Thursday, February 9, 2017

14 Paintings, PORTRAITS OF A LADY, with Footnotes. # 12

Adam de Coster, MECHELEN, 1585/6 - 1643 ANTWERP
A YOUNG WOMAN HOLDING A DISTAFF BEFORE A LIT CANDLE
oil on canvas
52 3/4  by 37 3/8  in.; 134 by 94.9 cm.
 Private Collection

Adam de Coster (c. 1586 in Mechelen – 4 May 1643 in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter who was a prominent member of the Antwerp Caravaggisti. He is mainly known for his genre scenes with strong chiaroscuro effects. Details about the life and training are sketchy. It is known he was originally from Mechelen where he was born. In 1607 he is recorded in Antwerp on his admission as a master to the local Guild of Saint Luke.

Despite the lack of documentary evidence, it is assumed that de Coster travelled to Italy in his formative years. Here he would have been in touch with the works of Caravaggio and his followers, which would have such an important influence on his style and subject matter. Some of the recently rediscovered works of de Coster were part of Italian collections. The only evidence for any foreign travel is a document which places him in Hamburg in 1635. De Coster did have strong personal ties with Italy as some of his close relatives emigrated to Italy where they worked as painters.

He spent his active career in Antwerp where he seems to have enjoyed a high reputation. This is confirmed by the fact that Anthony van Dyck painted his Portrait in grisaille and an engraving freely cut after this portrait by Pieter de Jode II was included in van Dyck’s "Iconography", a collection of portraits of leading personalities of van Dyck’s time. Below his portrait de Coster is described as a Pictor Noctium i.e. a ‘Painter of Nights’, a clear reference to his preference for dramatic illuminated scenes. More Adam de Coster

Eliseo Visconti, 1866 - 1944
Unknown
Oil on board
14x11 inches
Private Collection

Eliseu Visconti, born Eliseo d'Angelo Visconti (30 July 1866, Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy – 15 October 1944, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) was an Italian-born Brazilian painter, cartoonist, and teacher. He is considered one of the very few impressionist painters of Brazil. He is considered the initiator of the art nouveau in Brazil.

He entered, in 1884, the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios do Rio de Janeiro, where he studied under Victor Meireles. Parallel to his studies in the Liceu, he entered the Brazilian Imperial Academy studying under professors Henrique Bernardelli, Rodolfo Amoedo and Jose Maria de Medeiros. In 1888 he received a gold medal at the Academy. Like many of his contemporaries, including some of his teachers, he was involved in the plight to renew the Academy's teaching methods, deemed obsolete and was among the creators of the short-lived" Ateliê Livre", together professors João Zeferino of Costa, Rodolfo Amoedo, Henrique Bernardelli and Rodolpho Bernardelli. More Eliseo Visconti

John Sloan, (1871–1951)
Look of a Woman, 1903
Oil on canvas
32 x 24 inches (81.3 x 61 cm)
Private Collection

John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was a twentieth-century painter and etcher and one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best known for his urban genre scenes and ability to capture the essence of neighborhood life in New York City, often observed through his Chelsea studio window. Sloan has been called "the premier artist of the Ashcan School who painted the inexhaustible energy and life of New York City during the first decades of the twentieth century" and an "early twentieth-century realist painter who embraced the principles of Socialism and placed his artistic talents at the service of those beliefs." More  John Sloan

Charles Henry Tenre, 1854 - 1926
La Marchande de Violettes/ The Violet Merchant, c. 1900
The Merchant of Violets
Oil on canvas
 130 x 91 cm
Private Collection

Charles Henry Tenré , born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on14 October 1854 , and died in Paris 16th the29 January 1926 , is a French painter , known for his refined genre scenes and elegant portraits in the style of the Belle Époque. Henry spent his childhood in a bourgeois milieu in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and frequented the collections of the museum open to the castle a few years after his birth. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux, where he studied with Edmond Yon, a landscape painter of the Barbizon school , Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre, who taught him the art of portraiture.

Charles Henry Tenré exhibited at Salon of French artists in 1883 and throughout his life. Some of his paintings are reproduced as prints and postcards . He earned an honorable mention in 1891 and a silver medal in 1911. He was awarded a bronze medal in 1900 at the Universal Exhibition in Paris and was named Knight of the Legion of Honor .

He died in Paris in 1926. More Charles Henry Tenré

Francesco Hayez, (1791–1882)
Italian: La Meditazione/ Meditation on the History of Italy, c. 1851
Oil on canvas
90 cm (35.4 in). Width: 70 cm (27.6 in).
Galleria d'Arte Moderna (Milan)

Three years before Hayez painted this work, was a year seething with revolutions in Europe.  They began in France in the February of that year and soon spread throughout Europe. The reasons behind the revolutions were varied; dissatisfaction with the political leaders, people demanded a more democratic rule with more say on how the country should be run.  The poor were fed up with their lot in life, and the desire for the unification of Italy, and for the Milanese in particular, it was about freeing themselves from Austrian rule.

Milan, was a hotbed of unrest and it was there that the Cinque Giorante insurrections took place between March 18th and March 22nd 1848. The insurrection failed. Hayez, who personally experienced the insurrections and was a great supporter of Italian unification, was disappointed,  as reflected in this painting.

The demeanour of the model is one of meditation and downhearted about the failure.  She sits on a leather-backed chair her head slightly lowered but she has a penetrating stare.   She symbolizes the disappointment.  On her lap is a book, the title of which we see on its spine, is The History of Italy.  In her left hand she holds a black wooden cross, symbolizing the martyrdom of the Milanese citizens who died opposing the Austrian troops.  On the cross are carved the dates of the insurrection (Cinque Giornate).

Francesco Hayez (10 February 1791 – 21 December 1882) was an Italian painter, the leading artist of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories and exceptionally fine portraits.

Hayez came from a relatively poor family from Venice. He was brought up by his mother's sister, who had married a well-off shipowner and collector of art. From childhood he showed a predisposition for drawing, so his uncle apprenticed him to an art restorer. Later he became a student of the painter Francesco Maggiotto with whom he continued his studies for three years. He was admitted to the painting course of the New Academy of Fine Arts in 1806. In 1809 he won a competition from the Academy of Venice for one year of study at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He remained in Rome until 1814, then moved to Naples where he was commissioned by Joachim Murat to paint a major work depicting Ulysses at the court of Alcinous. In the mid-1830s he attended the "Salotto Maffei" salon in Milan.

Francesco Hayez lived long and was prolific. His output spanned both historic paintings, and Neoclassic style grand themes, either from biblical or classical literature. He also painted scenes from theatrical presentations of his day.  More Francesco Hayez

Franz Obermuller, (Vienna 1876-1918)
Portrait of a Gypsy Girl
Oil on Wood
26 x 19.5 cm
Private Collection

Franz Obermuller, Austrian, 1869 - 1917was an Austrian painter who was born in 1869. He was a well-known portrait and genre painter of the turn of the 20th century. He worked in Meran (South Tyrol) and later in Vienna. Several works by the artist have been sold at auction. The artist died in 1917.

Franz Obermüller (Austrian, 1869–1917)
Portrait of a gypsy girl in front of a landscape
Medium:
oil on canvas
57.5 x 46 cm. (22.6 x 18.1 in.)
Private Collection

Edgar Degas, (French, 1834 - 1917)
The Convalescent, c. 1872-1887
Oil on canvas
65.7 × 49.8 cm (25 7/8 × 19 5/8 in.)
Getty Center

Although the identity of the sitter in this portrait is a mystery, Edgar Degas conveyed her character by capturing the overwhelming sorrow to which she has succumbed. Posed with her head tilted and leaning against the back of her left hand, she appears weary. Her languorous expression and red-rimmed eyes, together with the limp right arm hanging at her side, suggest a physical or emotional malady, though nothing in the painting confirms the cause of her affliction. Hidden beneath a brown robe and full white gown, her pose is ambiguous; it is unclear if she sits, stands, or leans. The Convalescent attests to Degas's interest in the world of women--their physical characteristics and surroundings, and their complex emotional and psychological conditions. More The Convalescent

Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917) was a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist. He was a superb draftsman, and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his renditions of dancers, racecourse subjects and female nudes. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation.

At the beginning of his career, Degas wanted to be a history painter, a calling for which he was well prepared by his rigorous academic training and close study of classic art. In his early thirties, he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life. More on Edgar Degas

Eduard Veith, (Neutitschein 1856-1925 Vienna)
Three-Quarter Length Portrait of a Lady with Hat in a Yellow Dress
Mixed media with oil on artist’s board
82 x 68.5 cm,
Private Collection

Veith, Eduard, BORN 30 Mar 1856, Neutitschem - DIED 18 Mar 1925, Wien. Son of the carpenter Julius Veith. He was educated at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule, where Ferdinand Laufberger was his teacher. he finished his studies in Paris.

He created the paintings on the ceiling of the Maria Theresia Room in the Hofburg, the Dianabad in Vienna, the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague and many other theatres. He was also popular as a painter of portraits of women.

From 1890 onwards he was a member of the Wiener Künstlerhaus. In 1911 he married Bertha Griesbeck and in 1920 he became a professor. He died in 1925. His grave at the Döblinger Friedhof in Vienna has a sculpture by Georg Leisek (1869-1936). More Veith, Eduard

CIRCLE OF GINERVA CANTOFOLI, (italian 1608-1672) 
A SYBIL 
Oil on canvas
34 1/4 x 28 1/4 in. (87 x 71.8cm) 
Private Collection

The siby were women that the ancient Greeks believed were oracles. The earliest sibyls, according to legend,[1] prophesied at holy sites. Their prophecies were influenced by divine inspiration from a deity; originally at Delphi and Pessinos, the deities were chthonic deities. In later antiquity, various writers attested to the existence of sibyls in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor. More siby

Ginevra Cantofoli (1618–1672) was an Italian painter. She was active in the Baroque period. Cantfoli received her training as an artist from Elisabetta Sirani in Bologna. She painted works for several churches. These works included a Last Supper for the Church of San Procolo, a St. Thomas of Villanova for San Giacomo Maggiore, and a St. Apollonia for the Church of La Morte. More Ginevra Cantofoli

Edouard Vuillard, 1868 – 1940
Lucie Hessel, c. 1905
Oil on cardboard 
16 x 18 in. (40.6 x 45.7 cm) 
Norton Simon Museum

Vuillard liked to say, “I do not paint portraits. I paint people in their homes.” And indeed, pictures like this one enlist domestic surroundings to suggest their sitters’ personalities and relationships to the artist. Here casually posed in a room crowded with picture frames, Lucie Hessel was the wife of Vuillard’s dealer. She was also the artist’s friend, his confidant, his muse and, ultimately, his lover, the subject of over a hundred paintings. An inscription in the upper right-hand corner of this portrait indicates that Vuillard painted it as a gift for her. More Lucie Hessel

Edouard Vuillard, 1868 – 1940
Naked women and white mat
Toner on paper
76 x 99 cm
Private collection

Jean-Édouard Vuillard (11 November 1868 – 21 June 1940) was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis. The son of a retired captain, he spent his youth at Cuiseaux (Saône-et-Loire); in 1878 his family moved to Paris in modest circumstances. After his father's death in 1884, Vuillard received a scholarship to continue his education. In the Lycée Condorcet Vuillard met Ker Xavier Roussel (also a future painter and Vuillard's future brother in law), Maurice Denis, musician Pierre Hermant, writer Pierre Véber, and Lugné-Poe.

Vuillard was a member of the Symbolist group known as Les Nabis (from the Hebrew and Arabic term for "prophets" and, by extension, the artist as the "seer" who reveals the invisible). However, he was less drawn to the mystical aspects of the group and more drawn to fashionable private venues where philosophical discussions about poetry, music, theatre, and the occult occurred. Because of his preference for the painting of interior and domestic scenes, he is often referred to as an "intimist," along with his friend Pierre Bonnard. He executed some of these "intimist" works in small scale, while others were conceived on a much larger scale made for the interiors of the people who commissioned the work. More Jean-Édouard Vuillard

Jacopino del Conte, (1510–1598)
Lucrece
Private Collection

Lucrece (died c. 510 BC) legendary heroine of ancient Rome. According to tradition, she was the beautiful and virtuous wife of the nobleman Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Her tragedy began when she was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the tyrannical Etruscan king of Rome. After exacting an oath of vengeance against the Tarquins from her father and her husband, she stabbed herself to death. Lucius Junius Brutus then led the enraged populace in a rebellion that drove the Tarquins from Rome. The event (traditionally dated 509 bce) marks the foundation of the Roman Republic. The story is first found in the work of the earliest Roman historian, Fabius Pictor (late 3rd century bce). Its classic form is Livy’s version (late 1st century bce). Lucretia’s story is also recounted in Shakespeare’s narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece. More Lucrece

Jacopino del Conte (1510–1598) was an Italian Mannerist painter, active in both Rome and Florence. A native of Florence, he initially apprenticed with the influential painter and draftsman Andrea del Sarto.

Conte's first frescoes, including Annunciation to Zachariah (1536), Preaching of Saint John the Baptist (1538), and Baptism of Christ (1541) were in the Florentine-supported Oratory of San Giovanni Decollato, located in Rome. Conte completed the fresco decoration of the chapel of San Remigio in San Luigi dei Francesi. In 1552, he painted another work for the San Giovanni Decollato Oratory, the altarpiece Deposition, whose designs are sometimes attributed to Daniele da Volterra.

Although the specific dates of his birth and death were not documented, in his final year Jacopino del Conte would have been 89 years old. More Jacopino del Conte

Stephen Pan, b. 1963
Ballerinas
Oil on canvas
60 x 90 cm
Private Collection

Stephen Pan was born in Shanghai in 1963. Pan was five, when his grandfather, famous for calligraphy and poetry, Bo Yin Pan, gave him the first lessons in drawing and painting. Ironically, in spite of his close relationship with formal Chinese traditions in art, Pan fell deeply in love with the paintings of the Renaissance and French Impressionist periods. By age 13 Pan won the first of a series of National Art Excellence awards in China for his beautifully rendered oil paintings. Pan began his teaching career in Shanghai at age 20

His uncle sponsored his immigration to the United states to continue his artistic career. In 1997, Pan was offered a position at the academy of Art College in San Francisco. Pan is a versatile artist in the classic European oil painting tradition. Since 1987 he has focused primarily on original figurative oil paintings on canvas.More Stephen Pan







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