Marguerite, Henri Matisse.
I’ve loved this painting for a long time.
Detail from The Hesitant Fiancee, Auguste Toulmouche, 1866.
Another lovely piece from 20th century Russian painter Zinaida Serebriakova.
Her life was completely overturned by the revolution, just six years after this self-portrait. She survived and went on to considerable professional success (and a long life) in France, but weathered more than her share of hardship and heartbreak.
The Fortune-Teller, by Georges de la Tour, painted sometime in the 1630s. I had inadvertently collected prints and postcards of about half of his extant work before realizing it was all from a single source.
Tiny Paintings: Sabriel on Flickr.
Five new tiny paintings up at Flickr!
Another set of comparisons between images with a common subject matter. This time: the biblical tableau of Judith and Holofernes! I love depictions of this scene. It’s a pleasant bit of evil to see a woman inflicting the violence for once.
Depictions are split between the actual beheading and the triumphal head-displaying; I favored the first one, but have included my favorite sassy head-trophy interpretation.
Two self-portraits from painter George F. Watts, at age 17 (in 1834) and at age 77.
Paolo & Francesca from Dante’s Inferno: depictions of the lovers reading a dirty book and falling victim to temptation, shortly before being murdered and subsequently finding themselves damned for, you know. Kissing.
If you want to see them writhing together, borne aloft on the winds of Hell, forever intertwined, well, that’s another Google image search.
In all the ways that count, Matisse was a wonderful cartoonist.
When it comes to his paintings, I always end up thinking of Maira Kalman’s work.
