Monday, November 27, 2023

narcissus and self portraiture ... do people paint or photograph their own reflections out of self-love ? or are they motivated by vanity ? most likely, i'm guessing, they are motivated by anxiety ... whatever the connections, it seems more than just an idle speculation to begin a little scrapbook of artists who engage with the narcissus myth, not always consciously ... some will flatter themselves ... there have been some artists who seemed to confront themselves ...












nicolas poussin

https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010062516
















https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Poussin

















https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio

















https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Sick_Bacchus













https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Feibusch




























salvador dali metamorphosos of narcissus, 1937

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD




























https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Lorrain

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-landscape-with-narcissus-and-echo































https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Freud





































https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Picart

































https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Joseph_Solomon


















UH-OH !  ... GONNA DEVIATE SLIGHTLY 
















Aegidius Sadeler II engraved this image of Narcissus waving at his own reflection in exaggerated amazement after a design by Bart. Spranger, but I am unable to find the original Spranger work.

Sadeler knew Spranger and portrayed him in a rather fantastic ( I've always loved it ) allegory showing Spranger in mourning with an image of his recently deceased wife.












I don't think Sadeler ever made a self-portrait but Spranger's own delicate self-portrait is full of life ... and sorrow, perhaps.

















I have a question ... Does any telling of the Narcissus myth record a direct conversation between him and those persons who watch nearby ?

If the event took place at all, might he have been involved in some deeper mystery ... for instance making some conjectures about the mysteries of transparency and refraction and reflection ?

I'm just asking for a friend.


LATER ...


to my surprise, neither George Tooker, nor Paul Cadmus seem to have engaged with the myth of Narcissus


Some people speculate that David Hockney's 1972 painting, Portrait of an Artist ( Pool with Two Figures ) might be a variation on the theme ... but it seems more co-incidental than purposeful
























here is an article about JESS, a gay artist who tackled the theme in his most well-known paste-up, NARKISSOS

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/a-one-sided-love-story-9-artworks-based-on-the-myth-of-narcissus-55394




































charles le brun, the king's painter in paris, provided the sketches for the engravers

he looks very pleased with himself ( rightfully ) in this self-portrait ...














... to be continued ...


Saturday, November 18, 2023

THE SIXTH SENSE ... balance and movement... or gravity and acceleration ... and some artist's endeavours ...


 








https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense

















paul klee














goya














domenico tiepolo

















pablo picasso 1906















unknown artist c/o library of congress

















georges seurat

















clarence carter

















a plaque in the walters museum

















gilroy

















raeburn's painting of the reverend scott















domenico tiepolo

















sir john tenniel 



























unknown artist in china, late 18th C

















artist as yet unknown ... to be researched later

















sir john tenniel, alice ...

















artist to come later ...

















artist to come later ...

















wilkinson ???, 1940s

















karel dujardin, 1663















charles avery, 2020














camille hilaire, 1974













poussin, blind orion, date ????

















remedios varo, 1964,  naturaleza muerta resucitando

















eberhard schlotter,   don quixote,    1983
















anthony groves-raines, 1939

















lizzie riches, 2018

















gino severini,  1928





... to be continued ...