Rembrandt van Rijn

Christ seated disputing with the Doctors

1654

"Mlle Landsberg" (grade planche, pl. 16), 1914 Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954) Signed and Numbered Lower Right Edition 12/15 Image size: 7 7/8 x 4 5/16 inches Sheet size: 17 11/16 x 12 1/2 inches With frame: 19 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches Henri Matisse came from a family who were of Flemish origin and lived near the Belgian border. At eight o'clock on the evening of December 31, 1869, he was born in his grandparents' home in the town of Le Cateau in the cheerless far north of France. His father was a self-made seed merchant who was a mixture of determination and tightly coiled tension. Henri had no clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life. He was a twenty-year-old law clerk convalescing from appendicitis when he first began to paint, using a box of colors given to him by his mother. Little more than a year later, in 1890, he had abandoned law and was studying art in Paris. The classes consisted of drawing from plaster casts and nude models and of copying paintings in the Louvre. He soon rebelled against the school's conservative atmosphere; he replaced the dark tones of his earliest works with brighter colors that reflected his awareness of Impressionism. Matisse was also a violinist; he took an odd pride in the notion that if his painting eye failed, he could support his family by fiddling on the streets of Paris. Henri found a girlfriend while studying art, and he fathered a daughter, Marguerite, by her in 1894. In 1898 he married another woman, Amelie Parayre. She adopted the beloved Marguerite; they eventually had two sons, Jean, a sculptor and Pierre who became an eminent art dealer. Relations between Matisse and his wife were often strained. He often dallied with other women, and they finally separated in 1939 over a model who had been hired as a companion for Mme. Matisse. She was Madame Lydia, and after Mme. Matisse left, she remained with Matisse until he died. Matisse spent the summer of 1905 working with Andre Derain in the small Mediterranean seaport of Collioure. They began using bright and dissonant colors. When they and their colleagues exhibited together, they caused a sensation. The critics and the public considered their paintings to be so crude and so roughly crafted that the group became known as Les Fauves (the wild beasts). By 1907, Matisse moved on from the concerns of Fauvism and turned his attention to studies of the human figure. He had begun to sculpt a few years earlier. In 1910, when he saw an exhibition of Islamic art, he was fascinated with the multiple patterned areas and adapted the decorative universe of the miniatures to his interiors. As a continuation of his interest in the "exotic", Matisse made extended trips to Morocco in 1912 and 1913. At the end of 1917, Matisse moved to Nice; he would spend part of each year there for the remainder of his life. A meticulous dandy, he wore a light tweed jacket amd a tie when he painted. He never used a palette, but instead squeezed his colors on to plain white kitchen dishes...

Dame Laura Knight "The Circus Dressing Room" 1925 Etching Ed. 20 Signed Lower Right Image Size: approx. 14 x 10 inches Framed Size: approx. 23.5 x 17.75 inches An English impressio...

John William Hill (1812-1879) "Boston" 1857 Hand-Colored Engraving Site Size: 29 x 41 inches Framed Size: 39 x 52 inches Born in London, England, John William Hill came to America with his family at age 7. His father, John Hill, was a well-known landscape painter, engraver, and aquatintist. John William had a career of two phases, a city topographer-engraver and then, the leading pre-Rafaelite school painter in this country. Employed by the New York Geological Survey and then by Smith Brothers...

Aquating Engraving Image Size: Approx 19 x 15.5 Framed Size: Approx. 28.5 x 24.5 William Albert Ablett (1877 - 1937) Although born to English parents, William Ablett lived in Par...

An original mixed media Photo Etching, Aquatint and Drypoint Printed on Arches Cover titled Leap Fail Leap, created by the artistic collaboration of Robert Flemming and Mizin Shin. ...

Etching, drypoint, and roulette on watermarked Hallines cream laid paper, 3 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches (95 x 148 mm), full margins. A very good impression of this charming image, with all of...

A dynamic football image from the 1920s by a female artist known for her sports scenes. Etching with drypoint on exceptionally fine laid Japon paper with a double watermark, 10 7/8 ...

Paris: Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1856. Drypoint etching on cream laid paper, 4 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches (124 x 245 mm), full margins. In good condition with light uniform age tone. Fourth s...