Thursday, August 18, 2022

Art Posters

So many talented illustrators created some of the greatest travel and advertising poster of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Some have become iconic and are instantly recognizable, many in the Art Deco period.

Others: Busch binoculars, Saint. Ives, Orient Express - Stewart, Orient Express 1888, Glacier Express, Colwyn Bay, Lake Garda, Normandie, Santorini.

Sources for high quality reproductions are Pictorem and AllPosters.

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Waterhouse Exhibition

In 2009-10 the Musée de Beaux Arts in Montreal held a special exhibition of the works of John William Waterhouse entitled John William Waterhouse: Le jardin des sortilèges (Garden of Enchantment). This was a world-wide travelling exhibition, but Montreal was the only venue in North America and had over 90,000 visitors.

Paintings displayed:
The Lady of Shalott, 1888-93
The Lady of Shalott, 1894
The Favourites of Emperor Honorius
Saint Eulalia
After the Dance
Dolce far Niente
Sick Child Brought into the Temple of Aesculapius
Cleopatra
Miranda
Consulting the Oracle
The Magic Circle
I am Half Sick of Shadows said the Lady of Shalott
Circe offering the Cup to Ulysses
The Siren
A Mermaid
Ulysses and the Sirens
Circe Invidiosa
Circe
The Love Philtre
In the Peristyle
Hylas amd the Nymphs
A Naiad
Psyche and the Golden Box
Mariamne Leaving the Judgement

I remember distinctly Cleopatra, which was captivating, the longing expressed in Miranda, the wistfulness of Dolce far Niente, and the melancholy of Saint Eulalia. I studied The Favourites of Emperor Honorius, which was my favourite, for about half an hour (at least) finding more and more interesting elements in the composition.

Dolce far Niente