The painting "H. I. M., (Her Imperial Majesty) the Empress Dowager of China, Cixi" is a portrait of the powerful and influential Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后) in late Qing dynasty of China. She rose from being a concubine to effectively ruling China for decades, significantly shaping the country's modernization and reforms. In 1905, Vos, now an American citizen, returned to China and was asked to paint the dowager empress. Cixi, who had been on the throne for 40 years when Vos arrived, was a notorious figure who had been much gossiped about in Europe and the U.S. It was whispered, for example, that she had poisoned her nephew and had his favorite concubine thrown down a well. Vos had to appear at court at 5 a.m. to meet her, and was given only four brief sessions in a studio on the top floor of a Beijing hotel. In his letters he later related his impressions of his subject: “Erect, with a tremendous will power, more than I have ever seen in a human being. Hard, firm will and thinking lines, and with a brow full of kindness and a love for the beautiful. I fell straight in love with her.” Vos ultimately painted two portraits of the Empress, who was 71 years old. She looks considerably younger, and the artist reportedly enlarged her eyes and plumped her lips at Cixi’s request. She wears elaborate traditional Chinese royal attire, including a headdress adorned with jewels and beads. The details of her teal, green, and gold clothing are intricate, featuring flowers, birds, and other decorative elements. Her expression is serious, and her gaze is steady. The Empress Dowager holds a round, ornate fan, decorated with a painted image of a peony flower. Her fingers are adorned with long, elaborate gold nail guards. The background is a muted, brownish-gold hue, with a subtle dragon design. Above her head, a rectangular banner contains Chinese characters with her royal name and title. She is seated on a dark wooden chair with intricate carvings.

“H. I. M., the Empress Dowager of China, Cixi” by Hubert Vos (Dutch American) - Oil on canvas / 1905-1906 - Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, Massachusetts) #WomenInArt #art #慈禧太后 #artText #portraitofawoman #HubertVos #Vos #FoggMuseum #artwork #bskyart #royalty #Chinese #HarvardArtMuseums

I haven’t been able to art in a while.
So here’s a Monet.
A commentary on the turn of the century and the evolution of transportation some would say?
#art #arthistory #artappreciation #fineart #masterpiece #monet #foggmuseum

Seeing how the greats learned and grew and changed over time is a sweet antidote for my imposter syndrome. They were as human as I am and someday, maybe, someone will look at a work of mine the way I gaze at a Degas.
#art #artappreciation #arthistory #degas #foggmuseum #artist

Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917), ‚Alice Villette‘, 1872, oil on canvas 46 x 33 cm.

#edgardegas #foggmuseum

"Madonna" by Edvard Munch, 1895-ish, "bare-breasted half-length female figure created between 1892 and 1895 using oil paint on canvas," according to Wikipedia. In the lower left corner is a rather skeletal infant, frowning. Pretty creepy. But I enjoy Munch's weirdness.

Sixty-four (I think) #EdvardMunch works of art were willed to one of the Harvard museums--the #FoggMuseum, I believe. This will be one of my stops the next time I visit Boston (museum and art hound).

The #Munch artwork that stole my heart, 55 years ago: Madonna. Can't wait to see it in person.

A young lady with hair pulled back behind her ears stands poised in a pastoral setting. Her large eyes and nose draws the focus on her downward gaze accentuated by narrow pink lips, curt chin, and elongated bare neck. A thin gold necklace with small drop rests on her pale skin above a solid thin milky-white bodice with circular patterns that matches the patterned sheer white lace covering her arms plus the Dutch white skirt. The woman carries an elegant gold-brown cloth over her right forearm while wearing matching stylish sheer brown gloves and pinching a pink carnation or flower in her right hand at her waist. Julien Hudson was among the leading artists in antebellum New Orleans, Louisiana and he is one of the earliest documented American painters of African descent. Hudson died at the young age of 33, and scholars are just now beginning to reconstitute his body of work. His oeuvre is largely comprised of portraits of individuals from the thriving community of "gens de couleur libres," or free people of color, who inhabited New Orleans in the years before the Civil War. Hudson captured the likeness of this young woman shortly after returning from his second trip to Paris, where he is believed to have studied with Abel de Pujol, a student of Jacques-Louis David. Unfortunately, the identity of the sitter is now unknown, and the history of the portrait is fragmentary. The painting traveled from New Orleans to Kansas City, Missouri, in the early 20th century, but the details of its ownership before this period are not known.

Portrait of a Young Woman in White by Julien Hudson (American) - Oil on canvas / 1840 - Fogg Museum (Cambridge, Massachusetts) #womeninart #julienhudson #painting #harvardartmuseums #artwork #foggmuseum #fineart #womensart #portraitofawoman #oilpainting #art #portrait #harvard #africanamericanartist