In the absence of human complication - a selection of landscapes by Konstantin Somov

 

In the Park of Versailles, 1894.

Like so many of his artist contemporaries, members of the Mir Iskusstva group, Somov produced work in a wide range of subject matter. Whether in pencil, charcoal, chalk, or in watercolor, gouache, tempera, and oil, he was incredibly prolific, creating countless portraits, historicist genre scenes, book illustrations, work for the theater, interiors, still-lives, erotica. And he certainly painted landscapes, but when he did they were almost always peopled with frolicking, overdressed - or underdressed - ladies, or passionate lovers from mythology; Nature was only a backdrop for the human pageant. So I was delighted to find these examples of straightforward, masterful - and humanless - landscape paintings.

Landscape with Grey Clouds, 1897.

 Overgrown Pond, 1899.

Bosquet, 1901.

Ploughland, 1900.

 A Path Between the Birch Trees, 1914.

Landscape with Lake, 1896.

Green Slope on the Road. Martyshkino, 1902.

Rainbow I, 1908.

Oranienbaum, 1901.

Forest, 1900.

Twilight. Evening Landscape with a Lilac Bush on the Right, 1921.

Autumn in the Park at Versailles, 1898.

After the Rain, 1896.

Landscape, 1908.

Summer Landscape, 1900.

A Clearing by the Lake, 1908.

Before Sundown, 1900.

Woodland, 1903.

Edge of the Forest. Ligovo, 1894.

Garden, 1897.

Summer Twilight. Pond, 1897.

Grove by the Sea, 1900.

The Grand Staircase, Gardens of Versailles, 1897. (The western of the Escaliers des Cent Marches that flank the Orangerie.)

And then sometimes a few people aren't so bad....

Twilight in the Old Park, 1897.

Bathers, 1899.

Encore les hommes - portraits and self-portraits

Portrait of a Young Man, by Cornelis de Zeeuw, 1565

Simon Pauquet, "inspecteur des ponts et chaussées", by Henri-Pierre Danloux, circa 1785.

Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

Portrait of Monsieur Allard, by Léon Bonnat, circa 1880s.

Selbstporträt vor der Litfaßsäule, by Georg Scholz, 1926.

John Carpenter of Mount Tavy, by John Opie, 1807.

 Self-portrait, by Bertalan Székely, 1860.

Heinrich Wilhelm August Georg Pouff, royal Dutch captain, unknown artist, circa 1840s-50s.

Unknown, Belgian, circa mid-nineteenth century. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Orfeusz, by Károly Ferenczy, 1894.

Francis Wright Fabyan Jr., by Philip de László, 1931.

Portrait of a Man (Condottiere Malatesta Baglioni?), by Parmigianino, circa 1535.

Unknown, circa early twentieth century.

Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, X duque de Berwick y XVII duque de Alba, by Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza, 1929.

Doppio Ritratto, by Giorgione, 1502.

Sergei Rachmaninov, by Konstantin Somov, 1925.

Self-portrait, by Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, 1894.

Ulrik Scheffer, by Alexander Roslin, 1763.

Count Platon Zubov, by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder, 1793.

Portrait of a Man (said to be a painting of Sir Henry Guildford), unknown artist, circa 1530-35.

Self-portrait, by Orest Adamovich Kiprensky, 1828.

Manuel Tolsá, by Rafael Ximeno y Planes, circa 1794-1796.

George Bustard Greaves, by George Romney, 1786.

Tyrone Power, by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1936.

Self-portrait, by Howard Norton Cook, circa 1920s-30s.

Mikhail Benois, by Konstantin Korovin, 1926.

Ritratto d’Uomo, by Antonio Mancini, circa late-nineteenth-early-twentieth century.

 Selbstbildnis im Atelier des Künstlers mit Blick auf München, Bernhard Peter von Rausch, 1834.

Unknown, possibly a self-portrait, Austrian School, circa early to mid-eighteenth century.

Unknown, circa late-nineteenth century. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Portrait de jeune homme en redingote, French School, circa 1800.

Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat, by Alexander Roslin, 1764.

Ecce Homo, by José de Ribera, circa 1620.

The courier Nikolai Nesterov, atelier of  Wilhelm Lapré, circa 1882.

Sir Thomas Wharton, by Anthony van Dyck, 1639.

Charles I while Prince of Wales, by Abraham van Blijenberch, circa 1617-20.

Self-portrait, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, circa 1790s.

Unknown, by John Smart, 1793.

King Willem I of The Netherlands, by Matthijs van Bree, 1827.

Portrait of a Man and Dog, by Ignaz Marcel Gaugengigl, circa late-nineteenth century.

Self-portrait, by Giovanni Giacometti, 1889.

Gunnar Elving, unknown photographer, 1921.

Unknown, unknown artist, circa second quarter of the nineteenth century.