Beatitudes of Love from the 1930s from Stanley Spencer 1891-1959

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Contemplation 1938


In his Beatitudes series, Spencer brings together countless aspects of life, including love, sexuality, religion, reality, and fantasy.  Of these paintings, Spencer wrote, "I love them from within outwards and whatever that outward appearance may be it is an exquisite reminder of what is loved within, no matter what that exterior appearance may be."  Spencer explained in the 1930s, "There are two joys, the joys of innocence and religiousness and the joys of change and sexual experience and while these two selves seem unrelated and irreconcilable, still I am convinced of their ultimate union."

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Consciousness

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Passion or Desire

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Romantic Meeting

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Worship

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Knowing

Our Swans & Stanley Spencer 1891-1959

Stanley Spencer (English artist, 1891-1959) Swan Upping at Cookham c 1915-19


Nearly daily for the past 10 years, we have driven by a farm pond which was home to a pair of beautiful white swans & their offspring.  Last summer, the swans disappeared, and the farm house, barn, & all outbuildings were razed.  Now no swans, no offspring this year as we drive by.  Heartbreaking.  Here are a few of Spencer's more spiritual swans...

Stanley Spencer (English artist, 1891-1959) Separating Fighting Swans c 1933

Hero worship by Stanley Spencer 1891-1959

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Adoration of Old Men


There are still a few truly amazing heros to be found...

Woman Getting Ready to Meet the Day by Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932)

It is rainy and dark. These kinds of days are slow getting started. This feeling is elegantly captured by 19th-century Spanish painter Ramon Casas i Carbo in this series.

Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932)

Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932)

Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932)

Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932)

Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932)

Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932)

Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932) Interior

Ramon Casas i Carbo (Spanish painter, 1866-1932)

These simple, elegant paintings are not typical of the work of Ramon Casas i Carbó (1866-1932). He was a Catalan artist. During a turbulent time in his native Barcelona, he was a leading portraitist, painting the intellectual, economic, & political elite of Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, & beyond. He was also known for painting less elitist crowd scenes ranging from the audience at a bullfight to an assembly for an execution to a group of rioters in the Barcelona streets. Also a graphic designer, his posters & postcards helped to define the Catalan art movement known as modernisme. By the 1920s, Casas had fallen far away from the avant-gardiste tendencies of his youth. His work from this later period looks like it came from an academic painter of an earlier time than his work of the 1890s.

Ramon Casas i Carbo (1866-1932) Self-Portrait

The Radiant Portraits of Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909)

Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Marie Kroyer The Artist's Wife 1891


Peder Severin Krøyer (1851-1909), known as P.S. Krøyer, was a Norwegian-Danish painter. He is one of the best known of the Skagen Painters, a community of Danish & Nordic artists who worked in Skagen, Denmark, especially during the late 1800s. On a trip to Paris in 1888, he ran into Marie Martha Mathilde Triepcke, whom he had known in Copenhagen. They married in 1889, at her parents' home in Germany. Marie Krøyer, also a painter, became associated with the Skagen community, & was often featured in Krøyer's paintings. The couple had 1 child, a daughter named Vibeke, born in January, 1895, but divorced in 1905.


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Marie Kroyer 1889


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Artist's Wife Marie


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Marie, Ravello 1890


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Nina


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Artist's Wife Marie


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Artist and Wife Marie


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Portrait of the Artist's Wife Marie

Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) The Artist's Wife 1892


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) Artist Anna Ancher 1886


Peder Severin Krøyer (Norwegian-born Danish artist, 1851-1909) with his wife Marie