The Tate Britain Part 2

The older works of art found in the Tate Britain, it seems to me, 

 give one a bit more to go on than those in the Tate Modern.  This painting of some centuries ago, seems to give the subject a bit too little in the way of color, as if she is drained of blood.  I understand that being "fair" was a highly prized characteristics of women in those days, but this one seems to go too far. 


William Hogarth:  Heads of Six Servants (c. 1750-1755)



 William Hogarth (1697-1764) was a well known printer, painter, satirist, and social critic of his age.  He is probably best known for his moralizing art, such as his series "Harlot's Progress", and "Rake's Progress" but also painted portraits and commanded a good fee for doing so. 


William Hogarth:  The Painter and his Pug

I don't think he got much from his dog, however for this one. 



John Frederick Herring (1795-1865) shows a picture of the race horse "Birmingham" with his jockey and the owner of the racehorse, John Beardsworth,( 1830).  Herring made a career as a coachman and a painter of race horses and other sporting animals.  



James Barry:  (Detail)  King Lear Weeping over the Dead body of Cordelia (1786-88)

James Barry (1741-1806) was an Irish artist with a fiery temper.   This was his take on the Shakespeare tragedy "King Lear" about a king who divides his kingdom and turns against the one daughter who is true to him and rewards the others with portions of his kingdom.   He was a contemporary of Sir Joshua Reynolds but wasn't quite as successful. 



James Dickson Innes -Arenig,  North Wales 1913



 James Dickson Innes (1887-1914) died in the first days of the Great War.  He did not die in combat but from tuberculosis.  He was primary a painter of landscapes as shown here.  He was a member of the Camden Town Group, which was a group of British post-impressionist painters.



Vernon Lee by John Singer Sargent (1881)

 John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was a major painter of this era. An American born in Florence, his parents were wealthy.  His father was an eye surgeon, and after the death of a child he and his wife decided to travel to Europe to recover, and had stopped in Florence, when Sargent was born.  They stayed there for the rest of their lives.  Sargent spent much of his career in Europe, mainly in Paris and then London, when the disapproval of his painting "Madame X" caused his reputation there to decline, so he retreated to London.  Vernon Lee (nee Violet Paget) was a writer of supernatural fiction, which I guess means ghost stories.  She also was an essayist who wrote about aesthetics and art.  A lesbian and feminist, she   generally dressed "a la garcon" as can be seen above. 



Sir Neil O'Neil (1680) by John Michael Wright.


This painting shows with much realism, an Irish Chieftain.  Painted by John Michael Wright (1617-1694) who was either English or Scottish, he trained in Edinburgh and then in Europe.  During the Protectorate he collected art for the Archduke in Spanish Netherlands, and later was a court painter for Charles and James II, after the restoration.  A convert to Roman Catholicism he served as an ambassador to Rome in the final years of the Stuart monarchy. 

An iron forge (1772) by Joseph Wright

Joseph Wright (1734-1797) was a painter who is best known for his evocations of the birth of the industrial revolution and of his chiaroscoro lighting effects.  Others of his works include "An alchemist in search of the philosopher's stone" and "An experiment on a bird in the air pump". 



Cookmaid with Still life of Vegetables and Fruit (Detail) (1620-5) by Nathaniel Bacon



Nathaniel Bacon (1585-1627) was a wealthy landowner and amateur painter, and nephew of Francis Bacon.  I took the liberty of focusing on the cookmaid here.  This is his most famous painting.  Only 9 of them survive.  When looking on such a work it is amazing to reflect that it is almost 400 years old. 



Ships in Distress in a storm (Detail)  (1720-30)  by Peter Monamy



Peter Monamy (1681-1749) was a marine painter, that is to say, he focused on ships and water as his chosen subject matter. He came from a family of merchants who lived in Guernsey and the Channel Islands.   He was influenced by prints by the Dutch painter Van De Velde.  He was apprenticed to a sign painter as a young man and became one of the most celebrated marine painters of his age, although he was later disparaged by Horace Walpole, the art critic for being a mere sign-painter's apprentice. 



James McNeil Whistler's "Nocturne in Blue and Gold:  Old Battersea Bridge"



I have to admit that I was drawn to this painting because I remember it as the cover illustration of my copy of Norton's Anthology of English Literature Volume II.  James McNeil Whistler (1837-1903) was American born but spent most of his career in Britain.  His most famous painting is of course "Whistler's Mother" or as he termed it "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1".  He often gave his paintings names which seem more suited to formal musical compositions. 

  He was the painter who sued John Ruskin for saying that he had "flung a pot of paint in the public's face" regarding an exhibition that contained this very painting.  For some reason Whistler felt the need to reinvent himself in the public's eye, even insisting that he was born in St. Petersburg, Russia instead of Lowell, Massachusetts and testified as such even in a court of law.   In the end the libel case was "won" by Whistler but he was awarded only a farthing in damages. 

Thomas Brock's "Eve"

Sir Thomas Brock (1847-1922) was a British Sculptor, who also completed the sculpture of Prince Albert in the Albert memorial in London and the multi bronze sculptures of the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, perhaps his most important commission.   This sculpture was completed in 1899. 



LS Lowry's Hillside in Wales (1962)



LS Lowry (1887-1976)  was a painter who specialized in scenes from the industrial North of England mainly.  The flat perspective was considered akin to primitive or naive painting.  He was offered five National British honors including a knighthood, all of which were declined.  His day job was in a real estate office collecting rents. 

An eccentric man he owned a room full of windup clocks all set to different times, and here is shown painting in a suit and tie covered with paint.     



 William Strang- The Temptation  (Detail) (1899)

William Strang (1859-1921) was a Scottish artist who was known for his etching as well as paintings.  This is perhaps one of his best known paintings.  Shown here is Eve trying to get Adam to get more fiber in his diet, and to listen to her new friend the serpent. 

Portrait of Lady Kytson (c 1590)

The name of the artist who created this work is unknown, but because it has the name of the subject on the painting itself, we at least know that much.  Mary Kytson was Lady Darcy of Chiche and later Lady Rivers.  Mary Kytson (1567-1644) was married to Lord Darcy until he accused her of "unbecoming flirtations if not outright adultery" and separated from her in 1594.  She was the mother of his six children. 

Johann Zoffany "Colonel Blair with his family and an Indian Ayah (1786)



Johann Zoffany (1733-1810)  was a German painter who was active mainly in England, who painted in a neoclassical style.  He was a popular portraitist and court painter for George III and also was popular with the Austrian royals, and was created a baron by Maria Theresa.  He traveled to India and was  shipwrecked off the Andaman Islands and participated in cannibalism.   The Indian Ayah was a servant girl of the family.

Tristram Hillier (1905-1983) La Route des Alpes (1937)

 Tristram Hillier was born in China, and was a British surrealist painter.  He was married twice.  He was married to the daughter of a bookie the first time around, and the second time he married the daughter of the inventor of the Hardcastle torpedo. 


George Warner Allen's Picnic at Whittenham (1947-8)

 George Warner Allen (1916-1988) was a British artist whose work was collected by contemporaries such as Sir John Betjeman and TS Eliot.    He focused on religious and pastoral scenes.  This curious painting shows a man asleep in the foreground and watched over by Pan, the god of the wild, shepherds, and flocks, while two couples picnic in the background.