It’s rare for the visual arts to make headline news, and it’s unfortunate when they do in a story like this one. On the night of May 19, a masked man entered the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris through a window and stole five oil painted pictures, removing them from their frames and escaping without setting off an alarm. The story quickly made headlines, partially because of the crime’s lurid intrigue and partially because of the estimated value of the words – over $120 million. Since then, we’ve all seen a picture of the painting Le pigeon aux petits pois by Picasso or of La Pastorale by Matisse alongside an article. Those two landscape portraits are usually the only ones mentioned, as the significant but lesser known Modigliani, Léger, and Braque works are often unfortunately lumped together as “three other paintings”.

What can this man possibly be planning to do with his contraband? Plenty of art thieves actually count on simply ransoming the stolen goods back to the owner. More strangely, after a painting has passed through several different owners, it can often be sold to an unknowing customer who is led to believe that the painting is a very high quality reproduction – not the work itself but a skillful oil painting from a picture of the original. What’s most likely in this situation is a third option. Although the value of a stolen painting is markedly less than the official value, the underground art market is unfortunately very healthy. The authorities seem to suspect that this is what’s happening with the five stolen oil portraits, as Interpol has issued a global alert, implying they believe the works may already have been removed from France.

Artemisia

Starring: Valentina Cervi, Michel Serrault

Release: 1997

Artemisia (1997) follows the early career of Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, often credited as the first genuinely successful Western female painter. At a time when women were reliant on their male relatives for everything, Gentileschi supported herself, her husband, and their children with her often large original oil paintings. The film ends before any of this occurred, when Gentileschi was a teenager under the tutelage of her father Orazio and the painter Agostino Tassi. In particular, the film focuses on her physical relationship with Tassi, a relationship that would lead to jail time for him.

The film represents their relationship as passionate and intellectual. Their physical and artistic relationships are intertwined – they are shown lying in bed together animatedly debating sketches for her oil painted pictures. When Orazio discovers the affair, the film says, he put Tassi on trial for rape, despite Artemisia’s protestations. In reality, while the facts surrounding the relationship and trial are controversial, this doesn’t seem to have been a grand sweeping love affair.

Ever see a painting of a bowl of fruit and wonder, “What the heck would make somebody paint a bowl of fruit…and why should I want to look at it?” To be honest, I used to be one of those people – and I still can be sometimes. Still lifes (yep, in this context it’s “lifes,” not “lives”) often take me more energy and concentration to enjoy than a landscape or portrait does, but usually, the extra focus is worth the additional work.

Still life paintings, which are essentially just paintings featuring inanimate objects positioned by the artist in a plain or nondescript background, have a long history in European painting and have even been found in ancient tombs. Since those earliest known interpretations of the genre, the point has tended to be the same – take ordinary objects and position them in a way that they leave the viewer with a symbolic moral.

Today, you and I might look at that painting of a vase of flowers and think, “Sure, it’s pretty, but it doesn’t mean anything to me.” A lot of the reason that you and I don’t see the symbols is that we don’t live in the same cultural context in which the painting was created. To the people who lived in the time in which the canvas was painted, the symbols would be clear. Sure, to us, a watch might not symbolize temperance like it did for the 17th century Dutch, but to them, a pink ribbon probably didn’t symbolize the battle against breast cancer like it does for us. And plenty of the symbols do make sense, if you just think about them a little bit. A lemon? Well, that’s the simultaneous bitterness and sweetness of life. How about a delicious looking strawberry with a small spot of mold on it? Life is good but short, so enjoy it while you can. See – it’s not so hard to figure out, is it?

Almond Branches in Bloom, painting by Vincent van Gogh - Framed art poster	Almond Branches in Bloom, painting by Vincent van Gogh - Oil on Canvas

Many may ask, how is a hand painted reproduction different from a print? Why should I commission a reproduction of an image when I can just buy a print at a poster store or order an enlargement of my picture through an online photo printing service?

Last week, we addressed some of the things to keep in mind when selecting a photograph for a custom photo portrait painting. If a portrait isn’t what you’re in the mood for, you’re probably thinking about a landscape oil painting instead. Even without needing to check to make sure that everyone’s smiling right and no one’s got red eyes, there’s still plenty to consider when selecting your landscape scene.

Historically, landscape paintings have usually involved scenes of nature, often showing a long stretch of horizon with the emptier space of the sky given as much attention and importance as the verdant ground activity.

If a traditional scene is what you had in mind, a serine country landscape can help to transform many interior spaces into calming oases.