Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1615-1660 was a Dutch painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Born at Cleves, he was apprenticed by his father to a silk mercer, but having secretly acquired a passion for drawing, was sent to Leeuwarden, where he boarded in the house of Lambert Jacobszon, a Mennonite, better known as an itinerant preacher than as a painter. Here Flinck was joined by Jacob Backer, and the companionship of a youth determined like himself to be an artist only confirmed his passion for painting. Amongst the neighbours of Jacobszon at Leeuwarden were the sons and relations of Rombertus van Uylenburgh, whose daughter Saske married Rembrandt in 1634. Other members of the same family lived at Amsterdam, cultivating the arts either professionally or as amateurs. The pupils of Lambert probably gained some knowledge of Rembrandt by intercourse with the Ulenburgs. Certainly Joachim von Sandrart, who visited Holland in 1637, found Flinck acknowledged as one of Rembrandt's best pupils, and living habitually in the house of the dealer Hendrik Uylenburg at Amsterdam. For many years Flinck laboured on the lines of Rembrandt, following that master's style in all the works which he executed between 1636 and 1648. With aspirations as a history painter, however, he looked to the swelling forms and grand action of Peter Paul Rubens, which led to many commissions for official and diplomatic painting. Flinck's relations with Cleves became in time very important. He was introduced to the court of the Great Elector, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg, who married in 1646 Louisa of Orange. He obtained the patronage of John Maurice of Nassau, who was made stadtholder of Cleves in 1649. In 1652 a citizen of Amsterdam, Flinck married in 1656 an heiress, daughter of Ver Hoeven, a director of the Dutch East India Company.  Related Paintings of Govert flinck :. | Landscape | A young Man with a eathered cap and a gorgert (mk33) | Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds | Curius Dentatus Preferring Turnips to Gold | Bust of Rembrandt (mk33) |
Related Artists:
Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller
Austrian Romantic Painter, 1793-1865 was an Austrian painter and writer. He briefly attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, however later had to finance his life by painting portraits. In 1811 he got a job as a teacher of arts for the children of Count Gyulay in Croatia. After 3 years he returned to Vienna and started to improve his skills by copying the works of old masters. Waldmeller later became interested in nature and thus started painting landscapes (genre painting). His most notable work lies in the depiction of nature, where his sense for colours and large knowledge of nature helped him to achieve masterly skills. In 1823 he made a painting of Ludwig van Beethoven. He was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna,
Marstrand, Wilhelm
Danish, 1810-1873 Danish painter and illustrator. He was a student of C. W. Eckersberg at the Kunstakademi in Copenhagen (1825-33). His art reflects his constant observation of the world around him, in particular middle-class society, and the narrative element dominated his pictures of crowds in the city streets. Throughout his life he sought inspiration from literature and the theatre. In his early genre painting Moving Day Scene (1831; Niv?, Nivaagaards Malsaml.) it was the popular novelty of vaudeville that interested him. The October Festival (1839; Copenhagen, Thorvaldsens Mus.) reveals how Marstrand's five-year stay (1836-41) in Italy opened his eyes to the classical ideal of beauty. It was, however, an ideal that found little response in contemporary Denmark, and he turned towards a more anecdotal and humorous approach. In Scene of Country Life (1843; Copenhagen, Kon. Dan. Kstakad.), painted as a set subject for the Kunstakademi, Marstrand took as his theme a scene from Erasmus Montanus, a play by the 18th-century Danish poet and playwright Ludvig Holberg. Thereafter Holberg's comedies provided an inexhaustible source that satisfied Marstrand's need to pursue his investigations of human character. Family life similarly interested him throughout his career, as in his Scene of Daily Life (1857; Copenhagen, Stat. Mus. Kst). Such group portraits as The Waagepetersen Family (1836; Copenhagen, Stat. Mus. Kst) show an equal concern to depict the quiet details of Danish domestic life. Marstrand continued to travel abroad in search of inspiration. His stay in Venice in 1853-4 was particularly important; his studies there of the great Venetian painters improved his understanding of the handling of colour, as seen clearly in the many historical and religious paintings of his last years. Of particular interest is his mural decoration of Christian IV's chapel in Roskilde Cathedral (1864-6) with scenes from the life of the Danish monarch. Marstrand's paintings have a certain facetiousness which often obscures a much deeper philosophical content. For this reason, it is his drawings that arouse more admiration.
Michel-Ange Houasse
1680-1730 French Michel Ange Houasse Gallery Son of Rene-Antoine Houasse. He trained in his father's circle, becoming familiar with the academic teaching methods then fashionable in France and also in Italy, where he went with his father. In 1706 he joined the Acad?mie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris, obtaining the rank of Academician in 1707 with the painting Hercules and Lichas (Tours, Mus. B.-A.). In Rome he probably became acquainted with the Marquis d'Aubigny, secretary to the powerful Princess Orsini, who was close to Philip V of Spain. The Spanish King already had the painter Henri de Favanne in his service in Madrid; Michel-Ange was recommended for work at the Spanish court by Count Jean Orry (1652-1719), the King's French finance minister, and arrived there in 1715. He had contact with the French artists at court and married the daughter of the French architect Rene Carlier.