Skyfall Art

The new James Bond film, Skyfall was probably the best Bond film I've seen in a long time. It was fun, self-conscious about it's own Bond movie conventions (with lines like, "somebody usually dies"), and probably more more beautifully filmed than any Bond film in recent memory. The dramatic lighting of the final showdown reminded me of some of the incredible shots in Apocalypse Now. For that matter - they also reminded me of Turner's paintings. This painting "The Fighting Temeraire" by J.M.W. Turner makes an appearance in the Skyfall scene pictured above:

There's also an incredible Friedrich-esque Scottish landscape in the film:

Caspar David Friedrich, "Evening Landscape with Two Men", 1830

My own photo of the Scottish highlands from August, 2012:

Shipwreck Art

For some reason, I get a lot of hits on this blog for a couple of posts about shipwreck paintings. Go figure. So here's where I pander to the masses. I love these recent paintings by Nadia Hebson. There's also a great old engraving I scanned, and loads of shipwreck paintings from the 1800s when ships were plunging like the current Nasdaq standings...

Nadia Hebson, Wreck, Oil on Canvas, 60x50 cm, 2005

Nadia Hebson, Valser, 175x190 cm, Oil on Canvas, 2007Joseph Cornell, "Jack's Dream" ca 1930- from theartofmemory

Old book page scanned from the collection of Nathan Abels

Paul Jean Clays, 1853- photo by flickr member Zeldenrust

Thomas Doughty, Shipwreck, 1834 - photo by flickr member mharrsch

Aivasovsky Ivan Constantinovich, Moonlit Seascape With Shipwreck - from wikicommons

Aivasovsky Ivan Constantinovich, Storm, 1872 - from wikicommons

Kenny Komer, "Shipwreck"
Caspar David Friedrich, Seashore with Shipwreck by Moonlight, 1825-1830 - photo from wikicommons
Caspar David Friedrich, Sea of Ice, 1823-1824 - from wikicommons

photo by flickr member tgtsfkncld

Cai Guo-Qiang, "Reflection" - photo by ThisWeekinNewYork on flickr.

Also - see this post of Joshua Tonies shipwreck paintings.

Right Round Baby

Caspar David Friedrich, "Woman in Window", Oil on Canvas, 1822, 44 cm × 37 cm
Caspar David Friedrich, "The wanderer above the sea of fog", Oil on Canvas, 1818, 98 cm × 74 cm
Caspar David Friedrich, "Moonrise over the Sea", Oil on Canvas, 1822, 55 cm × 71 cm
Caspar David Friedrich, "Two men contemplating the Moon", Oil on Canvas, 1819, 35 cm × 44 cm
Caspar David Friedrich, "Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon", Oil on Canvas, c. 1830-1835, 34 cm × 44 cm
Images from Wiki Commons

I picked up "Casper David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape" from the library a couple of days ago and in one section the author accompanied a selection of Friedrich's landscapes that featured a subject(s) looking out onto the landscape with this quote:

"Who has turned us round like this so that we,
whatever we do, have the bearing of
someone who's going away?"

- Rainer Maria Rilke

"Relief, Nay, Liberation"

"How often was I able, even in the later years, to cleanse my innermost soul of dark depression by painting dark fog-shrouded landscapes, snow-covered graveyards, and similar things. Perhaps these pictures appealed to other souls as much in darkness as my own. As for me, they always brought me relief, nay, liberation." - Carl Gustav Carus

Carl Gustav Carus, "Das Kolosseum in einer Mondnacht" (The Colosseum at Midnight"), Oil on Canvas, 1828, 47.5 × 37 cm
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Carl Gustav Carus, "Morning Fog", Watercolor on Paper mounted on Board, 1825, 20x26 cm
Source: Web Gallery of Art


Carl Gustav Carus, "Blick auf Dresden von der Brühlschen Terrasse", Oil on Canvas, 1830-1831, 28.5 × 21.7 cm
Source: Wikimedia Commons

I've been enjoying German Romantic painting lately. I ran across Carl Gustav Carus today while making a brief library visit. He studied under one of my favorite landscape painters - Caspar David Friedrich, so it's no surprise that I enjoy his work as well. Carus wrote that "The chief aim of landscape painting is to present a certain mood of the soul (meaning) by showing a corresponding mood in nature (truth)."

Quotes from German Romantic Painting by Hubert Schrade, 1967