excellent master
How the primitive paintings of Grandma Moses influenced the course of the Cold War
Having crossed the age limit for 60 years, many no longer expect any fateful changes from life and quietly live out their lives. However, history knows many cases when older people achieved tremendous success at a very respectable age. Most often this happened when they took up brushes and paints. So, one of the most popular artists of America in the mid-twentieth century – Grandmother Moses, who first painted at 76, had a stunning world-wide fame as a painter for her 100th birthday and was drawn into the intrigues of American propaganda.
Grandmother Moses (1860-1961), whose real name is Anna Mary Moses, nee Robertson, is a well-known American amateur artist, one of the most famous representatives of primitivism in the history of painting in the United States. The farmer’s wife and mother of 10 children, five of whom died before reaching the age of one, became famous when she was over eighty. Continue reading
Two brides for one groom: The riddle of a picturesque plot about the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine
Among the works of Renaissance masters and later periods in the history of painting, there are often those that depict “the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine.” At the same time, the essence of what is happening may seem vague – after all, betrothal in the usual sense of modern man does not occur on canvas. It turns out that two different women could be brides in such paintings, but the groom is always alone.
First bride – St. Catherine of Alexandria
St. Catherine of Alexandria lived in Egypt in the 3rd century AD. Before the adoption of Christianity, she bore the name of Dorothea and was the daughter of the ruler of Alexandria. The girl was famous for her extraordinary beauty, wisdom, spiritual qualities, and was, of course, an enviable bride, but in grooms she wanted only the most worthy – the one who will surpass her in everything. Then Catherine’s mother took her to the old hermit, who was praying in a cave near the city. He told the girl that he knew the one who is better in everything. Continue reading
Paintings of an artist who has loved one woman and one city for 60 years
It is not often that fate favors artists with benefits at the same time in all areas of life. Few people manage to walk a life and career on a smooth road, without bumps and sharp turns. Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon is one of such minions of fate. He was lucky in his work, he was lucky in marriage … And what else does a creative person need? Today in the review is an amazing story of the artist’s tremulous love.
Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon (1875-1958) – Russian painter, landscape master, theater artist, art theorist, with the title of academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, national artist, Stalin Prize laureate. And if in a nutshell to characterize his artistic work, then Konstantin Yuon was an excellent master of urban landscapes and theatrical scenery. He painted portraits, portrayed Russian nature and monuments of ancient architecture, painted ancient provincial Russian cities and small villages. Well, of course, he devoted the lion’s share of his heritage to Moscow, where he was born, lived his whole life and loved immensely.
Yuon began his work with the golden shining domes of Russian churches, the place of which after the revolutionary events was taken by large-scale canvases depicting parades on Red Square. Continue reading
