British 1723-1792 Sir Joshua Reynolds Locations Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723. As one of eleven children, and the son of the village school-master, Reynolds was restricted to a formal education provided by his father. He exhibited a natural curiosity and, as a boy, came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life. Showing an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable portrait painter Thomas Hudson, with whom he remained until 1743. From 1749 to 1752, he spent over two years in Italy, where he studied the Old Masters and acquired a taste for the "Grand Style". Unfortunately, whilst in Rome, Reynolds suffered a severe cold which left him partially deaf and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. From 1753 until the end of his life he lived in London, his talents gaining recognition soon after his arrival in France. Reynolds worked long hours in his studio, rarely taking a holiday. He was both gregarious and keenly intellectual, with a great number of friends from London's intelligentsia, numbered amongst whom were Dr Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, Giuseppe Baretti, Henry Thrale, David Garrick and fellow artist Angelica Kauffmann. Because of his popularity as a portrait painter, Reynolds enjoyed constant interaction with the wealthy and famous men and women of the day, and it was he who first brought together the famous figures of "The" Club. With his rival Thomas Gainsborough, Reynolds was the dominant English portraitist of 'the Age of Johnson'. It is said that in his long life he painted as many as three thousand portraits. In 1789 he lost the sight of his left eye, which finally forced him into retirement. In 1791 James Boswell dedicated his Life of Samuel Johnson to Reynolds. Reynolds died on 23 February 1792 in his house in Leicester Fields, London. He is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.  Related Paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds :. | Lady Caroline Howard | Portrait of Jane Fleming | Portrait of Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton and Duchess of Argyll ) was a celebrated Irish belle and society hostess. | Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire | Portrait of Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester |
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Jan Stanislawski
(June 24, 1860, Olshana near Korsun - January 6, 1907, Krakew) was a Polish modernist painter, art professor, originator and member of various art groups and societies. Initially, he studied mathematics at Warsaw University (1879 - 1882), and subsequently at the Imperial Technical Institute in St Petersburg. He began to learn painting in the so called Drawing Class (which later gave rise to the School of Fine Arts) in Warsaw under Wojciech Gerson. In 1883, he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Krakew. In 1885, he continued his studies in Paris under Charles Emile Auguste Durand. While based in Paris, he travelled much, visiting Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and also Ukraine. His early works were exhibited at the inauguration of the Salon du Champ-de-Mars in Paris in 1890 and at the Friends of the Arts Society in Krakew in 1892. In the 1890s, he travelled extensively and his sketchbooks filled up with drawings from Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Krakew, and various places in Ukraine. Together with Julian Fałat, he painted the landscape parts of Napoleones Army Crossing the Berezina, a panorama by Wojciech Kossak. In 1897, he initiated and helped organise the Separate Exhibition of Pictures and Sculptures at Krakewes Cloth Hall. That year, he become a teacher of landscape painting at the School of Fine Arts in Krakew, and in 1906 - after the school was upgraded to an academy in 1900 - was granted full professorship and also taught at Teodor Axentowiczes Private School of Painting and Drawing for Women and at Teofila Certowiczes Art School for Women in Krakew. He co-founded the "Sztuka" ("Art") Society of Polish Artists in Krakew in 1897. Later he became Deputy Chairman and finally Chairman of that society, and showed his works at numerous exhibitions organised by it. In 1898, he became a member of the Viennese Secession, and his works were exhibited among theirs in 1901, 1902 and 1905. In 1901, he became a founding member of the Polish Applied Arts Society. He worked in the Wawel Castle Reconstruction Committee and was involved in the activities of the Green Balloon (Zielony Balonik) Cabaret. After his death, two exhibitions were opened at the Palace of Art in Krakew in November 1907, one to show 154 of his oil paintings, as well as drawings and watercolours, and the other to present the works of his numerous outstanding students.
Joseph Stella
1877-1946 Joseph Stella Gallery Joseph Stella (June 13, 1877 - November 5, 1946) was an Italian-born, American Futurist painter best known for his depictions of industrial America. He is associated with the American Precisionism movement of the 1910s-1940s. He was born in Muro Lucano, Italy but came to New York City in 1896. He studied at the Art Students League of New York under William Merritt Chase. His first paintings are Rembrandtesque depictions of city slum life. In 1908, he was commissioned for a series on industrial Pittsburgh later published in The Pittsburgh Survey. It was his return to Europe in 1909, and his first contact with modernism, that would truly mold his distinctive personal style. Returning to New York in 1913, he painted Battle of Lights, Mardi Gras, Coney Island, which is one of the earliest American Futurist works. He is famous for New York Interpreted, a five-paneled work patterned after a religious altarpiece, but depicting bridges and skyscrapers instead of saints. This piece reflects the belief, common at the time, that industry was displacing religion as the center of modern life. It is currently owned by the Newark Museum. A famous Stella quote is: "I have seen the future and it is good. We will wipe away the religions of old and start anew."
Simon Bening
Flemish Northern Renaissance Manuscript Illuminator, ca.1483-1561 was a 16th century miniature painter of the Ghent-Bruges school, the last major artist of the Netherlandish tradition. Bening was trained in his father Alexander Bening's miniature painting workshop in Ghent. He made his own name after moving to Bruges. His specialty was the book of hours, but by his time these were becoming relatively unfashionable, and only produced for royalty and the very rich. He also created genealogical tables and portable altarpieces on parchment. Many of his finest works are Labours of the Months for Books of Hours which are largely small scale landscapes, at that time a nascent genre of painting. In other respects his style is relatively little developed beyond that of the years before his birth, but his landscapes serve as a link between the 15th century illuminators and Peter Brueghel. His self-portrait and other portraits equally are early examples of the portrait miniature. He served as dean of the calligraphers, booksellers, illuminators, and bookbinders in the Guild of Saint John and Saint Luke. He created books for German rulers, like Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, and royalty like Emperor Charles V and Don Fernando, the Infante of Portugal. The artistic tradition continued in his family. His eldest daughter, Levina Teerlinc