Tissot etchings at Cleveland
I think James Tissot (1836–1902) is a much better artist than I once believed. I had lumped him with Sargent and other late-19th-century artists who I consider superficial and fashionable. He’s much better than Sargent. Having said that, this etching, The Hammock (1880), is a little too saccharine for me. The etching on the front
YouTube art instruction
If you are looking for art instruction videos, YouTube is loaded with them. That’s the good news–videos for every taste and interest. The bad news is that the quality is–to put it charitably–spotty. You get what you pay for. Of course, you know this, so why am I taking the time to discuss something so
Turn toward realism?
Realism is becoming popular once again in painting studios. This development is welcome but it’s also sobering. Looking at the growing number of realists demonstrates how much has been lost. Much of it is Impressionism-adjacent which is not a good path. And for many new realists, Sargent has an oversize influence, which is also a
Good art books: David to Delacroix, The Rise of Romantic Mythology
Dorothy Johnson has written several books related to David and the Neoclassicists. David to Delacroix: The Rise of Romantic Mythology is probably her best work. I think about this little book a lot. Even though the Neoclassicists are best known for their Classically-inspired history paintings, Johnson reminds us that it was under their brush that
Death of history painting
At the end of the eighteenth century, art flowed along several currents. History painting, the primary current, was in its heyday and remained the undisputed champion until ‘history’ intruded into contemporary events with the French Revolution. This current continued into the middle of the nineteenth century with Delacroix. Another important current used myth to launch
Amusement park series
I visited Lake Erie’s preeminent amusement park, Cedar Point, five times this summer. I am using the thousands of photos that I took from these visits as reference material for my new series–Amusement Parks. I have 10 finished designs and I’ve started the drawings on several canvases. Yesterday, I finished the drawing for the first
Next YouTube video, Jacob van Ruisdael
I enjoyed preparing my last video so much, I am charged-up to do another. In my last video about Jan van Goyen, I mentioned his fellow Dutch Golden Ager, van Ruisdael. I’ve got a lot of material about this artist so I’ve already started the next video. One benefit of visiting art museums regularity is
New YouTube video about Jan van Goyen and the Dutch Golden Age
I published a new video on YouTube about the artist Jan van Goyen. As I’ve done with other videos, I used a painting in Cleveland’s Museum of Art as the starting point. In the video, I analyze van Goyen’s View of Emmerich in the Cleveland Museum of Art, and discuss van Goyen’s career, the Dutch