Portraits by Pietro Annigoni

Margaret Rawlings, actress, 1951.

Pietro Annigoni (June 7, 1910, Milan – October 28, 1988, Florence), Italian painter, much influenced by the artists of the Italian Renaissance, who became internationally famous for his 1954-5 portrait of the young Queen Elizabeth II.

Only really familiar with the cool and rather distant portraits he did of the queen and her sister, Princess Margaret - a distance perhaps to be expected, considering the subjects - I've been pleased to find a depth of personality and humanity in much of Annigoni's other work.

"Mr. Rydy", 1949.

Avtandil Koridze, Greco-Roman wrestler

Avtandil Koridze (April 15, 1935, Tbilisi - April 11, 1966, Terjola), Soviet (Georgian) Greco-Roman style wrestler, Gold-medalist at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games in the lightweight class.  He died in a car accident at the age of thirty.

The Fieldmarshal's Hall in the Winter Palace by Sergei Konstantinovich Zaryanko, 1836

Sergei Konstantinovich Zaryanko (October 6, 1818, Lyady, Belarus - January 1, 1871, Moscow), Russian painter, a student of Alexei Venetsianov.  First recognized for his interiors, he later became a successful portraitist.

I think this is a wonderful painting.  The play of light along the various surfaces, the sensation of the atmosphere in the room - dust and boot polish and warm sunlight - is striking.

Expand to full view to get a better feeling for the scale and detail.

Marie Antoinette in 1788 - two versions of a portrait by Vigée Le Brun

The version in the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (April 16, 1755, Paris – March 30, 1842, Paris), French artist, one of the most celebrated portrait painters of her day, of course, and recognized by many as the most important female painter of the eighteenth century.

The version in the collection of the château de Versailles. I really have no way of knowing, but I think this may be the second version.

1940s Hair Art

I think she looks fabulous.  She may have even have whipped up this follicular extravaganza herself.  And she knows just how marvelous it is, so she's trotted down to the nearest photo-booth to record this rather miraculous "do" for posterity.

In years to come her children and then her grandchildren will look at this little photograph and laugh and tease her that anyone would do that to their hair, that anyone would want to look like this.  But this is her moment, this wonderful moment in her youth, when she looks at herself and sees how really beautiful and remarkable she is.  A moment that will always exist in this photograph.

Selene and Endymion by Ubaldo Gandolfi, 1770

Ubaldo Gandolfi (1728, San Matteo della Decima –1781, Ravenna), an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period.

Sailors

Because, why not?

Louis-Philippe d'Orléans et sa famille au château de Neuilly en 1822 by Guillaume Frédéric Ronmy

Guillaume Frédéric Ronmy (1786-1854), French painter.

A painting I've loved for years - but only in black and white, because I'd never been able to find a color reproduction.  I finally found one.

Joan on the beach

Joan Crawford on a movie beach, Humoresque, 1946:

Joan Crawford on a real beach:

Circa late 1940s.

Two views of the Château de Saint-Cloud

Château de Saint-Cloud, Constant Troyon, circa 1840.

Constant Troyon (August 28, 1810, Sèvres - February 21, 1865, Paris), French painter of the Barbizon school, best know for his animal paintings.

Parc de Saint-Cloud, Charles Francois Daubigny, 1865.

Charles-François Daubigny (February 15, 1817, Paris - February 19, 1878, Paris), French painter of the Barbizon school, considered one of the important precursors of the Impressionists.