Thank you Roger, I just saw your posts. Your contribution is always so stimulating. I will comment on them tomorrow with a clearer, restful head. Here is A Lady and Two Gentlemen by Vermeer: Apparently very similar to Hooch's painting but in my opinion, immensely better. It is true that the theme, use of light and the subject attitudes are very similar in both, with Hooch's painting no doubt correctly realized. But what is it that makes Vermeer's work so much more beautiful and elegant? In my opinion again, apart from some particularities in the latter's paintings, like the use of deep red and blue hues in addition to the rather prosaic gamut utilized by the former, it is Vermeer's exquisite taste which would not let him compromise with mere ugliness. I mean, even the ugly faces that he on occasion painted are paradoxically beautiful! This is no easy task of course. And by the way, there you have a most interesting fact which actually has never been absent here in your forum: some little "ugly" but lovely animals that we don't see as ugly at all. Best Wishes, Miguel  Jan Vermeer - A Lady and Two Gentlemen (c. 1659) P.S. Another thing, the floors Vermeer used to paint in his works were consistently the checkered type, which would add to them a certain gusto.
|