The Herwigs
Edouard Antonin Vysekal
Print Only


The Herwigs
Print Only
£7.99

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  • Model:
    [10900_PRIN]
  • Artist: Edouard Antonin Vysekal

THIS PRODUCT IS MADE-TO-ORDER
All sizes are approximate.

LEAD TIMES:
Print + Free Delivery - 5 to 7 business days (Approx.)
Print + Tracked Delivery - 4 to 5 business days (Approx.)

INKS:
This premium art print is made using a Giclée process using official UV (pigment based) inks. These UV inks contain enhanced light stabilisers; offering far more durability than dye-based inks which under proper care will keep your piece of art looking fantastic for 100+ years.

PAPER:
MATT 200gsm - Fine Art Matt - is a fine art paper. A premium-quality heavyweight museum-quality paper with a smooth, clean finish.
MATT 310gsm - Hahnemuhle German Etching - is a premium paper. A heavy-duty paper with a textured finish, the velvety matt surface is optimised for high-contrast prints. 
GLOSS 240gsm - Lustre Photo Paper - A premium photographic paper with a satin lustre finish. The lustre finish provides a subtle pearl-like texture. Supporting deeper colour saturation than matt papers, this paper produces impressive colour depth and strikingly intense blacks.
GLOSS 260gsm - Hahnemuhle Photo Lustre - This specialist photo paper has a semi-gloss, velvet finish and guarantees long-lasting, fade-resistant prints. The paper has deeper colour saturation than matt paper, is thicker than traditional consumer papers and is more resistant to fingerprints and smudges.

BORDER:
If your print will be mounted when you frame it, leave us a comment under 'SPECIAL INSTRUCTION' of what size border you require and the colour. We will adjust your image for you and let you see the image with the border for approval before we print it.

PRODUCT IMAGES:
All sizes are approximate.
All images contained on this website are copyrighted property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

When necessary we digitally enhance the colours from the original, sometimes to restore them back to their former glory and other times to leave you with a print that pops with colour. Certain images will also be cropped and resized to fit their intended media. If you require your print to resemble the original as closely as possible then we would be more than happy to oblige. Contact our team via sales@smartfurnish.co.uk who will provide you with sample images of the original before you place your order.

 

Painting:
The Herwigs

Artist:
Edouard Antonin Vysekal

Date:
1828

In the catalogue for the Vysekal memorial exhibition held at the Los Angeles Museum in 1940, Arthur Millier declared The Herwigs to be "a landmark in the figure painting" of Southern California. During his lifetime Vysekal became best known for multifigured compositions evidencing his early academic training. He had an excellent command of anatomy and depicted his characters brimming with life, their physiques healthy and robust.

In The Herwigs he moved further from his training. Although Vysekal depicted fellow artist William K. Von Herwig and his family, the figures were only a means to exercise his interest in color abstraction. This becomes more apparent when the unusual presentation of the figures is considered: the mother sits inside on a window seat playing with the child while the father looks on from outside, his hands pressed against the window. The figures form a contemporary Holy Family: the placement of the father outside the house accords with the not uncommon practice of depicting Saint Joseph slightly apart from the Virgin and Child. The family is encircled by the Hollywood Hills, which the artist has transformed into a bright background of color and light. The child's gesture of stretching upward leads the viewer's eye toward the prismatic glass wind chime, which recalls the coloristic and formal experiments of modernist artists.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Edouard Antonin Vysekal was one of the early modernists active in Southern California. Born into a family of artists, he was introduced to art at an early age, attending the Industrial and Art Polytechnic School, Prague. After immigrating to the United States at age seventeen, he sought instruction first at the Art Institute of Saint Paul and then the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied with J. H. Vanderpoel and Harry M. Walcott. He taught at the Art Institute from 1912 to 1914, when he moved to California, his wife, Luvena Buchanan Vysekal, having received a mural commission for the Hotel Barbara Worth in El Centro, California.

The Vysekals settled permanently in Southern California and immediately became active in the local art life, both exhibiting in 1919 with the modernist group the California Progressive Painters and later with the Group of Eight. Vysekal's work won acclaim from both conservative and avant-garde critics because he demonstrated in his figure and still-life paintings the ability to retain a command of draftsmanship like the old masters' while exploring the potential of abstract color and form. Vysekal exhibited regularly in the annual exhibitions of the California Art Club, the Los Angeles Museum, and the California Watercolor Society. He inspired many Southern California painters through his teaching, first at the Art Students League of Los Angeles and at the Otis Art Institute, where he taught life drawing and landscape painting from 1922 till his death.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art