American Painter, 1820-1863,American painter. Durrie and his older brother John (1818-98) studied sporadically from 1839 to 1841 with the portrait painter Nathaniel Jocelyn. From 1840 to 1842 he was an itinerant painter in Connecticut and New Jersey, finally settling permanently in New Haven. He produced c. 300 paintings, of which the earliest were portraits (e.g. Self-portrait, 1839; Shelburne, VT, Mus.); by the early 1850s he had begun to paint the rural genre scenes and winter landscapes of New England that are considered his finest achievement. His landscapes, for example A Christmas Party (1852; Tulsa, OK, Gilcrease Inst. Amer. Hist. & A.), are characterized by the use of pale though cheerful colours and by the repeated use of certain motifs: an isolated farmhouse, a road placed diagonally leading the eye into the composition, and a hill (usually the West or East Rocks, New Haven) in the distance. By the late 1850s Durrie's reputation had started to grow, and he was exhibiting at prestigious institutions, such as the National Academy of Design. In 1861 the firm of Currier & Ives helped popularize his work by publishing prints of two of his winter landscapes,  Related Paintings of George Henry Durrie :. | Haying at Jones Inn | Red School House, Winter | Winter in the Country, Distant Hills | Winter in New England | Hunter in Winter Wood |
Related Artists:
John Skinner Prout
(1805-76), nephew of the famous English watercolourist Samuel Prout (1783-1852)
Carl Friedrich WilhelmTrautschold
1815-1877
RIBALTA, Francisco
Spanish Baroque Era Painter, ca.1565-1628 He was the most distinguished artist working in Valencia in the early 17th century. His move towards naturalism at an early date was significant for the history of Spanish painting as well as being very influential. His documented mature works after about 1620 show a change of vision, and they are also of the highest quality. The religious paintings are depicted with more pronounced realism, and his deeply felt spiritual belief is expressed in a direct and very immediate way. In 1607 Ribalta supported other leading Valencian painters in a move to form the Colegio de Pintores (College of Painters) to safeguard the interests of the profession. The expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 and the death in 1611 of the Patriarch Archbishop Juan de Ribera, Ribalta's most important patron, led to an economic crisis and spiritual void in Valencia that had an effect on his activity, since thereafter commissions came more rarely, and his work became more introspective. During 1616 and 1617 the idea of forming the Colegio de Pintores was revived, and Ribalta took an active role in the management and signed the petition to Philip III seeking support for the Colegio.