Your Friday Afternoon Challenge, DUers: The Pathos and Power of Landscape! Plus, a bonus question in

[CTyankee]

in Honor of the RNC!

Landscapes are not always just pretty views. Here are some deeply considered landscapes for you to ponder and identify. And, in response to Special Requests from two DUers, a work featuring an empty chair for you to identify!

and remember the no cheating rule, please...

1. Rubens, A Forest with Dawn at Deer Hunt
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2. Bonnard, Early Spring with Little Fauns
[IMG][/IMG]

3. Hartley, Mountain Lake Autumn 1910
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4. Millet, Spring
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5. Bellini, St. Francis in the Desert
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6. Wood, Stone City
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Bonus question

Wyeth, Early October, Empty Writing Chair 1
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[elleng]

1. Wyeth.

Chair joke, on this 'chair' day???

[CTyankee]

12. Hey, Ellen! Did that wyeth-y window give it away?

[elleng]

15. The whole scene,

including medium, and yes, the light.

[CTyankee]

22. Wyeth and his damn window on an empty room...

OK, alienation coming right up!

[pinboy3niner]

2. I'd like to use one of my Lifelines, CTyankee

I'd like to phone a friend. Before answering the Bonus Question, I want to get input from Clint Eastwood.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. LOL!

We need to rec this up for other DUers to enjoy.

[pinboy3niner]

17. Absolutely!

Do ya feel lucky?

[XemaSab]

3. #2, Van Gogh; #6, Grant Wood?

[cyberswede]

5. Those are the only ones knew...

The Grant Wood is called "Stone City" after the Iowa town where he had an artist colony. I have a 50s print of it hanging above my fireplace.

[CTyankee]

29. I really love this painting...I wonder how he got the scene. Was he up in a plane?

[cyberswede]

44. The area is pretty hilly...

I always thought it was an idealized view of the approach to SC over the crest of a hill.

[jberryhill]

52. It is a reclining nude woman's body

[CTyankee]

6. Right on #6! #2 is not Van Gogh.

[XemaSab]

8. It's one more than I've ever gotten before

[CTyankee]

13. You are great!

I just love this painting...very powerful, IMHO...

[Bluerthanblue]

4. I'm pretty sure I know who did #6

Grant Wood? It looks like his work.

[jberryhill]

7. The last one is "Whistler's Ex Wife"

[CTyankee]

10. Hey, jberryhill, nice to see ya! Where have you been?

Sorry, poor Whistler...he had a rather unfortunate turn of events in his love life...his friend painted his mistress in an er, um, sorta graphic way...oops!

[pinboy3niner]

25. No sex threads in GD!1!!

[CTyankee]

26. Did I post "The Origin of the World"? No, I emphatically didn't...

Me? I'm just a lil ole country girl...

[pinboy3niner]

30. As if you have no idea about the the graphic stuff that turns up in researching your Challenges, lol

And sometimes it's even worse. In looking for the donkey painting today, one of the images my search returned was a photo of Jan Brewer!

[CTyankee]

32. OMG, this donkey painting is so soulful...very powerful stuff!

[jberryhill]

51. Yeah, I live just south of the Brandywine River Museum

We got the entire over-rated talentless Wyeth clan right here.

The whole "Helga" thing was an over-wrought saga here which, IMHO, was entirely manufactured to sell more of their crappy depressing paintings.

[hfojvt]

9. none of them appears to be a Turner

although some of his stuff seems pretty bad too http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/turner/

[Armstead]

11. I'm gonna guess Numbr one is by John Constable

[CTyankee]

14. It does look like Constable...but...

[hifiguy]

18. #3 is Van Gogh. #1 is a Constable.

But I was a poli sci major, so I am probably wrong.

[CTyankee]

20. sorry, no Van Gogh and no Constable, but landscapes are funny that way...

some in the genre look a lot like ones done by another artist in the same genre and era...lots of 17th century Dutch art confuses me that way...

[marions ghost]

19. #3 = Vlaminck?

or one of the other Fauves?....

[CTyankee]

21. not Vlaminck, altho it is a good guess...

this artist dabbled in Fauvism but was not strictly a Fauvist...

[OriginalGeek]

23. Once again I am stymied

but I love the paintings and especially love the bonus question. Our president is looking fine!

Can't wait to find out the answers...

[CTyankee]

24. Fun, isn't it? Two DUers PM'd me andhad pretty much the same suggestion!

I thought, why not?

[CTyankee]

27. BIG HINT so listen up, you guys...

Two of these landscapes "reside" in the permanent collections of two separate museums in New York City...they are close enough to be easily visited in one trip...

[Brickbat]

28. No. 2

Pierre Bonnard, Beginning of Spring.

[CTyankee]

31. Hey, good for YOU! How did you guess or is this one that you like?

[Brickbat]

35. It looked familiar, so exercised some google-fu.

I like a lot of stuff from that era. So modern and old-fashioned at the same time.

[CTyankee]

41. I found the addition of fauns rather charming. I don't know where that comes from though...

Kind of wondering why he added them...any ideas?

[Brickbat]

47. No idea, but they definitely capture the playfulness of the period!

[Brickbat]

33. No. 5

Detail from "St. Francis in the Desert" by Giovanni Bellini.

[pinboy3niner]

37. Thankyou!

That was a tough one, and I had no luck with it.

Well done!

[CTyankee]

38. Do you know this painting?

[Brickbat]

46. Not the way I know some others you've featured -- but enough that I could narrow it down.

[CTyankee]

50. Bellini is considered the premier landscape artist of the Renaissance.

This background detail is wonderful. The painting is part of the Frick's permanent collection, which is an elegant "house" museum on the upper East side of Manhattan. It is a marvel of little details in this and other parts of the painting. I saw it at the Frick last March and was a bit surprised at how small it was (not tiny but not expansive, either). Just for fun, find an enlarged version on Google and check out all of the fine detailed work. It is impressive in its fine artistry but also in its emotional tone, capturing the "moment" St. Francis receives the stigmata. The donkey has perked up his ears, aware that something is up!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

34. Wonderful! I did guess the Wyeth, even though I'd not seen it before.

As for the others? NO Idea, but they are all wonderful.

Thank you, my dear CTyankee!

[CTyankee]

40. thank you for coming by, Peggy! Always great to see you!

We have such a good time, don't we?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

42. We sure do!

Your weekly art threads are something I look forward to a bunch!

[IcyPeas]

36. Is #3 Andre Durain?

[CTyankee]

39. No, Derain was guessed earlier...sorry...

[CTyankee]

43. HINT!

#4 is by a mid 19th century artist...

[cyberswede]

45. Has anyone guessed #3?

It looks like a globbier, brighter/fauvier Cezanne, but not a Cezanne. No idea, I guess .

[horseshoecrab]

48. #4

#4 is Le Printemps (Paysage de printemps avec arc-en-ciel ) by Jean-Francois Millet.

I had never seen this CTyankee. It's beautiful in its placement of light and shows
the tremendous influence that Millet actually had on Monet.


Thanks CTyankee. Good to see you!

[CTyankee]

49. Any thoughts on #1 and #3?

[marions ghost]

53. #3 ???? This is my best guess:

Der Bleue Reiter: Kandinsky, Marc & Kokoschka

So maybe this is by Kandinsky, around the time he was involved with Gabrielle Munter--because it looks a lot like some of Munter's Fauvist work... it is similar to the "Munich Schwabing With The Church Of St Ursula," one of the most famous Wassily Kandinsky paintings.

Am I on the right track?

[CTyankee]

55. No, altho that is an intriguing answer! But this artist is American...

[CTyankee]

66. Actually, this is by Marsden Hartley, not usually known for his Fauvist works but he did

a few. Hartley was one of those late 19/early20th century American artists who went to France and went thru a brief Fauvist period then settled, or he did, into a more realistic idiom. He was fascinated by Cezanne and even rented Cezanne studio in L'estaque to channel him (I guess) and even to do his own rendering of Mt Saint Victoire. It seems several artists of that day were in a swoon over Cezanne...

[horseshoecrab]

64. #3

#3 is Mountain Lake—Autumn by Marsden Hartley.

Found by searching on the terms: fauvism, mountain, lake. Was unfamiliar with this artist and love this bright, bold piece.


Thanks for a great Art Challenge this week CTyankee!

[CTyankee]

58. what led you to this work?

[horseshoecrab]

61. Realism, naturalism and

looking into info about those and the Barbizon school (begun by Millet) mainly. Wondering why this painting reminded me so much of some of Monet's garden paintings.

We've learned, via the Art Challenge, that Millet influenced Van Gogh and last night I learned that he also influenced Monet!

A google image search on "Millet, rainbow, garden" served it right up!

[Baitball Blogger]

54. So, what's the background on the bonus question?

[CTyankee]

56. I didn't have a lot of time to research the bonus question, just to come up with something

fun that we could play with after the Eastwood thing! I tried Dali and Magritte but nothing seemed to "work." So I quite by accident found the Wyeth! It looks like it might be an interesting painting to research and it does have that alienation theme of his going on...

[Baitball Blogger]

57. Thanks! Wyeth. That's something I can research.

Liked the chair. And thanks for setting up these challenges.

[Horse with no Name]

59. #1 Peter Paul Rubens

Here is an interesting excerpt from the internet. "Rubens drew upon the imaginary current in Flemish landscape painting to give his essentially realistic views the look of myth and metaphor. In this case a familiar theme embodies elemental forces such as light and darkness, life and death, growth and decay."

[Horse with no Name]

60. Currently on display at the Metropolititan Museum of Art. Great hint! n/t

[CTyankee]

62. Well, you kinda had to know something about the museums in NYC...but I'm glad it

helped you! I happened to have this stuck away in a computer file I had forgotten about and found it again by accident. Then I remembered why I had liked it so much in the first place. I think Rubens outdoes himself with the emergence of the morning light and some of the details of the background and sky in the upper right hand corner. I do wonder how much of this was done in his workshop, which so famously had a nice stable of talent in the ready to do some background work...

[Horse with no Name]

63. That was pretty common back then wasn't it?

I think this painting is haunting. I do like it.

[CTyankee]

65. I guess it was common if you were very famous and had a "school."

It may be one of the reasons some art historians don't like Rubens...

yes, this work has a "feel" to it that makes you realize again why you go to art in the first place...

[Horse with no Name]

68. I get the feeling that the deer aren't running

but that they are being chased by something. There is a feeling of fear (for me) that comes through on the painting.

[CTyankee]

69. Well, yes, they are being chased by someone in a red coat...I guess a hunter. It IS a

painting of a "hunt." I think that since it is very early morning, the hunter has surprised the deer who are feeding quietly and then have darted away from the danger. It is in the 17th century so you have to wonder what kind of weaponry hunters had available to them...interesting...

[Horse with no Name]

70. LOL I didn't see that.

I really need to wear my glasses more often...

[CTyankee]

71. YOUR glasses! My eyesight is pretty bad too, but I THINK I see some guy in a red coat

chasing the deer...I hope I didn't lead you astray...

[CTyankee]

67. I have posted the answers above the pictures.

#3 is by Marsden Hartley and it is entitled "Mountain Lake Autumn 1910.

Thanks for joining us today! See you next Friday!