Janet Fish

Janet Fish - Grocery-wrapped Pears - 1971 - pastel on brown wove Canson paper - sheet: 50.8 x 65.4 cm (20 x 25 3/4 in.) mount: 73.7 x 65.4 cm (29 x 25 3/4 in. - National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.American contemporary Realist Janet Fish (born 1938) paints still life paintings—many of which focus on bouncing and reflective light. It’s been suggested that her achievements have helped to revitalize both still life and realism, which have often been looked down upon by artists and critics alike. However, “even in modern times still life has presented opportunities for artists to create a visual equivalent of states of being…” and this is certainly a view held by Janet Fish.

She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised on the island of Bermuda. Her grandfather, Clark Voorhees (1871-1933) was an American Impressionist painter whose works very much inspired her. Her father was a teacher of Art History, and her mother was a sculptor and potter. Janet began her art studies in Maine, and eventually studied at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture. She was one of the first women to receive her MFA from Yale.

Janet’s solidification as an artist did not come easily—because the generation of young artists who came of age in the 1950s were influenced by the then dominant New York School of Abstract Expressionists. But now her work is exhibited by many prestigious museums and institutions around the world. She’s also received numerous fellowships and awards. Janet Fish now lives and paints out of her SoHo loft in New York City, and her Vermont farmhouse.

Gustave Caillebotte: The Realistic Impressionist

Gustave Caillebotte - On the Pont de l’Europe - 1876-77 - Oil on canvas, 106 x 131 cm - Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth (click photo for larger image)This painting, by French artist and collector Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) which crops passers-by on the bridge spanning the Gare Saint-Lazare's track approach, is interesting not least for the alert regard Caillebotte, the engineer, had for the new technology. He did several meticulous studies towards two versions of the painting.The lines of receding perspective in Caillebotte's work can often draw us with a disquieting violence into a picture's spatial depth. His perspective recalls the engineer's drawing board.

Realism

Louis Le Nain - Visit to Grandmother - 1645-48 - Oil on canvas, 58 x 73 cm - The Hermitage, St. Petersburg (click photo for larger image)Realism refers to the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative idealization in favor of a close observation of outward appearances. As such, realism in its broad sense has comprised many artistic currents in different civilizations. Realism can be found in ancient Hellenistic Greek sculptures, and in the works of such artists as Caravaggio, the Dutch genre painters, the Spanish painters José de Ribera, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Zubarán, and the Le Nain brothers in France. French Baroque era painter Louis Le Nain (ca.1603-1648) was one of three painter brothers who worked together, mainly on commissions from the Parisian aristocracy. In the 1640s peasant scenes came into fashion. The brothers’ interiors are striking for the interweaving of approaching and retreating figures, illuminated and shady areas, and “the glances the personages seem to give each other before turning a common hospitable gaze to the viewer and the world."

Edgar Degas: The Impressionist Realist

Edgar Degas - Les repasseuses (Women Ironing) - 1884 - Oil on canvas - 29 7/8 x 31 7/8 in. (76 x 81 cm) - Musee d'Orsay, Paris (click photo for larger image)"I want to look through the keyhole," French artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917) once said. A keen intelligence and precise objectivity characterize his work, and he was the only artist who truly bridged the gap between traditional academic art and the avant-garde movements of the late 19th an early 20th centuries. Degas was especially fond of the human figure—particularly female—which would emerge on his canvases as laundresses, ballet dancers, cabaret singers, milliners, prostitutes to women washing themselves. His ability to explore the language of art—its technical and tactile complexity, its refinement as well as its implicit energy—to a more extreme degree than any of his contemporaries, but without losing sight of his subject matter is wherein his greatness lies.

“Picasso Looks at “Degas”

Edgar Degas - Self-Portrait, ca. 1857–1858 - Oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 10-1/4 x 7-1/2 inches - Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MassachusettsEdgar Degas - Self-Portrait, ca. 1857–1858 - Oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 10-1/4 x 7-1/2 inches - Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts (click photo for larger image)Pablo Picasso - Self-Portrait, 1896 - Oil on canvas, 13 x 9-1/2 inches - Museu Picasso, Barcelona (click photo for larger image)

“Throughout his long and prolific career, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) observed and absorbed the work of other artists. One artist Picasso particularly admired was Edgar Degas (1834–1917).”

This is the opening line of an article by Sarah Lees, associate curator of European art at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. written for “Antiques and Fine Art Magazine” to help promote a 2010 exhibit. It’s a very interesting discussion—and we strongly encourage you to read it. Picasso was not an artist who ever needed to copy or imitate anyone. But he was like a sponge—taking up everything around him and adding it to his own pictorial language.