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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 1h

Exactly.

Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 2h

My piece in @thespectator1828.bsky.social this week looks back at a lecture I attended this summer where a Cambridge art historian insisted paintings by Stanley Spencer were painted by David Jones. It revealed a weakness that stretches beyond one lecture; how we teach art history is woeful.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 5h

Matisse painted 'Pansies' (1903) during his ‘dark period,' as he went through near financial ruin and family scandal. He wrote of being moved by the pansy's melancholic grace; like Dutch flower painters of the 17thC, he saw the cut flower as a symbol of the vanity of human life.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 16h

'Sleeping Centurion,' (c1765) is a preparatory sketch for a sleeping soldier in Ubaldo Gandolfi's fresco of the Resurrection, painted in the eleventh chapel of the Portico di San Luca, Bologna. The fluid brushstrokes achieve a work of intimacy and great charm.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 17h

'Embroidery.' (1817) The paintings of Georg Friedrich Kersting have proved perennial objects of admiration, not only for their atmospheric use of colour, their meditative serenity and (what we all need from time to time) a sense of seclusion from the outside world.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 19h

It's been a favourite of mine since also studying the Dreyfuss Affair. Vallotton was a brilliant print maker.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 20h

This work by Félix Vallotton was on the cover of the satirical weekly newspaper Le Cri de Paris on January 23, 1898 - it was a reaction of immediate support for Émile Zola's famous J'accuse! letter after Captain Alfred Dreyfus had been found guilty of treason.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 1d

'Family Portrait,' (1904) was painted at the height of Albert Welti's career. He depicts himself leaning in front of architectural elements (bridge, staircase) that symbolize his awareness of being at a turning point. His wedding ring symbolises the importance of his family.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 1d

Albert Marquet's 'Lausanne and the Lake,' (1936) painted from the Hôtel Belvédère offers a view of the Lake Geneva landscape - a view approached with the same sense of pared-down minimalism and simplified forms as the rest of his work.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 1d

The choice of books in Felix Vallotton’s 'The Bookcase,' (1915) play nicely into the picture's palette: the shelves are filled with the yellow spines of the Bibliothèque Charpentier collection, in a nod to the (then) supposed female preference for thrilling novels.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 1d

This work depicts Francis Cadell's living room at 6 Ainslie Place in Edinburgh in the 1920s; his furniture was bright, contemporary; the floor a glossy black, the walls a rich mauve. The colour, organisation and structure is clearly reflected in this crisp, modern picture.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 1d

'The Coach House,' was painted in 1907 when Ramón Casas was well on his way to becoming the leading Catalan painter of his era. This depiction of his garage is all about modernity and success - the transition from horse-drawn carriage to chauffeur driven car.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 2d

'Girl in a Yellow Sweater.' (1935) Denton Welch was a contemporary of John Minton and Keith Vaughan and was associated with the neo-Romantic movement. The first exhibition of his work in 40 years is at John Swarbrooke Fine Art, 11 Fitzroy Square, London from 10 to 30 October.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 2d

Very good news to see that an exhibition of Denton Welch's work is on display at John Swarbrooke Fine Art at 11 Fitzroy Square, London from 10 October to 30 October. This portrait of Welch (1935) is by his friend Gerald Leet.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 2d

Corot produced this work of Notre-Dame church at Mantes (c1860) when he was particularly interested in the study of architecture. He made many paintings and drawings of churches during this period, although most are of much grander buildings such as Chartres Cathedral.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 2d

'Berlin at Night.' (c1860) Described by Degas as the ‘greatest living master’ during his lifetime, Adolph von Menzel is less remembered today outside of Germany than the French painter who admired him; his career deserves far greater appreciation and study than it receives.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 2d

Stanley Spencer painted a number of landscapes in and around Maidenhead in Berkshire, of which this work from 1939 is a notable example. It was a rural area of rolling countryside not far from his home in Cookham and where he first went to art college before going to the Slade.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 3d

Known for his unforgiving and often critical depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic, this self-portrait by Otto Dix (1912) pays homage to the work of the Italian Old Masters - the carnation was a popular motif in northern Italian Renaissance painting.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 3d

In the 1870s, Armand Guillaumin developed an interest in viaducts and bridges as an employee of the Paris-Orléans railway. This landscape was painted in the upper valley of the Marne in northeastern France, only a few miles from central Paris.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 3d

'The Goldsmith's Workshop.' (1917) From the turn of the 20thC, Laurits Andersen Ring turned away from landscape painting to increasingly address themes of commerce at a time when traditional crafts were threatened by imports of cheap goods.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 3d

Yes, it has that LA feel to it.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 3d

Afternoon Television.' (1967) There has always been a strong ironic Pop Art vein running through Maxwell Hendler’s work, especially through his painstakingly realistic still-lifes of the 1960s - this took five years to complete.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 4d

Meijer de Haan arrived in Pont-Aven around 1889 to take painting lessons from Paul Gauguin, in exchange for acting as his secretary and general factotum, a time he came into his own as a painter and developed his personal style. This work dates from 1890.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 4d

The model in Ramón Casas' 'The Morning,' (1900) serves as a pretext for him to achieve powerful effects of light, colour and texture, using the subtlest of means and the slightest of details - the finial of the bedpost stands out for its linearity and form against the quilt.

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 4d

Laurits Andersen Ring's fascination with artificial lighting and his dramatic use of strong chiaroscuro is evident throughout his career; he often explored themes of loneliness and the human condition. This is from 1899.

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