1727-1788 British Thomas Gainsborough Locations English painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He was the contemporary and rival of Joshua Reynolds, who honoured him on 10 December 1788 with a valedictory Discourse (pubd London, 1789), in which he stated: If ever this nation should produce genius sufficient to acquire to us the honourable distinction of an English School, the name of Gainsborough will be transmitted to posterity, in the history of Art, among the very first of that rising name. He went on to consider Gainsborough portraits, landscapes and fancy pictures within the Old Master tradition, against which, in his view, modern painting had always to match itself. Reynolds was acknowledging a general opinion that Gainsborough was one of the most significant painters of their generation. Less ambitious than Reynolds in his portraits, he nevertheless painted with elegance and virtuosity. He founded his landscape manner largely on the study of northern European artists and developed a very beautiful and often poignant imagery of the British countryside. By the mid-1760s he was making formal allusions to a wide range of previous art, from Rubens and Watteau to, eventually, Claude and Titian. He was as various in his drawings and was among the first to take up the new printmaking techniques of aquatint and soft-ground etching. Because his friend, the musician and painter William Jackson (1730-1803), claimed that Gainsborough detested reading, there has been a tendency to deny him any literacy. He was, nevertheless, as his surviving letters show, verbally adept, extremely witty and highly cultured. He loved music and performed well. He was a person of rapidly changing moods, humorous, brilliant and witty. At the time of his death he was expanding the range of his art, having lived through one of the more complex and creative phases in the history of British painting. He painted with unmatched skill and bravura; while giving the impression of a kind of holy innocence, he was among the most artistically learned and sophisticated painters of his generation. It has been usual to consider his career in terms of the rivalry with Reynolds that was acknowledged by their contemporaries; while Reynolds maintained an intellectual and academic ideal of art, Gainsborough grounded his imagery on contemporary life, maintaining an aesthetic outlook previously given its most powerful expression by William Hogarth. His portraits, landscapes and subject pictures are only now coming to be studied in all their complexity; having previously been viewed as being isolated from the social, philosophical and ideological currents of their time, they have yet to be fully related to them. It is clear, however, that his landscapes and rural pieces, and some of his portraits, were as significant as Reynolds acknowledged them to be in 1788.  Related Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough :. | Dorfmadchen mit Hund und Henkelkrug | Gainsborough's Forest | Self portrait | Detail of Landscape with a Peasant on a Path | Portrai of Mary,Mrs John Vere |
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Jan Van Den Hoecke
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, 1611-1651 was a Flemish Baroque painter and draughtsman. He was born and died in Antwerp. He first apprenticed with his father, the painter Gaspar van den Hoecke (1595?C1648); then worked in the studio of Peter Paul Rubens. Jan's brother Robert van den Hoecke (1622?C1668) was also a painter. The artist and his father were well known for their 1635 execution of decorations for the Arch dedicated to the Emperor Ferdinand III in Antwerp. In this collaboration, Jan painted monumental representations, as seen in his piece, Triumphal Entrance of Cardinal Prince Ferdinand of Spain, (Uffizi Gallery). Hoecke then traveled to Austria under the commission of the Emperor Ferdinand III after 1637, staying for about ten years. He also painted for Ferdinand's brother, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (1614-C1662), including a Madonna and Child and a number of allegorical pieces. Before this he traveled to Italy and worked in Rome, which may have influenced his style some. Another piece by Hoecke is his, Hercules between Vice and Virtue, (Uffizi Gallery), which shows an influence from both Rubens, and another pupil of the master Baroque painter, Anthony van Dyck.
studio of giotto
b. 1267, Vespignano, d. 1337, Firenze
georg engelhardt schroder
Georg Engelhard Schröder, född den 31 maj 1684 i Stockholm, gift 1727 med Anna Brigitta Spöring, död den 17 maj 1750; konstnär, porträtt- och historiemålare. Georg Engelhard Schröders far, Veit Engelhard, hade omkring år 1670 kommit från N??rnberg och bosatt sig i Stockholm där Georg Engelhard föddes 1684. Han blev tidigt elev hos konstnären och målaren David von Krafft (1655-1724) men lämnade honom 1703 för utlandsstudier. Under 21 år for Georg Engelhard runt i Europa. Han vistades först en tid i Nordtyskland, innan färden gick vidare till Italien. I Venezia förblev han under fem år och kopierade gamla mästare, sysslade med vedutamåleri och hade kontakt med pastellmålarinnan Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757). I Roma tog han intryck av barockmålarna Carlo Dolci (1616-1686), Carlo Maratta (1625-1713), Francesko Trevisani (1656-1746) m.fl. och tillägnade sig det raska men ytliga framställningssätt, som tillhörde den tidens italienska konst. I Paris samlade han impulser hos den franske målaren Noel Nicolas Coypel (1690-1734). Reminiscenser av den italienska och franska konsten kan man påträffa flerstädes i hans kompositioner. I London stannade han i sju år och tog starka intryck av Godfrey Knellers (1646-1723) och Dahls porträttkonst. När Daniel von Krafft avled 1724 kallades Georg Engelhard Schröder hem till Sverige och efterträdde i december sin gamle läromästare som kunglig hovkonterfejare. Som sådan uppbar han lön. Konung Fredrik I satte stort värde på sin konterfejare, och lät honom måla otaliga porträtt av sig och sin drottning Ulrika Eleonora. År 1745 utnämndes han till hovintendent. Georg Engelhard anlitades mycket och samlade ihop en betydande förmögenhet. På 1740-talet nåddes Sverige av den nya franska smaken, i främsta rummet via konstnären Gustaf Lundberg (1695-1786), varvid Georg Engelhard kom att skjutas åt sidan. Han representerade i Sveriges 1700-talsmåleri sista skedet i det italienska inflytandet. Långt ifrån den förnämste, var dock Georg Engelhard en av sin tids mest uppburne målare. Han arbetade inom ett vitt fält: utförde kyrktavlor, allegorier, historiska motiv och porträtt. Hans arbeten har ej sällan någonting vacklande och obestämt, vilket i förening med mycken ojämnhet i utförandet gör många av dem mindre tilltalande för konstkännaren. Han har dock efterlämnat verk, som vittnar om, att han, när han allvarligt uppbjöd sin förmåga, var mäktig till både varm och djup uppfattning samt hade stor skicklighet i färgbehandling och i framställningens enskildheter.