Winter
Summer
Spring
Fall
February 22, 2005: Philadelphia Museum of Art: While Val and I were waiting to see the Dali exhibition, we stumbled across an artist that neither one of us had ever heard of before, Belgian Symbolist, Leon Frederic. The images featured here are from Frederic’s “Four Seasons”. The series portrays the four seasons symbolically with four child angels of Spiring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Frederic’s incredible workmanship and lyrical visualization have made him a new favorite of ours. Here are the four seasons, side by side:
In all of my years of art history somehow this genius was never mentioned. Perhaps it is the new focus on realism and a reexamination of movements outside of modernism that has brought Frederic to the surface after years of obscurity. It is great to see realism and abstraction and fantasy all getting their own fair recognition.
The second image is from the same series and features Summer. We’ve shown all of the images from this series. You should see the angels in person, however. They’re extraordinary! You can visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art and learn more about Leon at Whitford Fine Art and see more of his work on the I am a Child Blog.
I can’t believe this! I, too, spent time browsing before the Dali exhibit and became fascinated by the same artist and Season series. I have been trying unsuccessfully to locate the prints online to buy and came across your info. And, I live in Ringoes!!!! What a small world we live in!
Dear Anonymous,
What is even stranger, is when I was looking at these pieces in the museum, I was thinking that it was absurd that I had never seen prints of these, as I think that they would make incredible home decor pieces, and when I got home, I did a search to find who was selling prints of these incredible images. Unfortunately, I did not find any!!!
Frenchtowner.com
Anonymous said…
I too went to see the Dali exibit and got taken in the the paintings by Leon Frederic. Good News! The prints are available at the the gift shop in the museum. They are 11×14 prints and cost 12.95 for the set of 4. I bought 3 sets
you can buy the prints at
http://store.philamuseumstore.org/fourseasprin.html
And I happened upon your postings because — you’ll never believe this — we were in from North Jersey to visit the Dali exhibit and stumbled on these and I was looking for “Spring” online so I can print it out to see if it would make a nice tattoo! Though you only posted the other two images, I am grateful that someone posted a link to the Philly Museum store. We liked the one with the children bathing in the water, as well.
I was at the museum to work on a college project. I originally went to view and do my project on Pollack. But then I turned the corner and found the painting, The Source of Life. It’s the one with the babies in the stream. I was immediately attached and ended up doind my project on this piece. I absolutely loved it and immediately understood the sybolism before even readin on it. How could I have missed this painter after all these years? Highly recommended.
Frenchtowner.com said…
Dear Anon,
I don’t know how I missed this painter either in my art history classes except that maybe it was the anti-realism focus of my art history books, and my art teachers in the early 80’s.
I am glad you found Frederick also.