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Fortunino Matania was an Italian-born artist who created historical illustrations for the English magazines of the World War 1 era. Here's a picture he did of Captain John Smith captured by Indians.

Matania often rendered his pictures on a gray-colored board, which allowed him to develop the darks in pencil and ink wash, and to add the white areas with white gouache. The bright white of the pillow behind the sick girl really glows, and the solid black of the standing woman's dress provides an eye-catching shape behind the seated man. 



This one is called "Cagliostro: The Law of Trane" from Britannia & Eve. The tone paper technique is helpful for developing compositional sketches or for creating relatively quick renderings of complex scenes.

These images are all from the collection of Anthony Smith, who is offering them for sale on his Pinterest page. Thanks, Anthony.

Previously: Introducing Matania, showing his step-by-steps
Matania's illos of cross-dressing Mary Anne Talbot
Video of Matania at work
Matania's models and props

According to an art history book published in 1904*,  Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891) would be remembered as the greatest painter of the nineteenth century. His paintings certainly sold for the highest amounts at the time. 



Other artists of Meissonier's time reflected on his greatness, though with amusing qualifications. Sir John E. Millais said, “He was more complete than any Dutchman.” Kenyon Cox said he was “The greatest genre painter of any age.” 


A book called "Modern French Masters*" from 1896 begins the section on Meissonier this way: "In Paris, a few years ago, twenty or more well-known artists were dining at the house of a prominent art dealer. During the evening the question came up: "Who, at the end of the 20th century, will be thought of as the greatest painter of our period?"


They posed the question fully aware of the fickleness of changing fashions, of the tendency of one generation to crush the idols of those that came before.

So who did this panel decide would rule 100 years later as the greatest painter of the nineteenth century? 


"The verdict of the jury was nearly unanimous that the paintings most sought after toward the close of the twentieth century would be by Bouguereau and Meissonier."


They chose Bouguereau because "his work is nearly perfect in its draftsmanship, the nude will always occupy a high place in art, and time will mellow much that is rather objectionable in its coloring."


Why Meissonier's pictures? Because they "are as nearly perfect technically as human skill can make them, because they are masterful in their knowledge, and because they are true in appearance."


Suppose we were to assemble a panel of experts today that included art dealers, art historians and artists, and suppose we were to pose the same question: Which artist of the twentieth century will be regarded as the greatest by people of the year 2100? 


It would be difficult for such a panel to come to any consensus. Before any names could be nominated, the criteria would come into dispute. How will future generations measure greatness? By what measure would we evaluate greatness today? No broadly based contemporary art panel would agree that skill, knowledge, truth, and perfect draftsmanship are valid yardsticks. 


The only objective criterion at a given moment is the economic yardstick of auction prices. But that's not based on any enduring principle, and the economic gauge is influenced by elusive market factors such as scarcity and promotion. Are artists great because they are expensive, or expensive because they are great? In any event, Meissonier and Bouguereau are proof that what has risen will fall, and what has fallen will rise.


If we rule out popularity or market value, then which criteria could we use? Beauty? Too subjective. The ability to transmit emotion? Too personal. How about: Audacity? Innovation? Novelty? Influence on others?


Perhaps we have to accept that the art world will be, for our lifetimes, divided into warring tribes, each with a different set of values. This state of affairs makes the job difficult, I imagine, for art juries, curriculum planners, critics, granting agencies, and museum acquisition committees. 
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Masters in Art: A Series of Illustrated Monographs, Issued Monthly. Bates and Guild Co. Publishers, Boston, 1904. 
Modern French Masters
Related book by Ross King about Meissonier and Manet: The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism

(Video link) Yesterday I did another little watercolor painting, this time of the garden beside the chapel at Bard College in New York.


I brought the video camera so you could follow my step-by-step progress — and witness the little accident I had halfway through. I caught it on video, but deleted the expletive.


This detail is about three inches across. Tools: Schmincke Watercolor Pocket Set , 1-inch flat watercolor brush, Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils, Moleskine Watercolor Notebook, and a 1/4 inch flat watercolor travel brush, shot on a Canon VIXIA.


The music was written and performed by John R. York, who is a long-time reader and contributor to this blog. Here's his website and his music page. The piece is called "A Lock of Hair," from his "Sketchbook" album. Thanks, John!


Check out my other videos or subscribe to the an-journeyers YouTube channel so you can see the videos before anyone else. To embed this video in your blog, follow this link to the YouTube page, then press "Embed" and then "Share" and then copy the code right into your blog's composing box, and the video will appear on your blog.

Photo retouching makes it possible to beef up a guy's physique or give a woman a wasp waist. The resulting images of models in magazines present impossible ideals for people. (Image above from Glamour magazine)

The teen glamour magazine called Seventeen has made a pledge to its readers about how it will and won't digitally manipulate photos of young models.

The magazine responded to an online petition by 14-year-old Julia Bluhm, who observed that many girls in her ballet class complained that they were fat.

Seventeen's pledge to its readers says that it will never change a girl's body or face shape, and will change only incidental details, like "flyaway hair," a confusing background, or an out-of-place bra strap. They set up a special blog that takes readers behind the scenes at photo shoots and shows the images before and after retouching.

The magazine "Glamour" has also responded to criticism, polling its readers about what how much retouching is good, and they produced a video where women answer the question "What makes you feel good about your body?"












Seventeen's photo shoot blog
Seventeen's Pledge
New York Times article 

LaThangue commits the same foul in this picture, which is full of tangencies. A tangency is a point of contact between one shape and another so that they just touch without overlapping. The front goat seems to be nibbling the leg of the one behind it, and the third one back is nibbling the second one's shoulder. The effect of both pictures is awkward, flat, and spotty.

The poll results are now final for the crowd-sourced list of best classic art instruction books. I asked you to nominate your favorite how-to books that were older than 50 years, and then you voted in a poll.

The top three slots are occupied by Andrew Loomis (1892-1959), whose drawing is at right. Loomis attended the Art Students League in New York, where he studied under George Bridgman. (Bridgman himself has two books himself in the top ten.) Loomis did a variety of story and cover illustration, but his upbeat, glamorous style was especially well suited to advertising illustration. He taught at the American Academy of Art in Chicago.

Loomis's books are practical, encouraging, well-illustrated, and clearly written, though some people have faulted the figure drawings for a lack of ethnic diversity—there really are a lot of 1940s glamour nudes in high heels.

All of these books were huge favorites of mine when I was an art student, except Successful Drawing, which I was unaware of at the time.

Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873) was the premiere painter of dog portraits of the nineteenth century. Jacob Bell, aware of Landseer's reputation, commissioned him to paint his favorite bloodhound, Countess. But Landseer took a long time getting around to the commission.


One Sunday evening the dog lost her footing on a second floor balcony and fell to her death. The next morning, Bell carried the carcass of his beloved pet to Landseer's door and knocked. He knew that Landseer was busy and hated to be disturbed.

Seeing the dead dog, Landseer declared, "This is an opportunity not to be lost. Go away. Come back Thursday at two o'clock."

Since you all asked for more, here’s another minute-long process video that I shot a few days ago. 

(Video link) The subject is the Ward Manor gatehouse at Bard College in New York.


The basic procedure is to paint softly and loosely with a big brush in the early stages and then switch to smaller brushes and colored pencils for the smaller details. There's a little bit of gouache for highlights and corrections.
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More about the architecture of Bard College
Antique photo of the gatehouse
Here are the tools I used:Schmincke Watercolor Pocket Set , 1-inch flat watercolor brush, Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils, Moleskine Watercolor Notebook, and a 1/4 inch flat watercolor travel brush (don't know brand).
See other videos or subscribe to the an-journeyers YouTube channel

(Video link) This video by Robin Eley shows the process of painting a figure draped in plastic cling wrap.

The cultural ministers of Berlin's Gemäldegalerie have generated a storm of criticism from art historians and the public as a result of their decision to place in storage one of Europe's great museum collections of traditional paintings, replacing them with a donated collection of fauvism and surrealism.


The 3,000 heritage works include Giotto, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Canaletto, Lucas Cranach, Rogier van der Weyden and Rembrandt. The plan calls for relocating the old masters into a smaller, temporary space, where only a fraction of the works will be accessible to scholars and the public, and where no funding is yet in place to build a new exhibit space.

The Gemäldegalerie's 72-room museum space will be cleared to make room for an offered gift of twentieth century works. The donor, Heiner Pietzsch, who made his fortune in wholesale synthetics, placed the condition that all the works in his bequest must always be on public view.

Photo from "What to See in Berlin"
Article in the Guardian "Berlin plan for Old Masters to give way to modern art angers historians"
Gemäldegalerie on Wikipedia 
Thanks, Christian!

The circles of dappled light were about three inches in diameter, and they were all of constant size. However some circles were brighter than others.


I looked up to see what was casting the shadow. It was a maple branch 18 feet above the ground. The branch presented a fairly flat projecting surface with a fixed distance from the ground. This is why the circles were the same size.

Typically a tree or a forest presents a variety projecting of surfaces positioned at many different distances from the ground, so the circles or ellipses vary in size and focus. The farther from the ground, the larger—and blurrier—the circles.

I wondered if I could match up the projecting surface of leaves with the pattern on the ground.

It's a pretty close fit, but doesn't match exactly because they aren't shot at exactly opposite angles. At the bottom of the photo on the right you can see the sharp cast shadow of my arms holding up the camera.

Anyway, it's clear that every opening in the leafy surface, regardless of its size or its ragged shape, has its corresponding circle or composite blob of light on the ground.


The branches aren't thick enough to block the sun from that distance, so they disappear completely in the shadow. 

Previously on GJ: Dappled light
More information about natural light effects in my book "Color and Light"

A week or two ago, I shared a list of my favorite classic art instruction books from Dover Publishing. In the comments, I invited you to suggest the classic art instruction books (more than 50 years old) that you thought were particularly helpful. Here's the list you suggested below. The links take you to Amazon pages where you can read more about each title. On the left is a poll. Please vote for your favorite books. You can vote for more than one. An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists by W. Ellenberger et al.  Animation by Preston Blair   Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Peck  Bridgman’s Life Drawing by George Bridgman  Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson  Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne Constructive Anatomy by George Bridgman   Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis   Creative Perspective for Artists and Illustrators by Ernest Watson   Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth  Famous Artist’s Course by various authors Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth by Andrew Loomis  Fun With a Pencil by Andrew Loomis Hawthorne on Painting by Charles Hawthorne Hensche on Painting by John Robichaux How I Make a Picture by Norman Rockwell Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson  Light and Shade by Mrs. Mary P. Merrifield Modelling and Sculpting the Human Figure by Edouard Lanteri   Oil Painting Techniques and Materials by Harold Speed   On Drawing Trees and Nature: A Classic Victorian Manual (Dover Art Instruction) On the Art of Drawing by Robert Fawcett Pencil Drawing by Ernest Watson Pencil Pictures by Theodore Kautzky Perspective by Rex Vicat Cole Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling Pictorial Composition by Henry Poore Rendering in Pen and Ink by Arthur L. Guptill Successful Drawing by Andrew Loomis   The Art of Animal Drawing by Ken Hultgren The Artistic Anatomy of Trees by Rex Vicat Cole The Classic Point of View by Kenyon Cox The Human Figure by John Vanderpoel The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides The Painter in Oil by Daniel Parkhurst The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed The Practice of Tempera Painting by Daniel Thompson Twilight of Painting by R. Ives Gammell