Honore Daumier

Daumier (1808-79). French caricaturist, painter and sculptor. During his lifetime he was known chiefly as a political and social satirist, but since his death he has been increasingly recognized as a painter. In 1830, after learning the still fairly new process of lithography, he began to contribute political cartoons to the newly launched anti-monarchist weekly, La Caricature. It's said he produced more than 4,000 lithographs, wishing at the time that the one he had just made could be his last. His paintings were probably done for the most part fairly late in his career. As a caricaturist Daumier stands above all others of the 19th century. The essence of his satire lay in his power to interpret mental states in terms of physical absurdity, but in his directness of vision and lack of sentimentality he has affinities with the realism of Courbet. Although he never mad a commercial success of his art, he was appreciated by the discriminating, his friends and admirers including Baudelaire, Degas, Delacroix, and Forain. In his final years he was almost blind and was saved from destitution by Corot. (Ian Chilvers)

Pierre Bonnard

Woman Indoors Reading a Journal, 1925. Oil on canvas, 57 x 35". Private Collection, New York.

Ambroise Vollard, 1906. Oil on canvas, 29 x 36. Art Museum, Zurich, Switzerland.

Tea in the Garden at Cannet, 1925. Pencil on paper. Private Collection, Paris.

I think this quote sums up Bonnard (1867-1947) so well. He's one of my favorite painters; I'm fascinated with his color combinations, figures, water landscapes and most of all his interior scenes. He was great friends of Vuillard and I can see many similarities in their work.

"The glowing calm and lethargy that impregnate all the work of Bonnard answers to a profound human response, to an interior richness that has no need of mechanical subterfuges, or brilliant or demanding, in order to efface the nothingness of empty time, or in order to be moved by the presence of man." (Raymond Cogniat)

Raymond Legueult

The Blue Dress, 1952.

French painter, born in 1898 in Paris, died in 1971. He belonged to the group, 'Painters of Poetic Reality' - inspired by the desire to preserve the direct inspiration of nature filtered through his individual personality. His paintings are reminiscent of Oriental painting. His figures seem to dilute themselves in a magical world where everything has an equal density and , as in Bonnard's canvases, one has the impression of confusion, but little by little details appear to recompose the forms and thus to give to the poetry the added value of a secret language. (Samuelson, Kaplan, Hart and Marchutz)

Anne-Francoise Couloumy

Le Cafe New Yorkais

Couloumy was born in Paris in 1961 and was educated at the Ecole National Superieure des Arts Decoratifs. She's enjoyed much success and has sold out shows in Paris, London and New York. She really reminds me of Vermeer and Hammershoi for her interior subject matter, the light and shadow and intricate details. There is a stillness and quiet and even a sense of loneliness that seems to be present in all of the paintings I've seen... which really reminds me of Hopper. Visit her website here.

A Glimpse into 1880s Paris...

Edouard Manet. At the Cafe, study of legs. Circa 1880. Watercolor, 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 ". Musee du Louvre (Cabinet des Dessins), Paris.

"...Have you noticed how mysteriously pretty women look, at night in carriages? ...They seem to have something shadowy, ghostly, mask-like about them... a veiled look, a voluptuous appearance, things one can guess at and not clearly see, a vague hue, a night smile, with lights falling on their features, all those half-reflections which swim beneath their hats, the great touches of black they have in their eyes, their very skirts, so full of shadows..." (from , Manette Salomon by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt - published in 1866.)

Camille Pissarro

Apple Gatherers, 1891. Gouache on silk on paper, 10 1/4 x 8 5/8 in. The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, 2001.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). French painter, printmaker, and draughtsman, born on St. Thomas in the West Indies, where his parents (a French Jewish father and a Creole mother) ran a prosperous general store. He was educated at boarding school in Paris, but returned to the Caribbean and didn't settle in France until 1855. In 1859 he met Monet, and with him became a central figure of Impressionism. Pissarro was the only artist who participated in all 8 Impressionist exhibitions and he was a much-respected father figure to his colleagues - he was about a decade older than most of the other members of the group. He's famous for his genre scenes. By 1895, his eyesight was going and caused him to give up painting out of doors and many of his late works are urban scenes painted from windows in Paris and elsewhere. He's best known for his landscapes and city views, he painted usually from Paris hotels.

He had 5 painter sons, of whom the most important was the eldest, Lucien (1863-1944). He was often overshadowed by his more famous father but he was an important figure in helping to introduce Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism to England. His daughter, Orovida Pissarro (1893-1968), often known simply as 'Orovida', was a painter and etcher , mainly of animal subjects. (Ian Chilvers)

Still Life with Crayfish

Detail, 1880-82

Gustave Caillebotte: (1848-94). French painter and collector. He came from a very wealthy family (he was rich enough to build and race yachts as a hobby) and for many years after his death he was remembered primarily for the financial help he gave the Impressionists, by purchasing their paintings and sometimes by direct gifts of money. Since the 1960's, however his own work as a painter has been reassessed and he is now regarded as an artist of considerable, although uneven, achievement. He exhibited at 5 of the 8 Impressionist exhibitions, concentrating on scenes from everyday life. The most striking feature of his work is his liking for unusual viewpoints and bold perspective effects.

On his death Caillebotte bequeathed his collections of 67 pictures to the State. Against the opposition of various academic artists representing the taste of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the official Salon, 38 of the pictures were accepted after much wrangling and formed the nucleus of the Impressionist collection of the Luxembourg Museum (now the Musee d'Orsay, Paris) (Ian Chilvers)

Edouard Vuillard

(1868-1940). French painter, draughtsman, designer, and lithographer. In the 1890's he was a member of the Nabis and at this time painted intimate interiors and scenes from Montmartre, his sensitive patterning of flattish colors owing something to Gauguin and something to Puvis de Chavannes, but creating a distinctive manner of his own. He also designed posters and theatrical sets. From about 1900 he turned to a more naturalistic style and with Bonnard became the main practitioner of Intimisme, making use of the camera to capture fleeting, informal groupings of his friends and relatives in their homes and gardens. He had several close female friends and preferred painting women and children to men. His work also included landscapes and portraits. Although he was financially successful, he lived modestly, sharing an apartment with his widowed mother until her death in 1928; she often features in his paintings. He was reserved and quiet in personality, although affectionate and much liked. For many years he kept a detailed journal in which he revealed his thoughtful attitude towards art and life. (Ian Chilvers)

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Paganini, 1819. Pencil drawing, 12 x 8 1/2 in. Louvre, Paris

Princess de Broglie, 1853. Oil on canvas, 47 x 35 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Ingres: (pronounced 'Ang') 1780-1867. French painter, a student of David and leading exponent of the Neo-Classical style. He studied and worked in Rome about 1807-20, where he began the Odalisque series of sensuous female nudes, then went to Florence, and returned to France 1824. His portraits painted in the 1840's-50's are meticulously detailed and highly polished.

Ingre's style developed in opposition to Romanticism. Early works include portraits of Napoleon. Later he painted huge ceilings for the Louvre and for Autun Cathedral. (Brockhampton)

Sense of Place

Paul Gauguin - Still Life with Peaches, 1889.

"I thought that by leaving Aix I should leave behind the boredom that pursues me. Actually, I have done nothing but change my abode and the boredom has followed me." - Paul Cezanne

Note: For those of you wondering why I chose a Gauguin painting to go with a Cezanne quote... I saw the image and automatically assumed it was Cezanne, later to realize it was not! Anyone else agree this painting is very much in Cezanne's style?

Matisse's Bedroom

When he was 80, French painter Henri Matisse was bed ridden. His creative spirit was in full tact and he painted and sketched from his bed with long 'pointer sticks' with charcoal affixed to the end. This way, he could sketch on paper hung on his bedroom walls. His house was outside of Nice in the south of France. Around this time, he was commissioned to decorate the Vence Chapel. For a look at the chapel click here: http://www.abcgallery.com/M/matisse/matisse126.html

"Today," Matisse says, "I sense that all my work over the past 60 years has had no other profound meaning than to lead me to this chapel. Now that it is almost finished, I am at peace. My bags are packed. I have only to wait for the last train to depart." (from an interview with Edmonde Charles-Roux, Academie Goncourt). **Images from the book: Encounters with Great Painters by Therond**

Henri Fantin-Latour

White Cup and Saucer, 1864. Oil on canvas, 19x 28 cm. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.

Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) French painter who was most famous for his flower paintings and still life work. He also did many group portraits of his fellow artists like Monet, Manet, Whistler etc. While those painters were more 'cutting edge' at the time, Henri was more of a salon painter; a traditionalist. He was influenced by the Symbolists. As his career progressed he grew to love lithography and produced many prints in his later years. He died of Lyme Disease in 1904 and is buried in the famous Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

The Crowning of the Virgin, 1460

Complete triptych - oil on wood.

Detail of the weighing of the souls.

This painting is in the Hotel-Dieu in the town of Carpentras in the Vacluse region of Provence, France. This painting is on wood - from 1460 - and sits beside the altar in the Hotel-Dieu. This was originally housed in the cathedral of Saint-Siffrein, and saved from destruction during the French Revolution. The painter is unknown but could be Pierre Parrocel or Nicolas Mignard . "This painting depicts the crowing of the Virgin, St. Siffrein delivering a woman possessed, and St. Michael weighing souls." (Helena Attlee)

Edgar's Quote

Edgar Degas, The Stock Exchange. 1878-79. Oil on canvas, 39 x 32 in. Musee D'Orsay, Paris.

"Painting is easy when you don't know how, difficult when you do." - Edgar Degas

Balthus' Studio

Balthus painting in his studio.

A painting in progress in Balthus' studio.

Count Balthazar Klossowksi di Rola ... born 1908 -2001 . Polish- born French painter, famed for his enigmatic paintings of interiors featuring languid, prepubescent girls, both clothed and nude. The studied realism with which his self-absorbed figures are depicted lends his pictures a dreamlike quality. (Brockhampton)

Balthus came from a very educated and accomplished aristocratic family, he grew up in Paris. He was friends with the poet, Rilke as well as Bonnard and Giacometti. He loved Piero della Francesca and drew inspiration from oriental painting. He died Feb. 18, 2001. This is just a tiny slice of Balthus' life there are many great books on him if you want to know more! Click here to see paintings by Balthus: www.tendreams.org/balthus.htm . After looking at those paintings... it made me think of Remedios Varo, another Surrealist painter incidentally born the same year as Balthus. Here's a link... she's fabulous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedios_Varo

Maurice Denis

The Muse, 1893. Oil on canvas. 67 x 56 in. Musee de Orsay, Paris.

"All that is necessary to paint well is to be sincere." - Maurice Denis

The Fortune Teller - detail

Georges de La Tour, 1630 French (Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC)

Oh how I love La Tour's faces, especially the women! Look at how pale and fresh-faced she is. Don't you want to see her hair? I'll bet she is blonde or maybe with a hint of red... long, wavy locks, who knows? She seems as though she could be a woman of today's time. I'm sorry to say, I have not seen a lot of La Tour paintings, but I can't help mentioning the movie, Le Divorce, starring Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson. It is based on the Diane Johnson novel and the story is partly about who is entitled to possessing a family painting thought to be by La Tour... great movie if you like Paris and a slice of French living. Enough rambling, here is a proper short history of Georges:

'La Tour, Georges de 1593-1652. French painter, active in Lorraine. He was patronized by the duke of Lorraine, Richelieu, and perhaps also by Louis XIII. Many of his pictures are illuminated by a single source of light, with deep contrasts of light and shade, as in Joseph the Carpenter about 1645 (Louvre, Paris). Theye range from religious paintings to domestic genre scenes.' (Brockhampton)