Gino Severini

Happy Birthday Gino Severini!! Italian painter born in 1883, Severini originally studied the Impressionist artists in Paris and there met other artists such as Modigliani, Picasso, Braque and Gris. He was invited to join with the Futurists and signed their Manifesto in 1910. Rather than an interest in machines like some of his fellow Futurists, instead Severini was interested in the human body in motion. After working in the Futuristic style for a time, he began to move more toward Cubism after 1915. In addition to his paintings, he also created murals and mosaics, working in Rome and Paris. He was considered an important link between art in France and Italy. The painting I have here today is called The Armored Train and was painted in 1915.

Gustave Moreau

Happy Birthday Gustave Moreau!! French painter Gustave Moreau was born in 1826 and considered a symbolist. He painted subjects not many painters would attempt, such as the war between good and evil, the conflict of the sexes, the mysteries of life and death. He was not well liked by the art critics, but did mentor Matisse and Rouault in his later years. The painting I am showing here today is Young Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus who according to legend, continues to “sing after his physical death". Orpheus, it is said, could compose music so beautiful it had the ability to charm man as well as beast, and (sadly) had his head torn off by a group of angered women. Moreau paints a devised ending to the story with the head, recovered, being contemplated by a young maiden.

Jules Dupre

Happy Birthday Jules Dupre!! Born in France in 1811, Jules Dupre was a well known landscape painter. His father was a porcelain manufacturer, so Jules was working on porcelain, decorating plates and landscape painting from an early age. He studied landscape and animal painting with Jean-Michel Diebolt. He exhibited with the Salon in 1831 and after several successful showings there, began to work in the studio and travel around in search of new subject matter. He ceased exhibiting for a time, working in solitude, and although in 1867 he made a come back with a show at the Salon, he continued to paint in isolation in his studio until his death in 1889. The peaceful setting painted here must be what Dupre was seeking in his solitude.

Edward Hicks

Happy Birthday Edward Hicks!! American Folk Artist Edward Hicks, born today in 1780, was a Quaker from Pennsylvania. He was a sign painter and used his art to express his deep religious beliefs, and love of peace. One of his most favored subjects was the literal translation of Isaiah's Biblical quote, “when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid”. He painted this subject, The Peaceable Kingdom over one hundred times. In the painting, the animal forms are flat and the contours are clearly outlined with rich patterns adorning their coats, the children are cherubic and scaled small. He often backs the idea of peace with another group of figures in the background, such as Quakers, Native Americans, early settlers, etc.

Bud Fisher

Happy Birthday Harry Conway (Bud) Fisher!!  American cartoonist, born in 1815, Bud Fisher created the first daily comic strip to achieve notoriety, Mutt and Jeff. He attended University of Chicago and, as a journalist in San Francisco, created Mr. Mutt in 1907 adding Jeff later.

William Holman Hunt

Happy Birthday William Holman Hunt!! English painter, William Holman Hunt was born in 1827. After leaving school early, he became an office clerk, but bored, he convinced his parents to allow him to attend the Royal Academy. He formed a group with 7 other artists, the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Considered the first avant-garde movement in art, the brotherhood sought to reject the mechanical approach to art by Mannerist artists who followed Michelangelo and Raphael. They were fascinated with Medieval culture but also wanted to express themselves and closely observe and record Nature. Eventually the group split into two, one including Hunt and Millais focused  on realism and the other interested in Medieval depictions. The painting I am including today is titled Isabella and the Pot of Basil, after the poem by John Keats.

Bill Traylor

Happy Birthday Bill Traylor!! Born into slavery on a plantation in Alabama in 1854, this artist was a self-taught painter. Following the Civil War, he stayed on at the plantation as a sharecropper, married and had 9 children. At age 82, Traylor, his family all gone, left the plantation for Montgomery Alabama. After working in a shoe factory for a short while, he began to draw. His inspiration was ordinary people on the streets and animals. His supplies were simple: pencil, charcoal and cardboard. Charles Shannon, a white painter noticed his work and arranged a show in 1940. He continued to become more recognized and created an amazing amount of paintings, of which Charles Shannon had possession of 1200-1500 when Bill Traylor died in 1949.