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 P.B. Sheremetev | Portrait of Countess Tolstaya, nee Lopukhina | Portrait of an Unknown Woman in Russian Costume | Portrait of P.B. Sheremetev | Portrait of Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya, 1754 |
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Francis Towne
English Painter, 1739-1816 was an English water-colour painter. He was born in Isleworth, Middlesex, the son of a corn chandler. Apprenticed to a coach painter in London, he won a design prize from the Society of Arts, and studied for a while at St Martin??s Lane Academy. In 1763 he was employed by a coach painter called Thomas Watson, and went to Exeter on business. He had already begun painting in oils and also taught drawing, and now he began to accept commissions from wealthy families in Devon. After a tour of north Wales in 1777, undertaken with his friend, the lawyer John White, he began to specialize in water-colours. In 1780 he travelled to Rome and from there to Naples. On his return to Devon, he was asked by Sir Thomas and Lady Acland of Killerton to paint some views in Devon and North Wales, and in 1786 he went on a painting tour of the Lake District
Mihaly Munkacsy
1844-1900 Hungarian Mihaly Munkacsy Locations Munkacsy started to paint during the years he spent in Arad as a joiner. With the help of partons be studied at the Viennese, Munich and Dusseldorf academies. Munkacsy painted his first major work, the outstanding "The Condemned Cell" in D??sseldorf, in 1872, together with his friend Laszlo Paal, he moved to Paris, where be lived until the end of his life. Munkacsy painted his genres in the style of realism between 1873 and 1875: "Midnight Ramblers", "Farewell". "Churning Woman", "Woman Carryng Brushwood", and "Pawnshop" were the zenith of his career. He married the widow of Baron de Marches in 1874, and his style changed from that time on. Departing from the typical subjects of realism, be produced colourful salon paintings and still-lifes. This was the period when be also turned to ladscape painting; his growing interest is marked by such great paintings as "Dusty Road". "Corn Field", and "Walking in the Woods". The assimilation of Laszlo Paal's style is apparent in the landscapes painted during the 1880s, such as "Avenue" and "The Colpach Park". His realist portraits - e.g. of Franz Liszt and Cardinal Haynald - were also born around this time, together with his religions paintings, such as "Christ in front of Pilate", "Golgotha" and later, "Ecce homo". Towards the end of his career he painted two monumental works: "Hungarian Conquest" for the House of Parliament and a fresco entitled "Apotheosis of Renaissance, for the ceiling Kunsthistoriches. Museum in Vienna.
Couturier Henri
Active probably Leyden,mid-17th century