turn-of-the-century color

I've recently discovered the work of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, a Russian chemist and photographer who developed a technique - in the early 20th century, no less - to produce color photographs.  He used a camera that took a series of three monochrome images, using red, green and blue filters; later, these images could be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near-true color images.

Thanks to the Library of Congress (beginning in 2000), and photographer Walter Frankhauser and computer scientist Blaise Aguera y Arcas, we can now see composites of the original surviving negatives provided by Prokudin-Gorskii's heirs.  It's simply astounding...

Bashkir switchman near Ust-Katav, 1910

Mid-18 century Trinity Monastery in Tyumen, ca. 1912

Young Russian peasant woman in a rural area along the Sheksna River near the small town of Kirillov

(source - Wikimedia Commons)

hendrik kerstens

came across this cool photographer - he has a series of portraits of his daughter, at different ages.  i don't think she has a particularly beautiful face, but it's striking, for sure.  and kerstens has certainly succeeded in making her look as if she was painted by a dutch master.

http://www.witzenhausengallery.nl/artistbio.php?idxArtist=12

on the subject of portraits....

i saw this at the bp portrait awards exhibition at the national portrait gallery a few summers ago.

captivating, in its own right.

Amelia, by Cecilia Bennett
http://www.npg.org.uk/bp-portrait-award-20091/the-exhibition/exhibitors4/bp-exhibitor-10.php

john singer sargent, modernized.

Every once in a while I see Nicole Kidman's Madame X-style photo (from Vogue June 1999) - but I didn't realize there was a whole Sargent-themed photoshoot!

My favorites -

 after Madame X by John Singer Sargent, 1884

Mrs. Carl Meyer, 1896

Repose, 1911

the detail...

Hans Memling - Portraits of Tommaso Portinari and Maria Portinari, 1470

albrech durer; 3 self-portraits

interesting to see the progression of self-portraiture by albrecht durer, at different stages of his life.

1493, a marriage portrait - given to his fiancee

1498 - after his return from Italy - dressed as a Venetian nobleman.

1500 - an unusual self-portrait for the time, as he is directly facing forward.

for an interesting bit on this, see The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art, ch 4 - The Artist as Christ by Joseph Leo Koerner (University of Chicago Press, 1993).

on a completely random and unrelated note, i need to stop listening and singing along to "all i want for christmas is you" from the celtic thunder christmas album.  it's such a happy song!  i can't wait for christmas :)

madame x;

this post created upon the realization that although I have referred to this great lady a few different times, she does not have a post of her own!

Madame X, by John Singer Sargent 1884

Madame X, as originally painted - a photo as hung in the Paris Salon - with the right shoulder strap slipped down.  Scandalous!

portraits

john singer sargent pencil-y portraits, some of my faves.

olimpio fusco, c. 1900-1910

ethel smith, 1901

and of course,

study of madame pierre gauteau (for the painting madame x)

william butler yeats

white dresses, part 2: paintings

Two contrasting depictions of white dresses in the Victorian Era - one impressionist, a windy walk outside, the white dress all the more impractical but picturesque (i'm thinking Anne of Green Gables or A Room with a View); the other a portrait of a woman sitting down on a luxurious chair, her elusive expression challenging the viewer to question a woman's role as just another ornament in a lovely house.

Claude Monet - The Walk, Woman with a Parasol (Madame Monet and her Son), 1875

John Singer Sargent - Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, 1892-93