French Post-Impressionist Painter, 1839-1906 During the second half of the 19th century French impressionism created a dramatic break with the art of the past. In conception and appearance the style was radically new and, although it initially inspired public ridicule, it soon affected nearly every ambitious artist in western Europe. The new vision emerged during the 1870s, chiefly in the art of Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro. For each of these artists impressionism was an illusionistic style which differed from the tradition of Renaissance illusionism in its greater emphasis upon vibrant, natural color and on an immediate confrontation with the phenomena of the visible world. As the style developed during the 1880s, however, it increasingly became characterized by paintings which were flat rather than illusionistic. In other words, the impressionists insistence upon a direct application of pigment to canvas resulted in surfaces which declared themselves first of all as surfaces - and, consequently, in paintings which declared themselves first of all as paintings rather than as windows which looked out upon the natural world. The tendency toward flatness persisted into the last years of the 19th century, its pervasiveness giving the impression that illusionistic space - fought for, won, and defended since the very beginning of the Renaissance - had finally been sacrificed by the medium of painting. Paul C??zanne worked within and finally emerged from this trend. As a painter, he matured slowly, his greatest works coming during the last 25 years of his life. During this period he scored a remarkable and heroic achievement: he restored to painting the space and volume that had seemingly been lost to it. But he did it in a totally unprecedented way: not by return to the illusionism of the past but by the creation of a spatial illusionism that did not violate flatness. C??zanne was born on Jan. 19, 1839, in Aix-en-Provence. His father, Philippe Auguste, was the cofounder of a banking firm which prospered throughout the artist life, affording him financial security that was unavailable to most of his contemporaries and eventually resulting in a large inheritance. In 1852 C??zanne entered the Coll??ge Bourbon, where he met and became friends with Émile Zola. This friendship was decisive for both men: with youthful romanticism they envisioned successful careers in the Paris art world, C??zanne as a painter and Zola as a writer. Consequently, C??zanne began to study painting and drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts in Aix in 1856. His father opposed the pursuit of an artistic career, and in 1858 he persuaded C??zanne to enter law school at the University of Aix. Although C??zanne continued his law studies for several years, he was simultaneously enrolled in the School of Design in Aix, where he remained until 1861. In 1861 C??zanne finally convinced his father to allow him to go to Paris. He planned to join Zola there and to enroll in the École des Beaux-Arts. But his application was rejected and, although he had gained inspiration from visits to the Louvre, particularly from the study of Diego Vel??zquez and Caravaggio, C??zanne experienced self-doubt and returned to Aix within the year. He entered his father banking house but continued to study at the School of Design. The remainder of the decade was a period of flux and uncertainty for C??zanne. His attempt to work in his father business was abortive, and he returned to Paris in 1862 and stayed for a year and a half. During this period he met Monet and Pissarro and became acquainted with the revolutionary work of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet. C??zanne also admired the fiery romanticism of Eug??ne Delacroix paintings. But he was never entirely comfortable with Parisian life and periodically returned to Aix, where he could work in relative isolation. He retreated there, for instance, during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871).  Related Paintings of Paul Cezanne :. | Portrait du Pere de l-Artiste | Trois baigneuses | The Black Clock | The Blue Vase | Avenue of Chestnut Trees at Jas de Bouffan |
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Douglas Morison
1814-1847
Richard Westall
English Painter, 1765-1836 was an English painter. Westall was the more successful of two half-brothers (both sons of a Benjamin Westall, from Norwich), who each became painters. His younger half-brother was William Westall (1781C1850), a much-travelled landscape painter. Born on 2 January 1765 in Reepham near Norwich (where he was baptised at All Saints on 13 January in the same year) Richard Westall moved to London after the death of his mother and the bankruptcy of his father in 1772. He was apprenticed to a heraldic silver engraver in 1779 before studying at the Royal Academy School of Art from 10 December 1785. He exhibited at the Academy regularly between 1784 and 1836, became an Associate in November 1792 and was elected an Academician on 10 February 1794. From 1790 to 1795 he shared a house with Thomas Lawrence (later Sir), the future Royal Academy president, at 57 Greek Street, on the corner of Soho Square, each of the artists placing their name on one of the entrances. His works C many in water-colour - caused great interest in the late years of the 18th century when he was considered by his chief patron Richard Payne Knight as an outstanding artist of the picturesque. He painted works in a neo-classical style for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery and for Henry Fuseli's Milton Gallery. His painting of John Milton and his daughters hangs in Sir John Soane's Museum in London. A number of scenes in which Westall depicts events in the life of Horatio Nelson are at the Maritime Museum. Westall was a prolific illustrator of books of poets and writers including Sir Walter Scott and Oliver Goldsmith, Byron - who greatly admired his work, stating that "the brush has beat the poetry". He also illustrated editions of the Bible,
Jozsef Rippl-Ronai
Hungarian Painter, 1861-1927 After his studies at the highschool in Kaposvar he went to study to Budapest, where he got a degree in pharmacy. In 1884 he travels to Munich to study painting at the Academy. 2 years later he gets a grant and that makes him able to move to Paris and study by Munkacsy. In 1888 he meets with the members of Les Nabis and under their influence he paints his first important work The Inn at Pont-Aven, a very deep paining with dark atmosphere. His first big success was the paining My Grandmother (1894). Later he travels back to Hungary, first the critics does not accept him very warmly, but finally he celebrates a success with the exhibition Rippl-Ronai Impressions 1890-1900. He believes that for an artist there is important not only his work, but also how he lives and what he wears. That is why he becomes also a designer (Andrassy dining room and the window-pane in the Ernst Museum). His exhibitions in Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna have got a great success in 1911-1913. He paints his last big work in 1919 (portrait of his friend Zorka) and in 1927 dies in his villa Roma in Kaposvar.