The Princess looks into that which she should not have done., from Mother Hildegarde, part of The Wonder Clock, a collection of new fairy tales with pen and ink illustration by Howard Pyle. I don’t know the size of location of the original (though I can hope it’s in the collection of the Brandywine River Museum). Image sourced from this page on the Art & Artists blog. Pyle was famous for his illustrations of great American adventure stories by prominent authors, but he was an author himself. He wrote and illustrated a wonderful collection of 24 new (at the time) fairy tales, one for each ..read more

Day Dreams, George Clausen, oil on canvas; roughly 27 x 60 inches (70 x 152 cm). Link is to the image file page on Wikimedia Commons. Their source is a 2007 Sotheby’s auction, so I assume the original is currenty in a private collection. In this idyllic rural scene by the British painter George Clausen, we can see his admiration for the French painter Jules Bastien-Lepage who was roughly his contemporary. Both painters idealized the lives of farm workers; and both painted with a particularly subtle sensitivity to value relationships ..read more

Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema (née Epps) was a British painter active in the late 19th cenntury who was evidently fascinated with Dutch 17th century genre painting, notably the works of Vermeer and De Hooch. She apparently did not have formal training and likely received most of her instruction from her husband, noted Victorian painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who she met when she was 17, and he an established artist at 33. Laura acted as a stepmother to Lawrence’s daughters, including Anna Alama-Tadema, who became a skilled painter in watercolor ..read more

  The Omval, Rembrandt van Rijn, etching and drypoint, roughly 7 x 9 inches (19×23 cm); this printing is in the collection of the Metropolitan museum of Art, which has both a zoomable and downloadable version of the image. Rembrandt was, in my opinion, the greatest master of etching and drypoint in history. Though many of his etchings were of a religious nature, here he has fun with a naturalistic riverfront scene. The Omval is the name for a well-known spot along the Amstel River. A glorious tree dominates the scene; behind it we see sailboats and what appears to be a passenger ferry on ..read more

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Most of these were sourced from this page on Wikimedia Commons. I think the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced an extraordinary bounty of wonderful paintings. (Images above, links are to my articles: Charles Edward Perugini, Emil Zschimmer, Olga Boznańska, Peder Mørk Mønsted, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, John Singer Sargent, Vincent van Gogh, Joaquín Sorolla ..read more

Annie Haden, James McNeill Whistler, drypoint, roughly 19 x 13 inches (35 x 21 cm). This printing of the plate is in the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, which has both a zoomable and downloadable version of the file. (The museum has a collection of Whistler’s work, presumably in his role as an American artist who took much interest in and inspiration from Asian art, design and culture.) I’ve taken the liberty of lightening the image somewhat, so you can see the details better. This is one of several etchings and drypoints Whistler made of his neice, Annie Haden, at verious ages. Th ..read more

Ann Lofquist is a Massachusssetts based painter who paints in oil, both plen air and studio works. She takes as her subjects streams, fields, farms, woods and at times mountains. These are often handled in a cinematic ratio or even more severly horizontal proportions. I find her work particualry appealing for all of the factors I mention above. Her paintings have a distinct and naturalistic feeling of place, time, atmosphere and light. I can’t find a dedicated website or blog for Lofquist, but her work can currently be seen in a solo show at the Gross McCleaf Gallery here in Philadelphia. Th ..read more

Autumn Market at Les Halles, Marie-François Firmin-Girard; oil on canvas, roughly 33 x 46″ (83 x 117 cm). Link is to page on Wikimedia Commons, with access to high-res file. Original is in a private collection. 19th century French painter Marie-François Firmin-Girard (alternately, François-Marie Firmin-Girard) worked in a naturalistic, often highly detailed manner that carried forward traditional values and resisted the influence of the Impressionists that eventually swayed many of his contemporaries. Here, he provides an intricate presentation of a bustling Paris market, awash in detail, ye ..read more

Hesperus, the Evening Star, Sacred to Lovers, Joseph Noel Paton; oil on millboard, roughly 36 x 27 inches (91 x 69 cm). Link it to zoomable image on Art Renewal. There is a larger downloadable file on Arthive. Though not actually a member of the group, Scottish painter Joseph Noel Paton was loosely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, and was a friend of Millais. Hesperus, in Greek mythology, is the personification of Venus as the Evening Star, which we see through the tree branches above the lovers. My experience with Pre-Raphaelite and other Victorian paintings makes me believe there is sy ..read more