ART 4 2-DAY 21 January v.9.50
Died on 21 January 1914: Theodor
Kittelsen, Norwegian draftsman, painter, and illustrator
born on 27 April 1857.
— He grew up in poverty in Kragerø, a small town on the coast south of Christiania (later Kristiania; now Oslo). With support from public funds from 1874 to 1876 he studied drawing with Wilhelm von Hanno and with Julius Middelthun at the Royal School of Drawing. He then spent three years (18761879) at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich under Wilhelm Lindenschmidt  and Ludwig von Loefftz . Kittelsen did not, however, adopt the naturalistic style current in Munich, and he made little mark there as a painter. Works from his first Munich years, for example Strike (1879), show that his talents were for lively and humorous narrative, and for mythical and poetic studies of nature; subjects he could treat most effectively in drawings. In Munich, Kittelsen joined the circle of Norwegian artists and established a lasting friendship with Erik Werenskiold a strong influence on his work and also with Eilif Peterssen, Gerhard Munthe, Christian Skredsvig, and others.
Lack of funds forced him back to Norway in the autumn of 1880. He was again in Munich from 1883 to 1887 where he embarked on a professional career as an illustrator. His illustrations for folk tales and legends by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe occupied him during several phases of work over a period of 30 years. His earliest designs (18821887) were illustrations for Eventyrbog for børn (Fairy tales for children, 18837). These show his sensitive and varied use of line, reflecting that of Werenskiold but generally more robust, in response to subjects taken from everyday life, especially animal scenes.
— Hakkespett (1912; 1012x742pix, 138kb) and, at almost the same turn in the road, the engraving Fattigmannen (1895; 941x761pix, 137kb)
— Det rusler og tusler rasler og tasler (1900; 535x771pix, 106kb)
— Skogtroll (1906; 673x468pix; 64kb)
>Born on 21 January 1784: Peter
de Wint, English painter who died on 30 June 1849.
— Drawing lessons from a local Stafford landscape painter named Rogers led the young De Wint to abandon plans for a medical career, and in 1802 he was apprenticed for seven years to John Raphael Smith. A fellow apprentice was William Hilton, who became a lifelong friend and whose sister De Wint married in 1810. From the first De Wint’s taste seems to have been for landscape, and his progress in that line is indicated by his arrangement with Smith in 1806 to be released from the remaining years of his indenture in exchange for 18 landscape paintings in oils. In November 1806 De Wint and Hilton moved into lodgings in Broad Street, Golden Square, London, where they were neighbors of John Varley. Acquaintance with Varley and involvement with the circle of Dr. Thomas Monro must have determined De Wint’s adoption of watercolor and introduced him to the drawings of Thomas Girtin, which later influenced his own work in the medium. He enrolled as a student in the Royal Academy Schools in 1809 and was admitted to the Life School in 1811.
— Cornfield, Windsor (1841, 29x46cm)
— A Lincolnshire Stackyard (16x32cm)
— Cookham On The Thames (16x48cm)
— Dovecot, Derbyshire (46x69cm)
— Horses Drinking At A Pool (23x32cm)
— Lower Hope, Windsor, Berkshire (28x42cm)
— River Scene at Sunset (1810, 31x46cm) _ Although De Wint is remembered as a watercolorist, he was first trained as an oil painter. Between 1802 and 1808 he was apprenticed to the portrait painter and engraver John Raphael Smith, who took him on expeditions by the Thames, De Wint sketching in oils while Smith fished. De Wint gained early release from his apprenticeship on condition that he painted eighteen landscapes of various sizes for Smith over a two-year period. The river depicted in this study has not been identified but could well be the Thames.
— Children at Lunch by a Corn Stook (1810, 13x35cm) _ De Wint’s output, both as a watercolorist and as a painter in oils, was dominated by scenes of haymaking and other agricultural activities dominated. A number of landscape artists turned to agricultural themes in the period 1807–1815. The wars against France (1793–1815) did much to stimulate contemporary interest in agriculture, which was seen as a vital part of the war effort.
— Cornfield, Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire (30x45cm)
— Harvesting (69x117cm)
— Study of Burdock and other Plants (1812, 26x33cm) _ De Wint’s early interest in open-air painting was fostered by the portrait painter and engraver John Raphael Smith, who took him on sketching expeditions by the river Thames. However, it would also have been nurtured by his friendship with the watercolorist John Varley, who was De Wint’s London neighbor early in the century. This sketch belongs to a small group of oil studies of grasses and weeds which De Wint made early in his career, the result of a campaign of painting from nature.
— Bray on Thames from the Towing Path (1849, 37x65cm)
— Near Mill Hill (1825, 22x34cm)
— Ruins of the Bishop's Palace (42x52cm)
–- Boats on a Beach at Hastings (22x31cm; full size) by a follower of de Wint.
Died on 21 January 1857: Franz
Krüger Pferde-Krüger, German painter born on
10 September 1797. On occasion, he did paint a picture without a horse.
" Krüger ist nicht nur einer der größten Meister, die in der vorbismarckischen
Epoche in Berlin gewirkt haben, sondern auch einer der größten Meister Deutschlands
aus dieser Zeit " (Max Liebermann, 1908).
— He first was trained by the printmaker Carl Wilhelm Kolbe I, who instilled in him the qualities of precise observation and solid workmanship. Krüger was accepted into the Berlin Akademie in 1812, but he also continued to study independently, carrying out studies of horses. He soon developed a gift for finding themes that appealed to Prussian society and that reflected it attractively but truthfully; thus he favored hunting and stable scenes.
The wars against Napoleon, however, inspired him to paint military subjects, and in 1818 he gained public recognition with such paintings as March of the Prussian Cavalry (1820), which shows the return to Berlin of the Prussian troops under Field Marshal Gneisenau in 1815.
Having painted a portrait of Prince August of Prussia (1819), Krüger gained access to the patronage of the court. In 1824 he made half-length chalk portraits (lost since) of the whole Prussian royal family, works that were typical of Berlin painting in their lack of pretension and their skilful presentation of character.
In the representation of historical events Krüger revealed his ability to combine portraits and genre painting. The large Parade on the Opernplatz painted for Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (1830) and the Prussian Parade for Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia (1839), include a large number of individual portraits. In these pictures, Krüger shows the unity of royalty and the people. In the Homage to Frederick William IV (1843) Krüger painted a third picture of this type, containing an even greater number of figures. As a royalist, Krüger was profoundly dismayed at the political unrest of 1848, and his last large painting with a crowd scene, the Regimental Surrender in Potsdam (1849), does not repeat the patriotic message of the earlier paintings.
— Ausritt des Prinzen Wilhelm von Preußen in Begleitung des Malers (1836; 600x457pix _ ZOOM to 1400x1142pix _ .ZOOM+ to 2070x1576pix, 555kb)
— Ausritt zur Jagd (1819; 1520x2024pix, 579kb _ ZOOM to 1400x1142pix)
Prussian Cavalry Outpost in the Snow (1821, 128kb)
— Nach einem Spazierritt (Porträt der Friederike Luise Charlotte Wilhelmine, Tochter Friedrich Wilhelm III.) (1839; 600x514pix _ ZOOM to 1400x1142pix _ .ZOOM+ to 2363x2024pix, 367kb)
— Porträt des Fürsten Nikolai Saltykow im Maskenkostüm, Obermundschenk am Russischen Hof (1850; 600x474pix _ ZOOM to 1400x1142pix _ .ZOOM+ to 2562x2024pix, 444kb)
— Porträt des Grafen Alexander Kuschelew-Besborodko (1851; 600x463 _ ZOOM to 1400x1142pix _ .ZOOM+ to 2625x2024pix, 387kb) _ No horse, but the man does wear side-blinders, reminiscent of a draft horse.
Prince Pjotr Wolkonski (1850, 283x188cm) _ detail 1 (head and shoulders) _ detail 2 (head) _ detail 3 (face)
Earl Pavel Kisseliev (1851, 140x103cm) _ detail (face)
— Pferd im Stall (1846; 600x765pix _ ZOOM to 1400x1785pix)
Born on 21 January 1659: Adriaan
van der Werff, Dutch Baroque
painter and draftsman of religious and mythological scenes and portraits,
active mainly in Rotterdam, who died on 12 November 1722.
Van der Werff combined the precise finish of the Leiden tradition (learned from his master Eglon van der Neer ) with the classical standards of the French Academy and became the most famous Dutch painter of his day, winning international success and earning an enormous fortune. Houbraken, writing in 1721, considered him the greatest of all Dutch painters and this was the general critical opinion for about another century. He is now considered an extremely accomplished, rather sentimental and repetitive minor master. Van der Werff also worked as an architect in Rotterdam, designing elegant house façades. His brother, Pieter van der Werff [1655-1722], was his principal student and assistant, imitating Adriaen's style closely and making many copies of his work.
— He was apprenticed to the portrait painter Cornelis Picolet  from 1668 to 1670 and then from about 1671 to 1676 to Eglon van der Neer in Rotterdam. From 1676 van der Werff produced small portraits and genre paintings as an independent master; the Cook and Hunter at a Window (1678) and Man and Woman Seated at a Table (1678) perpetuate the thematic and stylistic traditions of Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Frans van Mieris and Gerard ter Borch II but are distinguished by their greater elegance and richness of costume and interior. Van der Werffs portraits date mainly from the years 16801695 (e.g. Two Children with a Guinea-pig and a Kitten (1681). The motif of children with animals recalls van der Neer, while the careful depiction of fabrics recalls the Leiden school of Fine painters. His Portrait of a Man in a Quilted Gown (1685) resembles compositions by Caspar Netscher and Nicolaes Maes: a figure leaning against a balustrade, before a landscape. Van der Werffs work is, however, more elegant, in part because of the depiction of fabrics, but also because of the inclusion for the first time of Classical sculpture, in this case the Farnese Flora, copied from Jan de Bisschops engraved Signorum veterum icones (1669).
Children Playing before a Hercules Group (1687, 47x35cm) _ According to an early biography, van der Werff relished "representing satin garments after the modern manner (like that of Ter Borch )." The silk clothes indeed evoke Ter Borch's astounding mastery of satin.
Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine of Pfalz (1700, 76x54cm) _ Johann Wilhalm appointed Werff court painter in 1697 at the annual salary of 4000 guilders with the understanding that the artist would spend six months of the year at his court in Düsseldorf. The elector remained van der Werff's Maecenas until his death in 1716. In 1703 the elector created van der Werff a knight. Werff was commissioned to paint the portrait of the elector as well as that of his wife, Maria Anna Loisia de'Medici.
Maria Anna Loisia de'Medici (1700, 77x53cm) _ This is the companion-piece of the portrait of the sitter's husband, Johann Wilhelm, elector palatine of Pfalz.
Sarah Presenting Hagar to Abraham (1699, 76x61cm) _ In the biblical story Sarah, still childless in maturity, gave her Egyptian slave to her husband Abraham, so he could produce an heir with her. Hagar's smooth nudity announces her success in arousing the aging man a feat that later caused his wrenching dilemma, when Sarah gave birth to Isaac and asked Abraham to dismiss Hagar and her son. The air of illicit titillation suffusing the painting, roundly condemned by Calvinist preachers, surely enhanced its appeal, even or possibly because the represented woman is ultimately two-dimensional and cold. It offers allowable pleasure, vicarious thrills that can be experienced without moral danger (?).
Died on 21 January 1672: Adriaen
van de Velde, Dutch painter born on 30 November 1636.
He was the son of Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-93) and brother of Willem van de Velde the Younger [1633-1707], and was a prolific painter of sunny, atmospheric landscapes and beach scenes. His landscape etchings of rural scenes were particularly sensitive, but he also excelled in animal painting and often executed the animal figures in the paintings of other prominent contemporary artists.
Portrait of a Couple with Two Children and a Nursemaid in a Landscape (1667)
The Hut (1671)
Amusement on the Ice (1669, 33x40cm) _ The varied oeuvre of Adriaen van de Velde includes winter scenes, portraits in landscape settings, and amongst his most original pictures are his rare beach scenes. He was frequently called upon to animate his contemporaries' pictures with his exquisite figures. His staffage appears in paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael, Hobbema, Allaert van Everdingen, Philips Koninck, van der Heyden and Wynants.
The Beach at Scheveningen (1658} Amongst Adriaen's van der Velde most original pictures are his rare beach scenes, which capture the lucidity of the moist sea air and have a freshness and rarely matched plein-air effect. An outstanding example of the last named is The Beach at Scheveningen.
The Farm (1666) Adriaen van de Velde, who was more versatile than Philips Wouwerman, also painted small landscapes in which animals and figures play an important role. Bode rightly wrote of the 'Sunday atmosphere' (Sonntagsstimmung) of his pictures of the Dutch countryside, and of the precious holiday peace that spreads over his meadows, seen in the bright sparkle of sunny days softened by the haze of the nearby sea. Adriaen was the younger brother of the well known marine painter Willem van de Velde the Younger; they probably were students of their father, the marine painter Willem van de Velde the Elder. Adriaen also is said to have studied with Wijnants at Haarlem, but the influence of Wouwerman and Potter is more evident in his early works. Houbraken reports that 'He zealously drew and painted cows, bulls, sheep and landscapes' and adds 'he daily carried his equipment out to the countryside - a practice he continued until the end of his life.' Although many of Adriaen's drawings survive, only a handful made on his excursions to the countryside have been identified; the finest, now at the Amsterdam Historical Museum, served as the basis for his magnificent Farm at Berlin. Adriaen also made numerous drawings of clothed and nude models in his studio; many have been identified as preparatory studies for figures in his landscapes and subject pictures.
Died on 21 January 1729: Marco
Ricci, Italian painter and etcher specialized in Landscapes,
also stage designer; born on 05 June 1676.
— He probably began his career in Venice in the late 1690s as the student of his uncle Sebastiano Ricci [bap. 01 Aug 1659 – 15 May 1734], concentrating on history paintings. Having murdered a gondolier in a tavern brawl, he fled to Split in Dalmatia, where he remained for four years and was apprenticed to a landscape painter (Temanza, 1738). Once back in Venice (1700) he put this training to use in painting theatrical scenery. Little is known about his early development, and it remains difficult to establish a chronology for his work. A group of restless, romantic landscapes, painted with lively, free strokes and formerly thought to represent his early period, have now been convincingly attributed to Antonio Marini . His earliest dated works, a tempera painting, View with Classical Ruins (1702), and a Landscape with Fishermen (1703), are serene and classical, close in style to tempera paintings generally dated 17101730. This suggests that Riccis style did not develop much, and that strong classicizing tendencies, indebted to Nicolas Poussin, were present from the start. The Landscape with Fishermen derives from the Venetian tradition of Titian and Domenico Campagnola and suggests that a group of other drawings panoramic views in pen and brown ink, executed with tight hatching may be dated early. The work of Pieter Mulier , whom Ricci probably knew, was another formative influence, as can be seen in two stormy landscape paintings that echo Muliers style. The work of Salvator Rosa, Joseph Heintz II and Johann Eisman  encouraged the more romantic aspect of his art.
Born in Belluno, son of the landscape painter and engraver Girolamo Ricci; died in Venice. Nephew of Sebastiano Ricci. Began printing in 1723 Sebastiano Ricci's nephew and student. He probably worked with Sebastiano in Florence in 1706-1707. He may also have visited Rome and Milan, where he perhaps knew Magnasco, who influenced him. He went to England in 1708 with Pellegrini, with whom he worked on stage scenery, and in 1710 he seems to have gone back to Venice to fetch his uncle. They returned together to England in 1712, traveling via the Netherlands, and remained for about four years, arriving back in Venice in aboout 1717. The remainder of his life is ill-documented: he appears to have worked for Sebastiano on landscape backgrounds for large religious works and to have executed small landscapes in tempera on leather. His landscapes are often 'capricci', they are usually lively and free in handling. He was one of the first Venetian etchers of the 18th century, and his Experimenta were published poshumously in 1730.
— Born to a family of artists, Marco Ricci first studied under his uncle Sebastiano Ricci. After murdering a gondolier in a brawl, Marco fled to Dalmatia, where he spent four years apprenticed to a landscape painter. By 1705 he was in Milan working with Alessandro Magnasco, absorbing his free handling of paint. After trips to Florence and Rome, he went to the Netherlands and studied Dutch landscape painting on his way to England. During nearly two years in London, he created opera sets and decorated private homes. Back in Venice in 1716, Marco continued his stage work and painted landscape backgrounds for Sebastiano's works. About 1720 he made small landscapes in tempera on leather. Whether small or large, capriccio or ancient ruins, Marco united the simplicity and realism of Dutch and Flemish art with the fantasies of the Baroque stage, a key development in Venetian landscape art. He was also one of the first etchers in eighteenth-century Venice; his Experimenta prints were published posthumously in 1730. He may have committed suicide dressed in a bizarre costume and hung with a sword so that he could die "like a cavaliere."
–- Landscape with Figures (78x122cm; 912x1444pix, 175kb)
Landscape with horses (1720, 136x198cm) _ If Sebastiano Ricci can be called the father of Venetian Rococo, his nephew and collaborator, Marco, was the initiator of the new genre of landscape painting. Influenced by the examples of the Neapolitan landscape painters Mirco Spadaro and Salvator Rosa, by Claude Lorrain and by the Roman Viviano Codazzi, and inspired by loving observation of the natural setting of hills and valleys around his native Belluno, Ricci developed a romantic and heroic style of painting, which derives almost certainly from a familiarity with the drawings of Titian, the engravings of Domenico Campagnola, the works of Dutch and Flemish masters (seen during his stay in London 1708-10), with the imaginative works of Carlevaris and romantic drama of Alessandro Magnasco. Such eclecticism gives rise nevertheless to a faithful observation of nature, characterized by a breadth of atmosphere and a fluid light. This landscape is fine example of his skilful use of light to create intensely real effects. In the wide vistas given unity by Ricci's handling of atmosphere, the observation of detail has a refreshing naturalness and truth.
Landscape with River and Figures (detail) (1720, 137x198cm full painting) _ This landscape is another fine example of Marco Ricci's skilful use of light to create intensely real effects.
Landscape with Washerwomen (1720, 136x198cm) _ The nephew of Sebastiano Ricci, Marco followed his uncle in his international and artistic adventures, but neglected figure painting for landscapes. He avoided the playful subjects favored by Zais or Zuccarelli, instead preferring realistic images of the Venetian countryside.
— Landscape with Classical Ruins and Figures (1725, 123x161cm; 480x627pix, 76kb) _ In this fantastic vista, Marco Ricci combined ancient Roman monuments, such as an obelisk, sections of temples, and statues, to create a scene both picturesque and evocative of the power of the ancient world. In the last decade of his life, Ricci specialized in such theatrical views and repeatedly used the same monuments in different arrangements. As usual, his uncle Sebastiano Ricci painted the rustic figures, which are nearly lost amidst the colossal ruins.
— Fishing Boats in a Storm (1716, 31x45cm; 446x640pix, 63kb) _ After he returned to Italy from England in 1716 with his uncle and partner Sebastiano Ricci, Marco Ricci adopted the rare technique of applying bodycolor to dark brown tanned leather as his preferred method of drawing. In this bodycolor sketch on leather, Ricci took advantage of the skin’s dark color to emphasize the ominous storm. The thinner applications of paint in the sky leave some of the leather visible, increasing the visual weight of the angry clouds. He copiously used lead white to make his pigments opaque, and the resulting lack of transparency in light reflecting off the water and sky gives the scene a chilling luminosity. The frightening storm and threat of doom—natural phenomena become fearsome—satisfied the aesthetic notion of the Sublime, the idea that images or words describing danger provided a pleasurable experience for viewers or readers, a vicarious thrill of terror enjoyed in the safety of a drawing room.