TANZIO DA VARALLO (c.1575/80-1635) Adoration of the Shepherds with Saints Francis and Carlo Borromeo (1628-30) Oil on canvas (186 x 150 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art Tanzio da Varallo's Adoration of the Shepherds with Saints Francis and Carlo Borromeo is one of the most vivid and intense Old Master paintings in the museum collection. The energy …
Month: March 2018
Saint Francis and the Musical Angel
MORAZZONE (PIER FRANCESCO MAZZUCCHELLI) Saint Francis' Vision of the Musical Angel (c.1611) Oil on canvas (118 x 157 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art In the anonymous 14th century text The Little Flowers of Saint Francis from Assisi, which was the most widely consulted life of the saint in the sixteenth and seventeenth …
The Raising of Lazarus
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (1606-1669) The Raising of Lazarus (c.1630) Oil on panel (96 x 81 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art This wholly autograph painting is a key picture from Rembrandt's early period in Leiden when he set up a studio and became an independent master. It was through dramatic depictions of such …
Portrait of Jean-Sylvain Bailly
AUGUSTIN PAJOU (1730-1809) Portrait of Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1791) Patinated plaster (75 x 49 x 28 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736-93), whose literary career was surpassed by his studies in astronomy and its history, was elected to the French Academy of Sciences at the age of twenty-seven. Born in Paris …
Portrait of Pieter Tjarck
FRANS HALS (1581/85-1666) Portrait of a man / Portrait of Pieter Tjarck (1635-38) Oil on canvas (85 x 70 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art The identity of the sitter in this magnificent portrait has sometimes been questioned, but there seems to be no reason to doubt the veracity of its traditional identification. …
The Penitent Magdalen
GEORGES DE LA TOUR (1593-1652) The Penitent Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (c.1638-40) Oil on canvas (117 x 92 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art Georges de La Tour was the greatest tenebrist painter working in 17th-century France. Indeed since his "rediscovery" early in the 20th century, he is ranked second only to Caravaggio, …
Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria
ANTHONIS MOR / ANTON VAN DASHORST MOR (1518-1576) Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria (c.1558) Oil on canvas (95 x 76 cm) Museo del Prado, Madrid Anthonis Mor (as he is most widely known) is not a name familiar to Old Masters lovers and yet he was one of the most successful and sought-after portrait painters …
A young Gentleman
HUGH DOUGLAS HAMILTON (1740-1808) Portrait of a young gentleman Pastel on paper Location unknown Hamilton was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1740, the son of a wig-maker. Unfortunately, there is no much-documented evidence about his early years. He studied art under Robert West at the Royal Dublin Society. and won early success with his …
The Entombment
PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577-1640) The Entombment (c.1612) Oil on canvas (131 x 130 cm) Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles Recognized as the greatest painter of his day, Rubens received commissions from all over Europe and created profound, original statements of virtually every conceivable subject, Among his greatest contributions to Baroque art, were religious paintings …
Grace Dalrymple Elliot
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH Grace Dalrymple Elliot (c.1778) Oil on canvas (76 x 63 cm) The Frick Collection, New York It is very difficult to do justice to Gainsborough's portraits, sometimes it seems that the English language does not have enough words to express the admiration and the pleasure I experience when confronted with one of …
Old Masters 