And #TuesdayTwirl
Dear friends. A different post this week but one that is close to my heart. If you read my monthly round-ups or follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I try to go to a least one art exhibition a month. I find art very uplifting. My favourite paintings fill me with joy for different reasons.
I'm fortunate to live in London which has several world class art museums.
I was going to share my favourite paintings in one post but realised it would be very long. So it will be a series of posts.
The picture at the top is Harvesters by Anna Ancher, 1859 - 1935. She is a household name in Denmark and famous for her interpretation of light. Unsurprisingly, she is among the Impressionists.
She came to my attention thanks to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, whose Anna Ancher exhibition finishes this week.
I can gaze at this picture for hours, luxuriating in the colours, the light, and the steady rural workers with their scythes, a relic from another time.
In another execution, Harvest Time, you can see the light illuminating the workers from a different direction.
I'm always intrigued by the stories of the few successful women artists from the last century and further back. A woman's place was in the home, and while wealthy women indulged in water colours, it was often dismissed as a little hobby.
Below: Anna at work
In the 1870s, women were barred from Denmark’s official art academy, so Anna Ancher studied privately in Copenhagen instead. Even after she married fellow painter Michael Ancher and had a daughter, she refused to give up painting. She decided to ignore the duties of a housewife her teacher had advised her to focus on.
She helped shape the Skagen artist colony, a group that included P.S. Krøyer, Holger Drachmann and her husband Michael. They became known as the Skagen painters. Anna was at the heart of this lively circle, both socially and artistically.
Her mother features in several paintings. Ane Møller Brøndum was both part of a conservative Christian sect and also deeply supportive of her daughter’s determination to pursue an artistic career.
The writer Hans Christian Andersen visited Skagen in 1859 and described it as “the desert between two roaring seas” and a place where painters would find endless inspiration.
Guardian art critic Eliza Goodpasture:
Leaving the exhibition, one wonders how one had avoided her work for so long. It is extraordinarily beautiful, propelling viewers to look more closely both at the paintings in front of them and at their own everyday spaces. Perhaps we could all find as much to see as Anna Ancher did.
Observer critic Laura Cumming:
...It seems Ancher does not realise that the very paintings she views as nothing more than empty sketches, to be hidden away, will one day be regarded as her masterpieces.
On a side note, there's a great blogging initiative called Style Imitating Art where bloggers choose a painting each time and then interpret it in their own way via clothes. I took part a few years ago and have linked a couple of my attempts. If you'd like to check out some of the participating bloggers, take a look at Marsha and Shelbee. I've linked to their latest challenge, Frida Kahlo and her Pet Deer Granizo by Katherine Quinn, a New Zealand artist.
I hope you enjoyed this post and would like to know if you have a list of favourite paintings. If so, which are among your favourites? Do you prefer one or two genres or is your taste very eclectic? Do share in the comments.
Sharing my posts with these fabulous sites.
Subscribe for 1 email a week from Is This Mutton for an update on posts you may have missed, or follow Is This Mutton on Feedspot. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky
IT'S YOUR MOMENT: TUESDAY TWIRL
No comments
Post a Comment