Details 1272 - It's got me stumped. And 1273.

Details 1272 was a detail that I could not identify. If some readers of this blog managed to identify it, you deserve to be congratulated and to win!

The result published today states that the picture is by Samuel Prout and is titled "Dover". No-one managed to send in a correct answer. This is another example of Jenny Gilbert using a detail that followers of the competition could not find. I have mentioned before that in all the years of Tom Lubbock's stewardship, there was, I believe, only one occasion when the detail was unidentified.

Once again, the painting is in the United States, where many of Jenny Gilbert's selections are to be found. It is stated to be in The Morgan Library, New York.

I can find no full size version on the internet. There is no record of it in the search facility of the Morgan Library that I can find. Here is the one published in the Independent on Sunday:

Finally, I could not find 1273, either. This was a drawing, and drawings are notoriously difficult to find. We shall see next week.

Detail 1273

08.11.15 There was some improvement on last week's "No winner". This week there was a single winner who guessed the artist correctly. However, although Ms Gilbert states that the aquatint was the inspiration for a set of drawings and poems (in the form of an early comic) titled "The Tour of Dr Syntax in search of the Picturesque, A Poem", she does not give the title of the aquatint from which the detail was taken. Nor does she state where it is to be found.

09.11.15

The artist was Thomas Rowlandson.

14.11.15

Details 1269

Though I recognised the style of the detail for 1269, I spent a long time identifying it.

However, eventually I found the original, which is in the Swindon Art Gallery and Museum:

Details 1267 and 1268

The Problem of Identification

The detail for Competition 1267 was in one sense, easy to identify. It was very much a painting by Turner. However, the difficulty lay in finding the painting and its title. It took me a great deal of searching before I located it. Once again, as often with Jenny Gilbert's selections, it was from a Museum in the United States (The Morgan).

Original detail

Wreck on the Goodwin Sands

Details 1268

Details 1268 was another detail whose identification eluded me for a long time. As the "answer" has not yet been published, I remain in a little doubt. The problem that I encountered here was partly one of attribution. I felt confident that it was by Frans Hals or a follower of Frans Hals, but pinning down the detail to a specific painting was quite tough. The one I eventually decided was unfortunately only to be found in black and white. There were others in colour, but seemed to me to be from slightly different images. The variations in titles are also unhelpful. Most similar pictures are not by Hals himself. 

Original detail

There is a similar detail in a painting in the Louvre. Child with a Soap Bubble.

Tete d'enfant - Abbeville - musée Boucher de Perthes

Head of a Boy facing left with a Flute

   

We shall see.

Jenny Gilbert hedges her bet somewhat and does not state if the picture is by Hals, or a follower, just that versions are contested. However, the detail comes from the Abbeville - musée Boucher de Perthes painting.

Details 1262

Another detail that only one person could find. My recollection is that this happened only once in Tom Lubbock's time, when no-one got the answer.

It would be appropriate and an improvement if Jenny Gilbert gave the location of these minor and obscure paintings.

For the readers of this blog, the painting can be found in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.

Title	Portrait of a Dutch Naval Commander (Willem van der Zaen?)
Alternative Title	Portrait of a Dutch Rear-Admiral Artist Helst, Bartholomeus van der (Dutch painter, 1613-1670) Date 1662 (dated)

Details 1260 Another Gallery in the USA

Jenny Gilbert seems to use a significant proportion of galleries in the USA for her details picks. In 1260, I might have thought the painting was from a head dress or decoration, North American Indian style.

But it is actually a flying bird, a parakeet, painted by Edward Lear. It's in the Morgan Library in New York. I wonder if Jenny Gilbert will mention that?

Details 1259 Another Mystery

I certainly could not find the answer to Competition 1259. It seems that all except two others were in the same pickle.

I did try to search for it through Memento Mori subjects, which it is. However, its title gives no clue as it is simply  "A Vase of Flowers" by Nicolaes Lachtropius, a painter who I confess has escaped me. Jenny Gilbert compliments the two readers who identified it, but fails to tell the rest of us where the painting can be found - The Fitzwilliam Museum. I wonder if she knew.

Details 1248

A somewhat odd clue from Ms Gilbert this week. Reference to a stamp. As far as I can see there is no stamp in the picture.

Christmas Details 2014 - Answers

The answers to the Christmas Competition were published last weekend. The results are to be found below. There is little to be said except that Tom Lubbock never laid "crafty tripwires". Others may wish to comment.

 

Christmas Details Competition - Head Games

Christmas Details 2014 - There are 24 details to find this year. The theme is hats and headgear. I do not think the details are difficult to identify, so there will be no despair this year. Consequently, it is likely that there will be a large number of entrants with the all the correct answers. Arguably, that is in the spirit of Christmas. I won't be posting up the competition images while the paper is still on sale.

I noticed that the competition is online, so readers can go here to see the competition images:

 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/christmas/entertainment/christmas-details-competition-who-is-beneath-the-hats-in-these-wellknown-paintings-9936255.html

The only other comment I have is that there are two paintings included which are by the same painter.

Another Detail that no-one could identify

It's happened again. This time no-one was able to identify a detail chosen by Jenny Gilbert (Competition 1224).

It was from Forging the Anchor by Stanhope Forbes

Jenny Gilbert states that "no correct solutions (or indeed guesses) came in".

I can only recollect one other occasion when this happened in Tom Lubbock's time. I suspect it partially reflects a lack of interest caused by the downgrading of the prize from champagne to prosecco. There is little incentive except for the personal satisfaction. I suspect many aesthetically visually erudite regulars have abandoned the competition.

One wonders if some Christmas cheer might emerge so that the Christmas Competition, shortly to be published, will once again reward any winning competitors with champagne?

DETAILS 1193 - A CASE OF POOR REPRODUCTION

I wonder if others looking at the Details Competition last week found the reproduction of the detail for Competition number 1193 to be unacceptably poor? I suppose this is the new era of prosecco prizes, so anything is possible.

I think it might be better to offer a bottle of champagne to the "first out of the hat", rather than the print prize, with runners up receiving prosecco, though I accept others might disagree.

If anyone could not identify the detail for 1193 as a result of the poor colour reproduction, it was from a painting by Edouard Vuillard.

Details 1191 The End of the Champagne Years

This Competition marks the end of an era. Anyone who won before this week's competition can count themselves lucky. The champagne has run out. The cellars of the Independent on Sunday can now only accommodate.....Prosecco. The man who is the answer to this week's competition, too, is perfectly in tune with a downgrading of the sensory pleasures, ironically enough. Though perhaps Jenny Gilbert is making a point for Alexander Lebedev, who is reportedly seeking to offload the loss-making paper(s). I am not entirely sure if the owner is Alexander Lebedev or his son, Evgeny, as I have access only to Wikipedia on these points, but the Telegraph indicates as follows:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/10576763/Independent-owner-Lebedev-looking-for-buyers.html

"Mr Lebedev has had to prop up years of losses at IPL, which made an operating loss of £17.5m in the year to September 2012, the most recent set of figures.

Last year, he warned that efforts to destroy his businesses in Russia meant he was not making enough money to sustain The Independent's losses. The former KGB spy said his banking and airline businesses had been ruined with only his potato farming operation remaining lucrative."

Details 1187 - Another obscure print from the United States - Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

One can only say "I told you so" about these impossible print details. We have ended up at the logical consequence of Jenny Gilbert's policy: few, if any can find the details of such prints. The Christmas Competition was proof of this. This recent detail 1187 has achieved something which has not happened for 20 years - there were not three winners, only one correct answer. I hardly see how this will encourage anyone to take an interest in the Competition, or indeed, buy the paper.

A recent correspondent has noted that a very large number of details come from the Art Institute of Chicago and another that many come from the same reference book. It would be interesting to know if the said reference book contains this obscure Altdorfer print.

I think that J Knapman of Weybridge deserves all three bottles this week. (I think it's at least his/her tenth win in ten years or more, so s/he deserves it.)

Salome with the Head  of John the Baptist - Albrecht Altdorfer

Details 1184

Well today and last week we were free, mercifully, from the drawings of infants and cherubs, although the last one - 1182 - was Cupid. Few competitors found the Barocci Cupid, in my opinion, as only long in the tooth regulars were winners. Certainly this week (1184) is a distinct change of scene and indeed not from the Art Institute of Chicago. Quite challenging, I think, and likely to lead in a number of false directions.  

Details 1182

Details 1182

One might have thought that the Details devotees had received enough punishment over the Christmas period searching for image number 9, the Rodin sketch. Apparently not, as were are once again presented with sketch/study/drawing of an infant. It was pointed out to me by a correspondent that number 9 in the Christmas Competition and indeed last week's Bronzino are not in fact paintings, yet Ms Gilbert continues to refer to them as paintings. At least this week's painting (which it is not) is not held in the Art Institute of Chicago.

The elusive detail number 9 in the Christmas Competition was from the drawing below.

I believe that the full result will be published next Sunday.
 

Details returns to normal

After the challenge of the 16 detail Christmas Competition which lingered long after Christmas, we return to the more sedate single detail weekly puzzle. I wonder if others have noticed that there are more details from 19th and 20th centuries and very few now from the Renaissance period.  

Christmas Details 2013

This year's Christmas Competition was published last Sunday. I think that most regular entrants will find that most of the paintings are quite well known, or at least, not that difficult to track down. However, at the time of posting, I am still looking to identify one detail. Good luck to everyone.

The Answers to Christmas Details 2013

Details 1177

This was another detail that eluded me, though it seemed somehow familiar.

This turned out to be by George Frederick Watts. It is one of several versions of Time, Death and Judgement.

Tomorrow, the Christmas Competition will be published. It will be interesting to see if it will be as difficult as last year's. Normally, there are one or two details which entrants state were the hardest to find. 

Details Competition Number 1172

In my opinion, the detail which has been published in this week's New Review has been reversed. It is printed in the New Review as follows:

However, I think that the original of this, the portrait from which it is taken, looks to the right rather than to the left. It was a challenge to locate the original and I was mislead by my thinking to believe that it was later than it actually is.

Posted on Sunday17th. By the way, this was by Van Dyck and was a portrait of Lucas Vorsterman. I would place it as the second most difficult to find of the current year.

Posted Saturday 23rd. It's possible that there are number of similar paintings and etchings some of which may be looking to the left or to the right. 

Most difficult detail so far this year was 1149:

The answer to this was :

Portrait of Lady Thynne by Anonymous.

Christmas Details Competition from Times Gone By 1992 to 2000

Christmas Details 1992 to 2000

I am indebted to Jenny, a correspondent to this Blog who has sent images of these earlier Christmas Competitions to me. It is a strange experience for me to see these for the first time after so many years. For anyone who wishes to pit their wits against these, I have cropped them to remove any scribbled answers (as far as possible).

Christmas Details 1992 - The First Competition - "Christmas Quiz"

Christmas Details 1993 -  "Christmas Details" - Fine Art Sweets and Chocolates

Christmas Details 1994 - "Christmas Details" - No theme

I see here the Sickert portrait of Edward VIII which appeared in a later Christmas Conmpetition and which I was unable to find.

Christmas Details 1995 - "Christmas Details" - Theme - Red Patches

Christmas Details 1996 - "Christmas Details" - Theme - Diagonals

Christmas Details 1997 - "Christmas Details" - Theme - Flat Patches

Christmas Details 1998 - "Christmas Details" - Theme - Points of Light

Christmas Details 1999 - Theme - Advent Calendar

Christmas Details 2000 - Theme - Darkness Visible - Silhouettes

Christmas Details Competition from Times Gone By 2001-2009

Looking through my Details records, the Christmas Competitions stand out. Perhaps the reason for this is the time spent over long dark days, sometimes in inhospitable libraries, though I once remember finding Poussin's   Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion while browsing through Sister Wendy's 1000 Masterpieces in W H Smith's, a book which I subsequently bought. 

The intrinsic value of the Christmas Details Competition is not in the completion of the hunt for the answers, but in the ongoing process of searching itself, followed by the reward of finding each answer. The longer the detail eludes identification, the greater the satisfaction at finding it. My comments recently about the software that is now available to assist the competitors do reflect a feeling that I have which is that competitors with no knowledge of or interest in art history can find the answers and indeed win a competition by pressing buttons on a smartphone. Tom Lubbock used to congratulate the winners, but such congratulations would be empty, I think, if all their efforts consisted in using crude image searches. 

Not wishing to be a hypocrite, I do admit that I use the resources of Google and other library resources myself, but I hope not in a mechanistic way. Does this matter? It matters to me as the Competition is about art and invites the competitor to use her/his knowledge of art, not just to operate a search programme. So in 2009, I was unable to find one last detail, which was the hand of a St John the Baptist. I eventually found it by searching through Tom Lubbock's series of "Great Works" where I found that he had featured the picture in one of his critical essays. This gave me immense satisfaction as I had found the last answer and it also enriched my knowledge of Phillipe de Champaigne.

I am aware that there has been quite a number of views of this Blog in recent days and one or two correspondents have written to me. I can't answer correspondence at present but I shall do so after 7th January. 

Relatively speaking, I think that the Christmas Competition has got easier in recent years. 

There is a traditional toast at Christmas for "absent friends". For me, in this Blog, this brings to mind the late Tom Lubbock, a truly original critic, refreshingly fearless in his opinions who approached works of art from unexpected angles and sowed seeds of thinking that continue to bloom. Though I never met him, he was still a kind of friend through his writings and remains so.

Following that line of thinking, I have decided to put up Christmas Competitions from years gone by. My original pages from the Review are beginning to oxidize and decay. Putting them here will prolong their life! I am putting up Christmas Competitions from 2001-2009 inclusive as that is all I have from Tom Lubbock's years. One day, I may try to obtain the earlier competitions from the 1990's.  Apologies for the scrawl and scribble on the originals that was added in those years of endeavour. I did not find all the answers in every year. I have also got the "Answers" which Tom Lubbock published in the following January. I could put these up here if anyone is interested.

Any comments are welcome here.

If anyone has copies of the competitions prior to 2001 and can post them up here or send an image to me, it would be much appreciated. I have got the answers, but I have no idea which details were included in the competitions.

One final point I would make is that some of the earlier competitions were exceptionally difficult, resulting in one year in there being only 12 fully correct answers. Consequently, it can be a real test and there is nothing wrong with that.

Christmas Details 2001 - "Face off"

In 2001 I failed to find the answer to number 3 which was by "Anonymous, South Netherlandish". Tom Lubbock decided that entrants who gave the "wrong" answer to two other details were not to be penalised. I disagreed with him on this point and wrote to him at length, explaining what I thought. He wrote back to me as follows:

Dear

Thanks for your protest. It's like this. You have rules. But there will always be situations where it is not clear how those rules should be applied or interpreted - as the compendious history of law and legal rulings attests.

The Christmas Details results produced a tricky situation. Correct answers were required. But those two recurrent incorrect answers weren't incorrect in the normal way (eg rough guesses, or mix-ups with a similar picture). Rather, the contestants had identified the detail, had a reproduction of the correct picture in a book in front of them - but unfortunately their book gave them the wrong title. It seemed to me it was the book that was incorrect , not them. So the wrong answers were allowed. (At least, I know this is how the Bosch mistake occurred, about the Picasso I don't know, I only strongly presume, but allowing one, I allowed the other.) That's how I decided to apply/interpret the rule, the word "correct" - by the spirit not the letter.

Of course the decision is disputable. But the point is, it wasn't a concession to ignorance. The wrong-title people had identified the picture which the detail came from - and so those who gave the right titles weren't being robbed (and no naming or apologies needed). It was a concession to bad luck: precisely a matter of fairness, as I saw it. Though I could perfectly well have stuck to the letter, and just said "bad luck!" - hence mention of Christmas. (It strikes me that many, much more important matters also turn on somebody's decision to say, or not to say, "bad luck") But I wonder, if you'd been adjudicating this, whether you would actually have decided it differently.

Yours

Tom Lubbock

Christmas Details 2002 - "Straight Answers"

I recollect that this year I failed dismally to find more than half a dozen answers. There were only 12 fully correct entries. 

Christmas Details 2003 - "Drawn and Quartered"

Christmas Details 2004 - "Christmas Quilt"

I found these fabrics very interesting to spot as some of those which appeared to me to be from one era were in fact from another.

Christmas Details 2005 - "Christmas Posts"

I enjoyed this one, too. My last one here was the Munch, I think. I thought at one time that I would never find it. It is notable here that these were numbered vertically in columns. Poor Tom Lubbock was always the victim of the staff at the IoS who made mistakes...

Christmas Details 2006 - "White Lines"

This was the hardest competition that I ever succeeded in completing. For me, Number 1 was atrociously difficult. I only found it by a laborious process of examining the style of the lettering which eventually led me to Joan Miro through his squiggles and ultimately to Photo: This is the Colour of my Dreams. This search covered a period of several whole days. There was also an error here where the IoS staff included the same detail twice. I corresponded later as follows:

Dear Mr Lubbock
As one of your occasional correspondents about the Details Competition and a failed entrant for the 2006 competition (though with a correct set of answers), I wondered if you intended to use the "missing" picture from the 2006 Competition? "Missing" because Pierrot was included twice?
I should be intrigued to see what other difficult task could have lain in wait....
Are you likely to use this for one of the regular competitions? Or will it remain forever mysterious?
Yours sincerely


"Dear

Well, I didn’t see a copy of the paper that carried the results of the Xmas competition, but in the text that I wrote for it (which may have been cut, of course) I said that the detail that got lost was from Saenredam’s Interior of the Church of St Udolphus (1649). It would have showed an area of white wall with a bit of brown rafter peeping in. This painting has already appeared in the regular competition (Details 567) and so it won’t appear again – at least, I try not to do repeats, except in the Xmas competition, when the visual theme sets the agenda.

Yours sincerely
Tom Lubbock"

Looking at this now and Tom Lubbock's selection of images, it might have been something like this: 

Would I have been able to find that?

Christmas Details 2007 - "Can you get your head around these images?"

This was (another) year when I failed to find all the details. The details that eluded me were number 2 which was a portrait of Edward VIII by Sickert. I just could not decide what the image was of, it did not occur to me that it was a head-on view of a busby.  Number 5 was another error by the IoS staff who did not select the circular part in the painting but a tiny bit out of the top left hand corner of Bruegel's Children's Games. Nonetheless, some entrants managed to find the answer.

Christmas 2008 - "Can you get your head around these jumbled-up bodies?"

This was not too difficult.

Christmas 2009 - "It's all in the Details"

As I noted earlier, number 8 of John the Baptist caused me the most trouble.

This was the last Christmas Details that Tom Lubbock put together as he was very seriously ill in 2010 and died in 2011.