Category Archives: portrait

Right up my alley: Parisian flat containing €2.1 million painting lay untouched for 70 years

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As my friend put it when he emailed me this article, this seems right up your alley. Dead on.

An apartment kept although never visited. An exquisite Boldini portrait and old Mickey Mouse toys found. All discovered after the owner’s death under a thick layer of dust. More from the Telegraph here.

The portrait discovered there has since been attributed to Giovanni Boldini and went for a nice 2.1M Euro at auction, spurred on by the discovery that the never-before seen piece had been painted of the artist’s muse, actress Marthe de Florian.  Boldoni (1842–931) was an Italian genre and portrait painter who was known as the “Master of Swish,” because of his flowing style of painting. He painted many high society people.

Portrait of the dandy Robert de Montesquiou

Traces of glamor come through even under dust an inch thick.

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Frida Kahlo, and Me, at MoMA

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Me with Frida in Fulang-Chang and I

I took this picture at the MoMA the other day. I really do LIKE Frida Kahlo, even while I think she is over hyped. Fulang-Chang and I depicts Kahlo with one of her pet monkeys. The painting was included in the first major exhibition of her work in New York in 1938 to much attention. Later Kahlo gave the painting to her close friend Mary Sklar, attaching a mirror to it so that, if Sklar chose, the two friends could be together.

And of course, I love inserting myself into other people’s art; see Pistoletti and Kiki Smith.

Image from the museum’s website, so you can see the painting better:

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Portraits of the Artists

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Albert Camus

Some people look exactly like you would imagine them to based on their work. With others, putting a face to a name gives you a rather different insight into who they are (or at least how they look). Cartier-Bresson’s portraits of a range of artists, writers, and other creators are perceptive and honest. Each one appears to be that iconic shot you forever associate with the name.

Truman Capote
Marcel Duchamp

Henri Matisse

Alexander Calder

Colette with Her Companion Pauline

Any surprises in here? I love the photograph of Matisse, yet surrounded by birds and well-wrapped up is not at all how I imagined the artist. All photographs are from the Portrait section of Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century at MoMA through June 28. This extensive exhibition is a fantastic one to stroll through and remember yet again why Cartier-Bresson remains such a beloved and respected photographer.