CEZANNE & DE KOONING These two pieces start in very different places, but because of a similar attitude about surface, the results are strikingly similar. Both begin with white tones held together by intermittent black lines. Both employ the same palette: green, red, orange, and blue, although the predominance of greens and reds is reversed. […]

ARTHUR DEVIS The portraits of Arthur Devis  (1712 – 1787)  can seem quaint when compared with grander portrait styles, but they are less convention-bound, and have their own curious vision. The spaces are large and dim, and get paler as you look into the farther rooms. The views visible through the windows are just like […]

I’ve tended not to take Audubon’s bird illustrations seriously, but lately—at last—I’ve begun to appreciate both his sense of drama and the abstract power of his designs. So like Kline. Not just an illustrator, not at all.

GLORIOUS DECORATION This fuzzy file from Wikipedia is the only image I’ve seen for this painting by Peter Kobler von Ehrensorg  (1746), but the delight here is not the details, but the unbridled luxury of the design. The two figures float on a field of black and near-black. The emperor almost disappears into a flurry of […]