September 27, 1840 ?C December 7, 1902,Illustrator Thomas Nast was the first American celebrity cartoonist, famous for helping to turn out New York corrupt politicians and for creating peristent iconographic images of Santa Claus. Nast, from a family of German immigrants, began working in New York City as a cartoonist at the age of 15. He had a long association with Harper Weekly (1861-86), during which his battlefield illustrations and skilled caricatures made him famous in the U.S. and abroad (Van Gogh was a collector). Nast was an opinionated, progressive Republican, and his illustrated attacks on the leader of New York Democrats, William Boss Tweed, are said to have helped bring down an era of government corruption. One of the most influential caricaturists of his time, he is credited with creating the image of Santa as a chubby fellow in a red suit. Nast also came up with the image of an ass to represent Democrats (around 1870) and an elephant to represent Republicans (1874). His popularity waned in the 1880s, and he parted ways with Harper Weekly over political and artistic differences. Failing to succeed with his own publication or as a painter, he managed to be appointed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 to a diplomatic position in Ecuador, where he contracted yellow fever and died. Now officially embraced icons, the animal symbols of the two political parties were meant by Nast to be unflattering.   Related Paintings of Thomas Nast :. | Stilleben, Geranienstock mit Fruchten | Indian Sacrifice, Kaaterskill Falls and North South Lake | Madonna with the Yarnwinder (detail) dft | Homage to Bleriot | The Widow |
Related Artists:
j. beraud
1849-1935 1849 - Saint Petersburg, Russia - 1935 Paris) Scenes of daily life painted by Jean Beraud reveal interest in Naturalism. Such diverse themes as crowds observing the funeral of Victor Hugo (see Carnavalet, Paris) or studies of the interior of a Parisian Bank Apartment reflect aspects of French society during the Third Republic.
Giuseppe Maria Terreni
Italian , (1739-1811)
Henry Charles Bryant
(1835 - 1915) was a popular painter of portraits and landscapes specialising in farmyard and market scenes which were noted for their great attention to detail. He worked mainly in London and exhibited frequently between 1860 and 1880 at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and the Royal Society of British Artists. His paintings are highly sought after today.He died at 49, Derby Road, Portsmouth in January, 1915(Obituary:- Hampshire Telegraph & Post, January 8, 1915).