Italian School - Early 20th Century - signed "Raul G..." - Winged Cupid - Eros - Circa 1900

I was getting ready to close the deal on the Italian drawing listed below when I spotted this little cutie on sale by the same Rome Gallery. My one and only grandson just celebrated his first birthday last month (three beautiful sisters to keep him on the straight and narrow... nothing like a pack of older sisters to beat up a bully) and this drawing just made me smile and reminded me of him. I sent a low ball offer for the drawing and now it is on it's way with the other drawing. It is partially signed by an unknown artst "Raul G......" and dates from the early 20th century, circa 1900 according to the Gallery. In Roman mythology, Cupid, the god of desire, is most often depicted with a bow and arrow (He's carrying a beautiful bow), not a ball, so the figure standing with his foot on a ball is somewhat mysterious. While the myth of Cupid and Psyche involves Cupid accidentally scratching himself with his own arrow, there's no mention of him playing with or using a ball in his stories. His primary tools are his arrows, which can inspire love or aversion depending on their tip (gold or lead)(In regards to my ex-wife, cupid definitly hit me with a lead tipped arrow). Enjoy!

Italian School - Late 19th - Early 20th Century - Seated Male Nude

Today I was doing my usual rounds looking for that elusive academic drawing gem when I spotted this unsigned but truly magnificant drawing of a seated male nude. Unfortunately the work is unsigned but comes from an Italian Gallery in Rome! Fingers crossed I can this beauty past Italian customs and into my collection. My luck when buying from Italian sellers has been a real hit or miss proposition. (More miss than hit). What captivated my eye (what's left of them) was the detail in hatching and cross-hatching to bring life to that figure. My attention deficient disorder would have kicked in ten minutes after applying the first application of that detail hatching and I would have been headed for a padded cell somewhere. My "fun money" for the month was exhausted so I had to set out in the torrential rain today and trade in a tenth ounce of gold to buy it. I have enlarged some of the illustrations so that you can see the fantastic skills of this very talented classically trained artist. Enjoy.

Sigmund Lipinsky (1873 - 1940) - Meeresstille - Calm Sea - Symbolismus Frauenakt - Symbolist Female Nudes

Tonight I paid a visit to my favorite Berlin Art Gallery and spotted this posthumas print by Sigmund Lipinsky (1873-1940).The composition and skills of the artist printmaker just captured my artistic eye. (What's left of it, that is). The asking price cleaned out the remainder of my fun money for the month but the print was affordable so I made the purchase.It should be in my collection in a few weeks.

Here is some biographical information gleaned from the internet: As a master student of the history painter Anton von Werner, Sigmund Lipinsky was one of the most promising young talents at the Berlin Academy around 1900. Thanks to a scholarship, he moved to Rome in 1902, where he found ideal conditions for perfecting his talent and studying antiquity. An early highlight of his painterly œuvre is the monumental painting Circe, which remained in the possession of his descendantsuntil recently. The sorceress Circe, who turned men into animals in order to subjugate them, is one of the most famous female figures in Greek mythology. In the 10th canto of the Odyssey, the poet Homer describes her encounter with the Trojan hero Odysseus and his companions. In search of their homeland, they reach the shores of the island of Aiaia, where Circe lives. There, the beautiful daughter of the sun god Helios works at a sacred loom and waits for unsuspecting victims. Odysseus' men, who are supposed to explore the island, also succumb to her cunning and are turned into pigs by a potion. When Odysseus sets out to free his comrades, Hermes, the messenger of the gods, provides him with a magic herb that immunises him against Circe's witchcraft. After the potion he is given has no effect, the sorceress recognises the fulfilment of a prophecy in his arrival. Shortly afterwards, she reverses the transformation of Odysseus' followers and enters into a love affair with the Trojan hero. Odysseus and his men stay on the island as Circe's guests and only leave a year later to continue their journey. Like few other female figures from ancient mythology, Circe inspired the artists of the fin de siècle. In most cases, she served as a projection screen for the idea of the woman as femme fatale, whose erotic effect also promised disaster. Paintings by famous painters such as John William Waterhouse and Franz von Stuck prove that this idea was often more important than the myth itself around 1900. In them, Odysseus appears only as a marginal figure or not at all. Franz von Stuck: Tilla Durieux as Circe, 1912. As is often the case in fin-de-siècle art, eroticism and danger merge into an indissoluble unity in Lipinsky's Circe. In terms of both content and form, it follows in the tradition of monumental paintings by other German painters who worked in Rome towards the end of the 19th century or found inspiration for their work there. These include The Judgement of Paris (1887) by Max Klinger as well as Ulysses and the Sirens (1902) by Otto Greiner, with whom Lipinsky was on friendly terms. Ludwig von Hofmann should also be mentioned, whose endeavour to connect all the essential pictorial elements with one another through a coherent rhythm is echoed in the composition ofCirce. It is easy to imagine that Lipinsky devoted a great deal of time and energy to the composition and realisation of Circe. The choice of the representative format and the elaborate framing give an idea of the demands the scholarship holder placed on himself in order to fulfil the expectations of the Berlin Academy. In this context, a photograph taken in 1904 showing the young artist sitting on a stool in his Roman studio in the Villa Strohl- Fern in front of the already largely completed Circe is illuminating. Although he is turning towards the viewer, it seems as if he only wants to pause for a moment to immediately get back to work. Did Lipinsky already realise at this point that his future path would lie less in the field of painting and more in drawing and printmaking? Be that as it may, parts of the painting that were not completed down to the last detail and the note "unfinished" in the lower right-hand half of the picture bear witness to the artist's tenacious struggle for the greatest possible perfection. Lipinsky was not to abandon this ambition until the end of his life. And here are just a few examples of his other works:

Gaston Goor - (1902-1977) Two Male Nudes In Repose - Signed And Dated 1945

The artist ....

Many moons ago I found a beautiful example of Goor’s work at a Paris auction site and bought it. I kept that little watercolor for several years and then because of some financial stress at the time I sold it to another collector. I so enjoyed that little work that I made a promise if I ever run across another of his drawings that I would add it to my collection. Well, that opportunity came yesterday and I bought this eighty year old drawing by Goor dated 1945. It cost me a leg and several toes but it will be coming from Paris into my collection. The majority of Goor’s work centers on the male youth and to my eye Goor has a way of capturing movement in his compositions. This drawing just captured my fascination in how the eye moved in a large triangle around the outside of the two figures. Based upon some of his depictions of the male youth, he apparently had a fascination with that old Ancient Greek notion of “love thy neighbor’s son” down pat. Here is some biographical information on the artist: “Gaston Goor (1902-1977) was a highly accomplished and controversial painter of the male youth. His principal patron for more than 30 years was Roger Peyrefitte. Goor illustrated many of Peyrefitte books and also made a number of works on various themes, many of which decorated the walls of Peyrefitte's Paris apartment. Goor's illustrations have also appeared in Montherlant's Diarium Juvenale. Gaston Marie Charles Leo Gibson was born in Lunéville on October 26,1902. He was the son of Auguste Léon Goor and Marie Angèle Berthe Becker. At the age of seventeen, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts of Nancy where he continued his studies with poor attendance. In 1925, he left his native Lorraine and traveled to Paris to work in the studio of Amédée Ozenfant, founder with Le Corbusier of the movement called "purism" and the magazine L’Esprit Nouveau. He was introduced to modern art and met Picasso, Matisse, Lurçat, Max Jacob. According to his own statements, it was a walk through Versailles that brings him back to the classical and away from the more theoretical advances in the field of art. It was through the André Salmon, he met André Gide who guides him towards the profession of Illustrator. Goor becomes almost the official illustrator of the Editions of Capitole, who publish André Gide, Léon Daudet (the journey of Shakespeare), Charles Maurras (three from tales of the Paradise Road), François Mauriac (God and Mammon, three great men before God), Pierre Mac Orlan. Léon Daudet (Le voyage de Shakespeare), Charles Maurras (Trois contes tirés du Chemin de Paradis), François Mauriac (Dieu et Mammon, Trois grands hommes devant Dieu), Pierre Mac Orlan. He was also the occasional illustrator of the Horizons de France editions, editions À l’Enseigne du Pot Cassé (he illustrated La religieuse de Diderot et L’ingénu de Voltaire) and Trianon (Restif de La Bretonne) editions. He worked for the colonial exposition of 1929, and then created different work of Interior decoration for individuals. The paintings he paints, on the other hand, do not meet the desired success. He then embarks on a long study trip to Morocco and returned rather briefly to work for the Department of fine arts in 1933, and then moved to Hyères, where his family settled. He worked for the colonial exposition of 1929, and then created different work of Interior decoration for individuals. The paintings he paints, on the other hand, do not meet the desired success. He then embarks on a long study trip to Morocco and returned rather briefly to work for the Department of fine arts in 1933, and then moved to Hyères, where his family settled. It is through an array of 1.50 m., depictions of a young naked man, Jean Joerimann (featured below),that he connects with a fan, the writer and gallery owner Lyon Renaud Icard (1886-1971). Icard allows him to exhibit his works in Lyon, in his gallery,” L’Art Français” and a friendship developed between the two men. Gaston Goor graciously created the illustrations for Renaud Icard's book, “Mon page”, which will be published posthumously in 2009 by the Quintes-Feuilles editions. During this period of his life, Gibson is often called to do interior decoration on the behalf of wealthy clients and art lovers. Among these is the owner of Châteaubriant hotel, a large luxury hotel in the town of Hyères, who is the father of Jean Joerimann, the model for the illustrations of Mon page and for which Gibson is in love. The absence of reciprocity of this love causes him great anguish which his correspondences with Renaud Icard would latter recall. Called up on by the famous architect Maurice Novarina (1907-2002) to decorate the Church of Douvaine in Haute-Savoie, Gibson moved to this area in 1942. His paintings were not limited to murals: he also liked to paint in the style of classical artists who were easily identifiable. According to Peyrefitte, who collected his written testimony, it would be because Gaston Goor is accused by German police of having helped Jewish people to cross the Swiss border that he was forced to accept "voluntary worker" status in Germany. Gibson finds himself in the camp near Zittau, in Saxony. Nevertheless, he is spotted for his talents, and he is hired as artist. This ended in February 1945 with the destruction of the city of Dresden by Allied bombing. After the war, Gibson first returned to Paris, where he tried to work for the manufactures de Sèvres; then he moved to Cannes on the occasion of an exhibition. He contracted a marriage with a Polish immigrant, Marie Angèle Zajackowski, in May 1947. Goor is then invited back to England by an architect of gardens to create large sculptures. He was developing during this piriod a method of molding without metal frame. It was during his stay in England he is asked by editions Flammarion and Roger Peyrefitte to make illustrations for Amitiés particulières which appear in 1953. This work marks a turning point in the life of Goor, who then returned to the France and settled in Paris. Roger Peyrefitte becomes his real patron, and the catalyst for him creating a number of erotic works (like an illustration of the " l’Éphèbe de Pergame" episode of Satyricon), and he is introduced to many wealthy friends who lavish Goor with many commissions. Less is known about the rest of the life of Gaston Goor, marked by some disappointments such as the non-publication of his illustrations for the Satyricon (not to be confused with those almost pornographic, of the only episode of the Ephebe of Pergamon).He retired in Hyères, he died of cancer at the hospital in Toulon on December 13,1977.” Here are just a few examples of his large body of works: