Samuel Bordley
IMG 8849
Selected Works
Personal statement
Today there are more ‘classical realists’ than in the 20th century, and the taste for classical art is growing. Velazquez and Sargent have been rediscovered. But I’ve recently noticed that nobody has bothered to dig up Jan van Eyck… Leonardo or Correggio. Their precious, devotional masterpieces just baffle us with their patience and dedication. Everyone wants to be a swashbuckling (and proficient) hero like Rembrandt, but nobody even essays to match the quiet, sane, profound works of Giorgione. Why? Well, because it is much harder and slower work. To even approach these masters requires a lifetime of acquired skill, yes, but also of research. I’ve spent the last eight years in the minds and methods of these artists in order to try and rediscover some of their lost secrets. Pouring through the source documents, off-hand mentions, contracts, anything in which one can catch a glimmer of these artists I have pursued. It is amazing how much gold art historians have overlooked! That is because they are, first and foremost, historians, not artists. Art is the incidental subject of their historical inquiry but they have no understanding of, for example, how to make a painting. Part of my work is writing a book to remedy this situation. It became clear that the two disciplines of painting and art history do not communicate, each in their isolation too lazy or too embarrassed to reach out and admit what they don’t know in order that they might learn!
Biography
I was born in 1995 in Durham, North Carolina. I attended Durham School of the Arts with a pathway in painting and art history, graduating in 2013. I gained a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the number 1 public art school in the country at the time, Virginia Commonwealth University, graduating magna cum laude. During that time I studied under the renowned fresco painter Dr. Jeffery Mims at the Academy of Classical Design. After graduating, I moved to Rome and earned a master’s degree at John Cabot University in Art Historical Studies. In Rome I spent my days (out of the library) in the Vatican stanze, the palatial galleries, and drawing each and every antique statue and monument. While doing this I studied painting under Professor Timothy J. Allen at the Art Studio Rome. At home in Durham I studied with Lindsay Harkness. Then I moved to Florence to study at the Charles Cecil Studios. I stayed there for three years learning old master practice, design, and portraiture. After five years abroad I felt ready to come home and set up my own practice. But I return to Europe and its museums every winter to study and paint with my tutors. In particular, the guidance of George Clark and Isabella Watling have been a continual source of inspiration and instruction. At home I’m busy teaching what I’ve learned. If art history has taught me anything it's the precious value of this inheritance which can only be passed on orally and in-person to the next generation. It’s the honor of my life to be in a position to offer this (affordably) to my community. Second to this is the honor that I can trace my artistic training–in a direct line–to the great Jacques Louis David. This legacy weighs on me, along with the legacy of my ancestors: the portraitist John Beal Bordley (on my father’s side) and the great history painter Emanuel Leutze (on my mother’s). Yikes!