Frans Hals - Energetic Artist

Franz Hals (c. 1580 – 26 August 1666)

     Known for his energetic Dutch genre paintings, 17th century painter Frans Hals depicted bawdy tavern scenes with a combination of loose brush stokes and economy of detail. The effect is fresh and lively. He is also noted for introducing the group portrait to Dutch art.
     He developed the ability to capture expressions and emotions with exacting clarity, and seemed to favor depicting a variety of social strata, from tavern dwellers to high society.
     He was a prolific and popular artist, painting many portraits of the wealthy in Haarlem. He lived a long life, which eventually ended in poverty as his style of artwork was replaced by newer, more popular styles.

Frans Hals,
The Laughing Cavalier, 1624,
oil on canvas,
83 × 67.3 cm (32.7 × 26.5 in)

Daily Art Quote

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real. (Thomas Merton)

SASSOFERRATOThe Virgin in Prayer
1640-50
Oil on canvas, 73 x 58 cm
National Gallery, London

Galileo Presents the Telescope

On this day in 1609, Galileo presented his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers. The rest is, as they say, "history."



Fresco (1858) by Giuseppe Bertini of Galileo
 showing the Doge of Venice how to use the telescope
Bertini Room, Villa Andrea Ponti  -  Varese, Italy



Daily Art Quote

The sculptor, and the painter also, should be trained in these liberal arts: grammar, geometry, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, perspective, history, anatomy, theory of design, arithmetic.---- Lorenzo Ghiberti

 Lorenzo GhibertiNorth Doors (Life of Christ)
1403-24
Gilded bronze, 457 x 251 cm
Baptistry, Florence

Daily Art Quote



Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth.

(Julie Andrews)



 Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
A Child with a Teetotum, 1738
Oil on canvas, 67 x 76 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris




Daily Art Quote

I never met a color I didn't like. (Dale Chihuly)

Dale Chihuly
Macchia Forest, 2001

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Young Girl Reading c. 1770
oil on canvas,  32.3"x 25.6"
National gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
(5 April 1732– 22 August 1806)

Notable for his themes of love and romance, Fragonard was a French painter, whose lively and expressive brushstrokes influenced the later style of Impressionism.

He was highly prolific, producing over 500 paintings, sketches and etchings, yet his work remained largely forgotten until the late 19th century. Fragonard's son, Alexandre-Évariste, also became an artist.

Daily Art Quote

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite. Sir Francis Bacon

Raphael Sanzio
Woman with a Veil (La Donna Velata)
1516
Oil on canvas, 82 x 60,5 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence