Ramon Casas i Carbó and the Young Lady After the Ball

'After the Ball' (1895) by Ramon Casas i Carbó; Museo de la Abadía de Montserrat, Barcelona

Already weeks ago I found out that Ramon Casas i Carbó had died on 29 February 1932, and that I could use him for this post. I had never heard of this painter before I went to the Barcelona exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum some years ago. The poster for the exhibition had an image of the poster Casas had made for an advertisement for Codorniu Champagne. I didn't want to do a post on the poster (although I love it and a small version of it is hanging framed in my kitchen) so to choose something else was quite difficult because there are many paintings that I like. Casas portrayed the Catalan bourgeoisie, mainly women, and also painted bullfights. I chose this painting of a young lady slouched on the sofa because its image features in a book that I have of women reading in art and I have loved this green and black painting ever since. 

William Degouve de Nuncques and Nocturne at the Royal Park

'Nocturne at the Royal Park, Brussels' (1897) by William Degouve de Nuncques; Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Yesterday I visited the new exhibition on Symbolism, Dreams of Nature, at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. There were beautiful paintings on display, some with incredible lighting, but I cannot post any of them here today, simply because the date of birth/death of the artists don't match. So I searched for a suitable artist and inspired by yesterday's exhibition, decided to post a painting of Belgian painter William Degouve de Nuncques, born on 28 February 1867. I had never heard of him but apparently the wonderful Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, that I have visited a couple of times, has the best collection of his paintings. He was a Symbolist painter and a major influence on Surrealism. His art is magical and mysterious and bears the influence of Symbolist poetry. I love this painting and I can imagine what it must be like seeing this in real life. Entering a room and being completely drawn in by the incredible light. This image from the internet certainly doesn't do the painting justice but it definitely makes you want to see the real thing.

Carel Fabritius and The Goldfinch

'The Goldfinch' (1654) by Carel Fabritius; Mauritshuis, The Hague

This is one of the paintings that I come back to every time I visit the Mauritshuis in The Hague. It is small in size, you can easily miss it, but it is beautiful in simplicity and colour. The painter is Carel Fabritius, baptised on the 27th of February, 1622, and a pupil of Rembrandt. He was one of his most promising students and the only one to develop his own style. While other students of Rembrandt applied chiaroscuro, the paintings of Fabritius have an overall brightness. 'The Goldfinch' is a good example of this. Fabritius died at the early age of 32, on 12 October 1654, in a gunpowder explosion in Delft, which destroyed a quarter of the city and many of his paintings. Fabritius was a great influence on Johannes Vermeer.

Alexandre Antigna and The Lightning

'The Lightning' (1848) by Alexandre Antigna, Musée d'Orsay, Paris 

Edit 16.09.2025: Doing maintenance on this blog, I found that this date's original painting wasn't eligible for 26 February. I had posted the painting Interior of a Gothic Church by Flemish Baroque painter Pieter Neeffs I (the Elder), who was born in 1578 and died on 26 February 1660. Or so I said. Wikipedia doesn't give any exact dates for birth and death but I found them on Safran-Arts. Well, Safran-Arts doesn't exist anymore as a website who gives small biographies on artists so I couldn't check. I searched the internet but couldn’t find any reliable source that gives 26 February 1660 as the death date of Pieter Neefs the Elder. All the reliable sources state that his date of death is unknown, with the following consensus among scholars: that he was alive on 26 February 1656 (last reliable record) and dead before or by 1661 (because Cornelis de Bie refers to him in the past tense in 'Het Gulden Cabinet', published 1661) but the exact date of death remains unknown, and 26 February 1660 is not supported by known archival evidence. 

Therefore, I'm replacing the post Pieter Neeffs the Elder and Interior of a Gothic Church by another painting which ís eligible for 26 February: 'The Lightning', 1848, by French painter Alexandre Antigna, born on March 7, 1817, and died on February 26, 1878. He was a notable artist, initially painting religious scenes and portraits until 1845. After living in a poor quarter of Paris, he turned towards Realism and depicted contemporary social subjects, showing the suffering of the urban poor in his work. He was a regular participant in the prestigious Salon, the annual art exhibition in Paris, and received praise for his portrayals of the poor and for showing the human condition. In 1861, he received the Legion of Honour, the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit. Today's painting 'The Lightning' (L’Éclair) portrays a peasant family besieged by a menacing storm. Love the use of dramatic lighting!

Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Suzanne Valadon

'Girl braiding her hair (Suzanne Valadon)' (1885) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir; Private Collection

I think most people must have heard of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, born on 25 February 1841. He was a leading French Impressionist painter, best known for his vibrant colours and pretty scenes of children and lovely women. His early work is in the typical Impressionist tradition, but by the mid 1880s he applied a more formal and disciplined technique and started to emphasize the outlines of figures. He also turned to more timeless subjects, particularly nudes. I chose the painting 'Suzanne Valadon' from his later period because I like it better than his Impressionist images. I love the warm colours in this painting and the portrayal of the woman is beautiful. One of Renoir's sons was the renowned film maker Jean Renoir who wrote a touching biography about his father ('Renoir, my father', 1962).

Winslow Homer and Waiting for an Answer

'Waiting for an Answer' (1872) by Winslow Homer; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

It's not that I don't like Winslow Homer, born on the 24th of February, 1836, I think I was sort of indifferent to him. He was one of the most important painters of 19th century America, best known for his maritime and landscape paintings. I know him mainly from his -what I call- 'man in a boat' paintings. I didn't know much of his other work but he also portrayed women. He did both oil paintings and watercolours. There are actually quite some paintings that I could have chosen to post here but I chose the painting 'Waiting for an answer'. I like the fact that it is clearly telling a story. I also like the colours and the play with light and shade. I was wondering whether this courtship scene stood in relation to what was happening in Homer's own life at the time. Apparently in the early 1870s, he was very much attracted to a woman called Helena de Kay, so much that this was reflected in his art. Courtship seemed to be the theme of his paintings during that time. After Helena got married in 1874, Homer lost interest in the courtship theme. He may have had other affairs but he stayed a bachelor all his life.

George Frederic Watts and Dame Alice Ellen Terry ('Choosing')

'Choosing' (1864) by George Frederic Watts; National Portrait Gallery, London

I know this painting, not by name, and I know George Frederic Watts, born on 23 February 1817, vaguely by name, but never made the connection between the two. Watts was an English Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist painter and sculptor. In the 1850s, he moved in with the family of Valentine Cameron Prinsep and he dedicated himself to portrait painting. His work showed the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites. His gallery of portraits of eminent Victorians is unsurpassed. One of these paintings portrays a young woman, shown here. Her name was Ellen Terry, an actress, and Watts married her when she was sixteen years old and he was thirty years her senior. The date of the painting is actually unknown but it is said that it was probably painted around the time that Watts married Ellen, thus 1864. The marriage lasted only ten months. In his later paintings he turned to Symbolism and he is probably best remembered for these paintings. For me it was hard to choose between 'Choosing' and the Symbolist painting 'Hope' (1886), both different in style but equally beautiful. You can see the latter in the Tate National Gallery in London or here.

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and Woman Reading a Book

'Woman reading a book (Virgils Muse)' (1845) by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot; Musée du Louvre, Paris

I know this painting by the French painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, born on July 16, 1796, and died on February 22, 1875, from a calendar with paintings of women reading that hung in my hallway last year. This was one of the paintings that I liked very much. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon School and was vitally important to landscape painting. When you see his work, it is clear that he went through different phases. Some of his earlier landscapes seem quite 'modern', whereas his work after 1865 had an Impressionist touch. His figure painting was almost as important as his landscapes. I particulary like his paintings of women. Apparently Corot was extremely productive and there is a lot to choose from. He painted over 3,000 paintings and I chose this one!

Gustave Caillebotte and The Floor Scrapers

'The Floor Scrapers' (1875) by Gustave Caillebotte; Musée d'Orsay, Paris

I know the French painter Gustave Caillebotte, born on 19 August 1848 and died on 21 February 1894, mainly from his wonderful painting 'The Floor Scrapers', shown here. Actually, I had thought for a long time that it had been painted by Gustave Courbet but it could be that it was just a confusion about their names that sound alike. Whereas Courbet was a Realist painter, Caillebotte belonged to the group of Impressionists. He distinguished himself by painting in a more realistic manner than his fellow Impressionists. Early on he was also interested in photography as an art form. He made his debut at the second Impressionist exhibition of 1876 at the Paris Salon and showed eight paintings including 'The Floor Scrapers'. It was then already recognised as a masterpiece. At the Paris exhibition a year earlier, the painting had been rejected because critics thought it to be 'vulgar'. They found only portrayals of farmers and peasants acceptable. I love this painting because it is so powerful. But Caillebotte has painted so much more that is truly beautiful. He made everyday life in Paris a recurrent subject of his paintings. The use of light in these paintings is unmistakable, even when the subject matter is a rainy day. To cheat once more, click here.

Mihály Munkácsy and Lady Seated at Her Needlework

'Lady Seated at Her Needlework' (unknown date) by Mihály Munkácsy; Private Collection

I had never heard of the Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy, born on February 20, 1844, and I know I'm not alone in that respect but I'm glad I can use him for the post today. Apparently he was not a minor painter. He gained international acclaim with his painting 'The last day of a condemned man' (1869-72) that won him the Gold Medal at the Paris Salon in 1870. While choosing a painting for today, I found many that I liked but also found that his paintings were so different in theme and colour. Then I read in his biography that at the beginning of his career his paintings were of a realistíc nature, mainly scenes from the daily lives of peasants. After he had been to Paris, he was influenced by the modern French painters and their lighter colour schemes. He turned to colourful salon paintings and still lifes. Although 'Lady seated at her needlework' is of an unknown date, this was probably one of these salon paintings judging by the lighter colours and lighter theme. I find this painting a sweet depiction of homely life, although it's not clear to me what kind of relationship the young woman and man have.