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worldofartbysue.bsky.social
World Of Art By Sue
@worldofartbysue.bsky.social
1K followers 2.3K following 900 posts
History of Art for everyone (themes change monthly)! Other interests include: world history, genealogy, books, photography, gardening, (US) football and dinosaurs. Life goal: to learn something new every day. Degree in Art History from McGill University
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Orchid
A brilliant magenta orchid sits on a weathered shelf at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida
November 28, 2025 at 10:07 PM
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Underwater!
A young boy swimming underwater, as seen from above.
November 28, 2025 at 8:07 PM
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An anhinga bird, at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida
A black and white anhinga bird sitting on a tree branch at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, scouting around for his next meal!
November 28, 2025 at 6:28 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
HENRY MOORE (1898 - 1986), “Reclining Figure”, 1969-70. The theft of Henry Moore’s massive bronze sculpture “Reclining Figure”, which weighed 2.1 tons, does not have a happy ending.
#arthistory #art #sculpture #HenryMoore
Moore's sculpture show his signature modern take on the female form - all angles and mass, no head or individual features but still, somehow, evocative of a woman reclining. The sculpture was stolen in 2005 from the Henry Moore Foundation, located in Moore’s former home in the Hertfordshire countryside, in the middle of the night. Few clues were found and the authorities were left scratching their heads as to “why” and “how”. In 2009, the British police issued a statement that they believed the piece had been chopped up and sold for scrap metal. The sculpture in 2005 was worth $18 Million; the scrap metal value was approximately $2,000. Those responsible for the theft have not been caught, and their method for removing such a weighty piece undetected remains a mystery.
November 28, 2025 at 5:35 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
GUSTAV KLIMT (1862 - 1918), “Portrait of a Lady”, 1916-17. Galleria d’arte moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza, Italy.
“Portrait of a Lady” is a late painting by the Austrian Gustav Klimt, created after his golden phase in a more expressionistic manner.
#arthistory #art #Klimt
This painting was purchased in 1925 by the Italian collector Giuseppe Ricci Oddi, who bequeathed his extensive art collection to the city of Piacenza in Italy. In 1997, the painting was stolen as the gallery was preparing an exhibition. In 2019, gardeners clearing ivy from an exterior wall at the Gallery found the painting, wrapped in a garbage bag and stuffed into a concealed wall niche. Later, two local repeat burglars were arrested and their confession was a story in itself. They claimed that they had removed the painting from the Gallery by using a fishing line and hook; they had kept it in a home until about four years before, when they decided to hide it in the Gallery’s exterior wall. Their plan was to announce its location once the statute of limitations had run out so that they could not be charged with the theft, but the gardener made his surprise discovery before they could make their announcement. One of the men wrote a letter to a local newspaper, declaring that “we have given a gift to the city by returning the canvas”. Luckily, “Portrait of a Lady” did not spend its entire 22 missing years in the wall and it was recovered in good condition. The burglars were not charged with the theft, but they were convicted of several other local burglaries and were sent to prison.
November 27, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
EDVARD MUNCH (1863 - 1944), “The Scream”, 1893. Najonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway.
Munch painted four versions of his iconic “The Scream” – two oil paintings and two pastels (he later made lithographic prints, as well).
#arthistory #art #Munch
Munch painted four versions of his iconic “The Scream” – two oil paintings and two pastels (he later made lithographic prints, as well). Both of the paintings have been stolen (and recovered) during the 20th century. The painting at the National Museum in Oslo was stolen in 1994 on the opening day of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. The thieves broke a window, cut the wire holding “The Scream” and left a note “Thousand thanks for the bad security!” in an operation that took less than one minute. The authorities refused to pay a ransom demand for $1 Million and, through a determined investigation, found and recovered the painting later that year. In 1996, four men were convicted of the theft; one of the men convicted was Paal Enger, who had been convicted of stealing another Munch masterpiece in 1988. Munch’s paintings can be full of pain and sadness, conveyed with a signature emotionally expressive style. He said that he saw a blood red sky one night while out for a walk and decided to put it in his painting. Some speculate that the red sky was the result of the volcanic explosion at Krakatoa some years before, while others think it is an internal expression of his own depression and mental illness. The Najonalmuseet painting has a penciled inscription in the upper left corner, which has been authenticated as being in Munch’s handwriting. The inscription: “could only have been painted by a madman”.
November 26, 2025 at 2:37 PM
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PIERRE BONNARD (1867 - 1947), “Still Life with Guelder Roses”, 1892 (retouched 1929). Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri US.
#arthistory #art #Bonnard
PIERRE BONNARD (1867 - 1947), “Still Life with Guelder Roses”, 1892 (retouched 1929). Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri US. Pierre Bonnard belonged to the French avant-garde group known as Les Nabis, although he always claimed his independence. In 1892, he painted “Still Lie with Guelder Roses” in his Nabi style, with flattened dimensions and compositions that reflected his deep appreciation for Japanese prints. In 1929, Bonnard returned to the painting and added dabs of paint to the flowers to give them more dimensionality, which spoke to his personal style of that later date. This gentle still life ended up in the collection of David David-Weill, the Jewish French-American head of the Lazard-Frères banking house. In 1943, the Nazis looted about 2,000 pieces from David-Weill’s extensive and exquisite art collection in Paris, including this work. The looted artworks were shipped to salt mines in Austria for storage to wait out the war; they were recovered there in 1945 by the Allies’ Monuments Men. The Bonnard painting was returned to David David-Weill, who had escaped from France and settled in the US, in 1946. His heirs eventually sold it to another collector, who gifted it to the Nelson Atkins Museum in 2004.
November 25, 2025 at 3:10 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
LAKOTA GHOST SHIRT, c. 1890. Cultural Center of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, Eagle Butte, South Dakota US.
#arthistory #art #GhostDance #USHistory
The Ghost Dance was a mystical ceremony, popular among the Lakota and other Plains Native American tribes, that was believed to hasten the reunification of the tribes, end the expansion into their territories and bring back the once plentiful bison; this reunification would be brought about by the spirits of the dead returning to aid the living and the victors would usher in a time of peace and prosperity. The Ghost dancers wore shirts imbued with mystical powers that were believed to render the wearers bulletproof and invincible. These sacred shirts were decorated with feathers and hand-painted symbols (such as stars, sun and animals) that were often seen in visions and trances and held special meaning to the shirt wearer. This particular Lakota Ghost Shirt was taken from the body of a victim at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. The bullet holes prove that the mystical powers did not hold for this wearer. The shirt is made of fringed muslin and is decorated with symbols, mostly faded, and raven, owl and eagle feathers around the neck, most in tatters now. In 1892, a member of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show (which was performing in Glasgow) sold this Ghost Shirt to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Scotland. In the 1990s, a visitor to the Museum recognized the shirt as the sacred object that it is and, after a prolonged negotiation, the Ghost Shirt was returned to the Lakota people in August 1999.
November 24, 2025 at 3:09 PM
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Battered siding plus bare branches
I like the simplicity in this shot: the geometry of the roofline and attic fan vent with the lacy touch of the winter tree branches. All in tones of black, white and cream.
November 23, 2025 at 6:52 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853 - 1890), “Fortifications of Paris with Houses”, 1887. Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK.
#arthistory #art #watercolor #VanGogh
On some occasions, art thieves have seemed to have a more humanitarian motive than to make a profit (or perhaps they have a change of heart and try to spin the more humanitarian motive). The theft of Vincent van Gogh’s “Fortifications of Paris with Houses” in 2003 fits this scenario, plus it was an opportunity for wry British humor. Van Gogh’s “Fortifications of Paris with Houses” is a watercolor work showing the 1840 fortifications on the northern outskirts of the city – not far from an apartment that Vincent shared with his brother Theo at the time. These fortifications were demolished after World War I to make way for a boulevard. The painting was one of three artworks (one by Gauguin, one by Picasso and this one by van Gogh) that were stolen in the night in 2003. The thieves by-passed the gallery’s security system, took the paintings and rolled them into a cardboard tube. The next day, a telephone tip led to the paintings’ recovery in a rundown public toilet close by the gallery. There was a handwritten note along with the works in the recovered cardboard tube that said: “the intention was not to steal. ONLY to highlight the WOEFUL security”. The Whitworth’s security system was promptly upgraded. The British press later dubbed that lavatory “the Loovre”!
November 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM
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Old paint
Old red paint and metal handle on an abandoned barn door in the Poconos, Pennsylvania
November 22, 2025 at 5:40 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841 - 1919), “Landscape on the Banks of the Seine”, 1879. Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland US.
#arthistory #art #Renoir
This small (5 ½ x 9”) painting was part of the collection of art collector Saidie A. May, who purchased it in Paris in 1925. May was told that Renoir had painted the scene on a linen napkin as a gift to his girlfriend (he was unmarried at the time); later research by the Baltimore Museum of Art confirmed that the material was indeed that of a linen napkin although the girlfriend part cannot be authenticated. May loaned the piece to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1937 as a long-term loan. This lovely little Impressionist painting was stolen from the museum in 1951, after May had died but before her will, giving her collection to the museum, was probated. Fast forward to 2012, when the painting was put up for auction by a woman who claimed that she had purchased the piece at a flea market in West Virginia for $7. Subsequent legal action adjudged that the Renoir rightfully belonged to the Baltimore Museum of Art and it returned to the collection there. Nobody seems to know how the painting was taken from the museum or where it had been for over 60 years.
November 22, 2025 at 5:35 PM
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Abandoned blast furnace
The rusting hulk of a decommissioned blast furnace in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania recalls a cityscape of skyscrapers.
November 21, 2025 at 3:05 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
BERTHE MORISOT (1841 – 1895), “Young Woman at the Ball”, 1875. Musée Marmottan, Paris, France.
Morisot was the lone female artist who threw in her lot with the upstart French Impressionists at the beginning of their movement.
#arthistory #art #Impressionism #Morisot
Like her male counterparts, Morisot focused on painting modern life but, unlike them, she could not hang out in bars and cafés to mingle with the common folk. Being an upper class lady, however, allowed her to attend the opera and balls and so her work, which gives beautiful expression to the female experience, is filled with women attending social events and tending their children. “Young Woman at the Ball”, like most Impressionist paintings at the time, did not sell and so Morisot hung it on her dining room wall. In 1985, this painting, along with eight other Impressionist masterpieces (including five Monets), was stolen from the Musée Marmottan in Paris in a brazen daytime armed robbery. The thieves knew exactly what paintings they wanted, and they also knew that the security alarm system was only turned on at night when there were no museum visitors so the robbery took place when the museum first opened in the morning. Authorities linked the theft to organized crime in Japan. Through dogged investigation, the paintings were found in an apartment in Corsica and all were recovered in 1990. The Morisot canvas had been damaged during the theft but was able to be repaired once returned to the Musée Marmottan.
November 21, 2025 at 3:02 PM
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A doorway that has not been opened for so long that vines are growing up around it.
November 20, 2025 at 5:36 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
J. M. W. TURNER (1775 - 1851), “Glaucus and Scylla”, 1841. Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas US.
#arthistory #art #Turner
Turner’s “Glaucus and Scylla” is another painting belonging to the collector Anna Jaffe that was seized and sold off by the Vichy government of France in 1942. The painting depicts an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which the sea god Glaucus lusts after the beautiful ocean nymph Scylla. The story goes that Circe, who loved Glaucus, became so jealous that she poisoned the water that Scylla drank, thereby turning her into the sea monster/rock that preyed on sailors (she is familiar to readers of The Odyssey in particular). Turner paints Scylla fleeing from the outstretched arms of her would-be lover. The painting was purchased twice by the Kimball: first in 1966, without a clear provenance or history of ownership, and then after the painting was restituted to the descendants of Anna Jaffe in 2006 and sold at auction to the Kimball in 2007.
November 20, 2025 at 5:31 PM
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#Pennsylvania
Abandoned barn
An abandoned barn structure in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, with peeling paint and vegetation growing up the side and in the doorway.
November 19, 2025 at 4:44 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
FRANCESCO GUARDI (1712 - 1793), “The Grand Canal in Venice with the Palazzo Bembo”, c. 1768. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California US.
#arthistory #art #Guardi
This Guardi piece was taken from Anna Jaffe by the Vichy government of France in 1942 and then sold to the Nazi regime for inclusion in the proposed Führer Museum in Linz, Austria. Guardi had a deep love for his home city of Venice and he frequently painted “vedute” paintings (views) of the Grand Canal. This one is a particularly lovely one, capturing the activity on the canal in the early morning light. Guardi possibly created this painting for the Bembo family – they can be seen on the upper loggia of their palazzo on the left. After the war, the painting was recovered in Altaussee, Austria and returned to the French government, eventually being added to the Louvre’s collection. Anna Jaffe left her large art collection to her nieces and nephews in her will of 1942 (she had no children of her own). Through extensive and persistent litigation, the family has been able to recover 11 of the 60+ oil paintings that had been seized by the Vichy government. In 2005, Guardi’s “The Grand Canal in Venice with the Palazzo Bembo” was restituted to the heirs of Anna Jaffe; it was sold it at auction by the family that same year to the J. Paul Getty Museum.
November 19, 2025 at 4:41 PM
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"No Forced Displacement" (went unheeded)
A business in Harlem pleading with Columbia University not to displace the neighborhood for university expansion. Postscript: this business (and building) no longer there.
November 18, 2025 at 3:17 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
(Attributed to) GIUSEPPI GHISLANDI (1655 - 1743), “Portrait of a lady”, 1743. Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum, Argentina (temporary hold).
During the course of World War II, the Nazi forces looted more than 6 million pieces of art, hoping to fulfill Adolf Hitler’s dream of creating the world’s best art collection at a Führer Museum to be established in his home town of Linz, Austria (the museum was never built). This “Portrait of a Lady” was not one of the most famous pieces taken, but it has an interesting story. Earlier in 2025, a real estate advertisement in Argentina set the art world all a-twitter as the painting, shown hanging on a wall in the ad, was recognized as a piece that had been stolen during the War. The real estate listing was for a property owned by a daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, a fugitive Nazi officer (he worked as a financial advisor to Göring) accused of stealing the painting from one of Europe’s most prominent pre-war art dealers and collectors, Jacques Goudstikker. Goudstikker died in a shipwreck after fleeing Amsterdam ahead of the advancing German troops in 1940. Kadgien was known to have fled to Argentina after the collapse of the Third Reich; he died in 1978. The painting, attributed to the Italian artist Giuseppi Ghislandi but possibly by another 18th century artist Giacomo Ceruti, was recovered in 2025 after authorities raided the Mar del Plata home listed in the advertisement; subsequent raids on other properties owned by Kadgien’s daughters turned up additional paintings and engravings that were similarly looted during WWII.
November 18, 2025 at 2:33 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
REMBRANDT (1606 – 1669), “Self-Portrait with Beret and Gathered Shirt”, 1630. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
#arthistory #art #Rembrandt #selfie
Rembrandt painted many self-portraits by looking at himself in a mirror (the selfies were probably an economic choice since he didn’t have to pay a model!). This small portrait of a younger Rembrandt was painted on a copper plate that was covered with a layer of white lead completely overlaid with gold leaf. It was stolen in 2000 in a daring daytime raid on Sweden’s National Museum by an armed gang of thieves. The gang entered the museum just before closing time and quickly grabbed three paintings – the Rembrandt self-portrait plus two Renoirs. Their escape was equally dramatic as two cars exploded nearby as a diversion and the thieves tossed down spikes during their getaway to delay any pursuit by authorities; they sped away in a small boat. The Rembrandt self-portrait was recovered in 2005 by Swedish police and one of the Renoirs was also returned in 2001 but Renoir’s “A Young Parisienne” has not been recovered.
November 17, 2025 at 3:06 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577 - 1640), “The Descent from the Cross”, 1612. Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium.
Rubens’ “The Descent from the Cross” has the distinction of having been looted by both French forces (1794) and German forces (1914).
#arthistory #art #Rubens
In 1794, French forces took the triptych (three-paneled painting; “The Descent from the Cross” shown is only the central panel) from the Church of St. Walburga in Antwerp. When it was returned following Napoleon’s defeat, the original church had been destroyed and so the triptych found a new home in the Cathedral of Our Lady, also in Antwerp. In 1914, the German Imperial Army looted the triptych from the Cathedral and took it to Berlin. It was once again returned to Antwerp following the armistice that ended World War I. Rubens was a leading Flemish Baroque artist who filled his scenes with dramatic light and twisted positions. “The Descent from the Cross” has a particularly poignant composition, with a heavenly slash of light diagonally breaking the dark background. The brass bowl depicted in the lower right corner holds the crown of thorns and the nails from the cross.
November 16, 2025 at 4:59 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
(Workshop of) JAN BRUEGHEL THE ELDER (1568 - 1625), “Landscape with Vehicles and Cattle”, 1600-1616. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec Canada.
#arthistory #art #StolenArt
Jan was the younger son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (who did not use the “h” in his surname) and the brother of Pieter Brueghel the Younger. He (Jan) was a close friend and frequent collaborator of Peter Paul Rubens. Jan Brueghel the Elder painted in many styles but his landscapes and floral still lifes, in my opinion, are particularly beautiful. He had a large workshop that helped him produce a large number of paintings, often making copies of his and his father’s pieces for his aristocratic patrons. After his death, his son Jan the Younger continued to run the prolific workshop. “Landscape with Vehicles and Cattle” was stolen in 1972 from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The thieves entered the Museum through a skylight that was being repaired and stole 18 paintings plus 38 pieces of jewelry and small figurines; it was the largest art heist in Canadian history and became known as the Skylight Caper. The Brueghel painting was the only stolen piece that has been retrieved: it was found in a locker at Montreal Central Station after the museum negotiated with the thieves following receipt of a ransom note.
November 15, 2025 at 5:16 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER (c. 1525 - 1569), “The Peasant Dance”, 1567. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.
Bruegel’s “The Peasant Dance” is another masterpiece that was seized by Napoleon in 1808. It was returned to Austria in 1815.
#arthistory #art #Bruegel
Bruegel painted genre paintings of contemporary peasant life (although he was not himself of peasant stock), showing ordinary people at work and play. “The Peasant Dance” is one of Bruegel’s later works. His figures are large and his composition is lively and full of motion. The scene is of a village fair in honor of St. George (the red banner at the tavern is a clue); there is dancing and drinking and canoodling as everyone enjoys the festivities. The focus is on the revelry: the church in the background and the image of the Virgin and Child in the tree on the right are ignored.
November 14, 2025 at 2:32 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
ALBRECHT ALTDORFER (1480 - 1538), “The Battle of Alexander at Issus”, 1529. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.
The German Albrecht Altdorfer's painting The Battle of Alexander at Issus was looted by Napoleon's army in 1800.
#arthistory #art #AlexanderTheGreat #Napoleon
After the painting's capture, it was displayed in Napoleon's residence in Paris until it was returned to Bavaria in 1815 following his defeat. A popular story states that Napoleon, an admirer of Alexander the Great, kept it hanging in his bathroom. It is no wonder that Napoleon felt a personal connection to this epic painting: the scene depicted is of the Battle of Issus of 333 BCE in which Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Darius III and thereby halted the Persian expansion into western Europe. Altdorfer painted this scene much later, of course, but he painted it at another important time in European history, namely when the Ottoman Empire was pushing into the West (getting as far as Vienna). The Battle of Issus was later on symbolic of the triumph of the West over the East and, by extension, the victory of Christianity over Islam. I particularly like the name-tag detail that Altdorfer added to helpfully identify Alexander (charging on his horse) chasing off Darius (fleeing in his chariot). Plus Altdorfer’s landscape background is exquisite. Napoleon had visions of recreating an expansive French Empire on the scale of Alexander the Great’s military accomplishments.
November 13, 2025 at 2:29 PM