Stringfellow Hawke – Owner                   Margaret Albrecht – Researcher & Writer

Airwolf was an inspiration for many people.  I admit for most people it inspired an interest in aviation in general and helicopters in particular.  For me it was an inspiration to something else entirely.  An innocent impulse while redecorating my house to include some of the paintings I’d liked from the cabin led to what has so far been a seven year journey into a new world for me.  Without Airwolf I doubt I would have ever become interested in the world of Western Art.  It’s been a gift that’s enriched my life in a most unexpected way.  And, in putting together this gallery, I hope that it will, at the very least, give to you a new appreciation of the paintings in Stringfellow Hawke’s cabin.

Through the course of the three seasons of the original Airwolf there were 20 paintings visible – often barely and only very briefly visible – in the cabin set.  For ten paintings the original has been found, on others I have a fairly solid guess as to who the artist might be and still others we may never know anything about as the image was just never seen clearly enough to identify.  It’s an eclectic collection, notable for the fact that instead of including an artist’s best known painting, the paintings chosen by Donald Bellisario / Chuck Davis / Richard "Dick" Goddard tended – for the most part – to be lesser known works.  The paintings so far identified range from the 17th to the mid-20th century.

CD1-Bach Cello Suites by Vito Paternoster
(Note – You must allow scripts/Active X)

Unknown Portrait of  Jeanne Hébuterne (1917 - 1920)
Amedeo Modigliani – Italian, Expressionist Painter and Sculptor, b 1884 d 1920

Amedeo Modigliani  was a man who lived his life to excess in a way that Jan-Michael Vincent could sympathize with.  Drugs, alcohol, wild parties, Modigliani did them all.  In his 30’s he met a beautiful and talented 19 year old art student named Jeanne Hébuterne.  They fell deeply in love and Jeanne went with Modigliani despite her family’s objections both to his lifestyle and, above all, to the fact he was Jewish.  Although Modi and Jeanne’s relationship was tempestuous – and sometimes violent – she provided the only real stability he had found in his adult life.  They loved, fought, painted one another and had a baby daughter they named Jeanne.  But Modigliani had contracted tuberculosis as a child and it plagued him for the rest of his life.  When he was only 35, his body weakened by years of drunken binges and drug abuse, Modigliani developed tubercular meningitis.  An almost nine months pregnant Jeanne sat by the bedside of her dying love drawing sketches of suicide.  The day after Modi’s funeral, the pregnant Jeanne threw herself out of a fifth story window.  She was only 21 at the time.  For almost a decade her family refused to let her be buried beside Modigliani. But they finally relented and now the two lovers lie together.

Although I’ve never been able to locate this exact painting, Modigliani is my favorite artist of the 20th century so I’m absolutely positive this painting is based on his work.  You can see a very similar – maybe even identical – head and hairstyle in “Jeanne Hébuterne in Red Shawl (In Front of a Door)”  and  see the same background in “Jeanne Hébuterne with Hat and Necklace.” 

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889)
Vincent van Gogh – Dutch, Post-Impressionist, b 1853 d 1890
Oil on canvas – 60 cm (height) x 49 cm (width) (23.6 by 19.3 in)

Ah, who doesn't know the story of van Gogh gifted and disturbed, the tragically under appreciated Dutch painter who only ever sold one painting in his entire life and who cut off his own ear before finally committing suicide by shooting himself? 

In December 1888 two days before Christmas, after a fierce argument with his friend the painter Paul Gauguin, van Gogh sliced off part of his left ear with a razor and later gave it to a prostitute for safekeeping.  Why we’ll never know.  What we do know is that he painted this self-portrait in January 1889 after he got out of the hospital.  He also painted another self-portrait showing his bandaged ear, but this is the one Stringfellow Hawke’s grandfather stole.

For all the problems that he suffered, van Gogh had the foresight to predict one thing:
“I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.” 
In 1987 van Gogh’s “Irises” sold for what was then a world record price. 

“Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” was donated in 1948 to the Courtauld Institute Galleries in London – it must have been on loan to the Impressionist Museum in Paris when Gabrielle saw it.  The Vincent van Gogh Gallery has the only complete online collection.  Print available.

Unseen Painting I

Unknown Small Landscape with Water

The smallest painting on the set.  This looks like it’s a charming landscape.  I truly wish I could say more about it than that, but this landscape is going to be impossible to positively identify based on what was aired in the show.

Buffoon with a Lute / Portrait of Jester Playing a Lute (c. 1624 – 1625)
Frans Hals – Dutch, Baroque, b c. 1582 d 1666
Oil on canvas – 70 cm (height) x 62 cm (width) (27.6  by 24.4 in)

Frans Hals was fond of hanging out with entertainers.  So in looking at this painting you might think that it’s a portrait of the man in it, one of Hals’ musician friends. It’s not.  In that day and age, only the upper classes had portraits done.  Portraits were something that were commissioned.  So even though it’s a portrait and there’s the man in it, it’s not his portrait.  The man was probably being used allegorically.  An allegory of what?  I'll defer to the Musée du Louvre,  “Thus this lutist might well be an allegory of hearing or a lesson about the vanity of music, which by definition is ephemeral.” 

Unlike some of his contemporaries who tended to paint somber looking people, Hals’ works from this period are known for their joviality and spontaneity; he actually liked showing people enjoying themselves and being happy.  This painting is a fine example of that and perhaps it expresses how Stringfellow Hawke feels when he plays his Stradivarius cello even if he doesn’t seem to show it.

Unknown American Western
Possible H. W. Hansen – German-American, American Western, b 1854 d 1924
Watercolor – unknown size

You would expect this would be either a Charles Marion Russell or a Frederic Remington.  They are the two greats in the world of Old West cowboy paintings.  Especially since the Airwolf bible mentions the cabin having a Russell and this is the only Old West painting in the cabin, it’s logical to think this is a Russell.  But this image was sent to a museum that specializes in American Western art, particularly Russell and Remington.  It’s the opinions of the library director and the curator of art that it’s not a Russell or a Remington.  The curator suggested a Herman Hansen or a Rufus Zogbaum and the name of a university professor who also specializes in this area.  The professor agreed it’s not a Russell or Remington and said,  “probably not Zogbaum.  Herman Hansen seems a possibility.”

Herman Wendelborg Hansen was born in Germany but was destined to become an American.  As a child Hansen dreamed of the western frontier reading James Fenimore Cooper’s  “Leather Stocking Tales” and admiring the famous Indian paintings of  George Catlin.  In his early twenties Hansen immigrated to the U.S. but only made it as far west as Chicago.  Then in 1879 he finally got a chance to see the frontier for himself when he was offered a job painting advertisements for Northwestern Railways.  Hansen leaped at the chance, as he later said, “was young and anxious to see the western country. Once I got there, I stayed until I had made all the studies of Indians and buffalo I wanted.”

In 1882 Hansen settled in California (scroll down for Hansen scenic views) and from his home in San Francisco he would go on excursions to get material for his paintings.  Hansen lived to see and decry the passing of the West he loved so much saying,  “Tucson is killed from my point of view. They have shut down all the gambling houses tight, and not a gun in sight. Why the place hasn't the pictorial value of a copper cent any longer.”  

Hansen is best known for his incredible action paintings of horses  – in fact, after his death an art critic said of him that if Hansen ever painted “a canvas which did not hold a horse . . . I have not seen the picture.”
 

Unknown Portrait of a Young Girl
Paul Gauguin – French, Impressionist / Post-Impressionist, b 1848 d 1903

By today’s standards Paul Gauguin was a deadbeat dad and a pedophile.  He deserted his Danish wife Mette and five children in Europe.  If this is one of his paintings it was done during his Tahitian/Marquesas period where he was fond of shacking up with 13-14 year old girls.  Who knows?  This might even be one of them in the painting.  She looks young enough to be.  But this was a different time and place and 13 years old was considered a marriageable age.  He spent two years in Tahiti on his first trip there.  He returned to France leaving behind his Tahitian  “wife” Teha’amana in order to exhibit his paintings and earn some money, but the exhibition flopped – only 8 paintings sold.  His wife demanded he give up painting, he was seriously injured when a bunch of sailors assaulted him and then he got syphilis from a prostitute.  Gauguin decided to leave Europe permanently.  He returned to Tahiti in 1895 and immediately sent for Teha’amana.  But when Teha’amana left him after a couple of weeks, Gauguin found a 14 year old girl, Pau’ura.  In 1901 he deserted her and their son and moved to the Marquesas Islands where he promptly found yet another 14 year old girl to shack up with.  Gauguin stayed in the Marquesas where he lived hard and drank harder until his death in 1903 – the day before he was supposed to start serving a three month prison sentence.

The Airwolf bible mentions a Gauguin and I’ve believed for years that this was a Gauguin as I see a resemblance between this painting and others of his paintings like “Girl with a Fan.”  But I could never find it among his works.  (See MuseumSyndicate or Olga’s Gallery (has thumbnails) for a selection of Gauguin paintings.)  Although this particular painting still eludes me, the artist is no longer in question.  In the first season episode “To Snare a Wolf” when D. G. Bogard enters the cabin to confront Hawke, Bogard examines this painting and we get our closest view of it.  Amazingly, the signature “P Gauguin” is partially legible.

Girl with a Flute / Young Girl with a Flute (c. 1665 – 1670)
Attributed to Jan Vermeer (also known as Johannes Vermeer, Jan or Johannes van der Meer, Vermeer van Delft, Jan Vermeer van Delft and Vermeer of Delft) – Dutch, Baroque, b 1632 d 1675
Oil on panel – 20 cm (height) x 17.8 cm (width) (7⅞ by 7 in)

For such a tiny painting, “Girl with a Flute” has some big questions surrounding it.  Is it or isn’t a Vermeer?  Is it possible Vermeer started it, but someone else finished it?  When was it painted?  Is it some 19th century forgery?  If it is, that was either one incredibly meticulous or incredibly lucky forger because the wood of the panel has been dated to 1650.  Was or wasn’t a camera obscura used? As the first it was known to the world was in 1906, where did this painting come from?  Is that just a badly painted flute she’s holding or could it be a recorder? 

But the questions fit with someone whose life is so unknown.  Who taught Vermeer? Did he spend his entire life in Delft or did he go abroad to study art?  Why did he paint so few paintings?  How many paintings did he paint?  The current count is  between 32 and 36 surviving paintings.  Even the number of children he had ranges from  8 to 15.  Apparently he couldn’t support his wife and however many mouths he was feeding with his painting output, so how did he support them?  Was he an art dealer?  An innkeeper?  Who were Vermeer’s models?  Here’s my question, trivial as it may be – Why does one man have so many names?

There is some information about Vermeer, this painter of quiet domestic scenes now probably best known for the Mona Lisa of the North, “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” thanks to the Oscar nominated 2003 movie of the same name.  But though some facts are known about Vermeer’s life almost nothing is known about his paintings besides what can be gleaned from examining the paintings themselves.  And so I will leave you to glean what you will from this intimate portrait of this musically inclined young girl with the parted lips who stares directly at us.

Unknown Small Landscape with Tree

A late addition to the cabin, at least in this location.  In the first season this particular wall had no paintings.  Then in the third season episode “Airwolf II” this painting becomes visible.  Unfortunately this is as much as we ever saw of this landscape.

Location on the set:  On the wall between the kitchen and the main room

Unseen Painting II

This painting was never seen head-on.  But in the pilot episode, “Shadow of the Hawke,” when we get our very first view of the cabin interior you can see the vertical frame of a dark painting upstairs in the loft as Archangel and Gabrielle cross the living room and sit down at the bar.  No other paintings were ever visible in the loft.

I’ve amused myself with the thought that this painting might be of Belisarius.  After all, Don Bellisario was fond of in-jokes.  The title for the pilot was taken from the 1976 Jan-Michael Vincent movie “Shadow of the Hawk.”  And in the pilot, when Stringfellow needs an excuse to get away from Gabrielle and find a hiding place for Airwolf he comes up with scouting a canyon location for the crop duster chase of a Bellisario film.  I know if my company were called “Belisarius Productions” and I was putting together a collection of masterpieces for the cabin set I’d have included one of the paintings of the legendary Roman general.  Certainly “The Death of Belisarius’ Wife” has strong echoes of Stringfellow holding the dying Gabrielle in his arms.  The painting even matches as far as being a dark, vertical composition.

I will say this, if that unseen painting isn’t a painting of Belisarius they missed their chance for the ultimate in-joke.

Saskia as Flora / Flora (1634)
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn – Dutch, Baroque, b 1606 d 1669
Oil on canvas – 125 cm (height) x 101 cm (width) (49⅛ by 39¾  in)

Much like Stringfellow Hawke, Rembrandt had a life filled with loss.  Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh in 1634 the year this painting was done.  Throughout their marriage he painted her numerous times.  This one shows Saskia as Flora the goddess of spring and flowers.  Rembrandt painted Saskia as Flora three separate times, here in 1634 and in paintings he did in 1635 and 1641.  This depiction of Flora is the one that hangs in the cabin stairwell.  Although it was a period of great professional success for Rembrandt, it was a time of great personal loss.  He and Saskia had four children; three of them died with only the youngest, Titus, surviving.  After just eight years of marriage, Saskia died at the age of 32.  Titus also died young when he was only 27.  Less than a year later Rembrandt himself died.

The original is located in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia which sells a linen print of it.

Unknown Surrealist

Probably not a painting at all.  It appears to be a print.  The main figure seems to be an intaglio done without using any ink resulting in the image of the human headed beast incised into the paper.  The vague spots of color could have been from ink applied to the flat surface of the plate used to make the print or they may have been hand painted on afterward.  An excellent example of a inkless intaglio is “Night” (“The Dreamer”) by George Tooker.

My gut instinct is that it’s a Salvador Dali, maybe even a self-portrait.  However, I’ve never been able to find this image in any online Dali art gallery and the curator of the Dali museum in St. Petersburg, Florida did not recognize it, so I’m not sure enough about that guess to claim this is a possible Dali.  Despite the fact that the Airwolf bible mentions a Pollock among the cabin artwork – and this is the only painting visible that could have been a Pollock – I simply don’t believe this is a Jackson Pollock; though I am obviously not an expert, this doesn’t fit with anything of Pollock’s I’ve ever seen. 

Flatford Mill / Scene on a Navigable River (1816 – 1817) 
John Constable – English,  Romantic, b 1776 d 1837
Oil on canvas – 101.7 cm (height) x 127 cm (width) (40 by 50 in)

Numerous artists (Frances Hodgkins, Clive Madgwick, etc.) have painted the mill at Flatford all inspired by John Constable’s various paintings of “Flatford Mill.”   Arguably the best English landscape painter ever, it’s a pity the English didn’t figure that out during his lifetime.  Constable was 39 before he sold his first important painting (“The White Horse”).  In fact, “Flatford Mill” never sold in the artist’s lifetime.

John Constable was born in East Bergholt a mile from his father’s mill in Flatford.  He credited his “careless boyhood” in the area with “those scenes made me a painter, and I am grateful.”  Most of “Flatford Mill” was painted on the spot (en plein-air) the summer of 1816 while waiting – after seven long years – to finally marry the love of his life, Maria Bicknell (read about their love story of class prejudice and devotion beyond any obstacle).  In the painting he depicts a horse towing upstream two barges filled with wheat (then called corn) ground at the family mill.  The barges are being untied in order for them to be poled underneath the Flatford bridge (the wooden structure in the lower left corner).  An endearing touch is that the artist’s signature looks as if it had been scratched into the dirt of the road – perhaps something Constable did as a boy in this very spot.

Downsized from the original, it’s the smallest painting in the stairwell; above it hangs a photograph.  Curiously enough, when, by the Committee’s order, the F.I.R.M.’s agents removed the art collection as leverage to try to force Stringfellow into accepting the mission retrieving Airwolf the agents not only took this painting they took the photograph as well.  Because the next time we saw this wall it was completely bare.

Given in 1888 by the Constable family to the National Gallery, in 1957 “Flatford Mill” was transferred to the Tate Gallery in London which has an excellent write-up about it and a fantastic online exhibition about Constable.  Print available or choose any size.

Study of a Young Lady / Portrait Study of a Young Lady (1760 – 1765)
Sir Joshua Reynolds – English,  Rococo, b 1723 d 1792
Oil on canvas – 76.5 cm (height) x 63 cm (width) (30 by 25 in)

Sir Joshua Reynolds was gifted as both an artist and a politician.  This combination of gifts allowed him to become the most prestigious portrait painter of his day.  He was the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, knighted and later appointed principal royal portrait painter.  Though with their majesties his abundant charm failed him as “the King and Queen could not endure the presence of him; he was poison to their sight” and he was never allowed to paint them again.  Still Sir Joshua painted many of the wealthiest and most prominent people in Britain.

And you had to be wealthy to commission a Reynolds’ portrait.  At a time when it took a skilled shipwright more than three weeks to earn two pounds, that’s 40 shillings (roughly nine American dollars), a three-quarters size portrait like this one cost 35 guineas which is 36 pounds 15 shillings (about $165) or more than a year’s pay for that shipwright.  Half up front, please.  A full length Reynolds would set someone back 150 guineas (157 pounds 10 shillings, over $700).

At those prices you’d think that you’d have been getting a portrait painted by Sir Joshua himself.  You wouldn’t.  The common practice at that time was for the master to design the composition but paint only the head and maybe the hands.  The remainder of the painting, the drapery and the landscape, would be done by assistants.  If a replica of a painting was ordered it’s possible that Reynolds might not apply a single brushstroke to it but leave it all to his assistants.  Yet he could  still charge full price and the resulting painting was considered to be a Reynolds.

Unfortunately nothing is known about the young lady in this study; no record of any appointments for sittings survive and no finished portrait was ever done.  If this was a commissioned portrait then certainly she (or her family) was well off.  But it’s also possible that it was a work that Sir Joshua decided to paint on his own: a personal portrait of a friend or a relation or one of a hired model.  Reasons as to why the painting was never finished could range from non-payment to loss of interest to the sitter’s death (though Reynolds did paint people posthumously), and it’s all pure speculation.  So what the real story behind this painting is will remain a mystery.

“Study of a Young Lady” was purchased in 1913 by the Kunsthistorisches Museum (in German only) in Vienna, Austria.  No print available.

Gabrielle and Jean with Little Girl / Gabrielle with Jean and Little Girl (1895)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir – French, Impressionist, b 1841 d 1919
Oil on canvas – 64.8 cm (height) x 80 cm (width) (25½ by 31½ in)

Gabrielle was a cousin of Renoir’s wife, Aline.  She was housekeeper, nurse to the children and model to Renoir who painted her often.  Although the paintings all show a lushness and sensuality about them – he  even painted Gabrielle nude – there’s no indication that she was his mistress.  Or that he ever had any mistresses.  Renoir’s only interest in beautiful women was in painting them.  After staring at the beautiful Gabrielle in the painting for his whole life you can understand why Stringfellow Hawke fell so hard when another beautiful Gabrielle entered his life.

Of the two other sitters in the painting the little girl is the child of the building’s concierge and the baby is Renoir’s second son, Jean.  Apparently Renoir wanted a daughter as the early childhood paintings of Jean all make him look like a girl.  Renoir kept Jean in dresses, wouldn’t cut his hair and had him wear ribbons; makes you wonder if the poor kid didn’t end up with gender issues.  Coincidentally enough, Jean Renoir did end up a pilot (World War I) and then a famous French film director.  During World War II he moved to Hollywood where he lived until his death in 1979.  Maybe Don Bellisario had even met him.  Or perhaps Santini Air worked on one of his films.  Now that makes you wonder what Stringfellow Hawke would have thought if he met someone whose painting was hanging in his stairwell.

“Gabrielle and  Jean with Little Girl” was the second version Renoir did of this scene from his family’s domestic life.  The earlier version titled “Gabrielle with Renoir’s Children” even though the little girl is not Renoir’s child is a pastel on paper while this one is an oil on canvas.

“Gabrielle and  Jean with Little Girl” was owned for a brief period, June 1967 to May 1970, by the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California which is part of the greater Los Angeles area.  With his love of art the Norton Simon Museum is a place that Stringfellow Hawke was sure to have visited.  And you know he would have gone if only to see one of his grandfather’s clever forgeries.  Perhaps Stringfellow brought along his high school girlfriend, the one destined to die in the car accident, to see it before he shipped out to Vietnam.

The actual painting has been in private hands ever since the Norton Simon sold it.  In May 2001 “Gabrielle, Jean et une petite fille” was put up for sale at a Sotheby’s auction.  It was estimated to sell for between seven and nine million dollars, but went unsold at a price of 6.25 million.  Print available.

Portrait of a Bearded Man in a Black Beret (c. 1654)
Unknown Follower of Rembrandt – Dutch Baroque
Oil on canvas – 102 cm (height) x 78 cm (width) (40.2 by 30.7 in)

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then the ghost of Rembrandt has had a major ego boost.  Of the well over 700 paintings thought, at one time or the other, to be by Rembrandt only about one-third of them are now considered authentic.  And that does not include this painting.

Although many online galleries and reproduction sites continue to list this painting as a Rembrandt, it’s generally accepted that it is not.  Even though it’s not by Rembrandt, it was painted contemporaneously with his life still making it a three and a half centuries old masterpiece and well worth hanging on anybody’s wall.

The world of Rembrandt authentication is a fascinating one.  Not only does it happen that a painting once thought to have been a Rembrandt is declared not to be the opposite can happen.  ‘Lost’ Rembrandts are discovered greatly increasing the value of the painting, see “Art collector finds a home for Rembrandt.”

This painting is located at the Alte Meister Gallerie in Dresden, Germany.  (Fair warning, the page often refuses to load and it doesn’t have an English translation.)   The museum lists this serene yet sadly evocative portrait as being the work of a successor of Rembrandt.  Print available.

Profile of a Clown / Clown (1940 – 1948)
Georges Rouault – French, Fauvist / Expressionist, b 1871 d 1958
Oil on paperboard mounted on panel – 66 cm (height) x 48 cm (width) (26 by 18⅞ in)

Rouault started his artistic career at age 14 restoring medieval stained-glass windows, a factor which heavily influenced many of his paintings including this one as it almost looks like a stained-glass clown.  Rouault painted a number of clowns as a form of social commentary.  Based on how sad all the clowns look it’s safe to say he was not pleased with whatever it was he was commenting on.  But as he was French and he painted this clown around World War II, that’s perfectly understandable.  Having your country overrun by the Nazis is not going to put anyone in a good mood.  We’re fortunate that he eventually decided to sell this painting as he ended up burning more than 300 of his own works.

Located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston which bought it for $6500 in 1951.  Print available.  At one point in time even Wal-Mart sold them.

Woman Bathing Her Feet in a Brook / Young Woman Bathing Her Feet / The Foot Bath (1894 - 1895)
Camille Pissarro – Caribbean-born French, Pointillist / Impressionist, b 1830 d 1903
Oil on canvas – 73 cm (height) x 92 cm (width) (28½ by 36 in)

Although later in his career Camille Pissarro would paint many cityscapes like “Boulevard Montmartre: Night Effect” he was primarily known as a landscape painter (“Trees on a Hill, Autumn, Landscape in Louveciennes”).   With the exception of personal portraits (paintings of his wife Julie Vellay, children, and friends like Paul Cézanne) most of the figures in his paintings were from the working class.  Although his inclusion of farm workers was meant to show the dignity of labor and his fundamental respect for the laborer, ironically Pissarro insisted on referring to them as “peasants” (“Peasant Working in the Fields,” “Peasants and Hay Stacks,” “Peasant Women Planting Stakes”).  Certainly in 19th century America no one here was calling the farmers “peasants.”

It is one of these “peasant women” hired as a model that we see in “Young Woman Bathing Her Feet.”  Pissarro did two other versions of this painting, “Woman Washing Her Feet in a Brook” and “Bather in the Woods,” with “Bather in the Woods” being the most well known of the three, perhaps because it’s the only nude version.  Though it is the painting in Stringfellow Hawke’s stairwell, “Young Woman Bathing Her Feet,” that best exemplifies Pissarro’s technique in showing a shimmering, almost living use of light.  And the sitter “function as elements of light and air...giving them a dreamlike quality.”

Camille Pissarro enthusiastically shared what he knew about art.  Among the artists he taught were two whose paintings are also among the cabin artwork: Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh as well as a third artist whose work was featured in Airwolf, Paul Cézanne.

In 1999 “Woman Bathing Her Feet in a Brook” was given to the Art Institute of Chicago which sells the print.

Unknown Large Landscape with Water

A painting not many people know exist – in point of fact, I seem to be the only person who ever spotted it – it was only seen once in the entire series.  In the pilot episode, “Shadow of the Hawke,” that first night when Gabrielle went upstairs into the loft to speak with Stringfellow this blurred painting of what appears to be a seascape is visible behind them.

Unknown Portrait of a Bearded Man

A side lit three-quarter face portrait of a bearded old man wearing a hat against a dark background........I want to say it’s a Rembrandt, but that’s one artist it’s apparently not by. Out of all the paintings this is the most frustrating to me as it’s a clear enough image but I’ve never been able to find a match to it or even to make a semi-educated guess as to who painted it.

An indulgence on my part...........

Monk with a Cello (1874)
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot – French, Realist, b 1796 d 1875
Oil on canvas – 72.5 cm (height) x 51 cm (width) (28½ by 20 in)
Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany
(See this Corot in the cabin)

“The Hunted”

Still Life with Pomegranate and Pears / Ginger Pot with Pomegranate and Pears (1893)
Paul Cézanne – French, Post-Impressionist, b 1839 d 1906
Oil on canvas – 46.36 cm (height) x 55.56 cm (width) (18¼ by 21⅞ in)
Donated in 1939 to The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

If you are interested in learning more, Artcyclopedia is an excellent site for exploring the world of Western Art.  And, as strange as it may sound, AllPosters is also a good site for learning about art.  You can view their fine art prints sorted by artist, era, movement, nationality or subject.  It’s the easiest way I know to do a quick comparison of (for example) High Renaissance versus French Baroque or Impressionism versus Post-Impressionism and the site has a wide selection of images, far more than you’re going to find in any textbook.

Email Margaret