Art House Reproductions Blog

Few outside either inside or even outside of the art world have ever heard of John Wilson Carmichael unless they are especially into paintings of ships at sea or coming into port. Carmichael specialized in images, which depicted his favorite subject since he was born into the sailing world in Newcastle to a ship builder. Though his fine art paintings may not be widely known he traveled extensively on many long voyages including the very trip aboard the Beagle in which Charles Darwin studied the area that led to his widely popular theory of evolution. As we approach the anniversary of Darwin’s scientific paper a closer look should also be made of the paintings of Carmichael.

Many artists recreate classic scenes in religion and history or natural scenes from the outdoors but for an artist with a vision of the world that is uniquely their own Rene Magritte was a true visionary. Magritte tool usual everyday objects and placed them in odd places in his paintings for a context that others had not considered before. His renowned fine art painting “The Son Of Man” pictures a classic looking man in a suit with an apple over his face. Many have seen this image since he created it in 1964 and has been referenced in many films and even video games.

Many wonder what modern technology can do for classic fine art paintings such as those from Monet and Da Vinci since the two are worlds apart. But just recently a study was being made of the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci, which are in the Louvre when unknown drawings were discovered on the back of his masterpiece “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne”. Originally painted in the 1500s the drawings on the back of the painting were previously unknown until a infrared scan revealed them to staff members. This is exciting news in the art industry not just because it is a chance to learn more about the great artist and inventor but also for other potential finds may still be yet to discover.

Plein air art is a French term for “in the open air” which refers to paintings which were done while in the outdoors as opposed to in a studio. Oszkar Glatz was a great plein art artist from Hungary who preferred painting the daily lives of the peasants in the countryside as they went about their toils in ideal settings. His fine art paintings are a great study in folk art as well as live in his country at the beginning of the 1900s. As an adult Glatz was an instructor at the College of Fine Arts in Budapest where at one time Jenö Szervánszky was his top pupil.

No other artist is associated with the desert southwest of the United States as Georgia O’Keefe is with the area. Though O’Keefe was born in Wisconsin she eventually found her way to the southwest and Taos New Mexico in particular. Her fine art paintings are a combination of abstract images along with representations of natural images and the landscape. Her images are the vision many who have never visited the desert have of the area and are a perfect combination of Native American and modern art. The Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe still draws many visitors every year since her death in 1986.

One of the greatest French painters of all time featuring realistic images featuring the female body was William Bouguereau. But many may find it surprising that this great artist at one time designed labels for jams and preserves to earn extra money. The fine art paintings of Bouguereau have an amazing almost photo appearing look to them which was extremely popular in his time but now receives very little attention from the art community. William Bouguereau was a very talented painter who ended up painting well over 800 paintings including many portraits, which are still in private holdings as well as his famous nude paintings such as The Birth of Venus.

The Russian born painter Wassily Kandinsky is credited with painting the first modern abstract works after spending a long period of development and thought on his artistic experiences. Kandinsky did not start out as a painter and therefore did not enroll in art school until the then old age of 30; this was after spending the early part of his life teaching law and economics. The fine art paintings of Kandinsky rarely emphasized human figures and instead focus on forms and line with lots of color throughout. His paintings were also heavily influenced by music which has become a staple in this form ever since.

Bernardo Canal was a famous Venetian painter but many are more familiar with his son Canaletto, or Little Canal as the name stands for. Canaletto specialized in famous scenes of life in Europe. What made his fine art paintings different from others was he did not finish the image off in his studio but rather in the field or as it was known in the art community, from nature. The earlier works of Canaletto have always been his most prized images even as far back as the times of Catherine the Great when his images were in high demand from the European monarchs.

Luminism was an American landscape painting style during the middle to late 1800s, with Sanford Robinson Gifford as one of the main artists who represented the style. Luminism paid a lot of attention to the light in a landscape image to create a relaxing and tranquil image usually with an aerial perspective. The fine art paintings of Gifford were inspired by his travels all over the United States as well as Europe where he sought out beautiful scenes to recreate on canvas. Gifford produced many paintings, with over 700 being cataloged at the time of his death from malaria in 1880.

Not much is known of the early life of Sandro Botticelli but it appears he was better educated than most Renaissance artists and seems to have been initially trained as a goldsmith. He later ended up becoming one of the painters whose paintings became some of the most recognized pieces of Florentine art. An interesting note about his private life, Botticelli was never married and claimed that the thought of marriage gave him nightmares. Of course rumors flew that he kept a boy but this was never proven though many still speculate that the beautiful women which were so a part of his fine art paintings were not the only objects of his affections.