1.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
2.
Art museum
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An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
3.
Hoge Veluwe National Park
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Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe is a Dutch national park in the province of Gelderland near the cities of Ede, Wageningen, Arnhem and Apeldoorn. It is approximately 55 square kilometers in area, consisting of heathlands, sand dunes and it is situated in the Veluwe, the area of the largest terminal moraine in the Netherlands. Most of the landscape of the park and the Veluwe was created during the last Ice Age, the alternating sand dune areas and heathlands may have been caused by human utilization of the surrounding lands. The park forms one of the largest continuous nature reserves in the Netherlands, the park was established by the businessman Anton Kröller and his wife Helene Kröller-Müller as an private estate in 1909. Up until 1923 the park was under construction with wildlife being imported, the hunting residence is called St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge after St. Hubertus and was designed by prominent Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. Helene Kröller-Müller was an art collector and work had begun on a museum inside the park, due to worsening economic conditions the building of the museum was halted and the couple found themselves unable to keep the estate. In 1935 the art collection was donated to the State of the Netherlands, the park was handed over to a foundation, which received a loan from the State. At that time the estate became the national park in the Netherlands. The park is one of the two private owned national parks in the Netherlands, but the only one that asks an entrance fee. The park is surrounded by fences and these, combined with the required entrance fee, led to years of protests by cyclists and hikers who were forced either to pay the fee or else to follow lengthy detours. In 2007 a solution was reached by charging reduced fees for cyclists who spend only an amount of time within the confines of the park. There are three entrances, located at the villages of Otterlo, Hoenderloo and Schaarsbergen, there are several notable buildings inside the park. A second museum, Museonder, can be found at the visitor centre. Finally there is the aforementioned hunting residence which was designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage, a bicycle sharing system in the park makes bicycles available for free to visitors, with much of the area being inaccessible by car. Hoge Veluwe. nl Pictures of Hoge Veluwe
4.
Vincent van Gogh
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Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Born into a family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling and he turned to religion, and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881 and his younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept up a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, in 1886 he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still lifes and his paintings grew brighter in colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the south of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include trees, cypresses, wheat fields. Van Gogh suffered from episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor and he spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris and his depression continued and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his injuries two days later, Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves. The most comprehensive source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincents thoughts, Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support, and access to influential people on the contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincents letters to him, Vincent kept few of the letters he received, after both had died, Theos widow Johanna arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913, the majority were published in 1914, Vincents letters are eloquent and expressive and have been described as having a diary-like intimacy, and read in parts like autobiography
5.
Van Gogh Museum
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The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the museum opened on 2 June 1973. It is located in buildings designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Kisho Kurokawa, the museums collection is the largest collection of Van Goghs paintings and drawings in the world. In 2015, the museum had 1.9 million visitors, and was the 2nd most visited museum in the Netherlands, upon Vincent van Goghs death in 1890, his work not sold fell into the possession of his brother Theo. Theo died six months after Vincent, leaving the work in the possession of his widow, selling many of Vincents paintings with the ambition of spreading knowledge of his artwork, Johanna maintained a private collection of his works. Design for a Van Gogh Museum was commissioned by the Dutch government in 1963 to Dutch architect, Rietveld died a year later, and the building was not completed until 1973, when the museum opened its doors. In 1998 and 1999, the building was renovated by the Dutch architect Martien van Goor, starting in late 2012, the museum was closed for renovations for six months. During this period,75 works from the collection were shown in the Hermitage Amsterdam, on 9 September 2013, the museum unveiled a long-lost Van Gogh painting that spent years in a Norwegian attic believed to be by another painter. It is the first full-size canvas by him discovered since 1928, sunset at Montmajour depicts trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Goghs familiar thick brush strokes. It can be dated to the day it was painted because he described it in a letter to his brother, Theo. In 1991, twenty paintings were stolen from the museum, among them Van Goghs early painting The Potato Eaters, although the thieves escaped from the building,35 minutes later all stolen paintings were recovered from an abandoned car. Three paintings – Wheatfield with Crows, Still Life with Bible, four men, including two museum guards, were convicted for the theft and given six or seven-year sentences. It is considered to be the largest art theft in the Netherlands since the Second World War, in 2002, two paintings were stolen from the museum, Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen and View of the Sea at Scheveningen. Two Dutchmen were convicted for the theft to four-and-a-half-year sentences, the museum offered a reward of €100,000 for information leading to the recovery of the paintings. The FBI Art Crime Team listed the robbery on their Top Ten Art Crimes list, in September 2016, both paintings were discovered by the Guardia di Finanza in Naples, Italy. The two artworks were found in a good state, according to the Van Gogh Museum. The museum is situated at the Museumplein in Amsterdam-Zuid, on the Paulus Potterstraat 7, the museum consists of two buildings, the Rietveld building, designed by Gerrit Rietveld, and the Kurokawa wing, designed by Kisho Kurokawa. The museum offices are housed on Stadhouderskade 55 in Amsterdam-Zuid, the Rietveld building is the main structure of the museum and exhibits the permanent collection
6.
Henry van de Velde
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Henry Clemens van de Velde was a Belgian painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered as one of the main founders, Van de Velde spent the most important part of his career in Germany and had a decisive influence on German architecture and design at the beginning of the 20th century. Van de Velde was born in Antwerp, where he studied painting under Charles Verlat at the famous Royal Academy of Fine Arts and he then went on to study at Carolus-Duran in Paris. As a young painter he was influenced by Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. In 1889 he became a member of the Brussels-based artist group Les XX, after Vincent van Gogh exhibited some work on the yearly exhibition of Les XX van de Velde became one of the first artists to be influenced by the Dutch painter. During this period he developed a friendship with the painter Théo van Rysselberghe. In 1892 he abandoned painting, devoting his time to arts of decoration and his own house, Bloemenwerf in Ukkel, was his first attempt at architecture, and was inspired by the British and American Arts and Crafts Movement. He also designed interiors and furniture for the art gallery LArt Nouveau of Samuel Bing in Paris in 1895. This gave the movement its first designation as Art Nouveau, bing’s pavilion at the 1900 Paris world fair also exhibited work by Van de Velde. Van de Velde set his face against copying historical styles, resolutely opting for original design, banning banality, Van de Veldes design work received good exposure in Germany, through periodicals like Innen-Dekoration, and subsequently he received commissions for interior designs in Berlin. Around the turn of the century, he designed Villa Leuring in the Netherlands and he also designed the interior of the Folkwang Museum in Hagen and the Nietzsche House in Weimar. In 1899 he settled in Weimar, Germany, where in 1905 he established the Grand-Ducal School of Arts and Crafts and he would oppose Hermann Muthesius at the Werkbund meeting of 1914 and their debate would mark the history of Modern Architecture. Van de Velde called for the upholding of the individuality of artists while Hermann Muthesius called for standardization as a key to development, during World War I, Van de Velde, as a foreign national, was obliged to leave Weimar, and returned to his native Belgium. Later, he lived in Switzerland and in the Netherlands where he designed the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, in 1925 he was appointed professor at the Ghent University Institute of Art History and Archaeology, where he lectured architecture and applied arts from 1926 to 1936. He was instrumental in founding in Brussels, in 1926, todays renowned architecture and visual arts school La Cambre and he continued his practice in architecture and design, which had demarcated itself significantly from the Art Nouveau phase, whose popularity was by 1910 in decline. During this period, he mentored the great Belgian architect, Victor Bourgeois, in 1933 he was commissioned to design the new building for the university library. Construction started in 1936, but the work would not be completed until the end of the Second World War, for budget reasons, the eventual construction did not entirely match the original design. For instance, the reading room floor was executed in marble instead of the black rubber Van de Velde originally intended and he was also involved in the construction of the Ghent University Hospital
7.
At Eternity's Gate
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Sorrowing Old Man is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he made in 1890 in Saint-Rémy de Provence based on an early lithograph. The painting was completed in early May at a time when he was convalescing from a relapse in his health. In the 1970 catalogue raisonné, it is given the title Worn Out, Van Gogh wrote of his drawing, Today and yesterday I drew two figures of an old man with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. I did it of Schuitemaker once and always kept the drawing, perhaps I’ll also do a lithograph of it. What a fine sight an old working man makes, in his patched bombazine suit with his bald head, Van Goghs first attempt at the lithograph followed just two days later. He wrote, It seems to me that a painter has a duty to try to put an idea into his work, at the same time something precious, something noble, that can’t be meant for the worms. This is far from all theology — simply the fact that the poorest woodcutter, heath farmer or miner can have moments of emotion, executed at The Hague in 1882, it depicts an old man seated by a fire, his head buried in his hands. Near the end of his life van Gogh recreated this image in oil, bent over with his fists clenched against a face hidden in utter frustration, the subjects appears engulfed in grief. Certainly, the work would convey an image of total despair had it not been for the English title van Gogh gave it, At Eternitys Gate. It demonstrates that even in his deepest moments of sorrow and pain, van Gogh clung to a faith in God and eternity, seven impressions of the lithograph are known, of which one is annotated At Eternitys Gate. The same theme is taken up again in two later 1883 studies of a seated woman, Vincent van Gogh suffered from some form of mental illness, acutely during the last two years of his life. Dr. Félix Rey, an intern at the hospital. There is no agreement today over a diagnosis of van Goghs illness. Suggestions include epilepsy and bipolar disorder, possibly exacerbated by excessive drinking, heavy smoking. On February 22,1890, van Gogh suffered his most severe relapse, an episode Jan Hulsker called the longest and saddest of his life, and one which lasted some nine weeks through to late April. During this time, he was able to write his brother Theo once, in March 1890. While I was ill I nevertheless still did a few canvases from memory which you’ll see later. It is in these drawings and paintings that Hulsker sees unmistakable signs of his collapse, otherwise rare in his work
8.
The Potato Eaters
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The Potato Eaters is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted in April 1885 in Nuenen, Netherlands. It is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and he worked on the painting from April 13 until the beginning of May, when it was mostly done except for minor changes which he made with a small brush later the same year. Van Gogh said he wanted to depict peasants as they really were, I wanted it to give the idea of a wholly different way of life from ours — civilized people. So I certainly don’t want everyone just to admire it or approve of it without knowing why, however, the work was criticized by his friend Anthon van Rappard soon after it was painted. Van Gogh made a lithograph of the composition The Potato Eaters before embarking on the painting proper and he sent impressions to his brother, and in a letter to a friend, wrote that he made the lithograph from memory in the space of a day. Van Gogh had first experimented with lithography in The Hague in 1882, though he appreciated small scale graphic work and was an enthusiastic collector of English engravings he worked relatively little in graphic mediums. No, in most cases the solidity and pith of the small is only obtained through much more study than is imagined by those who think lightly of the task of illustrating. Anyway, some paintings in their huge frames look very substantial, and from what you said about ‘Impressionism’, I’ve grasped that it’s something different from what I thought it was, but it’s still not entirely clear to me what one should understand by it. But for my part, I find so much in Israëls, for instance. Compositionally the two are similar, in both paintings the composition of the painting is centered by a figure whose back is turned to us. Thieves stole the early version of The Potato Eaters, the Weavers Interior, in April,1989, the thieves returned Weavers Interior in an attempt to gain a $2.5 million ransom. The police recovered the two on July 14,1989, no ransom was paid. On April 14,1991, the Vincent van Gogh National Museum was robbed of twenty major paintings including the version of The Potato Eaters. For unknown reasons, the abandoned the art 35 minutes after the robbery. ISBN 1-86046-859-4 De La Faille, Jacob Baart, the works of Vincent van Gogh. The Complete Van Gogh, Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, new York, NY, Harrison House/Harry N. Abrams Distributed by Crown Publishers, Random House. Naifeh, Steven and Smith, Gregory White
9.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
10.
Piet Mondrian
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Pieter Cornelis Piet Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian, was a Dutch painter. Mondrian was a contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group and he evolved a non-representational form which he termed neoplasticism. This consisted of ground, upon which he painted a grid of vertical and horizontal black lines. Mondrians arrival in Paris from the Netherlands in 1911 marked the beginning of a period of profound change and he encountered experiments in Cubism and with the intent of integrating himself within the Parisian avant-garde removed an a from the Dutch spelling of his name. Mondrian was born in Amersfoort in the Netherlands, the second of his parents children and he was descended from Christian Dirkzoon Monderyan who lived in The Hague as early as 1670. The family moved to Winterswijk in the east of the country when his father, Pieter Cornelius Mondriaan, was appointed Head Teacher at a primary school. Mondrian was introduced to art from a early age. His father was a drawing teacher, and, with his uncle, Fritz Mondriaan. After a strictly Protestant upbringing, in 1892, Mondrian entered the Academy for Fine Art in Amsterdam and he already was qualified as a teacher. He began his career as a teacher in primary education, most of his work from this period is naturalistic or Impressionistic, consisting largely of landscapes. These paintings are most definitely representational, and they illustrate the influence that various artistic movements had on Mondrian, including pointillism, on display in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag are a number of paintings from this period, including such Post-Impressionist works as The Red Mill and Trees in Moonrise. Another painting, Evening, depicting a tree in a field at dusk, even augurs future developments by using a palette consisting almost entirely of red, yellow, although Avond is only limitedly abstract, it is the earliest Mondrian painting to emphasize primary colors. Mondrians earliest paintings showing a degree of abstraction are a series of canvases from 1905 to 1908 that depict dim scenes of trees and houses reflected in still water. Mondrians art was related to his spiritual and philosophical studies. In 1908, he interested in the theosophical movement launched by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in the late 19th century. The work of Blavatsky and a spiritual movement, Rudolf Steiners Anthroposophy. In 1918, he wrote I got everything from the Secret Doctrine, in 1921, in a letter to Steiner, Mondrian argued that his neoplasticism was the art of the foreseeable future for all true Anthroposophists and Theosophists. He remained a committed Theosophist in subsequent years, although he believed that his own artistic current, neoplasticism, would eventually become part of a larger
11.
Georges Seurat
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Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French post-Impressionist painter and draftsman. He is noted for his use of drawing media and for devising the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism. His large-scale work, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, altered the direction of art by initiating Neo-impressionism. Seurat was born 2 December 1859 in Paris, at 60 rue de Bondy, the Seurat family moved to 136 boulevard de Magenta in 1862 or 1863. His father, Antoine Chrysostome Seurat, originally from Champagne, was a legal official who had become wealthy from speculating in property. Georges had a brother, Émile Augustin, and a sister, Marie-Berthe and his father lived in Le Raincy and visited his wife and children once a week at boulevard de Magenta. Georges Seurat first studied art at the École Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin, near his familys home in the boulevard Magenta, Seurats studies resulted in a well-considered and fertile theory of contrasts, a theory to which all his work was thereafter subjected. His formal artistic education came to an end in November 1879, after a year at the Brest Military Academy, he returned to Paris where he shared a studio with his friend Aman-Jean, while also renting a small apartment at 16 rue de Chabrol. For the next two years, he worked at mastering the art of monochrome drawing and his first exhibited work, shown at the Salon, of 1883, was a Conté crayon drawing of Aman-Jean. He also studied the works of Eugène Delacroix carefully, making notes on his use of color and he spent 1883 working on his first major painting—a large canvas titled Bathers at Asnières, a monumental work showing young men relaxing by the Seine in a working-class suburb of Paris. Seurat also departed from the Impressionist ideal by preparing for the work with a number of drawings, Bathers at Asnières was rejected by the Paris Salon, and instead he showed it at the Groupe des Artistes Indépendants in May 1884. Seurats new ideas on pointillism were to have a strong influence on Signac. In the summer of 1884, Seurat began work on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the painting shows members of each of the social classes participating in various park activities. The tiny juxtaposed dots of multi-colored paint allow the eye to blend colors optically. It took Seurat two years to complete this 10-foot-wide painting, much of which he spent in the park sketching in preparation for the work and it is now in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting was the inspiration for James Lapine and Stephen Sondheims musical, Seurat concealed his relationship with Madeleine Knobloch, an artists model whom he portrayed in his painting Jeune femme se poudrant. In 1889 she moved in with Seurat in his studio on the 7th floor of 128bis Boulevard de Clichy, when Madeleine became pregnant, the couple moved to a studio at 39 passage de lÉlysée-des-Beaux-Arts. There she gave birth to their son, who was named Pierre-Georges,16 February 1890, Seurat died in Paris in his parents home on 29 March 1891 at the age of 31
12.
Odilon Redon
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Odilon Redon was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist. Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, to a prosperous family, the young Bertrand-Jean Redon acquired the nickname Odilon from his mother, Odile. Redon started drawing as a child, and, at the age of ten and he began the formal study of drawing at fifteen, but, at his fathers insistence, he changed to architecture. Failure to pass the exams at Paris’ École des Beaux-Arts ended any plans for a career as an architect. Back in his native Bordeaux, he took up sculpting, and Rodolphe Bresdin instructed him in etching and his artistic career was interrupted in 1870 when he was drafted to serve in the army in the Franco-Prussian War until its end in 1871. At the end of the war, he moved to Paris and resumed working almost exclusively in charcoal and he called his visionary works, conceived in shades of black, his noirs. It was not until 1878 that his work gained any recognition with Guardian Spirit of the Waters, he published his first album of lithographs, titled Dans le Rêve, in 1879. Still, Redon remained relatively unknown until the appearance in 1884 of a novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans titled À rebours. The story featured a decadent aristocrat who collected Redons drawings, in the 1890s pastel and oils became his favored media, he produced no more noirs after 1900. In 1899, he exhibited with the Nabis at Durand-Ruels, Redon had a keen interest in Hindu and Buddhist religion and culture. The figure of the Buddha increasingly showed in his work, baron Robert de Domecy commissioned the artist in 1899 to create 17 decorative panels for the dining room of the Château de Domecy-sur-le-Vault near Sermizelles in Burgundy. The landscape details do not show a place or space. Only details of trees, twigs with leaves, and budding flowers in an endless horizon can be seen, the colours used are mostly yellow, grey, brown and light blue. The influence of the Japanese painting style found on folding screens byōbu is discernible in his choice of colours, fifteen of them are located today in the Musée dOrsay, acquisitioned in 1988. Domecy also commissioned Redon to paint portraits of his wife and their daughter Jeanne, most of the paintings remained in the Domecy family collection until the 1960s. In 1903 Redon was awarded the Legion of Honor, Redon died on July 6,1916. In 1923 Mellerio published Odilon Redon, Peintre Dessinateur et Graveur, an archive of Mellerios papers is held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition ran from October 30,2005 to January 23,2006, the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland showed a retrospective from February to May 2014
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