The Moon in Art (or The Dead Artist Moon Society)

THE DEAD ARTISTS' MOON SOCIETY

Bella, Chagall, Cigolo, Cro Magnon Man, Dali, Delvaux, Doyle, Dore, Elsheimer, Ernst, Gogh, Goya, Hiroshige, Homer, Kandinsky, Magritte,
Millais, Miro, Mondrian, Mucha, Munch, Murillo, Neer, O'Keefe, Palmer, Pirosmani, Rembrandt, Rousseau, Turner, Vinci, Warhol,
Wijnen, Wright, Yositoshi. (Compiled by John Moore - Homepage)

Rousseau, Henri

Cigoli, Lodevico Cardi

Gogh, Vincent van

Mucha, Alphonse

Turner, J. M. W.

Goya, Francisco de

Vinci, Leonardo da

Hiroshige, Andō

Murillo, Bartolome Esteban

Dalí, Salvador

Neer, Aert van der

Wijnen, Domenicus van

Kandinsky, Wassily

O' Keefe, Georgia

Magritte, Henri

Yoshitoshi, Tsukioka

Millais, John Everett

Pirosmani, Niko

Elsheimer, Adam

Rijn, Rembrandt van

BALLA

"Street Light" by Giacomo Balla - 1871 - 1958

CIGOLI

"Immacolata" (Virgin of the Immaculate Conception) by Lodevico Cardi (known as Cigolo) - 1559 - 1613

In most holy paintings of the16th and 17th centuries showing the blessed Mother Mary standing on the Moon, the lunar
representation was sometimes of a pristine, smooth appearance in a waning crescent position (that is, as seen
in Bartolome Murillo's painting below). However, as Cigoli was a close friend of Galileo, and was well aware
of his lunar observations, he has painted the Moon here from a waxing crescent perspective with both irregular and
pitted marks that represent the craters Galileo saw through his homemade telescope.

CHAGALL

(1) "Equestrienne (L'écuyère)" (2)"Lovers near Bridge" (3)"The Painter to the Moon" by Marc Chagall - 1887 - 1985

CRO-MAGNON MAN

"Brown Horse in Lascaux Caves, France" by Cro Magnon Man - 15000 years ago

The 29 dots shown here below the brown horse are thought to represent the moon's 29-day cycle. Half way through the series a small group (loop) of dots are seen, which may have been painted to represent the full Moon when it wasn't seen in the sky for several days.

DALI

(1) "Still Life by the Light of the Moon" (2)"Big Thumb. Beach. Moon and Decaying Bird" by Salvador Dalí - 1904 - 1989

DELVAUX

"Sleeping Venus" by Paul Delvaux - 1897 - 1994

Delvaux painted the 'Sleeping Venus' in Brussels in response to bombing of the city during WWII

DOYLE

(1) "A Fairy and a Knight" (2) "Dancing Fairies" (3) "The Knight and the Spectre" by Richard Doyle 1824 - 1883

DORE

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Gustave Dore

ELSHEIMER

"Flight into Egypt" by Adam Elsheimer - 1578 - 1610

Left: This painting is considered the first to depict the Moon (in an actual painting) with a naturalistic approach.
Elsheimer begun the painting in 1609 in Rome, and finished it in 1610... (the date Siderius Nuncius was published!).
Scott L. Montgomery has a long passage on this painting (p. 130-132) in his book
'The Moon and the Western Imagination' - Review written by Jacques Thibault

Right: Close-up view of the Moon in the painting showing dark regions that may, in fact, be the Maria (lava deposits).

ERNST

"The Entire City" by Max Ernst - 1891 - 1976

VAN GOGH

(1) "Starry, Starry Night" (2) Moonrise" by Vincent van Gogh - 1853 - 1890

Several years ago, three scientists (Donald Olson, Russell Doescher and Marilynn Olson) from Southwest Texas State University investigated van Gogh's 'Moonrise' painting above to look for the scene - they found it by referring to the mountains and house in the painting. To many, it was believed that van Gogh had painted a sunset, however, they were able to pinpoint, roughly, the date (between May 16 and July 13, 1889) when he actually produced it, and they used software and lunar tables to see when the Moon would have risen in that location. The Sun, it was found, to have set in the opposite direction, so the title fits the painting today.

DE GOYA

"The Witches' Sabbath" by Francisco De Goya y Lucientes - 1746 - 1828

HIROSHIGE

(1) "Full Moon at Seba c.1837" (2) "Moon Viewing Pine, Ueno" (2) Autumn View Over Tama River. From the Series Eight Views of the Environs of Edo" by Andō Hiroshige - 1797 - 1858

HOMER

"Kissing the Moon" by Winslow Homer - 1836 - 1910

KANDINSKY

"Picture XVI, The Great Gate of Kiev" by Wassily Kandinsky

MAGRITTE

(1) "Le Chef D'Oeuvre ou Les Mysteres de L'Horizon" (2) "The Blank Page" by Henri Magritte - 1889 - 1967

MILLAIS

"The Moon is Up, and Yet it Is not Night" by John Everett Millais - 1829 1896

The title is a quotation from Lord Byron's 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'

MIRO

(1) "Dog Barking at the Moon" (2) " Bathing Woman" by Joan Miró

MONDRIAN

"Trees by the Gein at Moonrise" by Piet Mondrian -- 1872 - 1944

MUCHA

"The Moon and the Stars. The Moon" by Alphonse Mucha - 1860 - 1939

The above painting forms part of four in a series from "The Moon and the Stars"

MUNCH

"Moonlight" by Edvard Munch - 1863 - 1944

MURILLO

"La Immaculada Concepcion de Soult" (The Immaculate Conception of the Venerable Ones, or of Soult)
by Bartolome Esteban Murillo - 1617 - 1682

NEER

"Canal Scene by Moonlight" by Aert van der Neer - 1603 - 1677

O'KEEFE

(1) "New York with Moon" (2) "Pelvis with Shadows and the Moon" by Georgia O'Keefe - 1887 - 1986

PALMER

"A Cornfield by Moonlight with the Evening Star" by Samuel Palmer - 1805 - 1881

PIROSMANI

"A Bear in a Moon Night" by Niko Pirosmani - 1862 - 1918

REMBRANDT

"The Nightwatch" by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - 1606 - 1669

The wonderful use of light here in this painting is believed to be either from the Moon, a low-set Sun or from torches. It has not yet been established which was the true source used, however, for now, let's presume that the Moon may have played, in part, a role.

ROUSSEAU

(1) "A Carnival Night" (2) "Sleeping Gypsy" (3) "The Snake Charmer" by Henri Rousseau - 1844 - 1910

TURNER

(1) "The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to be Broken Up" (2) "Moonlight" by J. M. W. Turner - 1775 - 1851

The Moon is located close to the upper left corner (note it's reflection) in the Fighting Temeraire painting.

DA VINCI

Moon Sketch by Leonardo Da Vinci - 1452 - 1519

WARHOL

"Moon Suite" by Andy Warhol - 1928 - 1987

WIJNEN

"The Temptation of St. Anthony" by Domenicus van Wijnen (aka: Ascanius) - 1661 - 1720

WRIGHT

"Dovedale by Moonlight" by Joseph Wright - 1734 - 1797

This wonderful view is of Dovedale valley in Derbyshire, England. Wright's moonlit landscape may have been influenced by those of German artist, Adam Elsheimer, but it has been suggested that he didn't actually paint the above scene from nature - Quote: "Moon lights & fire lights are but a sort of work with me for I can't with impunity go out at night and study the former, and the latter I have seen but once, and at a time too, when I thought not of painting such effects."

YOSHITOSHI

"Musashi Plain" by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi - 1839 1892

The above image is just one of a hundred found in this artist's series entitled "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon". The series were produced from woodblock prints and each links together ancient stories from Japanese and Chinese legend and history. They also show the artist's own social comment about his country's glorious past in an approaching western ideology - forced into Japan during the 1860s.