ART 4
2-DAY 12 November |
BIRTH:
1840 RODIN |
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Died on 12 November 1829: Jean~Baptiste Regnault
“Renaud de Rome”, French baron, painter born on 19 (17?) October
1754. — His first teacher was the history painter Jean Bardin, who took him to Rome in 1768. Back in Paris in 1772, Regnault transferred to the studio of Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié. In 1776 Regnault won the Prix de Rome with Alexander and Diogenes and returned to Rome, where he was to spend the next four years at the Académie de France in the company of Jacques-Louis David and Jean-François-Pierre Peyron. Joseph-Marie Vien was one of his teachers. While witnessing at first hand Peyron’s development of a manner indebted to Poussin and David’s conversion to Caravaggesque realism, Regnault inclined first towards a Late Baroque mode in a Baptism of Christ, then, in Perseus Washing his Hands (1779), to the static Neo-classicism of Anton Raphael Mengs. Until 1787 he would sign his pictures Renaud de Rome, to disassociate himself from the mannered taste of French painting before the time of David. — Robert Lefèvre was an assistant of Regnault. — Regnault's students included Jean Victor Schnetz, Lenoir, Théodore Caruelle d' Aligny, Merry-Joseph Blondel, Louis-Charles-Auguste Couder, William Etty, George Foggo, Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Bon-Thomas Henry, Louis Hersent, Charles Paul Landon, Hippolyte Lecomte, Jules-Eugène Lenepveu, Édouard Henri Théophile Pingret, Jacques Réattu, Stendhal, Pierre-Antoine-Auguste Vafflard, Georg Friedrich Eberhard Wächter. LINKS — La liberté ou la mort (1795; 2566x2091pix, 3347kb) — Allégorie de la proclamation des Droits de l'Homme (1790; 1796x2930pix, 2051kb) L'éducation d'Achille par le centaure Chiron (1785; 700x569pix, 56kb) _ détail des bustes (495x768pix, 52kb) _ détail du visage d'Achille (700x609pix, 56kb) |
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Died on 12 November 1921: Fernand Khnopff,
Belgian
Symbolist
painter born on 12 September 1858. — [The painter with the pfunny
khname?] — Fernand Khnopff was probably the most important of the Belgian Symbolists. Brought up in Bruges, he was influenced when young by reading Flaubert and Baudelaire. At first he studied law, but turned to painting under the influence of Xavier Mellery and showed his work at the Salon de la Rose + Croix. In 1879 he went to Paris where he was infected with enthusiam for Gustave Moreau. Péladan greatly admired Khnopff's work, hailing him as 'the equal of Gustave Moreau, of Burne-Jones, of Chavannes and of Rops.' The English Burne-Jones, with whom his work shares elements, and the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren were strong supporters of his... he had very close ties with the Belgian Symbolist Poets and adopted their themes of "silence, solitude, deserted towns." He had a fanatical interest in precision: every effect and detail in his paintings is precisely and deliberately placed. Dreams and the unconscious were central to Khnopff's art. Born in Eastern Flanders, of a family of magistrates, Khnopff grew up in Bruges. He enrolled at the Law School in Brussels which he soon abandoned for the Académie des Beaux-Arts. There he studied under Xavier Mellery who taught him to consider painting as an enquiry into the meaning hidden in the "soul of things". In 1877, on a visit to Paris, he discovered the work of Delacroix, Gustave Moreau (whose fertile imagination greatly impressed him), and the Pre-Raphaelites (particularly Rossetti and Burne-Jones). The influence of these painters was to be of vital importance. On his return to Belgium he was one of the founders, in 1883, of The Twenty ("Groupe des XX") and was much admired by both painters and poets. Emile Verhaeren wrote enthusiastically about him in La Jeune Belgique and at first the rest of the press joined in his praises, though they tended to prefer his child portraits and landscapes. In 1892 he exhibited in Paris at the first Salon de la Rose+Croix, encouraged by his new friend, Joséphin Péladan. However, this friendship brought him trouble with The Twenty, some members having little regard for the Rose+Croix. He was a friend of the Belgian poets Georges Rodenbach and Grégoire Le Roy, some of whose books he illustrated. From this Symbolist poetry he took certain themes: silence, solitude, secretiveness and deserted towns. Already during his lifetime he was almost a cult figure, creating a personality for himself as a dandy much sought after in Society circles. He was given the Order of Leopold in recognition of his services to painting but despite this he was an exceptionally private artist. In about 1900 he had a house built to his own plans; it was like one of the structures in his pictures, a house out of a dream with false windows [and with the pfabulous pfaucets with the pfunny name?]. LINKS — L'Encens (999x546pix, 72kb) — Art / Sphinx / Caresse La Ville Abandonnée (1904) — I Lock My Door Upon Myself (1891) — Marie Monnom (1887, 50x50cm) — Le Lac D'Amour, Bruges (1887, 47x101cm) — Fillette en blanc, debout (1884, 70x50cm) — Souvenirs — Chut! [painted for a public library?] — Une Ville Morte (1889) — Sous les Pins (1894) — Henri de Woelmont (1884; 959x1069pix) _ a seated little boy in a sailor suit, 2/3 length. |
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Died on 12 November 1662: Adriaen Pieterszoon
van de Venne, Dutch painter, draftsman, and poet, born in
1589. — He was born of ‘worthy’ parents who had fled to Delft from the southern Netherlands to escape war and religious strife. Inspired by his early study of Latin to become an illustrator, he was partly self-taught but also received instruction in painting and illumination from the otherwise unrecorded Leiden goldsmith and painter Simon de Valck. His second teacher, Hieronymus van Diest (not the later marine artist), is equally obscure and painted grisailles, a technique that van de Venne later employed extensively. LINKS Fishing for Souls (1614, 98x189cm) _ In this painting van de Venne represented the moral superiority claimed by Dutch leaders. The painting visualizes Christ's words to his disciples, "I will make you fishers of men," as a contemporary contest for souls between two Reformed boats at left and two Catholic vessels at right. The orderly Dutch Protestants are more successful, catching people with the Bible and with the Christian virtues Hope, Faith, and Charity inscribed in the net. The near-capsizing Catholic monks use incense and music for lures. On the left bank, Dutch leaders are neatly aligned, opposite the less numerous Flemish dignitaries on the other side. Although the Southern Netherlandish camp is painted respectfully, their background is literally constituted by a withered tree and a Pope borne by adulatory monks. "What Won't People Do for Money!" _ Van de Venne's style was related to Pieter Brughel the Elder. He made grisailles of the destitute and maimed which have a moralizing character. However, paintings of the high life of elegant young men and their fashionable women companions - the so-called "merry company" pictures - were much more popular than those showing the predicament of the poor. The scene, which is no longer easy to define, ridicules greed for money, a favourite theme of this artist and one which he used in a number of paintings. The saying is simply portrayed, with no attempt to point the moral beyond what is implicit in the scene itself, which is depicted with all the jovial familiarity characteristic of the genre. A Pair of Skating Owls Fishing for Souls (1614) Princes Maurice and Frederick Henry of Orange at Valkenburg Horse Fair (1618) The Departure of a Senior Functionary from the Port of Middelburg (1615) The Four Seasons (1625) Zeeusche nachtegael, ende des selfs dryderley gesang (1623) |
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Born on on 12 November 1840: François~Auguste~René Rodin,
in France. He would be famous as a sculptor (Kiss, Kiss, Thinker, Thinker), but would also be an author (Les Cathédrales de France, 1914) and painter. Rodin would die on 17 November 1917. The French artist Auguste Rodin had a profound influence on 20th-century sculpture. His works are distinguished by their stunning strength and realism. Rodin refused to ignore the negative aspects of humanity, and his works confront distress and moral weakness as well as passion and beauty. Rodin was born in Paris. At the age of 14 he entered the Petite École, a school of decorative arts in Paris. He applied three times to study at the renowned École des Beaux-Arts but was rejected each time. In 1858 he began to do decorative stonework in order to make his living. Four years later the death of his sister Marie so traumatized Rodin that he entered a sacred order. The father superior of the order recognized Rodin's talents and encouraged him to pursue his art. In 1864 Rodin met a seamstress named Rose Beuret. She became his life companion and was the model for many of his works. That year Rodin submitted his Man with a Broken Nose to the Paris Salon. It was rejected but later accepted under the title Portrait of a Roman. Rodin traveled in 1875 to Italy, where the works of Michelangelo [14751564] made a strong impression on him. The trip inspired his sculpture The Age of Bronze, which was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1877. It caused a scandal because the critics could not believe that Rodin had not used a casting of a live model in creating so realistic a work. The controversy brought Rodin more fame than praise might have. In 1880 he was commissioned to create a bronze door for the future Museum of Decorative Arts. Although the work was unfinished at the time of his death, it provided the basis for some of Rodin's most influential and powerful work. In 1884 he was commissioned to create a monument that became The Burghers of Calais. His statues St. John the Baptist Preaching, Eve, The Age of Bronze, and The Thinker are world famous. When Rodin was 76 years old he gave the French government the entire collection of his own works and other art objects he had acquired. Born Auguste-René-Francois Rodin as son of a Normandy Police officer; at age 14 he was a student at the future École des Arts Décoratives; he made his first independent work in 1864; from 1864 to 1871 he worked at the Sèvres Porcelain Factory; he stayed in Belgium after the war from 1871 to 1877; he went to Florence and Rome and was greatly impressed by Michelangelo's sculptures; he traveled throughout France to study the Cathedrals; in 1889 Rodin had extensive exhibition of his work together with Monet; he moved to a town close to Sèvres in 1890 and four years later moved again to Meudon; Rodin always had a studio in Paris, the last of which is now known as the Musée Rodin. Rodin is considered the most important sculptor of the nineteenth century, whose work defied academic tradition and helped lead the way to modernism. He studied in Paris from 1854 to 1857 at the Petite Ecole (a free drawing school) under Lecoq de Boisbaudran. In 1857 he failed the entrance examination of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and to support his family he began to assist commercial sculptors including Carrier-Belleuse. In Brussels in 1875-1876 Rodin produced his first masterwork, The Age of Bronze, attacked by critics who assumed its realism depended on casting directly from a live model. In 1880 he was commissioned to make doors for the Musée des Arts Décoratifs: this project, The Gates of Hell, occupied him for over twenty years and became a source for numerous sculptures that he cast independently. Two other important monuments, The Burghers of Calais and Balzac, were unveiled in 1895 and 1898. Controversial because of its unconventional poses, dramatic modeling, and candor of emotional and sexual expression, Rodin's work achieved full recognition only after a retrospective at the Paris International Exposition of 1900. Thereafter it was in great demand to a host of international collectors. At his death he bequeathed a large body of his work to the French nation. Comments on Rodin LINKS Victor Hugo, de face (1885 sketch, 23x18cm; full size) Victor Hugo, de trois quarts (drypoint, 22x15cm; 2/3 size) Standing Women Salammbo Semi-Reclining Nude Reclining Women with Bird Rainbow Minerva Milton's Devil Female Nude Clothed Woman Before Creation — The Thinker: the bronze sculpture is 183cm high, 96cm wide, 137cm deep: quarter-size photo (2036x1008pix, 315kb) _ ZOOM to half-size photo (3888x2016pix, 1304kb) _ ZOOM++ to full size photo (7632x3744pix; 1812kb) 47 photos of sculptures and 32 reproductions of watercolors at Fine Arts Museums of SF |
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Died on 12 November 1722: Adriaan van
der Werff, Dutch painter of religious and mythological scenes
and portraits, active mainly in Rotterdam, born on 21 January 1659. Van der Werff combined the precise finish of the Leiden tradition (learned from his master Eglon van der Neer [16341703]) with the classical standards of the French Academy and became the most famous Dutch painter of his day, winning international success and earning an enormous fortune. Houbraken, writing in 1721, considered him the greatest of all Dutch painters and this was the general critical opinion for about another century. He is now considered an extremely accomplished, rather sentimental and repetitive minor master. Van der Werff also worked as an architect in Rotterdam, designing elegant house façades. His brother, Pieter van der Werff (1655-1722), was his principal student and assistant, imitating Adriaen's style closely and making many copies of his work. LINKS Children Playing before a Hercules Group (1687, 47x35cm) _ According to an early biography, van der Werff relished "representing satin garments after the modern manner (like that of Ter Borch [16171681])." The silk clothes indeed evoke Ter Borch's astounding mastery of satin. Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine of Pfalz (1700, 76x54cm) _ Johann Wilhalm appointed Werff court painter in 1697 at the annual salary of 4000 guilders with the understanding that the artist would spend six months of the year at his court in Düsseldorf. The elector remained van der Werff's Maecenas until his death in 1716. In 1703 the elector created van der Werff a knight. Werff was commissioned to paint the portrait of the elector as well as that of his wife, Maria Anna Loisia de'Medici. Maria Anna Loisia de'Medici (1700, 77x53cm) _ This is the companion-piece of the portrait of the sitter's husband, Johann Wilhelm, elector palatine of Pfalz. Sarah Presenting Hagar to Abraham (1699, 76x61cm) _ In the biblical story Sarah, still childless in maturity, gave her Egyptian slave to her husband Abraham, so he could produce an heir with her. Hagar's smooth nudity announces her success in arousing the aging man a feat that later caused his wrenching dilemma, when Sarah gave birth to Isaac and asked Abraham to dismiss Hagar and her son. The air of illicit titillation suffusing the painting, roundly condemned by Calvinist preachers, surely enhanced its appeal, even or possibly because the represented woman is ultimately two-dimensional and cold. It offers allowable pleasure, vicarious thrills that can be experienced without moral danger (?). |
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Died on 12 November 1754: Jacob de Wit
(or Witt), Amsterdam Rococo
painter, draftsman, etcher, and writer, baptized as an infant on 19 December
1695. — {In Dutch, he was not “the wit”, but a much duller
“the white” which did little to distinguish him from other Dutchmen,
few if any of which were of African ancestry and could appropriately have
been called “de Zwart”} — He was the leading 18th-century Dutch decorative painter, specializing in Rococo ceiling and room decorations and groups of putti painted naturalistically in color or as imitation reliefs in grisaille. His preparatory drawings for ceiling decorations were collected during his own lifetime, but he also made independent finished drawings specifically for collectors (e.g. Three Hovering Putti). — Jacob de Wit was the outstanding Dutch decorative painter of the 18th century, active mainly in his native Amsterdam. He had his principal training in Antwerp and learned much from Rubens's ceiling paintings in the Jesuit Church there (his drawings became valuable records after the paintings were destroyed by fire in 1718). De Wit's style, however, was much lighter than Rubens's, with a Rococo delicacy and charm. He was a Catholic and was the first Dutch artist since the 16th century to carry out a good deal of decorative work for Catholic churches, but he was at his best in domestic ceiling decorations (e.g. Bacchus and Ceres in the Clouds, 1751). His name has entered the Dutch language to describe a kind of trompe-l'oeil imitation of marble reliefs for which he was renowned; such pictures, usually set over a chimney-piece or door, are called 'witjes ('wit' is Dutch for 'white'). De Wit was also an engraver and a noted collector of Old Master drawings. — The students of de Wit included Jan Punt and Pieter Tanjé. LINKS Design for a ceiling painting with Mercury bringing a hero before Venus; in the corners the four seasons (1723) Winter (1740) — Holy Family and Trinity (1726, 140x105cm; 965x707pix, 92kb) _ The composition of this painting is in the form of an upended T. The Holy Family is shown on a horizontal axis in the bottom half with Mary and Joseph on either side of the Child Jesus in the center, who is also the God the Word, at the foot of the vertical axis showing the Trinity, with God the Holy Spirit represented by a dove, and God the Father by a white-bearded man. This expresses the dogma that Christ's human nature and His Divine nature are united hypostatically, i.e. united in the hypostasis (= person) of the Word. — Adoration by the Shepherds (1726, 138x103cm) _ detail (904x609pix, 81kb) — Baptism of Christ in the Jordan (1716 drawing, 260x180cm; 992x705pix, 140kb) _ This is a study for the altarpiece painted by De Wit for the Amstelkring Kirk (“attic church”) in Amsterdam, his first altarpiece for a Catholic church in Amsterdam after his apprenticeship in Antwerp. |