Friday, September 19, 2014

Who painted this? #62

Who painted this? #62

Apologies for the delay in restarting Who Painted This? I wasn't planning on having to move quite so many websites in quite so short a space of time - and getting ready for an exhibition at the same time.

Hopefully this series of art history challenges will now get back on track and be a bit more regular!

I've seen paintings by this artist before and have been impressed by them - and that's all I'm saying for now. Other than that you might want to be circumspect as to attribution.

[UPDATE: You're looking for an artist who has, in the past, produced paintings like another artist.]

How to participate in "Who painted this? #62


Don't forget - there are rules to how "Who painted this?" works - and these are detailed in THE RULES for participating in this challenge.

Briefly, in your comment you must tell me ALL of the following:
  1. the title of the artwork
  2. the name of the artist who created this artwork
  3. the date it was created
  4. the media used
  5. where it lives now
  6. how you know all this eg how did you do your search
  7. anything else you can find out about the artwork and/or artist
The Winner is the first identifiable person (i.e. no anonymous guesses) who, in my judgement, is the first person to get to the answer by fair means AND provides the best quality answer in terms of added details about the artwork and artist

Remember also 

  • no use of Google image search or Tineye to find the image allowed - this is a traditional web search of images using words only plus "hit the books" time
  • I don't publish the comments until next week's post.


Who painted this? #61


Child's Siesta by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida
Title of the artwork: Child's Siesta
Name of the artist who created this artwork: Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)
Date it was created: circa 1918
Media used: 
oil on board, Height: 6.25 cm (2.46 in.), Width: 8.63 cm (3.4 in.)
Where it lives now: 
Private collection

Artists across the centuries have painted sleeping children - it's one of those perennial motifs.  You can see more on Wikimedia Commons.

This is a curious painting as I could not find out anything about it. I even began to wonder at one point whether it was a manufactured "lookalike" Sorolla because there were so many reproductions and yet so little detail.

However an image was uploaded to The Atheneaum by one of the regular uploaders and knowing a little about how he sources his images I think it is probably real - but just not seen much in public.

Who guessed correct?


As I suspected, the painting was identified by its colours and brushwork - which just goes to show if you look at paintings for long enough you don't need to consult the signature to know who it is by!

The first person to get it correct and give a good answer was Stephen Lawlor - and I think that's a first for Stephen - so welcome to the club! (If you've got a website let me know and I'll link to it).

Others who got the correct answer were:

6 comments:

  1. Wow, that is a tough one, I have a couple of guesses but not at all certain. It will be interesting to find out who others think this is. Always fun, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Artist Hercules Brabazon Brabazon
    Title Landscape(After Turner)
    Medium Watercolour
    Date 1850-1906( painted)
    Where Victoria and Albert Museum
    How I found it I thought I would never get this, Googled all the words I could think of to no avail, then, as a last try, made a list of artists,as I came across them, whose work even vaguely seemed like the image and finally got the answer.

    Born Hercules Brabazon in Paris, in 1821, the artist was brought up and educated in England, studying maths and law at Cambridge.In spite of his father’s wish that he would practice law he travelled to Rome to study art and music. When he inherited the family estate in Ireland (the will required that he change his name to Brabazon) he became financially independent and started a new life as a painter. Though he didn’t see himself as a professional, always referring to himself as a “gentleman amateur “, he was well liked and respected by his peers. He travelled the world, India ,Africa and, of course, Europe painting all the time and exhibiting his work ,mainly in London . He died, unmarried ,in 1906. There is an interesting biography of him by C. Lewis Hind on www,brabazonarchive.com
    Brabazon was largely self taught and having tried a number of different mediums finally settled on watercolour as his best way of working. He was a true Victorian in many ways ,travelling the Empire and recording what he saw, but his watercolours are much fresher and vibrant than had gone before. He was a great admirer of the Old masters ,of Velázquez and indeed of Turner. He took some of his technique from the Impressionists, in the way that they made the sun and the light glitter and linked it to the sheer skill and planning typical of the Old Masters. He was a Plein-Air painter, using wet on wet to get immediate effects and sometimes working on coloured paper .His work, especially the sketches, looks fresh, instinctive and unlaboured. His palette is very much his own, often quite muted, a good example, I think ,of “less is more” and, to me it seems he is also a good example of “practice makes perfect”….the constant honing of his skills really shows in the later work.
    Sadly, a number of years after his death the family fell on hard times and had to sell all the paintings of his that they had inherited. They sold 3,199 in 27 months, thus depressing the market for his work and seriously damaging his reputation. In recent years this reputation has been given a boost by a number of exhibitions featuring his work and the re-hanging of his paintings in major galleries.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, dang it! I thought I knew the artist at first glance but to no avail.
    Thanks for the update tip Katherine.
    I thought maybe Augustus Lamplough for the subject/location initially but this is a bit too soft edged? Plus I could not find it under his name.
    Must keep thinking and searching...

    ReplyDelete
  4. You know the drill David! If I print your comment which contains a name - then it's the WRONG name! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. It looks as it it's from the same spot as
    Joseph Mallord William Turner's Venice: The Zitelle, Santa Maria della Salute, the Campanile and San Giorgio Maggiore from the Canale della Grazia 1840
    which is in the Tate Britain
    So I think it is a very preliminary sketch Turner made or someone trying to paint like Turner.

    ReplyDelete
  6. PS The picture I mentioned is Graphite, watercolour and pen on paper.
    The one you are asking about was not showing up when I first looked at it some days ago, next time I looked it was showing now it is not.

    ReplyDelete

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