03Dec 2020 by kike_K No Comments
One Dollar Bill

One Dollar Bill

Illustration
Unfortunately, there are so few works of American painters of the 19th century exhibited in European museums. In Madrid, there are quite few samples in the Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza. With the exception of Sargent, people barely knows the paintings by Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer or George Inness. But there is also a prejudice that these painters are merely following the styles arisen in the old continent. Obviously, many of them travelled throughout Europe and completed their training but once home they were capable to give their own works a dynamic sense typical of an emerging country. At the end of the 19th century, there were artists who were masters of the trompe l'oeil technique such as John Frederick Peto or William Michael Harnett and who arose in the United States. The…
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01Nov 2020 by kike_K No Comments
My Quixote

My Quixote

Illustration
There is something untouchable in the book El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha or just Don Quixote). All who have carried out further studies on the novel agree on its ineffable essence. This is so typical of all Spanish works: think of Velazquez’ paintings! Harold Bloom, states in his Western Canon that the history of literature could be summarised around the two characters, Don Quixote and Sancho and that just three or four characters by Shakespeare are up to these standards. We have an inventory of our own, that’s why we need to include a few ones such as Ahab and Raskolnikov, Atticus Finch or Antoine Roquentin. For so many people ‘Don Quixote’ is just a funny book, starring a…
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01Oct 2020 by kike_K No Comments
The Milkmaid

The Milkmaid

Painting
We need to focus on the mottled effect in the paintings made by Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), the first painter who tried to reach a ‘photographic’ quality. Vermeer had understood that the eye and its inseparable ‘camera obscura’ do not see the things in the same way so this is no more a plain technical resource, it has become a new way to look. There were a few things he preferred to paint just as they can be seen through that ‘camera obscura’. This is a real Vermeer, with its typical blue-yellow harmony (though the map of the Netherlands and the white porcelain tiny pitcher are missing). The woman is looking downwards to the dark opening of the jar, to the thin splash of dense milk which seems to be suspended…
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