Meles meles wrote:

(and I'm repeating this) at least one as yet unrevealed artist has already appeared here as the painter of another eggy work.

Does this mean that No. 6 is also by Salvador? It really does look like a Dali.

Dali it is - the last I think - a detail from Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937).

I was on a wild tangent with No. 21. I had vaguely thought that it looked a bit Arts and Crafty was was, perhaps, something by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Your comment, however, that it was by a veteran of the German army has got me thinking that it could be by Paul Klee.

No it's not Paul Klee, although having now looked at some of his stuff online I can well see why you came to that conclusion. So that was a damned good guess (and thanks for introducing me to Klee).

Are we ready yet for some hints for the last few? Perhaps if I were to give mention, or even post images, of some other better-known works by these artists, then that might make their identity much more obvious. Nevertheless with the two Dutch Market-Seller paintings, it might be easier just to give the answers: if you know, then you know. Otherwise those two are always going to be very difficult unless you have a specific interest in Dutch Old Masters ... or in botany or historic cooking, as both those artists' paintings have proved vital in tracing the introduction of New World produce into northern Europe.

If it's not Klee then maybe it's Dadaist. In which case I'll guess at Max Ernst.

P.S. No need for hints just yet and certainly no need to 'just give the answers'. I, for one, am enjoying the quiz.

Understood ...

But yes it is indeed Max Ernst, The Inner Vision: The Egg (1929). So very well done.

The action and folkyness of No. 25 makes me think that it might be by Jan Steen. That said - I don't know if his work is particulary known as being a reference regarding botany, the history of cooking and the Columbian Exchange etc.

Sorry Viz, I missed your last post suggesting No.25 was by Jan Steen. But no, I'm afraid it isn't.

We're over onto page 2 now and I think I should repost the last remaining ones so that we don't have to keep scrolling back-and-forth and up-and-down. But I'll do that a bit later if I may as it's a lovely day here and I am currently occupied in potting on my young tomato and courgette plants, and in cutting back some rampant bamboo. In the words of Christopher Robin, "Bisy Backson".

If No. 25 isn't by Jan Steen then I'll guess at Pieter de Hooch.

P.S. On the question of hints, if a way out and incorrect guess is made then maybe an additional clue might be appropriate in that particular case. 

I think 23 is Cracked Egg (Blue) by Jeff Koons.

No. 23 is indeed Cracked Egg (Blue) by Jeff Koons, well done.

Which leaves just these four:

No. 12


No. 19


No. 25


No. 28


I'll add that the first two of these are illustrations in books: No.12 is titled 'The Cosmic Egg' and is in an 1808 book ostensibly on alchemy and metaphysics, while No.19 is entitled ''Les marchands cassèrent l’œuf de rokh' (The merchant's break the roc's egg) and so is clearly an illustration from an edition (publ. 1865) of the Voyages of Sinbad. I think the two artists' styles are quite distinctive.

Similarly it isn't giving too much away to say that No. 25 is called 'The Egg Dance', and that No.28 is titled 'The Four Elements: Air' and is clearly one of a series illustrating market produce relating to the four elements (though I never knew rabbits could fly).

I had cropped both pictures to focus on the eggs so here they are in full,

No. 25


No. 28

Meles meles wrote:

No.19 is entitled 'The merchant's break the roc's egg' and so is clearly an illustration from an edition (publ. 1865) of the Voyages of Sinbad.

That must be by engraver William Harvey who illustrated Edward Lane's The Thousand and One Nights: Commonly Called, in England, the Arabian Nights' Entertainments a bowlderised Victorian translation of Antoine Galland's Les mille et une nuits (1704) which was mentioned a while back on the fictional people thread.

Meles meles wrote:

No. 25 is called 'The Egg Dance'

For clarification - does this mean that it's not by Pieter de Hooch as suggested earlier?

No.19 isn't William Harvey. I wasn't entirely correct, for which I apologise, but the title of that particular print is actually 'Les marchands cassèrent l’œuf de rokh' as it originally appeared in a French publication. Although to be fair the artist is widely known for his illustrations in plenty of English-language and British-published works too. I've also enlarged the above image to make it a bit clearer.

And No. 25 is not by Pieter de Hooch - it is by a chap named Pieter but one who lived about a century before Mijnheer de Hooch.

For No. 25, I was going to suggest a contemporary of de Hooch and Steen which was Adriaen van Ostade who also painted in a folky style. But as you say (and thanks for the full picture) the scene and clothes are much closer to the 15th Century than the 17th. Your other clues also point to it being by Pieter Aertsen, who as you rightly guessed, I'd not heard of before.

No.25 - yes it's Pieter Aertsen who painted 'The Egg Dance' in 1552.

Meles meles wrote:

the title of that particular print is actually 'Les marchands cassèrent l’œuf de rokh' as it originally appeared in a French publication. Although to be fair the artist is widely known for his illustrations in plenty of English-language and British-published works too.

So if it wasn't William Harvey, a Geordie from the north-east of England, then it was an Alsatian from the north-east of France, a generation younger and an artist with a prolific output - Gustave Doré.

Yes it's Gustave Doré. The illustration comes from 'Le Magasin Pitoresque' which was a popular French weekly, later monthly, magazine, similar in many ways to 'The Illustrated London News' for which Doré also produced illustrations. I suspect the tales of Sinbad's voyages were serialised over several issues and they may have been eventually published together in a single volume as the caption is sometimes given slightly differently as 'Les marchands cassèrent l’œuf à coups de hache'.

I think no. 12 might be William Blake - Vala, or the Four Zoas.

Yes it's William Blake, The Cosmic Egg, as you say originally from his uncompleted prophetic book Vala, or The Four Zoas which was never published (at least not in its entirety) although some plates were used in other works. The Cosmic Egg picture was published in 1808 in an obscure treatise on alchemy written by Alexander Roob, perhaps in collaboration with Blake (it would have been right up his street). I find Blake's artistic style - and often strange subject matter - quite distinctive, although I suspect the image I posted is little known compared to his some of his illustrations accompanying the poem, 'Jerusalem and the Emancipation of the Giant Albion', or, for example, his painting representing Isaac Newton which formed the basis for the large bronze sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi (1995) outside the new British Library.



That leaves just No.28, the painting of the two rosy-cheeked Dutch market traders with their rabbits, poultry and fresh eggs.

It's Joachim Beuckelaer - The Four Elements: Air. I can't claim any cleverness.  I found it on the National Gallery site.

Eggsactly! That's the man.

I can't claim any great knowledge of Joachim Beuckelaer myself, although I have become vaguely familiar with some of these obscure Dutch market-vendor paintings from books on the history of food and cooking. Joachim Beuckelaer came from a family of painters, all working in much the same style: his brother Huybrecht was a successful artist as was their father Mattheus, while his father's sister Kathelijne married Pieter Aertsen (who painted no. 25) and of their eight children, three sons, Pieter, Aert and Dirk also became successful painters.

And thus concludes this Easter egg hunt.

Chapeau to LiR for getting that last one. 

And thanks to Meles for setting such a brilliant quiz. It was cracking!

Vizzer wrote:

Chapeau to LiR for getting that last one. 

And thanks to Meles for setting such a brilliant quiz. It was cracking!

 
You are quite the wit, Vizzer.  I endorse the thanks to MM for compiling the quiz.