I found the Fast Money/CNBC interview with Greg Norman @ http://www.cnbc.com/id/24068220?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS intriguing because he gave an interesting perspective about his company (caters primarily to the high-end market) and how it relates to the global economy.
Useful link:
www.shark.com
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Grand Sancy
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The Grand Sancy (sometimes known simply as the Sancy and documented in June 1586) was bought by the Banque de France and the Musées de France from the 4th Viscount Astor in 1977 and is now on display in the Galerie d’Apollon of the Musée du Louvre, Paris. According to Cletscher, the rough Grand Sancy was acquired in Constantinople and fashioned in Paris. In its lifetime it has been part first of the English and then of the French Crown Jewels.
The outline and faceting of the stone: At its pointed end it looks very like a Rose Cut, which probably explains why it has so often wrongly been described as a Double Rose. But between the table and the blunt end the faceting is of a totally different design.
The central facet, the table, has always been thought to be pentagonal, but under a magnifying glass one can see that the narrow end does not, in fact, terminate in a point but has three edges, and that three of the five triangular facets which appear to meet at the point have had their apexes removed and join the table at these upper edges. This means that instead of being a pentagonal kite, as it appears to the naked eye, the table is actually eight-sided. The pavilion is faceted in more or less the same design as the crown, except that the culet, which is the same size as the table, is genuinely pentagonal. The gem is ‘convexo-convex’ (i.e the two sides are rounded) and the two convex surfaces meet at the girdle. It was not possible to study the girdle itself as this was hidden in the setting when I had it in my hands. The dimensions are:
Height: 25.7mm
Width: 20.6mm
Thickness: 14.3mm
Weight: 55.23 ct (according to Sancy himself, 60 ct including te setting of about 1.3 grams)
Through the pointed end, a distinct flaw and several abraded facet edges are visible, even in photographs.
The Grand Sancy (sometimes known simply as the Sancy and documented in June 1586) was bought by the Banque de France and the Musées de France from the 4th Viscount Astor in 1977 and is now on display in the Galerie d’Apollon of the Musée du Louvre, Paris. According to Cletscher, the rough Grand Sancy was acquired in Constantinople and fashioned in Paris. In its lifetime it has been part first of the English and then of the French Crown Jewels.
The outline and faceting of the stone: At its pointed end it looks very like a Rose Cut, which probably explains why it has so often wrongly been described as a Double Rose. But between the table and the blunt end the faceting is of a totally different design.
The central facet, the table, has always been thought to be pentagonal, but under a magnifying glass one can see that the narrow end does not, in fact, terminate in a point but has three edges, and that three of the five triangular facets which appear to meet at the point have had their apexes removed and join the table at these upper edges. This means that instead of being a pentagonal kite, as it appears to the naked eye, the table is actually eight-sided. The pavilion is faceted in more or less the same design as the crown, except that the culet, which is the same size as the table, is genuinely pentagonal. The gem is ‘convexo-convex’ (i.e the two sides are rounded) and the two convex surfaces meet at the girdle. It was not possible to study the girdle itself as this was hidden in the setting when I had it in my hands. The dimensions are:
Height: 25.7mm
Width: 20.6mm
Thickness: 14.3mm
Weight: 55.23 ct (according to Sancy himself, 60 ct including te setting of about 1.3 grams)
Through the pointed end, a distinct flaw and several abraded facet edges are visible, even in photographs.
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
2
Manet was the heir of Courbet with this difference, that the temper of his art was more aristrocratic. He also built up his pictures by the direct application of planes of color rather than by working up an underpainting based on linear design and light-and-shade; he also used the blonde palette of Velazquez and Hals, and he also chose his subjects from the life around him; but he painted the people and life of the middle-classes, while Courbet had concentrated on the proletariat.
Edouard Manet was born at Paris in 1833. His father was a magistrate and, like Manet was originally destined for the bar, but he eventually overcame family opposition, and when he was about eighteen he was permitted to enter the studio of Couture (1815-79). Thomas Couture was an accomplished artist whose rich colored paintings were a discreet compromise between Romanticism and Classicism, but his orthodox instruction appealed little to Manet, who from the beginning desired to observe Nature closely and reproduce it according to his own feeling. After traveling in Germany, Austria, and Italy to study the Old Masters, Manet finally found in the paintings by Velazquez and Goya at the Louvre the answer to all his questionings and aspirations for light and truth. Influenced by these masters and by the example of Courbet, he gradually evolved a new technique which presented modern aspects by modern methods. Observing how one color melted into another in nature, he declared ‘There are no lines in Nature,’ and in his pictures he abandoned the convention of the outline and shaped his forms by a modelling obtained by subtle gradations of tints which fused into one another. The problem of just illumination was to Manet a matter of primary importance. Once when he was asked to point out the principal figure in a group he had painted, he made a reply that has become historic. ‘The principal person in a picture,’ said Manet, ‘is the light.’
Manet made his first appearance at the Salon in 1861 with a portrait of himself and his young wife and another paiting, ‘The Spanish Guitar-player.’ Over both the cry of ‘Realism’ was raised, and Realism was unpopular at the moment, nevertheless the Jury, inspired by Delacroix, gave Manet an Honorable Mention. But during the next two years the partisans of the classical tradition obtained the upper hand agian, and Manet was excluded from the Salon of 1863. So many artists of admitted talent, however unpopular, had their works rejected en bloc by the Salon jury this year, that the Emperor, Napoleon III, inspired by a praiseworthy liberal thought, insisted that these innovators should at least have the right to exhibit together in a special room. Thus there came into being what was known as the Salon des Refusés: among the exhibitors there, in addition to Manet and Whistler, were Alphonse Legros, Fantin Latour (1836-1904), celebrated both as a portraitist and as a painter of flowers, Harpignies, Renoir, Claude Monet, and many others who have since become famous. One of the paintings in this exhibition, a sunset by Claude Monet, entitled ‘Impressions’, excited much laughter among the crowd that came to jeer at the ‘rejected’, and henceforward the custom arose of alluding to the new school of painters as ‘Impressionists’. Originating as a term of derision, the word remained in use, and the painters to whom it was applied adopted it as an official label which would serve, as well as any other, to cover their varied aims.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
2
Manet was the heir of Courbet with this difference, that the temper of his art was more aristrocratic. He also built up his pictures by the direct application of planes of color rather than by working up an underpainting based on linear design and light-and-shade; he also used the blonde palette of Velazquez and Hals, and he also chose his subjects from the life around him; but he painted the people and life of the middle-classes, while Courbet had concentrated on the proletariat.
Edouard Manet was born at Paris in 1833. His father was a magistrate and, like Manet was originally destined for the bar, but he eventually overcame family opposition, and when he was about eighteen he was permitted to enter the studio of Couture (1815-79). Thomas Couture was an accomplished artist whose rich colored paintings were a discreet compromise between Romanticism and Classicism, but his orthodox instruction appealed little to Manet, who from the beginning desired to observe Nature closely and reproduce it according to his own feeling. After traveling in Germany, Austria, and Italy to study the Old Masters, Manet finally found in the paintings by Velazquez and Goya at the Louvre the answer to all his questionings and aspirations for light and truth. Influenced by these masters and by the example of Courbet, he gradually evolved a new technique which presented modern aspects by modern methods. Observing how one color melted into another in nature, he declared ‘There are no lines in Nature,’ and in his pictures he abandoned the convention of the outline and shaped his forms by a modelling obtained by subtle gradations of tints which fused into one another. The problem of just illumination was to Manet a matter of primary importance. Once when he was asked to point out the principal figure in a group he had painted, he made a reply that has become historic. ‘The principal person in a picture,’ said Manet, ‘is the light.’
Manet made his first appearance at the Salon in 1861 with a portrait of himself and his young wife and another paiting, ‘The Spanish Guitar-player.’ Over both the cry of ‘Realism’ was raised, and Realism was unpopular at the moment, nevertheless the Jury, inspired by Delacroix, gave Manet an Honorable Mention. But during the next two years the partisans of the classical tradition obtained the upper hand agian, and Manet was excluded from the Salon of 1863. So many artists of admitted talent, however unpopular, had their works rejected en bloc by the Salon jury this year, that the Emperor, Napoleon III, inspired by a praiseworthy liberal thought, insisted that these innovators should at least have the right to exhibit together in a special room. Thus there came into being what was known as the Salon des Refusés: among the exhibitors there, in addition to Manet and Whistler, were Alphonse Legros, Fantin Latour (1836-1904), celebrated both as a portraitist and as a painter of flowers, Harpignies, Renoir, Claude Monet, and many others who have since become famous. One of the paintings in this exhibition, a sunset by Claude Monet, entitled ‘Impressions’, excited much laughter among the crowd that came to jeer at the ‘rejected’, and henceforward the custom arose of alluding to the new school of painters as ‘Impressionists’. Originating as a term of derision, the word remained in use, and the painters to whom it was applied adopted it as an official label which would serve, as well as any other, to cover their varied aims.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
Random Thoughts
Superman (Christopher Reeve): Don't worry, I've got you.
Lois Lane (Margot Kidder): But who's got you?
A great line from the Superman movie.......
Lois Lane (Margot Kidder): But who's got you?
A great line from the Superman movie.......
A Rare Rock Crystal Clock
It has been reported that the famous 'The Royal Skeleton Clock', a true work of art, crafted entirely of rare rock crystal + 18 karat gold, including the movement + a myriad of precious diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires that adorn every inch of the timepiece, created by Asprey, commissioned by the Sultan of Brunei, has been listed for sale.
It's an amazing piece of art (http://www.rauantiques.com/29-1865.html) that's finding its way to the market.
Useful links:
www.thewdn.com
www.rauantiques.com
It's an amazing piece of art (http://www.rauantiques.com/29-1865.html) that's finding its way to the market.
Useful links:
www.thewdn.com
www.rauantiques.com
Price Shock
After years of years of strong global economic growth, prices of oil, grains, and some metals have risen sharply + speculative investors have also added fuel to that fire by buying up hard assets like commodities, which are viewed as a hedge against inflation, and the impact is stunning --suddenly we are all sucked into this powerful magnetic field called inflation, and slowly getting weaker together + I am seeing strange behavioral patterns of businesses and consumers worldwide.
Useful links:
www.globalinsight.com
www.mbginfosvcs.com
www.imf.org
www.federalreserve.gov
Useful links:
www.globalinsight.com
www.mbginfosvcs.com
www.imf.org
www.federalreserve.gov
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The Tiny Overlooked Universes That Surround Us
Just look at the beauty and rarity of the photos @ http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2008/04/submissions_macro and the phenomenal effects -- they are so natural, it's just brilliant! The images reminded me of the spectacular inclusions in gemstones.
Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud by William Feaver is an excellent edition of Freud's work.
Lucian Freud is internationally acknowledged as one of the most important British painter working today, and now a life-size painting, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, never been seen publicly, which features a Jobcentre worker fondly known as 'Big Sue', the subject of several masterpieces by Freud, painted in 1995, sold privately at the time, will be auctioned by Christie's next month in New York, which is expected to sell for up to £18m, one of the most expensive work by a living artist at auction.
Useful link:
www.christies.com
Lucian Freud is internationally acknowledged as one of the most important British painter working today, and now a life-size painting, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, never been seen publicly, which features a Jobcentre worker fondly known as 'Big Sue', the subject of several masterpieces by Freud, painted in 1995, sold privately at the time, will be auctioned by Christie's next month in New York, which is expected to sell for up to £18m, one of the most expensive work by a living artist at auction.
Useful link:
www.christies.com
Arbitration Justice In Absentia
Chaim Even Zohar writes about procedural flaws in commercial disputes involving members of the diamond bourse (s) + bourse member’s unfamiliarity with the rules of sister bourses in cross-boundary arbitrations, and the impact + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
The Sancy Cut
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The name Sancy Cut has so far only occasionally been given to diamonds that are halfway between Brilliants and Briolettes. They are pear-shaped gems with both the front and the back convex. A girdle divides the two halves, each of which has a small table. The gems must have been fasioned from macles, dodecahedroid crystals, or elongated, domed irregulars, all of which could have been fashioned into Sancy shapes without too much loss of weight.
There are, however, only two actual Sancys, once owned by the Seigneur de Sancy, but the name also applies to several pendeloques which were once in the crown of Louis XV; four stones in the Iranian Imperial sword and two in the Jiqa plum among the Iranian Crown Jewels, and Mazarin numbers 17 and 18 (two flatbacks which were clearly originally one stone). In the French Crown inventory of 1791 fifteen Sancys are mentioned, weighing between 1 and 3¾ ct. These are only a few of the best-known examples.
According to Jacques Babinet of the Institut de France, ‘all the diamonds which pretend to this name.......are cut in the form of a flattened pear, almost round, a shape called the ‘Pendeloque’, having facets above and below, with a small flat surface on the top.....This kind of cutting, which I venture to call the Sancy, merits as much attention as those known by the name of the rose or the brilliant.’
In the seventeenth century the standard description for the Sancy Cut was ‘taillé à facettes des deux côtés, en forme d’amande’. The French Crown inventory of 1691 gives the following descriptions:
C.I. : fort épais, taillé à facettes des deux côtés de forme pendeloque 53¾ (Le Grand Sancy)
59: à facettes, double, long, pointu, carré
1: un grand diamant en pendeloque, taillé à grande facettes des deux côtés. 15¼ ct
8: en pendeloque, taillé à grande facettes des deux côtés 14½ ct
Though some of the diamonds listed may have been girdled pendeloques, I believe that many of them were, in fact, Sancy Cuts.
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Sancy Cuts have frequently been called Double Roses. This term evidently originated from French inventories of the previous century, when the cut was described as ‘un diamant brilliant formé en poire, taillé en rose des deux côtés, percé d’un bout’. Once Rose Cuts were established, the words taillé en rose were added, and the earlier term ‘almond-shaped’ was replaced by ‘pear-shaped’. According to Morel (1988), the fleur-de-lis on top of Louis XV’s crown (1722) was composed of four Double Roses each formed by two circular Rose Cut diamonds glued base to base.
Of specific interest is the fact that Sancy Cuts disclose a circlet of facets quite similar to the crown facets of a Brilliant, both of the standard type and the Split and Step Cut. With a large table facet replacing the apex they would have been as good as any Fancy Brilliant.
The name Sancy Cut has so far only occasionally been given to diamonds that are halfway between Brilliants and Briolettes. They are pear-shaped gems with both the front and the back convex. A girdle divides the two halves, each of which has a small table. The gems must have been fasioned from macles, dodecahedroid crystals, or elongated, domed irregulars, all of which could have been fashioned into Sancy shapes without too much loss of weight.
There are, however, only two actual Sancys, once owned by the Seigneur de Sancy, but the name also applies to several pendeloques which were once in the crown of Louis XV; four stones in the Iranian Imperial sword and two in the Jiqa plum among the Iranian Crown Jewels, and Mazarin numbers 17 and 18 (two flatbacks which were clearly originally one stone). In the French Crown inventory of 1791 fifteen Sancys are mentioned, weighing between 1 and 3¾ ct. These are only a few of the best-known examples.
According to Jacques Babinet of the Institut de France, ‘all the diamonds which pretend to this name.......are cut in the form of a flattened pear, almost round, a shape called the ‘Pendeloque’, having facets above and below, with a small flat surface on the top.....This kind of cutting, which I venture to call the Sancy, merits as much attention as those known by the name of the rose or the brilliant.’
In the seventeenth century the standard description for the Sancy Cut was ‘taillé à facettes des deux côtés, en forme d’amande’. The French Crown inventory of 1691 gives the following descriptions:
C.I. : fort épais, taillé à facettes des deux côtés de forme pendeloque 53¾ (Le Grand Sancy)
59: à facettes, double, long, pointu, carré
1: un grand diamant en pendeloque, taillé à grande facettes des deux côtés. 15¼ ct
8: en pendeloque, taillé à grande facettes des deux côtés 14½ ct
Though some of the diamonds listed may have been girdled pendeloques, I believe that many of them were, in fact, Sancy Cuts.
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Sancy Cuts have frequently been called Double Roses. This term evidently originated from French inventories of the previous century, when the cut was described as ‘un diamant brilliant formé en poire, taillé en rose des deux côtés, percé d’un bout’. Once Rose Cuts were established, the words taillé en rose were added, and the earlier term ‘almond-shaped’ was replaced by ‘pear-shaped’. According to Morel (1988), the fleur-de-lis on top of Louis XV’s crown (1722) was composed of four Double Roses each formed by two circular Rose Cut diamonds glued base to base.
Of specific interest is the fact that Sancy Cuts disclose a circlet of facets quite similar to the crown facets of a Brilliant, both of the standard type and the Split and Step Cut. With a large table facet replacing the apex they would have been as good as any Fancy Brilliant.
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
In 1855 Courbet painted a picture which summed up his life of the past seven years. He called it ‘The Studio of the Painter: a Real Allegory.’ On the right of this large canvass were the types he had been painting, the beggar, the laborer, the tradesman, the priest, the poacher, the gravedigger; on the left was a group of his personal friends, among them Baudelaire and Proudhon; between the groups was Courbet himself painting a landscape of Ornans.
In an introduction to the catalogue of a private exhibition of his works held in the same year, Courbet explained his endeavor to replace the cult of the ideal by a sentiment of the real:
To translate the manners, the ideas and the aspect of my own times according to my perception, to be not only a painter but still more a man, in a word, to create a living art, that is my aim.
During the reign of Napoleon III Courbet became more and more incensed against all authorities, political or artistic. The former thought him revolutionary because of his subjects, the latter because his style was based on Dutch and Spanish painting instead of on the accepted Italian masters. Nevertheless, his position as leader of the Realist school was such that in 1870 he was nominated Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Courbet wrote a violet letter to the Ministry refusing to accept this decoration, and when the Commune broke out in 1871 he took a prominent part in the Revolution and became President of the Commission of Fine Arts. Courbet has been much blamed down the Column commemorating Napoleon I in the Place Vendôme. This was part of a scheme to efface from Paris all traces of the Empire, whether First or Third, and though the Column was a historic monument it had no great artistic interest. On the other hand it was Courbet who, during the fury of the Commune, not only preserved intact the art treasures of the Louvre, but with difficulty secured the safety of the Arc de Triomphe. He was full of concern for this monument because of its great artistic qualities, notably the sculpture by Rude with which it was decorated, and he managed to persuade those who urged its demolition that the Arc de Triomphe ought to be spared because it stood not so much for the glory of Napoleon as for the heroism of the revolutionary armies of France.
Still, when the Commune had been suppressed with an iron hand, the good deeds of Courbet during the insurrection were forgotten; the unfortunate artist was arrested in connection with the demolition of the Vendôme Column, condemned to six months’ imprisonment and to defray the whole cost—some 400,000 francs—of the reconstruction of the Column. This utterly ruined him, and though Courbet eventually succeeded in crossing the frontier he was broken in health and spirits. He died in exile in 1877.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
In 1855 Courbet painted a picture which summed up his life of the past seven years. He called it ‘The Studio of the Painter: a Real Allegory.’ On the right of this large canvass were the types he had been painting, the beggar, the laborer, the tradesman, the priest, the poacher, the gravedigger; on the left was a group of his personal friends, among them Baudelaire and Proudhon; between the groups was Courbet himself painting a landscape of Ornans.
In an introduction to the catalogue of a private exhibition of his works held in the same year, Courbet explained his endeavor to replace the cult of the ideal by a sentiment of the real:
To translate the manners, the ideas and the aspect of my own times according to my perception, to be not only a painter but still more a man, in a word, to create a living art, that is my aim.
During the reign of Napoleon III Courbet became more and more incensed against all authorities, political or artistic. The former thought him revolutionary because of his subjects, the latter because his style was based on Dutch and Spanish painting instead of on the accepted Italian masters. Nevertheless, his position as leader of the Realist school was such that in 1870 he was nominated Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Courbet wrote a violet letter to the Ministry refusing to accept this decoration, and when the Commune broke out in 1871 he took a prominent part in the Revolution and became President of the Commission of Fine Arts. Courbet has been much blamed down the Column commemorating Napoleon I in the Place Vendôme. This was part of a scheme to efface from Paris all traces of the Empire, whether First or Third, and though the Column was a historic monument it had no great artistic interest. On the other hand it was Courbet who, during the fury of the Commune, not only preserved intact the art treasures of the Louvre, but with difficulty secured the safety of the Arc de Triomphe. He was full of concern for this monument because of its great artistic qualities, notably the sculpture by Rude with which it was decorated, and he managed to persuade those who urged its demolition that the Arc de Triomphe ought to be spared because it stood not so much for the glory of Napoleon as for the heroism of the revolutionary armies of France.
Still, when the Commune had been suppressed with an iron hand, the good deeds of Courbet during the insurrection were forgotten; the unfortunate artist was arrested in connection with the demolition of the Vendôme Column, condemned to six months’ imprisonment and to defray the whole cost—some 400,000 francs—of the reconstruction of the Column. This utterly ruined him, and though Courbet eventually succeeded in crossing the frontier he was broken in health and spirits. He died in exile in 1877.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
Travel Update
(via budgettravel) I liked http://travel.alltop.com because the site brings together most recent posts from leading travel blogs.
Great idea!
Great idea!
Satyagraha
(via Wiki) Philip Glass is a three-time Academy Award-nominated American composer + he is considered one of the most influential composers of the late-20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public + Satyagraha, is his landmark 1980 work, is a moving account of Mahatma Gandhi’s formative experiences in South Africa, which transformed him into a great leader (@ Metropolitan Opera, April 28, 2008).
Useful links:
www.philipglass.com
www.metoperafamily.org
Useful links:
www.philipglass.com
www.metoperafamily.org
Friday, April 11, 2008
Synchrotron
I found the article Seeing the Light @ http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11014512 intriguing because new research tools, from X-rays to computerised tomography to synchrotrons, and their applications researching fossil remains in amber are interesting new developments + we are learning more + hopefully the techniques could become useful in other gemological research applications.
Useful link:
www.esrf.eu
Useful link:
www.esrf.eu
Selexyz Dominicanen
Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht, Netherlands, is one-of-a-kind bookstore created from a merger between the town's Bergman's bookshop, the Academische Boekhandel + the Dutch Selexyz bookshop chain + it's housed in the thrilling setting of a 13th-century Dominican church.
An extraordinary venture of a very different style + a must-visit bookstore in Holland.
Useful links:
www.selexyz.nl
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Selexyz%20Dominicanen&w=all
An extraordinary venture of a very different style + a must-visit bookstore in Holland.
Useful links:
www.selexyz.nl
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Selexyz%20Dominicanen&w=all
Tutta la Vita Davanti
The movie Tutta la Vita Davanti has a universal theme + it's a moving story of ordinary people exposed to wide spectrum of real life situations + I think you will like it.
Useful links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSN9fG0xRo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1075114
Useful links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSN9fG0xRo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1075114
Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together by William Isaacs is a fascinating book because it has very good application in business and life + I think there are valuable lessons for everyone.
Useful links:
www.dialogos.com
www.dialogueproject.net
Useful links:
www.dialogos.com
www.dialogueproject.net
Rondelles
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Rondelles are fashioned from small pieces of flat rough and can be described as small discs drilled through the center and faceted only round the edge. They are used as spacers between beads of colored gems in high-quality chokers.
Rondelles are fashioned from small pieces of flat rough and can be described as small discs drilled through the center and faceted only round the edge. They are used as spacers between beads of colored gems in high-quality chokers.
Realism And Impressionism In France
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
The Art of Courbet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Monet, and Rodin
1
The French Impressionists were the offspring of the Realists, and to trace their artistic pedigree we must return to painting in France in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was shown how the Romantics had rebelled against a false Classicism, but only the barest hint was given of how the struggle for liberty and truth in art reached a further stage in the forties by the development of a new group of artists known as the Realists. The leader of this movement and the man who perhaps did more than any other to change the whole modern outlook on art was Gustave Courbet (1819-77).
Courbet was the son of a wealthy farmer of Ornans in the Doubs. His father intended him for the law, and with this object sent him to Paris. Arrived there, Courbet threw law to the winds and set about learning the one thing that interested him, painting. A rigid republican, both by education and inclination, Courbet was penetrated by a passionate sympathy for the working classes, and he found the subjects for his pictures in the ordinary life of the people. Further, holding tenaciously that painting, ‘an art of sight,’ ought to concern itself with things seen, he was opposed to Romanticism as the Romantics had been, in their day, to Classicism. Intensely earnest and serious by nature, Courbet regarded it as mere frivolity to make pictures out of imaginary incidents in poems and romances when all the pageant and pathos of real life waited to be painted. His point of view is made clear by a reply he once made to a patron who desired that he should execute a painting with angels in it for a church. ‘Angels!’ said Courbet, ‘but I have never seen angels. What I have not seen I cannot paint.’
After the Revolution of 1848 Courbet’s new style of democratic painting had a temporary success. In 1849, before the political reaction had begun, he was awarded a medal at the Salon for his picture, ‘After Dinner at Ornans.’ This medal placed him hors concours, that is to say, it gave him the right of showing pictures in future Salons without his works have to obtain the approval of the Selecting Jury. Courbet took full advantage of this privilege in the following year, and to the Salon of 1850, in addition two landscapes and four portraits, he sent two large pictures entitled ‘The Stone-breakers’ and ‘A Funeral at Ornans’. The political reaction was in full tide, and the two last pictures raised a storm of fury, because their subjects were supposed to be ‘dangerously Socialistic.’ It will be remembered that it was in the Salon of the same year that J F Millet showed his first great democratic painting, ‘The Sower’.
‘A Funeral at Ornans’ became one of the milestones in the progress of modern painting, for, notwithstanding the abuse showered on Courbet, the sincerity of his work appealed to a younger generation of artists. Here was a man who saw life steadily as a whole, and painted life just as he saw it. Each figure in it from the clergy to the mourners, from the gravedigger to the dog, is painted simply but with a truth and power that make it a living thing. Courbet was the first of modern painters to rbeak the open-air realism of Velazquez and Frans Hals. He not only had much direct influence on Whistler and on Manet, but pointed out to them the road along which they should travel.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
The Art of Courbet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Monet, and Rodin
1
The French Impressionists were the offspring of the Realists, and to trace their artistic pedigree we must return to painting in France in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was shown how the Romantics had rebelled against a false Classicism, but only the barest hint was given of how the struggle for liberty and truth in art reached a further stage in the forties by the development of a new group of artists known as the Realists. The leader of this movement and the man who perhaps did more than any other to change the whole modern outlook on art was Gustave Courbet (1819-77).
Courbet was the son of a wealthy farmer of Ornans in the Doubs. His father intended him for the law, and with this object sent him to Paris. Arrived there, Courbet threw law to the winds and set about learning the one thing that interested him, painting. A rigid republican, both by education and inclination, Courbet was penetrated by a passionate sympathy for the working classes, and he found the subjects for his pictures in the ordinary life of the people. Further, holding tenaciously that painting, ‘an art of sight,’ ought to concern itself with things seen, he was opposed to Romanticism as the Romantics had been, in their day, to Classicism. Intensely earnest and serious by nature, Courbet regarded it as mere frivolity to make pictures out of imaginary incidents in poems and romances when all the pageant and pathos of real life waited to be painted. His point of view is made clear by a reply he once made to a patron who desired that he should execute a painting with angels in it for a church. ‘Angels!’ said Courbet, ‘but I have never seen angels. What I have not seen I cannot paint.’
After the Revolution of 1848 Courbet’s new style of democratic painting had a temporary success. In 1849, before the political reaction had begun, he was awarded a medal at the Salon for his picture, ‘After Dinner at Ornans.’ This medal placed him hors concours, that is to say, it gave him the right of showing pictures in future Salons without his works have to obtain the approval of the Selecting Jury. Courbet took full advantage of this privilege in the following year, and to the Salon of 1850, in addition two landscapes and four portraits, he sent two large pictures entitled ‘The Stone-breakers’ and ‘A Funeral at Ornans’. The political reaction was in full tide, and the two last pictures raised a storm of fury, because their subjects were supposed to be ‘dangerously Socialistic.’ It will be remembered that it was in the Salon of the same year that J F Millet showed his first great democratic painting, ‘The Sower’.
‘A Funeral at Ornans’ became one of the milestones in the progress of modern painting, for, notwithstanding the abuse showered on Courbet, the sincerity of his work appealed to a younger generation of artists. Here was a man who saw life steadily as a whole, and painted life just as he saw it. Each figure in it from the clergy to the mourners, from the gravedigger to the dog, is painted simply but with a truth and power that make it a living thing. Courbet was the first of modern painters to rbeak the open-air realism of Velazquez and Frans Hals. He not only had much direct influence on Whistler and on Manet, but pointed out to them the road along which they should travel.
Realism And Impressionism In France (continued)
Price Discovery
I found the article Price Ploys via http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/BIZ01/803310325/1010/rss23 interesting because many consumers don't understand the psychology related to prices + it's amazing how these pricing tricks work + there are valuable lessons for everyone.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Sustainable Energy Zone
I think the Sustainable Energy Zone project in Dundalk, Ireland is interesting because if the energy-conscious initiative by the local town goes well according to the plan, Ireland could become (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/09/europe/ireland.php) a good business model for the the rest of the world + an exporter of green electrons.
Useful links:
www.sei.ie
www.irish-energy.ie
Useful links:
www.sei.ie
www.irish-energy.ie
Chopard + Madonna
Chopard has created special jewelry for Madonna, the Queen of Pop, for the much-anticipated new album: Hard Candy by Madonna which is scheduled for release on April 28, 2008.
The personalized design for the artist must be stunning.
Useful links:
www.chopard.com
www.madonna.com
The personalized design for the artist must be stunning.
Useful links:
www.chopard.com
www.madonna.com
African, Asian And Latin American Film Festival
The 18th African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival will be held in Milan from 7th to 13th April 2008.
Don't miss it!
Useful links:
www.festivalcinemaafricano.org
www.eni.it
Don't miss it!
Useful links:
www.festivalcinemaafricano.org
www.eni.it
Brain Enhancement
(via Wired) I found the Nature online survey intriguing because 20 percent of respondents, largely drawn from the scientific community, have admitted to using brain-enhancing drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Provigil (modafinil) + the widespread neuroenhancer use by the scientific community is stunning + I wonder if the diamond/colored stone graders + lab gemologists worldwide are on the same wavelength.
Have you used cognitive enhancers? Did they work for you?
Useful link:
www.nature.com
Have you used cognitive enhancers? Did they work for you?
Useful link:
www.nature.com
John Kao
John Kao is known as the innovation guru + serial innovator (Economist) + he has worked with a wide range of companies, startups and government agencies getting innovation done + his book Innovation Nation was named by Business Week to be one of the top business books of 2007.
Useful links:
www.johnkao.com
www.innovationation.org
Useful links:
www.johnkao.com
www.innovationation.org
Girdled Briolettes
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Girdled (or encircled) Briolettes are comparatively rare. They resemble ordinary Briolettes except that their overall faceting is separated into two equal parts by a girdle. They have sometimes been erroneously called Double Rose Cuts, even though the distribution of their triangular facets is quite different from that of the real Rose Cut. The purpose of the girdle is to allow the gem to be hung by a gold ring or band instead of having to be drilled at the pointed end. In fact, these two methods of suspending a stone are often combined, probably for extra security.
First identified in a portrait of Queen Maria Josepha of Saxony dated 1750, the diamond in her hairpin may well be the one which the court jeweler, Dinglinger, is reported to have sent to Warsaw for Augustus the Strong in 1713. The diamond was originally suspended from an enamelled eagle, then mounted on a flowered twig decorated with flowered gems. Now once again it hangs from the eagle’s beak.
When I examined this unique Briolette, I could not help marvelling at its beauty. It has frequently been described as being ‘very brilliant’, referring to its light effects. It is, in fact, a drop, but divided by a girdle so that it belongs to the Sancy Cut category, even though it is pendeloque-shaped, tapering to a point. Its forty facets are distributed much like those of a Rose Cut. The degree of precision of the whole cut is amazing, though I did detect a minor lack of symmetry characteristic of the Baroque, of the kind which gave diamonds of the period their special charm—a charm which has been lost with modern precision cutting. Unfortunately, the diamond has been damaged by careless handling (its abraded girdle alone would downgrade it today to Loupe Clean or Internally Flawless), unforgivable in view of its historical and intrinsic value. It displays a vivid fire, sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow.
Girdled (or encircled) Briolettes are comparatively rare. They resemble ordinary Briolettes except that their overall faceting is separated into two equal parts by a girdle. They have sometimes been erroneously called Double Rose Cuts, even though the distribution of their triangular facets is quite different from that of the real Rose Cut. The purpose of the girdle is to allow the gem to be hung by a gold ring or band instead of having to be drilled at the pointed end. In fact, these two methods of suspending a stone are often combined, probably for extra security.
First identified in a portrait of Queen Maria Josepha of Saxony dated 1750, the diamond in her hairpin may well be the one which the court jeweler, Dinglinger, is reported to have sent to Warsaw for Augustus the Strong in 1713. The diamond was originally suspended from an enamelled eagle, then mounted on a flowered twig decorated with flowered gems. Now once again it hangs from the eagle’s beak.
When I examined this unique Briolette, I could not help marvelling at its beauty. It has frequently been described as being ‘very brilliant’, referring to its light effects. It is, in fact, a drop, but divided by a girdle so that it belongs to the Sancy Cut category, even though it is pendeloque-shaped, tapering to a point. Its forty facets are distributed much like those of a Rose Cut. The degree of precision of the whole cut is amazing, though I did detect a minor lack of symmetry characteristic of the Baroque, of the kind which gave diamonds of the period their special charm—a charm which has been lost with modern precision cutting. Unfortunately, the diamond has been damaged by careless handling (its abraded girdle alone would downgrade it today to Loupe Clean or Internally Flawless), unforgivable in view of its historical and intrinsic value. It displays a vivid fire, sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
3
In his treatment of buildings, particularly in his earlier etchings, Whistler was undoubtedly influenced by the work of Charles Méryon, one of the earliest and greatest etchers of architectural subjects. The life of this artist is one of the saddest stories in modern art. Charles Méryon, was born in 1821; he was the son of a French dancer, and his father is said to have been an Englishman of good family, but during his early life he had little assistance from either of his parents, and from his boyhood he had to struggle to make his own way in the Bohemian underworld of Paris.
During Méryon’s lifetime, unfortunately, etchings were not so popular as they are today. For a century and a half after Rembrandt, etching, as a pure and separate art, lay comparatively unnoticed, but undeterred by want of patrons, poverty, and ill-health, Méryon devoted himself to the revival of this almost forgotten art, and became one of its greatest masters that the world has yet seen. To record on copper the beauty and interest of the architecture of Paris became the passion of Méryon’s life, and his etchings are unique for the imagination and emotional force they display combined with scrupulously exact drawing of the architectural features which form his theme. His famous etching ‘Le Stryge’, showing us a view of Paris from Notre Dame, with one of the quaint gargoyles of the Cathedral occupying a prominent place in the foreground, reveals not only the perfection of his technique, with its fine, nervous line and rich velvety blacks, but also the blend of realism and imagination which characterises this artist’s work.
These masterly views of Paris were offered for sale by the artist at the price of one franc (then worth about ten pence in English money), but even at this ridiculous figure they did not find enough purchasers to enable him to keep body and soul together. Privation, hardship, and want of proper nourishment inevitably told on his health, and eventually his nerves gave way and he was put away as insane in the hospital of Charenton. But though of a nervous temperament, his brain was not diseased, and after some months of good feeding in the hospital Méryon became normal, and it was seen that his breakdown was wholly due to starvation. He was allowed to leave Charenton and began to work again, drawing and etching in Paris, but the unhappy genius had no better fortune and seemed unable to secure the minimum amount of food that a human body requires. Again he starved, with the same result, his mind became unhinged and he was taken back to Charenton, where he died in 1868.
By a cruel irony of fate the etchings began to be appreciated almost immediately after the etcher’s death. Never before or since has the art world seen so rapid and sensational an increase in value. The explanation is that the interest excited by the plates of Whistler and Seymour Haden led to a feverish hunt after other etchers, and so the fame of Méryon was established. Within a few years of his death the etchings he had vainly tried to sell for ten pence apiece were changing hands at five pounds; the prices of them rose rapidly and steadily from tens to hundreds of pounds, and within recent years rich collectors have paid more than a thousand pounds to secure a fine impression of an etching by Méryon.
3
In his treatment of buildings, particularly in his earlier etchings, Whistler was undoubtedly influenced by the work of Charles Méryon, one of the earliest and greatest etchers of architectural subjects. The life of this artist is one of the saddest stories in modern art. Charles Méryon, was born in 1821; he was the son of a French dancer, and his father is said to have been an Englishman of good family, but during his early life he had little assistance from either of his parents, and from his boyhood he had to struggle to make his own way in the Bohemian underworld of Paris.
During Méryon’s lifetime, unfortunately, etchings were not so popular as they are today. For a century and a half after Rembrandt, etching, as a pure and separate art, lay comparatively unnoticed, but undeterred by want of patrons, poverty, and ill-health, Méryon devoted himself to the revival of this almost forgotten art, and became one of its greatest masters that the world has yet seen. To record on copper the beauty and interest of the architecture of Paris became the passion of Méryon’s life, and his etchings are unique for the imagination and emotional force they display combined with scrupulously exact drawing of the architectural features which form his theme. His famous etching ‘Le Stryge’, showing us a view of Paris from Notre Dame, with one of the quaint gargoyles of the Cathedral occupying a prominent place in the foreground, reveals not only the perfection of his technique, with its fine, nervous line and rich velvety blacks, but also the blend of realism and imagination which characterises this artist’s work.
These masterly views of Paris were offered for sale by the artist at the price of one franc (then worth about ten pence in English money), but even at this ridiculous figure they did not find enough purchasers to enable him to keep body and soul together. Privation, hardship, and want of proper nourishment inevitably told on his health, and eventually his nerves gave way and he was put away as insane in the hospital of Charenton. But though of a nervous temperament, his brain was not diseased, and after some months of good feeding in the hospital Méryon became normal, and it was seen that his breakdown was wholly due to starvation. He was allowed to leave Charenton and began to work again, drawing and etching in Paris, but the unhappy genius had no better fortune and seemed unable to secure the minimum amount of food that a human body requires. Again he starved, with the same result, his mind became unhinged and he was taken back to Charenton, where he died in 1868.
By a cruel irony of fate the etchings began to be appreciated almost immediately after the etcher’s death. Never before or since has the art world seen so rapid and sensational an increase in value. The explanation is that the interest excited by the plates of Whistler and Seymour Haden led to a feverish hunt after other etchers, and so the fame of Méryon was established. Within a few years of his death the etchings he had vainly tried to sell for ten pence apiece were changing hands at five pounds; the prices of them rose rapidly and steadily from tens to hundreds of pounds, and within recent years rich collectors have paid more than a thousand pounds to secure a fine impression of an etching by Méryon.
Heard On The Street
The market efficiency theory is a myth + anyone who trades for a living understands it and makes money through the inefficiencies in markets.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Wertz Gallery: Gems + Jewelry
A must-visit: The Carnegie Museum of Natural History recently unveiled the dazzling Wertz Gallery: Gems and Jewelry + a new 2,000-square-foot addition to the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems + the gallery is dedicated to gems, the crystals they come from, and jewelry made using these precious stones + approximately 500 gems, crystals, pieces of jewelry, and other pieces of gem art can be seen in this permanent display. Enjoy.
Useful links:
http://wertzcontemporary.com
www.carnegiemnh.org
Useful links:
http://wertzcontemporary.com
www.carnegiemnh.org
The Dagger Of Shah Jahan
It has been reported that Bonham's, the London-based fine art auctioneers and valuers, will auction a personal dagger (khanjar) of Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, from the Jacques Desenfans collection + the elegant and understated personal dagger, with its fine gold inscriptions and decoration, dated to1629-30, is expected to attract bids of around £300,000 – 500,000.
Expect the unexpected + the auction will be full of surprises.
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
Expect the unexpected + the auction will be full of surprises.
Useful link:
www.bonhams.com
Authentic Paraiba Tourmaline
I was a bit surprised with David Sherman's (CEO, Paraiba.com) move to sue the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) and others—including the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Brazil Imports Inc., and several individuals, including AGTA board members—for US$120 million in the name of authenticity, i.e., there is only one stone that can be legitimately called Paraíba and it is exclusively mined in the province of Brazil that it is named for + I was wondering what would happen to Padparadscha sapphires, John Saul rubies, Mogok rubies/ spinels, Mong Hsu rubies/spinel, Kashmir sapphires, Muzo/Chivor emeralds etc., + I don't know if it's a publicity stunt, but I am sure it will get messy in the coming days + as they say we are living in interesting times.
Algae Farm
(via Wired) I was intrigued by the energy company PetroSun Biofuels 's commercial algae-to-biofuels farm concept because via high-tech applications if the company could extract algal oil on-site at the farms and transport it to company refineries via barge, rail or truck for future enviromental jet biofuel production efficiently, it's exciting + I think with appropriate technology and bit of luck, the company may have hit a jackpot with algae.
Useful link:
www.petrosuninc.com
Useful link:
www.petrosuninc.com
Random Thoughts
'The Devil Is In The Details.'
According to Steve Leslie, if one wants to get a healthy dose of attention to detail, watch a pit crew at a Formula One race. It is true poetry in motion. They can fuel a car and change tires in less than eight seconds.
Useful link:
www.formula1.com
According to Steve Leslie, if one wants to get a healthy dose of attention to detail, watch a pit crew at a Formula One race. It is true poetry in motion. They can fuel a car and change tires in less than eight seconds.
Useful link:
www.formula1.com
Briolettes
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The Crown Jewels of Iran in the Bank Markazy of Iran are exceptionally rich in Briolettes. The pièce de résistance is an exquisite platinum-and-diamond necklace made for Her Imperial Majesty in 1938. Most of the diamonds are modern but the nine large Briolettes suspended from it are old. They have an estimated total weight of 200 ct (10 – 45 ct each). ‘The platinum work and the baguette diamonds are modern, but the briolette diamonds...showed wear. After we closely examined the necklace we realized that the briolettes were quite old and that they had probably acquired the wear-marks by being transported in camel bags with inadequate packing.’
Lawrence S Krashes gives us new, more detailed information about an exceptional diamond in his book on Harry Winston. He discloses that the stone was fashioned in France, from South African rough, in 1908-9, and he provides a number of further details, though unfortunately not the dimensions. The fashioning apparently follows the traditional lines of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the gem is so vast (90.35 ct) that the number of facets runs into hundreds.
It is well known that most of the eighteen diamonds in the collection bequeathed to the French Crown by Cardinal Mazarin were Table Cuts, subsequently recut into Brilliants. But in addition to the Great Sancy and the two flat-bottomed Sancy cuts, two other stones listed in the Crown inventory of 1691 were cut as Briolettes. Numbers 5 and 6 are described as being faceted both sides, of almond shape and pierced downwards through the point so that they could serve as ear pendants, evidence that in the seventeenth century diamonds were drilled if the cutters intended them to be used as hanging gems. These two diamonds were actually set in a pair of earrings of a very ornamental type known as girandoles. They each take an eyewire pin of 2-3 mm in length.
It seems certain that in 1722 Mazarin numbers 5 and 6 were set into Louis XV’s crown, which contained in all eight large diamonds similar to the Sancy, each weighing between 16 and 22 ct. If one compares the outlines and faceting of these two Mazarin diamonds as portrayed by Cletscher in his album with the replicas now in the crown of Louis XV, one finds so close a similarity that one is forced to believe that these were originally the same stones, given that his reproduction was made from memory. It is almost certain that the smaller of these two Mazarin diamonds, number 6, was sold in 1796, while Number 5 survived both the robbery of 1792 and the sale and was finally sold by auction to Tiffany’s in 1887, when most of the French Crown Jewels were disposed of.
The Crown Jewels of Iran in the Bank Markazy of Iran are exceptionally rich in Briolettes. The pièce de résistance is an exquisite platinum-and-diamond necklace made for Her Imperial Majesty in 1938. Most of the diamonds are modern but the nine large Briolettes suspended from it are old. They have an estimated total weight of 200 ct (10 – 45 ct each). ‘The platinum work and the baguette diamonds are modern, but the briolette diamonds...showed wear. After we closely examined the necklace we realized that the briolettes were quite old and that they had probably acquired the wear-marks by being transported in camel bags with inadequate packing.’
Lawrence S Krashes gives us new, more detailed information about an exceptional diamond in his book on Harry Winston. He discloses that the stone was fashioned in France, from South African rough, in 1908-9, and he provides a number of further details, though unfortunately not the dimensions. The fashioning apparently follows the traditional lines of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the gem is so vast (90.35 ct) that the number of facets runs into hundreds.
It is well known that most of the eighteen diamonds in the collection bequeathed to the French Crown by Cardinal Mazarin were Table Cuts, subsequently recut into Brilliants. But in addition to the Great Sancy and the two flat-bottomed Sancy cuts, two other stones listed in the Crown inventory of 1691 were cut as Briolettes. Numbers 5 and 6 are described as being faceted both sides, of almond shape and pierced downwards through the point so that they could serve as ear pendants, evidence that in the seventeenth century diamonds were drilled if the cutters intended them to be used as hanging gems. These two diamonds were actually set in a pair of earrings of a very ornamental type known as girandoles. They each take an eyewire pin of 2-3 mm in length.
It seems certain that in 1722 Mazarin numbers 5 and 6 were set into Louis XV’s crown, which contained in all eight large diamonds similar to the Sancy, each weighing between 16 and 22 ct. If one compares the outlines and faceting of these two Mazarin diamonds as portrayed by Cletscher in his album with the replicas now in the crown of Louis XV, one finds so close a similarity that one is forced to believe that these were originally the same stones, given that his reproduction was made from memory. It is almost certain that the smaller of these two Mazarin diamonds, number 6, was sold in 1796, while Number 5 survived both the robbery of 1792 and the sale and was finally sold by auction to Tiffany’s in 1887, when most of the French Crown Jewels were disposed of.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
The year after Whistler met with his rebuff in Lodon, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, which showed the esteem in which he was now held in France, and in 1892 he took a house at Paris in the Rue de Bac. He can hardly be said to have settled there, however, for he returned several times to London. In 1890 he had published a collection of letters and various controversial matter, including a report, with his own marginal comments, of the Ruskin trial, under the title of The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, and this publication not only increased his reputation as wit but showed that he possessed a distinct literary style of his own. This was followed some years later by The Baronet and the Butterfly, a pamphlet giving the artist’s version of a quarrel and lawsuit with Sir William Eden over a portrait of Lady Eden. Whistler had early adopted the device of a butterfly as his sign-manual and signature, but he was a butterfly with a sting, as he confessed himself to be in the little drawings with which he decorated his publications.
All the quarrels and encounters of his stormy life cannot be recounted here, but in the end he was victorious in London as in Paris. The purchase of his ‘Mother’ by the French Government helped to turn the scale in England. A new generation of artists gave Whislter a banquet in Lodon to celebrate the event, and in the same year (1892) the most important one-man show of his pictures yet held anywhere was opened in the old Goupil Gallery in Bond Street. This included nearly all his most famous works, among them the disgraced nocturnes, but now only a minority objected to his pictures or his titles, and the success of the exhibition revealed the change which the course of years had brought about in London opinion. The Royal Academy was no longer the power it had been in his earlier days; its prestige had declined, and there was now a powerful body of outside artists who admired Whistler. In 1898 the most eminent of these formed the ‘International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers,’ and invited Whistler to become its first President, a position he held till his death on July 17, 1903. The exhibition of this new Society proved that Whistler was not only respected by artists, but had become fashionable with all persons of taste.
To sum up, it may be said that after forty years of incessant battling, Whistler enjoyed a decade of tranquil success, but his last years were saddened by private trouble. In 1888 he had marrired the widow of E W Godwin, an architect, and his wife’s death in 1896 was a great blow to the artist. With his loneliness he grew restless, and though his continued devotion to his work saved him from melancholy, he traveled about a good deal. He was visiting Holland in the summer of 1902 when he was seized with a heart attack, and though he gained enough strength to return to London, and even to begin working again in the winter, a relapse in the following June prostrated him, and on Friday, July 17, after conversing good-humouredly during lunch, he was seized wtih syncope at 3 p.m and died without suffering. France, Italy, Bavaria, and Dresden had all conferred distinctions on him; but in America, his birthplace, and in England, where he lived and worked for the greater part of his life, Whistler received no official recognition.
The Influence Of The Far East (continue)
The year after Whistler met with his rebuff in Lodon, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, which showed the esteem in which he was now held in France, and in 1892 he took a house at Paris in the Rue de Bac. He can hardly be said to have settled there, however, for he returned several times to London. In 1890 he had published a collection of letters and various controversial matter, including a report, with his own marginal comments, of the Ruskin trial, under the title of The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, and this publication not only increased his reputation as wit but showed that he possessed a distinct literary style of his own. This was followed some years later by The Baronet and the Butterfly, a pamphlet giving the artist’s version of a quarrel and lawsuit with Sir William Eden over a portrait of Lady Eden. Whistler had early adopted the device of a butterfly as his sign-manual and signature, but he was a butterfly with a sting, as he confessed himself to be in the little drawings with which he decorated his publications.
All the quarrels and encounters of his stormy life cannot be recounted here, but in the end he was victorious in London as in Paris. The purchase of his ‘Mother’ by the French Government helped to turn the scale in England. A new generation of artists gave Whislter a banquet in Lodon to celebrate the event, and in the same year (1892) the most important one-man show of his pictures yet held anywhere was opened in the old Goupil Gallery in Bond Street. This included nearly all his most famous works, among them the disgraced nocturnes, but now only a minority objected to his pictures or his titles, and the success of the exhibition revealed the change which the course of years had brought about in London opinion. The Royal Academy was no longer the power it had been in his earlier days; its prestige had declined, and there was now a powerful body of outside artists who admired Whistler. In 1898 the most eminent of these formed the ‘International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers,’ and invited Whistler to become its first President, a position he held till his death on July 17, 1903. The exhibition of this new Society proved that Whistler was not only respected by artists, but had become fashionable with all persons of taste.
To sum up, it may be said that after forty years of incessant battling, Whistler enjoyed a decade of tranquil success, but his last years were saddened by private trouble. In 1888 he had marrired the widow of E W Godwin, an architect, and his wife’s death in 1896 was a great blow to the artist. With his loneliness he grew restless, and though his continued devotion to his work saved him from melancholy, he traveled about a good deal. He was visiting Holland in the summer of 1902 when he was seized with a heart attack, and though he gained enough strength to return to London, and even to begin working again in the winter, a relapse in the following June prostrated him, and on Friday, July 17, after conversing good-humouredly during lunch, he was seized wtih syncope at 3 p.m and died without suffering. France, Italy, Bavaria, and Dresden had all conferred distinctions on him; but in America, his birthplace, and in England, where he lived and worked for the greater part of his life, Whistler received no official recognition.
The Influence Of The Far East (continue)
Creating A World Without Poverty
The book Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus was informative and useful + it recommends a new kind of enterprise: social business, a noble vision + since Mohammed Yunus has accomplished so much by creating a variety of other businesses under the Grameen family of companies, pairing with technology, providing meaning and opportunity, I guess his new business model should work.
Useful links:
www.grameen-info.org
www.thetech.org
Useful links:
www.grameen-info.org
www.thetech.org
New Zealand Wine
Wine is now New Zealand's 12th most valuable export + I think the spectacular success could be due to the country's unique climate + hard work + clever marketing + branding + timing + quality = New Zealand wine. I liked it. It's an experience.
Useful links:
www.nzwine.com
www.nzwinegrower.co.nz
Useful links:
www.nzwine.com
www.nzwinegrower.co.nz
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
An Interesting Scientific Study
A scientific study published in the March issue of NeuroReport concludes that viewing erotic pictures increased financial risk taking ..........
It would be interesting to apply magnetic resonance imaging technique (s) on gem/diamond dealers/jewelers/art dealers when doing trading and analyze the neuropsychological mechanism. Just curious.
Useful link:
www.neuroreport.com
It would be interesting to apply magnetic resonance imaging technique (s) on gem/diamond dealers/jewelers/art dealers when doing trading and analyze the neuropsychological mechanism. Just curious.
Useful link:
www.neuroreport.com
How To Map Carbon Footprint
(via Wired) I think the The Vulcan Project/ Hestia Project (NASA+DOE) are brilliant concepts + the results should become a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers and social scientists in developed and developing countries + if the experts are able to create functional models to quantify fossil fuel CO2 emissions at the scale of individual factories, powerplants, roadways and neighborhoods in the U.S, other countries could do the same with similar (modified) technologies at affordable costs and do the right thing. check out the video
Useful links:
The Vulcan Project
Hestia Project
http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov
Useful links:
The Vulcan Project
Hestia Project
http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov
International Colored Gemstone Association Congress
It has been reported that the International Colored Gemstone Association Congress will be held in Panyu, China, May 5-9, 2009.
Useful links:
www.gemstone.org
http://english.ccpit.org
Useful links:
www.gemstone.org
http://english.ccpit.org
A Special Lesson
I found the article on companies that conquered America @ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5907.html interesting and insightful.
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
A Small Art Fair In Tokyo
Tokyo's new international art fair--101Tokyo--named after the postal code of the venue, an elementary school turned art school, is a new concept by Agatha Wara + Julia Barnes in the city's fragmented art scene + I think with time 101Tokyo could become a must-visit art show in the coming years.
Useful link:
www.101tokyo.com
Useful link:
www.101tokyo.com
Briolettes
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
A Bead pointed at one end and blunt at the other is known as a Briolette. One also comes across the term brillolette, which may well have been derived from the French briller, to sparkle. The name Briolette is relatively new; old inventories refer to diamonds of this shape only as pendants, so they are not always easy to identify. It is only when we find drawings like those by Tavernier and Clestscher that we can be sure that a gem is Briolette. Some writers have claimed that Briolettes, like Mughal Cuts, are a variety of the Baroque Rose Cut. However, very few Briolettes have the necessary hexagonal grouping of six triangular facets, and even if you occasionally come across one with a rounded bottom which, seen from below, looks like a full Rose Cut, a Rose Cut has a girdle and a flat bottom and a Briolette has neither. In most cases Briolettes are described as briolets or pendeloques, but I have come across a great variety of terms such as demi-briolet, briolette irregulière, carré, rouleau, pointue, amande pointue, olive and even navette (which means boat-shaped, but on this occasion was used to describe a drop!)
Tavernier sold two Briolettes to Louis XIV. Howevever, he does not use any special term for these diamonds; it is possible to determine what they were only from his drawings. A systematic and very detailed catalogue of Henry Philip Hope’s famous collection of pearls and precious stones was compiled by Bram Hertz and published in 1839, the year of Hope’s death. It contains excellent descriptions, as well as sketches, of the diamonds. The uncommonly fine quality of the Hope Briolettes suggests that the collector had many gems of this type to choose from. The following quotations are all from Hertz’s catalogue:
- ‘A very fine diamond from the mines of Golconda, of the purest crystalline water, and cut as a briolet. It differs, however, from the general form of briolets, which are usually of the shape of a pear or drop; but this specimen has a cylindrical form, with a conical termination at both ends; the facets are likewise different from those of the briolets in general, as these latter always present on their surface a number facets which cross each other in an oblique direction: the surface of the present, however, is cut in narrow facets, joining each other, and running in a perpendicular direction. This beautiful and rare gem formerly belonged to the crown jewels of Portugal: it is mounted with a gold enamelled cap, and hangs in a black enamelled ring, set with seven table diamonds, evidently the work of some clever artist of the Cinquecento. Weight 44 grains (appr.11.3 ct).’ This description suggests that it was a Briolette dating from te sixteenth century and therefore an early historical cut.
- ‘A briolet diamond, of a pear shape, it differs in cutting from the brilliant, particularly in its round form and the numerous small facets on it. The Indian diamond-cutters alone are able to cut the briolet. The present specimen is of fine water and beautiful workmanship and deserves well its place in the collection. Weight 26 3/32 (appr. 6.7ct)’.
- ‘A fine briolet diamond, of a pear shape and straw color, and is most beautifully cut: it has a little flaw.....Weight 46 7/8 (appr. 12ct).’
- ‘A very fine briolet drop, of the purest crystalline water, cut all round with elongated lozenge facets, having intermediate acute triangular facets above and below.... Weight 10 ¾ grains (appr. 2.75ct)’.
The Duke of Brunswick had an even larger collection of Briolettes, but they were not of such high quality. He assembled the collection between the years 1843 and 1859; it contains a total of fifty-one Briolettes, each weighing between 8 and 54 ¼ carats. One pair is said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, but I have not found any evidence to support this assertion. A little later, in 1669, we have Tavernier’s drawing of two Briolettes which he brought to France from India. However, I can find no mention of thtem in the French inventories. Were they, perhaps, sold abroad?
Briolettes (continued)
A Bead pointed at one end and blunt at the other is known as a Briolette. One also comes across the term brillolette, which may well have been derived from the French briller, to sparkle. The name Briolette is relatively new; old inventories refer to diamonds of this shape only as pendants, so they are not always easy to identify. It is only when we find drawings like those by Tavernier and Clestscher that we can be sure that a gem is Briolette. Some writers have claimed that Briolettes, like Mughal Cuts, are a variety of the Baroque Rose Cut. However, very few Briolettes have the necessary hexagonal grouping of six triangular facets, and even if you occasionally come across one with a rounded bottom which, seen from below, looks like a full Rose Cut, a Rose Cut has a girdle and a flat bottom and a Briolette has neither. In most cases Briolettes are described as briolets or pendeloques, but I have come across a great variety of terms such as demi-briolet, briolette irregulière, carré, rouleau, pointue, amande pointue, olive and even navette (which means boat-shaped, but on this occasion was used to describe a drop!)
Tavernier sold two Briolettes to Louis XIV. Howevever, he does not use any special term for these diamonds; it is possible to determine what they were only from his drawings. A systematic and very detailed catalogue of Henry Philip Hope’s famous collection of pearls and precious stones was compiled by Bram Hertz and published in 1839, the year of Hope’s death. It contains excellent descriptions, as well as sketches, of the diamonds. The uncommonly fine quality of the Hope Briolettes suggests that the collector had many gems of this type to choose from. The following quotations are all from Hertz’s catalogue:
- ‘A very fine diamond from the mines of Golconda, of the purest crystalline water, and cut as a briolet. It differs, however, from the general form of briolets, which are usually of the shape of a pear or drop; but this specimen has a cylindrical form, with a conical termination at both ends; the facets are likewise different from those of the briolets in general, as these latter always present on their surface a number facets which cross each other in an oblique direction: the surface of the present, however, is cut in narrow facets, joining each other, and running in a perpendicular direction. This beautiful and rare gem formerly belonged to the crown jewels of Portugal: it is mounted with a gold enamelled cap, and hangs in a black enamelled ring, set with seven table diamonds, evidently the work of some clever artist of the Cinquecento. Weight 44 grains (appr.11.3 ct).’ This description suggests that it was a Briolette dating from te sixteenth century and therefore an early historical cut.
- ‘A briolet diamond, of a pear shape, it differs in cutting from the brilliant, particularly in its round form and the numerous small facets on it. The Indian diamond-cutters alone are able to cut the briolet. The present specimen is of fine water and beautiful workmanship and deserves well its place in the collection. Weight 26 3/32 (appr. 6.7ct)’.
- ‘A fine briolet diamond, of a pear shape and straw color, and is most beautifully cut: it has a little flaw.....Weight 46 7/8 (appr. 12ct).’
- ‘A very fine briolet drop, of the purest crystalline water, cut all round with elongated lozenge facets, having intermediate acute triangular facets above and below.... Weight 10 ¾ grains (appr. 2.75ct)’.
The Duke of Brunswick had an even larger collection of Briolettes, but they were not of such high quality. He assembled the collection between the years 1843 and 1859; it contains a total of fifty-one Briolettes, each weighing between 8 and 54 ¼ carats. One pair is said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, but I have not found any evidence to support this assertion. A little later, in 1669, we have Tavernier’s drawing of two Briolettes which he brought to France from India. However, I can find no mention of thtem in the French inventories. Were they, perhaps, sold abroad?
Briolettes (continued)
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Another man might have been crushed by the misfortunes which now crowded on him, but fortunately Whistler was an etcher as well as a painter, and at this moment, when his pictures were unsaleable, he again turned to etching. He came to an arrangement with a firm, which advanced him a sum of money on etchings he engaged to execute, and with this he went in 1879 to Venice, where he developed a new and beautiful style in etching. In comparison with his earlier work, these Venice etchings were lighter in handling and more simplified in line; but they palpitated with light and air and were fairylike in their delicacy of decoration. ‘San Giorgio’ shows how spacious and satisfying an effect Whistler was now able to secure with a minimum of means.
These new etchings were not at first popular with the public and the critics any more than the nocturnes, but they were appreciated and purchased by many discriminating print collectors, and when Whistler returned to Chelsea towards the end of 1880 his position gradually improved. In 1883 he held a second and larger exhibition of his Venetian pieces at the Fine Art Society, and prepared an extraordinary catalogue, in which under each numbered exhibit appeared quotations taken from influential journals and well-known writers, all hostile, and beginning with this extract from Truth: ‘Another crop of Mr Whistler’s little jokes.’ The exhibition, which was beautifully arranged and staged, together with this quaint catalogue, caused an immense sensation. Never before had an artist made fun of his critics to this extent. Visitors could not fail to recognize the refinement in works like ‘San Giorgio,’ and when they read a sentence like ‘Whistler’s is eminently vulgar’ the criticism recoiled on the writer, not the artist. The tide began to turn, and a considerable opinion now became definitely favorable to Whistler. He began to paint again, people like Mrs Meux, the wife of the brewer, and Lady Archibald Campbell came to him for portraits, and his position was immensely strengthened when his ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’ obtained a medal and a brilliant success in the Paris Salon of 1883. Later this work was bought by the French Government for the Luxembourg.
For the next few years Whistler made Paris his principal exhibition center. At the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881 his ‘Portrait of Miss Cicely Alexander’ had been dreadfully abused by English critics; in the Paris Salon of 1884 it was singled out for general approbation. For a brief season Whistler exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, of which he was elected President in June 1886, and under his presidency this Society held the most brilliant exhibitions in its history. But in 1888 there was a cabal against him by members discontented with his rule; Whistler was compelled to resign, and was followed by a number of talented artists whom he had persuaded to join the Society. When asked to explain what had happened, the ex-President replied, ‘It is quite simple; the artists have left and the British remain.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Another man might have been crushed by the misfortunes which now crowded on him, but fortunately Whistler was an etcher as well as a painter, and at this moment, when his pictures were unsaleable, he again turned to etching. He came to an arrangement with a firm, which advanced him a sum of money on etchings he engaged to execute, and with this he went in 1879 to Venice, where he developed a new and beautiful style in etching. In comparison with his earlier work, these Venice etchings were lighter in handling and more simplified in line; but they palpitated with light and air and were fairylike in their delicacy of decoration. ‘San Giorgio’ shows how spacious and satisfying an effect Whistler was now able to secure with a minimum of means.
These new etchings were not at first popular with the public and the critics any more than the nocturnes, but they were appreciated and purchased by many discriminating print collectors, and when Whistler returned to Chelsea towards the end of 1880 his position gradually improved. In 1883 he held a second and larger exhibition of his Venetian pieces at the Fine Art Society, and prepared an extraordinary catalogue, in which under each numbered exhibit appeared quotations taken from influential journals and well-known writers, all hostile, and beginning with this extract from Truth: ‘Another crop of Mr Whistler’s little jokes.’ The exhibition, which was beautifully arranged and staged, together with this quaint catalogue, caused an immense sensation. Never before had an artist made fun of his critics to this extent. Visitors could not fail to recognize the refinement in works like ‘San Giorgio,’ and when they read a sentence like ‘Whistler’s is eminently vulgar’ the criticism recoiled on the writer, not the artist. The tide began to turn, and a considerable opinion now became definitely favorable to Whistler. He began to paint again, people like Mrs Meux, the wife of the brewer, and Lady Archibald Campbell came to him for portraits, and his position was immensely strengthened when his ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’ obtained a medal and a brilliant success in the Paris Salon of 1883. Later this work was bought by the French Government for the Luxembourg.
For the next few years Whistler made Paris his principal exhibition center. At the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881 his ‘Portrait of Miss Cicely Alexander’ had been dreadfully abused by English critics; in the Paris Salon of 1884 it was singled out for general approbation. For a brief season Whistler exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, of which he was elected President in June 1886, and under his presidency this Society held the most brilliant exhibitions in its history. But in 1888 there was a cabal against him by members discontented with his rule; Whistler was compelled to resign, and was followed by a number of talented artists whom he had persuaded to join the Society. When asked to explain what had happened, the ex-President replied, ‘It is quite simple; the artists have left and the British remain.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Luc Yen Precious Stone Market, Vietnam
I found the article on Luc Yen Precious Stone Market, Vietnam @
http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=37443 interesting because I think the market’s golden years have long gone but valuable colored gemstones can still be found, with more synthetic/imitation stones awaiting first-time buyers, especially foreigners.
A good place to test your gem identification + buying skills.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=37443 interesting because I think the market’s golden years have long gone but valuable colored gemstones can still be found, with more synthetic/imitation stones awaiting first-time buyers, especially foreigners.
A good place to test your gem identification + buying skills.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston, an American Academy Award-winning film actor, passed away in Los Angeles, US + I think he was god-like, and his presence in film (s) brought beauty, rarity, phosphorescence, guts, dispersion and that otherness + he will be remembered forever.
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000032
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000032
Commodities Update
The article on food crisis and market panic @ http://www.newsweek.com/id/130641 was interesting + insightful because as Robert Zeigler, head of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute, rightly put it, we're paying the price of complacency + global markets are behaving as if a food shock is imminent.
Useful links:
www.wfp.org
www.worldbank.org
www.irri.org
www.earth-policy.org
www.fao.org
Useful links:
www.wfp.org
www.worldbank.org
www.irri.org
www.earth-policy.org
www.fao.org
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is a gallery of Asian art located in Washington, DC, United States, part of the Smithsonian Institution + the Sackler is one of two galleries of the National Museum of Asian Art, the other being the Freer Gallery.
Current exhibitions:
Patterned Feathers, Piercing Eyes: Edo Masters From the Price Collection
November 10, 2007–April 13, 2008
Tales of the Brush Continued: Chinese Paintings With Literary Themes
February 9–July 27, 2008
Perspectives: Y.Z. Kami
March 15–Oct. 13, 2008
Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia
April 1, 2007 through 2010
Useful links:
www.asia.si.edu
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/melik5.php
Don't miss it!
Current exhibitions:
Patterned Feathers, Piercing Eyes: Edo Masters From the Price Collection
November 10, 2007–April 13, 2008
Tales of the Brush Continued: Chinese Paintings With Literary Themes
February 9–July 27, 2008
Perspectives: Y.Z. Kami
March 15–Oct. 13, 2008
Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia
April 1, 2007 through 2010
Useful links:
www.asia.si.edu
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/melik5.php
Don't miss it!
The New Paradigm For Financial Markets
As Economist rightly put it, crisis breeds opportunties, and now George Soros in his latest book, 'The New Paradigm for Financial Markets' offers a different sort of reflection on the present financial crisis: fracture-filled financial institutions + synthetic-structured financial products = super financial cleavage cracks + bubble (s).
Useful link:
www.georgesoros.com
I think the gem/jewelry/art industry should read the book for reflexivity because the economic impact for many countries in the world will be hard due to vulnerable dollar and the spectre of inflation + god knows what else. We are living in interesting times.
Useful link:
www.georgesoros.com
I think the gem/jewelry/art industry should read the book for reflexivity because the economic impact for many countries in the world will be hard due to vulnerable dollar and the spectre of inflation + god knows what else. We are living in interesting times.
Ambilight
(via Wikipedia) Ambilight, which is short for Ambient Lighting Technology, is a feature invented by Philips Electronics, generating light effects around the TV that correspond to the video content. The effect, the company claims, is a larger virtual screen and a more immersive viewing experience. In addition, Philips claims that it reduces viewer eye strain.
Useful link:
www.research.philips.com
I wonder if Ambilight technology could be modified for colored stones and jewelry for an immersive viewing experience.
Useful link:
www.research.philips.com
I wonder if Ambilight technology could be modified for colored stones and jewelry for an immersive viewing experience.
Art Sources
I found Mark Hardens artchive + Nicolas Pioch's Webmuseum interesting. I liked it.
Useful links:
www.artchive.com
WebMuseum
Useful links:
www.artchive.com
WebMuseum
Beads
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Diamond beads, unlike those made from other gems, are seldom completely spherical, but may have any shape from a sphere to a disc, such as a barrel, spindle, cylinder or ellipse. They are covered with small facets on all sides, often in steps. They have no girdle, table or culet. They were apparently always produced from dodecahedroid rough of an intermediate, near-spherical shape. A pair of exceptionally large diamond Beads from the late eighteenth century is in the possession of the Swedish Royal Family as part of the Bernadotte Foundation. They are set in a pair of earrings known as the Wasa Earrings. Fancy Cuts with all-round faceting are usually described as ‘rare’, so it is surprising to find so many of them in the inventories of the Hope and Brunswick Collections and in the Iranian Treasury.
Diamond beads, unlike those made from other gems, are seldom completely spherical, but may have any shape from a sphere to a disc, such as a barrel, spindle, cylinder or ellipse. They are covered with small facets on all sides, often in steps. They have no girdle, table or culet. They were apparently always produced from dodecahedroid rough of an intermediate, near-spherical shape. A pair of exceptionally large diamond Beads from the late eighteenth century is in the possession of the Swedish Royal Family as part of the Bernadotte Foundation. They are set in a pair of earrings known as the Wasa Earrings. Fancy Cuts with all-round faceting are usually described as ‘rare’, so it is surprising to find so many of them in the inventories of the Hope and Brunswick Collections and in the Iranian Treasury.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Strange that Ruskin did not remember that the selfsame phrase about ‘flinging a pot of paint’ had been used a generation earlier by a critic of one of Turner’s sunsets. Then Ruskin had been on the side of the artist, now he did not understand and stood with the Philistines. Time has avenged the insult to genius uncomprehended, and the ‘Nocturne—Blue and Gold—Old Battersea Bridge,’ which Ruskin in 1877 thought not worth two hundred guineas, was in 1905 eagerly purchased for two thousand guineas and presented to the nation.
Whistler’s exhibits brought him all the publicity any artist could desire—all London was taking of his nocturnes—but the hostility of the critics, and particularly the savage onslaught of Ruskin, scared away purchasers. When he exhibited for the second time at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878, Whistler found that Ruskin’s denunciation was stopping the sale of his pictures and, after some hesitation, he decided to bring a libel action against him.
The case was heard on the 25th and 26th of November 1878 before Mr Justice Huddlestone and a special jury. It created a great sensation, but Whistler was ill advised to bring the action, because artistic questions can never be satisfactorily settled in a court of law. Popular sympathy was with the critic, who had so often been right in the past, and Whistler’s brilliant repartees in the witness-box did him no good, for they only tended to confirm the opinion that he was an amusing jester who was not to be taken seriously. In cross-examination the opposing counsel elicited the fact the the ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold’ had been painted in two days, and then said, ‘The labor of two days, then, is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?’ ‘No,’ replied Whistler with dignity; ‘I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime.’
The point at issue really was whether the nocturnes were or were not works of art, and this was a matter obviously over the heads of the jury. Albert Moore, giving evidence for Whistler, praised his pictures highly and declared that they showed not ‘eccentricity’ but ‘originality’. William Rossetti also pronounced the nocturnes to be true works of art, but on the other side Frith declared they were not, and Burne-Jones agreed with him because, though he admitted that the nocturnes had ‘fine color and atmosphere,’ he considered that they lacked ‘complete finish’. Tom Taylor, the art critic of The Times, giving evidence for Ruskin, attempted to explain what Burne-Jones mean by finish, and for this purpose produced a picture of Titian. But when this was handed to the jury, one of them, mistaking it for a picture by Whistler, exclaimed, ‘Oh, come! We’ve had enough of these Whistlers,’ and they all refused to look at it!
In the end Whistler was awarded te contemptuous sum of one farthing damages. This meant that he had to pay his own law costs, and since nobody would buy his pictures now he was soon in money difficulties. He revenged himself by issuing a pamphlet, Art and Art Critics, in which his enemies were neatly and wittily put in their places, but this did not help him to live. To put an end to an untenable situation, early in 1879 he had to abandon his residence, ‘The White House,’ in Chelsea. He became a bankrupt and all his belongings were sold to satisfy his creditors.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Strange that Ruskin did not remember that the selfsame phrase about ‘flinging a pot of paint’ had been used a generation earlier by a critic of one of Turner’s sunsets. Then Ruskin had been on the side of the artist, now he did not understand and stood with the Philistines. Time has avenged the insult to genius uncomprehended, and the ‘Nocturne—Blue and Gold—Old Battersea Bridge,’ which Ruskin in 1877 thought not worth two hundred guineas, was in 1905 eagerly purchased for two thousand guineas and presented to the nation.
Whistler’s exhibits brought him all the publicity any artist could desire—all London was taking of his nocturnes—but the hostility of the critics, and particularly the savage onslaught of Ruskin, scared away purchasers. When he exhibited for the second time at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878, Whistler found that Ruskin’s denunciation was stopping the sale of his pictures and, after some hesitation, he decided to bring a libel action against him.
The case was heard on the 25th and 26th of November 1878 before Mr Justice Huddlestone and a special jury. It created a great sensation, but Whistler was ill advised to bring the action, because artistic questions can never be satisfactorily settled in a court of law. Popular sympathy was with the critic, who had so often been right in the past, and Whistler’s brilliant repartees in the witness-box did him no good, for they only tended to confirm the opinion that he was an amusing jester who was not to be taken seriously. In cross-examination the opposing counsel elicited the fact the the ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold’ had been painted in two days, and then said, ‘The labor of two days, then, is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?’ ‘No,’ replied Whistler with dignity; ‘I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime.’
The point at issue really was whether the nocturnes were or were not works of art, and this was a matter obviously over the heads of the jury. Albert Moore, giving evidence for Whistler, praised his pictures highly and declared that they showed not ‘eccentricity’ but ‘originality’. William Rossetti also pronounced the nocturnes to be true works of art, but on the other side Frith declared they were not, and Burne-Jones agreed with him because, though he admitted that the nocturnes had ‘fine color and atmosphere,’ he considered that they lacked ‘complete finish’. Tom Taylor, the art critic of The Times, giving evidence for Ruskin, attempted to explain what Burne-Jones mean by finish, and for this purpose produced a picture of Titian. But when this was handed to the jury, one of them, mistaking it for a picture by Whistler, exclaimed, ‘Oh, come! We’ve had enough of these Whistlers,’ and they all refused to look at it!
In the end Whistler was awarded te contemptuous sum of one farthing damages. This meant that he had to pay his own law costs, and since nobody would buy his pictures now he was soon in money difficulties. He revenged himself by issuing a pamphlet, Art and Art Critics, in which his enemies were neatly and wittily put in their places, but this did not help him to live. To put an end to an untenable situation, early in 1879 he had to abandon his residence, ‘The White House,’ in Chelsea. He became a bankrupt and all his belongings were sold to satisfy his creditors.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Eco-Conscious Jewelry
By reusing precious gems, metal scraps, and recycled packaging in production, designer Elizabeth Moore, has introduced something new from old for the jewelry industry and eco-conscious consumers. I think they look different and eye-catching + beautiful.
Useful link:
www.frootejewelry.com
Useful link:
www.frootejewelry.com
Sunday, April 06, 2008
The First $20 Million Is Always The Hardest
The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest by Po Bronson is an interesting book + it highlights the asymmetrical business landscape and characters when entrepreneurs risk everything to start a company, and take it public + the impact.
I liked it.
Useful links:
www.pobronson.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280674
I liked it.
Useful links:
www.pobronson.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280674
Expanding Circular Table
I found the William IV Jupe expanding circular mahogany dining table @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10989634 intriguing because they are beautiful and rare + the table looked very similar to the shape and patterns of fixed trapiche stars in emerald (Colombia) and rubies and sapphires (Burma)-- a collector's delight.
Useful links:
www.oscardelarenta.com
www.theodorealexander.com
www.dbfletcher.com
www.christies.com
Useful links:
www.oscardelarenta.com
www.theodorealexander.com
www.dbfletcher.com
www.christies.com
Renewable Energy
(via Economist) Q-Cells, based in Wolfen, just north of Leipzig, Germany, is the world's largest manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) cells used in solar panels + according to the environment ministry's latest report on the state of the industry, renewables now account for 6.7% of energy consumption, up from 5.5% in 2006 and 3.5% in 2003 + I think renewable-energy equipment (s) will become a big part of Germany's manufacturing industry, alongside cars and machine tools + the renewable-energy law, now known as the EEG, adopted in 1991, which encourages investment by cross-subsidising renewable electricity fed into the grid may speed up the rapid expansion of new clean technology in Germany + with 160 or more institutions doing research on solar technology, Germany may become the clean-tech industry giant of the world.
Useful links:
www.qcells.de
www.bmu.de
www.worldfuturecouncil.org
www.iset.uni-kassel.de
www.ersol.de
Useful links:
www.qcells.de
www.bmu.de
www.worldfuturecouncil.org
www.iset.uni-kassel.de
www.ersol.de
How To Steal A Million
(via Wikipedia) How to Steal a Million (1966) is an art-heist movie, directed by William Wyler, starring Peter O'Toole as a suave art investigator and Audrey Hepburn as Nicole Bonnet, the daughter of genius art fraud Charles Bonnet (Hugh Griffith). The central theme of the movie is the recovery from a Parisian museum of a forged Cellini committed by Bonnet's grandfather, before its discovery and exposure as such, and is enlivened by the romantic angle between the characters played by O'Toole and Hepburn.
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060522
It's an elegant movie and I liked it.
Useful link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060522
It's an elegant movie and I liked it.
Beads, Briolettes And Rondelles
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
Beads, Briolettes and Rondellas have two features in common: a body covered all over with tiny facets, and the absence of a girdle by which gems are normally held in their settings (a few Girdled Briolletes do exist, but these are exceptions). The facets are usually triangular or squarish or, less frequently, long and narrow. Since they have no girdle, these diamonds are either drilled through from side to side or, in th case of Briolettes, downwards through the point. They are then threaded on wire or on a ring to hang on a chain. The type of piercing is dictated by the shape of the diamond and determines the use to which the stone will be put in a piece of jewelry.
The fashioning of diamond Beads, Briolettes and Rondellas was obviously inspired by the endless variety of such forms already in use thousands of years before Christ: ‘Perhaps the most convenient and welcome of all substitutes for currency was beads. Beads are the Adam and Eve of jewelry family and their countless progeny have spread over all the inhabited lands of the earth from the darkest jungles of Africa to the icebound countries of the far north. Beads were cherished in the magnificent courts of the Pharaohs, and they flourish today in the ‘five-and-tens’ of the New World. The jeweler of ancient times seems to have delighted in seeing how many different kinds of beads he could make. There were minute carved beads, balls of amethyst, and melon-shaped beads of limpid rock crystal, pale red carnelian beads shaped like an hour glass, and cynlindrical beads of green felspar....’
Beads, Briolettes and Rondellas have two features in common: a body covered all over with tiny facets, and the absence of a girdle by which gems are normally held in their settings (a few Girdled Briolletes do exist, but these are exceptions). The facets are usually triangular or squarish or, less frequently, long and narrow. Since they have no girdle, these diamonds are either drilled through from side to side or, in th case of Briolettes, downwards through the point. They are then threaded on wire or on a ring to hang on a chain. The type of piercing is dictated by the shape of the diamond and determines the use to which the stone will be put in a piece of jewelry.
The fashioning of diamond Beads, Briolettes and Rondellas was obviously inspired by the endless variety of such forms already in use thousands of years before Christ: ‘Perhaps the most convenient and welcome of all substitutes for currency was beads. Beads are the Adam and Eve of jewelry family and their countless progeny have spread over all the inhabited lands of the earth from the darkest jungles of Africa to the icebound countries of the far north. Beads were cherished in the magnificent courts of the Pharaohs, and they flourish today in the ‘five-and-tens’ of the New World. The jeweler of ancient times seems to have delighted in seeing how many different kinds of beads he could make. There were minute carved beads, balls of amethyst, and melon-shaped beads of limpid rock crystal, pale red carnelian beads shaped like an hour glass, and cynlindrical beads of green felspar....’
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
These poetic paintings of night represent the extreme point of originality to which Whistler went. Particularities of scene and landscape exist in these nocturnes only as accessories; the real subject is the limpidity of the atmosphere, water illumined by the pale rays of the moon, mysterious shadows, the great silhouettes of dark nights, the darkness intensified sometimes by a splash of fireworks against the sky. Today, though Cremorne is no more, we can recognize the truth as well as the beauty in ‘Cremorne Lights’, for Whistler has now taught us to use our own experience in looking at these pictures of moonlight and lights reflected in the water. But at the time of their first appearance these nocturnes were incomprehensible to most people, who looked in them for topographical details which the veil of night would naturally conceal. In an eloquent and moving passage in his lecture, known as the ‘Ten o’Clock,’ Whistler afterwards explained what he saw and painted by the Thames at eventide:
When the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairyland is before us—then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master, her son in that he loves her, her master in that he knows her.
But in 1877 Whistler’s views on the poetry of night were unknown, and the magic of his brush could not immediately convert the public to appreciation of pictures the like of which had never before been seen in Europe. Something approaching them had been seen in Japan, as we may see by comparing Hokusai’s bridge pictures with those of Whistler, but Hokusai and Hiroshige were not known then as they are today. Whistler’s nocturnes were regarded by the majority as a smear of uniform color in which no distinct forms could be considered. The painter was looked upon as a charlatan and buffoon, and among those who attacked him, sad to relate, was the stout defender of Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. John Ruskin, no wiser in this respect than the others, permitted himself to write the following in Fors Clavigera on July 2, 1877:
For Mr Whistler’s own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in thte public’s face.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
These poetic paintings of night represent the extreme point of originality to which Whistler went. Particularities of scene and landscape exist in these nocturnes only as accessories; the real subject is the limpidity of the atmosphere, water illumined by the pale rays of the moon, mysterious shadows, the great silhouettes of dark nights, the darkness intensified sometimes by a splash of fireworks against the sky. Today, though Cremorne is no more, we can recognize the truth as well as the beauty in ‘Cremorne Lights’, for Whistler has now taught us to use our own experience in looking at these pictures of moonlight and lights reflected in the water. But at the time of their first appearance these nocturnes were incomprehensible to most people, who looked in them for topographical details which the veil of night would naturally conceal. In an eloquent and moving passage in his lecture, known as the ‘Ten o’Clock,’ Whistler afterwards explained what he saw and painted by the Thames at eventide:
When the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairyland is before us—then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master, her son in that he loves her, her master in that he knows her.
But in 1877 Whistler’s views on the poetry of night were unknown, and the magic of his brush could not immediately convert the public to appreciation of pictures the like of which had never before been seen in Europe. Something approaching them had been seen in Japan, as we may see by comparing Hokusai’s bridge pictures with those of Whistler, but Hokusai and Hiroshige were not known then as they are today. Whistler’s nocturnes were regarded by the majority as a smear of uniform color in which no distinct forms could be considered. The painter was looked upon as a charlatan and buffoon, and among those who attacked him, sad to relate, was the stout defender of Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. John Ruskin, no wiser in this respect than the others, permitted himself to write the following in Fors Clavigera on July 2, 1877:
For Mr Whistler’s own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in thte public’s face.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Heard On The Street
The best way to learn about market (s) is to be in a financial crisis like today's + the simplest answer to why market (s) went up yesterday is... they went up......and went down today is......they went down + markets are efficient, but not all the time, and we are living in such a time.
Interesting Facts
I found the information via Earthtrends very interesting:
- The most densely populated country in the world: Singapore, with 6,699 people per square kilometer (the global average is 51!).
- Country with lowest life expectancy: In Swaziland, the average person lives only 31.2 years.
- Country producing the most coal: China produces over one billion toe (tonnes of oil equivalent) of coal each year, nearly twice that of the second largest producer, the United States.
Useful link:
www.wri.org
- The most densely populated country in the world: Singapore, with 6,699 people per square kilometer (the global average is 51!).
- Country with lowest life expectancy: In Swaziland, the average person lives only 31.2 years.
- Country producing the most coal: China produces over one billion toe (tonnes of oil equivalent) of coal each year, nearly twice that of the second largest producer, the United States.
Useful link:
www.wri.org
Kevin Roberts
Kevin Roberts works with one of the best and famous advertising agency in the world, Saatchi & Saatchi + he is highly-regarded for his deep insight and creative mind + I have always liked his attraction-concept about people and marketing in business + connecting consumers through emotion--I think they are brilliant.
Useful links:
www.saatchikevin.com
www.saatchi.com
www.krconnect.blogspot.com
www.sisomo.com
www.lovemarks.com
Useful links:
www.saatchikevin.com
www.saatchi.com
www.krconnect.blogspot.com
www.sisomo.com
www.lovemarks.com
Middle Of The Market
I found the article @ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5898.html interesting because there is a lot of useful info + lessons for the gem and jewelry industry.
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
Useful link:
Marketing Know: How
Loans For Art Buyers
(via BBC) I was intrigued by the French government's measures to boost its flagging art market by providing interest-free loans to modest buyers to purchase works + according to the French Culture Minister Christine Albanel, the idea was to bring private individuals closer to this act of buying a work of art adding that the loan was the price, for example, of a flat-screen television.
Brilliant idea!
Useful links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7328012.stm
www.artprice.com
Brilliant idea!
Useful links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7328012.stm
www.artprice.com
Ileana Sonnabend Collections
Carol Vogel writes about the largest private sale of art collections belonging to Ileana Sonnabend, known to the art world as the world's most powerful dealer (s) in the 1960s and '70s + other viewpoints @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/04vogel.php
Useful links:
www.gagosian.com
www.acquavellagalleries.com
www.lmgallery.com
www.gpspartners.com
Useful links:
www.gagosian.com
www.acquavellagalleries.com
www.lmgallery.com
www.gpspartners.com
Modern Spread Cuts
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The old Spread Cut Brilliants were the successors of the early Mirror Cuts and, like these, were inspired by the demands of fashion. If good proportions were possible, then of course the diamond would not be spread. But otherwise, depending on the irregularity of the rough, the final result might by anything from an overspread Brilliant to a mere trinket. Today most Brilliant Cut diamonds are Spread Cut, emphasizing brilliance at the expense of fire. Since they are produced commercially, the saving of weight is of major importance, even though this means that the light effects are considerably reduced, and despite the fact that a well-proportioned stone can be worth far more than a Spread Cut one, not to mention Fish-Eye.
Basil Watermeyer gives a splendid example of a Spread Cut. He states that such a diamond ‘will produce an equal flow of reflected light through table and crown facets.’ This total balance of light reflection can fool the eye into believing that the stone has life. When these proportions are used it is stressed that the stone is very sensitive to any change in the base angle of 41°. A 40¾° base angle will immediately produce a Fish-Eye and a 41¼° angle will produce a dull ‘inner circle.’
Another equally Spread Brilliant Cut was proposed by Parker in 1951. These figures conform with a crown angle of 25.5° and a pavilion angle of 40.9°. Oldendorff believed that Paker Cut might be quite attractive but ‘somewhat lax.’
Parker’s Spread Cut
Table size: 66.1%
Crown height: 8.1% - Angles: 25.5°
Pavilion depth: 43.35% - 40.9°
Watermeyer’s Spread Cut
Table size: 66.66%
Crown height: 11.5% - Angles: 33 - 34°
Pavilion depth: 43.5% - 41°
The old Spread Cut Brilliants were the successors of the early Mirror Cuts and, like these, were inspired by the demands of fashion. If good proportions were possible, then of course the diamond would not be spread. But otherwise, depending on the irregularity of the rough, the final result might by anything from an overspread Brilliant to a mere trinket. Today most Brilliant Cut diamonds are Spread Cut, emphasizing brilliance at the expense of fire. Since they are produced commercially, the saving of weight is of major importance, even though this means that the light effects are considerably reduced, and despite the fact that a well-proportioned stone can be worth far more than a Spread Cut one, not to mention Fish-Eye.
Basil Watermeyer gives a splendid example of a Spread Cut. He states that such a diamond ‘will produce an equal flow of reflected light through table and crown facets.’ This total balance of light reflection can fool the eye into believing that the stone has life. When these proportions are used it is stressed that the stone is very sensitive to any change in the base angle of 41°. A 40¾° base angle will immediately produce a Fish-Eye and a 41¼° angle will produce a dull ‘inner circle.’
Another equally Spread Brilliant Cut was proposed by Parker in 1951. These figures conform with a crown angle of 25.5° and a pavilion angle of 40.9°. Oldendorff believed that Paker Cut might be quite attractive but ‘somewhat lax.’
Parker’s Spread Cut
Table size: 66.1%
Crown height: 8.1% - Angles: 25.5°
Pavilion depth: 43.35% - 40.9°
Watermeyer’s Spread Cut
Table size: 66.66%
Crown height: 11.5% - Angles: 33 - 34°
Pavilion depth: 43.5% - 41°
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Whistler also painted a ‘Symphony in White No.III’; in this two girls, one in cream, one in white, recline on a white sofa, while a fan on the floor and the flowers of an azalea in a corner repeat the dominant whites. The motive of the artist in choosing these color schemes and calling the pictures ‘symphonies’ was at this time beyond the comprehension of even professional art critics, and one of them wrote of this picture in the Saturday Review:
In the ‘Symphony in White No.III’ by Mr Whistler there are many dainty varieties of tint, but it is not precisely a symphony in white. One lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green leaves. There is a girl in white on white sofa, but even this girl has reddish hair; and of course there is the flesh color of the complexions.
To this Whistler promply retorted:
Bon Dieu! Did this wise person expect white hair and chalked faces? And does he then, in his astounding consequence, believe that a symphony in F contains no other note, but shall be a continued repetition of F,F,F?....Fool!
This was one of the earliest of Whistler’s critical encounters, taking place when the picture was exhibited at the Academy in 1867, and the critics were soon to learn that here was a painter who could hit back with interest.
As the successive exhibition of Whistler’s pictures enabled the tendencies and peculiarities of his work to be more clearly seen, the public, the critics, and the Royal Academy itself became more and more hostile to him, and finally took up an attitude of undisguised ill-will. In 1872 his painting of his mother, now universally recognized to be one of the great portraits of the century, was narrowly rejected by the Academy, and its final acceptance was only due to the staunch championship of the veteran Sir William Boxall, R.A., who threatened to resign from the Council if the pictures were not hung. Doubtless Whistler’s habit of giving his works titles borrowed from musical terms prejudiced the public agianst them. An extremist far more in his titles than in his actual manner of painting, Whistler went so far as to call his picture of mother, ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black.’ He defended this title by saying:
That is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?
In his desire to emphasize the importance of decorative design adn color in painting, Whistler became a little inhuman. As one of his younger critics pertinently observed, we can find an ‘arrangement of grey and black’ in a coal-scuttle; we find far more in Whistler’s ‘Mother’, we find reverence for age, character, tenderness, and affection. It has become one of the great pictures of the world, not only because it is a pleasing pattern of colors, but because it is a true work of deep emotion tenderly expressed.
No longer welcome at the Royal Academy, Whistler was fortunate in soon securing a new exhibition center. Sir Coutts Lindsay, a rich banker and amateur painter who patronized the arts, had the Grosvenor Gallery built in Bond Street, and at the first exhibition opened there in May 1877 Whistler was represented by seven pictures. These included the portrait of Carlyle, now at Glasgow, a painting similar in style to the artist’s ‘Mother’, described as ‘An Arrangement in Brown,’ a full-length of Irving as Philip II of Spain, described as ‘Arrangement in Black No.III,’ and four nocturnes, two in blue and silver, one in blue and gold, and one in black and gold. Whistler had not confined his studies of the Thames in mid-London to his etched work; he had used these subjects for paintings in the sixties, among them being ‘Old Battersea Bridge’ and ‘Chelsea in Ice,’ but in this new series of evening effects by the riverside he shocked the conventions of the day more than he had yet done by his ‘symphonies.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Whistler also painted a ‘Symphony in White No.III’; in this two girls, one in cream, one in white, recline on a white sofa, while a fan on the floor and the flowers of an azalea in a corner repeat the dominant whites. The motive of the artist in choosing these color schemes and calling the pictures ‘symphonies’ was at this time beyond the comprehension of even professional art critics, and one of them wrote of this picture in the Saturday Review:
In the ‘Symphony in White No.III’ by Mr Whistler there are many dainty varieties of tint, but it is not precisely a symphony in white. One lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green leaves. There is a girl in white on white sofa, but even this girl has reddish hair; and of course there is the flesh color of the complexions.
To this Whistler promply retorted:
Bon Dieu! Did this wise person expect white hair and chalked faces? And does he then, in his astounding consequence, believe that a symphony in F contains no other note, but shall be a continued repetition of F,F,F?....Fool!
This was one of the earliest of Whistler’s critical encounters, taking place when the picture was exhibited at the Academy in 1867, and the critics were soon to learn that here was a painter who could hit back with interest.
As the successive exhibition of Whistler’s pictures enabled the tendencies and peculiarities of his work to be more clearly seen, the public, the critics, and the Royal Academy itself became more and more hostile to him, and finally took up an attitude of undisguised ill-will. In 1872 his painting of his mother, now universally recognized to be one of the great portraits of the century, was narrowly rejected by the Academy, and its final acceptance was only due to the staunch championship of the veteran Sir William Boxall, R.A., who threatened to resign from the Council if the pictures were not hung. Doubtless Whistler’s habit of giving his works titles borrowed from musical terms prejudiced the public agianst them. An extremist far more in his titles than in his actual manner of painting, Whistler went so far as to call his picture of mother, ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black.’ He defended this title by saying:
That is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?
In his desire to emphasize the importance of decorative design adn color in painting, Whistler became a little inhuman. As one of his younger critics pertinently observed, we can find an ‘arrangement of grey and black’ in a coal-scuttle; we find far more in Whistler’s ‘Mother’, we find reverence for age, character, tenderness, and affection. It has become one of the great pictures of the world, not only because it is a pleasing pattern of colors, but because it is a true work of deep emotion tenderly expressed.
No longer welcome at the Royal Academy, Whistler was fortunate in soon securing a new exhibition center. Sir Coutts Lindsay, a rich banker and amateur painter who patronized the arts, had the Grosvenor Gallery built in Bond Street, and at the first exhibition opened there in May 1877 Whistler was represented by seven pictures. These included the portrait of Carlyle, now at Glasgow, a painting similar in style to the artist’s ‘Mother’, described as ‘An Arrangement in Brown,’ a full-length of Irving as Philip II of Spain, described as ‘Arrangement in Black No.III,’ and four nocturnes, two in blue and silver, one in blue and gold, and one in black and gold. Whistler had not confined his studies of the Thames in mid-London to his etched work; he had used these subjects for paintings in the sixties, among them being ‘Old Battersea Bridge’ and ‘Chelsea in Ice,’ but in this new series of evening effects by the riverside he shocked the conventions of the day more than he had yet done by his ‘symphonies.’
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Friday, April 04, 2008
Made In France Label For Fine Jewelry
I think it was a brilliant move by the French jewelry sector to initiate Joaillerie de France certification (a government-supported label and hallmark) because this guarantees quality and recognition + consumer confidence.
Other countries should follow the French to promote and guarantee high standards in fine jewelry.
Useful link:
www.joailleriedefrance.net
Other countries should follow the French to promote and guarantee high standards in fine jewelry.
Useful link:
www.joailleriedefrance.net
Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami is well-known for pairing fine art with cartoons + his artistic style, called Superflat, is characterized by flat planes of color and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga + he is also known as the Andy Warhol of Japan.
Useful links:
www.takashimurakami.com
http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp
Useful links:
www.takashimurakami.com
http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp
NBD Pearl Museum
If you are interested in learning more about the colorful history of pearl divers and merchants of Arabia, visit NBD Pearl Museum, Dubai + it's an educational experience.
Useful link:
www.nbd.com
Useful link:
www.nbd.com
Basel Show
BaselWorld, the world's largest watch and jewelry trade show will be held in Switzerland from April 3 - 10, 2008 + I think there will be new watch products + innovative old and new jewelry brands to accommodate different tastes.
Useful links:
www.messe.ch
www.baselworld.com
Useful links:
www.messe.ch
www.baselworld.com
Music Update
For music lovers, web is becoming a mecca, with lots of innovative services. Listen. Enjoy.
Useful links:
www.freemusiczilla.com
http://soundpedia.com
http://songza.com
www.last.fm
Useful links:
www.freemusiczilla.com
http://soundpedia.com
http://songza.com
www.last.fm
Fighting For Their Rights
Konstantin Akinsha and Grigorij Kozlov writes about the masterpieces of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, now on view at London’s Royal Academy + the heirs’ efforts for compensation from the Russian state + the legal and political issues + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2474
Lumpy Diamonds
(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The term ‘lumpy’ describes diamonds which are too high or too thick compared to the proportions standard in any particular period. Up to the beginning of this century the two sets of main facets were supposed to meet at right angles at the girdle—that is, with both crown and pavilion angles of 45°. The crown height had to be half the pavilion depth, and the culet just large enough to act as reflector of the incident light. These proportions, developed in te sixteenth century, varying slightly according to the shape dictated by the rough, resulted in spectacular light effects, and diamonds with these classic proportions remained much in demand for nearly three centuries.
However, only one gem could be extracted from each crystal, and fashioning involved the long and arduous process of hand bruting, so it was not surprising that many cutters decided to save labor and leave the stones lumpy. They sacrificed a great deal of brilliance but saved weight, and were able to find a perfectly satisfactory market for these diamonds, at a slightly lower rate per carat, among a clientele lacking any appreciation of true quality.
Mawe’s ‘blunder’ was a further factor responsible for the belief that the overall height of a diamond should be equal to its width. As late as the 1930s I came across people with this conviction. At that time large quantities of old-fashioned lumpy diamonds were still on the second-hand market. These have all been recut by now but, alas, so have most of the beautiful 45° cuts.
The introduction of modern mechanical sawing has resulted in the possibility of substantial weight retention since it enables two gems to be cut from one crystal and eliminates the temptation, through sheer lack of judgement, to produce lumpy gems. This innovation, and the introduction of electricity to supercede candlelight, have brought new desired proportions to the Brilliant Cut. The overall height has been reduced from the classic optimum of 70 per cent to the new height of only 60 per cent.
The term ‘lumpy’ describes diamonds which are too high or too thick compared to the proportions standard in any particular period. Up to the beginning of this century the two sets of main facets were supposed to meet at right angles at the girdle—that is, with both crown and pavilion angles of 45°. The crown height had to be half the pavilion depth, and the culet just large enough to act as reflector of the incident light. These proportions, developed in te sixteenth century, varying slightly according to the shape dictated by the rough, resulted in spectacular light effects, and diamonds with these classic proportions remained much in demand for nearly three centuries.
However, only one gem could be extracted from each crystal, and fashioning involved the long and arduous process of hand bruting, so it was not surprising that many cutters decided to save labor and leave the stones lumpy. They sacrificed a great deal of brilliance but saved weight, and were able to find a perfectly satisfactory market for these diamonds, at a slightly lower rate per carat, among a clientele lacking any appreciation of true quality.
Mawe’s ‘blunder’ was a further factor responsible for the belief that the overall height of a diamond should be equal to its width. As late as the 1930s I came across people with this conviction. At that time large quantities of old-fashioned lumpy diamonds were still on the second-hand market. These have all been recut by now but, alas, so have most of the beautiful 45° cuts.
The introduction of modern mechanical sawing has resulted in the possibility of substantial weight retention since it enables two gems to be cut from one crystal and eliminates the temptation, through sheer lack of judgement, to produce lumpy gems. This innovation, and the introduction of electricity to supercede candlelight, have brought new desired proportions to the Brilliant Cut. The overall height has been reduced from the classic optimum of 70 per cent to the new height of only 60 per cent.
The Influence Of The Far East
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
Whistler settled down in Chelsea, and became friendly with his neighbor Rossetti, who shared his taste for blue-and-white Chinese porcelain and for Japanese color-prints, and during his first years in London the artistic influence of the Far East became more pronounced in Whistler’s art. He surrounded himself with Oriental objects adn introduced them constantly into his pictures. In 1864 he painted ‘The Gold Screen’, against which sat a young woman in Japanese costume, surrounded by other variously colored objects from the Far East. About the same time he painted ‘La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine’, in which brilliant colors are again afforded by a Japanese dress. The original of this portrait was Miss Christina Spartali, daughter of the Greek Consul-General in London. Her sister Marie Spartali, afterwards Mrs Stillman, had been a pupil of Rossetti and sat to him for ‘Fiametta’ and other paintings. Owing to the family likeness common to the two sisters, it has been said that at this time Whistler was subject to Rossetti’s influence, but the resemblance between their works is a superficial one due only to the likeness of their respective models. There is no evidence that Whistler borrowed any of Rossetti’s methods, and the chief influences during the years in which Whistler formed his style of painting were Courbet and Manet, Velazquez and the masters of Japan. In etching he was principally influenced by Rembrandt and Méryon.
‘The Princess of the Porcelain Country,’ accepted by the Salon in 1865, was the first work by Whistler to be shown in any official exhibition in Paris. Other pictures of this Japanese period were ‘The Lange Leizen,’ in the Academy of 1864, ‘The Balcony,’ in the Academy of 1870, and most beautiful of all, ‘The Little White Girl’, also known as ‘Symphony in White No.II,’ shown at the Academy in the same year. The Japanese fan in the girl’s hand is the only direct confession of Oriental influence in this picture, which otherwise unites the Spanish gravity and realism of ‘At the Piano’ with the gay-colored decorativeness of a Hokusai or Hiroshige. After having seen this picture in Whistler’s studio, Swinburne wrote the poem afterwards included in Poems and Ballads:
Before The Mirror
Come snow, come wind or thunder,
High up in air,
I watch my face and wonder
At my bright hair,
Nought else exists or grieves
The rose at heart, that heaves
With love of her own leaves, and lips that pair.
I cannot tell what pleasures
Or what pains were,
What pale new loves and treasures
New years will bear;
What beam will fall, what shower
With grief or joy for dower,
But one thing knows the flower, the flower is fair.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
Whistler settled down in Chelsea, and became friendly with his neighbor Rossetti, who shared his taste for blue-and-white Chinese porcelain and for Japanese color-prints, and during his first years in London the artistic influence of the Far East became more pronounced in Whistler’s art. He surrounded himself with Oriental objects adn introduced them constantly into his pictures. In 1864 he painted ‘The Gold Screen’, against which sat a young woman in Japanese costume, surrounded by other variously colored objects from the Far East. About the same time he painted ‘La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine’, in which brilliant colors are again afforded by a Japanese dress. The original of this portrait was Miss Christina Spartali, daughter of the Greek Consul-General in London. Her sister Marie Spartali, afterwards Mrs Stillman, had been a pupil of Rossetti and sat to him for ‘Fiametta’ and other paintings. Owing to the family likeness common to the two sisters, it has been said that at this time Whistler was subject to Rossetti’s influence, but the resemblance between their works is a superficial one due only to the likeness of their respective models. There is no evidence that Whistler borrowed any of Rossetti’s methods, and the chief influences during the years in which Whistler formed his style of painting were Courbet and Manet, Velazquez and the masters of Japan. In etching he was principally influenced by Rembrandt and Méryon.
‘The Princess of the Porcelain Country,’ accepted by the Salon in 1865, was the first work by Whistler to be shown in any official exhibition in Paris. Other pictures of this Japanese period were ‘The Lange Leizen,’ in the Academy of 1864, ‘The Balcony,’ in the Academy of 1870, and most beautiful of all, ‘The Little White Girl’, also known as ‘Symphony in White No.II,’ shown at the Academy in the same year. The Japanese fan in the girl’s hand is the only direct confession of Oriental influence in this picture, which otherwise unites the Spanish gravity and realism of ‘At the Piano’ with the gay-colored decorativeness of a Hokusai or Hiroshige. After having seen this picture in Whistler’s studio, Swinburne wrote the poem afterwards included in Poems and Ballads:
Before The Mirror
Come snow, come wind or thunder,
High up in air,
I watch my face and wonder
At my bright hair,
Nought else exists or grieves
The rose at heart, that heaves
With love of her own leaves, and lips that pair.
I cannot tell what pleasures
Or what pains were,
What pale new loves and treasures
New years will bear;
What beam will fall, what shower
With grief or joy for dower,
But one thing knows the flower, the flower is fair.
The Influence Of The Far East (continued)
A Greener World
I was really intrigued by the unique designs of Goodearth Homes + I think the concept of building a community of people committed to a sustainable lifestyle is brilliant + I also believe this social network could cultivate a sense of belonging which is going out of our lives incrementally due to rapid urbanization.
A great concept + I liked it.
Useful link:
www.goodearthhomes.net
A great concept + I liked it.
Useful link:
www.goodearthhomes.net
'Origin' Chocolate
According to Barry Callebaut, shoppers in the United States, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, and Britain are starting to select their chocolate bars as they would a bottle of wine - studying the cocoa content and the origin of the beans.
Useful link:
www.barry-callebaut.com
It's intriguing to see parallels with gemstone (ruby, blue sapphire, emerald, tourmaline) origins and consumer preference (s) + in an ideal case, gemstone (s) from different countries are found in unique geological environments, with unique gemological properties, leading to one single source, if possible + if chocolate producers are able to label the origin of beans and the cocoa content with technology, why can't the gemstone industry do the same with high value colored stones? Start labeling the trace elements of colored gemstones and let the consumers decide!
Useful link:
www.barry-callebaut.com
It's intriguing to see parallels with gemstone (ruby, blue sapphire, emerald, tourmaline) origins and consumer preference (s) + in an ideal case, gemstone (s) from different countries are found in unique geological environments, with unique gemological properties, leading to one single source, if possible + if chocolate producers are able to label the origin of beans and the cocoa content with technology, why can't the gemstone industry do the same with high value colored stones? Start labeling the trace elements of colored gemstones and let the consumers decide!
Art Museums Provenance Issues
The article on Art museums struggle with provenance issues @ http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0402/p13s01-alar.html was intriguing because lack of knowledgeable experts + complicated laws have always made it difficult to figure out an object's history + this reminded me of the gem and jewelry industry: gemstones can pass through many hands on their journey from mine to consumer + the nature and number of intermediaries in the industry would make it impossible for most gem dealers/ jewelers to know the provenance of their supplies + you may also need special skills and knowledge to track their original source.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Sunstone Update
David Federman writes about natural Oregon sunstone, and similar-looking treated andesine, that's often confused, and sold as natural + other viewpoints @ http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/mar08/sunstone.cfm
Useful link:
www.colored-stone.com
Useful link:
www.colored-stone.com
Next Eleven
The Next Eleven (or N-11) is a short list of eleven countries named by Goldman Sachs investment bank as having promising outlooks for investment and future growth.
- Bangladesh
- Egypt
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- South Korea
- Turkey
- Vietnam
Useful link:
www.gs.com
I think Africa will start playing an important role in global economy in the coming decades + the emerging markets in African countries will become with time more and more representative + we will see the US, China and the EU compete for market share one way or another + the future of Africa looks bright.
- Bangladesh
- Egypt
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- South Korea
- Turkey
- Vietnam
Useful link:
www.gs.com
I think Africa will start playing an important role in global economy in the coming decades + the emerging markets in African countries will become with time more and more representative + we will see the US, China and the EU compete for market share one way or another + the future of Africa looks bright.
Bette Davis
I think Bette Davis is one of the greatest actress of the American cinema + my favorite is the panicky aging actress character, Margo Channing, in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 'All About Eve' (1950) + she will be remembered forever.
Useful link:
www.bettedavis.com
Useful link:
www.bettedavis.com
‘The Scream’, The Thief, And The 2 Million M&M's
Milton Esterow writes about stolen masterpieces + unique operating system (s) of 'Balkan Bandits' + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2486
Useful link:
www.artloss.com
Useful link:
www.artloss.com
DSM-IV Made Easy: The Clinician's Guide To Diagnosis
DSM-IV Made Easy: The Clinician's Guide to Diagnosis by James Morrison is loaded with information and facts, interesting clinical vignettes + it's a great book.
Useful link:
www.psych.org
I have come across overly cautious or paranoid, conflicted, masked, revenging/consumed, fussy, depressed jewelers and dealers + interestingly these symptoms look like some of the mental disorder categories described in the American Psychiatric Association’s book Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Useful link:
www.psych.org
I have come across overly cautious or paranoid, conflicted, masked, revenging/consumed, fussy, depressed jewelers and dealers + interestingly these symptoms look like some of the mental disorder categories described in the American Psychiatric Association’s book Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
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