ART “4”
“2”-DAY 04 January |
| BIRTH:
1896 MASSON |
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Died
on 04 January 1778:
Charles-Dominique-Joseph
Eisen, French painter, draftsman, and illustrator, born
on 17 August 1720, son of genre painter François
Eisen [1695-1778], and father of artists Christophe-Charles Eisen [1744–]
and Jacques-Philippe Eisen [1747–]. — Charles Eisen went to Paris about 1740 to work in the studio of the engraver Jacques-Philippe Lebas. Eisen himself engraved little, and probably produced the drawings from which Lebas or studio assistants would engrave. In 1745 Eisen was asked to illustrate a volume celebrating the betrothal of the Dauphin Louis to Maria Theresa of Spain. This was his first significant commission and was probably passed to him by Lebas. Two years later he established his reputation and independence by providing 43 drawings for an edition of the works of Nicolas Boileau. In 1748, however, the Académie de Saint Luc seized Eisen’s studio effects because he was refusing to pay the joining fee, arguing that, as an artist of exceptional talent, he should be admitted for a lesser amount. Two years later he sued successfully and was admitted without fee; his morceau de réception was a painting of Daedalus and Icarus — Charles Eisen is best known as an illustrator of vignettes, which are small, ornamental images with no defined borders that are most often used in books (also on snuff boxes). His charm and grace, as well as his sense of humor and wit, brought him to the attention of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV. Through Madame de Pompadour's considerable influence with the King, Eisen became a court painter and also a professor at the Acadèmie de Saint-Luc. Perhaps most importantly, he gave private instruction in drawing to Madame Pompadour herself. Eisen's popularity at the court insured that he would enjoy patronage among the aristocracy. His sure sense of line and use of brilliant color, in combination with his sense of humor and understanding of extravagant courtly tastes, resulted in paintings such as Le chien dansant. — LINKS — Le Chien Dansant (675x568pix, 28kb)_ A young boy and girl, both fashionably dressed and coiffed, play with a tiny pet that they have dressed up in doll clothes for their own amusement. Though this is clearly a delightful and playful picture, it is also possible that Eisen is secretly making light of the aristocratic tastes which supported him. — compare Children Teaching a Cat to Dance (1668) by Jan Steen [1626 – 03 Feb 1679] and Chien Dansant by François Boucher. — Courting the Shepherdess (1760 hand colored engraving by René Gaillard, 51x41cm, 703x600pix, 50kb) — Allegorical Composition (drawing 21x31cm; full size) — Culs-de-lampe et figures d'après celles de Charles Eisen pour les Contes de La Fontaine [1621-1695]. |
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Died on 04 January 1927: Frederick Cayley Robinson,
British Neoclassical painter born on 18 August 1862. — Robinson was born in Middlesex and studied in London and Paris. A pioneer of twentieth century tempera painting, illustrator and theatre designer, he was elected to the NEAC in 1912 and appointed Professor of Figure Composition and Decoration at Glasgow University in 1914. Elected ARA 1921. From 1914 he lived in the block of studios at Lansdowne House, Holland Park, where Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon were also residents. — LINKS — A Winter Evening (1899, 61x76cm; 796x1009pix, 57kb — ZOOM to 1592x2017pix, 195kb) — A winter's evening (1918, 99x77cm; 474x640pix, 47kb) — Pastoral (1924, 90x116cm) — Mother and Child - Threads of Life (1894, 61x76cm; 336x400pix, 20kb) _ A pensive woman sits at the left of the composition, facing right, with her right forearm resting on a dining table, in her hand she holds a needle and thread with which she has been embroidering a narrow hanging which lies flat on the table, steam rises from a blue and white bowl at the centre of the table. Behind her, against a lace-curtained window, sits a red-haired girl, facing right, eating from a white bowl which she holds in her right hand. At the back edge of the table wooden Noah's Ark figures stand in line. All is lit from above by a hanging oil lamp. An open triptych showing angels awaking a sleeping shepherd and the Virgin and Child hangs on the right wall. Presumably painted immediately after Robinson's return from Paris, where he had been studying at the Academy Julian since 1891. During his stay in France Robinson admired the work of Puvis de Chavannes and the Nabis and their influences may be seen in both the technique and obscure symbolism of this work. Enigmatic groupings of two or more female figures around a table in a lamp-lit room, frequently occur in his work. The Depth of Winter (1900, 90x116cm) is a related painting which also features an incomplete embroidery, as does A Souvenir of a Past Age (1894) |
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Born on 04 January 1896: André Masson,
French Surrealist painter, sculptor, draftsman, printmaker, illustrator,
stage designer, and writer, who died on 28 October 1987. — His work played an important role in the development of both Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, although his independence, iconoclasm and abrupt stylistic transitions make him difficult to classify. Masson was admitted to the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts et l’Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels at the age of 11. Through his teacher Constant Montald, he met the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren [1855–1916], who persuaded Masson’s parents to send him to Paris for further training. S. W. Hayter was one of his teachers. Masson joined the French infantry in 1915 and fought in the battles of the Somme; he was gravely wounded, and his wartime experiences engendered in him a profound philosophy about human destiny and stimulated his search for a personal imagery of generation, eclosion and metamorphosis. One of his best known paintings is Labyrinth. — Masson spent most of his youth in Brussels, where he worked as pattern-drawer in an embroidery studio and studied part-time at the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Then moved to Paris and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts 1912-14. Served in the French Army 1914-1919, and was gravely wounded. Lived 1919-1922 in the South of France, then returned to Paris where he met Gris, Derain, and later Mir-13 and Breton. First one-man exhibition at the Galerie Simon, Paris, 1923. Paintings of forests, card players and still life, followed by experiments with automatic drawing. Participated from 1924-1929 in the Surrealist movement. Made further works exploring chance effects, including sand paintings, as well as paintings of metamorphoses of animal and human forms, themes of germination, combats and massacres, with emphasis on violence and eroticism. Lived 1934-1936 in Spain; paintings of bullfights, Spanish myths, etc. Took refuge 1941-1945 in the US, where he lived at New Preston, Connecticut, and made works inspired by the elemental forces of nature. Returned to France in 1945 and settled in 1947 at Aix-en-Provence. Painted landscape themes such as mountains and waterfalls for several years, followed by some almost completely abstract pictures. His works also include sets and costumes for the theatre, book illustrations and a number of small sculptures; has written various books including Mythologie d'André Masson (1971). — LINKS — The Sun from "Verve" (color lithograph poster 35x25cm; 4/5 size) — The Moon from "Verve" (color lithograph poster 35x25cm; 4/5 size) — Don Giovanni fourth of a portfolio of eight Metropolitan Opera Fine Arts Posters (color lithograph 91x61cm; 3/8 size) — Ulysse chez Circée (1972) — Les Terres rouges et la Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1948, 96x77cm) — Les Filles de cuisine (1961, 50x61cm) — Petite Bacchanale (600x895pix, 210kb _ ZOOM to 1400x2089pix, 480kb) — Still Life With Pitchers (1918, 568x689pix, 177kb _ ZOOM to 1325x1608pix, 416kb) — L'Aile (1925, 570x393pix, 145kb _ ZOOM to 1330x918pix, 371kb) |
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Died on 04 January 1880:
Anselm Feuerbach, German Neoclassical
painter and draftsman born on 12 September 1829. Not to be confused with
his uncle, philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach [28 July 1804 – 13 September
1872], or his grandfather, jurist Paul von Feuerbach [14 November 1775 –
29 May 1833]. — His family moved to Freiburg in 1836 and from 1845 tot 1848 he was a student of Wilhelm von Schadow, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and Carl Friedrich Lessing at the Dusseldorf Academy. In 1848 he moved to Munich where he copied the old masters at the Pinakothek. In 1850 he studied with the history painter Gustaaf Wappers at Antwerp and in 1851 and 1852 he stayed in Paris. He moved to Karlsruhe and then to Rome, where he stayed from 1856 tot 1873. In Italy he was one of the "Deutschrömers" who were looking for the perfect synthesis between humans and culture. His paintings are not as dramatic of those of Böcklin, they tend to be far more calm and cool. In Rome he met the model Nanna Risi who became his lover. His future biographer Julius Allgeyer introduced him to Graf Adolf Friedrich von Schack, who supported Feuerbach financially. Feuerbach became a Professor at the Academy in Vienna (1873-1876). After staying in Venice and Nürnberg he died in solitary circumstances in Venice, completely neglected by his contemporaries. — Feuerbach received his first art lessons from the anatomical draftsman at the University of Freiburg where his father, Joseph Anselm Feuerbach, lectured in Classical philology and archaeology. Anselm Feuerbach's teacher included Thomas Couture, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, Carl Sohn. In 1845 Feuerbach enrolled at the Düsseldorf Akademie where he studied under Wilhelm Schadow. Though adept at academic drawing, he was urged by Schadow to simplify his rather unresolved and crowded compositional sketches and concentrate on a few figures. In 1848 he moved to Munich where he made copies after Old Master paintings in the Alte Pinakothek, being especially impressed by the work of Rubens. Though eventually studying at the Munich Akademie, he saw the landscape painter Carl Rahl as his real mentor. Works such as Landscape with a Hermit Returning Home (1849) combine the rich mood of the Munich landscape tradition with subject-matter more typical of the Düsseldorf school. — Vojtech Hynais was a student of Feuerbach. — Photo of Feuerbach — LINKS — Self-Portrait as a Young Southern Fisherman (1846, 600x424pix, 102kb _ ZOOM not recommended to fuzzy 1400x989pix, 290kb) — Self-Portrait as a Youth (1846, 600x483pix, 130kb; distractingly patterned _ ZOOM not recommended to terribly patterned 1400x1128pix, 311kb) — Front Self-Portrait (1835, 42x33cm; 1519x1168pix) — Profile Self-Portrait (672x527pix, 104kb) — Mandolinenspieler (1868 137x99cm; 2710x1906pix, 747kb) _ The mandolin player is barely seen, in the shadows, while the main subject is the listener and her baby, for which she cannot afford clothes (this was common in pictures other than paid portraits; it seems that babies in those days were unaffected by heat, cold, or sunburn, and had no need of diapers) — Mandolinenspielerin (1865; 79x60cm; 497x394pix, 68kb) _ Is it my imagination, or is this the same woman, in almost the same pose, who, three years later, after the birth of her baby, is, in the picture listed above, listening to a man (her husband?) playing the mandolin? Did she teach it to him? — Hafis vor der Schenke (1852, 205x258cm; 1236x1557pix) — Lady Holding A Fan (1866, 76x54cm) — Lady Wearing A Pearl Necklace (77x57cm) — Iphigenie II (1873; 1233x789pix) _ detail of Iphigenie I (1872; 750x585pix, 100kb) _ Iphigenie, vom Vater Agamemnon der erzürnten Artemis geopfert, wurde von dieser aus Mitleid vom Altar auf die Insel Tauris entrückt und musste ihr dort als Priesterin dienen. Feuerbach fühlte sich, wie er sagte, zum »Antik-Gewaltigen« berufen und wurde zum wichtigsten Repräsentanten eines monumentalen Neoklassizismus in der deutschen Malerei. Wie eine antike Statue ist das Modell Lucia Brunacci, ab 1866 Nannas Nachfolgerin, in großer Pose platziert, wie Goethes Iphigenie »das Land der Griechen mit der Seele suchend«. Grau in grau mit wenigen Akzenten erinnert die Farbigkeit an antike Fresken. Inszeniert wie auf einer Bühne, wurde dieses Bild der unerfüllten Sehnsucht zum charakteristischen und häufig reproduzierten Motiv einer ganzen Epoche. — Ruhende Nymphe (1870, 112x190cm; 412x726pix) _ Die Komposition der Ruhenden Nymphe knüpft an den Typus der Schlafenden Venus (1510, 108x175cm; 732x1028pix, 149kb) von Giorgione an — eine Verkörperung der in sich ruhenden Natur. Ihre göttliche Beseeltheit bringt Feuerbach durch das Motiv des Schmetterlings zum Ausdruck. Den Schmetterling — in der Antike ein Sinnbild für die Seele und ihrer Sehnsucht nach dem göttlichen Ursprung — hat er in die Mittelachse der Komposition gesetzt. Statt mit einer Quelle oder einem Brunnen bringt er die Nymphe mit der Weite des Meeres in Verbindung, womit er den angestrebten Eindruck mythologischer Größe unterstreicht. — Garten des Ariost (1863, 102x153cm; 2853x4361pix) _ Ludovico Ariosto [08 Sep 1474 – 06 Jul 1533] was a Ferrara poet remembered primarily for his epic poem Orlando furioso. By 1525 Ariosto had saved enough money to buy a little house with a garden, a far cry from the vast garden at the side of the grandiose palace in Feuerbach's painting. — Pietà (1863, 600x1191pix, 244kb _ ZOOM to 1400x2778pix, 599kb) — Medea (1870, 600x1226pix, 302kb _ ZOOM to 1400x2861pix, 749kb) — The Judgment of Paris (1870, 600x1151pix, 283kb _ ZOOM to 1400x2685pix, 700kb) — The Battle of the Amazons (1870, 600x1108pix, 292kb _ ZOOM to 1400x2586pix, 750kb) — In the Spring (1868, 600x847pix, 222kb _ ZOOM to 1400x1976pix, 601kb) — Gastmahl des Plato (1869, 295x598cm; 757x1582pix) — Gastmahl des Plato II (1873, 400x750cm; 545x999pix with frame) — Iphigenie II (1871, 192x126cm; 1233x789pix) — Kinderständchen (1860, 116x231cm; 768x1554pix) — Musizierende Kinder (1864, 106x87cm; 1745x1410pix) — Kinder am Strande (1867, 138x100cm; 953x693pix) — Maria mit dem Kind zwischen musizierenden Engeln (1860, 117x96cm; ) |
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Died on 04 January 1845: Louis-Léopold
Boilly, French portrait and genre painter born on 05 July
1761. — Boilly's work illustrated everyday life during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire. Sensitive command of media, color, and composition. Boilly's only teacher was his father, Arnould Boilly, a wood-carver. Boilly came to Paris for the first time in 1785, and remained there permanently. He is said to have painted over 5000 portraits, besides other works. — LINKS — Portrait of a Child (46x38cm) — La Paresse (1824) — Oh What a Fool He Is! (ZOOM) — Diane et Médor (1829 lithograph, 21x24cm; full size) _ 2 dogs in human poses. — Portrait Studies (1795 drawing, 41x47cm; half-size _ ZOOM to full size) _ heads of granpa, dad, mom, 3 children. — Study for "La vaccine" (1807 drawing, 40x28cm; 3/4 size) — Les Antiquaires (color lithograph, 26x21cm; full size) — Les Lunettes (color lithograph, 17x21cm; full size) — Finissez Donc (Le Baiser) (color lithograph, 16x20cm; full size) — Young Woman Ironing (1800) — Madame Vincent (1820) — Sarah Bowdoin (1805, 22x17cm) — The Geography Lesson (1812, 74x59cm) _ Louis-Léopold Boilly was the most gifted genre painter in France during the Napoleonic era and one of the period's most prolific portraitists. Boilly exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon (the State-sponsored exhibition of contemporary art) between 1800 and 1814 and won the recognition of a gold medal of the first class in 1804. This double portrait, shown both at the Salons of 1812 and 1814, depicts Monsieur Gaudry, a civil servant, instructing his daughter in geography. Boilly, as a close family friend, observed the girl's lessons many times. Even the little dog can be identified as "Brusquet," much admired in the family because his constant barking had once succeeded in scaring away a band of thieves who had broken into the Finance Ministry. Historical geography was promoted as a field of study for both boys and girls in Napoleonic France, the maps of whose territories were subject to frequent revision with each new conquest. Here the sphinx and pyramid in the cartouche of the map no doubt refer to Napoleon's Egyptian expedition of 1798-1801; the globe shows Europe and Africa. Moreover, The Geography Lesson portrays a theme popular in the Dutch seventeenth-century paintings that Boilly emulated: the proper duty of parents to nurture and instruct their children [which is better than to torture and destruct them].. |
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Buried on 04 January 1607: Gillis
van Coninxloo (or Konimksloo) III, Flemish painter, draftsman,
and collector, born on 24 January 1544, son of Jan van Coninxloo II [1489->1552]
and brother-in-law of Pieter
Bruegel II. — Van Coninxloo was a landscape painter whose works show the transition from Mannerist to early Baroque landscape. Coninxloo studied under, among others, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, a painter of the Antwerp school of Mannerism. After a period of travel in France, he returned to Antwerp in 1570 and was made a member of the painters' guild. He left his home again in 1585 to escape religious persecution and stayed at Frankenthal in the Palatinate until 1595, when he settled in Amsterdam. The development of Coninxloo's style is often described in three periods that somewhat correspond with his residence in Antwerp (1570-1588), Frankenthal (1588-1595), and Amsterdam (1595-1606). His earlier works are deliberately composed landscape fantasies reflecting the influence of the Italianate Flemish landscapist Paul Bril. Coninxloo's later landscapes are more naturalistic and are characterized by their blending of color into a harmonious atmospheric tone. — Van Mander, a contemporary of Gillis van Coninxloo III, wrote in 1604: ‘He is, as far as I know, the best landscape painter of his time; his style is now frequently imitated in Holland.’ Van Mander, moreover, based all his guidelines for landscape painters in his didactic poem Grondt der edel vry schilderconst (‘Principles of the noble and free art of painting’) on Gillis van Coninxloo’s ideas, since Gillis’s contributions to the development of Dutch and Flemish landscape painting were of decisive importance. More than any other artist, he represented the heroic landscape, an interpretation of nature based on reality but with a tendency to idealize the scenery, thus making the whole sublime. While his predecessors painted vast panoramic landscapes, Gillis III rendered self-contained glimpses of nature and created a sense of unity between man and nature as well as between the landscape and the viewer. A similar notion was being developed simultaneously in Italy by such artists of Netherlandish origin as Lodewijk Toeput and Paolo Fiammingo. Van Coninxloo, who never visited Italy, probably came to know this new style through prints by Cornelis Cort after Girolamo Muziano, which were then circulating throughout the Netherlands. Other northern artists such as Jan Breughel the elder and Paul Bril achieved similar results at the same time or even before. Their contribution to the development of forest landscapes may therefore be considered to be at least as important as that of Gillis van Coninxloo, if not more so. — The students of Gillis van Coninxloo III included Hercules Seghers, Pieter Schoubroeck, Esaias van de Velde. — LINKS — Landscape with Leto and Peasants of Lykia (144x 204cm) _ The main subject of the painting is the landscape. The scene in the foreground is only a decoration; it depicts a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses: the peasants are changed to frogs because they did not give water to Leko. The figures of the scene were painted by Hendrick de Clerck. — Mountain Landscape with River Valley and the Prophet Hosea (20x29cm) _ The subject of this landscape is a moralistic one with a reference to a passage from the Bible, more specifically the Old Testament book of Hosea. The drawing is believed to have been done in Frankenthal, a small town in the Pfalz mountains where an important artists' colony sprang up after the fall of Antwerp to the Spanish in 1585. Many of the artists who settled there were Flemings sympathetic to the Reformation, who had been forced into exile because of their Protestant faith. Some years later, a number of them, including Gillis van Coninxloo, moved to Amsterdam. Protestant artists worked in Frankenthal in a reformed environment, which was naturally reflected in the subjects they chose to paint. That is certainly the case with this drawing. The Prophet Hosea opposed what he saw as abuses in the field of worship, making him a symbolic precursor of early Protestant leaders. Gillis van Coninxloo is viewed as an innovator in Flemish landscape painting. Above all, he represents the transition from the Mannerist to the Baroque landscape. The watercolor of the prophet Hosea is still done entirely in his early Mannerist style. Van Coninxloo went on to master and develop a variety of styles in his life. His influence on his contemporaries was crucial, and was felt by both Flemish and Dutch painters. In many ways, he helped Northern Netherlandish art embark on its search for a new, distinct identity. — Landscape (24x19cm) |
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