masters saw in reality
Honore Fragonard – “Solar Brush Provence”
Attraction to the poetry of life, its emotional richness distinguishes Fragonard among the brilliant artists of France of the XVIII century.
The destiny of the master initially developed happily. Even in his youth, he quickly and easily achieved success, was recognized by the Academy. Then – the rejection of the paths of a successful artist. But independence did not bring him worldly well-being. In the last years of his life, Fragonard loses his customers, almost forgotten by the public. Continue reading
Two portraits of the actress Strepetova
There are destinies that strike the imagination with unusualness and inner completeness — such is the life of Pelageya Antipevna Strepetova (1850–1903), difficult and bright, full of dramatic turns. At the age of seven she first appeared on the stage. She was not yet fifteen, when she became a professional artist. And after a while rumors about her brilliant game began to spread throughout Russia. The very first performances of the provincial actress on the stages of Moscow and St. Petersburg literally stunned the theater audience, gave rise to the sincere admiration of some and the same sincere hostility of others. Continue reading
Ordinary Magic Glass
The expression “Venetian glass” has become a household word. It is used in the appreciation of the artistic merit of glass. And it is not by chance that the largest museums of the world are proud of the works of the nameless glassmakers of Venice, along with the paintings of famous painters – their contemporaries: Titian, Carpaccio, Veronese, Giorgione. Particularly remarkable are the products of the XVI century – the truly “golden age” of Venetian glass. They all the more benefit when compared with the European glass of the preceding one and a half millennia: thick-walled, dull-green bottles, rough goblets in the form of a horn or a stalk with unwise ornaments. Continue reading
