Waterside with Frenchman Claude Monet 1840-1926

Claude Monet (French artist, 1840-1926) Camille Monet on the Beach at Trouville 1870

Claude Monet (French artist, 1840-1926) River Scene at Bennecourt 1868

Claude Monet (French artist, 1840-1926) On the Beach at Trouville

Claude Monet (French artist, 1840-1926) Garden at Sainte-Adresse

Claude Monet (French artist, 1840-1926) The Beach at Trouville 1870

Claude Monet (French artist, 1840-1926) The Regatta At Sainte-Adresse 1867

Parasols for Sun & Umbrellas for Rain - A few of unexpected parasol devotees...

Winslow Homer (American artist, 1836–1910) Artists Sketching in the White Mountains

John Singer Sargent (American expatriate artist, 1856-1925) The Sketchers, 1914

Carl Spitzweg (German artist, 1808-1885) The Botanist

My favorite sheep posed for the camera

One of my favorite turkey paintings

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Turkeys 1946

Wishing for a summer blue sky...

Wishing for a blue sky.  Last few days have been cloudy with threats of afternoon & evening rain. Today it is pouring!

Camille Pissarro (1830–1903).


Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).


Diego Rivera (1886-1957).


Edouard Manet (1832-1883).


Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920).


Edvard Munch (1863-1944).

Bathing Beauties by Stanley Spencer 1891-1959

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Girls Returning from a Bathe 1936

"Everything has a sort of double meaning for me, there's the ordinary everyday meaning of things, and the imaginary meaning about it all, and I wanted to bring these things together...I have always looked forward to seeing what I could fish out of myself, I am a treasure island seeker and the island is myself."  Stanley Spencer

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) The Bathing Pool, Dogs 1940

Reading Outdoors by Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919

 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919)   The Reader

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919)  Madame Chocquet Reading 1876

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919)  Two Girls Reading

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919) Gabrielle Renard (1878-1959) and Jean

1935 Picnic in California

1935 Picnic in California

1910-1925 American Picnic

1910-1925 American Picnic. Photo by John Johnson. Johnson was born in Lincoln in 1879 to Harrison Johnson, an escaped slave and Civil War veteran, & his wife, Margaret. After graduating from high school & briefly attending the University of Nebraska (where he played football), Johnson found work in one of the few realms open to African-Americans at the time: manual labor. He was a janitor & a drayman, but also a very prolific & talented community photographer. From roughly 1910 to 1925, he took as many as 500 photographs using a bulky view camera and flash powder.

1920 Picnic in North Carolina

1920 Picnic in North Carolina

1915 Picnic in Seattle, Washington

1915 Picnic in driftwood at beach below Magnolia Bluff, Seattle, Washington

20C Hungarian music, women, legs, dogs, & goats by Robert Bereny 1887-1953

Robert Bereny (Hungarian artist, 1887-1953) Woman Playing Cello 1928


Robert Bereny (Hungarian artist, 1887-1953) Woman with Cello 1937

Robert Bereny (Hungarian artist, 1887-1953) Self Portrait 1906

In 1904, Bereny was a student of Tivadar Zemplényi, before he went to study in Paris, where he was particularly influenced by Cézanne's art. Politcally he took part in the art life of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, and he was the leader of the department for painting in the Art Directorate. After 1919, he emmigrated to Berlin, which he left to return home in 1926. He worked in Zebegény from 1934. He was awarded the Szinnyei prize in 1936.  Obviously, I am particularly fond of his self-portraits & his bold use of color.

Robert Bereny (Hungarian artist, 1887-1953) Red Dress 1908


Robert Bereny (Hungarian artist, 1887-1953) Woman in a Green Room 1927


Robert Bereny (Hungarian artist, 1887-1953) Woman in Arm Chair 1923


Robert Bereny (Hungarian artist, 1887-1953) Girl Reading 1946-48


Robert Bereny (Hungarian artist, 1887-1953) Self Portrait 1947

20C English Music by Stanley Spencer 1891-1959

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Music Lesson at Bedales 1921  Bedales School is an independent school situated in the village of Steep, in Hampshire. The school was founded in 1893, by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conventional Victorian schools. In the first half of 20th century the progressive movement around Bedales attracted a community of artists, craftsmen & writers to live in Steep. In the early 1920s Stanley Spencer made a number of drawings & paintings of activities at the school, while staying with Muirhead Bone.

Spencer's father was a musician & taught him to play the piano,  Two sisters who lived at the end of his lane in Cookham, said that he would drop in & say "Can I have a tinkle?" He would sit down at their piano & play Bach & Chopin.

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) At the Piano 1957

Flowers for you from Jean Édouard Vuillard 1868-1940

 Jean Édouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Fleurs (1904)

 Jean Édouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Flowers 1906

 Jean Édouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Bouquet of Pansies, Myosotis and Daisies in front of a Carafe, on a Table 1900

Jean Édouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Anemones in a Jug 1902

Proust on Taking Tea in the Winter

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Edward George Handel Lucas (English artist, 1861-1936) Silent Advocates of Temperance 1891

From Remembrances of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu 1913-22), here is Proust's young memory of taking tea...

"When one day in winter, on my return home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take. I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind. She sent for one of those squat, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell.

"And soon, mechanically, dispirited after a dreary day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shiver ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin.

"And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory - this new sensation having had the effect, which love has, of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it-was-me.

"I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal. When could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savors..."

Marcel Proust 1871-1922.

Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) - Andre Utter (1886-1948) Model, Lover, Husband, & Business Manager

We should not leave artist Suzanne Valadon's (1865-1938) life without mentioning her relationship with her son's friend, painter Andre Utter (1886-1948). 

Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) Adam and Eve 1909

In 1906, her son Maurice Utrillo introduced her to his friend Andre Utter. At that time, she was married to stockbroker Paul Mousis, whom she had married in 1896. 

Suzanne Valadon (1867-1938) Andre Utter and his Dogs

She fell in love with André Utter, 21 years her junior. He became the love of her life, her business manager, and her husband.

Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) The launch of the 1914 net


Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) Self Portrait with her Family c 1910 Self-portrait with Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955), husband Andre Utter (1886-1948) and Utter's mother


Andre Utter (1886-1948) Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) 


Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) Maurice Utrillo, born Maurice Valadon (1883-1955), and Andre Utter (1886-1948) 1919

Jean Édouard Vuillard 1868-1940 adored model & muse Misia Godebska Sert Natanson

Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Said to be a painting of Misia Natanson 1895

Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Misia Sert Natanson at the Piano 1895

Jean Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) Misia Seated in an Armchair, Affecting Nonchalance (1901)

Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Artist Vallotton chez les Natanson 1897

Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Nape of Misia's Neck 1897

1899 Jean Édouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Valloton and 1897 Jean Édouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Valloton with Misia Sert Natanson in the Dining Room at Rue Saint Florentin


Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Misia Sert Natanson au piano, 1897-98

Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Tapestry or Embroiderers La Tapisserie ou Les Brodeuses. 1895. (Model reported to be Misia Godebska Sert Natanson.)

Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Misia Sert Natanson 1897


Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Madame Misia Sert Natanson 1897


Jean Edouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) Madame Misia Sert Natanson

 Jean Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) Monsieur and Madame Alexandre Natanson 1907

  Jean Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) The Alexandre Natanson Family, Rue Saint-Florentin 1897

Jean Édouard Vuillard (French artist, 1868-1940) The Red Robe (probably the Natansons) 1898

 Jean Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) Misia Sert and her Niece Mimi Godebska (The Black Cups)