Art and Eye

  Whistler constructs a world of hedonism, perfectly appropriate for his Peacock Room, in which this painting was originally placed. Depicting a full-length figure, decadently dressed in a sumptuous kimono flowing down her elegant, elongated frame, the artist captures the movements of Aestheticism and art for art's sake popular during the mid nineteenth century, alongside an interest in 'exotic' far Eastern cultures which lead to the rise of Japonisme in artistic depictions.  Currently, the work hangs above the fireplace in the Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington. However, originally it sat in London, in a space which Whistler constructed with the help of Thomas Jeckyll, for the mansion owned by shipping magnate Frederick Leyland. However, Whistler's artistic eye dominated the project, and as costs rose and designs became more gold, sumptuous and elaborate, Leyland was increasingly irritable in correspondence, famously telling Whistler that he would b...

  With Baroque drama, expressive light and shade, alongside a contorted figure crammed into the picture frame, Guercino successfully captures the desperation of Elijah, stretching out his dark purple cloth to catch the food which falls from ravens above him. Based on the lesser known Old Testament narrative, the artist concentrates on the study of an ageing figure to convey his hunger and failing strength, against the fading blue lighting and cool stream below.  The monumental canvas gifts the viewer with a life-size representation of Elijah, whist enabling Guercino to show off the power of foreshortening - with his right knee jutting out towards a viewer, Elijah seems almost to fall out of the canvas towards us, toppling forward and bearing down on us to enhance that monumentality. This also suggests Guercino's debt to Caravaggio when constructing his Baroque canvases, and the torn red sleeve to reveal Elijah's white undershirt was yet another favoured motif of the Cavaraggis...

  Strudwick's carefully, sensitively and delicately rendered pencil portrait proves the awareness of the artist's hand beyond the medium of oil painting, and the importance of a study in his methods of working. Shading is richly worked, to capture a variety of tonal changes across the sitter's face, focusing on her downturned gaze, the gentle folds of cloth around her head and the subtle shadows of her hairline against her features. Not only does it tell a viewer more about the hand of Strudwick, but also about the artistic processes at the time; the creation of a preparatory sketch to create a future work, but which is nevertheless worth exploring on its own as a capable pencil drawing by a later Pre-Raphaelite practitioner. Strudwick is best known for his works which capture the spirit of Waterhouse, Burne-Jones, or John Roddam Spencer Stanhope - In the Golden Days by Strudwick, from 1907, invokes the stacked female figures which Burne-Jones included in his paintings, whi...