Bertalan Por - Portrait of a Man

Portrait of a Man by Bertalan Por

Painting completed 1912 Hungarian Stamp issued circa 1980

Bertalan Por trained in Munich and lived in Hungary when this painting was completed in 1912.   He was a popular portrait painter.  His most famous work "Sermon on the Mount" was highly decorative and symbolic - it was also completed around this time.

Por was a member of "The Eight" artists who brought Hungarian art into the modern age, with a bigger emphasis on radicalism versus impressionism.  Art markets flourished to the benefits of these artists in the early 20th Century in Austria-Hungary as the empire had experienced consistently high levels of economic growth.

See also Hungarian Art

Boris Kustodiev - The Merchant's Wife

The Merchant's Wife by Boris Kustodiev 

Painting completed 1912 Russian Stamp Issued 1978 

The Russian Museum, St Petersburg

This is the most famous painting by this Russian painter who used bright colours and realism in his work.  There is a hint of satire in this work, as the cat looks as though it is about to make a big mess of the rich merchant's wife's table.  The use of colour and brightness constrasts with the artist's life at this time as he was confined to a wheelchair in his studio from 1912.  

Although he did travel outside Russia for training and medical reasons, he constantly depicted scenes from Russian life with an emphasis on merchants and folk life.

Claude Monet - Camille

Claude Monet - Camille

Romanian Stamp issued 1970, Painting Completed 1866

Kunsthalle Gallery, Bremen, Germany

Claude Monet is one of the famous artists who brought us the impressionist movement in France from 1862.  I'm no art expert, but this may be an earlier work that was done before he got into impressionism in a big way.  Large format Romanian stamps were quite common in the 1970s.  

It seems a little curious for an Eastern Bloc country like Romania to issue a stamp with a painting from a West German gallery in the 1970s, but I'm guessing this may have something to do with the establishment of diplomatic ties between these two states in the late 1960s?  In any case, it's a nice stamp from a key painter!

Pablo Picasso - Seated Nude

Seated Nude by Pablo Picasso 

Republic of Equatorial Guinea 

Stamp issued 1978,Painting completed 1905

This is one of Picasso's works before he become of the the most famous artists of the modern era.  He was living in Paris at the time of completing this work, and he would change his style two years after completing this work, be re-arranging the faces of his models and going towards two dimensional painting, in a radical departure from European conventions at the time.

His other works that have been used on stamps include:

Mother and Sick Child

La Vie

Stefan Luchian - Oranges and Carnations

Stefan Luchian (1868-1916)  Oranges and Carnations  

Romanian Stamp issued 1976, Painting Completed 1905 

Art Museum of Dobrudcha

This is a pleasant still life painting that was completed by a guy who was quite famous in Romania at the turn of the 19th Century.  Lucian spent some at art schools in France in the early 1890s.  Many of his works are clearly influenced by the impressionist movement, as he commonly painted landscapes and images of the harmony between people and nature.  similar to impressionist paintings around the same time.    

I found a website link that has images of his other works.  It's interesting to see how some of his work looks similar to Australian artists at the same time, including Hans Heysen and George Lambert.  

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Nud In Peisaj

Nud In Peisaj - Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) 

Romanian Stamp issued 1976, Painting Completed 1905

Zambaccian Museum, Bucharest

Another impressionism stamp...  this is one of a series of large format stamps that were issued by Romania in the 1970s, and this painting is also held in Romania.  Renoir was key to the development of the impressionism movements in the late 19th century, along with Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Bazille and others.

Arthur Devis - Master Simpson

Arthur Devis (1762-1822) - Master Simpson (1805)
Stamp issued by Manama

Devis followed in the footsteps of his father by becoming a portrait artist.  He was heavily influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.  He completed portraits of very famous and less famous, but wealthy people during his career in the late 18th and early 19th century.  He also travelled to Canton and India during his career as a draughtsman.