ART 4
2-DAY 04
October |
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Died on 04 October 1688: Philips
de Koninck (or Koningh) Dutch painter born on 05
November 1619. Philips Koninck is the best-known member of a family of artists. He studied with his brother Jacob [1615 – >1690] in Rotterdam, and he was also a student of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, where he settled in 1641. Although he painted various subjects (the poet Vondel praised his portraits and history pictures) his fame now rests on his landscapes. He specialized in extensive views, and his work has a majesty and power that rivals the similar scenes of Ruisdael; the National Gallery in London has four outstanding examples. Like many Dutch painters he had a second occupation; he ran a prosperous shipping firm and evidently painted little in the last decade of his life. His wealth enabled him to collect drawings. He was a prolific draftsman himself and his sketchy penmanship can be deceptively close to Rembrandt's. Among his contemporaries, Philips Köninck (also Coning, Coningh, Coningh, Koning, Konnink) was known as a figure painter, specializing in portraits, genre and religious scenes. But nowadays he is known and praised as a landscape-painter. Philips was born in Amsterdam, the son of a successful goldsmith, and trained in the studio of his brother Jacob, a painter, who taught him from 1639 to 1641 in Rotterdam. Subsequently he returned to Amsterdam, where he lived for the rest of his life. Köninck was a wealthy man, owning a company, which operated horse-drawn passenger barges between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. He seems to have been a friend rather than a student of Rembrandt but he was certainly influenced by the great master in his manner of rendering biblical subjects. Köninck’s landscapes are characterized by a high viewpoint and a sky, which occupies at least half of the picture space. They are cloudscapes as much as extensive landscapes. Wide stretches of flat or slightly hilly land under a great expanse of sky are the realistic view of Holland. Waterways and paths intersect the land; houses are dotted in the foreground. These landscapes were mostly carried out in warm, brown-yellow tones. The landscape with a high sky was particularly in favor in the 1650s and 1660s, not only in the work of Köninck, but also in that of Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael [1628 — 10 Mar 1692] and also in the etched landscapes of Rembrandt van Rijn [15 Jul 1606 – 04 Oct 1669]. LINKS Distant View with Cottages Lining a Road (1655) Wide River Landscape Distant view in Gelderland (1655) Adoration by the Magi Panoramic landscape (1665) Plain in Holland (1670) The baptism of the Chamberlain Dutch Landscape Viewed from the Dunes (1664, 122x165cm) If Koninck's development had stopped in the middle of the seventeenth century, he would be remembered as a talented Rembrandt follower. But from about 1649-1650 until about 1665 he created a series of very large panoramic views in a distinctive personal style. They are closely related to the classical phase of Dutch landscape painting and are amongst the great glories of Dutch art. An Extensive Landscape with a Hawking Party (132x160cm) The human figures on the painting were done by J. Lingelbach. Panorama View of Dunes and a River (1664, 94x120cm) _ Philips Koninck was a member of Rembrandt's entourage. His drawings and early painted landscapes show that he learned from Rembrandt. However, by the middle of the century he began to paint large panoramic views that are independent of the master's style. They rank with the most grandiose of the age. Where Molenaer and Houckgeest more or less assumed a specific viewing position outside the pictorial space, and Saenredam's perspective suggests looking from within it, many landscape painters positioned the beholder in undefined or even impossibly high positions. Koninck often suggested such a bird's-eye view in his sweeping panoramas of Dutch fields and rivers beneath imposing skies. The absence of one fixed viewpoint implies that the viewer is seeing an objective record of a city or landscape, recorded without human intervention. It has been suggested that, by positing such a freely surveying eye, these landscapes resemble the exquisite maps produced in great variety and quantity in the Dutch Republic. The maps depicted in genre scenes, hung on walls like paintings, indeed indicate that seventeenth-century viewers did not make the modern distinction between paintings as "art" and maps as "knowledge." An Extensive Landscape with a Road by a Ruin (1655, 137x167cm) _ Among his contemporaries, Philips Koninck was known as a figure painter, specializing in portraits as well as in genre and religious scenes, rather than as a landscapist as he is known today. He was born in Amsterdam, the son of a successful goldsmith, and trained in the studio of his brother, Jacob, who worked in Rotterdam. Subsequently he returned to Amsterdam, where he lived for the rest of his life. Koninck was a wealthy man, owning a company which operated trekschuiten (horse-drawn passenger barges) between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. He seems to have been a friend rather than a student of Rembrandt but he was certainly influenced by him in his manner of painting(and drawing) biblical subjects. Koninck's landscapes are characterized by a high viewpoint and a sky which occupies at least half of the picture space. They are cloudscapes as much as extensive landscapes. He emphasizes the flatness of Holland, a more realistic approach than, for example, that of Aelbert Cuyp, who attempts to make his landscapes more varied by the inclusion of hills and mountains taken from his imagination rather than from his observation of the Dutch countryside. The landscape with a high sky was particularly in favor in the 1650s and 1660s, not just in the work of Koninck, but also in that of Jacob van Ruisdael and also in the etched landscapes of Rembrandt. This painting of 1655 is an outstanding example of Koninck's landscape art. The colors, which in some of his canvases have sunk into uniform browns and greys with the passage of time, are particularly vivid and the painting is remarkably well preserved. Village on a Hill (1651, 61x83cm) Koninck is one of the last generation of Dutch landscape painters. In the 1660s, there was a general tendency to "upgrade" the various genres. During this period, the interiors of Vermeer and de Hooch became increasingly elegant, and even the still-lifes were freighted with "noblesse". In the work of Koninck, this trend even affected the landscapes, in which he positioned courtly figures and palatial architecture. In the 1650s, by contrast, when Koninck was at the height of his creative powers, he produced landscapes of exceptional purity, bringing the flat panoramic landscape to its greatest perfection. A soft and golden light is cast across the flat countryside, illuminating things that are, in themselves, uninteresting: sandy dunes, the occasional tree, some water, a village. There is nothing remarkable or jarring. The sensation is where the brown earth is bathed in sunlight to a golden hue. Koninck was influenced by Rembrandt's landscape painting, which represents a chapter in its own right within his enormous oeuvre. Rembrandt's influence is evident in the golden-brown tone of his paintings and in the way Koninck occasionally integrates unexpected and fantastic objects such as a glittering bridge spanning the water, a ruin or a fairy-tale castle. |
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Born on 04 October 1814: Jean-François
Millet, French painter who died on 20 January 1875. Jean-François Millet reste la figure emblématique de Barbizon. nul autre que lui, parmi les paysagistes du XIXème siècle, n'a autant attaché son nom à ce modeste hameau seine-et-marnais, aujourd'hui village au renom international. La querelle est vaine de savoir si Jean-François Millet doit infiniment à ce village qui le mit sur le vrai chemin de son génie en lui offrant les thèmes de son chant de la terre, lui rappelant le milieu rural de sa jeunesse. En tout cas, cette dette est aujourd'hui largement acquittée par la gloire universelle qu'il a, à jamais, apportée à Barbizon. Un grand nombre de peintres, ceux que l'on désigne communément sous le vocable d' École de Barbizon, ont avant lui, en même temps que lui, et après lui, contribué à la notoriété de ce célèbre village, mais c'est Jean-François Millet qui, durant ses vingt-cinq années vécues à Barbizon - avec quelques rares escapades vers le Bourbonnais, la Franche-Comté et son Cotentin natal - par sa passion sans limite pour ce village et son entière identification avec la vie de ses habitants et leurs occupations, consacra Barbizon pour lui bâtir une notoriété exceptionnelle dans notre pays, comme bien au-delà de nos frontières. Jean-François Millet est né à Gruchy, minuscule hameau dépendant de la commune voisine de Gréville-Hague, à 9 km à l'ouest de Cherbourg. Il était le second d'une lignée de huit enfants. Son père, Jean-Louis Nicolas Millet avait épousé Aimée Henriette Adélaïde Henry, celle que l'on appelait la " du Perron " car, sans faire partie de cette petite noblesse terrienne si fréquente dans les campagnes, elle appartenait à une certaine élite paysanne, sans avoir pour autant apporté l'aisance à son mari. Une grand-mère qu'il adorait et un grand-oncle surtout, l'aidèrent à parfaire son instruction. Ce dernier, un prêtre " habitué ", rendant seulement quelques services à la paroisse et retiré dans sa famille, prépara l'enfant à la scolarité. Deux autres prêtres lui apprirent le latin et l'initièrent à l'étude des Anciens, en particulier Virgile, pour lequel toute sa vie, il professa une grande admiration. Durant sa jeunesse, Jean-François Millet montra peu d'empressement à fréquenter l'école de Gréville, mais son intelligence était déjà très vive, et s'il avait du mal à retenir les leçons de son maître, il préférait déjà dessiner sur les feuilles de son cahier d'écolier, voire avec un simple morceau de charbon de bois, des objets ou visages qui l'avaient frappé sur le chemin de l'école. Ces penchants précoces furent rapidement remarqués par sa famille, et en 1832, il avait alors dix-huit ans, son père le conduisit auprès d'un élève de David, Dumouchel, vieux rapin impénitent qui enseignait le dessin à Cherbourg. Celui-ci fut conquis par les dons prometteurs du jeune Millet et encouragea ses parents à le laisser aborder une carrière artistique. En novembre 1832, celle-ci faillit s'arrêter là. Son père venait de mourir et les travaux de la ferme familiale réclamaient ses bras : il retourna donc à Gruchy. Mais il faut croire que les travaux des champs ne l'inspirèrent guère puisque, quelque temps après, sous la pression de ses amis qui l'avaient remarqué, mais surtout grâce à la complicité de sa grand-mère, il retourna travailler à Cherbourg dans l'atelier du peintre Langlois qui avait été élève de Gros. Peu de temps suffirent à Langlois pour se rendre compte qu'il tenait en son élève Jean-François Millet un véritable artiste et il n'eut aucune peine à faire voter par le Conseil municipal de la ville une subvention annuelle de 1 000 F qui autorisa enfin Jean-François Millet à tourner ses regards vers la capitale, où il débuta dans l'atelier de Paul Delaroche, un des pontifes de l'art académique de l'époque. Mais les enseignements de Delaroche ne passionnaient guère Millet qui préférait les longues stations contemplatives devant les chefs-d'œuvre de Poussin ou de Delacroix qu'abritaient les musées du Louvre ou du Luxembourg. Malgré la bienveillance du maître, les passions qui agitaient l'atelier lui firent abandonner celui-ci et préférer le dur apprentissage de son métier d'artiste, exécutant des pastels dans le goût du XVIIIème siècle, alors en vogue, allant même jusqu'à peindre des enseignes de boutiques qu'on lui on lui payait cinq ou six francs et des nus féminins qui l'aidèrent à subsister. Ce fut là une des époques les plus sombres de sa vie, qui allait en comporter d'autres. Les subsides de Cherbourg arrivaient alors très irrégulièrement et Millet se rendit plusieurs fois dans cette ville pour les réclamer, occupant son temps à peindre des portraits de famille ou quelques rares paysages haguais, mais sa vocation de paysagiste n'était pas encore affirmée. Il séjourna au Havre qui était déjà le port important orienté vers le grand large, où il exécuta plusieurs portraits d'armateurs ou de capitaines au long cours, et parfois des compositions qui lui étaient commandées, comme celles de Pauline-Virginie Ono qui s'éprit de lui, et qu'il épousa en 1841, mais cette union ne fut pas heureuse. Pauline Ono, de tempérament maladif et de faible constitution, n'était guère en état de partager les privations que la nature robuste de Millet supportait plus facilement. Et c'est dans le travail qu'il se jeta pour préparer ses premiers envois au Salon de 1842 qui, d'ailleurs, les lui refusa. Un dernier malheur l'assaillit : la mort de son épouse survenue de 21 avril 1844. Sans relâche, il travaillait pour ces Salons de la capitale dont les cimaises acceptaient seules les compositions historiques ou mythologiques. Celui de 1844 retint néanmoins «une Laitière» et «une Leçon d'équitation» qui firent une grande impression sur le critique Théophile Thore. Millet n'était pas de ceux qui pouvaient vivre seuls, dans un célibat tranquille et monotone. Il lui fallait une solide et vigoureuse personne, quelqu'un de son pays, qui puisse accepter son caractère souvent empreint d'un sombre mutisme et dont la santé lui permettrait de devenir la mère de la nombreuse progéniture qu'il souhaitait ardemment. Ce fut Catherine Lemaire, modeste servante originaire de Lorient, rencontrée à Cherbourg, qui l'aimait en silence. Il finit par le savoir et décidèrent de vivre ensemble. Elle ne devait plus le quitter, l'entourant d'une passion admirative jusqu'à sa mort, après lui avoir donné neuf enfants. Après un court séjour au Havre où il continua ses portraits, ils partirent pour Paris en 1844 où ils trouvèrent un logement au 42bis de cette rue Rochechouart qui préfigurait déjà le célèbre «bateau-lavoir» montmartrois de 1904 car une nombreuse colonie d'artistes et d'hommes de lettres y vivaient déjà : Charles Jacque, Diaz, Troyon et beaucoup d'autres. De cette époque datent ses premières rencontres avec ses futurs compagnons barbizonnais. Mais la grande affaire pour tous était la préparation du Salon. Pour celui de 1846, Millet fit un « Saint-Jérôme tenté par les femmes» que Couture, l'ancien condisciple de l'atelier Delaroche qualifiait de morceau étonnamment superbe. Hélas, encore une fois, le « Saint-Jérôme» fut écarté par le jury du salon. «Oedipe détaché de l'arbre par un berger» fut l'oeuvre présentée au Salon de 1847 et la critique commença à s'intéresser à Millet, mais c'était encore un tableau qui portait l'empreinte des XVIème et XVIIème siècles, c'est-à-dire encore loin des sujets qui allaient, par la suite, consacrer la gloire du peintre. La révolution de 1848 marque un tournant dans la carrière de Jean-François Millet. Dans la vague de libéralisme qui suivit, le Salon de 1848 fut déclaré ouvert à tous. Les angoisses des peintres qui présentaient des oeuvres en pensant toujours aux susceptibilités des examinateurs et au credo qui guidait immanquablement leurs choix, disparurent. Millet a trente-trois ans. Son esprit est mûr. Désormais, il dédaignera de plus en plus l'art conventionnel, les nudités de fantaisie et les scènes d'imagination empruntées à la Bible ou à la mythologie. Et cette année 1848 se révèle décisive pour Jean-François Millet. Pour le salon, il prépara deux envois : «le Vanneur» et «la Captivité des Juifs à Babylone». Tout le succès alla au premier, qui constitua son premier début dans le genre où il allait s'illustrer. Pour la première fois, il choisit comme héros le paysan qu'il devait évoquer ensuite dans toutes ses scènes du labeur de la terre. «Le Vanneur» est l'oeuvre de Jean-François Millet qui rencontra le premier vrai et franc succès. La critique admirait «le Vanneur». Le public cherchait à se renseigner sur cette toile si émouvante dont on lui disait que l'auteur tirait le diable par la queue. Ledru-Rollin, syndic de la ville de Paris, sur les instances de Jeanron, Conservateur du musée du Louvre, rendit visite à Jean-François Millet et lui acheta «le Vanneur», qu'il paya 500 F. Jeanron qui savait Millet en sympathie avec les républicains lui fit, en outre, obtenir une commande de 1 800 F à partager néanmoins avec son ami Charles Jacque. C'est le reliquat de cette somme qui devait, plus tard, permettre aux deux artistes de partir pour Barbizon. Le 20 Décembre 1848, un Bonaparte devenait officiellement Prince-Président de la IIème République et un arsenal de lois répressives confortait désormais celui-ci et le nouveau gouvernement en place. Tout cela n'arrangeait pas les affaires des artistes-peintres, ni celles de Jean-François Millet en particulier, qui commençait à mal supporter ces continuels débordements de la rue et qui aspirait au calme et à la tranquillité nécessaire pour terminer ses commandes. Son envoi au Salon de 1849, «une Paysanne assise», passa presque complètement inaperçue par ces temps troublés. L'épidémie de choléra qui sévissait alors à Paris et que Millet redoutait pour les siens, l'extraordinaire amitié fraternelle qui le liait à Charles Jacque, la petite fortune que les deux hommes possédaient encore, «l'aura» artistique qui entourait déjà Barbizon, toutes les conditions étaient réunies pour l'ouverture de la période la plus prestigieuse de l'histoire du village de Barbizon. - «Où diable pourrions-nous bien aller établir notre campement? demanda Millet. Connaîtriez-vous un endroit où nous pourrions vivre et travailler sans dépasser les limites de notre budget? Moi, vous savez, je ne connais que Gruchy, c'est peut-être un peu loin!» - «Allons du côté de Fontainebleau, rétorqua Charles Jacque ; il y a aux environs un charmant petit hameau, un trou placé sur la lisière de la forêt, et dont le nom finit par Ion . Diaz m'en a beaucoup parlé. Il paraît que le pays est admirable. Ce n'est pas trop loin, nous trouverons sûrement quelque chose par là.» - «Nous avons pris, Jacque et moi, la détermination de rester ici pendant quelque temps» écrivait Millet à son ami Sensier. Ce «quelque temps» devait durer vingt-cinq années. La découverte de la forêt de Fontainebleau émerveilla Jean-François Millet. La campagne autour de Barbizon avec ses paysans au travail lui rappelait son Cotentin natal. C'était là son vrai domaine, celui de son cher Gruchy, mais son destin avait basculé pour en faire un peintre et chanter les louanges du seul travail qui comptât à ses yeux, celui de la terre, qu'il allait magnifiquement glorifier dans les années à venir. C'est durant cette longue période que tant de chefs-d'œuvre virent le jour dans cette modeste maison que lui prêtait Sensier et qui abritait son atelier et sa nombreuse famille. Les Salons restaient toujours son objectif principal mais il commençait à commercialiser sa production, surtout grâce à l'amitié de son ami Sensier. Et ce furent Les Botteleurs et Le Semeur en 1850 (comparer par van Gogh d'après Millet: Le Semeur 1 et Le Semeur 2). Au salon de 1853, Millet envoie trois oeuvres: Le Repas des Moissonneurs, Une Tondeuse de moutons et Un Berger. Millet reçoit sa première consécration: une médaille de 2ème classe pour ses Moissonneurs, mais la critique restait très partagée. La vie à Barbizon demeurait très difficile pour Jean-François Millet, mais c'est à cette époque qu'il se lia d'amitié avec Théodore Rousseau, qu'il avait déjà rencontré à Paris, mais qui avait découvert Chailly et Barbizon, dès 1833. Durant les années qui suivirent, toutes les oeuvres maîtresses de Jean-François Millet, orgueil aujourd'hui de tant de musées français ou étrangers, virent le jour dans l'atelier du peintre à Barbizon. Citons, pêle-mêle, les principales: Le Paysan Greffant un Arbre, Le Paysan Répandant du Fumier (1855), L'Angélus, Les Glaneuses, L'Attente, Le Bout du Village de Gréville, La Becquée, La Grande Tondeuse, etc. Et faudrait-il taire ces autres chefs-d'oeuvre? Comme L'Homme à la Houe qui devait déchaîner tant de passions (1862) ou La Naissance du Veau (1864) qui allait valoir une seconde médaille à son auteur. Le 14 Aug 1868, Jean-François Millet fut fait chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, consécration dont on n'a peu idée aujourd'hui, mais qui valait l'attribution d'un siège permanent parmi le fameux jury qui présidait chaque année les redoutés et redoutables Salons. La chance commençait donc à tourner pour Jean-François Millet, mais hélas, la maladie continuait à faire des ravages. Ses affreuses migraines qui le tenaillaient depuis tant d'années reprenaient de plus belle. Des quintes de toux le secouaient de longues minutes, ou durant plusieurs heures, lui ôtant toute vigueur et toute énergie. Le 20 janvier 1875, Jean-François Millet, alité depuis la mi-décembre, commença à délirer dans cette petite chambre du premier étage de son atelier de Barbizon. Une vie commencée à Gruchy, soixante et une années auparavant, s'éteignait. Il ouvrit une dernière fois les yeux, promena son regard sur Catherine Lemaire et son frère Jean-Baptiste restés à son chevet, puis prononça ces derniers mots : «C'est dommage, j'aurais pu travailler encore». LINKS — L'Homme à la Houe (1862; 2056x2565pix) — Mother Feeding her Child (1861; 2483x2100pix, 10'230kb, just the definition you need if your main interest is in finding out whether there are any irregularities in the weaving of the canvas) — The Whisper (1847) — Les Glaneuses (1857) — Paysan Plantant un Arbre (1855) — Le Coup de Vent (1873) — L'Angélus (1858; 1552x1867pix, 306kb) _ L'Angélus (1858) Le Semeur Shepherdess with her Flock Glaneuses Jardin Burden Fishermen The Flight into Egypt Jeune Femme (1844) Spring (1870) Porteurs de Fagots, Bêcheur au travail Bêcheur Au Repos (1874) Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz) (1853) Bringing Home the Newborn Calf (1858) The Church of Gréville (1874) 29 prints at FAMSF |
The 1863 painting: L'homme à la houe by
Jean-François
Millet inspired the 15 January 1899 poem The Man
with a Hoe, by US schoolteacher Charles Edward Anson Markham [1852-1940],
who used the penname Edwin Markham.. The poem quickly became as famous as
the painting. Both continue to be moving testimonies to what the too prevalent
inhumanity of humanity can cause. The Man with a Hoe Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave What gulfs between him and the seraphim! |
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O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, Is this the handiwork you give to God, This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched? How will you ever straighten up this shape; Touch it again with immortality; Give back the upward looking and the light; Rebuild in it the music and the dream; Make right the immemorial infamies, Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? |
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, How will the future reckon with this Man? How answer his brute question in that hour When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores? How will it be with kingdoms and with kings-- With those who shaped him to the thing he is-- When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world, After the silence of the centuries? |
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Died
on 04 October 1669:
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, in Leiden. the great Dutch master, born on 15 July 1606. His humble origins may help account for the uncommon depth of compassion given to all the subjects of his paintings. Rembrandt prospered when he moved to Amsterdam, but fell out of favor in his later years. However, economic and personal miseries never affected his mastery in many mediums. (artist: 300 etchings, 1400 drawings, 600 paintings: The Night Watch [small detail of it here >], Man with a Magnifying Glass, The Anatomy Lesson of Professor Tulp, Descent from the Cross, Rape of Ganymede) Rembrandt devient l'un des plus grands peintres de tous les temps. Son imagination et sa maîtrise force l'admiration. Après des études solides et des voyages initiatiques en Italie et en France,il se fixe à Amsterdam vers 1631 où il ouvre un atelier. Il connaîtra vite le succès et s’affirmera comme un grand maître de la peinture. Portraitiste de grand talent, il s’affirme par une science étonnante du Clair~Obscur et un souci humaniste qui dépasse le cadre étroit des peintures "commerciales"."La Ronde de nuit" [détail: image ci~dessus], le "Reniement de Saint-Pierre","le Syndic des Drapiers", La Fiancée Juive, "le Souper d’Emmaus", ne sont que quelques-uns des centaines de chefs d’oeuvre que l’on visite dans les grands musées. Mais son art ne se limite pas à la peinture, il a laissé de nombreux dessins, dont certains sont des esquisses de peinture mais d’autres des dessins à part entière. Graveur génial c’est aussi un aquafortiste éminent, ("Jésus prêchant", "La pièce de cent florins"). Rembrandt devait pauvre et ignoré. Mais son génie fut finalement reconnu. Rembrandt began his training first in that city with the obscure painter Jacob van Swanenburgh and then as an apprentice in the Amsterdam studio of Pieter Lastman, who instilled in the younger artist a lifelong preference for history painting. Returning briefly to Leiden, Rembrandt worked there in association with Jan Lievens before moving permanently to Amsterdam in late 1631, where he quickly established his reputation as a portraitist. The 1630s was a particularly prosperous decade, during which Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the wealthy niece of the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh. While always returning to the human figure as his primary subject, during the 1640s Rembrandt explored the formal properties and emotional potential of the landscape genre. At this time he also experimented with etching, a graphic medium he frequently used in combination with drypoint to achieve a richness of effect. In general, the decade of the 1640s was marked by reversals of both a personal and a professional nature, most notably Saskia's death in 1642, which had been preceded by the deaths of all but one of their four children. At this time Rembrandt developed a broader manner of execution realized in a darker palette, which became more exaggerated in later years. This quality made his portraits less popular with clients who sought precisely rendered detail of face and costume. However, the style was well suited to the introspective portraits and biblical subjects that fascinated him. Rembrandt continued to receive important commissions including the fabled Night Watch of 1642 and the rejected Conspiracy of the Batavians, commissioned in 1661 for the Amsterdam Town Hall. He also worked for wealthy private patrons, such as Jan Six and Antonio Ruffo of Sicily. A genius of extraordinary technical talent and perception, Rembrandt influenced a large number of students and followers. |
LINKS
— Self Portrait as the Apostle St. Paul (1661) — Self Portrait at an Early Age (1628) — Self Portrait with a Cap, openmouthed (1630)— Self Portrait (1628) — Self Portrait, Frowning (1630) The Prophetess Hannah Haesje van Cleyburgh Doctor Efraim Bueno Familiegroep in Landschap Christ and the Two Disciples at Emmaus The Night Watch Maria Trip Lamentation of the Prophet Jeremias Over Jerusalem Musical Allegory Het Joodse Bruidje Arnold Tholinx (1652) — Beggars at the Door (1648) — Christ Presented to the People (1655) — Cone Shell (Conus marmoreus) (1650) — Dead peacocks (1639) — Dr. Ephraim Bueno, Jewish Physician and Writer (1647) — Faust (1652) — Hendrickje slapend (1655) — Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630) — Musical Allegory (1626) — Portrait of Haesje van Cleyburgh (1634) — Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert, Remonstrant Minister (1633) — Portrait of Maria Trip (1639) — Portrait of Saskia van Uylenburgh (1633) — Portrait of Two Figures from the Old Testament (The Jewish Bride) (1667) — Portrait of Willem Bartholszoon Ruyter (1638) — Rembrandt drawing at a window (1648) — Six's Bridge (1645) — St. Jerome Reading in an Italian Landscape (1653) — The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch (The Night Watch) (1642) — The Prophetess Anna (Rembrandt's Mother) (1631) — The Sampling Officials (1662) — The Stone Bridge (1638) — The Three Crosses (1653) — Three Women and a Child at the Door (1645) — Titus van Rijn in a Monk's Habit (1660) — Tobit and Anna with a Kid (1626) Rembrandt was born on 15 July 1606, in Leiden, the eighth of nine children of Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn and his wife, Neeltje van Suijttbroeck. He was the first and the only of their sons whom they sent to the school for Latin. After seven years’ schooling (1613-1620) Rembrandt entered the Philosophical Faculty of Leiden University to study Classics. A short period at the university finished with starting a period of apprenticeship (1622-24) under the Italy-trained painter Jacob Isaacszoon van Swanenburgh. However, the succeeding half-year studies under Pieter Lastman, the Amsterdam artist of historical paintings, influenced Rembrandt’s work much deeper. In 1625 the 19-year-old Rembrandt returned to Leiden and opened his own studio, which he shared with his friend of the same age, Jan Lievens. Rembrandt executed historical paintings, initially following Lastman’s models: Tobit and Anna (1626) The Ass of Balaam Talking before the Angel. (1626). His physiognomic studies, resulted in numerous self-portraits: Self-Portrait. (1629) Self-Portrait with Wide-Open Eyes. (1630). During his lifetime Rembrandt executed more than 100 self-portraits. He also produced many engravings and etchings. The turning point in Rembrandt’s further career was the visit to Leiden of Constantijn Huygens, the widely educated secretary of the governor Prince Frederick Hendrick, who developed great interest in Rembrandt and his art. Huygens’ patronage led to commissions and initial success: two works by Rembrandt were purchased by the English Crown and many copies of his painting Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver and the Raising of Lazarus were soon published. After his father’s death on 27th April 1630, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, where he settled in the house of the art-dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh. Prince Frederick Hendrick bought a number of his paintings and commissioned the Passion cycle, which he would finish in 1639. In 1632, Rembrandt also received the commission to paint a portrait of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, the famous Amsterdam surgeon. Wining acclaim with this work, Rembrandt became a fashionable portraitist in Amsterdam and started to receive many commissions for portraits of well-to-do patricians. One of his favorite themes, the meditating Philosopher, appeared in his work as early as about 1633. The Prophet Jeremiah Mourning over the Destruction of Jerusalem. (1630): Rembrandt has used the blunt end of his brush to scratch details of the foliage, Jeremiah’s beard and the fastenings of his tunic in the wet paint, a characteristic technique of his early years. In 1634, Rembrandt became a member of the Guild of St. Luke, in order that he may train students and apprentices as a self-employed master. Rembrandt was popular as a teacher and had a very large and profitable workshop with many student followers, including such outstanding painters as Gerard Dou, Aert de Gelder, Carel Fabritius, Philips Konink, Ferdinand Bol, Govert Flinck and Nicolaes Maes. The same year he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, niece of his art-dealer and daughter of a wealthy patrician. Despite their deep devotion and love to each other, their happiness was overshadowed with the deaths of their new-born children and quarrels with Saskia’s relatives, who accused her of squandering money. Of their 4 children only their son Titus, born in September 1641, survived to his adulthood. Titus’ features appear in a number of painting by Rembrandt: The Artist's Son Titus at His Desk. (1655) Titus. (c.1658). As if in plea to let her son live, Saskia died the next year in June. Her death caused a deep crisis in Rembrandt’s life. During the years of their mutual life Rembrandt created such masterpieces as The Abduction of Ganymede. (1635) The Angel Stopping Abraham from Sacrificing Isaac to God. (1635) The Feast of Belshazzar. (c. 1635) The Blinding of Samson. (1636) Danae. (1636) The Prodigal Son in the Tavern (Rembrandt and Saskia). (c. 1635) The Night Watch (1642) and others. The Night Watch, maybe is the most famous Rembrandt’s work, and his the largest one (12x15ft; 3.5x4.5m) was commissioned by a company of the Civil Guard of Amsterdam for its assembly hall. The painting is a “recapitulation of the ideals of Rembrandt’s first ten Amsterdam years, and is the last painting in which he strives for brilliant external effects. From now on he set himself the aim of recreating in visual terms the intangible essence of man, his inner life”. In his last two decades Rembrandt simplified his compositions, preferring more classical and stable structure. To help the widowed father, two women, Geertge Dircx and, a little later, Hendrickje Stoffels, were admitted in the household. Eventually Geertge caused the artist troubles: at first she repeatedly quarreled with him until at last she brought him to the court (in 1649) on the grounds of an unfulfilled promise of marriage. The second woman, Hendrickje, testified against the plaintiff, and Geertge was sentenced to several years in the prison at Gouda. Hendrickje became Rembrandt’s common-law wife, she sat for many of Rembrandt’s paintings, such as Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels. (1650) and in 1654 gave birth to their daughter Cornelia. Despite numerous commissions, the fees from students and the proceeds from etchings, Rembrandt’s debts continued to grow. In 1656, Rembrandt was declared bankrupt. His house and collections were auctioned; however, the sum thereby raised was insufficient to cover the debts. The artist moved into the Roozengracht, where he led a secluded life along with Mennonite and Jewish friends. Titus’ guardian, Louys Crayers, after a long court case, succeeded in having the boy’s part of the inheritance returned to him from his bankrupt father’s estate. After Rembrandt’s bankruptcy, Hendrickje and Titus (in 1660) set up an art-dealing business in order to provide Rembrandt with protection against his creditors. Despite leading a secluded existence, he maintained many contacts. He continued to keep students, and execute commissions, such as the portrait of the board members of the Amsterdam Cloth makers’ Guild The Syndics of the Clothmakers' Guild (The Staalmeesters). (1662); painting of Alexander the Great and a portrait of Homer. (1663). He trained Titus as a painter but hardly any trace of his artistic activities survived. After Hendrichje’s death in 1663 Titus continued the art-dealing business. The paintings of Rembrandt’s last years bear the sad imprint of his unhappy old age and disrepute The Return of the Prodigal Son. (1668). The dramatic expressions in his last magnificent series of self-portraits reveal an overwhelming ultimate misery and inner torment Self-Portrait. (1669). In 1668, Titus married Magdalena van Loo, but unexpectedly died half a year later. One year, which remained for him to live, Rembrandt spent at the house of his daughter-in-law. He became godfather to his granddaughter on 22nd March, 1669. The artist died without having completed the painting Simeon with the Christ Child in the Temple. |
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Born on 04 October 1861: Frederic
Sackrider Remington, in Canton, New York, Western painter
and sculptor who died on 26 December 1909. [instead of a saddle, he used
a sack?] Frederic Remington, one of the preeminent artists of the American West, is born in New York. The son of a comfortable, if not wealthy, family, Remington was one of the first students to attend Yale University's new School of Fine Arts. At Yale he became a skilled painter, but he focused his efforts largely on the traditional subjects of high art, not the Wild West. When Frederic was 19, his father died, leaving him a small inheritance that gave him the freedom to indulge his interest in traveling in the West. As with other transplanted upper-class easterners like Theodore Roosevelt and Owen Wister, Remington quickly developed a deep love for the West and its fast disappearing world of cowboys, Indians, and wide-open spaces. Eventually buying a sheep ranch near Kansas City, Remington continued to travel around his adopted western home, endlessly drawing and painting what he saw. In 1884, Remington sold his first sketches based on his western travels, and two years later his first fully credited picture appeared on the cover of Harper's Weekly. After that, his popularity as an illustrator grew steadily, and he returned to New York in order to be closer to the largely eastern market for his work. Frequent assignments from publishers, though, ensured that Remington was never away long from the West, and gave him the opportunity to closely observe and sketch his favorite subjects: U.S. Cavalry soldiers, cowboys, and Native Americans. An example of his work as an illustrator is online: Theodore Roosevelt's Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, Remington's output was enormous, and during the last 20 years of his life he created more than 2700 paintings and drawings and published illustrations in 142 books and 42 different magazines. Though most of his paintings were created in his studio in New York, Remington continued to base his work on his western travels and prided himself on accuracy and realism-particularly when it came to horses. He even suggested that he would like his epitaph to read: "He Knew the Horse." When he died on 26 December 1909 in Connecticut, from acute appendicitis, Remington left a body of work that was popular with the public but largely ignored by "serious" museums and art collectors. Since then, though, Remington's paintings, drawings, and illustrations have become prized by collectors and curators around the world. With his dynamic representations of cowboys and cavalrymen, bronco busters and braves, 19th-century artist Frederic Remington created a mythic image of the American West that continues to inspire America today. His technical ability to reproduce the physical beauty of the Western landscape made him a sought-after illustrator, but it was his insight into the heroic nature of American settlers that made him great. This painter, sculptor, author, and illustrator, who was so often identified with the American West, surprisingly spent most of his life in the East. More than anything, in fact, it was Remington’s connection with the eastern fantasy of the West, and not a true knowledge of its history and people, that his admirers responded to. Remington briefly attended the Yale School of Art and the Art Students League of New York before heeding the call to "go West." As a young man, he traveled widely throughout the country, spending most of his time sketching the people and places in the new American frontier. In 1886 he established himself as an illustrator of Western themes, and sold his work to many of the major magazines of the time. While most of his best known work was in illustration, he was also a fine painter, capturing on his canvases the sweeping vistas, heroic figures, and moments of danger and conflict that came to define the archetypal romance of the West. Whether portraying a Crow brave facing death at the hands of his enemies in Ridden Down or cowboys eluding Indian pursuers in A Dash for the Timber, Remington returned time and again to his signature theme: the life and death struggles of the individual against overwhelming forces. LINKS Great Explorers (1905) Bringing Home the New Cook (1907) Cavalry Officer Cowboy (1902) Cow Puncher 1901 Infantry Soldier Warning Shot The Advance Guard On the Trail Rounding-up the Bear Great Explorers Buffalo Runner Buffalo Runner (1907) Army Packer Breaking Horses Cavalryman of the Line (1889) |
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Died on 04 October 1999 Bernard
Buffet, French painter, etcher, lithographer, designer
and occasional sculptor, born on 10 July 1928. — [He did not specialize
in buffet tables, nor in still-lifes set on buffet tables.] (not to be
confused with Jean
Philippe Arthur Dubuffet [31 July 1901 12 May 1985]) |