Léon Bakst's Fine Arts Work

Léon Bakst (1866-1924) is best known for his stage and costume design work. But he also managed to do some Fine Art painting, the subject of this post.

Biographical information on Bakst can be found here and here. An image search on the Internet will turn up mostly the theater related images he created, so take a look if you're not familiar with this.

As can be seen below, Bakst was both talented and versatile. His style tended to have a whiff of Modernism in that some (but not much) simplification and sketchiness are introduced.  But some of his paintings are traditional in both spirit and technique: note the Countess Keller portrait below. The most Modernist work is the Lido scene that was auctioned for around half a million pounds. The auction site considered it either a study or an unfinished painting, so it is possible that Bakst planned to add more detail at some point.

The painting that intrigues me the most is the portrait of Rachel Strong, at the bottom. The composition is unconventional in that she is placed left of center and, furthermore, is gazing off the the left side of the painting. This is balanced by the tree trunks bending to the right which make the composition more or less work.

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Dmitry Filosof - 1897

Alexander Benois - 1898

Countess M. Keller - 1902

The Luncheon (The Supper) - 1902

Sergei Diaghilev and his Nanny - 1905

Bathers at the Lido - c.1911

Willa Cather - 1923

Rachel Strong (future Comtess Henri de Boisgelin) - 1924

Wallace Herndon Smith: 1930s Semi-Modernist

Wallace Herndon Smith (1901-1990) lived much of his life in St. Louis, Missouri, but managed to attend all the right schools (Lawrenceville School, Princeton University, École des Beaux-Arts) and have a career in architecture (for a while) and (mostly) painting. Better yet, his artistic life involved no desperate existential struggles. That was because he was born to riches. A biographical sketch is here and a link to a published biography is here.

Apparently Smith is a subject of some regard in his native St. Louis, but not elsewhere. I suspect that is because he wasn't a very good artist.

I wrote a book that focused on the painting scene between the world wars (see link in the panel to the right). Basically that era was one of confusion and indecision. Avant-garde artists had almost completely exhausted the possibilities of anti-traditional painting, whereas many other artists felt they had to come to terms with Modernism, but usually were not sure how best to do this. The result tended to be sketchy paintings with distorted subjects and perspective, often using flat areas of sometimes distorted color.

Smith took up painting in the late 1920s, going along with this halfhearted Modernist approach. The results were generic works that I find lacking in skill and personality. In closing, I need to confess that I don't like paintings of this kind by more acclaimed painters. It's to some degree a matter of my personal taste regarding style. Anyway, below are many of the few examples of Smith's works that I could find on the Internet.

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Street Scene, France

Venice Scene

Landscape with Factory

Harbour Springs, Michigan

Paris, Early Morning - 1950s

Guanajuato - early 1970s

Louis Anquetin: Post-Impressionist Shooting Star

Louis Anquetin (1861-1932) seems to have had access to money for much or all of his life, and turned away from modernism and perhaps a potentially greater degree of notoriety in the Art Establishment historical timeline wherein modernism trumps all else. In any case, his career as an exhibiting painter was largely over by 1900.

As this Wikipedia entry and this biographical sketch (with some odd spellings of some names) indicate, Anquetin was in the thick of Post-Impressionism, knowing van Gogh and Lautrec well and helping launch Cloisonnisme, a style featuring dark outlines surrounding areas of flat or nearly flat colors.

As the second link mentions, Anquetin never developed a consistent personal style, something I've been noting with regard to some other painters. But some of his paintings and pastels are very good, which accounts for a renewal of interest in his work -- one of his paintings was even on display at the Musée d'Orsay when I was last there. Let's see what he was up to.

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Femme dans la rue
This was on display at the d'Orsay. A ghostly image not typical of Anquetin.

Dans la rue - 1891
Another street scene. He seems to have painted a lot of these: more follow below.

Femme aux Champs-Élysée, la nuit - c.1891

Promenade - 1892

Deux Élégants - 1889

Juliette, ou Femme au chapeau - 1890

Au Moulin Rouge - 1893
As mentioned, Anquetin and Toulouse-Lautrec were good friends and haunted the same sites. This is Anquetin's take on dancing at the Moulin Rouge -- similar to Lautrec's, but less sketchy.

Avenue de Clichy a cinq heurs du soir - 1887
I haven't seen this in person. But based on reproductions, it's my favorite Anquetin work.

Lili Garnier - 1929
The only example I could find on the web of a late painting.

Anders Zorn in San Francisco

I've been wanting to see paintings by the great Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920) for several years, but only came across a few of them here and there. In fact, I'd pretty well resigned myself to hoping that I'd finally get to visit Sweden and then convince my wife that we seriously had to rent a car and drive up to Zorn's home town of Mora, which has a museum devoted to him.

The wheels of artistic justice grind slowly but truly, so a Zorn exhibit took place in Boston earlier this year (which I missed). Then another exhibit opened in San Francisco in November, which I was able to visit. It runs through 2 February 2014, and I strongly urge you to see it if you are going to be in the Bay Area before then.

I wrote about Zorn's non-portrait painting here, so now I'll mostly cover the portrait work I saw at the exhibit (which includes a good cross-section of his etchings, watercolors, outdoor nudes and other examples from his prolific career).

One thing I noticed when finally seeing some of his most famous paintings in person: Zorn often painted freely -- or gave that impression. Actually, his brush strokes were carefully pondered, but the final effect is free. Few lines are present. Instead, he used areas of color to form images. He also softened many edges, this providing some contrast to stronger, more visible brushwork.

These effects are present on his subjects' faces, the part of the portrait that usually is reserved for the most crisp painting. In fact, Zorn's portraits usually don't sharpen up until the viewer is standing about 12 feet (4 m) away or else is looking at comparatively small reproductions such as on a computer screen or in a book.

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Self-Portrait - 1896
This shows him with his famous "Zorn Palette" of four colors. Most of his paintings I saw were in good condition, but I noticed some cracking in this one, especially in the dark area above Zorn's head.

Self-Portrait - 1915

Midsummer Dance - 1897
Not a portrait, this is one of Zorn's most famous paintings. I was especially pleased to be able to see it in person.

Reveille, Boulevard Clichy - 1892
This is a watercolor painting.

Omnibus - first version - 1891-92
The link to my previous Zorn post has both versions of "Omnibus." This one seems to be more of a study than the second version, because it seems pretty sketchy even though it's fairly large.

Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice - 1894
Another well-known Zorn painting. This reproduction looks much sharper than the actual painting, an effect I mentioned above.

Elizabeth Sherman Cameron - 1900
Zorn's handling of the gown is very free: reminds me of some of John Singer Sargent's portraits.

Grover Cleveland - 1899
The former President of the United States. Those books near his right hand are indicated by just a few broad brush strokes, but look convincing here (or if standing 12 feet away from the painting).

Mrs Potter Palmer - 1893
The background in the original painting is slightly darker than in this reproduction, making the effect even more smashing. This impact is enhanced because the painting is large: 101 inches (258 cm) high. You really need to see this one in person to appreciate it.

Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish Polymath

Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907) was born in Kraków (then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire) and died there 38 years later of the effects of syphilis. According to this Wikipedia biographical entry, he was given great honors at his funeral and this respect continues in Poland, as confirmed by this page on the National Museum site.

Wyspiański mostly worked in pastels, but used other media at times. Besides art, he also wrote poetry and plays, doing all this at as fast a pace as he could manage in his last years, knowing he was doomed to an early death.

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Self-Portrait - 1894

Self-Portrait - 1907
The 1907 drawing was done not long before Wyspiański died.

Jozef Mehoffer - 1898
Mehoffer was another artist with Kraków roots.

Dagny (Juel) Przybyszewska - 1898 or 1899
Juel led a short, wild life, as can be read here.

Eliza Parenska - 1902

Elizy Pareńskiej - 1905
I assume this is the same woman, painted three years apart.

Motherhood - 1902

Motherhood - 1905
Here he elaborates on an earlier drawing.

Władysława Ordon-Sosnowska - 1903

Władysława Ordon-Sosnowska - alternative colors - 1903
Most of the images I found in Google Images have colors as in the first image. But the lower image seems more natural. I suppose numbers prevail, but thought I'd present both points of view.

Caritas - 1904
Cartoon for a proposed stained glass window (never executed).

Marine Museum and Marin-Marie Too

Paris seems packed full of museums. A tourist who has visited the town a few times is advised (by me) to devote several hours a day to being simply a flâneur, one who strolls the rues and boulevards instead of rushing from museum to famous site to yet another museum. Even so, it can be worthwhile to drop below Paris' layer of world-class museums from time to time. If you happen to be interested in history, naval history or simply ships, a nice place to visit is the Musée National de la Marine, located a few steps from where one views the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro area. Its Wikipedia entry is here and its website is here.

A visitor will find decorative bits from old sailing ships, an early diver's suit, paintings dealing with seafaring and naval warfare, plus many, many models of ships. Below are some photos of ship models along with some paintings. These subjects were behind protective screens, so I wasn't able to avoid some reflections appearing.

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The models are of French vessels only, as best I could tell.

At the top are models of some of France's last battleships, the Dunkerque and the Jean Bart.

A variety of naval types.

Pre-Great War battleships.

A few displays dealt with old shipyards and ship construction.

Among the artists featured was Marin-Marie, who I wrote about here. The images below are from two paintings dealing with arctic exploration ship Pourquoi-Pas (the "Why Not?"). I have a soft spot for nice brushwork, and Marin-Marie certainly accomplished that in these paintings made during World War 2, long after the Pourquoi-Pas was destroyed in a storm with only one man surviving.

"Le Pourqui-Pas dans le Soresby Sund en 1925" (detail) - 1943

"Le Pourqui-Pas à Jan Mayen en 1926" (detail) - 1943

Short-Lived Henri Evenepoel

I suppose I could have lumped this post into my "In the Beginning" series because all we have of the works of Henri Evenepoel (1872-1899) were painted when he was age 27 or younger. As you can see by his dates, Evenepoel's career ended (by disease) before he had the opportunity to progress beyond the usual "beginning" period for an artist. That's too bad, because the paintings that he did make are interesting, and he clearly had real potential as a representational modernist, had his course continued in that direction.

Evenepoel was a Belgian who spent most of his career in Paris. A short Wikipedia entry about him is here.

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Le chapeau blanc (Louise de Mey) - 1897

Photo (by Evenepoel) of Louise de Mey at Wépion - Summer, 1897
It seems that Louise was Evenepoel's cousin and married with two children. That did not prevent them from falling in love and producing a son. This matter and its effect on his art are dealt with here and, especially, here.

L'homme en rouge, ou Portrait du peintre Paul Baignières - 1894

Het Loopmeisje (The Errand Girl)

De Spanja, Francisco Itturino - 1899

Orange Market, Blidah - 1898

Foire aux Invalides - 1897