Things of beauty – Page 7 – Splendid Isolation

Everyone knows about French artist Eugène Delacroix, who painted so many works which later became iconic that his value to Fine Art (not to mention civilization) is pretty much unchallenged.

Liberty Leading The People

And yes, many feel that he was the bridge, artistically speaking, between Classical and Romantic art and is therefore Very Important:

Massacre At Chios

Me, I just like the way he painted women:

Mademoiselle Rose

Death of Sardanapelus

Medea About To Kill Her Children

Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi

Louis of Orleans Revealing His Mistress

Delacroix’s style, to my eyes anyway, changes from piece to piece, from Classical to Romantic to almost-Impressionist — all depending on the topic he’s depicting. Heck, the Louis of Orleans painting above is almost Rococo in its playfulness.

And considering that he lived and worked during the hidebound early nineteenth century, that is one hell of an achievement.

Barque of Dante

Landscapes Extraordinaire

March 23, 2024 Kim du Toit Fine Art

Ever since I took a few Art Appreciation classes during my belated university career*, I have been an admirer of Corot’s landscapes — sheesh, okay, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot — because for some reason, they seem to me to straddle the hyper-realism of the Academy and the later swirling Impressionists like Monet. Here are a few which typify this part of his work:

A Farmyard near Fontainebleau

A Farmyard in the Nievre

The Path leading to the House

Trees and a Swamp

A View Near Volterra

Smyrna, A Boat

A Sudden Gust Of Wind

I love this last one most of all, because it’s almost a photograph, so well does he capture the effect of wind on both the trees and the walker. But I would be happy to hang all the above on my walls.

In fact, what I think I’d do is get four small 18″x12″ Corot landscapes from, say, iCanvas and arrange them on a wall, thus:

Hey, it’s not too bad a dream, is it?

Corot also did portraits and such, but to be honest, I don’t care for them at all. Here’s one which I think is his best:

…and another more like his others:

Sorry, but no. I have high standards when it comes to portrait paintings, what can I say?

*The appreciation of art was truly a neglected part of my education. Art classes at high school gave me an understanding of movements such as Impressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism and so on, but I never learned to appreciate art properly. So when I went back to university in my early 50s, I took one such class, realized that I needed to take another, and then took a couple more.

I just wish I’d taken them earlier on in life, because I’ve missed so much.

Random Totty

March 7, 2024 Kim du Toit Gratuitous Chick Pics

Okay, Fiona Vroom is one of them Canucki chicks, so you’d think she looks like this:

…or even like this:

But not really. In fact:

And as the above pics show, that face is exquisite:

And the rest isn’t bad, either:

But that face…

Ginger Nuts

January 12, 2024 Kim du Toit Gratuitous Chick Pics

…that would be me. Crazy ’bout them redheads.

Apparently, today is Kiss A Ginger Day (don’t ask how or why, I just report what I read SOTI). Ordinarily I’m opposed to made-up holidays (e.g. MLK Day or Secretary’s Day), but I think I could bend the rules for this one.

Sadly, though, I’ll not be able to get into the spirit of the thing, for all sorts of reasons (including being married, and to a non-redhead withal, and not actually knowing any real redheads at the moment). And my innate sense of self-respect (not to mention fear of los federales ) prevents me from just planting a smooch on the cheek of a random redhead I may encounter in the street.

However, I can play a game, that being:

Of the redheads pictured below, which ONE (as pictured) would you like to kiss above all the others?

And to make it interesting, there’s no chaste peck-on-the-cheek bullshit; it would be a long, tongue-‘n-teeth affair which could get you arrested in twenty states. Here they are:

Amy Adams