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ART “4” “2”-DAY
29 September
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Died on 29 September 1931:
William Newenham Montague Orpen, Irish
painter born on 27 November 1878. — He attended the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin (1891–1897), and the Slade School of Art, London (1897–1899), there winning the composition prize of 1899 with The Play Scene from Hamlet. One of his teachers was Frederick Brown. Orpen became a friend of Augustus John and joined the New English Art Club. From very early years he had been an impassioned student of the Old Masters, and he went to Paris with John in 1899 to see Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. In the following years his perception of their works—in particular those of Rembrandt, Goya, Velázquez, Chardin, Hogarth and Watteau—became sophisticated. Orpen learnt much from the Old Masters without losing the personal character of his own work. The influence of Velázquez, in particular, is apparent in such early genre subjects as The Mirror (1900). His bravura portrait style was probably also indebted to Manet: his Homage to Manet (1909) was a group portrait of members of the New English Art Club, including Philip Wilson Steer, Walter Richard Sickert, Dugald Sutherland MacColl and Henry Tonks, sitting beneath Manet’s portrait of Eva Gonzalès (London, N.G.). Orpen was financially one of the most successful, and eventually one of the most honoured, portrait painters working in Britain in the 20th century. His vast and fashionable portrait practice destroyed his critical reputation, but a number of his portraits are outstanding, such as Ray Lancaster and Lloyd George, and the self-portrait, Orpsie Boy, You’re Not as Young as You Were, My Lad, Paris 1924 (1924). In 1917 Orpen was appointed an Official War Artist. An exhibition of his war paintings, watercolors and drawings was held in London in the spring of 1918. He offered all his works in the exhibition as well as all future war works as a gift to the nation, and the collection was accepted by the Imperial War Museum, London. In his illustrations to An Onlooker in France, 1917–1919 (1921), Orpen depicted scenes of trench warfare, often in grim detail, but he found it difficult in his larger paintings to come to terms with the broader implications of the war. In 1919 he was appointed official artist to the British Peace Delegation, and he produced the large and very traditional group portrait, The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28th June 1919 . Orpen's production of paintings and drawings, in spite of the relative brevity of his life, is impressively large: he worked quickly and drew almost daily, usually for long hours. — Among Orpen's students were Margaret Clarke Dobell, William Dobell, John Keating, Henry Lamb. — LINKS — Self-portrait (1924, 79x65cm; 780x636pix, 75kb) — Self-Portrait (1912, 61x50cm; 380x307pix, 22kb) _ This unusual self-portrait by William Orpen, a modernist active in both Ireland and England, depicts the artist looking at himself in a mirror. Orpen portrays himself holding a rag, as if prepared to wipe out the image. Actual ferry tickets, "engaged seat" notices, a personal check, and a page from Orpen's diary (referring to a trip to Dublin in June 1912) are glued to the picture surface. These "intruders" from real life are cleverly arranged to create the illusion of objects pasted or stuck to the mirror. By incorporating real objects into a painting - a medium traditionally devoted to the creation of fictitious illusions, Orpen anticipated the collage experiments begun by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in 1912. — Homage to Manet — Master Spottiswoode (96x76cm) — The Mirror (1900, 51x41cm) _ This painting was one of Orpen's first great successes after leaving the Slade School of Art. The sitter was Emily Scobel, a model from the school, to whom Orpen was briefly engaged. The room is apparently an accurate portrayal of Orpen's lodgings, but the shallow pictorial depth and 'aesthetic' arrangement of objects is based on Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871, 144x162cm) by Whistler, the famous portrait of his mother. In a dazzling display of his abilities, the concave mirror on the wall reflects Orpen painting at his easel. This is a device which Orpen borrowed from The Arnolfini Marriage (1434) of van Eyck, which he would have known in the National Gallery, and it is also found in tne work of Velasquez. — Anita (1905, 76x56cm) _ Anita Bartle, the sitter in this early portrait by Orpen, was a journalist and author in Dublin. At the time he painted it, Orpen had just returned from a visit to the Prado in Madrid, where he had studied portrait sketches by Rubens. His training at the Slade in the 1890s had been in drawing rather than painting. He wanted to try a modern version of Rubens's direct technique, and used this portrait of a friend as an exercise. Orpen uses only red, with black and white, and leaves visible the brushstrokes, in the manner of an oil sketch. He later gave the portrait to the sitter as a wedding present. — Lady Orpen (1907, 97x86cm) _ Orpen's portrait of his wife was painted while they were on a holiday at Margate with William and Mabel Nicholson and their children. They had been married only for a few years, and he portrayed her repeatedly. This portrait was studied by artificial light, and the stormy background added later, with its glimpse of sea and sand dune. The Orpens and Nicholsons loved to dress up. This conglomeration of gloves, scarf, veil, black ostrich feather and bonnet may not have been meant seriously, and Orpen often let loose his sense of humour in his private paintings. He was then just beginning his hardworking career as a society portrait painter, which was to lead to a great number of portraits of spectacular but prosaic realism. — The Model (1911, 54x69cm) — The Angler (1912, 91x86cm) — Zonnebeke (1918) — Sir William McCormick (1920, 127x102cm) — Dame Madge Kendal (1928, 102x87cm) |
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Born on 29 September 1850: George
Hitchcock, US painter who died on 02 August 1913. — He was active in the Netherlands. A descendant of Roger Williams (the founder of Rhode Island), he practiced law for five years in New York before deciding in 1879 to become an artist. He studied in Paris under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre, in Düsseldorf, and in The Hague under H. W. Mesdag [1831-1915]. He settled in Egmond-aan-Zee, near Alkmaar, in 1883, and was soon widely known for his paintings of religious subjects in contemporary settings and of sunlit views of tulip fields. He returned to the US only occasionally in later years. Hitchcock’s style, similar to Impressionism, has been appreciated more in Europe than in the US. A good example of his style is The Blessed Mother (1892). — LINKS — Dutch Bride (1898, 76x61cm) — The Milkmaid (168kb) — Dutch Flower Girls (105kb) — A Dream of Christmas Eve — Maternité (640x900pix, 43kb) _ Although on one level a simple depiction of a young peasant woman with her children, the winnowing net frames her head like a halo. The religious symbolism transforms the group into a Holy Family. Casting a gloomy portent of the Crucifixion, the woman's shadow is about to fall upon a cross formed by the creepers growing on the path. — The Tulip Garden — Annunciation Lilies (1887, 159x204cm) — The Flight into Egypt (1892) — The Wayfarers (1890, 109x89cm; 900x720pix, 66kb) — The Blessed Mother aka Madonna and Child (1892, 160x112cm; 380x268pix, 24kb) _ After Hitchcock settled in Holland, he painted this Dutch peasant mother dressed in contemporary costume holding her baby and posing formally in a garden. Hitchcock was a visionary painter fascinated by the power of faith. But, like with many of his paintings, both the title and the scene here remain ambiguous, being neither clearly religious nor clearly secular. Early critics praised the work for its technical sophistication and representation of maternal tenderness, but they questioned its religious merit. Other reviewers, however, recognized religious symbolism throughout the painting. The mother's lacy headdress can represent a halo. The apple tree suggests the lost Eden, recovered through the birth of the child. The young bullock hints to the future sacrifice of Christ, and the prominent red tulip at the feet of the figures symbolizes the cup of sorrow. This painting's religious ambiguity exemplifies the 19th-century struggle to bring faith to terms with technical, philosophical and scientific advances, namely Darwinism. Left to search for meaning in life and a spiritual identity, many artists, like Hitchcock, looked to women and nature for a link to the divine. |
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Died on
29 September 1674:
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Dutch painter
of portraits, religious subjects and genre, active in Amsterdam, born on
19 August 1621. — Dutch biblical, genre, and portrait painter, a gifted and favorite student (1635-1640) of Rembrandt [15 Jul 1606 – 08 Oct 1669], to whom he remained a close friend. His usual style is based so closely on that of his master that many of his pictures have passed as works of Rembrandt himself. Eeckhout was one of the most successful of this school in adopting the broader and bolder technique of Rembrandt's mature style, though he seldom approached the master in humanity or depth of feeling. In surprising contrast to his normal Rembrandtesque style are a number of highly finished genre subjects--guardroom scenes, backgammon players, and so on. An example of the early style, once thought to be by Rembrandt, is Christ Raising the Daughter of Jairus. A good example of genre in the manner of Terborch is The Music Lesson of 1655. A fine group portrait is Four Officers of the Amsterdam Coopers' and Wine-Rackers' Guild (1657). — LINKS — The Continence of Scipio (1652) — The Last Supper (1664) — Prophet Eliseus and the Woman of Sunem (1664, 110x155cm) _ In the Biblical story the prophet commands his servant to go with the kneeling woman and resurrect her dead son. _ detail _ The characteristic head of the old man Eliseus clearly shows the influence of Rembrandt. — Presentation in the Temple (59x48cm) _ The artist painted several versions of this subject. It is assumed from the different coloring of the left and right parts of the painting that it is an early work of the painter completed in the last decade of his life. — Portrait of a Family (1667, 85x100cm) _ In this painting the artist combines the elements of the landscape, portrait, and genre. — Scholar with his Books (1671, 65x49cm) _ Though Eeckhout was usually a close imitator of Rembrandt, in about 1655 he painted a number of scenes in the totally different manner of Ter Borch [1617 – 08 Dec 1681]. Eeckhout's Scholar with his Books gives us no impression of the wisdom evoked in Rembrandt's portrait of the Old Rabbi. Here we see an industrious pedant whose learning is indicated only by external objects — the books and the globe. The learned men portrayed by Vermeer [31 Oct 1632 – 15 Dec 1675] (e.g. L'astronome — Le géographe) and Rembrandt are men of exceptional qualities but their portraits cannot be called genre paintings. This picture by Eeckhout is certainly a genre painting, the sitter, however, is not shown to be a sage but a burgher. The warm brownish-red and yellowish colors and the manner of painting are reminiscent of Rembrandt's later style. — Vertumnus and Pomona (1669, 128x104cm) _ The subject is from Ovid's Metamorphoses: the god of the seasons, disguised as an old woman, tries to seduce Pomona, goddess of the fruit-gardens. The figure of Pomona is a portrait. — Party on a Terrace (1652) |
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Died on 29 September
1910: Winslow Homer, US painter born on 24
February 1836. — Born in Boston, Homer became a painter whose works, particularly those on marine subjects, are among the most powerful and expressive of late 19th-century US art. His mastery of sketching and watercolor lends to his oil paintings the invigorating spontaneity of direct observation from nature . His subjects, often deceptively simple on the surface, dealt in their most serious moments with the theme of man's efforts to establish his humanness in the face of an indifferent universe. Homer died on 29 September 1910. — American painter, born in Boston. After apprenticeship to a lithographer (1855-57), he began his career as an illustrator for magazines such as 'Harper's Weekly' (1859-67), and specialised in watercolors of outdoor life painted in a naturalistic style which, in their clear outline and firm structure, were opposed to contemporary French Impressionism. He spent two years (1881-1883) at Tynemouth, England, and on his return to the US continued to depict the sea at Protus Neck, an isolated fishing village on the eastern seaboard, where he spent the rest of his life. His work was highly original, and is often regarded as a reflection of the US pioneering spirit. — Works considered by some to be the most powerful and expressive of late 19th-century US art. Master of sketching and watercolor. Oil paintings are brought alive by the invigorating spontaneity of direct observation from nature. Themes often include man's efforts to establish his humaness in the face of an indifferent universe. Born into an old New England family and enjoyed a happy country childhood. Mother was an amateur painter. At 19 he was apprenticed to the lithographic firm of John Bufford in Boston. Within a few years he was submitting his own drawings for publication in such periodicals as Ballou's Pictorial and Harper's Weekly. In 1859 he moved from Boston to New York City and began his career as a free-lance illustrator. The next year he exhibited his first paintings at the National Academy of Design. During the Civil War he made drawings at the front for Harper's. Unlike most artist-correspondents he dealt most often with views of everyday camp life. As the war continued, he concentrated more and more on his painting. In 1865 he was elected to the National Academy of Design. Although his studio was in New York City, the city was rarely figures in his work. During the warmer months he traveled to Pennsylvania, the Hudson River valley, and New England, to go camping, hunting, fishing, and sketching. In 1866 he went to France for about a year. In Europe he was influenced by French naturalism, Japanese prints, and contemporary fashion illustration, but his work upon his return to the US had not changed markedly. However, the pictures were generally somewhat brighter. In 1873 Homer began to work in watercolor, which allowed him to make quick, fresh observations of nature. He explored and resolved new artistic problems. From the late 1870s Homerdevoted his summers exclusively to direct painting from nature in watercolor. Greater concern for atmospheric effects and reflected light added complexity. . — LINKS — The Bright Side (1865, 32x43cm; 5/4 size; or see it 5/8 size) — Portrait of Albert Post (1864, 32x27cm; 3/4 size) — Cutting a Figure (04 Feb 1871 engraving, 30x47cm; or see it the recommended half size) — Sunrise, Fishing in the Adirondacks (1892, 34x52cm; 3/5 size) — The Nooning (1873 wood engraving, 23x35cm) — A "Norther", Key West (1886, 36x 52cm; full size; or see it the recommended half size) — A Swell of the Ocean (1883, 38x54cm; full size; or see it the recommended half size) — Burnt Mountain (1892, 35x51cm; full size; or see it the recommended half size) — Backgammon (1877, 45x56cm; full size; or see it the recommended half size) — The War for the Union 1862 – A Bayonet Charge (wood engraving, 34x52cm; recommended full size; or see it half size) — Prisoners From the Front — Dressing for the Carnival — Turtle Pound — On A Lee Shore — Mending the Nets — Watching the Tempest — The Lifeline — The Fox Hunt — Canoe in the Rapids — Hurricane Bahamas — High Cliff, Coast of Maine (1894) — Night — Sponge Fishing (1885) — Taking a Sunflower to Teacher — The Gulf Stream (1899; 665x1100pix) stands at the apex of Homer's career. A Black man lies inert on the deck of a small sailboat. A hurricane has shredded the sails, snapped off the mast, and snatched away the rudder. Unlike the boys in Breezing Up or the fisherman in Fog Warning, this man is powerless to control his vessel. He is at the mercy of the elements. Sharks circle the boat, a waterspout hovers in the distance, and a boat on the distant horizon passes by unseeing and unseen. As in Stephen Crane's comparable short story, The Open Boat, nature is seen as not caring whether a man lives or dies. — 441 images at Webshots |
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Born on 29 September 1703: François
Boucher, French Rococo
painter, engraver, and designer, who died on 30 May 1770. — Boucher best embodies the frivolity and elegant superficiality of French court life at the middle of the 18th century. He was for a short time a student of François Lemoyne and in his early years was closely connected with Watteau, many of whose pictures he engraved. In 1727-31 he was in Italy, and on his return was soon busy as a versatile fashionable artist. His career was hugely successful and he received many honors, becoming Director of the Gobelins factory in 1755 and Director of the Academy and King's Painter in 1765. He was also the favorite artist of Louis XV's most famous mistress, Mme de Pompadour, to whom he gave lessons and whose portrait he painted several times. Boucher mastered every branch of decorative and illustrative painting, from colossal schemes of decoration for the royal châteaux of Versailles, Fontainebleau, Marly, and Bellevue, to designs for fans and slippers. In his typical paintings he turned the traditional mythological themes into wittily indecorous scènes galantes, and he painted female flesh with a delightfully healthy sensuality, notably in the celebrated Reclining Girl (1751), which probably represents Louis XV's mistress Louisa O'Murphy. Towards the end of his career, as French taste changed in the direction of Neoclassicism, Boucher was attacked, notably by Diderot, for his stereotyped coloring and artificiality; he relied on his own repertory of motifs instead of painting from the life and objected to nature on the grounds that it was 'too green and badly lit'. Certainly his work often shows the effects of superficiality and overproduction, but at its best it has irresistible charm and great brilliance of execution. qualities he passed on to his most important student, Fragonard. Boucher's students also included François-Hubert Drouais, Hubert-François Gravelot, Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet, Jacques Charlier, Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin. — François Boucher was noted for his pastoral and mythological scenes. His work embodies the frivolity and sensuousness of the rococo style. Boucher, the son of a designer of lace, was born in Paris. He studied with the painter François Le Moyne but was most influenced by the delicate style of his contemporary Antoine Watteau. In 1723 Boucher won the Prix de Rome; he studied in Rome from 1727 to 1731. After his return to France, he created hundreds of paintings, decorative boudoir panels, tapestry designs, theater designs, and book illustrations. He became a faculty member of the Royal Academy in 1734. He designed for the Beauvais tapestry works and in 1755 became director of the Gobelins tapestries. In 1765 he was made first painter to the king, director of the Royal Academy, and designer for the Royal Porcelain Works. His success was encouraged by his patron, Marquise de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV. He painted her portrait several times. Boucher's delicate, lighthearted depictions of classical divinities and well-dressed French shepherdesses delighted the public, who considered him the most fashionable painter of his day. Examples of his work are the paintings Triumph of Venus (1740), Nude Lying on a Sofa (1752) and the tapestry series Loves of the Gods (1744). Boucher's sentimental, facile style was too widely imitated and fell out of favor during the rise of neoclassicism. He died in Paris. — François Boucher is the quintessential artist of the rococo, a style characterized by elegance, artifice, wit, and imagination. Parisian by birth, Boucher was the son of a painter. He entered the studio of François Le Moyne about 1720, where he learned the new style, and executed drawings for the engraver Jean-François Cars. By exhibiting at the Exposition de la Jeunesse, he met the connoisseur Jean de Jullienne, who invited him to make engravings after many of Watteau's drawings. Although Boucher won the Prix de Rome in 1723, it was not until 1727 that he went to Italy to study at his own expense. There he was influenced in particular by the Venetians Veronese and Tiepolo, and Roman painting. He went back to Paris in 1731, became a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1734, and, upon the death of Carle Vanloo, was named both director of the academy and First Painter to the King in 1765. His most steadfast and influential patron was the marquise de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV, but he was inundated with commissions throughout his official career. The range of his oeuvre includes not only paintings but decorations, tapestries, stage designs, porcelains, fans, and drawings, all executed with sure draftsmanship, inexhaustible inventiveness, and a rich palette of pastel colors. Boucher continued his amazing productivity until his death, in spite of the public's changing taste, the sharp criticism of Diderot, and his own failing eyesight. — LINKS — Virgin and Child (1767, oval 43x35cm) — Pensent-ils au Raisin? (1749, 76x90cm; 1/3 size; or ZOOM to 2/3 size) — Companions of Diana (1745, oval 117x92cm; full size; or see it half size, or quarter size) — Bacchantes (1745, oval 117x97cm; full size; or see it half size, or recommended quarter size) — Music (oval 92x122cm, 3/5 size; or see it the recommended 3/10 size, or 3/20 size) _ four putti. — Vertumnus and Pomona (1757, 314x184cm; 3/4 size; or see it 3/8 size, or recommended 3/16 size, or 3/32 size) — Christ and John the Baptist as Children (1758) — Un Polisson (25x20cm) |
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Died on 29 September 1930: Ilya Yefimovich
Repin, Ukrainian Realist
painter who was born on 05 August (24 July Julian) 1844. — Il'ia Efimovich Repin was born in Chuguev, in the Ukraine, in the family of a soldier-settler. He received his first lessons in art in 1858, when he started working for I. M. Bunakov, a talented icon painter from Chuguev. Commissions for portraits and religious paintings allowed Repin to collect enough money to go to St. Petersburg with the goal of entering the Academy of Arts. He arrived in the capital in 1863 and enrolled in the School of Drawing attached to the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Working with Kramskoi, in a year the young artist developed his skills sufficiently to be accepted to the Academy. In May 1870 Repin went on a boat trip down the Volga during which he made sketches for his Barge-haulers on the Volga (The Volga Boatmen). A year later the artist finished his schooling at the Academy. His graduation work, The Resurrection of Jairus' Daughter, won the Gold Medal and a six-year scholarship (including three years of travel abroad). After traveling through Europe and staying in Paris (1872-76), Repin returned to Russia. He spent a year in Chuguev, making sketches for his famous Religious Procession in the Kursk Province. The next six years (1876-82) Repin lived in Moscow, trying to get along with the Academy, the Mamontov circle, and his old friends Stasov and Kramskoi. Tired of their constant squabbles, he moved to St. Petersburg. He made several more trips to Europe — in 1883, 1889, 1894, and 1900. He taught at the St. Petersburg Academy (1894-1907) and was an influential member of the Wanderers. In 1900, during a trip to Paris, Repin met Natalia Nordman, the "love of his life" (Repin was separated from his wife), and moved to her home, Penaty (Penates), in Kuokkala (Finland), located about an hour's train ride from St. Petersburg. Together, they organized the famous Wednesdays at the Penaty which attracted the creative elite of Russia. When Nordman died in 1914, she left the estate to the Academy, but Repin occupied it for the next sixteen years. Handicapped by the atrophy of his right hand, Repin could not produce works of the same quality as those, which brought him fame. Although he trained himself to paint with his left hand, he lived his last years under a constant financial strain. Since the artist did not accept the Revolution of 1917, he did not want to go back to Russia, even though In 1926 a delegation sent by the Ministry of Education of the Soviet Union helped him financially and tried to entice him to return. To acknowledge and commemorate Repin's artistic achievement, in 1948 Kuokkala was renamed Repino. As Fan and Stephen Jan Parker note in their monograph on Repin, "Western art historians and critics have minimized Repin's achievements and contributions either because his very "national" identity has not been grasped, or because -- and this is most likely -- Repin was neither a technical innovator nor the creator of a school of painting. Moreover, he was a realist and not a modernist. Yet in the esteem of both prerevolutionary and Soviet Russia, Repin occupies a position alongside Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Musorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was and is Russia's foremost national artist, whose oeuvre adheres to the requisities for national art as proposed by the noted painter and art historian Igor Grabar: it must reflect the spirit of the people, expressing their thoughts and aspirations; it must excite; and it must be understandable to the people" (Parker, 1). Among Repin's most famous canvasses are The Volga Boatmen (1872), The Archdeacon (1877), Portrait of the Composer Musorgskii (1881), Religious Procession in the Kursk Province (1878-83), Portrait of Pavel Tret'iakov (1883), They Did Not Expect Him (1884), Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan: November 16, 1581 |
| — Repin was born
in a small Ukrainian town of Tchuguev in the family of a military settler.
As a boy he was trained as an icon painter. At the age of 19 he entered
the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. His arrival to the capital coincided
with an important event in artistic life of the 60s, the so-called ‘Riot
of the Fourteen’, when 14 young artists left the Academy having refused
to use mythological subjects for their diploma works. They stood on the
point that art should be close to real life. Later Repin would be closely
connected with some of them, the members of the Society of Peredvizhniky.
For his diploma work Raising of Jairus' Daughter (1871) Repin was awarded The Major Gold Medal and received a scholarship for studies abroad. Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873) was the first considerable work painted by Repin after graduation. It immediately won recognition. In 1873, Repin went abroad. For some months he had been traveling in Italy and then settled and worked in Paris up to 1876. It was in Paris that he witnessed the first exhibition of the Impressionists, but, judging by the works created then and by his letters home, he didn't become the ardent follower of this new Paris school of painting, though he didn't share the opinion of some of his country-men who saw a dangerous departure from “the truth of life” in Impressionism. After returning to Russia Repin settled in Moscow. He was a frequent visitor in Abramtsevo – the country estate of Savva Mamontov, one of the most famous Russian patrons of art. It was a very fruitful period in his creative activity. During 10-12 years Repin created the majority of his famous paintings. In 1877, he started to paint religious processions (krestny khod): Krestny Khod (Religious Procession) in Kursk Gubernia (1880-1883). The composition was based on the dramatic effect of different attitude of the participants of the procession to the wonder-working icon carried at the head of the procession. There were two different versions of the picture. The second one, completed in 1883, became the most popular. At first glance, the spectator discovers an abundance of social types and human characters in the crowd . A series of paintings devoted to the revolution theme deserves special attention. The artist was no doubt interested in creating the character of a fighter for social justice. The range of social, spiritual and psychological problems, which attracted Repin, is revealed in his works: Unexpected Return (1884) and Refusal from the Confession (1885). Repin is the author of many portraits, which are an essential part of his artistic heritage. Repin never painted faces, he painted real people, managing to show his models in their natural state, to reveal their way of communicating with the world: Portrait of the Composer Modest Musorgsky (1881), Portrait of the Surgeon Nikolay Pirogov (1881), Portrait of the Author Alexey Pisemsky (1880), Portrait of the Poet Afanasy Fet (1882), Portrait of the Art Critic Vladimir Stasov (1883), and Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887) and many others are distinguished by the power of the visual characteristic and the economy and sharpness of execution. Repin rarely painted historical paintings. The most popular in this genre is Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan (1895). The expressive, intense composition and psychological insight in rendering the characters produced an unforgettable impression on the spectators. Another popular work of the genre is The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mahmoud IV (1891). The faithfully rendered spirit of the Zaporoguus freemen, who, according to the artist, had a particularly strong sense of “liberty, equality and fraternity” undoubtedly gives the picture its significance. The contemporaries saw it as a symbol of the Russian people throwing off their chains. The last quarter of the 19th century is the best period in Repin’s work, though his creative activity continued in the 20th century, he did not paint any masterpieces then. After the bolsheviks’ revolution in 1917 he lived and worked in his estate Penates in Finland. There is a Repin museum. The museum visitors have the opportunity of gaining a detailed knowledge of the artist's life and work. — LINKS — Self-Portrait (1878) — Self-Portrait (1887) — Artist Vasily Polenov (1877) — Artist Arkhip Kuinji (1877) — Artist Pavel Tchistyakov (1878) — Artist Nikolay Gay (1880) — Artist Ivan Kramskoy (1882) — Artist Vasily Surikov — Artist Grigory Myasoedov (1886) — Maxim Gorky (1899) — Author Leonid Andreev (1905) — Author Vladimir Korolemko (1912) — Composer Modest Musorgsky (1881) — Composer Anton Rubinstein (1881) — Composer Anton Rubinstein (1887) — Composer Alexander Glazunov (1887) _ Aleksandr Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865-1936) was born in St. Petersburg on 10 August 1865. He studied under Rimsky-Korsakov, and was a professor (after 1899) and director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1905-1927). The Soviet government gave him the title of People’s Artist of the Republic, but he emigrated in 1928. Glazunov died in Paris on 21 March 1936. Among his compositions there are 8 symphonies, ballets Raimonda (1897), Seasons of the Year (1899) and works of every branch except opera. See also his portrait by Valentin Serov — Composer Mikhail Glinka (1887) — Composer Nikolay Rymsky-Korsakov — Dmitry Mendeleev (1885) — The Surgeon E. Pavlov in the Operating Theater (1888) — Nadya Repina, the Artist's Daughter (1881) — Nadezhda Repina, the Artist's Daughter (1900) — Girl with Flowers. Daughter of the Artist (1878) — Dragon-Fly. Portrait of Vera Repina, the Artist's Daughter (1884) — Vera Repina, the Artist's Daughter (1886) — Autumn Bouquet. Portrait of Vera Repina (1892) — Preparation for the Examination (1864) — Portrait of a Boy (1867) — Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870-1873) — A Newspaper Seller in Paris (1873) — A Fisher-Girl (1874) —. Ukranian Girl (1875) — Ukranian Girl by a Fence (1876) — An Archdeacon (1877) — Refusal from the Confession (1882) — The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mahmoud IV (1886) — Putting a Propagandist Under Arrest (1891) — The Revolutionary Meeting (1883) — Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581. (1885) _ detail _ closer detail the two faces — St. Nicholas Saves Three Innocents from Death (1888) — — Sadko (1876) _ Sadko is a hero of a Russian fairy-tale, a merchant from Novgorod. During his business trips visited many magic lands, including the Sea Kingdom, where the daughter of the Sea King, Princess Volkhova, fell in love with him and helped him to escape to land. There is an opera on the subject by Rimsky-Korsakov (1896). Many Russian artists painted the stage set, and curtains, designed costumes for the play and opera. Among them are Repin, Vrubel. — Leo Tolstoy (1887) — Portrait of Leo Tolstoy as a Ploughman on a Field (1887) — Leo Tolstoy in His Study (1891) [Other portraits of Tolstoy, by Nikolay Gay _ Ivan Kramskoy _ Mikhail Nesterov] |
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Born on 29 September 1815: Andreas
Achenbach, German painter who died on 01 April 1910 [complaining
about his aching back?]. — He studied at the Düsseldorf academy under von Schadow and J.W. Schirmer. During several visits to Norway, Sweden, and Italy Achenbach developed a distinctively romantic style of painting especially centered on the relation between man and nature. He painted mainly Rhineland villages, Norwegian landscapes and North Sea coast scenes, much influenced by Dutch seventeenth-century painting. Brother of Oswald Achenbach. — Andreas Achenbach stammte aus einer bürgerlichen Familie. Bereits mit 12 Jahren kam er an die Düsseldorfer Akademie. Mit 14 Jahren kamen schon erste Erfolge. 1832-1833 unternahm er mit seinem Vater eine Reise. Sie fuhren nach Rotterdam, Scheveningen, Amsterdam, Hamburg und Riga. So lernte Andreas Achenbach die Malerei in Holland kennen und bewunderte vor allem die Werke von Jacob van Ruisdael und Allart van Everdingen. Obwohl er schon einen guten Ruf als Maler hatte und Bilder verkaufte, studierte er weiterhin an der Düsseldorfer Akademie. Er wollte sich bei Schirmer noch mehr Kenntnisse in der Landschaftsmalerei aneignen. 1835 verließ Andreas Achenbach die Düsseldorfer Akademie. Er ging nach München und anschließend nach Frankfurt am Main. Andreas Achenbach unternahm Reisen nach Dänemark, Norwegen und Schweden. 1836 besuchte er die bayerischen Alpen und Tirol. 1839 zog es ihn wiederholt nach Norwegen. 1843 reiste er nach Italien und blieb fast 3 Jahre dort. Ihm gefielen besonders die Campagna und Capri. 1846 kehrte Andreas Achenbach nach Düsseldorf zurück. Er unterrichtete neben seiner Malerei seinen Bruder Oswald Achenbach und Albert Flamm. Andreas Achenbach war in seiner Zeit ein sehr beliebter Künstler. In jungen Jahren schuf er auch Karikaturen. Sein bevorzugtes Motiv aber waren Meere und Küsten mit Schiffen und Booten. Bilder wie "Seesturm" und "Untergang des Dampfschiffes" begründeten seinen Ruhm. Die entfesselten Elemente bedrohen den Menschen... der gefahrlos das Treiben im Bild betrachten kann. — LINKS — Landscape with a Stream (1150x996pix, 145kb) — Fishing Along the Shore (1900, 33x44cm) — Hafeneinfahrt Bei Rauher See (1893, 49x61cm) — A Fishing Boat Caught In A Squall Off A Jetty (1865, 96x140cm) — Bringing in the Catch (1852, 31x39cm) — Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (1850, 73x107cm) — Herbstmorgen In Den Pontinischen Sümpfen (1846, 89x131cm) — From the Shore of Scheveningen (1850, 41x57cm) _ (norsk->) Andreas Achenbach betraktes som den ledende landskapsmaler i Düsseldorf. Han ble aldri medlem av professorkollegiet, men hadde allerede 12 år gammel begynt ved akademiet. Achenbach introduserte nordiske og norske motiver til det tyske publikum. Sammen med Thomas Fearnley var han et par måneder i Norge sommeren 1839, hvor de møtte bl.a. J.C. Dahl og Knud Baade. Det var Andreas Achenbach som oppmuntret den unge Gude og gav ham privatundervisning i Düsseldorf vinteren 1841-1842 etterat han så ettertykkelig hadde blitt avvist av Schirmer ved Kunstakademiet. Nasjonalgalleriet kjøpte dette maleriet fra Gudes samling i 1855. Etter reisen til Norge besøkte Achenbach i 1840 Nederland, senere på 1840-tallet Italia. Motiver fra Nordsjøkysten i storm og stille vendte han stadig tilbake til. Ikke bare den karakteristiske kystlinjen, men også de nederlandske landskapsmalerne fra 1600-årene ble et viktig studieområde. Achenbach kan med sitt mettede fargeuttrykk og den urolige veksling av lys og skygge karakteriseres som romantiker. Er Dietrichson (1882) entusiastisk i sine formuleringer som f.eks.: "Med samme eminente Dygtighed forstaar han at skildre Nordens vilde og mægtige som Sydens milde og prægtige Natur - navnlig Kysten og Havet", kan selv ikke et upretensiøst arbeide som dette strandbilde stagge Jens Thiis' kritikk av Düsseldorferne: "Drevne farvevirtuoser - tildels af stort talent, som Andreas Achenbach - har skolen frembragt enkelte af. Malere, som med en slags musikalsk farvesans forstod at harmonisere et billede sammen, selv med ryggen til naturen - udenat." Under den bredt anlagte Achenbach-utstillingen i Düsseldorf og Hamburg 1997/98, som presenterer malerbrødrene Andreas og Oswald, blir det i katalogen pekt på at Andreas Achenbach er ganske nøktern i forhold til motivet når det gjelder komposisjon og farvebruk, selv om han ikke helt går klar av Düsseldorf-skolens hang til å høyne naturskildringen med "pathos". Toni Wappenschmidt trekker spesielt frem Nasjonalgalleriets maleri Strand ved Scheveningen for å påvise et velgjørende måtehold både når det gjelder farvebruk og fortellerglede, selv om Andreas Achenbach beholder en noe antikvert genremessig figurfremstilling avhengig av sine historiske forbilder. |
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Died
on 29 September 1959:
Matthew Smith, English painter born
on 22 October 1879. — He was interested in painting and drawing from an early age and studied art at Manchester College of Technology (1901–1905) and the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1905–1908) without, however, showing particular promise. He moved to France late in 1908, and in Etaples and Pont-Aven he painted still-lifes and portraits that are Intimist in manner, showing attention to local color and modeling (e.g. Portrait of a Young Boy, 1908). He settled in Paris and exhibited several of these works at the Salon des Indépendants before beginning to build more ambitious compositions using related and contrasting colors. These show the influence of Fauvism and of Matisse, whose studio he attended briefly in 1910. He also made an intensive study of Ingres, whose work retained particular significance for him. In canvases painted between 1914 and 1920, when Smith joined the London Group, he acknowledged the flatness of the picture surface with areas of strong unmodulated color and emphatic design. Fitzroy Street Nude No. 1 (1916) is characteristic in the tension created not only through a bold use of complementary colors — the green shadows of the nude against a vibrant red ground — but also in the contrast between direct observation from the model and the blatant artifice of his color and exaggerated drawing. In 1920, partly under the influence of Roderic O'Conor's views of Brittany, which he had first seen the previous year, Smith applied dark saturated color and an increasing fluidity of construction to a series of Cornish landscapes (e.g. Winter Landscape, Cornwall. Strongly Expressionist in character, these are the culmination of his early style. An increasing self-confidence in the 1920s led to the evolution of Smith's mature style; O'Conor's influence again probably contributed to this, together with Smith's love affair with the artist Vera Cuningham [1897–1955], who was the model for many of the figure paintings he made in 1923–1926. In marked contrast to his former approach, he now expressed a passionately spontaneous and celebratory response to his subject through an alla prima technique that enabled him to work very fast. In Couleur de rose (1924) the high-keyed, radiant color, the rapid, rhythmically applied brushstrokes and the model's abandoned pose fuse the various elements of the composition into an organic whole. Smith continued subsequently to work from traditional subjects, but with marked variations in his palette and use of paint. He spent the late 1920s and 1930s in France and produced many freely painted nudes, still-lifes (e.g. Still-life, 1936), portraits and landscapes. After returning to London in 1940, he moved towards darker colorations and a more emphatic solidity of form, seen for example in his portrait of Augustus John. During the 1950s he produced his largest and most decorative canvases, for example Still-life with a Pitcher II (1954). The greater fluidity of Smith's later work brought him considerable success in regular exhibitions in London, and he was twice represented at the Venice Biennale (1938 and 1950). His work also continued to appeal to later British painters, in particular Francis Bacon, who, in writing of Smith's use of paint as a means of making ‘a direct assault upon the nervous system', saw him as a precursor for his own work. Smith was knighted in 1954. — LINKS — Fruit in a Dish (1915, 31x36cm) — Nude, Fitzroy Street, No. 1 (1916, 86x76cm) — Apples (1920, 46x55cm) — Cyclamen (1920, 61x51cm) — Cornish Church (1920, 53x65cm) _ After a period of prolonged illness Smith spent the autumn and winter of 1920 in the village of St Columb Major in Cornwall. Here he completed a number of landscapes, and this is the view from the window of his room. The intense colors and black sky are reminiscent of the Brücke group of German Expressionist painters, but Smith denied a connection, and felt himself to be closer to French art. In Paris in 1919 he knew well the Irish painter Roderic O'Conor, who like Smith had belonged to Gauguin's circle in Brittany. Smith saw his landscapes and nudes, in which he used radiant color in a similar constructional way. — Model Turning (1924, 65x81cm) _ The paintings of the nude made by Smith in the winter of 1923-4 in Paris were a breakthrough to a new facility with color. The use of such a harmony is French in style, and Smith was one of very few British artists to paint in this way. Here the dark skinned model is dressed only in a red skirt, pulled up above her knees, and lies on a couch on blue and mauve cushions. The black background and absence of light give a feeling of enclosure, cutting out anything but the confrontation with the nude, made dramatic by the vigorous brushstrokes and unstable pose. The body is 'modeled' in color, like the surface of a sculpture in clay - not by outline or flat areas, but with the ups and downs along the surface. — Woman Reclining (1926, 60x73cm) — Peonies (1928, 76x63cm) — Still Life (1936, 81x100cm) _ In the 1930s Smith lightened the colors of his painting. This was in contrast to the sometimes impenetrable reds and browns he had used earlier. This still life is based on the weird mauve color of the anemone flowers in the basket at the left. In some places the paint is thin, so that the white ground shines through as in a watercolor. The design is like a still life by Cézanne, but Smith's fluid brushstrokes suggest the liveliness of the fruit. This is one of Smith's largest still lifes. — Peaches (1937, 60x73cm) — Still Life with Clay Figure I (1939, 73x116cm) — The Young Actress (1943, 76x64cm) _ The actress is the artist's niece; nearly all Smith's portraits were of friends and family. There is another version of the subject, but he did not paint this sitter again. |
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