The Lonely Rationalist Posted October 20, 2009 Report Share Posted October 20, 2009 Well, I've decided, for emotional fuel, to buy myself a painting for my room. However, due to price concerns, I'm only considering the paintings that are currently listed on sites such as the Art Renewal Center, where I can get paintings for around $200. Much as I am consumed with admiration for some of the paintings on the Quent Cordair Art Gallery, I simply can't afford them. Therefore, I'd like to ask you all: What are a few of your absolute favorite old paintings? I've looked through many, and the one that currently strikes me as the most beautiful is "The Fisherman and the Siren," by Frederick Leighton (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=311). So I implore you, post the paintings of the 19th century here that you love! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecherry Posted October 20, 2009 Report Share Posted October 20, 2009 Out of copyright stuff from the 1800's so you could get decent prices on prints? I've seen lots of nice things by John William Waterhouse. That wiki link shows lots of paintings by him. He has lots of paintings of scenes from stories and such. He did some nice ones of scenes from a poem I really like ( which I did a damn good paper analyzing last fall ) called The Lady of Shallot which is by Tennyson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intellectualammo Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 (edited) Out of copyright stuff from the 1800's so you could get decent prices on prints? I've seen lots of nice things by John William Waterhouse. That wiki link shows lots of paintings by him. He has lots of paintings of scenes from stories and such. He did some nice ones of scenes from a poem I really like ( which I did a damn good paper analyzing last fall ) called The Lady of Shallot which is by Tennyson. This was going to be my very fisrt suggestion. I recently discovered one of his paintings in an interesting way, but it's his Hylas and the Nymphs. Love it! And his Narcissus and Echo, is the very best painting ever done of the two that I have seen. Aslo, I love these paintings which I think is the best that I have ever seen of Pygmalion and Galatea, painted by Jean-Leon Gerome: These characters are all from Ovid's Metamorphoses, these tales of which are of profound significane to me. Not a day goes by that I don't think of them - because I'm living recontexualizations of them. But, anyways, I'm sure you can find prints that are reasonably priced. I'm the proud owner of the first printing of Bryan Larson's Monna Vanna from QCFA, I'd purchase more works from them, but right now my artistic tastes are for silicone sculptures... I also don't own any of the above painting prints. I'd like to get them, but... I also would love to have this color verson of the Dickinson daguerreotype, painted by Dr. Guillermo Cuellar: Nice prices too! : http://www.gcuellar.com/store1.php Edited October 21, 2009 by intellectualammo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecherry Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 (edited) Oh hey, I recognize that first Pygmalion. So that's who painted it. My former roommate in my second year of school had a nice printed copy of that she hung up in our room. Edited October 21, 2009 by bluecherry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intellectualammo Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 (edited) Oh hey, I recognize that first Pygmalion. So that's who painted it. My former roommate in my second year of school had a nice printed copy of that she hung up in our room. Interesting, because there was another painting that I had seen done of Pyg, that I liked, but for like two years, I never knew the painter's name. FRUSTRATING isn't it? When someone online elsewhere mentioned the painter, when discussing painting that we love, I looked them up, and BAM! it was that painting!!! I also found that it is in a series of paintings of Pyg and Galatea. Take a look: The Heart Desires The Hand Refrains The Godhead Fires In The Soul Attains http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/?p=203# What I find cool that I noticed before, is that when put them in order and together, their titles comprise a stanza: The Heart Desires The Hand Refrains The Godhead Fires In The Soul Attains The first one in the series was the one I had found previously, and it is important what looks like is going through his mind in this scene. At first, with the size of it, a smaller one I had initially found, I thought it was some digital art, not a real painting. Boy was I surprised when I came upon it again! What a treat! I did some research into this story through the years, what other writers, playwrights, have done with this story, just to make sure that mine wasn't already written. It was not. I identified with this story from the beginning, because my writing came before I knew anything about P&G, which was f'ing cool when I found it, so it naturally, organically developed, then I paralleled it some more. And while I was finding that series when discussing paintings with her, I had come across one that I had never ever seen before, and it's a beauty: 'Pygmalion and Galatea' by Ernest Normand: Edited October 21, 2009 by intellectualammo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecherry Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 Interesting. That may well have been on purpose with the titles. That's nice how in the third one the dress seems to almost disappear into water. Nice detail on that bottom picture too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intellectualammo Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 (edited) Interesting. That may well have been on purpose with the titles. That's nice how in the third one the dress seems to almost disappear into water. Nice detail on that bottom picture too. Yes, I think that the series, captures some of the story in those 4 stills, (particularily the first) quite well, of Ovid's. I've never seen any of him and his Gal in bed though. My favorite translation, the one I go by primarily is a Roolfe Humphries translation. I recently read one done by Ted Hughes, but I didn't like it as much as how the former translation tells the tales. (Hughes I can't understand his poetry, save for the wonderful collection Birthday Letters well worth reading for me) I read one or two other translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses too. As a note, the lovely Lisa VanDamme over at Pedigogically Correct wrote about Shaw's play Pygmalion, a play of which I of course read a while after finding out about P&G. Her entry is the Oct. 9, 2008 one, titled A Pygmalion of the Soul, (the phrase of which she had gotten from V. Hugo) which can be found here: http://www.pedagogicallycorrect.com/ Edited October 21, 2009 by intellectualammo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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