Bernard

Though he was a friend and artistic contemporary of my beloved Vincent, no matter how much I try, I just can't get into the work of Emile Bernard. I think it might be because so much of it is virtually identical in style and subject to Gauguin's work and we all know how I feel about that. When I look at most of Bernard's canvases, all I see is Gauguin. Vincent was so smitten with Bernard's brush that he not only made copies of his friend's works, but in letters to Theo he implored his brother to promote Bernard's new style of art. This, I guess, shouldn't be surprising as Vincent also thought Gauguin was brilliant. Uh-hunh. At any rate, this is one of the few pieces of Emile Bernard that I really do like. A lot. The juxtaposition between the field of green and the boy's fiery red hair is beautiful, and startling. Its simplicity is a joy. And oh yeah, it looks nothing like a Gauguin.

Boy Sitting in the Grass, 1886

Bram Sitting

Portrait of Bram Sitting, graphite on paper, 2010

Pissarro's Montmartre

There's something about the compulsive artist's penchant for painting the same subject over and over again in different light and in different seasons, ad nauseum, that's very appealing to me. Monet was the master of this, creating no less than 25 canvases of haystacks in less than a year and more than 30 of Rouen Cathedral. But by far, he wasn't the only artist to relentlessly work a subject. There are countless artists known for their need to wring every nuance from a location, an object or a portrait subject, but one of those not necessarily known for this is Pissarro. Granted, he returned again and again to a broader subject, especially in his etchings of peasants, and though he often painted the same scenes from various angles, he's generally not known for painting the same location again and again, from the same vantage point and identical except for the light, the weather or the seasons. But when he was diagnosed with a chronic infection of the tear duct, he was no longer able to paint outdoors on location due to wind and dust, and so spent most of his time painting landscapes and cityscapes from indoors looking out through the windows. While in a Paris hotel in 1897 and 1898, among the numerous works he completed of the city, he painted multiple canvases of Montmartre from the exact same vantage point in every season in all weathers: sunlight, rain, fog, and at all hours of the day and night. Most critics believe that these Paris works are among his most brilliant and well-executed and I would have to agree. While not a huge fan of Camille Pissarro's works, these are truly breathtaking and like Monet's many series of nearly identical works, these thrill me simply for their relentless consistency.

Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning, 1897

Boulevard Montmartre Au Printemps, 1897

Boulevard Montmartre La Nuit, 1898

Encaustics VII

I devour nature ceaselessly. I exaggerate, sometimes I make changes in the subject: but still I don't invent the whole picture. On the contrary, I find it already there. It's a question of picking out what one wants from nature.

-Vincent van Gogh

Monet and Renoir

Two paintings of the same scene by Monet and Renoir, painted at Monet's riverside home in the village of Argenteuil, and almost identical in size and vantage point, but each visually distinct from the other. I used to think I preferred Renoir's lighter, airier take on the river, but now I think I like Monet's darker, moodier version more.

Claude Monet, La Grenouillere, 1869

Pierre Auguste Renoir, La Grenouillere, 1869