(8 March 1826, in Vastemõisa near Suure-Jaani, Viljandi County, Estonia - 22 April 1899 in St. Petersburg, Russia) was an Estonian painter. He is considered to have been the first professional Estonian painter. He distinguished himself primarily by his portraiture and to a lesser extent by his landscape paintings. Some of his most notable pictures depict the Estonian rural life in the second half of the 19th Century. Johann Köler was the seventh child born to a peasant family. Despite the poverty of the parents Köler managed to attend the elementary and the district schools in Viljandi. Then he attended a workshop of master painters in Cesis (then in Livonia). In 1846, Köler travelled to St. Petersburg to work as a sign writer, where his talent was soon discovered. From 1848 to 1855 Johan Köler studied drawing and painting at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts. During 1857 Köler travelled to Paris via Berlin, later returned to Germany then travelled to the Netherlands and Belgium. In 1858, he travelled across the Alps to Milan, Geneva, Florence and Rome. There, he studied in a private academy and devoted his time to watercolor technique. In Rome during 1859 he presented his composition "Christ on the Cross". Answering the call of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Köler returned to the city in 1861. From 1862 to 1874 he was a teacher of the Grand Duchess Maria Aleksandrovna, the daughter of Czar Alexander II of Russia. In 1869-1870, he worked as a lecturer at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. From 1886 to 1889 Johan Köler worked in Vienna, Nice and Paris.  Related Paintings of Johann Koler :. | Italian landscape | Christ on the Cross | Portrait of Hugo Treffner | Portrait of the Daughter of Nikolai Petrovitsch Semjonov | Portrait of Hugo Treffner |
Related Artists:
Dorfmeister, Istvan
Hungarian Painter, ca.1729-1797
Peter Johannes Brandl
Petr Brandl (Peter Johannes Brandl or Jan Petr Brandl) (October 24, 1668 - September 24, 1735) was a painter of the late Baroque, famous in his time but - due to isolation behind the Iron Curtain - rather forgotten until recently. He was of German-speaking Austrian descent in the bilingual kingdom of Bohemia. His mother was from Czech peasant family, that lived in Přestanice (a village in Bohemia, now part of Hlavnovice). According to the Grove Dictionary of Art and other sources, Brandl was born into a craftsmanes family (his father seems to have been a goldsmith) and apprenticed around 1683 - 1688 to Kristien Schröder (1655 - 1702). Brandl employed strong chiaroscuro, areas of heavy impasto and very plastic as well as dramatic figures. The major art museum in Prague, called the National Gallery, has an entire hall devoted to the artist's works, including the wonderful "Bust of an Apostle" from some time before 1725.
Jacob Huysmans
1633-1696 Flemish Jacob Huysmans Gallery Jacob Huysmans (c.1633?C1696), was a Flemish portrait painter. He moved to England during the reign of Charles II where he became one of the fashionable painters of the court. His chief portraits are those of Izaak Walton and Catherine of Braganza, Charles II's wife (both displayed on the National Gallery, London). He was a pupil of Gilles Backereel and Frans Wouters and came over to England from - presumably - Antwerp. His first works were pastiches of work from Anthony van Dyck. As a Roman Catholic he was favoured by Catharine of Braganza. When Samuel Pepys visited his workshop in Westminster on 26 August 1664, he described him as a 'picture-drawer ... which is said to exceed Lilly (Lely). Huysmans's most important portrait of Catharine of Braganza, Queen Catharine as a Shepherdess (c. 1664; Brit. Royal Col.), was one of the pictures Pepys saw on that occasion. Painting his subjects as sheperdesses with clothing embellished with embroidery and jewellery were typical of his style.