Welcoming three new paintings to the Gallery!

Continuing toward our goal of enriching your viewing experience during visits to the Gallery we have added three paintings from our featured artists, post-impressionist master of the Spanish School XX, Dulce Beatriz. First we have a still life, JARRA DE LECHE(The Milk Jug) where the artist’s mastery of detail, the use of light and palette to create a wonderful visually appealing composition. Worthy of notice in this painting is the depiction of the milk jug itself, an extremely well executed example of the famed double-fired glazed earthenware developed in the island of Majorca under the Moorish reign in the late 14th century, which eventually expanded to Spain and Italy, culminating if the wonderful works created in Urbino and Venice, known as Majolica. If you look closely you can actually see not only the traditional blue outlines that characterize these pieces, but the glazing itself.

This work of art, shown below with some details, is now on display in our Gallery 3: Still Life where you can view it in all its details. Keep in mind that by double-clicking on the image you can actually zoom in to examine every detail of this painting.

JARRA DE LECHE (The Milk Jug) by Dulce Beatriz

JARRA DE LECHE (The Milk Jug) by Dulce Beatriz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JARRA DE LECHE - Detail

JARRA DE LECHE – Detail 1

JARRA DE LECHE - Detail 2

JARRA DE LECHE – Detail 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second addition we are now welcoming to our gallery is a typical woman, painted from a live model as is usual in the work of Dulce Beatriz, titled REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN (Back from the Garden), in which you see a young woman still flush from having been out in the sun with windswept hair holding a colorful array of flowers and a long-stemmed single wheat ear, upon which she gazes as if imagining the wonderful arrangement she will display on her table by the window. Beyond the elongated lines that reveal the influence of Spanish masters, such as Velazquez, the treatment of the eyes of this young woman constitute one of the trademarks of Dulce Beatrizinfusing her subject with true windows of the soul in the tradition of the Flemish masters, such as VanDyck.

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN by Dulce Beatrizmay be viewed in full and in detail in Gallery 2: Women and Children  where it is now on permanent display. Below you see the full painting and some details:

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN by Dulce Beatriz

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN by Dulce Beatriz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN - Detail 1

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN – Detail 1

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN - Detail 2

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN – Detail 2

 

 

 

 

 

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN - Detail 3

REGRESANDO DEL JARDIN – Detail 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rounding up these additions to our collection we have an excellent landscape, PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE  (Forest Landscape) full of the rich brown hues, reddish earths, and the play of light and shadow that bring the viewer into the forest under the canopy, with tremendous force. Dulce Beatrizmasterful treatment of this work is evident in the details of splashes of reflected light on the trunks and branches of the trees, which clearly signal the approaching dusk as the Sun, unseen in the painting, is setting in the distant horizon to the left of the scene, while the water of the pond surrounded by the forest as it is only reflects the pale light of a hazy sky.

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE is now on permanent display in our collection in Gallery 4: Landscapes and Cityscapes where you can admire it at any time. Below is an image of the painting as well as details of the same:

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE by Dulce Beatriz

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE by Dulce Beatriz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE - Detail 1

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE – Detail 1

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE - Detail 2

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE – Detail 2

 

 

 

 

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE - Detail 3

PAISAJE DE UN BOSQUE – Detail 3

 

 

 

The Eyes of Dulce Beatriz

Marble bust of Cicero in the Capitoline Museums, Rome

by Ricardo A. Alvarez

More than 2000 years ago Cicero (106 – 43 BC) the Roman philosopher, lawyer, political scientists, consul, and one of the most brilliant orators that ever lived said “The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions”.

This phrase from such a great mind is representative of the importance humankind has always attached to expressions of the face, and in particular to the eyes, as reflecting the character, the intentions, in fact the very soul of a person. It has been because of such importance that artists have strived to portray the human eye with as much detail and expression as possible, whether in stone, marble or bronze or through paintings, and other media.

In this long quest for depicting life-like human eyes many have tried, but only a few have succeeded. In my opinion, I would count both the Flemish master Anthony VanDyck (1599-1641) and his contemporary, the Spanish master Diego Velazquez (1599-1660), as two of those who truly succeeded in depicting the human eyes as “…the windows of the soul” as says the old English proverb. Both of these great artists painted rather expressive faces – countenances – with equally expressive eyes. The masterful artistry of VanDyck and Velazquez is illustrated by the examples below:

Self-portrait by Anthony VanDyck

 

Detail of the eyes, from self-portrait by Anthony VanDyck

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest (National Gallery of London) by Flemish master Anthony VanDyck

 

Detail of the eyes, from the portrait of Cornelis van der Geest by Anthony VanDyck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self-portrait as a young man by Diego Velazquez

Detail of the eyes from self-portrait as a young man by Diego Velazquez

 

 

 

 

 

 

More than 3-1/2 centuries after Velazquez and VanDyck we again find and artist painting eyes that evoke the words of that master of the sonnet, Spanish great Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (1836-1870) that once wrote “The soul that can speak through the eyes can also kiss with a gaze”, or the equally descriptive words of Englishman Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): “Her eyes are houses of silent prayer” . This artist who paints such eyes that let us peer into the very souls of the subjects in her painting, is our own featured master Dulce Beatriz.

To illustrate what I have said about the masterful manner in which Dulce Beatriz depicts the eyes of the old men and women, always painted from live subjects, who are among her favorite subjects, please take a look at the examples that follow:

Detail: The Eyes, from “Mujer de Rojo by Dulce Beatriz

 

 

 

 

 

Detail – The Eyes, from painting “El Pastor” by Dulce Beatriz

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detail – The Eyes, from painting “Muchacha con Aretes” by Dulce Beatriz

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detail – The Eyes, from painting “El Anticuario” by Dulce Beatriz

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is all in the eyes, the Eyes of Dulce Beatriz. For more “eyes” please visit GALLERY in this site, and then select :Gallery 1: Old Men or Gallery 2: Women and Children.