16 May 2009

Amity

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.


6 comments:

Lynne said...

And why don't you love the internet?

The Rat Cap said...

Thanks for sharing this painting. I think it's fantastic.

The Rat Cap said...

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

Lynne said...

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.

Stephen Bourque said...

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.

Stephen Bourque said...

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.