Greek-born Spanish Mannerist Painter, 1541-1614 Considered a representative of late Renaissance Spanish art, El Greco was actually born in Greece, on the island of Crete. After studying in Venice under Titian, El Greco settled in Toledo, Spain in 1577. At the time he was wildly popular, his emotionally religious paintings being just the ticket for the hometown of the Spanish Inquisition. After his death his work was largely ignored until the beginning of the 20th century; now he considered one of the inspired geniuses of Western art. His distinctive style features bold shapes and colors, with elongated and slightly distorted figures. In Toledo El Greco was in constant demand and liked living large: he maintained a private orchestra to accompany his meals.  Related Paintings of El Greco :. | The Crucifixion with two donors | Vincenzo Anastagi | The Agony in the Garden | Self Portrait 1 | Hl. Familie |
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Vicente Carducho
(in Spanish, sometimes Vicencio or Vicente Carducho; 1568-1638) was an Italian painter. He was born in Florence, and was trained as a painter by his brother Bartolomeo, whom he followed to Madrid as a boy. He Initially painted some works at Valladolid and helped his brother in painting at the Escorial for Philip II of Spain. He returned to the court of Philip III in Madrid in 1606 and helped decorate the recently rebuilt Palacio del Pardo. While at work his brother died, and Vicente took his place. He painted there a history of Achilles. When finished, he was employed for four years by the monks of the Chartreuse of el Paular to decorate their monastery with 55 canvases of historical figures the great cloister. 27 represent the live of St. Bruno, 27 of martyrs. He worked a great deal for the subsequent monarch, Philip IV, and his best pictures are those he executed for him as decorations in the Prado. Examples of his work are preserved at Toledo, Segovia, and several other Spanish cities. For many years he labored in Madrid as a teacher of his art, and among his pupils were Giovanni Ricci, Pedro Obregon, Vela,[disambiguation needed ] Francisco Collantes, and other distinguished representatives of the Spanish school during the 17th century. He also authored a treatise, De las Excelencias de la Pintura or Dielogos de la pintura, su defensa, origen, essencia, definicien, modos, y differencias, published in 1633. Written in classical tradition as a dialogue between a master and an apprentice. Following strict piety of the Spanish realm,
Cornelis Holsteyn
(1618 - 2 December 1658) was a Dutch Golden Age painter from Haarlem. According to the RKD he was a painter of historical allegories, portraits, and interior decorations, trained by his father Pieter Holsteyn I. According to Houbraken, his father was a glass painter, and thus was trained for glass painting, but the market in glass painting not being what it was, he turned his hand to painting canvas. Houbraken felt he received less for a painting than he deserved, because his work was of a very high quality. He describes a Triumph of Bacchus, and a Lycurgus, which was painted for the Amsterdam Orphanage. According to the RKD, he moved to Amsterdam with his brother Pieter Holsteyn II in 1647, became poorter there in 1652, and was betrothed there on Christmas eve, 1654. He was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk on December 2, 1658 from his home on the Rozengracht. Houbraken claimed he had been fit until his sudden death by Hartvang, or heart-attack.
Gwen John
Welsh 1876-1939 Gwen John was born in Haverfordwest, Wales, the second of four children of Edwin William John and his wife Augusta (nee Smith). Edwin John was a solicitor whose dour temperament cast a chill over his family, and Augusta was often absent from the children due to ill health, leaving her two sisters??stern Salvationists??to take her place in the household. Despite the considerable tension in the family (who became known as "those turbulent Johns") the children's interest in literature and art was encouraged. Following the mother??s premature death in 1884, the family moved to Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Although she painted and drew from an early age, her earliest surviving work dates from her nineteenth year. From 1895?C98, she studied at the Slade School of Art, where her younger brother, Augustus John, had begun his studies in 1894. During this period they shared living quarters, and further reduced their expenses by subsisting on a diet of nuts and fruit. Even as a student, Augustus' brilliant draughtsmanship and personal glamour made him a celebrity, and stood in contrast to Gwen's quieter gifts and reticent demeanour. While he greatly admired her art, Augustus offered her advice which she ignored; he urged her to take a "more athletic attitude to life", and cautioned her against what he saw as the "unbecoming and unhygienic negligence" of her mode of living, but her entire life was marked by a disregard for her physical well-being. In 1898 she made her first visit to Paris with two friends from the Slade, and while there she studied under James McNeill Whistler at the Academie Carmen. She returned to London in 1899, and spent the next four years in austere circumstances. When she exhibited her work for the first time in 1900, at the New English Art Club (NEAC), her address was a derelict building where she was living illegally.