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ART “4” “2”-DAY  06 December
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DEATHS: 1810 RIGAUD — 1562 VAN SCOREL — 1779 CHARDIN
BIRTHS: 1750 VALENCIENNES — 1841 BAZILLE
^ Died on 06 December 1810: Jean~François Rigaud, French painter born in Turin on 18 May 1742, active in England as John Francis Rigaud.
— He studied in Turin, Florence and Bologna, and lived in Rome for two years from 1768. In 1771 he settled in London, becoming in the following year an Associate of the Royal Academy, and a full Academician in 1784. He received a steady stream of commissions for historical subjects, as well as decorative compositions and portraits. In 1775 he exhibited The Entry of the Black Prince into London with his Royal Prisoner; its subject from national history was an original choice for the time. From 1778 he painted for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery such small pictures as Scene from ‘Romeo and Juliet’. He also contributed to Macklin’s Poets’ Gallery. In 1794 he won what was probably his most important commission, the decoration of the four pendentives of the Common Council Chamber in the Guildhall, London, depicting Providence, Innocence, Wisdom and Happiness; of these only the preparatory oil sketches survive. Rigaud’s most important patron was Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford, who employed him to decorate the Pompeian Gallery at Packington Hall, Warwicks, in 1787 and the New Church in 1787 and 1792. Rigaud was one of the major painters of large-scale decorative schemes for fashionable interiors of the late 18th century. His early designs were Neo-classical in feeling, but his later work tended more towards the Baroque. His narrative pictures range from history subjects in the Grand Manner, which he painted principally for the theme galleries, to popular sentimental subjects intended for the print market. As a portrait artist, he could be frank and expressive when not seeking heroic effects; his best portraits are of fellow artists such as that of Joseph Nollekens (1772) and a half-length group of his fellow Academicians, Sir William Chambers, Joseph Wilton and Sir Joshua Reynolds (1782)
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Captain Horatio Nelson [1758-1805] (1781, 127x102cm; 867x700pix, 66kb) _ A three-quarter-length portrait to right in captain's full-dress uniform. He wears a hat and his hands rest on his sheathed sword in front of him. Although the portrait was begun in 1777, when Nelson was a lieutenant, it was not finished until 1781 when he had returned to England as a captain. X-rays reveal that, as begun, it showed a slightly rounder-faced Nelson standing bare-headed in lieutenant's uniform with his hat under his left arm. The fined-down features of the finished picture perhaps reflect the effects of his intervening years in the tropics, including the fever that nearly killed him during the San Juan River expedition in Nicaragua, in 1780.
      Fort San Juan, which Nelson helped capture on that occasion is shown as the background here and is believed to have been painted by Dominic Serres. This was one of three portraits of promising young officers commissioned by their early commander, Captain William Locker. He had been Nelson's captain in the frigate Lowestoffe, his first ship after being commissioned lieutenant. (Locker also knew and patronized Serres, who - very unusually - painted his portrait).
Admiral William Parry [1705-1779] _ (1777, 127x102cm) _ A three-quarter-length portrait to right in flag-officer's undress uniform, 1774-83, and a tie wig. He holds his hat in his right hand and in the right background is a ship with a blue flag at the main and a red at the fore. The painting was probably altered since Parry was Vice-Admiral of the Red when it was painted and became Admiral of the Blue in January 1778. The artist attempted to cover up the red flag at the fore but the original paintwork has now reappeared and the ensign may also have been altered.
Captain Robert Man [1748-1813] _ (1779, 76x63cm) _ A half-length portrait to left in captain's (over three years) full-dress uniform Man wears a white wig with black ribbon visible and holds his hat under his arm. In the background a British frigate flying the Union flag, on the left, is shown in the act of taking a small French schooner on the right. In the Mediterranean in 1795 and with his flag in the Victory, 100 guns, he was one of the few that got close enough to engage during Hotham's action. The following year he was a rear-admiral during the war in the Mediterranean sent by Jervis to Gibraltar for supplies. He arrived safely and was chased by the Spanish fleet. On his arrival he called a council of war which concluded that since the British fleet was outnumbered by the Franco-Spanish fleet it would be best to take their squadron to England. The immediate result was that the British were forced to leave the Mediterranean for the time being. Man had no authority to make such a decision: he was ordered to strike his flag and was never employed at sea again.
Captain Peacock (1780, 126x100cm) _ A three-quarter-length portrait to left in captain's (over three years) full-dress uniform. He holds his hat in his left hand and wears his own hair powdered. He gestures with his right arm towards a British and a United States ship in action, with the American striking.
The Money Brothers: William Taylor [1769-1834], James [1772-1833], and Robert [1775-1803] (1791, 101x127cm; 552x700pix, 53kb) _ A group portrait of three sons of William Money [1738-1796], a Director of the East India Company and an Elder Brother of Trinity House, commissioned by Sir Robert Wigram Bt [1769-1830], Money's lifelong friend and business partner. The central figure, William Taylor is shown in three-quarter length, slightly to right, looking towards the viewer. He wears the uniform of a lieutenant of the East India Company marine service. He was the eldest son and had his first East India commission as a lieutenant in the Rose in 1786. In 1793 he became commander of Wigram's ship, the General Goddard, taking her on a particularly successful initial voyage and later commanded other Wigram ships including the Walthamstow. On his retirement from sea in 1801 he became Marine Superintendent at Bombay. From 1811 he was a director of the Company, an elder brother of Trinity House and an MP. He was also knighted and died as Consul General at Venice in 1834. His right arm rests on the shoulder of his brother Robert, who stands to the left and is shown half-length, to right, wearing a red coat. He is in profile looking at his eldest brother and pointing with his right hand to a map of China at the place marked Canton.
      James, the right hand figure, holds the other end of the map with his right forefinger placed on Calcutta. He wears a brown coat, a white waistcoat and yellow breeches. Like his elder brother, his hair is powdered. Through a window behind him the Indiaman 'Rose' is shown at anchor. James and Robert both spent their lives in the civil branch of the Company's service, with Robert serving in China. The appearance of the sitters implies that the portrait was begun in 1788 and, indeed, Richard (the youngest) points to China, where William Taylor went on a voyage during 1786-1788. William Taylor sat for the artist in 1788 and 1790-1791. James points to the Bay of Bengal, which may signify that he accompanied his elder brother on the 1788-1790 voyage, at the start of his service with the Company. The Honourable Company of London Merchants Trading with the East Indies was formed in 1600 and it soon became known by the shorter title of the Honourable East India Company. The company grew rich and powerful on the trade in cottons, silks, spices and tea, and kept its monopoly for over 200 years. Britain's large land-based Indian Empire had its beginnings in this early maritime trading venture.
^ Born on 06 December 1750: Pierre Henri de Valenciennes, French painter specialized in landscapes, who died on 16 February 1819.
— Born in Toulouse, Valenciennes received his early training under Jean-Baptiste Despax, a history painter, and Guillaume-Gabriel Bouton, a miniaturist. He went to Italy in 1769 with his patron, Mathias du Bourg, was in Paris by 1771, and two years later entered the studio of the history painter Gabriel-François Doyen. During this period he began to sketch in the French countryside. Valenciennes returned to Italy in 1777, remaining there until 1784-85, with the exception of travels in Sicily and Switzerland and a visit to Paris in 1781. There Claude-Joseph Vernet [14 Aug 1714 – 03 Dec 1789] gave him instruction in perspective and encouraged his plein-air studies. Essentially, however, the artist appears to be self-taught as a landscape painter. Valenciennes became a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1787 and continued to exhibit at the Salons until 1819. From 1796 to 1800 he taught courses in perspective, and in 1799-1800 published his famous treatise, Eléments de perspective pratique à l'usage des artistes, as well as an essay on landscape painting. In 1812 he was appointed Professor of Perspective at the École Des Beaux-Arts and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1815. The École established a Prix de Rome for historical landscape in 1816. Strongly influenced by the classical landscape tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, Valenciennes was largely responsible for elevating the status of landscape painting in the late eighteenth century. As a respected teacher and theoretician, he helped form a generation of landscape painters, including Jean-Victor Bertin and Achille-Etna Michallon, who became Corot's masters.
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Éruption du Vésuve Arrivée le 24 Aug de l'an 79 de J.C. Sous le Règne de Titus (1813, 148x196cm) _ Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes était un fervent partisan du paysage historique : il fut notamment l'un des instigateurs de la création en 1816 d'un Prix de Rome du paysage historique. C'est à ce genre qu'appartient cette toile, où l'artiste représente la mort de Pline l'Ancien, qui, ayant voulu s'approcher de la montagne pour voir l'éruption du Vésuve, fut puni de sa téméraire curiosité, et mourut asphyxié par la fumée. Cherchant avant tout la vraisemblance, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes visita Pompeï, rendue célèbre par les fouilles alors en cours, et assista même à l'éruption du volcan qui eut lieu le 18 ou 19 Aug 1779, et qu'il décrit en ces termes: “A quelques milles de là, nous avons découvert très distinctement une éruption du Vésuve qui a été des plus fortes dont on puisse se ressouvenir. Ç'a été une explosion qui a porté des pierres à cinquante milles”. Dans cette toile, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes insiste sur l'impuissance de l'homme face aux déchaînements de la nature, matérialisés par la taille du volcan, qui lance des pierres à une hauteur vertigineuse et déverse des fleuves de lave bouillonnante, et face auquel les personnages paraissent minuscules. Ce tableau marque le retour de Valenciennes au Salon après plusieurs années d'absence. La puissance de la nature déchaînée est ici mise en opposition avec la vulnérabilité humaine, reléguée de façon presque anecdotique dans la partie.
A Capriccio of Rome with the the Finish of a Marathon (1788, 81x119cm)
Italian LandscapeLandscape of Ancient Greece (1786, x 152cm)
^ Died on 06 December 1562: Jan van Scorel (or Schoreel, Scorelius), Dutch painter born on 01 August 1495. — {Among software users who like Scorel is there someone who likes Corel?}
— Van Scorel was the first Dutch painter of importance to study in Italy and responsible for introducing the Italian High Renaissance to the Netherlands. Scorel traveled all over Germany, and into Italy, went to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage, arrived back in Venice in 1521, made his fortune by being in Rome at the right moment to be practically the only artist patronized by the Dutch pope Hadrian VI, came back to Utrecht full of the influences of Giorgione, Palma Vecchio, Michelangelo, and Raphael, particularly the latter, and later went to France. He was was appointed by Pope Hadrian VI superintendent of the Vatican Collection. He returned to the Netherlands in 1524. His works include Pilgrims to Jerusalem, Saint Mary Magdalene and Holy Kinship.
— Jan van Scorel was born in Schoorl (Scorel) near Alkmaar. It is not certain where he studied, some scholars think that he was apprenticed to Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen in Amsterdam, others to Jan Gossaert in Utrecht. He is also said to have studied under Mabuse. Passion for traveling put Scorel on an extended tour: he visited Dürer in Nuremberg, painted his first representative work in Obervellach in Austria (Sippenaltar, 1520), then traveled via Venice to Rome. There Pope Adrian VI, a native of Utrecht, appointed him painter to the Vatican and successor to Raphael as Keeper of the Belvedere. From Rome Scorel went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
      After his return to the Netherlands he lived in turn in Haarlem, Ghent, at last, in 1524, he settled in Utrecht and developed a brilliant career as a painter and teacher. Highly gifted and educated (he was an architect, engineer, poet, musician, knew several languages), equally endowed with intellect and spontaneity, he created a wealth of altarpieces and portraits in which Italian art merged with native tradition that gives us the right to consider him the leading Netherlandish “Romanist”. (Netherlandish “Romanist” is a term used to denote a large group of leading Flemish artists of the first half of the 16th century, who integrated the classical imagery in their work. From this time on, painting mythological scenes and nudes as the main subject also became popular in the Netherlands.) Many of the artist’s works were destroyed during the Iconoclasm (1566). Jan van Scorel died in Utrecht.
— Humanist, musician, poet, amateur archaeologist, and clergyman, multi-talented Jan van Scorel was the first northern Netherlandish artist to absorb High Renaissance art in Italy and bring it home. He not only assimilated aspects of the figure styles of Michelangelo and Raphael but also created landscapes in the style of Giorgione.
      Van Scorel received his initial professional training in 1512 under Amsterdam's first major painter. In 1517 he studied under Jan Gossaert in Utrecht and soon after worked under Albrecht Dürer in Germany. In Venice, Van Scorel discovered paintings with golden sunlight, bright colors, loose brushwork, and clearly organized landscapes with rolling hills and winding roads.
      Upon the invitation of pilgrims Scorel met in Rome, he visited the Holy Land. Returning to Rome, in 1523 he became director of Vatican antiquities under the Dutch Pope, Hadrian VI. Van Scorel's return to Utrecht in 1524 has been called a turning point in northern Netherlandish painting. He painted some of the Netherlands' earliest group portraits, and his workshop swelled with commissions. In 1550 he was trusted with restoring Jan van Eyck's Ghent altarpiece. Many of van Scorel's religious works, including large altarpieces, were destroyed in outbreaks of iconoclasm.
— Van Scorel's students included Antonis Mor.
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Joris van Egmond, Bishop of Utrecht, (1535) — Landscape with Bathsheba (1545)
Portrait of a Man (1529)— Mary Magdalen (1530, 67x76cm)
The Baptism of Christ (1530; 805x1030pix, 133kb) _ Christ being baptized in the river Jordan by St John the Baptist. The Holy Ghost appears in the form of a radiant dove. For this painting Van Scorel drew on elements from works by Raphael and other Italian Renaissance artists.
Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (1527, 114x85cm; 850x610pix, 173kb)
A Venetian Man (1520, 45x34cm) — The Schoolboy (1531) — Young Girl detail: head
^ Born on 06 December 1841: Jean Frédéric Bazille, French Impressionist painter who died on 28 November 1870.
— Bazille was a member of the early Impressionist group. As a student in Gleyre's studio in Paris (1862) he befriended Monet, Renoir, and Sisley, with whom he painted out of doors at Fontainebleau and in Normandy. He was, however, primarily a figure painter rather than a landscapist, his best-known work being the large Family Reunion (1868). He came from a wealthy family and had given generous financial support to Monet and Renoir.
— The son of a senator, Bazille was born into the wealthy Protestant middle class in Montpellier. He soon came into contact with the contemporary and still controversial painting of Eugène Delacroix and Gustave Courbet through the Montpellier collector, Alfred Bruyas. In response to his family’s wishes he began to study medicine in 1860. He moved to Paris in 1862 and devoted his time increasingly to painting. In November 1862 he entered the studio of Charles Gleyre where he produced academic life drawings and made friends with the future Impressionists, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. When the studio closed in 1863, he did not look for another teacher but followed his friends to Chailly, near the forest of Fontainebleau, where he made studies from nature (e.g. Study of Trees). From 1863 he took an active part in Parisian musical life, attending the Pasdeloup and Conservatoire concerts. He developed a passion for opera (Berlioz and Wagner in particular) and German music (Beethoven and Schumann). He attended the salon of his cousins, the Lejosne family, where Henri Fantin-Latour, Charles Baudelaire, Edmond Maître, Renoir, and Edouard Manet were frequent guests, and at the end of 1863 he met Courbet. Bazille was killed in action during the Franco-Prussian War, cutting short a promising career.
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Self-Portrait (1868, 54x46cm) head and shoulders. — Self-Portrait (1866) 3/4 length, holding palette.
Bazille's Studio; 9 rue de la Condamine (1870, 98x128cm) _ This painting, somewhat free in technique, has poignant associative interest. It shows a group of young friends. Renoir is seated at the extreme left. Just above him, on the stair, is Zola. Manet stands in front of a painting on an easel. Behind him is Monet, and standing at the side of the easel is Bazille himself. Manet painted this figure, or at least Bazille's head. At the far right their musician friend Edmond Maitre is at the piano.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1867, 122x107cm) — View of the Village (1868)
39 images at Webshots
^ Died on 06 December 1779: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, French Rococo painter specialized in still life, born on 02 November 1699.
— Taught by Pierre-Jacques Cazès, Chardin rose from a relatively humble background to become one of the most admired painters of mid-18th-century France and to hold the influential position of Treasurer of the Académie Royale. His austere still-lifes and bourgeois domestic genre scenes were highly praised by Diderot in his Salon reviews, and, though his reputation went into decline after his death, Chardin was by the middle of the 19th century once again among the most highly esteemed of French painters. His works and technique continued to find particular favor with artists and connoisseurs. Although he is often referred to as Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, there is no documentary evidence to confirm this additional name.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Pehr Hilleström were students of Chardin.
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Self-Portrait (1771; 1019x800pix, 57kb) and, in the same pose, Self-Portrait at the Easel (1770, 41x33cm; 742x580pix, 38kb) in which Chardin depicts himself tracing and coloring his portrait on blue paper over canvas, the same portrait we are seeing. He is holding the pastel used to render the skin tone of his face and hand. Pastel is a form of coloured crayon made up of powdered pigments and diluted mediums. Its tactile qualities were appreciated by 18th century portrait painters like La Tour and Perronneau. Chardin, who is known for his still-lifes and genre scenes, used it for the portraits he executed, toward the end of his life, of his wife and particularly of himself; this is probably the last of his self-portraits.
La Bulle de Savon (1739, 61x63cm; main detail 1000x780pix, 94kb — ZOOM to full picture 1170x1312pix, 110kb)
The Buffet
(1728, 194x129cm) — The Ray (1728, 114x146cm) _ These two painting are the artist's diploma pieces, on the occasion of his reception into the Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1728. Artists who were not members of the Académie, and who therefore could not exhibit their work in the Salon, took part once a year in what was known as the 'Salon de Jeunesse', held on the feast of Corpus Christi in the open air, in the Place Dauphine, and lasting two hours. On 03 June 1728 Chardin exhibited several pictures there, including The Ray and The Buffet. Some academicians who saw the work persuaded Chardin to present himself for membership of the Académie royale; on 25 September of the same year, contrary to the usual practice, Chardin was accepted and admitted on one and the same day. The Académie did not insist on a picture specially painted for the occasion, as was usually the case, but retained The Ray and The Buffet as his diploma pieces. It is related that the artist had deceived several academicians, among them Largillière and Cazès, by showing them some of his still-life paintings which they took for Flemish works. Certainly, the source of inspiration is obvious in The Ray, which surpasses the best work of Jan Fyt.
      The rich quality of the paint surface, which is in perfect condition, has been revealed by the recent cleaning of the varnish. The picture is exceptionally well preserved for a work by Chardin; his paintings often suffered from too heavy a use of oil with his pigment. Perhaps this one owes its good condition to the fact that it dates from his early days, when he was applying himself to improving his technique by creating a chef-d'oeuvre carefully executed according to the best principles of true craftsmanship. Later, he trusted too much to his inspiration, and yielded to his passion for worked-up impasto.
The Attributes of the Arts (1766, 113x145cm, 1/3 size, 1555x2000pix, 2281kb) _ This picture may appear to reproduce the casual clutter of an 18th-century tabletop. Not so. Chardin carefully selected objects to convey specific meanings. A palette with brushes, placed atop a paint box, symbolizes the art of painting. Building plans, spread beneath drafting and surveying tools, represent architecture. An ornate bronze pitcher alludes to goldsmithing, and the red portfolio symbolizes drawing. The plaster model of J. B. Pigalle's Mercury, an actual work by a friend of Chardin's, stands for sculpture. The cross on a ribbon is the Order of Saint Michael, the highest honor an artist could then receive. Pigalle was the first sculptor to win it. So this painting sends multiple messages: it presents emblems of the arts and of artists' glory and honors a specific artist, Pigalle. A still life (or painting of things inanimate or already dead), which is composed from scratch by its creator, can be used to convey complex meanings.
The Silver Tureen (1728, 76x108cm) _ Chardin was a contemporary of Boucher, but no two artists could have been more different. Chardin invariably imbued his deceptively simple compositions with a disregard for mere prettiness. In this still-life Chardin has given ordinary objects of everyday life an aura of dignity and value. The cat creates a sense of conflict between the living and dead animals, underscoring a theme common in Chardin's genre scenes: the evanescence of life.
A "Lean Diet" with Cooking Utensils (1731, 33x41cm) _ Chardin's carefully constructed still lifes do not bulge with appetizing foods but are concerned with the objects themselves and with the treatment of light. An anecdote illustrating Chardin's genius and his unique position in 18th-century painting is told by one of his greatest friends, the engraver Charles-Nicolas Cochin, who wrote a letter shortly after Chardin's death to Haillet de Couronne, the man who was to deliver Chardin's eulogy to the Academy of Rouen, of which Chardin had been a member. One day, an artist was making a big show of the method he used to purify and perfect his colors. Monsieur Chardin, impatient with so much idle chatter, said to the artist, But who told you that one paints with colors.? With what then? the astonished artist asked. One uses colors., replied Chardin, but one paints with feeling.
The House of Cards (1737, 60x72cm) _ At a time when large-scale heroic narrative painting was thought to be the most meritorious, Chardin, thwarted by his lack of academic training in drawing, became one of the greatest practitioners of the 'lowly' art of still life. Born in Paris, where he spent most of his life, he first trained at the guild school of Saint-Luc, before gaining admittance to the French Royal Academy in the category of a still-life and animal painter. By the end of his life his works were to be found in most of the great private collections of the time. Although totally dependent on observation and on working closely from nature, Chardin evolved methods of painting at a distance from the model, so that he was able to reconcile particular detail with a more generalized effect. While some critics deplored his inability to paint more 'elevated' subjects others, like the influential philosopher Diderot, praised the 'magic' of his brush: 'This magic defies understanding...it is a vapour that has been breathed onto the canvas...Approach the painting, and everything comes together in a jumble, flattens out, and vanishes; move away, and everything creates itself and reappears.'
      In the early 1730s, perhaps in response to the amicable taunt of Joseph Aved, a portrait-painter friend, Chardin also turned to small-scale figure painting, influenced by the Dutch and Flemish seventeenth-century masters of everyday scenes. Encouraged by the success of these homespun compositions of kitchen maids and serving men at work, he moved from the sculleries of the bourgeoisie to their living quarters. By narrowing the focus to the half-length figure, he was also able to enlarge it in scale, as he does here. In this wonderfully intimate and contemplative picture, he portrays the son of his friend Monsieur Lenoir, a furniture-dealer and cabinetmaker.
      The House of Cards owes its subject to the moralizing vanitas paintings of the seventeenth century. The verses under the engraving of the picture, published in 1743, stress the insubstantiality of human endeavors, as frail as a house of cards. But the painting tends to undermine the moral. Its rigorously geometric and stable composition gives an air of permanence which contradicts the fugitive nature of the boy's pastime, and of childhood itself. Chardin's 'magic accord' of tones envelops the scene securely in its warm and subtle light, at once direct and diffused. His technique remained secret, although it was suspected that he used his thumb as much as his brush. We can well believe, however, his response to the inquiry of a mediocre painter, 'We use colors., but we paint with feeling.'
— another The House of Cards (1737, 82x66cm) _ This is the last of the four versions of the subject by Chardin. A commentator claimed: “The simple and at the same time elegant composition, the physical and psychological characterization of the boy recalls the famous painting Les Joueurs de Cartes by Paul Cézanne. ” Well, Cézanne painted not one but no less than five Les Joueurs de Cartes (including Les Joueurs de Cartes and another Les Joueurs de Cartes) and I don't see resemblance in any of them. Judge for yourself.
The Draftsman (1737, 81x64cm) — Still-Life with Pipe and Jug (1737, 32x40cm)
The Attentive Nurse (1738)
The Canary (1751, 50x43cm) — Le Benedicite (1744, 50x38cm)
Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock (1740, 82x66cm) — Au Retour du Marché (1739)
Le Dessinateur I (1737, 80x65cm) and the almost identical Le Dessinateur II (1737, 81x64cm)
La Jeune Institutrice (1736, 62x67cm) — Girl Peeling Vegetables (46x37cm)

Died on a 06 December:


1942 Louis Marie de Schryver, French artist born on 12 October 1862.

1910 Vittorio Avondo, Italian artist born on 10 August 1836.

1884 Jean Baptiste van Moer, Belgian artist born on 17 December 1819.

1852 George Duncan Beechey, British artist born in 1798. — Relative? of Sir William Beechey [12 Dec 1753 – 28 Jan 1839]?

^ 1845 Andrew Robertson, in London, Scottish painter, born on 14 October 1777, brother of Archibald Robertson [08 May 1765 – 06 Dec 1835] and Alexander Robertson [1768-1841], who, like him, specialized in miniature portraits, but, unlike him, emigrated to New York (in 1791 and 1792 respectively) where they established the Columbian Academy of Painting at 89 William Street, purported to be the first art school in the US. Andrew Robertson attended Alexander Nasmyth’s drawing-classes in Edinburgh in 1792, and he was also befriended by Henry Raeburn, who lent him portraits to copy and a small room in which to practice. In 1797 he attended the Royal Scottish Academy life classes to learn figure drawing, soon specializing in miniature painting of an enlarged size. He moved in 1801 to London, where he frequented mainly Scottish painters. He first made an enlarged miniature after the portrait of Cornelius van der Geest (1619; 37x32cm) by Anthony van Dyck [1599-1641], which impressed Thomas Lawrence, James Northcote, and Martin Archer Shee. This was followed by a self-portrait in tartan ‘that I may be known to Scotch people’. Benjamin West gave him a portrait commission in 1802, with 13 sittings and much advice. The portrait was exhibited in 1803 at the Royal Academy, where Robertson attracted the interest of George III. During the Napoleonic Wars he became a captain under the command of Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, whom he painted in Highland uniform (1806). He was also invited to Windsor Castle to paint The Four Princesses (1808) and The Prince of Wales (later George IV).

^ 1835 Archibald Robertson, in New York, US painter and drawing-master of Scottish birth (08 May 1765). He was brought up in Aberdeen, studying art there and in Edinburgh. In 1786 he was a student at the Royal Academy in London. Joshua Reynolds [1786-1791] was one of his teachers. Several years of practice in Aberdeen followed. In 1791 he arrived in New York to teach art at the invitation of a group of gentlemen. He brought with him a letter of introduction to President Washington from the Earl of Buchan. Thus, shortly afterwards, he painted miniatures of George and Martha Washington (1791 and 1792). With his brother Alexander Robertson [1768-1841], who joined him in 1792, he established the Columbian Academy of Painting; most of their students were amateurs, although a few, notably John Vanderlyn, became professional artists. Throughout their lives, Archibald and Alexander Robertson promoted the exhibition of art and the training of artists in New York, and they were active members of the American Academy of the Fine Arts. Their brother Andrew Robertson [14 Oct 1777 – 06 Dec 1845] stayed in Great Britain. — George Washington [1732-1799] (1791, 32x27cm; 480x396pix, 22kb) _ Archibald Robertson made several copies of this portrait. — Sir Joshua Reynolds [1723–1792] (1791, oval 7.5x6cm; full size, 30kb)

1835 George Philip Reinagle, English marine painter born in 1802. He studied under his father Ramsay Richard Reinagle [19 Mar 1775 – 17 Nov 1862] and copied marine paintings by such masters as Willem van de Velde, although the first work he exhibited at the Academy (1822) was a portrait. His Battle of Navarino in 1827 (1827) shows an engagement of the Greek War of Independence, which he had witnessed. He made a set of lithographs showing this event and another set featuring skirmishes in the Bay of Patras, to which he had also been a witness. In the 1830s he sailed to Portugal in the fleet commanded by Captain Charles Napier and subsequently painted a scene showing troops being landed in the Algarve (1834).

1791 Christian Georg Schüz (or Schütz) I, German artist born on 27 September 1718.

^ 1504 Pasqualino di Niccolo da Venezia (or Veneto), Italian painter. Several signed works by Pasqualino are known, two of which are also inscribed with dates. They are a Virgin and Child with St Mary Magdalene (1496) and a Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist (1502). All are half-length pictures of the Virgin and Child, with or without accompanying saints, and they provide a stylistic basis for further attributions to the painter. With the single exception of a Virgin and Child, which corresponds to a design by Giovanni Bellini of the 1480s, Pasqualino’s works are closely dependent in style and composition on the art of Cima da Conegliano, whose pupil or assistant he must have been. The Correr picture is freely based on several of Cima’s works of the early to mid-1490s, in particular the Madonna of the Orange Tree; however, the elongated, tubular forms, rigid modelling, fussily detailed landscape background and opaque colors are typical features of Pasqualino’s own style. Unlike Cima’s other known associates such as Andrea Busati or Girolamo da Udine, Pasqualino does not seem to have been employed in Cima’s workshop merely as an executant of the master’s designs. By 1504 he evidently had sufficient reputation to be entrusted with the important commission to decorate the main wall of the albergo of the Scuola della Carità in Venice. The documents show, however, that he died in the same year without having painted anything and the commission later went to Titian.


Born on a 06 December:


^ 1941 Bruce Nauman, US sculptor, photographer, and performance or installation artist working with video. He studied mathematics and later art under Italo Scanga [1932~] at the University of Wisconsin (1960–1964). At the University of California at Davis (1965–1966) his teachers included William T. Wiley [1937~] and Robert Arneson [1930~]. Upon graduation (MFA, 1966) he exhibited enigmatic, fiberglass sculptures. Nauman himself was already the subject of his art. Although he was a formidable draftsman, Nauman’s neon works, films, videotapes, performances, installations, sculpted body parts and word plays at first seemed frustratingly art-less. His was an art of exploration: he used himself, his person and his witty brand of inquiry to examine the parameters of art and the role of the artist. This questioning elicited strong emotional, physical and intellectual responses, and it often resulted in objects of formal beauty. Neon Templates of the Left Half of my Body, Taken at Ten Inch Intervals (1966) and the color photograph Self Portrait as a Fountain (1966) show him first extracting strangely compelling neon forms from the contours of his body and, in the latter, whimsically challenging preconceived notions of the ‘fountain’. — LINKSWar (1971, 57x72cm)

1884 Leon Abraham Kroll, US painter who died in 1974. — LINKSSummerGirl in a Hammock (1922)

^ 1856 François Flameng, French painter and draftsman who died on 28 February 1923. He was the son and student of the engraver of Léopold Flameng [1831-1911] and was taught by Alexandre Cabanel, Edmond Hédouin and Jean-Paul Laurens. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1873, working initially as a history and portrait painter. He produced several large historical compositions such as Conquerors of the Bastille (1881), painted in an academic style characteristic of the Third Republic. He also worked as a decorative painter, producing nine panels for the great staircase of the Sorbonne in Paris depicting the foundation of the university and the history of French literature, for example St Louis Delivering the Founding Charter to Robert de Sorbon (1887) and Moralists of the Court of Louis XIV: La Rochefoucauld and Molière. He decorated the ceiling over the staircase in the Opéra Comique in Paris with paintings that owe something to Degas, such as Tragedy and Dance (1897), but more to Boucher (Comedy Pursuing the Vices). He contributed to the design of the Salle des Fêtes at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 with three enormous compositions, Silk and Wool, the Decorative Arts and the Chemical Industries (all destroyed). Flameng also produced ceiling paintings for the buffet at the Gare de Lyon (in situ) in Paris as well as wall and ceiling paintings for numerous public and private buildings, including the Hôtel des Invalides in Pari, the Grolier Club in New York and the Charitonenko Palace in Moscow. In 1903 he collaborated with Léon Bonnat, P.-A.-J. Dagnan-Bouveret, Gustave Colin, Léon Glaize, Charles Lapostolet, Joseph Layraud and Tony Robert-Fleury on the decoration of the Salon des Arts in the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, contributing Music, a panel painted in a Symbolist style.

^ 1855 Frank Myers Boggs (“Frank-Boggs”), US French painter who died on 08 August 1926. He studied under Gérôme. — Place des Vosges en Hiver aka Maison de Victor Hugo (1910, 27x40cm) — The Seine, Outside Paris (1885, 38x56cm). — Harbor Scene (50x65cm; 296x380pix, 17kb) — Sailing Ship in Dry Dock at Le Havre (etching 40x35cm)

1791 José Gutiérrez de la Vega, Spanish painter who died in December 1865. His training at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Seville was based on the cult and imitation of the art of Murillo, which deeply influenced his style, especially in his early years. Though otherwise in Seville at this time, he spent 1829 in Cádiz, where he became a friend of the English consul John Brackembury, and painted portraits of him, his wife Catherine and their children. Cádiz was then influenced by English art and culture, and Gutiérrez de la Vega assimilated something of the elegance and aristocratic manner characteristic of 19th-century English painting. His style corresponds perfectly to the Spanish Romantic spirit, and its refinement is especially evident in his portraits, many of which reflect the art of Murillo. This can be seen in Richard Ford and Harriet Ford (both 1831), in which both figures are dressed in 17th-century Spanish costume. The influence of Murillo in this period is even more marked in such religious works as Christ and the Woman of Samaria and St Clement.

^ 1668 Nicolas Vleughels (or Wleughels), French painter, administrator and teacher of Flemish origin, who died on 11 December 1737. He was trained by his father Philippe Vleughels [1620–1694], a Flemish painter who had moved to Paris in 1642; he was also a student of Pierre Mignard I. In 1694 he came second in the Prix de Rome competition with Lot and his Daughters Leaving Sodom; despite repeated attempts, he failed to win the first prize. He became a close friend of Watteau and was, like him, greatly influenced by Flemish painting, notably that of Rubens. In 1704 Vleughels went to Italy at his own expense. From his base in Rome he made trips to Venice [1707–1709] and Modena [1712–1714] and was much influenced by the work of the Venetian colorists, particularly Veronese, whose works he copied. In 1716, back in Paris, he was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale and in the same year was received (reçu) on presentation of Apelles Painting Campaspe as his morceau de réception. The influence of Veronese can be seen in the preparatory studies in oil and pastel for his paintings of this period, such as the Studies of a Woman’s Legs for the figure of Campaspe. His close relationship to Watteau’s fêtes galantes can be seen in the Abduction of Helen (1716) — Etienne Jeaurat and Jean-Baptiste Pierre were students of Vleughels.

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