Sunday, May 22, 2022

Who painted this? #66

This week's "Who Painted This (and the rest!) #66 is a painting has a tease in the title. 

That's because you should be able to work out what the title might be if you study the painting very carefully - and if you right click and open in a new tab you'll get a slightly larger version. 

HOWEVER there are a number of paintings which use that title - by completely different artists. I'd never realised quite what a popular theme this is until I started this post!

The other part of the tease is where I saw and photographed it (in London) is not where it normally lives! That's because it was 'on loan'.

Below you can find 

  • The details of how to participate in this art history challenge  
  • the rules of the challenge 
  • the answer to last week re. Who Painted this #64 
  • the names of all the people who got most or all of the answer correct
  • who provided the best answer last week - which gives you an idea of what a good answer looks like
Your answers will be published next Sunday - before the next challenge.


How to participate in "Who painted this? #66


Tell me the story of this painting as best you can!

These are the for how "Who painted this?" works.
This is about using brains not technology - so please do NOT "cheat".
Briefly, in your comment ON THIS POST you must tell me ALL or as many of the following as you can:
  • the title of the artwork
  • the name of the artist who created this artwork
  • the date it was created
  • the media used
  • where it lives now
  • how you know all this eg how did you do your search
  • anything else you can find out about the artwork and/or artist - tell its story!
The Winner of this week's challenge 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.
Comments on this blog post will only be published once a week - on the following Sunday.

(You wouldn't believe how many spam comments I'm having to identify and delete each week because of this challenge!!)

NOTE: You can find out more about the background to "who painted this?" and  THE RULES for participating in this challenge. on the Who Painted This? page at the top of the blog menu https://makingamark.blogspot.com/p/who-painted-this.html

Who Painted This #65?


Pommes et oranges by Paul Cézanne
Vers 1899
Huile sur toile; H. 74,0 ; L. 93,0 cm.
Legs du comte Isaac de Camondo, 1911
Musée d'Orsay 


The challenge last week was to work out which of the paintings of apples and oranges by a well known painter this one is - and where it is and other relevant details! 

Title of the artwork: Pommes et oranges
Name of the artist who created this artworkPaul Cézanne
Date it was created: 1899
Media used: oil on canvas
Dimensions: Support: Height 74cm, Width 93cm; 
Where it lives now: Musée d'Orsay 

The painter was of course Paul Cézanne - who pain
ted an entire series of paintings of apples and oranges. 

A long time ago, I visited his studio in his old house in Aix-en-Provence and thought he painted these paintings there. However according to the narrative explanation behind the painting on the website the series of paintings were actually painted in his Paris Studio.
Though Cézanne painted still life compositions from the start of his career, it was only in later years that this genre began to occupy an essential place in his work. Apples and Oranges belongs to this period. 
It forms part of a series of six still lifes produced in 1899 in Cézanne's Parisian studio. Each painting features the same accessories: earthenware dishes and a jug decorated with a floral motif. Their arrangement is also similar, with a draped cloth, reminiscent of 17th century Flemish still lifes, closing the perspective. However, the dynamic effect created by a complex spatial construction and Cézanne's subjective perception of the arranged objects illustrate his essentially pictorial approach. 
Through the rigour and plasticity of his artistic language, Cézanne brings new life to a genre traditional in French painting since Chardin. Apples and Oranges, which combines modernity and sumptuous beauty, is the most important still life produced by artist in the late 1890's.
It used to form part of the collections of Gustave Geffroy; Bernheim-Jeune, Paris; and Comte Isaac de Camondo

It passed (I think) to the Louvre Museum in 2011 and hung in 
  • the Louvre Museum from 1911 until 1947
  • the galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris from 1947-1986
  • before transferring to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986
It has however travelled the world to various exhibitions of paintings by Cezanne and/or exhibitions on the theme of Impressionism. In  fact it's probably out of France as much time as it's hanging in the Musée d'Orsay so I think I was very lucky to see it on a visit in 2009.

Who guessed correct?


Very oddly I only received two comments.

Carol Eden won the challenge with this entry - who provided both the details and an explanation of how she arrived at her answer.
Apples and Oranges by Paul Cezanne. Painted around 1899.. Oils on canvas. It resides at The Museum d'Orsay since 1986, but is currently not on display. I immediately recognized the work as a painting by Cezanne, so did a word search on google using Cezanne apples. He was after a wholeness and balance of the geometric shapes. “I want to hit Paris with an apple,” Cezanne.

7 comments:

  1. Possibly artist Dutch artist Isaac van Duynen titled 'Fish on a table' dated circa 1660. Saw a few of his similar still life works with this same title in an exhibition in the National Gallery on Dutch still life painters that held me in awe - van Duynen and especially Willem Heda. Breathtaking detail and always included a lemon being peeled and also included oysters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This image eluded me on regular google search of Still Life Fish as keywords. I used other online search engines and found the image on Bing.
    Still Life with Fish and Cat by Alexander Adriaenssen. Painted 1631. Oils on panel.
    Alexender Adriaenssen was a Flemish Baroque painter and well known for his still-lifes of fish and game. The painting is in the collection of The York Museums Trust.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This painting is Still Life with Fish and a Cat by Alexander Adriaenssen.
    It was painted in 1631 in oil on oak and is part of York Art Gallery’s collection. It was bequeathed to the gallery by John Burton in 1882.
    Alexander Adriaenssen was a Flemish painter who lived and worked in Antwerp. He was particularly known for his paintings of raw fish (c. 60 of these) but also created still life’s featuring fruit, game and flowers. His influences include Frans Synders who painted large scale still life’s that contrasted game and other produce with life animals such as cats. The Haarlem school also had an impact on his painting style. His compositions are characterised by an asymmetrical diagonal layout—a triangle standing on end flanked by ellipses—with objects overlapping over multiple planes for greater depth. He used a sober palette, which tended to the monochrome. An important feature of his work was also its purity of colour.
    The painting was easier for me to find than your previous posts as I recognised that it was by a Flemish artist. So, I could search for Flemish paintings with cats and fish. It was interesting to find out more about the artist as I grew to love Flemish art of this period whilst working in Belgium and the Netherlands.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Apologies, I just posted my comment as anonymous by mistake! I’m Hazel Brent

    ReplyDelete
  5. #66 This painting I have never seen before but at first, Ithought it to be by Chardin. However, because of the 'silver fish' I started to wonder if was by Baroque artist Van Beyeren. However, now I am doubting that, as I do not think he painted small dead birds in his fish still lives so now I am back to thinking it is Chardin. Jean-Baptiste Smeon Chardin - a superb, beautiful painter of still life objects. Often he depicted exotic food on wonderful silver platters. His paintings would have advertised his technical brilliance to any potential wealthy patrons. His oil painting techniques describe the texture, weight and form of objects from knives and silver platters to the flesh of fish, fruit and feathers on birds etc. He captures candle light and day light on the glint of galss etc, His unvarnised table tops add to the impression that the objects could appear in everyday households. Chardin is famous for his painting of the Skate and sometimes features kittens alongside dead fish. 17th Century work where still life objects are symbolic of religious and moral values known by all at the time. Sorry, don't know where this painting resides and not sure that it is a Chardin work. Last comment - I love the painting of a jar of apricots where almost photographically, Chardin captures the steam rising from a hot cup of tea. A very modern device implying that the person drinking the tea has stepped away for a moment. Can't wait to discover the identity of the artist and the title in your next blogg.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This challenge was just that, a real challenge, at least for me.

    The search:

    I tried to do as you suggest, but searches for "Surf and Turf", "Fish and Game" and such like didn't get me anywhere. I obviously wasn't looking closely enough! Maybe the cat is a clue..."Cat and Game" took me to Frans Snyders, not an artist I know but looked promising. Searching through his paintings didn't result in a match, but certainly similarities in style and subject matter. Hmmmm, Flemish then, probably (!), perhaps a pupil of Snyders, perhaps influenced by him and if so the painting could be mid to late 1600s. Nicasius Bernaerts, Peter van Boucle, Jan Fyt...not names I recognised and none painted this painting.

    A bit of a rethink, try "Baroque still life", seems hopeful but still not finding the right painting. " Baroque still life with cat and game", lots of hits taking me back to Snyders, it must be by him I thought, but that search led me to a painting called Still Life with Cat and Fish by Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin, not quite the right style so not him, but the title looked promising (and perhaps in hindsight rather obvious), so a painting with that title maybe...and there it was, or rather "Still Life with Fish and Cat" shown on Art UK.

    I started this search on Monday, it was Wednesday when I found it, finding lots of "new to me" Flemish artists on the way!

    The Painting and The Artist:

    Still Life with Fish and Cat, by Alexander Adriaenssen, painted in about 1631and held at York Art Gallery ...and was temporarily on display at the National Gallery during a major refurbishment at York Gallery started in 2013 with a grand reopening in August 2015: I'm guessing you saw the painting at the National?

    York Museums Trust web site describes the painting as Oil on Oak, sized excluding frame as 46.9cm by 64.4cm.

    Alexander Adriaenssen, 1587-1661, a Flemish Baroque painter, known for his still-lifes of fish and game, banquet pieces and "pronkstillevens", (Dutch for 'ostentatious'), and influenced by Frans Stevens. Wikipedia states that Alexander produced more than 60 works showing raw fish: not my idea of a great subject!

    The National Gallery refers to the artist as "the Elder" and states the painting was included in a bequest to the York Art Gallery by John Burton in 1882. York Art Gallery describes the bequest of 126 paintings as the foundation for a permanent collection of art for York.


    ReplyDelete
  7. Please note I meant Sunday to Tuesday for my search described in my previous comments, getting my days wrong!! Anyway, it was a very entertaining search!

    ReplyDelete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED AGAIN because of too much spam.
My blog posts are always posted to my Making A Mark Facebook Page and you can comment there if you wish.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.