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Born on 31 December 1753: Abraham van
Stry I, Dutch artist who died on 07 March 1826. Abraham van Stry (1753-1826) was a painter of oils and watercolors born in Dordrecht. A versaitile painter, van Stry first made still life scenes of flowers and fruit. Later, obliged to assist his father, Leendert van Stry, he began to make history paintings and landscapes. Van Stry painted interiors and genre scenes in the style of Gabriel Metsu and Pieter de Hooch, and his landscapes reveal a close study of Cuyp. Van Stry also painted illusionistic grisaille imitations of marble reliefs, a popular decor in the Netherlands since the Renaissance. These were known as "witjes" ("wit" or white) after Jacob de Wit (1695-1754), who gained international renown in this style. In 1774 Abraham van Stry founded the society "Pictura" of Dordrecht. Beginning in 1818 he was a member of the Antwerp Academy. His works earned several prizes in Paris and London. Young Sweethearts (36x46cm) _ This is a genre scene of the type popular in eighteenth-century Holland. Middle-class patrons delighted in their status and possessions, and enjoyed painted representations of this kind |
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Born on 31 December 1842: Giovanni
Boldini, Italian painter who died on 12 January 1931. Fils d'un artiste de Ferrare spécialisé dans la peinture religieuse, Boldini apprit son art à l'Académie de Florence et fit la connaissance au café Michelangelo du groupe des Macchiaioli, qui aiguisèrent son sens de la touche libre et des rapports colorés intenses. Le choix facile des sujets, une facture brillante et minutieuse, une touche onctueuse, ont concouru au vif succès qu'il connut au cours de ses séjours à Londres et à Paris (1869 - 1871), consacrant sa vocation mondaine. Fixé définitivement à Paris en 1872, il se mêla au cercle des peintres qui fréquentaient le Salon. Il commença alors la célèbre série de ses portraits parisiens. Son coup de pinceau plus libre et plus nerveux annonce son style définitif, cette manière fiévreuse et elliptique qui s'épanouira pleinement vers 1886, au moment où il devient une célébrité du monde parisien, avec ses amis le peintre Helleu et le dessinateur Sem. Au cours des décennies suivantes, les plus prestigieuses personnalités du Paris de la fin du siècle posèrent devant lui. The Misses Muriel and Consuelo Vanderbilt Mrs. Graham Fair Vanderbilt Mrs. Whitney Warren, Sr (1908) Madame X (1907) Cafe Scene (1887) Portrait Study of a Woman Portrait of Whistler Asleep (1897) Lady Colin Campbell (1897) Count Robert de Montesquieu (1897) Parigi di Notte Reclining Nude (55x74cm) Madame Charles Max - Count Robert de Montesquiou Henri Rochefort Cecilia de Madrazo Fortuny (115x69cm) |
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Born on 31 December 1869:
Henri Matisse, French painter who died on 03
November 1954. |
Icarus
(1947, 42x26cm) _ This bold and playful image is one of twenty plates
Matisse created to illustrate his groundbreaking book Jazz.
The illustrations derive from maquettes of cut and pasted colored
papers, which were then printed using a stencil technique known as
"pochoir." Here, the mythological figure Icarus is presented in a
simplified form floating against a royal blue nighttime sky. Matisse's
flat, abstracted forms and large areas of pure color marked an important
change in the direction of his later work and ultimately influenced
"hard-edge" artists of the 1960s like Ellsworth
Kelly and Al
Held. (*) Soror Mariana Alcoforado (1640-1723) nasceu e faleceu em Beja. Era uma religiosa que professou no Convento da Conceição em Beja, tendo sido escrivã e vigária do mesmo convento. Foi-lhe atribuída a autoria das Lettres Portugaises, publicadas em Paris em 1669 por Claude Barbin. No mesmo ano são publicadas em Colónia com o título Lettres d'amour d'une religieuse portugaise. Nesta última edição, uma nota informa que as cartas foram dirigidas ao cavaleiro de Chamilly e tinham sido traduzidas para francês por Guilleragues. Boissonade faz saber em 1810 que encontrou um manuscrito das cartas que indica que a autora das mesmas se chamava «Mariana Alcaforada, religiosa em Beja». Os investigadores actuais duvidam, no entanto, da atribuição desta autoria. As cartas tiveram várias traduções para português Les Lettres portugaises traduites en français ont paru, sans nom d'auteur, le 04 janvier 1669, chez le libraire Claude Barbin, "au Palais, sur le second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle". L'auteur en serait un certain chevalier de Guilleragues, dont on ne connaît que ce seul texte. |