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ART “4” “2”-DAY 21 MAY
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DEATH: 1819 VAN DONGEN

BIRTHS: 1828 KOLLER — 1471 DÜRER — 1844 “LE DOUANIER”

^ Born on 21 May 1828: Johann Rudolf Koller, Swiss painter who died on 05 January 1905. — [En colère, Koller devait coller des kollages, non?]
— Koller studied in Zürich under such artists as Johann Jakob Ulrich before going to Düsseldorf in 1846 to work with Carl Ferdinand Sohn. In 1847 he was in Paris where he shared a studio with Arnold Böcklin. Two years later he went to Munich where he worked with a group of artists called the ‘Schweizer’, whose leader was Johann Gottfried Steffan. He returned to Zürich in 1851 and painted mainly pastoral landscapes (e.g. Waterfall near Zürich, 1851) evoking prevailing romantic sensibilities. His later paintings combine realist subject-matter with a carefully arranged and executed classical composition. He frequently chose rustic farm scenes containing animals, whom he believed represented a dignified and pure image of nature that was to be treated with respect. He was often considered to be the 19th-century counterpart to Paulus Potter whose paintings of animals were emulated at the time. His works are similar to those of Rosa Bonheur, as seen in Cows in the Roman Countryside (1869).
Koller's most celebrated painting is the Saint Gotthard Mailcoach (1873), which depicts a coach at full speed attempting to stop suddenly for a herd of cattle obstructing the narrow road. After 1870, problems with his eyesight forced him to paint less, yet even late in life he was still capable of producing such lyrical paintings as Horses at the Drinking Fountain (1890). With Frank Buchser and Gustave Castan he worked diligently to advance the status of Swiss painters in the second half of the 19th century.
— The Richisau (1858)
— Gotthardpost (1873, 117x100cm) _ 1848 entstand aus dem altertümlichen Staatenbund der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft der moderne, föderalistische, demokratische Bundesstaat; gleichzeitig begann sich eine frische, an Begabungen reiche Künstlergeneration zu regen: Anker, Böcklin, Buchser, Koller, Stückelberg, Zünd u.a.m. erreichten mit ihrer eindrücklichen regionalen Ausprägung des internationalen Realismus für dies bisher eher periphere Land den Anschluss an die europäische Malerei. Mit künstlerischen Mitteln gestalten sie eine Wirklichkeit, die Allgemeines erkennen lässt: die Gotthardpost rollt über den damals erst seit wenigen Jahrzehnten fahrbaren Pass, auf dem während Jahrhunderten der Trott des Viehs das Tempo bestimmte: Koller komponiert sein berühmtes Gemälde so als eine Allegorie der Beschleunigung der Moderne.
— Schimmelpaar Bei Herannahendem Gewitter (1877, 102x132cm)

^ Died on 21 May 1819: Dionys van Dongen, Dutch painter born on 03 September 1748 in Dordrecht.
— He was first a flower painter in Breda, and later became the pupil for two years of the flower painter J. Xavery in The Hague. In 1771 he moved to Rotterdam where he studied the works of Cuyp, Potter and Wijnants. His studio became a popular meeting place and his work achieved a certain reputation. An affliction of the eyes is said to have prevented him painting in old age. He died in Rotterdam on 21 May 1819. The few works now recorded include landscapes, animal subjects and seascapes, and reflect his admiration for seventeenth-century Dutch painting.
— Cattle (1797, 40x37cm)

^ Died on 06 April 1528: Albrecht Dürer, artist and mathematician, born on 21 May 1471.
            [click on image for complete self-portrait >]
            Albrecht Dürer died in Nürnberg, Germany, where he was born the son of a prosperous goldsmith Albrecht Dürer the Elder (1427-1502), and Barbara Holper. His early training was in drawing, woodcutting and printing, which were to remain his main and favorite media throughout his artistic career. 1486 through 1489 he apprenticed in the workshop of Nuremberg artist Michael Wolgemut.
            He traveled much. In 1490 he left his native city for four year, probably initially visiting Cologne and possibly the Netherlands. He traveled to Italy twice in 1494-95 and 1505-07, visited Venice and Bologna, perhaps Florence and Rome. His fame was broadcast through his engravings, and artists in Italy were soon drawing on them for ideas. In Venice he knew and admired above all the aged Giovanni Bellini. In 1495 he established his own workshop in Nuremberg.
            His best known works are his 18 engravings of the Apocalypse cycle, the most interesting of which is The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1498). One of his patrons was the Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony from 1496, whose portrait he painted in 1496. He commissioned Dürer to paint several altarpieces: The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin (c.1496-1497), The Jabach Altarpiece (c.1503-1504), The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1508) and The Adoration of the Magi (1504), which considered to be one of the Dürer's masterpieces. Dürer's other patrons for religious works were wealthy Nuremberg citizens, who commissioned the following pieces: Lot Fleeing with His Daughters from Sodom (c.1498), The Paumgartner Altarpiece (c.1498-1504), Lamentation for Christ (c.1500-1503), The Adoration of the Holy Trinity (1511). Dürer was also known for his portraits, which were frequently commissioned from him. Among his best are Portrait of Dürer's Father at 70 (1497), Portrait of Oswolt Krel (1499), Portrait of Bernard von Reesen (1521), Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher (1526). He also painted several self-portraits, which give us the greatest insight into his character and beliefs: Self-Portrait at 22 (1493), Self-Portrait at 26 (1498) and Self-Portrait at 28 (1500).
            Throughout his life Dürer produced a lot of watercolor landscapes and nature studies, the best are Saint John's Church (1489), House by a Pond (1496), Willow Mill (1496-1498), A Young Hare (1502), The Large Turf (1503).
            Dürer's greatest achievement in printmaking were the three engravings of 1513-1514, regarded as his masterpieces Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), St. Jerome in His Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514). After completing these engravings Dürer worked for the Emperor Maximilian , who commissioned him to design a huge print The Triumphal Arch, to celebrate the Emperor's achievements. This monumental project, composed of 192 woodblocks and 330 cm (11') high, is still the largest woodcut print ever made. In 1515 Emperor Maximilian granted him a pension of 100 florins, although it was stopped after his death in 1519. Dürer had to travel to the Netherlands in 1520-1521 to the court of the Emperor Charles V to have the pension confirmed. During his journey he met many famous Netherlands painters such as Quentin Massys, Joos van Cleve, Lucys van Leyden and others. In Antwerp he met Erasmus, the humanist scholar, and sketched his portrait.
            Dürer became an early and enthusiastic follower of Martin Luther. His new faith can be sensed in the growing austerity of style and subject in his religious works after 1520. The climax of this trend is represented by The Four Holy Men (1526).
            Albrecht Dürer is akin to Leonardo in his restless intellectual curiosity. He wrote and published theoretical works: Manual of Measurement (1525); Various Instructions for the Fortification of Towns, Castles and other Localities (1527). His Four Books on Human Proportion were published in October 1528.
^

Dürer's first Saint Jerome engraving.
      On 08 August 1492 was published St. Jerome's Letters at Bâle, Germany. The book itself was not as significant as its title page which was a woodcut by a rising 21-year-old artist. Within a few years men would say Germany had only two artists: Holbien and Dürer. Few would achieve Albrecht Dürer's equal with engravings.
      This early St. Jerome was homey, set in a very European building. The lines were simple and yet the cloth of Jerome's robe is full of folds and encases all but the great scholar's face. The face seems somewhat anxious, not particularly scholarly or spiritual. Books stand on a shelf behind Jerome and there is some illusion of depth as the young artist works with the new Renaissance techniques of perspective and shadow. The lion at Jerome's feet, however, is almost a caricature. The whole is strong but static.
      In 1512 Dürer did a picture of St. Jerome Seated Near a Pollard Willow. By then his mastery was complete. Using the techniques of dry point, he placed Jerome out of doors beneath a tree. Jerome looks every inch the prophet. His muscular arms are bare. He sits amidst rocky crags. The lion rests its head upon great padded feet. Jerome's hands are couched for prayer. Half-tones abound. The mastery of the earlier work is transcended. This St. Jerome is considered one of the greatest works ever done, full of proportion and inner life. Dürer did another Jerome in 1514. This St. Jerome in His Study is in an elongated room and shows perspective at its best.
      Dürer's work was no idle pleasure. It was not even merely an effort to support himself. It was instead an offering to God of the work of one's hands and a venture in Christian education. Few people could then read. Pictures were used in religious works to instruct the illiterate. Dürer did some of the best. Imbued with the Renaissance zest for knowledge and mastery of self and world and with a Reformation hunger for a new relationship with God, Dürer drew a simply incredible range of subject material into his largely religious work and did it all well--allegories, animals, bible stories, buildings, fantasy, figure studies, plants, portraits, self-portraits, utensils.
      As soon as Martin Luther took his famous stand at Wittenberg, Dürer became his admirer. When Luther was kidnapped, Dürer exclaimed in his diary, "O God, if Luther is dead, who will henceforth explain to us the gospel?" His art reflected his understanding of faith. In his Malencolia the dreadful apparition of a comet (representing God's wrath) is buried in a rainbow (representing his mercy). In the end Dürer never left the Catholic church. He would not abandon the faith of his deeply pious parents. The artist died too young to see the outcome of the Reformation. Yet his work is just another example of the vital role of the Christian faith in the arts in the history of the Western world.
            Albrecht Dürer was born the son of prosperous goldsmith Albrecht Dürer the Elder [1427-1502], and Barbara Holper. His early training was in drawing, woodcutting and printing, which were to remain his main and favorite media throughout his artistic career. 1486 through 1489 he apprenticed in the workshop of Nuremberg artist Michael Wolgemut.
            He traveled much. In 1490 he left his native city for four year, probably initially visiting Cologne and possibly the Netherlands. He traveled to Italy twice in 1494-95 and 1505-07, visited Venice and Bologna, perhaps Florence and Rome. His fame was broadcast through his engravings, and artists in Italy were soon drawing on them for ideas. In Venice he knew and admired above all the aged Giovanni Bellini. In 1495 he established his own workshop in Nuremberg.
            His best known works are his 18 engravings of the Apocalypse cycle, the most interesting of which is The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1498). One of his patrons was the Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony from 1496, whose portrait he painted in 1496. He commissioned Dürer to paint several altarpieces: The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin (c.1496-1497), The Jabach Altarpiece (c.1503-1504), The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1508) and The Adoration of the Magi (1504), which is considered to be one of the Dürer's masterpieces. Dürer's other patrons for religious works were wealthy Nuremberg citizens, who commissioned the following pieces: Lot Fleeing with His Daughters from Sodom (c.1498), The Paumgartner Altarpiece (c.1498-1504), Lamentation for Christ (c.1500-1503), The Adoration of the Holy Trinity (1511), The Virgin and Child Before an Archway.
      Dürer was also known for his portraits, which were frequently commissioned from him. Among his best are Portrait of Dürer's Father at 70 (1497), Portrait of Oswolt Krel (1499), Portrait of Bernard von Reesen (1521), Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher (1526). He also painted several self-portraits, which give us the greatest insight into his character and beliefs: Self-Portrait at 13 (1484), Self-Portrait at 22 (1493), Self-Portrait at 26 (1498) and Self-Portrait at 28 (1500).
            Throughout his life Dürer produced a lot of watercolor landscapes and nature studies, the best are Saint John's Church (1489), House by a Pond (1496), Willow Mill (1496-1498), A Young Hare (1502), The Large Turf (1503).
            Dürer's greatest achievement in printmaking were the three engravings of 1513-1514, regarded as his masterpieces Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), St. Jerome in His Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514). After completing these engravings Dürer worked for the Emperor Maximilian , who commissioned him to design a huge print The Triumphal Arch, to celebrate the Emperor's achievements. This monumental project, composed of 192 woodblocks and 330 cm (11') high, is still the largest woodcut print ever made. In 1515 Emperor Maximilian granted him a pension of 100 florins, although it was stopped after his death in 1519. Dürer had to travel to the Netherlands in 1520-1521 to the court of the Emperor Charles V to have the pension confirmed. During his journey he met many famous Netherlands painters such as Quentin Massys, Joos van Cleve, Lucys van Leyden and others. In Antwerp he met Erasmus, the humanist scholar, and sketched his portrait.
            Dürer became an early and enthusiastic follower of Martin Luther. His new faith can be sensed in the growing austerity of style and subject in his religious works after 1520. The climax of this trend is represented by The Four Holy Men (1526).
            Albrecht Dürer is akin to Leonardo in his restless intellectual curiosity. He wrote and published theoretical works: Manual of Measurement (1525); Various Instructions for the Fortification of Towns, Castles and other Localities (1527). His Four Books on Human Proportion were published in October 1528, after his 06 April 1528 death.
— LINKS
— St. Jerome in His Study (1514) — St. Jerome in the Wilderness (1494) — St. Jerome Penitent in the Landscape (1496) — St. Jerome Seated Near a Pollard Willow (1512) — St. Jerome [with a headache?] (1521)

^ Born on 21 May 1844 Henri Julien Félix “le Douanier” Rousseau, French painter who died on 02 September 1910. — Not to be confused with Orientalist painter Henri Émilien Rousseau [17 Dec 1875 – 28 Mar 1933]
[click on tiger for LE RÊVE >]
Henri Rousseau was born in Laval in northern France. His nickname refers to the job he held with the Paris Customs Office (1871-1893), although he never actually rose to the rank of "Douanier" (Customs Officer). Before this he had served in the army, and he later claimed to have seen service in Mexico, but this story seems to be a product of his imagination. He took up painting as a hobby and accepted early retirement in 1893 so he could devote himself to art.
Rousseau had been a minor customs employee (percepteur de l'octroi) and did not begin to paint until 1885, at the age of 41. It was in the six or seven years before his death in 1910 that he produced the majority of his exotic landscapes upon which his fame has rested. He called these landscapes with their exuberant trees, flourishing flowers and playful animals, his "Mexican pictures". He thus fostered the romantic belief that in his youth he had served in the army of Maximilian in Mexico. This was not true, and his real inspiration came from the Paris botanical garden and zoo. Rousseau was a strong believer in spirits, the world beyond and interior communication. Contemporaries record how he sometimes became so terrified by the exotic landscapes he was painting, that he would rush to open his window to prevent himself from suffocating. However, his method of creating these scenes was totally controlled. The composition is built in layers of parallel planes, all ordered within the shallow space. Although considered a "primitive," he was greatly admired by the young avant-garde painters including Picasso and Braque.

His character was extraordinarily ingenuous and he suffered much ridicule (although he sometimes interpreted sarcastic remarks literally and took them as praise) as well as enduring great poverty. However, his faith in his own abilities never wavered. He tried to paint in the academic manner of such traditionalist artists as Bouguereau and Gérôme, but it was the innocence and charm of his work that won him the admiration of the avant-garde: in 1908 Picasso gave a banquet, half serious half burlesque, in his honor. Rousseau is now best known for his jungle scenes, the first of which is Surprise! (Tropical Storm with a Tiger) (1891) and the last Le Rêve (1910). These two paintings are works of great imaginative power, in which he showed his extraordinary ability to retain the utter freshness of his vision even when working on a large scale and with loving attention to detail. He claimed such scenes were inspired by his experiences in Mexico, but in fact his sources were illustrated books and visits to the zoo and botanical gardens in Paris.
His other work ranges from the jaunty humor of Les Joueurs de Football (1908) to the mesmeric, eerie beauty of La Bohémienne Endormie (1897). Rousseau was buried in a pauper's grave, but his greatness began to be widely acknowledged soon after his death. He died in Paris.
— Le Douanier Rousseau is the most celebrated of naïve artists. His nickname refers to the job he held with the Paris Octroi Office (1871-93; octroi = entrance fee on merchandise, paid to the municipal authorities, a kind of internal customs), although he never actually rose to the rank of Douanier (Customs Officer). Before this he had served in the army, and he later claimed to have seen service in Mexico, but this story seems to be a product of his imagination. He took up painting as a hobby and accepted early retirement in 1893 so he could devote himself to art. His character was extraordinarily ingenuous and he suffered much ridicule (although he sometimes interpreted sarcastic remarks literally and took them as praise) as well as enduring great poverty. However, his faith in his own abilities never wavered. He tried to paint in the academic manner of such traditionalist artists as Bouguereau and Gérôme, but it was the innocence and charm of his work that won him the admiration of the avant-garde: in 1908 Picasso gave a banquet, half serious half burlesque, in his honor. Rousseau is now best known for his jungle scenes, the first of which is Surprise! (Tropical Storm with a Tiger) (1891) and the last The Dream (1910). These two paintings are works of great imaginative power, in which he showed his extraordinary ability to retain the utter freshness of his vision even when working on a large scale and with loving attention to detail. He claimed such scenes were inspired by his experiences in Mexico, but in fact his sources were illustrated books and visits to the zoo and botanical gardens in Paris. His other work ranges from the jaunty humor of The Football Players (1908) to the mesmeric, eerie beauty of The Sleeping Gypsy. Rousseau was buried in a pauper's grave, but his greatness began to be widely acknowledged soon after his death.
— One artist who prefigured the Surrealists' idea of fantasy with his fresh, naïve outlook on the world was Henri Rousseau. Like Paul Klee, he defies all labels, and although he has been numbered among the Naïfs or Primitives (two terms for untrained artists), he transcends this grouping. Known as “Le Douanier”, after a lifelong job in the Parisian customs office, Rousseau is a perfect example of the kind of artist in whom the Surrealists believed: the untaught genius whose eye could see much further than that of the trained artist. Rousseau was an artist from an earlier era: he died in 1910, long before the Surrealist painters championed his art. Pablo Picasso, half-ironically, brought Rousseau to the attention of the art world with a dinner in his honor in 1908: an attention to which Rousseau thought himself fully entitled. Although Rousseau's greatest wish was to paint in an academic style, and he believed that the pictures he painted were absolutely real and convincing, the art world loved his intense stylization, direct vision, and fantastical images. Such total confidence in himself as an artist enabled Rousseau to take ordinary book and catalogue illustrations and turn each one into a piece of genuine art: his jungle paintings, for instance, were not the product of any first-hand experience and his major source for the exotic plant life that filled these strange canvases was actually the tropical plant house in Paris. Despite some glaring disproportions, exaggerations, and banalities, Rousseau's paintings have a mysterious poetry. Boy on the Rocks is both funny and alarming. The rocks seem to be like a series of mountain peaks and the child effortlessly dwarves them. His wonderfully stripy garments, his peculiar mask of a face, the uncertainty as to whether he is seated on the peaks or standing above them, all comes across with a sort of dreamlike force. Only a child can so bestride the world with such ease, and only a childlike artist with a simple, naïve vision can understand this elevation and make us see it as dauntingly true.
^
— LINKS
— Moi: Portrait~Paysage
— Self-Portrait with a Lamp (1903) — The Painter and His Wife (1899)
— Le Rêve (1910, 204x298cm) — Surprise! (1891)
— Les Joueurs de Rugby (1908, 1105x881pix)
— La Bohémienne Endormie (1897, 130x201cm) — Boy on Rocks (1897, 55x46cm)
— Éclaireur attaqué par un tigre (1904, 120x162cm)
— Combat Entre Tigre et Buffle I (1908, 883x1056pix)
— Combat Entre Tigre et Buffle II (1908, 46x55cm, 993x1132pix)
— Les Artilleurs (1893, 876x1103pix, 112kb) — La Tour Eiffel (1898)
— Femme se Promenant dans une Forêt Exotique (1905, 100x81cm, 1095x890pix)
— Le Repas du Lion (1907) — La Guerre
— L'Octroi (1895, 1104x889pix) — The Tiger Hunt (1896, 909x1106pix)— Tropical Forest with Apes and Snake (1910) — Apes in the Orange Grove (1910, 771x1059pix) — Horse Attacked by a Jaguar (1910) — Woman with an Umbrella in an Exotic Forest (1907) — Exotic Landscape (1909, 927x851pix) — Jungle with Lion (1910, 766x952pix) — Unpleasant Surprise (1901) [might have been titled: Bare Gets Shock, Bear Gets Shot] — The Snake Charmer (1907, 964x1083pix) — The Flamingos (1907, 768x1102pix) — The Little Cavalier, Don Juan (1880, 1104x819pix) — Happy Quartet (1902) — The Representatives of Foreign Powers Coming to Greet the Republic as a Sign of Peace (1907, 891x1104pix) — Old Junier's Cart (1908, 824x1110pix)
— Joseph Brummer (1909, 116x88cm)
— 104 images at Webshots

^
Died on a 21 May:

1915 Max Alfred Buri, Swiss artist born on 24 July 1868. — [They did bury Buri, even if he didn't die of beri-beri.] [Where did they bury Buri's work that I can't find trace of it on the Internet?]

1875 Johann Adam Klein, German painter and printmaker born on 24 (25?) November 1792. — [Klein was not gross.] — He received his first lessons in drawing in 1801 from Georg Christoph Gottlieb von Bemmel [1765–1811] and, from 1802 to 1805, trained at the Städtische Zeichenschule in Nuremberg under Gustav Philipp Zwinger [1744–1813]. In 1805 he entered the Nuremberg studio of Ambrosius Gabler [1762–1834], who instructed him in printmaking techniques, introduced him to Dutch 17th-century paintings and etchings and took him on sketching trips in the countryside around Nuremberg. Klein’s watercolor sketches made on such occasions were later published in Nuremberg (1820–1830) as outline engravings by Philip Heinrich Dunker. Under Gabler, Klein also started (1808) to make prints, initially lithographs, again favoring landscape views. He also made copies of watercolors by Wilhelm von Kobell, with the artist’s permission.

1868 Jean-Antoine Duclaux, French artist born on 26 June 1783.

1813 Christiaen van Pol, Dutch artist born on 14 March 1752.

^
Born on a 21 May:

1897 Felix Conrad Müller, German artist who died in 1977.

1889 Jan Trampota, Czech artist who died on 19 October 1942.

1857 (or 12 May?) Emilio Boggio, Venezuelan French artist who died on 07 May (or in June?) 1920. He traveled to France in 1864 and studied at the Lycée Michelet in Paris until 1870. He returned to Caracas in 1873 but made a second journey to Paris in 1877, where he was a student of Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian. In 1889 Boggio was awarded the bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Between 1907 and 1909 he lived in Italy, where he painted seascapes. Boggio excelled in landscape painting, and Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro were decisive influences on the Impressionist style of his work. In 1919 he stayed briefly in Caracas and held an exhibition at the Academia de Bellas Artes, which greatly influenced local artistic circles. Notable among his works was End of the Day (1912) — Nació en Caracas en 1857 y murió en 1920. Estudió pintura en París. Comenzó a exhibir su trabajo en el salón de Artistas Franceses y fue un importante miembro del Salón de Otoño de París. En vida el artista decidió no realizar exposiciones individuales, haciendo una sola excepción en el Salón de la Escuela de Bellas Artes en 1919. Influenciado por la escuela impresionista francesa, Boggio fue un inspirador de nuevos movimientos en la pintura Venezolana. — Viejo Rodolfo (1919, 33x50cm) — Manzano en Flor (1910, 54x64cm) — Costa de la Liguria (1908, 38x55cm) — Río Oisse (1908, 51x61cm)

1844 Edmond-Georges Grandjean, French artist who died in 1908.

1826 Adolf Heinrich Lier, German artist who died on 30 September 1882. — [Lier liar lyre player? No] [Fou à lier, Lier? Non. — Allié, Lier? Ça dépend avec qui.]

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