1580-1666 Frans Hals Galleries In the field of group portraiture his work is equalled only by that of Rembrandt. Hals's portraits, both individual and group, have an immediacy and brilliance that bring his sitters to life in a way previously unknown in the Netherlands. This effect, achieved by strong Baroque designs and the innovative use of loose brushstrokes to depict light on form, was not to the taste of critics in the 18th century and the early 19th, when his work was characterized as lazy and unfinished. However, with the rise of Realism and, later, Impressionism, Hals was hailed as a modern painter before his time. Since then his works have always been popular.  Related Paintings of Frans Hals :. | Peeckelhaering WGA | Banquet of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard in Haarlem (mk08) | Jonker Ramp and his Sweetheart WGA | Youth with a Skull | Portrat einer etwa vierzigjahrigen Frau mit verschrankten Handen |
Related Artists:
Frits Thaulow
Norwegian Impressionist Painter, 1847-1906 .Norwegian painter and engraver. Originally wanting to become a marine painter he studied at the art academy in Copenhagen (1870-73) as well as with the Danish marine specialist C. F. S?rensen (1818-79). He spent two winters at Karlsruhe (1873-4, 1874-5) as the pupil of Hans Gude and then went to Paris, where he spent much of the period 1875-9. His marines and coastal pictures, some of which were accepted at the Paris Salon, were only moderately successful, but he acquired a fair knowledge of contemporary French Realist art and felt that Norwegian artists should learn from it.
Jan van Goyen
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1596-1656 Jan van Goyen was born in Leiden on Jan. 13, 1596. Apprenticed from the age of 10, he had several masters. About 1617 he went to Haarlem to study with Esaias van de Velde, an important innovator in the Haarlem movement of realistic landscape painting. Van Goyen's works between 1621 and 1625 are sometimes hard to distinguish from those of his teacher. They are colorful, detailed views of villages and roads, usually busy with people, as in Winter (1621). It was Van Goyen's usual practice to sign or monogram and date his paintings. He traveled extensively through the Netherlands and beyond, recording his impressions in sketchbooks, occasionally with dates and often depicting recognizable scenes. Thus the chronology of his development is clear. His paintings of the late 1620s show a steady advance from the strong colors and scattered organization of his early works toward tonality and greater simplicity and unity of composition. By 1630 he was painting monochromes in golden brown or pale green; he played a leading part in the tonal phase of Dutch landscape painting. In 1631 Van Goyen settled in The Hague, where he became a citizen in 1634. The simplicity, airiness, and unification of his compositions continued to increase in his abundant production of dune landscapes, river views, seascapes, town views, and winter landscapes. The River View (1636) displays a river so open and extensive as to suggest the sea, with reflections that prolong the vast and luminous sky. In its monumentalization of humble structures and its composition built on a firm scaffolding of horizontal and vertical forces, it forecast at this early date developments that dominated landscape painting in the 1650s and later. In the Village and Dunes (1647) the traditional double-diagonal composition still exists, but it is dominated by horizontal and vertical accents. Stronger contrasts of light and dark replace the earlier tonality. In the last year of his life Van Goyen produced an eloquent new style, in which powerful forms stand out against the radiant sky and water in an exquisitely balanced composition (Evening Calm; 1656). The commission in 1651 to paint a panoramic view of The Hague for the Burgomaster's Room shows the high regard in which Van Goyen was held. He was enormously productive; well over 1,000 of his paintings still exist, and almost as many drawings.
Samuel Lancaster Gerry
(1813-1891) was an artist in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He painted portraits, and also landscapes of the White Mountains and other locales in New England. He was affiliated with the New England Art Union, and the Boston Artists' Association. In 1857 he co-founded the Boston Art Club. Born in Boston, Gerry was self-taught as an artist. He showed works in many public settings, such as the 1841 exhibit of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association; and an 1879 exhibit of contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He attended the 1860 convention of the National Art Association in Washington, DC. New England Homestead, 1839, by S.L. GerryStudents of Gerry included H. Frances Osborne, Samuel Green Wheeler Benjamin, Fannie Elliot Gifford, Charles Wesley Sanderson, and J. Frank Currier. With the exception of three years abroad, his professional life was passed chiefly in Boston