German painter (b. 1472, Kronach, d. 1553, Weimar). German painter and engraver. The son of a painter, he settled in Wittenberg c.1504 and was court painter successively under three electors of Saxony. There he maintained a flourishing workshop and was twice burgomaster. Cranach was a close friend of Martin Luther, whose doctrine he upheld in numerous paintings and woodcuts, and he has been called the painter of the Reformation. He was a rapid and prolific painter, and the work turned out by his studio is uneven in quality. Naïve and fanciful, often awkward in draftsmanship, it has, nonetheless, freshness and originality and a warm, rich palette. His portraits are particularly successful. Among his best-known works are Repose in Egypt (Gemäldgalerie, Staatliche Mus., Berlin-Dahlem); Judgment of Paris (Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe); Adam and Eve (Courtauld Inst., London); and Crucifixion (Weimar). The latter contains figures of Luther and Cranach. His many famous protraits include those of Elector John Frederick and Self-Portrait (Uffizi). Cranach was also an accomplished miniaturist. He produced a few copperplates and designs for woodcuts. His son and pupil Lucas Cranach, the Younger, 1515C86,   Related Paintings of CRANACH, Lucas the Elder :. | adam and eve | Portrait of Frau Reuss dgg | Portrait of Dr. Johannes Cuspinian (detail) dfg | Young Mother with Child dfhd | Charity fdgr |
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Abraham Fischer
1850 ?C 1913,was the sole Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony in South Africa. He was originally a lawyer in Cape Colony, joining the bar in 1875. He became vice-president of the Orange Free State's volksraad in 1893 and a member of the executive council in 1896. During the Boer War he went to Europe to solicit support for the Boers, returning in 1903 to practice law in the newly-formed Orange River Colony. Continuing to promote the Boer cause, he helped form the Oranje Unie party in May 1906 and became its chairman; the party won the majority of seats in the colony's first elections that were held in November 1907. On November 27, he was chosen as Prime Minister, and stayed in that position until it ceased to exist with the union of May 31, 1910. He then joined the cabinet of the Union of South Africa.
Joseph Whiting Stock
1815-1855 American painter. He was physically handicapped and confined to his house until his doctor advised a wheelchair, which, when placed on a railway carriage, allowed him to travel. He took painting lessons as therapy from Franklin White, a pupil of Chester Harding, and became proficient as an artist. This enabled him to make a living painting portraits, landscapes and miniatures throughout New England and part of New York State. He kept a journal that lists 912 examples of his work executed between 1832 and 1846, with the names of his sitters, canvas sizes, the prices charged and where the pictures were painted. No examples of his landscapes have survived and only a few of his 80 miniatures have been located. The earliest miniatures date from 1836, but most were executed in 1842 and 1845 when he lived in New Bedford, MA. Few American primitive artists of the 19th century were as productive as Stock.
SWEERTS, Michiel
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, ca.1618-1664 Flemish painter, active in Italy, Syria and India. He arrived in Rome in the mid-1640s, perhaps in circumstances similar to those depicted in his painting The Landing (Paris, Louvre). In 1646 he was registered as living in the Via Margutta in the parish of S Maria del Popolo, where documents indicate that he continued to reside until 1651, together with other Flemish Catholics like himself. In 1647 he attended a meeting of the Accademia di S Luca, not as an academician but simply as an associate. The following year he was visited by the Dutch poet Matthijs van de Merwede (1625-?1677), who later recalled the extremely poor welcome he received from the artist. On 1 June 1651 Sweerts was employed by the Antwerp merchant Jan Deutz to represent him at the Papal Customs to collect seven pieces of woollen cloth from Leiden. Sweerts's relationship with the Deutz family was always close: he painted portraits of Jeronimus Deutz (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.) and Balthasar Deutz and a series of the Seven Acts of Mercy for the family; some scholars have identified this series with the cycle of paintings divided between the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, and two private collections