Italian 1494-1557 Jacopo Pontormo Galleries Italian painter and draughtsman. He was the leading painter in mid-16th-century Florence and one of the most original and extraordinary of Mannerist artists. His eccentric personality, solitary and slow working habits and capricious attitude towards his patrons are described by Vasari; his own diary, which covers the years 1554-6, further reveals a character with neurotic and secretive aspects. Pontormo enjoyed the protection of the Medici family throughout his career but, unlike Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari, did not become court painter. His subjective portrait style did not lend itself to the state portrait. He produced few mythological works and after 1540 devoted himself almost exclusively to religious subjects. His drawings, mainly figure studies in red and black chalk, are among the highest expressions of the great Florentine tradition of draughtsmanship; close to 400 survive, forming arguably the most important body of drawings by a Mannerist painter. His highly personal style was much influenced by Michelangelo, though he also drew on northern art, primarily the prints of Albrecht Derer.  Related Paintings of Jacopo Pontormo :. | Leda and the Swan | The birth of the Baptist | Deposition from the Cross | The Deposition | Martyrdom of St Maurice and the Theban Legion |
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Carl Olaf Larsson
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Samuel Hieronymous Grimm
Swiss Painter, 1733-1794 Swiss painter and draughtsman, active in England. He studied in Berne under Johann Ludwig Aberli and became established as a painter of topographical views in oil and watercolour. His early surviving works (e.g. River Landscape and Landscape with Chasseurs; Basle, priv. col.) are principally tinted drawings of landscapes and alpine scenery, with scenes of rustic life in the foreground; they display his characteristically charming and informal style. He also produced many decorative book illustrations: the frontispiece and plates to Friedrich von Hagedorn's Poetische Werke (1769-72) are among his finest. By 1764 Grimm had abandoned oils and was painting only in watercolour. From 1765 to 1768 he travelled and painted in France; he then moved to England,
Wilhelm Busch
1832 Wiedensahl/Hannover-1908,was a German caricaturist, painter and poet who is known for his satirical picture stories. After studying first mechanical engineering and then art in Dusseldorf, Antwerpen and Munich, he turned to drawing caricatures. One of his first picture stories, Max and Moritz (published in 1865), was a huge success. Max and Moritz as well as many of his other picture stories are regarded as one of the main precursors of the modern comic strip. Max and Moritz, for instance, has been an inspiration for the Katzenjammer Kids. Wilhelm Busch also wrote a number of poems in a similar style to his picture stories. Besides that he produced more than 1,000 oil paintings that weren't sold before his death in 1908. He was also active as a sculptor.