Pál Fried (1893-1976)

Pál Fried è stato un artista Ungherese naturalizzato statunitense famoso come pittore specialmente di ritratti eseguiti a giovani donne, alcune anche appartenenti a quello che cominciava ad essere chiamato jet-set e di scene di genere western, orientalista, ispanico.

Pál Fried ha lavorato con i pastelli ma soprattutto con olio su tela, e ha sperimentato con gli effetti di luce e con la resa del movimento, fissando l'attimo della scena raffigurata.

I suoi dipinti rappresentano principalmente figure femminili giovani e graziose ritratte sullo sfondo soprattutto di vie parigine o di altri luoghi, cowboy e paesaggi del west americano, vedute marine ed anche alcuni soggetti africani ed orientalisti.

Claude Monet | Riposo sotto i Lillà, 1873

"Riposo sotto i Lillà" è un dipinto ad olio su tela (50x65 cm) realizzato nel 1873 dal pittore Francese Claude Monet. È conservato nel Musée d'Orsay di Parigi.

Riposo sotto i Lillà, Monet ha usato colori tenui per i personaggi, fondendoli sullo sfondo. Dove sono le gambe dell'uomo appoggiato a destra?

L'unica cosa che salta all'occhio è l'abito bianco di una donna.

Uno sguardo più attento permette poi di distinguere le tre persone grazie al contrasto bianco e nero. Il processo è diverso in Lilacs in the Sun.

Macchie di luce giocano sugli abiti dei due modelli. Monet ha applicato questo effetto in diversi dipinti (La colazione, Le donne in giardino, La lettrice...)

L'occhio è catturato dai forti contrasti creati da questi tocchi di colori chiari, poi si scopre il volto della giovane donna sulla destra -potrebbe essere Camille, la moglie di Monet.

Claude Monet | The Gare Saint-Lazare, Arrival of a Train, 1877

Harvard Art Museums / This is the largest in Monet’s series of twelve paintings of the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris, a subject favored by many impressionist painters.

While completing the series, Monet relocated from the town of Argenteuil to an apartment near the station in Paris.

He worked on all the paintings at the same time, and sometimes he leaned the stretched canvases against each other while the paint was still wet.

This caused the cork spacers on the backs of the stretchers to be pressed into the adjacent paintings, creating circular indentations in the surface that are visible along the top edge of this work.

Sandro Botticelli | Profile of a Woman / Bella Simonetta, 1485

Museum: Pitti Palace

Collection: Palatine Gallery

Location: Prometheus Room

Technique: Tempera on wood

Size: 61 x 40.5 cm

Inventory: Inv. 1912 n. 353

The painting is also known by the title “Bella Simonetta”, based on an early identification of the young woman as Simonetta Cattaneo (1453-1476), a Genoese noblewoman who went on to marry the Florentine Marco Vespucci in 1469 and was loved by Giuliano de’ Medici.

Vincent Van Gogh | Spectators in the Arena at Arles, 1888

Van Gogh moved to France in 1886 and from February 1888 he was settled at Arles, in Provence, where in just 15 months he produced over 200 canvases.

The subject of this painting is a bullfight at the ancient amphitheatre, and yet the arena is barely noticeable, for the main motif is the public, the colourful crowd gathered to watch the popular spectacle. Amongst the viewers we can see the artist's friends and acquaintances that he so often depicted in other canvaes.

During the period when this painting was produced, Gauguin was working in Arles alongside van Gogh and the latter was much taken with his fellow artist's painting style. Note the flattened space and the replacement of individual strokes with general patches of colour, outlined with a broad dark contour.

Peter Bell, 1969 | Impressionist painter

Peter Bell’s ethereal Impressionist style🎨 permeates his idyllic European coastal scenes. His brushwork and palette showcase the subtleties of light and atmosphere in gauzy skies, lush gardens, charming buildings and glistening waters.

Born in Washington, D.C., Bell was educated at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and the National Art School in his hometown. He was initially a department-store commercial artist and freelancer before devoting himself to full-time painting and teaching. Bell’s critically acclaimed work adorns numerous private collections and has received many awards🎨.

Van Gogh | Le pont de Trinquetaille in Arles, October, 1888

Vincent Van Gogh made some drawings and paintings of the Trinquetaille bridge:

"I have a view of the Rhone - the Iron Bridge of Trinquetaille, where the sky and the river are absinthe-colored, the quays of a lilac tone, the characters blackish, the iron bridge of an intense blue".

To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Saturday, 12 May 1888

I'm writing you another few lines to tell you that I've been to see the gentleman whom the Arab Jew in Tartarin calls "the shustish of the beace".

I still got 12 francs back and my host was reprimanded for keeping my trunk; as I wasn't refusing to pay, he had no right to hold it. If they'd found in favour of the other party, that would have done me harm, because he wouldn't have failed to go around saying that I had not been able or not been willing to pay him, and that he'd been forced to take my trunk.