in the midst of the 1800's there was a flap of failed popular revolutions all throughout Europe, and in the aftermath of their failure the biedemeirer movement of art rose in response. This art (and furniture and literary) movement focused on the bourgeoisie comfort and middle class family as a subject matter and encouraged a turning inward,, its reminiscent to the cottage core aesthetic a lot of people turned to during the 2020 uprisings
Some classic examples
okay those are not my favorite paintings, just context.
so while this art movement is in full swing Jean-François Millet paints and shows this
very much so in conversation with the fantasy of agricultural leisure of the wider movement, depicting the poorest of these communities with the same language as other artists were using to depict the people who caused these women to need to resort to gleaning. people haaaated this painting and its one of my favorites.
if I can share one more paintings, fifteen years later Gustave Caillebotte cited this as inspiration for his painting The Floor Planners which critics at the time referred to as anti-art lol
anyways. I just love laborers getting to be painted with such beauty and care at a time where culture was violently trying to disregard their existence. I didn't have much energy to write out everything so I really recommend looking up more about these artists as there's a lot more there
Big fan of Georges Braque's Houses at Estaque. Braque was making reference to one of Paul Cezzane's favorite places to paint, but taking it much further into abstraction. This really is my 2nd favorite painter doing an homage to my favorite painter and I'm just a sucker for that. Good thing it's also an amazing painting. Braque's delicate, textural brushwork brings so much life and softness to cubism.
I went with my gut. This is the first work that came to kind.
Alexander Roslin's 1768 painting of his wife, artist Marie Suzanne Giroust. It has so much obvious love and affection poured into it, and she's depicted so beautifully, with her little smile, that it just charms me. So many artists spent all their talent and affection on mistresses or whatever, it's just really delightful to see a guy who paints a mischievous portrait of his cute wife and it's arguably the best work of his career.
Adding another entry to history's greatest wife guys.
john brosio, "crab study"
