Paintings

I adore looking at paintings from the period. I think you can gleen so much from a painting, especially from one of a scene where there are "everyday" people hanging around. I don't usually find many good ones, but I happen to stumble on a decent website tonight. It looks like it was put together by Christopher Whitcombe a professor of Art History at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. Here are a few of my favorites:

An Election Entertainment by Wiliiam Hogarth.
This is such a fun painting. I can just imagine the loud boisterous gatherings that probably were very common place at this time. Without any electronic entertainment like TV, radio, and PlayStation, people relied on the company of others for entertainment. You have men, women, and children here and I imagine they had quite the gathering. I am sure this is stylized a bit for the painting, but I imagine gatherings like this happened quite a bit.


Portrait of Mary Edwards by William Hogarth.
Though this picture was taken in 1742, the look is similar to what we might be going for in the 1770's. But what I really like about this picture is the piece she has on the front of her bodice that holds her scarf in place. You may remember from the last time I explored pictures, I found a print of a woman that looked like she had a ribbon fashioned in a similar way to hold her scarf. I am very happy to find another example of this.


Piazza San Marco: Looking South-West by Canaletto.
So obviously this is no where near America, but I just adore looking at these old paintings of a market scene like this. It just is so fascinating to me that these people lived and died like this. Someday someone 200 years in the future will be looking back at our stuff and saying "Wow ... they did that? They drove gas powered cars? Wow that is so fascinating!" I just adore looking at this picture and not seeing one car, not one cable or wire, not one cell phone, or one bright colored advertisement. If I could walk into this painting and live there, I would do it in a heart beat.


Piazza San Marco: Looking East from the South West Corner by Canletto.
I thought this was an interesting painting because all the men are wearing capes. Again this is not in America or quite the right time (it's 1760), but I think it's so cool that the men are wearing capes just like women would. I may have to research this and see if this would apply in America as well, though I think I would have a hell of a time getting Kris to wear a cape even if I had proof!!


Mrs John Winthrop by John Singleton Copley.
So of course I had to put at least one painting by an American in here. I like this one because the woman is wearing a beaded necklace. I have done a little research on beads in this time, but that's hard information to find, but I like seeing that the women wore them.


The Treaty of Penn with the Indians by Benjamin West.
Another American artist, I couldn't resist putting the half-naked Indians on my blog. :-) I just thought this was a really cool scene of men and what types of clothes and hats they wore. Luckily for Kris - no capes! Guess I'm going to have to keep looking!!

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel