Sunday, September 6, 2026

 John Neagle
(1796 - 1865)

 John Neagle was a fashionable American painter, primarily of portraits, during the first half of the 19th century in Philadelphia.
Neagle was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His training in art began with instruction from the drawing-master Pietro Ancora and an apprenticeship to Thomas Wilson, a well-connected painter of signs and coaches in Philadelphia. Wilson introduced him to the painters Bass Otis and Thomas Sully, and Neagle became a protégé of the latter. In 1818 Neagle decided to concentrate exclusively on portraits, setting up shop as an independent master.
Aside from brief sojourns in Lexington, Kentucky, and New Orleans, Louisiana, he spent his career in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he died. In May 1826 he married Sully's stepdaughter Mary, and for a time the son-in-law and father-in-law dominated the field of portraiture in the city. Neagle served as Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and was also a founder and president (1835–43) of the Artist's Fund Society of Philadelphia.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Neagle

Pat Lyon at the Forge
1961
Oil on canvas 
238 x 172 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/pat-lyon-at-the-forge-34216

Patrick Lyon (c. 1769, Edinburgh, Scotland – April 15, 1829, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Scottish-born American blacksmith, mechanic and inventor. After being falsely accused and imprisoned for a 1798 bank robbery, he became a working class hero. A self-made businessman, he was among the foremost American makers of hand-pumped fire engines.
Artist John Neagle's portrait of him, Pat Lyon at the Forge (1826–27), alludes to his unjust imprisonment, and is an iconic work in American art.

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Lyon_(blacksmith) 

Saturday, September 5, 2026

 Gustave Caillebotte
(1848 - 1894)
 

Gustave Caillebotte  was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early interest in photography as an art form. Because of his family's wealth, he was a patron of many of his fellow Impressionists. Upon his death, his bequeathed collection of their works became the central collection of Impressionism for the French Republic, despite considerable controversy. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Caillebotte

Les raboteurs de parquet (The Floor Scrapers)
1875
Oil on canvas
102 x 146.5 cm
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/raboteurs-de-parquet-105

Friday, September 4, 2026

 Georges de La Tour
(1593 - 1652)
 

Georges de La Tour  was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious chiaroscuro scenes lit by candlelight.
Recognised during his lifetime, he was quickly forgotten after his death. Rediscovered in the early 20th century by German art historian Hermann Voss, he later inspired writers as diverse as René Char, André Malraux, Pascal Quignard, and Charles Juliet.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_de_La_Tour


Saint Joseph charpentier (Joseph the Carpenter)
1640s
Oil on canvas
120 x 100 cm
Louvre, Paris
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010063817

Thursday, September 3, 2026

 Paulus Potter
(1625 - 1654)
 

Paulus Potterwas a Dutch painter who specialized in landscapes featuring animals, often from a low vantage point.
Before Potter died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 he produced about 100 paintings, working continuously.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulus_Potter


A Farrier's Shop (The Blacksmith)
1648
Oil on panel
48.3 x 45.7 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
https://www.nga.gov/artworks/1191-farriers-shop

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

 Quiringh van Brekelenkam
(1622 - 1669)


Quirijn or Quiringh Gerritsz van Brekelenkam was a Dutch Baroque genre painter. He probably studied under Gerard Dou, and as a result his paintings from the 1640s and 1650s are similar to those of the Leiden fijnschilders.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quirijn_van_Brekelenkam

The Shoemaker
c. 1660
Oil on wood
51.1 x 65.7 cm
Staatliches Museum, Schwerin
https://www.museum-schwerin.de/wiedereroeffnung/


Tuesday, September 1, 2026

 Annibale Carracci
(1560 – 1609)
 

Annibale Carracci was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his younger brother Agostino Carracci and elder cousin Ludovico Carracci (with whom he also worked collectively), Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of the Baroque style, borrowing from styles from both north and south of their native city, and aspiring for a return to classical monumentality, but adding a more vital dynamism. Painters working under Annibale at the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese would be highly influential in Roman painting for decades.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annibale_Carracci


The Butcher’s Shop
early 1580s
Oil on canvas
59.7 x 71 cm
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
https://kimbellart.org/collection/ap-198008

Monday, August 31, 2026

 David Hockney
(2022) 

 

 Looking at the Flowers (Framed), 25th June 2022, is a limited edition photographic drawing by David Hockney, printed on paper and mounted on Dibond. The composition shows a close study of vibrant blooms arranged indoors, where rich colour contrasts and strong contours energise the scene. Hockney’s precise digital mark-making captures the freshness of cut flowers while the large scale heightens their sculptural presence within the frame.
 
Created in 2022 using digital photography and drawing techniques, this edition reflects Hockney’s continued pursuit of new tools to transform everyday subjects. He has noted that digital devices allow him to “draw without any fuss, just as fast as I can look,” a philosophy evident in the immediacy and clarity of this work. With only 35 editions at 108.5 x 188.5 cm, Looking at the Flowers sits at the centre of his contemporary practice and remains highly sought after on the secondary market.

Within the composition, Hockney is depicted twice - once on the right side of the scene, and once on the left - sitting in an armchair and looking upon his twenty flower still lifes displayed salon-style on a navy-blue wall. "This is photographic but is in no way an ordinary photograph," Hockney describes. "I had been doing what I called photographic drawings, giving a much more 3D effect. This is because you have to look at these through time (unlike an ordinary photograph which you see all at once)."



Looking at the flowers
Photographic drawing printed on paper, mounted on Dibond 
Edition of 35, 
108.5 x 188.5 cm
Private collection
https://geistmc.com/our-artists/david-hockney/20-flowers-and-some-bigger-pictures/looking-at-the-flowers-framed-2022/

 John Neagle (1796 - 1865)  John Neagle was a fashionable American painter, primarily of portraits, during the first half of the 19th centur...