FRAGONARD

Today's Post concludes the Masters of Colour series.

It is being replaced by

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL ART 

which returns after a break of seven months.

The first post will be on Tuesday 3rd January and the blog will be updated every day.

nowthatswhaticallart.blogspot.com

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No.6 - JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD 1732-1806

This French painter and printmaker was one of the most prolific artists working in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, He produced more than 550 paintings plus a large number of drawings and etchings. 

THE HAPPY ACCIDENTS OF THE SWING

The Swing is Fragonard's most popular painting.
1767-68

Oil on Canvas 81 x 64 cm

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THE STOLEN KISS

late 1780s

Oil on Canvas 45 x 55 cm

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THE READER

c.1771

Oil on Canvas 82 x 65 cm

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BLIND MAN'S BUFF

1750-52

Oil on Canvas 1168 x 914 mm

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THE LOVE LETTER

c.1770

Oil on Canvas 83.2 x 67 cm

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LANDSCAPE WITH SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP

c.1764

Oil on Canvas 520 x 730 mm

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No.5

THE NATIVITY
Federico Barocci 1535-1612

c.1597

Oil on Canvas 134 x 105 cm

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CHRISTMAS

Grigory Gagarin 1810-93

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GEBURT JESUS CHRISTI
Anon 15th century

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THE NATIVITY (c.1750)

Francesco Londonio 1723-83

 This is a detail from a famous Nativity scene painted on paper sheets glued on to wood panels. . It is on display in the Cappella del Presepe in San Marco church at Milan.

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THE NATIVITY (1656)

Nicolas Mignard 1606-68

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NATIVITY
Piero della Francesca 1420-92

1470/5

Oil on poplar wood 124 x 123 cm

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MASTERS OF COLOUR WILL BE UPDATED NEXT WEEK ON THURSDAY

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INGRES

No.4 - JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES 1780-1867

Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. He always considered himself to be a painter of history following the tradition of Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, but in later years it was as a portrait painter that he was chiefly remembered. 

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THE VIRGIN ADORING THE HOST

1852
40.3 x 30.7 cm

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JOAN OF ARC AT THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII

1854

Oil on Canvas 240 x 178 cm

This painting was commissioned by the director of the Academie des Belles Artes in Orléans to commemorate Joan of Arc. It shows her at the coronation of Charles VII in Reims Cathedral, victorious and looking up to heaven, which she believed had given France the victory. Ingres began the piece by painting first a nude model and then adding clothes and armour.

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THE TURKISH BATH

1862

108 x 110 cm

This painting was based on an April 1717 written description of a Turkish harem by Lady Mary Montagu in which she mentions having viewed some two hundred nude women.

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PRINCESSE ALBERT DE BROGLIE

1853

Oil on Canvas 106 x 87 cm

This masterpiece was painted toward the end of Ingres' life when his reputation as a portraitist of prominent citizens and aristocrats had been long established. Pauline was stricken with tuberculosis soon after completion of the portrait, leaving five sons and a grieving husband. 

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GRANDE ODALISQUE

1814

91 x 162 cm

La Grande Odalisque (concubine) was commissioned by Napoleon's sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples and finished in 1814. Ingres was obviously familiar with paintings like the Dresden Venus by Giorgione and Titian's Venus of Urbino. The actual pose of the model looking back over her shoulder was directly drawn from the 1809 Portrait of Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David.

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 APOTHEOSIS OF HOMER

1827

Oil on Canvas 386 x 515 cm
The painting depicts Homer being crowned by a winged figure personifying Victory or the Universe. Forty-four additional figures pay homage to the poet in a kind of classical confession of faith. 

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MASTERS OF COLOUR WILL BE UPDATED NEXT WEEK ON THURSDAY

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TITIAN

No.3 - Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, better known as Titian, c.1490-1576

This Italian painter was the most important member of the 16th century Venetian school. His large output included portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects.  His use of colour was to have an important influence on painters of the Italian Renaissance and those of future generations.

THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN

1534/6 3.35 x 7.75 m

The Presentation of the Virgin is one of the twelve major feasts in the Eastern Orthodox Church and it marks the beginning of the Advent season. This incident is not found in the New Testament, but appears in the apocryphal Gospel of James. It tells the story of Mary, as a child many years before her famous meeting with the angel Gabriel, appearing before the leaders in the Temple.

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DIANA AND ACTAEON

1556/9

Oil on Canvas 184.5 x 202.2 cm

Diana, goddess of the hunt, is having a bath in a spring when Actaeon a mortal stumbles upon the scene. The nymphs try to cover Diana who, in a moment of anger, splashes water upon Actaeon. He is immediately changed into a deer and flees in fear. When he later meets his own hounds the animals don't realise that this is their master and kill him.

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MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ST JOHN THE BAPTIST AND AN UNIDENTIFIED SAINT

1517-20

Oil on Canvas transferred from panel

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SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE

1514

Oil on Canvas 118 x 279 cm

There have been many suggestions to explain the meaning of the painting.The work is thought to have been commissioned by Niccolò Aurelio, because his coat of arms appears on the fountain in the centre of the picture, and it's possible the painting celebrates his marriage to a young widow, Laura Bagarotto. It perhaps depicts the bride dressed in white, sitting beside Cupid and being assisted by Venus.

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THE THREE AGES OF MAN

c.1512

Oil on Canvas 106 x 182 cm

A lovely painting with peaceful countryside, lovers and babes - until you notice in the background an old man with a skull in each hand.

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DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1545

Oil on Canvas 570 x 260 cm

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MASTERS OF COLOUR IS UPDATED EVERY SATURDAY

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VAN GOGH

No.2 - VINCENT van GOGH 1853-90

Self-Portrait

Van Gogh was one of the most famous artists in the history of Western art. His work includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits and many self-portraits; over 600 of his oil paintings were created in the last two years of his life. He had to cope with mental illness and poverty and in the end he committed suicide.

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A SUBURB OF PARIS

1887 Oil on Canvas 38 x 46 cm

While the artist was living with his brother Theo, he produced a number of paintings in the outskirts of Paris.

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CHURCH AT AUVERS-SUR-OISE, VIEW FROM THE CHEVET

1890 Oil on Canvas 93 x 74.5 cm

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FLOWERING PLUM ORCHARD (after Hiroshige)

1887 Oil on Canvas 55 x 46 cm

For a while van Gogh had a great interest in all things Japanese and this is reflected in some of his paintings. Hiroshige 1797-1858  was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist  who was considered the last great master of that tradition.

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VAN GOGH'S BEDROOM IN ARLES

1889 Oil on Canvas 570 x 740 mm

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STARRY NIGHT OVER THE RHONE

1888 Oil on Canvas 720 x 920 mm

In February 1888 van Gogh wrote to Theo, "I need a starry night with cypresses or perhaps above a field of ripe wheat; there are some really beautiful nights here." After painting Starry Night Over the Rhone, he confessed  to his brother that he had a "tremendous need for, shall I say the word - religion - so I go outside at night to paint the stars."

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NEXT  SATURDAY - TITIAN

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