When Gainsborough painted this classic artwork it was an experiment. He loved to paint landscapes but portraits were the order of the day. So, this painting was his way of combining the two genres. Gainsborough considered it a failed attempt. He left the painting unfinished and handed it off to the Andrews family. That was in the mid 1700s. Then in the 20th century the painting resurfaced and became an acclaimed icon of its time. Mr and Mrs Andrews made its exhibit premiere in 1927 and then the ...
Dec 20, 2022•9 min
Marriage a la Mode II : The Tete a Tete works like a meme rather than just a painting. That's because William Hogarth was more than a mere master painter. He was a writer and satirist with an unabashed bawdiness and humor that made Hogarth an icon. In fact, his work punctuated a significant part of the social milieu to the point that "Hogarthian" refers to art done in his satirical style even today. Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a clic...
Dec 13, 2022•12 min
Lady Jane Grey was the Queen of England for nine days in 1553. She was the great granddaughter of King Henry VII and her first cousin, Edward VI nominated her for accession to the throne. He was an ardent Protestant and knew that Lady Jane would carry that through her reign. This subverted the claim of his half sister, Mary Tudor who was Catholic but considered by many the rightful heir to the throne. Only nine days after Lady Jane became Queen of England, the Catholics dethroned her for Mary Tu...
Dec 06, 2022•9 min
Rubens loved to draw his wife, Isabella Brant. The old Flemish master married her in the early 1600s when he was a young upstart. Peter Paul Rubens was popular and famous for his baroque paintings in his lifetime. The work of Rubens now lives in the collective unconscious as an icon of sensual and lush depictions of dramatic scenes. He's considered an old master thanks to his classical training, role as Master of his local guild, and impressive body of work. But the definition for "old master" a...
Nov 29, 2022•9 min
The Swiss painter Angelica Kauffman created her self portrait Colors as part of a series for the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Kauffman was one of two women who founded the Academy. Her four part series on crucial elements of painting still graces that art institution today. Colors sets the best example of her allegorical personification for teaching purposes. These four oval paintings grace the Academy's lecture room ceiling. Kauffman's quartet serve as reminders of fundamental principles bu...
Nov 22, 2022•9 min
The Red Jackson photograph by Gordon Parks sent me into a whirlwind of reactions from the first time I saw it. Encountering this black and white masterpiece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art feels like a lucky break at first. It's a thoughtful photographic version of a Vermeer that's still fresh today, even though it's from 1948. Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterp...
Nov 15, 2022•8 min
The true star in this portrait is his gorgeous greyhound. Van Dyck reveals himself as a master of realism with his uncanny portrayal of Stuart's dog. Whenever I see this painting it's the greyhound that holds my attention. How did Van Dyck get the fur so subtle and soft while also giving the dog's musculature such definition? Even with all the finery and fanfare atop James Stuart, the greyhound steals the show in a naked and natural state. Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painti...
Nov 08, 2022•9 min
The Robert Frank photograph Trolley New Orleans captures a candid moment in 1955. It shed light on the true America. Frank was a nomad photographer who crossed the United States from New York to California. As a German man born in Switzerland, Robert Frank brought an outsider perspective to this nationwide journey with a camera. Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpi...
Nov 01, 2022•10 min
Manet hints at the deeper meaning of his painting in the title Mademoiselle V. in the Costume of an Espada . This masterpiece puts on a show for viewers. We know that partially from the term "costume". Also, if you're into Goya, you may recognize this as an homage to his Tauromaquia series. Though it honors the Spanish master's work, this is no copy. Manet gave his favorite model, Victorine Meurent, a pink rather than a red cape. She's also shod in footwear that no bullfighter would be caught de...
Oct 25, 2022•8 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Oct 18, 2022•9 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Oct 11, 2022•9 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Oct 04, 2022•10 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Sep 27, 2022•9 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Sep 20, 2022•8 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Sep 13, 2022•9 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Sep 06, 2022•8 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Aug 30, 2022•11 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Aug 23, 2022•10 min
Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo
Aug 16, 2022•9 min
Joan of Arc caught Jules Bastien-LePage's attention long after she died a hero. France had just given up a region of their territory to Germany in the Franco-Prussian war. Ms. Arc and Bastien-Lepage were both from Lorraine. After the war Bastien-Lepage experienced, he looked to his local underdog historical hero - Joan - for inspiration. Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category...
Aug 09, 2022•9 min
Stationary Figure represents Philip Guston's most macabre self portrait. He painted himself plenty, and many of his works explored dark topics. In fact, Guston portrayed the KKK in many of his works. This painting enjoins that morbidity level with self portraiture in a sublime synergy. We see these elements thanks to the specific details Guston includes. But viewers can also learn from what the painter chose to eliminate. Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more m...
Aug 02, 2022•9 min
Joan Miro's Bleu II punctuates the middle of a three part series. This one sits at center for good reason. It grounds the blue triptych with solid strength. Red slashes one side of the blue canvas, yet this masterpiece seems balanced. My favorite thing about Miro is the way his imagery shifts between recognition and intrigue. We see that with this Zen garden masterpiece on a bed of brilliant cobalt. Read LadyKflo’s collected works. Learn about this painting and many more masterpieces with a clic...
Jul 26, 2022•10 min
The Metropolitan Museum of Art calls The Harvesters "the first modern landscape". Pieter Bruegel also shifted the Renaissance paradigm with this masterpiece. He transported the art world from biblical and classical subjects into everyday people. That's why Bruegel the Elder became the "peasant painter". Read LadyKflo’s collected works and learn about more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.in...
Jul 12, 2022•8 min
Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1. portrays an iconic mother and a Victorian Mona Lisa. These are only two of the many takes on this ultra famous painting. It's more well known by the colloquial name Whistler's Mother. That's because he did this portrait of his mother, Anna McNeill Whistler. Though many say Anna looks much older in this portrayal, she was only 67 when he painted this. Though, many say Anna looks much older in this portrayal. At the time she was living with her son and adjustin...
Jul 05, 2022•10 min
Picasso shifted his point of view while working on Les Demoiselles d'Avignon . This perspective change shows in the painting. In fact, he fragmented the figures into ambiguous planes. This gives viewers a sense of looking at them from several angles. We get a combination of views within a single scene. For instance, the woman at the bottom right squats. Her legs face away from us. But this same woman's head looks straight at us. This serves as the most extreme example of ambiguity. Read LadyKflo...
Jun 28, 2022•9 min
An audacious inspiration, Luncheon on the Grass launched the salon of the rejected. In France, called Salon des Refusés, this formed in 1863. That was the year the venerable Paris Salon rejected more the five thousand artworks. Many of these rejects later earned the title "masterpiece". Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (the french title) sets a perfect example. It was a shocker. The unidealized and central nude figure among clothed compatriots stunned viewers as did Manet's iconoclastic technique. Read L...
Jun 21, 2022•11 min
I love Yellow-Red-Blue from 1925 because it's such a joyful Kandinsky. The colors explode across each side of the canvas. In fact, it almost feels like two paintings. There's a brilliant box of sunshine to our left. While a bountiful trumpet of pinks, purples and blues blows into the sky on our right. When he painted this, Kandinsky was also teaching painting and color theory. He combined these subjects with elements of form psychology. That means he composed emotional orchestrations out of colo...
Jun 21, 2022•10 min
Why was Monet's painting, The Magpie controversial when it was introduced? Shadows in color Shifting emotions traverse a snowscape Observing the scene from a magpie's perch Read LadyKflo’s collected works and learn about more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo...
Jun 14, 2022•9 min
Why is Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night an important painting? Van Gogh's favorite hot spot Yellow light at night Forecast calls for more starry nights Read LadyKflo’s collected works and learn about more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo...
Jun 07, 2022•10 min
What inspired Salvador Dali to paint The Elephants in 1948? An Egyptian obelisk and Italian elephant The nature and limits of power Freudian dreams in oil paint Read LadyKflo’s collected works and learn about more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site. https://www.ladykflo.com/category/masterpieces/ Checkout her socials too: https://www.instagram.com/ladykflo/ https://twitter.com/ladykflo...
May 31, 2022•10 min
