John William Whiteley, (1859 - 1936)
A Sail, c. 1898
John William Whiteley, 1859 - 1936, was a British artist at the beginning of the last century. He is known for his paintings of nude figures and landscapes. He exhibited nine works at the Royal Academy between 1882 and 1900 including ‘Under the Cliffs’, ‘A Lullaby’, 'Summer Weather' and ‘Toil and Prayer’.
He was born in 1859 to Henry and Mary Yeardley Whiteley in Wyke, West Yorkshire, and baptized 25 September 1859 at Leeds St Matthew, Yorkshire.
JW Whiteley married Catherine Frances Pickering at Pontefract St Giles and St Mary, Yorkshire. The couple had two children that survived to adulthood: Enid Mary and Wilfred Pickering Whiteley. More John William Whiteley
Koloman Moser, 1868 - 1918
The Mermaid, c. 1914
Oil on canvas
Some of the attributes of mermaids may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean, may have been inspired by manatees and similar aquatic mammals. While there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside of folklore, reports of mermaid sightings continue to the present day, including 21st century examples from Israel and Zimbabwe. More The Mermaid
Koloman Moser (German: [30 March 1868 – 18 October 1918) was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte.
Moser designed a wide array of art works, including books and graphic works from postage stamps to magazine vignettes; fashion; stained glass windows, porcelains and ceramics, blown glass, tableware, silver, jewelry, and furniture. More Koloman Moser
Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky, 1838 - 1915
Mermaids, c. 1879
Oil on canvas
The State Russian Museum - Saint Petersburg (Russian Federation)
Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky (June 20 1839 —
September 17 1915) was an influential Russian painter, affiliated
with the "Peredvizhniki (Wanderers)", a group of Russian realist
artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restrictions.
Many of his historical paintings, such as The Russian Bride's Attire (1889),
showed an idealized view of Russian life of prior centuries. He is often
considered a representative of a Salon art.
In 1851
Makovsky entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
where he became the top student, easily getting all the available awards.
Although art was his passion, he also considered that his mother had wanted him
to be a music composer. He set off to look for composers he could refer to, and
first went to France.
In 1858
Makovsky entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. From 1860 he
participated in the Academy's exhibitions. In 1863 Makovsky and thirteen other
students held a protest against the Academy's setting of topics from
Scandinavian mythology in the competition for the Large Gold Medal of Academia;
all left the academy without a formal diploma.
Makovsky
became a member of a co-operative (artel) of artists led by Ivan Kramskoi,
typically producing Wanderers paintings on everyday life. From 1870 he was a
founding member of the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions. He exhibited his
works at both the Academia exhibitions and the Traveling Art Exhibitions of the
Wanderers.
A
significant change in his style occurred after traveling to Egypt and Serbia in
the mid-1870s. His interests changed from social and psychological problems to
the artistic problems of colors and shape.
In the
1880s he became a fashioned author of portraits and historical paintings. At
the World's Fair of 1889 in Paris he received the Large Gold Medal for his
paintings Death of Ivan the Terrible, The Judgement of Paris, and Demon and
Tamara. He was one of the most highly appreciated and highly paid Russian
artists of the time. Many democratic critics considered him as a renegade of
the Wanderers' ideals, producing striking but shallow works, while others see
him as a forerunner of Russian Impressionism.
Makovsky was killed in 1915 when his horse-drawn carriage
was hit by an electric tram in Saint Petersburg. More Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky
The reverse of a coin of Demetrius III depicts fish-bodied Atargatis
veiled, holding the egg, flanked by barley stalks
The reverse of a coin from Cyrrhestica
Atargatis riding a lion, wearing a mural crown, and holding a sceptre
Atargatis was the chief goddess of northern Syria in Classical Antiquity, and the Romans called her Dea Syriae ("Syrian goddess"). Primarily she was a goddess of fertility, but, as the baalat ("mistress") of her city and people, she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Her chief sanctuary was at Hierapolis, modern Manbij, northeast of Aleppo, Syria. She is sometimes described as a mermaid-goddess, due to identification of her with a fish-bodied goddess at Ascalon. However, there is no evidence that Atargatis was worshipped at Ascalon, and all iconographic evidence shows her as anthropomorphic More Atargatis
Henry Justice Ford, (1860–1941)
Listen . Listen . Said The Mermaid To The Prince
illustration from the fairy tale The Mermaid and the Boy
Henry Justice Ford (1860–1941) was a prolific and successful English artist and illustrator, active from 1886 through to the late 1920s. Sometimes known as H. J. Ford or Henry J. Ford, he came to public attention when he provided the numerous beautiful illustrations for Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, which captured the imagination of a generation of British children and were sold worldwide in the 1880s and 1890s.
In 1892, Ford began exhibiting paintings of historical subjects and landscapes at the Royal Academy of Art exhibitions. However it was his illustrations for such books as The Arabian Nights Entertainments (Longmans 1898), Kenilworth (TC & EC Jack 1900) and A School History of England by C. R. L. Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling (Clarendon Press 1911) that provided Ford with both income and fame.
After education at Repton School and Clare College, Cambridge, Ford returned to London to study at the Slade School of Fine Art and later, at the Bushey School of Art, under the German-born Hubert von Herkomer. More Henry Justice Ford
Norman Prescott Davies, (British, 1862–1915)
Sjöjungfrun , 1904
Mermaid, 1904
Oil on canvas
107 x 61 cm. (42.1 x 24 in.)
Michael Rostovtzeff called her "the great mistress of the North Syrian lands". Her consort is usually Hadad. As Ataratheh, doves and fish were considered sacred to her: doves as an emblem of the Love-Goddess, and fish as symbolic of the fertility and life of the waters. More Sjöjungfrun
The Norman chapel in Durham Castle, built around 1078 by Saxon stonemasons, has what is probably the earliest surviving artistic depiction of a mermaid in England. It can be seen on a south-facing capital above one of the original Norman stone pillars.
Norman Prescott Davies was born in Islesworth, Middlesex, England in 1862. Davies studied at the Royal College of Art, Guilds Art School, and at Heatherley's. He then worked in London as a miniaturist, portrait and figure painter. He began to exhibit at age 18. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Society of British Artists. His work has been reproduced into calendars and posters by the thousands. More Norman Prescott Davies
The Mermaid of Zennor, wood-carved bench end
Cornwall, late fifteenth century.
Photo by Tom Oates.
The Mermaid of Zennor is a popular Cornish folk tale that was first recorded by the Cornish folklorist William Bottrell in 1873. The legend has inspired works of poetry, literature and art.
Long ago, a beautiful and richly-dressed woman occasionally attended services at St. Senara's Church in Zennor, and sometimes at Morvah. The parishioners were enchanted by her beauty and her voice, for her singing was sweeter than all the rest. She appeared infrequently for scores of years, but never seemed to age, and nobody knew whence she came, although they watched her from the summit of Tregarthen Hill. After many years, the mysterious woman became interested in a young man named Mathey Trewella, "the best singer in the parish." One day he followed her home, and disappeared; neither was ever seen again in Zennor Church.
The villagers wondered what had become of the two, until one Sunday a ship cast anchor about a mile from Pendour Cove. Soon after, a mermaid appeared, and asked that the anchor be raised, as one of its flukes was resting on her door, and she was unable to reach her children. The sailors obliged, and quickly set sail, believing the mermaid to be an ill omen. But when the villagers heard of this, they concluded that the mermaid was the same lady who had long visited their church, and that she had enticed Mathey Trewella to come and live with her. More The Mermaid of Zennor
John Reinhard Weguelin, (1849–1927)
The Mermaid of Zennor, c. 1900
Watercolour
John Reinhard Weguelin RWS (June 23, 1849 – April 28, 1927) was an English painter and illustrator, active from 1877 to after 1910. He specialized in figurative paintings with lush backgrounds, typically landscapes or garden scenes. Weguelin emulated the neo-classical style of Edward Poynter and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, painting subjects inspired by classical antiquity and mythology. He depicted scenes of everyday life in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as mythological subjects, with an emphasis on pastoral scenes. Weguelin also drew on folklore for inspiration, and painted numerous images of nymphs and mermaids.
Although his earliest work was in watercolour, all of Weguelin's important works from 1878 to 1892 were oil paintings.
Weguelin's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and a number of other important London galleries, and was highly regarded during his career. However, he was forgotten following the first World War, as his style of painting fell out of fashion. More John Reinhard Weguelin
Mermaids appear in British folklore as unlucky omens, both foretelling disaster and provoking it. Several variants of the ballad Sir Patrick Spens depict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships. In some versions, she tells them they will never see land again; in others, she claims they are near shore, which they are wise enough to know means the same thing. Mermaids can also be a sign of approaching rough weather.
Elihu Vedder, 1836 - 1923
The Fisherman and the Mermaid, c. 1879
Oil on canvas
Height: 41.91 cm (16.5 in.), Width: 72.39 cm (28.5 in.)
Hood Museum of Art - Dartmouth College (United States - Hanover, New Hampshire)
Melusine is a figure of European folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh water in a sacred spring or river. She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down (much like a mermaid). She is also sometimes illustrated with wings, two tails, or both. Her legends are especially connected with the northern and western areas of France, as well as the Low Countries. She is also connected with Cyprus, where the French Lusignan royal house that ruled the island from 1192 to 1489 claimed to be descended from Melusine. More
Elihu Vedder (February 26, 1836 – January
29, 1923) was an American
symbolist painter, book illustrator, and poet, born in New York City. He is
best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation
of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (deluxe edition, published by Houghton
Mifflin).
Vedder
trained in New York City with Tompkins H. Matteson, then in Paris with
François-Édouard Picot. Finally, he completed his studies in Italy - where he
was strongly influenced not only by Italian Renaissance work but also by the
modern Macchiaioli painters and the living Italian landscape. He first visited
Italy from 1858 until 1860, becoming deeply emotionally attached to fellow
painter Giovanni Costa. Their idyllic trips through the Italian countryside
were cut short because Vedder's father cut off his financial allowance.
Vedder
returned to the USA, penniless, during the American Civil War, and made a small
living by undertaking commercial illustrations. He was involved in the bohemian
'Pfaff's' coffee house group, and painted some of his most memorable paintings
notable for their visionary nature, romantic imagery and often Oriental
influences.
At the end
of the Civil War, he left America to live in Italy. He married Caroline
Rosekrans. Elihu Vedder and his wife had four children, only two of whom
survived. His daughter Anita Herriman Vedder played a vital role in handling
the business of her father, who was notorious for his general aloofness towards
details. Elihu's son Enoch Rosekrans Vedder was a promising architect. Elihu
had a home in Rome and - after the financial success of his 1884 Rubaiyat work
- on the Isle of Capri.
Vedder
visited England many times, and was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. He was
also influenced by the work of English and Irish mystics such as William Blake
and William Butler Yeats. In 1890 Vedder helped establish the In Arte Libertas
group in Italy.
Tiffany commissioned him to design glassware,
mosaics and statuettes for the company. He decorated the hallway of the Reading
Room of the Washington Library of Congress, and his mural paintings can still
be seen there. More
LINDA HOFFHEINZ
ELUDING THE NET
Height: 12 in. by Width: 9 in. by Depth: 1 1/2 in.
Private Collection
LINDA HOFFHEINZ
NOW AGAIN CONSTELLATION: VIRGO
Height: 12 in. by Width: 9 in. by Depth: 1 in.
Private Collection
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