Exit Through The Giftshop - Pictures At An Exhibition #24

More visual memories of art past...

1) LAMENTATION (1441) - Fra Angelico

I bought this in the San Marco monastery in Florence which is the place to visit to be surrounded by the work of Brother Giovanni aka Fra Angelico.  From various clues in the painting it has been deduced that the painting had been done over 5 years, with Fra Angelico taking a break from it when he lived in Cortona for a year.

I like the quiet intensity of the painting, the vivid colours of the attendants' robes and the closeness of the Virgin Mary's sorrowful face to Jesus.  The painting has a wavy cut-off line along the bottom from the extensive water damage it sustained during the flood that swept through Florence on 3rd and 4th November, 1966. 

2) OLIVE TREES (1889) - Vincent van Gogh

 

This was bought at the National Gallery, I am guessing at an exhibition of van Gogh's work as this painting is in the collection of Minneapolis Institute of Art.  This is one of a series of paintings of olive trees by van Gogh while in the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.  Vincent was allowed to go into the surrounding fields to paint the trees as the ever-changing colours of the trees fascinated him.  This was painted during the November of 1889.

The all-seeing sickly yellow sun dominates the landscape while the busy olive leaves shine and shimmer, the shadows of the trees casting purple-ish shadows on the ground.  Again, the sense of movement and colour is vibrant.

3) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL (1797) - Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

This was bought at the Grand-Palais in Paris when it held the first ever retrospective of Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun in 2015, 163 years after her death.  Le Brun was Marie-Antoinette's favourite portrait painter so when the French Revolution erupted, Le Brun fled France with her young daughter. She travelled to Italy, Austria and Russia, her association with the French aristocracy gaining her wealthy clients. 

This was painted during her six year stay in Russia, although titled 'Portrait of A Young Girl' the sitter bares an uncanny resemblance to Varvara Golovina, a courtier noted for her writing. A fine example of Le Brun's style, a direct focus on the sitter's face, the flowing hair and a marvellous rendering of the lady's millinary.  It's quite lovely.

4) DAVID (1501-4) - Michelangelo

 

I bought this in Florence at the Galleria dell'Accademia where Michelangelo's epic David stands in solitary majesty in a stark setting.

The statue was originally placed in the Piazza della Signoria beside the magnificent Palazzo Vecchio where he stayed for 369 years until being relocated to it's present location in 1873.  If the history of art's eternal female is the Mona Lisa, surely the male counterpart is Michelangelo's DAVID.

5) ORCHARD IN BLOSSOM (APRICOT TREES) (1888) - Vincent van Gogh

This was bought at the Scottish National Gallery where van Gogh's painting is on display.  It was painted in 1888 in Arles; van Gogh had moved there after struggling with excessive drinking and for a while he was happy there, but his hope of founding an artist's colony with Paul Gauguin foundered when the latter appeared and their friendship collapsed.

The branches of the spindly orchard trees burst forth with bright pink blossoms against a drab sky and the far-off town.  White flowers below counter-balance the brightness above and it bursts with the joy of nature.