The many literary lives of Mary Wollstonecraft – author of novels, travel writing and children’s books
Wollstonecraft’s literary career was dedicated to questioning power, society and the roles assigned to women.
by Aditi Upmanyu
Mary Wollstonecraft at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/84
"Greek Girls on the Shore," Joaquin Sorolla, 1895.
This was a pivotal work in the career of Sorolla (1863-1923), one of the most popular Spanish painters of his time. This came just as he was achieving fame. A large canvas, "The Return from Fishing," had just won top honors at the Paris Salon and had been purchased by the French government; it still hangs in the Musee D'Orsay.
This is one of a series of murals he painted at a time when Neo-Hellenism was in vogue. The idealized, sentimental views of beautifully clad women in classical Greek costume, picking perfect, fully-in-bloom flowers, was a huge draw and the first of one of many private commissions.
This was also one of the murals that led to the opportunity to paint his masterpiece, a series of murals called "A Vision of Spain," visible today at the Hispanic Society of America in New York.
From a private collection.
#Art #JoaquinSorolla #Impressionism #NeoHellenism #WomenInArt
"The Rose Bower," Edward Burne-Jones, 1890.
Burne-Jones (1833-98) was a great British painter as well as being a designer of tiles, jewelry, mosaics, and stained-glass windows. Although heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, he was considered a star of the Aesthetic movement as well, and modern fans regard him as having a foot in both camps.
Aestheticism believed that art should be simply an object of beauty, rather than preaching a lesson or telling a story. Pre-Raphaelites were all about bringing back intense detail and colors that existed in Renaissance art, which the Aesthetes loved, but they could be preachy and didactic in their art. (See Hunt's painting "The Awakening Conscience" which today is seen as almost comical.) Burne-Jones and his friend William Morris believed in creating beautiful objects, but also in bringing beauty to everyday items like wallpaper and woodwork.
This is part of a series called "The Legend of Briar Rose" which we know as Sleeping Beauty. Here we have the princess sleeping with her attendants in her castle...while the roses continue to creep in. It's one of a number of paintings depicting the inhabitants of the castle asleep while the roses grow around them.
From Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, UK.
#Art #PreRaphaelites #EdwardBurneJones #SleepingBeauty #WomenInArt
6 Inspirational Women Who Redefined Art History
Patrons, muses, and artists—take a look at six inspirational women in the history of art.
by Anastasiia Kirpalov
https://www.thecollector.com/inspirational-women-redefined-art-history/
Art history at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/5621
"Portrait of Suzanne Valadon," Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1885.
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (1864-1901) is best known for his paintings depicting prostitutes or showgirls at the Moulin Rouge, but he also did a number of very nice portraits.
In the 1880s he became close friends with fellow painter Suzanne Valadon (whose work I've featured) and it's believed they were lovers, and that she wanted to marry. But the relationship was severed in 1888 and she attempted suicide not long after.
This portrait is from the first years of their relationship. Here Suzanne seems to be approaching the viewer while walking through a park in autumn. Her expression is unreadable but Toulouse-Lautrec makes her stand out in her purple dress. She dominates the canvas.
Henri himself was an alcoholic with a fondness for prostitutes. He also had a number of health problems, some genetic (his parents were first cousins and his family was somewhat inbred) and he was famously short, due to both legs being broken as a child and ceasing to grow. Valadon seems to be expressing anxiety and care about the viewer, and about Henri. Maybe?
Happy Portrait Monday!
From the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires.
#Art #Impressionism #ToulouseLautrec #WomenInArt #SuzanneValadon
"The Love Letter," Johannes Vermeer, c. 1669-70.
Vermeer (16321675) is a much-acclaimed and much-studied painter of the Dutch Golden Age, and hailed as one of the all-time greatest.
His output was almost entirely scenes of middle-class life, although sometimes with religious or allegorical meaning, and all painted in the same two rooms of his house, but with expertly-depicted light. He was famous in his hometown of Delft but after his death he was largely forgotten until the 19th century when he was rediscovered and his work acclaimed for modern generations. Today, only about 34 paintings of his survive, although a number of fakes were produced over the years, including one forger who sold to Nazi soldiers.
Here we have an interior scene of a woman being handed a letter, but her expression is an eager one. Her instrument, a cittern, was a symbol of passionate love, and the loss of one of her slippers is also a racy hint. The paintings behind her, of a stormy sea and a traveler on a road, suggest her lover is on a voyage.
From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
"Hearts are Trumps," John Everett Millais, 1872.
Millais (1829-1896) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite school, & one of its most praised & successful members, getting many society commissions & earning a knighthood.
Starting in the 1850s, though, he began moving away from strict Pre-Raphaelism to a more Realist style, which caused some of his old crowd to view him as a sellout. But today it's seen as a natural evolution of his style, & his own refusal to be corralled by a particular school. Some feel his marriage to Euphemia, the former wife of art critic John Ruskin, a champion of the Pre-Raphaelites, had something to do with it; Effie had received an annulment on the grounds that her marriage had never been consummated. Millais was said to be very uneasy around Ruskin after that.
The women here are the three daughters of writer and collector Walter Armstrong, who was hoping to bump up his family's social status. The pose of the three women at cards is seen as a hint of a competition to marry. Of note is that Mary, to the right and looking out at us knowingly (with the King and Jack of hearts in her hand) married an Irish politician a few years after this was painted.
Happy Portrait Monday!
From the Tate Britain, London.
#Art #PreRaphaelite #JohnEverettMillais #PortraitMonday #WomenInArt
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