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| BIRTHS: 1708 BATONI
— 1585 VAN AVERCAMP |
| ^
Died on 25 January 1632: Abraham
Janssens van Nuyssen, Flemish figure and portrait painter
born in 1775. — Janssens was active mainly in Antwerp. He was in Rome in 1598 and back in Antwerp by 1601. A second visit to Italy seems likely, for although in 1601 he was painting in a Mannerist style (Diana and Callisto), by 1909 (Scaldis and Antwerpia) his work had become much more solid, sober, and classical, suggesting close knowledge of Caravaggio in particular. For the next decade Janssens was one of the most powerful and individual painters in Flanders, but during the 1620s his work became less remarkable as he fell under the all-pervasive influence of Rubens. His pupils included Gerard Seghers and Theodoor Rombouts. — LINKS — Scaldis and Antwerpia (174x308cm) _ In addition to his favorite allegorical scenes, Abraham Janssens also painted religious and mythological themes. Janssens was slightly younger than Rubens, and for a time was his equal. After his visit to Italy, however, Rubens quickly surpassed him. Janssens painted Scaldis and Antwerpia for the State Room or 'Staetencamer' of Antwerp Town Hall. This decorative, allegorical work, commissioned by the city authorities, originally adorned the chimney breast, and consists of a paean of praise to the city's main artery, the River Scheldt. The sharp contrast between light and dark recalls Caravaggio, who had a great influence upon many of the artists of the time. — Venus and Adonis (200x240cm) _ Janssens was a contemporary of Rubens. He alloyed the characteristics of the Flemish and Italian painting. |
| Born
on 25 January 1708: Pompeo-Girolamo Batoni
(or Battoni), Italian painter who died on 04 February 1787. [non “bastoni”,
per piacere!] — He was the last great Italian personality in the history of painting at Rome. He carried out prestigious church commissions and painted numerous fine mythological canvases, many for eminent foreign patrons, but he is famous above all as a portraitist. After Mengs left Rome for Madrid in 1761 his preeminence in this field was unchallenged, and he was particularly favored by foreign visitors making the Grand Tour (an extensive journey to the Continent), whom he often portrayed in an antique setting. His style was a polished and learned distillation from the antique, the works of Raphael, academic French painting, and the teaching of his master Sebastiano Conca. His characterization is not profound, but it is usually vivid, and he presented his sitters with dignity. Batoni was also an outstanding draughtsman, his drawings after the antique being particularly memorable. He was curator of the papal collections and his house was a social, intellectual, and artistic centre, Winckelmann being among his friends. — LINKS — The Ecstasy of St Catherine of Siena (1743) _ Lucca Pompeo Batoni was a very cultured man who gained international fame at an early age. He was the first Italian artist consciously to work out a formal alternative to Rococo art and Venetian painting, which he felt to be outdated. He trained in Rome where he studied Raphael and classic Renaissance art. He quickly came up with a "reform" program for painting along controlled academic lines. He set out to provide a series of paintings that could be used as a model for religious art. In his paintings each figure is posed in a composed fashion. With the work of his rival Anton Raphael Mengs, Batoni's art marked the first beginnings of Neo-Classicism, in an urbane, highly polished, if very derivative manner. If we compare works on similar subjects (for example The Ecstasy of St. Francis by Piazzetta), we can measure the cultural change that Batoni was proposing.The great sense of movement contained in compositions by artists in the first half of the century could also be seen in the speed with which they painted. This was now subjected to a rigorous check. Everything was controlled and expressed in impeccable form at the cost of losing much emotional intensity. After the middle of the century, this academic way became the main influence on painting in central Italy. — Holy Family (1777, 226x150cm) _ One of the most important works of the artist. In the painting, the naturalistic, genre-like representations of Anne and Joseph are contrasted with the idealized portraits of Mary and the Child. — Sensuality (1747, 138x100cm) _ There is a companion-piece to this painting: Time Orders Old Age to Destroy Beauty. The two paintings, commissioned by Bartolomeo Talenti, are mentioned together in a letter of the artist. — Sir Gregory Page-Turner (1768, 135x99cm) [he is not shown turning pages for a pianist, nor was that his occupation or that of any of his ancestors, as far as is known] |
| Died
on 25 January 1896: Lord Frederick Leighton,
English Pre-Raphaelite
painter and sculptor born on 03 December 1830. [photo]
— The acknowledged leader of the Victorian classical school of painting, Frederic Leighton was born in Scarborough, the son of a doctor. His grandfather, Sir James Leighton, was court physician to Czar Alexander I of Russia; and Sir James' son was also a doctor. Soon after Nicholas I became Czar in 1825 the Leighton family left Russia and spent the ensuing years traveling around Europe, giving their only son, Frederic, first-hand acquaintance with its cultural and artistic treasures. Unlike most major artists of the nineteenth century Leighton did not study at the Royal Academy Schools, but received his training in Brussels, Paris and Frankfurt. In 1852 he went to live in Rome, where he moved in a large artistic circle which included Thackeray, Robert Browning and some of the most important French painters of the time. On his return to England in 1855, his historical painting Cimabue's Madonna Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence was shown at the Royal Academy, where it received a rapturous reception from the critics and was later bought by Queen Victoria. It was the start of what was to be a glittering career that took him to the very heights of his profession. Leighton settled in London in 1860 and in 1868 turned to painting subjects from mythology. His decision to abandon historical paintings coincided with a sudden upsurge of interest in Hellenism; even women's evening wear was influenced, Greek gowns that gave women a new-found freedom of movement becoming fashionable. Leighton suddenly found himself the centre of attention, with his paintings the talk of London. He was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1878, and became a baron in 1896 (full title = Baron Leighton of Stretton), the only English artist to receive this honor. But by then he was a sick man who was suffering from angina. He died in 1896. His will included a bequest of £10,000 to the Royal Academy. The poet Algernon Swinburne composed a memorial elegy: 'A light has passed that never shall pass away A sun has set whose rays are unequalled in might'. Although at the time of his death Leighton was something of a national institution, his reputation quickly declined and his work and all that he stood for became objects of derision. It was to be another 60-70 years before his work would come into fashion again. Leighton's beautiful home at 2 Holland Park Road, South Kensington, London is now a museum - Leighton House. Here you can see the opulence in which Leighton lived, and view paintings by Leighton, Burne-Jones and other Pre-Raphaelite artists, including Mariana in the South (by John William Waterhouse) and The End of the Quest (by Sir Frank Dicksee). — LINKS — Cymon and Iphigenia (1884) _ According to Leighton this painting, more than any of his other pictures, represented 'both my art and my style'. The story is taken from Boccaccio, and tells how Cymon, a wild and brutish young man, is so struck by the sight of the sleeping Iphigenia that he falls in love with her, gives up his former wild ways and marries her. [Cymon and Iphigenia caricature by Gillray (1796) _ by Millais (1848) _ by West (1773)] — Nausicaa — Pavonia (1859) The model for this painting was Nanna Risi who eventually married the German painter Anselm Feuerbach. — Lieder Ohne Wörte (1861, 102x63cm) _ Leighton commented that in this picture he sought 'to translate to the eye of the spectator something of the pleasure which the child receives through here ears.' — The Garden of the Hesperides (1892) _ According to legend, the garden island of the Hesperides was where the daughters of Hesperus sang a lullaby to the dragon guarding the golden apples, which were later to be stolen by Hercules. — Flaming June (1895, 47x47cm) _ The model for this painting was Dorothy Dene, who was the inspiration for Leighton's work from the mid 1880s. Flaming June is an excellent example of the lack of respect given to Victorian art between the years 1920-70. This painting was put up for auction in the 1960s and failed to meet its reserve price of $140. It was then promptly snapped up by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico. Thirty years later, in 1990, Leighton's Dante in Exile fetched £1'000'000 at auction - an illustration of how fashion dictates the art market. — A Girl with a Basket of Fruit (1863) — Acme and Septimus — Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore (1868) — Bacchante (1895) — Clytie (1892) — Clytie (1896) — Daedalus and Icarus (1869) — Greek Girls Playing Ball (1889) — Helen of Troy — Idyll (1881) — Invocation — Lachrymae (1895) — Light of the Harem (1880) — Mother and Child — Odalisque (1862) — Perseus and Andromeda (1891) — Perseus on Pegasus Hastening to the Rescue of Andromeda (1896) — Return of Persephone (1891) — Seaside Flowers — Solitude — Sybil — The Bath of Psyche (1890) — The Fisherman and the Siren (1858) — The Golden Hours — The Maid with the Golden Hair (1895) — The Music Lesson (1877) — The Painter’s Honeymoon (1864) — The Spirit of the Summit (1894) — Venus Disrobing for the Bath (1867) — Winding the Skein (1878) |
| Born
on 25 January 1585: Hendrick van Avercamp “de
Stomme van Kampen”, Dutch painter who died in 1664 give or
take a year. — Active in Kampen, he was the most famous exponent of the winter landscape. He was deaf and dumb and known as “the mute of Kampen”. His paintings are colorful and lively, with carefully observed skaters, tobogganers, golfers, and pedestrians Avercamp's work enjoyed great popularity and he sold his drawings, many of which are tinted with watercolor, as finished pictures to be pasted into the albums of collectors. His nephew and pupil Barent Avercamp (1612-79) carried on his style in an accomplished manner. — LINKS — Enjoying the Ice (1634) — Winter Landscape with Iceskaters (1608) — River Landscape (18x28cm) _ After an apprenticeship in Amsterdam with portrait and historical painter Pieter Isaacsz., Hendrick Avercamp began to specialise in painting winter landscapes. In composing these he drew on a large supply of sketches of individual figures drawn from life. These rapid sketches of people going about their daily activities and pastimes on the ice or in the open field also served for composing, back in the studio, more developed, colored drawings such as this River Landscape. His lively pen, the bright color contrasts and the spatial continuity between the foreground and middle ground provide this scene with a freshness characteristic of the innovative middle period of Avercamp's career. The drawing attracts us with its narrative and realistic style. It is also very ingeniously structured, as can be seen in the skilful positioning of the man on the shore in the left-hand foreground, and in the lively interaction between the wind-swelled sails of the smaller and larger ships. The fishermen look on motionless, revealing the sober, at times humorous but never mocking eye that Avercamp casts on his surroundings. The contours of the figures are drawn in pen and the intervening space is carefully filled in with water color and bodycolor. Avercamp probably borrowed the use of aquarelle and gouache from Jan Brueghel the Elder and the Flemish emigrants living in Amsterdam, such as Hans Bol, Jacob Savery and David Vinckboons, whose works he had got to know during his apprenticeship with Pieter Isaacsz. Avercamp was one of the first Dutch draughtsmen who in the early 17th century developed this aquarelle technique specifically as a separate, independent art form. His pen drawings, illuminated with water colors, were so carefully finished and richly detailed that they were highly sought after by connoisseurs and art lovers. Indeed some were not, as was customary, kept in albums, but glued to panels and framed, and hung as a cheap alternative to paintings. Avercamp directed his efforts not only at the local art market in and around Kampen, but also and in particular at that of Amsterdam, where, according to contemporary documents, he was held in high renown. — A Scene on the Ice near a Town (1615, 58x90cm) _ Hendrick Avercamp was known as de stom van Kampen (the mute of Kampen) because he was dumb. He was baptized in the Old Church in Amsterdam on 27 January 1585 but in the following year his parents moved to Kampen where his father was the town apothecary. Avercamp seems to have trained in Amsterdam with Pieter Isaacsz., who was a history painter, portraitist and draughtsman in an elegant, late Mannerist style quite unlike that of Avercamp. Avercamp's manner is based in the first place on that of the Flemish followers of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and he presumably came into contact with some of his followers who had settled in Amsterdam, such as David Vinckboons. Avercamp developed the style of Bruegel and Vinckboons in the direction of more decorative effects, creating scenes crammed with small figures and full of incident. He also possessed a refined sense of color, carefully placing pinks, reds, blacks and whites with touches of yellow and green to create delicate and subtle effects. He principally painted winter scenes and made many watercolors of these and of fishermen and peasants: a large group of these watercolors is in the Royal Collection. There are dated paintings by Avercamp from 1608 until 1632 but they show relatively little development in style: the earlier paintings are more 'Flemish', that is, closer to Bruegel and his followers; but once he had mastered a successful style Avercamp saw little need to change it substantially. The dating of paintings which do not bear a date is therefore difficult but this particular winter landscape appears to be from about 1615. It has been supposed that the building on the right is the Half Moon Brewery at Kampen but only a few barrels outside suggest it is a brewery, and the vaguely indicated town in the distance does not seem to be Kampen. The tower is closer to that of the Sint Cunerakerk in Rhenen. Avercamp was buried in the Sint Nicolaaskerk in Kampen on 15 May 1634. His nephew, Barent Pietersz. Avercamp, who also lived and worked for much of his life in Kampen, was a close follower, as was Arent Arentsz. of Amsterdam. — Winter Scene on a Canal _ Avercamp spent most of his life in the small quiet town of Kampen on the eastern shore of the Zuider Zee. Residence relatively far from the principal artistic centres of the Netherlands helps to explain why this delightful artist, who discovered the pictorial qualities of flat landscapes and was the first to specialize in winter scenes of outdoor sport and leisure, had little influence on the development of Dutch landscape painting. Avercamp's pictures peopled with motley crowds of all ages and classes skating, sledging, golfing, and fishing on the frozen canals of Holland fascinate social historians as well as art historians. The latter sometimes find him a troublesome painter, because it is difficult to trace his development. The plain fact seems to be that he did not have a marked one. From the very beginning he could paint a landscape with a high horizon, a great accumulation of detail, and a number of light colors, or one with a low horizon, few details, and vivid colors in the foreground which lighten as they recede to the distance. The two possibilities existed simultaneously and could be used at will until the end of his career, depending on either the artist's, or his patron's predilections. — Winter Landscape (1610, 25x34cm) _ Avercamp's early Winter Landscape, with its general view and colorful narrative character, is very much in the tradition of the famous winter landscapes by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. But Avercamp's winter landscapes painted after the 1620s - reflecting the trends of the period - are composed with the now fashionable low horizon and vanishing-point perspective. |
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