Carl Fredrik Hill: Seine-Landschaft bei Bois-Le-Roi

Public Domain Photo: Seine-Landschaft bei Bois-Le-Roi (variously titled in English as ‘Seine Landscape in Bois-Le-Roi’, ‘The Tree and the River Bend’, ‘Motive from Bois-le-Roi on the River Seine’, etc.), oil on canvas painting (1877) , 53 cm x 72 cm, by the Swedish painter Carl Fredrik Hill, currently in Göteborgs konstmuseum (Gothenburg Museum of Art) in Sweden.

Having born and spent the early years of his life in Lund, Sweden, Carl Fredrik Hill (1849-1911) started his career as a landscape painter. After studying at the Stockholm Academy of Fine Arts, Hill moved to France, and went to Barbizon in the south of Paris in 1874. Barbizon was home to several artists and most of the budding artists of his time converged there.

Hill had had little success as an artist, because his works were not accepted at the Paris Salons. Eventually at the age of 28, he was hospitalized with a severe psychotic attack, ending his career as a landscape painter. With the help of his friends, he went home where he was hospitalized. After a short period in the St. Lars mental hospital in Lund, he was mostly restrained to his home in the care of his sister and mother until his death in 1911.

The period of 28 years before his death is considered his ‘second great period’ as art writers would later describe. It was a new phase of his career that saw him creating thousands of drawings applying various techniques and using watercolor, India ink, pencil, ink, crayon, etc. His inspiration for these works was his memories of various scenes that influenced him, his vivid imagination and art illustrations found on books and other publications.

Hill’s life as an artist started with the vehement opposition from his father who was a mathematics professor who did not want him to become an artist. It was followed by various rejections of his works by the Paris Salons, and possibly such depressive treatment he got must have lead to his suffering from the psychotic attack which was later diagnosed as hallucinations and paranoia. After being released from the hospital, he continued to work only to find an outlet for his creative quest, and to defend himself from the staring failure of his life as an artist. And Carl Fredrik Hill was never given the recognition as an artist during his lifetime.

Several of his work were neglected and lost, but some 3500 drawings are estimated to exist. Out of these, over 2000 drawings and 23 of his oil paintings are in the Malmö Art Museum. Most of these works were donated to the museum by Hill's heirs.

After Carl Fredrik Hill’s death his drawings were located mainly by artists, who admired his work and style. In 1949 an exhibition of his works was held in Geneva, Hamburg, London, Basel, Luzern, and in Paris in 1952. These exhibitions triggered of a series of books on Hill’s works. Now Hill is recognized as one of the best of Sweden's landscape painters, and his works inspire artists internationally. A recognition that eluded Hill during his lifetime!

Art critics and historians have opined that Hill anticipated many of the modern art movements and his works even influenced great artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and many others.

Peace riding in a triumphal chariot

PD Photo: ‘Peace riding in a triumphal chariot’ (1828), a quadriga by French sculptor François Joseph Bosio (1768-1845), bronze mould by Charles Crozatier, height 3.5 meter (11 feet 5 ¾ inches).

François Joseph Bosio's quadriga is installed atop the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, a victory arch in Paris, located at the Place du Carrousel on the site of the former Tuileries Palace, which was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune in until 1871.

A quadriga (triumphal chariot) is a chariot drawn by four horses abreast, and has been considered the symbol of triumph. Victory (Victoria) and Fame (Pheme or Fama) were often depicted as driving the quadriga. In classical mythology the quadriga is the chariot of the gods. For instance, Apollo was depicted driving his quadriga across the heavens.

In ancient Roman religion, Victoria was the personified goddess of victory, and the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike. In Greek mythology, Fame (‘Pheme’ in Greek and the Roman equivalent ‘Fama’) was the personification of fame and renown.

The Judgement of Paris, Capodimonte porcelain

PD Photo: The Judgement of Paris, Capodimonte porcelain, Capitoline Museums, Rome

Capodimonte porcelain is created by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory, which was established in Naples in 1743, when the Spanish King Charles (VII of Napoli, V of Sicilia) and his wife Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony instituted the Royal Factory of Capodimonte. Capodimonte porcelain was an emulation of Meissen porcelain.

For the manufactory, the chemist Livio Ottavio Schepers improved the composition of the soft paste porcelain body. The sculptor Giuseppe Gricci and the decorator Casella contributed to the creation of important works of art. Capodimonte is famous for its molded figurines and its decorative modeled flowers on cups and vases. With this factory they gave birth to one of the most famous Italian forms of art.

Prince Paris with Apple by H. W. Bissen

PD Photo: Prince Paris with Apple, marble sculpture by H. W. Bissen, located at The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (an art museum) in Copenhagen, Denmark

Danish sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen or H. W. Bissen (1798-1868), changed styles of his sculptures from romanticism to neo-classicism, and finally settled in realism. Bissen’s famous sculptures include the monumental Landsoldaten (1858) in Fredericia, The Isted Lion (1862) that was originally in Flensburg but now Copenhagen, Iðunn (also spelt as Ydun, Idun, Idunn, Ithun, or even Iduna and Idunna) created in 1858 and the gold-plated statue of Bishop Absalon in the front of the Copenhagen City Hall.

French painter Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David, Self-portrait (1794), oil on canvas painting, size 80.5 cm x 64.1 cm, located at Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Equestrian portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki (the Polish patron, politician and writer), oil on canvas painting by Jacques-Louis David located at Museum Palace at Wilanów, Warsaw.

The Love of Helen and Paris (detail of a 1788 oil on canvas painting) by Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), size 146 cm x 181 cm, from the former collection of the Comte d'Artois (later Charles X of France), seized during the French Revolution, located in Louvre Museum, Paris.

Cupid and Psyche (1817) painting by Jacques-Louis David located at Cleveland Museum of Art.

French painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), known for his mastery of the Neoclassical style, marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity towards classical austerity and severity in the 1780s with his history paintings. David was an active supporter of the French Revolution and a friend of Robespierre. After Robespierre's fall from power he was imprisoned, but he aligned himself with Napoleon I, upon his release from prison. David had a large number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century.

Some of the much-acclaimed works of Jacques-Louis David include, The Death of Socrates (1787), Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his wife (1788), The Death of Marat (1793), The Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799), Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass (1801), Portrait of Pope Pius VII (1805), The Coronation of Napoleon (1806), Napoleon in His Study (1812), and Mars Being Disarmed by Venus and the Three Graces (1824), which is considered as David's last major work.

The Three Graces at Louvre, view 2

Photo: The Three Graces, marble sculpture at the Louvre Museum, Paris, restored in 1609 by Nicolas Cordier (1565-1612).

The Three Graces at Louvre

Photo: The Three Graces, marble statue by an unknown sculptor at Louvre Museum, Paris, France; restored in 1609 by Nicolas Cordier (1565-1612) for Cardinal Borghese; height 1.19 m (3 ft 10 ¾ in) and width 85 cm (33 ¼ in), from the Borghese Collection, located at Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Sully, Ground Floor, Room 17.

The Kiss (Francesca da Rimini) at Musée Rodin, Paris

The Kiss, originally named Francesca da Rimini, is an 1889 marble sculpture by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Like many of Rodin's well known sculptures, including The Thinker, the embracing couple depicted in the sculpture appeared originally as part of a group of sculptures decorating Rodin's monumental bronze portal The Gates of Hell, commissioned for a planned museum of art in Paris. The couple were later removed from the Gates and replaced with another pair of lovers located on the smaller right-hand column.

The Thinker by Rodin - view 2

The Thinker, sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Photo: The Thinker (1902), a bronze and marble sculpture by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) displayed in Musée Rodin, Paris

The Thinker (Le Penseur), the bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) displayed in the Musée Rodin in Paris, depicts a man in meditation, battling a powerful mental conflict.

The Thinker was part of a commission by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris to create a monumental portal for the door of the museum. Rodin based his theme on The Divine Comedy of Dante. The Thinker was originally meant to depict Dante in front of the Gates of Hell, pondering over his great poem. But in the final sculpture, a miniature of the statue sits atop the gates.

Rodin initially made a small plaster version around 1880. The first large-scale bronze cast was finished in 1902 and presented to the public in 1904. It became the property of the city of Paris, thanks to a subscription organized by Rodin’s admirers, and it was put in front of the Panthéon in 1906. In 1922, The Thinker was moved to the Hôtel Biron, which was transformed to the Rodin Museum.

Oceana Statue at the Salon Champs Elysees

The Genius of Liberty topping the July Column in Paris

Photo: The Genius of Liberty (1833) by French sculptor Augustin-Alexandre Dumont (1801-1884), topping the July Column at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, sculpted of gilt bronze, height 4 m (13 ft 1 ¼ in). A bronze draft of the same work is also exhibited in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

Mata Hari performing in 1906

Photo: Mata Hari performing in 1906, wearing only bra and jewelry

Mata Hari brought to the European stage a carefree provocative style of oriental dance, she picked up during her stay in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and her style was an instant hit with the audiences. Her dance style was spectacularly successful and she elevated exotic dance to a more respectable status, thereby breaking new ground in a style of entertainment for which Paris later became world famous. Her free-willed attitude and uninhibited dancing in exotic and revealing clothing made her a very popular woman. She posed for provocative photos and mingled in circles of wealthy and powerful men in politics, royalty, and military, not only in Paris but all other capitals and major cities of European countries. In that period, as most Europeans were unfamiliar with the Dutch East Indies and thought of Mata Hari as exotic, it was assumed her claims of being a Javanese princess of Hindu origin were genuine. By 1910, innumerable imitators of her exotic dance style had arisen in Paris and other European cities.

Venus de Milo

Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo, currently on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris, is an ancient Greek statue that is one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans) the Greek goddess of love and beauty. The marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high with its arms and original plinth lost, is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch. Earlier, its creation was mistakenly attributed to the sculptor Praxiteles.