Product Reviews Facts and Notes

Van Gogh, Klimt, Monet, Renoir - some of the legendary names of the art world, famous for their brilliant canvases. Those who have seen any of these masterpieces in person know the impact and lasting impression they have. Imagine being able to bring that experience to your home’s wall dcor. You can - by selecting one of the many by Famous Artist tapestries from Decor4u.com, part of the extensive offering of beautiful tapestries to be found in their Tapestry Shop. Some of the world’s most famous paintings have been brought to breathtaking life in tapestry form and are ready to adorn your walls.

Vincent Willem van Gogh is one of the world’s legendary painters and has perhaps one of the most identifiable and distinctive painting styles. In the tapestry Van Gogh’s Irises (based on Irises, Saint-Remy), we see a group of irises by a garden walk. Among the intense blues of the other flowers, a single white iris glows. Another van Gogh tapestry masterpiece is The Starry Night. Easily one of the artist’s most famous and important canvases, it shows the night sky, filled with spinning stars and a glowing moon. This amazing scene was glimpsed by van Gogh at night and recreated wholly from memory the next day. All of the details that make a van Gogh so memorable have been captured in these marvelous tapestry wall hangings.

Another well-known work by van Gogh is Bedroom in Arles. The scene is the painter’s bedroom in his so-called Yellow House in Arles, France. A plain spare room with little more than a bed, table and chairs, its trapezoidal shape allowed van Gogh to give the painting an unusual perspective. In fact, van Gogh thought so much of this work that he painted three version of it. The Bedroom, one of the tapestries from Belgium at Decor4u.com, is based on the third rendition of the painting. In this tapestry, as in all others, one can easily make out van Gogh’s masterful brushwork and use of color.

One of the most prominent and famous painters of the Art Nouveau movement was Austrian Gustav Klimt. He is perhaps most well known for his painting, The Kiss. A man and a woman enfold one another, their limbs entwined. They appear to become one with one another as well as with the field of flowers that surround them. Klimt had recently returned from Italy and was inspired by the famous mosaics he saw there to start using gold leaf in his own paintings. Hence his Golden Phase during which The Kiss was produced. This amazing tapestry, from Decor4u.com’s collection of tapestries from Europe, is woven with gold threads to more fully realize Klimt’s vision.

In the time that it was created, much of Klimt’s work was considered controversial. Consider Lady with Fan. We are shown a seemingly private moment in a woman’s day. Her hair is loose, her robe slips carelessly off one shoulder, she seems lost in thought. She is not shown in her room or any other interior. She is set against a background of Art Noveau motifs: birds, flowers, leaves, vines. The makers of this decorative tapestry have maintained the brilliance of the colors and forms of the original canvas.

Another equally famous name in art is Claude Monet. He was the founder and principle artist of the French Impressionist movement. The movement itself took its name from one of Monet’s own paintings, Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise). A proponent of the Impressionist doctrine that art should be inspired by nature, Monet painted extensively from his renowned gardens around his house at Giverny. His painting, Irises, is an example of this subject matter. Several slender blue irises are portrayed against an azure sky. Their leaves dance in the summer breeze. All of the beautifully detailed brush work, down to Monet’s signature, has been duplicated in this decorative tapestry

Another renowned artist of the French Impressionist school is Pierre-August Renoir. Over the course of his career, he painted thousands of paintings. Some are among the best know images in art and have commanded record breaking prices. A massively talented painter, he was perhaps most adept at creating honest and intimate portraits of people. Take, for example, his painting Dance at Bougival. A young couple is shown enjoying a dance, celebrating life’s small but intense pleasures. Renoir’s masterly technique in employing color, light and shadow elevates this charming yet simple scene to something more refined. Dance at Bougival Wall Art at Decor4u.com lets you own a true masterpiece for your home.

Paul Ranson was a painter and a member of a group who called themselves Les Nabis, or the prophets. Les Nabis followed the belief that art was not merely symbolic or representational: it was a blending of both. This school of painting would bridge the gap between the Impressionists and the rise of abstract and non-representational art. A case in point is Ranson’s Apple Tree with Red Fruit. Although, as the title suggests, the subject is ostensibly a natural scene, a close look at the painting shows the limbs of the trees appear like human arms in a symbolic, rather than realistic gesture. The vivid and distinctive color palette is given an extra dimension when rendered as tapestry art.

Decor4u.com has wall tapestries by well know contemporary artists as well. Bunny Oliver’s style shows the influence of her studies with many of the United State’s famous present day impressionists. She has given much time and attention to the study of still life as she believes that great beauty can be found in simple, everyday objects. Her painting, Poppies Galore, is a striking example of her finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. A bunch of bold scarlet poppies cascade out of a blue and white vase of Chinese design. In tapestry form, Poppies Galore by Bunny Oliver achieves a new depth and clarity.