German Painter, 1858-1925
German painter and writer. He grew up on his family's farm and tannery. As a child he showed interest in art, taking informal lessons in drawing from a local carpenter and caricaturing his primary school teachers. Corinth's father sent him to secondary school in the nearby city of K?nigsberg (now Kaliningrad), where he lived with his widowed aunt. A superstitious woman fond of story-telling, she possessed what Corinth later described as a coarse temperament and an unrestrained, 'demonic' humour. These qualities and his aunt's bohemian acquaintances, including fortune-tellers and soothsayers, fascinated the young Corinth, accustomed to his more reserved parents. Related Paintings of Lovis Corinth :. | View from the Studio | Nude Female | Zentaurenpaar | Portrait Frau Korfiz Holm | Fishermen's Cemetery at Nidden (nn02) | Related Artists:
John MartinBritish
1789-1854
John Martin Gallery
His first exhibited subject picture, Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion (now in the St. Louis Art Museum), was hung in the Ante-room of the Royal Academy in 1812, and sold for fifty guineas. It was followed by the Expulsion (1813), Paradise (1813), Clytie (1814), and Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon (1816). In 1821 appeared his Belshazzar's Feast, which excited much favorable and hostile comment, and was awarded a prize of £200 at the British Institution, where the Joshua had previously carried off a premium of £100. Then came the Destruction of Herculaneum (1822), the Creation (1824), the Eve of the Deluge (1841), and a series of other Biblical and imaginative subjects. The Plains of Heaven is thought to reflect his memories of the Allendale of his youth.
Martin's large paintings were inspired by "contemporary dioramas or panoramas, popular entertainments in which large painted cloths were displayed, and animated by the skilful use of artificial light. Martin has often been claimed as a forerunner of the epic cinema, and there is no doubt that the pioneer director D. W. Griffith was aware of his work." In turn, the diorama makers borrowed Martin's work, to the point of plagiarism. A 2000-square-foot version of Belshazzar's Feast was mounted at a facility called the British Diorama in 1833; Martin tried, but failed, to shut down the display with a court order. Another diorama of the same picture was staged in New York City in 1835. These dioramas were tremendous successes with their audiences, but wounded Martin's reputation in the serious art world.
Feuer im Dorfpainted Feuer im Dorf in1854
Felix Maria Diogg(b Andermatt, 1 July 1762; d Rapperswil, Schwyz, 19 Feb 1834). Swiss painter. From 1782 he was a pupil of Johann Melchior Wyrsch in Besanion, under whom he developed the essential aspects of his portrait style. He also studied further in Rome and Naples from 1786 to 1788. He was capable of executing bright, incisive portraits in the manner of Angelica Kauffman, as in Portrait of an Artist or psychological studies, best seen in Ulysses von Salis-Marschlins. Several of his group portraits, such as the Esslinger Family, show the influence of Italian and British painting, with which he seemed to be familiar. He was a friend of Johann Kaspar Lavater, discoursed with Goethe and enjoyed the company of the Swiss historian Johannes von Miller (1752-1809), whose portrait he painted. His portraits are generally bust-length types set against a solid, dark background. This format was favoured by his Swiss clientele and is seen in Burgomaster Heinrich Krauer (1799; Lucerne, Kstmus.), which also reveals the dignified wooden pose frequently selected by his models. His direct, fashionable treatment of the sitter attracted a wide range of clients from all levels of society. He seemed to be as much at ease painting the Empress of Russia, Yelisaveta Alekseyevna (1814; Karlsruhe, Staatl. Ksthalle) as he was portraying the bourgeoisie of central Switzerland.