Leiden 1613-1675 was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly-polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre scenes and is noted for his trompe l'oeil "niche" paintings and candlelit night-scenes with strong chiaroscuro. His first instructor in drawing and design was Bartholomew Dolendo, an engraver; and he afterwards learned the art of glass-painting under Peter Kouwhoorn. At the age of 15 he became a pupil of Rembrandt, with whom he continued for three years. From the great master of the Dutch school he acquired his skill in coloring, and in the more subtle effects of chiaroscuro; and the style of Rembrandt is reflected in several of his earlier pictures, notably in a portrait of himself at the age of 22, in the Bridge-water House gallery, and in the "Blind Tobit going to meet his Son", at Wardour Castle. At a comparatively early point in his career, however, he had formed a manner of his own distinct from, and indeed in some respects antagonistic to, that of his master. Gifted with unusual clearness of vision and precision of manipulation, he cultivated a minute and elaborate style of treatment; and probably few painters ever spent more time and pains on all the details of their pictures down to the most trivial. He is said to have spent five days in painting a hand; and his work was so fine that he found it necessary to manufacture his own brushes. Notwithstanding the minuteness of his touch, however, the general effect was harmonious and free from stiffness, and his color was always admirably fresh and transparent. He was fond of representing subjects in lantern or candle light, the effects of which he reproduced with a fidelity and skill which no other master has equaled. He frequently painted by the aid of a concave mirror, and to obtain exactness looked at his subject through a frame crossed with squares of silk thread. His practice as a portrait painter, which was at first considerable, gradually declined, sitters being unwilling to give him the time that he deemed necessary. His pictures were always small in size, and represented chiefly subjects in still life. Upwards of 200 are attributed to him, and specimens are to be found in most of the great public collections of Europe. His chef-d'oeuvre is generally considered to be The dropsical woman, 1663, and The Dutch Housewife, 1650, both in the Louvre. The Evening School, in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, is the best example of the candlelight scenes in which he excelled. In the National Gallery, London, favorable specimens are to be seen in the Poulterer's Shop,   Related Paintings of Gerard Dou :. | The Prayer of the Spinner | The Dropsical Lady (mk08) | portratt av rembrandts mor | Self-Portrait | A Poulterer's Shop |
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Nicolas Tournier
(baptised 12 July 1590 - d. before February 1639) was a French Baroque painter. Born in Montbeliard, he followed the profession of his father, Andre Tournier, "a Protestant painter from Besançon". Little is known of his life before his arrival in Rome, where he worked between 1619 and 1626, and where he was influenced by the work of Caravaggio. According to one early source, he was a pupil of Valentin de Boulogne.Tournier's Roman paintings are stylistically close to the works of Bartolomeo Manfredi. He painted both secular and religious subjects; an example of the latter is The Crucifixion with St. Vincent de Paul (Paris, The Louvre). After 1626 Tournier was active in southern France. He died in Toulouse. His work The Carrying of the Cross, painted around 1632, originally hung in the Toulouse chapel of the Company of the Black Penitents. During the French Revolution it was confiscated by the state and moved to a museum, from where it was stolen in 1818. After being lost for nearly two centuries, it reappeared in 2009 during an art collector's estate sale in Florence; when the Weiss Gallery of London purchased it in a Paris auction in 2011, the French government classified it as stolen property and banned it from leaving the country.
Fernand Hodler
Day I,1899-1900
John Phillip
(April 19, 1817-1867) was a Victorian era painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. He was nicknamed "Spanish Phillip". Born into a poor family in Aberdeen in Scotland, Phillip's artistic talent was recognised at an early age. His education at the Royal Academy of Arts was paid for by a wealthy patron. While at the academy Phillip became a member of The Clique a group of aspirant artists organised by Richard Dadd. The Clique considered themselves to be followers of Hogarth and Wilkie. Phillip's own career was to follow that of fellow-Scot Wilkie very closely, beginning with carefully detailed paintings depicting the lives of Scottish crofters, and moving on to much more broadly painted scenes of Spanish life influenced by Murillo and Velezquez. Phillip's early works tended to depict pious Scots families, but in 1851, after he was advised to travel to southern Europe for his health he visited Spain. Thereafter he concentrated on Spanish subjects. The first of these, The Letter Writer, Seville indicated the influence of Pre-Raphaelitism, a movement he had previously opposed, along with most other members of The Clique, despite his friendship with Millais, one of its leaders. He was so influenced by his travels that he advised other artists to do the same. Some artists, such as Edwin Long, took this advice and were similarly inspired. In the late 1850s and 1860s Phillip's style became much broader and more painterly, in line with Millais's late work. Phillip's two most important paintings in these years were The Early Career of Murillo (1864) and La Gloria (1865, National Gallery of Scotland). The first depicted the young Murillo drawing his art from Spanish street-life; the second portrayed a Spanish wake for a dead child. Phillip married Richard Dadd's sister, but like her brother she became insane. Phillip died of a stroke while visiting William Powell Frith. Phillip's self-portrait, "The Evil Eye", commissioned by his close friend Patrick Allan-Fraser, is in Hospitalfield House in Arbroath along with portraits of other members of The Clique.