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Artist & Art |
Biographies of PaintersBELLINI, GIOVANNI Giovanni Bellini began his career in the workshop of his father, Jacopo. First mentioned in Venice in 1459, he succeeded his brother Gentile as painter to the Republic in 1483. Thereafter he was constantly employed by the State, as well as by Venetian churches and private patrons. He was one of the first Italian artists to master the oil technique of the Northern European painters. Works in the Collection: BOUCHER, FRANÇOIS The son of a painter, Boucher was born in Paris and trained first with his father, then briefly with François Lemoine. In 1723 he won the Academy’s first prize for painting but was denied the sojourn in Rome that normally resulted from the competition. To earn his living the young artist produced reproductive engravings throughout the 1720s, notably after drawings and paintings by Watteau. Returning from a prolonged stay in Rome — where he went on his own — Boucher was accepted into the Academy in 1731, and three years later he was made a full member. Eventually he held the Academy posts of Professor, Rector, and finally Director. Boucher’s marriage in 1734 resulted in two daughters, who married the artists Deshays and Baudouin, and a son, Juste-Nathan, who would specialize in drawing architectural fantasies. Boucher’s work appeared at the Salon of 1737 and frequently thereafter. While his virtuoso productions were much admired, the artist had his critical detractors as well, particularly Diderot, who lamented his lack of naturalness. Boucher was awarded many commissions by the King (including the painting of his Easter eggs) and by Madame de Pompadour. He also held high posts at both the Beauvais and Gobelins tapestry factories and was named “premier peintre” to Louis XV in 1765. Although the content and style of Boucher’s art suggest a sybaritic character, the artist often worked twelve hours a day. He died in his studio in the Louvre. Among his many pupils were Deshays, Fragonard, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, and Ménageot. Works in the Collection: BRONZINO, AGNOLO Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano, called Bronzino, was court painter to Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici and became the foremost portraitist of Florence. He also executed religious and allegorical subjects as well as decorations for Medici festivities. Works in the Collection: BRUEGEL THE ELDER, PIETER Both the date and place of Bruegel’s birth are uncertain. The earliest reference to him records his entry into the Antwerp painters’ guild in 1551. He traveled to Italy around 1552, but by 1555 he was back in Antwerp. In 1563 he settled in Brussels, working thereafter both for eminent private patrons and for the city government. Bruegel’s landscape paintings and peasant scenes had a powerful and lasting influence in the Netherlands. Works in the Collection: CHARDIN, JEAN-SIMÉON The son of a cabinetmaker, Chardin was born in Paris and never strayed far from the capital. Trained probably under Cazes and Coypel, the young artist was associated first with the Academy of St. Luke in 1724, but four years later he was received into the Royal Academy as a “painter of animals and fruits.” By his first wife, Marguerite Saintard — who died in 1735, only four years after their marriage — he had a son, Jean-Pierre, who would develop as a painter and die under mysterious circumstances in Venice in 1767; his second marriage, in 1744, was to Françoise-Marguerite Pouget. Chardin’s work appeared at the Salon for the first time in 1737 and thereafter regularly until the year of his death. The artist participated actively in the affairs of the Academy, occupying for nearly twenty years the post of Treasurer, which entailed the delicate responsibility of deciding how each Salon would be hung. Louis XV honored him with commissions, pensions, and lodgings in the Louvre. Chardin’s still lifes and domestic scenes were esteemed equally by the general public and by contemporary connoisseurs throughout Europe. Works in the Collection: CLAUDE LORRAIN (CLAUDE GELLÉE) Claude Gellée, who was called Lorrain after his native province of Lorraine, settled in Rome perhaps as early as 1613 and spent nearly all of his adult life there. His early work was chiefly in fresco, of which little remains, but his fame is based on landscape canvases, often with biblical or mythological subjects. Patronized principally by the Italian nobility, he also enjoyed an international reputation. Among the many later painters influenced by his work, the most vocal admirer was Turner. Works in the Collection: CONSTABLE, JOHN Constable left his native Suffolk in 1799 to study at the Royal Academy, of which he became an associate in 1819 and a full member only in 1829. His landscapes, which depict chiefly the Suffolk countryside, had a deep influence on his contemporaries, particularly the French. His elaborately finished exhibition pieces were based on numerous sketches painted outdoors directly from nature. The naturalism and simplicity of Constable’s approach to the English landscape have been compared to the poetry of his early Romantic contemporaries, such as Wordsworth. Works in the Collection: COROT, JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE Corot was born in Paris and studied there with the classicizing painters Michallon and Bertin before leaving in 1825 for the first of three visits he made to Italy. His many oil studies painted outdoors provided him with a library of landscape motifs that he often incorporated into canvases with more traditional classical or religious subjects intended for exhibition. Corot traveled elsewhere in Europe and widely in France, working in the vicinity of Rouen, in the forest of Fontainebleau, and at Ville-d’Avray, near Paris, where his father had a house. Though he exhibited frequently in the Salons and won many honors, he remained a man of great simplicity, remembered for his many benefactions toward fellow artists. Works in the Collection: CUYP, AELBERT Cuyp was born in Dordrecht and spent his entire life there. His early pictures recall those of his father, Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp, and of Jan van Goyen. In the 1640s, under the influence of the Italianized landscapes of Jan Both and others, he developed the luminous style that characterizes his best-known works. He produced landscapes and occasional portraits until the mid 1660s, when he appears to have ceased painting. Works in the Collection: DAVID, GERARD David was born at Oudewater, near Gouda. By 1484 he was in Bruges, where in 1494 he came chief painter of the city. While documents show him working in Antwerp in 1515, he returned a few years later to Bruges, where he died. Works in the Collection: DAVID, JACQUES-LOUIS Born in Paris, David studied with Vien, whom he accompanied to Italy after winning the Prix de Rome in 1774. The leading painter of France a decade later, he played a major political role in the Revolution and set down some of its greatest images. David served Napoleon as his official painter. After the Emperor’s fall, he went into exile in Brussels, where he died. Works in the Collection: DEGAS, HILAIRE-GERMAIN-EDGAR Born in Paris, Degas entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1855 to work with Louis Lamothe, one of Ingres’ former pupils. He visited Italy the following year, resettled in Paris — where from 1865 until 1870 he exhibited at the Salon — and in 1872 went to New Orleans to live with relatives for several months. After his return to France he exhibited for eight years with the Impressionists. Degas’ varied subjects, motifs drawn largely from urban life, encompassed dancers, working girls, women bathing, and race horses, but also included occasional landscapes. The artist experimented throughout his life with a variety of media, including oil, pencil, charcoal, pastel, watercolour, etching, lithography, monotypes, photography, and sculpture. His last public exhibition was held at Durand-Ruel’s in 1893. Degas made occasional trips to Italy and England, and in 1880 he visited Spain and Tangier. He died, solitary and almost blind, in Paris. Works in the Collection: DROUAIS, FRANÇOIS-HUBERT Drouais was of Norman extraction but spent all of his life in and around Paris. After studying with his father, a miniaturist, he worked in the studios of Carle Vanloo, Natoire, and Boucher. In 1757 he executed his first royal commission, and the following year he was received as a full member in the Academy. Succeeding Latour and Nattier, Drouais became the most prominent French portraitist of the mid eighteenth century, painting courtiers, foreign aristocrats, writers, and fellow artists. Drouais’ son, Germain-Jean, was a promising history painter who died at twenty-five. Works in the Collection: DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA Although Duccio was the leading Sienese master of his time, little is known about his life. The earliest record of the artist dates from 1278. In 1285 he received the commission for a painting believed to be the Rucellai Madonna now in the Uffizi. His greatest work, however, is the Maestà, a large altarpiece first mentioned in a document of 1308 and finished by June 9, 1311, when it was carried triumphantly through the city streets to the Duomo of Siena. Works in the Collection: DYCK, SIR ANTHONY VAN Van Dyck was born in Antwerp, where he served an apprenticeship with Hendrik van Balen and was received as a master into the Guild of St. Luke by 1618. He visited London in 1620 and worked in Italy from 1621 until 1627, when he returned to Antwerp. From 1632 until his death he was active chiefly as a portrait painter in England. Works in the Collection: EYCK, JAN VAN Born probably at Maaseyck in the province of Limburg, Jan van Eyck is first recorded in 1422 working at The Hague for John of Bavaria, the Count of Holland. In 1425 he was named court painter and “valet de chambre” to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, for whom he also undertook frequent diplomatic missions. Most of his datable paintings were executed during the 1430s in Bruges, where he spent the last decade or so of his life. Works in the Collection: FRAGONARD, JEAN-HONORÉ Born in Grasse, Fragonard was still a child when his family moved to Paris. He studied briefly with Chardin, then entered the atelier of Boucher. In 1752 he won the Prix de Rome, and after three years of preparation under Carle Vanloo he left to study in Italy. His Coroesus Slays Himself to Save Callirhoe, which was bought by Louis XV in 1765, won the artist membership in the Academy, a residence in the Louvre, and the title “peintre du roi.” In 1773–74 he made a second trip to Italy. His activity as an illustrator, etcher, and painter of romantic subjects continued until the Revolution. Because of ill health Fragonard retired to Grasse in 1790, but a year later he was back in Paris. Under the sponsorship of David he held various administrative posts at the Muséum des Arts — the present Musée du Louvre. His new eminence was short-lived, however; he died poor and almost forgotten. Works in the Collection: GAINSBOROUGH, THOMAS A native of Suffolk, Gainsborough was trained in London in the milieu of Hogarth and the popular French rococo. He worked in Sudbury and Ipswich and rose to fame as a portrait painter in the fashionable resort of Bath. Gainsborough joined the Royal Academy as a founding member and in 1774 returned to London, where he became Reynolds’ major competitor. He later was patronized by the royal family. Although he claimed to prefer landscape painting to portraiture, Gainsborough excelled at capturing the likenesses of Georgian society. Works in the Collection: GENTILE DA FABRIANO Gentile was born in Fabriano, near Urbino. Nothing is known of his youth or education, which may have been as peripatetic as his subsequent career. He is first recorded in 1408 in Venice, and he also worked in Brescia and probably in other North Italian towns. About 1420 he moved to Tuscany, receiving important commissions from churches and great families of Siena, Florence, and Orvieto. By 1427 he had left for Rome, where he worked for Pope Martin V and members of the papal court. Works in the Collection: GOYA Y LUCIENTES, FRANCISCO DE Born in Fuendetodos, Goya served his apprenticeship in nearby Saragossa and then studied with Francisco Bayeu in Madrid. He was in Italy in 1770/71, and in 1774 he became a designer for the Royal Tapestry Factory. Appointed court painter to Charles III in 1786, he continued to hold that post under Charles IV and Ferdinand VII. In addition to portraits, Goya painted historical, religious, and genre subjects, bitter satires, and demonological fantasies; he also was a brilliant graphic artist. In 1824, out of favor with the court, he left Spain and settled in Bordeaux, where he died. Works in the Collection: GRECO, EL (DOMENIKOS THEOTOKOPOULOS) Domenikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco, was born in Crete, then a Venetian dependency. He reputedly studied with Titian in Venice, then moved to Rome in 1570. By 1577 he had settled in Toledo, where he spent his remaining years. His extensive production consisted almost exclusively of religious subjects and portraits. Works in the Collection: GREUZE, JEAN-BAPTISTE Greuze left his native Burgundy for Paris about 1750 and studied with Natoire at the Academy. Named an associate member in 1755, he first exhibited at the Salon that same year and a few months afterward began a long sojourn in Italy. He was made a full Academy member in 1769, but only in the category of genre painters, despite his efforts to be recognized as a history painter. Stung by this incident, Greuze dissociated himself from the Academy and its exhibitions until 1800. The artist’s dramatic and often moralizing genre scenes, his brilliant drawings, and his incisive portraits won him wealth, great popular acclaim, and the enthusiastic support of Diderot. Works in the Collection: Documents show that Hals was born in Antwerp, probably in 1582 or 1583. He had moved to Haarlem with his parents (his father was a clothworker) by 1591, and at some time before 1603 he is thought to have studied with Carel van Mander. In 1610 he joined the Haarlem painters’ guild; his first known dated work, a portrait, is from the following year. Hals worked in Haarlem until his death, chiefly painting portraits, including several group portraits of militia officers and governors of charitable institutions. His younger brother Dirck also was a painter, as were three of his sons. Works in the Collection: In 1657 Hobbema was apprenticed in his native Amsterdam to Jacob van Ruisdael, whose style and subject matter had a profound influence on him. Hobbema painted landscapes prolifically until 1668, when he was appointed municipal assessor of wine-measures. Relatively few works appear to date from his last forty years. Works in the Collection: A lifelong resident of London, Hogarth was apprenticed to an engraver of silver plate at fifteen and later studied drawing with Thornhill. His fame among his contemporaries derived chiefly from the series of moral satires that he engraved after his own oil paintings and disseminated to a wide public. Hogarth was a leading figure at the St. Martin’s Lane Academy and the author of an autobiography and a treatise on aesthetics. Works in the Collection: HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER, HANS Son of the Augsburg painter Hans Holbein the Elder, who probably gave him his first training, Holbein was working by 1515 in Basel, where he achieved great success and was part of the humanist circle of Erasmus. It is probable that about 1519 he traveled to Italy, where the art of the Italian Renaissance may have inspired the classic monumentality of his own style. In 1524 Holbein visited France, and from 1526 to 1528 he worked in England. Four years later he returned to settle there, eventually becoming court painter to Henry VIII. A remarkably realistic yet decorative series of portraits of Henry’s court and family is Holbein’s great legacy. He died of the plague in London. Works in the Collection: INGRES, JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE Born in Montauban, Ingres studied first in nearby Toulouse and then with David in Paris. He won the Prix de Rome in 1801 and was in Italy from 1806 until 1824, when his Vow of Louis XIII was exhibited with great success at the Salon. He spent the following decade in Paris, where he received official honors and attracted many pupils, but his work was severely criticized in 1834. He then returned to Rome for seven years as Director of the French Academy. His final years were spent in Paris. Works in the Collection: Little is known of Étienne de La Tour, son of the illustrious Georges de La Tour (1593-1652), except the date of his baptism in Lunéville — March 2, 1621 — and the references that are made to him as “painter” in 1646 and “master painter” in 1652. He appears to have moved to Vic-sur-Seille soon after his father’s death. Works in the Collection: LA TOUR, GEORGES DE LA Born in Lorraine, Georges de La Tour had settled in Lunéville by 1620. A document of 1639 describes him as “Peintre ordinaire du Roy.” He visited Paris, and his style suggests that he may have traveled to Holland and Rome. Works in the Collection: Born in Bristol, Lawrence spent his childhood in Devizes, Oxford, Weymouth, and Bath. His remarkable artistic talent was recognized when he was only ten. In 1787 he moved to London and entered the Royal Academy Schools, where he received great encouragement from Sir Joshua Reynolds. Upon Reynolds’ death Lawrence was appointed Painter to the King, George III, and in 1820 he became President of the Royal Academy. Lawrence was also patronized by the King’s son, the Prince Regent — the future King George IV — who commissioned an important series of portraits of sovereigns, statesmen, and generals that hangs in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle. From 1790 to 1830, Lawrence received a steady stream of commissions, and his portraits earned him a reputation on the Continent unequaled by any earlier British painter. Works in the Collection: LIPPI, FRA FILIPPO Florentine by birth, Fra Filippo took the vows of a Carmelite monk at about the age of fifteen. He was in Padua in 1434, but three years later he returned to Florence, where he was employed by the Medici and other prominent families. In 1452 he was invited to execute the choir frescoes for the Duomo in Prato. His last two years were spent in Spoleto painting frescoes in the Cathedral. Fra Filippo’s son, Filippino, also became a noted painter. Works in the Collection: MARIS, JACOBUS HENDRIKUS Maris was born in The Hague and received his first training there. He studied in Antwerp, then went back to The Hague in 1857. During the late 1860s he worked in Paris, where he was influenced by the landscapes of the Barbizon painters. He returned to his native city in 1871, and subsequently became a leading figure in the Hague School of painting, as were his younger brothers Matthijs and Willem. Works in the Collection: Born into a prosperous Parisian household, Manet studied with Couture between 1850 and 1856. After that he developed an individual technique utilizing half-tones as little as possible and employing a restricted palette rich in black. His subjects were drawn from contemporary life, often from its lower ranks. Although his early work included many Spanish themes and his style was influenced by Velázquez and Goya, Manet did not visit Spain until 1865. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1861, but two years later he showed at the Salon des Refusés, where his work was received with the ridicule that it would provoke throughout most of his career. After 1870 Manet adopted an Impressionist technique and palette and treated more lighthearted subjects than during the previous decade; nevertheless, he refused to take part in the Impressionist exhibitions organized by Degas. Baudelaire and Zola eventually became his friends and defenders, but the official recognition he longed for came to Manet only in the year before his death, when he was awarded the Legion of Honor. Works in the Collection: Born at Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt, Memling spent much of his life in Bruges, where he was recorded as a new citizen in 1465. Documents show that he became one of the city’s more prosperous residents, attracting a cosmopolitan clientele from all over Europe. In addition to portraits, Memling painted many religious subjects. Works in the Collection: MILLET, JEAN-FRANÇOIS The son of Norman peasants, Millet studied in Cherbourg and then Paris. His work was shown in several Salons in the 1840s, but it was not until the Winnower of 1848 that he began to exhibit the peasant subjects that made him famous. In 1849 he moved to Barbizon, where he spent most of his remaining years. Works in the Collection: Parisian by birth, Monet was still a child when his family moved to Le Havre. There he later met Boudin, who convinced him to become a landscape painter. His artistic studies were interrupted by two years of military service in Algeria, but in 1862 he returned to Paris and worked briefly in Gleyre’s studio, where he met Renoir, Bazille, and Sisley. He showed in the Salons of 1865 and 1866. In 1870, at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, he went to England. Monet's Impression — Sunrise was greeted with derision at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, and its title would be adopted mockingly to name the whole movement of Impressionism. Although extremely poor for many years, the artist gradually won recognition, comfort, and fame. He painted along the Seine, on the Riviera, by the English Channel, in Brittany, the Midi, Holland, London, and Venice, and, especially in his last years, in his own elaborate garden at Giverny. Monet died at Giverny. Works in the Collection: PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA Born in the Tuscan town of Borgo Sansepolcro, Piero is first recorded in 1439 assisting Domenico Veneziano in Florence. He also worked in his birthplace and in Ferrara, Rimini, Rome, Urbino, and elsewhere. Piero’s best-known paintings form the celebrated fresco cycle depicting the Legend of the True Cross in the church of S. Francesco at Arezzo. In addition to frescoes and altarpieces, Piero painted a number of portraits. Works in the Collection: Born at Stockbridge, now a part of Edinburgh, Raeburn received his earliest training as a goldsmith’s apprentice and may have gotten his start as a draftsman producing miniatures for the jeweler’s lockets. By the age of twenty he had painted his first full-length portrait in oils, but little is known about this early period of his career. His marriage around 1780 made him financially independent. In 1784 Raeburn spent two months in Joshua Reynolds’ studio in London and then, on the master’s advice, traveled to Rome to broaden his experience. He returned to Edinburgh in 1786 and soon earned a reputation as the foremost Scottish portrait painter. The Royal Academy elected Raeburn to membership in 1815, and in 1822 he was knighted by George IV and named His Majesty's Limner for Scotland. Works in the Collection: REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN Rembrandt first studied art in his native Leyden and later worked under Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. Around 1625 he returned to Leyden, but in 1631/32 he settled permanently in Amsterdam. Although he enjoyed a great reputation and pupils flocked to him, he suffered financial difficulties that led to insolvency in 1656. By 1660 most of his debts were settled, and his last years were spent in relative comfort. Rembrandt painted many portraits, biblical scenes, and historical subjects. Works in the Collection:
RENOIR, PIERRE-AUGUSTE Born in Limoges, Renoir was four when his family moved to Paris. He began his career as a painter of porcelain, but at twenty-one he entered Gleyre’s studio and enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts. He first showed at the Salon in 1864, and ten years later he took part in the inaugural Impressionist exhibition, which he hung. After visits to Algeria and Italy in 1881–82 his work began to diverge from that of the Impressionists toward a more classical tradition. Crippled with arthritis in old age, he nevertheless continued to paint and to produce sculpture. Renoir died at Cagnes. Works in the Collection: Born at Plympton, Devonshire, Reynolds served a brief apprenticeship under Thomas Hudson in London before launching his career as a portrait painter in Plymouth. Between 1749 and 1752 he was in Italy, where the study of ancient art and the Italian masters profoundly affected his style. Soon after his return he became the most fashionable portraitist in London. Reynolds was a prolific painter whose variety of approach was envied by his rival, Thomas Gainsborough. As the first President of the Royal Academy, Reynolds delivered a series of “Discourses” that were highly influential in shaping British aesthetic theory. He was a close friend of some of the leading personalities of his time, including Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Burke, and Garrick. Works in the Collection: Largely self-taught, Romney practiced in London after traveling to Paris and Italy. Although he never joined the Royal Academy, he became one of the most fashionable portraitists of his time. Romney's ambitions to be a history painter, evident in his many drawings, were never realized in his painted work. Works in the Collection:
ROUSSEAU, PIERRE-ÉTIENNE-THÉODORE Rousseau was born and trained in Paris, where he studied first with Charles Rémond, then with Guillon Lethière. At an early age he began working from nature, inspired by the Dutch seventeenth-century landscapes he saw in the Louvre. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1831, but he had little success with his non-Academic landscapes until 1849, when he won a first-class medal. After the Revolution of 1848, Rousseau settled in the village of Barbizon with Millet, Daubigny, and others of the group that came to be known as the Barbizon School. Works in the Collection: RUISDAEL, JACOB VAN Born in Haarlem, where he had an early exposure to painting through his father’s art dealing and framing business, Ruisdael entered the painters’ guild there in 1648, presumably after studying with his uncle Salomon van Ruysdael. By 1657 he was living in Amsterdam, where he seems to have spent the rest of his life. His many paintings, drawings, and etchings are devoted entirely to landscape. Ruisdael depicted a broad range of scenery, from the flat, watery landscape around Haarlem to thickly wooded mountains and forests. Works in the Collection: Stuart was born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and received his first training in Newport with the Scottish painter Cosmo Alexander. He accompanied Alexander to Scotland, but after his teacher’s death in 1772 he returned to America. In 1775 Stuart moved to London, where soon afterward he entered the studio of his compatriot Benjamin West. Back in America in the early 1790s, Stuart became the leading portraitist of his day in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Works in the Collection: TIEPOLO, GIOVANNI BATTISTA Tiepolo's brilliant talents, especially as a decorator of palaces, villas, and churches, won him fame far beyond his native Venice; already by the age of thirty he was referred to as “celebre Pittor.” Tiepolo worked for patrons not only throughout North Italy but also in Würzburg and Madrid. A prolific artist, he painted — both in oils and in fresco — religious, historical, and mythological subjects. Works in the Collection: TITIAN (TIZIANO VECELLIO) Titian was born in the Alpine town of Pieve di Cadore; the date of his birth is uncertain. He succeeded Giovanni Bellini, under whom he had studied, as painter to the Republic of Venice, and he included among his many illustrious patrons the emperor Charles V, Charles’ son Philip II of Spain, and Pope Paul III. He died in Venice in the great plague of 1576. After Giorgione’s death in 1510, Titian was considered the greatest painter of his day in Venice. Works in the Collection: TURNER, JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM Turner entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of fourteen and began his career painting watercolours. His first employment was as a topographical draftsman, in which capacity he traveled around England in the early 1790s. In 1796 he exhibited his first oil painting, and by 1799 he was an associate member of the Royal Academy. He became a full Academician in 1802. Influenced by Reynolds and the eighteenth-century landscapist Richard Wilson, Turner intended to unite landscape with the noble genre of history painting. He traveled extensively in England and on the Continent and made innumerable sketches, many of which he used as the basis for paintings and prints. Turner’s style changed considerably over his long career, but, while his late works demonstrate the increasing dominance of abstract pictorial qualities, he never abandoned his interest in subject matter. His pictures have a poetic depth that is unsurpassed in British landscape painting. Works in the Collection: VELÁZQUEZ, DIEGO RODRÍGUEZ DE SILVA Y Born in Seville, the son of a lawyer of Portuguese descent, Velázquez was apprenticed at the age of eleven to the painter Francisco Pacheco. In 1623 he was called to Madrid, where he soon painted his first portrait of King Philip IV. Velázquez became not only court painter, but also a close friend of the King, who ennobled him and made him a knight of the Military Order of Santiago and a gentleman in waiting. His work undoubtedly profited from study of the royal collection, which was rich in works of the Venetians, and he probably also was influenced by Rubens during the latter’s visit to Madrid in 1628–29. Apart from sojourns in Italy in 1629–31 and 1649–51, Velázquez remained at the Spanish court until his death. Works in the Collection: VENEZIANO, PAOLO AND GIOVANNI Paolo Veneziano is considered the leading figure of Venetian trecento painting. Among his most important works is the painted cover for the Pala d’Oro in S. Marco, Venice (signed with his sons Luca and Giovanni and dated 1345). The 1358 Coronation of the Virgin in The Frick Collection is Paolo’s last dated work. In addition to his brother Marco and his sons Luca and Giovanni, several other artists were trained in his influential workshop. Works in the Collection: Vermeer was born in Delft and apparently spent his whole life there. Although nothing is known of his early years and training, he was influenced by the Caravaggesque painters of Utrecht and Carel Fabritius, who may have been his teacher. In 1653 he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Delft. Vermeer did not paint many pictures and sold very few, although he commanded high prices. He may have supplemented his income by art dealing. In 1696, two decades after his death, his widow sold twenty-one of his works. Only about thirty-five paintings are now accepted as being by Vermeer. Works in the Collection: VERONESE, PAOLO (PAOLO CALIARI) Paolo Caliari was called Il Veronese after his birthplace, Verona. By 1553 he was painting in Venice at the Palazzo Ducale. Thereafter, apart from trips to Mantua and Rome during the 1550s and 1560s, he worked in Venice and in neighboring towns. Veronese painted monumental religious, mythological, and allegorical works as well as portraits and magnificent decorations for the villas of patrician families. Works in the Collection: WATTEAU, JEAN-ANTOINE Born at Valenciennes, Watteau, who early displayed an interest in drawing, left for Paris to study art in 1702. After a harsh struggle to survive, he won recognition in 1709, when he garnered second prize in a student competition at the Academy. Three years later he was invited to join the Academy, and success followed swiftly. His patrons, who came from diverse levels of society, included dealers, antiquaries, and such connoisseurs as the great collector Pierre Crozat. Long frail of health, Watteau died from tuberculosis soon after a visit to London, at the age of thirty-seven. Works in the Collection: WHISTLER, JAMES McNEILL Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Whistler spent part of his childhood and most of his mature life in Europe. After three years at the West Point Military Academy, he went in 1855 to Paris, where he worked for two years in Gleyre’s studio and later became an associate of Fantin-Latour, Legros, and Courbet. He exhibited in the Salon des Refusés in 1863, and throughout his career he associated with his more experimental contemporaries. Whistler’s colourful personality and advanced style of painting involved him in many lively controversies. Works in the Collection: |
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