LadyKflo

Every time I look at The Blind Girl I forget the two girls are beggars. That may be due to the blind girl’s blissful expression. Also, John Everett Millais sets them in a picturesque field of lush, joyful color. Still, this lovely duo holds us gripped in their happy moment. The Blind Girl glows with golden serenity. Her companion gasps at the rainbow behind them. They each capture a sublime sensory experience. The younger girl keeps it simple with sight. Her tiny hand also clasps the elder girl’s. So, she’s got a connection with nature and humanity all at once.

Learn more about this and more masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's website.

https://www.ladykflo.com/the-blind-girl-by-john-everett-millais/

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun painted this portrait more than 300 years ago. But it still creates a buzz today.

In fact, Portrait of Countess Golovina inspired a recent talk on Queer Erasure that I watched online from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

Learn more about this fascinating masterpiece (and others) with a click through to LadyKflo’s website.

https://www.ladykflo.com/countess-golovina-by-elisabeth-louise-vigee-le-brun/

Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist didn’t make Guido Reni famous. His 17th century Italian frescos made him the artistic darling of Bologne. This painting captures a Bible story with a singular image. Salome’s story revolves around beauty, obligation, and cold loathing. These themes make Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist Reni’s masterpiece.

The underlying story makes it macabre. Salome’s beauty tempts her stepfather. So, King Herod of Judea asked her to dance for him. The Princess did so out of obligation. But she loathed the drunken creep. As reward the King offered Salome whatever she wanted.

Learn more about this and other masterpieces with a click to LadyKflo's website below.

Acid colors and electricity quiver through objects in Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles. With our comfortable distance, it’s a pleasure to bask in Van Gogh’s sickly greens and odd figures. After all, we aren’t stuck in his mind. That’s why we can appreciate this wonder. It seems unthinkable now.

But Van Gogh wasn’t so aware of his deteriorating mental state at this time. His illness now echoes through art history – a loud and clear bell. Still, when he was stuck inside this state, Vincent lacked understanding. We know this thanks to his painting like Bedroom in Arles. Van Gogh showed this room to his family – a proud papa. Truth is, it looks more like a prison cell portrait than a badge of honor. The room reveals his trapped state of mind.

Learn more about this and other masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo.com.

https://www.ladykflo.com/bedroom-in-arles-by-vincent-van-gogh/

Balthus uses both realistic and surreal imagery to give The Mountain a sense of mystery. We call this contemporary painter Balthus because his name’s a mouthful. Count Balthasar Klossowski de Rola. His paintings are hard enough to digest without swallowing that too. Also, the alias Balthus has the same distinctive grace we see in his paintings.

It’s easy to pick out a Balthus piece among modern artworks. His muted palette, clean lines, and sensual resonance are unmistakable. This painting sits among the early work of Balthus. The plan was for this to be part of a series about the seasons. We can get a sense of summer in the work. But once complete, it was clear this painting’s all about The Mountain.

Learn more about this and other masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo.com below.

https://www.ladykflo.com/the-mountain-by-balthus/

Two Women at a Window tells a story within a natural frame. It’s the tale of two specific women. But the story also speaks of the two sides all women have. The window itself provides a deep, dark background for Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s story. He includes the shutter as an apt symbol as well. It represents the borders and traps these two, and all women, must face. Notice how the nanny holds the shutter with one hand. That’s because she accepts life’s limitations – embraces them even. No matter the boundaries, this woman laughs. She still sees joy around her, despite life’s limits.

Her charge, the young girl at the heart of the painting, represents the opposite. She’s got an ironic detachment from the darkness at her back. Her facial expression registers complete freedom from care. She’s engrossed in what she sees. After all, the governess at her side handles all other matters. She’s cared for. The smile she shares seems unaffected, lost in the moment. This young woman still wears bows; one in her hair and another decorates her dress. Although young and naive, she’s also the emotional center of the portrait.

Learn more about this and other masterpieces with a click below.

https://www.ladykflo.com/two-women-at-a-window-by-bartolome-murillo/

Mary Cassatt’s painting Mother About to Wash Her Sleepy Child dwells in motherhood. Its careful composition combines with a smudgy Impressionist technique. This painting captures a moment of messy mothering. A child’s face tells the story. In fact, we don’t even see the mother’s face. She seems lost in the toddler’s expression. Cassatt directs our attention to how the child feels. The mother’s priority thus becomes the viewer’s focus.


Moments like this mark motherhood transitions. Getting a toddler’s bath in before bedtime can be a challenge. But it’s also sweet and cuddly in this painting. There’s trust in the child’s face combined with resistance in their awkward position. Cassatt’s cold blue paint traces frame those squirming legs. While coral smudges color and highlight sweet vulnerability in the child’s face. Sometimes cranky can be cute, especially when it’s your kid. These are classic toddler traits, after all. It’s natural. Growing up means lots of combos and transitions like this.

Learn more with a click through to LadyKflo's site:

https://www.ladykflo.com/mother-about-to-wash-her-sleepy-child/

This painting, Young Woman Drawing by Marie-Denise Villers meditates on love versus art. Art wins the contest here. This piece works as a rumination on the self and identity too. That's partly because of the subject matter. But the situation behind the work tells that story as well. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art got this work, Jacques-Louis David got credit for it. At that time art critics declared it a masterpiece. He was, after all, an acclaimed artist.

But soon after facts revealed Marie-Denise Villers as Young Woman Drawing's true creator. That revelation wiped the Vaseline off critics' lenses. With newfound clarity of vision they saw problems with the piece. Proportional issues and other imperfections came to light. She plays with imperfections to make a point in the piece, though.

Learn more about this and other masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site.

https://www.ladykflo.com/young-woman-drawing-by-marie-denise-villers/

When we think of Georgia O’Keeffe, paintings like White Rose with Larkspur No 2 pop to mind. They rouse realistic flora with a fantasy feel. O’Keeffe zooms in tight. So, it’s like the flower took a selfie. Many focus on the feminine aspect of this. After all, these flowers seem vulnerable, pure, and enticing. It’s a combination that feels female.

There’s innocence in these images even as they draw us into their most private parts. Before O’Keeffe few artists portrayed floral depth with such detail. It’s why so many speak of the sensuality of O’Keeffe’s work. But that’s only a tiny part of the wonder in her paintings. Let’s not narrow our lens to a mere sliver of the unknown worlds she’s created. In many ways these are more landscape than portrait.

Learn more about this and other masterpieces with a click through to LadyKflo's site.

https://www.ladykflo.com/white-rose-with-larkspur-no-2-georgia-okeeffe/

Paul Cézanne believes in painting, repainting, then painting the damn thing another hundred times. His piece, Bathers, shown here, sits in many of the worlds best museums as an example of this obsessive painterly practice.

Perhaps that’s what made Cézanne so extraordinary. Picasso and Matisse both declared him the Father of Modern Art and few will argue that point.

Find out more about this masterpiece with a click through LadyKflo’s link.

https://www.ladykflo.com/bathers-by-paul-cezanne/