Mark Beard

Man with Towel (Figurative Oil Painting of Muscular Male Nude with White Towel)

Academic style figurative oil painting on canvas 48 x 24 inches unframed 58 x 32 x 3 inches in gold leaf wood frame This vertical, contemporary figurative painting of Le Martyr de Saint Sebastian was made by Mark Beard under his fictitious artistic persona, Hippolyte-Alexandre Michallon. Painted in a modern Academic style, Beard paints this Christian saint with dramatic detail and emotional gravity. The scene is a common artistic depiction of Sebastian who according to traditional belief, was killed during the Roman emperor Diocletian's persecution of the Christians. Here the artist depicts a nearly nude Saint Sebastian standing stoically while tied to a rustic brown post. A lush green forested terrain decorates the background while a white neo-classical building sits in the distance, which is perhaps the tomb where Saint Sebastian's remains were laid to rest. Saint Sebastian's pale blue-grey, stone-like stone tone is characteristic of Mark Beard's work who often portrays muscular young men similarly to Greek statues. The vertical Academic style figurative oil painting is complimented with a vintage style gold leaf wood frame. The painting is signed 'H. A. Michallon 1872' in red oil paint in the lower right corner. The gold frame is also signed and inscribed with black oil paint in several places (please see images). Mark Beard is a contemporary artist who made this work under the pseudonym Hippolyte A. Michallon who painted during the late 1800's so slight wear (see images) is intentionally staged to align with the factitious artist's purposed history. About the artist: Mark Beard is perhaps the most literal example of an artist pulled in so many different directions that he chose to “invent” six different personae in which to channel his overflowing energy and need for expression. Each painting style is radically different from the next, so it remains entirely believable that the work could stem from six completely different people of different time periods and different schools of thought. With a background in set design, Beard has always been one who could conjure total magic with anything available. Mark Beard has exhibited with Carrie Haddad Gallery for nearly twenty years and there has never been a dull moment. Mark Beard, born in 1956 in Salt Lake city, now lives in New York City. His works are in museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; and the Harvard, Yale, and Princeton University Art Museums; among many others. We would not be the least bit surprised to see new ‘personas’ emerge in the coming years. About: Hippolyte - Alexandre Michallon, 1849 -1930 The long and peripatetic artistic career of Hippolyte-Alexandre Michallon began in a conventional fashion. The only son of prosperous bourgeois parents in Tours, he first studied drawing with his mother, an accomplished amateur painter of insects. His father, an undertaker who appreciated his son's talent and supported his ambition to become a painter, sent him to Paris at age sixteen to enroll in the studio of Francois-Edouard Picot (1786-1868), an eminent history painter and professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, with whom he studied for three years, until Picot's death. Under his aging teacher's guidance and tutelage, Michallon entered the preliminary stages of the Prix de Rome contest at the Ecole three times, winning an Honorable Mention in 1869 for his composition entitled The Solider of the Marathon. For the next twenty years Michallon regualarly exhibited paintings on historical and biblical themes at the Paris Salon, as well as commissioned portraits. By his own account, the most ambitious work of Michallon's career was a thirty-foot canvas depicting Noah's Ark, which he exhibited in the Salon in 1875. Michallon began painting atmospheric but zoologically correct images of exotic animals in the wild. These achieved a certain popularity among French and foreign collectors alike, providing Michallon with financial security for the first time in his career. Michallon moved to England in 1893. His outstanding technical skills easily earned him a position on the faculty of the Slade School of Art in 1900. The craze for animal paintings proved short-lived. He continued to teach at Slade for the next two decades, but his classes gradually dwindled in size as the academic approach and methods he espoused went from outmoded to downright unpopular. Finally in 1922, finding himself reduced to a single pupil, the talented young American Bruce Sargeant, he retired from Slade, persuading Sargeant to leave with him and undergo private instruction at home. Several years later he retired to a cottage at St. Ives, Cornwall, where he lived quietly until his death in 1930, forgotten by all but a few former students, among them Edith Thayer Cromwell...

Horizontal figurative photo-realist painting of women swimming in an aqua blue pool "Weightless, Timeless," painted by Hudson Valley artist, Samantha French, is 2019 oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches Sides are cleanly painted white so additional framing is optional Excellent condition and ready to hang as is This photorealist figurative painting captures a peaceful water scene of a women leisurely floating in a crisp, aqua blue pool. The sunlight reflecting off their sun kissed skin complements the cool color palette, making for a serene visual experience. The brush work is highly detailed with little texture (impasto) on the surface. The horizontal painting on canvas is currently unframed and has clean, white painted sides, so additional framing is optional. About the Artist: Born and raised in north central Minnesota, Samantha French graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2005. French’s current body of work explores the idea of escape, the tranquility and nostalgia for the lazy summer days of her childhood. The series is inspired by Samantha’s own reflections and memories of her childhood summers spent in the lakes of Northern Minnesota. French actively exhibits her paintings and is included in many private and public collections throughout the country while her work has garnered extensive international and national press. She is a full-time painter and keeps a studio in New York’s Hudson Valley. "My current body of work is focused on swimmers underwater and above. Using vague yet consuming memories from my childhood summers spent immersed in the tepid lakes of northern Minnesota, I attempt to recreate the quiet tranquility of water and nature; of days spent sinking and floating, still and peaceful. These paintings are a link to my home and continual search for the feeling of the sun on my face and warm summer days at the lake. They are my escape, a subtle reprieve from the day-to-day. At the same time, I am drawn to an idealistic time before my own, where swim caps and wool swimsuits were commonplace. This combination of memory, observation and photography has allowed me to preserve the transitory qualities of water and remembrance." Artist Resume: 2019 Winter Swim, Rubine Red...

Colorful faux-naive style figurative painting on canvas of two figures abroad a boat in blue waters 'Prom Night on the Deck', painted by self taught artist...

Realistic figurative oil painting on canvas of a lone man working on an industrial construction site with a rust red backdrop Palette is composed of grey gunmetal, deep rust red, black, mulberry, and golden yellow Men at Work #5, painted by Allan Skriloff, ca. 1980's 42 x 54 x 2.5 inches with a custom steel frame Excellent condition, ready to hang as is Skriloff shines a glorified light on the muscles of men in hard hats that sweat and contort aboard an oil rig, elevating blue worker brawniness to an other-worldly status. This figurative painting highlights the beauty found in the every day. Scenes one might overlook are given careful attention by the artist's trained eye. A lone worker is captured behind a foreground of metal bars against a backdrop of rest red. Shadow's cast by the man's hard hat allude to his anonymity. The piece is complemented with a custom thin steel floater frame, is in excellent condition, and ready to hang as is. About "Men at Work:" While on a trip to Australia, I was in Alice Spring. Where I took an excursion to Palm Valley. My tour guide mentioned there was gas fields in a remote section of the Outback. I said I'd love to go there and he replied, "no worries, Mate - we'll get you there.” He happened to be a pilot and we flew in his prop plane...

Realistic figurative oil painting on canvas of men working at a construction site Neutral palette with pops of mulberry and sky blue Men at Work II, painted by Allan Skriloff, ca. 1980's 42 x 54 x 3 inches with a custom steel frame Excellent condition, ready to hang as is Skriloff shines a glorified light on the muscles of men in hard hats that sweat and contort aboard an oil rig, elevating blue worker brawniness to an other-worldly status. This figurative painting highlights the beauty found in the every day. Scenes one might overlook are given careful attention by the artist's trained eye. Tanned skin and muscles glistening with sweat radiate in the summer sun while shadows on the construction site and men's faces contrast in the background. The piece is complemented with a custom thin steel floater frame, is in excellent condition, and ready to hang as is. About "Men at Work:" While on a trip to Australia, I was in Alice Spring. Where I took an excursion to Palm Valley. My tour guide mentioned there was gas fields in a remote section of the Outback. I said I'd love to go there and he replied, "no worries, Mate - we'll get you there.” He happened to be a pilot and we flew in his prop plane...

WPA style figurative painting of a "Adam & Eve" in pink dress and blue shirt with suspenders, and red snake "Adam and Eve in Twickenham", painted by Mark Beard aka 'Edith Thayer Cromwell...

ABOUT the artist: Audrey Frank Anastasi is a prolific feminist artist, working in painting, drawing, collage, mixed media, & printmaking. She is also curator, gallerist, educator and arts advocate. Most of Ms. Anastasi's figurative works are painted with her non-dominant left hand. She has created large bodies of works of birds, animals and birch trees. She has had 20 solo & 200 group shows. Her "ref-u-gee" series will be shown in 2020 at Medgar Evers College in collaboration with the Valentine Museum of Art, Brooklyn. Accompanying the show will be a limited-edition monograph w/ over 180 images and a foreword by Phyllis Braff. Ms. Anastasi's collage series was exhibited at Welancora Gallery, Brooklyn, in May, 2019. In 2018, ten paintings were exhibited in "Painting to Survive," curated by Yale critic Jonathan Weinberg. Book and catalog publications include "Stations of the Cross", SPQR press, BREUCKELEN magazine, “Audrey Frank Anastasi”, catalog essay Cindy Nemser, and "Collage," essay by Giancarlo T. Roma. Public art includes a portrait of Jo Davidson...

Bernard Krigstein (March 22, 1919 – January 8, 1990) was an American illustrator and Ashscan school painter who received acclaim for his innovative a...

HELENE Size: 55.5 x 38.5 cm (including frame) Oil on canvas A brilliant modernist-style figurative painting of a nude, executed in oil and dated 1961. The composition captures a st...

2023, Oil on canvas

Mango has always been my favorite fruit; it's soft and looks like a heart. I still love it. Two women hold on to it, and the trees around them spread like ribs. Sometimes, feelings t...

This painting was born out of darkness. I painted the canvas black because I didn't want to look inside myself. It's always very painful. The woman's arm appears broken and a bit lar...