Art Everywhere US: Part II

Thomas Eakins, ca. 1882

I saw my second Art Everywhere US billboard as I was driving to work this morning. It was The Biglin Brothers Racing (1872) by Thomas Eakins. And it was beautiful.

This painting depicts brothers John and Bernard Biglin in the very first American pair-oared race, which happened to take place in Eakin’s hometown of Philadelphia. The two ended up taking home the gold.

I have to say, it puts a smile on my face seeing these billboards. I wonder, though, how many people actually see these and pay any attention to them.  Do you?

Thomas Eakins, The Biglin Brothers Racing, 1872.
Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art.

Art Everywhere US Billboards

I posted on my Facebook page about the Art Everywhere US campaign, which features 58 works of art on billboards all over the United States during the month of August, and asked if people would post photos of the billboards they saw. Today, I saw one in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area and, I must say, I am pretty excited about it. Unfortunately, I was driving and couldn’t take a photo of it, but I am still excited nonetheless.

The one I saw was digital, but here is a sample billboard.

The billboard I saw is in Covington, KY and features Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth (c. 1890) by Martin Johnson Heade. Arteverywhereus.org describes it:

At the age of sixty-four, after a modestly successful career painting landscapes, marine subjects, and still lifes, Martin Johnson Heade settled in St. Augustine, Florida and found his first steady patron. His newfound personal and professional stability may have helped to energize his interest in and approach to a new subject. This painting of a Giant Magnolia is one of about a dozen variations. The series, in which the white blossoms are often placed on a velvet cloth, are rendered as sensually as a female nude and are among the most original still lifes of the nineteenth century.

Martin Johnson Heade. Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth,
c. 1890. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art.

I really love this painting because it is almost like a photograph; it’s so perfectly portrayed. The blue of the velvet and the white of the blooms pop against the earthy browns and greens of the limbs, the leaves, and the background. Magnolias remind me of home in Georgia, too, and I can almost smell the sweet fragrance of those magnificent flowers just looking at this painting.

Have you seen any of these billboards around your neighborhood? Please feel free to share your billboard moment! Click here for a complete listing of the artworks featured on the billboards.

mw

Pollice Verso (1872) by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Pollice Verso (meaning in Latin "with a turned thumb") is a painting featuring the eponymous Roman gesture directed to the winning gladiators. The gesture on the painting is given by the Vestals to the victorious secutor, awaiting the decision on the beaten retiarius at Colosseum. The painting inspired the 2000 film Gladiator, where Commodus holds out a raised thumb to spare Maximus.

Apart from the gladiators and Vestals, the picture shows the emperor in his box. Gérôme deliberately used the light and perspective to depict some features. The blend of voyeurism and a sense of moral superiority is a specific 19th-century feature.

Gérôme's depiction of Colosseum's architecture is based on accurate drawings and the armor of gladiators follows the design of those found in Pompeii. Gérôme also checked the written sources for archaeological reference. Some Latin textbooks used Pollice Verso to illustrate Roman customs. The producers of Gladiator showed Ridley Scott a reproduction of Pollice Verso before he read the film script. "That image spoke to me of the Roman Empire in all its glory and wickedness. I knew right then and there I was hooked," said Scott.