A rare portrait of the pre-Raphaelite painter John Waterhouse has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery at the same time as the mystery of who painted it seems finally to have been cracked.
The rather doleful-looking man, with his bushy auburn beard, was always thought to be a self-portrait by the artist whose best-known painting, The Lady of Shalott, hangs at Tate Britain in London.
The work remained in the Waterhouse family until it was bought by the NPG at auction in May last year, catalogued as a self-portrait.
A new catalogue of the gallery's late-Victorian paintings reveals it has been established "beyond doubt" that the artist responsible for the portrait was, in fact, William Logsdail.
The catalogue – the first of the gallery's period catalogues to be published online – contains a mass of information.
Peter Funnell, curator of 19th Century Portraits and head of research programmes at the NPG, said: "Among the great advantages of publishing such a catalogue online is the ability it gives us to update it when items like the Waterhouse portrait enter the collection and the fact that it makes the research free and accessible to all."
The painting's attribution was first questioned a decade ago by the leading Waterhouse expert Peter Trippi.
Its acquisition is particularly pleasing for the gallery as it is the only known painted head of Waterhouse and the first example of Logsdail's work to enter the collection.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Holocaust survivors inspire children's Paradise art project - Westmorland Gazette
Holocaust survivors inspire children's Paradise art project
5:20pm Thursday 5th July 2012 in Leisure 
ARTWORK created by more than 400 children is helping provide a poignant reminder of a dark period in history.
The Paradise Project is a remarkable exhibition of children's art works commissioned by the Lake District Holocaust Project.
Inspired by the ‘paradise’ description given to the Lake District by the 300 Jewish child Holocaust survivors who were brought to Windermere in 1945, the works will be shown at the home of the Lake District Holocaust Project at Windermere Library between July 14 and September 8, and selections of the children's paintings will also be seen in libraries across South Lakeland throughout the summer.
Trevor Avery, director of education charity Another Space and project organiser, said that a children's art project was a fitting tribute to the innate creativity of childhood, and provided a poignant moment to reflect on what was lost when a child was caught up in the “fog of war, hatred and intolerance.”
He explained that when you work with children today you realise that they are the same as those survivors who came to the Lake District in 1945.
He added: “They have the same hopes and dreams. We must all work to prevent this and future generations of children suffering from the kinds of cruelties that had been inflicted on the child survivors of 1945. It is difficult, of course it is, but we must keep trying.”
The initiative not only celebrates childhood but also the centenary of the founding of a remarkable orphanage in Poland.
Continued Trevor: “It is 100 years ago since the establishment of the the Krochmalna Street orphanage in Warsaw where doctor, writer and educator Janusz Korczak developed further his child centred ideas that continue to have a huge impact today.”
“Children mean so much to the survivors, and dedicating this unique celebration of childhood to our Windermere Holocaust survivors, and to Janusz Korczak is so appropriate."
Janusz himself was murdered in 1942, along with the children from his orphanage. He believed that children had rights and his proposals were eventually incorporated into the United Nations 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Source: www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk
Caging sculpture isn't showing right spirit - Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I've always felt this was one of the ugliest eyesores we've ever paid money for in this town.
On the plus side however, it did serve as a gathering place for various and varied groupings. The street preachers used it as a backdrop with their happy clappy tunes blasting forth to passing trade.
And dancing youth used it as a practice ground. Aesthetically the actual artwork may not have lifted the hearts of passers-by but there was something heart-warming about the sight of so many kids, sounds systems throbbing, practising their moves for peer approval while the Bible-thumping teams rattled away in comfortable proximity.
At least you could say it served some sort of public purpose. But what now?
I'm not sure if the fencing-off I saw at the weekend is a temporary measure because maintenance work is required.
But it would be sad if it was a sign that the thing is now going to be permanently wired off.
In fairness, maybe there's some sort of health and safety concern. Dancing teenagers, sharp edges, council property ... .
You can see how the exterior fencing could be stacking up there.
But how typical of this place if those wire barriers are going to stay put.
The Spirit of Belfast - out of bounds to the public?
Very spirit of Belfast ... .
Source: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Painting of North Littleton girl could fetch £700,000 - Evesham Journal
Painting of North Littleton girl could fetch £700,000
3:55pm Thursday 5th July 2012 in News
A VICTORIAN oil painting of a North Littleton girl feeding chickens is expected to sell for between £500,000 and £700,000 at an auction next Wednesday afternoon.
The 1880s picture, Feeding The Chickens, features village girl Bessie Osborne and is now regarded as the masterpiece of Walter Frederick Osborne (no relation), who became one of Ireland’s most distinguished artists.
If it sells for anything more than £748,000 at the auction at Bonhams in London next week, it will set a new world auction record for a work by Osborne.
Charles O’Brien, head of Nineteenth Century Paintings at Bonhams, said: “Osborne was at the height of his career when he painted this picture. It is a highly desirable work by a very well respected and admired artist.”
According to auctioneers in the summer of 1884 Osborne and his artist friends Nathaniel Hill and Edward Stott set off for Worcestershire where at North Littleton, in October 1884, Osborne produced Feeding The Chickens.
Osborne never married and tragically, was only aged 43 when he died from pneumonia, on April 24,1909.
The current world auction record for an Osborne painting is £748,000, the sum paid at James Adam Salerooms & Bonhams in Dublin on December 5, 2001, for his 1901 oil painting, In The Garden, Castlewood Avenue.
• Do you know any more about Bessie Osborne, the mystery girl in the painting. Was she your grandmother or great grandmother and, if so, what became of her? Please get in touch with the Journal on 01905 742385 or email news@eveshamjournal.co.uk
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Source: www.eveshamjournal.co.uk
Ernest Hemingway wrote 47 endings to A Farewell To Arms - Daily Telegraph
Hemingway also compiled a list of alternate titles, including Love in War, World Enough and Time, Every Night and All, Of Wounds and Other Causes and The Enchantment, which Hemingway had crossed out. The final title, A Farewell To Arms, is taken from a 16th-century poem by English dramatist George Peele to Queen Elizabeth.
The endings, including one suggested by F Scott Fitzgerald, are in an appendix in the new 330-page edition, whose cover bears the novel’s original artwork, an illustration of topless lovers, by illustrator Rockwell Kent (top left).
The ending that survived Hemingway's revisions, about the death of Frederic Henry's lover, the nurse Catherine Barkley, was:
"It was like saying good-by to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain."
Among the 47 finales tried out by Hemingway was the so-called 'Nada Ending'
“That is all there is to the story. Catherine died and you will die and I will die and that is all I can promise you.”
and The 'Live-Baby Ending:
“There is no end except death and birth is the only beginning.”
Incidentally, Hemingway's ending to A Farewell To Arms caused consternation when it was made into a film in 1932. Paramount decided, after much disagreement, to keep Hemingway's original ending and fade out after the death of Catherine. This ending was kept for the European release, but a new ending, in which she lives, was later added to the American release.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Artwork by Redlands artist to hang in Crocker Art Museum gallery - Redlands Daily Facts
If it weren't for Vincent Van Gogh, award winning figure artist Dennis Hare of Redlands may never have realized what he wanted to do in life.
One week ago, Scott Shields, the curator of the Crocker Art Museum chose one of Hare's pieces out of a pool of submissions by several figure artists.
Figure art is created out of paint and scavenged items.
Hare's art will be recognized as a part of contemporary Californian art.
In two weeks, the Yucaipa High School alumnus will have his painting hung in a permanent gallery that exhibits contemporary Bay Area figurative paintings at the museum in Sacramento.
"It's such a great honor because I consider figure artists that are featured there to be my heroes," said Hare.
The Crocker Art Museum houses one of the state's premier collections of Californian art, offering the most comprehensive collection of art from the Gold Rush to the present, according to the museum's website.
Art was not always in the cards for Hare. About 40 years ago, he was an aspiring athlete who was a member of Yucaipa's CIF winning basketball team, a school Hall of Famer, and an All-American star.
He traded a basketball for a volleyball in the `70s, and with his volleyball partner Fred Zuelich, won the first commercially sponsored tournament held in San Diego in 1974. He was later inducted into the Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame.
"I always run into him at 24 Hour Fitness," said Evelyn Ifft,
who knows the artist from the Redlands Art Association. "I've been a friend of Dennis' for a long time and took art classes from him. His artwork with figures is unique, and it's an honor for him to be represented in the same gallery with other famous California artists."It was his success in athletics that veered him onto the road of abstract and figure art.
"It gave me a drive to stick with something," said Hare. "It taught me discipline and to see my work through till the end."
Writing and illustrating for his first book "Art of Beach Volleyball," led him to find this new passion.
"I've never had any lessons," said Hare. "I just started drawing and I just thought `Hey, this is really cool' and it just went on from there."
The pastime of conjuring up volleyball illustrations led him to the de Young Museum in San Francisco where Van Gogh's "Entrance to Public Gardens in Arles" changed the athlete's life.
"That was it," said Hare. "In that one instant did I realize that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life."
For 33 years Hare has created artwork involving watercolor, oil, items from Home Depot and pieces of garbage to give his work weight and texture.
"Today I believe we live in a society where art has become a slick, saccharin corporate style of beauty that is desensitizing American society," said Hare in his artist statement on his website. "I create pieces that are a direct contrast to this style."
Hare's artwork is featured at galleries in Laguna Beach, San Rafael and Carmel.
"I don't have a message or a statement," said Hare. "It's all about feeling. I paint for myself first but I still hope to inspire those who aren't sure of what their path is yet. Mine wasn't set. Art changed my life and maybe people can find their own niche in the world, whether it be art, or anything else that they just enjoy doing."
Nicole Vasquez is a summer intern at the Redlands Daily Facts. She will be a senior in the fall at Redlands East Valley High School, where she will be an editor of the Audeeis, the campus newspaper. She can be reached at nikkimouse2318@gmail.com or 909-793-3221.
Source: www.redlandsdailyfacts.com
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