Frans Stracké | The Two Mothers, 1893 | Rijksmuseum

Franz Stracké created this sculpture in terracotta in 1893. The title "Two Mothers" refers to the woman and the dog, positioned at her feet looking upwards, whose puppies she is carrying. This work by Franz Stracké is exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

This sweet scene reflects increasing interest in the lives of fishermen. The statue shows a young woman holding her child, with her dog’s puppies gathered in her apron. Yet life is not a bed of roses for this barefoot fisherman’s wife. She has only two fish in her pouch, and the net that she drags behind her is empty. | Rijksmuseum

Frans Stracké | The Two Mothers, 1893 (detail) | Rijksmuseum

Vincent van Gogh | The Olive Trees series

Vincent van Gogh painted at least 15 paintings of olive trees, mostly in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in 1889. At his own request, he lived at an asylum there from May 1889 through May 1890 painting the gardens of the asylum and, when he had permission to venture outside its walls, nearby olive trees, cypresses and wheat fields.

One painting, "Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape", was a complement to "The Starry Night".

The olive tree paintings had special significance for van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh | Couple Walking among Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape with Crescent Moon 1890 | Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo

Vincent van Gogh | Le pont de Trinquetaille, 1888

The fifteen months that Van Gogh spent at Arles in 1888-1889 represent a pivotal moment in his career, "the zenith, the climax, the greatest flowering of Van Gogh's decade of artistic activity", according to Ronald Pickvance.

Freed from the pressures of urban life and inspired by the brilliant Provençal light, the artist integrated the results of months of experimentation and produced one modern masterpiece after another. With its bold composition and expressive palette, "Le pont de Trinquetaille" epitomizes his mature style.

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder | Baroque painter

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573-1621) was a Flemish-born Dutch still life painter and art dealer.

He is recognised as one of the earliest painters who created floral still lifes as an independent genre.

He founded a dynasty of painters who continued his style of floral and fruit painting and turned Middelburg into the leading centre for flower painting in the Dutch Republic.

Biography

He was born in Antwerp, where he started his career, but he spent most of it in Middelburg (1587-1613), where he moved with his family because of the threat of religious persecution. He specialized in painting still lifes with flowers, which he signed with the monogram AB (the B in the A).

At the age of twenty-one, he joined the city's Guild of Saint Luke and later became dean.

Not long after, Bosschaert married and established himself as a leading figure in the fashionable floral painting genre.

He had three sons who all became flower painters: Ambrosius II, Johannes and Abraham.

His brother-in-law Balthasar van der Ast also lived and worked in his workshop and accompanied him on his travels. Bosschaert later worked in Amsterdam (1614), Bergen op Zoom (1615-1616), Utrecht (1616-1619) and Breda (1619).

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In 1619 when he moved to Utrecht, his brother-in-law van der Ast entered the Utrecht Guild of St. Luke, where the renowned painter Abraham Bloemaert had just become dean.

The painter Roelandt Savery (1576-1639) entered the St. Luke's guild in Utrecht at about the same time. Savery had considerable influence on the Bosschaert dynasty.

After Bosschaert died in The Hague while on commission there for a flower piece, Balthasar van der Ast took over his workshop and pupils in Middelburg.

Style

His bouquets were painted symmetrically and with scientific accuracy in small dimensions and normally on copper.

They sometimes included symbolic and religious meanings. At the time of his death, Bosschaert was working on an important commission in the Hague.

That piece is now in the collection in Stockholm.

Bosschaert was one of the first artists to specialize in flower still life painting as a stand-alone subject. He started a tradition of painting detailed flower bouquets, which typically included tulips and roses.

Thanks to the booming seventeenth-century Dutch art market, he became highly successful, as the inscription on one of his paintings attests.

His works commanded high prices although he never achieved the level of prestige of Jan Brueghel the Elder, the Antwerp master who contributed to the floral genre.

Legacy

His sons and his pupil and brother-in-law, Balthasar van der Ast, were among those to uphold the Bosschaert dynasty which continued until the mid-17th century.

It may not be a coincidence that this trend coincided with a national obsession with exotic flowers which made flower portraits highly sought after.

Although he was highly in demand, he did not create many pieces because he was also employed as an art dealer.| © Wikipedia

Ambrosius Bosschaert il Vecchio (Anversa, 18 gennaio 1573 - L'Aia, 1621) è stato un pittore di nature morte del Secolo d'oro Olandese.

Biografia

Cominciò la sua carriera ad Anversa, anche se passò la maggior parte della vita a Middelburg, dove divenne decano della gilda dei pittori.

Lavorò poi ad Amsterdam, Bergen op Zoom, Utrecht e Breda.

Si specializzò nelle rappresentazioni di nature morte con fiori, spesso accompagnate da conchiglie o lepidotteri.

Nel 1587, Bosschaert si trasferì da Anversa a Middelburg con la sua famiglia per la minaccia di persecuzioni religiose.

All'età di ventun'anni entrò a far parte della Corporazione di San Luca; non molto tempo dopo Bosschaert consolidò la sua fama come figura di spicco nel proprio genere artistico.

Suo figlio Johannes Bosschaert ed il suo allievo e cognato, Balthasar van der Ast, furono tra coloro, assieme all'altro figlio Abraham Bosschaert, che portarono avanti la dinastia dei Bosschaert, la quale durò fino alla metà del XVII secolo.

Clicca sull'immagine per la visualizzazione estesa

Stile

I suoi bouquet di fiori sono dipinti simmetricamente e con una precisione scientifica, solitamente in piccole dimensioni. Includono spesso significati reconditi, dove ogni fiore va a rappresentare un'accezione simbolica.

Bosschaert divenne uno dei primi artisti a specializzarsi in nature morte, e nel fare ciò diede vita ad una tradizione di opere d'arte aventi per soggetto realistici mazzi di fiori, generalmente tulipani, rose e specie esotiche.

Dal punto di vista storico, tale scelta coincise con la Bolla dei tulipani, che aumentò enormemente anche nell'arte l'interesse verso il genere floreale.

Nonostante la fama raggiunta come pittore di genere, il numero di opere di Bosschaert non è particolarmente elevato, probabilmente perché mantenne come impiego principale quello di venditore d'opere piuttosto che artista. | © Wikipedia

Willem Kalf (1619-1693) | Dutch Golden Age painter

Willem Kalf was a Dutch Golden Age painter who specialized in still lifes. Later in his life, Kalf became an art dealer and appraiser.

Life and work

Willem Kalf was born in Rotterdam, in 1619. He was previously thought to have been born in 1622, but H. E. van Gelder's important archival research has established the painter's correct place and date of birth. Kalf was born into a prosperous patrician family in Rotterdam, where his father, a cloth merchant, held municipal posts as well.

Rembrandt | Adoration of the Magi, 1632 | Hermitage Museum

The Adoration of the Magi (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: A Magis adoratur) is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and worship him.

Adrianus Eversen (1818-1897) | Cityscapes painter

Dutch painter🎨 Adrianus Eversen portrayed the typical 19th century Dutch atmosphere in his work. As a member of Arti et Amicitiae he belonged to the society of elite artists of his time.

Eversen was a contemporary of Cornelis Springer.

Both painters were students of Hendrik Gerrit ten Cate at the same time, and usually painted contemporary regional (Oud-Hollandse) cityscapes.

In his choice of subjects, Eversen allowed himself more freedom.

Van Gogh | La Mousmé, 1888 | The National Gallery of Art

The intention and determination that inform Van Gogh's🎨 art can be obscured by the sensational legends that have arisen about his life. The artist's correspondence, particularly frdeom his brief mature period of 1888-1890, contradicts popular lore and attests to the deliberateness, sensitivity, and integrity of his work.

On July 29, 1888, Van Gogh wrote his younger brother Theo, an art dealer in a Parisian gallery, that "if you know what a 'mousmé' is (you will know when you have read Loti's Madame Chrysanthème), I have just painted one. It took me a whole week...but I had to reserve my mental energy to do the mousmé well".