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| BIRTHS:
1659 VAN DER WERFF — 1725 LAGRENÉE |
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Died on 21 January 1672: Adriaen
van de Velde, Dutch painter born on 30 November 1636. — He was the son of Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-93) and brother of Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), and was a prolific painter of sunny, atmospheric landscapes and beach scenes. His landscape etchings of rural scenes were particularly sensitive, but he also excelled in animal painting and often executed the animal figures in the paintings of other prominent contemporary artists. — LINKS — Portrait of a Couple with Two Children and a Nursemaid in a Landscape (1667) — The Hut (1671) — Amusement on the Ice (1669, 33x40cm) _ The varied oeuvre of Adriaen van de Velde includes winter scenes, portraits in landscape settings, and amongst his most original pictures are his rare beach scenes. He was frequently called upon to animate his contemporaries' pictures with his exquisite figures. His staffage appears in paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael, Hobbema, Allaert van Everdingen, Philips Koninck, van der Heyden and Wynants. — The Beach at Scheveningen (1658} — Amongst Adriaen's van der Velde most original pictures are his rare beach scenes, which capture the lucidity of the moist sea air and have a freshness and rarely matched plein-air effect. An outstanding example of the last named is The Beach at Scheveningen. — The Farm (1666) — Adriaen van de Velde, who was more versatile than Philips Wouwerman, also painted small landscapes in which animals and figures play an important role. Bode rightly wrote of the 'Sunday atmosphere' (Sonntagsstimmung) of his pictures of the Dutch countryside, and of the precious holiday peace that spreads over his meadows, seen in the bright sparkle of sunny days softened by the haze of the nearby sea. Adriaen was the younger brother of the well known marine painter Willem van de Velde the Younger; they probably were pupils of their father, the marine painter Willem van de Velde the Elder. Adriaen also is said to have studied with Wijnants at Haarlem, but the influence of Wouwerman and Potter is more evident in his early works. Houbraken reports that 'He zealously drew and painted cows, bulls, sheep and landscapes' and adds 'he daily carried his equipment out to the countryside - a practice he continued until the end of his life.' Although many of Adriaen's drawings survive, only a handful made on his excursions to the countryside have been identified; the finest, now at the Amsterdam Historical Museum, served as the basis for his magnificent Farm at Berlin. Adriaen also made numerous drawings of clothed and nude models in his studio; many have been identified as preparatory studies for figures in his landscapes and subject pictures. |
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Born on 21 January 1659: Adriaan
van der Werff, Dutch painter of religious and mythological
scenes and portraits, active mainly in Rotterdam, who died on 12 November
1722. — Van der Werff combined the precise finish of the Leiden tradition (learned from his master Eglon van der Neer [1634–1703]) 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 pupil 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 [1617–1681])." 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 21 January 1547: fra
Sebastiano Luciani (or Lucianis) del Piombo, Italian painter
born in 1485. — Sebastiano del Piombo (originally Sebastiano Luciani) was a pupil of the Venetian painter Giorgione, whose mild manner influenced Death of Adonis (1512). From about 1511 Sebastiano worked in Rome, where he was strongly influenced by Michelangelo, who befriended him, wrote him letters, and gave him drawings that Sebastiano executed in paint. Something of Michelangelo's forceful monumentality may be seen in such works of Sebastiano as the Pietà (1517), the great Resurrection of Lazarus (1519), and the Flagellation (1524). Sebastiano excelled in painting portraits, which show the influence of the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael. They include Andrea Doria (1526, Gallerina Doria Pamphili, Rome) and Clement VII (1526). In 1531 Pope Clement VII appointed Sebastiano keeper of the papal seals (il piombo), from which his nickname was derived. — LINKS — Christ Carrying the Cross (1540, 157x118cm) _ The painting was executed for Giovanni Grimani, Patriarch of Aqquileia from 1546 to 1593. There are two other version of the same subject by Sebastiano, one in Rome (Castel Sant'Angelo) and Berlin (Staatliche Museen). — San Giovanni Crisostomo and Saints (1509, 200x156cm) _ The altarpiece has at the centre an old man reading, oblivious of the saints around him. It is a tightly knit and crowded group, the slightly yearning figure of St John the Baptist on the right looking inwards is balanced by a trio of grandly assured, superb Venetian beauties looking forwards and outwards at the spectator. The figures are in an architectural setting. This altarpiece is the major work of Sebastiano executed in Venice before he removed to Rome permanently in 1511. — Deposition (1516, 260x193cm) _ The painting shows the influence of Michelangelo. _ detail — Portrait of a Man (1515, 115x94cm) _ Sebastiano Luciani was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini and later of Giorgione, the greatest masters of the Venetian Quattrocento. He was known as Sebastiano del Piombo due to his Vatican office of Keeper of the Seal. The lyrical aspect of his paintings sprang from the earlier Venetian training, but he later came under the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo, and more dramatic elements appeared, principally in the works of religious character. In this painting he made use of the standing half-figure of High-Renaissance portrait painting. The picture was painted after the artist settled in Rome. |
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Born on 21 January 1725: Louis-Jean-François
Lagrenée, French painter who died on 19 June 1805.
— Winner of the Rome Prize, academician, director of the St. Petersburg Academy, then the French Academy in Rome, he specialised in historical scenes or scenes from Antiquity. — As a student, Louis Jean François Lagrenée won the Grand Prix at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1749. Following a brief stay in Rome, he was received into the Académie in 1755 with the completion of a painting that earned him favorable comparisons to Guido Reni. From 1760 until 1762, he directed the Saint Petersburg Academy at the Russian court. Upon his return to Paris, Lagrenée became a professor at the Académie and received a range of important public commissions, excelling at medium-size and small paintings. A virtuoso of fine craftsmanship, Lagrenée was one of three painters responsible for the transformation of French painting away from the Rococo style towards a more restrained, classicizing idiom. He deliberately rejected the exuberant, artificial aesthetic of the mid-1700s, reviving instead the previous century's taste for an elegant, polished style. — LINKS — Horatius after Striking his Sister (1754, 95x134cm). The companion piece is A War Offering Made the Day Before Battle by the Samnites who Swore to Sacrifice Themselves for their Homeland. The episode depicted is taken from Livy's History of Rome (Bk. 1, XXVI): After defeating the Curiatii, the last of the three Horatii brothers meets his sister, who had been betrothed to one of the dead champions. The young woman is "in tears [...] The proud young man is overcome by anger at his sister's lamentations amid the crowd's transports of joy celebrating his victory. He draws his sword and as he strikes the young woman, he showers her with reproach: "Take your scandalous love away! Go and join your fiancé [...] you who have forgotten your homeland! So dies any Roman woman who would mourn an enemy." — Mars & Venus, an Allegory of Peace (1770, 64x54cm) _ Mars, the god of War, throws back the rich green bed curtains that frame this gentle allegory of peace. As the drapery parts, the morning light spills in to reveal the form of the sleeping Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Mars gazes at her, utterly captivated by her beauty. Her love has tempered his fierce character, and his shield and sword lie abandoned on the floor. Echoing the lovers' bliss, a pair of white doves, symbolizing Peace, build a nest in Mars's helmet. Lagrenée created his finest works, including this small, jewel-like painting, around 1770. The lavish folds of drapery, the delicate play of light over fabric and skin, and the rich, restrained palette combine to create a captivatingly beautiful image. |
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Died on 21 January 1729: Marco
Ricci, Italian painter and etcher specialized in Landscapes
born in 1676 or 1679. — Born in Belluno; died in Venice. Nephew of Sebastiano Ricci. Began printing in 1723 — Sebastiano Ricci's nephew and pupil. He probably worked with Sebastiano in Florence in 1706-07. He may also have visited Rome and Milan, where he perhaps knew Magnasco, who influenced him. He went to England in 1708 with Pellegrini, with whom he worked on stage scenery, and in 1710 he seems to have gone back to Venice to fetch his uncle. They returned together to England in 1712, traveling via the Netherlands, and remained for about four years, arriving back in Venice in aboout 1717. The remainder of his life is ill-documented: he appears to have worked for Sebastiano on landscape backgrounds for large religious works and to have executed small landscapes in tempera on leather. His landscapes are often 'capricci', they are usually lively and free in handling. He was one of the first Venetian etchers of the 18th century, and his Experimenta were published poshumously in 1730. — LINKS — Landscape with Figures, (78x122cm) — Landscape with horses (1720, 136x198cm) _ If Sebastiano Ricci can be called the father of Venetian Rococo, his nephew and collaborator, Marco, was the initiator of the new genre of landscape painting. Influenced by the examples of the Neapolitan landscape painters Mirco Spadaro and Salvator Rosa, by Claude Lorrain and by the Roman Viviano Codazzi, and inspired by loving observation of the natural setting of hills and valleys around his native Belluno, Ricci developed a romantic and heroic style of painting, which derives almost certainly from a familiarity with the drawings of Titian, the engravings of Domenico Campagnola, the works of Dutch and Flemish masters (seen during his stay in London 1708-10), with the imaginative works of Carlevaris and romantic drama of Alessandro Magnasco. Such eclecticism gives rise nevertheless to a faithful observation of nature, characterized by a breadth of atmosphere and a fluid light. This landscape is fine example of his skilful use of light to create intensely real effects. In the wide vistas given unity by Ricci's handling of atmosphere, the observation of detail has a refreshing naturalness and truth. — Landscape with River and Figures (detail) (1720, 137x198cm full painting) _ This landscape is another fine example of Marco Ricci's skilful use of light to create intensely real effects. — Landscape with Washerwomen (1720, 136x198cm) _ The nephew of Sebastiano Ricci, Marco followed his uncle in his international and artistic adventures, but neglected figure painting for landscapes. He avoided the playful subjects favored by Zais or Zuccarelli, instead preferring realistic images of the Venetian countryside. |
1746
Nicolaas Verkolye (or Verkolje), in Amsterdam, Dutch artist born on 11
April 1673 in Delft, son of Jan
Verkolje [09 Feb 1650 – 08 May 1693], brother of Jan Verkolje II. Nicolaas
studied with his father and became, like him, a versatile artist, producing not
only genre pieces but also mythological scenes, ceiling paintings and portraits.
He was also an expert mezzotint artist, like his father. In 1700 Nicolaas settled
in Amsterdam, where he remained until his death. He was commissioned in 1731 to
make prints after seven paintings by Gérard
de Lairesse [1641-1711] in the town hall of The Hague. He occasionally painted
figures in the work of Isaac
de Moucheron [1667-1744]. One of the assistants of Nicolaas Verkolye was Jan
Maurits Quinkhard [28 Jan 1688 – 11 Nov 1772] — Moses
and the pharaoh's daughter (1740) >>>
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