What they Remember

Chateaubriand, 1809 by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Musée d'Histoire et du Pays Malouin, St Malo.

An exhibition of the work of Girodet is currently touring the US. This fellow was an important French historical figure whose English chef would make him more famous than his exploits.

Not What it Seems

Mr. Hulings' Picture Rack, 1888 by William Harnett, Private Collection.

Harnett was a master of the Trompe L'Oeil (trick the eye) painting. The Greeks and Romans painted in this style but the term was coined in the Baroque period.

Suffering

If Not, Not, 1975-6 by R.B. Kitaj, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.

Kitaj was born in Cleveland, but lives and works mostly in England. This chaotic piece portrays the gates at Auschwitz and references T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land.

Tile Samples

Six Tiles from the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum,NYC.

The top row are English 18th Century the bottom row are two by William DeMorgan and Moravian Tile Works.

Banned

Self-portrait with Model, c. 1910 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

Kirchner's self-portrait is the main focus of this work (who could ignore that robe). His work was branded "degenerate" by the Nazi's.