Maria Willemina Wandscheer

Maria Willemina (Marie) Wandscheer

(1856-1936)

Dutch painter 

Portrait by her friend, the painter, early photographer and etcher Willem Witsen (below)

In last posting I mentioned Marie Wandscheer being the painting teacher of Fanny Psicha. What better opportunity (before returning to a new chapter in the Antwerp theme postings) sharing some fine examples of her work. Marie Wandscheer until very recently was a somewhat obscured, neglected and forgotten painter but recently some new attention was brought to her.

1) Jan Voerman Sr.   2), 3) Marie Wandscheer.

After initially painting nudes, which was en-vogue for lady painters in those days, she was persuaded trying at "gingerpots and flowers" by painter Jan Voerman Sr. (1857-1941) whom I showed before on the Blog. Well, here they are, a dozen or so little gems brought together in the Linosaurus.

Marie entered the Rijks Academie in Amsterdam in 1876. Living and working in Amsterdam at first but later she moved with her family and also painting sister to the provincial town of Ede around 1895. 

In Ede she met again her old Amsterdam Academy class mate painter, photographer and etcher Willem Witsen (1860-1923). Witsen returned from his stay in London (1888-1891) and just married, taught her how to use the etching needle. Witsen, mr.painter and etcher also was mentioned before on the Victoria Embankment (link above). I will show more of his atmospheric London prints shortly.

These contrasting last two lovely impresionist flowers in gingerpot could have been among the last Eduard Manet (1823-1883) ever did in this world: see his famous "last flowers" in the Linosaurus here.

See also earlier postings on Manet's legacy by impressionist flower painters Stanley Bielen (here) and Nancy Tips (here).

Nancy Tips: the legacy of Eduard Manet

Nancy Tips

(Contemporary)

American impressionist painter of flowers

“Each of my paintings is an exploration of individual flowers or fruit and particular light. To me, the most natural way to carry out this exploration is using the alla prima method, which is characterized by bold brushwork and atmospheric effects.

The alla prima method encourages suggestion and improvisation; there is a liveliness and pleasure to the painting process that is reflected in the finished painting.”

I discovered this remarkable painter after discovering Stanley Bielen. Digging in and surfing the Internet, the world’s largest museum.
If a comparison has to be made with Eduard Manet’s Last Flowers (see the two before postings) the floral paintings of Nancy Tips I think come closest to that legacy.

Working with and/or having studied with Stanley Bielen (see before posting) in Philadelphia Art School Nancy Tips “never wanted to be anything other than a still life painter. Whatever expressivity my work has gained over the years is due to the fact that it is grounded in deceptively simple techniques that I first acquired in Philadelphia in 1987. Among the wonderful Philadelphia painters, a favorite of mine was then, and still is, Stanley Bielen.”

This is the text I found at Southern Vermont Arts Center where Tips and Bielen exhibited last year.
She has her own website: http://nancytips.com/. A visit is recommended.

I discovered and collected pictures of some 40 floral paintings by Nancy Tips. Choosing a selection for this posting was an impossible task. I could easily fill 4 postings with the same diversity and quality.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Stanley Bielen: Beyond Manet's Last Flowers

Stanley Bielen
(1957- )
American floral & still life painter

In gallery résumé’s Bielens’ flower paintings and still life are often compared with Manet’s last flower paintings. I just stumbled upon his art but was immediately and deeply in love with these colorful gems.

Bielen was born in Poland (1957) and trained in Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The fact that he is a teacher/instructor now in Philadelphia and the places/museums where his pictures are collected sums up most of the information available. And the prices he won of course.

As Manet’s bouquets still are recognizable impressions of reality Bielen’s renderings are more abstracted. You just have to pinch your eyes a little more to see the flowers and vases emerging from the background in front of you.

Deceivingly simple as the pictures seem you’ll have to have a thorough knowledge of light and color (and paint !) to take flower still life painting beyond Manet’s final renderings. And talent of course. And an almost schizophrenic brain to transform vases and flowers in these compositions of splashes of paint and color and still create such recognizable forms and bouquets. For those interested: Googling Stanley Bielen will easily show more pictures and maybe (some) more biographic facts. The teacher I am the purpose of my posting is just to make you curious enough. I found some 40 different and choosing 9 from them is totally impossible because they are all incredibly beautiful. But I will gladly do a follow up on request.

These last two paintings might explain why Bielen (left) is compared to Manet (right) I think.

The comparison with Manet’s flowers is probably more appropriate to a pupil/colleague of Bielen in the Philadelphia School. Nancy Tips of whom I will show paintings in my next posting. (I think she is secretly Manet’s great-granddaughter).

Eduard Manet, Last Flowers

Eduard Manet
1831-1883

French Impressionist painter

In the final stage of his life on earth Manet kept on painting. Thank God. After finishing his last big Masterpiece in 1882, the famous bar scene in the Folie Bergères, his health deteriorated quickly and from his deathbed he painted the flower bouquets his friends brought to him.

He did some 16 before he died only 51 years old on April 30th 1883. These last paintings are now scattered around the world and not all that easy to locate on the Internet. It took 100 years before they were again brought together in a small but beautiful book (ISBN see below). Today these great little paintings are recognized because of their importance, composition and beauty. Maybe they are the very best he ever created.

Manet did not paint these compositions in the classic sense of just putting paint on a canvas. In those final months he showed his extraordinary talent to pick up color and light with a brush from his pallet and transferring them into his copy of the beauty and reality before him. Splashes of paint creating a perfect impressionistic optical illusion of reality. In 1882/1883.

I choose these 8 using this posting to introduce and surprise you this weekend with three extraordinary contemporary painters I discovered recently and that I would like to share next. Two Americans and a Russian.

One can’t live by woodblock prints alone. Can one?

Andrew Forge, The last Flowers of Manet. ISBN 0810914220 and 0810981645
Publisher: Abrams , Incorporated, Harry N., 1989 and 1999