BRIAN SCHUMACHER (Contemporary Artist) - Figure Study: Standing Male Nude Pulling a Rope - Oils on Board - 2004

 Don't ever let it be said that I can't stumble my way into a bargain nude and recognize a classically trained artist when I see one. I was bumbling around on eBay UK several weeks ago looking for a 19th century nude when low and behold I happened upon a beautiful little nude by the American realist artist Brian Schumacher. I had to backtrack a little and finally found the original listing on eBay here in the states. I did a little background on the artist and yes indeed his training also included the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. Contemporary or not the drawing and painting detail of this small painting is most 19th century impressive. Here is his biography I pulled up from his website:

"As a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and educator, Brian Schumacher’s work takes shape within the fertile landscape where the hand, the mind, and the eye meet. Having trained, and subsequently taught in several of the world’s top studio atelier’s, including the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy and the Grand Central Academy of Art in New York City, his paintings and drawings are sought after for their careful attention to detail, for their archival craft, and for their luminous, living presence.  As a designer and educator, he is a passionate advocate for the cultivation of vital hand skills, having experienced time and again that what we learn to make with our own hands shapes how we see and understand the world around us, for the better. Brian’s work can be found in private and public collections across the United States and in Europe, including the Forbes Foundation and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. He has received numerous grants and awards, including the Darwin T. Turner Award for excellence in teaching and promoting inclusiveness in the classroom, a Mellon Grant Teaching Fellowship, a Vogelstein grant, a Stobart Foundation grant, the American Institute of Architect’s Henry Adams Award for excellence in architectural design, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art’s Mary Butler Trust Purchase Prize.

“As an inherently empathetic person, it has always been second nature for me to listen and extend myself into the experience of others; as an artist, and as a designer and an educator, this sensitivity informs all that I do. I see the act of making as an act of hope, and an opportunity to connect and communicate with those around us.  I look to the structure and nature of our perceptual abilities to help guide our understanding about how and why we see and respond to our environment, with the belief that insight through careful observation leads to self-reflection, and that self-reflection is a gateway to greater tolerance, inclusiveness, and positive change. The creative impulse is a human impulse that does not draw boundaries around identity or privilege, and is guided and made manifest by a shared, universal visual and material language that is both learned and available to all, like the air we breathe.”

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Brian has traveled broadly and lived in many major cities across the United States and Europe. Currently he divides his time between living with his wife and 14 year old daughter in the foothills of Western Massachusetts, with periodic forays back to Cincinnati, OH, where for the past eight years he has taught foundational design studios within the top ranked schools of design and architecture at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP)."

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Caption: Figure Study - Man Pulling a Rope

Artist: Brian Schumacher 

Medium: Oils on Board (9in x 10in)

Signed and Dated: 04

 

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Here are a few examples of his works: (The Artist reserves all Rights)

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Portrait of a Young Boy - Oils on Canvas - signed B. De La Rancière

 If you have been paying attention to my blog entries over the years you know how much I love a well executed portrait because in a portrait you quickly learn from the results who has and who does not have the training and artistic ability to depict the human face. A finely executed portrait will show how well the artist was trained and how well he or she puts that training to good use. Several days ago I was bouncing around on eBay France when I ran across this small portrait executed in oils of a young boy. Not only was the little guy cute as a button but the artist had done a fine job of combining color and brush work to bring him to life on canvas. The price was attractive and ridiculously low for an original painting so I placed a flag on it for later consideration. No sooner had I tagged it than up pops a reduction in price offer from the seller which now put the little guy in the "I stole that" category so I executed the purchase. Close examination of that use of rich color, texture, and very talented brush work has produced an exciting little portrait. Unfortunately, I could find no biographical information on the artist so that will have to remain a mystery for now. I know it's somewhat outside the purview of the blog but I simply had to share that artistic talent.  Enjoy.

Wilhelm (Guglielmo) Plüschow (1852-1930) - Male and Female Nudes - Albumen Print circa 1900

 

And now, as they say in the Monte Python world of the inane and insane, time for something really different ..... but still within the realm of the Academic Nude. This beautiful circa 1900 framed albumen print is on its way from an art dealer in Berlin as I write this. My first love has always been photography (yes, I have a darkroom setup which has gone unused since digital photography became the norm and I bought a digital back for my Hasselblad cameras) and well before I decided to turn what little artistic talent I have left on collecting 19th and early 20th century academic works centered on the human form. Being one to appreciate the works of 19th and early 20th century artists I decided I had to invest my tax return and free government money (don't worry American taxpayer, you will never have to repay this jackass worthy folly of our leaders in your lifetime and screw your grandkids, the little brats deserve all this stupid debt, let them pay it back... let's all take a page from the stupid Marxist liberals in this country and live like there's no tomorrow! Open the borders and let the world in because Amazon, Apple, and Google need slave labor.....We all know that Marxism has been a grand success wherever it's been tried especially for the leaders.... i.e. North Korea) ...... on something special and I found this albumen print which fit the bill perfectly. You probably have heard of the photographer but I'll just give you a brief overview of his biography from online sources:

"Guglielmo Plüschow (born Wilhelm Plüschow; August 18, 1852 – January 3, 1930) was a German photographer who moved to Italy and became known for his nude photos of local youths, predominantly males. Plüschow was a cousin of Wilhelm von Gloeden, who, despite taking up nude photography later than Plüschow, soon overshadowed him. Plüschow was several times at odds with the law and charged with corruption of minors. Today, his photography is recognized for its artistic merits, but it generally is considered somewhat inferior to von Gloeden's because of his less graceful handling of lighting and the sometimes strangely stilted poses of his models."      

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Monogrammist "P.S.S." Standing Nude Youth in Bronze dated 1914

 I was browsing my usual European eBay haunts last week when I happened upon a bronze depicting a shy nude male youth from a UK dealer. The bronze was monogrammed with the initials "P.S.S." and dated 1914 originating from an "English School." I did some in depth searches for an artist with the appropriate initials but came up with nothing to identify the artist of this lovely little bronze. For the life of me somewhere in the back of my memory something was vaguely familiar about that pose and the subject matter. I will continue to rummage around in some of my books on 19th and 20th century bronzes and perhaps come up with an identity for the mysterious "P.S.S." Until then.. enjoy.

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Well, the little guy arrived from the UK safely and now takes a position in my collection.

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Well, we may be getting closer to identifying the artist of my bronze. I was doing some research on a German sculptor from the late 19th, early 20th century, when I happened upon a Gallery in London that listed a bronze very much like the bronze in my collection. The bronze in the London Gallery was listed as: "Boy.. Bronze, sculpture... Jungendstil, German."  There was not indication in the listing as to the identity of the artist, so I made an inquiry. We will have to wait to see if the London Gallery has any information on the artist who created the bronze they have listed. I knew that pose looked familiar but perhaps more information is out there... we shall see.

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