Russian Rococo Era Painter , 1727/1729-1802 Russian painter and teacher. He came from a family of serfs, belonging to the Counts Sheremetev, that produced several painters and architects. In about 1746-7 he was a pupil of Georg Christoph Grooth (1716-49), who painted portraits of the Sheremetev family. With Grooth, Argunov worked on the decoration of the court church at Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin). A full-length icon of St John of Damascus (1749; Pushkin, Pal.-Mus.), in Rococo style, is distinguished by its secular, decorative character. The Dying Cleopatra (1750; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.) is typical of Rococo decorative painting of the mid-18th century, with its striking combination of light, soft tones. Argunov subsequently painted in a quite different style, mainly producing portraits, of which about 60 are known. Among the first of these are pendant portraits of Ivan Lobanov-Rostovsky and his wife (1750 and 1754; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.), in which the sitters are idealized, as in ceremonial court portraits.   Related Paintings of Ivan Argunov :. | Portrait of K.A. Khripunov | Portrait of Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeyevna | Portrait of Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya, 1754 | Portrait of P.B. Sheremetev | Self-portrait |
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Axel Haig
Swedish etcher and architectural draughtsman , 1835-1921 Swedish printmaker, painter and architect. He studied shipbuilding in Karlskrona from 1850 to 1856. The following year he joined the shipbuilders Lawrence Hill & Co. in Glasgow, but soon left to study architecture in London, where he worked with the English architect Ewan Christian (1814-95) and with William Burges. Under the influence of Burges he became especially interested in Gothic architecture. In the late 1870s he began etching, with the intention of illustrating a book on Scotland's medieval architecture. Haig contributed illustrations to numerous English magazines, including The Architect. (For Haig's drawing of William Burges's competition entry for the Law Courts, London) In 1882 he was awarded a medal for his etchings at the Paris Salon and elected an honorary member of the Swedish Royal Academy.
Richard Paton
was a British marine painter. Paton spent his artistic career in London, where he is said to have been born, although no record of his birthplace or parentage is known. He is said to have grown up in poverty, and he is described as "self-taught". Some critics have discerned an influence of Samuel Scott's works, and also of Charles Brooking. Any such influence is hardly evident. According to an account by Harry Parker, in "The Mariner's Mirror", March 1912, p 85, while Paton was begging "on Tower Hill, he attracted the attention of Admiral Sir Charles Knowles (died 1777), who happened to be passing that way, and who, taking a fancy to the boy, offered to take him to sea". He was assistant to the shipes painter on Knowles' ship, gaining knowledge in both painting and seamanship. In 1742, he started working at the Excise Office. His first exhibition was in 1758 on the premises of the London-based Society of Artists, where he continued to exhibit up to 1770. The Royal Academy hosted his works between 1762 and 1780. Paton's specialities were marine and naval paintings. He painted naval actions of wars ongoing at the time of painting such as the Seven Years War of 1756-1763 and later The American Revolutionary War, as well as earlier events such as the battles of the War of the Quadruple Alliance which took place when he was a baby. The paintings include many dramatic effects such as battles at night, the shooting of cannons and the effect of bombardments. There are, however, also less militant themes such as ships becalmed. His "sublime depiction of the sky" was considered especially noteworthy. Prints of his works, made among others by Pierre-Charles Canot, made them widely known.
Frederic Yates
Frederic Yates (1854-1919) was an English painter. He gave up a business career to study painting in the Paris ateliers of Leon Bonnat, Gustave Boulanger, and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. In 1886, he moved to San Francisco where his family had settled a few years earlier. In San Francisco, he became a popular portraitist and taught at the newly formed Art Students League of San Francisco. On one of his visits to Europe, he made the acquaintance of the Dowager Marchioness of Downshire who became his patron and introduced him to London society. Yates was active in San Francisco until 1900, when he returned to England, where he lived at "Cote How" near Grasmere until 1906. During this period he painted the former United States president Woodrow Wilson and John Haden Badley. He died in 1919.