I’ve sailed only once or twice in my whole life but I can still remember the empowering feeling of liberation that I felt when on the water. Sailing and sailboats have been a common topic taken up by many artists across decades and countries in painting. Let’s sail with them, bon voyage!
1. On Board with Friedrich
Sailing in Painting: Caspar David Friedrich, On Board of a Sailing Ship, 1820, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Has this scene filled with light surprised you? Well, in the end, Friedrich is associated more with grey tones and lonely travelers…
2. Renoir’s Sailboats
Sailing in Painting: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Sailboats at Argenteuil, 1874, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, USA.
Some people say that Renoir didn’t know how to paint. Well, I think that works like this one defy this argument, don’t you think?
3. Sea Trip with Courbet
Sailing in Painting: Gustave Courbet, The White Sail, 1877, private collection. WikiArt.
Gustave Courbet might be well-known for his provocative works like the Origin of the world, but in fact, he was a great landscape painter who loved depicting water and rocks.
4. Twatchman’s Sunny Vibes
Sailing in Painting: John Henry Twachtman, Fog and Small Sailboats, c.1900, private collection. WikiArt.
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Magda, art historian and Italianist, she writes about art because she cannot make it herself. She loves committed and political artists like Ai Weiwei or the Futurists; like Joseph Beuys she believes that art can change us and we can change the world.
For a long time the memory of Viennese flower painter Olga Wisinger-Florian slumbered underneath a duvet of withered petals. Who knew that it was she...