Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1635-1681 was a Dutch genre and portrait painter. The leading member of a Leiden family of painters, his sons Jan (1660-1690) and Willem (1662 C1747) and his grandson Frans van Mieris the Younger (1689 C1763) were also accomplished genre painters. Frans was the son of Jan Bastiaans van Mieris, a goldsmith, carver of rubies and diamond setter at Leiden. His father wished to train him to his own business, but Frans preferred drawing, and took service with Abraham Torenvliet, a glazier who kept a school of design. In his father's shop he became familiar with the ways and dress of people of distinction. His eye was fascinated in turn by the sheen of jewelry and stained glass; and, though he soon gave up the teaching of Torenvliet for that of Gerard Dou and Abraham van den Tempel, he acquired a manner which had more of the finish of the exquisites of the Dutch school than of the breadth of the disciples of Rembrandt. It should be borne in mind that he seldom chose panels of which the size exceeded 12 to 15 inches, and whenever his name is attached to a picture above that size we may surely assign it to his son Willem or to some other imitator. Unlike Dou when he first left Rembrandt, or Jan Steen when he started on an independent career, Mieris never ventured to design figures as large as life. Characteristic of his art in its minute proportions is a shiny brightness and metallic polish. The Music Lesson,National Museum of Serbia , BelgradeThe subjects which he treated best are those in which he illustrated the habits or actions of the wealthier classes; but he sometimes succeeded in homely incidents and in portrait, and not unfrequently he ventured on allegory. He repeatedly painted the satin skirt which Ter Borch brought into fashion, and he often rivalled Ter Borch in the faithful rendering of rich and highly-coloured woven tissues. But he remained below Ter Borch and Metsu, because he had not their delicate perception of harmony or their charming mellowness of touch and tint, and he fell behind Gerard Dou, because he was hard and had not his feeling for effect by concentrated light and shade. In the form of his composition, which sometimes represents the framework of a window enlivened with greenery, and adorned with bas-reliefs within which figures are seen to the waist, his model is certainly Dou.   Related Paintings of Frans van mieris the elder :. | The Swing | Sir Robert Harry Inglis, 2nd Bt, | Lamentation for Christ | Tolstoy | The Gross Clinic |
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Francois-Hubert Drouais
Paris 1727-Rome 1775 was a French painter and Jean-Germain Drouais's father. He specialized in portraits, some of which include Louis XV's last two mistresses, Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry respectively. He even painted the young Marie Antoinette.
Bartolomeo Nazari
Bartolomeo Nazari (May 31, 1693 - August 24, 1758) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque, mainly active in Venice as a portraitist. Born in Clusone, near Bergamo. By 1716, he had become an apprentice under Angelo Trevisani, but visited in 1723 the Roman studio of Angelo's brother, the Venetian Francesco Trevisani, and then also studied with Benedetto Luti. Nazari likely knew personally Fra Galgario, the renowned portraitist from Bergamo, and is described by some as a pupil. He returns to Venice in 1724, and is registered with the Fraglia dei Pittori by 1726. In 1744, he traveled to Frankfurt to paint the emperor Charles VII and his family and other members of the court. In 1756, he was inducted into the newly founded Accademia of Venice. His son Nazario Nazari was also a painter. Among his patrons was Consul Joseph Smith and the former general Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (who owned over eight diverse portrait paintings). He painted the portraits of a number of operatic singers including Farinelli. He died returning from Genoa, where he had painted the Doge.
Henrietta Johnston
b.born before 1670, probably Ireland buried March 7, 1729, was an early American pastellist. Born Henrietta Deering, probably in Ireland, she married in 1705 and emigrated to America in 1707, settling in Charles Towne (now Charleston, South Carolina). A total of 40 pastel portraits by Johnston are known, dating from 1707 to around 1725. After her husband's death in 1716, Johnston was forced to support herself and her children, becoming possibly the first professional female painter in America. She's a very talented artist.