Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz was the first internationally known female artist from Polish. An established portrait artist in Paris, her work was presented at the most prestigious European exhibitions, she won a silver medal during the World Expo in Paris and wanted to establish an art school for women in Warsaw, but her... Read on > > >
1. Utah Copper Company at Bingham Canyon, Utah. Andreas Feininger, 1 November 1942. . . 2. Columbia Steel Company, Geneva, Utah. Andreas Feininger, January 1 1942.... Read on > > >
Although trained as a medical doctor specialising in Cholera, Dr. John Murray excelled as a photographer. The Scottish-born doctor was introduced to photography around 1849, while in the Medical Service of the Army of the East India Company. Stationed near the Taj Mahal in Agra, he evidently developed a considerable interest... Read on > > >
A couple of crosses without anyone hugging them. Singles looking for love.... Read on > > >
After leaving the Rijksakademie, from 1882 to 1886 he lived in Brussels where he joined Les XX (Les Vingts), a group of artists centred on James Ensor. Toorop worked in various styles during these years. Realism, Impressionism Neo-Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. One thing Jan Troop loved to do was draw people. Throughout... Read on > > >
Born on March 4, 1889 in Bordeaux, Domergue studied at Paris’s École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He was mercurial. No other word for it. By the age of 17, he was exhibiting his work at the Salon des Artistes Français and, in 1920, he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome.... Read on > > >
His parents, thinking it unlikely their son would support himself with bird pictures, encouraged him to pursue a regular course of study at Cornell. But Louis was far from a brilliant student. He failed in philosophy, mathematics and chemistry, but received perfect grades in drawing. In his memoirs, his elder brother... Read on > > >
A decade later, in 1930 Acsinte opened his modest commercial studio in Slobozia. He gave it a grand name: Foto Splendide Acsinte. Probably the only professional photographer in the county for decades, Acsinte shot 1000s upon 1000s of people. Ordinary people. If you lived in Slobozia, he likely shot you or... Read on > > >
Soon after moving to American the late 1850s, a German baker named Frederick Schmid very quickly changed his name to plain old Fred Smith. His wife, Hermine Selinger Smith, was a singer in the local German beer halls and theatres. The couple had a son, Eugene in 1865. Eugene Smith became... Read on > > >
Niles Spencer & his work is often associated with The Precisionists, a loosely knit group including Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, Louis Lozowick, George Ault, Elsie Driggs and Ralston Crawford. Precisionism pared down the massive landscape of industrial America to sparse dynamic, anglar compositions characterized by flat surface and simplified images. They... Read on > > >
“He lives in a museum – alone – and likes it. Keeps snakes as pets, is fanatically interested in primitive things and does all his creative work at night. He doesn’t make preliminary studies. He begins his pictures by completely finishing the head of the central figure; until this is rendered... Read on > > >
The advent of colour lithography in America allowed artists to bring colour, and colourful art to the 19th century American masses. It also meant artists could bring them exotic foreign destinations. Even if they had to make them up. Many chromolithographs were extraordinarily complex to print, some requiring 20 or more... Read on > > >
If you were from Bavaria, as many American immigrants were in the mid 1800s, it wouldn’t be at all strange if when you thought of goats you thought of beer. And vice versa. First brewed in the dark ages of 14th century Germany in the town of Einbeck, Bock beer was a... Read on > > >
These Photochrome images of Dresden by Photocrome of Zurich, were made shortly after the company invented the process in the 1880s. The Photocrome process was an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lo-fi lithographic printing plates made of stobe. The process... Read on > > >
We think of the 19th century as a dusty, monochrome environment, where solemn people stand still for photos, in grey spaces, dressed in shades of grey. It wasn’t. The century, especially the last part of it, was psychedelic with colour. New technology mades a difference to peoples lives. One huge, visible... Read on > > >
There’s the whiff of scandal about the Duke of Labranzano, a hint he was something of a reprobate & perhaps an opium fiend. In at least 2 of his images there are references to opium.In 1896, the year of his death, his housemaid, Maud Harvey sued Falero for paternity. Maud’s suit... Read on > > >
We don’t know who he or she was. We just have photographs, just a handful, in one of the collections held at the Krasnoyarsk Krai Museum of Regional History and Folklife at Dubrovinskogo St., 84, Krasnoyarsk in Russia. 2 of the photographs are separate hotel fires. The majority of the rest... Read on > > >
And this (above). Moran also produced imaginary landscapes too.... Read on > > >
The Selkups originated in the basin of the great Ob River, a cross breed mixture between the aboriginal Yeniseian peoples and Samovedics from the Sayan mountains early in the first millennium. They were fine for the first thousand years. They thrived. They survived the Mongol hordes who came in the 13th... Read on > > >
The Selkups originated in the basin of the great Ob River, a cross breed mixture between the aboriginal Yeniseian peoples and Samovedics from the Sayan mountains early in the first millennium. They were fine for the first thousand years. They thrived. They survived the Mongol hordes who came in the 13th... Read on > > >
The Selkups originated in the basin of the great Ob River, a cross breed mixture between the aboriginal Yeniseian peoples and Samovedics from the Sayan mountains early in the first millennium. They were fine for the first thousand years. They thrived. They survived the Mongol hordes who came in the 13th... Read on > > >
If you go to the very outer edge of nowhere, turn right and keep walking you may eventually get to Kamchatka. The indigenous Koryaks, call it “The Land of Fire and Ice” It’s a 777 mile long peninsular jutting out of the farthest end of far eastern Russia. rctic winds from... Read on > > >
For almost a hundred years they were unknown to people. In Tomsk, Siberia, Galina Kolosova, the lady in charge of the Department of Rare Books in the city’s Research library discovered, among some 700 unrelated papers, some 100 wonderful lithographs of old Tomsk and the wild country surrounding it. They were... Read on > > >
The “Game of the Goose” or “Goose game” is a board game where two or more players move pieces around a track by rolling a die or two dice. The track often seems to be a spiral of some description. The game originated around the 16th century, and the Dutch loved it. They couldn’t seem to get enough of that goose... Read on > > >
Invented 140 years ago in 1880s Zurich, Photochrom, a.k.a. Fotochrom, Photochrome or Aäc process, is an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography (color lithography). Creatively choosing colour & then using a... Read on > > >
“The case of William Hope and his Crewe Circle deserves to be remembered today because it shows that it is practically impossible (and futile) to try to convince someone who wants to believe even in the face of quite convincing contrary evidence.” Massimo Polidoro. Photos of Ghosts: The burden of Beleiving... Read on > > >
Invented 140 years ago in 1880s Zurich, Photochrom, a.k.a. Fotochrom, Photochrome or Aäc process, is an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography (color lithography). Creatively choosing colour & then using a... Read on > > >
These Photochrome images of Dresden by Photocrome of Zurich, were made shortly after the company invented the process in the 1880s. The Photocrome process was an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lo-fi lithographic printing plates made of stobe. The process... Read on > > >
These Photochrome images of Switzerland are by Photocrome Zurich, made shortly after they invented the process in the 1880s. There were 3 variations of the Photocrome processes at the time; Fotochrom, & Aäc Photocrome & the original, PhotoChrome. The Photocrome process was an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via... Read on > > >
Invented 140 years ago in 1880s Zurich, Photochrom, a.k.a. Fotochrom, Photochrome or Aäc process, is an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography (color lithography). Creatively choosing colour & then using a... Read on > > >
Invented 140 years ago in 1880s Zurich, Photochrom, a.k.a. Fotochrom, Photochrome or Aäc process, is an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography (color lithography). Creatively choosing colour & then using a... Read on > > >
Invented 140 years ago in 1880s Zurich, Photochrom, a.k.a. Fotochrom, Photochrome or Aäc process, is an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography (color lithography). Imaginatively selecting & mechanically colouring a black... Read on > > >
Invented 140 years ago in 1880s Zurich, Photochrom, a.k.a. Fotochrom, Photochrome or Aäc process, is an old school process for colourizing black-and-white negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography (color lithography). Imaginatively selecting & mechanically colouring a black... Read on > > >
Contains adult content. The first doll Hans Bellmer produced is long since lost. It’s assemblage can nevertheless be correctly described thanks to approximately two dozen photographs Bellmer took at the time of its construction, in Berlin in 1933. Standing about fifty-six inches tall, the doll consisted of a lovingly modeled torso... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
So much to see here. This photo was taken sometime in the mid 1890s and shows the a teacher with his students at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. It’s a surreal, faintly unsettling image. The huddle of students on the floor, squashed, awkward and seemingly confused & unready; the teacher Borglum... Read on > > >
The next photograph out of the Smithsonian’s box of American art flotsom contains Walt Kuhn and Walt Kuhn is absolute gold. So. The art behind the face in another photo from the Miscellaneous Box . Photo No. 3. : Ibram Lassaw’s sculptures resembling spiny sea forms were inspired by coral reefs,... Read on > > >
This photo itself is special. It was taken in Davey’s Santa Fe studio in early 1949 by “perhaps the single most important American photographer in the development of the editorial photo essay”. The legendary American photojournalist William Eugene Smith. Randall Davey (1887-1964), was born in East Orange, New Jersey but settled... Read on > > >
It’s a wildly varied smargasbord platter. No one in their right mind would put it together. Deep in the Smithsonian archives there’s a box of photographs labelled “Miscellaneous photographs circa 1845-1980”. Around 150 sepia toned images of artists in their studios, with their models, with their finished artworks, with their work... Read on > > >
At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita... Read on > > >
At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita... Read on > > >
At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
. . . . . . In 1905 Antoon left for New York with his wife to study at the Students Arts League. His brother Willem, who had already emigrated, worked in New York on the improvement of offset printing. After winning a competition, Antoon was commissioned in Los Angeles to... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
There’s a night scene (aren’t they all?) in Blade Runner where Deckard (Harrison Ford) makes a call from a video payphone. In a crowded bar in a neon drenched future city, Deckard walks up to what looks like an ATM. He takes out his wallet pays by card, taps in a... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
In this scene from the biblical book of Exodus, Moses and Aaron (upper right) visit the pharaoh, who is mourning his son. The Egyptian ruler’s son had died from one of the plagues sent by God to secure the Israelites’ release from Egypt. The gloom of the painting reflects the father’s... Read on > > >
Félix Henri Bracquemond (1833-1914) was a French painter and etcher who played a key role in the revival of printmaking, encouraging artists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro to use the technique. Unusually for a prominent artist of this period, he also designed pottery for a number of French... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione... Read on > > >
From Drawings Made On The Spot By David Roberts and Lithographed by Louis Haghe. David Roberts (1796 – 1864) was a Scottish painter who started his career with a seven year apprenticeship as a house painter and decorator. The printmaker, painter & draughtsman, Louis Haghe was born in Belgium and trained there... Read on > > >
Artistic blood flows pure and fast in the Knip veins. Born into creativity in Tilburg, the Netherlands in 1877, Josephus Augustus Knip was the son of a decorative painter named Nicolaas Frederik. Knip’s father was his first teacher. The family moved to the nearby city of s-Hertogenbosch when Josephus was 11.... Read on > > >
Throughout both (what I’ve called Parts 1 & 2) periods where his subject matter began with the Dutch farmworkers, dyke workers etc. & moved to a time around 1930-1930 where he drew from popular mythology & his own imagination, Aart consistently used a more graphic, less detailed & more powerful aesthetic,... Read on > > >
In Arte’s output there are two broad stages/areas of subject matter, in the first (covered in Part 1) he dwelt on everyday scenes of ordinary rural working people; farmworkers, dykeworkers & their woman folk; tramps, beggars and invalids. This post (Part 2), covers the period between 1920 and 1930) when Arte... Read on > > >
Whilst it may seem a trifle unempathetic to round up a human life, to precis an existence down to just the sum parts of interest to us, it must be done, selfishly in this case in order to get to the images, the art more swiftly. Arguably an artist’s work is... Read on > > >
Bartholomeus Breenbergh (before 13 November 1598 – after 3 October 1657) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of Italian and Italianate landscapes, in Rome (1619-1630) and Amsterdam (1630-1657).... Read on > > >
Dam Square, Amsterdam, Netherlands at 8.30 p.m on Sunday, 7th July 1652. The Old Town Hall is ablaze and the place will burn for 24 hours until Monday night. In the glow of the flames several artists of note gather to record the event for prosterity.... Read on > > >
Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof (1866 – 1924), was a Dutch painter heavily involved in the arts and crafts movement. Born in Zwollerkerspel, Dijsselhof studied first at the art academy in The Hague, then moved to Amsterdam in 1884 to follow lessons at the arts and crafts school there. He was an enthusiastic... Read on > > >
Seghers was one of the most unusual artists to emerge from the Dutch Golden Age, a time that began with the birth of the Dutch Republic in 1561 and ended abruptly when the Franco Dutch War kicked off in May of 1872. During these golden years years the Dutch star was... Read on > > >
The “Splendid Mountain Sketchbook” is a collection of watercolours & sketches that John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) produced, in 1870 whilst on a summer excursion to Switzerland’s Bernese Alps in the Berner Oberland. The sketchbook contains 60 leaves, including 14 watercolors and 47 crayon or graphite studies of mountains, landscapes and people he encountered while traveling... Read on > > >
Monuments of Persian architecture: historical study and recording of Muslim brick buildings in Asia Minor and Persia by Friedrich Paul Theodor Sarre. Sarre was a German Orientalist, archaeologist and art historian who, during amassed an impressive collection of Islamic art during his lifetime. His father was from a Huguenot family, his mother from the Heckmann industrialist family.... Read on > > >