Happy birthday to the inimitable Henri Matisse. In this portrait by American photographer Carl Van Vechten, Matisse looks very dapper indeed.
“Henri Matisse,” 1933, by Carl Van VechtenHenri Matisse, 1933, by Carl Van Vechten
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Happy birthday to the inimitable Henri Matisse. In this portrait by American photographer Carl Van Vechten, Matisse looks very dapper indeed.
“Henri Matisse,” 1933, by Carl Van VechtenHenri Matisse, 1933, by Carl Van Vechten
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awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:
Francis Bacon and William S. Burroughs
Constantin Brancusi, Self Portrait in Studio, 1923
From the Metropolitan Museum:
The Rumanian artist Constantin Brancusi took up the camera as early as 1905 to interpret and present his sculptures as he alone saw them. His technique was not entirely professional, but his photographs are highly imaginative and are now recognized as characteristic examples of his visionary genius. The bizarre, spectral effect of this studio view is created by harsh light emanating from a floor fixture hidden in the foreground and from a gas jet seen in the upper right, peeking out from behind two of Brancusi’s completed works, Eve (oak, 1921) and Golden Bird (bronze, stone, 1919-22). Surrounded by pedestals and works in progress, Brancusi brandishes a heavy stone hammer and emerges from the darkness-a reborn Prometheus eager to challenge modern gods. Because the exact authorship of the photograph remains uncertain, the wall label also cites Man Ray as a possible picturemaker. Brancusi’s American friend taught the sculptor rudimentary photography and helped build his studio darkroom.
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Paul Guillaume (left) and Modigliani (center), Nice or Paris, ca 1917 -nd [+]
In an article written some months after Modigliani’s death in 1920, Paul Guillaume said:
“Because he was very poor and got drunk whenever he could, (Modigliani) was despised for a long time,” Guillaume wrote, “even among artists, where certain forms of prejudice are more prevalent than is generally believed … He was shy and refined—a gentleman. But his clothes did not reflect this, and if someone happened to offer him charity, he would become terribly annoyed.” Who could forget his “strange habit of dressing like a beggar” that nevertheless “gave him a certain elegance, a distinction—nobility in the style of Milord d’Arsouille that was astonishing and sometimes frightening. One only had to hear him pompously reciting Dante in front of the Rotonde, after brasseries closed, deaf to the insults of the waiters, indifferent to the rain that soaked him to the bone.”
Excerpted from Meryle Secrest, “Modigliani: A Life” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011)photo and text from Art & Antiques
Cecil Beaton, Alberto Giacometti
Photograph of Lee Miller by Man Ray
Henri Fantin-Latour, Self Portrait, 1860
From the National Gallery in London:
Fantin-Latour painted a number of self portraits in the years 1854-61 which were characterised by having summary backgrounds or no settings at all. In this example, one edge of an unframed painting is visible on the right, which has been tentatively identified as the portrait of Fantin-Latour’s sister Marie (Birmingham City Art Gallery), which was rejected by the jury of the 1859 Salon.
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