Gustave Courbet
French realist painter (1819–1877)
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.
Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes, and still lifes. Courbet was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death four years later.
Biography.
Gustave Courbet was born in 1819 to Régis and Sylvie Oudot Courbet in Ornans (department of Doubs). Anti-monarchical feelings prevailed in the household. (His maternal grandfather fought in the French Revolution.) Courbet's sisters, Zoé, Zélie, and Juliette were his first models for drawing and painting. After moving to Paris he often returned home to Ornans to hunt, fish, and find inspiration.
Courbet went to Paris in 1839 and worked at the studio of Steuben and Hesse. An independent spirit, he soon left, preferring to develop his own style by studying the paintings of Spanish, Flemish and French masters in the Louvre, and painting copies of their work.
Courbet's first works were an "Odalisque" inspired by the writing of Victor Hugo and a "Lélia" illustrating George Sand, but he soon abandoned literary influences, choosing instead to base his paintings on observed reality. Among his paintings of the early 1840s are several self-portraits, Romantic in conception, in which the artist portrayed himself in various roles. These include "Self-Portrait with Black Dog" (c. 1842–44, accepted for exhibition at the 1844 Paris Salon), the theatrical "Self-Portrait" which is also known as "Desperate Man" (c. 1843–45), "Lovers in the Countryside" (1844, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon), "The Sculptor" (1845), "The Wounded Man" (1844–54, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), "The Cellist, Self-Portrait" (1847, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, shown at the 1848 Salon), and "Man with a Pipe" (1848–49, Musée Fabre, Montpellier).
Trips to the Netherlands and Belgium in 1846–47 strengthened Courbet's belief that painters should portray the life around them, as Rembrandt, Hals and other Dutch masters had. By 1848, he had gained supporters among the younger critics, the Neo-romantics and Realists, notably Champfleury.
Courbet achieved his first Salon success in 1849 with his painting "After Dinner at Ornans". The work, reminiscent of Chardin and Le Nain, earned Courbet a gold medal and was purchased by the state. The gold medal meant that his works would no longer require jury approval for exhibition at the Salon—an exemption Courbet enjoyed until 1857 (when the rule changed).
In 1849–50, Courbet painted "The Stone Breakers" (destroyed in the Allied Bombing of Dresden in 1945), which Proudhon admired as an icon of peasant life; it has been called "the first of his great works". The painting was inspired by a scene Courbet witnessed on the roadside. He later explained to Champfleury and the writer Francis Wey: "It is not often that one encounters so complete an expression of poverty and so, right then and there I got the idea for a painting. I told them to come to my studio the next morning."
Realism.
Courbet's work belonged neither to the predominant Romantic nor Neoclassical schools. History painting, which the Paris Salon esteemed as a painter's highest calling, did not interest him, for he believed that "the artists of one century [are] basically incapable of reproducing the aspect of a past or future century ..." Instead, he maintained that the only possible source for living art is the artist's own experience. He and Jean-François Millet would find inspiration painting the life of peasants and workers.
Courbet painted figurative compositions, landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes. He courted controversy by addressing social issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar, such as the rural bourgeoisie, peasants, and working conditions of the poor. His work, along with that of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet, became known as "Realism". For Courbet realism dealt not with the perfection of line and form, but entailed spontaneous and rough handling of paint, suggesting direct observation by the artist while portraying the irregularities in nature. He depicted the harshness of life, and in doing so challenged contemporary academic ideas of art. One of the distinctive features of Courbet's Realism was his lifelong attachment to his native province, the Franche-Comté, and of his birthplace, Ornans.
"The Stone Breakers".
Considered to be the first of Courbet's great works, "The Stone Breakers" of 1849 is an example of social realism that caused a sensation when it was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1850. The work was based on two men, one young and one old, whom Courbet discovered engaged in backbreaking labor on the side of the road when he returned to Ornans for an eight-month visit in October 1848. On his inspiration, Courbet told his friends and art critics Francis Wey and Jules Champfleury, "It is not often that one encounters so complete an expression of poverty and so, right then and there I got the idea for a painting."
While other artists had depicted the plight of the rural poor, Courbet's peasants are not idealized like those in works such as Breton's 1854 painting, "The Gleaners".
During World War II, from 13 to 15 February 1945, the Allies continuously bombed the city of Dresden, Germany. German troops hastily loaded artworks from Dresden's galleries and museums onto trucks. "The Stone Breakers" was destroyed, along with 153 other paintings, when a transport vehicle moving the pictures to the Königstein Fortress, near Dresden, was bombed by Allied forces.
"A Burial at Ornans".
The Salon of 1850–1851 found him triumphant with "The Stone Breakers", the "Peasants of Flagey" and "A Burial at Ornans". The "Burial", one of Courbet's most important works, records the funeral of his grand uncle which he attended in September 1848. People who attended the funeral were the models for the painting. Previously, models had been used as actors in historical narratives, but in "Burial" Courbet said he "painted the very people who had been present at the interment, all the townspeople". The result is a realistic presentation of them and life in Ornans.
The vast painting, measuring , drew both praise and fierce denunciations from critics and the public, in part because it upset convention by depicting a prosaic ritual on a scale which would previously have been reserved for a religious or royal subject.
According to art historian Sarah Faunce, "In Paris, the "Burial" was judged as a work that had thrust itself into the grand tradition of history painting, like an upstart in dirty boots crashing a genteel party, and in terms of that tradition it was, of course, found wanting." The painting lacks the sentimental rhetoric that was expected in a genre work: Courbet's mourners make no theatrical gestures of grief, and their faces seemed more caricatured than ennobled. The critics accused Courbet of a deliberate pursuit of ugliness.
Eventually, the public grew more interested in the new Realist approach, and the lavish, decadent fantasy of Romanticism lost popularity. Courbet well understood the importance of the painting, and said of it, ""Burial at Ornans" was in reality the burial of romanticism."
Courbet became a celebrity and was spoken of as a genius, a "terrible socialist" and a "savage". He actively encouraged the public's perception of him as an unschooled peasant, while his ambition, his bold pronouncements to journalists, and his insistence on depicting his own life in his art gave him a reputation for unbridled vanity.
Courbet associated his ideas of realism in art with political anarchism, and, having gained an audience, he promoted political ideas by writing politically motivated essays and dissertations. His familiar visage was the object of frequent caricature in the popular French press.
In 1850, Courbet wrote to a friend:
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During the 1850s, Courbet painted numerous figurative works using common folk and friends as his subjects, such as "Village Damsels" (1852), "The Wrestlers" (1853), "The Bathers" (1853), "The Sleeping Spinner" (1853), and "The Wheat Sifters" (1854).
"The Artist's Studio".
In 1855, Courbet submitted fourteen paintings for exhibition at the "Exposition Universelle". Three were rejected for lack of space, including "A Burial at Ornans" and his other monumental canvas "The Artist's Studio". Refusing to be denied, Courbet took matters into his own hands. He displayed forty of his paintings, including "The Artist's Studio", in his gallery called "The Pavilion of Realism" (Pavillon du Réalisme) which was a temporary structure that he erected next door to the official Salon-like "Exposition Universelle".
The work is an allegory of Courbet's life as a painter, seen as a heroic venture, in which he is flanked by friends and admirers on the right, and challenges and opposition to the left. Friends on the right include the art critics Champfleury, and Charles Baudelaire, and art collector Alfred Bruyas. On the left are figures (priest, prostitute, grave digger, merchant, and others) who represent what Courbet described in a letter to Champfleury as "the other world of trivial life, the people, misery, poverty, wealth, the exploited and the exploiters, the people who live off death."
In the foreground of the left-hand side is a man with dogs, who was not mentioned in Courbet's letter to Champfleury. X-rays show he was painted later, but his role in the painting is important: he is an allegory of the then-current French Emperor, Napoleon III, identified by his famous hunting dogs and iconic twirled mustache. By placing him on the left, Courbet publicly shows his disdain for the emperor and depicts him as a criminal, suggesting that his "ownership" of France is an illegal one.
Although artists like Eugène Delacroix were ardent champions of his effort, the public went to the show mostly out of curiosity and to deride him. Attendance and sales were disappointing, but Courbet's status as a hero to the French avant-garde became assured. He was admired by the American James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and he became an inspiration to the younger generation of French artists including Édouard Manet and the Impressionist painters. "The Artist's Studio" was recognized as a masterpiece by Delacroix, Baudelaire, and Champfleury, if not by the public.
Seascapes.
While Courbet's seascapes, painted during his many visits to the northern coast of France in the late 1860s, were decidedly less controversial than his salon submissions, they furthered his contributions (willing or otherwise) to realism with their emphasis on both the beauty and danger of the natural world. There is a distinct range in the tones of this period with "The Calm Sea" (1869) depicting the serenity of the receded tide, and "The Sailboat" (c. 1869) showing a sailboat wrestling with violent tides.
Realist manifesto.
Courbet wrote a Realist manifesto for the introduction to the catalogue of this independent, personal exhibition, echoing the tone of the period's political manifestos. In it, he asserts his goal as an artist is "to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my epoch according to my own estimation."
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />The title of Realist was thrust upon me just as the title of Romantic was imposed upon the men of 1830. Titles have never given a true idea of things: if it were otherwise, the works would be unnecessary.
Without expanding on the greater or lesser accuracy of a name that nobody, I should hope, can really be expected to understand, I will limit myself to a few words of elucidation in order to cut short the misunderstandings.
I have studied the art of the ancients and the art of the moderns, avoiding any preconceived system and without prejudice. I no longer wanted to imitate the one than to copy the other; nor, furthermore, was it my intention to attain the trivial goal of "art for art's sake". No! I simply wanted to draw forth, from a complete acquaintance with tradition, the reasoned and independent consciousness of my own individuality.
To know in order to do, that was my idea. To be in a position to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my time, according to my own estimation; to be not only a painter but a man as well; in short, to create living art – this is my goal. (Gustave Courbet, 1855)
Notoriety.
In the Salon of 1857, Courbet showed six paintings. These included "Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine (Summer)", depicting two prostitutes under a tree, as well as the first of many hunting scenes Courbet was to paint during the remainder of his life: "Hind at Bay in the Snow" and "The Quarry".
"Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine", painted in 1856, provoked a scandal. Art critics accustomed to conventional, "timeless" nude women in landscapes were shocked by Courbet's depiction of modern women casually displaying their undergarments.
By exhibiting sensational works alongside hunting scenes, of the sort that had brought popular success to the English painter Edwin Landseer, Courbet guaranteed himself "both notoriety and sales".
During the 1860s, Courbet painted a series of increasingly erotic works such as "Femme nue couchée", culminating in "The Origin of the World (L'Origine du monde)" (1866), which depicts female genitalia and was not publicly exhibited until 1988, and "Sleep" (1866), featuring two women in bed. The latter painting became the subject of a police report when it was exhibited by a picture dealer in 1872.
Until about 1861, Napoléon's regime had exhibited authoritarian characteristics, using press censorship to prevent the spread of opposition, manipulating elections, and depriving Parliament of the right to free debate or any real power. In the 1860s, however, Napoléon III made more concessions to placate his liberal opponents. This change began by allowing free debates in Parliament and public reports of parliamentary debates. Press censorship, too, was relaxed and culminated in the appointment of the Liberal Émile Ollivier, previously a leader of the opposition to Napoléon's regime, as the "de facto" Prime Minister in 1870. As a sign of appeasement to the Liberals who admired Courbet, Napoleon III nominated him to the Legion of Honour in 1870. His refusal of the cross of the Legion of Honour angered those in power but made him immensely popular with those who opposed the prevailing regime.
Courbet and the Paris Commune.
On 4 September 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Courbet made a proposal that later came back to haunt him. He wrote a letter to the Government of National Defense, proposing that the column in the Place Vendôme, erected by Napoleon I to honour the victories of the French Army, be taken down. He wrote:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />In as much as the Vendôme Column is a monument devoid of all artistic value, tending to perpetuate by its expression the ideas of war and conquest of the past imperial dynasty, which are reproved by a republican nation's sentiment, citizen Courbet expresses the wish that the National Defense government will authorize him to disassemble this column." Courbet proposed that the Column be moved to a more appropriate place, such as the Hotel des Invalides, a military hospital. He also wrote an open letter addressed to the German Army and to German artists, proposing that German and French cannons should be melted down and crowned with a liberty cap, and made into a new monument on Place Vendôme, dedicated to the federation of the German and French people. The Government of National Defense did nothing about his suggestion to tear down the column, but it was not forgotten.
On 18 March, in the aftermath of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, a revolutionary government called the Paris Commune briefly took power in the city. Courbet played an active part and organized a Federation of Artists, which held its first meeting on 5 April in the Grand Amphitheater of the School of Medicine. Some three hundred to four hundred painters, sculptors, architects, and decorators attended. There were some famous names on the list of members, including André Gill, Honoré Daumier, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Eugène Pottier, Jules Dalou, and Édouard Manet. Manet was not in Paris during the Commune and did not attend, and Corot, who was seventy-five years old, stayed in a country house and his studio during the Commune, not taking part in the political events.
Courbet chaired the meeting and proposed that the Louvre and the Musée du Luxembourg, the two major art museums of Paris, closed during the uprising, be reopened as soon as possible and that the traditional annual exhibit called the Salon be held as in years past, but with radical differences. He proposed that the Salon should be free of any government interference or rewards to preferred artists; no medals or government commissions would be given. Furthermore, he called for the abolition of the most famous state institutions of French art; the École des Beaux-Arts, the French Academy in Rome, the French School at Athens, and the Fine Arts section of the Institute of France.
On 12 April, the Executive Committee of the Commune gave Courbet, though he was not yet officially a member of the Commune, the assignment of opening the museums and organizing the Salon. They issued the following decree at the same meeting: "The Column of the Place Vendôme will be demolished." On 16 April, special elections were held to replace more moderate members of the Commune who had resigned their seats, and Courbet was elected as a delegate for the 6th arrondissement of Paris. He was given the title of Delegate of Fine Arts, and on 21 April he was also made a member of the Commission on Education. At the meeting of the Commission on 27 April, the minutes reported that Courbet requested the demolition of the Vendôme column be carried out and that the column would be replaced by an allegorical figure representing the taking of power of the Commune on 18 March.
Nonetheless, Courbet was a dissident by nature, and he was soon in opposition with the majority of the Commune members on some of its measures. He was one of a minority of Commune Members who opposed the creation of a Committee on Public Safety, modeled on the committee of the same name which carried out the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
Courbet opposed the Commune on another more serious matter: the arrest of his friend Gustave Chaudey, a prominent socialist, magistrate, and journalist, whose portrait Courbet had painted. The popular Commune newspaper, "Le Père Duchesne", accused Chaudey, when he was briefly deputy mayor of the 9th arrondissement before the Commune was formed, of ordering soldiers to fire on a crowd that had surrounded the Hôtel de Ville. Courbet's opposition was of no use; on 23 May 1871, in the final days of the Commune, Chaudey was shot by a Commune firing squad. According to some sources Courbet resigned from the Commune in protest.
On 13 May, on the proposal of Courbet, the Paris house of Adolphe Thiers, the chief executive of the French government, was demolished, and his art collection confiscated. Courbet proposed that the confiscated art be given to the Louvre and other museums, but the director of the Louvre refused to accept it. On 16 May, just nine days before the fall of the Commune, in a large ceremony with military bands and photographers, the Vendôme column was pulled down and broke into pieces. Some witnesses said Courbet was there, others denied it. The following day, the Federation of Artists debated dismissing directors of the Louvre and of the Luxembourg museums, suspected by some in the Commune of having secret contacts with the French government, and appointed new heads of the museums.
According to one legend, Courbet defended the Louvre and other museums against "looting mobs", but there are no records of any such attacks on the museums. The only real threat to the Louvre came during "Bloody Week", 21–28 May 1871, when a unit of Communards, led by a Commune general, Jules Bergeret, set fire to the Tuileries Palace, next to the Louvre. The fire spread to the library of the Louvre, which was destroyed, but the efforts of museum curators and firemen saved the art gallery.
After the final suppression of the Commune by the French army on 28 May, Courbet went into hiding in the apartments of different friends. He was arrested on 7 June. At his trial before a military tribunal on 14 August, Courbet argued that he had only joined the Commune to pacify it and that he had wanted to move the Vendôme Column, not destroy it. He said he had only belonged to the Commune for a short period, and rarely attended its meetings. He was convicted, but given a lighter sentence than other Commune leaders: six months in prison and a fine of five hundred francs. Serving part of his sentence in the Sainte-Pélagie Prison in Paris, he was allowed an easel and paints, but he could not have models pose for him. He did a famous series of still-life paintings of flowers and fruit during his confinement.
Exile and death.
Courbet completed his prison sentence on 2 March 1872, but his problems caused by the destruction of the Vendôme Column were still not over. In 1873, the newly elected president of the Republic, Patrice de MacMahon, announced plans to rebuild the column, with the cost to be paid by Courbet. Unable to pay, Courbet went into a self-imposed exile in Switzerland to avoid bankruptcy. In the following years, he participated in Swiss regional and national exhibitions. Surveilled by the Swiss intelligence service, he enjoyed in the small Swiss art world the reputation as head of the "realist school" and inspired younger artists such as Auguste Baud-Bovy and Ferdinand Hodler.
Important works from this period include several paintings of trout, "hooked and bleeding from the gills", that have been interpreted as allegorical self-portraits of the exiled artist. In his final years, Courbet painted landscapes, including several scenes of water mysteriously emerging from the depths of the earth in the Jura Mountains of the France–Switzerland border. Courbet also worked on sculpture during his exile. Previously, in the early 1860s, he had produced a few sculptures, one of which – the "Fisherman of Chavots" (1862) – he donated to Ornans for a public fountain, but it was removed after Courbet's arrest.
In May 1877, the state set the final cost of reconstructing the Vendôme Column at 323,000 francs for Courbet to repay in annual installments of 10,000 francs for the next 33 years. On 31 December 1877, a day before the first installment was due, Courbet died, aged 58, in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, of a liver disease aggravated by heavy drinking.
Legacy.
Courbet was admired by many younger artists. Claude Monet included a portrait of Courbet in his own version of "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" from 1865–1866 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). Courbet's particular kind of realism influenced many artists to follow, notably among them the German painters of the Leibl circle, James McNeill Whistler, and Paul Cézanne. Courbet's influence can also be seen in the work of Edward Hopper, whose "Bridge in Paris" (1906) and "Approaching a City" (1946) have been described as Freudian echoes of Courbet's "The Source of the Loue" and "The Origin of the World". His pupils included Henri Fantin-Latour, Hector Hanoteau and Olaf Isaachsen.
Courbet once wrote this in a letter:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.'
Courbet and Cubism.
Two 19th-century artists prepared the way for the emergence of Cubism in the 20th century: Courbet and Cézanne. Cézanne's contributions are well-known. Courbet's importance was announced by Guillaume Apollinaire, poet-spokesperson for the Cubists. Writing in "Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques" (1913) he declared, "Courbet is the father of the new painters." Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes often portrayed Courbet as the father of all modern art.
Both artists sought to transcend the conventional methods of rendering nature; Cézanne through a dialectical method revealing the process of seeing, Courbet by his materialism. The Cubists would combine these two approaches in developing a revolution in art.
On a formal level, Courbet wished to convey the physical characteristics of what he was painting: its density, weight, and texture. Art critic John Berger said: "No painter before Courbet was ever able to emphasize so uncompromisingly the density and weight of what he was painting." This emphasis on material reality endowed his subjects with dignity. Berger observed that the Cubist painters "were at great pains to establish the physical presence of what they were representing. And in this, they are the heirs of Courbet."
Nazi-looted art.
During the Third Reich (1933–1945) Jewish art collectors throughout Europe had their property seized as part of the Holocaust. Many artworks created by Courbet were looted by Nazis and their agents during this period and have only recently been reclaimed by the families of the previous owners.
Courbet's "La Falaise d'Etretat" was owned by the Jewish collector Marc Wolfson and his wife Erna, who both were murdered in Auschwitz. After disappearing during the Nazi occupation of France, it reappeared years later at the musée d'Orsay.
The great Hungarian Jewish collector Baron Mor Lipot Herzog owned several Courbet artworks, including "Le Chateau de Blonay (Neige)" (c. 1875, "The Chateau of Blonay (Snow)", now at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts), and Courbet's most infamous work — ("The Origin of the World"). His was looted by Nazis and many are still missing.
Gustav Courbet's paintings "Village Girl With Goat", "The Father", and "Landscape With Rocks" were discovered in the Gurlitt Trove of art stashed in Munich. It is not known to whom they belonged.
Josephine Weinmann and her family, who were German Jews, had owned "Le Grand Pont" before they were forced to flee. The Nazi militant Herbert Schaefer acquired it and loaned it to the Yale University Art Gallery, against whom the Weinmanns filed a claim.
The French "Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume (Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg)" has 41 entries for Courbet.
In March 2023, a museum at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, returned a painting "La Ronde Enfantine" by Gustave Courbet, which was stolen in 1941 by the Nazis in Paris. The canvas belonged to a Jewish member of the Resistance. The Spoliation Advisory Panel, a body created in 2000 by the British government, concluded on 28 March "that the painting was stolen by the Nazi occupation forces because Robert Bing was Jewish".
References.
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Further reading.
Monographs on the art and life of Courbet have been written by Estignard (Paris, 1874), D'Ideville (Paris, 1878), Silvestre in "Les artistes français" (Paris, 1878), Isham in Van Dyke's "Modern French Masters" (New York, 1896), Meier-Graefe, "Corot and Courbet" (Leipzig, 1905), Cazier (Paris, 1906), Riat (Paris, 1906), Muther (Berlin, 1906), Robin (Paris, 1909), Benedite (Paris, 1911) and Lazár Béla (Paris, 1911). Consult also Muther, "History of Modern Painting", volume ii (London, 1896, 1907); Patoux, "Courbet" in "Les artistes célèbres" and "La vérité sur Courbet" (Paris, 1879); Le Men, "Courbet" (New York, 2008).

Femme nue couchée
Painting by Gustave Courbet
Femme nue couchée () is an 1862 painting by French Realist painter Gustave Courbet (1819–1877). It depicts a young dark-haired woman reclining on a couch, wearing only a pair of shoes and stockings. Behind her, partly drawn red curtains reveal an overcast sky seen through a closed window. The work is likely influenced by Goya's "La maja desnuda".
The painting was initially owned by Alexandre Berthier and later by Marcell Nemes. In 1913, it was bought by the Hungarian collector Ferenc Hatvany. At one time, he painted a copy of the painting and, as a practical joke, sent it to be exhibited as the original at a Belgrade exhibition of French painting in 1939. Together with the rest of Hatvany's collection, the painting was looted from a Budapest bank vault during the 1945 Soviet conquest of the city in World War II. After it was briefly seen attached to the tarpaulin of a Soviet military vehicle on Buda Castle Hill, the painting appeared to have vanished without a trace.
It surfaced again in 2000 and 2003, when it was offered for sale first to the Museum of Fine Arts and then to the Commission for Art Recovery (CAR) by a Slovak man claiming to be an antiques dealer, but who appeared to his interlocutors to be involved with the Slovak organised crime scene. The dealer produced an affidavit, judged reliable by the CAR, stating that the painting was given by Soviet soldiers to a doctor from a village near Bratislava in return for his medical treatment of a wounded soldier. An inspection of the picture's craquelure determined that the painting was indeed the original and not Hatvany's copy.
After five years of negotiations, Interpol involvement and diplomatic wrangling between the US and Slovakian government, the CAR managed to acquire the painting for Hatvany's heirs in exchange for a US$300,000 reward. It was shown to the public for the first time since the 1930s in a 2007 Courbet exposition at the Grand Palais in Paris. The painting was sold at auction on 9 November 2015 for 15.3 million U.S. dollars, four times the previous auction record for a Courbet painting.
Footnotes.
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Ferenc Hatvany
Hungarian artist
Baron Ferenc Hatvany (29 October 1881 – 7 February 1958) was a Hungarian painter and art collector. A son of Sándor Hatvany-Deutsch and a member of the Hatvany-Deutsch family, he graduated in the Académie Julian in Paris. His collection included paintings by Tintoretto, Cézanne, Renoir, Ingres and Courbet, most notably "L'Origine du monde" and "Femme nue couchée".
During the Second World War, his art collection was placed in a bank vault in Budapest to protect it from the pro-Nazi Hungarian government, and the Hatvany family, which was Jewish, fled the country just before the Nazi takeover of Hungary in March 1944.
Mystery surrounds the fate of the paintings, which appear to have been looted by Germans and then by Soviets. Towards the end of the Second World War his paintings were looted by Soviet troops but some were ransomed by Hatvany. In 1947 he emigrated to Paris. In 1955 "L'Origine du monde" was sold at auction for 1.5 million francs (the buyer was psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan). The lawyer Hans Deutsch filed a claim on behalf of Ferenc Hatvany against the German government and obtained compensation for him.
Paintings that were looted from Hatvany's collection are still hanging on museum walls in Budapest, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod. In 2005, the Hatvany heirs recovered "Femme nue couchée" (1862) after it resurfaced in 2000 in the hands of a Slovakian art dealer. In 2014 an agreement was reached with the Tate for John Constable's "Beaching A Boat, Brighton" In 2021 Courbet's "Baigneuses dans la forêt" (1862) was restituted to the Hatvany heirs. The Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art printed the image of one of the missing paintings on a playing card in an effort to relaunch the search.
Hatvany died in Lausanne in 1958.
References.
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Accolades.
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Brazilian progressive rock band
Violeta de Outono (Portuguese for Autumn Violet) is a Brazilian psychedelic/progressive rock band from São Paulo. Heavily influenced by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Gong, they were originally a post-punk band with some psychedelic elements intertwined, but would gradually drop their post-punk influences and add more prog elements to their sonority as time went by.
The band underwent numerous changes in its line-up since its inception; the only founding member remaining today is vocalist/guitarist Fabio Golfetti.
History.
Fabio Golfetti founded Violeta de Outono in 1985 alongside Cláudio Souza; both had just parted ways with pioneering New Romantic band Zero. They would later be joined by Angelo Pastorello, and with this line-up they released a demo tape, "Memories", in the same year. The tape got the attention of independent record label Wop-Bop Records, that released their first recording, the extended play "Reflexos da Noite", in 1986.
In 1987, Violeta de Outono's eponymous debut was released through RCA Records. It was very well-received; particular praise went to their cover of The Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows".
In 1988 they released a four-track EP called "The Early Years", containing cover versions of The Rolling Stones' "Citadel", Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive", The Beatles' "Within You Without You" and Gong's "Blues for Findlay". Those recordings trace to as far as 1985–1986. In the next year, their second studio album, "Em Toda Parte", was released by Ariola Records. Beginning with this album, Violeta de Outono would drop their previous post-punk instrumentation, heading towards a more progressive and experimental vein.
In 1990, Cláudio Souza left the band, and was replaced by Cláudio Fontes (Souza would return to the band in 1993 though). From 1993 to 1995, Violeta de Outono entered a short hiatus period; they returned to active with a live album, "Eclipse", and their third full-length, "Mulher na Montanha", that began to be recorded in 1995 but would be released only in 1999. In 2000, they would release their second live album, "Live at Rio ArtRock Festival '97", a recording of their performance at the in Rio de Janeiro in 1997. (A DVD containing the footage of their performance at the festival would be released 15 years later.) During Violeta de Outono's hiatus, Golfetti released three albums with The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet (Tropical Version Brazil), a side project he formed in 1988; however, the project was not as successful and memorable as Violeta de Outono itself and would come to an end in 1995, only to return in 2010.
Also in 2000, Violeta de Outono changed its line-up almost completely, with Gregor Izidro replacing Cláudio Souza and Sandro Garcia replacing Pastorello. However, they would return for the recording of the band's fourth studio album in 2003, "Ilhas", that was released in 2005.
"Violeta de Outono & Orquestra", their first video release, came out in 2006, recorded during a performance in São Paulo two years prior, with the special participation of the USP Symphonic Orchestra. In the same year, Pastorello left the band and was replaced by Gabriel Costa, while new member Fernando Cardoso assumed the position of keyboardist. With this line-up they released their fifth full-length album (and seventh studio release overall), "Volume 7", in 2007.
In 2009, Cláudio Souza left Violeta de Outono for the third time, but beforehand they recorded another video release, "", in which they covered songs by Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett live, and also played their first studio album in its entirety in a show which took place in the Theatro Municipal in São Paulo. Souza was replaced by Fred Barley – however, Barley left the band in 2011 in order to join O Terço, and was replaced by José Luiz Dinola (former A Chave do Sol member); Violeta de Outono's line-up remains unchanged ever since.
Their sixth full-length album, "Espectro", was released in 2012.
On September 19, 2016, the band announced that they began work on their seventh studio album, "Spaces", which was eventually released on October 14, 2016.
References.
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Airborne observatory
Telescopes carried by aircraft
An airborne observatory is an airplane or airship with an astronomical telescope. By carrying the telescope to a sufficiently high altitude, the telescope can avoid cloud cover, pollution, and carry out observations in the infrared spectrum, above water vapor in the atmosphere which absorbs infrared radiation. Some drawbacks to this approach are the instability of the lifting platform, the weight restrictions on the instrument, the need to safely recover the gear afterward, and the cost compared to a comparable ground-based observatory.
Multiple observations of solar eclipses were performed from 1920 to 1980. NASA created first specialised airborne observatory, Galileo, in 1965. SOFIA, the latest such observatory, was retired in 2022.
History.
Eclipse chasing.
Early attempts.
First attempts to observe astronomical objects from planes were made in 1920 from a biplanes. Until 1960, the main objects of such observations were solar eclipses.
In 1923, US Navy tried to observe the solar eclipse of September 10 from sixteen planes, including Felixstowe F5L biplane, "to determine the centerline of the eclipse from air." No photo recorded the eclipse. Officer and photographer Albert William Stevens was one of the pilots on this expedition, he is sometimes called "the father of airborne astronomy". There was another attempt to observe a solar eclipse, this time from a dirigible. On 24 January 1925, U.S. Naval Observatory and U.S. Bureau of Standards gathered a group of astronomers to observe a total solar eclipse from the USS "Los Angeles" airship over the New York City, with Captain Edwin Taylor Pollock as a head of the group. They used "two pairs of telescopic cameras", to capture inner and outer portions of Sun's corona, and a spectrograph. The expedition achieved good publicity, but it was not very successful in its observations - the dirigible was not very stable and the photos were blurred. The next attempt was successful: an expedition of the Naval Observatory to observe the solar eclipse of April 28, 1930 on Honey Lake, California, with Vought 02U-1 plane equipped with a camera, recorded "the approach of the shadow".
Army Air Corps and the National Geographic Society organized another expedition in 1932, to observe the eclipse of August 31. Accompanied by Lieutenant Charles D. McAllister of the Army Air Corps, Stevens took the first photograph of the Moon's shadow projected onto the Earth during a solar eclipse.
Royal Canadian Air Force observed the solar eclipse of July 9, 1945 from four planes: "a Spitfire, a Mitchell, and two Ansons"; three planes used seven standard aerial photography cameras, "adjusted to automatically take exposures". For the solar eclipse of May 8, 1948, National Geographic society organized several ground stations and two backup planes for a case of bad weather. Two B-29s, stationed on the Aleutian Islands, successfully observed and photographed the eclipse.
After the war.
For the solar eclipse of June 30, 1954, observations were made "from the open door of a special Lincoln aircraft". Photographs helped "to derive coronal
brightness and polarization, along with sky brightness and polarization". Several missions were made in 1960s. Three NC-135 planes of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) were used for eclipses observations from 1965 to 1980. The planes were operated by the Atomic Energy Commission.
In 1973, the French Concorde prototype, c/n 001, was modified with roof-top portholes for a solar eclipse observation mission of 30 June 1973, at the end of the French testing programme. Observational instruments were installed on board, and the aircraft flew across Africa for 74 minutes in the Moon's shadow. One of the scientists was Donald Liebenberg, who have previously flown on LASL's NC-135. The airplane is now at the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum on permanent display in eclipse livery, with the portholes displayed.
NASA used two retrofitted WB-57F jet planes to chase the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017. Telescopes were mounted on the noses of the planes, that allowed to capture the clearest images to date of the Sun's corona and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet’s surface. The high-definition pictures, captured 30 times per second, will be analyzed for wave motion in the corona to see if waves move towards or away from the surface of the Sun, and with what strengths and sizes.
NASA observatories.
First NASA airborne observatory, Galileo, was a modified Convair 990. It first flew for the solar eclipse of May 30, 1965. It was named Galileo because during the eclipse Guglielmo Righini spotted the moons of Jupiter from the plane. Galileo was used until 1973, when it was destroyed in a mid-air collision. It was used to observe eclipses, comet Ikeya-Seki, planetary IR observations, and Giacobinid meteor showers. Planetary scientist Gerard P. Kuiper performed a series of Venus observations in near infrared and Mars opposition. Galileo II, also a Convair 990, was used for a very short time.
To avoid atmospheric absorption of infrared radiation, Frank J. Low developed devices that could be placed aboard aircraft, first using a Douglas A-3 Skywarrior from the United States Navy that carried a 2-inch telescope in 1965 and 1966. The Learjet Observatory with an open-port 12-inch telescope was proposed in 1966 by Low, and made its first flight in 1968. It allowed to perform infrared astronomy; among other discoveries are "the first measurement of the internal energies of Jupiter and Saturn, far-infrared observations of the great nebula in Orion, studies of star formation regions and the bright IR sources at the center of the Milky Way galaxy", and also to determine the nature of Venus' clouds using a spectrosopy.
The Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), first flown in 1974, consisted of a aperture Cassegrain reflector carried aloft on a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter jet transport to perform infrared observations. It was named after Gerard P. Kuiper. KAO was operational from 1974 to 1995, and usually flew about 70 flights per year. Among its discoveries are:
discovery of the rings around the planet Uranus; detection of water vapor in comets; discovery of Pluto's atmosphere; the composition, structure, and dynamics of Supernova 1987a; luminosity, dust, and gas distributions in the Galactic Center; emission by shocked gas components of the interstellar medium; and the structure of star-forming clouds.
In terms of aperture, the largest aircraft-borne instrument to date is a reflector telescope carried by a modified Boeing 747 for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) project. This instrument was put into use for astronomical observation in 2010. On 29 June 2015, the dwarf planet Pluto passed between a distant star and the Earth producing a shadow on the Earth near New Zealand that allowed SOFIA to study the atmosphere of Pluto.
Features.
By carrying the telescope to a sufficiently high altitude, the telescope can avoid cloud cover, pollution, and carry out observations in the infrared spectrum, above water vapor in the atmosphere which absorbs infrared radiation. Airplane also allows to place telescope exactly to the needed position. Some drawbacks to this approach are the instability of the lifting platform, the weight restrictions on the instrument, the need to safely recover the gear afterward, and the cost compared to a comparable ground-based observatory.
Airborne observatories are very expensive to operate, because they require a crew, a pilot, and fuel. The cost of running SOFIA observatory per year was nearly the same as of the Hubble Space Telescope.
References.
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Ibrahim ibn Muhammad
Youngest son of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad (630–632)
Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad () was the son of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and Maria al-Qibtiyya. He died at the age of 2.
Birth, illness and death.
According to Ibn Kathir, quoting Ibn Sa'd, Ibrahim was born in the last month of the year 8 AH, equivalent of 630 CE. The child was named after Abraham (or Ibrahim in Arabic), the Biblical prophet revered in Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. Ibrahim was placed in the care of a nurse named Umm Sayf, wife of Abu Sayf, the blacksmith, to whom Muhammad gifted goats to complement her milk supply. When Ibrahim fell ill, he was moved to a date orchard near the residence of his mother, under the care of herself and her sister Sirin. When it was clear that Ibrahim was unlikely to survive, Muhammad was informed. His reaction to the news is reported as:
Eclipse occurrence.
In his book "Al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya", ibn Kathir mentions that Ibrahim died on Thursday 10 Rabi' al-Awwal 10 AH, and on the same day right after his death, a solar eclipse occurred. Because of this, observers believed that God was showing his condolences to his prophet by eclipsing the Sun. Muhammad, not wanting his companions to fall into fitna by ascribing divinity to him or his son, stood at the mosque and said, "The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of the death or life (i.e. birth) of someone. When you see the eclipse pray and invoke God." According to modern astronomical tables, a solar eclipse occurred on January 27, 632 that was visible from Medina.
Burial.
Muhammad is also reported as having informed Maria and Sirin that Ibrahim would have his own nurse in Paradise. Different accounts relate that the ghusl for Ibrahim was performed by either Umm Burdah, or al-Fadl ibn ʿAbbas, in preparation for burial. Thereafter, he was carried to the cemetery upon a little bier by Muhammad, his uncle al-ʿAbbas, and others. Here, after a funeral prayer led by Muhammad, he was interred. Muhammad then filled the grave with sand, sprinkled some water upon it, and placed a landmark on it, saying that "Tombstones do neither good nor ill, but they help appease the living. Anything that man does, God wishes him to do well."
Rumor of illegitimacy.
A rumor spread that Ibrahim was rather the son of Maria's male cousin, Mabur. When Muhammad heard this rumor, he ordered Ali to kill him without a trial. He later declined to implement the initial order when confirmed her cousin is actually a eunuch:
Qadi Iyad, in his commentary on the Hadith, claimed that "Muhammad forbade Mabur from talking to the mother of his son, but he didn't stop." According to Ibn Taimiyah and Ibn Al-Qayyim quoting a full-context narration of the Hadith, the order to kill Mabur was not for applying the punishment of adultery but rather for "violating the sanctity of his house", conditioned on Ali finding him alone with her and to prioritize what he sees over Muhammad's order:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />Narrated Ali: People talked a lot about Maria, the mother of Ibrahim, and a Copt cousin of hers who was frequently visiting her. The prophet said to me, “Take this sword and go to him. If you find him at hers, then kill him.” I said, "O messenger of God, should I be at your command if you send me like a hot anvil, nothing deters me until I do what you sent me to do? or the witness sees what the absent doesn't see?" He replied, "The witness sees what the absent doesn't see." So I approached brandishing the sword, and I did find him there, so I drew the sword. When I approached him, he knew that I came for him and jumped into a palm tree, then he fell off on his back with his legs stretched out and it turned out he was emasculated, he didn't have what Men have, neither little nor much, so I sheathed my sword, and returned to the prophet and told him. He said, "Praise be to God who protects the people of the household."
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Brad H. Cox
American racehorse trainer
Brad H. Cox (born March 3, 1980) is a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer whose most notable horses include multiple Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl, Knicks Go, Covfefe, Mandaloun, and Essential Quality. He had four winners at the 2020 Breeders' Cup, helping Cox earn the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer that year. In 2021, he won that title again after Essential Quality won the Belmont Stakes and Knicks Go won the Breeders' Cup Classic; Mandaloun would later be awarded that year's Kentucky Derby.
Background.
Cox was born in Louisville, Kentucky on March 30, 1980, the son of Jerry and Mary Cox. He grew up just two blocks away from Churchill Downs and his father began taking him to the track when he was four or five. Cox began studying the "Daily Racing Form" when he was twelve. "I felt I knew a lot about what it meant. I was intrigued by the trainers, the jockeys, the past performances themselves."
He attended Iroquois High School and got his first job as a hot walker at thirteen, then worked as a groom for trainers Burt Kessinger and Jimmy Baker. He was then an assistant trainer to Dallas Stewart for five years before starting his own stable at age 24.
He is currently married to Livia Frazar, a racetrack veterinarian, who met him in 2011. The two have a son Brodie. Two sons from his first marriage, Blake and Bryson, work with him as assistants/barn foremen.
Racing career.
Cox earned his first career win on December 4, 2004, with One Lucky Storm at Turfway Park. In 2005, Tappin for Gold gave him his first stakes win. He had fairly limited success in the following years, mainly in the claiming ranks, and his stable shrank at one point to just two or three horses. However, he slowly built up his client base, which came to include members of the Dubai royal family, Juddmonte Farms and Spendthrift Farm. "It was an amazing roller-coaster ride to get to the point we are now," said Cox in January 2021. "It's still a roller-coaster ride, but we have the numbers that we’re able to keep things going."
Cox earned his first graded stakes win in 2014 with Carve in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap. He noted that his early graded stakes winners were from the claiming ranks. "We had to develop them or improve them," he said, "whether it was surface change or something along the way that got them in good form. That's how it really got kicked off, our ability to show we could win at the graded-stakes level. I think that's when the larger outfits, people with homebreds with nice pedigrees, start calling you and you get horses out of the sale as well."
Cox's reputation as an elite trainer began when Monomoy Girl joined his stable in 2017. She gave Cox his first Grade I win in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland in 2018 and then became his first Eclipse Award winner after winning the Kentucky Oaks, Acorn Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks and Breeders' Cup Distaff. Cox recorded his 1,000th win on November 18, 2018, with Play On at Fair Grounds.
In 2019, Cox trained two more Eclipse Award winners, Covfefe and British Idiom, whose campaigns were highlighted by wins in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and Juvenile Fillies respectively. Those wins temporarily increased Cox to fourth place on the 2019 list of leading trainers by money earned. He finished the year ranked fifth by earnings and fourth by number of wins.
After missing her 2019 campaign due to illness, Monomoy Girl returned in 2020 to win another Eclipse Award. Cox was the leading trainer at Keeneland's 2020 Fall Meet, then had a record-tying four winners at the 2020 Breeders' Cup: Monomoy Girl in the Distaff, Essential Quality in the Juvenile, Knicks Go in the Dirt Mile and Aunt Pearl in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Cox was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer of 2020 and again in 2021.
In 2021, Cox trained two Triple Crown race winners, Kentucky Derby winner Mandaloun and Belmont Stakes winner Essential Quality, and American Horse of the Year Knicks Go, who won five of his seven starts on the year including the Breeders' Cup Classic.
References.
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Bonnie Tyler
Welsh singer (born 1951)
Gaynor Sullivan (née Hopkins; born 8 June 1951), known professionally as Bonnie Tyler, is a Welsh singer. Known for her distinctive husky voice, Tyler came to prominence with the release of her 1977 album "The World Starts Tonight" and its singles "Lost in France" and "More Than a Lover". Her 1977 single "It's a Heartache" reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, and number three on the US "Billboard" Hot 100.
In the 1980s, Tyler ventured into rock music with songwriter and producer Jim Steinman. He wrote Tyler's biggest hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart", the lead single from her 1983 UK chart-topping album "Faster Than the Speed of Night". Steinman also wrote Tyler's other major 1980s hit "Holding Out for a Hero". She had success in mainland Europe during the 1990s with Dieter Bohlen, who wrote and produced her hit "Bitterblue". In 2003, Tyler re-recorded "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with singer Kareen Antonn. Their bilingual duet, titled "Si demain... (Turn Around)", topped the French charts.
"Rocks and Honey" was released in 2013 and features the single "Believe in Me", which she performed representing the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. After reuniting with the producer David Mackay, she released "Between the Earth and the Stars" (2019) and "The Best Is Yet to Come" (2021).
Her work has earned her three Grammy Award nominations and three Brit Award nominations (including twice for British Female Solo Artist), among other accolades. In 2022, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to music.
Early life.
Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins on 8 June 1951 in Skewen, Neath, Wales. Her father, Glyndŵr Hopkins, was a coal miner and serviceman in the Second World War, and her mother, Elsie Hopkins (née Lewis), was a former homemaker. She grew up in a four-bedroom council house with three sisters and two brothers. Her siblings had varied music tastes, exposing her to artists such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and the Beatles. Hopkins attended Rhydhir Comprehensive School in Neath, Wales. She left school, age 16, with no qualifications and began working in a grocery shop. Hopkins and her family were deeply religious Protestants. Her first public performance took place in a chapel as a child, singing the Anglican hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful".
In April 1969, Hopkins was entered into a local talent competition by her aunt, and she came second to an accordionist. Inspired to pursue a career in singing, Hopkins found work as a backing singer for Bobby Wayne & the Dixies before forming her own band, Imagination. It was around this time that she changed her name to Sherene Davis, to avoid being confused with Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin.
Career.
1975–1978: "The World Starts Tonight" and "Natural Force".
In 1975, Davis was spotted singing with her band in the Townsman Club, Swansea, by talent scout Roger Bell, who invited her to London to record a demo track. After many months had passed, she received a phone call from RCA Records, offering her a recording contract. They also recommended that she change her name again. After compiling a list of surnames and first names from a newspaper, Davis found a new name in "Bonnie Tyler".
Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe became her managers, songwriters and producers. "My! My! Honeycomb" was released as her debut single in April 1976, and failed to impact any charts worldwide. In September 1976, as part of a promotional campaign for Tyler's subsequent single release, "Lost in France", RCA Records allocated £4,000 for a strategic promotional initiative, which involved sending a group of 30 music journalists and radio DJs to Le Touquet, France, where they met Tyler over a four-course meal. "Lost in France" peaked at no. 9 in the UK and led to Tyler's first appearance on "Top of the Pops". "More Than a Lover" followed in January 1977. Due to perceived sexual nature of the song's lyrics, it was banned from a new British children's TV series, "Get It Together". Though surprised by the decision, Tyler stated she was grateful for the "extra publicity". It peaked at no. 27 in the UK.
Tyler's debut album, "The World Starts Tonight", was released in February 1977. To promote the album, Tyler embarked on her first UK tour as a guest artist with Gene Pitney. The album failed to chart in the UK, but reached no. 2 in Sweden. In the spring of 1977, Tyler underwent an operation to remove vocal cord nodules and was advised by her doctor to rest her voice for six weeks. Tyler screamed in frustration one day, resulting in a permanent raspy tone.
In July 1977, Tyler released her fourth single, "Heaven". It peaked at no. 24 in Germany. Tyler ascribed the underwhelming performance of the single in other regions to the passing of Elvis Presley in August 1977. This event resulted in RCA redirecting its focus towards reissuing Presley's extensive back catalogue. "It's a Heartache" followed in November 1977 and became one of Tyler's most-successful singles, peaking at no. 4 in the UK and no. 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Here Am I" was released in April 1978, and it peaked at no. 4 in Norway. David Mackay parted ways with Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe in 1978, and Gordon Mills briefly took over as Tyler's manager. Mills organised Tyler's first tour of the United States in July 1978, including several nights at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, supporting Tom Jones.
Tyler's second studio album, "Natural Force", was released in May 1978. It was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with sales of over half a million copies.
1979–1981: "Diamond Cut" and "Goodbye to the Island".
Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe produced Tyler's third album, "Diamond Cut", with Robin Geoffrey Cable. Released in February 1979, it was a Top 20 record in Finland, Norway and Sweden, but only reached 145 in the US. Tyler felt that RCA was pushing her to record more country-oriented music, which frustrated her. The album yielded one major hit, "My Guns Are Loaded", which peaked at no. 10 on the Canadian AC chart.
In the summer of 1979, Tyler had another UK Top 40 hit with "(The World Is Full of) Married Men". She recorded it for a film adaptation of Jackie Collins' novel of the same name. Tyler performs the song during the film's closing titles.
In November 1979, Tyler represented the United Kingdom at the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Japan. She won the Grand Prix International award for her performance of "Sitting on the Edge of the Ocean", written by Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe. They co-produced Tyler's fourth album, "Goodbye to the Island", with Hugh Murphy. Released in 1981, it only charted in Norway. RCA invited Tyler to extend her contract for another five years, but she declined, expressing disillusionment with her artistic image and noting a scarcity of performance opportunities in the aftermath of several unsuccessful singles.
1982–1989: The CBS Years.
After her contract with RCA expired, Tyler signed with CBS/Columbia. A&R man Muff Winwood asked Tyler to scout a new producer. She considered Phil Collins, Jeff Lynne and Alan Tarney, but Jim Steinman was her first choice. "I'm a huge fan of his records, especially his solo album, and when my manager and I were discussing my comeback we both agreed that I had to sound the best or nobody would take me seriously." Steinman initially declined, but reconsidered after Tyler sent him demos of the rock material she was hoping to record.
After their initial meeting, Tyler returned to Steinman's apartment in New York a few weeks later where she performed "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with Rory Dodd. Steinman described the song as "a Wagnerian-like onslaught of sound and emotion", and a "showpiece" for Tyler's voice. Her fifth album was recorded at the Power Station in New York, with members of the E Street Band, Rick Derringer on guitar, Rory Dodd and Eric Troyer on backing vocals, and Steinman as producer.
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" was released in the UK on 11 February 1983. It became one of the best-selling singles of all time with over six million units sold. Her fifth studio album, "Faster Than the Speed of Night", debuted at no. 1 on the UK Albums Chart and reached no. 3 on the US "Cashbox" chart and no. 4 on the US "Billboard" 200, selling over one million copies in the United States. Tyler's commercial success led to several award nominations, including two Grammys, two AMAs and a BRIT Award. Tyler was named Best Recording Artist at the Variety Club of Great Britain Awards, and she received a Goldene Europa.
Tyler also found success through some of her soundtrack recordings in the mid-80s. In 1984, she released "Holding Out for a Hero" from the "Footloose" soundtrack. In the following year, her recording of "Here She Comes" for Giorgio Moroder's restoration of the 1927 film "Metropolis" earned Tyler a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Tyler also declined an offer to record the theme for the James Bond spin-off "Never Say Never Again".
In 1986, Tyler released her sixth studio album, "Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire". In another collaboration with Jim Steinman, the album also featured songs written by Desmond Child and Bryan Adams and a cover of "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne. "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)" became the album's most successful single, selling over 250,000 units in France. The music video, directed by Steinman and Stuart Orme, received six nominations at the "Billboard" Video Music Conference.
In 1987, Tyler collaborated with Mike Oldfield on the title track to his album "Islands". In the following year, Tyler played Polly Garter in George Martin's album "Under Milk Wood", a radio drama by Dylan Thomas. The music was composed by Elton John, and features vocal contributions from Tom Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Mary Hopkin.
Tyler asked Desmond Child to produce her seventh album, "Hide Your Heart", which came out on 9 May 1988. The album featured collaborations with Michael Bolton, Albert Hammond and Diane Warren. The album's singles, "Hide Your Heart", "Save Up All Your Tears" and "The Best" became major hits for other artists.
1990–2000: Success in continental Europe.
In 1990, Tyler signed to Hansa/BMG Ariola and began working with various producers for her eighth studio album. She collaborated with Dieter Bohlen, Giorgio Moroder, Nik Kershaw and Roy Bittan. "We used so many producers in efforts to capture many different moods for many different territories, because we believed in the international crossover potential of Tyler," stated David Brunner, A&R manager for Hansa.
"Bitterblue" was released on 11 November 1991. In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Tomas Mureika noted that the album marked a "much more mainstream and less bombastic" direction in Tyler's career. The title track was released a month ahead of the album and became a top 40 hit in several European countries. It was named 'Catchy Song of the Year' at the RSH-Gold Awards. In the following year, "Bitterblue" was released as a promotional single in the United States where it was met with criticism. "Billboard" wrote that "bombastic production, with a rush of bagpipes and a choir of chirping children at the forefront, overpower Tyler's distinctive raspy voice."
While "Bitterblue" was never released in the UK or US, the album was a commercial success in mainland Europe. It topped the charts in Austria and Norway, achieving 4× Platinum status in the latter country with eleven weeks at no. 1.
Tyler's subsequent albums, "Angel Heart" (1992) and "Silhouette in Red" (1993), were also successful in mainland Europe. Both albums featured a greater share of songs written and produced by Dieter Bohlen. Tyler was named Best International Singer at the Goldene Europa Awards in 1993, and Best Pop/Rock Singer at the ECHO Awards in 1994.
In 1995, Tyler moved to EastWest Records and released "Free Spirit". The album featured collaborations with a variety of producers including Humberto Gatica, David Foster and Jim Steinman. The lead single, a cover of Air Supply's "Making Love (Out of Nothing At All)", reached no. 45 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1996. The album was re-released in March 1996 featuring a cover of "Limelight" by the Alan Parsons Project. The track was used as a theme for the German team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tyler's twelfth studio album, "All in One Voice", was released in 1998. Much of the album was recorded with Jimmy Smyth in Dublin, and