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DEATHS:
1876 DIAZ — 1630 VAN DE VELDE
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| ^ Born
on 18 November 1736: Anton Graff “van Dyck
of Germany”, Swiss German painter specialized in portraits who
died on 22 June 1813. — Graff, born in Switzerland, was the leading German portrait painter of the 18th century. He was a younger contemporary of Reynolds, with whom he is often compared but Graff really belongs to a later generation, since most of his portraits lack the trappings of the Grand Style, and he worked almost into the Biedermeier period. He was in Augsburg by 1756 and removed to Dresden in 1766 to teach at the newly founded Academy. He recorded himself as having painted some 1,240 portraits in his long career and his sitters included many of the most famous of his contemporaries - Lessing, Herder, Schiller (whom he records as having fidgeted the whole time). He also made some 322 portrait drawings in silver point, a very rare technique in the 18th century. Some fragments of an autobiography were posthumously published in 1815. — LINKS — Self-Portrait at the Age of 58 (1794, 168x105cm) _ The artist abandoned the idealized portraiture of the Rococo period and specialized in half-length portraits with naturalistic poses and subdued tones. |
| ^
Died on 18 November 1876: Narcisse
Virgile Diaz de la Peña ,
French Barbizon School painter specialized in landscapes born on 20 August
1807. — Born of Spanish parents, in 1825 he became a decorator of porcelain at Arsène Gillet's factory where he met Jules Dupré, Gillet's nephew. In the late 1820s he began painting his first oils, perhaps receiving lessons from François Souchon (1787-1857). He also copied and was much influenced by the paintings of Correggio (1494-1534) and Prud'hon. His small-scale richly colored landscapes, mythological scenes and scènes de fantaisie were popular with collectors. One of the leading figures of the Barbizon school of landscape painters, his later career was much influenced by his friend Théodore Rousseau, with whom he often painted in the forest of Fontainebleau. — LINKS — Forêt de Fontainbleau (1867) — Three Gypsies in a Clearing — Gypsies in a Forest (1851) — Fleurs — Wood Interior (1852) — Les Maléfices de la beauté — Les Folles Amoureuses — Les Fous Amoureux — Autumn — Seraglio — Stormy Sunset — Woodland Pond |
| ^ Born
on 18 November 1785: Sir David Wilkie, Scottish
painter who died on 01 June 1841. — Wilkie was born in Cults manse in Fife in 1785. In 1799, he was sent to study at the Trustees’ Academy in Edinburgh and on his return home in 1804, painted his Pitlessie Fair. The Village Politicians (1806) was of great success which made him settle in London. In 1817, he visited Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, and painted his family group. His fame mainly rests on his genre pictures in the Dutch style, such as the Distraining for Rent (1815), The Penny Wedding (1818), The Letter of Introduction (1818) and others. Later he changed his style, tried to imitate the depth and richness of coloring of the old masters and chose more elevated historical subjects, like The Preaching of John Knox before the Lords of Congregation, 10 June 1559. He also painted portraits William Chalmers-Bethune, his wife Isabella Morison and their Daughter Isabella (1804), and was successful as an etcher. In 1823, he was appointed King’s limner in Scotland, and in 1830 painter-in-ordinary to King William IV. In 1840, for his health, he visited Syria, Palestine and Egypt, but died on his voyage home. — LINKS — The Blind Tenant — The Blind Fiddler (1806) — The Artist's Family before the Portrait of Johann Georg Sulzer (1785) |
| ^ Died
on 18 November 1630: Esaias van de Velde, Dutch
painter specialized in landscapes, born in 1589 give or take a couple
of years. — Van de Velde painted genre and battle pictures, but is best known for his realistic landscapes, by which he helped establish the Dutch school of realistic landscape painting. His use of composition and color in works such as Dune Landscape (1629) were especially influential. He worked in Haarlem 1610-18 and then in The Hague where he was Court Painter to the Prince Maurits and Frederick Hendrick, until his death. Jan van Goyen was his pupil. There were other artists in his family, but he was not related to the family of Willem van de Velde. [marine painters and landscapists including Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-93), his son Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), Adriaen van de Velde (1636-72) brother of Willem the Younger] — LINKS — Landscape with Gallows, near Haarlem (1616) — Landscape with Trees (1619) — Spaarnwoude (1615) — The Cattle Ferry (1622) — Ferry Boat (1622, 76x113cm) _ Between 1607 and 1640, entrepreneurs and engineers drained vast lakes in the province of Holland, thus creating acres of new arable land. New villages sprung up in these low-lying "polders," protected only by dikes and pumps, driven by the readily available wind power of the flat countryside. At the same time, entrepreneurs created an efficient system of transportation along rivers and canals, as this painting of Esaias van de Velde attests. — Winter Landscape (1623, 26x30cm) _ In 1612 two landscape artists, Hercules Seghers and Esaias van de Velde joined the painters' guild in Haarlem, and it is from that year that the origins of realistic landscape painting in the north Netherlands can be dated. Esaias was born in Amsterdam in about 1590 and probably trained in the studio of Gillis van Coninxloo, an Antwerp landscape painter and follower of Pieter Bruegel the Elder; who had fled to the north as a Protestant refugee from the war in Flanders. Esaias van de Velde developed Coninxloo's style in the direction of greater realism. As can be seen in this small panel of 1623, his mature style is characterized by a striking naturalism created by free brushwork and a deliberately restricted palette. The mannerisms of Flemish landscape have disappeared to leave an image which conveys all the crispness of an icy winter day in Holland. The figures are sketched in sure, quick strokes, the landscape evoked in pigments thinly scraped across the still-visible gesso ground. Van de Velde also studied the work of Adam Elsheimer, the German painter who moved to Rome in the first decade of the seventeenth century. Esaias would have known Elsheimer's paintings in the form of prints and it is from them that he derives his low viewpoint and the triangular composition. At the same time as the powerful and naturalistic landscapes of Seghers and Esaias van de Velde were being created in Haarlem, Esaias's cousin, Jan van de Velde, was at work in the town engraving his delicate landscapes, and Cornelis Vroom was creating his understated but remarkably innovative paintings and prints based on the countryside around the town. Among Esaias's pupils was Jan van Goyen who was further to develop and refine his master's style. — View of Zierikzee (1618, 27x40cm) _ In this landscape a great natural effect is achieved by the artist. There is the outline of the town, occupying almost all the horizon, in a not too distant view, and painted almost exclusively in dark tones of brown, as one might see the silhouette of a town in the failing light of dusk, with only a few patches of very dark green in the river bank. The sky is a liquid blue, with stray clouds which by their diagonal sweep define and emphasize the sky's width. The sky and the town are reflected in the calm water. In the foreground is the near bank with fishermen. Their silhouettes, and the strong red color worn by the middle one, are points against which the vast space beyond may be measured. The surprise of this brilliant painting lies in Esaias's total matter-of-factness. All chances to embellish the picture, to make it more attractive to contemporary Late Mannerist taste, have been passed by. The painting is deliberately dry, almost to the point of fanaticism, and that is why it contains, already at this early date, the complete program of realist landscape: the low viewpoint, the wide space, the horizon, the sky, the little figures as spatial points of reference. |
| ^ Born
on 18 November 1584: Gaspar de Crayer, Flemish
artist who died on 27 January 1669. — LINKS — Altar — Alexander and Diogenes (196x278cm) _ The meeting between the classical ruler Alexander the Great and the philosopher Diogenes had been illustrated in the 15th and 16th centuries but was also a popular subject in Italian and Netherlands Baroque painting. Diogenes replied to Alexander, the conqueror of the world, when he asked him if he wanted anything: "Stand a little less between me and the sun." The contrast between the youthful and beautiful hero and the beggarly old man whose life exemplified asceticism is exploited in the composition and use of colors. The message of the painting is the meaninglessness of earthly power when confronted with ethical principles. The Antwerp artist de Crayer later became court painter to the archduke in Brussels. This work, reflecting his dealing with forms and themes in the work of Rubens, is one of his best. — The Cardinal Infante (1639, 219x125cm) _ Crayer was a pupil and continuator of Rubens, also influenced by Van Dyck. He was the accredited painter for the churches of Brabant and Ghent. — Head Study of a Young Moor (40x33cm) _ Rubens' style was imitated by many 17th-century artists, who devoted themselves to large-scale ecclesiastical commissions. Gaspar de Crayer, a Brussels master who settled in Ghent in 1664, was one of the most talented members of this group. A series of his paintings can be seen in local churches. De Crayer's best work is marked by the grandeur of its composition. Although he lacked Rubens' drive, he made up for it somewhat with his refined modeling and soft palette, and never descended into the tedium of most Rubens imitators |
| ^ Born
on 18 November 1573: Ambrosius Bosschaert I,
Flemish painter specialized in still life and flowers, who died in 1621.
— Flemish flower and still-life painter, active mainly in the Netherlands, where he is recorded in Middelburg from 1593 to 1613 and later in the Utrecht Guild in 1616. Although he spent the major part of his life in the Netherlands, Bosschaert's style was basically Flemish - similar to that of Jan Brueghel, with whom he ranks in quality and as one of the pioneers of flower painting as an independent genre. His bouquets have a rich variety of flowers from different seasons arranged in a formal way. The degree of finish and exactitude, and the subtlety of the color, are exceptional. His Vase of Flowers (1620) is one of the most reproduced of all flower pieces. Bosschaert may fairly be said to have initiated the Dutch tradition of flower painting and his style was continued by his three sons, Ambrosius the Younger (1609-45), Abraham (1613-43), and Johannes (1610-1650), and also by his brother-in-law, Balthasar van der Ast. — LINKS — Still Life with Flowers in a Wan-Li vase (1619) — Bouquet of Flowers (1620, 23x17cm) _ Analysis of the flower pieces made by Bosschaert and other flower painters of his time reveals that their bouquets were seldom painted from life. They were assembled from a number of independent studies which serve as patterns. The pictures frequently show blossoms which bloom at different seasons of the year, and it is not unusual to find the same flower, shell, or insect in more than one picture. This manner of composing flower pieces was continued by later artists. — Bouquet in an Arched Window (1620) _ One of the oldest types of still-life is the flower piece. It seems that flower painting was established as an independent category in the Netherlands during the third quarter of the sixteenth century, with the rise of a widespread interest in gardening and the cultivation of exotic flowers. The principal member of the group of flower painters during the first decades of the seventeenth century was Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, the founder of a dynasty of flower and fruit painters. His prime work is the brilliantly colored Bouquet in an Arched Window. Jacob de Gheyn II and Roelandt Savery painted similar multicolored bouquets in niches, but only Bosschaert showed flowers against an open vista. The painting's exquisite attention to detail recalls works by miniaturists. Of Baroque chiaroscuro there is not a trace. Each bloom in his typically axial symmetrical arrangement is given equal attention and is minutely analyzed in an even light. Analysis of the flower pieces made by Bosschaert and other flower painters of his time reveals that their bouquets were seldom painted from life. They were assembled from a number of independent studies which serve as patterns. The pictures frequently show blossoms which bloom at different seasons of the year, and it is not unusual to find the same flower, shell, or insect in more than one picture. This manner of composing flower pieces was continued by later artists. Moreover, the huge bouquets are usually far too large for the roemers or vases that hold them. If set up in the studio they would surely topple over. |
| ^ Born
on 18 November 1882: Percy Wyndham Lewis, Canadian
British writer and painter, born on a yatch near Amherst, Nova Scotia.
He died on 07 March 1957 in London. — Lewis founded the abstract Vorticist movement, which, in painting and literature before WW I, sought to relate art to the industrial process. (Tarr, Apes of God). Lewis went to England and was educated at Rugby School and the Slade School of Art (1898-1901). After leaving art college Lewis spent the next seven years in Europe. When he returned to England in 1909 he began publishing stories, essays, novels and plays. In 1912 Lewis became the founder of Vorticism, a literary and artistic movement. Members of the group included Charles Nevinson, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, William Roberts and Alvin Langdon Coburn. In his journal, Blast (1914-15), Lewis attacked the sentimentality of 19th century art and emphasized the value of violence, energy and the machine. In the visual arts Vorticism was expressed in abstract compositions of bold lines, sharp angles and planes. From 1916 to 1918 Lewis served on the Western Front as a battery officer. He was also commissioned by Lord Beaverbrook and the Canadian War Memorials Fund to paint A Canadian Gun Pit. However, his most famous war painting is A Battery Shelled. Lewis later wrote an account of his experiences in the war entitled, Blasting and Bombardiering (1937). After the First World War Lewis developed right-wing views and was sympathetic to the political changes taking place in Germany and Italy. On the outbreak of the Second World War returned to Canada. In 1951 Lewis went blind and was forced to give up painting. In his later years he concentrated on writing, this included the autobiographical Self-Condemned (1954) and The Human Age (1955). Percy Wyndham Lewis died in 1957. — ART LINKS — A Canadian Gun-Pit (1918, 305x362cm) _ A Battery Shelled (1918, 183x318cm) — Despite the difference in format and the - less obvious - difference in style, these two works may be considered as being two moments from the same story. Through his training, Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) belonged to the Vorticists, the London branch of the Cubo-Futurists. Along with the poet Ezra Pound, he edited the magazine Blast and stood out as a leader of that movement, if only because of his provocative stances and his taste for controversy. In March 1916, he signed up in the artillery. In May 1917, he met Orpen and, paradoxically modeling his style on this painter whose art he considered outmoded, he in turn became "official army painter" with the Canadian and later British troops. This took him to the Vimy sector, before he transcribed his observations onto monumental formats. A Canadian Gun-Pit and A Battery shelled are examples of this original enterprise - at the risk of disconcerting, Lewis combined the geometrical stylization of Vorticism and more immediately figurative elements, close to the portrait for instance. The former offers a wealth of detail, with the sheet metal of the dugouts, the mechanisms of the gun, the uniforms and camouflage nets. The latter is more elliptical; a group on the left observes impassively the devastation caused by the bombing as a dead gunner is buried by his comrades. More deliberately modernist in tone, it is based on a plastic language of angles, lines, changes of scale and schematization of silhouettes. These paintings are thus the product of one of the rare attempts at inventing a modern style of war painting._ Wyndham Lewis endeavors to show the war in terms of energy - Battery Shelled - in which the symbolism dominates, in which men lose their human form in action; chimneys wave and bend, and the very shells zigzag in lumps and masses across the sky. |
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