Auction Preview: Christie's 19th c. Art, April 2012

Alfred de Bréanski
When the Trout Rise
30 X 50 in.
oil on canvas

Christie's Auction House is holding their annual sale of 19th Century Paintings in New York City next month.  Though several of the high-profile artists from that area, such as Bouguereau, Zorn, and Alma-Tadema, are represented among the 83 lots, the offerings are somewhat lackluster in this sale.  Still, there are some gems to be found, and attending the free viewings prior to the auction is always recommended.

Christie's Auction House is located at 20 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.  The lots in the this auction will be on view for four days prior to the sale:  from 1:00PM to 5:00PM on April 19th and 22nd;  and from 10:00AM until 5:00PM April 20th and 21st.  The auction itself will take place on April 23rd at 2:00PM.  All lots in the sale are also viewable online at the Christie's website.

Anders Zorn
Portrait of a Lady in a Drawing Room, 1887
26½ X 19½ in.
pencil, watercolor, and bodycolor heightened with white, on paper

John William Godward
Atalanta, 1892
20¼ X 16½ in.
oil on canvas

Charles Emile August Carolus-Duran
Portrait of Madame Marie Clerc, 1874
55 X 36½ in.
oil on canvas

William Bouguereau
Idylle:  famille antique
36¼ X 28¾ in.
oil on canvas

William Bouguereau
Pifferaro, 1870
40 X 32½ in.
oil on canvas

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
The Education of the Children of Clotilde and Clovis, 1868
25½ X 35¾ in.
oil on panel

Louis-Aimé Japy
A Boatman in an Extensive River Landscape, 1891
25½ X 32 in.
oil on canvas

Paul Désiré Trouillebert
Relèvement du chemin de fer de ceinture, Station du Bel Air et rue Montempoivre, 1888
15 X 22 in.
oil on canvas

Eugen von Blaas
The Love Letter, 1887
42½ X 26¼ in.
oil on canvas

Eugen von Blaas
The Secret, 1876
28½ X 21½ in.
oil on panel

Aloïs Hans Schram
Making Music, 1848
40 X 23¾ in.
oil on canvas

Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys
Portrait of Julia Smith Caldwell
44 X 29½ in.
oil on canvas

Charles Sillem Lidderdale
Returning from Market, 1886
36 X 28 in.
oil on canvas

Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski
The Lone Wolf
15¼ X 19¼ in.
oil on canvas

Franz Richard Unterberger
The Grand Canal seen from Santa Maria della Salute, Venice
24¼ X 40 in.
oil on canvas

Artists on Art

Artists on Art is a new magazine with an old fashioned idea - if you want to understand artists' perspectives, then the best source for information is the artists themselves.  More than a century ago, when magazine publication was enjoying its heyday, there were more opportunities for artists to write about their personal philosophies on art, but in the twentieth century, those opportunities changed or dwindled.  Educated discourse on the arts by artists, began to disappear.  Such writing predominantly became the province of art historians instead, and when artists did express themselves, it was often through the filter of a critic's, writer's , or editor's hands and mind, with the unfortunate outcome that what made it to the printed page was often an incomplete expression of the artist's intentions.

Artists on Art hopes to put the artists back in control of their own published words.  Spearheaded by artist Ryan Mellody, this all-digital magazine plans on offering at least ten articles in each issue written by today's top artists.  The premier issue, released this past winter, has already been a success, with articles by Daniel Sprick, Susan Lyon, Daniel Keys, Julio Reyes, Carolyn Anderson, Dan McCaw, Douglas Fryer, and Casey Baugh drawing attention to this fledgling publication.

Table of Contents from the premier issue of Artists on Art

Subscriptions for the digital magazine start at $14 a year for four issues.  Once you subscribe, you can sign into your account and access your account from any internet-connected device.  For $18, you can also get a downloadable PDF version with each issue release.  For more information, or to subscribe, please visit the Artists on Art website.

Demonstration from "Light & Form & Dust," an article by Julio Reyes.

Random Inspiration: Takahiro Hara (b. 1971)

lucia tumbada
72.7 X 100 cm

If you had asked me yesterday who was Takahiro Hara, I am sad to say, I would not have known.  After all, he lives on the other side of the world from me, and despite his obvious talent, his work just did not seem readily available to an American audience (he does not even have a website).  But today, as I checked a new post on Arcadia Gallery's Fine Arts Log, there was an image of a beautiful painting that had just arrived in the gallery from Japan, and I was driven to see more from this outstanding artist.

Sabina
130.3 X 80.3 cm

There is little information on Hara on the internet.  If it were not for Facebook, even Arcadia Gallery would not have known about this skilled painter.  As it happens, if one of Arcadia's other artists, Aron Wiesenfeld, had not seen the work on Hara's profile page and shown it to the gallery's owner, Steve Diamant, we might all still be in the dark.  

Hara was born in Fukuyama in 1971.  He graduated from the Department of Fine Art at the Kanazawa College of Art in 1994, and two years later, finished the Graduate Degree program there as well.  In 1999, Hara traveled to Spain, and studied at the National Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he remained until July of the following year.  In 2004, he returned to the Universidad, and during the summer of 2005, attended classes at the studio of the legendary Antonio López García.  Hara has won many awards in his home country of Japan, and hopefully, through his introduction to the U.S. by Arcadia Gallery, is also set to take this country by storm.

"Unskilled as I am, I want to do it step by step."  ~  Takahiro Hara speaking about his own work.

Hara with Antonio López