Sunday stamps: art on stamps

On 8 January 2011 Viridian started 'Sunday Stamps'. Almost four years later, today, it's time for number 200 which is the last one hosted by Viridian. Fortunately she will pass Sunday Stamps on to Violet Sky.

I joined rather late, with my first contribution 24th November 2013 (in two parts, to the theme 'singers'). Since then I posted stamps on an irregular base. And every time when choosing stamps to post, I felt and feel it's a joy to do.
It makes you regarding your stamps with different eyes. I've seen things I wouldn't have seen if I weren't 'forced' to search and look close by the challenging themes Viridian provided to us. And it was and is a joy to see what other people, from all-over the world, have found and shared via Sunday Stamps!
So I want to say a big 'Thank You!', to Viridian for hosting 200 extraordinary blog posts! (Each time that I'll see minerals or geology on a stamp, I will think of you (and not only then! :-) )
And also I want to say a big 'Thank You!' to Violet Sky, for giving us the opportunity to continue searching and regarding our stamps in this special way.

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Art on stamps'.
Although I consider each stamp as a work of art, I went through my stamps searching for 'official' art.
The Dutch post has issued many stamps on art, for instance last year a stamp sheet themed the Rijksmuseum (National Museum in Amsterdam), and a year before for the Stedelijk Museum (Municipal Museum of Modern Art). And I see that Eva has posted some wonderful Dutch stamps today (as many snail mail lovers do, also I love the paintings of Johannes Vermeer on letter reading / writing women!).

Out of many Dutch art stamps I chose just the following two, because they show both the art work and the artist.

Judith Leyster is a 17th century painter. History sometimes seems to exist of men only, and I didn't know that there were female artists before, let's say, 1900. So I was happily surprised when I learned (thanks to Viridian!) about this Dutch female painter by this self protrait on a stamp, issued in 1999.



Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is a Dutch graphic artist. Sometimes there is discussion about whether his works are 'art' or 'craft'. I think they're both. Anyway, his works are amazing, with some impossible constructions or 'infinite' patterned pictures.



From the Netherlands to Brazil.
The Brazilian painter Cândido Portinari (1903-1962) has made thousands of paintings, of which about 200 have been lost, and/or are inaccessible to the public, kept in private collections. One of the goals of the 'Projeto Portinari' (Portinari Project) is to locate the missing paintings of this painter who is said to have, throughout his life, movingly expressed the soul and the people of Brazil. To not have him forgotten, the Portinari Project was founded in 1979. And in 2004 the Correios, the Brazilian Post, helped to this search by issuing a serie of five stamps. This is one of them, named 'Marcel Gontrau', which has been painted in 1960.