Peter Paul Reubens (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640)
Flemish Baroque painter
Many know of his great painting skills considered one of the best off all time by some,
he excelled in portraits, landscapes, history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects and altarpieces. But many dont realize what a great draftsman he was and funny enough but his fondness of painting full-figured women gave rise to the terms 'Rubensian' or 'Rubenesque' for plus-sized women. The term 'Rubensiaans' is also commonly used in Dutch to denote such women.

lately, i've been troubled with personal problems (family death, etc.) which have forced me to take a break from art in general, but slowly things are returning to normal and hopefully i will start to return to my art this weekend or next.
stay tuned....

Just saw the met exhibit of his so called 1st painting, wanted to impress on how good a draftsman he was as well as a sculptor, and to show that all artists must have good knowledge and understanding of drawing, composition and the human body before they can proceed to other fields of art.

More small progress on the course. Little by little i will get to where i want to arrive.

MADAME X
Sargent learned the craft of painting in Paris, where he lived for some time, but what prompted his move to London? He had exhibited paintings at the Paris Salon for quite a few years to the raving applause of all critics. He was famed as one the best portrait painters in Paris and had trained in the École des Beaux-Arts and also under Carolus-Duran from whom he might have been influenced to do portraiture, as he was more inclined to do landscapes when he started. He was also influenced by the works of Velázquez, although he might have gotten that from Carolus-Duran as well, as Duran studied Velázquez fervently.
Of all the exhibit artworks in the Paris Salon by Sargent the most critized and some would say shocking at that time was the portrait of Madame X (originally called Portrait de Mme, maybe to hide the subjects identity, but was unsuccessful in this as her own mother requested the painting to be removed from the Salon). Her pose and her pale skin as well her black dress with one strap hanging down from the shoulder (later fixed by Sargent to show as we now see it in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the strap straight on her shoulder and at the same time changed the name of the painting to Portrait of Madame X, to give it a more mysterious tone to the painting.), the sexuality of the portrait itself was alarming to the France society which received it with shock. Unfortunately it created a scandal and Madame Gautreau (the lady posing for the portrait) was humiliated by the affair and Sargent would move to London. Interestingly enough the portrait was pursued by Sargent himself, he asked a mutual acquaintance to set up a meeting to discuss a portrait painting, not customary as most or all portraits of the time were commissions.
Today it's known as Sargent's masterpiece, as he himself said in a letter to the director of the Met when he sold it; "I suppose it is the best thing I have ever done."

Well I'm getting closer to finishing plate 1.2 of the course, here's some small progress on it, hopefully I'll have it done by this weekend and will post here.

Rembrandt van Rijn
(July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669)
Was a Dutch painter. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. He was the premier portrait painter of his time and a made a good fortune by doing so, but later in his life he ended up broke even as his art was still revered. He taught almost all the influential Dutch artists of his time. His time as an artist is usually referred to as the Dutch Golden Age. He had many misfortunes on the personal side of his life as 3 of his 4 children died after a few days or weeks of life, only his 4th son Titus lived into adulthood. His works are amazing and it was said that he created over 600 paintings during his life, but recently they have been counted down to about 300. What most impresses me about Van Rijn is how showed the realism and emotion with his thick strokes and dark colors, the mood of his paintings were so credible like you could feel the pain, happiness or seriousness of the subject. Rembrandt outlived his son Titus, who died in 1668, leaving a baby daughter. Rembrandt died within a year of his son, on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam, and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Westerkerk.

here's a quick post on progress on plate 1.2, again using pencils HB to 2B.

Raphael Sanzio
(1483–1520)
Considered 1 of the 3 great masters trinity of the high renaissance along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. He was very influential, well known during his time and died at a very early age (37) on good friday (after a crazy night of sex with his mistress, after which he fell sick and did not want to tell doctors why so they gave him the wrong medicine which caused his death), but he was also very productive and an incredible amount of work of his still remains. He was also a well known architect. During his life he was the most famous of the 3 and remained so until recently when both Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci have received a lot of promotion.

Here is a quick close up of one of the drawings next to the plate drawing. And again the one on the left is the original plate and the one in the right is my drawing.

As I promised i will post all my progress from the Bargue-Gerome Drawing Course, here we go. Plate 1.1 from the Course completed in about 5 hrs and as i have no instructor they do have blemishes but after 5 hrs looking at the same thing almost anything will, i'm using Strathmore recycled paper with HB and a bit of 2B pencils. The one on the left is the original plate and the one in the right is my drawing. I tried to match the thickness of the charcoal that was used in the original with my pencils, some were successful and some were not, but all critics are welcome.

This beautiful painting by Jean-Leon Gerome resides at the Met in NY.
I love it, it takes an incredible use of brush strokes and tones to make a believable stone carving look as if its coming alive, its also a look into the life of an artist in his studio, his dedication to his art but also the hope for more.

Jacques-Louis David
1748 – 1825

My favorite painter, a painter in the neoclassical style, to some the greatest painter of his time, but i would say the greatest political painter of all time, his power to express anything with his paintings is unparalleled, be it with hues and shadows (The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1789), with allegory (The Oath of the Horatii, 1784) or just plain realism (The Death of Marat, 1793) his message was delivered. I am not political so his personal views are not my interest but his artwork has an incredible feel to realism and conveyed the message to the point of having a major impact in the french revolution.
The video above is a BBC program that focused on 8 artist its called "The power of art" by Simon Schama. Although i don't totally agree with some of his comments the show is very comprehensive and gives a extended insight on his life as well as his paintings and the impact they had on the french society. I have added the 1st part of the 6 part video above, but if interested in seeing the whole show they can be easily found on youtube.com.

I have managed to get my hands on a copy of the Bargue-Gérôme Drawing Course book and as my official entry into the art world I will be taking the course á la Van Gogh (who took the course 1 1/2 times). Unfortunately i will have no instructors and as a family man i don't have the time or financial means to pay for instruction, but i do have my love for art and inspiration that i know will take my art to the next level someday. I will make posts of all my progress on this blog with images from the book next to mine. As some images are small in the book, i have made copies of them blown up to 150% and i will be using 11 x 14 paper with pencils from HB to about 6B (depends on darkness i want to achieve). My course drawing posts will come slowly as the major parts of my day are dedicated to work and my kids which are 3 and 5 years of age, but i will welcome all sorts of critics and hope that all your critics are sincere, as i hope to achieve the best images that i can produce.

In the 1860's France was overrun by the poor quality work coming from all art students including those coming from the famed school Ecole des Beaux Arts, Gerome a teacher in the school was asked to create a systematic way to improve the art, he partnered with Bargue a well known lithographer to create this course. The course started as a 2 section course which was to teach students about line and tone, how to perfect the way of three dimensional form, and also to bring them back to the time when teaching classical beauty in greek and roman painting and sculpture was considered the greatest height in art. Most of the actual drawings were created by students and friends of Gerome and then were passed on to Bargue who made lithography plates of them for mass printing. The 3rd section of the drawing was created by Bargue alone for unknown reasons and was publish around the 1870's. The Course enjoyed great success being used in all ateliers and schools for about 30 years until the impressionist movement started.
The course was almost lost through time until a full set of the 197 plates was discovered in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Now, thanks to the efforts of Gerald Ackerman and Graydon Parrish the plates have been published as a book and has enjoyed a renaissance. Although still relatively hard to find, it is being used to teach atelier drawing courses in Europe and the US.

Charles Bargue
c. 1826/1827- 1883

Mostly remembered for his drawing course "Cours de dessin", one of the most influential drawing courses ever created in collaboration with Jean-Léon Gérôme.
Bargue was a well known lithographer as well as a painter who some suggest was a student of Gérôme, but there is no definitive truth to that. They did work closely to the point were his paintings were influenced by Gérôme with his oriental and historical scenes as well as his tonal color usage that bring all his characters to life. But by far his most grandest accomplishment or better said his most revered are the lithographs from the "Cours de dessin".

Jean Léon Gérôme.
1824 - 1904.
One of my favorite painters and to me one of the best realist painters to ever use a brush, his mastery over different textures is enviable.
here's a video of some of his works.