May 23
Aug 11, 2025
Alida Christina Assink by Jan Adam Kruseman, 1833.
Jan 30, 2025
Ballet Dancer in Costume
Artist: George Lambert (Russian, 1873-1930)
Date: 1911
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Mar 9
Portrait of the Misses de Balleroy in a Landscape with a Dog
Artist: Henri-François Riesener (French, 1767-1828)
Date: c. 1805-1815
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina, United States
#group portrait#women#landscape#dog#stone bench#misses de balleroy#sisters#female figures#garden#large vase#pond#bridges#lush foliage#vines#full length#ivory color gowns#shawl#drapery#necklace#painting#oil on canvas#fine art#oil painting#artwork#french culture#french art#henri francois riesener#french painter#european art#19th century painting
James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836–1902)
Artist: Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
Date: ca. 1867–1868
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States
#portrait#james jacques joseph tissot#french painter#painter's studio#full length#french impressionism#canvases#top hat#satin-lined cape#japanese style picture#framed portrait#impressionism#easel#table#chair#french impressionist painter#edgar degas#french art#french culture#19th century painting#artwork#painting#oil on canvas#fine art#oil painting#european art#metropolitan museum of art
May 26
Portrait of Eugénie de Montijo, Empress of the French
Artist: Pierre-Désiré Guillemet (French, 1827-1878), After Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805–1873)
Date: 1857
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Louvre Museum, Paris, France
Eugénie de Montijo
Eugénie de Montijo (1826 – 1920) was Empress of the French from her marriage to Napoleon III on 30 January 1853 until he was overthrown on 4 September 1870. From 28 July to 4 September 1870, she was the de facto head of state of France.
Born to prominent Spanish nobility, Eugénie was educated in France, Spain, and England. As Empress, she used her influence to champion "authoritarian and clerical policies"; her involvement in politics earned her much criticism from contemporaries. Napoléon and Eugénie had one child together, Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial (1856–1879). After the fall of the Empire, the three lived in exile in England; Eugénie outlived both her husband and son and spent the remainder of her life working to commemorate their memories and the memory of the Second French Empire.
#royal portrait#eugenie de montijo#painting#countess of teba#marchioness of ardales#empress consort of the french#spanish nobility#full length#draped fabric#royal robes#garden#fountains#tiara#sash#ermine-lined mantle#white lace dress#crown#cushion#table#red cloth#chair#french empire#french monarchy#french history#oil on canvas#fine art#oil painting#artwork#19th century painting#european art
Dec 14, 2024
Salome Dancer
Artist: Robert Henri (American, 1865-1929)
Date: 1909
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Amherst, MA, United States
Description
Broad, slashing strokes give powerful shape to this defiant female figure standing with parted legs, a pose more athletic - even pugilistic - than seductive. Her oppositional posturing matched the painter’s contrary aesthetic sensibilities. The Realist painter Henri sought a provocative and timely subject in Salome, the biblical figure who served as her mother’s dutiful pawn in facilitating King Herod’s assassination of John the Baptist. By the late nineteenth century Salome had evolved into a far more aggressive and decadent creature, as witnessed in Oscar Wilde’s notorious play of 1891. That Henri adopted the theme in 1909 suggests his desire to capitalize on Salome’s high currency for controversy, which had been confirmed by the New York Metropolitan Opera’s scandal-provoking performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome (based on Wilde’s play) in 1907. The gleam of amusement that enhances Salome’s haughty expression slyly evokes her complicity in constructing Henri’s own reputation as a radical painter.
