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How do portraits influence the way we see historic figures? David shows Napoleon Bonaparte working tirelessly for the people of France.
Washington, D.C., 2000: 196-208, color repro. 2004 Hand, John Oliver.
Pieter de Hooch excelled in the sensitive depiction of people going about their daily lives, be it inside their houses or in the sheltered environment of an urban courtyard. His masterly control of light, color, and complex perspectival construction can be compared to the work of Johannes Vermeer, his contemporary and colleague in Delft.
London, 2003: 2:71. 2004 Hand, John Oliver.
Lured to Tahiti in 1891 by reports of its unspoiled culture, Gauguin was disappointed by its civilized capital and moved to the countryside, where he found an approximation of the tropical paradise he had expected. The Tahiti of his depictions was derived from native folklore supplemented by material culled from books written by earlier European visitors and overlaid with allusions to western culture.
Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 2001: 117-118, repro. 2004 Hand, John Oliver
It is impossible to guess what 16-year-old Ginevra de’ Benci was thinking as she sat for this portrait to commemorate her upcoming marriage. The young Florentine woman has a distant gaze.
Hand, John Oliver.
Jan Steen’s paintings encompass a wide range of moods and subjects, from intimate scenes of a family saying grace before a meal to festive village celebrations, yet all of his paintings elicit a warm reaction to the lives of ordinary people. All five senses are represented in this work in which two young musicians play for a dancing couple while other people in the vine-covered arbor flirt, eat, drink, or smoke, and children amuse themselves with their toys.
London, 2003: 2:118. 2004 Hand, John Oliver.
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Video Video: Oliver Lee Jackson: There Is No Story Interviewed in his Oakland
Peter Paul Rubens lived and studied in Italy between 1600 and 1609, absorbing the country’s cultural riches and artistic heritage. During a stay in Genoa in 1606, he painted the portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria.
Paris, 1999: 127, color repro. 2004 Hand, John Oliver.
This painting is based on a true account of a shark attack in Havana Harbor in 1749. John Singleton Copley depicts a critical moment in the attempted rescue of 14-year-old Brook Watson.
Chicago, 2001: 122-123, color repro. 2004 Hand, John Oliver.
Here is Dutch artist Judith Leyster at her easel, taking a break from painting to engage with us. In what might be considered an early selfie, she leans her forearm on the chair and suspends her paintbrush in midair, as if she’ll turn back to the canvas in a moment.
Berkeley, 2003: 36-47, fig. 2. 2004 Hand, John Oliver.
There is little doubt that these two portraits by Rembrandt van Rijn (see also NGA 1942.9.67) were conceived as pendants, or companion pieces. In both, light illuminates the subjects from exactly the same angle.
Hand, John Oliver.
