Woman With Hat

This painting was completed by Henri Matisse in 1905 and depicts Matisse's wife....Amelie. 


 Gertrude Stein bought the painting along with her brother Leo.

They bought it in order to lift Matisse’s spirits after the show this painting was included was panned by the critics.  One critic said the paintings looked like a pot had been flung in the face of the public. 

The painting ended up being a bone of contention with the Stein family.   Gertrude and Leo’s brother’s wife claimed she actually bought the painting, and she may be right.   Photographs of her Paris and California homes clearly show the painting.

Surprising Sofonisha

When we think of the Italian Renassiance we think male artists, right?   

However, there were a few women who spent their time with canvas and paint……Sofonisha Anguissola is one.   She lived from 1532 to 1635 and once she was introduced to Michelangelo he immediately recognized her talent.  Eventually she would serve as a court painter for the Spanish court.

She is known for painting self and family portraits.  Later in life she would use religious themes, but sadly many of those were lost.

Her parents named her after Sophobisba….a Carthaginian noble woman who killed herself rather than falling victim to the Romans during the Punic Wars.

Though she was allowed to paint she was still unable to study anatomy or drawing from life like male painters…she was not allowed to view nudes in order to gain the knowledge she needed.  

Instead of allowing this to be a negative, Sofonisha turned it into a positive and did innovative things including new styles of portraiture, setting subjects informally.

At a time when male artists were creating large-scale religious and historical scenes Sofonisha created self-portraits and scenes with her family depicting everyday life.

For example….The Chess Game shows her sisters playing chess and includes a new element in painting….LAUGHTER!

Sofonisha Anguissola's The Chess Game

Sofonisha Anguissola's Self-Portrait at the Clavichord

Another example, shown above, includes a person in action.  This is a self-portrait at the clavichord.

Famous Art Thefts: The Last Judgment

Historians actually believe the very first art theft occurred when The Last Judgment by Hans Memling in 1473 was taken….not for the last but for the first time.

The Last Judgment is actually a triptych painting which means the painting is actually in three sections hinged together.

The painting was stolen by pirates.   Yes, real pirates.  It was on a ship headed for Florence  when the pirates took the ship, and they ended up with the painting.

The pirates took Memling’s work to a cathedral in Gdansk, Poland and believe it or not…..it’s still there – in the National Museum.

It’s a little surprising anyone would want to keep it.   The painting IS a little scary, isn’t it?

The Museum’s website states Angelo Tani, head of the Bruges branch of Medici’s bank commissioned the painting in 1465 for a church in Florence… Badia Fiesolana, but it never hung there since the painting was taken by pirates and eventually hung in St. Mary’s Church.

Later the painting was connected with the name van Eyck and over the centuries other painters from the Netherlands were thought to have painted The Last Judgement.   It wasn’t finally attributed to Memling until 1843.

From the 1700s forward the painting was caught up in various wars.  During the Northern War (1716-1717) Russian tsar Peter the Great demanded the painting as part of the reparations imposed on Gdansk.   In 1807, Napoleon’s army occupied Gdansk and took the painting to Paris where it was incorrectly identified it as a van Eyck.  

After Napoleon’s fall the Prussians took the painting to Berlin before it was returned to Gdansk where it eventually wound up in St. Reynaud’s Chapel.

Fortunately, The Last Judgment survived World War II though many works of art did not.   Initially the painting was found by the Soviet Army.  They took the painting to Lenningrad’s Hermitage as a war trophy.  On September 22, 1956 The Last Judgment was returned to Gdansk together with other artwork from the Gdansk Musem.