Gustave Caillebotte - A Realist Impressionist
Friday, July 10, 2015
With the
demand in a world market for Picassos and Mondrians only the hyper-wealthy or
museums can afford to purchase and or display. This means that previously
unknown or less known artists are now been given their time of day and their
paintings much needed light.
This is
similar to the over extension of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and other great works of the 18th century.
These pieces can be heard on YouTube for free so the comparison to the visual art
is not exact. But now previously less known baroque composers of the fantastic
(the period is sometimes called that) 17the century are in vogue worldwide and
especially with Early Music Vancouver programming of late.
One of
my favourite days of the week is Friday and specifically Friday morning when I
immediately go to the two-section (only on Friday) Weekend Arts I and II of my hard copy NY Times. The I
is about films, TV and dance but II is about the visual arts. This section
explores new exhibitions, etc. But to this old man who had a poor arts
education it is like opening a new and wonderful (and previously unknown)
mystery writer’s novel. A case in point is the cover article on a French
painter Gustave Caillebotte, 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894, who was a
strange hybrid in that he was an Impressionist with a big chunk of realism.
I was enamored
and charmed by his Nude on a Couch which I show here and hope that when the
blog is posted in Facebook, the style/morality police will not notice and let
it go by.
The link
for the show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington is here. I hope that
you who are not NY Times subscribers might be able to click and see what all
the hoopla is about.
I am
also including (in a very tiny file) my photograph of the one-armed model Pam
that I photographed some years ago. With an early version of Corel I modified
the photograph to resemble a hyper realist painting. I posed her in such a way
as most who see it would never suspect she only has one arm.
