10 People who died at the age of 63

1. St Bernard of Clairvaux (August 20, 1153)
2. Rembrandt van Rijn (October 4, 1669)
3. Robin Williams, actor and comedian (August 11, 2014)
4. Audrey Hepburn (January 20, 1993)
5. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (April 12, 1945)
6. Ulysses S Grant (July 23, 1885)
7. Cicero (December 7, AD 43)
8. Guglielmo Marconi (July 20, 1937)
9. Donna Summer (May 17, 2012)
10. Alfred Nobel (December 10, 1896)

(Also, Robert E Lee, Brahms, Vivaldi, H M Stanley, Sir Malcolm Campbell)

Day off Week 8 2020

Because it is half term this week we had a more obvious sort of day off on Tuesday. Eleri and I headed down to Dulwich  and after a leisurely stroll through the village we went to the art gallery and enjoyed looking at the pictures. The Rembrandt girl struck me most this time though the Linley sisters by Reynolds is always striking. On the way back we passed an actor (most recently Edward Heath and Lord Astor). Eleri recognised him best but even she had to look his name up (Michael Maloney). On that subject, we heard from our son in Aberystwyth how he had bumped into Taron Egerton in a coffee shop. Celebrities abound if you have eyes to see. Back home there was a little time for reading and TV too.

10 Rock Album Covers Inspired by Classical Paintings

Click for enlarged view 

1. Turbulent Indigo (1994) by Joni Mitchell. Painting: Self Portrait by Vincent Van Gogh

2. Viva La Vida (2008) by Cold Play. Painting: Liberty leading the people by Eugene De La Croix

3. A Night on the Town (1976) by Rod Stewart. Painting: Bal du moulin de la Galette by Pierre August Renoir

4. Fleet Foxes (2008) by the Fleet Foxes. Painting: Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

5. Greatest Hits (1977) by Black Sabbath. Painting: The Triumph of Death by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

6. Last of the Mohicans (1982) by Bow Wow Wow. Painting: Le déjeuner sur l'herbe by Edward Manet

7. Grave New World (1972) by The Strawbs. Painting: Glad Day by William Blake

8. Rum, Sodomy and the Lash (1985) by the Pogues. Painting: The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault

9. Beck-Ola (1969) by The Jeff Beck Group. Painting: The Listening Room by Rene Magritte

10. Dutch Masters (1973) by Focus. Painting: The Staalmeesters by Rembrandt van Rijn

Click for enlarged view

Great Artists with Tim Marlow

I have been catching up recently on Tim Marlow's series (now over 10 years old) on Great Artists. These are under half an hour introductions to various artists that I have been accessing by recording shows on Channel 5 in the middle of the night.
I have now seen

Series 1 - Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Series 2 - El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velásquez, Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, J M W Turner, ...

I'm not sure if I've seen the one on Vincent Van Gogh.

I believe there is another series - on Schiele, Cassatt, Rodin, Whistler, Delacroix, David, Goya, Stubbs,  Caravaggio, Holbein and Piero della Francesca.

10 Most Famous Paintings Ever

This is debatable, of course, but I'd say
1. Mona Lisa, Leonardo Da Vinci
2. Starry night, Vincent Van Gogh
3. Water Lily Pond (with bridge), Claude Monet
4. Girl with the pearl earring, Jan Vermeer
5. Nightwatch, Rembrandt van Rijn
6. Guernica, Pablo Picasso
7. The scream, Edvard Munch
8. The persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali
9. Bal du moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
10. American Gothic, Grant Wood
(The picture includes Whistler's mother and Magritte's Son of Man as extras)

Dutch Day

Yesterday on my day off, it was an all Dutch affair. In the morning I went to my art history class on Rembrandt Van Rijn. Fascinating stuff as the master rose to the heights of fame and then went our of favour as he changed his style to no-one's pleasure.

In the evening I headed down to Chislehurst where Focus were doing the last date on their current UK tour. I thought we might have had more from the new album (more of that anon) but it was the usual stuff mostly, beginning with the very earliest Focus 1, Anonymus and House of the King and including an excellent rendition of several parts of Eruption (best piece of the night IMHO), a good version of Aya Yuppie Ye, La Cathedrale and Harem Scarem back to back as they often are (church to pub Thijs calls it) plus the obligatory Sylvia and a rather truncated Hocus Pocus just within the 11 pm curfew. So only time for three new tracks (Focus 10, an excellent All hens on deck and an isntrumental Le Tango). They were preceded by an unconscionably young Yorkshire trio born out of time called The Mentulls. They looked good (though too repetitive for my liking) until Focus appeared. Focus confirmed again that they are in a class of their own. It is a shame that the nostalgia trip has to dominate but that's what peoiple come to see I guess.

 

Rembrandt Self Portraits

This video of Rembrandt self portraits is even more fascinating

Dutch Masters

Like someone trying to give up the weed itself, I'm struggling a bit here to escape this tobacco thread that I started the other day. I have always liked this piece of Focus iconography from 1973.

It's based on a well known Dutch cigar brand, as in this example here.

The original painting is by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). It is called The Staalmeesters (The Syndics of the Clothmaker's Guild) and was painted in 1662 in oil on canvas (191.5 x 279 cm). I have seen it at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

For some reason the painting cries out for parodying as here

Someone with real skill and good equipment should do one with Bavinck, Vos, Van til et al.