Van Gogh's Bedrooms in Chicago

Van Gogh's Bedrooms is a very unusual exhibition opens in the Regenstein Hall of The Art Institute of Chicago today. It closes 10th May 2016. While most of us won't be able to see it in person, there are quite a few resources online which allow us to appreciate some of the effort which has gone into this exhibition.

At the end of this post I've also listed my very extensive list of posts on this blog about Van Gogh and his drawings, paintings, flowers, gardens and other exhibitions and videos! I hope they are of interest to artists and art lovers alike - I know I enjoyed my own research!

Van Gogh's Bedrooms

This site provides you with a preview of the exhibition

• this page tells you about the three different versions of the bedroom in the Yellow House in Amsterdam, Paris and Chicago. (I never even realised there were were three paintings!) - and also looks at each of the different elements in turn.
• this is a museum blog post about the exhibition
• This is a video by Gloria Groom who is the Curator of the exhibition

• This is a really interesting video about the science involved in the collaboration between the three museums to determine the differences between the three paintings - looking at paint and painting techniques and the inner structure of the three paintings. Really fascinating stuff!

• PLUS Van Gogh's bedroom in Arles has been recreated and is available to book via AirBnB - see all 7 photos of the room

As part of a promotional campaign, The Art Institute of Chicago commissioned a recreation of the famous room, which rents for just $10 a night in Chicago's River North neighborhood.

The odd thing is that I think the recreation of the room may have backfired. There are masses of news inches devoted to the AirBnB bedroom and not so much to the exhibition!

More about Van Gogh and his art

Those interested in Van Gogh will find more reading in my posts about Van Gogh on this blog.

Van Gogh and Drawing

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing." Vincent van Gogh ( 1853 - 1890)

• Van Gogh: Drawing media and techniques (2007) - This post focuses on Van Gogh's drawing materials and how they influenced his style.
• Van Gogh: More About Drawing (2007) - Links to websites which provide a very useful perspective on Van Gogh's approach to drawing
• Van Gogh: Drawing Landscapes (2007) - More about Van Gogh and Drawing - this post focuses on his landscape drawings.
• Van Gogh: Drawing Figures, Portraits and Self-Portraits (2007) - At one stage in his career, Van Gogh hoped to be a portrait painter in Paris.

Van Gogh's Paintings

• Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings (Taschen) - This comprehensive study of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) represents a rarity in art history: a detailed monograph on his life and art combined with a complete catalogue of his 871 paintings.

Flowers and gardens by Van Gogh

• Flowers in Art - and Van Gogh #1 (2007) - Copying the paintings of other artists in order to learn new skills is an age old tradition and one in which Van Gogh himself followed
• Flowers in Art: Van Gogh #2 - Sunflowers and the value of repetition (2007) - Van Gogh painted a series of sunflowers. Initially four in Arles - two of which he hung in Gauguin's bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles and then subsequently another three which were copies.
• Hokusai, Van Gogh and the iris paintings - Van Gogh's iris paintings were produced while he was resident in an asylum in Saint-Rémy, France.
• Gardens in Art: Drawings and Paintings by Van Gogh (2007) - I've very much enjoyed doing the research for images, information and links about the drawings and paintings Van Gogh made of gardens

Other Exhibitions 

• The Real Van Gogh at the Royal Academy
• The Real Van Gogh - Portraits (2010) - This post highlights what I learned about Van Gogh's portrait painting from the exhibition - and the context of Van Gogh's letters.
• The Real Van Gogh - Orchards and Blossom (2010) - Van Gogh was very interested in Japanese art. Blossom time meant the countryside around about Arles became for him the western equivalent
• Van Gogh and the Yellow House in Arles Feb 11, 2010 - One of the joys of visiting the Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is being able to see the painting of the yellow house
• The economic impact of Van Gogh's Drawings (2007) - It's estimated that the exhibition "Vincent Van Gogh: the Drawings" generated $251 million in spending by regional, national, and foreign tourists to New York
• Van Gogh and John Updike - a review -  a wonderful essay/review by John Updike of the 2005 exhibition of Van Gogh Drawings at the Met. in New York

Other videos

• Vincent Van Gogh's Notebooks Dec 10, 2014
• Video: Vincent van Gogh at the Musée d'Orsay (2009) - Almost any of Van Gogh's  paintings are worth looking at very closely

Miscellaneous posts about Van Gogh

Below is a list of my blog posts about Vincent Van Gogh excluding those listed above

• Introduction to the Van Gogh Project - about a project to study Van Gogh
• Van Gogh, colour and a colour study - Van Gogh's letters contain some 324 references to colours. The Van Gogh Musuem also has some interesting narrative about use of colour
• The Visual Translation of Japan in Late 19th-Century Paris - about the impact of Japanese prints on artists in late 19th century
• A map of Van Gogh's London - Did you know that Van Gogh lived in London for a while?

'Making A Mark' passes 6 million pageviews - and resource move begins

On Saturday, Making A Mark notched up 6 million pageviews, since Blogger started counting in 2008.

What's even more amazing to me is that the last million pageviews have been achieved in just over seven months.

six million pageviews - spotted in the middle of Saturday afternoon
the redline marks the Blogger statistics

I little realised with I started this blog at the end of 2005, prior to going public in January 2006, that it would generate quite so much traffic!

My art and artists resources websites are on the move

Saturday was special in another way. At 1pm the editing function on Squidoo was switched off for the last time as the site begins to close down and those sites which have not been deleted begin their transfer to HubPages.

This is the URL of my account and subdomain http://makingamark.hubpages.com if you want ONE bookmark for access to all my art sites in future.

I now have to wait for my sites to start moving over - and this move may well start at some point this week as my account should be part of the early transfers.  However that assumes they iron out all the niggles and bugs associated with the transfer quickly.  It may well be that they won't start transferring until next week.

A redirect will be put in place so if you have of them bookmarked then you'll find you are automatically taken to the new site - on my Hub Pages subdomain (see above for the URL).  I'm not too clear how long this redirect works for so probably best to change the bookmark on your first visit.

This week

This week I am focusing on getting three drawings finished for Florum - a botanical art exhibition by leading botanical artists in Kent next month.

For that reason I'm going to be posting quickie posts this week which will feature collections of some of the resource websites which are moving.

Mainly because I think many of the new readers won't be aware of them! :)

Making A Mark on Art - and the end of Squidoo

Over the last seven years I've created some 160 websites about art (Making A Mark on Art) and artists (About Artists) on Squidoo. Yesterday I had news that Squidoo is closing down. Seth Godin has arranged for my featured sites to be merged with HubPages and the current links to them will become redirects after October.

I don't know if I'm surprised or not - I've been predicting the demise of Squidoo for some considerable time and if anything I'm only surprised it's survived for so long.

I now need to decide how and where I host my content in the future.

That's going to take a bit of time which means I think I need to take a break from blogging to make sure I've got all my content backed up and accessible if I need to move it to a new site within my control.  As you can imagine the notion of putting it on another website where somebody else determines what happens to it has little appeal right now!

I had already started planning what I'd do next. However that planning extended to one topic and I've now got lots to sort in an extremely short space of time.  However the good news is that at least I'm not on holiday unlike some poor souls who will come back to find their options very limited indeed!

My presence on Squidoo started off because I wanted a place to organise and host my bookmarks after a computer crashed and took them all with it!

My main reason for hosting on Squidoo was that it was free and it was very easy to add in new information to modules within my compendiums as time passed.  It was also an excellent way of grouping and clustering different sites on a topic and generally there were lots of good things about it. I often said I wished I could have the software for delivering the site - and use it on my own websites.

I now need to find a new way of delivering my content and this time I'm looking more closely at options for economical and easy ways of doing this on my own sites. Some may well migrate to HubPages but I think it's more than likely that some content will find another space to inhabit.

Any suggestions for good ways of hosting INFORMATION websites which are heavy on content are welcome.  These are ones which have

• content structured in an orderly way - all on one page
• plus links to lots of information and advice on other websites.

In the meantime here are links to some of the most popular of my websites - soon to be reinvented in another guise!

1. The Best Books about Drawing and Sketching

Do you want to learn how to draw? Want to find out which are the best books about drawing and sketching? This is a big site designed to help those who want to * LEARN TO DRAW * DEVELOP YOUR DRAWING SKILLS and learn about drawing at an advanced level

2. The Best Watercolour Paint for Artists

Do you want to know about: * which is the best brand of professional grade watercolour paints for artists? * the colour range and characteristics of different brand of artist-quality watercolour paint? Or maybe you want to know what other artists think about different brands of paint

3. Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists

Find out about coloured pencils and coloured pencil art and artists. This leading resource has information on every aspect of coloured pencils for everybody - from experienced artists to improvers and beginners wanting to learn all they can about how to work with coloured pencils.

4. How to pack, post and ship art - Resources for Artists [transferred to How to pack, post and ship art]

How do you pack art? How do you post art? How should you send a painting by post? How do you get artwork to an exhibition - and back again? What are the best packing materials? What are the best methods for different types of art? How do you ship art internationally? How should you pack a painting?

5. Pastels - Resources for Artists

For both new and experienced pastel artists - useful information and advice about: artist grade pastel brands | which are the best pastels | how to use pastels - including tips and techniques | pastel artists | pastels in art history

6. Top 10 Art Galleries and Museums in the World

Find out which are the top ten art galleries and museums in the world - based on visitor numbers in 2013 - and how to visit them in person or virtual reality. Find out the answers to: * Which is the top museum in the world - and year after year? * Which is top art gallery in the USA? *

7. How to write an Artist's Statement - Resources for Artists [transferred to the NEW How to write an Artist's Statement]

An Artist's Statement is essential - but lots of artists dread writing a statement about their art! DO YOU NEED HELP? Do you need a statement for an art competition, an exhibition catalogue, a grant proposal or a website - but not know how to express your art in words?

8. The Best Watercolour Painting Instruction Books

Do you need an instruction book about how to paint in watercolour? Do you want to develop your skills in painting with watercolour? Do you want to find out more about watercolour art and artists who use watercolour?

9. How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print

What's the best way for an artist to sign a painting? Should you date as well as sign a painting? How should you sign a fine art print? How can you identify the genuine signature of an artist? Where can I see artists signatures?

10. Composition and Design for Artists

Do you want to know more about "the rules" of Composition? Or an explanation of the Principles and Elements of Composition and Design? Have you ever tried to make your artwork more pleasing to the eye? Or wanted to know what makes some paintings draw you in?

11. Online Art Galleries and Stores for Artists

Online galleries offer to help you sell your ORIGINAL ART - but do they actually work? Which is the best and which gets the most traffic? This site provides you with lots of information. So - if you're trying to find out more about online art galleries - this is the site for you!

12. How to Price Your Art - Resources for Artists [transferred to the NEW How to Price your Art]

Check out different approaches to "how to price art". Identify costs that need to be recovered, review different pricing models and factors that influence the setting of prices Many artists ask the question "How should I price my art?" - especially emerging artists getting to grips with the art business

13. How to write an Artist's Resume or CV [transferred to the NEW How to write an Artist's Resume or CV]

How do you summarise your life as an artist in a CV or resume for galleries, exhibitions and potential employment? Do you understand the difference between an artist's CV, artist resume and a bio - and how to write them?

14. The Best Botanical Art Instruction Books [transferring to the NEW The Best Botanical Art Instruction Books]

Learn about botanical art and botanical illustration from the best botanical art instruction books, covering every aspect you need to know about. Read reviews about which are the best botanical art instruction books

15. The Best Art Books - Colour

Read the best books for artists and painters about understanding colour, mixing colours and using colour in paintings. * Find out which are the leading art books about colour. * Read associated art book reviews.

16. The Best Art Books - Composition and Design

Find out which are the best art books about composition and design for art students, leisure painters, improving and advanced artists and art teachers. This site is for those who to learn more about: * composition and design in art * how to draw the eye and lead it around your painting.

17. Print Art on Demand - Resources for Artists

Check out the suppliers of print on demand ( POD ) services for Art Prints / Art Books & Catalogues. Review what artists think of them & traffic to their sites. Find out about: - what is print on demand / publish on demand? - suppliers of print on demand services for art - and reviews

18. The Best Books about Oil Painting

Do you need an instruction book about how to paint in oils? Want to develop your skills in painting with oils? Are you interested in knowing more about oil painting and oil painters? Find out about art instruction books and books about artists painting in oils

19. Art Supplies Around The World - Resources for Artists

Where are the best art shops? If you're an artist and want art supplies while travelling - where should you go? If you want to know the answers to those questions, bookmark this site as I've started an inventory of links to websites and address and contact details for art suppliers recommended by me

20. The Art Business for Artists [see the NEW website Art Business Info. for Artists]

Do you want to know more about the business side of being an artist? Or maybe you're looking for a particular piece of business information for artists? Whether you are an emerging or experienced artist, this site provides you with a link to information and advice about professional development

OASC for Metropolitan Museum of Art Images

I do like to look at images in high resolution - there's an amazing difference between high resolution images online and those you see in books or low resolution images online.

You can now access some 400,000 high resolution images belonging to the Metropolitan Museum of Art through their Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC) initiative.

That basically means they are for educational use.

Below you can find out more about how to access the images and what can be accessed plus a neat reminder of what size an image needs to be to print it.

In keeping with the educational topic, I'm highlighting images relating to topics which have receeived in-depth study on this block - drawing, botanical art, John Singer Sargent and the ukiyo-e prints of Hokusai

Rose Branch, Study for "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose"

John Singer Sargent

(American, Florence 1856–1925 London)

I love the scribble he uses for the leaves and flowers 

and wonderful to see a drawing associated with such a famous painting

What's OASC?

Lots of museums have an arrangement whereby high resolution images can be accessed and very often an image is charged - and the Met was one of the museums who did that.

Latterly there's been a move to make high res. images available for educational/non-commercial use.  Partly I guess because it's now relatively easy to spot the use of an image online (see How to do a reverse image search) so identifying commercial use becomes that much easier.

Here's the arrangements which have been developed by the Met - and what it replaced.

OASC was developed as a resource for students, educators, researchers, curators, academic publishers, non-commercial documentary filmmakers, and others involved in scholarly or cultural work. Prior to the establishment of OASC, the Metropolitan Museum provided images upon request, for a fee, and authorization was subject to terms and conditions.

The director commented

“Through this new, open-access policy, we join a growing number of museums that provide free access to images of art in the public domain. I am delighted that digital technology can open the doors to this trove of images from our encyclopedic collection.”

 Now all we need to see is more art galleries and museums following the trend!

Violets, Primroses and Other Spring Flowers
Kubo Shunman
Part of an album of woodblock prints (surimono); ink and color on paper
(Japanese, 1757–1820)
Quite unlike botanical art we're used to seeing from Japanese artists

What's included?

This is the link to the Collection Online.

(OASC) images associated with these artworks can be downloaded for license- and cost-free scholarly and academic publication, according to the Terms and Conditions.

The FAQs page provides a definition of what can be accessed via this new initiative.  It certainly isn't everything that can be seen on the website.

Works that are covered by the new policy are identified on the Museum’s website (http://www.metmuseum.org/collections) with the acronym OASC. (Certain works are not available through the initiative for one or more of the following reasons: the work is still under copyright, or the copyright status is unclear; privacy or publicity issues; the work is owned by a person or an institution other than the Metropolitan Museum; restrictions by the artist, donor, or lender; or lack of a digital image of suitable quality.)

Togetsu Bridge at Arashiyama in Yamashiro,
from the series Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyō kiran)
Katsushika Hokusai 
(Japanese, Tokyo (Edo) 1760–1849 Tokyo (Edo))
one of my favourite artists for landscapes - Hokusai has a lot to teach about design and framing a landscape

What's scholarly?

There's a debate over on Hyperallergic about the copyright restriction which they claim over the images which have been released - see Metropolitan Museum of Art Releases 400,000 Images, with Restriction

Personally I find it most helpful to start with the Met's definition of what is NOT scholarly use

What is not scholarly content?Commercial use, publication, or distribution in any media or format is not scholarly content. Some examples include: commercially published general-interest books in print or electronic media; all products, merchandise, (including posters, calendars, notecards, datebooks, mugs, etc.), advertisements, or promotional materials for any services or products in any media format; feature films or documentaries funded by commercial organizations.

Essentially it means for non-commercial and educational use. I'm taking the view that this blog is very much focused on educational content for the development of artists. Plus I only ever publish online and all images become reduced  to low res. to make them compatible for a speedy load.

Plus you need to look for the icon below images in the Collection section of the website to identify images that are part of the OASC initiative.

The problem is that the Met provides a number of different criteria for how you can 'slice and dice' its collection but OASC is not one of them.  So I went for an artist that I thought might be accessible - John Singer Sargent - only to find no OASC icon.

I then tried a search using "john singer sargent oasc" - but that produced a "no records" result.

Bottom line you just have to persevere and eventually you start finding images with the OASC icon.

Determining the suitability of a digital image for reproduction in a print publication

This is a topic which has been occupying me much of late as I work through my archive of past images finding ones for inclusion in my book.

As a result I found the guidance offered by the Met to be invaluable. I'm sure others will feel likewise. It;'s not that this is original so much as it's once of the more succinct explanations I;ve come acrosss.

When determining the suitability of a digital image for reproduction in a print publication, there are several key factors to consider: resolution, pixel dimensions, and the intended size of the printed output. The following table provides some typical output sizes and the recommended dimensions for a publication-ready image at 150 ppi and 300 ppi—the most common resolutions for images available from the Museum's website.

Print Output Size (inches)	Resolution	Pixel Dimensions (minimum)
8 x 10	300 (ppi)	2400 x 3000
	150 (ppi)	1200 x 1500
4 x 6	300 (ppi)	1200 x 1800
	150 (ppi)	600 x 900

Though some images available via Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC) may not meet the above requirements, this does not necessarily preclude them from publication at smaller sizes. A useful formula in determining the maximum print size of any digital image is as follows:

Note that image resolution is only a factor in determining print output. For digital purposes, the pixel dimensions of an image are the only measurements that determine display size.

Introducing Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

Regular readers will remember that Who Painted This? #42 was about the painting of the Torre de los Picos / Los Picos Tower La Alhambra, Granada - by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida.

The Gardens at the Sorolla Family House (1920)
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida
Museo Sorolla

I looked at a lot of Sorolla paintings while doing that post and decided to make a website about him - which you can find at About Joaquin Sorolla.

This includes:

• THE LIFE OF JOAQUIN SOROLLA (1863 - 1923)
• SOROLLA - THE PAINTINGS
• Artist in Museums and Art Galleries
• Sorolla in Online Galleries
• EXHIBITIONS
• Sorolla Exhibitions in 2013 - 2014
• SOROLLA AND GARDENS
• SOROLLA AND GRENADA

He was an extraordinarily prolific painter - I understand there are about 2,200 paintings in total.  The video below is a tour of his house - which is now a museum - and it gives you a sense of both the impact of the paintings and their size.  I was amazed at how big some of them are.



This is another video Museo Nacional del Prado: Comments on the exhibition by Jose Luis Díez and Javier Barón (video) made by the Prado Museum for the retropsective exhibition of Sorolla's work in 2009 which is in Spanish - but does have subtitles - and has some really great images of the paintings which also gives you a strong sense of the size and impact of his paintings..

I like his paintings of boats and people at work and leisure on the beach - he has a particularly fine eye for the colours associated with the water and the marine atmosphere in a sunny climate.  His brushwork is also very seductive - it's looks very relaxed - but the approach and skill level approaches that of John Singer Sargent.

Lime trees, Jardines de los Reales Alcazares, Seville
(Pastel 25.5" x 19.5" )
by Katherine Tyrrell
Houses & Gardens - fine art drawings by Katherine Tyrrell

However I'm also very partial to his paintings of gardens.  That's not unexpected given I'm also rather partial to sketching gardens as those who know my sketchbook blog will appreciate.

He typically painted these later in life.  Like Monet he painted his own garden.  You don;'t have to move the easel very far!

His style is sketchy but his use of colours is almost always impeccable.  I particularly like the way he varies his greens.  So many people paint gardens and forget how many greens there really are.

Sorolla did some splendid views of the pools and fountains in the palace - such as this fountain and the the pool of the Alcazar.

I've also created art in one of the gardens he used to paint in.

My pastel drawing (above right) was done plein air while sat on the shady verandah of a building in the grounds of the Real Alcazar de Sevilla - which is a Spanish palace which started out life as a Moorish fort.  It remind me of the heat of the day and the value of the shade.  (BTW I know the pillar is leaning!  I have an awful problem with verticals... particularly when working plein air!)

Makingamark's Top Ten Art Books in February 2011

I've reviewed the best books relating to Fine Art in Februaty 2011 and revised and updated my information site Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books

I've also identified the best new books published last month - and these are being listed in my new website The Best New Art Books (update to be published later today)

Major changes in book listings in February 2011

The major change I've noticed is the vast increase in the number of Kindle books online.  I mean VAST!

If the categories were confusing before - hence why I started my monthly exercise to identify the best books - the situation is getting ever more complicated.  The net effect is that this is going to have a significant knock-on effect for the book market and the financial health of book publishers.  I explain why below

Plus Amazon really needs to sort out how it categorises books!  At the moment Amazon mixes the different books into hardbacks, paperbacks and Kindle books - and then mixes them all up again.  That in principle is fine.  It's the basic grotty categorisation of books which is causing the problem.  The art categories are now completely cluttered with every new Kindle book which confuses "arts" for "art" or might have "art" as a keyword somewhere in its description even if it's a novel.

Can you tell the filter exercise was a tad tiresome this month?

The net effects of all of this are as follows:

• Kindle books - offered at much cheaper price - are swamping the best selling lists.  Since many of these books were published some time agoit's no longer a reflection of what is good and NEW
• people are going to need curated lists more and more if they're not going to miss gems lost in the silt of the Kindle outpourings

As a result I've decided to  EXCLUDE the Kindle editions having seen how the differential pricing can have a huge impact on results - otherwise the listing will be kindle dominated and “proper books” will come nowhere.

I'm in the process of creating a second Kindle list - which will also try and incorporate what's going on with Apple's ibooks.  Tricky - and not resolved as yet.

How to identify favourite portrait painters

I want to create an opinion poll to find out which are your favourite portrait painters - but to do that I first have to come up with the answers to two key questions

1. What's a "portrait painter"?
2. Who are the popular portrait painters?

I have to confess when I address questions like these, the process of sorting through lists and looking at artwork is enormously invigorating in terms of reminding me about the great art which has been produced in the past - particularly the portraits

Diego Velasquez - self-portrait (Las Meninas)

What's a "portrait painter"?

Here are some definitions of "portrait painter".  Do you know any more?

Here's the Princeton definition

 (n) portraitist, portrait painter, portrayer, limner (a painter or drawer of portraits)
Princeton University - wordnet definition of "portrait painter"

This is the wikipedia version - which focuses on what portrait painting is more than what a portrait painter is

Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait.......Portraitists create their work by commission, for public and private persons, or are inspired by admiration or affection for the subject.....A well-executed portrait is expected to show the inner essence of the subject (from the artist's point of view) or a flattering representation, not just a literal likeness. 
Wikipedia - portrait painter

Websters provides a list of synonyms and translations for "portrait painter"

Ignoring for the moment that figurative art can include subject matter which are not figures, for me the difficulty arises over:

• Where does portraiture start and finish and where does figurative art takes over?
• Is an artist a superior portrait artist if able to draw and sculpt as well as paint?  
• Should the query be about which are the best portrait artists or the best portrait painters?

What's your thoughts on these conundrums?

Who are the popular portrait painters?

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw by John Singer Sargent

A portrait is a painting with something a little wrong with the mouth.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), American painter of many portraits

I also need to come up with the names of favourite portrait painters!  Plus I also need to decide who is and who is not a portrait painter - as per the conundrum re portraiture and figurative art (in the sense of painting figures)

Interestingly Wikipedia is surprisingly silent on this topic - having a very lightweight list of portrait artists.

This is the list of The Top 10 Best Portrait Painters according to the Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art (which is a wonderful resource for all those interested in art history)

1. Rembrandt van Rijn
2. Leonardo da Vinci
3. Diego Velaquez
4. Jan van Eyck
5. Raphael
6. John Singer Sargent
7. Hans Holbein the Younger
8. Sir Anthony van Dyck
9. Theodore Gericault
10. Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Now that's not the list I would have come up with.  I don't see either Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael as primarily portrait painters - and why would you include those two and not Michaelangelo Buonarotti - unless you're ruling out an artist on the basis that representation of mythical/fantasy people doesn't count?

Also Gericault and Arcimboldo would never make it into my top 10.  Recognised portrait artists who do nothing for me include van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens and Sir Joshua Reynolds - and I tend to think of Gainsborough as being more of a landscape artist.

Concept Art has a thread about Who was the greatest portrait painter? 

My top 10 portrait painters

This isn't so much a list as a statement of current musings!

My top ten would include definitely Rembrandt, Holbein, Velasquez and Singer Sargent - and probably Jan van Eyck.  However it would also include some more contemporary artists such as Chuck Close - who has been amazingly innovative and has really stretched the concept of how portraiture is created.

Doge Leonardo Loredan by Giovanni Bellini

Does Lucian Freud deserve to be included as well?  I'm not sure - he never takes commissions.  Neither does David Hockney who has also developed a strong focus on portraiture as part of his oevre.  Should they be classified as figurative artists instead?  

Other contenders for me would include Giovanni Bellini - mainly because of the famous Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan (1501), Albrecht Durer, Jan Vermeer, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.  

I'm particularly aware of the fact that I know very little about artists outside Western Europe.  I suspect that also goes for many other individuals who study western art history.  However we need to remember that other cultures have produced very good portrait artists.  For example, if one was going to include John Singer Sargent, shouldn't one also include Valentin Serov?

Recently I've also been very impressed by Sir Thomas Lawrence - who I think is unparalled in his portraits of children.

Holbein - Lady with a Squirrel

Since animals can be legitimate subjects for portraits should one also consider artists like John James Audubon?

Who are your top 10 portrait artists?

• Tell me who are your top ten portrait artists are!
• PLUS which are the top portrait artists missing from the above lists?

I look forward to reading your comments.

The Top Ten Best Art Books in May

If you want to know how to find out which are the top rated and/or best selling art books in May - read on!

I'm still intrigued by the listings in the categories used by Amazon and how difficult it can be to see which are the top rated and best selling art books.

So I've created my own listing Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books.  This is going to focus on my interests of drawing, painting, artists, art business and what's new - as detailed below.

I'd also add that, yet again, I've learned something about the art books available on Amazon while creating this listing!

What's different about this list

There are two things which make this list distinctive

FIRST is that the listing will be UPDATED EVERY MONTH. 

I'll be identifying the fine art books which are the top rated and best selling books across various Amazon Art Books categories - including books yet to be published.   As I update, I'm expecting some books to change while perennial best sellers are likely to stay the same.


SECOND relates to how this list is compiled.                   

This listing in no way repeats the listings for different categories for arts and photography on amazon.com. That's because I find that the Amazon categories can be very confusing and books are often listed in multiple and incorrect categories.

Therefore the books listed on my new information site Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books are a personal interpretation of these listings and are compiled by:

• focusing on fine art books only (ie excluding all books for children, commercial artists and photographers)
• reviewing the category lists at Amazon - and which books are included in the category
• ignoring all books which in my view are inappropriately categorised / do not relate to fine art
• identifying the best selling book in the chosen categories
• identifying the top rated book in the chosen categories
• only listing a book once - in whichever category they rank highest
• reviewing the listings monthly and updating in each category as appropriate

Just click a link and go straight to that topic - and find out which are the top 10 art books in May!

• TOP DRAWING BOOKS
• DRAWING - Top Rated Drawing Book in May
• DRAWING - Best Selling Drawing Book in May

• TOP PAINTING BOOKS
• PAINTING - Top Rated Painting Book in May
• PAINTING - Best Selling Painting Book in May

• TOP BOOKS ABOUT ARTISTS
• ARTISTS - Top Rated Art Book in May
• ARTISTS: Best Selling Art Book in May

• TOP ART BUSINESS BOOKS
• ART BUSINESS: Top Rated Art Book in May
• ART BUSINESS - Best Selling Art Book in May

• BEST SELLING ART BOOKS
• ART BOOK BEST SELLERS: In the past 30 days
• ART BOOK BEST SELLERS: yet to be published

So if you want to keep up to date with which art books are coming up the charts and are highly rated or selling well, why not bookmark this new 'resources for artists' site.  

I'll be updating it next at the end of June/beginning of July.


Feel free to share this link via Twitter or Facebook or any other way in which you share sites.

Comments on the listing and new information site are also welcome

The top ten art galleries and museums

A little while ago I read on Bloomberg about a survey which identified the top ten art galleries and museums - in terms of the number of visitors they got. Or rather it identified most of them and I had to work out the rest!

I've now created a new "resources for art lovers" website which lists the top ten art galleries and museums and provides a link to each of the museum websites - see Top 10 art galleries and museums

I think many people may be surprised by the order. I have to emphasise I'm not certain about the numbers 8 to 10 but am clear what was listed above that.

So who knew that London was the city with the most art galleries and museums in the top 10 - and how lucky am I to live in London?! :)

What I also discovered during my research is just how few art galleries and museums list their visitor numbers in their annual reports - and that's if they've put their annual report on the website in the first place. To my mind it's a key indicator of effectiveness in terms of commmunicating the value of the contents to the public - and I simply don't understand why it's not there. Unless it's because some don't want to admit how few visitors they get? Given that most of the major museums get some considerable help in terms of public funds I'm fairly appalled by this state of affairs.

There are some quirky issues - such as the Centre Pompidou is not just a museum and I don't think anybody can extract figures just for the museum part. Plus the four Tate Museums (Modern, Britain, Liverpool and St Ives) would come second with over seven million visitors if counted as one museum. I'm planning to do some more research on this in future and I'm toying with the idea of developing a suite of performance indicator information based on data in the public domain - or data which should be!

The website also lists articles about visiting museums and art galleries and I'm intending to develop it:

• as a resource which provides links to major museums in different countries.
• by identifying other helpful links related to the top 10 art galleries and museums.
  

Do let me know what you think about it - I'd love to know if there were any surprises for you.

A map of Van Gogh's London

Royal Academy: The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters
a map of Van Gogh's London

Did you know that Van Gogh lived in London for a while? I did - but I didn't realise it was quite so long or the places he stayed or visited.

Vincent van Gogh moved to London in May 1873 and lived intermittently in the city until 1876. During this time he is known to have visited, and written about, several of the Royal Academy of Arts' Summer Exhibitions, Christie's and iconic sites including St Paul's Cathedral and Hampton Court. He also worked as a teacher, and delivered his first sermon at a church in Richmond.
Royal Academy of Art

The new Royal Academy of Arts website for the exhibition (The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters) exhibition which opens at the end of the week. It has a map of places in London linked to Van Gogh.

These are the places indicated on the above map and links to the letters in which he wrote about those places and his time in London. I've put them into chronological order.

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17 Southampton Street: 19 May 1873 – Van Gogh starts working at art dealership Goupil’s in London, for its manager Charles Obach. Lodges in the suburbs (address unknown)

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Royal Academy of Arts: Van Gogh visited several exhibitions at the Royal Academy during his time in London, between June 1873 – when he first visited the Summer Exhibition – and 1876.

87 Hackford Road, Brixton:

• Late August 1873 – Van Gogh moves to new lodgings at the house of Ursula Loyer and her daughter Eugenie. They run a small school at their home in Brixton. To Theo van Gogh. London, Saturday, 13 September 1873.

I now have a room, as I’ve long been wishing, without sloping beams and without blue wallpaper with a green border. It’s a very diverting household where I am now, in which they run a school for little boys.

• 25 December 1873 – Van Gogh spends Xmas with the Loyers family To Theo van Gogh. London, beginning of January 1874.

Things are going well for me here, I have a wonderful home and it’s a great pleasure for me to observe London and the English way of life and the English themselves, and I also have nature and art and poetry, and if that isn’t enough, what is?

• Early August 1874 – Declares his love for Eugenie and faces rejection

Dulwich Picture Gallery: 4 August 1873 – Van Gogh visits Dulwich Picture Gallery, as he discusses in Letter 12

395 Kennington Road: Mid August 1874 – Van Gogh moves to new lodgings in Kennington at the house of John Parker, a publican (Ivy Cottage, 395 Kennington Road)

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25 Bedford Street: 2 January 1875 – Van Gogh arrives back in London after a temporary transfer to Goupil’s in Paris. Goupil’s takes over Holloway & Sons, moving into their gallery at 25 Bedford Street, as discussed in Letter 29

Christies: 24 April 1875 – Van Gogh sees 'Chill October' by Millais at Christies.

Streatham Common: April 1875 - Van Gogh sends a drawing of Streatham Common to his brother Theo, as discussed in Letter 32

Hampton Court: Late June 1876 – Van Gogh visits Hampton Court and praises the Old Masters in the collection To Theo van Gogh. Isleworth, Monday, 3 or Tuesday, 4 July 1876.

Last week I was at Hampton Court to see the splendid gardens and long avenues of chestnut and lime trees where masses of crows and rooks have their nests, and also to see the palace and the paintings. There are, among other things, many portraits by Holbein which are very beautiful, and two beautiful Rembrandts (the portrait of his wife and one of a rabbi), and also beautiful Italian portraits by Bellini, Titian, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, cartoons by Mantegna, a beautiful painting by S. Ruysdael, fruit by Cuyp and so on and so forth.
I rather wished that you could have been there too; it was a pleasure to see paintings again.

114 Lee High Rd, Lee: 17 August 1876 – Van Gogh visits London, including the Gladwell family in Lewisham, as discussed in Letter 88

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158 Twickenham Road, Isleworth: 3 July 1876 – Van Gogh moves to the school of the Revd. Thomas Slade–Jones at Holme Court, 158 Twickenham Road, Isleworth. See letter 89 and letter 90

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St Paul's Cathedral: 7 October 1876 – Van Gogh takes a walk in the city, including St Paul’s Cathedral, as discussed in Letter 93.

The suburbs of London have a peculiar beauty; between the small houses and gardens there are open places covered with grass and usually with a church or school or poorhouse between the trees and shrubbery in the middle, and it can be so beautiful there when the sun goes down red in the light evening mist.

Wesleyan Methodist Church (former), Richmond :

• 2 October 1876 – Van Gogh speaks at prayer meeting at Richmond Methodist Church (formerly corner of Kew Road/Evelyn Road). From then on regularly attends on Monday evenings. See Letter 92.
• 29 October 1876 - Delivers his first sermon, as mentioned in Letter 96.

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It was a clear autumn day and a lovely walk from here to Richmond along the Thames, which reflected the large chestnut trees with their load of yellow leaves and the clear blue sky, and between the tree-tops the part of Richmond that lies on the hill, the houses with their red roofs and windows without curtains and green gardens, and the grey tower above it all, and below, the large grey bridge with tall poplars on either side, with people crossing it who looked like small black figures.

This is a list of all the letters he wrote by place and you can pick out the London and Isleworth letters from this.

Tomorrow I'm off to see a preview of the new exhibition at the RA - and I'm very excited!

Links:

• Royal Academy of Arts - The Real Van Gogh - the Artist and his letters
• Van Gogh's London
  
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam - Van Gogh Letters (all 902 letters, annotated in Dutch and translated into English)
• Vincent Van Gogh - Resources for Art Lovers