While preparing to teach an art history class at the Art Institute I viewed a large number of paintings and sculptures on the web. This images started to appear and mix in my dreams. I thus started combing and fusing them digitally.

1. '
• baron van lind • basquiat • cave art • chardin • chinese landscape • degas • doré • friedrich •
• hasegawa • hockney • ingres • memling • picasso • rembrandt • sargent • schiele • segal •

2. “La tradition, en un mot, est le sentiment du passé total
éprouvé comme le présent.”
• baron van lind • basquiat • cave art • chardin •
• chinese landscapes • degas • doré • friedrich • hasegawa • hockney •
• ingres • memling • picasso • rembrandt • sargent • schiele • segal •
Los Angeles, 2012

3. Digital composites
Degas Doré............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Eggar Degas – "Ballet Rehersal on Stage", 1874
Paul Gustave Doré – "Adam and Eve driven out of Eden", 1865
Sargent Rembrandt............................................................................................................................................... 7
Rembrandt van Rijn – "The Artist in His Studio", 1628
John Singer Sargent – "Portrait of Madame X", 1884
Ingry Basquiat........................................................................................................................................................ 9
Jean Michel Basquiat –"Self-Portrait", 1982
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres – "La Source", 1820
Sargent Schiele...................................................................................................................................................... 11
John Singer Sargent – "Portrait of Lady Agnew", 1892
Egon Schiele – "Portrait of Eduard Kosmack", 1910
Edgar Hockney....................................................................................................................................................... 13
Edgar Degas – "Ballet Rehersal on Stage", 1874
David Hockney – "2 Figures", 1972
Baron Chardin........................................................................................................................................................ 15
Baron van Lind – "Amber", "Anabel", 2000
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, "Le Gobelet d'Argent", 1768
Chinese Segal......................................................................................................................................................... 17
George Segal – plaster figure, 1981
Unknown Artist – Chinese Landscape, date unknown
Double Memling.................................................................................................................................................... 19
Hans Memling – "Old Woman", 1468-70; "Portrait of Signora Portinari", 1470
Caspar Hasegawa.................................................................................................................................................. 21
Caspar David Friedrich – "The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog", 1818
Hasegawa Tohoku – "Pine Trees", 1593
Lascaux, Texas........................................................................................................................................................ 23
Lascaux Cave – "Painting of Auroch", cca. 15,000 BC
All composites ©2012 Ivan Pešić Pablo Picasso – "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza", 1955
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4. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Degas Doré >
Ballet Rehersal on Stage Adam and Eve Driven Out of Eden
1874, oil and pastel 1865, steel engraving
Edgar Degas Paul Gustave Doré
(19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917) was a French artist famous for his (January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French artist, engraver, il-
work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regard- lustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving
ed as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected and steel engraving.
the term, and preferred to be called a realist. A superb draftsman, Doré was born in Strasbourg and his first illustrated story was pub-
he is especially identified with the subject of the dance, and over lished at the age of fifteen. His talent was evident even earlier, how-
half of his works depict dancers. ever. At age five he had been a prodigy troublemaker, playing pranks
The lack of color in the 1874 Ballet Rehearsal on Stage and the that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began
1876 The Ballet Instructor can be said to link with his interest in carving in cement. Subsequently, as a young man, he began work as
the new technique of photography. The changes to his palette, a literary illustrator in Paris, winning commissions to depict scenes
brushwork, and sense of composition all evidence the influence that from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante.
both the Impressionist movement and modern photography, with Adam and Eve Driven Out of Eden is one of the hundreds of Bible
its spontaneous images and off-kilter angles, had on his work. prints made by Doré.
(continued on page 12)
As punishment for abusing his trust, God drives Adam and Eve from
the Garden of Eden. Angels are given the task to guard the Tree of
Life. Adam and Eve are on their own from now on.
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5. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Sargent Rembrandt >
The Artist in His Studio Portrait of Madame X
cca. 1628, oil on canvas 1884, oil on canvas
Rembrant Van Rijn John Singer Sargent
(1606–1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally (12 January 1856 – 14 April 1925) was an American artist, consid-
considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in Eu- ered the “leading portrait painter of his generation” for his evo-
ropean art history and the most important in Dutch history. cations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created
In this small painting, the young Rembrandt seems to represent roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as
the daunting moments of conception and decision necessary to well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings.
the creation of a work of art. An artist confronts his easel in a When Madame X was shown at the Salon of 1884 it became
studio bare of everything except his essential tools. This drama, instantly a salacious painting and a scandal in French society
with its emphasis on thought rather than action, is intensified as a result of its sexual suggestiveness of her pose and the pail
by the expressive use of light and shadow. The painting’s daring pasty color of her skin. The “X” of Madame X was actually Ma-
perspective is also important: the distant figure of the painter dame Gautreau (1859-1915) who’s reputation was apparently
seems dwarfed by his work, looming large in the foreground. destroyed and John left France shortly to never truly regain his
former standing as the darling of Paris. (continued on page 12)
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6. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Ingry Basquiat >
Self-portrait, 1982, mixed media La Source, 1820 – 1856, oil on canvas
Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
(December 22, 1960 – August 12) 1988 was an American artist. (29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter.
He began as an obscure graffiti artist in New York City in the late Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the
1970s and evolved into an acclaimed Neo-expressionist and Primi- tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of
tivist painter by the 1980s. his life it was Ingres’s portraits, both painted and drawn, that were
Throughout his career Basquiat focused on “suggestive dichoto- recognized as his greatest legacy.
mies,” such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segrega- The work on La Source was begun in Florence around 1820 and not
tion, and inner versus outer experience. Basquiat’s art utilized a completed until 1856, in Paris. When Ingres completed The Source,
synergy of appropriation, poetry, drawing and painting, which he was seventy-six years old, already famous, and president of the
married text and image, abstraction and figuration, and histori- École des Beaux-Arts. The pose of the nude may be compared with
cal information mixed with contemporary critique. Utilizing social that of another by Ingres, the Venus Anadyomene (1848), and is a re-
commentary as a “springboard to deeper truths about the indi- imagination of the Aphrodite of Cnidus or Venus Pudica. Two of In-
vidual”, Basquiat’s paintings also attacked power structures and gres’ students, painters Paul Baize and Alexandre Desgoffe, helped
systems of racism, while his poetics were acutely political and di- to create the background and water jar.
rect in their criticism of colonialism and support for class warfare.
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7. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Sargent Schiele >
Portrait of Lady Agnew Portrait of Eduard Kosmack
1892, oil on canvas 1910, oil on canvas
John Singer Sargent (continued from page 8) Egon Schiele
(...) His parents were American, but he was trained in Paris prior (June 12, 1890 – October 31, 1918) was an Austrian painter. A pro-
to moving to London. Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a tégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the
portrait painter, though not without controversy and some critical early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many
reservation. self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the
In 1986, Andy Warhol commented to Sargent scholar Trevor Fair- expressive line that characterize Schiele’s paintings and drawings
brother that Sargent “made everybody look glamorous. Taller. Thin- mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism.
ner. But they all have mood, every one of them has a different mood.” When Schiele was 15 years old, his father died from syphilis, and
In a Time Magazine article from the 1980s, critic Robert Hughes he became a ward of his maternal uncle, Leopold Czihaczec, who
praised Sargent as “the unrivaled recorder of male power and fe- became distressed by Schiele’s lack of interest in academic studies,
male beauty in a day that, like ours, paid excessive court to both.” yet recognized his passion and talent for art. In 1906 Schiele applied
Lady Agnew’s direct gaze and informal pose, emphasised by the at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna,
flowing fabric and lilac sash of her dress ensure the portrait’s strik- where Gustav Klimt had once studied. Within his first year there,
ing impact. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898 and made Schiele was sent, at the insistence of several faculty members, to
Sargent’s name. The sculptor Rodin described him as ‘the Van Dyck the more traditional Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna in
of our times’. Portrait commissions poured in and Sargent enjoyed 1906. There, he studied painting and drawing, but was frustrated by
something of a cult following in Edwardian society. It also launched the school’s conservatism.
Lady Agnew as a society beauty. Some view Schiele’s work as being grotesque, erotic, pornographic,
or disturbing, focusing on sex, death, and discovery. He focused on
portraits of others as well as himself. In his later years, while he still
worked often with nudes, they were done in a more realist fashion.
He also painted tributes to Van Gogh’s Sunflowers as well as land-
scapes and still lifes.
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8. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Edgar Hockney >
2 figures
1972, acrylic on canvas
David Hockney
born 9 July 1937 is an English painter, draughtsman , printmaker,
stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington,
Yorkshire and Kensington, London. An important contributor to
the Pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the
most influential British artists of the twentieth century.
A visit to California, where he lived for many years, inspired Hock-
ney to make a series of paintings of swimming pools in Los Ange-
les, using the comparatively new acrylic medium and rendered in
a highly realistic style using vibrant colours.
Ballet Rehersal on Stage
1874, oil
Edgar Degas (continued from page 4)
In 1855, Degas met Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, whom he
revered, and whose advice he never forgot: “Draw lines, young
man, and still more lines, both from life and from memory, and
you will become a good artist.”
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9. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Baron Chardin >
Amber, 2000 Anabel, 2000 Le Gobelet d’Argent, 1768, oil on canvas
Jerry Lind Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
born October 31, 1937 in Duluth, Minnesota is also (2 November 1699 – 6 December 1779) was an 18th-
known as Baron von Lind. He is the son of Baron century French painter. He is considered a master
Johann von Lind. of still life, and is also noted for his genre paintings
He worked as art director, magazine art illustrator, which depict kitchen maids, children, and domestic
portrait painter, pinup artist for calendars and clas- activities.
sical painting. Though his popularity rested initially on paintings of
He painted portraits of stars as Yul Brynner, Sophia Lo- animals and fruit, by the 1730s he introduced kitchen
ren, Peter O’Toole and Clint Eastwood to name a few. utensils into his work (The Copper Cistern, c.1735, Louvre).
His portrait of Ronald Reagan painting now hangs in He helped to elevate still life to a respected category
the Reagan Museum in Simi Valley, California. of painting, and his name remains inextricably asso-
In August 2002, 11 official postage stamps featuring ciated with it. "We have learned from Chardin that
Baron's pinuups were issued by the Republic of Be- a pear is as living as a woman, that an ordinary piece
nin, West Africa. This tribute is just one of many in of pottery is as beautiful as a precious stone," wrote
the artist's illustrious career. novelist Marcel Proust.
Lascaux, Texas >
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10. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Chinese Segal >
Time Cover Chinese landscape
1981, plaster on gauze Date and autor unknown
George Segal Chinese Landscapes
(November 26, 1924 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter and Detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all ar-
sculptor associated with the Pop Art movement. He was presented tistic traditions, and develop when there is already a sophisticated
with a National Medal of Arts in 1999. tradition of representing other subjects. The two main traditions
Although Segal started his art career as a painter, his best known spring from Western painting and Chinese art, going back well over
works are cast lifesize figures and the tableaux the figures inhabited. a thousand years in both cases.
In place of traditional casting techniques, Segal pioneered the use Chinese artistic expression has been deeply imprinted with images
of plaster bandages (plaster-impregnated gauze strips designed for of the natural world. Viewing Chinese landscape paintings, it is clear
making orthopedic casts) as a sculptural medium. In this process, he that Chinese depictions of nature are seldom mere representations
first wrapped a model with bandages in sections, then removed the of the external world. Rather, they are expressions of the mind and
hardened forms and put them back together with more plaster to heart of the individual artists—cultivated landscapes that embody
form a hollow shell. These forms were not used as molds; the shell the culture and cultivation of their masters.
itself became the final sculpture, including the rough texture of the Going beyond representation, scholar-artists imbued their paintings
bandages. Initially, Segal kept the sculptures stark white, but a few with personal feelings. By evoking select antique styles, they could
years later he began painting them, usually in bright monochrome also identify themselves with the values associated with the old
colors. Eventually he started having the final forms cast in bronze, masters. Painting was no longer about the description of the visible
sometimes patinated white to resemble the original plaster. world; it became a means of conveying the inner landscape of the
Segal’s figures had minimal color and detail, which gave them a artist’s heart and mind.
ghostly, melancholic appearance. In larger works, one or more fig- The monochrome images of old trees, bamboo, rocks, and retire-
ures were placed in anonymous, typically urban environments such ment retreats created by these scholar-artists became emblems of
as a street corner, bus, or diner. In contrast to the figures, the envi- their character and spirit.
ronments were built using found objects.
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11. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Memling Madona >
Old Woman Portrait of Signora Portinari
1468-70, oil on wood 1470, oil on wood
Hans Memling
(c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a German-born painter who moved to Recently restored, Portrait of an Old Woman (whose compan-
Flanders and worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish paint- ion piece, Portrait of an Old Man, is at New York's Metropolitan
ing. From the 1460s until the end of his life he became one of the Museum of Art), dramatically illustrates Hans Memling's ability to
leading artists, painting both portraits and several large religious record realistically every nuance of the sitter. Each crisp fold of the
works, continuing the style he learned in his youth from his masters aged matron's stiff, sterile and starched wimple is starkly depicted
such as Rogier van der Weyden. in this small-scale panel. Memling's patrons were largely ecclesiasti-
Memling was a master of portraiture. The faces he painted with cal and patrician. The Late Middle Ages in which they lived were a
careful detail glow with life. The character of each is subtly sug- trying time of recurring plague, pestilence, civil and religious unrest.
gested. In addition to the portraits Memling painted for the no- Memling's exacting and revelatory paintbrush accurately recorded
tables of Brugge, he also received commissions from foreign visitors this woman's psychological burden in his telling visual portrayal of
such as Tommaso Portinari of the Florentine Medici. Memling died her wearisome visage.
in Brugge on Aug. 11, 1494.
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12. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Caspar Hasegawa >
The wanderer above the sea of fog Pine Trees
1818, oil on canvas 1593, folding screen
Caspar David Friedrich Hasegawa Tohaku
(September 5, 1774 – May 7, 1840) was a 19th-century German Ro- (1539 – March 19, 1610) was a Japanese painter and founder of the
mantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important Hasegawa school of Japanese painting during the Azuchi-Momoyama
German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period period of Japanese history.
allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures After a period of time in Kyoto, Tohaku developed his own style
silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Goth- of Sumie which in many ways departed from the bold techniques
ic ruins. His primary interest as an artist was the contemplation of indicative of the Kano School, and called back to the minimalism of
nature, and his often symbolic and anti-classical work seeks to con- its predecessors.
vey a subjective, emotional response to the natural world. Friedrich’s
Pine Trees screen, which was declared a national treasure of Japan,
paintings characteristically set a human presence in diminished per-
is argued to be the first paintings of it’s scale to depict only pine
spective amid expansive landscapes, reducing the figures to a scale
trees as subject matter.
that, according to the art historian Christopher John Murray, directs
“the viewer’s gaze towards their metaphysical dimension”.
The wanderer above the sea of fog, Friedriech’s well-known and
especially Romantic masterpiece was described by the writer John
Lewis Gaddis as leaving a contradictory impression, “suggesting at
once mastery over a landscape and the insignificance of the individ-
ual within it. We see no face, so it’s impossible to know whether the
prospect facing the young man is exhilarating, or terrifying, or both.”
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13. L E P A S S É C O M P O S É > Lascaux, Texas >
Painting of an Auroch* Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
Lascaux Cave, cca. 15,000 BC 1955, ink on paper
Lascaux Cave Pablo Picasso
The original Lascaux Grottoes, discovered in September 1940, by 4 (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973), was a Spanish painter, sculptor,
wandering boys consist of a main cave 66 feet wide and 16 feet high, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer who spent most of his
plus several smaller galleries. The walls and ceilings of the caves adult life in France. He is best known for co-founding the Cubist
are decorated with some 600 painted figures and almost 1,500 en- movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work.
gravings in total. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and other artifacts His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal
found in the cave complex has led most scholars to date the Las- renown and immense fortunes throughout his life, making him the
caux paintings to c.15,000 BC. best-known figure in twentieth century art.
The subjects of the paintings are almost entirely animals, some of He was a superstitious, sarcastic man, sometimes rotten to his
which are now extinct. Nearly 350 caves have now been discovered children, often beastly to his women. He had contempt for wom-
in France and Spain that contain art from prehistoric times. en artists. His famous remark about women being "goddesses or
The oldest known cave art comes from the Cave of El Castillo in doormats" has rendered him odious to feminists, but women tend-
northern Spain. "One motif – a faint red dot – is said to be more ed to walk into both roles open-eyed and eagerly, for his charm was
than 40,000 years old." This date coincides with the earliest known legendary. Whole cultural industries derived from his much mythol-
evidence for Homo sapiens in Europe. ogized virility. He was the Minotaur in a canvas-and-paper labyrinth
of his own construction.
“None of us could draw like that”, Picasso said refering to drawings
of bisons in the Altamira cave in Spain. Don Quixote is a 1955 sketch by Pablo Picasso of the Spanish
....................................................................................................................... literary hero and his sidekick, Sancho Panza. It was featured on
* The auroch, the ancestor of domestic cattle, is a type of large wild cattle the August 18-24 issue of the French weekly journal Les Lettres
which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but which is now extinct. Françaises in celebration of the 350th anniversary of the first part
of Cervantes’s Don Quixote.
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14. Artist' biographies and quotes were compiled from the following sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/lascaux-caves
http://www.pablopicasso.org
http://www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/painting-landscape.php
http://www.thepinupfiles.com/lind.html#.UG3B8UIj5jM
http://www.mfa.org/?gclid=CLma0c_v57ICFSiCQgod3C0AUQ
book design and layout: Ivan Pešic
published by Plain Brown Books, Los Angeles, 2012
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