant, as the first link mentions.  Bridgman was a student of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts  in Paris.

Below are images of his drawings found here and there on the Internet. Bridgman favored a structural approach to anatomy featuring masses and some geometry.

Gallery

Leonard Campbell Taylor: Ladies with Puffy Skirts and Other Paintings

Leonard Campbell Taylor (1874-1969) was a member of the Royal Academy who painted in a somewhat painstaking representational style that was going out of fashion even as his career was starting. His Wikipedia entry is here.

Below are examples of his paintings up into the early 1930s. Most feature women and interiors. Not included here are his landscape paintings and illustrations made while serving as a war artist during the Great War. I haven't found examples dated from 1935 to his death, so I do not know if he ever adjusted his style to suit changing artistic fashions.

Gallery

Meditation - 1899

Patience - 1906

The Rain it Raineth Every Day - 1906

Japanese Prints, or The Portfolio - c.1907

Summer Afternoon (An Interior, Lord Birkenhead Seated) - 1913

Chess

Romsey Abbey

The Hall

Queen Mary - 1928

The Sampler - 1931-32
At this date, he seems to have decided to use retro subject matter along with retro style.

Restaurant Car - (London, Midland and Scottish Railway poster artwork) - c.1935
Judging by the woman's clothing, I think this was painted in the late 1920s or 1930, and not the date found on the Internet with the image.