John White Alexander

John White Alexander (1856-1915) was an American portrait painter, extremely successful in his day bu little known today.

From Wikipedia:

[H e moved] to New York City and quickly achieved great success in portraiture, numbering among his sitters Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Burroughs, Henry G. Marquand, R.A.L. Stevenson, and James McCosh, the president of Princeton University.

His first exhibition in the Paris Salon of 1893 was a brilliant success and was followed by his immediate election to the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts. In 1889 he painted for Mrs. Jeremiah Milbank a well-received portrait of Walt Whitman and one of her husband, Jeremiah Milbank. In 1901 he was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and in 1902 he became a member of the National Academy of Design, where he served as president from 1909 to 1915. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He received the gold medals of the Paris Exposition (1900) and the World's Fair in St. Louis (1904).

Contemplation

Green Dress

Portrait of Mrs. John W. Alexander

Study in Green and Black

Repose

Japanese Art

Japanese art, usually in the form of lithographs, are some of the beautiful and intriguing art works in the world. There are two prominent masters of the art. Katsushika Hokusai (usually referred to simply as Hokusai) is famous for the Under the Wave of Kanagawa (often referred to as "The Great Wave of Kanagawa"), part of his 36 Views of Mount Fuji series. The second is Kawase Hasui, known as the painter of clouds.

Hokusai - Under the Wave of Kanagawa

Kawase Hasui - Lake Teganuma

Kawase Hasui - Shiba Zojo Temple

Benjamin Victor

Benjamin Victor is a modern sculptor keeping the classical tradition alive as the Classical Realist painters are. He has the distinction of having three of his sculptures in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol building, and he is working on his fourth. I am gratified that one of his statues (located in the Statuary Hall) is of the great Norman Borlaug. His website shows dozens of his works: he is quite prolific.

"Victor’s first work to receive attention was a life-size statue of the biblical character Samson, sculpted when the artist was a sophomore art major at Northern State University. The piece earned Victor a scholarship "in recognition of his aesthetic and conceptual integrity" from the prestigious National Sculpture Society in New York City. At age 23, Victor was commissioned to produce his proposal of a trio of soldiers for the Aberdeen Regional Airport War Memorial in South Dakota." (Source: Wikipedia)

Norman Borlaug

Sarah Winnemucca

Cecil E. Harris

Sabin Howard

Sabin Howard is modern sculptor keeping the classical tradition alive as the Classical Realist painters are. He does everything from intimate, still portrait style to more Greek-inspired statue to very large heroic scenes.

Sabin Howard at work

A portion of a war memorial

Tamara de Lempicka

Distinct from almost all the artists that I enjoy who are in the classical tradition, I really like the Art Deco inspired paintings of Tamara de Lempicka. No one could think of her as following the realist tradition in the classical sense. She seems to be inspired by the Cubist movement but retains a realist perspective. Her early paintings have the impressionist style of early Picasso. This early period began in 1918 and gradually developed into her own unique style by 1930.

Young Lady with Gloves, 1930

See the website devoted to her life and works at deLempicka.org