Exhibition Review: Winnie the Pooh: Exploring a Classic (V&A) | Enough of this Tomfoolery!

Long before there was Paddington Bear, Shaun the Sheep and Peppa Pig, there was Winnie the Pooh. For over 90 years, the bear with very little brain and his friends Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Tigger, Kanga, Roo and Christopher Robin have entertained and enchanted both…

via Exhibition Review: Winnie the Pooh: Exploring a Classic (V&A) | Enough of this Tomfoolery!

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Museum Dedicated to Camille Claudel Opens in France | artnet News

The exterior of the Musée Camille Claudel. Photo by Marco Illuminati, courtesy the museum.

A museum dedicated to Camille Claudel has opened, giving recognition to the artist who worked in the “Golden Age of French sculpture.”

Source: Museum Dedicated to Camille Claudel Opens in France | artnet News

Hidden portrait ‘found under the Mona Lisa’, could lead to it being renamed | News | Culture | The Independent

A French scientist claims to have discovered a different portrait hidden behind that of the Mona Lisa, following 10 years of analysis using reflective light technology. Pascal Cotte claims that Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work contains a figure that has neither the direct gaze nor subtle smile that the painting is known for. The Mona Lisa currently hangs in the Louvre and is effectively the most valued painting in the world, its insurance – adjusted for inflation – being at $782 million. The museum has declined to comment on the scientist’s claims.

Source: Hidden portrait ‘found under the Mona Lisa’, could lead to it being renamed | News | Culture | The Independent

People : Bloomsbury , Dora Carrington | stuartshieldgardendesign

Originally posted on stuartshieldgardendesign.

Dora de Houghton Carrington (29 March 1893 – 11 March 1932), known generally as Carrington, was a British painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton Strachey.

Early life

The daughter of a Liverpool merchant, she was born in Hereford, England, and attended the all-girls’ Bedford High School which emphasized art. Her parents also paid for her to receive extra lessons in drawing. She went to the Slade School of Art at University College, London where she subsequently won a scholarship; her fellow students included Paul Nash, Christopher R. W. Nevinson and Mark Gertler. All at one time or another were in love with her, as was Nash’s younger brother John Nash, who hoped to marry her. Gertler pursued Carrington for a number of years, and they had a brief sexual relationship during the years of the First World War.

From her time at the Slade onwards, she was commonly known simply by her surname. She was not well known as a painter during her lifetime, as she rarely exhibited and did not sign her work. She worked for a while at the Omega Workshops, and for the Hogarth Press, designing woodcuts.

Career and personal life

Carrington was not a member of the Bloomsbury Group, though she was closely associated with Bloomsbury and, more generally, with “Bohemian” attitudes, through her long relationship with…

via People : Bloomsbury , Dora Carrington | stuartshieldgardendesign.

Self-Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt (1659-1660) | The Squirrel Review

Originally posted on The Squirrel Review.

Self-Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt (1659-1660)

If the aim of self-portraiture is defined as the production of a painting displaying  perfect likeness to one’s physical self, Rembrandt van Rijn was a master of this medium for much of his artistic life. However, when one defines the aim of a self-portrait more subtly, that of providing an honest window into the deep and personal character of an artist, Rembrandt only began to succeed towards the end of his life. This truth is exemplified in what many consider to be one of the artists greatest masterpieces, Self-Portrait with Two Circles.

In his earlier self-portraits, Rembrandt depicts himself as handsome, successful, and fashionable – indeed, far more like a gentleman than an artist. From his clothing to his posture, the artist reflected upon the glamorous…

via Self-Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt (1659-1660) | The Squirrel Review.

People : Ben Nicholson, The Cubist Artist Who Designed For J M Barrie’s Peter Pan …… | stuartshieldgardendesign

Benjamin Lauder “Ben” Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was a British painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life.

Background and training

Ben Nicholson was born on 10 April 1894 in Denham, Buckinghamshire, the son of the painters Sir William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde, and brother to the artist Nancy Nicholson, the architect Christopher Nicholson and to Anthony Nicholson. His maternal grandmother Barbara Pryde (née Lauder) was a niece of the famous artist brothers Robert Scott Lauder and James Eckford Lauder. The family moved to London in 1896. Nicholson was educated at Tyttenhangar Lodge Preparatory School, Seaford, at Heddon Court, Hampstead and then as a boarder at Gresham’s School, Holt, Norfolk. He trained as an artist in London at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1910–1914, where he was a contemporary of Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, and Edward Wadsworth.

Nicholson was married three times. His first marriage was to the painter Winifred Roberts; it took place on 5 November 1920 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London. Nicholson and Winifred had three children: a son, Jake, in June 1927; a daughter, Kate (who later also became a painter), in July 1929; and a son, Andrew, in September 1931. They were divorced in 1938. His second marriage was to fellow artist Barbara Hepworth on…

via People : Ben Nicholson, The Cubist Artist Who Designed For J M Barrie’s Peter Pan …… | stuartshieldgardendesign.

Thinking on Petrus van der Velden and the Rijksmuseum