Art Happy Birthday, Fragonard

 

 

(above) Unknown painter from the circle of Jean Honoré Fragonard, St. family (XVIII century)

ART SUNDAY; HAPPY BIRTHDAY
 (Friday 15th May),
To Our Art Loving Friend

(all of these pictures enlarge just by clicking on them and don't forget the music video at the bottom of the page)

Many of us have a friend we’ve not seen around for a while and today (Friday 15th May), is her birthday. Any one who knows her also knows she is particularly fond of the 18th Century.

‘This is a birthday present for our friend’.

I have taken the liberty of copying a small extract from one of her Art Blogs; this is what she had to say on July 6th last year,

‘’I too love the 18th century, not only because of all the cultural diversity, but also because some of my favourite people lived their whole lives or were born within that period of time, people like Voltaire, Diderot, Fielding, Fragonard, Goethe , Jane Austen, Madame de Staël and many others…………….
Art went from Rococo to Romanticism, dramatic and staged. I must say I prefer Fragonard and his Ancien Régime to the drama of Delacroix and the neo classicism of Ingres or David, the same way I am fond of Gainsborough and his portraits or Hogarth and his social criticism or Constable and his landscapes and the way Turner contributed to Impressionism which would overtake the world of art decades later. Also extremely influential was the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, with his Caprichos and Follies , his Black paintings and portraits……………
About the music, well it was Mozart's time, no need for further words, I've always found him the greatest genius and his operas are by far my favourite’’.

That is what the lady likes
So let’s celebrate her Birthday with
Art from the 18th Century

THE 18TH CENTURY PAINTERS

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
 (5 April 1732 – 22 August 1806)

He was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings (not counting drawings and etchings), of which only five are dated. Among his most popular works are genre paintings conveying an atmosphere of intimacy and veiled eroticism.

Jean Honore Fragonard, The Bolt (Le Verrou) 1778
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Jean Honore Fragonard The Reader 1770-72
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Jean Honore Fragonard The Stolen Kiss
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Thomas Gainsborough
 (christened 14 May 1727 –

died 2 August 1788)

He was one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters of 18th century Britain. In the 1740s, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, who settled a £200 annuity on the couple. The artist's work, then mainly composed of landscape paintings, was not selling very well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748–1749 and concentrated on the painting of portraits.

Gainsborough Mr and Mrs Andrews
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Gainsborough Portrait of a lady in blue
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Gainsborough Morgen
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Gainsborough Portrait of Mrs Gainsborough
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Francisco Goya

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
(30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828)

Goya was a Spanish painter and printmaker. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown and a chronicler of history. He has been regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and as the first of the moderns. The subversive and subjective element in his art, as well as his bold handling of paint, provided a model for the work of later generations of artists, notably Manet and Picasso.

Goya Group on a Balcony 1810-15
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Goya Dona Teresa Sureda 1805
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Goya Portrait of Mariana Waldstein
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THE 18TH CENTURY LITERARY FIGURE

Denis Diderot
(October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784)
Diderot was a French philosopher and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie.

Diderot by Louis-Michel van Loo
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(28 August 1749  – 22 March 1832)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and according to George Eliot, "Germany's greatest man of letters… and the last true polymath to walk the earth. "Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science’’.
Goethe by Stieler 1828 

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Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein;

(22 April 1766 – 14 July 1817),

Commonly known as Madame de Staël, she was a French-speaking Swiss author living in Paris and abroad. She influenced literary tastes in Europe at the turn of the 19th century.
Portrait of Madame de Stael (1766-1817)
Artist: Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson
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And..... leaving the very best until last
Jane Austen
(16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817)

An English novelist whose realism, biting social commentary and masterful use of free indirect speech, burlesque, and irony have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature.

Quote from Austin

‘’If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out’’.
    

    From,Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Portrait of Jane Austin possibly by her sister
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791),

His full name was, Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartwas, a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over six hundred works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.
Anonymous portrait of the child Mozart, possibly by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni; painted in 1763 on commission from Leopold

delete reply colbalt wrote on Jun 6, '09 A beautiful tribute!!! I did an Art Sunday blog featuring her 'Essence', (an original digital art form I created to show the inner colors that radiate from someone). I would like to add you as a friend so you can view my blog more easily, even though it is open to my network. Happy to meet you and I am hopeful we will hear something sooner than later, Meg

delete reply brendainmad wrote on May 15, '09 What a wonderful tribute to your friend! I'm sure whoever it is will have tears in her eyes when she reads this.

delete reply starfishred wrote on May 14, '09 nice rememberance for her well done loretta-

delete reply welshdoug wrote on May 14, '09 bennett1 said I don't believe I know her, but she must be wonderful to have inspired such a blog. Lina is possibly the most "cultured" lady in blogland. We shared many similar tastes right across the spectrum of art - art, music, poetry, literature - the list goes on (we disagree about a fair bit too, but that was all part of the discussions. A lovely Lady. Great tribute Loretta.

delete reply greenwytch wrote on May 14, '09 i think you are pretty special, too, ma'am. XO

delete reply bennett1 wrote on May 14, '09 I don't believe I know her, but she must be wonderful to have inspired such a blog.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on May 14, '09 greenwytch said oh, how very gorgeous! a wonderful birthday tribute to our lina, what a very special lady and a wonderful friend. thank you so much, right up untill I clicked to publish I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing, just hope others agree with you cos like you said..............what a great lady

delete reply greenwytch wrote on May 14, '09 oh, how very gorgeous! a wonderful birthday tribute to our lina, what a very special lady and a wonderful friend. THANK YOU, loretta. HUGS