Category Archives: #FineArtFriday

November 13, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: Revisiting “Winter landscape with the Montelbaanstoren” by Thomas Heeremans and Abraham Storck 1690

2560px-Thomas_Heeremans_and_Abraham_Storck_-_Winter_landscape_with_the_Montelbaanstoren,_AmsterdamArtists: Thomas Heeremans  (1641–1694) and Abraham Storck  

Title: English: Winter landscape with the Montelbaanstoren, Amsterdam

Genre: marine art

Date: 1690

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 29 7/8 x 42¾ in. (76 x 108.5 cm.)

What I love about this painting:

I first shared this painting in January 2024, and it is one of my favorites. Here we see a winter scene, most likely a Saturday, or late weekday afternoon. The people of Amsterdam are shown enjoying leisure activities on the Oudeschans canal, which they probably would not have done on a Sunday. Most people were Calvinists, and just as the Puritans did, they had a strict idea of what activities were permissible on Sundays.

This is a fantasy painting, but it is rooted in reality as all my favorite paintings are. The intent of this is to show the wealth of Amsterdam and the vast fleet of merchant vessels that enable that prosperity. In this scene, some people are skating, some are fishing, and some are conducting business. Perhaps they are arranging for deliveries of goods to their warehouse. Or maybe they’re contracting for a ship to convey their goods to a distant market. Everyone looks busy and well fed.

One giveaway to the fantasy of this scene is that the fleet appears to be iced in. Schooners remained in the harbor when canals iced over but were able to come and go as needed. The city maintained navigation through ice‑breaking and water management. Winter ice was a known but manageable challenge, not a reason for the fleet to withdraw from the harbor.

In Renaissance Amsterdam, while people often skated and fished on the smaller canals, it was rare for the harbor to be iced over to the extent we see here. Ordinarily harbors and canals were navigable year‑round, even in cold, icy months.

Another concession to fantasy is the way everything in the landscape points toward Heaven, sharp triangular sails, sharply angled roofs, and winter-bare trees rising sharply to the sky. Everything about the city has been jammed into this scene.

While Abraham Storck’s staffage explores a mix of the leisure activities enjoyed by the good and affluent people of Amsterdam, Thomas Heereman’s depiction of the sky and weather above his fantasy city is the truth of a particular winter day. I love the way the sky is shown, with the heavy clouds blowing across the blue sky.

Winter skies often look that way here in the Pacific Northwest.

About the Artists via Wikipedia:

Thomas Heeremans (1641–1694) was a Dutch painter and art dealer. He is known for his landscapes of winter scenes, cityscapes, harbor scenes, beach views, river views and village scenes. He was influenced by Klaes Molenaer, a slightly older painter also from Haarlem. Heeremans sometimes collaborated with specialist figure painters who would add the staffage in his landscapes. One of his collaborators was Abraham Storck, who painted the figures in the Winter landscape with the Montelbaanstoren, Amsterdam (Christie’s New York sale of 14 April 2016, lot 247). [1]

Abraham Storck (or Sturckenburch; bapt. 17 April 1644 in Amsterdam – buried 8 April 1708) was a Dutch painter, who enjoyed a reputation for his marine paintings, topographical views and Italianate harbour scenes. Storck was also an outstanding draughtsman. [2]

About the tower that is featured in this painting, via Wikipedia:

The Montelbaanstoren is a tower on bank of the Oudeschans – a canal in Amsterdam. The original tower was built in 1516 as part of the Walls of Amsterdam for the purpose of defending the city and the harbour. The top half, designed by Hendrick de Keyser, was extended to its current, decorative form in 1606. Since then the tower has been 48m tall.

Because the 3rd Duke of Alba proposed incorporating the tower into a castle (the Monte Albano) the tower became known in Dutch as the Monte Albano Toren. Over the years this became garbled to “Montelbaanstoren.” The castle was never built. [3]

Credits and attributions:

IMAGE: File:Thomas Heeremans and Abraham Storck – Winter landscape with the Montelbaanstoren, Amsterdam.jpg – Wikipedia (accessed January 24, 2024).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, ‘Thomas Heeremans’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 August 2023, 03:09 UTC, <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Heeremans&oldid=1168498581> [accessed 24 January 2024]

[2] Wikipedia contributors, “Abraham Storck,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abraham_Storck&oldid=1164037737 (accessed January 24, 2024).

[3] Wikipedia contributors, “Montelbaanstoren,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Montelbaanstoren&oldid=1179532747 (accessed January 24, 2024).

Leave a comment

Filed under #FineArtFriday, writing

Tagged as , , , ,

November 6, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: Giant Redwood Trees of California – Albert Bierstadt, 1874

Artist: Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902)

Title: Giant Redwood Trees of California

Object type: painting

Genre: landscape painting

Date: 1874

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 65.5 in (166.3 cm); width: 54.5 in (138.4 cm) (With frame)

Location: Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts

What I love about this painting:

Albert Bierstadt shows us a summer afternoon deep in the redwood forests of Northern California. The tiny figures of two native people seated on a rocky ledge above a stream demonstrate the incredible height and girth of the forest giants. A third woman carries a basket toward them from their camp at the base of an immense, burn-scarred tree. California Redwood trees have evolved to be fire resistant, thanks to the frequent wildfires the West Coast of the US experiences.

There is a mystic quality to this scene, an emotion that Bierstadt was adept at depicting.

I was privileged to visit Redwood National Forest in my late twenties, and must say that this image, accurate as it is, barely scratches the awe and majesty inspired by these endangered giants. It felt like a fantasy world, a place that couldn’t possibly exist, but which now informs my worldbuilding.

And yet it did exist and still does, albeit in pockets that are all that activists were able to save, a mere 45% of the original forest. California redwoods gateway is returned to Indigenous tribe. ‘That’s healing our people too’ – Los Angeles Times

This area was the ancestral home of several different Indigenous nations, including the Yurok, Tolowa, Hupa, and Karuk, as well as smaller groups such as the Sinkyone. I would guess that the native people depicted here are of the Yurok tribe.  Yurok Redwood Groves — Sacred Forest, Living Relationship | Mythic Grounds

Albert Bierstadt had the ability to show the grandeur and beauty of the American West. During this turbulent time, he was one of the few artists who understood what the Westward Expansion meant for the Indigenous People who were forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands. The main criticism he faced was the critical disapproval of his inclusion of Indians in his landscapes.

About the author, via Wikipedia:

Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not the first artist to record the sites, but he was the foremost painter of them for the remainder of the 19th century.

Despite his popular success, Bierstadt was criticized by some contemporaries for the romanticism evident in his choice of subjects and for his use of light, which they found excessive. Some critics objected to Bierstadt’s paintings of Native Americans, believing that including Indigenous Americans “marred” the “impression of solitary grandeur.”

Bierstadt was born in Prussia, but his family moved to the United States when he was one year old. He returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. He became part of the second generation of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along the Hudson River. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. Bierstadt was an important interpreter of the western landscape, and he is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Albert Bierstadt – Giant Redwood Trees of California – Google Art Project.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Albert_Bierstadt_-_Giant_Redwood_Trees_of_California_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg&oldid=1036486009 (accessed November 4, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Albert Bierstadt,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Bierstadt&oldid=1365544126 (accessed November 4, 2026).

Leave a comment

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

October 30, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: Winter Landscape by George Henry Durrie 1859

Artist: George Henry Durrie (1820–1863)

Title: Winter Landscape

Date: 1859

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 18 cm (7 in)

Collection: Yale University Art Gallery

 

What I love about this painting:

Worldbuilding is much easier if you can find an image of some sort with information about both the scenery and way people went about their daily life. Wikimedia Commons is an invaluable and free resource. One can find everything from ancient Egyptian and Sumerian art to Renaissance art, to modern art, and so on to photographs showing modern aircraft and images of our universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

When I need to imagine a rural 19th-century farm setting, George Henry Durrie is one of my go-to artists. He faithfully reproduced the way farms were laid out and detailed the way those families lived.

I love the calm sense of home that he instilled in his landscapes. In this scene, we see a man following a sledge hauling logs for firewood. They will be off-loaded into the woodshed and then cut into shorter lengths for fireplaces and stoves. Each section will be split before they are stacked in cords to dry. Green wood, that which is cut from a living tree, doesn’t burn as well as dry wood and isn’t suitable for cooking.

Another use for those logs could be for repairing fences. If that is their use, they will be split and stacked to dry.

Courier and Ives,  a New York City-based printmaking business operating from 1835 to 1907, bought the rights to publish his work and made it possible for everyone to have artwork in their homes.

He was considered “too popular” by critics in his day. They dismissed his work because, even into the 20th-century, every ordinary working-class family had a calendar or print hanging in their home featuring one of his illustrations.

I certainly would have owned one.

 

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Durrie was born in New Haven, Connecticut, one of six children born to John and Clarissa Clark Durrie, who were Hartford natives. The Durries moved to New Haven in 1818, where John Durrie became a partner in the printing firm of Durrie and Peck, stationers and book publishers. He attended Hopkins School in New Haven. In 1837 John Durrie contracted with Nathaniel Jocelyn, a noted New Haven engraver and portrait painter, for painting instruction for George Durrie and his brother John. By 1839, George Durrie was painting portraits professionally in Hartford and Bethany, Connecticut, and in 1840, he was working in Meriden and Naugatuck, Connecticut.

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.

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. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:George Henry Durrie – Winter Landscape – 1932.281 – Yale University Art Gallery.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:George_Henry_Durrie_-_Winter_Landscape_-_1932.281_-_Yale_University_Art_Gallery.jpg&oldid=1211644386 (accessed October 28, 2026).

Wikipedia contributors, “George Henry Durrie,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Henry_Durrie&oldid=1375908429 (accessed October 28, 2026).

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

October 16, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: Sunset in the Winter by Julius von Klever 1891

Artist: Julius von Klever (Russian: Yuly Yulyevich Klever)

Title: Sunset in the Winter (Russian: Закат солнца зимой)

Date: 1891

What I love about this painting:

This is the first time I have come across Julius von Klever, and I will definitely be looking for more of his work.

I particularly like the depth of color, how even though dusk is shading towards night, it’s not quite there yet. The sun’s reflection on the frozen stream is just the way I have seen it in other places and other times.

I love the boat drawn up to shore, the way it looks as if it has not been usable for many years. The same with the house. Some thatch is missing and a pair of shutters are partially hanging off the windows. It may be someone’s winter hunting lodge, unused for several years.

Or it could be abandoned.

Someone trudges up the path, carrying a pack over their shoulder. Are they the long-absent owner, or a traveler looking for shelter? Will they reoccupy the old place? Will this house be repaired and once again be a place where fond memories were made?

About the Artist via Wikipedia:

Julius Sergius von Klever, (Russian: Yuly Yulyevich Klever), (31 January 1850 – 24 December 1924), was a Russian landscape painter of Baltic German descent.

His father was a chemist who taught pharmacology at the Veterinary Institute. He displayed artistic talent at an early age and took lessons from Konstantin von Kügelgen.[1] After completing his primary education, was enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts where, at his father’s insistence, he studied architecture. After a short time, however, he began to take landscape painting classes; first with Sokrat Vorobiev, then Mikhail Clodt.

In 1870, he was apparently expelled from the Academy, for unknown reasons.[1] Undeterred, he started exhibiting his works. In 1871, one was purchased by Count Pavel Stroganov and, the following year, his painting “Sunset” was acquired by Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna. In 1874, he had his first solo exhibition at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. After Tsar Alexander II expressed interest in his work, he was named an “Artist” by the Academy, despite having not graduated. In 1878, he became an “Academician”

In the late 1890s, a friend of his from the Academy was implicated in a scandal involving gambling and embezzlement. He was drawn into it and suffered a nervous breakdown that forced him to give up painting temporarily. In 1908, he went to Germany with his family to avoid the situation and lived in Neustrelitz until 1915, when the war forced him to return home.

Three of his four children became painters; Maria (1878–1967) a theater artist, Julius (1882–1942) who taught at the Art and Industry Academy, and Oscar (1887–1975), a theater artist who also designed costumes.

For the full biography of this artist and his historical significance in Russian art, go to:

Julius von Klever – Wikipedia

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Sunset in the Winter by Julius von Klever. Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:1891. Закат солнца зимой.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, File:1891. Закат солнца зимой.jpg – Wikimedia Commons (accessed October 15, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Julius von Klever,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_von_Klever&oldid=1363359786 (accessed October 15, 2026).

Leave a comment

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

October 9, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: Two visions of “Greenwood Lake in Autumn” by Jasper Francis Cropsey (revisited)

I first showed these paintings in October of 2018. Today we’re featuring two beautiful images of Autumn in New England in the mid-nineteenth century. They are both painted from the same beach on the shore, at what was clearly a favorite time of day.

Jasper Francis Cropsey created many paintings of Greenwood Lake, a freshwater lake on the border between New York State and New Jersey, beginning in 1843. The above image is titled “Autumn on Greenwood Lake.”

The second painting is titled, “Autumn in America.”

Over the next few decades, Cropsey painted numerous scenes of the area, many from the same viewpoint on the lake as today’s featured paintings, each with varying intensities of color. Something about this lake and this beach captured the artist’s heart.

These two paintings were done years apart. What really intrigues me is the difference in the way he depicts the light and the changes in Cropsey’s style. In the second painting, he has moved away from the classical style of his early works and embraced luminism.

The second painting was done in an early autumn, and the first was painted later in the season. In both paintings, we see cows drinking at water’s edge. In the distance and nearly hidden by shadows, we see fishers and their rowboat.

However, the scenery has slightly changed in the second painting, as the landscape does from year to year. There is more debris in the second, and the shrubbery seems more mature. Cropsey’s skills have matured as well, and he has gravitated to deeper, more intense colors by the time he made the second painting.

The sun is in the same place as in the first, but it feels later in the evening. The autumn haze completely hides the hills.

Clearly, this was a place that was beloved by the artist, as he returned year after year, and made many landscapes of this lake and the surrounding area.

About the artist (Via Wikipedia):

Jasper Francis Cropsey (February 18, 1823 – June 22, 1900) was an important American landscape artist of the Hudson River School. He was best known for his lavish use of color and, as a first-generation member from the Hudson River School, painted autumn landscapes that startled viewers with their boldness and brilliance. As an artist, he believed landscapes were the highest art form and that nature was a direct manifestation of God. He also felt a patriotic affiliation with nature and saw his paintings as depicting the rugged and unspoiled qualities of America.

Jasper Cropsey died in anonymity but was rediscovered by galleries and collectors in the 1960s. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE 1: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Jasper Francis Cropsey – Autumn on Greenwood Lake – Google Art Project.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jasper_Francis_Cropsey_-_Autumn_on_Greenwood_Lake_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg&oldid=867315579 (accessed October 7, 2026).

IMAGE 2: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Jasper Francis Cropsey Autumn in America.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jasper_Francis_Cropsey_Autumn_in_America.jpg&oldid=926171886 (accessed October 7, 2026).

[1] Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Jasper Francis Cropsey – Autumn on Greenwood Lake – Google Art Project.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jasper_Francis_Cropsey_-_Autumn_on_Greenwood_Lake_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg&oldid=867315579 (accessed October 7, 2026).

Comments Off on #FineArtFriday: Two visions of “Greenwood Lake in Autumn” by Jasper Francis Cropsey (revisited)

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , , ,

October 2, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: Midsummer Dance by Anders Zorn 1897

Anders Zorn: Midsommardans.

Artist: Anders Zorn (1860–1920)

Title: English: Midsummer Dance (Svenska: Midsommardans)

Date: 1897

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 140 cm (55.1 in); width: 98 cm (38.5 in)

What I love about this painting:

I enjoy paintings of ordinary people celebrating life, and in the northern countries, the return of sunlight and the longest day of the year is something to celebrate. The artist conveys the feeling of movement beautifully, depicting both the motion and emotion of the dancers.

I enjoy seeing the traditional dress, costumes women only wore for special events such as Midsummer’s celebration. Even in 1897, these costumes were relics of the past, cherished symbols of their nationality but rarely worn.

The maypole stands to the right of the scene. In the background, the older people watch from the sidelines, remembering the days when they danced.

Everyone is having fun, even the onlookers. I suspect the cleanup was a chore the next day, as next days always are, but it looks like it was a party to remember.

About this painting, via Wikimedia Commons:
English: In his autobiographical notes, Anders Zorn writes about how the idea for the painting was born:

“This work was painted in June and part of July after sunset and I am pleased to have done it. I had just given Morkarlby a new maypole. It was painted red every Midsummer and I realized and still realize that it is my solemn duty to be present and to lead the dressing of said pole. My farmhand, dear Verner, was in charge of raising the maypole on the stroke of midnight on Midsummer night. Once it was up, a reel was played and people danced hand-in-hand around the maypole and the yards in an endless snake of youngsters. Then there was dancing in one of the yards until sunrise. This is what my painting portrays.”

Zorn does not put the maypole at the center of his Midsummer Dance. His message is all about the experience of the dance, the scents of a summer night and the light. He completed this painting in 1897. [1]

File:Midsummer Dance (Anders Zorn) – Nationalmuseum – 18607.tif – Wikipedia

About Midsummer, via Wikipedia:

Midsummer or Midsommar (Swedish: [ˈmɪ̌ˌsɔmːar] or [ˈmǐːdˌsɔmːar]) is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year. The name midsummer mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of European origin. These cultures traditionally regard it as the middle of summer, with the season beginning on May Day. Although the summer solstice falls on 20, 21 or 22 June in the Northern Hemisphere, it was traditionally reckoned to fall on 23–24 June in much of Europe. These dates were Christianized as Saint John’s Eve and Saint John’s Day. It is usually celebrated with outdoor gatherings that include bonfires, maypole dancing and feasting. [2]

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Zorn was born in Mora, Sweden, between the lakes of Siljan and Orsasjön. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm from 1875 to 1880, and then spent time travelling in Europe, painting watercolors and society portraits in London, Paris and Madrid.

He returned to Sweden in 1885, and on 16 October, he married Emma Zorn (née Lamm) (1860 – 1942). After spending their honeymoon abroad, in eastern Europe and Turkey, they returned to Sweden in 1886, spending time with Emma’s family at Dalarö, before settling near Mora, where their house, which is now the home of the Zorn Collections, is located. [3]

To read more about the life of this artist, go to: Anders Zorn – Wikipedia

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikipedia contributors, “Midsummer Dance,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Midsummer_Dance&oldid=1361282744 (accessed October 1, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Midsummer,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Midsummer&oldid=1374492604 (accessed October 1, 2026).

[2] Wikimedia Commons Contributors, File:Midsummer Dance (Anders Zorn) – Nationalmuseum – 18607.tif – Wikipedia (Accessed October 1, 2026).

[3] Wikipedia contributors, “Anders Zorn,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anders_Zorn&oldid=1366818498 (accessed October 1, 2026).

Comments Off on #FineArtFriday: Midsummer Dance by Anders Zorn 1897

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

September 25, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: a second look at “An Autumn Walk in the English Garden of Munich” by Anders Andersen-Lundby 1887

Artist: Anders Andersen-Lundby (1841–1923)

Title: English: An autumn walk in the English Garden of Munich. German: Herbstspaziergang im englischen Garten in München.

Date: 1887

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 77 cm (30.3 in); width: 106 cm (41.7 in)

Inscriptions: Signature and date: 1887

What I love about this painting:

Once again, I was scouring Wikimedia Commons and kept returning to a painting I previously featured. I first saw it in October of 2025 and loved it.

Anders Anderson-Lundby shows us the perfect autumn day for a stroll. Truthfully, the day looks so pleasant that I’d like to be walking there. The leaves are nearly off the trees, and those that remain are golden and brown. Those who walk in these woods seem happy, content to be outdoors while the weather remains decent.

An unusually dry and overcast autumn has arrived here in the Pacific Northwest, a slightly less warm continuation of the dry, overcast summer we just experienced. Did I mention that it has been dry and overcast for what feels like years? For the last few months, the sun waited to break through until late in the afternoon. When it did, it dispelled the gloom in a short burst of “This is what you could have all the time if you lived in Honolulu.”

But today, we have rain and wind. Will it be enough to break the drought? A month of it would help, but that is unlikely in this year of the Super El Nino. The east coast suffers unusually wet weather while our forests get ever dryer, ever more likely to go up in flames.

Regardless of the rain we have today, the deciduous groves in my part of the world will soon look like the foliage in this painting. Even now, the native big-leaf maples are shading toward yellow and brown. Their leaves have begun falling and soon their branches will be bare.

However, color abounds in suburban neighborhoods across my county. The Japanese maples and other non-native trees brightening gardens and public through-ways have turned a bright red. Soon our native vine maples and that (now undomesticated) decorative-plant-gone-native, staghorn sumac, will also be dressed in scarlet.

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Anders Andersen-Lundby (December 16, 1841 – January 4, 1923) was a Danish landscape painter. He was most associated with winter landscapes.

(He) was born in Lundby, Denmark. He grew up in Lundby near Aalborg. In 1861, when he was twenty, Andersen-Lundby traveled to Copenhagen, and there he exhibited his works for the first time in 1864. By 1870, he gained popularity especially with his winter landscapes from both Denmark and southern Germany, most often with fallen snow or thaw.

In 1876, he moved to Munich with his family where he exhibited his paintings. He frequently visited Denmark and participated in exhibitions there. He exhibited at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition 1864–1913. [1]

To view more of Anders Anderson-Lundby’s work, go to Anders Andersen-Lundby – Wikipedia.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Anders Andersen-Lundby – Herbstspaziergang im Englischen Garten (1887).jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Anders_Andersen-Lundby_-_Herbstspaziergang_im_Englischen_Garten_(1887).jpg&oldid=1068508759 (accessed September 24, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Anders Andersen-Lundby,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anders_Andersen-Lundby&oldid=1191864454 (accessed September 24, 2026).

Comments Off on #FineArtFriday: a second look at “An Autumn Walk in the English Garden of Munich” by Anders Andersen-Lundby 1887

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

September 18, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: a second look at “Autumn Landscape (September)” by Lucas van Valckenborch, 1585

GG_5684.tif

Artist: Lucas van Valckenborch  (1535–1597)

Title: Autumn Landscape (September)

Date: 1585

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 116 x 198 cm Rahmenmaße: 131,5 x 214 x 6,5 cm

Collection: Kunsthistorisches Museum

What I love about this painting:

No matter how hard I scoured Wikimedia commons for the perfect September piece, I kept coming back to this image. It was first featured here in September of 2023, and I still  love everything about it.

We see an entire view of ordinary autumn life in the 16th century, but better than that, Lucas van Valckenborch shows us the passage of time. He depicts the chronology of how people lived and celebrated each week of the changing season by showing us September in the Netherlands.

The way he shows us this chronology is ingenious and is a signature of his work. The early weeks of September are shown in the left foreground, with laborers bringing in the harvest. Others are working to dry and preserve foods. The colors he uses are vivid, the last shades of summer.

In the bottom to middle right, he shows us mid-September with people relaxing, feasting, bowling, and dancing. The harvest is in, and people have a little time to enjoy the last days of good weather. The colors he uses are more muted, with shades of brown dominating. The leaves are brown and falling. Yet, there is a vibrancy about it, a sense of life. People celebrate a successful harvest one last time before winter’s cold grip closes in.

In late September, people fish, and the market becomes the center of village life. People are less active, but the market draws customers. The end of September presages colder weather and hints at the beginning of winter. This is shown in cool shades of gray, as if in a black-and-white photograph.

He is known for using this trick of color to denote receding distances. But he deliberately places figures performing specific activities within those colors, showing us how people lived and the passage of their days as well as distance.

The first days of September are bright, days of plenty. Yes, we’re working hard, but we’ll be grateful for the bounty when winter comes.

We look forward to the middle of September, because once the rush of harvest is over we will party like it’s 1585.

In the distance, we know the cold dark days loom, but we are prepared. Our cellars will be full and we will hunt and fish while we can.

Lucas van Valckenborch’s body of work shows us that he was a brilliant storyteller as well as an artist. Many paintings of that time show us the poverty, but here we see the prosperity of a village during the early renaissance. It wasn’t all doom and gloom after all.

About the Artist and his work, via Wikipedia:

Lucas van Valckenborch or Lucas van Valckenborch the Elder (c. 1535 in Leuven – 2 February 1597 in Frankfurt am Main) was a Flemish painter, mainly known for his landscapes. He also made contributions to portrait painting, and allegorical and market scenes. Court painter to Archduke Matthias, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands in Brussels, he later migrated to Austria and then Germany where he joined members of his extended family of artists who had moved there for religious reasons.

In their mixture of fantasy and accurate topographical details, van Valckenborch’s landscape paintings offer a view of the world and man’s relationship to it. This is particularly clear in his rocky landscapes in which the diminutive people on the winding path are reduced by the monumental cliffs. An example is the Rocky Landscape with Travelers on a Path (c. 1570, Sotheby’s 6 July 2016, London lot 3) where the distant goatherd and the silhouettes of his charges seem ant-like in comparison to the vast distance, and the vertiginous perspective of the scene. This dramatic visual depiction is clearly intended as a commentary on man’s place within the universe.

He also painted, between 1584 and 1587, a series of large pictures depicting the labours of the months, probably on commission for Archduke Matthias. These compositions, of which seven survive (five of which are in the Kunsthistorische Museum), present the various months of the year by showing the changing landscape and the traditional activities of humans during each month. It is not clear whether the five missing paintings were never painted or are lost.[4] Due to their realistic setting these compositions carry a documentary interest. The work of Pieter Bruegel the elder, who had painted a series of 6 on the times of the year, was influential on van Valckenborch. Lucas van Valckenborch moved away from the tradition of painting the landscape in three cascading distances that were rendered in three different colours: brown, green and blue for each receding plane. Rather he often left out the green tone for the middle distance. He also innovated the thematic scenes by developing them into genre scenes with a stronger narrative depth. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Lucas van Valckenborch,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lucas_van_Valckenborch&oldid=1173224796 (accessed September 14, 2023).

IMAGE: Autumn Landscape (September) by Lucas van Valckenborch. Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Lucas van Valckenborch – Autumn landscape (September).jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lucas_van_Valckenborch_-_Autumn_landscape_(September).jpg&oldid=618977280 (accessed September 14, 2023).

Comments Off on #FineArtFriday: a second look at “Autumn Landscape (September)” by Lucas van Valckenborch, 1585

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

September 11, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: Landscape with Haywain by Worthington Whittredge 1863

Artist: Worthington Whittredge (1820–1910)

Title: Landscape with Haywain

Date: 1863

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 24 x 36 in. (61 x 91.4 cm.)

Inscriptions: signed and dated ‘W. Whittredge./1863’ (lower right)

Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art

What I love about this painting:

Harvest is upon us! September has arrived and it is time to get as much hay stored away as possible. Whittredge has painted a glorious day at the end of summer. Everything is meticulously done, from the house on the shore of the lake below us, to the boulders left behind by glaciers, and the hayfield itself. Neat stacks of hay wait for the men to load onto the wagon, raked and stacked by the women.

Every member of the family is working together to get the job done, as they must get it under cover before the autumn rains come. Damp hay or straw goes moldy and becomes inedible. Worse, the heat generated by decomposition can cause it to spontaneously combust … and fire is a thing no one wants to have happen in their barn.

In centuries past, hay and straw were indispensable commodities. No family could do without either. Along with grain, hay fed the animals. Straw was useful as bedding for livestock and people, and when firewood ran low, it could be twisted tightly into logs and burned. Certain kinds of straw could be used to thatch a roof.

Making hay was a harvest-time activity that took place across the countryside in past generations and still does in our local farming communities. While tractors and baler machines have replaced horses and some of the labor, one can still see giant rolls of hay in the fields, waiting to be transported to the barns.

About the Artist:

Thomas Worthington Whittredge (May 22, 1820 – February 25, 1910) was an American artist of the Hudson River School. Whittredge was a highly regarded artist of his time, and was friends with several leading Hudson River School artists including Albert Bierstadt and Sanford Robinson Gifford. He traveled widely and excelled at landscape painting, many examples of which are now in major museums. He served as president of the National Academy of Design from 1874 to 1875 and was a member of the selection committees for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and the 1878 Paris Exposition, both important venues for artists of the day. [1]

To read more about this artist and his work, go to Worthington Whittredge – Wikipedia

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Worthington Whittredge – Landscape with Haywain – 1975.20 – Cleveland Museum of Art.tiff,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Worthington_Whittredge_-_Landscape_with_Haywain_-_1975.20_-_Cleveland_Museum_of_Art.tiff&oldid=1259548575 (accessed September 8, 2026).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Worthington Whittredge,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Worthington_Whittredge&oldid=1366270905 (accessed September 8, 2026).

 

3 Comments

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

September 4, 2026 · 05:55

#FineArtFriday: revisiting “The Munitions Girls by Stanhope Forbes,1918” #LaborDay

L0059548 'The Munitions Girls' oil painting, England, 1918

Artist: Stanhope Forbes (1857–1947)

Title: The Munitions Girls

Date: 1918

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 103 cm (40.5 in); width: 127 cm (50 in)

Collection: Science Museum

About this Image, via Wikimedia Commons:       

Commissioned by John Baker & Co, this famous oil painting, The Munitions Girls, shows women working at Kilnhurst Steelworks during the First World War. The artist was Alexander Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947). Like many other steelworks during the war, John Baker & Co’s Kilnhurst site was converted to make shells and ammunition. As men volunteered or were conscripted to fight in the British Army, women became the main work force in industry and farming. Munitions workers could often be picked out in a crowd because of the distinctive yellow coloring of their hair and skin caused by the sulfur used in production. They were nicknamed canaries. [1]

My Usual Fine Art Rant Goes off on a Tangent:

The women in this picture are shown doing dangerous, dirty work. They stepped up and did what they had to do to make sure their husbands and lovers had the weapons they needed to defend their country.

And they are doing it for very little money, less than men would have earned. While that is slowly changing, some things remain the same. It’s difficult to find people who want to do the “ordinary work,” jobs considered blue-collar, or manual labor.

In real life, someone must do the dirty jobs, the work that no one else wants. I have nothing but respect for those who work long hard hours in all areas of the service industry, struggling to support their families. Look around you, and see the people who make your life easier, by being there every day doing their job.

Every one of them is a person just like you, a living, caring human being with hopes, ambitions, triumphs, and tragedies. Every one of them has a story and a reason to be where they are, doing the task they have been given.

Say a little thank you to all those who take your unintentional abuse when you are stressed out and “don’t have time to wait,” or are upset by things you have no control over and need to vent at someone who can’t or won’t fight back.

The women in Stanhope Forbes’ painting are all gone now, memories of a moment in history. But what they did was important. Give a little thanks to those who do the dirty work and enable you to live a little easier.

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Forbes was born in Dublin, the son of Juliette de Guise Forbes, a French woman, and William Forbes, an English railway manager, who was later transferred to London. He had an older brother, Sir William Forbes, who was a railway manager for the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway.

He was married in the summer of 1889 to fellow painter Elizabeth Armstrong at Newlyn’s St Peter’s Church. Their first home was at the “Cliffs Castle” cottage, which overlooked the sea. They had a son named Alexander (Alec). The couple had a home built for the family in Higher Faughan, Penzance. Elizabeth died in 1912.

Forbes generally painted genre scenes and landscapes en plein air.

Beyond his plein air painting, he also made interior scenes and was adept at capturing the “warm and charming” effects of lighting on a room and the people in it, such as The Lantern, made in 1897. More poignantly, Mrs. Lionel Birch writes of his style and particularly the painting The Health of the Bride: “[The painting depicts the] dominant note of his life’s message, his sense of sympathetic humanity. These people in their humble little parlour, are real and living. Intolerant of all shams and false sentiment, the painter has made himself one with the people he depicts; he has understood the humour which lies so close to tears.”

Of Forbes’s works, Norman Garstin said: “he is a good unsentimental painter, his work has a sense of sincerity that appeals to everyone”. [2]

Credits and Attributions:

[1] IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:’The Munitions Girls’ oil painting, England, 1918 Wellcome L0059548.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:%27The_Munitions_Girls%27_oil_painting,_England,_1918_Wellcome_L0059548.jpg&oldid=726770400 (accessed September 1, 2026).

[2] Wikipedia contributors, “Stanhope Forbes,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stanhope_Forbes&oldid=1367410732 (accessed September 1, 2026).

Comments Off on #FineArtFriday: revisiting “The Munitions Girls by Stanhope Forbes,1918” #LaborDay

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , , ,