The Art of Illustration -- Rockwell, Wyeth, and Others

Daybreak (1922), Maxfield Parrish

This is a continuation of my April 2020 post entitled, Illustration in Children's Literature & the Wyeths. It is inspired by my last post Blue Morning by George Wesley Bellows that is currently on exhibit in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. While investigating similar paintings framed by columns, I found Daybreak (1922) by American Illustrator Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966). 

Baseball Scene of Batter, Catcher and Umpire
(1915), Joseph Christian Leyendecker

Parrish is among the most famous American painters and was once the highest paid illustrator in the country. You've no doubt heard of Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) and maybe J.C. Leyendecker (1874-1951), both known for their covers on The Saturday Evening Post. Both were featured in my December 2020 post, Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas in Art. J.C.'s baseball illustrations may inspire me to write another post about the art of baseball!

Tough Call (1948), Norman Rockwell

Rockwell is probably the most recognizable illustrator of his time. As one of his iconic baseball illustrations depicts, it's a Tough Call as to which artist captured the spirit of baseball better -- Rockwell or Leyendecker. It was fun visiting the Baseball HOF in Cooperstown, NY in 2019 and seeing the art up close and personal. I also like Rockwell's The Dugout (1948) and Leyendecker's Boys Playing Baseball (1915).

Blue Lock the Queen (1916), N.C. Wyeth

A great place to view the works of these artists is the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island. Here's a link to the N.C. Wyeth exhibit at NMAI. Wyeth (1882-1945) was one of the most famous and successful literary illustrators, helping readers visualize heroic characters in adventure books such as Treasure Island. His first cover for the Saturday Evening Post was published in 1903. I was introduced to his work while I was an art docent in my daughter's elementary school. This illustration accompanied a story published in Collier's magazine.

Mermaid (1910), Howard Pyle

Wyeth's mentor was American painter, Howard Pyle (1853-1911). His Mermaid painting is quite impressive and acclaimed for being the best depiction of a mermaid by an artist. The man being saved by the sea nymph is all blue, as if he became frozen in the frigid water, all expect for his red cap! Its movement reminds me of Wyeth's 'Blue Lock', even down to the red detail on the horse rider's head (bandana). While there is already tension in the mermaid's struggle, the red cap draws my attention even more. Also interesting is Pyle's treatment of the sea foam, reminding me of how Bob Ross teaches us to paint watery seascapes in his Joy of Painting TV series.

Battle at Sea (1947), Fischer

A student of Pyle, German-born American artist, Anton Otto Fischer (1882-1962) was also featured in the Post magazine. His illustrations often depicted maritime or marine war scenes such as Battle at Sea, published in a book about his sailing days. Curiously, there is a red flame in the center of the top third of the composition, much like the red cap in Pyle's Mermaid painting. While Pyle's seascape could be used to show movement, Fischer's would be perfect for teaching about perspective.

Violin Studies, Wistehuff

Revere Wistehuff (1900-1971) was part of the New Rochelle Art Colony in the 1920's, '30s and '40s, along with colleagues Rockwell and Leyendecker. His Violin Studies shows a boy who would rather be playing baseball than practicing his music. The kid reminds me of Buffalo Bob Smith's Howdy Doody character!

Grandma Catches Fly-ball,
Richard Sargent

Finally, we have another baseball illustration entitled, Marmont Hill Grandma Catches Fly-ball by Richard Sargent (1911-1979). It reminds me of Rockwell's The Dugout. It's surprising that she could see the ball with her eyes closed and her handbag hanging in the way. Isn't that Superman's Lois Lane standing next to her?

Our National Gallery of Art in DC

Majorcan Fisherman (1908), Sargent

John Singer Sargent in Spain

Recently, my daughter attended a professional conference in Washington D.C. and took the opportunity to visit several museums. She shared her photos of famous works on exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Curiously enough, there were two exhibits of one of our mutual favorite artists, John Singer Sargent, while on one of his seven trips to Spain (1879-1912) to study Velázquez. His painting of a Majorcan Fisherman is particularly captivating and unlike many of his other portraits, usually of women, and typically with a darker color palette. It reminds me of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party (1888) with its canopy and view through to the water in the background. I love the shadows and the sharp contrast of the dominant orange tones with the striking blue of the water.

Newly Discovered Art & Artists

Blue Morning (1909), George Bellows

Another American artist, George Wesley Bellows (1882-1925), painted a similarly framed landscape looking out over water. He is famous for painting urban life in New York City. His Blue Morning scene is reminiscent of Edvard Munch's sad depictions of mine workers returning home in the snow. Here, the column, fence, and shadows frame a silhouetted portrait on a foggy morning. The 'blue' may represent either the color of the water or the sadness of the workers. This is the last of four paintings Bellows made from 1907-1909.

Street of Barns (1914), Feininger

German American painter, caricaturist, and comic strip artist, Lyonel Feininger grew up in New York City. He was a proponent of Expressionism, painting buildings, street scenes, and barns. His figures are elongated much like those painted by fellow German Expressionist, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. At first blush, I thought this painting was one of the works by Cubist George Braque. I guess I need to practice guessing artists using Artle - the daily art exploration game created by the National Gallery of Art (it's free!).

Still Life (1918), Picasso

Peonies (1901), Picasso

Speaking of Cubists and other Expressionists, The National Gallery of Art was also showing several works by Pablo Picasso. Besides his recognizable Harlequin Musician and The Lovers, also on exhibit were Still Life and Peonies. I hadn't realized that Picasso painted these flowers. Normally, Manet and Monet are the artists whom I associate with them.

Impressionists

Children Playing on the Beach
(1884), Mary Cassatt

Many of the French Impressionists' works are also on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. My daughter took photos of the works of Mary Cassatt, Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, and Pierre Auguste Renoir. I love the innocence of Cassatt's Children Playing on the Beach (1884). Her portraits are some of my favorites -- they are timeless.

The Railway (1873), Manet

Édouard Manet preferred painting portraits, and I'd call him a French Realist. Here in The Railway we see a portrait of a mother and child waiting at the train station. I am distracted by the bars of the iron gate as well as the stitching in the mother's coat. Perhaps the daughter is dressed up to receive her father from the train. Did you notice the puppy cuddling in the woman's lap?

Still Life with Pineapple (1924), Matisse

Fauvist Henri Matisse is responsible for many colorful still lifes, and I especially like this one with a pineapple. We were lucky enough to visit his museum while in Nice, France in 2011. Like contemporary artist, Kehinde Wiley, Matisse backgrounds are always very interesting.

Woman with a Parasol - Madame
Monet and Her Son (1875), Monet

The Artist's Garden at
Vétheuil (1881), Monet

Like Manet, Claude Monet used members of his own family as his subjects. We also visited his garden at Giverny in 2011. Quite impressive!

Landscape, Ile-de-France (1873), Pissarro

My daughter knows how much I appreciate the works of Camille Pissarro, His works transcend all of the various Impressionist movements, although he is often referred to as a Neo-Impressionist. His version of Monet's haystacks is equally impressive.

Seurat Retrospective, Georges Seurat

The exhibition also featured a sort of retrospective wall showing the work of French Post-Impressionist and Pointillist, Georges Seurat. Of course, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86) is probably his best-known Pointillist works, made famous by the play starring Mandy Patinkin.

A Girl with a Watering Can (1876),
Pierre Auguste Renoir

It's always fun to find familiar artwork at the museum you're visiting. Here's probably the most famous Renoir, A Girl with a Watering Can (1876). I seem to focus on the girl's upper half with the red bow and the blue and white dress, but I never really noticed the watering can. And I consider myself very observant!

More 20th Century Artists

Ground Swell (1939), Edward Hopper

So, luckily my daughter took photos of four more of my favorites, who are more modern and contemporary than those of the French painters you usually spot at art museums. These artists are Edward Hopper, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró, and Lee Krasner (wife of Jackson Pollock).

I love Hopper's clean and confident style. His paintings have no frills, little shading, and calming areas of color that capture a moment and illicit relaxation for the viewer. 

Head of a Catalan Peasant
(1934), Joan Miró

Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle)
(1913), Kandinsky

I love Abstract Expressionism and the playful compositions of Kandinsky and Miró. Whether I am teaching kids or seniors to make colorful Kandinsky concentric circles or cutting out shapes to make Miró balanced compositions, it is always fun to find new masterpieces to share with them as examples for our projects.

Cobalt Night (1962), Krasner

It's surprising how many of Jackson Pollock's work I've seen at various art museums. Like Kandinsky, his compositions are usually numbered and mention the dominant color used in the painting. While vacationing in Palm Springs, I saw the exhibit of the 12 Women of Abstract Expressionism, including some works by Lee Krasner.

I hope you enjoyed this post about some of the 'most important' works currently on display at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. While in St. Petersburg, Russia in June 2019, our tour guide only showed us the 'most important' artwork because of the vast number of pieces at the Hermitage Museum. While I certainly appreciate seeing those, I still enjoy stumbling upon those diamonds in the rough, lesser known or seldom seen works, and even those by artists I've only recently discovered. This is how we learn and grow in our ability to appreciate visual art! 

Famous Artists & Paintings -- By Century

The Arnolfini Portrait (1434), van Eyck

15th Century

In this article, I'd like to review famous artists and their paintings, starting with the 15th century, highlighting my favorites. Earlier art primarily focused on religious subjects which, though ornately detailed, was pretty homogenous. Let's start with a work by Jan van Eyck, whose Arnolfini Portrait was included in my Avatars, Doppelgangers, and Lookalikes post. One of the most recognizable paintings of the 15th century, this double portrait also captures the couple's reflection in the convex mirror hung in the background. I saw it in person at the National Gallery of London in 2017. Van Eyck was considered an innovator, some saying that he created oil painting.

"Salvator Mundi" (1500), da Vinci

16th Century

At the beginning of the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci painted this classic portrait that eventually sold for $450.3M. It was supposed to be on display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi in 2018, but it has yet to be seen in public. See my June 2020 post, entitled Encouraging Artistic Expression, for more details. His other more famous portrait, Mona Lisa, was painted during the same period. I saw her at the Louvre in Paris in 2011. His Madonna Litta was painted toward the end of the 15th century, residing at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, where I visited in 2019.

The Hunters in the Snow (1565),
Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Later in the 16th century, Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder created The Hunters in the Snow. A large print of the landscape hung in my father's office at Price Waterhouse in NYC. It has always been one of my favorites! I love the cool teal color of the sky and frozen river. It's also a wonderful example of the use of perspective to create depth and the illusion of space.

The Saviour of the World
(1608-14), El Greco

17th Century

Moving to the early 17th century, we see El Greco's version of the Christ. The blessing gesture is similar to that of da Vinci's portrait, including the hand on the orb representing the world, although the color scheme is much more modern. I like the use of contrast, especially accentuating the face and the halo effect.

The Man in the Golden Helmet
(1650), Rembrandt

The mid-17th century paintings that I've chosen are three of my all-time favorite portraits. I do seem to gravitate towards portraits. Rembrandt is famous for having painted the most self-portraits though I love The Man in the Golden Helmet. It also inspired my work nickname 'Gelmet' which my co-workers gave me because of my gel hairdo. I often found people staring at the top of my head, much like how museum patrons might focus on the helmet in this painting.

Las Meninas (1656), Velázquez

There's something about this amazing family portrait by Diego Velázquez. To find out more, see my August 2020 post entitled Things That Go Together in Art – Subjects, Portraits, Landscapes/Seascapes, Still Lifes, and Couples. It does appear to have all the detail in the lower half of the painting, but it seems to work!

Girl with a Paearl Earring
(1665), Vermeer

This classic by Johannes Vermeer is known as the 'Mona Lisa of the North' probably because of her mysterious identity. Vermeer often employed blue and yellow in his detailed portraits, usually of women.

The Blue Boy (1770), Gainsborough

18th Century

Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds were rivals for the position of Painter to the King. On our trip to the UK in 2017, their paintings were curiously hanging side-by-side in one of the national galleries. Growing up in New Jersey, my next-door neighbor had a red sitting room where a copy of Gainsborough's Blue Boy was hung. One of the houses we rented in Port Townsend's Fort Warden had needlepoint versions of Blue Boy and Pinkie (by Thomas Lawrence) hanging side-by-side. The pair, often seen together, also appears in episodes of Leave it to Beaver just inside the Cleavers' front door entry.

The Age of Innocence (1788), Reynolds

I use portraits from Sir Joshua Reynolds and Gilbert Stuart when I do my wrapping paper self-portraits project with fifth graders. Included in one of the packets provided by Interurban Center for the Arts was his portrait of Lady Caroline (1778). The girl in this painting is unknown but is likely Reynolds' great niece.

Athenaeum Portrait
(1796), Stuart

It's unusual to find unfinished paintings on display in galleries and I've only ever seen one of them. I find it interesting that Gilbert Stuart intentionally kept one of his first portraits of George Washington unfinished to use as a model for later works. Martha Washington admired it, but Stuart refused her and painted another one instead.

Cenotaph to the Memory
of Sir Joshua Reynolds
(1833-6), Constable

19th Century

Another painting I saw at the National Gallery in London is John Constable's homage to Sir Joshua Reynolds. I enjoy seeing artwork in person, especially when it's something I've studied in school or researched for my blog or one of my classes. The stag is meant to represent the wild locale of the monument, which in actuality would have been smaller than a full-sized deer. It's up to the artist to create the focal point and provide it the proper emphasis.

Tiger in a Tropical Storm (1891), Rousseau

Here's another diamond in the rough from the National Gallery in London. It's a landscape by Henri Rousseau that could be perceived as a portrait of a tiger. Crouching tiger but no hidden dragon!

Les Oliviers (1889), Van Gogh

Of course, my all-time favorite artist has to be Vincent Van Gogh. It's difficult for me to choose a favorite. While doing research for this blog I continue to discover new (to me) Van Gogh paintings. For example, I saw this one at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Like Van Gogh's Sunflowers, olive trees were another of his favorite subjects to paint.

I love the paintings of the French Impressionists, but there are too many for me to down select for this blog post. I also love the paintings of Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall. I highly recommend visiting their museums in Nice, France.

Capri Girl (1878), Sargent

Let's finish with the 19th century artists/paintings by including John Singer Sargent's portrait of Capri Girl. My daughter and I saw this work while briefly on exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum and we immediately fell in love with it. She appears to be leaning against the branch of a tree and gracefully becomes part of nature. Her bodice and hair blend into the dark background and her skirt disappears into the flowery field. She was a favorite subject of the artist.

Christina's World (1948), Andrew Wyeth

20th Century

My favorite artists of the 20th century are Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Rockwell, and Andrew Wyeth. Since we're primarily showcasing portraits here, and as a transition from Sargent's Capri Girl, I'm including Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth. His wife Betsy modeled for the painting inspired by the Olson (~30-yr-old) girl he saw crawling in the field.

President Obama (2018), Wiley

Kehinde Wiley is probably the best known African American portrait painter of the 21st century, although Simmie Knox was the first to paint the portrait of a President (Bill Clinton). I had the opportunity to see Wiley's paintings on exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. I also got to see Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series, which was impressive but on a smaller scale than the large decorative works of Wiley. His intricate backgrounds are beautiful! While Lawrence used colorful shapes to build his symbolic compositions, Wiley used colorful patterns to surround and highlight his subjects.

So, who are your favorite artists? Your favorite painting? I find that I often choose to listen to the B-side of a record, straying from the more popular featured song. I also enjoy hearing the more obscure and less played selections (e.g., of Tom Petty songs) just as much as seeing newly discovered works by my favorite visual artists. As with music, you learn to love and appreciate many genres, though you will likely gravitate towards your favorites.

Mona Lisa -- Mysterious Enigma, Misunderstood Masterpiece?

Mona Lisa (1503-06), da Vinci

While Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous painting of all time, attracting tens of thousands of viewers each day at the Louvre in Paris, it is also one of the most misunderstood artworks. Initially, the 3/4-view portrait of the supposed Italian housewife was copied by artists who admired it for its realism and "subtle gradations of light and shadow" (sfumato) employed by Leonardo. The imaginary background is also admired for its smoky quality, making it both landscape and portrait. Viewers are more taken in by her 'smile'.

Da Vinci produced the small portrait of an ordinary woman whom scholars identify as Lisa Gherardini, wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. She is wearing a veil which is difficult to make out amidst the rest of the dark shades employed in her hair and costume. Other paintings of Florentine women typically show more opulent dress including jewelry and rosy cheeks. The subtlety of expression and apparent lack of eyebrows make her less interesting, though more mysterious, than her contemporaries.

LHOOQ (1919), Duchamp

It wasn't until its theft in 1911 that the painting began to increase in popularity. Even when I visited the Louvre a hundred years later, people crowded around a small window to view it deeply shrouded inside a secured chamber. Get ready for disappointment!

Perhaps it was Marcel Duchamp's kitschy mustached reproduction, mocking her as 'the ideal of feminine beauty', that reinvigorated its post-war popularity. My March 2020 post about Shamrocks, Bowler Hats, and Irish Artists shows Lisa wearing a bowler hat. I guess it's the mystery behind the painting, its theft, and the desire to see the real painting amidst all the reproductions that fuel the attraction. See more in the article, "Why is the Mona Lis so Famous?".

Girl with a Paearl Earring
(1665), Vermeer

Personally, I much prefer Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, also known as the 'Mona Lisa of the North' or the 'Dutch Mona Lisa'. A young Scarlett Johansson portrayed the subject (Griet) in the 2003 movie. A little publicity for the northern version!

The Cast of Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Although I've seen several movies depicting Leonardo da Vinci as a character, I've yet to see one about his Mona Lisa. Curiously, there is the 2003 movie entitled, Mona Lisa Smile, which starred Julia Roberts as an educator, along with three other beauties. And a 1986 British crime-drama movie called Mona Lisa about a call girl.

Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito (1992)

In My Cousin Vinny (1992), Marisa Tomei costars as Mona Lisa Vito, the spunky and obstinate fiancée of Joe Pesci. Even the name of the famous portrait subject gets reused, perpetuating the title and its worldwide recognition! Let's not forget the song of the same name recorded by Nat King Cole in March of 1950.

So, would Mona Lisa be as famous without the somewhat anonymous name, enigmatic expression (the smile), theft attempts, or admired painting techniques? Maybe the mystery itself is what attracts us to it!

Pumpkin Carving 2022

My Cheshire Cat (2022), Patterson

More and more I enjoy pealing the skin off a pumpkin to create layers of value for my jack-o-lanterns. The deeper you go, the lighter that area becomes. Completely cutout areas will be bright yellow, while the uncut (skin) areas will have the darkest value. A bonus feature of these shaded pumpkins is that they look good (unlit) in the daylight.

Here's my Cheshire Cat pumpkin. It looks much better with the ears punched through. I also love how leaving the skin around the eyes, nose, and mouth creates an outline, further emphasizing those features.

I carved triangles and diamonds in the lid and on the back side to create chimneys to allow heat to escape. If you carve your lid somewhat symmetrically, then you can rotate the lid to allow for ventilation.

Frankie (2021), Patterson

My favorite pumpkin from last year has to be my Frankenstein head. The lid made for great looking monster hair. By cutting slits in the top edge of the opening the hair was further reflected onto the face, and a larger slit created a gash for a scar. Sometimes the best carvings result from an inspiring pumpkin shape. I didn't need to carve ears, but I did use small scraps and toothpicks to create the electrodes on his non-existing neck.

If you are going to attach ears to your pumpkin, simply cut out an oval shape (or ring) then rotate it and reinsert so that the light can highlight it from both front and back. Notice also how the eyelids are suggested with skin as the outline, while the facial accents are again slits carved all the way through. No shading required!

Every year I search the web for ideas. My Cheshire Cat was inspired by a picture of a pumpkin carving that I found online. The hard drive of my desktop PC before I could get a copy of it on my printer. I also lost MS PowerPoint where I had stored the image. My wife's printer cut off part of the image, so I improvised. I had to figure out how to make the mouth using small triangles on the bottom and larger ones on the top. Everything was carved freehand without using any markers for laying out the lines. For Frankie, I used a photo of a drawing of the monster then made my own inspired design.

Harry (2022), Ken Patterson

I carved a Harry Potter face this year. The example I found has some wonderfully jagged lines and uses peeling for most of the face. The deepest cuts are for his scar (from he who will remain nameless), his eyes, ears, and at his temples. Surprisingly, it only took ~1 hour to complete. I ended up scraping the entire face later but forgot to leave skin for the dark eyebrows. I pushed straightened paperclips through the flesh (from the back) to attach pieces of pumpkin skin above the eyes. Now it looks much more like the young wizard instead of a creepy Chucky doll. It will look even better with glasses made out of wire. The black dots in his eyes are black-headed straight pins. I'm thinking of adding large green sequins for the irises. The entire look is growing on me. It looks better when viewed or photographed from above.

Daytime Harry (2022)

Here's how Harry looks during the daytime and with wire spectacles added. I also added some orange pumpkin sequins (couldn't find green) for irises.

Martha Stewart pumpkin & Mr. Bill

Our pumpkin carving party with the family was a great success. We served pizza and pumpkin pie and take-home caramel apples. We texted photos of our jack-o-lanterns to family members not in attendance and asked them to guess who carved which pumpkin. We also watched the Seahawks beat the NY Giants. Here are two cookie-cutter creations.

Traditional Jack-o-Lanterns

The next two are pretty traditional jack-o-lantern faces. They were carved free hand except for the mouth on the one on the left. He used a cookie cutter shape and repeated it to make the mouth. My sister-in-law got creative and made hair for her pumpkin by carving away the skin and some of the flesh. I like her skeleton nose complete with nostrils.

Symmetric Pumpkin & Chewbacca the Wookie

My sister-in-law's husband decided to carve his second pumpkin by reusing the same cookie cutter for the eyes and mouth. There was lots of hammering going on in order to get the cuts to go most of the way through the flesh. He even inverted the tool to get symmetry in the face. I chose to carve the head of Chewbacca the Wookie from Star Wars, although he could also pass for the Sasquatch.

The Mandalorian (2022), Ken Patterson

We grew two pumpkins this year but didn't carve them. I used another store-bought pumpkin to carve the Mandalorian helmet. It was challenging to carve a black and grey helmet with only little shiny spots on the metal shapes. The deepest cuts were for the eyes and the outside defining the ears and left and right sides of the helmet.

Since my daughter chose not to participate, and her uncle brought a green pumpkin, I carved Grogu ('Baby Yoda') from the Star Wars Disney+ television series The Mandalorian.

Three of the most challenging for me. Mandalorian actually looks best in darkness (below). I love how Baby Yoda looks at twilight (right). Tonight, a 9-yr-old girl told me how much she admired my pumpkins. And she recognized the Wookie! She was definitely a Star Wars fan!!

Here's a photo of my pumpkins all lit up on Halloween night!