ART 4
2-DAY 12 January |
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Died on 12 January 1931: Giovanni
Boldini, Italian painter born on 31 December 1842. Fils d'un artiste de Ferrare spécialisé dans la peinture religieuse, Boldini apprit son art à l'Académie de Florence et fit la connaissance au café Michelangelo du groupe des Macchiaioli, qui aiguisèrent son sens de la touche libre et des rapports colorés intenses. Le choix facile des sujets, une facture brillante et minutieuse, une touche onctueuse, ont concouru au vif succès qu'il connut au cours de ses séjours à Londres et à Paris (1869 - 1871), consacrant sa vocation mondaine. Fixé définitivement à Paris en 1872, il se mêla au cercle des peintres qui fréquentaient le Salon. Il commença alors la célèbre série de ses portraits parisiens. Son coup de pinceau plus libre et plus nerveux annonce son style définitif, cette manière fiévreuse et elliptique qui s'épanouira pleinement vers 1886, au moment où il devient une célébrité du monde parisien, avec ses amis le peintre Helleu et le dessinateur Sem. Au cours des décennies suivantes, les plus prestigieuses personnalités du Paris de la fin du siècle posèrent devant lui. The Misses Muriel and Consuelo Vanderbilt Mrs. Graham Fair Vanderbilt Mrs. Whitney Warren, Sr (1908) Madame X (1907) Café Scene (1887) Portrait Study of a Woman Portrait of Whistler Asleep (1897) Lady Colin Campbell (1897) Count Robert de Montesquieu (1897) Parigi di Notte Reclining Nude (55x74cm) Madame Charles Max — Count Robert de Montesquiou Henri Rochefort Cecilia de Madrazo Fortuny (115x69cm) |
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Born on 12 January 1856: John
Singer Sargent, US painter specialized in portraits, who
died on 15 April 1925. An expatriate US national, he showed remarkable technical precocity as a painter. After studying with Carolus-Duran, he achieved a great reputation for his portraits, employing a style that could be seen as derived from Velázquez by way of Manet. Moving in the circle of the Impressionists, he came to know most of them, and they reacted to his work in varying ways. Degas, as might have been expected, was brutally dismissive; Pissarro, in sending his son to see him in London, where Sargent spent the major part of his working life, described him as `an adroit performer'; but with Monet he had a close and mutually profitable relationship. In the 1880s he began to paint landscapes that were overtly Impressionist in technique and approach, despite a certain superficiality. At this time he visited Monet at Giverny on several occasions, painting two memorable portraits of him: Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood in a Garden Near Giverny (1885, 54x65cm) and Claude Monet in his Bateau-Atelier (1887). Although Monet was later to deny that Sargent was an Impressionist, this was unjust, especially in relation to some of his works in the 1880s and 1890s. Indeed, Sargent's technique for painting large canvases out of doors, as evinced in Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1886), was to be of use to Monet in his larger compositions. Sargent persuaded Monet to exhibit at the New English Art Club, and at the Leicester Galleries in London. John Singer Sargent was a US painter who is known for his glamorous portraits of eminent or socially prominent people of the period. He was born in Florence, Italy, of US parents. He studied art in Italy, France, and Germany, receiving his formal art education at the École des Beaux-Arts and in the Paris studio of the noted French portraitist Carolus-Duran. He spent most of his adult life in England, maintaining a studio there for more than 30 years and visiting the US only on short trips. Criticized for what some believed to be a superficial brilliance, Sargent's portraits fell into disfavor after his death. Since that time, however, these same canvases have been acknowledged for their naturalism and superb technical skill. About 1907 Sargent tired of portrait painting and accepted few commissions. He then worked chiefly on European scenes in watercolor, in a notably impressionistic style. Among his more famous works are El Jaleo (1882), Madame X (1884), The Wyndham Sisters- Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tenant (1899), and Boats at Anchor (1917). Life-long US citizen. His elegant portraits created an enduring image of society of the Edwardian age. Wealthy and privileged people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean came to his studio to be immortalized. Sargent was raised abroad and first came the United States in 1876, when he established citizenship. Serious and reserved, he had a talent for drawing, so in 1874 he went to Paris to study painting with Carolus-Duran, a fashionable society portraitist. In 1879 Sargent went to Madrid to study the works of Diego Velázquez and to Haarlem to see the works of Frans Hals. Some critics believe that his best work, in a rich, dark palette, was done in the years immediately after this trip. At the Salon of 1884, Sargent exhibited what is probably his best-known work, Madame X, (the portrait of Madame Gautreau, a famous Parisian beauty). Sargent considered it his masterpiece and was unpleasantly surprised when it caused a scandal critics found it eccentric and erotic. Discouraged by his Parisian failure, Sargent moved permanently to London. His work was perhaps too continental and avant-garde to appeal immediately to English taste; The Misses Vickers (1884) was voted worst picture of the year by the Pall Mall Gazette in 1886. Then, however, in 1887, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1886), a study of two little girls lighting Japanese lanterns, captured the hearts of the British public, and he began to experience the phenomenal acclaim in England and the United States that would stay with him the rest of his life. After 1910 Sargent abandoned portraiture and devoted himself to painting murals and Alpine and Italian landscapes in watercolor. With stenographic brilliance, Sargent pursued transparency and fluidity beyond J.M.W. Turner and Winslow Homer, sometimes becoming Expressionistic, as in Mountain Fire (1895). Between 1890 and 1910 Sargent worked on a commission for the Boston Public Library to execute murals on a history of the Jewish people. LINKS A Dinner Table at Night (1884) Study of Architecture, Florence (1910) Caroline de Bassano, Marquise d'Espeuilles (1884, 160x105) Beach at Capri (1878) Trout Stream in the Tyrol (1914) A Note (The Libreria, Venice) (1908) Opera Scene (1890) Cloud Study In a Hayloft In a Hayloft (1907) _ Fellow artists Raffaelli and Pollonera sheltering from rain in a hayloft. Duran McKeller Salsbury Cathedreal Monet Painting Paul Helleu Sketching Dennis Bunker Study of Dorothy Barnard for Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1886) Boats, Venice (1908, 36x51cm) Garden Study of the Vickers Children (1884) Fête Familiale (1887) Paul Helleu Sketching with his Wife (1889) |
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Died on 12 January 1938: Oscar
Florianus Bluemner, suicide, German US painter born on 21
June 1867. Born in Prenzlau, Prussia. Studied primarily architecture and building design in Hanover, Elberfeld and Berlin. Emigrated in about 1892 to US and practiced architecture in Chicago and New York for about twenty years until he began to paint seriously under the influence of Alfred Stieglitz. Worked in New Jersey and then South Braintree, Massachusetts. Committed suicide on 12 January 1938. Between 1886 and 1892, Oscar Bluemner attended technical high schools in Hannover and Berlin, Germany. He held two jobs as an architect before immigrating to the United States in 1892. For the next eight years, Bluemner moved between Chicago and New York, working on a variety of architectural projects. By 1900, he was married and settled in the New York City area, where he would live until 1926. Bluemner painted and sketched landscapes in Germany and America. His 1910-11 color drawings of New Jersey and New York scenes display a chromatic vibrancy equal to that of the Post-Impressionists, especially van Gogh. In 1912, Bluemner gave up architecture to devote all his energies to painting. That same year, during a seven-month stay in Europe, he had his first solo exhibition in Berlin. During 1914-15, back in America, Bluemner radically transformed his artistic conceptions and techniques, incorporating simplified architectural and landscape forms into interlocking architectonic grids of color planes; the result is brilliantly prismatic. Although the use of bright color in these works resembles that of the Synchronists and Orphists, Bluemner claimed the early nineteenth-century color theories of Goethe were more influential. In 1926, Bluemner moved to South Braintree, Massachusetts. In his late work, he abandoned the geometric grid format and his landscapes became more naturalistic. He developed a system, based in part on Goethe's principles, that ascribed meanings to specific colors, and thus fully realized the emotive symbolism he had always sought. In 1938, bedridden and in great pain as the result of an automobile accident, Bluemner took his own life. 1867: Born Oskar Julius Blumner on June 21 in Prenzlau (Brandenburg), Prussia. Father and grandfather were itinerant builders. 1882-1886: Attends school in Hildesheim, Hanover, Elberfeld. 1887-1892: Studies at Konigliche Technische Hochschule, Berlin (Charlottenburg). Royal Medal for painting of an architectural subject. Builds theater in Glewitz and post office in Halle am Saal. 1892: To the United States aboard SS City of Chester. Design assistant at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago. 1893-1895: To Long Island and New York City. Sporadic employment as draftsman, bartender, and peddler. Contracts malaria. 1895-1899: To Chicago, Licensed as architect. Marries Lina Schumm. Birth of son Robert. Becomes U.S. citizen. 1900-1907: To New York City. Licensed architect (161 Columbus Avenue). Designs residences and Bronx Borough Courthouse Birth of daughter Vera. Early watercolors, sketch trips, notes ("Principles of Painting"). 1908-1910: Meets Alfred Stieglitz at The Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession (291 gallery). Considers leaving architecture for painting. |
1911: Produces first
fifteen oils. Begins writing in his Painting Diary Studies of Cezanne exhibition
at 291 and color theories of Chevreul, Rood, Church, Bacon, and Bezold. 1912: Wins Bronx Borough Courthouse lawsuit and is awarded $12,500. Tours Europe (April-October). Inaugural one-man exhibitions at Galerie Fritz Gurlitt, Berlin; Leipzig Kunstverein; and Stadtliches Museum, Elberfeld. Visits Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne (review published); Kahnweiler, Sagot, and Druet galleries in Paris, and Roger Fry's second Post-Impressionist exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in London. Reads essays by Signac, Denis, and Matisse. Produces copies In museums, small watercolors, and sketchbook. 1913: Five paintings included in the International Exhibition of Modern Art (Armory Show) in New York, First of several articles for Camera Work published. 1915: Initial American solo exhibition at 291 features series of eight recent oils and related studies. 1916: Displays four oils in "Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters," Anderson Galleries, New York. 1916-1923: To Bloomfield, New Jersey. Revises early paintings. First sales to William Bahr (Montross Gallery) and Georgia O'Keeffe (291). Begins Theory Diaries. Demonstrates interest in Oriental art, Symbolism, and Goethe's Farbenlehre. Participates in annual group shows at Bourgeois Galleries, New York. Becomes a board member of Salons of America. Transience, poverty, occasional home improvement/repair work. 1924-1926: To Elizabeth, New Jersey. Begins new series of fifty-nine watercolors Notes on philosophers Schopenhauer and Spengler. Solo exhibitions at J. B Neumann's New Art Circle and Aline Meyer Liebman's Handwork Centre, New York. Wife dies. 1926: To South Braintree, Massachusetts. Leaves many of his paintings in care of Stieglitz (Lincoln Storage, New York). 1927: Essay on O'Keeffe printed by Stieglitz. 1928: One-man exhibition,''Suns, Moons, Etc. Facts and Fancy Strains or Moods" at The Intimate Gallery, New York. 1929: "Twenty New Oil Paintings on Panels," Whitney Studio Galleries, New York. Joins Boston Society of Independent Artists. 1930-1931: '" Modern American Watercolors," Newark Museum, Develops "Casein-Varnish" paintings. Cat "Florianus" dies. Falls out with Stieglitz for favoring "native" artists; makes new arrangements with J. B. Neumann. 1932: Included in first "Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (purchase). Unsuccessful application for Guggenheim Fellowship. 1933: Joins Public Works of Art Project (P.W.A.P.), New England Region. "FLORIANUS" adopted as middle name and signature. 1934: Holds "smallest one-man show" (Self-Portrait) at Morton Gallery, New York. Participates in "Public Works of Art Pictures," Labor Department, Washington, D.C. 1935: "Landscape Paintings by Oscar F. Bluemner Compositions for Color Themes" shown at Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, and the Arts Club of Chicago. Invited to submit single works to "Abstract Painting In America," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and "Second Biennial Exhibition of Paintings of Today," Worcester Art Museum and St Louis Art Museum. 1936: Suffers from falling health. Begins last paintings and "Sonnet" drawings. 1937: Plans retrospective exhibition, University Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (held in 1939). Reviews and organizes all records. 1938: Commits suicide on January 12. LINKS Color Study for the painting Moonlight on a Creek (1929, 18x12cm) Color Study (1926) Azure (1933, 91x130cm) Paterson Centre (Expression of a Silktown) Venus Violet Tones |
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Born on 12 January 1763: Georges
Michel, French painter, restorer, copyist, and dealer, who
died on 07 June 1843. — He came from a humble background, his father being an employee at the market of Les Halles in Paris. At an early age, a farmer general, M. de Chalue, took an interest in him and found him a place with the curate of Veruts, on the plain of Saint-Denis, north of Paris. It was here that he first developed a love of the countryside. In 1775 he was apprenticed to a mediocre history painter called Leduc, but he preferred to go off and sketch out of doors. In order to assist him, M. de Berchigny, Colonel in the Hussars, engaged him in his regiment garrisoned in Normandy and arranged for him to take lessons in art. He remained there for more than a year and then returned to Paris, where he worked under M. de Grammont-Voulgy, who was Steward to the brother of Louis XVI. In 1789 Grammont-Voulgy took him to Switzerland, and Michel also visited Germany, where he stayed with the Duc de Guiche. Michel exhibited at the Salon between 1796 and 1814. Both his subject-matter and technique reveal the deep influence of seventeenth century Dutch landscapes by Koninck and Rembrandt. Michel's dark landscapes and dramatic lighting foreshadow the work of Daumier and Millet. LINKS — Evening Landscape (1820; 600x800pix _ ZOOM to 1400x1867pix) — Le Moulin d'Argenteuil (1839; 600x508pix _ ZOOM to 1400x1185pix) — Vaste Paysage avec Ciel Orageux (37x62cm) — An Extensive Landscape with Windmills (97x127cm) — Landscape With Windmills (60x87cm) — La Plaine de Saint-Denis (1826, 32x45cm; 457x635pix, 100kb) _ This view of the plains to the North of Paris under a dramatic stormy sky is typical of Michel. The paint is swiftly and freely applied most dramatically in the bursting storm cloud where Michel has dragged the paint to mimic the sudden torrent of rain. In the foreground are two windmills, one in deep shadow the other in a pool of light. Such dramatic contrasts of light and shadow in the landscape help suggest the movement of the clouds in the sky above. |
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Died on 12 January 1851: Johannes
Hermanus Koekkoek, Dutch marine painter born on 17 August
1778, founding father of the Koekkoek dynasty of painters and teacher of
its second generation, his four sons. [De
familie Koekkoek Vier generaties schildertalent PDF 1509kb, with images].
— Johannes Hermanus was de eerste in het geslacht Koekkoek die van schilderen zijn vak maakte. Hij werd geboren in Veere op het Zeeuwse eiland Walcheren en trok omstreeks 1800 naar Middelburg om in de leer te gaan bij de behangselschilder Thomas Gaal. Daarnaast volgde hij in de avonduren lessen op de Middelburgsche Teeken-Academie. In deze tijd begon hij ook te schilderen: schepen en zee, waarmee hij aanknoopte bij de heersende schildertraditie in het waterrijke Zeeland. Zijn oeuvre omvat stadsgezichten met water en historische voorstellingen, maar vooral schepen op onrustige zee, ‘woelende waters’ zoals men ze noemde, of voor anker liggend bij windstilte. Taferelen die hij met de grootste precisie schilderde en voorzag van een levendige, verhalende stoffering. Johannes Hermanus was beroemd om zijn waarheidsgetrouwe weergave van allerlei scheepstypen. Tijdgenoten wisten te vermelden dat hij ter oefening en studie tot in de details gelijkende scheepsmodellen maakte. De zee, die zich in het goeddeels uit eilanden en water bestaande Zeeland gewillig leende voor de meest uiteenlopende transporten, was ook een vijand, die bij ongunstig tij en storm kon veranderen in een wild-kolkende watermassa. Een scheepsramp lag altijd op de loer. Johannes Hermanus schilderde deze het liefst dramatisch, het schip met stukgewaaide zeilen langzaam zinkend in beukende golven en drenkelingen die zich vastklampend aan wrakhout in veiligheid proberen te brengen. Johannes Hermanus werd een van de beroemdste marineschilders van zijn tijd en gaf zijn talent door aan vier van zijn acht kinderen. — The Shipwreck (1814, 59x77cm) — A Fresh Breeze off the Dutch Coast (23x29cm) — Dutch Fishing Vessel caught on a Lee Shore with Villagers and a Rescue Boat in the foreground (49x71cm) — Sailing The Stormy Seas (39x51cm) — Schipbreuk in het zicht van de haven (64x85cm; 631x875pix, 102kb _ ZOOM to 946x1312pix, 64kb) —
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Died on 12 January 1912: Johannes
Hermanus Barend “Jan H. B.” Koekkoek,
Dutch painter born on 06 July 1840. — Jan H. B. Koekkoek exhibited landscapes, as well as marine and coastal scenes, at Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Leeuwarden from 1862 to 1887. He was the third son of marine painter Hermanus Koekkoek [13 Mar 1815 – 14 Mar 1882], and a member of one of the most prominent dynasties of Dutch painters, started by his grandfather Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek (who died on this same date, 61 years earlier). Johannes Hermanus Barend, like his father, painted primarily seascapes in a unique style, although clearly related to the Koekkoek tradition. — Schepen voor de haven van Hoorn (1861, 38x59cm) — Zeilschepen op woelige zee, doek 36,2 x 54,4 cm, — Zeilboten voor de kust (1861, 30 x 43,7 cm) — Strandgezicht met schelpenkar (32,8 x 49,1 cm, — Het uitladen van de vangst, Zandvoort (1888, 24,3 x 42 cm, — Stoomschip voor anker, paneel 24,9 x 42,1 cm) — Scheepswrak voor de kust, doek 30 x 44 cm, — Schepen in zwaar weer, paneel 11,8 x 16,1 cm, — Vissen bij ochtendgloren (126x127cm) _ Konden de eerste en tweede generatie schilders van de familie Koekkoek nog werken in een relatief rustig cultureel klimaat, latere generaties zagen zich geconfronteerd met een turbulente ‘stijlenstrijd’. Door de opkomst vanuit Frankrijk van nieuwe kunstbewegingen als het realisme en impressionisme, zagen kunstenaars vanaf het midden van de 19e eeuw zich gedwongen hun werkwijze onder de loep te nemen. Sommigen kozen ervoor vast te houden aan hun gevestigde stijl en thematiek, anderen deinden mee op de woelige baren van de moderne kunststromingen, en lieten invloeden daarvan toe in hun werk. De stijlwijziging die in het oeuvre van Jan H.B. zichtbaar is, is een afspiegeling van de ontwikkeling die de 19e-eeuwse schilderkunst ook in Nederland doormaakte. Hij begon als romantisch schilder van zeegezichten, geheel in de lijn van zijn vader Hermanus sr, maar kwam uiteindelijk uit bij een impressionistische verbeelding van het landschap: strand- en zeegezichten, visserstaferelen, rivier- en poldergezichten en scènes uit het boerenleven. Zijn verhuizing in 1864 naar Hilversum, in het centrum van het Gooi, bakermat van de Larense School, is hoogstwaarschijnlijk de belangrijkste oorzaak van zijn stijlverandering. De impressionistische invloedsfeer die hij hier onderging werd al snel zichtbaar in zijn werk, dat thematisch evenwel meer aansloot bij de Haagse School. — Unloading the Catch (32x50cm; 382x640pix, 48kb) _ A fishing boat docks on the sandy shore, and peasants gather to quickly unload its load. The men pile heavy baskets onto the horse-drawn cart, while the women carry the smaller packages in their arms. Color dots the landscape, found in the figures’ red and blue garments, white caps and shoes. Such color guides the viewer through the composition, from the standing figures on the right to the docked boat on the left, pushed slightly back into the space and chromatically integrated into the seascape. The ship’s horizontal woodwork echoes the waves as they roll over in lines of white froth. In addition, the compositional location of the ship lends dynamism to the picture, relieving the static central position of the figures. — Shipping in an Estuary (72x115cm; 393x640pix, 18kb) |
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Born on 12 January 1702: Jacques-André-Joseph
“le Camelot” Aved (or Avet) le Batave,
French collector and painter specialized in portraits,
who died on 04 March 1766. — His father, Jean-Baptiste Havet, a physician of Armenian origin, died when Aved was a child. He was brought up in Amsterdam by his step-father, a captain in the Dutch Guards. At 16 he is said to have become a peddler or ‘camelot’ (hence the nickname given to him by his French acquaintances) traveling through the Netherlands, drawing portraits at fairs. In 1721, after spending short periods in the Amsterdam studios of the French engraver Bernard Picart and of the draftsman François Boitard [1652–1722], he left the Netherlands to work in the Paris studio of the fashionable portrait painter Alexis-Simon Belle. At this time he met other notable painters including Carle Vanloo and the portrait painters Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, Jean-Baptiste Perroneau, and Jean-Étienne Liotard. He also formed a deep and lasting friendship with Jean-Siméon Chardin, with whom he may have collaborated on occasion; they used similar techniques, and he may have encouraged Chardin to turn from still-life painting to figure painting in the 1730s. — If his father hadn't died when he was a child, Jacques-André-Joseph Aved might never have seen Dutch art. After his mother remarried a captain in the Dutch guards, the family left France for Amsterdam. Aved's exposure to Dutch art led to his development of the "psychological portrait." This innovation signaled a shift away from the mythologizing style of contemporaries like Nicolas de Largillière. By the age of sixteen, Aved was a camelot, or peddler, traveling through the Netherlands drawing portraits at fairs. After short stints in the Amsterdam studios of French artists, he arrived in Paris at nineteen. Working in a fashionable portrait painter's studio, Aved met Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, Jean-Baptiste Perroneau, and Jean-Étienne Liotard. Most important, he began a long, cherished friendship with Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. Together they shared the goal of capturing "truth" rather than depicting surface appearances alone. Many of Aved's portraits were attributed to Chardin during the 1800s. As a Parisian, Aved became a successful and independent artist, a member of the Académie de Peinture, and one of the foremost connoisseurs of his day. He owned a large, important collection that included paintings by or attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerrit Dou, Nicolaes Berchem, Anthony van Dyck, Domenichino, Tintoretto, Guercino, Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin, and others, along with an extensive collection of Rembrandt etchings. LINKS Madame Crozat (1741; 70kb) — Count Carl Gustaf Tessin [1695-1770] (367x286pix, 34kb) — Jean-Gabriel du Theil at the Signing of the Treaty of Vienna (1740; 380x283pix, 23kb) — Marc de Villiers, Secrétaire du Roy (1747, 147x115cm; 479x374pix, 46kb) _ Aved created a sense of immediacy by depicting Marc de Villiers leaning slightly forward while fixing the spectator with an intense gaze. Behind him an ornate desk is covered with parliamentary and state papers. Grasping the arm of the chair as if about to rise, Villiers holds a copy of Homer's Iliad in his right hand, giving the impression that he has been interrupted while reading. By appearing in his study and in casual dress, the sitter presents himself not only as a high-ranking official but also as a gentleman scholar. |