I finished work a little early today and have a little time to kill before my dinner date shows up. So, I started doing some research for an upcoming post on my favorite paintings.
I didn't get very far down the road when I (re)discovered Frantisek Kupka.
He was an artist I first came across on a trip to Budapest, where I saw a couple of his (later) paintings in a museum. I jotted his name in my travel notebook and looked him up once I got back to the states.
At the time, I was pretty amazed to learn that he'd done a few paintings that I'd seen before, including -- my favorite -- The Black Idol (pictured left).
If the painting looks somewhat familiar, that's because it seemingly served as the inspiration for Dracula's castle (pictured below) in Francis Ford Coppola's version of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Think that's a stretch? Watch the movie again. It's littered with artistic references, from Dracula's Gustav-Klimt inspired traveling gown to the font that the movie's name is written in (also seemingly inspired by Klimt). In fact, it's one of the things I loved most about that movie. It was one big love letter to Symbolist art.
At any rate, if you haven't checked out Kupka, he's worth a look.
It also doesn't hurt that he was completely hot.
