Marie van Goethem

Edgar Degas: La petite danseuse de 14 ans (1881)

Little Dancer of Fourteen Years is a two-thirds life size (99 cm) sculpture by Edgar Degas of a young student of the Paris Opera Ballet dance school, Marie van Goethem.

Chris Costello: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen

 Chris Costello: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen 

Chris Costello: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen 

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, by Edgar Degas

« Now adored, this original wax version of Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen was reviled by most critics when it was shown at the 1881 impressionist exhibition in Paris.» Explore This Work


Between 1878 and 1881, Edgar Degas drew, painted and sculpted Marie van Goethem in artworks including Dancer with Fan, Dancing Lesson, Dancer Resting, numerous preparatory sketches and most famously in La petite danseuse de 14 ans. He frequently attended ballet performances at the Paris Opera and often observed classes at the dance school. By posing for Degas, Marie likely earned five to six francs per four-hour sitting.

Edgar Degas: Three Studies of a Dancer in Fourth Position

 

Amy Littlesugar, Ian Schoenherr: Marie in Fourth Position

Smoking Audrey Hepburn

--» Audrey Hepburn Smoking Facts

--» Audrey Hepburn Smoking @ pinterest

Four allegories of the four seasons

 1573: Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Four Seasons

 circa 1618: Sebastian Vrancx, Allegory of the Four Seasons

 1874: Ferenc Plachy, Allegory of the Four Seasons with Chronos

1903-9: Walter Crane, The Masque of the Four Seasons

And the first season is..?

After a lost painting of Leda and the Swan

Miniaturist painter Carl Gustav Klingstedt (1657-1734), Leda and the Swan, after Michelangelo


In his quest to acquire all things Italian, François I (1494-1547) always sought to attract the greatest lights of Italian painting—including Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Michelangelo—to his court.

While he succeeded in convincing the aged Leonardo to enter his service in 1516 and, in so doing, obtained the Mona Lisa for France, the transalpine journey was a difficult and a dangerous one, and neither Andrea del Sarto nor Michelangelo could accept François’ invitation.

However a rare panel painting of Leda and the Swan created in 1530 by Michelangelo did make its way to France in the possession of Michelangelo’s pupil, Antonio Mini, who seems to have sold it to François I.

It entered the royal collection at Fontainebleau in the early 1530s. The painting Leda and the Swan by Michelangelo has since been lost...

The Flemish artist Cornelis Bos must have seen the work. This print, engraved and published by him, is the only record of Michelangelo’s completed painting.

 

Cornelis Bos, Leda and the Swan (1540s) after Michelangelo

Peter Paul Rubens would also have been familiar with Michelangelo’s Leda and he painted two versions of the subject.

You might notice that the twisting posture of Leda's body is very similar. Even the positioning of the fingers is mirrored. The swan is caressing the female in exactly the same way.

However the actual figure of the female varies drastically between Rubens’ style and Michelangelo’s style.

Michelangelo typically depicted women in a masculine way. Muscles are more clearly defined and the bodies look hard. The body is thinner. The hair is neatly styled. Michelangelo’s body proportions are a little skewed.

Rubens’ Leda's figure, on the other hand, is extremely curvaceous. The hair is somewhat loose and not as styled. The body proportions seem more realistic.

While Rubens’ two works are very similar, they do differ. 

Rubens' 1st Leda and the Swan (1601)

In the first depiction, the brushstrokes are looser, it is not as detailed, there is less landscape, no elaborate headpiece, the colors are muted and the drapes are green.

Rubens' 2nd Leda and the Swan (1602)

In the second painting, the brushstrokes are more precise, there is more detail, there is a clearer landscape in the background, an elaborate headpiece, more vibrant colors and the drapery is white and red.

Les peintures de gardiennes d'oies

Jean-François Millet, Julien Dupré, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro (et d'autres) en ont peint plus d'une – un thème qui a l'air récurrent chez quelques impressionnistes et chez les naturalistes. Il m'a semblé judicieux d'exclure les représentations illustrant La petite gardeuse d'oies (Die Gänsemagd), le conte couché sur papier par les frères Grimm en 1815. J'ai fait un tri parmi la soixantaine de tableaux trouvés en deux après-midis de recherche. Et voici les magnifiques peintures de gardiennes d'oies que je vous présente aujourd'hui.

Rafael Angelot

Agnes L. Atkinson

Teodor Axentowicz (1859-1938) 

Émile Barau (1851-1930) 

Nikolai Kornilievich Bodarevsky (1850-1921)

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) La gardienne d'oies (1891)

Julien Dupré (1851–1910) 

 

Thérèse Marthe Françoise Dupré (1877-1920)

David Hyde

Eugène Labitte (1858-1937) 

John Lavery (1856-1941) Goose Girls (1885)

Jan Mankes (1889-1920) Ganzenliesje (1911)

Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) La gardienne d'oies (1863)

Philip Richard Morris (1836-1902)

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) La fille aux oies à Montfoucault, Gelée blanche (1875)

Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1838-1904)

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) La gardeuse d'oies (vers 1885)

Johannes Strieder

Cette drôle d'introduction convie-t-elle à la lecture du conte? À vous de voir:

"Le conte de la Gardeuse d'oies invite à habiter le monde qui nous entoure de notre présence éveillée en la projetant dans les objets. Cela permet d'obtenir leur concours dans les situations critiques. Il faut pour cela apprendre à traduire ses inspirations en des formules vibrantes." Euh…

Paul Hey (1867-1952) The Goose Girl Fairytale Illustration

The milkmaid, after

The Milkmaid is a painting made circa 1658 by the artist Johannes Vermeer.

The masterwork is strikingly illusionistic, conveying not just details but a sense of the weight of the woman and the table. An impression of monumentality and perhaps a sense of dignity is lent to the image by the artist's choice of a relatively low vantage point and a pyramidal building. The attention of the viewer is on the pouring of the milk.

– Wikipedia: Compositional strategy {link}


There is a tactile, visceral quality to The Milkmaid — you can almost taste the thick, creamy milk escaping the jug, feel the cool dampness of the room and the starchy linen of the maid's white cap, touch her sculptural shoulders and corseted waist. She is not an apparition or abstraction. She is not the ideal, worldly housewife of Vermeer's later Young Woman with a Water Pitcher. She is not the cartoonish buxom vixen in Lucas van Leyden's drawing. She is real — as real as a painting can get anyway.

– Raquel Laneri {link}

 

Lucas van Leyden, The Milkmaid (1510)

More info about the painting @ my post The milkmaid: in a dignified way.

The milkmaid, after

Alan Berkman, The Whiskey Maid

Catherine Link 

Edward Merrell

Eleanor Mcintosh 

Enzie Shahmiri 

Gail Eisenfeld 

Jesus Estevez 

Paul de Haan 

Sandra Hansen

Scala photography, The Milkmaid – The making-of

TessaGuze

Google images, a milkmaid tapestry