Britain to the Baltic: Northern European Art History.

FEATURE Image: Lovis Corinth (German, 1858-1925), Self-portrait with Skeleton, 1896, Lenbachaus, Munich. Corinth is a leading figure painter marked by draftsmanship and brushwork. Like Jawlensky, Corinth pursued his artistic training throughout Europe, including in Munich and Paris, and settled permanently in Berlin in 1902. RUSSIA. From 1889 to the Blue Rider in Munich in 1911, Russian émigré artist ALEXEI VON JAWLENSKY (1864-1941) and the origins of German Expressionist Painting. – CORRIDORS│An Educational Website in the Arts and History. Featuring My Photography and Videos.

In contrast to the centralized urban and courtly powerhouses of the south, the artistic identity of the northern tier was shaped by an expansive, maritime network stretching from Britain to the Baltic. Rather than a history dominated by a single imperial capital, the story of northern art is one of fluid commercial exchange, driven by the merchant cities of the Hanseatic League, the prosperous Dutch Republic, and the maritime trade routes of the North and Baltic Seas. Without the singular dominance of a royal court or a unifying religious academy, this vast geographic arc fostered an empirical, deeply independent artistic tradition focused on the realistic observation of daily life, landscape, and domesticity. By framing this history across this sweeping northern tier, we see how shared trade, Protestant shifts, and a collective maritime geography linked disparate nations into a cohesive, influential artistic ecosystem that permanently expanded the boundaries of Western art.

LOW COUNTRIES. POST-IMPRESSIONISM. My 2005 Visit to Auvers-Sur-Oise, France, where VINCENT VAN GOGH’s final paintings and drawings were made between May to July 1890 assuring his role in artistic modernism.

FEATURE Image: Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), L’église d’Auvers-sur-Oise, vue du chevet (“The Church at Auvers”), June 1890, oil on canvas, 94 cm x 74 cm (37 in x 29.1 in), Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), staying in Auvers starting on May 20, 1890 liked the country town with its artistic pedigree (Corot, Daubigny,…

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LOW COUNTRIES. Flemish art in the 15th Century.

FEATURE Image: Petrus Christus (c. 1395-1472), Pietà, c. 1455–60. 39 ¾ x 75 ½ inches, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. Brief Introduction to Flemish art in the 15th century. Flemish art, as the name suggests, originates in Flanders which includes the Low Countries (Netherlands and Belgium) as well as northeastern France. The…

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BRITAIN. James McNeill Whistler’s favorite contemporary British artist: ALBERT JOSEPH MOORE (1841–1893). Four meticulously painted large-format visions of human figures in a mysterious, at once ancient and modern, idealized natural world that pursued beauty.

FEATURE image: Albert Joseph Moore (1841-1893), READING ALOUD, 1884, oil on canvas, 42.24 x 81 in., Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum. INTRO: Albert Joseph Moore was born in 1841 into a family of artists in North Yorkshire in England. Moore through his own advanced aesthetic experiments in the milieu of theoretical and practical advancements of…

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GERMANY. Art Treasures from the ALTE PINAKOTHEK, MUNICH, Germany. (16 images).

FEATURE image: The Satyr at the Farmer’s (“Der Satyr beim Bauern”), Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, 1593-1678), c.1620. Housing much of the city’s most famous artwork, this museum’s collection includes renowned international works from the 14th through the 18th centuries. Several prominent artists have, at various moments, fashioned their own likenesses in the image of Christ, a…

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Painting and graphic art of EDVARD MUNCH (1863-1944), Norway’s Symbolist/Expressionist Artist who, making “The Scream” depicted the individual’s anguish in modern society.

FEATURE image: Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1895, pastel on cardboard, private collection. By John P. Walsh Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was a Symbolist and Expressionist artist from Norway. In the 1890s, anti-naturalism mainly took the form of Symbolism – that is, the fascination with many types of literature and the inclination to draw upon these sources…

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RUSSIA. From 1889 to the Blue Rider in Munich in 1911, Russian émigré artist ALEXEI VON JAWLENSKY (1864-1941) and the origins of German Expressionist Painting.

FEATURE Image: Jawlensky, Hügel (Hills), 1912, oil on hardboard, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund. Alexei von Jawlensky (1864-1941), Russian-émigré German Expressionist painter. SUMMARY: Alexei von Jawlensky (1864-1941), a young Russian-émigré artist to Germany beginning in the mid 1890’s, became one of the most progressive avant-garde modernist artists of his generation. His international search—from Russia to France,…

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BRITAIN. Complete signed, dated, documented, inscribed artwork (33 paintings) of MARCUS GHEERAERTS THE YOUNGER (c. 1562-1636).

FEATURE image: Detail, Queen Elizabeth I. Ditchley portrait. Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1592. Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Captain Thomas Lee in Irish Dress, oil on canvas, 1594 (purchased 1980), Tate Britain. Captain Thomas Lee (c.1551-1601) had his portrait painted by 33-year-old Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Bruges, 1561-1636) in London in 1594. Captain Lee was 43 years old…

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BRITAIN. Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792).

FEATURE image: Reginald Pole, 1743-44, 76 x 86.5 cm, Trustees of the Carew Pole Family Trusts, Antony House, Cornwall. See no. 2 below for the painting’s story. Notes by John P. Walsh Reverend Mr. Thomas Smart was Vicar of Maker when, in 1735, 11-year-old Joshua Reynolds painted his portrait. It was the same year the…

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