tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20645140.post6052167262768953306..comments2023-06-13T08:29:39.914+00:00Comments on MAKING A MARK: Who Painted This? #51Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20645140.post-2999052592909969792013-11-06T20:20:36.115+00:002013-11-06T20:20:36.115+00:00Hello Katherine and Bernadette,
First of all Kath...Hello Katherine and Bernadette,<br /><br />First of all Katherine, congratulations on being commissioned to write a book about sketching and drawing, it’s right up your alley . <br />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!<br />Then I searched for paintings of brides from the 1890s and then from the 1880s and it came up on google images. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />It resides in the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki and is part of the Antell Collections, H. F. Antell Bequest.<br /><br />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 Gérome, 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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />Best wishes,<br />JohnAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06347585186857349484noreply@blogger.com