Artists

Divided Affections, The Extraordinary Life of Maria Cosway by Carol Burnell
I was very kindly given this book months ago to review, but university plus myself being a slow reader resulted in me not finishing it until yesterday.

I had been wanting to learn more about Maria Cosway so I was very happy to receive the book. I was happily surprised to find that it was such a beautiful book, with many pictures and a beautiful layout. Pictures are a huge plus for me so I liked this book right away.

It’s a biography about Maria Cosway, with some parts written in a dramatized dialogue. The parts that are “made up” are in italics so you can clearly tell them from the rest which I think was a nice touch. Maria Cosway had a very interesting life and the book is very entertainingly written, not boring at all. It really made you feel like you were there, and I just really liked it. I have yet to read all the notes at the back of the book but there are lots of them and they look very interesting.

A great book and highly recommended to anyone interested in Maria Cosway or fashionable 18th century ladies in general.

(As a lover of 18th century fashion I have to point out a tiny fashion-related error. At one place in the book a dress is described which is clearly a so called chemise dress, also known as a gaulle or chemise à la Reine, but in the book it’s called a robe à l’ Anglaise.)

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Jean-Louis Voille

Posted Nov 27, 2008 at 00:29 CET in Artists, Fashion, Paintings, and People.

[Image]
Sofia Vladimirovna Panina, 1791.

I don’t know anything about Jean-Louis Voille except that he appears to be French and seems to have painted mainly Russians. His paintings are lovely though, and you can see more after the cut.

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Johann Zoffany

Posted Sep 17, 2008 at 21:48 CEST in Artists, Fashion, Paintings, and People.

John Wilkes and his daughter, 1779.

German painter Johann Zoffany on Wikipedia.

More paintings after the cut.

Edit: Updated this post with one more painting.

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Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

Posted Oct 19, 2007 at 18:04 CEST in Artists, Fashion, Links, Paintings, and People.

Self portrait with two pupils, 1785.

French painter Adélaïde Labille-Guiard on Wikipedia.

The art of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

More paintings after the cut.

Edit: Updated this post with more paintings and better quality pictures.

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Roslin exhibition at Nationalmuseum

Posted Sep 19, 2007 at 18:24 CEST in Artists, Exhibitions, Museums, Paintings, and People.

The Swedish national museum will exhibit over 100 paintings by Alexander Roslin from September 27 2007 to January 13 2008. There will also be two lectures. Click the portrait to go to the exhibition website.

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Louis-Léopold Boilly

Posted Sep 10, 2007 at 20:42 CEST in Artists, Fashion, Paintings, and People.

Self portrait, 1795.

French painter Louis-Léopold Boilly on Wikipedia. The wikipedia article is pretty much empty though, so here’s another link with a short biography.

More paintings after the cut.

Edit: Updated this post with more paintings and better quality pictures.

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Michel Garnier

Posted Sep 9, 2007 at 20:22 CEST in Artists, Fashion, Paintings, and People.

The music lesson, 1788.

I have only seen three paintings by this artist, and I can’t even find a website that mentions him except for some that sell prints of his art. If you have any information on him or have any pictures of his paintings I’d love to see! I really love the ones I’ve seen so far.

More paintings after the cut.

Edit: Thanks to xLady_Lazarusx I have found some more paintings, and found out that his name is probably Michel Garnier, not Michael!

Edit again: Updated this post with a couple of paintings.

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