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DEATHS: 1619 CALVAERT — 1690 VAN MIERIS — 1810 CALAME — 1890 HERBERT
BIRTHS: 1685 NATTIER — 1686 OUDRY — 1851 DUPRÉ — 1591 SEGHERS
1901: VAN GOGH EXHIBITION
^ Born on 17 March 1685: Jean-Marc Nattier, Parisian painter specialized in portraits, who died on 07 November 1766. Like his brother Jean-Baptiste Nattier [27 Sep 1678 – 23 May 1726], he worked as a history painter, as had been the intention of their father, the portrait painter Marc Nattier [1642 – 24 Oct 1705], but Jean-Marc is best known for his fashionable portraits. His mother was the miniature painter Marie Nattier (née Courtois) [1655 – 13 Oct 1703].
— As well as being taught by his father, Jean-Marc Nattier was trained by his godfather, Jean Jouvenet, and attended the drawing classes of the Académie Royale, where in 1700 he won the Premier Prix de Dessin. From around 1703 he worked on La Galerie du Palais du Luxembourg. The experience of copying the work of Rubens does not, however, seem to have had a warming effect on his draftsmanship, which was described by the 18th-century collector Pierre-Jean Mariette as ‘cold’. Nattier was commissioned to make further drawings for engravers in the early part of his career, including those after Hyacinthe Rigaud’s famous state portrait of Louis XIV (1701) in 1710, which indicates that he had established a reputation while he was still quite young. Although he was offered a place at the Académie de France in Rome on the recommendation of Jouvenet, Nattier preferred to remain in Paris and further his career. In 1717 he nevertheless made a trip to Holland, where he painted portraits of Peter the Great and The Empress Catherine. The Tsar offered Nattier work at the Russian court, but the artist declined the offer. He remained in Paris for the rest of his life.
— Nattier succeeded Hyacinthe Rigaud as the leading court portraitist of France. The son and brother of artists, he began his studies under the sponsorship of his godfather, Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet. He received early professional encouragement from Louis XIV when, in 1701, Nattier presented his drawing for the engraving after Rigaud's full-length portrait of the king. He was also influenced by Le Brun and Rubens, whose paintings he copied in Paris. In 1717 he went to Holland to work for Peter the Great and the next year was elected to membership in the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Thereafler he specialized in oil and pastel portraits, depicting the sitters as mythological figures. While reminiscent of a genre popular in the sixteenth century, these are completely different in spirit. Nattier portrayed many of the leading members of the court of Louis XV, but his reputation is firmly based on his portraits of the king, Queen Marie Lesczinska, and their daughters. He excelled as a painter of women, flattering his sitters by endowing them with the attributes of goddessesof Olympus and posing them against a backdrop of classical columns, sumptuous draperies, and decorative elements.
— Giuseppe Baldrighi and Louis Tocqué [19 Nov 1696 – 10 Feb 1772] {qui, n'étant pas toqué, a épousé la fille de Nattier} were students of Nattier.

— LINKS

— Madame Boudrey as a Muse (1752, 130x97cm; recommended quarter-size _ ZOOM to half-size, which makes the dense network of aging paint cracks very noticeable, especially against the skin tones _ ZOOM++ to full size, you get rewarded for your patience during the long dowload, by seeing the paint cracks in their full glory.)
— Terpsichore, Muse of Music and Dance (1739, 136x125cm; 1/6 size _ ZOOM to recommended 1/3 size _ ZOOM++ to 2/3 size, where you can barely see the very fine paint cracks, but quite plainly a lot of white specks on the harp and elsewhere at the lower right.)
— Thalia, Muse of Comedy (1739, 136x125cm; recommended 1/6 size _ ZOOM to 1/3 size _ ZOOM++ to 2/3 size.)

— Marie Adélaïde of France as Flora (1742, 94x128cm) _ In 1742 the Queen of France, Maria Leczinska, wife of Louis XV, impressed by Nattier's remarkable talent for portraits, requested that he paint her first daughter Henrietta [1727-1752]. A replica was made in 1745, probably for the Spanish Infanta Luisa Elisabetta, Henrietta's twin sister.
      The portrait shows Nattier's ability to construct an image that is something between 'naif' and 'flatterie'. The transposition into the mythological figure, the perfect turning of the body and the regularity of the brushstrokes do not suppress the characterization and recognizability of the face; the whole is rendered with a polished, silken pictorial style drawn from studies on Lebrun and Rubens.
— Marie Adélaïde of France as Diana (1745, 95x128cm) _ This painting represents Marie-Adélaïde (1732-1800), the third daughter of Louis XV. It is signed and dated lower left: Nattier pinxit 1745. The pendant of the painting (Marie Adelaide of France as Flora) is also in the Uffizi. Nattier specialized in portraying his sitters in mythological or allegorical fancy dress, and achieved great success with these portraits.
— Mademoiselle de Clermont "en Sultane" (1733, 109x105cm) _ The picture is a vivid example of French "turquerie" fashion; an elegant lady of the court, still wearing her ermine cloak, is painted as a sultana at the bath, surrounded by her slaves.
— Comtesse de Tillières (1750, 80x63cm) _ The silk pelisse of the the Comtesse is trimmed with squirrel fur.

== Marc Nattier had a royal licence to reproduce the famous cycle of paintings The History of Marie de’ Medici by Rubens. Before he died, Marc made the licence over to his sons who produced a series of drawings after it for some of the foremost engravers of the day, including Gérard Edelinck, Bernard Picart and Gaspard Duchange. The drawings appeared in book form in 1710 under this cover:
La
Gallerie
du Palais
DU
LUXEMBOURG
PEINTE PAR RUBENS,
Dessinée par les S. Nattier , et gravée
Par les plus Illustres Graveurs du Temps.
DEDIÉE
 AU ROY
----
SE VEND
A Paris Chez Le Sr. Duchange Graveur du Roy en son Academie
Royale de Peinture et Sculpture rue St. Jacques au dessus de la rue des Mathurins.
Avec Privilege de sa Majesté.
1710
They include the following (all 50x35cm; first image is 3/5 size; zoom is 6/5 size) [in small print, below the left corner of each is written something such as Rubens pinxit I.M. Nattier delineavit, or just Rubens pinxit; and at the lower right corner Carol! Simonneau major scul:1709 or I.M. Nattier delin. Cornellis Vermeunlen sculp. or I.M. Nattier delin. B. Picard sculpsit or A. Loir Sculp. ; at the lower right corner of each sheet potential purchasers are notified by a notice such as Se Vend à Paris chez le Sr.Duchange Graveur ordinaire du Roy rüe St.Jacques au dessus de la rue des Mathurins devant un Tapissier. Avec Privilege du Roy. or A Paris chez le Sr. Nattier peintre de l'Academie Royale rue Frementeau. Avec Privilege du Roy.]:
— La Destinée de la Reine (1710) _ ZOOM _ The Rubens original (1625)
        Les Parques filent la vie de la Reine sous l'heureuse constellation de
Jupiter . Ce Dieu  est  caressé par Junon,qui est la Déesse des accou-
chemens,et qui veut assister à la naissance de la Princesse pour la rendre
digne de tous les honneurs ou peut atteindre une mortelle .
— La Naissance de la Reine _ ZOOM _ The Rubens original (1625)
        Junon Lucine Deesse des accouchemens met la jeune Princesse entre les mains de la ville de Florence, qui la
reçoit tendrement entre ses bras, et dont elle admire les grandes destinées : ce qui est exprimé par un Génie qui tient
une corne d'abondance, d'ou sortent len marques de la Royauté. sur le devant du Tableau , est le fleuve d'Arno accom-
pagné des simboles qui le font connoître ; et le Sagittaire qui est en haut denote le tems de la naissance de la Reine.
— Le débarquement de la Reine au port de Marseille (1710) _ ZOOM _ The Rubens original (1626, 394x293cm)
        L'Evêque de la ville de Marseille et la France, recoivent la Reine avec le dais sur un pont de barques,pendant que d'un
côté la Renommée dans l'air,annonce au peuple la venue de leur Reine, et que d'un autre côté, Neptune après avoir rendu
les flots favorables affermit la galère d'ou cette Princesse descent . Ce Dieu est accompagné de Sirennes et d'un Triton,qui de
concert avec la Renommée,entonne avec sa conque des sons d'allégresses .
— L'Accouchement de la Reine _ ZOOM
        La Reine qui vient de mettre au monde Loüis XIII . le regarde d'un amour maternel qui change en joye toutes
les douleurs de l'enfantement. D'un côté la Justice dovve ce nouveau Prince en garde au Genie de la Santé ; et de l'autre
est la fecondité qui dans sa corne d'abondance fait voir les cinq autres enfans qui doivent naître de la Reine . Le Soleil
dans son char prend sa course en haut et donne a connoître par là que l'accouchement arriva le matin ; et la constellation
de Castor qui est en haut marque qu'il fut heureux .
— Le Roy part pour la guerre d'Allemagne _ ZOOM 19
        Le Roy Henri IV . avant d'aller en Allemagne pour secourir les Marquis de Brandebourg et de Neubourg,
et les mettre en possession de Cleves et de Juliers, donne à la Reine le gouvernement de son Royaume . Entre eux
deux est le Dauphin, qui depuis fut Louis XIII.Du côté du Roy sont les officiers de son  armée sous  les  armes qui
attendent sa Majesté pour la suivre : et du côté de la Reine sont la Prudence et la Generosité .
— Le Voyage de la Reine au Pont de Cé _ ZOOM
        La Reine à cheval le casque en tête comme une autre Bellone,va prevenir une guerre civile qui se preparoit par les tumultes du
Pont de Cé. Cette Princesse est accompagnée de la Victoire,et de la Renommée qui sont en l'air, et de la Force qui la suit à pied avec son
Lion. Le fond du Tableau est la ville du Pont de Cé,et au dessus de la ville,on voit un aigle qui poursuit des oiseaux de rapine; Allegorie
qui signifie l'attention qu'avoit la Reine à dissiper les ennemis de l'Etat .
— La Majorite du Roy Louis XIII _ ZOOM
        La Reine donne au Roy Louis XIII. le gouvernement du Royaume, marqué par une barque a laquelle la Force,
la Religion, la Justice, et la Bonne foy donnent le mouvement. D'autres Vertus ont le soin des voiles , et mettent toutes
ensemble la France en sureté. On voit d'un côté les étoiles Castor et Pollux presages des voyages heureux : et de l'autre
sont deux Renommées qui publient la bonne conduite de la Reine au maniement des affaires.
— La Reine s'enfuit de la ville de Blois _ ZOOM
        Parmi tous ces Tableaux la Reine voulut qu'il y en  ut quelqu'un qui donnât des marques a la Posterité de sa mauvaise
fortune.C'est pour cela qu'elle fit peindre dans celui-cy sa fuite de Blois lors qu'elle fut contrainte de se sauver par la fenetre
de Château.Sa Majesté est accompagnée de Minerve,et escortée du Duc d'Epernon qui l'attendoit avec quelques gens armez:
Et pour ne laisser aucun doute  de  cette  action, le Peintre fait voir  une femme de chambre qui suit  la  Reine  et  descend
actuellement .
— La Reine prend le parti de la paix _ ZOOM
        La Reine tient Conseil à Angers avec les Cardinaux de la Valette & de la Rochefoucaut. Le dernier fait signe à cette
Princesse de prendre le rameau d'olive que lui resente Mercure,& la porte à faire la paix avec le Roy qui avoit envoyé des
Deputez pour travailler à un accomodement. Le Cardinal de la Valette au contraire lui retient le bras & donne a connoître
par là, qu'il est d'avis  que  la  Reine  soutienne  ses  interests  par  les  armes.  Auprès de la Reine est la Prudence qui lui
suggere de se tenir sur ses gardes .
— La Conclusion de la Paix _ ZOOM
        La Reine ayant accepté  le parti de s'accomoder  avec le Roy  est  conduite  par Mercure  au temple de la
Paix : l'Innocence l'y pousse , & la Paix sur le devant du tableau brûle les intrumens de la guerre pendant que la
Fraude, la Fureur & d'autres semblables vices veulent s'opposer aux bons desseins de la Reine & font un dernier effor
dans le transport de leur desespoir .
— Marie de Medicis sous la forme de Minerve Déeße des Arts – DEDIÉ AU ROY (1708) _ ZOOM
— Le Tems decouvre la Verité (1710) _ ZOOM
        Le Peintre voulant faire voir que la mesintelligence qui avoit êté entre Louis
XIII. & Marie de Medicis sa mere ne venoit que des faux avis, a representé dans
ce tableau le Tems qui decouvre la Verité,pendant que le Roy & la Reine qui
avoient êté surpris par la malice des hommes se reconcilient a la face du  Ciel .

^ Died on 16 April (17 March?) 1619: Denys Calvaert “Dioniso Fiammingo”, Flemish painter and draftsman from Antwerp, born in 1540, who emigrated to Italy in about 1562 and remained there for the rest of his life. (In Italy he was called Dionisio Fiammingo.). He specialized in Landscapes.
— He settled in Bologna, and although his work is in an undistinguished Mannerist style, he played an important role as a teacher. He established an academy in 1572 and had more than 100 students, among whom were some of the most distinguished artists of the Bolognese School:Albani, Domenichino, and Reni. The more celebrated academy of the Carracci was probably inspired by Calvaert's.
— In 1556–7 he was inscribed in the registers of the painters’ corporation in Antwerp as a pupil of the landscape painter Kerstiaen van Queboorn (1515–78). Calvaert went to Bologna c. 1560, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. There he came under the protection of the influential Bolognini family and entered the workshop of Prospero Fontana the elder. After about two years he left Fontana to work with Lorenzo Sabatini, with whom he collaborated on several pictures, including the Holy Family with the Archangel St Michael (Bologna, S Giacomo Maggiore) and an Assumption (Bologna, Pin. N.). Calvaert’s oeuvre is composed almost exclusively of religious works, ranging in size from vast altarpieces to small devotional pictures on copper. This sets him apart from other Netherlandish painters, notably those of the school of Prague, for whom Classical mythology was a constant source of inspiration. His first signed and dated work was Vigilance (1568; Bologna, Pin. N.); thereafter he developed a more original style, as in the Noli me tangere (Bologna, Pin. N.). However, these early works reveal Calvaert’s inexperience in painting figures and the influence of Marten de Vos, whose work Calvaert must have seen in Antwerp before leaving for Italy.
— Calvaert's students included Francesco Albani, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Francesco Gessi, Emilio Savonanzi, Giovan Giacomo Sementi.

— LINKS
— The Presentation of Mary (93x78cm; 850x485pix, 87kb)
— The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1490; 127kb)
^ Born on 17 March 1686: Jean-Baptiste Oudry, French artist specialized in Animals who died on 30 April 1755. — Studied under Nicolas de Largillière.
— Oudry was a painter, tapestry designer, and illustrator. He was a student of Largillière and painted some portraits, but he is renowned chiefly as one of the outstanding animal painters of the 18th century. With Desportes he was the foremost exponent of hunting scenes and still-life with dead game. Some of his best work was done as a tapestry designer, and he was head of the Beauvais and Gobelins factories from 1734 and 1736 respectively. He also did book illustrations, notably for an edition of La Fontaine's Fables (1755). His son Jacques-Charles (1720-78), a flower and animal painter, sometimes collaborated with him.
— Oudry's students included Jean-Germain Drouais  

— LINKS
— Dead Roe (1721, 193x260cm) _ Dead Wolf (1721,193x260cm) _ These are two of Oudry's finest paintings.
— Swan Attacked by a Dog
— Louis XV Chassant le Cerf dans la Forêt de Saint Germain (1730) _ Fils du peintre Jacques Oudry, Jean-Baptiste développe un sens aigu de la vie animale et du paysage, qui amènent Louis XV à lui commander en 1728 une scène de chasse. Le tableau se présente comme un épisode pris sur le vif de la vie de cour au XVIIIe siècle, et témoigne d'un immense souci de précision dans les détails: chaque personnage est traité comme un portrait à part entière, et est parfaitement identifiable. Jean-Baptiste Oudry s'est lui-même représenté en bas à droite, en train de dessiner la scène, confirmant ainsi qu'il a peint cette toile d'après nature. De même, les chiens adoptent des attitudes très individualisées, et le peintre semble avoir traduit le caractère propre de chaque animal. Une attention particulière est également apportée au paysage qui présente une multitude de plans; ainsi, dans le lointain, se devine la ville de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Une grande variété des mouvements et des attitudes, associée à une composition soignée, donne à cette oeuvre une grande qualité décorative, parfaitement reconnue en son temps: en effet, le roi acheta l'oeuvre dès 1730, et la fit immédiatement placer dans son cabinet de Marly.
— Laie et ses marcassins attaqués par des dogues (1748, 258x400cm).
^ Died on 17 March 1690: Jan van Mieris, Dutch painter born on 17 (07?) Jun 1660.  
— Born in Leiden, elder brother of Willem van Mieris and the son of Frans van Mieris the elder, under whom he first studied. He had intended to study under Gerard de Lairesse, but was dissuaded by the latter's dissolute lifestyle; it is not known under whom he then studied. He became a member of the Leiden guild in 1686 and in 1688 set out for Italy. In Venice he failed to find purchasers, and in Florence he received an invitation from Cosimo III de' Medici but was turned away on religious grounds. He died in Rome. He painted principally history subjects, but his earliest works were apparently genre scenes in his father's manner.
— Jan van Mieris werd op 17 juni 1660 geboren in Leiden. Na een korte leertijd in het atelier van zijn vader, Frans van Mieris de Oude, ging Jan in de leer bij Gerard Lairesse om historische schilderkunst te studeren. Maar vanwege de weinig voorbeeldige levenswijze van Lairesse zag hij daar vrij snel weer van af. Op 14 juni 1686 voegde hij zich bij het St. Lucasgilde. Twee jaar later vertrok van Mieris naar Italië, waar hij, blijkende uit brieven gericht aan zijn moeder, geen schilderij verkocht. Op 17 maart 1690 stierf Jan van Mieris, ongehuwd en kinderloos, in Rome.

— Lady and Cavalier (1680, 29x22cm)
^ Born on 17 March 1851: Julien Dupré, French artist who died in April 1910.
— Dupré was one of the leading exponents of the second generation of Realist painters; a group that also includes Léon Lhermitte (1844-1925), Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) and Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929). Like J.F. Millet (1814-1875) and J. Breton (1827-1906) before them, these artists devoted their artistic careers to the depiction of the toils of the French peasant - often seen hard at work in the fields. Salon critics rightly perceived Julien Dupré as Breton's closest follower. Through idealization of form, he invested his peasant women with a heroic aura, though unlike his predecessor, his figures are usually engaged in vigorous action. His landscapes, with their cloudy skies and varied motifs, are also much more active. Their high key color and spontaneous brushwork have a vivacity and freshness that distinguishes them from the somber calm of Breton's scenes.
      Dupré's most enduring and powerful image is that of a single Herculean female, positioned dramatically and elegantly in the foreground of the painting, pitching hay. His finely modeled figures pay tribute to his academic training, as well as his study of the works of Breton and Bouguereau; while his freer handling of the background areas, at times done with a palette knife, shows the influence of the Impressionists.
      Dupré received his artistic training in the academic studios of Isidore Pils (1815-1875), Desire-Francois Laugée and Henri Lehmann (1814-1882). He exhibited his first painting at the Paris Salon in 1876 and thereafter, became a regular exhibitor until his death in 1910. In 1880 he was awarded a third-class medal for Faucheurs de Luzerne and in 1881 he received a second-class medal for his La Récolte des Foins. His work was sought after internationally and he found a good market in the United States.
      In 1891 Dupré was described as: "one of the most rising artists of the French School. He is individual in his work, accurate as an observer, earnest as a painter, healthy in his instincts and intensely artistic in his impressions and translations of them... he is always one of the attractions at the Salon."
      Acknowledging his mastery at portraying both animals and humans powerfully, yet gracefully, one cannot help but pay tribute to his immense talent in being able to re-create nature's light on canvas — a feat that many have attempted but few have succeeded in accomplishing. Whether it is the light filtering through a group of trees onto the figures and animals below or the warm effulgent sun bathing the lush French countryside, Dupré is always true to nature.
     In The White Cow several of M. Dupré's merits as a painter are exemplified. The cow — taking a patient and intelligent interest in the operation of milking — is superbly drawn, and her expression admirably rendered. The light and shade, the balance of composition, and the rendering and disposition of the figures combine in this picture to produce a canvas which pleases the spectator the more he examines it. — [Dupré du pré tirait son inspiration].

— LINKS
— Milking Time (1888, 239x299cm) — Peasant Girl with Sheep (59x69cm) — Dans le Pré (1881)
— Shepherdess with Goat, Sheep and Cow _ This Shepherdess is a beautiful example of the emerald green expanses for which he is so renowned. Country life was neither glorified nor depressing for Dupré, who repeatedly endeavored to capture life as it really was. Our young shepherdess affectionately glances at her goat who, by staring out at us, the viewers, has become the focal point of the canvas and makes us feel part of the action.
— Le Repos (71x48cm) — La Faneuse (66x81cm) — Laitière (39x55cm)
— Le Déjeuner de la Faneuse (56x66cm) — Peasant Woman with Cows & Sheep (38x55cm)
— Returning From the Fields (46x33cm) — La Vachère (48x65cm)
— Back from the Fields (1895, 124x150cm) — The Harvesters (1889, 39x46cm)
— The Wheatfield (1882) — La Récolte Des Foins (1881, 65x81cm)
— A Shepherdess with her flock (50x61cm) — Feeding Time (65x81cm) — In the Meadow (1881)
^ Died on 17 March 1864: Alexandre Calame, Swiss painter, draftsman, and printmaker, specialized in Landscapes, born on 28 May 1810. — {Did anyone say that his paintings were calameties?}
— He studied under François Diday in Geneva and then visited Paris (1837), the Netherlands and Düsseldorf (1838), Italy (1844), and London (1850). Despite his frail health he spent each summer painting in the mountains of the Bernese Oberland and central Switzerland, where he produced the drawings and studies from nature that were later used in his studio compositions. A fervent Calvinist, he saw his subjects, the grandiose forces of nature, stormy summits and torrents as well as calm lakes, as expressions of Divine power. He enjoyed success during his lifetime, partly due to a firm adherence to a conventional landscape painting tradition. Among his best-known pictures are Storm at Handeck (1839), Sunlight on the Upper Alps of the Valais, Opposite the Range of Mont-Rose (1844), Ruins of the Temples of Paestum (1847), and Lake of the Four Cantons (1855). Calame also left a large number of prints, notably lithographs, and a quantity of drawings.
— Calame was born at Vevey in the canton of Vaud, the son of a marble carver. In 1813 the family moved to Neuchâtel, then under Prussian government, where Calame spent his boyhood, marred by an accident in 1820 that cost him the sight of one eye. Following his father's bankruptcy, the family settled in Geneva in 1824, where young Alexandre found employment as a bank clerk.
      The death of his father in 1826 left him, at sixteen, as his and his mother's sole support. To supplement his income and to pay the debts left by his father, he colored engravings of Alpine views for the print trade. A kindly employer, sensing some talent in the boy, provided him with a small stipend that enabled him to take lessons in Geneva from the painter François Diday [1802-1877], a specialist in Alpine landscapes.
      From 1829 Calame began to produce watercolors of his own composition, and from 1830 his first, timid paintings in oil. Extremely hardworking, he made rapid progress. Married in 1834 to a musician, Amelie Muntz-Berger, a student of Franz Liszt, he first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1835 and in 1837 visited Paris, where he familiarized himself with the work of such contemporary landscape painters as Jules Dupré [1811-1889] and Théodore Rousseau [1812-1867].
      In the summer of 1838 Calame traveled in Holland, gathering impressions at The Hague and in Amsterdam of the work of the great Dutch landscape painters, among whom Jacob van Ruisdael [1628-1682] particularly affected him. The following year, his Storm at Handeggfall, much noticed at the Paris Salon, won him a second-class gold medal. Hereafter Calame rapidly gained wide recognition, rising from a first-class gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1841 for View of the Valley of d'Asarca, and the purchase of this picture by King Louis-Philippe, to the award of the Légion d'Honneur for Storm-Beaten Oaks (Waldstetten) following the Salon of 1842.
      Students from all parts of Europe now began to flock to his studio. His tour of Italy, undertaken in 1843 with a retinue of his disciples, was immortalized by Rodolphe Toepffer in Voyage en zigzag (1844), one of the classics of the romantic illustrated book. By 1845 Calame was considered to have surpassed his teacher, Diday, in what was their shared speciality, grand Alpine views under stormy skies. Charles Baudelaire, in his review of the Salon of 1845, joked that once it had been thought that a single artist of split personality hid under the names of Diday and Calame, but since then "it was noted that he used the name Calame on the days when his painting went well."
      The large exhibition pieces that spread Calame's name throughout Europe were composed according to a scheme that called for foregrounds of rock, torrents, and windswept pines beyond which the view opened on distant vistas of towering mountains, a formulaic arrangement that he enlivened with sharply observed details taken from close nature study.
      Extensive voyages took Calame to England (1850), Germany and the Netherlands (1852), and the Mediterranean (1853). An exhibitor at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1855, he was distinguished by Napoléon III who purchased his Lac des quatre cantons. Despite the provinciality of his milieu and the almost exclusively Swiss subject matter of his art, Calame achieved a surprising degree of international recognition, attested by his election to eight national academies and an abundant harvest of honors and decorations from the courts of Russia, Prussia, Belgium, and Holland; only the French critical press persisted in ignoring him.
      In the last years of his life, his productivity was taxed and his frail health strained by the many commissions that came to him from a large aristocratic and commercial clientele. Deeply religious, of taciturn and melancholy temperament, compulsively industrious, Calame suffered frequent illnesses and aged prematurely. A bout of pleurisy contributed to his death in Menton, France.
— Calame's students included Gustave Castan, Arnold Corrodi, Robert Zünd, Alfred De Knyff.

— LINKS
— The Fallen Tree (1845, 25x41cm; 538x906pix, 60kb)
_ detail 1 (580x775pix, 56kb) _ detail 2 (585x780pix, 63kb) _ detail 3 (577x780kb, 42kb)
— Torrent De Montagne (1853, 86x121cm) — Landschaftsstudie (1851, 33x44cm)
— Geneva from Petit Saconnex (1814; 683x1000pix, 94kb)
— Oak Tree (1859, 1000x790pix, 138kb) _ a very similar tree in a monochrome lithograph Près de Genève (19x24cm; full size)
— 60 prints at FAMSF
^ Born on 17 March 1591: Gerard Seghers (or Zegers), Antwerp Flemish Baroque painter of religious subjects, dealer, and collector, active mainly in Antwerp but also in Italy and Spain, who died on 18 March 1651.
— He grew up in Antwerp, a city that had only recently been liberated from the rebels by the Spanish troops. His father, a keeper of a wine tavern, originally had Calvinist sympathies but returned to the Catholic faith after 1585. Gerard was possibly trained, as afterwards his younger brother Jan Baptist Seghers who later became a goldsmith, by Gaspar de Crayer [1551–], the father of the well-known painter of the same name. At the age of 12 Seghers was listed as a student in the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp; the documents, unfortunately, fail to mention the name of his teacher, who may have been Abraham Janssen or Hendrick van Balen. At some time between 1611 and 1620 he visited Italy (and probably also Spain) and he became one of the very few noteworthy Flemish Caravaggesque artists. By the time he painted The Assumption of the Virgin (1629), however, he had fallen under the all-pervasive influence of Rubens. Seghers had a successful career supplying altarpieces for churches in Antwerp and Ghent and also enjoyed considerable patronage from clients in Spain. — Pieter Franchoys was a student of Seghers.

— LINKS
— The Patient Job (192x242cm; 671x850pix, 92kb) _ This painting belongs to the series of large biblical scenes painted by the artist when he fell under the influence of Rubens.
— Christ's Resurrection (324x240cm; 700x518pix, 202kb) _ Seghers fut l'un des peintres favoris des Jésuites dans les Pays-Bas du sud. Ce tableau, peut-être peint en Italie, fut placé sur le nouvel autel majeur de l'église des Jésuites de Courtrai construite de 1607 à 1611, qui devint l'église paroissiale Saint-Michel en 1785. Compris dans la vente des biens de l'ordre en 1776, le tableau restera en place du fait de ses dimensions.
— Saint Francis of Assisi comforted by angels after his stigmatization (236x161cm; 700x477pix, 192kb) _ Le style de l'oeuvre se rattache encore à la période italienne et caravagesque de l'artiste. La présence d'un troisième ange musicien est inhabituelle dans l'iconographie des artistes flamands.
— Saint Peter Repentant (1628, 700x481pix, 161kb) _ Les attributs du saint - le livre et la clef - apparaissent près du coq associé au reniement. Ce tableau connaîtra un grand succès et donnera naissance à plusieurs copies et répliques, dont une version est conservée à la cathédrale de Séville.
^ Died on 17 March 1890: John Rogers Herbert, English painter born on 23 January 1810.
— In 1826 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, London. He began exhibiting portraits at the Royal Academy in 1830 and until 1836 made his living chiefly through portraiture and book illustration. In 1836 Herbert visited Italy, and for the next few years his work consisted chiefly of Italian historical genre paintings such as The Appointed Hour (1835). Herbert greatly admired the architect A. W. N. Pugin and probably in 1840, through Pugin’s influence, was converted to Roman Catholicism. Subsequently, Herbert’s religious beliefs dictated the subjects of his work, for example Sir Thomas More and his Daughter (1844). Herbert was employed by William Dyce at the Schools of Design by 1842, at which time the two artists collaborated on a book of nursery rhymes, tales and jingles. Herbert’s style, like that of Dyce, was influenced by the Nazarenes, and he shared their concern with historical authenticity and their use of bright colors and hard outlines.

— LINKS
— "The Wine That Maketh Glad The Heart Of Man" Psalm 104 (77x64cm)
— Sir Thomas More and his Daughter (1844, 85x110cm) _ Saint Thomas More [07 Feb 1478 – 06 Jul 1535], Lord Chancellor of England, was imprisoned in the Tower of London and charged with treason for not acknowledging King Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church. He was beheaded on Tower Hill. While in the Tower, More was visited by his daughter Margaret Roper. Looking out of his window, More saw a group of monks being led away for execution for refusing to take the oath of supremacy. In all humility, More instantly drew a comparison between their situation, going to their deaths happily following a life of religious devotion, and his own: for his life had been spent in 'pleasure and ease'.
— Laborare est Orare (1862, 97x176cm) _ harvesters.
— The Youth of Our Lord (1856; 444x700pix, 62kb _ ZOOM to 888x1400pix, 96kb) _ Jesus, aged about 12, is perhaps winnowing (?), while Mary is spinning and Joseph is chiseling a piece of wood.
— The Hebrew Mother of Moses (1858, 140x96cm; 900x613pix, 45kb) _ In a rocky desert landscape, she is looking over her shoulder while giving from an amphora a drink to Moses, aged about 5.

Died on a 17 March:

^ 1969 Daniel Vázquez Díaz, Spanish painter born in 1882. .— Daniel Vázques Díaz tuvo una influencia determinante en la primera fase de la renovación artística española. Después de largas temporadas en el País Vasco y en Francia, donde la influencia que recibe el artista del ambiente artístico de la capital francesa, lo que imprimirá al arte del pintor, no será formativa aunque sí reconstructiva, de sus primeras pinturas con los verdes húmedos de vasconia, los grises fronterizos y los ocres mineros de Nerva, que tienen la arquitectura de la tierra firme, la inquietud nerviosa del mar y la inspiración poética de un pintor sensible y español. Un temperamento “ya hecho”, se deja impresionar, retocar, afinar o matizar pero no sensibilizar.
      Díaz, se incorporó al panorama artístico español en 1918; desde París traía experiencia post-impresionista, emisario para España de un vanguardismo temperado, propicio para una modernización asimilable con el momento de relativo “retorno al orden”, que comienza a producirse en el vanguardismo español de principios de los ’20. En 1924, Vazquez Díaz desemboca en un neo-cubismo de figuración geometrizante, destinado a tener una fuerte ascendencia sobre las jóvenes generaciones de artistas españoles.
      La trayectoria de Díaz está definida por la búsqueda de la forma de una arquitectura de planos animados de color, que el natural le iba dictando hasta encontrar esa ordenación y armonía plateada que exigía su sensibilidad. Su estética se va haciendo cada vez más simple y expresiva dentro de una unidad conceptual sostenida. Recogió del cubismo, la geometría en busca de la tercera dimensión, y la libertad de creación; la estética cubista le sirvió como punto de arranque. La verdadera creación artística surge delante del motivo. No son las teorías las que hacen un buen cuadro. Los problemas pictóricos no se resuelven con palabras, el pintor tiene que resolver sus ecuaciones con colores y pinceles; como dijo Goethe: “no busquemos nada detrás de los fenómenos; los fenómenos mismos son la teoría”
      Díaz buscaba un arte de mayor pureza y sencillez en cada pincelada, hacer un retrato del espíritu en una materia pétrea cada día más amorosamente labrada. Dejar descanso a la inteligencia para que hable solo el corazón. Encontró en Cezanne, la arquitectura pictórica, la concepción de grandes planos que había de ser, en adelante su manera estética. Con él, la pintura vuelve a un primitivismo conmovedor, frescura directa, simplicidad, le devuelve a la pintura una dimensión corpórea, una pintura batida a golpe de hacha. Vazquez Díaz, antes que la depuración del color, busca la depuración esquemática de la línea. Depuración no es desnudar, sino purificar, refinar un dibujo hasta dejarle el mínimo de materia. Distinguimos la “estilización”, de la “depuración” porque en la primera se produce por “eliminación” suprimiendo lo superfluo, y en la segunda, por “selección”, eligiendo lo indispensable.
      La depuración se realiza “ a priori”, debe arrancar desde el dibujo. De ahí que el dibujo como esqueleto y armadura del color, tenga en la obra del artista más importancia que la misma pintura, el valor pictórico radica más en la línea que en la materia colorante. El dibujo de Vazquez Díaz, conjuntamente con su paleta fuerte y mate, es el principal factor constructivo de sus cuadros. En general, los pintores vascos, montan la pintura sobre dibujo muy sólido y correcto. El dibujo de Vazquez Díaz es más íntimo y constante, tanto, que no hay dibujo suyo que no parezca una pintura, ni una pintura suya a la que mentalmente, no se puede desnudar el color. La geometría-línea, superficie y volumen se refiere concretamente al dibujo y un estilo inspirado en las geometrías tiene, por razón y por fuerza, que apoyarse también en el dibujo.

1960 Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor, pintor español.

1877 Hans Jacob Ulrich, Swiss artist}}} born on 28 February 1798.

1747 Josef Orient, Hungarian artist born in 1677.


Born on a 17 March:

1935 Valerio Adami, Bologna Italian painter, draftsman, and printmaker. He was given a rigorous training as a draftsman between 1951 and 1954 in Achille Funi’s studio at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, which provided the basis for his mature work. Before developing his characteristic contour line and flat surfaces, he experimented briefly with an expressionistic style that combined violent and humorous imagery inspired by the explosive forms in space favored by Roberto Matta and by strip cartoons; typical of this phase is one of his earliest large canvases, L’ora del sandwiche (1963). He settled in Paris in 1957 but divided his time between France and Italy. In such paintings as Stanze a cannocchiale (‘Telescoped rooms’, 1965) he began to develop a highly decorative idiom of stylized images outlined in black on a surface of interlocking areas of intense, unmodulated color. His usual starting-point was a photograph or several associated images, which he reworked, fragmented and presented in a schematic form. This remained Adami’s system of working in later years, although his subject-matter changed.

1806 Louis Haghe, Belgian artist who died on 09 March 1885.

1785 Adolf Carl Senff, German artist who died on 21 March 1863.

1578 Francesco Albani, Bolognese painter and draftsman who died on 04 October 1660. — {His art was a lot of Bologna} — Taught by Ludovico Carracci [21 Apr 1555 – 13 Nov 1619], he was a distinguished artist of the Bolognese school, deeply influenced by the classicism of Annibale Carracci [03 Nov 1560 – 15 Jul 1609]. Albani worked in Rome as well as Bologna, painting altarpieces, frescoes and and cabinet pictures. His fame rests on his idyllic landscapes and small mythological pictures, the lyrical qualities of which earned him the soubriquet ‘the Anacreon of painters’. — Domenichino and Galli-Bibiena were assistants of Albani. — His students included Carlo Cignani, Pier Francesco Mola, Andrea Sacchi, Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole, Giovanni Battista Speranza, Emilio Taruffi.


Happened on a 17 March:

1984 El pintor expresionista abstracto catalán Antoni Tàpies [13 Dec 1923~] es galardonado en Basilea con el Premio Rembrandt. — LINKS

click for side-by-side with other version 1901 Van Gogh paintings shown.       ^top^
      Paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh [30 Mar 1853 – 29 Jul 1890] are shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris. The 71 paintings, which captured their subjects in bold brushstrokes and expressive colors, caused a sensation across the art world. Eleven years before, while living in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris, van Gogh had committed suicide without any notion that his work was destined to win acclaim beyond his wildest dreams. In his lifetime, he had sold only one painting. One of his paintings--the Yasuda Sunflowers--sold for just under $40 million at a Christie's auction in 1987.
      Born in Zundert in the Netherlands on 30 March 1853, van Gogh worked as a salesman in an art gallery, a language teacher, a bookseller, and an evangelist among Belgium miners before settling on his true vocation as an artist. What is known as the "productive decade" began in 1880, and for the first few years he confined himself almost entirely to drawings and watercolors while acquiring technical proficiency. He studied drawing at the Brussels Academy and in 1881 went to the Netherlands to work from nature. The most famous work from the Dutch period was the dark and earthy The Potato Eaters (1885), which showed the influence of Jean-François Millet, a French painter famous for his peasant subjects.
      In 1886, van Gogh went to live with his brother, Théo, in Paris. There, van Gogh met the foremost French painters of the postimpressionist period, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, and Georges Seurat. He was greatly influenced by the theories of these artists and under the advice of Pissarro he adopted the kind of colorful palette for which he is famous. His painting Portrait of Père Tanguy (1887) was the first successful work in his new postimpressionist style.
      In 1888, van Gogh, mentally exhausted and feeling he was becoming a burden on Théo, left Paris and took a house at Arles in southeastern France. The next 12 months marked his first great period, and working with great speed and intensity he produced such masterful works as his sunflower series [14 Sunflowers in a Vase >] and The Night Café (1888). He hoped to form a community of like-minded artists at Arles and was joined by Gauguin for a tense two months that culminated when van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor blade and then cut a piece of his own ear off. It was his first bout with mental illness, diagnosed as dementia. Van Gogh spent two weeks at the Arles Hospital and in April 1889 checked himself into the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He stayed there for 12 months and continued to work between recurrent attacks. One of the great paintings from this period was the swirling, visionary Starry Night (1889).
      In May 1890, he left the asylum and visited Théo in Paris before going to live with Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a homeopathic doctor and friend of Pissarro, at Auvers-sur-Oise. He worked enthusiastically for several months, but his mental and emotional state soon deteriorated. On 27 July 1890, feeling that he was a burden on Théo and others, he shot himself. He died on 29 July 1890, in the arms of his brother. He had exhibited a few canvases at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris and in Brussels, and after his death both salons showed small commemorative exhibits of his work. Over the next decade, a handful of other van Gogh exhibits took place, but it was not until the Bernheim-Jeune show in 1901 that he was recognized as a truly important painter. In subsequent decades, his fame grew exponentially, and today his paintings are among the most recognized works of art in the world.
— LINKS

1888 Harper's Weekly features a cartoon by C. G. Bush about the Saint Patrick's Day parade in New York City, in which a non-native born Irish-American leaves the parade because he has heard that Saint Patrick was not a native-born Irishman.

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