Taisho Pond (Hasui)
And now for something distinctly understated -- Taisho Pond, a woodblock print by Kawase Hasui.
The Los Angeles County Museum site has online a total of 304 works by the excellent Hasui!
And now for something distinctly understated -- Taisho Pond, a woodblock print by Kawase Hasui.
The Los Angeles County Museum site has online a total of 304 works by the excellent Hasui!
I came across this excellent drypoint print by Martin Lewis at the National Gallery site --
Shadow Dance, 1930
The artist is Martin Lewis, a highly-regarded drypoint artist who specialized in scenes of New York life during the 1920s and 1930s. The NGA site presents these two additional prints, also in drypoint, by Lewis --
Glow of the City, 1929 Stoops in Snow, 1930 (personal favorite) Chance Meeting, 1940-41
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has 20 of Lewis' works online --
Arch at Midnight, 1930 At the Wall, 1949 Bay Windows: Snowy Day--Lexington Avenue, 1929 (favorite) Break in the Thunderstorm, 1930
Circus Night, 1933 Clearing Rain: Evening, Japan Day's End, 1937 Derricks, 1927 Glow of the City, 1929
The Great Shadow, 1925 H'anted, 1932 Night in New York, 1926 (etching) (duplicate) Quarter of Nine--Saturday's Children, 1929 R.F.D., 1933
Shadow Magic, 1939 Spring Night, Greenwich Village, 1930 Subway Steps, 1930 (favorite) Tree, Manhattan Twin Silos, ca. 1933
One more, elsewhere on the Web --
Arc Welders, 1937
I'm not sure just when I first came across one of Watteau's red, black and white chalk drawings, but I remember being instantly taken with them. The Metropolitan Museum has Seated Woman, 1716-17, which is both excellent and fairly typical. The Getty has four of Watteau's works in this medium.
This drawing strikes me as quite exquisite -- Pokrovsky Cathedral and the Spasskaya Tower, 1797, by Giacomo Quarenghi (pen, brush, India ink, and watercolor). (original page)
At first glance, this drawing of Warwick Castle, 1752, by Canaletto (pen and brown ink, with gray wash) looks ordinary enough. On exploration, though, using the zoom feature, its quality begins to become apparent. Peace descends, one's muscles relax. That is, for me, one of the main signs of art, of beauty -- the physical effect on the body. (It is one of the main things I look for in choosing works for this site.)
Here is a set of four lithographs in black, entitled "The People Work". They were done by American artist Benton Murdoch Spruance in 1937. It's frustrating not to be able to see them better, but they have a certain appeal even in this format --
Morning Noon Evening Night
Two Children in the Snow, 19th century, by George du Maurier (pen, black ink, graphite). Stoops in Snow, 1930, by Martin Lewis (drypoint). Snow, 1936, by M. C. Escher (lithograph).
There is just something about this Portrait of an Ecclesiastic that speaks to me. Hope it will to you, too. It was done by Jean Fouquet during the 15th century, in metalpoint and black chalk, on white prepared paper.
Ever since I first came upon it, five or six years ago, I have considered this one of the most beautiful quotations in the world --
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
The speaker was 19th-century Scottish critic Thomas Carlyle. We get a glimpse of Carlyle in this delightful drawing, by Helen Allingham.
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