Traductorado de Inglés

Subject: Culture and Art I

Course: 1° 1°

Date: September 10, 2024

Students: Campanini, Ana Paula

Diaz, Lara

Marelli, Anghelina

Morelli, Maela
 Summary of contents

● Realism
● Portraits
● Painters: Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Van Eyck, William Henry Brooke and Vicent Van
Gogh.
● Paintings: “Portrait of Susanna Lunden ('Le Chapeau de Paille')” by Peter Paul
Rubens; “The Arnolfini Portrait” by Jan Van Eyck; “William Brooke, 10th Lord
Cobham with His Family” by The Master of the Countess of Warwick; “Portrait of
Joseph Roulin” by Vicent Van Gogh.
● Bibliography

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About Realism

Realism refers to a mid nineteenth century artistic movement characterized by subjects

painted from everyday life in a naturalistic manner. However, the term is also generally used
to describe artworks painted in a realistic and almost photographic way.

Until the nineteenth century, Western art was dominated by the academic theory of History
Painting and High art (grand manner). Artistic conventions governed style and subject
matter, resulting in artworks that often appeared artificial and removed from real life. Then,
the development of naturalism began to go hand in hand with increasing emphasis on
realism of subject, meaning subjects outside the high art tradition. (Author, year)

Source: Tate. (n.d.). Realism | Tate. Tate. (n.d.). Realism | Tate.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/r/realism

The style arose as a reaction against the highly stylized art genres of the time, such as
Romanticism and Neoclassicism. Instead of presenting the world through a romanticized or
idealized perspective, the Realist movement tried to depict the world as it actually is, with a
focus on the lives of ordinary people, with sometimes unflinchingly “ugly” portrayals of real
life for most of society. The technological and scientific achievements of the time, as well as
the political and social shifts in Europe, influenced this new approach to art.

Realism is recognized as the first modern movement in art, which rejected traditional forms
of art, literature, and social organization as outmoded in the wake of the Enlightenment and
the Industrial Revolution. Beginning in France in the 1840s, Realism revolutionized painting,
expanding conceptions of what constituted art. Working in a chaotic era marked by
revolution and widespread social change, Realist painters replaced the idealistic images and
literary conceits of traditional art with real-life events, giving the margins of society similar
weight to grand history paintings and allegories. Their choice to bring everyday life into their
canvases was an early manifestation of the avant-garde desire to merge art and life, and
their rejection of pictorial techniques, like perspective, prefigured the many 20 th-century
definitions and redefinitions of modernism. Furthermore, Realist painters took aim at the
social mores and values of the bourgeoisie and monarchy upon who patronized the art
market. Though they continued submitting works to the Salons of the official Academy of Art,
they were not above mounting independent exhibitions to definitely show their work. Realism
embraced the progressive aims of modernism, seeking new truths through the
reexamination and overturning of traditional systems of values and beliefs.
Source: Realism movement Overview. (n.d.). The Art Story. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/realism/
(Author, year)

Realism was stimulated by several intellectual developments in the first half of the 19th
century. Among these were the anti-Romantic movement in Germany, with its emphasis on
the common man as an artistic subject; the rise of professional journalism, with its accurate
and dispassionate recording of current events; and the development of photography, with its
capability of mechanically reproducing visual appearances with extreme accuracy. All these
developments stimulated interest in accurately recording contemporary life and society.
(Author, year)

Source: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024, July 30). Realism | History, Definition, & Characteristics. Enc

Realism has evolved over time to embrace a wide variety of styles, techniques, and subject
matter, and it remains a popular and influential art trend today. Realism is an artistic style
that focuses on precisely and truly depicting the world as it actually exists. During the late
18th and early 19th centuries, more stylized and idealized types of art were fashionable,
such as historical and allegorical paintings. Realist artists focused on the regular lives of
common people and paid close attention to detail. This style of painting was distinguished by
its dedication to realism and rejection of idealization and established norms of art and social
organization.
One of the defining aspects of realism was its emphasis on the lives and experiences of
average individuals. This was a departure from previous painting styles, which frequently
depicted historic or heroic individuals, and instead sought to capture the realities of daily life.
This meant that Realist artists frequently opted to depict things that were not normally
deemed worthy of aesthetic attention, such as working-class individuals, rural landscapes,
and urban life. It was a deliberate effort to make art more approachable and understandable
to a broader audience by emphasizing the common man and the everyday life.
(Author, year)

Source: Sonya. (2023, June 14). What is Realism in Art? Definition, Artists, & Examples. Sparks Gallery. https://spark
good

Portraits

Before photography was invented a painted or sculpted portrait was the only way to record a
person's appearance and identity. Portraits were commissioned by wealthy people for a
variety of reasons.

Source: Portraits of the Past - – (National Gallery , year)

They were often made for display in large houses and palaces. People who commissioned
or bought lots of them sometimes built ‘long galleries’ in their houses. The houses of the rich
were full of tapestries and furniture and from the eighteenth century with works of art
collected on Grand Tours of Italy and France.

Well, self- portraits were used to show off status, beliefs, professionalism.

Source: Portraits of the Past - –( National Gallery , year)

Portraits can represent individuals in many different ways. They can be literal
representations of a person or they can represent a person symbolically. Around the time
that these type of paintings were created, a shift in the way artists represented people was
starting to take hold. Rather than just seeking to capture the sitter’s physical appearance,
artists sought to represent his or her character, disposition, and even inner psyche. In order
to represent such subjective and symbolic aspects of their subjects, artists often paid less
attention to capturing precise facial features than to developing new compositional devices,
employing non-naturalistic color and making very specific choices about the background and
what it might reveal about the subject.

Source: Portraiture – (MOMA , year) .

For many centuries artists made a living by painting portraits, and some still do today.
Portraits are popular for two reasons: those portrayed enjoy having their feature recorded for
posterity, and those who look at pictures like finding out what people in the past looked like.
Portraits need not only be of individuals; they also be of groups.

Source: Pictures/Portraits Classification - Looking at Pictures by (S. Woodford. , year)

The role of portraiture has changed. Since the invention of the camera it is no longer
necessary to paint or sculpt to record appearances for posterity. Social changes have made
artists and patrons less interested in displaying

Source: Portraits of the Past - National Gallery

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Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck (1390 - 1441) was a Netherlandish painter who perfected the newly developed
technique of HYPERLINK "https://www.britannica.com/art/oil-painting"oil painting. His
naturalistic panel paintings, mostly portraits and religious subjects, made HYPERLINK
"https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/extensive"extensive use of disguised religious
symbols. His masterpiece is the HYPERLINK
"https://www.britannica.com/topic/altarpiece"altarpiece in the cathedral at HYPERLINK
"https://www.britannica.com/place/Ghent"Ghent, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (also
called the HYPERLINK "https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ghent-Altarpiece"Ghent
Altarpiece, 1432). His brother HYPERLINK
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_van_Eyck"Hubert van Eyck collaborated on Jan's most
famous works, the Ghent Altarpiece, generally art historians believe it was begun c. 1420 by
Hubert and completed by Jan in 1432. Another brother, Lambert, is mentioned in
HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgundian_Netherlands"Burgundian court
documents, and may have overseen his brother's workshop after Jan's death.

Source: Kessler, H. L. (2024, July 19). Jan van Eyck | Biography, Art, Paintings, Arnolfini Portrait, Ghent A
(Encyclopedia Britannica , year) .
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jan-van-Eyck

The surviving records indicate that he was born around 1380 or 1390, in Maaseik (then
Maaseyck, hence his name), Limburg, which is located in present-day Belgium. He took
employment in The Hague around 1422, when he was already a master painter with
workshop assistants, and was employed as painter and valet de chambre to John III the
Pitiless, ruler of the counties of Holland and Hainaut. After John's death in 1425, he was
later appointed as court painter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and worked in Lille
before moving to Bruges in 1429, where he lived until his death. He was highly regarded by
Philip, and undertook a number of diplomatic visits abroad, including to Lisbon in 1428 to
explore the possibility of a marriage contract between the duke and Isabella of Portugal.
Wikipedia contributors. (20, About 20 surviving paintings are confidently attributed to him,
as well as the Ghent Altarpiece and the illuminated miniatures of the Turin-Milan Hours, all
dated between 1432 and 1439. Ten are dated and signed with a variation of his motto ALS
ICH KAN (As I (Eyck) can), a pun on his name, which he typically painted in Greek
characters. Wikipedia contributors. Van Eyck painted both secular and religious subject
matter, including altarpieces, single-panel religious figures and commissioned portraits. His
work includes single panels, diptychs, triptychs, and polyptych panels. He was well paid by
Philip, who sought that the painter was secure financially and had artistic freedom so that he
could paint "whenever he pleased". Van Eyck's work comes from the International Gothic
style, but he soon eclipsed it, in part through a greater emphasis on naturalism and realism.
He achieved a new level of virtuosity through his developments in the use of oil paint. He
was highly influential, and his techniques and style were adopted and refined by the Early
Netherlandish painters. Wikipedia contributors. ,

Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, tempera and oil on oak panel, 82.2 x 60 cm
(National Gallery, London)
The Arnolfini Portrait (or The Arnolfini Wedding, The Arnolfini Marriage, the Portrait of
Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, or other titles) is an oil painting on oak panel by the Early
Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, dated 1434 and now in the National Gallery, London. It
is a full-length double portrait, believed to depict the Italian merchant Giovanni di Nicolao
Arnolfini and his wife, presumably in their residence at the Flemish city of Bruges.

It is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art, because of its
beauty, complex iconography, geometric orthogonal perspective, and expansion of the
picture space with the use of a mirror. According to Ernst Gombrich "in its own way it was as
new and revolutionary as Donatello's or Masaccio's work in Italy. A simple corner of the real
world had suddenly been fixed on to a panel as if by magic... For the first time in history the
artist became the perfect eye-witness in the truest sense of the term". The portrait has been
considered by Erwin Panofsky and some other art historians as a unique form of marriage
contract, recorded as a painting. Signed and dated by van Eyck in 1434, it is, with the Ghent
Altarpiece by the same artist and his brother Hubert, the oldest very famous panel painting
to have been executed in oils rather than in tempera. The painting was bought by the
National Gallery in London in 1842. Wikipedia contributors.

Van Eyck used the technique of applying several layers of thin translucent glazes to create a
painting with an intensity of both tone and colour. The glowing colours also help to highlight
the realism, and to show the material wealth and opulence of Arnolfini's world. Van Eyck
took advantage of the longer drying time of oil paint, compared to tempera, to blend colours
by painting wet-in-wet to achieve subtle variations in light and shade to heighten the illusion
of three-dimensional forms. The wet-in-wet (wet-on-wet)technique, also known as “alla
prima”, was highly utilized by Renaissance painters including Jan van Eyck. The medium of
oil paint also permitted van Eyck to capture surface appearance and distinguish textures
precisely. He also rendered the effects of both direct and diffuse light by showing the light
from the window on the left reflected by various surfaces. It has been suggested that he
used a magnifying glass in order to paint the minute details such as the individual highlights
on each of the amber beads hanging beside the mirror. The illusionism of the painting was
remarkable for its time, in part for the rendering of detail, but particularly for the use of light to
evoke space in an interior. Whatever meaning is given to the scene and its details,
according to Craig Harbison the painting "is the only fifteenth-century Northern panel to
survive in which the artist's contemporaries are shown engaged in some sort of action in a
contemporary interior. It is indeed tempting to call this the first genre painting – a painting of
everyday life – of modern times". Wikipedia contributors.
Jan van Eyck’s equally enigmatic and iconic Arnolfini Portrait often prompts art history
newcomers and experts alike to ask: is the female figure pregnant? The short answer is no.
The illusion is caused because the figure collects her extensive skirts and presses the
excess fabric to her abdomen where it springs outwards and creates a domelike silhouette.
Her hand position is regularly read by modern viewers as a universal acknowledgment of
pregnancy, but in the Renaissance this gesture would have been understood instead as a
sign of adherence to female decorum. Young Renaissance women were encouraged to
keep their hands demurely clasped around their girdles when in public, as this was seen as
polite and unobtrusive. Harris, B. The issue of pregnancy in the Arnolfini Portrait is a
complex one: the figure is not literally pregnant, because painting or sculpting pregnancy
violated the period’s artistic customs—yet pregnancy is nevertheless present in the picture.
Both pregnancy symbolism and expectation are at play within the painting. Harris, B. (n.d.).

Jan Van Eyck, Hands (detail), The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, tempera and oil on oak panel,
82.2 x 60 cm (National Gallery, London)

It is thought that the couple is already married because of the woman's headdress. A non-
married woman would have her hair down, according to Margaret Carroll. [26] The placement
of the two figures suggests conventional 15th century views of marriage and gender roles –
the woman stands near the bed and well into the room, symbolic of her role as the caretaker
of the house and solidifying her in a domestic role, whereas Giovanni stands near the open
window, symbolic of his role in the outside world. Arnolfini looks directly out at the viewer; his
wife gazes obediently at her husband. His hand is vertically raised, representing his
commanding position of authority, whilst she has her hand in a lower, horizontal, more
submissive pose. However, her gaze at her husband can also show her equality to him
because she is not looking down at the floor as lower-class women would. They are part of
the Burgundian court life and in that system she is his equal, not his lowly subordinate.
Harris, B. The highly-gendered Renaissance world produced widely disparate male and
female lived experiences. While a man generally married in his third or fourth decade,
allowing him ample time to grow his business or estate, women became brides ideally
between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. Women, therefore, were expected to and did
spend the majority of their married lives with children. Although married Renaissance women
spent the majority of their premenopausal lives with child, pregnancy itself was rarely
represented. Artists working across a myriad of media shied away from depicting pregnancy,
most likely because the condition was thought to be indecorous. During the Renaissance,
when a woman entered into her third trimester, she generally remained at home in a ritual
called confinement. Further, depicting pregnancy admitted a direct link to human sexuality.
Though procreative intercourse between heterosexual married couples was the only church-
sanctioned form of sexuality in the Renaissance, to portray a married woman pregnant was
generally seen as improper. Arnolfini’s wife is not pregnant in the picture, but period norms
assumed she soon would be. Rare exceptions exist, such as Raphael’s inscrutable Donna
Gravida, or Portrait of an Unknown Lady attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts II, or the peasant
woman toiling away in the fields in the September page of the Limbourg brothers’ Très
Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Harris, B. (n.d.).

Raphael, La Donna Gravida (Portrait of Detail, Limburg Brothers, September from Les
Très

a Woman), c. 1505–06, oil on panel, 66 Riches Eures du duc the Berry, f. 9 c. 1412-16
x 52 cm (Palazzo Pitti, Florence). (Museé Condé).

While The Arnolfini Portrait foregrounds many domestic objects, dress takes center stage.
Both outfits in the portrait are ludicrously expensive and detailed, but the woman’s clothing
outshines her husband’s. This excessive disparity in color and yardage is perfectly in line
with Renaissance fashion and gender difference. Men’s outfits tended to be tailored from
darker fabrics to signal the wearer’s sobriety and lack of vanity. In contrast, Renaissance
women’s bodies in both images and reality were potent sites of material display. An
exemplary upper-class wife was required to demonstrate her husband’s wealth (through his
ability to keep her adorned in the latest fashion trends) as well as the couple’s potential
fertility. Harris, B. (n.d.).

The woman in the Arnolfini Portrait holds her dress in a way that styles her body as
seemingly pregnant. This pose is not uncommon in depictions of Renaissance women,
especially in the Northern Renaissance context (see, for example, A Bridal Couple in The
Cleveland Museum of Art). The odd pose was adopted for practical purposes: full
Renaissance skirting forced women to pick up their gowns when they walked. The gesture
likewise illuminates the wearer’s moneyed status. Harris, B. While the woman’s gown does
not display an actual pregnancy, it is possible that the controversial dress is coded with
pregnancy and may be read as symbolic of women’s roles in the Renaissance, including
motherhood. The woman’s ample costume does not conceal or describe a pregnancy;
however, it is roomy enough to easily host a future one without the need for tailoring. Its
green hue could also connote fecundity, as the color was widely associated with springtime
and therefore fertility and fruitfulness in the period. Additionally, the gown is lined with
ermine. Art historian Jacqueline Musacchio has argued that martins and weasels in portraits
(either alive or skinned) may be symbolic of pregnancy or the hope for future pregnancy. It is
no accident, therefore, that mid-fifteenth century Flemish haute couture (high fashion)
suggests pregnancy. The woman in the green dress is not meant to be read as actually
pregnant, yet she lived and died in a culture that expected near-constant pregnancy from
women. (Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker - Smarthistory - 2024). Harris, B. (n.d.).
Detail of the convex mirror .

The small medallions set into the frame of the convex mirror at the back of the room show
tiny scenes from the Passion of Christ and may represent God's promise of salvation for the
figures reflected on the mirror's convex surface. Furthering the Memorial theory, all the
scenes on the wife's side are of Christ's death and resurrection. Those on the husband's
side concern Christ's life. The mirror itself may represent the eye of God observing the vows
of the wedding. A spotless mirror was also an established symbol of Mary, referring to the
Holy Virgin's Immaculate Conception and purity.The mirror reflects two figures in the
doorway, one of whom may be the painter himself. In Panofsky's controversial view, the
figures are shown to prove that the two witnesses required to make a wedding legal were
present, and Van Eyck's signature on the wall acts as some form of actual documentation of
an event at which he was himself present. Wanderer, A.

Detail of the little dog .

The little dog may symbolize fidelity (fido), loyalty,or alternatively lust, signifying the couple's
desire to have a child. Unlike the couple, he looks out to meet the gaze of the viewer.The
dog could be simply a lap dog, a gift from husband to wife. Many wealthy women in the court
had lap dogs as companions, reflecting the wealth of the couple and their position in courtly
life.The dog appears to be a Griffon terrier, or perhaps an Affenpinscher. Wanderer, A.
(2022, April 19).

Detail of Van Eyck´s signature .

Above the mirror, on the wall, the painter signs with his motto “As I (Eych) Can” and this
could act as some form of actual documentation of the wedding at which he (of course) was
present. Wikipedia contributors.

Other details

The single candle in the left-front holder of the ornate six-branched chandelier is possibly the
candle used in traditional Flemish marriage customs.Lit in full daylight, like the sanctuary
lamp in a church, the candle may allude to the presence of the Holy Ghost or the ever-
present eye of God. Alternatively, Margaret Koster posits that the painting is a memorial
portrait, as the single lit candle on Giovanni's side contrasts with the burnt-out candle whose
wax stub can just be seen on his wife's side, in a visual play on a common metaphor: he
lives on, she is dead. Wikipedia contributors.

The cherries present on the tree outside the window may symbolize love. The oranges
which lie on the window sill and chest may symbolize the purity and innocence that reigned
in the Garden of Eden before the Fall of Man.They were uncommon and a sign of wealth in
the Netherlands, but in Italy were a symbol of fecundity in marriage.More simply, the fruit
could be a sign of the couple's wealth, since oranges were very expensive imports.
Wikipedia contributors.

The male subject's over-shoes, called pattens, were a covering for indoor footwear that were
made as protection from the outdoor elements. The idea that he has taken his off may imply
that he would no longer stray, hinting at his fidelity towards his wife, potentially signifying
that, for religious reasons, he would not remarry after her death. This is further used as proof
that the female subject was painted posthumously. Wikipedia contributors. (2024 b,

VICENT VAN GOGH .

Vincent van Gogh (born March 30, 1853, Zundert, Netherlands—died July 29, 1890,
Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, France) was a Dutch painter, generally considered the greatest
after Rembrandt van Rijn, and one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists. The striking
color, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms of his work powerfully influenced the
current of Expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh’s art became astoundingly popular after
his death, especially in the late 20th century, when his work sold for record-breaking sums at
auctions around the world and was featured in blockbuster touring exhibitions. In part
because of his extensive published letters, van Gogh has also been mythologized in the
popular imagination as the quintessential tortured artist.

Van Gogh, the eldest of six children of a Protestant pastor, was born and reared in a small
village in the Brabant region of the southern Netherlands. He was a quiet, self-contained
youth, spending his free time wandering the countryside to observe nature. At 16 he was
apprenticed to The Hague branch of the art dealers Goupil and Co., of which his uncle was a
partner.

Van Gogh worked for Goupil in London from 1873 to May 1875 and in Paris from that date
until April 1876. Daily contact with works of art aroused his artistic sensibility, and he soon
formed a taste for Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and other Dutch masters, although his preference
was for two contemporary French painters, Jean-François Millet and Camille Corot, whose
influence was to last throughout his life. Van Gogh disliked art dealing. Moreover, his
approach to life darkened when his love was rejected by a London girl in 1874. His burning
desire for human affection thwarted, he became increasingly solitary. He worked as a
language teacher and lay preacher in England and, in 1877, worked for a bookseller in
Dordrecht, Netherlands. Impelled by a longing to serve humanity, he envisaged entering the
ministry and took up theology; however, he abandoned this project in 1878 for short-term
training as an evangelist in Brussels. A conflict with authority ensued when he disputed the
orthodox doctrinal approach. Failing to get an appointment after three months, he left to do
missionary work among the impoverished population of the Borinage, a coal-mining region in
southwestern Belgium. There, in the winter of 1879–80, he experienced the first great
spiritual crisis of his life. Living among the poor, he gave away all his worldly goods in an
impassioned moment; he was thereupon dismissed by church authorities for a too-literal
interpretation of Christian teaching.

His artistic career was extremely short, lasting only the 10 years from 1880 to 1890. During
the first four years of this period, while acquiring technical proficiency, he confined himself
almost entirely to drawings and watercolors. First, he went to study drawing at the Brussels
Academy; in 1881 he moved to his father’s parsonage at Etten, Netherlands, and began to
work from nature.

His palette at last became colorful, his vision less traditional, and his tonalities lighter, as
may be seen in his first paintings of Montmartre. By the summer of 1887 he was painting in
pure colors and using broken brushwork that is at times HYPERLINK
"https://www.britannica.com/art/pointillism"pointillistic. Finally, by the beginning of 1888, van
Gogh’s HYPERLINK "https://www.britannica.com/art/Post-Impressionism"Post-Impressionist
style had crystallized, resulting in such masterpieces as Portrait of Père Tanguy and
HYPERLINK "https://www.britannica.com/art/self-portrait"Self-Portrait in Front of the Easel,
as well as in some landscapes of the Parisian suburbs.

Only one portrait photo of Vincent has survived. It shows him at the age of 19 with a slightly
gruff expression. Almost everything else we know about his appearance comes from the
many self-portraits he painted.
No fewer than 35 of them are known. They tell us that he had red hair, green eyes and an
angular face. Yet each of those faces is different. Vincent himself wrote:
‘People say – and I’m quite willing to believe it – that it’s difficult to know oneself – but it’s not
easy to paint oneself either.’
PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH ROULIN .

Joseph Roulin, a postal employee, was a friend of Van Gogh’s when the artist lived in Arles,
a town in the South of France, in 1888–89. Van Gogh depicted Roulin in the uniform he
always wore proudly, setting him against an imaginative backdrop of swirling flowers. The
artist’s use of bold colors and flat patterns would have resonated with Austrian artists who
were part of the Vienna Secession movement that formed a decade later.
For most of 1888, Vincent van Gogh rented a room above the Café de la Gare in Arles
[France], near the train station. It was probably there that he met Joseph-Étienne Roulin, a
mail handler who became his close friend as well as an important subject for his paintings.
Between July 1888 and April 1889, Van Gogh painted six portraits of Roulin (as well as
several of Roulin's wife and children). In each, Roulin wears his dark blue uniform, with the
word "Postes" clearly legible across his hat. Clothing plays a central role in this series,
describing not only the sitter's occupation but also perhaps his political leanings; He
frequently wore his blue uniform and cap with pride, and it was a significant part of his
personality and character. The portrait features a floral background. as an ardent socialist,
he would have worn his worker identity proudly. Moreover, the uniform announces that
portraiture is no longer reserved for the upper class.

Roulin is shown here from the shoulders up, his body centered and perfectly square to the
picture plane. His gaze is steady yet gentle. In contrast to the symmetry of the composition,
his features are slightly uneven: the nose is lopsided and the eyes are too, an irregularity
that is accentuated by the heavier touches of red around one eyelid. The mustache hangs in
uneven clumps over his lips. All these details add to the naturalism of Roulin's face, which is
even more striking for the picture's many decorative qualities.

In The Postman, one of the first works to enter Albert Barnes's collection, Van Gogh turns an
ordinary salt-and-pepper beard into a brilliant ocean of color. Thick licks of paint—green,
black, purple, red—curl around one another, each stroke distinct and unblended; in a few
areas the bare canvas can be glimpsed between them.
portrait of Joseph Roulin is made with Reed, quill pen, and brown ink over black chalk. It
features dimensions of 32.1 by 24.4 cm worth of canvas. After the 1988 portrait, the
renowned artist made several other portraits of Mr Roulin, his wife, and three children. He
was more than excited to create art with Ruolin’s family as his models. Additionally, between
August 1888 and April 1889, Van Gogh painted six consecutive portraits of his close friend.
Three of the portraits featured flowers in the background.

Self-Portrait, 1889

Van Gogh painted many self-portraits during the course of his career, no fewer than 35. The
one displayed below, painted in 1889, is one of his most famous. Van Gogh depicted himself
wearing what he used to work in – his blue jacket and shirt. In an attempt to be as true to
himself as possible, he depicts his sharp features, the furrow in his brow, and the striking red
tones of his hair and beard. This is one of the final self-portraits he painted before his death
the following year.

Starry Night, 1889

Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night (1889), is one of his most iconic. Leading up to this point,
Van Gogh had been suffering from mental health issues, so much so that it led to him cutting
off his left ear. After this incident, in 1888 he was admitted to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole
asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence to recover. The view that we see in Starry Night is
actually inspired by the view that Van Gogh saw from his bedroom in the asylum. The
swirling blues of the moonlit night sky have become synonymous with the artist’s style and
the emotional quality of his use of color.
Sunflowers, 1889

During his time in Arles, South of France, in the years 1888-89, Van Gogh created five
paintings of sunflowers in a vase, using only shades of yellow and a touch of green. He
wrote that for him sunflowers represented “gratitude” and so hung one of them in his home.
Later, his friend and fellow artist Paul Gaugin, while living with him for a short while, said that
he very much liked the works and asked Van Gogh for one of the paintings, which he was
given. Today, this copy sits in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
SELF PORTRAIT IN FRONT OF THE EASEL, 1888

Shortly before he left Paris and moved to Provence in late February 1888, van Gogh painted
this final self-portrait. He is no longer dressed as the urban dandy, but in the blue blouson of
the Parisian working class. He stands before his easel, holding his palette in a pose
intentionally reminiscent of a self-portrait by Rembrandt which was then in the Louvre and
well known to van Gogh. Perhaps the painting should be read as a kind of manifesto of the
new orientation in his conception of himself as an artist and of his work - the intention to
remove himself from the city and its bourgeois lifestyle, and the desire to be seen in a Dutch
rather than a French tradition. The painting also betrays a growing confidence in himself as
an artist: he appears with the insignia of his profession. Greater assurance is also evident in
the handling. The earlier extreme experimentation with pure or broken colour and a textured
and structuring brushwork has given way to a more controlled and coherent treatment. In the
pose he has used, van Gogh evokes Rembrandt; but the painterly treatment and coloration
remind us of another seventeenth-century Dutch artist - Frans Hals. The lessons van Gogh
had learnt in Antwerp, explored in greater depth throughout the Paris period, are now
successfully integrated into his work to produce a distinctive style.
SELF PORTRAIT WITH BANDAGED EAR, 1888

On 23 December 1888, Vincent cut off his left ear in a state of total confusion. It would be
the first of a series of mental breakdowns. He was reluctant to discuss the incident in his
letters, but he did ‘report’ on it in two self-portraits.
Vincent did not portray himself as a sick, broken man for the sake of effect or to arouse pity.
He was convinced that painting would help him to heal. ‘I retain all good hope’, he wrote to
Theo.
The Potato Eaters, 1885
The Potato Eaters (1885) stands at a crucial point in the development of Van Gogh’s style
and technique. By depicting a family sharing a simple meal of potatoes, not only did he want
to establish himself as a painter of peasant life, but also he challenged his artistic abilities to
experiment with light and shadows, experimenting with raking light and the chiaroscuro
technique to highlight the features of his subjects.

Peter Paul Rubens

(1577 - 1640)
He was the most versatile and influential Baroque artist of Northern Europe in the
seventeenth century. Blending features of the Italian High Renaissance with Northern
realism and a love of landscape, Rubens's unique and immensely popular Baroque style
emphasized movement, colour and sensuality.
Peter Paul Rubens was born in Siegen in Germany, 1577, but from the age of 10 he lived
and went to school in Antwerp. His first job, at the age of 13, was as court page to a
countess. It was a prestigious position for a young man, but Rubens found it stifling and
began training as an artist.
As soon as he had completed his training, he set out for Italy in order to see for himself the
great Renaissance and classical works that he knew from copies. For eight years, he
traveled and worked in Spain, copying and incorporating the techniques of Renaissance and
classical art.
Toward the end of 1605 Rubens made his second trip to Rome. With his brother Philip he
undertook an intensive study of ancient art and philology.
In 1608 news came that Rubens's mother was dying. He left immediately for Antwerp, but by
the time he arrived she had died. Once home, Rubens decided to stay in the city. The
following year, he married Isabella Brandt.
Rubens could now afford to buy a grand house in a fashionable part of Antwerp.
He built a large studio to accommodate his pupils and assistants. Designed by himself in an
Italian style.
To Rubens's horror, his wife became ill and died, probably of plague.
In 1624 Rubens was granted a patent of nobility by Isabella's nephew Philip IV and in 1627
she moved him even further up the social scale by making him a 'gentleman of the
household'.

SOURCE
The National Gallery, London.

Portrait of Susanna Lunden. 'Le Chapeau de Paille' 1622-1625

Oil on oak
In the National Gallery, London.

The portrait's subject has not been securely identified, but she may be Susanna Lunden, the
older sister of Rubens' future second wife Helena Fourment. The portrait probably dates to
the time of Susanna's marriage to her second husband, Arnold Lunden, in 1622. The ring on
her finger might mean that the painting is a marriage portrait.
The sitter’s dark, oversized eyes and the exaggerated length of her neck, as well as the
background of billowing cloud and the simple colour palette all contribute to its singular
character. She seems either to have just looked away, or to be plucking up courage to
glance upwards.
There is also a mistranslation with the title of this portrait. “ Le chapeau de paille” Is translated
as “The straw hat” in English. This is wrong since, we can see clearly that in the painting, the hat
Susanna is wearing is not made of straw. In fact, this is a felt hat of a type known as a ‘beaver’,
fashionable for both men and women in the Netherlands in the 1620s, when this painting
was made. Like the large and expensive teardrop earrings, it was a status symbol.

In the 19th century it was in the collection of HYPERLINK

"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peel"Robert Peel at HYPERLINK
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drayton_Manor"Drayton Manor until 1871 when it was sold to
the HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery"National Gallery.

SOURCE
The National Gallery, London.

The Fall of Man, Adam and Eve. 1628–1629

Oil on canvas Oil on canvas

Peter Paul Ruben´s Titan´s
del Prado Museum (Spain) and, del Prado Museum, Madrid (Spain).
Real Madrid Palace (Spain).
It is a painting by Rubens, now in the Prado in Madrid. Once attributed to the minor Dutch
artist Karel van Mander, it is now recognised as a work by Rubens.
It is a copy of the painting of the same subject by Titian, seen by Rubens during his 1628–
1629 trip to Madrid. Source?
Rubens, who added a parrot and changes Adam's posture, musculature, age and
expression. Some researchers measured the impact of these changes on viewers' eye
movements and concluded that viewers look more at Eve's face when viewing Rubens'
version of the painting than when viewing Titian's version.

SOURCE

Wikipedia contributors.

Helena Fourment in a Fur Robe, 1636–1638

Oil on oak
Baroque Style
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

I t is a portrait by Peter Paul Rubens of his second wife Helena Fourment getting out of her
bath and wrapping her voluptuous body in a fur. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna.
In this life-size portrait of Helena Fourment at the age of eighteen, her figure is wrapped only
in a short mantle of black fur, loosely gathered round her shoulders and hips. Helena is
represented standing, coming from the bath, half wrapped in the fur-trimmed cloak that gives
its name to the picture, and imperfectly hides her nudity.
Rubens was too much in love with his young wife to hesitate to celebrate her beauty in his
art.
Rubens was clearly fascinated by Lunden when he portrayed her and, just a few years later,
he married her youngest sister Hélène, who was 16 at the time (he was 52).

After Rubens died Madame Rubens hesitated to offer some of his pictures for sale, and a
special clause in his will gave The Little Fur Coat to her as a personal gift.

SOURCE

Wikipedia contributors

A Roman Triumph - about 1630

Oil on canvas stuck down on oak

National Gallery of London

A crowd of people relax on a grass bank, enjoying the spectacle of a flamboyant procession
celebrating the return of a great general and his army. The columns and alcoves of classical
Roman buildings tower over them. Below, trumpeters and pipers blow their instruments and
animals are led to the sacrifice. A man balanced precariously high up among a forest of
flickering torches lights a taper from a flame, but the tall figure of a priest in brilliant red is the
focus of the picture.
Rubens based his image on two of Andrea Mantegna’s series of nine monumental paintings,
The Triumphs of Caesar, one of the great works of the Renaissance.

SOURCE

The National Gallery, London.

William Henry Brooke (1772-1860)

It was a portrait painter, illustrator and satirical cartoonist. He may have been born in
London, where his father was active in the 1760s, but more likely in Dublin, where his
parents were married in 1767.

Source: Brooke, William H. (n.d.)

As a young man he worked in a bank for a short period before becoming the pupil of
the London history painter, Samuel Drummond (1766-1844). He soon became established
as a portrait painter in London, first in Soho, later in the Adelphi, and exhibited at the Royal
Academy for the first time in 1810. There was a gap in his exhibitions between 1813 and
1826, when he returned with a portrait and two Irish landscapes. He exhibited his last piece
at the RA in 1826. His portraits were popular enough to be reproduced as engravings,

William H. (n.d.)

He drew political cartoons for the monthly magazine The Satirist under the pseudonym
"W. H. Ekoorb", in a style influenced by William Heath (1795-1840), in 1812-1813, after
which he was replaced by George Cruikshank (1792-1878). He went on to illustrate several
popular books, including Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies (1822), Izaak Walton's The
Compleat Angler (1823), T. Keightley's The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy (1831),
etc. He also contributed illustrations for William Hone's Every Day Book (1826–7) and W. H.
Harrison's The Humorist (1832). His illustration style was influenced by Thomas Stothard
(1755-1834).

Brooke, William H. (n.d.)

He became an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, where he

exhibited a number of pieces from 1827 and 1846. He died in Chichester, Sussex, on 12
January 1860. Source: Brooke, William H. (n.d.) Wiliam Henry Brooke (1772-1860)

Bryan, Michael, 1757-1821

Robert Owen by William Henry Brooke, oil on canvas - 1834.

An 1834 oil on canvas portrait by William Henry Brooke (1772-1860) of the

industrialist Robert Owen (1771-1858) , who rose from the position of a lowly
apprentice to become a great mill owner during the Industrial Revolution. (National
Portrait Gallery, London).
About the artist of “William Brooke, 10th Lord Cobham with His Family.”

When the name of an artist is not known, art historians have to make one up. Often
there are quite a number of works which are clearly by the same person and it is not unusual
to name the artist after one of these works or in same cases after the place where he is
known to have lived. In this case, the artist is ‘named’ after a particularly fine portrait of the
Countess of Warwick which is clearly made by the same hand.

The artist was probably male (almost all professional artists were at this time) and
British.

The artist known as the 'Master of the Countess of Warwick' was first named by Roy
Strong in his book The English Icon (1969). Strong invented the name of the Master of the
Countess of Warwick because he considered the portrait of Anne Russell, Countess of
Warwick, in the collection of Woburn Abbey, to be the most characteristic work by this
otherwise unknown painter. A number of other portraits shared similar qualities, and these
were also attributed to the Master of the Countess of Warwick. None of the paintings are
signed – signatures are anyway rare in Tudor art – but they are often dated, demonstrating
that the Master of the Countess of Warwick was active in the later 1560s.

Although the artist’s name has been lost, his recognisable approach to capturing a sitter’s
likeness inspired the renowned art historian, Sir Roy Strong, to coin the moniker the ‘Master
of the Countess of Warwick’ – after the portrait of Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick
(c.1569) at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire.
Strong initially identified eight portraits in his seminal book The English Icon (1969) as by the
hand of the mysterious portraitist, but that number has subsequently grown to almost fifty,
with the portrait in Compton Verney’s British Portraits collection now also attributed to the
Master of the Countess of Warwick.

It is now believed that the ‘Master’ painted around fifty surviving pictures, which share a
number of characteristics, including confident draftsmanship, the distinctive angle of the
sitter’s head, sequential and careful paint layering on the face, plus close attention to the
details of clothing and jewelry.
Art UK. (n.d.).

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/who-was-the-master-of-the-countess-of-warwick

Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick

c.1569, oil on panel by the Master of the Countess of Warwick (active 1567–1569)

About Tudor paintings

 Tudor refers to the English royal house that ruled from 1485 to 1603.

The reformation in northern Europe had a notable effect on the type of paintings
commissioned, because the protestants were against the use of pictures for devotional
purposes in churches. In England for example, which broke away from the roman church in
1533, very little religious imagery was produced and on the whole, artists were naked largely
to produce portraits. They were often designed to be flattering and to serve some dynastic
purpose.

William Brooke, 10th Lord Cobham, and his family - 1567 - Master of the Countess of
Warwick
 The picture is dated 1567. It shows William Brooke and his wife, Frances
(standing) and their six children. The other woman is Frances’ sister Johanna. This family
would have been very wealthy. Only the rich could or would have commissioned portraits of
this kind at this time.

The table is laid with pewter (blue-gray metal that is a mixture of tin and lead) plates,
the largest containing a selection of fruits: apples, pears, black and green grapes and
walnuts. A second, smaller serving dish contains what seems to be some sort of sweetmeat-
possibly marchpane: marzipan. The children’s pets are at and on the table too- a yellow
crowned amazon parrot, a goldfinch attached by a thread or chain to a small perch with
bells, a marmoset and a small dog. The parrot and the marmoset are native to South
America and would have been very expensive, luxury possessions at this time.

The children are aged between one and six.- Their ages are written on the painting in
Latin. AETA means AGED or AT THE AGE OF. The children are, from left to right:
Maximilian, age two, he is the one with the dog jumping into his lap. Henry, age one, is on
his aunt’s lap. William, aged six, is the one with the goldfinch. Elizabeth and Frances, they
are twins aged 5. Margaret, aged 4, she is the one with the marmoset)

As was a custom in Tudor times, the children are dressed in small versions of adult
clothes giving them an appearance of stiff formality; for example, their ruffs and cuffs, and
the padded shoulders. Both Maximilian and Henry would be dressed in skirts for practical
reasons, due to them not being potty trained.

The space in which the family is placed is rather odd. To the left is the fireplace, to
the right is the base of a fluted column while between the two parents there is a cartouche -a
drawing or piece of stone that looks like a scroll (a long roll of paper) with the ends rolled up,
often with writing on it and used as a decoration- which bears an inscription in Latin which
praises William Brook. It is dated 1567.

The translation of the drawing is the following:

“Here is the noble father, there the best of mothers. Worthy of their
parents, around them sit their family. So was formerly the table of the patriarch Jacob. So
was the table heaped up for the holy Job.
Grant God that this table produce many Jospehs and duplicate the reborn lineage of Job.

You have given this happy dish to the noble Cobham. May these great joys have long days.
1567”

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https://theartwanderer.co.uk/jan-van-eyck-the-arnolfini-portrait/
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● Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia (2024, August 21) The Arnolfini Portrait.
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