Epic Scene

Knud Andreassen Baade 

Scene from the Era of Norwegian Sagas — 1850

Close Your Eyes and Dream, Dream, Dreammmmmm

Boy, here's a dream I haven't had in a couple of weeks.

Moritz Stifter — Allegory of Dream

Under the Sea

Under the sea sets always make a great location for fantasy drama.

William Shackleton

Glow

I'm a sucker for images that have some sort of glow in them.

Charles Courtney Curran — 1913

Life without Fantasy?

What would life be without fantasy? It would be a textbook.

Charles Courtney Curran — circa early xxth century

Monochromatic Green

This is one of those paintings that inspires the 'What th'--!!' segment of my imagination. Not your Thomas Moran landscape. Monochromatic green, wow.

 Gustav Wentzel

Lovingly Immortalized

A  beautiful low chroma portrait painting of Mme Mucha, lovingly immortalized by Alphonse Mucha.

Attractive Allegory

Dedicated to all my painter friends—a very attractive Allegory of Painting. Remember, fat over lean . . .  or is it . . . whatever.

Paolo Veronese — Allegory of Painting — 1560s

Update: after looking at this published post, I realized some people would think that I was referring to the subject when I talked of fat over lean. I was not. "Fat over Lean" was and is a technique term in handling of paint on a canvas, directed toward painters. I was being flip here because that's a basic lesson for artists. I love the statuesque figure of the woman here. Like I said, a very attractive subject. 

FYI, I NEVER intend to make seemingly negative judgements about anyone's appearance. I know I'm going overboard in explanation here, but oh-Lord-please-don't-let-me-be-misunderstood.

Fantasy Narrative

I'm starting to cross-post some images between here and Facebook, thinking people may be of two different audiences, with a little overlap. This way the images may reach more people than the blog alone, which is kind of the point of doing this sharing stuff.

This painting is sort of remarkable for it's time of approximately 1880 by Carl Spitzweg, showing fantasy in a narrative form (there's a specific character-driven story going on here).

Carl Spitzweg — fantasy painting — circa 1880?

A Fine Day in Atlantis

I've lost track of who the artist is here, but this lovely illustrative vision of a fine day in Atlantis seems directly ancestral to Greece.

Update: The artist is Lloyd K. Townsend, 

with thanks to Breezmeister!

Old Dead White Guy with a Beard

This is a portrait of a professor of the old school (literally!). It's the sort of portrait you can imagine hanging in a dark musty hallway, or top of the staircase of a seemingly ancient place of higher education. As a student I might have casually dismissed this guy as just one more 'old dead white guy with a beard'.

Now, as an old white guy with a beard myself, not yet dead thank you, I see this fellow's personality with great clarity and admiration. His face is one of quiet good humor, intelligence and a love for his field of study. This is a professor that I would gladly have studied under, whatever his field was.

Sir George Reid —Professor George Downing Liveing — circa 1913

Sacred

I love sacred pools, groves and grottos . . .

© Gilbert Williams — The Offering

Once Upon a High Place

You never know what you may see once upon a high place . . .

Kees Van Dongen — Tango of the Archangel — circa 1930

Two Versions and a Sketch

This is a pretty powerful composition that seems almost Frazetta-like in its sweep and execution, even though it was painted nearly a hundred years before the fantasy master. It was interesting to find two versions and a sketch and assemble them together here.

Évariste Vital Luminais — Flight of King Gradlon — circa 1884

 Luminais

Luminais

Curatives for the Soul

Can't you just feel the gentle warmth, the fragrant breeze, the peace and tranquility? Meditating on infused images like this can be curatives for the soul.

Harold Knight — The Morning Sun — circa 1912

Spirit of the Garden

We've had some more snow hereabouts, but gardening is on our minds (with some of our earlier planting gone to frozen hell). 

This is a painting called The Spirit of the Garden, which doesn't look very green and seems a bit off-topic to its title, but can maybe still raise our spirits a bit.

Robert Lewis Reid — The Spirit of the Garden

Rapture

I do believe I've heard of the phenomenon of rapturing underwater if you deprive yourself of oxygen for too long.

Sandra Brown Rowbo — Atlantis Rapture — 1992

Why Seek Ye the Living Among the Dead?

John Stanhope

Spring Tide Greetings to You All!

That is, to all of you in the Northern Hemisphere . . .

Franz Xavier Winterhalter — Spring

Sunlit Vitamin D

I love the California Impressionists—so much of the work so full of sunlit vitamin D, as here in this golden delight.

Mabel Alvarez — Young Girl with Parasol