100 Years of Illustration

Morphing 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

Check out this extraordinary video clip. Thanks to Juxtapoz.com via BoingBoing (David Peskovitz) from eggman 913 on YouTube.

Link to the still Botticelli Venus image.

More J.C. Leyendecker: Queen Meave (aka Maeve) and Cuchulain (pronounced Cuhoolin).

The Ancient Irish Sagas was the lead article in Theodore DeVinne's famous The Century Magazine, for January 1907 which featured two full-color illustrations by the famous J.C. Leyendecker for the even more famous author, former president Theodore Roosevelt. I couldn't believe it (and didn't know I had the material) until I found it just today!

This is Queen Meave. Roosevelt describes her as: ". . . . the famous warrior-queen, Meave, tall and beautiful, with her white face and yellow hair, terrible in her battle chariot when she drove at full speed into the press of fighting men, and 'fought over the ears of the horses.' Her virtues were those of a warlike barbarian king, and she claimed the like large liberty in morals. Her husband was Ailill, the Connaught king, and, as Meave carefully explained to him in what the old Erse bards called a 'bolster conversation,' their marriage was literally a partnership wherein she demanded from her husband an exact equality of treatment according to her own views and on her own terms; she insisted being that he should be brave, generous, and completely devoid of jealousy!"

Click on image to enlarge the complete illustration as it appeared.

Detail of the above. Click on image to enlarge it.

Cuchulain (pronounced Cuhoolin or Cu-hullin) in Battle. Click on image to enlarge it.
More about this amazing folk hero can be found at this link.

Winslow Homer in the Tropics

I'm indebted to Patti Hannaway and her wonderful book, "Winslow Homer in the Tropics," published in 1973 by Westover Publishing Company of Richmond, Virginia for the information I gleaned from it, as well as the scans which are credited as well to the museums which display the paintings. The book is still available, click on box, right.

What I love about this book is her great appreciation for Homer's work and her direct uncomplicated way of describing it. Not only that, but there are so many really great paintings, mostly in watercolor, which Homer did so well. In fact, I don't think there's ever been another American painter who can match him, with the possible exception of John Singer Sargent, whose total output in that medium is just of fraction of what Winslow Homer accomplished. For books about Sargent, click on Amazon link right. Click on images to enlarge them.

"The Gulf Stream" painted in 1889 is a 20 x 11-3/8-inch watercolor from The Art Institute of Chicago. Hannaway writes, "His shark-versus-man theme, perhaps unconventional, was thought to be a good deal too harsh for sensitive art lovers! As a storytelling picture, this work conveys stark reality as the artist saw and felt it. The viewer must simply draw his own conclusion."

"The Gulf Stream" is a 49 x 28-inch oil painting of the same theme begun in 1884 and finished in 1889, from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Wolfe Fund. Hannaway writes, "This oil is the only one Homer's tropicals ever exhibited at the National Academy of Design and, following its 1906 exhibition there, was finally purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for $4,500." A princely sum for those days.

Detail of the above painting.

"Negro Cabins and Palms" is a 21 x 14-3/8-inch watercolor painted in 1898 and owned by The Brooklyn Museum. Hannaway writes of this, "In his early sixties, the artist gloried in painting these pictures -- reveling in the sun and sand and the tropical sea. Each day found him out early to capture the rapidly emerging pageantry before him. He was working in a kind of ecstasy with a swift, sure touch. He depicted the palms loosely in in dark, gray-green shades against the pale, luminous, possibly early-morning sky."

"Stowing Sail" is another watercolor, slightly less than 22 by 14 inches in size and painted in 1903, from The Art Institute of Chicago's Ryerson Collection. Hannaway writes, "The painting's overall appearance is transparent and the feeling is profoundly cool and airy. We also see here vivid evidence of Homer's use of red, since he deftly managed to inject three splashes of it in strategic positions."

"Wrecked Schooner" is a 21 x 14-1/2-inch watercolor of 1908 from the City Art Museum of St. Louis. This is said to be the last watercolor he completed. Hannaway feels the death of the schooner's crew made him aware of his own impending death and concludes her text, "It was one of the last important pictures he rendered in a medium which, more than any other American artist, he had raised to a level of major stature, and undoubtedly was one of his finest paintings."

J.C. Leyendecker, Couple Dancing

You might recall this illustration from among the American Illustrators commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2000. Just this morning I received a brochure from Swann Auction Galleries in which it appeared with the notice that the original oil painting on canvas is scheduled to be sold at auction on 7 June. It is expected to sell for US$40,000 to $60,000. That's about one per cent of what a not-very-good Jackson Pollock painting would bring. I'm not saying that any Pollocks are much good, but that's a personal opinion. It's also the reason why I created a blog dedicated to this subject. Click on the image below to enlarge it. For books about Leyendecker see Amazon link, above right.

Arrow Collars and Shirts advertisement, 1923

More about Joseph Christian Leyendecker.