1599-1660,Spanish painter. He was apprenticed to Francisco Herrera the Elder before being trained by Francisco Pacheco. His early works were mostly religious or genre scenes. After arriving in Madrid in 1623, he painted a portrait of Philip IV that won him immediate success and an appointment as court painter. His position gave him access to the royal collections, including works by Titian, who exerted the greatest influence on his style. In his portraits from this period, only the faces and hands of the figures are accentuated, and the dark figures stand out against a light background. A visit to Italy (1629 ?C 31) further developed his style, and on his return to Madrid he entered his most productive period. Velazquez created a new type of informal royal portrait for Philip hunting lodge, and his portraits of court dwarfs display the same discerning eye as those of his royal subjects. On a second visit to Rome (1649 ?C 51) he painted a portrait of Pope Innocent X. The powerful head, brilliant combinations of crimson of the curtain, chair, and cope are painted with fluent technique and almost imperceptible brushstrokes that go far beyond the late manner of Titian and announce the last stage in Velazquez development. This portrait was copied innumerable times and won him immediate and lasting renown in Italy. In his last years he created his masterpiece, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour, 1656). In this casual scene, the artist is shown painting the king and queen in the presence of the infanta Margarita and her attendants; the nearly life size figures are painted in more or less detail according to their relation to the central figure of the infanta and to the source of light, creating a remarkable illusion of reality never surpassed by Velazquez or any other artist of his age. He is universally acknowledged as one of the giants of Western art.   Related Paintings of Velasquez :. | Those who sell water | Aesop | Princess Marian | Awes Telia | Bishop Maximilian |
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DeScott Evans
born David Scott Evans (March 28, 1847-July 4, 1898) was an American artist who worked in Indiana, Ohio and New York. He was known for portraits, still lifes, landscapes and other genres. Born in Boston, Indiana to David S. and Nancy A. (Davenport) Evans. His father was a physician. Evans changed his signature to D. Scott Evans and later to De Scott Evans. He also signed paintings with the names David Scott, S. S. David, and Stanley S. David. He attended Miami University's preparatory school in the 1860s, studying with professor Adrian Beaugureau at Miami and later in Cincinnati. Evans married Alice Josephine Burk in 1872. They had two biological daughters, Mabel and Nancy, and an adopted daughter, Laura. In 1873, he became head of the art department at Mount Union College and after several terms there, he moved to Cleveland to teach and to paint. From Cleveland, he moved to New York. He died along with 500 other passengers and crew, including his three daughters when the French steamer La Bourgogne was rammed by a sailing ship in July 1898. His wife was not on board and later remarried. Though he died at sea, there is a cenotaph for Evans and his daughters in the Oxford Cemetery in Oxford, Ohio.
Anthonie van Borssom
(January 2, 1631, Amsterdam - march 19, 1677, Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter. According to the RKD he was an Italianate landscape painter who copied works of popular landscape painters of his day in Amsterdam such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Paulus Potter, Aelbert Cuyp (church interieurs), Nicolaes Berchem, Philips Koninck, Jan Wijnants, Aert van der Neer (moonlit landscapes), and Cornelis Vroom. He lived and worked in Amsterdam but made a trip in 1650-1655 along the Rhine and spent time in Kleve.He was buried in the Westerkerk.
Thomas Robertson
January 9, 1829 ?C February 3, 1871,English dramatist and actor; brother of Madge Kendal. After spending several years as an actor, he turned to playwriting, initiating the ecup and saucere school of drama, which was characterized by its realism and its contemporary, domestic setting. His first successful play, David Garrick (1864), was followed by Society (1865) and Ours (1866). With Caste (1867) he began a close association with Squire Bancroft and his wife, Marie Wilton Bancroft, the actress, and they produced several of his plays.