The Early Years Theresa Bernstein (1890 -2002) My blog today is all about a remarkable woman, not just for her art but for her amazing longevity, dying just a few months short of her 112th birthday. She is the American painter, Theresa Ferber Bernstein.  Two miniature cameos (possibly self-portraits) by Theresa Bernstein (1907) Theresa was born on March 1st 1890 in Krakow, a city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Poland.  She was the only child of Isidore Bernstein and Anne Bernstein (née Ferber).  Her father was a Jewish textile merchant and her mother was a woman of Centra ..read more

Marriage and Personal Tragedy During the three-year period between 1901 and 1904 Anna, her father and young brother went on several painting trips.  They travelled through Europe to Norway as well as taking a couple of trips around the east coast of America.   Anna and her father, the painter, William Trost Richards, had joint exhibitions of their work in New York, Boston and Washington at which twenty of her works she had completed in Clovelly were displayed. In 1904 whilst Anna was enjoying a trip back home in Boston she got news that her elderly friend and patron, Mr Kemp-We ..read more

The Early Years Anna Richards (c.1885) My featured artist today is Anna Richards Brewster, the much-admired American Impressionist painter who was one of the most successful women artists of her time and yet her name has largely been forgotten. Anna was born in the Germantown neighbourhood of Philadelphia in 1870. She was the sixth of eight children of William and Anna Richards. William Trost Richards  Her father was William Trost Richards, the American landscape artist, who was associated with both the Hudson River School and the American Pre-Raphaelite movement. After living most of h ..read more

The pleasure the sea and the shoreline brings to us. Having looked at Marine Art with depictions of mighty sailing ships in Part 1., and the plight of fishermen and lifeboatmen battling raging seas in Part 2., this third and final part will concentrate on the tranquillity of the sea and the shoreline A and how people enjoy the elements. When I was last in Madrid and had spent a few days and many hours in the main Museums of Art, such as the Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Museo Reina Sofia, I decided to visit the Sorolla Museum, featuring work by the Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla as well as ..read more

The Sea and the Workers who risk their lives for others. In this look at Maritime or Marine Art I want to showcase those paintings which feature the people who have dedicated their lives to saving seafarers and those working the seas in a continual search for food to put on our tables.  For the first of my forays into the depiction of fisherman I want to delve into the work of the great Skagen painters.  These were a group of Scandinavian artists who had come together in the small coastal village of Skagen, which is situated in the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s un ..read more

The Sea and the Ships Storm at Sea by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1569) Maritime painting is an art genre that depicts ships and the sea.  Early examples of this genre were found in Greek vase paintings and the wall paintings of Pompeii.   Storm at Sea is one of earliest specific seascapes and was painted around 1569 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s and thought to be one of his last paintings. It is unfinished and, like so many of his works, defies unambiguous interpretation. On the one hand, we see ships threatened by a storm reminding us that man is not master of Nature, in fact ..read more

Letters of love “…I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close…” ― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets In April 1960, four months after Renske met Cyril, he was admitted to the Royal Free Hospital to have an operation on his perforated stomach ulcer. Renske wrote Cyril a letter to say that she was missing him and expressi ..read more

The great portrait artist and his beautiful muse and model “…When I first got undressed to pose for him, he looked me up and down with a critical eye. ‘ Perfect breasts. Not too big, not too small. You can thank your Indonesian forebears for those’. We’d known each other for about a month, and already we were perfectly at ease with each other, as if we’d known each other all our lives…” Renske Mann from her book, The Girl in the Green Jumper Renske was overjoyed by Cyril’s words. Although she didn’t believe his words were utterances of flattery and just simple facts, nevertheless the words mad ..read more

Love at first sight. “…The very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone…” – Jane Austen Bread and Knife by Cyril Mann (c.1955) Still Life of Bottle and Jug by Cyril Mann (c.1955) In the mid-1950s Cyril Mann’s painting style changed and he entered what was known as his solid shadow period.  This was a complete change of style for him in comparison to his earlier works which had concentrated on the effects of direct sunlight and yet light came into play with these “shadow” works. They concentrated on shadows that were seen below objects when viewed under an overhead light ..read more

Paris, Mary and Renske The previous blog ended in the autumn of 1935 with Cyril Mann entering the Royal Academy Schools where he received thorough academic training and a chance to meet fellow ambitious young artists.  Whilst a student there he remained in contact with Bernard Clarke, the chaplain at the Paddington Toc H.  His initial gratitude with being able to study at the school, and have his tuition paid for by his benefactor, Erica Cox, faded a little over the three years he was there as his appreciation turned to the feeling that he was entitled to what the world had on offer ..read more