Aristocratic Venus by Sir Peter Lely

Lady Cullen as Venus

This seductive nude by Charles II's favourite portrait painter, Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), is most unusual for the time (especially in England) as it is a nude portrait, not an idealised mythological subject. The Lady boldly revealing all is Elizabeth Trentham, Viscountess Cullen (1640-1713), who was Lady of the Bedchamber to Charles' wife, Queen Catherine.

Nymphs by a fountain (C. 1652)

Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch parents in Westphalia but after studying in Haarlem came to London in 1641, where he painted mythological scenes and portraits. He rapidly built a reputation as a top portraitist and painted Charles I.  Despite the English Civil War and the subsequent execution of Charles I his talent was such that he continued to paint during the rule of Oliver Cromwell.  He painted Cromwell and his son and when Charles II was restored to the thrown in 1660 the King appointed him as principal painter.

Nell Gwyn and her son Charles

Lely became fabulously successful and became not so much a painter as a brand, establishing a large workshop where a team of assistants would work on completing the boring bits of his paintings and churning out copies of his most successful works.  It was not unusual for Lely just to paint the face of the subject of a portrait and his studio to finish the rest.   The only other nude portrait Lely did (and probably the only other one anyone did in the seventeenth century in England) was Charles II notorious mistress, the actress Nell Gwyn, who he depicted with her (and the King's) son, Charles.  By this time Charles had had seven children by five mistresses.  Gwyn, in turn, was had been the mistress to two other men called Charles, inmediuately before the King, so jokingly referred to him as Charles III.

Lady Cullen

Lely depicts Gwyn with at least a few swathes of fabric over her body but Lady Cullen is shown as defiantly, completely naked.  Lady Cullen was a woman of notoriety for her physical appearance, lack of morality and gambling.  An heiress in her own right she had an income of £6000 a year (nearly £600,000 at today's value) and managed to spend it all, so that her husband had to bail her out.  Lely also painted Lady Cullen clothed, but she has the same naughty glint in her eye as in the nude painting.  The nude picture may have been commissioned by her husband or even by Lady Cullen herself, some believe.   It is a bold, unique, portrayal of an English aristocrat (Gwyn, after all was a commoner) from the seventeenth century and the fact that she posed for it tells you everything you need to know about her.

If you really like it, it is goes on sale in London in about a week's time, having never been on public view since it was painted.

Sleeping Venus by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)

I haven't featured many of the works of Fragonard on these pages, which is something I need to remedy as he is one of my favourite eighteenth century painters. Here is A Young Girl Sleeping or Une jeune Italienne à demi-nue, couchée volupteusement sur un lit de repos, où elle s'endormie as it was described when sold in 1776 for a thousand livres (the equivalent of about £10,000 based on the value of gold then). This was an early nude by Fragonard, painted when he was in his most Boucheresque phasem during his first trip to Italy from 1756 to 1761, so he would have been in his twenties at the time. In fact, it was the only nude he painted in this period but is a forerunner of the tastefully erotic work he would do later in life.

The picture disappeared from the record at the end of the eighteenth century and only reappeared in 2014 when it was put up for auction. Unsigned, due to a piece of luck it could be positively identified, as someone, at the original 1766 auction had made a quick sketch of the painting in their catalogue and this had been preserved in the Bibliothèque National. It was sold in 2014 for the comparatively bargain price pf $395.000.  Well worth the money!

Masturbating Venuses by Albert Marquet

These simple but sensual  line drawings are by the French artist Albert Marquet (1875-1947), so they entered the public domain yesterday.  Born in Bordeaux, he moved to Paris at the age of fifteen, to attend the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, where he was a roommate of Matisse, with whom he became a lifelong friend.   

Although usually called a Fauvist. his paintings were less violent in colour and more naturalistic.  Based in Paris, he travelled widely to North Africa, Italy and Northern Europe, painting his favourite subject; rivers and coastal scenes.

He also painted some nudes and produced a number of erotic sketches, such as these masturbating girls and the girl spreading her thighs.  We will look at his other erotic work on The Seduction of Venus another time.

In the top picture and the one immediately above, Marquet's lady is well into the throes of passion here, her delicate frigging causing her to cover her eyes in ecstasy.

Festive Venus by Raphael Kirchner

Well, it is the first Christmas for my reincarnated Venus Observations blog, so it is back just over a hundred years for this festive filly with her load of mistletoe by Austrian artist Raphael Kirchner (1876-1917).  Kirchner produced some of the earliest pin up paintings, many of which were produced as postcards and were popular with troops during the Great War.  He was a direct influence on Alberto Vargas who went on to produce famous pinups for Esquire and Playboy.

I will look at some more of Kirchner's elegant ladies in the new year.  Thanks to all those readers who have followed me here and I hope you all get some Christmas kisses!

Swedish Venus: Model Writing Postcards by Carl Larsson

Model Writing Postcards (1906)

Here is a lovely watercolour by influential Swedish painter Carl Larsson.  It is a lovely image of a model taking a break from posing to write some postcards (the emails of the day - Europeans sent huge numbers of postcards to each other at the beginning of the twentieth century).

The Model on the Table (1906)

In the foreground can be seen another painting by Larsson, Model on the Table, which depicts a real (perhaps the same) model posing on a table with a couple of mannequins.

Reclining Nude on Blue Sofa

Carl Larsson (1853-1919) was brought up in a very poor family and his scholarship from a special poor school to the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts provided him with a real escape from an unsettled and unpleasant childhood.  While studying in Stockholm he also worked as a caricaturist and graphic artist for several  Swedish newspapers, earning enough to support his destitute parents.

Nude with grapes (1872)

Larsson had already developed a facility for drawing the nude and earned a medal from the Academy for his nude drawing.  This example, done when he was nineteen, shows an idealised classical style, so different from his later, realistic, illustrative style.

Karin Larsson

After several years working as a book illustrator, he moved to Paris but did not get on with the French artistic scene. In 1882 he moved to Grez-sur-Loing, a Scandinavian artists' colony outside Paris and developed his distinctive watercolour style.  It was there that he met his future wife, another artist,  the beautiful and talented, Karin Bergöö. They got married the following year and their first child (of eight) was born the year after that.  

Leontine, Bare Backed Sitting in the Studio (1902)

Leontine standing (1902)

They returned to Sweden and, luckily for them, Karin's father was a wealthy businessman who bought them a cottage in the village of Sundborn, where her father had been born..  The couple decorated it themselves in a mixture of British Arts and Crafts style (they subscribed to The Studio, the movement's magazine), Swedish folk design and Japanese style, influenced by the popular prints of the time.  The biggest influence, however, was Karin who employed her artistic skills to design and weave fabrics for the house.  She also designed furniture, working with local craftsmen.  Eschewing the usual gloomy, dark Swedish style of the time they created a home full of light and colour.  

Rose and Back

Lisa with Flower Pot (1910)

My Wife

The English style, wild garden was becoming popular in Sweden at the time and gardens became places to relax and enjoy the outdoors rather than just somewhere to grow vegetables. Karin loved her garden and her flower arrangements often appear in Carl's paintings (as in the right of Model Reading Postcards).

When the Children Have Gone to Bed (1895)

It was also Karin who gave Carl the idea of doing paintings of the interiors of their house and these pictures were released as prints and in books.  The first of these, Ett Hem (A home), published in 1898, is still in print today. It was the technological developments in colour printing, from 1890, which enabled Larsson to produce prints and albums of his work, enhancing his reputation, considerably.

In 1909 a German publisher produced another book of his work called Das Haus in der Sonne featuring Larsson's drawings and paintings of  their house.  It sold 40,000 copies in three months and since then has been reprinted more than 40 times.  It showcased the Larsson's ideas about interior decoration to the world.

Larsson's House in the Sun

The Larsson's house, Lilla Hyttnäs, today (the part of the house in the painting is at the far left)

This book created the new 'Swedish Style' which has been so influential on interior designers ever since.  Every time you see painted old furniture or blue or green pastel painted wooden walls in someone's house it is because of the Larssons. The Larsson's house became so famous that people came to visit it as tourists.  Their home, preserved as it was, in still owned by their family and is now open to the public in the summer.  It receives about 60,000 visitors a year.

Girl crouching (1911)

Apart from his nudes and interior studies Larsson was a wonderful portraitist, often using his children as subjects.  He also produced book illustrations, landscapes and other pictures of the village and countryside where he lived.

Midvinterblot (1914)

Despite the popularity of his domestic interior watercolours, Larsson believed that his own best works were his large murals.  He had produced three of these for the Swedish National Museum's interior but the final one, which he considered his masterpiece, Midvinterblot (Midsummer Sacrifice), was rejected by the museum's board.  The controversy split the Swedish art establishment and even the government became involved.  The rejection of the picture hit Larsson hard and he suffered from bouts of depression.  The historical subject was considered not appropriate for Sweden's new modern view of itself at the time. Eventually, it was sold to a Japanese collector in 1987 who then lent it back to the National Museum where it became rehabilitated in the eyes of the Swedish public.  Eventually, the museum raised the money to buy it back and it was installed in the place it was designed for.

During the time he was painting Midvinterblot, Larsson started to suffer with eye problems and headaches. He concentrated on finishing his memoirs and died in February 1919.  In his posthumously published memoirs he acknowledged that his domestic pictures were really the ultimate expression of his personality and his love for his family.

In front of the Mirror (1898)

The copyright on his published pictures expired in 1969 and from this point his pictures were distributed widely, building his and Karin's reputation and that of Swedish Style, to where it is today.  Now you can buy Carl Larsson colouring books and calendars.

Carl and Karin Larsson

Three vintage Venuses

Although I am continuing to repopulate the new Venus Observations with recovered art and early photography posts from the past, it is nice to be able to pop in a new one once in a while.  This photograph of three enticing ladies probably dates back to around the mid nineteen twenties, when short hair became the fashion (although in the early part of the decade women risked social opprobrium by cutting their hair).  The middle lady has her fingers under the other girls' groins but there is no contact.

Venus by the sea: In the Water by Eugene de Blaas

 In the Water (1914)

Here is a nice one-off nude by Italian-born, Austrian painter Eugene de Blaas (1843-1932).  Blaas was born in Albano, near Rome, but spent much of his life in Venice where his father, who was also his original art tutor, was a professor at the Venice Academy.  Tourists visiting Venice wanted pictures of Venetian life and Blaas soon found a niche supplying pictures of gondoliers, fishermen and, above all, Venetian beauties in traditional costume.  His work was so popular in England two of the top art dealers of the time battled it out to represent him.

The Water Carrier (1908)

Sadly, this elegant nude, treading carefully in the shallows as a small shoal of fish darts past her legs, seems to be the only one that he did.  In all his other paintings, despite often displaying a smouldering Italian sensuality, his girls are clothed.  A lost opportunity, but perhaps for Blaas, a very commercial artist, sex didn't sell at the beginning of the last century.'

Young Italian Beauty (1932)