Friday, November 01, 2013

Who Painted This? #51

The image this week was a challenge to me from Bernadette Madden to celebrate the 50th "Who painted this?". I was a bit pushed for time but sad to say I didn't get it - but I got close!

Who painted this? #51

You need to tell me - as a comment on this blog
  1. who painted this 
  2. including all the basics I want to know (see link to rules below).
  3. plus what you can find out about this artist and/or artwork 
The winner will be the person with the BEST complete answer rather than the first to respond - so you don't have to rush and you do have time to do some research.  Just get your answer to me by the end of Thursday your time.

For those who've not risen to the challenge before please take a minute to read the rules - see below.  The questions which need answering don't stop at "Who painted this?"

How to participate in "Who painted this? #50"


PLEASE make sure you read the rules before posting a comment - and ONLY POST ON THIS BLOG what you think is the answer.
Click this link to read THE RULES for participating in this challenge (this saves having to copy them out for each post!).

In short:
  • use your brains not software to find the answer - search using words only on a database of images
  • leave your answer as a comment on this blog - do not leave the answer on Facebook!
  • if correct it will not be published until the next post - which provides the answer
  • if wrong it will be published
  • the winner - who gets a mention and a link on/from this blog - is NOT THIS WEEK the first person to give me a completely correct answer for ALL the things I want to know. It's the person who does all this AND provides the BEST answer (see above)

Who Painted This #50 - The Answer

Still-Life with Tuft of Marine Plants, Shells and Corals
 by Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744 – 1818)
Who guessed correct?

Who painted this #50? - A number of people got the answer correct and are listed below in alphabetical order

I'm learning a lot from the narrative answers which are getting better and better.  I can't do better than say click the link and go read the comments if you'd like to know more about this artist who had her own studio in The Louvre!  She was the mistress of the still life!

This week, I think the best answer was the one provided by John O'Grady (John O'Grady paintings)


1 comment:

  1. Hello Katherine and Bernadette,

    First of all Katherine, congratulations on being commissioned to write a book about sketching and drawing, it’s right up your alley .
    It took me a while to find out who painted #51. The cool light made me think the painting had a Northern European or Scandinavian feel. I did a number of searches such as ‘paintings of weddings’ and ‘the bride’s toast’ to no avail. Nice one Bernadette!
    Then I searched for paintings of brides from the 1890s and then from the 1880s and it came up on google images.

    Bernadette, you probably saw the painting in 2008 when it travelled to Ireland as part of the exhibition of Finnish Art Northern Stars and Southern Lights: The Golden Age of Finnish Art 1870 -1920 that took place at the National Gallery of Ireland? I was in Ireland at the time but did not get the chance to see it.

    This fine painting is called The bride's song and it was created by Gunnar Berndtson a Finnish painter who was born in 1854 and died in 1895. The painting is an oil on canvas created in 1881 and its dimensions are 66 x 82.5 cm.

    It resides in the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki and is part of the Antell Collections, H. F. Antell Bequest.

    Berndtson studied under various masters and in 1876, he won a scholarship to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris where he studied under Jean-Leon GĂ©rome, a French painter and sculptor famous for his historical paintings, Greek mythology and Orientalism as well as for being the teacher of an impressive list of artists including Mary Cassat, Thomas Eakins and Odilon Redon.

    Berndtson painted realistic pictures of interiors and other milieus in which he evolved as well as historical scenes. As can be seen in The Bride’s song, he relished painting the delicate details of a lace collar or of a handkerchief that shows its folded marks and express the family members’ emotions captured at a precise moment.

    The light adds a touch of warmth to the opulent but austere black and white attires of the guests around the table while our gaze is drawn to the young fresh faced bride that looks radiant with a champagne flute in her hand.

    As the person looking at the painting, I feel like an observer who stumbled upon a precious, intimate and happy moment in the life of this family as if this moment was captured for posterity by a camera.

    This painting was staged with the help of the painter’s artists friends as models: Ville Vallgren is on the right, and Aukusti Uotila can just be seen on the left.

    Best wishes,
    John

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