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Died
on 04 January 1778: Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen,
French artist born on 17 August 1720. — Charles Eisen is best known as an illustrator of vignettes, which are small, ornamental images with no defined borders that are most often used in books (also on a snuff box). His charm and grace, as well as his sense of humor and wit, brought him to the attention of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV. Through Madame de Pompadour's considerable influence with the King, Eisen became a court painter and also a professor at the Acadèmie de Saint-Luc. Perhaps most importantly, he gave private instruction in drawing to Madame Pompadour herself. Eisen's popularity at the court insured that he would enjoy patronage among the aristocracy. His sure sense of line and use of brilliant color, in combination with his sense of humor and understanding of extravagant courtly tastes, resulted in paintings such as Le chien dansant. A young boy and girl, both fashionably dressed and coiffed, play with a pet that they have dressed up for their own amusement. Though The Dancing Dog is clearly a delightful and playful picture, it is also possible that Eisen is secretly making light of the aristocratic tastes which supported him. — LINKS — Allegorical Composition — Le Chien Dansant |
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Died on 04 January 1880: Anselm
Feuerbach, German Neoclassical painter born on 12 August
1829. — LINKS — Self-Portrait — Iphigenie (1872) _ detail _ Öl auf Leinwand Iphigenie, vom Vater Agamemnon der erzürnten Artemis geopfert, wurde von dieser aus Mitleid vom Altar auf die Insel Tauris entrückt und musste ihr dort als Priesterin dienen. Feuerbach fühlte sich, wie er sagte, zum »Antik-Gewaltigen« berufen und wurde zum wichtigsten Repräsentanten eines monumentalen Neoklassizismus in der deutschen Malerei. Wie eine antike Statue ist das Modell Lucia Brunacci, ab 1866 Nannas Nachfolgerin, in großer Pose platziert, wie Goethes Iphigenie »das Land der Griechen mit der Seele suchend«. Grau in grau mit wenigen Akzenten erinnert die Farbigkeit an antike Fresken. Inszeniert wie auf einer Bühne, wurde dieses Bild der unerfüllten Sehnsucht zum charakteristischen und häufig reproduzierten Motiv einer ganzen Epoche. — Ruhende Nymphe (1870, 112x190cm) _ Die Komposition der "Ruhenden Nymphe" knüpft an den Typus der Schlafenden Venus von Giorgione an - eine Verkörperung der in sich ruhenden Natur. Ihre göttliche Beseeltheit bringt Feuerbach durch das Motiv des Schmetterlings zum Ausdruck. Den Schmetterling - in der Antike ein Sinnbild für die Seele und ihrer Sehnsucht nach dem göttlichen Ursprung - hat er in die Mittelachse der Komposition gesetzt. Statt mit einer Quelle oder einem Brunnen bringt er die Nymphe mit der Weite des Meeres in Verbindung, womit er den angestrebten Eindruck mythologischer Größe unterstreicht. — Mandolinenspieler (1868, 137x98cm) (centered on the mother and the baby listening) |
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Died on 04 January 1845: Louis-Léopold
Boilly, French portrait and genre painter born on 05 July
1761. — Boilly's work illustrated everyday life during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire. Sensitive command of media, color, and composition. Boilly's only teacher was his father, Arnould Boilly, a wood-carver. Boilly came to Paris for the first time in 1785, and remained there permanently. He is said to have painted over 5000 portraits, besides other works. — LINKS — Portrait of a Child (46x38cm) — La Paresse (1824) — Diane et Médor (1829) (2 dogs in human poses) — Portrait Studies (1795) — Study for "La vaccine" (1807) — Les Antiquaires — Les Lunettes, — Finissez Donc, (Le Baiser) (color lithograph, 16x20cm) — Young Woman Ironing (1800) — Madame Vincent (1820) — Sarah Bowdoin (1805, 22x17cm) — The Geography Lesson (1812, 74x59cm) _ Louis-Léopold Boilly was the most gifted genre painter in France during the Napoleonic era and one of the period's most prolific portraitists. Boilly exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon (the State-sponsored exhibition of contemporary art) between 1800 and 1814 and won the recognition of a gold medal of the first class in 1804. This double portrait, shown both at the Salons of 1812 and 1814, depicts Monsieur Gaudry, a civil servant, instructing his daughter in geography. Boilly, as a close family friend, observed the girl's lessons many times. Even the little dog can be identified as "Brusquet," much admired in the family because his constant barking had once succeeded in scaring away a band of thieves who had broken into the Finance Ministry. Historical geography was promoted as a field of study for both boys and girls in Napoleonic France, the maps of whose territories were subject to frequent revision with each new conquest. Here the sphinx and pyramid in the cartouche of the map no doubt refer to Napoleon's Egyptian expedition of 1798-1801; the globe shows Europe and Africa. Moreover, The Geography Lesson portrays a theme popular in the Dutch seventeenth-century paintings that Boilly emulated: the proper duty of parents to nurture and instruct their children [which is better than to torture and destruct them].. |
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Died on 04 January 1607: Gillis
van Coninxloo (or Konimksloo) III van, Flemish painter born
on 24 January 1544. — Van Coninxloo was a landscape painter whose works show the transition from Mannerist to early Baroque landscape. Coninxloo studied under, among others, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, a painter of the Antwerp school of Mannerism. After a period of travel in France, he returned to Antwerp in 1570 and was made a member of the painters' guild. He left his home again in 1585 to escape religious persecution and stayed at Frankenthal in the Palatinate until 1595, when he settled in Amsterdam. The development of Coninxloo's style is often described in three periods that somewhat correspond with his residence in Antwerp (1570-88), Frankenthal (1588-95), and Amsterdam (1595-1606). His earlier works are deliberately composed landscape fantasies reflecting the influence of the Italianate Flemish landscapist Paul Bril. Coninxloo's later landscapes are more naturalistic and are characterized by their blending of color into a harmonious atmospheric tone. — LINKS — Landscape with Leto and Peasants of Lykia (144x 204cm) _ The main subject of the painting is the landscape. The scene in the foreground is only a decoration; it depicts a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses: the peasants are changed to frogs because they did not give water to Leko. The figures of the scene were painted by Hendrick de Clerck. — Mountain Landscape with River Valley and the Prophet Hosea (20x29cm) _ The subject of this landscape is a moralistic one with a reference to a passage from the Bible, more specifically the Old Testament book of Hosea. The drawing is believed to have been done in Frankenthal, a small town in the Pfalz mountains where an important artists' colony sprang up after the fall of Antwerp to the Spanish in 1585. Many of the artists who settled there were Flemings sympathetic to the Reformation, who had been forced into exile because of their Protestant faith. Some years later, a number of them, including Gillis van Coninxloo, moved to Amsterdam. Protestant artists worked in Frankenthal in a reformed environment, which was naturally reflected in the subjects they chose to paint. That is certainly the case with this drawing. The Prophet Hosea opposed what he saw as abuses in the field of worship, making him a symbolic precursor of early Protestant leaders. Gillis van Coninxloo is viewed as an innovator in Flemish landscape painting. Above all, he represents the transition from the Mannerist to the Baroque landscape. The watercolour of the prophet Hosea is still done entirely in his early Mannerist style. Van Coninxloo went on to master and develop a variety of styles in his life. His influence on his contemporaries was crucial, and was felt by both Flemish and Dutch painters. In many ways, he helped Northern Netherlandish art embark on its search for a new, distinct identity. — Landscape (24x19cm) |
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