June, 2010 | Oil Painting Express

The Ordering Process

28

June

2010

So I recently ordered a painting from Oil Painting Express and I'm excited to walk you through the process!

Deciding on a Painting

Deciding on what painting to get is a process in itself. Some famous paintings make great reproductions, while others might look great in museums but flat in reproduction. And the same can be said for photographs. I decided to get a reproduction, and there was a lot to consider.

If you are getting a reproduction made, think about how detailed the painting is and the depth of color used. Figurative paintings will always look great, whether abstract or realistic, Oil Painting Express artists do a great job on compositions. However, paintings where the focus is solely on color can be tricky as famous artists often worked years to obtain a desired shade.

Also remember that you can change the colors, say if you like a certain print but it doesn't suite your living room. Why yes, they can make that Monet in all hot pink and purple!

If you are curious whether or not your chosen reproduction will look good, shoot an e-mail to orders@oilpaintingexpress.com. They turn questions around quickly and are super helpful.

10 Lost Paintings: #9 - Caravaggio's "Saint Matthew and the Angel"

27

June

2010

When discussing important stolen and lost oil painted pictures, World War II is going to have to be addressed. Saint Matthew and the Angel, painting by Caravaggio The theft and purposeful destruction of numerous works of art by the Third Reich has been well-documented (the film The Rape of Europa presents a particularly good history), and just as significant were the accidental destruction of works caught in the middle of battle – collateral damage of bombings and the razing of cities. This is how one of Caravaggio’s most pivotal large original oil paintings, Saint Matthew and the Angel, met its end. When the Allies bombed Berlin in 1945, the oil portrait painting, then housed at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, the painting was completely destroyed.

When it was painted in 1602, the painted portrait of the Gospel writer St. Matthew caused a scandal. Caravaggio, who often portrayed Bible elites as the poor Romans he knew and lived alongside, had gone too far in the eyes of his patron, Cardinal Matthieu Cointrel. Cointrel had hired the oil portrait painter to create three scenes from the life of his namesake, to display in a chapel in the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi. When Caravaggio delivered his interpretation of St. Matthew writing his Gospel, Cointrel was appalled.

10 Lost Paintings: #10 - Magritte's "Olympia"

13

June

2010

Olympia, painting by René Magritte It was a terrifying interruption to an otherwise peaceful day at the René Magritte Museum (located in the artist’s former home) on September 29, 2009. As three employees and two tourists enjoyed a quiet morning in the small former home of the artist, the doorbell of the by-appointment-only museum rang just after 10:00. Two men entered, held a gun at the museum attendant who had greeted them, forced everyone to the ground in the museum’s courtyard, and then left with one painting in their possession – the 1948 oil portrait Olympia. The painting, atypical of Magritte’s other surrealist object and landscape portraits, shows his wife, Olympia, lying nude on a beach with a conch shell on her stomach.

The painting is valued at over $1 million, but most experts guess that the thieves did not intend to sell the masterpiece. The painted portrait is far too famous to sell, even on the black market, and the men took only the one piece, despite having time and access to numerous other works. The details of the crime suggest that an illegal collector hired these two men to steal this specific original oil art for his or her own underground collection.

Artist Spotlight: Johannes Vermeer

02

June

2010

Johannes Vermeer was a painter in the classic sense. I don't mean because he painted “light” in the 17^th century or because his paintings are super realist with an attention to the mundane. I mean this because when he died he left his family penniless and was a forgotten artist, erased by time, for decades to come.

He was rediscovered in the 19^th century and is now considered one of the masters of the Dutch Golden Age. Vermeer led a pretty middle class existence and in his day was regarded as a moderately successful genre painter.

His wife's family had more money than he and she went on to have 14 children. The couple moved in with Vermeer's mother in law, who owned a spacious house. Vermeer went on to paint day in and out on the front room of the second floor.