Announcement--It Is Not Growing Like a Tree

It is not growing like a tree
In bulk doth make Man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night—
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures life may perfect be

- Ben Johnson 1572 -1637

First plein air sketch of the summer. Okay. Casein on bristol board, 3 1/2"x 5".

This watercolor stuff is tricky--trickier than oil paint, for sure.

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge |&| shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast |&| with ah! bright wings.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

A Long Interlude...

I haven't posted anything for about 3 months, which is ridiculous. So here is the beginning of (hopefully) more regular posts.

Here is a warm/cool study of Sargent's Dolce Far Niente, one of my favorite Sargent paintings. Its about 4"x8", casein on 5-ply bristol board. Just three colors--burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, and white. I hope you like it. The above image is posted in two sizes, one for overall image and one for detail. I plan on doing two of these per week to study the compositions of the master painters, as well as doing my own work.

Maybe you might like to try this exercise too. I find it helpful, anyway.

Nicolai Fechin, In Pictures

Anyone who stumbles on this blog is probably familiar with this great painter. So, no bio, just some great images.

Ernest Blummenschein, American (1874-1960)

Taos Society of Artists founder Ernest Blumenschein was a colorful and controversial figure whose character was marked by fierce determination. A supporter of Post-Impressionism, Blumenschein’s own style is marked by the use of deep, rich colors and a strict sense of spatial geometry and rhythm. Possibly the most complex and least understood member of the Taos Society, Blumenschein’s southwestern pictures were born of the artist’s interest in formal integrity and harmony rather than a desire to accurately portray pueblo culture.



Similar to several of his later Taos colleagues, Blumenschein was of modest Midwesterner beginnings. He was born in Pittsburgh, PA and earned a scholarship to study at the Cincinnati College of Music after graduating from high school. He took an illustration class at the Cincinnati Art Academy and decided to pursue a career in the visual arts. In 1892, he moved to New York to study at the Art Students League. He soon became convinced that European study was necessary to establish himself as a professional artist and enrolled at the Academie Julian in Paris, where he became acquainted with Bert Phillips and J.H. Sharp. Sharp regailed the younger artists with tales of his 1893 visit to Taos.



Upon his return from Paris in 1896, Blumenschein worked as an illustrator in New York, where he shared a studio with Phillips. After and assignment that took him to Arizona and New Mexico, Blumenschein went west with Phillips in 1898. When a broken wagon wheel landed the artists in the nearby town of Taos, Phillips decided he had reached the end of his journey.



Blumenschein stayed in Taos for 3 months returning to his lucrative illustration career in New York and eventually to Paris for further study at the Academie Julian in 1899. During his stay in New York he met Mary Green and married her. She was an established artist whose work was often featured in the annual Salon.



After their return to New York in 1909, the couple worked as an illustration team and Blumenschein taught at the Art Students League. He began to spend his summers in Taos, and settled there permanently in 1919.

This guy is soooo good that its hard to believe! You won't see any contemporary artists with this kind of personal styling and storytelling skill--even the much-heralded (and grossly overrated) Howard Terpning. The amazing thing is that there were a whole squadron of great Taos artists (which I will probably profile in the future) that were just as good.

Sorolla's "Apuntes"

Amazing how much you can do with a simple sketch. This is what plein air is all about!

J.C Leyendecker, American (1874-1951)

What is there to say about such a genius? Joeseph Christian Leyendecker (known to his friends as J.C.) was born in Montabur Germany in 1874, and moved with his family to the United States at the age of 8, settling in Chicago, Illinois. J.C. was a precocious talent, and with the encouragement of his family, he dropped out of school at age 16 to begin his art career. From the ages of 16 to 22, he worked at the J. Manz engraving company in Chicago, starting out as an apprentice and working his way up to staff illustrator, taking classes in the evenings at the Art Institute of Chicago with John Vanderpoel.



At the age of 22, he decided, like many other young art students of the day, to go to Paris to study. Accompanied by his younger brother Frank, the two took classes at the Academy Julian and the Academy Colarossi. J.C. was swept up in the Parisian art scene of the time, and was heavily influenced by the emergence of Art Noveau. Returning to Chicago in 1896, he and Frank set up studios in Chicago and in short order, found their work in high demand.





After a few years in Chicago, J.C. and Frank decided to move to the New York area where the advertising and publishing worlds were centered, and eventually settled in New Rochelle, New York. Both brothers became well-known illustrators, immensely wealthy, and in high demand. In later years, J. C would pull ahead of Frank in popularity, while Frank languished, abusing alcohol and having difficulty finishing his assignments. With his health declining, and work slowing to a trickle, Frank Leyendecker died in 1924.

J.C. developed a painting style based on his engraving assignments at J. Manz and drawing lessons he learned in Paris, which relied solely on creating form through the use of line. When applied to painting, this created of style of broad, precise brushwork with bold edges and an emphasis on solid form that became instantly recognizable. With a flair for the decorative, his style lent itself to advertsing and magazine cover design, and he became the most popular and sought-after illustrator of the pre-WWII period. The most popular illustrator of the post-WWII period, Norman Rockwell, idolized J. C., and moved to New Rochelle just to meet him. The two later became friends, and enjoyed a cordial professional relationship.



After WWII, J.C's work fell out of favor to the photographic style of illustration that was to stay popular until the early 1960's. With fewer assignments, and increasing age, J.C faded from the illustration world, passing away in 1951 at the age of 77.

A catalogue raisonne of his work is being compiled by the Cutlers who run the American Illustrators Gallery in Rhode Island. For such a famous artist, its strange that such few monographs of his work exist, but that should change in about a half-dozen years. Until then, many aficionados have kept his legacy alive on the internet, where numerous examples of his famous and exciting illustrations can be found.

Frank William Brangwyn, Welsh (1867-1956)

Frank Brangwyn, RA RWS PRBA HRSA, was a Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, virtuoso engraver and illustrator, and progressive designer.





He was born in Bruges, Belgium, where in 1865 his father William Curtis Brangwyn had received a commission to decorate the Basilica of the Holy Blood. In 1875 the family moved back to England.







Brangwyn received some artistic training, first at his father's studio, and later from the famous artist and architect William Morris, but he was largely an autodidact without a formal artistic education. When, at the age of seventeen, one of his paintings was accepted at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, he was strengthened in his conviction to become an artist.

Initially he painted traditional subjects about the sea and life on the seas. His canvas, Funeral At Sea (1890) won a gold medal at the 1891 Paris Salon. The limited palette in this painting is typical of this so-called "grey period".

At the end of the 19th century "Orientalism" in the arts became a favoured theme for many painters. Soon Brangwyn was attracted by the light and the bright colours of these southern countries. He travelled to Istanbul and the Black Sea, by working as a deck hand for his passage. He made many paintings and drawings, particularly of Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey. The change in his palette is striking. But the critics at that time didn't appreciate it too much. He continued his travels to different parts of Africa and also to South-Africa.



In 1895 the Parisian art dealer Siegfried Bing, who started the Art Nouveau movement, encouraged Brangwyn into new avenues : mural paintings, stained-glass windows and carpet designs. By his austere, but decorative designs he was recognized by continental and U.S. critics as one of the top artists of modern art, while British critics were puzzled how to evaluate him.



Brangwyn is best known for the British Empire Panels, a work originally intended for the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, but refused because "too exotic", is now housed in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea.

During World War I Brangwyn was an official war artist.

He painted the murals inside the dome of the Missouri State Capitol building in Jefferson City, Missouri, and also completed a series of mural panels for the chapel of Christ's Hospital.









Along with Diego Rivera and José Maria Sert, he was chosen by Nelson Rockefeller to decorate the concourse of the RCA Building in New York City (1930-34) with murals. A sequence of large murals on canvas is held by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Dunedin New Zealand. There are also works in Olveston (house) in the same city. He was also chosen for the decoration of a luxury liner.

Brangwyn was an artistic jack-of-all-trades. As well as paintings and drawings, he produced designs for stained glass, buildings and interiors, and was an illustrator of books.

Brangwyn married Lucy Ray in 1896 and took on the lease of Temple Lodge, Hammersmith in 1900. In 1918 the artist purchased The Jointure, Ditchling where he spent most of his time following his wife's death in 1924. Elected RA in 1919, knighted in 1941, holder of countless artistic awards, Brangwyn was modest about his singular achievements, regarding art as an occupation and describing himself as a designer.

Brangwyn died at The Jointure on 11 June, of arteriosclerosis. He was Buried at St Mary’s Cemetry, Kensal Green, London.





In Bruges, Belgium, part of a museum is dedicated to his works. He had kept a special bond with his native city, that had given him a honorary citizenship in 1936, and bequeathed to Bruges a large number of his works.

Frank Brangwyn is one of my favorite artists because he blended great artistic virtuosity with a fantastic imagination, as beautiful as it is rare. I hope you enjoy his work as much as I do.

Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov, Russian (1862-1930)

Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov made his name in the history of Russian art of the turn of the century as a sensitive, poetic artist who devoted all his talent to themes from peasant life. He was born into a poor peasant family in a remote village in Ryazan Gubernia. As a boy he first showed an interest in drawing at his local school. His parents gave him every possible encouragement, and in 1876, having painstakingly gathered together the necessary means, they sent him to study at the School of Art, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow. At that time people such as Ryabushkin, Kasatkin and Nesterov were among his fellow students. The heart of the school, and the best loved teacher was Vasily Perov, and other teachers included Makovsky, Polenov and Savrasov.

Arkhipov studied eagerly and with great application his works received prizes at exhibitions. In his third year he completed the painting *A Came of 'Svatka'*, and in the early 1880s painted *The Second-Hand Shop* (1882, TG), *The Drunkard* (1883, TG) and *The Tavern* (1883, TG). Perov's lessons, which urged the artist to be truthful and not too shy from the darker sides of life, clearly did not fall on stony ground. Arkhipov started out as a genre-artist, in the footsteps of his teacher.



In 1883, after seven years at the School, Arkhipov decided to continue his education at the Academy of Arts. The academic system of teaching disappointed him, however. Despite the fact that his study *Man Falling from the Saddle* and various other drawings were hailed as masterpieces and donated to the Academy's permanent collection, Arkhipov left the Academy and retumed to the Moscow School. After Perov's death he studied under Polenov, whose art permeated with light and a joyful perception of life, and also exerted an influence on his work.



One of the most important works, drawing together the threads of Arkhipov's student period, was *Friends or Visiting the Sick Woman* (1885, TG), which depicts the artist's mother. Her head sadly inclined, her eyes fixed at one point, a sick woman is sitting on a straw-filled bed in a miserable dark hut. Besides her, with the same dimmed sorrowful look in her eyes, is her neighbour which came to pay the sick woman a visit. The postures of the two women, their tired, unhappy faces—everything tells of their humility, hopelessness and sadness. Only the sunlight, bursting in through the open door, is a reminder that happiness and beauty do exist somewhere. The painting contains both quiet melancholy and a feeling of deep compassion for human sorrow.

In 1888 Arkhipov set off on a trip along the Volga with his friends from the school. They stayed in villages, drawing a lot and painting many etudes. This was where he conceived the idea for the small painting *On the Volga* (1889, RM), in which for the first time he tried to achieve a successful fusion of genre scene and lyrical landscape.





Two years later Arkhipov was accepted as an active member of the Peredvizhniki Society. The same year he completed one of his best known works. *Along the River Oka* (TG), which shows a barge floating along the river with tired peasants, deep in thoughts. Its meaning extends beyond the bare subject-mailer, however. It is a story about people who are capable of enduring a great deal without losing their strength and steadfastness. It is an affirmation of the beauty of Russian nature, with its blue horizons, the spring flooding of its rivers, and its streams of sunlight. The muted colour scheme is in harmony with the general mood of the painting. Arkhipov's artistic style has changed. Compared to the careful detail of his early works, his style has become more free, expansive and passionate.



'The whole picture is painted in sunlight,' Wrote Stasov about this painting, 'and this can be felt in every patch of light and shade, and in the overall wonderful impressions among the people on the barge, the four women—idle, tired, despondent, sitting in silence on their bundles—are portrayed with magnificent realism.'

In the 1890s Arkhipov painted mostly *open air*, portraying his heroes not in their small stuffy studios and rooms but in the wide open spaces of the Volga, in broad sunlit squares, green meadows and roads. The painting *The Ice Is Gone* (1895, Ryazan Regional Art Gallery) breathes the cheerfulness of spring. The river is freeing itself of ice, throwing off the fetters of winter. The inhabitants is of the surrounding villages—old men, women and children—have come to observe the ceremonious awakening of Spring. Everything is bathed in the first rays of the sun. In Arkhipov's works people are closely bound up with nature. Their thoughts and feelings are refracted through the prism of the landscape, which—like Russian folk tales and songs —has an epic breadth and sweep and is full of lyricism and gentle poetry.





Later, Arkhipov also painted highly dramatic works. The first of them—*The Convoy* (1893, TG)—deals with a new theme for the artist: that of the tragic fate of the peasants, ruined and impoverished, worn down by poverty and without land. Silent and submissive, they patiently bear their cross.

In his painting *Women Labourers at the Iron Foundry* (1896, TG), Arkhipov dealt with one of the nineteenth century's most poignant themes: the bitter fate of Russian women. The painting depicts the women resting from their exhausting labour, but the artist draws more attention to their milieu. The drifting black smoke, the sun-scorched earth and the low, wooden buildings help us to imagine the dreadful conditions that these women worked in from dawn to dusk.



Arkhipov's paintings seldom depict acute situations or actions. The basic meaning is revealed through the milieu or surroundings in which the events take place. This was a characteristic device for artists at the end of the nineteenth century. One of Arkhipov's best and most interesting works is the painting *The Washer-Women*, of which there are two versions:
(1899, RM; and 1901. TG). While working on it, the artist searched tirelessly for a model. He visited washhouses and spent hours watching the movements of the women at work. When the painting was almost finished, he noticed an old washerwoman sitting in a washhouse at the Smolensk market in Moscow. Her hunched back, her lowered head and her limply hanging arm—everything spoke of utter exhaustion, deep spiritual apathy and hopelessness. Profoundly moved by all this, Arkhipov decided to start a new canvas, and in this way the second version came about. The artist ignored many unnecessary details, enlarging the figures by moving them closer to the spectator. He raised the picture to a universal level, epitomizing the hopelessness and doom of these women's existence.





The Washer-Women is an example of the artist's new searchings in the realm of colour. In contrast to his earlier works, the painting is also to a certain extent, accusatory, a trait which brings it in line with the best traditions of critical realism of the second half of the nineteen the century.



The early 1900's saw the creation of Arkhipov's Northern landscapes. They represent nature in all its splendour, with muted colours, distinctive wooden buildings, rickety collages huddled together along river-banks, deserted wooded islands, and huge boulders by the seaside. He worked enthusiastically on *A Northern Villge* (1902, TG), *A Jetty in the North* (1903, TG), and *In the North* (1912, TG); the greyish colour-range of which is amazingly rich in subtle shades and half-tones.



At this time, too, Arkhipov painted an unusual series of portraits of peasant women and girls from the Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod regions. They are all dressed in bright national costumes. with embroidered scarves and beads. Painted with broad lively strokes, the paintings are marked by their decorativeness and buoyant colours, with rich reds and pinks predominating.





Arkhipov also spent much time and energy on his activities as a teacher. He started teaching 1894 in the Moscow School of Art, Sculpture and Architecture, and carried on there after the Revolution. In 1924 he joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, and in 1927—to mark his fortieth year as an artist—he was among the first who were awarded the title of *People's Artist of the Russian Republic*. Abram Arkhipov died in 1930.