1626-1679 Dutch Jan Van Kessel Gallery Dutch painter and draughtsman. He was a follower, and probably a pupil, of Jacob van Ruisdael and covered the same range of subjects painted by Ruisdael, with the exception of marine paintings. However, van Kessel is best known for his townscapes and panoramic views, as exemplified by the Sluice and the New City Ramparts of Amsterdam in Winter (Amsterdam, Hist. Mus.) and the Bleaching Grounds near Haarlem (Brussels, Mus. A. Anc.). He imitated the water-mills and village scenes of his friend Meindert Hobbema, as well as the waterfalls of Allaert van Everdingen, the wooded landscapes of Jan Wijnants and the winter scenes of Jan van de Cappelle. Many of van Kessel's 120 surviving pictures, including The Avenue (Stuttgart, Staatsgal.) and the Ford in the Woods (Dresden, Gem?ldegal. Alte Meister), were once attributed to van Ruisdael and these other masters (often with an authentic signature covered by the better-known name). Van Kessel is also frequently confused with other minor artists in van Ruisdael's circle, especially Jan Vermeer van Haarlem the younger, Isaac Koene (1637/40-1713), Jacob Salomonsz. van Ruysdael (1629/30-1681) and Anthonie van Borssom. As a draughtsman, van Kessel emulated van Ruisdael's mature style, working almost exclusively in black chalk and grey wash. The best of his 70 drawings are townscapes, although his studies of trees and depictions of farmsteads are noteworthy. A number of correlations exist between his sketches and paintings. There is no known relationship with the Flemish artists of the same name.  Related Paintings of Jan Van Kessel :. | Still life of a watermelon,pears,grapes and melons,plums,apricots and pears in a basket,with a dog surprising a monkey and fraises-de-bois spilling ou | Still life of various flowers and grapes encircling a reliqu ary containing the host,set within a stone niche | Still life of various flwers in a basket,tulips in a copper pot hortensias,asparagi and artichokes laid out on the ground,together with an owl,butterf | The Soap Bubbles | America (mk14) |
Related Artists:
Jean-Franc Millet
French Realist Painter, 1814-1875
BACKER, Jacob Adriaensz.
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1608-1651 Backer was born in Harlingen, but his family moved soon (in 1611) to Amsterdam. Between 1627 and 1633 he and Govert Flinck were pupils of Lambert Jacobsz in Leeuwarden. In 1633 he returned to Amsterdam, where he remained until his death. His extreme quickness in painting portraits has been particularly noticed, and it is said by his Amsterdam colleague Joachim von Sandrart that he completely finished, in one day, the half length portrait of a lady in full dress, even so early, that she was able to return the same day to Haarlem. Besides being an important portrait painter - some 70 portraits can be attributed to him with certainty, among them the 1642 Company of Cornelis de Graeff voor de Nieuwe Doelen in Amsterdam, on the same wall as Rembrandt's Night Watch - Backer was an excellent painter of religious and mythological paintings. He was especially interested in pastoral subjects, themes from contemporary history, like the huge Crowning of Mirtillo from 1641 in the Brukenthal collection in Sibiu (250 x 250 cm.). In fact, Backer was a leading artist in Amsterdam until his premature death in 1651.
Henri Matisse Prints
French Fauvist Painter and Sculptor, 1869-1954 Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 ?C 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. As a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but principally as a painter, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the 20th century. Although he was initially labeled as a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s, he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art. Around 1904 he met Pablo Picasso, who was 12 years younger than him. The two became life-long friends as well as rivals and are often compared; one key difference between them is that Matisse drew and painted from nature, while Picasso was much more inclined to work from imagination. The subjects painted most frequently by both artists were women and still lifes, with Matisse more likely to place his figures in fully realized interiors. Matisse and Picasso were first brought together at the Paris salon of Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas. During the first decade of the 20th century, Americans in Paris Gertrude Stein, her brothers Leo Stein, Michael Stein and Michael's wife Sarah were important collectors and supporters of Matisse's paintings. In addition Gertrude Stein's two American friends from Baltimore Clarabel and Etta Cone became major patrons of Matisse and Picasso, collecting hundreds of their paintings. The Cone collection is now exhibited in the Baltimore Museum of Art. His friends organized and financed the Acad??mie Matisse in Paris, a private and non-commercial school in which Matisse instructed young artists. It operated from 1911 until 1917. Hans Purrmann and Sarah Stein were amongst several of his most loyal students.