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Speaking of de La Tour, he was certainly a character. Contemporary accounts describe his nature as lively, good-humoured & eccentric. In many of his self-portraits he smiles to the viewer. He donated towards poor women in confinement, and disabled and ageing artisans and artists.
"Wind from the Sea", painted by Andrew Wyeth at the age of 30 in 1947
"The Model On The Table" (1906) by Carl Larsson (1853-1919) is another picture that would work well as the first slide of a lesson about the male gaze in art
And now, something different. Giorgio Liberale (1527-1579) was an Italian artist who had been working for the imperial court in Prague. He designed over 500 small woodcuts for the first Latin edition of classic Dioscurides' Materia medica.
Count Dracula is trending so what better excuse to share Love and Pain (1895) by Edvard Munch? It is also well known with the title "Vampire", though Munch didn't call it so. He always claimed it showed nothing more than "just a woman kissing a man on the neck" so... ok?
Daily obsession is the unsettling Symbolist works of artist and playwright Gustave-Adolphe Mossa (1883-1971)
"Moonlight View of the Piazzetta, #Venice" Ippolito Caffi (fyi @Oniropolis)