A god in the gutter - the Hercules of Bordeaux, circa end of the 2nd - beginning of the 3rd century

 

Cast in a copper alloy, the figure in its present state is roughly five feet tall and weighs nearly two hundred pounds. 

The so-called Hercules of Bordeaux was discovered in 1832 in a sewer of a house at the entrance of the impasse Saint-Pierre. As found, it was broken into about twenty pieces. Restored and reassembled for the first time in 1865, and again in 1878, it was only in 1963 that it underwent its definitive restoration. It is preserved in the collection of the Musée d'Aquitaine, and is one of the very few large Roman bronzes preserved in France.

Mythology's great strong man is easily identified by the fragment of lion skin wrapped around his left forearm, the skin of the the Lion of Nemea, which he slew as the first of his "Twelve Labors." It's assumed that he held his club - his signature accoutrement - in his left hand, while he probably lifted a cup of ambrosia, the symbol of his immortality, in the other hand. 

The discernable pose and the figure's modeling show the influence of earlier Greek classical sculpture, particularly the aesthetic principles of the great Lysippos. Additionally, a comparison with certain portraits of Septimius Severus styled as Hercules have led some to consider this as a possible symbolic representation of the Roman emperor.

A fine Amsterdam couple - Cornelis Ploos van Amstel and Elisabeth Troost, by George van der Mijn, 1758

These are the wedding portraits of Amsterdam art collector Cornelis Ploos van Amstel and Elisabeth Troost, the daughter of the painter Cornelis Troost. The bride was a surprisingly mature - for the time - twenty-eight years old at the time of the marriage, and the couple had been acquainted for some years, as the groom was a collector of her father’s work. Interestingly, the drawing that Ploos van Amstel is holding in his portrait is said to be the work of Van der Mijn’s brother Frans. Both paintings are in the collection of the Mauritshuis.

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George van der Mijn (1723, London - 1763, Amsterdam), Dutch painter of portraits and genre works. The son of the painter Herman van der Mijn, he was born in London after his father had moved there. Besides his father, his brothers Robert, Frans, Andreas, and Gerard, as well as their sister Cornelia, were all artists. He studied with his father, after whose death he became a pupil of his elder brother Frans. He moved to Amsterdam with Frans and remained there until his death at the age of just forty. His early death accounts for the small size of his oeuvre.

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I somehow managed to confuse the authors of these portraits and first wrote a biographical sketch of George's brother Frans. I'm very glad I caught the goof in time. But since I was able to find a bit more information on this other brother - and he did seem rather more interesting - I'm sharing the thing, anyway... out of plain stubbornness! 

Frans van der Mijn (1719, Düsseldorf - 1783, London), Dutch portrait painter. The son of painter Herman van der Mijn, he was born in Düsseldorf, where his father had gone to work for Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. He spent most of his career in England working as a portraitist, both in London and the country. He also worked in Amsterdam from 1742 until 1748, and then The Hague before returning to England; he sent a painting in to the London Society of Artists each year from1761 to 1772. In 1808, he was described in Edward Edwards' "Anecdotes of Painters" as having: "considerable merit as an artist, but was of mean address and vulgar manners: He loved smoking and drinking, nor would forego his pipe, though it was offensive to his employers, so that he never acquired the practice which he might otherwise have obtained. He boasted, that after he had painted a portrait, the likeness remained so strong upon his memory, that if the picture were immediately obliterated, he could repaint the resemblance without the assistance of the sitter." He is said to have died, impoverished, at the age of sixty-three or sixty-four.

Struggle and release - two etchings by Erich Wolfsfeld

The Bound Man, circa 1907-1909.

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Three Archers, circa 1910-19.

(This detail is from a different "pull" of the etching.)

Study for or variation on "Three Archers," circa 1910-19.

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Self-portrait, circa 1910.

Erich Wolfsfeld (27 April 1884, Krojanke/Krajenka, Prussia/Poland - 29 March 1956, London), German etcher, painter, and teacher. After spending his childhood in Berlin, from 1902 to 1913, he studied at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts where he focused, particularly, on printmaking. He also studied in Rome and London, as well as in Paris at the Académie Julien under Jules Lefebvre. In 1910 or 1911 he won the Kaiser Wilhelm Gold Medal. By 1914 he had exhibited in Berlin, Leipzig, and Vienna to good notices, but his early success was interrupted by the First World War. Serving in the German army as an officer and a trainer of military police dogs, he was still able to work during his service, and produced a number of drawings of military subjects. After the war, in 1920, he was appointed professor of painting and etching at Berlin Academy, where his pupils included the painter Lotte Laserstein. He also travelled widely in North Africa and the Middle East, frequently depicting Arab subjects. He held his professorship at the Academy until 1936, when he was forced out due to his Jewish origins. Three years later, he fled to Britain, joining his wife who had preceded him there. In August of that year Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield opened a solo exhibition of his work, only to cancel it two days later owing to Britain's entry into the Second World War. The following June he was among a large number of German-born artists interned on the Isle of Man. After his release, he initially resettled in Sheffield, then moved to London. He went on to hold various exhibitions in England, and was an associate member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, exhibiting frequently in its shows, as well as with the Royal Academy of Arts. Several exhibitions of his work have been held since his death in London at the age of seventy-one.

Blumenstillleben - flower paintings by Franz Xaver Wolf

 

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Franz Xaver Wolf (11 June 1896, Vienna - 1989), Austrian painter and engraver. Little is known about his early life, but he attended the Fine Art Academy in Vienna before moving to Germany to study at the Munich Academy. There he became part of the Munich School of genre and landscape painters, and was known for his highly detailed genre paintings featuring clerics or figures in costumes, and for his flower paintings. As well as working in oil, he was also a skilled engraver and produced a number of etchings. He had returned to Vienna by the time he married in 1928. And by 1955, he was reported as resident in the city of his birth and still earning his living as a successful artist.

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(The image quality of some of the paintings I've shared here is not up to my usual standards. And, actually, there were more of Wolf's paintings that I very much wanted to include, but what was available online was even poorer. Sometimes the great bounty of the internet yet manages to disappoint....)