1771-1835 French Baron Antoine-Jean Gros Galleries The son of a painter, Antoine Jean Gros was born in Paris on March 16, 1771. At the age of 14 he entered the studio of Jacques Louis David, the acknowledged leader of the classical revival. Although his own work became radically different from David's, he maintained a lifelong respect for his teacher and envisioned himself as the upholder of the Davidian tradition. In 1787 Gros entered the Acad??mie de Peinture, and when the Acad??mie dissolved in 1793 (a result of the French Revolution) he went to Italy. He met Josephine Bonaparte in Genoa in 1796, and she introduced him to Napoleonic society. Gros entered Napoleon's immediate entourage and accompanied him on several north Italian campaigns. Gros also became involved with Napoleon's program of confiscating Italian art for removal to France. Gros returned to Paris in 1800 and began to show his Napoleonic paintings in the annual Salons. The most famous of these are the Pesthouse at Jaffa (1804) and Napoleon at Eylau (1808). These works served to deify Napoleon, showing him engaged in acts of heroism and mercy. Stylistically, the paintings were revolutionary:their exotic settings, rich color, agitated space, and general penchant for showing the gruesome specifics of war and suffering differed radically from the cool generalizations of Davidian classicism that Gros had learned as a student. The presentation of contemporary historical events was also new, a harbinger of the realism that developed steadily during the first half of the 19th century in French, American, and English painting. Finally, the emphatic emotionalism of Gros's art established the foundation of romantic painting that Th??odore G??ricault and Eug??ne Delacroix developed after him. Unlike that of some of his countrymen (David is a case in point), Gros's position did not suffer after the fall of Napoleon. Gros painted for the restored monarchy, for instance, Louis XVIII Leaving the Tuileries (1817), and he decorated the dome of the Panth??on in Paris with scenes of French history (1814-1824). For this Charles X made him a baron in 1824. But these works lack the zest and commitment of Gros's Napoleonic period, perhaps because they were not based on the immediate kinds of historical experiences that had inspired the earlier paintings. Although marked by considerable public success, Gros's later career was in many ways acutely troubled. Basically, he could not resolve his personal esthetic theories with his own painting or with the work of his younger contemporaries. To the end Gros wished to propagate the classicism of David, and he took over David's studio when the master was exiled in 1816. By the 1820s, however, the revolutionary romanticism of G??ricault and Delacroix, among others, had clearly begun to eclipse classicism, and Gros found himself fighting a lonely and losing battle for conservatism. Ironically, he was fighting a trend that his own best work had helped to originate. As he persisted, moreover, his own painting began to show a diffident mixture of classic and romantic attitudes. Thus, while he was inherently a romantic, he tragically came to doubt himself. Gros died on June 26, 1835, apparently a suicide.  Related Paintings of Baron Antoine-Jean Gros :. | Napoleon Bonaparte on the Battlefield of Eylau, 1807 | Bonaparte At Arcole | Das RobMustapha Paschas | le combat de nazareth | Napoleo on the Battlefield at Eylau |
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Santi Di Tito
Italian Painter and Architect, 1536-ca.1602 was an Italian painter of Late-Mannerist or proto-Baroque style, what is sometimes referred to as Contra-Maniera. Born in Borgo San Sepolcro, in Tuscany. There is little documentation to support the alleged training under Bronzino or Baccio Bandinelli. From 1558-1564, he worked in Rome on frescoes in Palazzo Salviati and the Sala Grande of the Belvedere (Homage of the People) alongside Giovanni de' Vecchi and Niccol?? Circignani. He acquired a classical trait, described as Raphaelesque by S.J. Freedburg. This style contrasted with the reigning ornate Roman painterliness of the Federico and Taddeo Zuccari or their Florentine equivalents: Vasari, Alessandro Allori, and Bronzino. Among his pupils was Cigoli. Another pupil named Francesco Mochi became a sculptor in the Baroque style, creating among other pieces, the colossal Saint Veronica', supervised by Gianlorenzo Bernini and placed in the crossing of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. After returning to Florence in 1564, He joined the Accademia del Disegno, and he did not venture to paint outside of Tuscany. He contributed two unusual paintings for the Duke's study and laboratory, the Studiolo of Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio. This artistic project was partly overseen by Giorgio Vasari. These paintings are (the Sisters of Fetonte and Hercules and Iole).
Wojciech Gerson
(1831 - 1901) was a Polish painter and professor. Born in Warsaw, Gerson enrolled at the Warsaw Fine Arts Academy and graduated with honorable mention and a scholarship to St. Petersburg Academy of Arts where he studied historical painting under A. T. Markov. He graduated from St. Petersburg with a silver medal and returned to Warsaw. He left for Paris in 1850 and studied under Leon Cogniet. He travelled back to Warsaw in 1858, where he would live for the rest of his life. Gerson began to teach art in his own workshop in 1865. He trained many future Polish artists such as J??zef Chełmo??ski, Leon Wycz??łkowski, Władysław Podkowi??ski, and J??zef Pankiewicz. He was made a professor for the St. Petersburg Fine Arts Academy in 1878. Gerson also worked as an architect and art critic. He is known for his paintings of patriotism, country life, and mountain landscapes. Gerson died in Warsaw, aged 70.
Joseph Chelmonski
1850-1914