Sometimes I love the Internet.(Note 1.)
The Bas Bleu Booksellers catalog arrived in the mail last week, as it does from time to time, and I happened to glance at the cover, which displayed a colorful patchwork of book covers. My eye was drawn to the top right corner, where a stunning painting adorned the cover of a paperback novel. I set off on a mission: I had to find that painting and the artist.
I could just barely make out that the novel was Mariana, by Monica Dickens. A quick Internet search revealed that the publisher was Persephone Classics, and by applying a few more judicious terms in a search engine, I found a blog that discussed works of art on book covers, among which were some of the Persephone Classics. It turns out that the image on the Dickens paperback was indeed a significant painting called Amity; the artist was Bernard Fleetwood-Walker, whom I had never heard of.
So, about three and a half minutes after being struck by a tiny image on a book catalog, I had found not only the full reproduction of the original painting, but a biography of the artist and a collection of all of his known works. That’s pretty amazing, when you think about it. There was a day, not so very long ago, in which this “mission” to find the artist would have taken a lot more effort.
Image from the National Gallery of Canada
Anyway, if you like this sort of thing, I recommend checking out Bernard Fleetwood-Walker’s paintings and drawings. Because it contains everything, the collection is not uniformly brilliant, but many of his works appeal strongly to my sense of aesthetics.
NOTES
1. And sometimes I don’t. But that’s another story.
2. Image from the National Gallery of Canada, http://www.gallery.ca/1930/themes.htm.
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6 comments:
And why don't you love the internet?
Thanks for sharing this painting. I think it's fantastic.
Also, I thought you might be interested in this artist too:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/lempicka_tamara_de.html
similiar painting style from the Art Deco period
Yes, seeing similarities to Lempicka's work was really my first comment to him as well.
That, and they kind look a little like brother and sister (creepy) particularly in the eyes. It seems more likely that much like John Singleton Copley, Mr. Fleetwood-Walker paints all his subjects eyes similarly.
LB asked, "And why don't you love the Internet?"
I started to type the reply but it got so long I posted it here.
Thanks for the comments, Doug. It's funny that LB said the same thing to me. Tamara de Lempicka has been one of my favorite artists for a long time, so it makes sense that Fleetwood-Walker's painting would resonate with me.
LB and I saw some of her paintings (along with a lot of other cool works by other artists) at the Art Deco exhibit that was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston back in 2005.
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