1746-1828 Goya is considered the 18th Century's foremost painter and etcher of Spanish culture, known for his realistic scenes of battles, bullfights and human corruption. Goya lived during a time of upheaval in Spain that included war with France, the Inquisition, the rule of Napoleon's brother, Joseph, as the King of Spain and, finally, the reign of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII. Experts proclaim these events -- and Goya's deafness as a result of an illness in 1793 -- as central to understanding Goya's work, which frequently depicts human misery in a satiric and sometimes nightmarish fashion. From the 1770s he was a royal court painter for Charles III and Charles IV, and when Bonaparte took the throne in 1809, Goya swore fealty to the new king. When the crown was restored to Spain's Ferdinand VII (1814), Goya, in spite of his earlier allegiance to the French king, was reinstated as royal painter. After 1824 he lived in self-imposed exile in Bordeaux until his death, reportedly because of political differences with Ferdinand. Over his long career he created hundreds of paintings, etchings, and lithographs, among them Maya Clothed and Maya Nude (1798-1800); Caprichos (1799-82); The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808 (1814); Disasters of War (1810-20); and The Black Paintings (1820-23).   Related Paintings of Francisco Goya :. | Cupid and Psyche | Portrait of man | Duchess of Alba | The Forge | The Nude Maja |
Related Artists:
BLONDEEL, Lanceloot
Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, 1498-1561 South Netherlandish painter, draughtsman, designer, architect, civil engineer, cartographer and engraver. He is said to have trained as a bricklayer, and the trowel he used to add as his housemark next to his monogram LAB testifies to this and to his pretensions as an architectural designer. In 1519 he was registered as a master painter in the Bruges Guild of St Luke, where he chose as his speciality painting on canvas. The following year he collaborated with the little-known painter Willem Cornu in designing and executing 12 scenes for the Triumphal Entry of Emperor Charles V into Bruges. From then onwards Blondeel received regular commissions, mainly as a designer and organizer. Records of legal actions show that he was sometimes late with commissions; he took seven years to execute a Last Judgement ordered in 1540 for the council chamber at Blankenberge, and in 1545 the Guild of St Luke summoned him for his failure to supply their guild banner on time. Blondeel was married to Kathelyne, sister of the wood-carver Michiel Scerrier; of the two daughters of this marriage, the eldest, Maria, married the tapestry-weaver Andries Hansins before 1542 and the younger, Anna, married Blondeel's pupil, the painter Pieter Pourbus, before 1545.
C.A. Lorentzon

BERCHEM, Nicolaes
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1620-1683 Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1 October 1620 - 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number allegories and genre pieces. Born in Haarlem, he received instruction from his father Pieter Claesz, and from the painters Jan van Goyen, Jan Wils and Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert. (It is not known why he called himself Berchem or Berighem, and other variants). For some time it was supposed Berchem traveled to Italy with a fellow painter Jan Baptist Weenix, whom he called his cousin. In 1645 he became a member of the Dutch reformed church and married the year after. Being a widower he married the daughter of Jan Wils. Around 1650 he did travel to Westphalia with Jacob van Ruisdael. May be Berchem went to Italy after this trip and before he moved to Amsterdam. Around 1660 he worked for the engraver Jan de Visscher designing an atlas. In 1670 he moved back to Haarlem, but Berchem died in Amsterdam in 1683. His paintings, of which he produced an immense number, (Hofstede de Groot claimed around 850, although many are misattributed), were in great demand, as were his 80 etchings and 500 drawings. His landscapes, painted in the Italian style of idealized rural scenes, with hills, mountains, cliffs and trees in a golden dawn are sought after. Berchem also painted inspired and attractive human and animal figures in works of other artists, like Allaert van Everdingen, Jan Hackaert, Gerrit Dou, Meindert Hobbema and Willem Schellinks. The French Rococo painter Jean-Baptiste Pillement was influenced by his works.