Art's Last Bow

A father’s role is often less recognized than the mother’s, which is a shame as both parents give something exceptionally valuable to their children. Traditionally, fathers were often expected to provide the finances and enforce restrictions, while drawing the line at actual emotional contact with their kids. Thankfully, there were always good fathers in the world, and art is here to prove it! Some of these Father’s Day paintings show religious themes, others are portraits; what they all have in common is that they show touching moments of a father’s love for his kids. A Sweet Lullaby. Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale The first one is “A Sweet Lullaby” by painter Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale. It’s an illustration from “The Book of Old English Songs and Ballads”, published by Hodder and Stoughton around 1910. Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1872 –1945) was a prominent illustrator and painter, creating illustrations for Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King” and Robert Browning’s poems (includin...

Flowers are everywhere in art. As part of the natural world, as symbols, and even as an artist’s signature theme (think Van Gogh and his sunflowers). But with the millefleur style, flowers are literally everywhere. Annunciation, detail of flowers. Fra Angelico So, where did this style originate and what artists used it in their paintings? A Thousand Flowers The term millefleur means “a thousand flowers” in French, and it was originally applied to perfume made from a variety of flowers [1] . With time, it started being applied to the characteristic floral background on 15 th century Flemish and French tapestries, which features all kinds of flowers and leaves that cover all the surface between the figures. There’s a very similar term, millefiori , which derives from Italian and also means “a thousand flowers”. It refers to a glass-making technique, made famous by the glass-makers of Murano, Venice. The whole surface of the glass seems to be made of tiny multi-colored flowers....