Winslow Homer - The Fog Warning, Halibut Fishing

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) - The Fog Warning Halibut Fishing (1885)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Winslow Homer may be one of America's best loved artists from the late 19th Century.  He was based in seaside Maine for the majority of his life.  His works are famed for capturing the power and beauty of the sea when it is at it's most perilous.  This painting is typical of many of his works, where men are dwarfed by the huge waves and impending weather.  

Homer also captured many sullen and powerful female figures in many of his works, as he documented everyday life in seaside towns and rural settings in America and England.  His work continues to give the viewer an idea of the lives and times of people in these regions in the late 1800s.


This is the last stamp of the 1998 series of stamps featuring works of great American artists.  

Rembrandt Peale - Rubens Peale with a Geranium

Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) - Rubens Peale with a Geranium (1802)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

It comes as no surprise that Rembrandt Peale's father was himself an artist, giving his children the names of famous artists as first names - Rembrandt and Rubens.  The artist was quite young when he completed this work, and he appears to have lived a very privileged life, travelling to Europe from his native America on several times throughout his life to study art.  He would later become famous a a portrait painter for more than one American president.

George Catlin - White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas

George Catlin (1796-1872) - White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas (1870)
USA 32c Stamp issued 1998
National Gallery of Art Washington DC

Catlin maintained a fascination with American Indian culture throughout his life.  Although he grew up in the eastern states of the US, he also spent many years exploring the west, visiting scores of tribes and completing hundreds of paintings in the 1830s.  He tried to sell his large collection of paintings and artefacts to the US government, with no success during his life - even though he did have some success in exhibiting his work on the vanishing Indian tribes in Europe.  Much of his work is now maintained at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC, although this painting was completed i nthe latter period of his life, well after he had completed the original sketches of tribes he had visited.

Two Against White - Charles Sheeler

Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) - Two Against White (1957)
USA 32c Stamp issued 1998

Sheeler's works are stark - they are defined by clean lines, urban expanses, but there are very few people.   - he is known as one of the founders of modernism in art in America.  The work that was depicted in this 1998 stamp was reasonably abstract, but many of his works are very realistic depictions of buildings and interiors that are absent of any people, and idealised in an almost dream like manner - it is like you are looking at a perfectly sparse place in a dream, rather than a real place that has imperfections.  An Australian artist, Jeffrey Smart, appears to paint in a similar manner, but his paintings include many solitary figures.


He was also a pioneer in completing artworks across different emerging media in the early 20th century, as he worked with film and photography in addition to painting.

William Harnett - Music and Literature

William Harnett (1848-1892) - Music and Literature (1878)
USA Stamp issued 1998
Albright Knox Art Gallery

Harnett mastered the "trompe l'oiel" or "Fool the eye" style of painting in America, where everyday objects would be depicted in such a life like manner that the viewer of the painting may actually think that they are viewing the actual object.  Although this was begun by Dutch painters much earlier than Harnett in America, Harnett composed a large number of works in this style that remain popular to this day - hiw works are instantly recognisable.

Edward Hopper - Nighthawks

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) -  Nighthawks (1942)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
Art Institute of Chicago

This is one of many artworks that appeared in a 1998 series of stamps issued in the USA.  Nighthawks is an instantly recognisable artwork that was popular since it was created in 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The work is quite sinister in it's tone - conveying a certain emptiness about life in the 20th century - bright loud colours, garish accessories and dress, people huddled under florescent light, while darkness envelopes the deserted streets.  This piece was also used as a base for The Boulevarde of Broken Dreams poster that was popularised in the 1980s - the figures from this painting were replaced by Elvis Presley, James Dean and Marilyn Munroe.

Ammi Phillips - Little Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog

Ammi Phillips (1788-1865) - Little Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog (1835)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
American Folk Art Museum 

This artist was a prolific producer of folk art during his long career.  It is interesting to note that much of his work was not attributed to anyone in particular, until the 1920s when a group of people in Kent, Connecticut, began to collect much of his work, which was distinct, yet similar in nature.  The works became known as "Kent Limner" style up until the late 1960s when the works were finally attributed to Phillips.


Th figures in his paintings are quite distinct - faces are pale and sombre, with an overall mood of malevolence.

Grant Wood - American Gothic

Grant Wood (1891-1942) - American Gothic (1930)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
Art Institute of Chicago

This is probably one of the most famous images of America in the 20th Century - a hard working farmer and his spinster daughter pose in front of their gothic style house somewhere in the mid west of America.  This art carries a number of symbols of 20th century America that are both honoured and subject to criticism.  This work has been parodied ever since it was created in the 1930s.

Apparently the house does really exist in a town called Eldon in Iowa.  The painting was part of a art movement known as regionalism - it rejected the abstract art that was rocking the art world at the same time in Europe.   Paintings such as American Gothic certainly capture the viewer, with its strong characters, who communicate with the viewer.

John James Audubon - Long Billed Curlew

John James Audubon (1785-1851) - Long Billed Curlew (1834)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
From Birds of America - Amon Carter Museum Texas

Audubon was a French-American and a major twitter (bird watcher).  His epic bird illustrations were compiled into the bird watching bible - Birds of North America - from 1827 to 1839.  The artist hails from a time when naturalists began to observe the natural world and the behaviour of birds, plants and animals - particularly in locations that were unfamiliar to European sensibilities.


The artist's interest in birds in clearly demonstrated through the fine detail that is presented in his plates, not only in terms of the birds themselves, but also of their habitat.  Audubon had a keen interest in birds throughout his life, as he was one of the first people to band birds, in order to understand their longer term living habits.  Charles Darwin quoted from Audubon's works on three occasions in the Origin of Species, and the artist is attributed as discovering 25 new species of bird, during his preparation of the Birds of North America.

Thomas Moran - Cliffs of Green River

Thomas Moran (1837-1926) - Cliffs of Green River (1874)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Thomas Moran was one member of a school of artists known as the Rocky Mountain landscape school.  He was most famous for capturing the wide open spaces in the west of America, including major national parks at Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.  He completed water colour sketches while on site, before following up with detailed oil paintings in his New York studio.  He travelled as far afield as Mexico and Venice, Italy during his working life.

Last of the Buffalo - Albert Bierstandt

Last of the Buffalo (1888) - Albert Bierstadt (1830-1932)
USA 32c Stamp Issued in 1998
Painting gifted to Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington DC

Bierstadt was a prolific producer of romanticised art that romanticised the lives of people in the frontiers of western America.  This picture depicts both man and beasts of epic proportions, holding a battle on the wild plains of the west - it is almost like watching a battle in a Roman Colosseum.


This era was quite evocative to many painters who were travelling and making a living in the new frontiers of the new world.  There are some similarities between the landscape works of Bierstadt and Australian artists, such as McCubbin who were exploring new frontiers at the same time - the works were powerful as the landscape and nature impacts on all people in the new frontiers.

Joshua Johnson - The Westwood Children

The Westwood Children (1807)  - Joshua Johnson (1863-1924)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Johnson was born as a slave in America, being the son of a white man and a black slave woman.  He was granted freedom in 1782 and worked as a portrait painter for the remainder of his life, primarily working in the Maryland district.  Much of his life remained unknown up until the discovery of manuscripts in the 1990s that linked a number of his works together.


This stamp depicts one section of Johnson most known paintings, being the Westwood Children.  The Westwood family owned a successful stage coach manufacturing facility.  The real painting also includes the family dog, inexactly places to the bottom right of the frame, with an overall awkward composition.

Raphael - The Large Cowper Madonna (1508)

Raphael - The Large Cowper Madonna
USA 20c Stamp issued 1983
Painting held at the National Gallery of Art Washington

Raphael lived a relatively short life of only 37 years but he now upholds a reputation as one of the great High Renaissance painters, being active at the time of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Titian.  Indeed, this painting contains hints of da Vinci's style, as the figures are large, fulsome and closely framed - although it is difficult to determine from this particular stamp.  The painting conveys the close relationship between mother and child - the child is in a playful mood, looking out to the audience.  


This stamp was issued on  the 400th anniversary of Raphael's birth for Christmas 1983.  Raphael's paintings have been depicted on a large number of stamps over the years including others on this blog:
Self Portrait - Issued in San Marino
The Virgin and Child with John the Baptist in a Landscape - Issued in France

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo - Madonna and the Goldfinch

Giovanni Tiepolo - Madonna and the Goldfinch (1760)
USA 20c Stamp issued 1982
Held at the National Gallery of Art Washington

Tiepolo is a highly regarded 18th century artist who is primarily known for his huge fresco works that were epic and grand - these were completed in the 1750s and are located through many churches and estates in Venice and surrounding regions.  He also worked as far afield as Madrid.


This painting depicts a very pale Madonna and child with fat rosy cheeks.  The goldfinch is meant to symbolise the eventual violent death of the child many years later - interestingly, another painting was completed by Raphael in the early 1500s with the same name and subject, so Tiepolo was covering familiar religious themes with this work.

Filippo Lippi - Madonna and Child

Filippo Lippi - Madonna and Child (c1440)
USA 20c Stamp issued 1984
National Gallery of Art - Samuel H Kress Collection

Lippi was probably the best Florentine master of the mid 1400s, as his paintings were known for their tenderness and joyfulness.  This painting of the Madonna and child is intimate and close up to the viewer  - the eventual sacrificial nature of the child's life is symbolically predicted through the placement of his mother's hand directly across the child's throat.

Apparently, Lippi caused a bit of scandal and controversy during his time as a painter during this highly religious era.  He obtained permission from Pope Pius II to live with a woman who was a nun - she was used a a model in a number of depictions of the Madonna.

Lorenzo Lotto - The Nativity

Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1566) - The Nativity (1525)
USA 6c Stamp Issued 1970
Painting Held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC 

Lotto has been traditionally been placed in the Venetian School of high renaissance art, although it is said that his work was rather eccentric at times, showing a transition to the first Florentine movements and Rome mannerist paintings of the 16th Century.

As a Venetian painter, it is clear that Lotto was influenced by Bellini.  

He also worked in the same time as the following artists:

Albrecht Durer

Raphael

Titian