Oscar Halle

Oscar Halle's painting The Spinner 1897

1897

The figure of the Magdalene emerges from the darkness, leaning to follow the curve of the stone support; it is depicted vaulted with an interrogative air towards the dark, as if in an attitude of listening, the left hand raised and the other leaning on the "memento mori" very shortened. In front of her a scourge and the jar of ointment. Painted en pendant, Saint John the Baptist is depicted as a young man, with a lamb at his feet, in his hand the processional cross with the banner "exception agnus dei", while with his right hand he draws from the source of water, recalling the episode that will see Jesus Christ baptized. In both paintings the figures stand out in a strong and incisive way thanks to the black that characterizes the slate plate on which they are depicted. Historical-critical analysis: We are faced with two examples of oil painting on stone. The beginnings of this particular technique are to be placed in the first half of the sixteenth century: after some fifteenth-century experiments it is with Sebastiano del Piombo that the genre takes hold in the sixteenth century. There were different types of support used, also linked to their availability: amethyst, marble in various colors, alabaster and blackboard. The reasons underlying this technical choice refer to Renaissance artistic theories: it is no coincidence that the painter who most often experimented with oil painting on marble...

Allegory of Asia: a cassocked woman, with a blue cloth edged with gold, is lying on a triclinium, in her right hand she holds a crown of flowers; her gaze is turned upwards, her head encircled by a diadem of flowers. Next to her bed there is a censer and a gilded vase carved with cherubs, filled with flowers; scattered at her feet are roses, pearl and coral necklaces...

Oil on Canvas. Central-Italian school of the late 17th-early 18th century. The composition proposes a female bust in the center, portrayed as if it were a sculptural effigy, because ...

Oil on Canvas. Signed lower right. The god is depicted standing to fill the scene, clad only in a cloth that encircles his loins and by ivy leaves, placed on the hips and on his hea...

“My Other Side” is 48”x 36”. This is an earlier piece by Arnold from the estate of a late collector of his work. This piece is predominantly shades of red from light to almost black....

"236 Found" is 72” x 60”. The sienna, umber and yellow figures on a neutral field are criss-crossed with chaotic, incised strokes through the impasto surface. Arnold’s paintings exhi...

PARO is a range of Blues and White with a central single winged figure and large characters in broad strokes. Frank Arnold is one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and scu...

“Moving 5” is 60”x 48”. The vibrant yellow surface tones of this piece are broken in several places allowing random glimpses of Arnold’s dreamlike underpainting for a multi-dimension...