Being an orientalist painter, Filippo Baratti produced paintings mostly based on the East Asian cultures. He, himself was a Hungarian painter, who took great interest in eastern cultures and had a knack to depict them with cultural respects. Middle Asian Islamic Culture The current painting represents a middle Asian or northern South African culture where harems (separate buildings for wives and concubines in Muslim culture, restricted for unauthorized people to enter) were the part of the royal and aristocratic society. The painting is more than 100 years old. The exact date isn’t specified. But, we can assume that at the time of the depiction, the Harem practice was very province and normal as even today, in some Muslim countries the custom of harem is in […]
Genre Painting Archive
Van Gogh’s one of the last paintings, Bedroom in Arles depicts his trapezoid shaped room of his Yellow House which he rented for some time during his stay in Arles. He sent his paintings to his brother Theo from time to time just for a general review about them. He made total of three version of the same painting. The first one was just a depiction of his room while the necessity of the second version aroused due to the damage by the flood of the Rhone. His brother suggested him to draw another version. Thus the second version emerged in September 1889. The last version simply called as The Bedroom was executed in smaller size than the original calling it the reduction. Three of […]
Nighthawks is an American painting by Edward Hopper made in 1942. It was sold for $3000 at the time to the Art Institute of Chicago and is there since. It is popular piece of art similar to other famous artworks. It has been an iconic painting and have been parodied many times. The scene shows the pure Americana aspects. Nighthawks Analysis Smooth, toned-down colors are the style of the American artist. Though, his color pallet mostly includes the bright colors to give a certain attentions. The main element is the restaurant which is called as “diner” in America. Diners are small eating places with many or big windows in America. They are generally found near a street or roads just like the painting depicts. It is a casual scene. The man […]
A well-known painting by the Dutch artist Jan van Eyck for the breath-taking depiction and also for the hidden “Easter egg.” The painting is of the Italian merchant Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, also commissioned by him to portray his marriage. The genre or the painting has been called as Double portrait or sometimes as the primitive genre painting after renaissance as it depicted a marriage – a real life, “normal” incident. The room is presumed to be merchant’s own house in Bruges. The dog at their feet is the early breed of today’s Griffon Bruxellois. The Arnolfini Wedding Analysis Most historians take the double portrait as the wedding scene or the representation of their marriage. There are some alleged proofs to support this claim. […]
Rhoda Yanow is a master with depiction of contemporary images. His works have left the mid-20th Century abstractness behind, and manage to stand out perhaps as the most real pictures of modern life. In the Unguarded Moment story, there are elements that evoke thoughts of humor, pontification and reality, all passing through your mind like movie trailers. However, this is a rich work, no matter how shabbily priced it might look from far. It has all the elements that tell you this is the work of a great artist when you stand facing it. When I saw this painting from a far end of the room, it never struck me as something out of the ordinary in a contemporary art gallery. However, I did notice the […]
This painting includes a total of 112 Natherlandish proverbs in a single scene. The proverbs are taken literally. For instance, “To crap on the world” is literally represented as a person crapping on a globe. The depiction is on the left corner of the picture where a man in red clothes is coming out of a window. Artist of the Flemish renaissance from 16th century, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was known for similar works, which included The Seven Deadly Sins, The Months, Big Fish Eats Little Fish and The Blind leading the Blind. Pieter Bruegel the younger, the artist’s son had depicted more than 20 versions of the paintings. Here is one of them.
Peasants are dining while the light in the painting backdrop suggests it is twilight. Valentin de Zubiaurre’s painting has become the hallmark of rural wellbeing, especially with the issues of nutrition in villages across the world today. For me, the painting signifies much to do with world food exchanges through governments. Besides, the rice farming fields had stayed much in dispute over colonists and natives in 19th Century Spain. For the painter born in 1879, such a history definitely spelled inspiration. One can gather a lot about history from Zubiaurre’s works. Spanish rebellion during the 1800s etched local culture with stories of rice fights and self-dependent farming, and the painter saw almost nothing nobler than his rural subject in a period that just followed. Valentin de […]
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is a fine example of Georges Seurat’s pointillism. Painting took him two years to complete and during the first year he didn’t included the pointillism in the art work. He made the painting on the island of La Grande Jatte near Paris. Pointillism The painting is depicted in the style of pointillism which was called divisionism at the time of the execution. It is an assemblage of small dots and very small brush-strokes to create a full picture. If looked from a certain distant it creates a perfect picture. Though, at a closer look it seems to be just the collection colorful dots. Even the faces which seems to be having nose, eyes and lips […]
Two simple American faces, one staring at us and another staring away blankly. A pitchfork in the man’s hand and an American Gothic house in the background. These simple things have made the picture so popular that it has appeared in almost all kind of media in modern times. From the Simpsons to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and from the every magazine (such as Time) to big movies, the painting has appeared, parodied, copied numerous times. Today it enjoys the similar popularity gained by other iconic paintings like The Scream by Edvard Munch and Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The gloomy faces of the couple may have indicated them as being a couple in their old times and having not-so-well life. But, an […]
The Scream bought three things into limelight: Edvard Munch, the painter of the artwork; importance of impressionism and the town of Oslo where the artist got his inspiration to depict such a radical subject achieved never before so firmly. The gloomy nature of the artist himself is reflected explicitly in the painting. In his personal life, Edvard Munch was much of a depressed person who also got an inevitable treatment for his mental illness for eight months in a hospital. After that, his mental condition and gloomy thoughts changed to a great degree and his paintings became more optimistic with positive colors and subjects. Though, this painting was painted when he was fighting with his depression. On a little walk near a lake with his […]





















