Molti Ritratti: Empress Eugénie of France

María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick, 19th Countess of Teba, 16th Marchioness of Ardales (1826-1920), known as Eugénie de Montijo, was empress of France 1853-1870.   She was the wife of Napoleon III.  Her Wikipedia entry is here.

She lived in the age of photography, but also had painted portraits made.  Her favorite artist seems to have been Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873), who specialized in portraits of royalty and the social well-to-do.

Below are some portraits of her, most by Winterhalter.  Many of the dates are speculative, though approximate, due to lack of information from Internet sources.

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By Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Eugénie - c.1853
Probably painted around the time she became Empress.

Eugénie - c.1855
She had odd-looking eyes that challenged painters who wanted to paint flattering depictions.

The Empress Eugénie surrounded by her ladies in waiting - 1855

Eugénie - 1857
This reminds me of 18th century paintings of French royalty in the countryside.

Eugénie - c.1860
A profile view eliminated most of the eye problem.

Eugénie - c.1862

By Others

Photo: Eugénie and her family - c.1858
Her son Louis, Prince Imperial, was killed by Zulus while serving as a British army officer.

Eugénie by Edouard Boutibonne - c.1855

Eugénie by Edouard-Louis Dubufe - c.1858
Again, those eyes.

Eugénie by Edouard-Louis Dubufe - 1861

Robert Vonnoh, American Impressionist of Sorts

Robert William Vonnoh (1858-1933) is classified as an American Impressionist in his Wikipedia entry, and I used that in the title of this post.  As best I can tell from what I've read (not being any kind of authority regard Impressionism), American Impressionist art is more structured, less wispy, than high French Impressionism (think Claude Monet).  And so it was with Vonnoh, some of whose works seem hardly Impressionist at all.

Until recently, I had never heard of him.  Which is sad, because he was very competent.  On the other hand, I don't think of his work as being outstanding: no painting stands out, his style was not distinctive.

Below are examples of his work.

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Margaret French - 1913
I came across Vonnoh while visiting Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in June.  Chesterwood was where sculptor Daniel Chester French lived and worked.  Above is my iPhone photo of a display case.  The painting of the woman in red is by French, the subject being his daughter Margaret.  The painting to its left is by Vonnoh, also of Margaret French.

Daniel Chester French - c.1913
Here is Vonnoh's portrait of French, who his best known for his seated Abraham Lincoln sculpture in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

Bessie Potter Vonnoh - 1907
Portrait of Vonnoh's wife, herself a sculptor of small works.

Bessie Potter Vonnoh at Her Dressing Table - 1912
A later portrayal of Bessie.

In Flanders Field (Coquelicots) - 1890
According to Wikipedia, this is Vonnoh's best known painting.

Beside the River (Grez) - 1890
I like this one better due to its composition and colors.

Grez scene
Painted on a somber day, it seems.

The Ring - 1892
In the American Impressionist style.

Ellen Axson Wilson and Her Daughters - 1913
This later interior scene lacks broken colors aside, perhaps, from the vegetation.

At the Helm (Edward Dale Toland) - c.1926
A late work.  Only the background hints of Impressionism.

Molti Ritratti: Georges Clemenceau

Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (1841-1929) was French Prime Minister 1906-09 and 1917-20.  As his Wikipedia entry mentions, he led a long, active life.  Besides being a politician, he had a medical degree and practiced journalism.  He is best known to history for his premiership during the Great War and the postwar Versailles Conference.

Many photographs of Clemenceau exist, but few painted portraits.  Most of that latter that I am aware of were made by well-known artists, as can be seen below.

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Clemenceau by Édouard Manet - 1880
In some ways little more than sketch, Manet skillfully suggests the shape of Clemenceau's head and main facial features.

Clemenceau by Nadar - date unknown, probably late 1870s
Nadar was a famous photographer.

Clemenceau by Eugène Carrière - c.1889
Done in Carriére's distinctive style.  Like the Manet portrait, this is simple, yet a convincing likeness.

Clemenceau - c.1910

Clemenceau by John Christen Johansen - 1919
The American portrait artist Johansen was commissioned to paint the Versailles Conference.  That involved making a number of paintings of major men of the time.  I do not know how many of these subjects actually posed for Johansen, as some of these portraits resemble previous portraits by others or earlier photographs such as are juxtaposed here.  That said, Johansen's paintings show Clemenceau as being clearly older than in the photo, so perhaps he was at least able to observe and sketch Clemenceau if in fact no posing occurred.

Clemenceau and Lt. General John J. Pershing - c.1918
How Clemenceau appeared when Prime Minister during the war.

Clemenceau by Cecilia Beaux - 1920
Beaux was one of America's leading portrait artists.  Like the works by Manet and Carrière above, this painting is more sketchy than finished.

John Christen Johansen, Early 1900s American Portrait Artist

John Christen Johansen (1876-1964), brief Wikipedia entry here, was a successful American portrait artist during the early decades of the 20th century.  However, he is not well known today.

I need to mention that as of mid-July when this post was drafted, his Wikipedia entry was flawed.  A short, better biographical sketch is here.

It seems that Johansen originally painted landscapes before focusing on portraits of men -- probably a more lucrative artistic pursuit.  Most of the examples I found on the Web were works related to his commission to portray the 1919 Versailles conference that concluded the Great War.  These portraits tended to be competently made, though their colors were rather drab.

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Woodrow Wilson study (cropped) - c. 1919
This was used as cover art for a recent biography of Wilson.  I like the way Johansen blocked in Wilson's head and facial structure.

Daniel Chester French - 1925
He painted several portraits of his Stockbridge, Massachusetts summertime neighbor who is best known for sculpting the seated Lincoln in the Washington DC Lincoln Memorial.

Signing of the Treaty of Versailles - 1919
What he was sent to France to portray.

Georges Clemenceau - 1919
French wartime Prime minister.

Marechal Joseph Joffre - 1919
Joffre, now a Marshal of France, led French armies during the first years of the Great War.  His most important accomplishment was realizing that his prewar Plan XVII was a failure, then repositioning his forces to defeat the German armies in the Battle of the Marne in early September 1914.

General Joseph Joffre by Henri Jacquier - 1915
Similar pose to Johansen's, though details differ.  I have no idea if there was any connection between these two works.

Generale Amade Diaz - 1919
Diaz assumed command of Italy's army after failures by his predecessor and was successful against German and Austro-Hungarian forces.

Henry Clay Frick - n.d., presented to the Frick Collection in 1943
Probably painted circa 1910.

Interiors - 1925
Like the Versailles scene above, Johansen often liked his subjects low, below tall windows.  Note the brighter coloring than the portraits above.

Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians by M. Jean McLane - 1921
M. Jean McLane (1878-1964), Wikipedia entry here, was Johansen's wife and also a portrait artist.

Alexey Lipatov's Dieselpunk Illustrations

Airship Persephone
Alexey Lipatov is a Ukrainian illustrator from (or in) Dnieper (Dnipro).  I can't be more precise or add any further information about him because I could find none during a casual Web search.

Lipatov's illustration style is competent, but not particularly distinctive.  He is versatile in subject matter, though most of his production that I came across was in the Fantasy and Dieselpunk subject categories.

Featured here are some Dieselpunk examples.  That's because I have a mild, unexplainable interest in Dieselpunk and Steampunk.  Lipatov's illustrations are light, good-humored.  You might fancy them too.  Titles are either mine or what I saw on the Web.  Click on the images to enlarge somewhat.

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Girl Mechanic
Perhaps a spoof on Soviet-era propaganda posters.

Seaplane and Girl
Sort of a mid-1930s airplane with a Daffy Duck emblem.

Full Moon
Note the two machine guns on the floatplane's nose.

Bomber
Inspired by some early-1930s Soviet, German and French aircraft.

Arrival in Utopia
A touch of Film Noir.  What might the lady be carrying in that violin case?

Hovercraft Photo Shoot
Lipatov made several drawings featuring fantasy hovercraft.

Plane and Pilot
A late-1930s kind of aircraft, though the motors are too small to give it sprightly performance.

Wilkommen
That appears to be an actual Dornier Do X seaplane in the background -- not a Lipatov invention..

Albert Henry Collings, British Portrait Artist

Albert Henry Collings (1868-1947) is yet another British portrait artist appearing in this blog.  Given that I've written around 1,400 posts, I'm not willing to go back through them and make a count -- but I've posted about plenty of them.  Even in the age of photography, they somehow eked out a living despite all the competition.

There isn't much Internet biographical information on Collings, so his Wikipedia entry will have to do for now.

Collings' subjects seem to have been mostly women.  He painted non-portrait work, but the interesting examples I found are not quite safe for viewing in an office setting.  These can probably be found via an Internet search engine.

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Victoria ('Via') Florence de Burgh Long, Lady Gibbs - 1908
This is the earliest painting I can document: he was about 40 at the time.

Blue and Gold Dress

Buccaneer

Kimono and Kylin - 1917
Women posing wearing kimonos was an artistic fashion in those days.

Miss Melhursh

Portrait of a Lady
Striking lady strikingly painted.

Yasmin
She modeled for Collings more than once.  I think she is the woman in the previous image and perhaps in "The Blue and Gold Dress" above..

Woman with hat and veil
Might be a Great War widow,

King George VI in Coronation Robes
A number of artists made similar paintings.  I'm not sure if His Majesty posed for Collings or if photographs were used.  The king's height seems slightly exaggerated.

The Studio Mirror - 1929
Based on what Google image searches turned up, this might be Collings' best-known work.  The model might be Yasmin.