Tag Archives: Joshua Reynolds

rubbing shoulders with the celestial emperor

The noble houses of eighteenth century England. Eventually the life blood of civilization began to flow through the veins of barbarized Europe. Gradually, a tide of wealth swept over the old noble warrior society. By 1750 the Western world had … Continue reading

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the coxcombs move on

The late Victorian period for the Royal Academy was really the end , succumbing after a long and chronic respiratory illness. Frith’s The Private View from 1881, showed that the Summer Exhibition could still take a hold on the public, … Continue reading

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like a lady

Lord Egremont got involved with her; he never did choose to settle down in marriage with some suitably rich and wellborn girl. He suffered, his critics alleged, from “indiscretion and irresolution.” What was more, he had fallen under the spell … Continue reading

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w. blake: the quack doctors of painting

The Royal Academy. The real power of the Royal Academy lay in its early days, and the driving force behind its consolidation was not primarily intellectual or social at all. It related to the machinery of distribution and sale. High … Continue reading

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conspicuous posturing

The lessons we learn today from Victorian painting are primarily of a documentary order; and the works in question should perhaps not be considered under the heading of painting at all, but rather as adjuncts and auxiliaries of the Victorian … Continue reading

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poussin: willing into the trap of fantasy

In short, Poussin’s reason got him trapped in fantasy. His striving for legibility backfired: the pious Madame du Housset , who owned the Vergilian Shepherds of Arcady, had placed it in her chapel thinking it was an altarpiece. …. Poussin … Continue reading

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vice is the spice of life

Prim and proper? Hardly. But, it was jolly old England. Refreshingly, they were not politically correct. The PC Nazi/Yuppie was in an idyllic, and mythological future.  It really began with William Hogarth. Hogarth was the first of these new artists … Continue reading

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duchess of alba: seven year fling

At about the time that Goya began work on the “Caprichos” , he also began his famous but always somewhat ambiguous affair with the Duchess of Alba, probably the most vivid figure that her society produced. In 1795 she visited … Continue reading

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shaggy dog stories: the dog peeling the banana…

Sometimes the bark is worse than the bite. Sometimes its not…In the tradition of Greek mythology, Cerebrus, a triple headed canine, guarded the entrance of the gate of the dead, and served as a protector for those crossing over.Generally, the … Continue reading

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ROYAL COLLECTORS: DROLL PRINCES AND PRICELESS PAINTINGS

Sometimes, it may be wiser to not have loved and lost, or to have bothered even loving at all…especially in the case of the portraits of King Henry VIII’s wives. Nonetheless, the British royal Collection is a fascinating grouping of … Continue reading

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