Juan Sala (1869-1918)

There's also a painter named Juan Sala (1869-1918). Probably no relation to Jean Sala (see my previous post). Although since I know nothing about either artist I can't be sure about that.

Jean Sala's Salome

All I know about Jean Sala is that he was born in 1895. So he's technically outside the era we normally concentrate on but he's clearly not an artist who embraced modernism! This is the only painting of his that I know of. And I'm a bit obsessed by paintings of Salome.



Jean Sala, Salome

Sidney Meteyard, a late Pre-Raphaelite

I hadn’t heard of Sidney Meteyard (1868-1947) until I came across his I am half sick of shadows, said the Lady of Shalott. He was one of the later artists working very much in the Pre-Raphaelite style and was apparently a friend of both William Morris and Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The Burne-Jones influence is fairly clear.



Sidney Meteyard, Eros



Sidney Meteyard, Venus and Adonis



Sidney Meteyard, Saint Cecilia



Sidney Meteyard, Hope Comforting Love in Bondage, 1901

Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is an artist I find myself drawn to and repelled by in approximately equal measure. His work does have an undeniable power however.



Edvard Munch, Madonna, 1894-1895



Edvard Munch, Nude by Wicker Chair, 1929



Edvard Munch, Starry Night, 1893



Edvard Munch, The Day After, 1894-5



Edvard Munch, The Vampire, Lithograph, 1900



Edvard Munch, The Voice, 1894-5



Edvard Munch, Friedrich Nietzsche, 1906



Edvard Munch, Women on the Beach, 1898



Edvard Munch, The Vampire, 1893–94

Henri Guillaume Schlesinger (1814-1893)

Another very obscure 19th century French painter - Henri Guillaume Schlesinger (1814-1893).



Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger, A Harem Beauty



Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger, An Egyptian Girl Preparing for the Bath



Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger, title unknown

Joseph-Désiré Court (1797-1865)

Joseph-Désiré Court (1797-1865) was a French painter whose reputation rested mainly on his portraits and historical paintings.



Joseph-Désiré Court, Rigolette Seeks to Distract Herself During the Absence of Germain, 1844



Joseph-Désiré Court, Nymph and Faun bathing, 1824



Joseph-Désiré Court, Femme à mi-corps, couchée sur un divan, 1829

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882) was a leading figure in the Romantic movement in Italy. His output includes a large number of rather grandiose history paintings and some remarkably sensual nudes. His painting of Mary Magdalene is one of the more openly erotic of 19th century religious paintings. His career was an exceptionally long one and he was still producing work when he was in his late 80s.



Francesco Hayez, Ballerina Carlotta Chabert as Venus, 1830



Francesco Hayez, Bather, 1832



Francesco Hayez, Ulysses at the court of Alcinous, 1813-15



Francesco Hayez, Ruth, 1835



Francesco Hayez, Sicilian Vespers, 1846



Francesco Hayez, The New Favorite (Harem Scene), 1866



Francesco Hayez, The Penitent Mary Magdalene, 1825



Francesco Hayez, Odalisque, 1867

Jean Lorrain’s Monsieur de Phocas

Jean Lorrain’s Monsieur de Phocas superficially resembles Joris-Karl Huysman’s Á Rebours in that it’s also a portrait of an aristocratic aesthete who is alienated from society and from his age. And both Huysman’s hero des Esseintes and Lorrain’s hero are ultra-sensitive to sensory stimuli.

There are major differences, though. While des Esseintes deliberately constructs for himself a life in which he can enjoy sensory pleasures, Lorrain’s Duc de Fréneuse is completely passive and is overwhelmed by nightmarish sights, sounds and smells. His sensitivity to aesthetic stimuli makes his life a living hell. Art affects him deeply, but it merely serves to emphasise the horror of his existence. He was probably never entirely sane, but is now spiralling ever deeper into madness. He is haunted by visions of eyes, by a particular gaze that obsesses him and which he is unable to find outside of dreams.

The paintings of Gustave Moreau also obsess him, especially the painting of Odysseus’s massacre of the suitors. He forms a strange and somewhat destructive friendship with a visionary English painter, and a mysterious Irishman. These friendships have definite homoerotic overtones – Lorrain was a homosexual, with a preference for rough trade.

Monsieur de Phocas also superficially resembles Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, but it is in no sense merely a second-rate imitation of either Wilde’s book or of Huysman’s. Monsieur de Phocas can stand very well on its own merits. A must-read for all devotees of decadence.

William Henry Margetson (1861-1940)

William Henry Margetson (1861-1940), British painter. And that’s all I know about him!



William Henry Margetson, A New Day, 1930



William Henry Margetson, On the Sands, 1900



William Henry Margetson, The Sea Hath its Pearls, 1897



William Henry Margetson, Moment's Reflection



William Henry Margetson, Norah

Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833-1898)

Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833-1898) was an academic painter whose work showed a strong Pre-Raphaelite influence. He was born in France of Spanish ancestry but spent most of his career in Britain.



Philip Hermogenes Calderon, Broken Vows, 1857



Philip Hermogenes Calderon, Ave Maria



Philip Hermogenes Calderon, St. Elisabeth of Hungary's Great Act of Renunciation, 1891



Philip Hermogenes Calderon, Juliet, 1888

Jan Thorn Prikker (1868-1932)

Jan Thorn Prikker (1868-1932) was a Dutch painter who combined Symbolist and art nouveau influences.



Jan Thorn-Prikker, The Bride, 1892-93



Jan Thorn-Prikker, Madonna in a Tulip Field, 1892

Albert Welti (1862-1912)

Albert Welti (1862-1912) was a Swiss Symbolist painter attracted to the vibrant artistic climate of Munich in the 1890s.



Albert Welti, Walpurgisnacht, 1896-97



Albert Welti, Familienbild, 1903-04



Albert Welti, Nebelreiter, 1895-96



Albert Welti, Haus der Träume, 1897

Armand Point (1861-1932)

Armand Point (1861-1932) was a French Symbolist painter. He was associated with the Salon de la Rose+Croix from 1892 to 1896 but later broke away from this grouping.



Armand Point, L'Automne



Armand Point, The Bath of Youthfulness



Armand Point, The Siren, 1896



Armand Point, The Golden Legend, 1897

Edgar Maxence (1871-1954)

French Symbolist painter Edgar Maxence (1871-1954) studied under Moreau and was later associated with the Salon de la Rose+Croix in the mid-1890s. While Moreau’s influence is obvious so too is that of the Pre-Raphaelites.



Edgar Maxence, L'âme de la forêt (The Soul of the Forest), 1898



Edgar Maxence, Rosa Mystica, 1890s



Edgar Maxence, Femme à l’orchidée



Edgar Maxence, Profile with Peacock, 1896