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ART “4” “2”-DAY 23 September

1964: CHAGALL'S CEILING AT THE PARIS OPÉRA

DEATHS: 1946 ZÁRRAGA — 1828 BONINGTON — 1885 SPITZWEG — 1865 HERRING — 1852 VANDERLYN

BIRTHS: 1871 KUPKA — 1866 LEIGH — 1734 PRATT — 1897 DELVAUX — 1879 CAMOIN — 1865 VALADON — 1629 EHRENSTRAHL

Unveiled on 23 September 1964:
CHAGALL'S CEILING AT THE OPÉRA
      The Paris Opéra unveils a stunning new ceiling painted as a gift by Belorussian-born artist Marc Chagall, who spent much of his life in France. The ceiling was typical of Chagall's masterpieces — childlike in its apparent simplicity yet luminous with color and evocative of the world of dreams and the subconscious.
      Mark Zakharovich Shagal was born in the town of Vitebsk in the Russian empire on 07 July 1887. His parents were Jewish merchants, and the society he grew up in was in many ways a survival from the medieval era. The Jewish and Russian folkloric themes to which he was exposed in his youth would inform his artwork throughout his career. He took up drawing as a child and in 1906 went to St. Petersburg to study art with the help of a rich Jewish patron. In 1908, he was invited to the Zvantseva School to study under the prestigious theater designer Leon Bakst and that year produced one of his great works, The Dead Man, a nightmarish painting inspired by a brush with death.
      In 1910, another Jewish patron sent Chagall to Paris, rescuing him from what might have been a career confined to folk art. In Paris — the center of the Western art world — he was embraced by avant~garde artists who encouraged him to exploit the seemingly irrational tendencies of his art. Imaginative works like Moi et le Village (1911) generated widespread enthusiasm, and Chagall entered the artistic phase that many viewed as his best. His pictures, wrought in a variety of artistic mediums, showed a fantastical world in which people, animals, and other figurative elements were cast in bright and unusual colors and seemed to dance and float across the canvas.
     Chagall had his first one-man show in Berlin in 1914 and with the outbreak of World War I was stranded in Russia during a visit to Vitebsk. He welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917, which provided full citizenship for Russian Jews and brought official recognition of Chagall and his art. He was made a commissar for art in the Vitebsk region and helped establish a local museum and art academy. However, he was soon frustrated by aesthetic and political quarrels and in 1922 left Soviet Russia for the West.
      Chagall was welcomed as an idol by the Surrealists, who saw in his paintings like Paris Through the Window (1913) an important precursor to their own irrational and dream-like art. He took up engraving and produced hundreds of illustrations for special editions of Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, Jean de La Fontaine's Fables, and the Bible. In 1941, he fled with his wife from Nazi-occupied Paris to the United States, where he lived in and around New York City for seven years. War~induced pessimism and sadness over the death of his wife infused much of his art from this period, as seen in the Yellow Crucifixion (1943) and Around Her (1945). In 1945, he designed the sets and costumes for the New York production of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird, and in 1946 Chagall was given a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
      In 1948, Chagall returned to France, and eventually settled in the French Riviera village of St. Paul de Vence, his home for the rest of his life. In 1958, Chagall designed the sets and costumes for a production of Maurice Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloé at the Paris Opéra. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he produced stained~glass windows, first for a cathedral in Metz, France, and then for a synagogue in Jerusalem. In 1964, Chagall completed a stained~glass window for the United Nations building in New York that was dedicated to the late Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.
      Meanwhile, André Malraux, the French minister of culture, commissioned Chagall to design a new ceiling for the Paris Opéra after seeing his work in Daphnis et Chloé. Working with a surface of 560 square meters, Chagall divided the ceiling into color zones that he filled with landscapes and figures representing the luminaries of opera and ballet, in particular Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Moussorgsky's Boris Godounov. The ceiling was unveiled on 23 September 1964, during a performance of the same Daphnis et Chloé. As usual, a few detractors condemned Chagall's work as overly primitive, but this criticism was drowned out in the general acclaim for the work. In 1966, as a gift to the city that had sheltered him during World War II, he painted two vast murals for New York's Metropolitan Opera House (1966). In 1977, France honored Chagall with a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in Paris. He continued to work vigorously until his death on 28 March 1985 at the age of 97.

Reproductions of paintings by CHAGALL ONLINE:
— LINKS
— Self~Portrait — Self Portrait With 7 Fingers on One Hand — Moi et le Village — War — White Crucifixion — Feastday — Jew at Prayer — Praying Jew — Abraham About to Sacrifice Isaac — Parting of the Red Sea — Rainbow — Adam and Eve — Dan stained glass window — Joseph stained glass window — Issachar stained glass window — Levi stained glass window — Three Candles — Fiddler — Newspaper Seller — Coq — Parade — Red Nude — Birthday — The Spoonful of Milk — Le Violiniste — La Baie des Anges

^ Died on 23 September 1946: Angel Zárraga, Mexican painter born on 16 August 1886.
      — He was born in the City of Durango. He was an urban and cordial man; as an artist he went through everything: he was eulogized, censored and finally recovered. His liking for art and writing started as a young man; he attended San Ildefonso high-school where important figures of Mexican culture studied. Around 1902 he wrote for the Revista Moderna, and joined the School of Fine Arts.
      He traveled to Europe in 1904, to continue his artistic education, like many other young artists did in his time. He returned to his mother-land to show his improvements at the Academy, but he soon went back to France, to stay for near 35 years. During his stay in that country he married the Russian sportswoman Jeanette Ivanof in 1919, who liked art, and possibly was his nude model for a while. In that time he experienced the disasters of the World War I.
      Later on, he married again to an European woman, and continued his painting métier. Several churches were damaged because of the war, and Zárraga worked for them as a fresco painter to reconstruct the decoration of the temples; like the temple of Nôtre Dame Salette at Surennes, Paris, among others.
      His reputation arrived to Mexico. He was invited in 1921 by José Vaconcelos to paint the walls of public buildings at the capital city, but it was only in 1942 that he returned to live in Mexico. He accomplished many portraits and murals, like the decoration of the walls at the Monterrey city cathedral. He also painted La miseria and La abundacia at the Mexico City Bankers Club ; for this work, he was criticized by some artists, under the argument that his work was opposite to nationalism and that he was at the service of the high classes, the private enterprises and the foreign art. Nevertheless Zárraga continued his fecund labor in Mexico.
— LINKS
— Ex Voto: San Sebastián (1910)

^ Born on 23 September 1871: Frantisek Kupka, Czech artist who died on 24 June 1957.
— He was one of the originators of abstract art. His early work showed a preoccupation with expressive distortion and unusual, often unrealistic, color. From 1911 to 1912, at the same time as the French painter Robert Delaunay, Kupka painted his first completely abstract works, such as Amorpha: Fugue in Two Colors (1912, Národní Galerie, Prague), consisting of colored circular forms and lines in a rhythmic arrangement. He continued his experiments in abstraction, grouping his work into five broad categories—Cycles, Verticals, Verticals and Diagonals, Triangles, and Diagonals. Not as influential as other abstract painters, Kupka did not receive deserved recognition until after his death.
— School of Paris painter and wood-engraver; a pioneer of abstract art. Born in Opocno in Eastern Bohemia. Apprenticed as a youth to a master saddler, who initiated him in spiritualism; became a medium. Began to paint and received his first instruction from Studnicka at Jaromer. Afterwards studied at Prague Academy 1889-92 under the Nazarene painter Sequens and at the Vienna Academy 1892-3 under Eisenmenger, also a Nazarene. Influenced by Czech folk art, abstract ornamental patterning and Theosophy. Settled in 1896 in Paris, where he worked first primarily as satirical draughtsman for magazines such as L'Assiette au Beurre and as book illustrator. A friend and neighbour of Jacques Villon from 1901, first in Montmartre, then from 1906 in Puteaux on the outskirts of Paris. His paintings influenced by Symbolism, then Fauvism; experimented from 1909 with ways of rendering figures in motion inspired by high-speed photography. From 1911 his work became abstract with cosmic themes and rhythms, intersecting arabesques, rectilinear vertical planes, etc. First Paris one-man exhibition at the Galerie Povolozky 1921. Wrote a book on his theories, La Cr-23ation dans les Arts Plastiques (first published 1923). Appointed professor by Prague Academy in 1922, to introduce Czech students in Paris to French culture. Co-founder of Abstraction-Cr-23ation 1931, and adopted a more geometrical and classical abstract style. Died in Puteaux.
— Kupka was born in Opocno in eastern Bohemia. From 1889 to 1892, he studied at the Prague art academy. At this time, he painted historical and patriotic themes. In 1892, Kupka enrolled at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, where he concentrated on symbolic and allegorical subjects. He exhibited at the Kunstverein, Vienna, in 1894. His involvement with theosophy and Eastern philosophy dates from this period. By spring 1896, Kupka had settled in Paris; there he attended the Académie Julian briefly and then studied with Jean-Pierre Laurens at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
      Kupka worked as an illustrator of books and posters and, during his early years in Paris, became known for his satirical drawings for newspapers and magazines. In 1906, he settled in Puteaux, a suburb of Paris, and that same year exhibited for the first time at the Salon d’Automne. Kupka was deeply impressed by the first Futurist manifesto, published in 1909 in Le Figaro. Kupka’s work became increasingly abstract about 1910–1911, reflecting his theories of motion, color, and the relationship between music and painting. In 1911, he attended meetings of the Puteaux group. In 1912, he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in the Cubist room, although he did not wish to be identified with any movement.
      Creation in the Plastic Arts, a book Kupka completed in 1913, was published in Prague in 1923. In 1921, his first solo show in Paris was held at Galerie Povolozky. In 1931, he was a founding member of Abstraction-Création together with Jean Arp, Albert Gleizes, Jean Hélion, Auguste Herbin, Theo van Doesburg, and Georges Vantongerloo. During the early 1950s, Kupka gained general recognition. He died in Puteaux.
— LINKS
— Disks of Newton, Study for Fugue in Two Colors (1912, 77x74cm) _ Kupka was one of the most adventurous artists to follow the tradition, initiated by the Impressionists and boldly continued by Matisse, of liberating color from naturalist representation. This interest in freely interacting color — together with a fascination with movement as revealed in photographic investigations of animal and human motion — led Kupka to the creation of dynamic abstract pictures like this one. The title refers to Isaac Netwon’s discovery that natural light is made up of the colors of the spectrum, and painters from Impressionism on believed that presenting these pure colors on the canvas created a direct experience of light. Kukpa uses the full range of hues — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, along with white — to give a sense of the sun’s emanations in the expanse of the sky. The circular forms in the painting overlap and interpenetrate each other, producing an exciting feeling of movement and an image of cosmic space. Larger meanings are suggested by the radiance of the picture, in accordance with Kupka’s love of the effects of stained-glass windows in Gothic cathedrals, whose glowing light provides spiritual associations. The fugue referred to in the title further evokes spiritual experience, in particular the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In fugues, Kukpa wrote, “sounds evolve… intertwine, come, and go,” and their sensuous, expressive, and intellectual richness helped him progress to a completely abstract form of painting. In fact, he declared, “I believe I can find something between sight and hearing and I can produce a fugue in colors as Bach has done in music.” The ultimate goal of his art, he said, is “to give us joy, a sense of beauty.”
— Money (1899) — The Wave (1902) — Organization of Graphic Motifs II (1913) — Vertical Planes
— (Plans par couleurs, grand nu (1910, 150x181cm)
— The Colored One (1920, 65x54cm) _ Although he moved to Paris at a young age, Frantisek Kupka’s Bohemian origins, mysticism, and eccentric personality kept him at a distance from the avant-garde circles of the artistic capital. An individualist, he rejected association with any artistic school or trend, but his paintings’ aggressive palette and dependence on color as a means of faceting form and conveying meaning show undeniable affinities with Fauvism and the work of Henri Matisse, as well as with Orphism, Robert Delaunay’s color-based brand of Cubism. A devoted mystic, Kupka spent his life in search of a transcendental other reality, or “fourth dimension.” One of the first non-objective artists, he extended his clairvoyant practice to his art as well, by uniting a metaphysical investigation of the human body and nature with daring color and abstract form.
      Theosophy — a quack pantheistic mishmash of pseudo-philosophy, pseudo-religion, and pseudo-science — “guided” Kupka’s holistic approach to art. His paintings draw on a variety of sources, including ancient myths, color theory, and contemporary scientific developments. The invention of radiography at the turn of the century was especially significant for Kupka, whose search for an alternative dimension through a kind of painterly X-ray vision is captured in his monumental Planes by Colors, Large Nude. In this work, Kupka rendered the figure of his wife, Eugénie, in vivid shades of purple, green, yellow, and blue, devising an innovative modeling technique based on color, not line or shade, that sections her body into tonal planes in such a way that her “inner form” is made visible. This unveiling of the unseen is crucial, for Kupka believed that it is only through the senses, through physical experience, that we can reach an extrasensory, metaphysical dimension and thereafter achieve an intuitive understanding of the universal scheme underlying existence.
      Kupka painted The Colored One ten years after Planes by Colors, Large Nude. By then he had adopted a more boldly abstract mode of figural representation. (He would never abandon subject matter altogether, however, unlike pure abstractionists such as Piet Mondrian.) The Colored One also depicts a female nude, this one lying on her back with legs stretched upward, cradling a radiant yellow sun. Swirling forms outlined in concentrated colors convey the dominant theme in Kupka’s work: the organic connections that intertwine human beings with the rest of nature and the cosmos.
— Study for Amorpha, Chromatique chaude and for Fugue à deux couleurs (1911, 47x48cm) _ Two of Frantisek Kupka’s earliest purely abstract compositions are Amorpha, Warm Chromatic (1912) and Amorpha, Fugue in Two Colors (1912). The present pastel study reveals an early stage in the formal evolution of both of these paintings. In 1911 Kupka strove to eliminate objective subject matter from his paintings. His development toward abstraction is evident in his work of 1909 to 1911 in his interpretations of motion and of the light and color of Gothic stained-glass windows. This pastel relates to a series of studies that followed a naturalistic painting of 1908–1909 of his stepdaughter Andrée playing naked with a red-and-blue ball in the garden of their home. More than fifty studies led Kupka from conventional representation of this subject to the abstract formulations of the paintings of 1912. In a note on one of the pencil drawings of Little Girl with Ball, Kupka details his frustrations: “Here I am only dissecting surfaces. The atmospheric copenetration is yet to be found. As long as there is a distinction in color between ground and flesh, I will fall back into the postcard photograph.”
      In the present study, Kupka articulated the girl’s motion by depicting the continuous penetration of the atmosphere by the ball. A curving brown body shape guides the ball through the blue path of its trajectory. This action occurs on a light green background plane, which suggests the three-dimensional space of the garden. Such residue of naturalistic color is abandoned in culminating versions of the study, such as Amorpha, Fugue in Two Colors, which are conceived in blue, red, black, and white. Kupka discerned a musical parallel to these abstract forms in the rhythmic patterns of the fugue, “where the sounds evolve like veritable physical entities, intertwine, come and go.” Kupka’s paintings of this period are not simple or formulaic abstractions from ultimate “sources” in nature, but are rather pictorial syntheses of the artist’s formal ideas.

^ Died on 23 September 1828: Richard Parkes Bonington, English Romantic painter specialized in coastal landscapes, born on 25 October 1801.
            Bonington was born near Nottingham, England. In about 1817, his family moved to Calais, France. In 1818, Bonington went to Paris, where he met Eugène Delacroix and made watercolor copies of Dutch and Flemish landscapes in the Louvre. In 1821-1822, he studied under Antoine-Jean Gros at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His first works, mostly sketches of Le Havre and Lillebonne, were exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1822. He also began to work in lithography, illustrating Baron Taylor’s Voyages. In 1824, he won a gold medal at the Paris Salon. He traveled all over France and especially in Normandy, painting coastal landscapes and seaport scenes Coast of Picardy (1824), French River Scene with Fishing Boats (1824), A Boat Beached in a Port at Low Tide (1825); he also went to England and Scotland, occasionally accompanied by his friend Eugène Delacroix, in whose studio he later worked. In 1826, Bonington visited Venice, where he was deeply impressed by Veronese and Canaletto: St. Mark's Column in Venice (1828), The Doge's Palace, Venice (1827), Piazza San Marco, Venice (1827).
From 1824 he experimented increasingly in romantic subjects taken from history and studied armor. His best-known works on historical subjects followed: Francis I and Marguerite of Navarre, Henri III and the English Ambassador (1828), Venice. The Grand Canal (1827).
            Bonington, like John Constable, was one of the English artists whose landscapes were highly regarded in France. He was among the first artists in France to paint watercolors outdoors rather than in studio. His approach to nature as well as his technique stimulated the Barbizon painters and – with Eugene Isabey, Eugene Boudin and Johann Barthold Jongkind as intermediaries – paved the way for Impressionism.
            Bonington died of tuberculosis in London, only 26 years old. His style attracted many imitators in both England and France and he had an influence out of proportion with his brief life.
— LINKS
— View of Naples from the water (25x33cm; full size)
— A Fishmarket on the French Coast (1818; 1140x1772pix, 347kb)
— Small Fishing Rowboat in Rough Sea (1819; 1176x1584pix, 309kb)
— The Harbour of Le Havre (1822; 1192x1624pix, 287kb)
— Procession before the Notre-Dame Church in Dives (1822; 1168x1372pix, 268kb)
— Anne Page and Slender (Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, I.1) (1825, 1428x1184pix, 344kb)

^ Born on 23 September 1866: William Robinson Leigh, US painter specialized in the US West. who died on 11 March 1955.
— Leigh was one of the most prolific painters of the US West and is well known for his dramatic images of Western landscapes, wildlife, cavalry, cowboys and Amerindian cultures. His use of European techniques in painting large-scale images of the US West eventually earned him the nickname “America’s Sagebrush Rembrandt.” As a young boy, Leigh drew portraits of farm animals and at the age of six, won first prize at the Martinsburg County Fair for a paper cutout of an elephant chasing a man on horseback. In 1880, he began his formal artistic training at the Maryland Institute in Baltimore, where he studied under Hugh Newell, a former student of British sporting artist Sir Edwin Landseer.
In 1883, shortly before his seventeenth birthday, Leigh sailed to Germany where he studied for twelve years at the Royal Academy in Munich. After his rigorous training in draftsmanship and composition, Leigh returned to America in 1896 and worked as a magazine illustrator in New York City. In 1906, bartering a ticket for a painting with the Santa Fe Railroad, Leigh made his first trip to New Mexico. He documented the Southwest by sketching and painting studies of the Pueblo Indians, the landscape and the animals. In his unpublished memoirs, he wrote, “I saw that so far as possible, I must be a sponge, soak up everything I saw. I must know the manners and customs, the people and their deployments. In short, absorb all that was humanly possible to absorb. I started in to paint, paint, paint.”
Throughout his life, Leigh returned to the Southwest. He also visited other parts of the West, including the Rockies of Wyoming and the Yellowstone area. In 1926, he joined an expedition to Africa led by Carl Akeley and gathered studies for the background dioramas that he painted for the African Hall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Leigh died two weeks after being elected into the National Academy of Design. His widow, Ethel Traphagen, founder of the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York, gave his entire collection of work to the Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The New York Herald Tribune called Leigh “the last surviving member of the famous western painting trio that included Frederick Remington and Charles Russell.”
— Photo of Leigh
— LINKS
— The Struggle for Existence (1947) It depicts a group of wild horses protecting themselves against a pack of hungry wolves during a blizzard. In defense, the mustangs form a tight circle with their heads in the center to fight off their attackers. On the left edge of the composition, a ravenous wolf appears to be devouring its injured companion. This type of wolf attack is unlikely since wolves tend to travel and hunt in smaller packs, but perhaps severe winter conditions forced the hungry wolves to behave this way. Although the horses appear to have the upper hand in this struggle, a horse skull in the foreground alludes to a previous defeat. Regardless of its biological accuracy, Leigh’s dramatized scene moves the viewer with its size and intensity. Wolves have often been portrayed as evil and deceitful, but are increasingly seen as symbols of the freedom and open spaces of the American West. A Struggle for Existence relates to a painting by Frederic Remington titled Broncos and Timber Wolves, c.1888, which was reproduced in Century Magazine in 1889 as a wood engraving. [and in Theodore Roosevelt's Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, 1896]
— Swans (1913) It represents a dramatic departure from the artist’s usual subject matter and style. Leigh primarily painted scenes of the American West and experimented with Impressionism in the early 1900’s. Painted in 1913, Swans has an atmospheric quality and quiet beauty that suggest an Impressionist influence. With paint carefully applied using a pointillist technique, Leigh has depicted two swans bowed at the neck and reflected on a moonlit lily pond. The monochromatic color scheme and tender scene of Swans make it a unique piece in Leigh’s oeuvre
— Sophie Hunter Colston (1896, 184x104cm) — Hopi Pottery Merchant (1941, 61x46cm)
— Grand Canyon of Arizona (1909, 51x41cm; 645x500pix, 51kb)
— Loitering (1899) — Female of the Species (1946, 71x56cm; 543x420pix, 66kb)

^ Died on 23 September 1885: Carl Spitzweg, Munich German painter born on 05 February 1808.
— He got trained (1825–1828), at his father’s insistence, as a pharmacist, by 1829 becoming manager of a pharmacy in the Straubing district of Munich. From 1830 to 1832 he made advanced studies in pharmacy, botany and chemistry at the University of Munich, passing his final examination with distinction. On receiving a large legacy in 1833, which made him financially independent, he decided to become a painter. He had drawn since the age of 15 and had frequented artistic circles since the late 1820s; but he had no professional training as a painter. He learnt much from contacts with young Munich landscape painters such as Eduard Schleich the elder and produced his first oil paintings in 1834.
In 1835 Spitzweg became a member of the Munich Kunstverein but left two years later due to disappointment over the reception of the first version of Der arme Poet (1837; second version 1839), a scene of gently humorous pathos that has since become his most celebrated work. Spitzweg’s decision to leave the Kunstverein, however, was also encouraged by his first successful attempts to sell his paintings independently. In 1839 he visited Dalmatia, where he made sketches that he used for many later works on Turkish themes (e.g. The Turkish Coffee House, 1860). From the 1840s he traveled regularly, usually with his close friend, the painter Eduard Schleich [12 Oct 1812 – 08 Jan 1874], both within Bavaria and to Austria and Switzerland and also to the Adriatic coast, especially to Trieste. At this time Spitzweg generally painted humorous scenes, most of them showing individual figures in comic situations, for example The Butterfly Catcher (1840).
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— Orientale Im Bazar (76x61cm) — Schwäbischen Mädchen an einem Gartenzaun (14x21cm)
— The Bookworm (79x50cm) — The Botanist (35x56cm)
— Der arme Poet (Erste Fassung) (1837, 38x45cm; 257x301pix, 32kb) _ Der arme Poet (Zweite Fassung) (1839; 476x600pix, 157kb) _ In seinem berühmten Gemälde schildert Spitzweg einen Sonderling, der fern von der Welt seine Verse schmiedet. Eigenwillig anrührend geht der "arme Poet" unter seiner Zipfelmütze in seinem armseligen Dachstübchen seinen dichterischen Träumen nach. Die Zipfel- oder Nachtmütze erlangte in jener Zeit der politischen Reaktion einen gewissen Signalwert. Sie geisterte durch die Literatur und in aufreizender Massierung durch Zeichnungen der Karikaturisten. Als Symbol "gesicherter" Abendruhe wurde sie zum Zeichen des verschlafenen, aus der Politik ausgeschlossenen Bürgers. Insbesondere in der französischen Karikatur wurde die "Nachtmütze" zum verschlüsselten Manifest von Respektwidrigkeit.

^ Born on 23 September 1734: Matthew Pratt, Philadelphia artist who died on 09 January 1805.
— Pratt served an apprenticeship with his uncle James Claypoole, a limner and painter, from 1749 to 1755. Pratt opened a similar business which he interrupted with a brief speculative trading voyage to Jamaica. When he returned to Philadelphia he began to paint portraits, at which he proved very successful. He married Elizabeth Moore in 1760, and had two sons. His earliest known work is a portrait of his wife (1760).
     In June 1764 Pratt escorted his cousin, Betsy Shewell, to London for her marriage to Benjamin West. Pratt remained in London as West's student and colleague, the first of West's many US students. During his two and a half years with West, he painted his best-known work, The American School (1765), a depiction of West giving instruction to students in his London studio. He also made portraits of West and his wife as well as copies of other paintings. He then went to Bristol, England, where for a year and a half he "practiced to much advantage in my professional line". He returned to Philadelphia in March 1768 to work full-time as a portrait painter for two years. He made a brief trip to Carlingford, Ireland, in March 1770 to claim an inheritance for his wife, and he painted a small number of portraits in Dublin and in Liverpool.
     Pratt was successful in the years immediately before the American Revolution. Charles Willson Peale remembered later that Pratt at this time painted a full-length of John Dickinson and had "a considerable number of portraits on hand." He worked in New York City in 1771-1772, where his commissions included a full-length portrait of Governor Cadwalader Colden, and he met John Singleton Copley. Pratt next worked in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he advertised in The Virginia Gazette (04 March 1773) that he was "Lately from England and Ireland But last from New York".
     Pratt's career was less successful after the Revolution. As a partner in the firm of Pratt, Rutter & Co., which offered "Portrait and ornamental painting", he returned to the functional brand of painting for which Claypoole had in part trained him, and was remembered by the next generation for his unusual signs. His work is difficult to characterize; few paintings are documented or firmly attributed. The American School is his only signed and dated work. This and other works from his London years show West's influence in their composition, coloring and technique. Later portraits suggest that this style changed under the influence of other English and US painters.
— LINKS
— Madonna of Saint Jerome (1765) — William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1774)

^ Died on 23 September 1865: John Frederick Herring, English painter specialized in horses, born in Surrey in 1795.
— Having eloped with Anne Harris to Doncaster at the age of 18, Herring began a seven-year career as a coach driver on regular routes to London and then Halifax, meanwhile practicing as a painter in his spare time. Work with horses and constant travel through the countryside may have stimulated his interest in animal and rural subject-matter — the areas in which he specialized after becoming a full-time professional artist about 1820, having exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy in 1818. Regular employment was provided by the Doncaster Gazette for which, since 1815, he had been painting designs for engraved portraits of the annual winner of the St Leger. Later, in a similar series, he painted the winners of the Derby between 1827 and 1847. Prominent among his early private patrons were Charles Spencer-Stanhope and Frank Hawkesworth. He moved to Newmarket in 1830 and to Camberwell in 1833, where he fell into debt and was rescued by the industrialist W. T. Copeland. He lived for some years on the latter’s estate in Essex and there produced, among many paintings, designs for hunting scenes to be used on Copeland Spode porcelain. Introductions to and commissions from Ferdinand, Duc d’Orléans, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent [1786–1861] to whom he was appointed Official Painter in 1845; and her daughter Queen Victoria helped to secure his reputation among the nobility. He was able to retire to a substantial (if leased) country estate in Meopham Park, Kent, in the early 1850s. His non-sporting works of the late 1850s are perhaps among the most successful of his total output, notably The Harvest (1857), which reveals his certain competence as a landscape and figure painter. His Memoir was published in Sheffield in 1848. All three of his sons, John Frederick Herring II, Charles Herring, and Benjamin Herring II, occasionally contributed to his canvases as well as painting their own. His brother, Benjamin Herring I [1806-1830] had a brief career largely devoted to producing passable imitations of the work of several early 19th-century sporting painters.
— LINKS
— Feeding the Arab (127x102cm) — Mallard Ducks and Ducklings on a River Bank (1863, 28x39cm) — Horse and Foal watering at a trough (1854, 42x42cm) — The Halt (1852, 107x183cm) — The Welcome Halt (86x112cm) — Mr Johnstone's Charles XII in a Stable (1843, 71x91cm) — The Famous Trotter Confidence Drawing A Gig (1842, 98x123cm) — Waiting for the Ferry (1841, 60x83cm) — The Country Inn (1840, 94x130cm) — Vandeau, A White Greyhound (1839, 63x76cm) — "Jonathan Wild", a drak bay Race Horse, at Goodwood, T. Ryder up (1846, 35x45cm) — Lord Chesterfield's Industry with William Scott up at Epsom (1838, 61x76cm) — A Dark Bay Racehorse with Patrick Connolly Up (1833, 56x76cm) — Don John, The Winner of the 1838 St. Leger with William Scott Up (59x76cm) — "Comus" A Chestnut Racehorse in a Stable Yard (1831, 27x37cm) — A Favorite Coach Horse and Dog in a Stable (1822, 56x76cm) — Horses and Ducks by a River (17x24cm) — Refreshment, A Boy Watering His Grey Pony (91x71cm) — Sketch of Queen Victoria (30x27cm) — The End of the Day (35x46cm) — The Evening Hour - Horses And Cattle By A Stream At Sunset (39x60cm) — The Village Blacksmith (152x122cm) — Negotiator the Bay Horse in a Landscape (1826) — The Edinburgh and London Royal Mail (1838) — A Soldier with an Officer's Charger, (1839) — The Hop Pickers (1855) — The Quarry (1858) — Horses at a well
— Mazeppa Pursued by Wolves and Mazeppa Surrounded by Horses both (1833, 56x76cm) after Horace Vernet. _ Ivan Stepanovitch Mazeppa [1644-1709] fut hetman (chef) des cosaques d'Ukraine. La légende raconte que, dans sa jeunesse, surpris en flagrant délit d'adultère, il aurait été attaché nu sur le dos d'un cheval fougueux qui l'aurait emporté jusqu'en Ukraine. Là, recueilli par les cosaques, il devint le secrétaire de leur hetman, à qui il succéda en 1687. Après avoir été l'allié du tsar Pierre le Grand, il soutint le roi de Suède Charles XII et fut battu avec lui à Poltava (1709). Il se réfugia en Turquie, où il mourut peu après. L'épisode de sa fuite vers l'Ukraine a inspiré de nombreux peintres (Mazeppa aux Loups d'Horace Vernet, 1825), poètes (Byron, qui dans son poème Mazeppa, 1819, voit dans l'aventure de Mazeppa le symbole du génie ; V. Hugo, dans le poème Mazeppa des Orientales ;...) et musiciens (Liszt : Mazeppa, poème symphonique, 1854 ; Tchaïkovski : Mazeppa, opéra, 1884).

^ Born on 23 September 1897: Paul Delvaux, Belgian surrealist painter and printmaker, who died on 20 July 1994.
— He was, with René Magritte, one of the major exponents of Surrealism in Belgium. He began his training in 1920 at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, initially as an architect, but he soon changed to decorative painting, and he completed his studies in 1924. In his earliest works, such as Seascape (1923) and The Couple (1929), he was strongly influenced by the Flemish Expressionism of painters such as Constant Permeke and Gustav De Smet. In the mid-1930s, however, he turned decisively to Surrealism, not as an orthodox member of the movement but to a large extent under the influence of Giorgio De Chirico’s Pittura Metafisica, which he had first seen about 1926. Among his first characteristic works in this vein are Les Noeuds Roses (1937) and Phases of the Moon (1939), in both of which he incorporated the somnambulant figures that were to become his trademark.
— LINKS
— Les Noeuds Roses (1937) — Les Noeuds Roses — Pygmalion — Pygmalion (1939, 139x165cm) — Sleeping Venus (1944) — Village of Mermaids (1942) — (untitled: 3 nudes) — Couple avec enfants dans la forêt — Crucifixion — L'hiver ou la ville enfouie — L'hiver. Squelette dans une serre — Jeune femmes rêvant — Le musée Spitzer — Nocturnes — Nymphs Bathing — Trains du soir — La voix publique — The Awakening of the Forest (1979, 170x225cm)— Sleeping Venus

^ Died on 23 (24?) September 1852: John Vanderlyn, Kingston NY Neoclassical painter, specialized in History Painting, born on 15 October 1775.
— The grandson of Pieter Vanderlyn [1687–1778], a portrait painter active in the Hudson River Valley, he manifested an early talent for penmanship and drawing. During his late youth he moved to New York, where he worked in a frame shop and studied in Archibald Robertson’s drawing academy. Vanderlyn studied under François-André Vincent. Vanderlyn's copy of a portrait by Gilbert Stuart brought him to the attention of that artist, with whom he then worked in Philadelphia.

— LINKS
— Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos (1814, 174x221cm)
— Caius Marius in the Ruins of Carthage
— Caius Marius in the Ruins of Carthage (1807, 221x174cm; 1/8 size 174 kb — ZOOM to 1/4 size 636 kb — ZOOM++ to half-size 2563kb — HUMONGAZOOM to full size 4142kb)

— Murder of Jane McCrea (1804) _ During the US War of Independence, on 27 Jul 1777, the 26-year-old fiancée of a British soldier, Jane McCrea was killed in Fort Edward by Amerindian allies of the British, who then riddled her body with bullets to make it appear that she was shot accidentally by the "rebels" who tried to rescue her. — Jane McCrea, the daughter of the Rev. James McCrea, was born in 1751. Jane had eight brothers and sisters: John, William, Samuel, Stephen, Philip, Catherine, Creighton, James and Robert. In 1777 Jane was living with her brother, Colonel John McCrea, at Fort Edward. Her fiancée, Lieutenant David Jones, was serving in General Burgoyne's army,. On 27 July, 1777, Jane went to visit her friend Mrs. McNeil. Later that day the house was surrounded by Indians allied to the British. The war party divided into two groups, each with one of the women. Mrs. McNeil was taken to the British camp where she was released. In the other group, during a dispute between two warriors, Jane was killed. General Burgoyne did not punish the guilty men for fear of breaking the alliance with that tribe. This decision enraged local Americans and many men now joined in the struggle against the British. It was later claimed that the death of Jane McCrea greatly aided the Patriot cause and contributed to the defeat of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga. The incident continued to be used as propaganda against the English and the story was immortalized by Vanderlyn's painting. — Burgoyne was advancing slowly southward. Before him, his Native American scouts were spreading havoc. One of the victims who became a cause celebre was the young Jane McCrea, engaged to a British officer. On Sunday, July 27th, she was awaiting the British arrival at the cabin of elderly Mrs. McNeill at Fort Edward village. A group of Native Americans arrived and snatched the woman from the house. Mrs. McNeill was set free, naked but unharmed, but Jane was killed and scalped. Her scalp was brought into Burgoyne's camp, and, after the Native Americans threatened to leave if the culprit was punished, Burgoyne, much to the dismay of many of his officers, pardoned the Native American, turning the story of Jane McCrea into a rallying point for American patriots.

^ Born on 23 September 1879: Charles Camoin, French Fauvist painter who died on 20 May 1965. — [C'est Camoin qu'a moins de quoi? — De ses oeuvres dignement représentées dans l'internet. Je ne trouve que quelques images pas beaucoup plus grandes que des timbres-poste.]. Et penser qu'il aurait suffit d'intervertir son nid et son eau pour qu'il soit un camion!]
— After the death of his father, Charles was brought up by his mother alone, whose endless travels seem to have affected his studies. At 16 he simultaneously enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, Marseille, which he attended in the morning, and at the École de Commerce. After winning a prize for drawing, he was encouraged by his mother to enter Gustave Moreau’s studio at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which he did in May 1898, shortly before Moreau’s death. Although he barely had time to derive any benefit from Moreau’s teaching, he formed several lasting friendships among fellow students later associated with Fauvism: Manguin, Puy, Rouault, Matisse, and especially Marquet [27 Mar 1875 – 13 Jun 1947], with whose work his own shows marked affinities.
— Charles Camoin loses his father at an early age. It is thus his mother who enrolls him at the Beaux-Arts de Paris where he establishes an undying friendship with Henri Matisse and Alber Marquet. Charles Camoin spends his childhood between Paris, Nice, Cannes, Marseilles, southern towns which exert an irresistible attraction on him. During his military service, for which he's transferred to Aix-en-Provence, the young man provokes a meeting with Cezanne, with whom he will correspond actively up until the latter's death. Beginning in 1903, Charles Camoin exhibits at the Independent's then at the Fall Salon, namely at the 1905 Salon where "Fauvism" breaks out. Quickly recognized, Charles Camoin abandons fauvism in favor of a more gentle painting and avoids the major intellectual and artistic movements of his time such as Dadaism and Cubism. Following the rupture caused by the First World War and after his marriage in 1920, Charles Camoin divides his time between Paris and Saint-Tropez, whose port he loves to paint, simplifying the contours and playing with light. Charles Camoin dies in Paris at the age of 86 but he is buried under his native skies in Marseilles.
— Camoin was born in Marseille and met Matisse in Gustave Moreau's class at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Matisse and his friends (including Camoin, Henri Manguin, Albert Marquet, and and Georges Rouault), joined by André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, two close friends then sharing a studio, and slightly after by Braque, Dufy, and Kees van Dongen, formed the original group mockingly labelled the Fauves (the wild beasts) for their wild, expressionist use of color and their general refusal to paint like anyone else then showing at the salons. Camoin always remained close to Matisse, whose portrait he painted and which is in the permanent collection of the Pompidou Museum in Paris, but he also came to admire Cézanne, Renoir, and Bonnard.
— LINKS
— Voiliers à Ploumanach aka Marine (1931, 33x46cm) _ Ce voilier devant l'un des célèbres rochers de granit rose de Ploumanach, appelé en raison de sa forme "le chapeau de Napoléon" a été peint lors du séjour de Charles Camoin chez ses amis Eiffel. Suivant une touche légère et fluide, Camoin joue avec dextérité et liberté des effets colorés et lumineux, animant cette paisible "marine" de quelques taches et coups de pinceau. Elle apparaît plus "méditerranéenne" que "bretonne" et montre que le peintre, profondément marqué par la lumière du midi, n'a pu, à l'occasion de ses trop courts séjours en Bretagne, prendre en compte les caractères particuliers des paysages et de la lumière.
— Une Sévillaine (1907; 1188x932pix, 74kb)
— Cargo à Saint-Tropez (80x122cm) _ Dividing his time between Paris and Provence, namely Saint-Tropez, Charles Camoin paints not only portraits but also views, bouquets, and countless marine landscapes. Nobody could define his interests better than the painter himself. "I still consider myself a Fauve. there are two kinds of colors, real ones and superficial ones. You have to choose. I think you must deal with the real ones and it's what I've done since the outset".
— Nature Morte aux Tomates (26x41cm, 363x624pix, 30kb)
— Nature Morte aux Zinias (525x655pix, 34kb)
— Portrait (26x21cm, 591x432pix, 72kb) — Rue de Montmartre (14x18cm, 432x553pix, 63kb)

^ Born on 23 September 1865: Marie~Clémentine “Suzanne” Valadon, French, fille de “Madeleine Valadon, lingère, âgée de 34 ans, et de père inconnu”. She would become an artist’s model and then a painter, who died on 07 April 1938.
— As the daughter of an unmarried and unaffectionate maid, Marie-Clémentine Valadon had a lonely childhood in Paris, seeking refuge from her bleak circumstances by living in a dream world. While residing in the Montmartre district of Paris, she became an artist’s model, working in particular with those painters who frequented Le Lapin Agile. From 1880 to 1887, for example, she sat regularly for Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, posing for both the male and female figures in The Sacred Wood (1886). She also modeled for Renoir, Luigi Zandomeneghi, Théophile Steinlein, Jean-Louis Forain, Giuseppe De Nittis, and Jean-Jacques Henner. No longer able to tolerate the passive role of the model, she became a full-time painter in 1896, making use of the working methods that she had observed in the studios of these painters.
— Transforming herself from an artist's model into a successful artist, and rising from the hardscrabble existence of a poor, barely educated street child to a wealthy lifestyle with homes in Paris and the French countryside, Suzanne Valadon led a truly remarkable life. The child of an unmarried domestic worker, Marie-Clémentine Valadon (she later changed her given name to Suzanne) grew up in the bohemian quarter of Paris called Montmartre. There Valadon supported herself from the age of 10 with a series of odd jobs: waitress, nanny, and circus performer. A fall from a trapeze persuaded her to leave the circus. From 1880 to 1893, Valadon worked as a model for several of the most important painters of her day, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. These masters, plus Edgar Degas-for whom she did not model but who became a close friend and mentor-had an enormous impact on Valadon's life and art. Although she could not afford formal classes, Valadon learned readily from the painters around her. Degas also helped, teaching her drawing and etching techniques.
It was not until 1909, at the age of 44, that Valadon began painting full time. By then, her personal life had become complex: in 1883 she had a son out of wedlock (Maurice, who became painter Utrillo); in 1896 she married a wealthy older man, whom she divorced several years later; and in 1909 she started living with another man, André Utter, who became her second husband. With her first one-person show in 1911, Valadon attracted critical acclaim and numerous patrons. She continued to exhibit regularly, reaching the peak of her fame in the 1920s, and had four major retrospective exhibitions during her lifetime.
— Valadon, Suzanne painter, graphical artist france 23 Sep 1865, Bessines - 7 Apr 1938, Paris Real name: Valadon, Maria Clémentine Grave location: St.-Ouen, Seine-St.-Denis: Cimetière parisien (division 13) Suzanne Valadon was an illegitimate child and claimed (untruthfully) to be a foundling. As a child she moved with her mother to Paris and became a washergirl. They went to live in Montmartre and there she became an acrobat in a circus. An injury ended this and then she became model and mistress for painters like Dégas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Renoir. She also had an affair with the painter Puvis de Chavannes. Encouraged by Degas, Valadon became a good painter herself, but she would stand in the shadows of her strange but talented son Maurice Utrillo. Her first exhibitions in the early nineties consisted mainly of portraits, among them that of her lover Erik Satie. Their intense affair lasted from January to June 1893 and this seems to have been Satie's only love affair. In 1894 she was the first woman to be admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Her marriage to the exchange broker Paul Mousis in 1896 failed and she left him in 1909 for the young painter André Utter. He was twenty years her junior, but she married him in 1914. Valadon turned to painting landscapes, still lifes and female nudes, that were naked in an unashamed way that was shocking at this time. When she died Georges Braque, Andre Derain and Pablo Picasso, attented her funeral
— Born out of wedlock under the given name Marie-Clémentine, Suzanne Valadon spent her early years in Paris and Nantes, where her single mother worked as a cleaning woman. Valadon was enrolled in a religious school in Paris until 1876, then apprenticed in a dressmaking shop, a florist, and an open-air market before she started drawing. She briefly worked as a trapeze artist in a circus in the beginning of the 1880s, but a fall forced her to look for another occupation. She then began working as a model, posing for Henner, Puvis de Chavannes (q.v.), Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec [1864-1901], and several other painters. About this time she chose to be called Suzanne. When she was eighteen years old, she gave birth to a son, Maurice Utrillo [25 Dec 1883 – 05 Nov 1955], whose father is unknown (on 27 Jan 1891, journalist art critic Miguel Utrillo y Morlius would fictitiously acknowledge him as son), who would become an alcoholic and, after being (unsuccessfully) treated in the Saint-Anne mental hospital in Paris from 11 January 1900 until 14 May 1900 and his mother recommended painting as therapy, a renowned painter.

Encouraged by Degas and Renoir, she became a full-time painter in 1896, financially supported by her new husband, Paul Mousis. Degas taught her printmaking and introduced her to the dealers Durand-Ruel and Vollard. Valadon divorced Mousis in 1909 to marry André Utter [1886-1948], a painter and a friend of her son. Beginning in 1909 she exhibited regularly at the Salon d'Automne, and from 1912 she participated in the Salon des Indépendants. Valadon painted portraits, landscapes, nudes, and still lifes.
— Portrait of Valadon by Miguel Utrillo y Morlius (1892; 1032x674pix, 62kb)
— LINKS
— <<<L'Autoportrait au pastel (1883) _ Dans ce regard on lit l'amertume d'un destin qui se répète cruellement. Elle vient d'avoir un fils dont le père est inconnu, de même que son père à elle. C'est en 1883 qu'elle signa pour la première fois avec son nouveau prénom, Suzanne, l'Autoportrait au pastel. C'est Toulouse-Lautrec, avec qui elle eut une liaison pendant deux ans, qui lui avait dit un jour: “Toi qui poses nue pour les vieillards du devrais t'appeler Suzanne.”
— Le Bain (1908, 60x49cm; 823x690cm; 48kb)
— La Chambre Bleue (1904; 826x1100pix, 101kb)
— La Poupée Abandonnée (1921; 422x295pix, 19kb)
— Le Cirque (1889, 49x60cm; 309x380pix, 24kb)
— Toilette de deux enfants dans le jardin (1910 drypoint, 34x39cm; 2/3 size 204kb)
— Toilette de Petit Garçon (1908 drypoint, 23x21cm; full size 175kb)
— Femme en buste, les mains jointes (20x12cm lithograph; 3/4 size 102kb)B

^ Born on 23 September 1629: David Klöcker “Ehrenstrahl”, in Hamburg, German Baroque painter, active in Sweden, who died on 23 October 1698. Some incorrectly give 27 Apr 1628 as the date of his birth. Also incorrect is 27 October 1698 as the date of his death (it may have been his burial).
Ehrenstrahl stamp — ‘Ehrenstrahl’ was an honorific title received on his ennoblement in Sweden in 1674; his eventual appointment as court steward there in 1690 reflects his status as a founding father of Swedish painting. He initially studied in the Netherlands (1648–1650), but his early works, stylistically undecided, reflect contemporary German painting. Such a work is his equestrian portrait of Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Wrangel (1652), in whose service he went to Sweden in 1651. In 1654 he went to study in Italy. In Rome he learnt from Pietro da Cortona’s allegories and his mastery of compositional devices, movement, color, light and shade. From there he went to Paris, where he became acquainted with the work and career of Charles Le Brun. When Klöcker returned to Sweden in 1661, the influence of Hedvig Eleanora, the Queen Mother, secured him a position as a court painter.
[Swedish stamp from a detail of Ehrenstrahl's 1695 The Great Deeds of Swedish Kings >>>]
— Like many of his North-German colleagues, the Hamburg-born David Klöker sought his way to Holland to study painting. His teacher was Jurian Jacobsz, an animal painter from Amsterdam. In 1652, Klöker came to Sweden in the company of Field Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel. In Stockholm, Klöker entered the service of the Queen Dowager Hedvid Eleonora, who sent him to Italy in 1654 to learn the skills of a court painter. Klöker spent some time in Rome, Venice, Paris and London and adopted the form and ideology of international Baroque classicism. In 1661, he returned to Sweden to take up the post of court painter. Sweden was at its most powerful at that time. The young King Charles XI took the power into his own hands from the nobility. The autocrat of a great power, he needed someone to provide a worthy setting for him and to create his public image - an artist who had mastered the means of Baroque rhetoric and visual propaganda. David Klöker was just the man for this task. King Charles XI valued the talent and energies of his court painter so much that he raised him to the nobility in 1674 as David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl. Ehrenstrahl was the head of a large studio where he and his numerous assistants produced a remarkable amount of monumental paintings and parade portraits to meet the ever-increasing demand. Ehrenstrahl's court Baroque seems a little clumsy by international standards, but it obviously met the hopes and aspirations of the parvenu great power on the outskirts of Europe. Ehrenstrahl used to distinguish the paintings in which his own work predominated from the studio output by signing the latter "Ehrenstrahl fec." instead of just "Ehrenstrahl". His own works at their best are highly picturesque and surprisingly expressive. Ehrenstrahl's splendid animal paintings are another story completely - the court painter showed exceptional enthusiasm when he returned to the fountainhead of his early student years in Holland.
— Michael Dahl was a student of Ehrenstrahl.

— The Great Deeds of Swedish Kings (1695; 869x625pix, 69kb — ZOOM to 1738x1250pix, 142kb) _ a ceiling painting at Drottningholm Castle.
— Fox (566x817pix, 29kb)

— Count Johan Jacob Hastfehr (89x72cm; 694x577pix, 35kb) _ This portrait has been left in the sketch stage. The face is fairly accurately completed, but the arms and the breastplate are outlined in vigorous strokes using shades of brown. In the 1680s and 1690s, Ehrenstrahl painted a series of portraits of the generals of King Charles XI, and it is said that the King weeded out some of the paintings before they were ready. This portrait may have been one of them.
      Jacob Johan Hastfehr was born in Tallinn, Estonia. His family belonged to the German nobility in the Baltic States. He went to Stockholm in 1667 to be a junior officer in the King's entourage. He was captain of the Life-Guards when, in 1674, he married Sigrid Gyllenstierna, widow of the Privy Councillor, Klas Fleming. Through her family background, Sigrid belonged to the intimate circles of Charles XI and she arranged for her fiancé to gain the special attention of the King. Hastfehr distinguished himself in the Danish war and truly won the King's confidence when, as commander of the Stockholm garrison, he secured the King's rear during the unstable parliamentary sessions of the Estates in 1680.
      Charles XI had built an autocracy in Sweden and Finland and saved the national economy by the repossession of the lands and fiefs of the nobility. In the Baltic countries, Estonia and Livonia, the ownership of land and political power were still in the hands of the German nobility. Charles XI decided to extend his reforms to the Baltic region as well and needed a loyal, determined man who knew the local conditions to carry out his will there. In 1687, he nominated Jacob Johan Hastfehr governor general of Livonia and soon after that as count and a field marshal as well.
      Hastfehr began to implement the King's policies with full vigor. According to historical accounts reflecting the views of the Livonian nobility, Hastfehr was a gruff braggart and a ruthless, two-faced careerist, who would stop at nothing to achieve his own despicable aims. It is said that he accepted bribes left, right, and center, but when bought he didn't stay bought and did whatever he wanted anyway. Later historical accounts relate that he was a man of action, but in a different way; Hastfehr tried to reach an amicable agreement with the Livonian nobility and pursued hard-line policies only after it became evident that the nobility would not agree to any concessions concerning their lands and powers. Once he had broken the nobility's resistance, Hastfehr opposed all retaliation against them.

— Count Johan Gabriel Stenbock [1629-1705] (147x120cm; 702x571pix, 41kb) _ In the portrait, Count Stenbock is sitting on a red velvet cushion, relaxed and self-confident, leaning against an exuberant, gold-plated console table that might be from Burchard Precht's workshop. The count is wearing a yellowish robe, the free-flowing pleats of which are painted with the firm strokes of a master. In the background, there is red drapery under which, behind a column, a strip of parkland is visible.
      John Gabriel Stenbock was born into one of the oldest and most respected families in Sweden. He began his career at court by charming Queen Christina. When the young count returned from a long tour abroad, he was appointed treasurer to the Queen Dowager. Stenbock showed strong economic sense in his work and became a privy councillor in 1668. In 1692, he resigned from the regency as he opposed its open-handed economic policy. When King Charles XI came of age, he asked Stenbock to join the council again. For the rest of his life, Stenbock remained one of the most influential men at court and in the government. A common interest in economic issues brought Stenbock close to the King. Stenbock warmly supported the economic reforms introduced by Charles XI, the most important of which was the repossession of alienated crown lands from the nobility. However, Stenbock did not neglect his own interests for the benefit of the crown. Through his privileged position, he was able to save much of his own large lands. In fact, he took advantage of the plight of his fellows and redeemed dozens of confiscated estates at very low prices. By the time of his death, he was one of the richest men in the kingdom.
      Stenbock avoided the traps set by his many lady admirers and remained single. He was a hot-tempered and outspoken man, the Queen Dowager nick-named him "grobian". Stenbock had a shrewd and inquisitive mind. He liked to give the impression of being more learned than in fact he was. His habit of dropping cultured details into conversations caught the attention of many diplomats, who mentioned it in their reports. Stenbock's interest in science may have had an influence on his being appointed Chancellor of the Turku Academy.

— Karl XII: den nykrönte monarken (1697; 611x400pix, 196kb) _ David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl är mest känd för att ha skildrat Carl Gustaf Wrangel samt Karl XI och hans familj. Han inledde dock sin karriär som skrivare vid kansliet i Osbabrück men blev efter det 30-åriga kriget elev hos porträtt- och djurmålaren Jurian Jacobz. Det visade sig att den unge David Klöcker hade god potential och fick därför anställning hos Carl Gustaf Wrangel i Pommern. År 1653 reste David Klöcker ut i Europa för att bl.a. ta lärdom av den italienska barockkonsten vilket bidrog till att han år 1658 blev det svenska hovets officielle konstnär. Han adlades förövrigt 1674.
      Ehrenstrahls första porträtt av Karl XII följer i många avseenden dåtidens ideal. Men intressant är ändå att många av dessa är mer överensstämmande med originalet än Kraffts och Sparres mer "verklighetstrogna" och råa verk. Proportionerna i kungens ansikte är ofta mer riktiga hos Ehrenstrahls versioner; nässpetsen och munnen sitter inte onaturligt nära varandra, vilket dessa gör hos t.ex. Sparres skildringar. Slutsatsen vi kan dra är alltså att Ehrenstrahl verkligen var mån om realism dock en idealiserad sådan...
      Ehrenstrahls många målningar är även väldigt viktiga i det avseende att de visar oss hur kungens yttre utvecklades; från spädbarn till vuxen man. På de tidigaste porträtten finner man att kungens böjda näsa tar lite för stor plats i dennes smala ansikte, men på de senare är dragen mer proportionella.

— Conrad von Falkenberg [1591-1654] (933x759pix, 123kb) _ Tidigare bl a kapten vid Södermanlands regemente och kommissarie i Holland, begärde avsked p g a sjuklighet.
— Mauritz Posse [1632-1702] (1674, 947x772pix) _ Tidigare landshövding i Kronobergs län, friherre.
— Hans Georg Mörner [1623-1685] (1680; 934x747pix) _ Bl a överste, generalmajor, landshövding i Jönköpings län, guvernör över Kalmar och Kronobergs län, guvernör över Jönköpings län.
— Hans Wachtmeister [1641-1714] (1683; 930x759pix) _ Guvernör över Kalmar och Blekinge län. Orsaken till ändringen av länsdelningen var att man tänkte förlägga den svenska örlogsflottan till Kalmar där bl a ett örlogsvarv anlades 1681.Wachtmeister var även generalamiral över svenska flottan samt generalguvernör. Till sin hjälp hade han Erik Nilsson Ehrensköld 1681-1683 (1634-1684) med titeln ståthållare.

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Died on a 23 September:

1930 Emilie Preyer, German artist born on 06 June 1849. Daughter of Johann Wilhelm Preyer [19 Jul 1803 – 20 Feb 1889] — [Do you believe in the power of Preyer?] [Don't expect the success of a museum that doesn't have a Preyer]

1873 George Willem Opdenhoff, Dutch artist born on 07 July 1807.

1831 Jean Charles Nicaise Perrin, French painter born on 12 October 1754. He entered the Académie Royale in 1772 as a student of Gabriel-François Doyen and Louis-Jacques Durameau. He won a medal in the drawing class in 1772 but did not reach the final of the Prix de Rome until 1776, when he won a second prize for Haman Confounded by Esther before Ahasuerus. He continued his attempts to win the Prix de Rome until 1780 without success, but in that year he was granted the bursary because the winner Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours was Swiss and therefore ineligible to go. In Rome from 1780 until 1784, Perrin followed the usual student practice of copying from the Old Masters (he was particularly attracted to the works of Caravaggio and Guercino) and painted original works to be sent to Paris for the judgement of the Académie. In 1784 one of these envois was particularly well received, and Perrin was encouraged ‘not to abandon his noble simplicity’.

1763 Hendrik F. van Lint, Flemish artist born on 26 January 1684.

1676 Claes Janszoon van der Willigen, Dutch artist born in 1630.

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Born on a 23 September:

1913 Carl Henning Pedersen, Danish painter, draftsman, sculptor, and designer, who died in 1993. He decided to become a painter when he met the artist Else Alfelt [1910–1974] in 1933. They were married in 1934. Self-taught, he made his debut in 1936 at the Artists’ Autumn Exhibition in Copenhagen. His earliest paintings reveal the influence of Cubism. From the end of the 1930s he limited himself to a small group of motifs, which he presented in a great number of variations. Inspired by the fantasy vision of Paul Klee, Pedersen created his own world of fable, in which people and animals appear with sun, moon and stars in changing landscapes. He also depicted mountains, houses and towers, or ships and the sea, and he used the mask motif many times, in different forms. The draughtsmanship in his paintings often has the awkwardness of child art, as in The Gobbler (1939). At first his forms were clearly delineated by his method of placing one color adjacent to another and using the brush to outline the design in black on the picture plane. He later altered his technique to heavy stains of color applied with broad strokes. The new environments he discovered on his many journeys were reflected in his subjects and his altered handling of color. His color juxtapositions gave his pigments a jewel-like radiance and strength. This required a color scale of great refinement and unusual richness. There was an almost ‘Oriental’ clarity to his color, which gave a fundamental lucidity to his fabulous imagery. During the 1940s he was associated with the Cobra group, and it was at that time that he developed an iconography of fantastic creatures in poetic contexts. Metamorphosis was central to his art: peaceful beings could suddenly become terrifying monsters, or the sun would melt and be transformed into an ocean of flame.

1865 Pekka Halonen, Finnish artist who died in 1933.

1863 Louis Auguste Mathieu Legrand, French painter, printmaker, and draftsman, who died on 12 June 1951. He was trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Dijon and in 1884 moved to Paris, where he worked as a caricaturist and political satirist for La Journée and Le Journal amusant and from 1887 for the more influential Courrier français. He received a brief prison sentence for a mildly obscene satire in Courrier français on Émile Zola. About 1885 he met Félicien Rops, who taught him the techniques of etching. In 1891 he produced a series of watercolors for the magazine Gil Blas, depicting dancers warming up for the cancan. These proved so successful that he was asked to produce 11 etchings on a similar theme, Danse, fin de siècle (1892). This success brought him to the attention of Gustave Pellet, one of the best print publishers of the period, who published his 15 lithographs, Au Cap de la chèvre (1892). It was followed by a set of etchings depicting ballet rehearsals, Les Petits du Ballet (1893). He excelled in etchings of bars, cafés and other turn-of-the-century social scenes; later albums of these subjects included La Petite Classe (1908) and Les Bars (1909). He also produced landscapes such as Les Bords de la Marne (1905). His work in other areas tended towards the sentimental, however, as in Charles VI (1909) — Coquetterie (femme au miroir) (1900, 50x65cm) — Coquette (1896 etching, 26x34rm) — L'Hétaïre (color etching, 1900, 42x33cm) — Réalisme (drypoint, 1909, 27x18cm) — Le Souper de l'apache (1904)

1808 Hermann Winterhalter, German artist who died on 27 February 1891. — Born in St. Blasien in the Black Forest, younger brother of the portrait painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter [20 Apr 1806 – 08 Jul 1873]. Studied in Munich and Rome before settling in Paris where he assisted his brother and exhibited at the Salon 1838-1841, 1847 and 1869. His portrait of his Parisian patron Nicolas-Louis Planat de la Faye is in the Louvre. On his brother's death he retired to Karlsruhe where he died. — A Girl of Frascati (before 1838, 23x18 cm)

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