(also called 'il Borgognone' or Giacomo Borgognone) (1621 - 20 May 1676?) was a French painter. He was born at Saint-Hippolyte, near Besançon. His father was a painter, and with him Jacques remained studying up to the age of fifteen. Towards 1637 he went to Italy, was received at Milan by a Burgundian gentleman, and entered, and for three years remained in the French military service. The sight of some battle-pictures revived his taste for fine art. He went to Bologna, and studied under the friendly tutelage of Guido Reni; thence he proceeded to Rome, where he painted, in the Cistercian monastery, the "Miracle of the Loaves." Here he took a house and after a while entered upon his own characteristic style of art, that of battle-painting, in which he has been accounted to excel all other old masters; his merits were cordially recognized by the celebrated Cerquozzi, named Michelangelo delle Battaglie. He soon rose from penury to ease, and married a painter's daughter, Maria Vagini; she died after seven years of wedded life. Prince Matthias of Tuscany employed Courtois on some striking works in his villa, Lappeggio, representing with much historical accuracy the princes military exploits. In Venice also the artist executed for the senator Sagredo some remarkable battle-pieces. In Florence he entered the Society of Jesus, taking the habit in Rome in 1655; it was calumniously rumoured that he adopted this course in order to escape punishment for having poisoned his wife. As a Jesuit Brother, Courtois painted many works in churches and monasteries of the society. He lived piously in Rome, and died there of apoplexy on 20 May 1676 (some accounts say 1670 or 1671). His battle-pieces have movement and fire, warm colouring (now too often blackened), and great command of the brush, those of moderate dimensions are the more esteemed. They are slight in execution, and tell out best from a distance. Courtois etched, with skill twelve battle-subjects of his own composition. The Danzig painter called Pandolfo Reschi in Italy was his pupil. His brother Guillaume was also a painter in Italy.   Related Paintings of Jacques Courtois :. | Self portrait | georg stiernhielm | Honfleur (mk11) | sittabde kvinna i blatt | Allegory of Air and Fire |
Related Artists:
Amaury-Duval, Eugene-Emmanuel
French Academic Painter, 1808-1885
John Smart
English Rococo Era Miniaturist, ca.1741-1811,English miniature painter, was born in Norfolk; he became a pupil of Cosway, and is frequently alluded to in his correspondence. This artist was director and vice-president of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and exhibited with that society. He went to India in 1788 and obtained a number of commissions in that country. He settled down in London in 1797 and there died. He married Edith Vere, and is believed to have had only one son, who died in Madras in 1809. He was a man of simple habits, and a member of the Society of Sandemanians. Many of his pencil drawings still exist in the possession of the descendants of a great friend of his only sister. Several of his miniatures are in Australia and belong to a cadet branch of the family. His work is entirely different from that of Cosway, quiet and grey in its colouring, with the flesh tints elaborated with much subtlety and modelled in exquisite fashion. He possessed a great knowledge of anatomy, and his portraits are drawn with greater anatomical accuracy and possess more distinction than those of any miniature painter of his time.
Victor Boucquet
Victor Boucquet, a Flemish painter, was born at Veurne in 1619. He was the son of Marcus Boucquet, a painter little known. Descamps supposes he must have visited Italy, as his works exhibit a manner that partakes little of the taste of his country. He painted historical subjects, and was also esteemed as a portrait painter. His works are distributed in the different churches of the towns in Flanders. They are well composed, and, like those of most of the artists of his country, are well coloured. In the great church of Nieuport are two altar-pieces by this master, one of which, representing 'The Death of St. Francis,' is particularly admired; and in the town-house there is a large picture by him, considered as his principal work, representing 'The Judgment of Cambyses.' The principal altar-piece in the church at Ostend is by Boucquet: it represents the Taking down from the Cross. He died at Furnes in 1677.