Happy Friday Afternoon Challenge, DUers: “Manly Pursuits!”

[CTyankee]

Here are six such “pursuits.” Who are the artists?

..and please do observe the no cheating rule, folks...

1.
[IMG][/IMG]
2.
[IMG][/IMG]
3.
[IMG][/IMG]
4.
[IMG][/IMG]
5.
[IMG][/IMG]
6.
[IMG][/IMG]

[jberryhill]

1. Well, none of them is Thomas Kinkade

...or you'd have a flamewar on your hands.

One of them has gotta be Winslow Homer.

[CTyankee]

4. Trust me, Kinkade would never be on one of my Challenges...

see below for your Homer...

[jannyk]

2. #6 The Boat Builders - Winslow Homer

Now for a confession....I had this in Paint by Numbers years ago.

[CTyankee]

3. Awww...well, if you had to have Paint by Numbers, it's not a bad one for kids to do!

I think it is charming...

[lumberingbear]

5. No 4 looks like a Edward Hopper

????

[CTyankee]

9. It is not Hopper but...

Last edited Fri Apr 13, 2012, 07:08 PM - Edit history (1)

there is a reason that it looks like a Hopper...

[aquamarina]

6. No. 6 Boat Builder by Winslow Homer - one of my favorite painters

[aquamarina]

7. Sorry - Boat Builders

[CTyankee]

10. of course!

[11 Bravo]

8. I really don't know squat about art, but I do remember that Winslow Homer gave us "Breezing Up" ...

and #6 reminds me of that painting. So this is my official WAG (Wild Ass Guess).

(And I have no freaking idea why I remember that Winslow Homer painted "Breezing Up", I just do.)

[CTyankee]

11. great guess! You are right!

[11 Bravo]

18. I promise that I didn't read any other responses before I responded!

The most art-ignorant person on DU is now 2 for 2 on the Art Challenge! (I recognized a photo of Monte Cassino a while ago.)

[CTyankee]

19. Hey, that's great. I remember posting that photo. Quite remarkable...

So glad you joined in! And you don't sound art ignorant at all. If anything, you are art appreciative! That makes you a true art lover and that's wonderful!

Do you have any other guesses? I'd love to know what you think!

[Art_from_Ark]

44. If you were ever a stamp collector, you might remember Breezing Up

from this stamp that was issued in 1962:

[pinboy3niner]

45. Cool!

I love our unionized USPS and its workers and I love the variety--and quality--of the stamp series the post office issues.

Thanks for posting that.

[Art_from_Ark]

56. Here's another one for you--

"Jerked Down", by Charles M. Russell. This stamp was issued in 1964.



Eleven years after this stamp was issued, I got to see the original at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

[CTyankee]

51. It's really famous. Also, it is a beautiful work.

I think people like just the thought of it, some kind of American icon.

[joeybee12]

12. Is one....

Alfred Sisley?

[CTyankee]

14. No, but...

[PotatoChip]

35. Any other hints for #1?

I don't know who Sisley is, but can you say whether the style is or is not Impressionist?

Not that it helps me a whole lot, as I know next to zilch about artist styles- But, I've seen, and liked pics of Renoir and Monet paintings who were Impressionists (I think- pretty sure)

Not saying it is either one of them (or even if I guessed the style properly) but it looks very similar to my untrained eye.

And if Impressionist, (since I know of only those 2), could it be Renoir? All of the Monet things I've seen seem to be about more 'genteel' subjects.

Yeah, I'm really going out on a limb here, I know, but...

[CTyankee]

37. Ok not what you have identified, but this artist is an impressionist but with a realist's touch.

I see him more as a contemporary of Manet, if that helps...

[PotatoChip]

38. Doesn't help at all. But

I'm thrilled that I even got the impressionist part right, lol! --

Yeah, I'm *that* bad at this, but I love your challenges anyway. I never sense a hint of condescension or ridicule every time I've ever played, even though I'm almost always wildly off the mark. This, embarrassingly enough, is the closest I've ever come.

Still, it's fun and I am slowly learning from you and some of the other more artistically inclined DUer's. So thanks!!! I look forward to seeing all of the correct answers.

[CTyankee]

50. But you trusted your instincts and you are right.

I'm just aware of some of the finer points, not because I'm so smart but because I read a lot about art all the time. I'm retired so I can spend time rummaging around my local library and through our inter-library system. I couldn't do too much of that while I was still working. What you see here in my Challenges is a result of all that rummaging...

[IcyPeas]

13. number 2 is

thomas hart benton - he always has that swirly, almost caricature, comic style (at least that's how I see it). I've seen this or something of his in person somewhere.

[CTyankee]

15. Yipee, Icy Peas! It is called "The Kentuckian" and it was a gift to the Los Angeles Museum

of Art (LACMA) by Burt Lancaster!

I just love it!

[IcyPeas]

16. maybe i saw it at lacma then

i live in la

yippee i o ki aye

[CTyankee]

17. I loved it when I first visited about 10 years ago. I want to go back when I visit my

daughter and grandson, but our museum time is limited. I have loved the Getty and tried to get to the Norton Simon when I visited last November but alas, the only free day I had was the day it was CLOSED, ack!

BTW, I may live in New England, but I LOVE Los Angeles...

[IcyPeas]

24. yes, the Getty is huge and would take some time

to see the entire thing and the grounds are nice too - it would take days to see the entire thing. The original Getty villa is gorgeous too and you have to make an actual reservation to get in - they only let so many people in at a time.

The Norton Simon is a great little gem. It's small with some nice paintings. The two exhibitions I have seen there were Jawlensky and Bonnard. I was surprised at how small some paintings are - when I see them in books for some reason I imagine them to be a lot larger than they are. Especially Bonnard... he gets so much color and pattern into little canvases. I like him (plus I had an art instructor who told me I painted like him LOL)

can't wait to see the rest of the answers.

[CTyankee]

25. Bonnard is a wonder, isn't he? I love his wife bathing treatments. I find them so

tender and sad.

My little story about the Getty is that I flew to L.A. to see Costanza by Bernini, when she made her debut there a few years ago. I had missed her in Italy and was convinced I would die before seeing her and then one fine day I opened up my NYT and there she was! Wow, I thought, then saw she'd not be going to the NY Met but the Getty. So I called my dtr there and said "I'm coming!" She was good about it but joked that I went because of the bust of Costanza, not her...

I did see her again a couple of years later in the Bargello in Florence, but only after an argument with a guard (Costanza was in a closet due to lack of guards that day). My bad Italian probably convinced her it was better to shut me up than continue arguing..."Sono venuto fin qui per vederla..." said with a bit of a "sob" in my voice ("I have come all this way to see her!)...how sad is that...

[Bluerthanblue]

20. is no. 5

N.C. Wyeth?

It makes me think of his work.

[CTyankee]

21. you are right! Which work did you have in mind? And I'd be interested in how you knew it

was his...I find that information fascinating...

[Bluerthanblue]

30. my Gram used to have

prints from Treasure Island on the walls of the room where we kids slept when visiting.

Something about the mountains and his wonderful use of colors and the way he put such personality in his figures reminded me of him.

I love the Wyeth's art, especially NC's.

[pinboy3niner]

22. Good thinking--it's 'The Prospector'

I found it after you provided the artist's name.

[CTyankee]

23. Isn't it great? I love it...what Americana it is...

but, upon closer reflection, what a mirage. We thought all was so bright and wonderful in the 19th century, particularly after the Civil War, but it wasn't all that great, was it?

N.C. Wyeth is an interesting character, tho. And I think his works are quite good. They are of that genre in the late 19th, early 20th century where the heroic was heralded. Who knew that those two upstarts in Paris, Picasso and Bracque, would start doing their thing?

[CTyankee]

26. MAJOR HINT: #s 3 and 4 are of the same "school."

[jberryhill]

47. Art Institute of Chicago

Or whatever that thing was on matchbooks

[ellisonz]

27. I got nothing.

[CTyankee]

28. but what about my hint?

[ellisonz]

29. Well it doesn't appear to be Hudson River School...

...but taking a shot in the dark. I think #4 with the bar might be Norman Rockwell, but I'm probably wrong.

[CTyankee]

32. No, not Rockwell. And no, not the Hudson River School. But there is another, urban one...

[Bluerthanblue]

40. ahhhh.....

Ashcan?

think I got this one finally-
Bellows'
the Big Dory?

[pinboy3niner]

41. Nice job getting 'The Big Dory' for #3

And the Ashcan School. I stumbled my way to the answers behind you (and thanks only to your original lead).

Congratulations again--I think you win this Challenge!

[Bluerthanblue]

53. naa-

I couldn't find the Wyeth one, only thought it was him. You got it-

I love these challenges, especially when they get me searching through good art with fervor, rather than all the depressing news stories.

[CTyankee]

54. I had considered one of Bellows' prizefighting works which are truly exciting

but they are so easily googled I decided on this one instead. I used Bellows in a past Challenge, his work entitled "Night Excavation" which he sketched out and painted while Penn Station (the original) was under construction. To me, it is a fine work.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Bluerthanblue]

55. I was really surprised that it was him-

because of the fighting pictures, but when I saw this one, I could see it being him-

http://www.royal-painting.com/largeimg/Bellows,%20George/50388-Bellows,%20George-Fisherman's%20Family.jpg


Thank you so much for doing this CTyankee- I don't always get a chance to participate but really enjoy it when I can.

[pinboy3niner]

31. #4: McSorley's Bar, John Sloan nt

[CTyankee]

33. there you go, Pinboy! How did you get that?

[pinboy3niner]

34. Just by searching for paintings of bars and taverns

I really didn't have a clue about it, and I'm not familiar with the artist.

[CTyankee]

36. Well, it is famous! And rightly so. I love it. I think it is wonderful for its use of chiarascuro.

I love the waiter's bright white apron and the rest in such dark. I love the imprecation of clubby-ness, the "men's thing" of it, as repressive as it was. And I like that is looms out of darkness. I love works that do that...

[pinboy3niner]

39. It reminds me of the tavern my grandfather went to when I was little

The tavern, in an Irish neighborhood of Chicago (Mayor Daley's 'hood), had that same men-only clubbiness--and intimacy. Besides the local VFW for the WWII vets, the tavern and the church were main gathering places for the men.

When I visited my grandparents years later, while they were still alive, the tavern was still part of grandpa's ritual (along with serving as head usher at the Catholic church every sunday for more than 50 years). He'd have two whiskeys and head home, just a quarter block down the street. But this time he was always accompanied by his terrier, so when he wound up on his ass when he tried to step off the curb, his little companion would provide just enough help to get him back to his feet.

[burrowowl]

42. Can't wait for all the answers

[pinboy3niner]

43. #1 remains unsolved; answers and solvers so far:

#2 The Kentuckian, Thomas Hart Benton (IcyPeas, Post #13)
#3 The Big Dory, George Bellows (Bluerthanblue, Post #40)
#4 McSorley's Bar, John Sloan (pinboy3niner, Post #31)
#5 The Prospector, N.C. Wyeth (Bluerthanblue, Post #20)
#6 The Boat Builders, Winslow Homer (jannyk, Post #2)

[ErikJ]

46. #1 is Gustave Caillebotte - Swimmers

I thought for sure it was a Renoir at first but cheated and looked for images of Renoir and then looked closely at the bottom signature and could make out a Ca and then remembered the name Cal something So I looked at a list of Impressionists to help me. Sorry.

[pinboy3niner]

48. Just checked--and you are CORRECT

And you didn't cheat--cheating is using Google goggles. You solved it honestly and you have nothing to be sorry about.

Congratulations on solving the last remaining item in the challenge!

[CTyankee]

52. I honestly thought that the Caillebotte would have been guessed first, even tho the

signature is thin and scraggly. But Caillebotte is largely unknown to the public, and I don't quite know why. he's good. I guess there were so many Impressionists doing their thing in Paris in those days that there was a "glut on the market" so to speak.

[pinboy3niner]

49. ALL SOLVED: Answers here:

#1 Swimmers, Gustave Caillebotte (ErikJ. Post #46)
#2 The Kentuckian, Thomas Hart Benton (IcyPeas, Post #13)
#3 The Big Dory, George Bellows (Bluerthanblue, Post #40)
#4 McSorley's Bar, John Sloan (pinboy3niner, Post #31)
#5 The Prospector, N.C. Wyeth (Bluerthanblue, Post #20)
#6 The Boat Builders, Winslow Homer (jannyk, Post #2)

Congratulations DUers on meeting the challenge!

[CTyankee]

57. Thanks for listing the winners!

My husband got really sick last night and I was up with him for a while and earlier this morning. So I knew I wouldn't be able to do much with the Challenge today.

However, he's getting better (it was one of those sudden viruses that hit him like a ton of bricks).

I'll see you next Friday, if you are around. I think you'll get a kick out of the Challenge I have planned. Have a great week!