Category Archives: #FineArtFriday

March 6, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood by John Singer Sargent 1885

Artist: John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)

Title: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood

Depicted people: Claude Monet, Alice Hoschedé

Date: 1885

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 54 cm (21.2 in); width: 64.8 cm (25.5 in)

Collection: Tate Britain

 

What I love about this painting:

This is the record of a pleasant summer’s day spent with friends, just relaxing and enjoying life. I feel sure a picnic basket lurks just out of sight, filled with good French food.

John Singer Sargent was a complicated man in so many ways, but his art came first. He was wholly dedicated to his art, and yet he had to earn money. He is most famous for his (sometimes scandalous) portraits of famous people of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, all of which are outstanding and worthy of a closer look.

While his portraits paid the bills, his best work was done when painting scenes of ordinary people going about their daily business. Claude Monet is a legend in our time, but he was just another painter friend, albeit a respected one, in Sargent’s time. Thus, portraying his friend as he worked was absolutely Sargent’s idea of painting for fun.

The influence of the French impressionists on his work is clear, and yet he remained committed to a style of realism that was uniquely his own.

About this painting, via Wikipedia:

Sargent spent much time painting outdoors in the English countryside when not in his studio. On a visit to Monet at Giverny in 1885, Sargent painted one of his most Impressionistic portraits, of Monet at work painting outdoors with his new bride nearby. Sargent is usually not thought of as an Impressionist painter, but he sometimes used impressionistic techniques to great effect. His Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood is rendered in his own version of the Impressionist style. In the 1880s, he attended the Impressionist exhibitions, and he began to paint outdoors in the plein-air manner after that visit to Monet. Sargent purchased four Monet works for his personal collection during that time. [1]

About the artist via Wikipedia:

About The Artist via Wikipedia:

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the “leading portrait painter of his generation” for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

Born in Florence to American parents, he was trained in Paris before moving to London, living most of his life in Europe. He enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter. An early submission to the Paris Salon in the 1880s, his Portrait of Madame X, was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter in Paris, but instead resulted in scandal. During the next year following the scandal, Sargent departed for England where he continued a successful career as a portrait artist.

From the beginning, Sargent’s work is characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. Art historians generally ignored society artists such as Sargent until the late 20th century.

With his watercolors, Sargent was able to indulge his earliest artistic inclinations for nature, architecture, exotic peoples, and noble mountain landscapes. And it is in some of his late works where one senses Sargent painting most purely for himself. His watercolors were executed with a joyful fluidness. He also painted extensively family, friends, gardens, and fountains. In watercolors, he playfully portrayed his friends and family dressed in Orientalist costume, relaxing in brightly lit landscapes that allowed for a more vivid palette and experimental handling than did his commissions (The Chess Game, 1906). His first major solo exhibit of watercolor works was at the Carfax Gallery in London in 1905. In 1909, he exhibited eighty-six watercolors in New York City, eighty-three of which were bought by the Brooklyn Museum. Evan Charteris wrote in 1927:

To live with Sargent’s water-colours is to live with sunshine captured and held, with the luster of a bright and legible world, ‘the refluent shade’ and ‘the Ambient ardours of the noon.’

Although not generally accorded the critical respect given Winslow Homer, perhaps America’s greatest watercolorist, scholarship has revealed that Sargent was fluent in the entire range of opaque and transparent watercolor technique, including the methods used by Homer. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood by John Singer Sargent, 1885.  P|D 100.  File:Sargent MonetPainting.jpg – Wikipedia. Accessed March 5, 2026.

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “John Singer Sargent,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Singer_Sargent&oldid=1337829485 (accessed March 5, 2026).

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February 27, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: A closer look at “The Peasant and the Nest Robber” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1568

The_Peasant_and_the_Birdnester_Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_1568Artist: Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569)

Title:  “The Peasant and the Nest Robber”

Date: 1568

Medium: oil on oak wood

Dimensions: 59.3 × 68.3 cm (23.3 × 26.8 in)

Collection: Kunsthistorisches Museum

What I love about this painting

I first featured this painting in September of 2024. It made me smile then and still does. I still love the sarcastic wit that Pieter Breughel the Elder instilled in it. He was a man with a sharp eye for the humorous and the ability to wield allegory and symbolism like a knife. He cuts to the heart of things, pointing out the hubris and vanities of people from all walks of life.

Most painters at the time painted either religious scenes or portraits for the wealthy. Pieter Brueghel the Elder painted plenty of religious scenes which sold well, but his favorite subjects were the common people of his village. He was earthy and honest in his depictions of village life as he saw it. Brueghel the Elder celebrated the ups and downs of the human condition.

Today, his art is an important source of evidence about the social mores and values governing the life of ordinary people during the 16th-century.

This painting details his favorite subject, human frailty, but he’s taken a different approach, narrowing his usual cast of thousands to just two.

In this case, he is pointing out that people are opportunists. We either have the knowledge and nerve to take what we need or the knowledge and sly desire to point out the failings of others.

Both men in this scene are taking the opportunity to advance themselves. One gains eggs and a good meal, and the other gains a sense of moral superiority.

Neither man feels guilty.

About this painting, via Wikipedia:

This unusual subject apparently illustrates a Netherlandish proverb:

Dije den nest Weet dijen weeten, dijen Roft dij heeten
He who knows where the nest is, has the knowledge, he who robs, has the nest.

The painting presents a moralising contrast between the active, wicked individual and the passive man who is virtuous in spite of adversity (a similar theme appears in his drawing The Beekeepers)] And lastly it could be suggested that the pointing man is making judgement on the robber whilst not aware that he is nearly stepping into the water in front of him.

It has been suggested that, with his knowledge of Italian art, Bruegel intended the peasant’s gesture as a profane parody of the gesture of Leonardo‘s St John. [1]

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder c. 1525–1530 – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker from Brabant, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genre painting); he was a pioneer in making both types of subject the focus in large paintings.

He was a formative influence on Dutch Golden Age painting and later painting in general in his innovative choices of subject matter, as one of the first generation of artists to grow up when religious subjects had ceased to be the natural subject matter of painting. He also painted no portraits, the other mainstay of Netherlandish art. After his training and travels to Italy, he returned in 1555 to settle in Antwerp, where he worked mainly as a prolific designer of prints for the leading publisher of the day. Only towards the end of the decade did he switch to make painting his main medium, and all his famous paintings come from the following period of little more than a decade before his early death, when he was probably in his early forties, and at the height of his powers.

Around 1563, Bruegel moved from Antwerp to Brussels, where he married Mayken Coecke, the daughter of the painter Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Mayken Verhulst. As registered in the archives of the Cathedral of Antwerp, their deposition for marriage was registered 25 July 1563. The marriage itself was concluded in the Chapel Church, Brussels in 1563.

Pieter the Elder had two sons: Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder (both kept their name as Brueghel). Their grandmother, Mayken Verhulst, trained the sons because “the Elder” died when both were very small children. The older brother, Pieter Brueghel copied his father’s style and compositions with competence and considerable commercial success. Jan was much more original, and very versatile. He was an important figure in the transition to the Baroque style in Flemish Baroque painting and Dutch Golden Age painting in a number of its genres. He was often a collaborator with other leading artists, including with Peter Paul Rubens on many works including the Allegory of Sight.

Other members of the family include Jan van Kessel the Elder (grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder) and Jan van Kessel the Younger. Through David Teniers the Younger, son-in-law of Jan Brueghel the Elder, the family is also related to the whole Teniers family of painters and the Quellinus family of painters and sculptors, through the marriage of Jan-Erasmus Quellinus to Cornelia, daughter of David Teniers the Younger. [2]

Credits and Attributions:

[1] IMAGE and Quote about this picture: Wikipedia contributors, “The Peasant and the Nest Robber,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Peasant_and_the_Nest_Robber&oldid=1265248481 (accessed February 26, 2026).

[2] Wikipedia contributors, “Pieter Bruegel the Elder,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder&oldid=1340544806 (accessed February 26, 2026).

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February 20, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: A second look at “Gathering Wood for Winter” by George Henry Durrie 1855

Title: Gathering Wood for Winter

Artist: George Henry Durrie (1820–1863)

Date: 1855

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 26 in (66 cm); width: 36 in (91.4 cm)

Collection: Private collection

Why I love this painting:

I love the comforting hominess of George Heny Durrie’s works. in fact, I love everything the snobbier critics hate most about his work – it is meant for ordinary people (like me) to enjoy.

I thought about this painting because winter has lingered this year. Long ago when I was holding down two jobs and living through Reaganomics, I lived in a house that was heated with a woodstove. Every year it was a struggle to buy or cut enough wood to last through the winter.

In this painting, Durrie shows us a day in late autumn. His characteristic use of reds and browns juxtaposed against lighter shades of white portrays the stark beauty of late autumn in New England.

The first snow has fallen, and the season is turning to winter. It’s more important than ever to gather as much wood as possible. Fortunately for our wood gatherers, a giant has fallen victim to a storm, snapping off halfway up.

This is not necessarily the end of the tree. Leaves still cling to the branches below the wound and will continue to provide shade and habitat for as long as it can. Someday, it may be cut down, as the fact it broke in half shows that it is nearing the end of its life and may present a hazard to those who walk beneath it.

Regardless of the tree’s future, the farmer and his son are taking advantage of the bounty so close to their home. They will stack it in the woodshed in “cords” and allow it to dry out or “season” before they must burn it, hopefully not before the end of spring.

The more wood they gather now, the warmer they will be when winter’s grip tightens.

And one cord of wood won’t do it. When I was heating my house, it took five to seven cords to make it through a mild winter. And we were not cooking with it, only heating a small house.

A “cord” of wood is a standard measurement of split and stacked logs that measures 4 feet high × 4 feet wide × 8 feet long. How Big is a Cord of Wood? Exact Measurements & Visual Guide 

About the author, via Wikipedia:

George Henry Durrie (June 6, 1820 – October 15, 1863) was an American landscape artist noted especially for his rural winter snow scenes, which became very popular after they were reproduced as lithographic prints by Currier and Ives.

For many years, Durrie made a living primarily as a portrait painter, executing hundreds of commissions. After marriage, he made frequent trips, traveling to New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey,  and Virginia, fulfilling commissions and looking for new ones. His diary reveals that he was an enthusiastic railroad traveler, in the early days of the railroads. Durrie also painted what he called “fancy pieces”, whimsical studies of still lives or stage actors, as well as painting scenes on window-shades and fireplace covers. But portrait painting commissions became scarcer when photography came on the scene, offering a cheaper alternative to painted portraits, and, as his account-book shows, Durrie rarely painted a portrait after 1851.

Durrie’s interest shifted to landscape painting, and while on the road, or at home, made frequent sketches of landscape elements that caught his eye. Around 1844 Durrie began painting water and snow scenes, and took a second place medal at the 1845 New Haven State Fair for two winter landscapes. Although he had some training in portrait work, Durrie was self-taught as a landscape artist. He was undoubtedly influenced both by the American Hudson River School, and also by European artists, by studying exhibitions of their work at the New Haven Statehouse, the Trumbull Gallery, and at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, as well as in New York City. Durrie himself exhibited regularly, both locally, and in New York City at the National Academy of Design and the American Artists’ Union, and his reputation grew. Durrie was especially known for his snow pieces, and would often make copies or near-copies of his most popular pieces, with modifications to order.  The landscapes painted by Durrie offered a more intimate view than the panoramic landscapes painted by the Hudson River School, which was the leading school of American landscape painting. Colin Simkin notes that Durrie’s paintings took in a wide angle, but still “close enough to be within hailing distance” of the people who are always included in his scenes.

Currier and Ives

Durrie’s early landscapes were often of local landmarks, such as East Rock and West Rock, and other local scenes, which were popular with his New Haven clients, and he painted numerous variations of popular subjects. As his portrait commissions declined, Durie concentrated on landscapes. He wanted a wider audience, and he seemed to have a good sense of what would sell. Durrie realized that his paintings would have a wider appeal if he made them as generic New England scenes rather than as identifiable local scenes, retaining, as Sackett said, “a sense of place without specifying where that place was.” The New York City lithographic firm of Currier & Ives knew their audience; the American public wanted nostalgic scenes of rural life, images of the good old days, and Durrie’s New England scenes fit the bill perfectly. Lithographic prints were a very democratic form of art, cheap enough that the humblest home could afford some art to hang on the wall. Durrie had been marketing his paintings in New York City, and Currier and Ives, who had popularized such prints, purchased some of Durrie’s paintings in the late 1850s or early 1860s, and eventually published ten of Durrie’s pictures beginning in 1861. Four prints were published between 1861 and the artist’s death in New Haven in 1863; six additional prints were issued posthumously.

The popularity of Durrie’s snow scenes received an additional boost in the 1930s, when the Traveler’s Insurance Company began issuing calendars featuring Currier and Ives prints. Starting in 1946, the January calendar always featured a Durrie snow scene. Historian Bernard Mergen notes that “84 of the 125 paintings attributed to him are snowscapes, more than enough to make him the most prolific snow scene painter of his time.”

In Durrie’s time, winter landscapes were not popular with most curators and critics, but nevertheless, by the time of his death, Durrie had acquired a national reputation as a snowscape painter. Durrie died in 1863, at age 43, probably from typhoid fever, not long after Currier and Ives began reproducing his paintings as prints.

Durrie was dismissed by critics as a popular artist, an illustrator rather than a fine artist. Although Durrie’s Currier and Ives prints were popular, his name was still relatively unknown. But a revival of interest in Durrie began in the 1920s with the publication in 1929 of Currier and Ives, Printmakers to the American People, by collector Harry T. Peters, Sr., who called Durrie’s prints “among the most valued In the entire gallery [of Currier and Ives prints]”, and says that Durrie was known as the “snowman” of the group. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Gathering Wood for Winter by George Henry Durrie 1855. Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:George Henry Durrie – Gathering Wood for Winter.JPG,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:George_Henry_Durrie_-_Gathering_Wood_for_Winter.JPG&oldid=853995324 (accessed May 1, 2025).

[1]Wikipedia contributors, “George Henry Durrie,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Henry_Durrie&oldid=1282714933 (accessed May 1, 2025).

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February 13, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: A Merry Company in an Arbor by Adriaen van de Venne 1615

Artist: Adriaen van de Venne (circa 1589–1662)

Title: A Merry Company in an Arbor

Date    1615

Medium: oil on panel

Dimensions: height: 164 mm (6.45 in); width: 230 mm (9.05 in)

Collection: Getty Center

What I love about this painting:

Good heavens, where should I start? This is now my second favorite Dutch Renaissance painting ever. (Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s Hunters in the Snow is my favorite). Adriaen van de Venne is now in the top five of my favorite artists simply because of his unrepentantly Dutch sense of humor. I want to be Dutch when I grow up!

So, let’s have a look at the story Adriaen is telling us. The action is happening in the left foreground. Everyone loves a good kegger … I mean … picnic in the woods, especially after being cooped up all winter. We get dressed in some nice summer finery and everyone brings food, and the hosts provide the drinks.

Of course, the uncles all get a bit deep into the free beer and suddenly a tree climbing contest is on. Unfortunately, Cousin Dirck loses the battle with gravity, as does Uncle Hans. Aunt Irma barely dodges her plummeting spouse, and Cousin Aart yells at Dirck to get up and stop acting like a fool. Cousin Berthe, Dirk’s new bride, is mortified, as she has only just met her spouse’s extended family and had hoped to make a better impression.

Everyone else pretends nothing happened, business as usual. It’s the way family gatherings are, with noisy well-fed people having a good time.

Other groups picnicking in the forest and meadow pretend not to hear the ruckus, but a few nosy neighbors gawk. The gossip will hit the streets before sundown, but other than that, it’s a fine day for a frolic in the forest, one that the Brueghels would have enjoyed.

Humor aside, this is a wonderful, well-executed painting. Adriaen van de Venne has captured one of the most hilarious family get-togethers ever.

About the artist, vis Wikipedia:

Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne (1589 – 12 November 1662), was a versatile Dutch Golden Age painter of allegories, genre subjects, and portraits, as well as a miniaturist, book illustrator, designer of political satires, and versifier.

Van de Venne was born in Delft. According to Houbraken he learned Latin in Leiden. He learned to paint from the master goldsmith and painter Simon de Valk, and afterwards learned engraving from Jeronimus van Diest, a good painter of grisailles. He then moved to Middelburg in 1614 where he was influenced by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Elder. [1]

To read more about this artist, go to Adriaen van de Venne – Wikipedia.

Credits and Attributions

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Adriaen van de Venne (Dutch – A Merry Company in an Arbor – Google Art Project.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Adriaen_van_de_Venne_(Dutch_-_A_Merry_Company_in_an_Arbor_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg&oldid=1034439061 (accessed February 12, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Adriaen van de Venne,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adriaen_van_de_Venne&oldid=1330070271 (accessed February 12, 2026).

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February 6, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: a second look at “Under flowering trees” by Adolf Kaufmann

Adolf_Kaufmann_Under_the_treesjpgArtist: Adolf Kaufmann (1848–1916)

Title: Under flowering trees

Date: before 1916

Medium: oil on canvas

Inscription: signed A. Kaufmann

What I love about this painting:

I first featured this painting in 2023. Adolph Kaufmann was brilliant at depicting the kind of misty rain we often get in spring. Here, he gives us a beautiful spring day with dew clinging to the grass, along with apple and cherry trees in full bloom. The weather is cool and damp with mist rising the way spring mornings often are here in the Pacific Northwest.

Chickens roam the orchard, and two women are digging, breaking the ground for a spring garden.

To the left is a weathered building. Is it a barn? Is it their home? It’s hidden behind the shrubbery so it’s difficult to tell, but it has no window, so I think it may be a barn.

Nothing is romanticized—we see it the way the artist did on that spring day over a century ago.

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Adolf Kaufmann (15 May 1848, in Troppau – 25 November 1916, in Vienna) was an Austrian landscape and marine artist.

He was initially self-taught, but completed his studies with the animal painter, Émile van Marcke, in Paris and undertook several study trips, throughout Europe and the Middle East. His residence alternated between Paris, Berlin, Düsseldorf and Munich.

In 1890, he decided to settle in Vienna and opened a studio in the Wieden district. In 1900, together with Carl von Merode [de] and Heinrich Lefler, he opened an “Art School for Ladies”. He continued to visit Paris frequently and, when he painted there, signed his works with the pseudonym “A. Guyot”. Other names he signed with include “A. Papouschek”, “G. Salvi”, “A. Jarptmann”, “R. Neiber”, “J. Rollin” and “M. Bandouch”. Why he did this is unclear, although his choice of signature often reflects stylistic differences.

His landscapes were influenced by the Barbizon school and the style known as “paysage intime,” both of which he was exposed to in France during the 1870s. (The paysage intimate, French for “familiar landscape,” was a style of painting that dealt with simple, simple landscapes and emerged in the mid-19th century. It was the predecessor of the Impressionist style.) [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Adolf Kaufmann Unter blühenden Bäumen.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Adolf_Kaufmann_Unter_bl%C3%BChenden_B%C3%A4umen.jpg&oldid=623159308 (accessed February 5, 2026.)

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Adolf Kaufmann,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adolf_Kaufmann&oldid=1094252143 (accessed February 5, 2026).

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January 30, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Flock of Sheep with Shepherdess on a Rainy Day by Adloph Kaufmann

Artist: Adolf Kaufmann (1848–1916)

Title: Flock of Sheep with Shepherdess on a Rainy Day

Date: by 1916

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 102 × 113 cm (40.1 × 44.4 in)

What I love about this painting:

Oh those poor miserable sheep. Sure, they’re wearing wool coats, but it’s autumn, and the rain is cold. The shepherdess isn’t really enjoying the day either, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, and this girl’s job is shepherding the sheep.

Seriously, this is a wonderful painting. Kaufmann shows us an exceedingly realistic rainy day in a wooded meadow, with water pooling in muddy places and bedraggled sheep getting their feet wet. Somehow he has managed to convey the sullen mood of the flock, which I can relate to. Fortunately for them, the shepherdess is most likely taking them to higher ground where they can graze without standing in water.

I feel their misery. The rains have returned in force here, and I am glad I no longer have sheep to shepherd, rain or shine. Still, I must leave my cozy apartment and drive to the grocery store, etc., grateful that I am in my warm, dry car and not walking the muddy path Kaufmann shows us in this painting.

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Adolf Kaufmann (15 May 1848, in Troppau – 25 November 1916, in Vienna) was a landscape and marine artist from Austria-Hungary.

He was initially self-taught, but completed his studies with the animal painter, Émile van Marcke, in Paris and undertook several study trips, throughout Europe and the Middle East. His residence alternated between Paris, Berlin, Düsseldorf and Munich.

In 1890, he decided to settle in Vienna and opened a studio in the Wieden district. In 1900, together with Carl von Merode [de] and Heinrich Lefler, he opened an “Art School for Ladies”. He continued to visit Paris frequently and, when he painted there, signed his works with the pseudonym “A. Guyot”. Other names he signed with include “A. Papouschek”, “G. Salvi”, “A. Jarptmann”, “R. Neiber”, “J. Rollin” and “M. Bandouch”. Why he did this is unclear, although his choice of signature often reflects stylistic differences. [1]

Credits and Attributions

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Adolf Kaufmann – Flock of Sheep with Shepherdess on a Rainy Day.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Adolf_Kaufmann_-_Flock_of_Sheep_with_Shepherdess_on_a_Rainy_Day.jpg&oldid=1114083148 (accessed January 29, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Adolf Kaufmann,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adolf_Kaufmann&oldid=1332903934 (accessed January 29, 2026).

 

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January 23, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Spring Landscape by Ellen Favorin ca 1900

Artist: Ellen Favorin (1853–1919)

Title: English: Spring Landscape (Suomi: Kevätmaisema)

Genre: landscape painting

Date: circa 1900

Dimensions: height: 20.7 cm (8.1 in)

Collection: HAM Helsinki Art Museum

What I love about this painting:

Ellen Favorin shows us a pleasant spring day beside a calm lake, with leaves on the birch trees just beginning to bud out. I especially like how she has portrayed the foliage and shrubbery along the lake shore, with the water high from the spring snowmelt, and the birch trees standing with their feet submerged.

Someone is enjoying a quiet day of fishing, and I would love to be them! What a perfect day.

I will find more paintings by this artist and feature them in the future.

 

About the artist, via Wikipedia:

Elsa “Ellen” Favorin (31 December 1853– 27 November 1919 was a Swedish-speaking Finnish painter.

Her parents were Anders Abraham Favorin and Lovisa Ingman. After attending the painting schools in Helsinki and Stockholm, she continued her studies in Munich, Düsseldorf and at the Académie Julian in Paris. She often painted landscapes and was one of the artists who joined Victor Westerholm in the artists’ colony at Önningeby on the island of Åland. She died together with her sister in a fire at their home in Lohja in 1919. [1]

As you can see, Wikipedia had little to say about her. However, you can find an excellent and comprehensive biography of Ellen Favorin at NiceArtGallery.com.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Ellen Favorin – Spring Landscape.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Ellen_Favorin_-_Spring_Landscape.jpg&oldid=864051225 (accessed January 22, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Ellen Favorin,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ellen_Favorin&oldid=1333359650 (accessed January 22, 2026).

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January 9, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: a closer look at “Off the Coast of Cornwall” by William Trost Richards 1904

Artist: William Trost Richards  (1833–1905)

Title: Off the Coast of Cornwall

  • Genre: landscape art
  • Date: 1904
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Dimensions : Height: 55.9 cm (22 in); Width: 91.4 cm (35.9 in)
  • Collection   Private collection
  • Inscriptions: Signature and date bottom left: W.T. Richards.04.

What I love about this painting:

I first featured this painting in June of 2020. This is one of my favorite seascapes, as it captures the cold sense of danger that is a storm at seashore. The waves crash against the rocks, and only a fool goes wading along this stretch of the beach.

But after the sea calms, the shore will be littered with rare unbroken shells and driftwood, a picker’s paradise.

William Trost Richards shows us a blustery day along the rugged coast of Cornwall. Intermittent rain squalls blow through, and when one passes the sun peeps out, the bright lull between storms. The sea is that dark greenish color reflecting the sky, a quality stormy waters here in the North Pacific coast often have. It is of a shore half a world away from me (in England), but it feels as familiar as if it were the coast of my home, Washington State.

What I love most about how Richards depicted the water is the milk-glass opaqueness of the green water and the way the light seems to shine through the waves. Luminist landscapes emphasize tranquility, and often depict calm, reflective water and a soft, hazy sky.

About the Artist via Wikipedia:

William Trost Richards  rejected the romanticized and stylized approach of other Hudson River painters and instead insisted on meticulous factual renderings. His views of the White Mountains are almost photographic in their realism. In later years, Richards painted almost exclusively marine watercolors.

In the summer of 1874 Richards visited Newport, Rhode Island, and became enthralled with the area’s sublime coastline. He purchased his first of several Newport area homes in 1875 and continued to paint there for the rest of his life, dividing time between Newport and Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he purchased a farm near the Brandywine in 1884. Richards made many excursions to Europe, especially Britain and Ireland, where he produced an important body of work. [1]

Richards was one of the few 19th century American landscape artists who was equally skilled as a watercolorist and a painter in oils. His drawings are considered among the finest of his generation. Many of his drawing still survive.

Today, Richards is best known for his luminist seascapes. Paintings such as the one featured here today demonstrate his mastery of light and atmosphere. His favorite subjects were the Rhode Island, New Jersey and British coasts.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Off the Coast of Cornwall, by William Trost Richards Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:William Trost Richards – Off the Coast of Cornwall.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:William_Trost_Richards_-_Off_the_Coast_of_Cornwall.jpg&oldid=1127134702 (accessed January 8, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “William Trost Richards,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Trost_Richards&oldid=1324003703 (accessed January 8, 2026).

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January 2, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Rembrandt and Saskia in the Parable of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt van Rijn 1635

Rembrandt and Saskia as the Prodigal Son.

Artist: Rembrandt (1606–1669)

Title: Rembrandt and Saskia in the parable of the Prodigal Son

Depicted people: Rembrandt and his wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh

Date: 1635

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 161 cm (63.3 in) width: 131 cm (51.5 in)

Current location: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

What I love about this painting:

This was done during the best years of Rembrandt’s life, the years when he was a popular young artist, a time when he was financially secure. He was deeply in love with his wife and at the time of this painting, the future looked bright.

In many ways, Rembrandt was the embodiment of the traditional view of the parable of the prodigal son. He was fond of luxuries that he couldn’t quite afford, sure of his talents, and determined to have his own way in life regardless of the accepted morality of his society.

The two people shown in this painting were happy and knew how to celebrate life, which is clearly shown in this self-portrait.

About this painting via Wikipedia:

It portrays two people who had been identified as Rembrandt himself and his wife Saskia. In the Protestant contemporary world, the theme of the prodigal son was a frequent subject for works of art due to its moral background. Rembrandt himself painted a Return of the Prodigal Son in 1669.

The left side of the canvas was cut, perhaps by the artist himself, to remove secondary characters and focus the observer’s attention on the main theme. [1]

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of Western art. It is estimated that Rembrandt’s surviving works amount to about three hundred paintings, three hundred etchings, and several hundred drawings.

Unlike most Dutch painters of the 17th century, Rembrandt’s works depict a wide range of styles and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, biblical and mythological subjects and animal studies. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age. [2]

To learn more about this artist and his remarkable (and often sad) life, go to Rembrandt – Wikipedia.

For an excellent biography on the life and works of Rembrandt van Rijn via YouTube, go to: Rembrandt van Rijn: Tragedy, Genius and the Art of Light | Full Documentary

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikipedia contributors, “The Prodigal Son in the Brothel,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Prodigal_Son_in_the_Brothel&oldid=1292671149 (accessed January 1, 2026). [1]

Wikipedia contributors, “Rembrandt,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rembrandt&oldid=1329139620 (accessed January 1, 2026). [2]

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December 26, 2025 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: “Bringing Home the Yule Log,” A Victorian Christmas Card

This lovely, whimsical card is a brilliant example of the art that can be found on Christmas cards, which became popular in the late 19th and 20th centuries, and while they have fallen out of favor for many nowadays, I still love the art.

About Christmas Cards, via Wikipedia:

The production of Christmas cards was, throughout the 20th century, a profitable business for many stationery manufacturers, with the design of cards continually evolving with changing tastes and printing techniques. The now widely recognized brand Hallmark Cards was established in 1913 by Joyce Hall with the help of brother Rollie Hall to market their self-produced Christmas cards. The Hall brothers capitalized on a growing desire for more personalized greeting cards, and reached critical success when the outbreak of World War I increased demand for cards to send to soldiers. [1]

I love the sentiment expressed at the bottom of this card:

“While Christmas is here, be all of good cheer.”

Christmas Day has gone, leaving behind the memory of cozy warmth, of a table laden with comfort food, sharing a holiday meal with one of my sons and a dear friend. Leaving the memory of talking with my other son and the daughters who live far away.

The old year is nearly over, and while the weather has been unusually stormy this last month, I have far more blessings than I can count.

My Christmas wish for you is: May you never lack for good food, warmth, and the companionship of people you love. May you always have books to read, and may happiness regularly cross your path.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Victorian Christmas Card – 11222221966.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Victorian_Christmas_Card_-_11222221966.jpg&oldid=470244728 (accessed December 24, 2025).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Christmas card,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christmas_card&oldid=1321585292 (accessed December 26, 2025).

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