DEATHS:
1702 VAN DER VINNE
1919 POYNTER |
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Born on 26 July 1893: George
Grosz, Berliner US Expressionist
painter, draftsman, and illustrator, who died on 06 July 1959. — Georg Grosz added an "e" to his first name to make it seem that he was from the UK or the US, and thus express his loathing for German nationalism. In the story of modern art, Grosz is a brilliant anomaly: a satirist and caricaturist whose brutal humor was instantly recognised by the avant-garde as avant-garde, yet was widely accessible. At the end of the first world war Grosz was one of the leaders of Berlin Dada. Photomontage was the quintessential visual art of Dada, embodying its cult of chaos perfectly through cutting up and grotesquely remounting images. Grosz mixed it with stupendously powerful drawing. When the German communist party was founded in 1919 he joined, along with John Heartfield. His art of the 1920s is a gross carnival of horrors, charting with beery cigar-chomping cynicism the rise of German militarism in a society of maimed zombies. — He is particularly valued for his caustic caricatures, in which he used the reed pen with notable success. Although his paintings are not quite as significant as his graphic art, a number of them are, nonetheless, major works. Born in Berlin, he grew up in the provincial town of Stolp, Pomerania (now Slupsk, Poland), where he attended the Oberrealschule, until he was expelled for disobedience. From 1909 to 1911 he attended the Akademie der Künste in Dresden, where he met Kurt Günther, Bernhard Kretschmar [1889–1972] and Franz Lenk [1898–]. Under his teacher Richard Müller [1874–1954], Grosz painted and drew from plaster casts. At this time he was unaware of such avant-garde movements as Die Brücke, also active in Dresden. In 1912 he studied with Emil Orlik at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin. A year later he moved to the Académie Colarossi in Paris, where he learnt a free drawing style that swiftly reached the essence of a motif. He became prominent in the Berlin Dada group and, in the 1920's, a leader of Neue Sachlichkeit movement. He had is first US show in 1931. He was invited to the US in 1932 and settled there in 1933, becoming a US citizen in 1938. He returned to Berlin in 1959 and died there. — The students of Grosz included Hans Bellmer, Paul Rand, Tony Smith. LINKS Lower Manhattan untitled (Unhuman) High Dunes (1940) Berlin Street Scene (1930) You Holy Assembly of Freaks Lovesick Man In Honor of Professor Freud Passerby Dawn Twilight — The Angel of Peace (lithograph 31x25cm) — Ecce Homo — Evening Party — The Engineer Heartfield (1920) _ Helmut Herzfelde [19 Jun 1891 – 26 Apr 1968] changed his name to John Heartfield for the same reason Grosz became George. While for Grosz the cutting and pasting of images in Dadaist photomontage was one weapon in an arsenal of graphic effects, for Heartfield it was a philosophy. The communist Heartfield turned photomontage into a desperate political art. In the 1920s and 1930s — even after Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, when Heartfield continued from Prague — he worked for the Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ) workers' illustrated paper. His visual assaults on the rising National Socialist Party spit out a terrible truth, making implausible the claims of others not to have seen what was happening: "Hurrah, the butter is all gone" (1935) has a German family eating metal. Grosz thinks it's great that Heartfield is clenched and grimacing like an evil thug, his heart a piece of photocollaged machinery, his head shaven and his fists ready for a brawl. Dada was at war — with art, bourgeois culture and expressionism (which placed the subjectivity of the artist first). In this portrait, Grosz celebrates expressionism's opposite: heartless art. Heartfield/ Herzfeld's name itself raises the question of feeling. Anger is the only emotion this picture permits itself. It is in love with anger because anger is energy. Heartfield is a bomb of pure energy. This is the modern artist as streetfighting man. Grosz translates the art of Hogarth from 18th-century London to modern Berlin, just as Brecht updated John Gay in The Threepenny Opera. 19 prints at FAMSF |
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Died on 26 July 1702: Vincent Laurenszoon
van der Vinne I, Flemish painter born on 11 October 1629 Memento Mori (1656; 450x423pix, 36kb) _ Exquisite vanitas still lifes like this were widely popular in seventeenth-century Europe. They were meant to exhort the viewer to prepare for death. Vanitas still lifes are based on a biblical passage from Ecclesiastes, "Vanity of vanities, ... all is vanity," that urges the reader to remember that saving one's soul is more important than wordly gains. All objects in this painting have symbolic meaning intended to remind the viewer that wealth, power and knowledge acquired in this world are unimportant in the face of inevitable death. The watch and hourglass give notice of the passage of time. The plumed helmet, sword and gun refer to soldierly activities; the globe, maps and the money bags to worldly knowledge and material possessions. Books indicate scholarly pursuits, but warn as well against conceited pride that comes with learning. The overturned goblet cautions against overindulgence, but also symbolizes the Sense of Taste. The musical instruments refer to the Sense of Hearing, to Music--one of the Seven Liberal Arts--and, in case of the lute and flute, to carnal love. Since they wither and die, the cut flowers in a vase allude to the transience of life, as does the skull, a particularly stark reminder of death. But the ivy crowning the skull offers hope because it is a symbol for immortality. — Vanitas with a Royal Crown and the portrait of Charles I King of England Decapitated in 1649 (95x69cm; 797x573pix, 54kb) _ Vincent van de Vinne is best known for his still-lifes. Beside Pieter van Roestraten, a genre and still-life painter (and the son-in-law of Frans Hals) Vinne is the only documented student of Hals, though not a trace of their contact with him is evident in their works. Leçon de vanité, allusive aux fragiles occupations humaines (du berger au savant, du roi au musicien, etc...). On lit en haut «Denckt op t'ent» (pense à la fin) et, en bas, sous le portrait du roi : «t'kan verkeren» (cela peut changer). Contre-note optimiste, l'espérance signifiée par la gourde du pèlerin, lequel chemine vers Dieu. |
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Born on 26 July (June?) 1870: Ignacio
Zuloaga y Zabaleta, Basque artist
who died on 31 October 1945. Zuloaga would become by 1921 the head of a definite school of Basque and Castilian painters, whose work would be marked by a realistic and decorative treatment of contemporary Spanish life, consciously based on Velazquez, El Greco and Goya. His art would show increasing emphasis on silhouette, simplification of form and use of broad masses of somber color relieved by splashes of more vivid tints. Ignacio Zuloaga, herriak emandako pertsonaia ezagunena. Pintore moduan, zeharo espainola: toreroak eta señoritak marrazten nabarmendu zen. Bere pintura tonu ilunegatik eta bere lanean eratutako errealismo handiagatik bereizten da. Ignacio Zuloaga Zabaleta, pintor vasco quien nació en Eibar, Guipúzcoa, el 26 de junio 1870 y falleció en Madrid. En 1896 se traslada a Madrid y copió cuadros en el Museo del Prado. En 1889 viajó a Roma y un año más tarde a París, donde acudió a la Academia "La Palette", donde recibió clases de Puvis de Chavannes (14 Dec 1824 - 24 Oct 1898), Gervaux, y Carrière. Conoció a Degas (19 Jul 1834 - 26 Sep 1917), Gauguin (07 Jun 1848 - 08 May 1903) y Toulouse-Lautrec (24 Nov 1864 - 09 Sep 1901), y se sintió muy atraído por el impresionismo. A partir de ese momento, alternó su residencia entre París y España con viajes a otros países. En 1895 se instaló en Sevilla, donde desarrolló un gran interés por los temas taurinos y andaluces. En 1898 se trasladó a Segovia y allí da paso a un estilo de gran fuerza expresiva, en el que predomina el tema de paisaje y los hombres de Castilla, con los que se sentirá muy identificado.. Consolidado su prestigio internacional, le encargaron decorados para las Operas de Berlín y Bruselas. En 1914 se instaló en Zumaya, pero siguió viajando a menudo. En la última etapa de su vida trabajó en su estudio de Madrid y recibió numerosos encargos de retratos, aunque sin abandonar el bodegón y el paisaje como su obra más personal. Rechazó el impresionismo y buscó una pintura con fuerza, que se caracteriza por un dibujo enérgico, una constructividad volumétrica en la línea de Cézanne, una pastosidad que deriva de Van Gogh (30 Mar 1853 - 29 Jul 1890) y unas curvas decorativas que proceden del modernismo y de Gauguin. Como Degas, hace las composiciones con el motivo principal descentrado. Su visión de España le relaciona con la generación del 98: paisajes yermos y ciudades decadentes, que evocan un pasado glorioso. Dos Autoretratos Torerillos de pueblo Crucifixión El Violinista Larrapidi Desnudo [Mucho Puerco?] |
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Died on 26 July 1919: Sir Edward John
James Poynter, English Classicist
painter born on 20 March 1836, brother-in-law of Edward
Burne-Jones and Georgina
Macdonald. [Did he give them a few pointers by giving them a few Poynters?]
For much of his artistic life, Sir Edward Poynter, the neo-classical painter, lived under the shadow of Lord Leighton, and as a result his work was unjustly neglected. Furthermore, his talents never quite matched those of Leighton and Alma-Tadema, even though at times he could be a superb artist, as with his The Cave of the Storm Nymphs, which is one of his finest academic paintings. It was bought in 1891 for £203'500, one of the most expensive Victorian pictures ever sold at that time [the same-title painting listed below as of 1903 must be a different one, or else one of the dates is wrong]. Unlike Leighton, whose flamboyant lifestyle matched his outgoing personality, Poynter was a reserved, cantankerous man who was unable to change with the times, with the result that his work was dismissed as prententious and uninteresting. When Leighton died, Poynter took over the role of President of the Royal Academy, where he remained for over twenty-two years, until many people began to wonder if he would ever retire. He resigned finally when he was over 80, but only because he was almost blind. Edward Poynter was born in Paris, the son of an architect, and after being educated at Westminster and Ipswich Grammar School, he went to Rome, where he met Leighton. Having decided to take up art as a career, as a direct result of meeting Leighton, he studied in Paris under Charles Gleyre [1808-1874], who had been a penniless artist before he opened an atelier, when he rapidly became a famous teacher. In 1859 Poynter returned to London, and for the next few years struggled to make a living from his painting with indifferent results. He desperately needed the RA to take one of his pictures in order to establish his name. Eventually Faithful Until Death was accepted by the RA in 1865. This picture, which shows a Roman soldier doggedly remaining at his post during the destruction of Pompeii, was a great success, and still remains Poynter's most famous work. This was followed by The Catapult and Atlanta's Race. [nothing to do with African-Americans in Georgia]. Among his famous paintings are The Fortune Teller (1877) and The Meeting between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Although by 1894 his powers were beginning to decline, he was still made the Director of the National Gallery and an RA in 1896. By 1900, however, his paintings began to be repetitious and uninteresting. When the end finally came there were some deeply felt sighs of relief from a large number of people who felt that he had already long overstayed his welcome. Early in his career Poynter studied in Rome, where he met Frederic Leighton, his greatest single artistic influence. He then moved to Paris in 1855. On returning to London, he became involved on book illustration. In 1865 he produced his first really successful picture, Faithful Unto Death, a Roman sentry staying at his post in Pompeii as Vesuvius overwhelmed the city. This dramatic painting was probably never bettered by Poynter throughout his whole long career. Poynter became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1869, at an unusually early age. Much of the rest of his life was devoted to the Academy, he was hardworking, conscientious, and a competent administrator. Poynter married Agnes MacDonald, the sister of Burne-Jones wife Georgiana. Burne-Jones disliked Poynter, who was an unsympathetic, brusque character. When Leighton died in 1896, he was succeeded as President of the Royal Academy by Millais, who was suffering from cancer of the throat. On the death of Millais a few months later, Poynter succeeded him, narrowly defeating Briton Riviere in the vote. He was PRA for the next two decades. From the turn of the century Poynter's paintings declined both in numbers and quality, his main priority being the running of the Academy. He lived to see the death of classicism, & the total eclipse of his own artistic standards, & those of his contemporaries. He adopted the approach of ignoring new developments of which he did not approve. Unhappily Poynter outstayed his welcome. One of the last duties of the eighty one year old PRA, was to attend the funeral of J. W. Waterhouse. There was, though, something splendid about the way he remained consistent to the last, resisting what he saw as the corruption, and denigration of all that was beautiful in art. He may even have been right. — Obituary in The Times LINKS The Cave of the Storm Nymphs (1903, 145x109cm) Israel in Egypt (1867) — The Catapult (1868, 155x184cm) — Cressida (1888, 123x133cm) — Lesbia and her Sparrow — A Roman boat race (1889; 700x494pix, 103kb) — Psyche in the temple of love (1882) — At low tide (1913) — A visit to Aesculapius (1883, 151x229cm) — Reading (1871) — On the Terrace — The fortune Teller (1877, 62x75cm) — The vision of Endymion — On the Temple Steps (1889; 700x468pix, 83kb) — Adoration to Ra (1867; 698x405pix, 88kb) — “Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna” left detail (849x1000pix, 431kb) _ various Madonnas by Cimabue [1240-1302] _ Leighton [1830-1896] painted Cimabue's celebrated Madonna is carried in procession through the streets of Florence (1856), but I can find no reproduction of it on the Internet. — A Corner of the Villa _ This painting provides us with a sense of space as we observe a private moment shared in an atrium among two women and a child. The artist's willingness to attempt a scene so full of different marbles, mosaics and stone reliefs is commendable and speaks well of his technical prowess. Not only was Poynter an accomplished painter, but as president of the Royal Academy for 23 year (1896-1919), he was responsible for the education of hundreds of other artists. |