Rembrandt van Rijn

The Ringball Player By Rembrandt Van Rijn

1654

Lucas Cranach the Elder and Studio 1472-1553 German Moses and the Pillar of Cloud Oil on panel Moses and the Pillar of Cloud is a bold and evocative composition that showcases the signature intense color and intricate detail of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s celebrated oeuvre. The remarkable 16th-century oil on panel by Lucas Cranach and his studio captures the narrative moment when Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and encounters God manifested through a large pillar of cloud. Moses stands at the precipice of a bridge and turns back to soldiers helping to lead the group of Israelites who huddle closely together. Cranach depicts Moses with his traditional iconography, rendering the rays of light on his head which came to be interpreted as "horns" in the translation of the Bible. Using his traditional walking staff, Moses gestures toward the pillar, seemingly acknowledging that God will protect the group as they cross the bridge to the other side, leaving exile and entering a promised land. In a nod to Cranach’s Germanic locale, he renders the figures and setting in a manner that feels decisively more akin to European aesthetics than those of the Red Sea. Soldiers wear elaborate, gothic suits of armor that recall the livery of Northern European guardsmen. The terrain appears more like a European forest giving way to a sweeping valley than the arid landscape the Israelites trekked through on their journey across the Red Sea. Though still clearly recounting a story from the Old Testament, Cranach renders the cast of characters and setting in an earthly, familiar manner. This aesthetic shift speaks to Cranach’s own changing beliefs as he found himself at the center of the Protestant Reformation. After first gaining recognition in 1505 as the official painter of Frederick the Wise, Cranach established a thriving painting and print studio in Wittenberg, Germany. Cranach was renowned for his court portraits and genre paintings and was also well known for his association with the famous protestant reformer Martin Luther, then under the protection of Frederick the Wise. As Wittenberg became a bastion of new religious thought, Cranach soon befriended Luther and played an active role in creating the printed materials that proliferated throughout the Reformation...

Joseph van Bredael 1688-1739 Flemish The Adoration of the Magi Oil on copper Painted on copper and exhibiting an exquisite luminosity, this exceptional painting...

Workshop of Bartholomaeus Spranger 16th Century Flemish Leda and the Swan Oil on panel Retelling one of the most legendary Greco-Roman mythological tales, this exceptional oil on...

Frans Hals 1582-1666 Dutch Portrait of a Gentleman (possibly Theodore Blevet) Oil on panel “Frans Hals is a colourist among the colourists...Frans Hals must have had twenty-seven blacks...

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) French Still Life with Goldfish I Singed "Monotype / Henri Matisse" Monotype on paper (chine collé) This exceptional work of art encapsulates the genius...

James Tissot was among the most successful and critically acclaimed artists of the Victorian era. Although the artist is celebrated for his elegant scenes of fashionable life in Paris and London, this work is a fascinating rarity within his oeuvre. In this monumental pastel, Tissot depicts a prehistoric woman draped in a tiger skin, presented with a striking pose and heroic air. His delicate portraiture, combined with his fascination with conveying texture, demonstrates why he was one of the most revered artists of his generation, and La femme préhistorique illustrates the remarkable technique for which he was renowned. This work was completed in preparation for a series of works exploring the Old Testament undertaken by Tissot from 1899-1902 that remained unfinished at the time of his death. A portion of this series focused on illustrations of Adam and Eve, and among these sketches were images of a nude Eve partially draped in animal furs. Towards the end of his life, following his conversion to Catholicism, biblical subjects became important to the artist. A few years before this work was completed, Tissot embarked upon a highly ambitious group of nearly 300 watercolors illustrating the New Testament, presenting the illustrated epic in its entirety at the Paris Salon of 1894. Both of these series were a critical artistic departure for the artist, stemming from a desire to create works separated from his typical images of modern society. This pastel imagines Eve as the prototype of womanhood in the guise of a prehistoric woman. Tissot rarely painted the nude, and his skill as a draftsman highlights the figure's natural beauty, contrasting it with the stark landscape surrounding her. Although a study, this monumental work is incredibly well-finished and highly engaging, with the statuesque model commanding the majority of the canvas. Her pose is strong and theatrical, and she addresses the viewer with a direct, confident gaze. The imagined historical subject of this drawing is grounded by Tissot’s exceptional attention to detail. A master of conjuring an array of textures, Tissot showcased this ability in this work by juxtaposing many types of fabrics and natural elements within one composition. The tiger skin with which the woman partially covers herself was a favorite studio prop of Tissot’s, appearing in many of his most influential works from the period, including several paintings of his partner and favorite model Kathleen Newton. It, in particular, showcases the artist’s understanding of texture, yet it also serves as an exotic element that elevates the sensuality of the scene when placed against the woman’s bare skin. Born in 1836 in the port town of Nantes, Tissot traveled to Paris at the age of 20 in order to join the studios of Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe. During this period, he became close with James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, and the impact of these friendships is reflected in his portraits of modern life. Having enjoyed considerable success in Paris during the 1860s, Tissot fought in the Siege of Paris, and after the fall of the Commune in 1871, he went to London, where he stayed for the next ten years. He was met with incredible success there, and he also met the love of his life, Kathleen Newton, a divorcée, with whom he lived from about 1876 until her death in 1882. Today he is regarded among the great masters of Belle Époque painting, and his works can be found in important collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Musée d’Orsay, the Tate Gallery and many others. This pastel remained in Tissot's private collection until his death in 1902 and is referenced in the posthumous 1902-3 valuation of Tissot's home at 64 avenue du Bois...

Francis Grose entered the army early in life and served in the cavalry, infantry, and militia. He produced some compelling and sought after engravings on subjects including ancient a...

"Ce Matin Avant l'Aurore" is an original lithograph by Honore Daumier, the second state of three. Original Text: Ce matin, avant l'aurore, Un Dieu vint me réveiller ; Il me dit : tu dors encore… Est-il temps de sommeiller ? De ton Papa c’est la fête, Fais lui quelque don flatteur En lui posant sur la tête Une Couronne de fleurs. Translation: This morning before dawn A God came to wake me up The curtains they were drawn And my snoring had to stop It is your daddy's birthday, A time for gifts and flowers To be placed on his head so gray Instead of his morning showers. Artwork Size: 9 1/4" x 9 1/4" Frame Size: 20 1/2" x 17 5/8" Artist Bio: Daumier was a prolific draftsman who produced over 4000 lithographs, he was perhaps best known for his caricatures of political figures and satires on the behavior of his countrymen, although posthumously the value of his painting has also been recognized. His works offer a commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century. French caricaturist and painter, born at Marseilles. He showed in his earliest youth an irresistible inclination towards the artistic profession, which his father vainly tried to check by placing him first with a huissier, and subsequently with a bookseller. Having mastered the technique of lithography, Daumier started his artistic career by producing plates for music publishers, and illustrations for advertisements; these were followed by anonymous work for publishers, in which he followed the style of Charlet and displayed considerable enthusiasm for the Napoleonic legend. When, in the reign of Louis-Philippe, Philipon launched the comic journal, La Caricature, Daumier joined its staff, which included such powerful artists as Devéria, Raffet and Grandville, and started upon his pictorial campaign of scathing satire upon the foibles of the bourgeoisie, the corruption of the law and the incompetence of a blundering government. His caricature of the king as "Gargantua" led to Daumier's imprisonment for six months at Ste. Pélagie in 1832. The publication of La Caricature was discontinued soon after, but Philipon provided a new field for Daumier's activity when he founded the Charivari. For this journal Daumier produced his famous social caricatures, in which bourgeois society is held up to ridicule in the figure of Robert Macaire, the hero of a then popular melodrama. Another series, "L'Histoire Ancienne", was directed against the pseudoclassicism which held the art of the period in fetters. In 1848 Daumier embarked again on his political campaign, still in the service of Charivari, which he left in 1860 and rejoined in 1864. In spite of his prodigious activity in the field of caricature -- the list of Daumier's lithographed plates compiled in 1904 numbers no fewer than 3958 -- he found time for flight in the higher sphere of painting. Except for the searching truthfulness of his vision and the powerful directness of his brushwork, it would be difficult to recognize the creator of Robert Macaire, of Les Bas bleus, Les Bohémiens de Paris, and the Masques, in the paintings of "Christ and His Apostles" at the Ryks Museum in Amsterdam, or in his "Good Samaritan", "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza", "Christ Mocked...

Compelling set of 7 etchings from an exciting new talent, Indian Artist Sonal Varshneya Ojha. The 7 works come from a series of 25 works, Edition 4/7. The full Edition is available o...

Compelling set of 25 etchings from an exciting new talent, Indian Artist Sonal Varshneya Ojha. The 25 works are Edition 4/7. Editions 1, 2 & 3 have already sold, Edition 2 has been purchased by a Museum Collection in Belgium. Loved by private clients and Interior designers alike, Sonal has exhibited at International art fairs and exhibited with leading Galleries. Vachik, Edition 4/7, 25 Etchings on Archival paper, dated 2022, signed and titled under each piece in pencil 65" x 50" (depending on hanging layout), without framing, comprising 25 etchings. Each etching, sheet size 17" x 14", image size 13" x 10" 2022 Signed, Editioned, dated and titled in pencil Provenance: From the artist's studio Sonal is a storyteller. Her primary medium of choice is printmaking, exquisite etchings whose protagonists jump off the page to tell their stories. Like all good narratives that lucidly roll from one tale to the other the artist works in series. Be it her Kissa Goi or her new Vachik stories, each work comprises of many parts, all fitting together as one large work, or, equally as pleasing, as individual works that may or may not speak to each other in any combination of pattern. Sonal lives and works in Lucknow, in India, the City famous for its tradition of Ghazal poetry. In past times the poems were displayed in Diwan's (illustrated books) a calligrapher and artist would be commissioned to illustrate the poems. Sonal references these traditions and we can see traces of this in her contemporary images. Ghazal's delight and employ elements of playfulness, anecdote and surprise. They take their audience on a bitter-sweet journey and Sonal invites us to do the same. The artist explains that in the evenings the women gather on the roof terraces of her town to tell the tales that are passed from the older generations to the younger women. These are stories that primarily revolve around the woman and their everyday role in a patriarchal society. These tales become mixed with the contemporary, both local and global events that effect the lives of the women. At first glance there is an anecdotal quality to the visual narratives but look a little longer and you will be rewarded by layer upon layer of meaning. Through the clever use of text and images of objects which may at first appear to be dislocated, each part of the image pulls together the narrative, expanding it into many different levels. In Sonal's own words, 'This work is very close to my heart, a lot of emotions are attached to this work. Some such feelings that awakened for the first time and they were priceless. I have lived that time, felt it very closely, whatever happened to me at that time, I have tried my best to make it work. Kajal has a very important role, when there are children and grandmothers complete it, it is said that by applying Kajal in the eyes of the children, the eyes become bigger. Which we call Nazarota which is a small iron vessel. Kashmiri shawls...

Compelling set of 6 etchings from an exciting new talent, Indian Artist Sonal Varshneya Ojha. The 6 works come from a series of 25 works, Edition 4/7...

Compelling set of 5 etchings from an exciting new talent, Indian Artist Sonal Varshneya Ojha. The 5 works come from a series of 25 works, Edition 4/7. The full Edition is available on our 1stDibs store. Editions 1 and 2 have already sold, Edition 2 has been purchased by a Museum Collection in Belgium. Loved by private clients and Interior designers alike, Sonal has exhibited at International art fairs and exhibited with leading Galleries. Vachik, Edition 4/7, Etching on Archival paper, dated 2022, signed and titled under each piece in pencil 17" x 70" (depending on hanging layout), without framing, comprising 5 etchings. Sheet size 17" x 14", image size 13" x 10" 2022 Signed, Editioned, dated and titled in pencil Provenance: From the artist's studio. Sonal is a storyteller. Her primary medium of choice is printmaking, exquisite etchings whose protagonists jump off the page to tell their stories. Like all good narratives that lucidly roll from one tale to the other the artist works in series. Be it her Kissa Goi or her new Vachik stories, each work comprises of many parts, all fitting together as one large work, or, equally as pleasing, as individual works that may or may not speak to each other in any combination of pattern. Sonal lives and works in Lucknow, in India, the City famous for its tradition of Ghazal poetry. In past times the poems were displayed in Diwan's (illustrated books) a calligrapher and artist would be commissioned to illustrate the poems. Sonal references these traditions and we can see traces of this in her contemporary images. Ghazal's delight and employ elements of playfulness, anecdote and surprise. They take their audience on a bitter-sweet journey and Sonal invites us to do the same. The artist explains that in the evenings the women gather on the roof terraces of her town to tell the tales that are passed down. These are stories that primarily revolve around the woman and their everyday role in a patriarchal society. These tales become mixed with the contemporary, both local and global events that effect the lives of the women. At first glance there is an anecdotal quality to the visual narratives but look a little longer and you will be rewarded by layer upon layer of meaning. Through the clever use of text and images of objects which may at first appear to be dislocated, each part of the image pulls together the narrative, expanding it into many different levels. In Sonal's own words, This work is very close to my heart, a lot of emotions are attached to this work. Some such feelings that awakened for the first time and they were priceless. I have lived that time, felt it very closely, whatever happened to me at that time, I have tried my best to make it work. Kajal has a very important role, when there are children and grandmothers complete it, it is said that by applying Kajal in the eyes of the children, the eyes become bigger. Which we call Nazarota which is a small iron vessel. Kashmiri shawls...