Art Inconnu - Little-known and under-appreciated art.

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Friday, 10 July 2009

Thursday, 9 July 2009

John Hoskins (d.1664)

"Portrait of Henrietta Maria of France (1609-1669)" 1630

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky (1868-1945)

"Sunday reading in a village school" 1895

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Lizzy Ansingh was famous for painting dolls and was the proud owner of a dollhouse. The rooms and the inhabitants of this dollhouse, taking up a prominent place in her studio, were an unmistakable inspiration for her. She chose not to depict these dolls as if they were objects. Lizzy Ansigh brought her dolls to life and showcased them in her painted plays. These paintings are a unique genre within the Dutch history of art.

The artist with her dolls

"Source of life" 1916

"The Performance"

detail

The paintings of Lizzy Ansingh are often considered to be 'alienating': the dolls she portrayed are puppets with a soul and not merely lifeless toys. The painting above takes this one step further, as the marionettes are skeletons of birds. With the Skeleton Ballet Ansingh referres to a famous puppet theatre, the theatre of Harry van Tussenbroek, who was also a decor and costumemaker.

Ansingh has chosen to depict the final scene of a ballet with the audience throwing flower wreaths, as the dancers and musicians are giving one last acte de presence. Curious birds glance at the stage. The painting has a somewhat foreboding undertone, as the wreaths allude to funeral wreaths, the garlands in the upper right resemble dust-traps and the skeletons could be a metaphor for the transitory aspect of life. However, the subject of music and dance is quite contradictory, being full of life and gaiety.

"On a carps back"

"De vijver met de goud en karpers"

"Le Peril Jeune" 1906

"Two dolls"

"Japanese doll"

"Awaken"

"De kleine koopman"

"Tea party" 1952

"A thought of music" 1909

"In the flower garden"

"Little girl with birdcage" 1936

Monday, 6 July 2009

Portraits by Candido Portinari (1903-1962)

"Portrait of Máriode Andrade" 1935

Candido Portinari (December 29, 1903 - February 6, 1962) was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting.

Born of Italian immigrants in a coffee plantation near Brodowski, in São Paulo Portinari studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA) in Rio de Janeiro. In 1928 he won a gold medal at the ENBA and a trip to Paris where he stayed until 1930, when he returned to Brazil.

He joined the Brazilian Communist Party and stood for senator in 1947 but had to flee Brazil for Uruguay due to the persecution of Communists. He returned to Brazil in 1951 but suffered ill health during the last decade of his life and died in 1962 due to lead poisoning from his paints.

His career coincided with and included collaboration with Oscar Niemeyer amongst others. Portinari's works can be found in galleries and settings in Brazil and abroad, ranging from the family chapel in his childhood home in Brodowski to his panels Guerra e Paz (War and Peace) in the United Nations building in New York. The range and sweep of his output is quite remarkable. It includes images of childhood, paintings depicting rural and urban labour, refugees fleeing the hardships of Brazil's rural north-east, treatments of the key events in the history of Brazil since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, portraits of members of his family and leading Brazilian intellectuals, illustrations for books, tiles decorating the Church of São Francisco at Pampulha, Belo Horizonte. There were a number of commemorative events in the centenary of his birth in 2003, including an exhibition of his work in London.