American Neoclassical Painter, 1738-1820 American historical painter who worked in England. He was born in Springfield, Pa., in a house that is now a memorial museum at Swarthmore College. After some instruction from a local artist named William Williams, he set up as a portrait painter in Philadelphia at 18, subsequently moving to New York City. In 1760 he went to Europe, where he remained for the rest of his life. For three years he studied in Italy. Working under the tutelage of Anton Mengs, he was also inspired by the classical research of Johann Winckelmann. He then settled in London, becoming a leader of the neoclassical movement. Under the patronage of George III, commissions came to him in great numbers, and in 1772 he was appointed historical painter to the king. A founder of the Royal Academy, he succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as its president in 1792. West executed more than 400 canvases, chiefly historical, mythological, and religious subjects painted on a heroic scale. He had many pupils and was a generous friend and adviser to younger artists, particularly American painters studying in England, among whom were Washington Allston, Samuel Morse, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, and John Singleton Copley. His influence on American painting of the period was predominant. Among West's best-known works are Death of General Wolfe (Grosvenor Gall., London) and Penn's Treaty with the Indians (Pa. Acad. of the Fine Arts). In these paintings he created a new departure in historical painting by clothing his figures in the costume of their period instead of the traditional classical garb.  Related Paintings of WEST, Benjamin :. | Joseph Banks | Edward III Crossing the Somme | Portrait of Colonel Guy Johnson | Self-Portrait | Colonel Guy Johnson (mk08) |
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Carl Johan Fahlcrantz
Swedish, 1774-1861, Swedish painter. He began his artistic training in Stockholm as a pupil of the theatre painters J. G. Brusell and E. Limnell (1764-1861). He also studied under the French landscape painter Louis Belanger (1736-1816). In 1805 he was awarded a scholarship to go to Italy, but he preferred to use it to travel within Sweden, as this corresponded more with his interest in painting his native landscape in a National Romantic style. Fahlcrantz settled permanently in Sweden, never travelling outside the Nordic countries. In 1819 he became a professor at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm and in the 1820s Karl XIV commissioned a series of major works from him. Oscar I followed suit, as did numerous other buyers inside and outside Sweden. In this way, Fahlcrantz's paintings were distributed as far as Denmark, Bavaria, Russia and America.
Johann anton ramboux
German, 1790 - 1866 German painter, draughtsman and museum curator. He was taught drawing by Jean-Henri Gilson (1741-1809), before he went to Paris for further training in the studio of Jacques-Louis David. In 1812 he returned to Trier, painting portraits until 1815, when he spent a year at the Akademie der Bildenden K?nste in Munich. In 1816 he went to Rome, where he was part of the Nazarene circle without becoming a member of the Lukasbr?der. Close association with these artists, notably Peter Cornelius, Carl Philipp Fohr and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, had a more lasting influence on Ramboux's artistic development than his earlier studies with David
Josefa of Ayala
1630-1684,Portuguese painter and engraver. She was the daughter of the Portuguese painter Baltazar Gomes Figueira (1597-1674) and a Spanish lady, Doea Catarina de Ayala y Cabrera. After the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy in 1640 the family moved to Coimbra. Here Josefa began her apprenticeship under her father, a painter of landscapes, still-lifes and religious works, who in 1644 painted the retable of Nossa Senhora da Graea, Coimbra, in the naturalist-tenebrist style he had learnt in Seville in the circles of Juan del Castillo,