About Richard Estes:

“Richard Estes (born May 14, 1932 in Kewanee, Illinois) is an American painter who is best known for his photorealistic paintings. The paintings generally consist of reflective, clean, and inanimate city and geometric landscapes. He is regarded as one of the founders of the international photo-realist movement of the late 1960s, with painters such as Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, and Duane Hanson.” (wikipedia)

Although he built comparatively little, and only one of his buildings - the Ashmolean Museum and Taylorian Institute in Oxford - remains in the public eye, C.R. Cockerell (1788-1863) is described in Howard Colvin’s A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects (3rd ed., 1995) as ‘at once the most fastidious and the least pedantic of English neo-classical architects’, and by a leading architectural historian of the period as quite simply ‘the greatest English neo-classical architect of the 19th century’ (Frank Salmon, Building on Ruins, Aldershot 2000, p.144). (more)

More of Cockerell’s work over at the Royal Academy of Arts Collections.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles paid Sotheby’s in London GBP 29.7 million ($45 million) on Wednesday for a sweeping, hazy view of 19th-century Rome by British master J.M.W. Turner.

The sale broke the auction record for Turner four years after the artist’s Venetian seascape “Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio” sold for $35 million at Christie’s.

The Getty beat out five other bidders for “Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino.” The auction house had priced the painting sell for between $18 million and $27 million.

Turner, a Romantic artist known for painting wispy clouds and roiling waves, painted “Modern Rome” in 1839, a decade after he visited the city for a final time. Eschewing any telltale signs of modernization, Turner presents an ethereal view of the Italian capital as seen from atop Capitoline Hill. Women in blue and yellow skirts herd goats in the rocky foreground as the city’s ruins fan across the sun-drenched expanse below. The Coliseum, painted in cappuccino colors, even appears to glow. (more)

Previously on Skandalon

Si on en croit la Bible, c’est Caïn qui créa la première ville, pour avoir, selon la remarque de Bossuet, où étourdir ses remords. Quel jugement ! Et combien de fois n’en ai-je pas éprouvé la justesse dans mes déambulations nocturnes !

Quoted from De l’inconvénient d’être né by Emil Cioran, Paris:Gallimard, coll. Quarto, [1973]1995, p. 1307

About Fernand Cormon:

At an early age he attracted attention for the perceived sensationalism in his art, although for a time his powerful brush dwelled with particular delight on scenes of bloodshed, such as the Murder in the Seraglio (1868) and the Death of Ravara, Queen of Lanka at the Toulouse Museum. The Musée d’Orsay has his Cain flying before Jehovah’s Curse; and for the Mairie of the fourth arrondissement of Paris he executed in grisaille a series of panels: Birth, Death, Marriage, War, etc. A Chiefs Funeral, and pictures having the Stone Age for their subject, occupied him for several years. He was appointed to the Legion of Honor in 1880. Subsequently he also devoted himself to portraiture. (wikipedia)

“Jason Koxvold (born in 1977 in Belgium) is a British artist and director based in New York City in the United States working in photography, interactive media and film. Early in his career he raced motorcycles in Scotland, England and California, finishing fifth in the 2000 SACU 125cc Grand Prix championship.” (wikipedia)

Check the commercials he’s been working on (as a creative director). Follow him on Tumblr.

Nicolae Comanescu is a Romanian artist living in Bucharest. About this series:

“This is an exhibition with cityscapes and about common city trademarks. It is an exhibition with paintings literally resulting out of a mix of different city perspectives. The perspectives of the city dweller such as you and me, of Nicolae Comanescu the city artist, of everybody who enjoys an active live in the middle of a modern metropolis such as Bucharest, New York, London, Berlin or Paris. (by Stefan Tiron read more)

Check (one of) his blog. See also the “Dust 2.0” series.

“All my favourite buildings in the Mile End neighbourhood of Montreal. Orginally commissioned by Drawn & Quarterly for their bookbags.”

Matt Forsythe is “an illustrator and comic-book artist from Montreal, Canada”. Visit his official website: www.comingupforair.net

About Roz Chast:

“Rosalind “Roz” Chast (born November 26, 1954) is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker. She grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, the only child of an assistant principal and a high school teacher who subscribed to The New Yorker. Her earliest cartoons were published in Christopher Street and the The Village Voice. In 1978 The New Yorker accepted one of her cartoons and has since published more than 800. She also publishes cartoons in Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review. (wikipedia)

Artist’s statement:

“On a quiet winter night, I looked out a window. I could see a building far away, the windows where illuminated, and I could vaguely make out people inside their apartments. When I imagined what they might be doing, my mind fluttered between wild fantasies and mundane clichés. I was curious to compare my expectations to the reality of their lives. After months of continuous observation in different parts of the city I collected hundreds of photographs of strange, comical, and often haunting moments. At times, I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of human nature when it was not guarded, not self-conscious and completely uninhibited. This provided me with a stage where it was possible to observe myself in the most secret and vulnerable moments of others.” (read more).

See more press coverage for this specific series.

See the same photo over at the Library of Congress Online Catalog (call number LC-H261- 29972[P&P]). No known restrictions on publication. About the Harris & Erwin Collection :

“The Harris & Ewing Collection of photographic negatives includes glass and film negatives taken by Harris & Ewing, Inc., which photographed people, events, and architecture, particularly in Washington, D.C., during the period 1905-1945. Harris & Ewing, Inc., gave its collection of negatives to the Library in 1955.” (read more)

Learn more about Harris & Ewin studio.

Previously on Skandalon.

“Examine Netflix rental patterns, neighborhood by neighborhood, in a dozen cities. Some titles with distinct patterns are Mad Men, Obsessed and Last Chance Harvey.”

In New York City, people who watch Mad Men mainly live in the Financial District and in Downtown Brooklyn. Those are two of the most important central business district of NYC.

This photo is part of the Gottscho-Schleisner Collection hosted by The Library of Congress (perm. link). The collection can be searched by keywords and by subjects.

Overview of the collection: “The Gottscho-Schleisner Collection is comprised of over 29,000 images primarily of architectural subjects, including interiors and exteriors of homes, stores, offices, factories, historic buildings, and other structures. Subjects are concentrated chiefly in the northeastern United States, especially the New York City area, and Florida. Included are the homes of notable Americans, such as Raymond Loewy, and of several U.S. presidents, as well as color images of the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair. Many of the photographs were commissioned by architects, designers, owners and architectural publications, and document important achievements in American 20th-century architecture and interior design.”

More about Samuel H. Gottscho: “The Gottscho-Schleisner collection is the work of two architectural photographers, Samuel H. Gottscho [1875 - 1971] and William H Schleisner [1912 - 1962]. Samuel Gottscho acquired his first camera in 1896. From 1896 to 1920 he photographed part time specializing in houses and gardens as he particularly enjoyed nature, country scenes and landscapes.” (read more). Learn more on Wikipedia.

Published by the American Library Association. Subject : Soldier moving from trenches to city over a bridge of books.

About the DocSouth project : “Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes thirteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs. The University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sponsors Documenting the American South, and the texts and materials come primarily from its southern holdings. The UNC University Library is committed to the long-term availability of these collections and their online records. An editorial board guides development of this digital library.” (read more)

More propaganda posters related to World War I at the DocSouth project.

Dan McCarthy: “Power line 5”, ink on paper, 8”x12”, 2001