MAKING A MARK: Who painted this #68?

Who painted this #68?

I saw this painting at an exhibition in London during the last decade. It’s pretty big – and my photo of it in its frame has got some parallax issues. 

That’s as much as you’re getting in terms of clues. You can get to the name of the artist pretty fast if you have a think about the style of costume and the nature of the painting. After that, it’s just a case of working your way through the artist’s paintings as this is a well known one.

Below you can find

• The details of how to participate in this art history challenge
• the rules of the challenge 
• the answer to last week re. Who Painted this #67
• the names of all the people who got most or all of the answer correct
• who provided the best answer last week – which gives you an idea of what a good answer looks like

Your answers will be published next Sunday – before the next challenge.

How to participate in “Who painted this? #68

Tell me the story of this painting as best you can!

This is how “Who painted this?” works.

This is about using brains not technology – so please do NOT “cheat”

Briefly, in your comment ON THIS POST you must tell me ALL or as many of the following as you can:

• the title of the artwork
• the name of the artist who created this artwork
• the date it was created
• the media used
• where it lives now
• how you know all this eg how did you do your search
• anything else you can find out about the artwork and/or artist – tell its story!

The Winner of this week’s challenge is the first identifiable person (i.e. no anonymous guesses) who, in my judgement, is 

• the first person to get to the answer by fair means 
• AND provides the best quality answer in terms of added details about the artwork and artist

Remember also

• no use of “Google Image Search” or “Tineye” to find the image allowed 
• this is a traditional web search of images using words only plus “hit the books” time
• I don’t publish the comments until next week’s post.

Comments on this blog post will only be published once a week – on the following Sunday.

(You wouldn’t believe how many spam comments I’m having to identify and delete each week because of this challenge!!)

Who Painted This #67?

The challenge last week was to work out the painting from only half a painting!

This is the whole painting – and many of you got the correct artist and title! It’s by Bonnard.

The Table (1925) by Paul Bonnard oil on canvas Courtauld Collection – but photographed at the National Gallery

The woman is probably Marthe Bonnard, the artist’s wife. She is looking towards a dog whose muzzle is faintly visible on the left, and seems to be preparing its food in a bowl.

Title of the artwork: The Table
Name of the artist who created this artwork: Paul Bonnard
Date it was created: 1925
Media used: oil on canvas

Dimensions: Support: 1029 × 743 mm. Frame: 1256 × 965 × 113 mm
Where it lives now: Tate (Presented by the Courtauld Fund Trustees) 

This painting was bought as a result of the Courtauld Fund. In January 1924 the wealthy textile manufacturer Samuel Courtauld gave the large sum of £50,000 to create a trust for buying Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works for the Tate Gallery. Between 1924 and 1927 the Trust bought nineteen paintings by artists such as Edouard Manet, Paul Gauguin, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne. This donation transformed the Tate’s Collection of modern art by non-British artists. This significant painting was acquired only a year after it was made, and was the first work by Bonnard to enter the Tate Collection.

My photo of the painting relates to when paintings from the Courtauld Collection were on display at the National Gallery in November 2018 – following the closure of the Courtauld Gallery for a major refurbishment.

It’s been shown in various other exhibitions over the years including:

• RSA, Edinburgh, April-August 1932 (211); 
• RSA, Edinburgh, April-August 1946 (104); 
• Samuel Courtauld Memorial Exhibition, Tate Gallery, May-September 1948 (1); 
• Bonnard and his Environment, Museum of Modern Art, New York, October-November 1964 (34, repr.); 
• Art Institute of Chicago, January-February 1965 (34, repr.); 
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March-May 1965 (34, repr.); 
• Pierre Bonnard, RA, London, January-March 1966 (179)

Along with refreshing the gallery interiors, the Courtauld has completely reinterpreted and redisplayed its collection of fine art, which ranges from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. New spaces have also been created for temporary exhibitions.

 

Who guessed correct?

The first person to get it right was French Jane who knew it straight away as she’d seen it

I recognized this as an impressionist work so started my search using impressionism table seated woman. When I didn’t find any results started using the artist’s name in the search. Started with Cezanne,Matisse,Mary Cassatt, and Pierre Bonnard. I am currently using Esconia as my primary search engine. Find it very fast and accurate.

Title The Table
Painted 1925
Purchased by the Courtland Fund in 1926 for Tate Museum. His first painting to enter Tate’s collection.
Oil on canvas 102.9 x 74.3 cm
This painting was part of an exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum in NY 2009 #15
Bonnard is well known for his domestic scenes of everyday life.
The woman is probably his wife Martha, preparing a simple meal.
Acquired from the artist by Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
Independent Gallery, London
presented by the Trustees of the Courtauld Fund to the Tate Gallery, 1926