Reading, Part 1

"Reading Girl" by Gustav Adolph Hennig (German, 1797-1869)


"Elderly man at a Window" by Yves Trevedy (Belgian, 1916-)


"Untitled" by Bernard Boutet de Monvel (French, 1881-1949)


"Girl Reading" by Franz Eybl (Austrian, 1806-1880)

Wladyslaw Jarocki (1879-1965)

"Winter Sun in the Carpathian Mountains" 1929. Lviv Art Gallery, Lviv

I don't know much about Jarocki's life (and his other paintings are a bit hit and miss) so I can't give much background, but this is a truly beautiful work. Many Polish painters documented the landscape, inhabitants and peasant traditions of the Carpathian Mountains but I've encountered nothing that comes close to this since I first saw it five or six years ago.

Isabel Quintanilla (1938-)

"Window" 1970

"Paisaje de Santa Cruz de la Sierra" 2000

"Tabletop Still life" 19??

Isabel Quintanilla is associated with the group known as the New Spanish Realists. I don't have a lot of time for super and hyper realistic painting but there is an authenticity about the work of these Spanish artists, an eye for composition and subject matter that seems absent in most other super realistic works, paintings that look like they were created by people who should stick to photography. Quintanilla is not the best of this loose group, but she has produced many beautiful works. I will be returning to these painters in the future.

More of her work here.

Isaac Dobrinsky

The Ukrainian Isaac Dobrinsky was one of a huge number of Jewish artists who made their way from Eastern Europe to Paris at the start of the twentieth century, looking for knowledge, like-minded souls, and recognition for their work. Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine are the two who emerged from this scene to almost universal fame and recognition, but predictably scores upon scores of artists followed unheralded in their wake. Dobrinsky is one. He painted largely unremarkable portraits and still lives and there isn't a lot about his work to set it apart from that of the others who worked alongside him at the time.

However, in the wake of the Second World War Dobrinsky was offered a position in the Chateau de Chabannes, Limousin, France, working at an orphanage which cared for children whose parents had been deported by the Nazis. He spent several years here in the 1950's and ended up painting numerous portraits of the staff and children of the orphanage. In his unsentimental depictions of the youths Dobrinsky further strips down his patchy and energetic style, bringing it to its bare bones. The results are expressive, sketch-like works, mainly on cardboard, painted rapidly with thinned oils. They are of their time, but immediate and highly effective.

Isaac Dobrinsky (1891-1973)

(These images were taken from numerous online auctions and unfortunately don't have titles associated)

Alexander Deineka (Deyneka) (1899-1969)

Deineka is a fairly well known painter but he deserves his place here because he is not well known enough. Five of his works are below, and there are many more online. I will post my favourite of his works sometime in the near future (it's in a book and needs to be scanned.)

Bio at wikipedia.

"Boys running from the water" 1935

"Farmer on a Bicycle" 1935

"Ode to spring" 1927

"Portrait of Sil" 1936

"The Future Pilots" 1937