Year: 2015

The Wolf of Chazes

Artist Unknown, “The Wolf of Chazes Displayed at Versailles”, 1765, Engraving, Département Réserve des Livres Rares, Paris

Text:

“Représentation de la Bête du Gévaudan qui a fait tant de ravages dans ce pays et dans l’Auvergne, laquelle a été tuée le 20 septembre dernier par M. Antoine, chevalier de Saint Louis, seul porte-arquebuse de sa Majesté et présentée le 1er octobre au Roy et à la famille royale par M. Antoine de Beauterne fils. Pour que cet animal se conserve dans son naturel, on l’a disséqué, embaumé et attaché sur une planche tel qu’il est ici représenté.

À Paris, chez Mondhare, rue Saint-Jacques. Gravure extraite du recueil factice de pièces relatives à la bête du Gévaudan, formé par Gervais-François Magné de Marolles.”

“Representation of the Beast of Gévaudan, which has wreaked so much havoc in this country and in Auvergne, was killed on September 20th by M. Antoine, Chevalier de Saint Louis, the only harquebus holder of his Majesty, and presented on the 1st October to Roy and the royal family by M. Antoine de Beauterne fils. To keep this animal in its natural state, it has been dissected, embalmed and attached to a board as shown here.

In Paris, at Mondhare, rue Saint-Jacques. Engraving extracted from the fictitious collection of parts relating to the beast of Gévaudan, formed by Gervais-François Magné de Marolles.”

Alfred Wallis

Paintings by Alfred Wallis:

Top Image: “Ships with Flowering Trees”, 1938, Oil, Household Paint and Pencil on Paper, 24 x 33 cm, Private Collection

Bottom Image: “Saint Ives Harbour, Cornwall”, 1928-1942, Oil with Graphite on Card Mounted on Plywood Board, 38 x 44 cm, Royal Museum, Greenwich, London

Born in Devon in 1855, Alfred Wallis was a Cornish fisherman and mariner who took up painting in his old age. When he left school he joined the merchant navy, sailing schooners across the north Atlantic between Penzance and Newfoundland. After his marriage and the death of his two infant children, Wallis moved his family to Saint Ives, Cornwall, where he worked for twenty years as a marine scrap dealer, buying and selling iron, sails and rope for use on sailing boats.

After his wife died in 1922, Wallis started painting, finding his inspiration in his memories. Being very poor, he used whatever materials were at hand for his artwork. His 1928 painting “Two Masted Ship”, now in the Tate Colletion, was painted on the back of an inexpensive Great Western Railway fare schedule.

In 1928, Alfred Wallis was discovered by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood, both established artists, when they came to Saint Ives to found an artist’s colony. Wallis was propelled into a circle of some of the most progressive artists working in Britain in the 1930s. Not influenced by others, Wallis continued to paint with the same manner, immediacy, and directness as before.

In 1942, Alfred Wallis died penniless in the Penzance Union Workhouse, a public assistance institution near Madron, Cornwall. A man who influenced a generation of painters, Alfred Wallis is buried in the Barnoon graveyard at Saint Ives, Cornwall, which overlooks the Tate Saint Ives Museum holding many of his paintings,now considered fine examples of art brut.

Paul Klee

Paul Klee, “Around the Fish”, 1926, Oil and Tempera on Canvas, 46.7 x 63.8 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York

In Swiss-born Paul Klee’s 1926 “Around the Fish”, a garnished platter of fish is surrounded by a constellation of seemingly disparate elements—a cross, full and crescent moons, an exclamation point, a forked red flag—all hovering against a dark abyss.

Some of Klee’s iconography grew out of his teaching; the arrow, which he initially used as a teaching tool to indicate force and emotion for his students at the Bauhaus, here points confrontationally toward a stylized head, possibly alluding to human consciousness. Although they are often enigmatic, Klee believed his personal hieroglyphs and figurative elements had wide connotations.

“The object grows beyond its appearance through our knowledge of its inner being, through the knowledge that the thing is more than its outward aspect suggests.”- Paul Klee

Shane Wolf

The Artwork of Shane Wolf

Born in 1976 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Shane Wolf, after receiving his BA in design in 2000, joined Salomon SAS in Annecy, France, as a graphic designer. In 2004 Wolf embarked on a 16-month trip around the world, keeping a drawing journal of his travels, which led him to Florence, birth place of the Italian Renaissance.

From 2005 to 2009, Wolf began passionately studying art at the Angel Academy of Art located in Florence. He explored the fundamental drawing and painting techniques used by the Old Masters since the Renaissance. Wolf received his Diploma of Excellence and achieved a teacher position at the Angel Academy which specializes in classic, realist painting.

In 2010, Wolf relocated to Paris where he now lives and works, driven by a vital desire to draw and share the ideals which the human form inspires in him. He won numerous prizes in the following six years and participated in many solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the United States. Wolf’s talent has attracted the keen interest of collectors and museums that acquire and follow his evolving art.

Frank Hampson

Frank Hampson, “Dan Dare: The Mushroom”, Eagle and Boys’ World, Volume 15, Number 43, October 24, 1964

“Eagle” was a British children’s comics periodical, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar form Lancashire. Morris had edited a Southport parish magazine called “The Anvil”, but felt the church was not communicating its message effectively. Disillusioned with the current children’s literature, he and “The Anvil” artist Frank Hampson created a comic based on Christian values. Hulton Press agreed to publish it.

Following a huge publicity campaign, the first issue of “Eagle” was released in April 1950. Revolutionary in its presentation and content, it was enormously successful; the first issue sold about 900,000 copies. Featured in colour on the front cover was its most recognisable story,”Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future”, created by Hampson with meticulous attention to detail. Other popular stories included “Riders of the Range” and “P.C. 49”, a detective series. “Eagle” also contained news and sport sections, and educational cutaway diagrams of sophisticated machinery. A members club was created, and a range of related merchandise was licensed for sale.

Gillian Ayres

Gillian Ayres, “Phaëthon”, 1990, Oil on Canvas, 244 x 366 cm, Tate Museum, London

British painter Gillian Ayres’ 1990 “Phaëthon” is a very large oil painting packed with a variety of interlocking but loosely defined shapes, including triangles, circles, semi-circles, arches and zig-zagging lines. Shades of yellow, red and orange are especially prominent, while many of the forms have been given thick white outlines. The surface of the canvas is thick with paint, which appears to have been applied quickly and freely in layers so that every area of the canvas is covered.

At the top of the painting black and white lines radiate from multi-coloured bands that curve from one side to the other over the central composition, which is made up of loosely delineated shapes of various sizes. At the bottom edge of the work is a sequence of vertical parallel lines in black, brown and red paint.

After a period beginning in the mid-1960s in which she worked predominately with acrylic paint, Ayres reverted to oil paint in 1976 and began utilising a much more colorful palette. Thick layers of paint, exuberant colours and expressive paint handling are characteristic of Ayres’s work after she finished teaching at the Winchester School of Art and left London for north Wales in 1981.

The title of this painting refers to the figure of Phaëthon, who, according to Greek mythology, was the son of the sun god Apollo. The predominance of yellow, red and orange in the painting may allude to Phaëthon’s parentage, and in particular to the mythical account of Phaëthon’s journey in his father’s sun chariot, when he drove so fast it caused the surrounding landscape to burst into flames. However, the titles of Ayres’s works are usually conceived after the paintings have been completed, and in some cases have been suggested by the artist’s friends or by a process of free association.