American Realist Painter, 1844-1916. Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (July 25, 1844 ?C June 25, 1916) was a realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists in American art history. For the length of his professional career, from the early 1870s until his health began to fail some forty years later, Eakins worked exactingly from life, choosing as his subject the people of his hometown of Philadelphia. He painted several hundred portraits, usually of friends, family members, or prominent people in the arts, sciences, medicine, and clergy. Taken en masse, the portraits offer an overview of the intellectual life of Philadelphia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; individually, they are incisive depictions of thinking persons. As well, Eakins produced a number of large paintings which brought the portrait out of the drawing room and into the offices, streets, parks, rivers, arenas, and surgical amphitheaters of his city. These active outdoor venues allowed him to paint the subject which most inspired him: the nude or lightly clad figure in motion. In the process he could model the forms of the body in full sunlight, and create images of deep space utilizing his studies in perspective. No less important in Eakins' life was his work as a teacher. As an instructor he was a highly influential presence in American art. The difficulties which beset him as an artist seeking to paint the portrait and figure realistically were paralleled and even amplified in his career as an educator, where behavioral and sexual scandals truncated his success and damaged his reputation. Eakins also took a keen interest in the new technologies of motion photography, a field in which he is now seen as an innovator. Eakins was a controversial figure whose work received little by way of official recognition during his lifetime. Since his death, he has been celebrated by American art historians as "the strongest, most profound realist in nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century American art".  Related Paintings of Thomas Eakins :. | The Portrait of Letita Wison Jordan | Landscape | Dr Horatio Wood | Max Schmitt a l'aviron | Weda Cook |
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Hans Bollongier
(1600-idem, 1645) was a Dutch Golden Age still life flower painter. Bollongier was born in Haarlem. According to the RKD little is known of his early life. He became a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke in 1623, and in 1675 his younger brother Horatio was named as his beneficiary. He was a specialist in bouquets of blooms. Paintings attributed to him that are not flower- or fruit still lifes are likely the work of his brother Horatio.He was an important influence on the later flower painters known as the monogrammist JF and Anthony Claesz II. He painted during a period of great productivity for Haarlem painters, during the decades after Karel van Mander published his Schilderboeck there. In Karel van Mander's book, there were a set of rules to follow to create good paintings and good drawings. Bollongier developed his own style and still observed all of these rules. His paintings were very popular, but his work was not regarded as such by contemporary Haarlem painters. As a genre, still life painting was considered inferior to historical allegories. His work today is considered part of the proof that Tulip Mania took place, although there is reason to believe that this is also just part of early Haarlem tourist propaganda. Even as early as the 17th century, gentry from Amsterdam, Leiden, and places farther away enjoyed visiting the tulip fields of Haarlem in the Spring, and paintings of tulips were as popular as the bulbs.
Hans Jorgen Hammer
(29 December 1815, Copenhagen - 28 Januar 1882, Rome) was a Danish artist who specialized in genre painting. Following an apprenticeship with J.G. Berg in Copenhagen, Hammer was admitted to the Danish Academy in 1828. In 1841, he became a student of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg who remained a close friend. He was awarded the Academy's little silver medal in 1842 and the large silver medal the following year. Det sidste Læs, his entry for the Neuhausen Prize in 1845, was bought by Statens Museum for Kunst but it was not until 1837 that he was awarded the prize with Bønder forsamlede til Lystig­hed en Søndag Eftermiddag under aaben Himmel. Hammer was an industrious but rather serious and thoughtful artist. His avid approach to detail slowed down his work considerably. After the outbreak of war in 1848, he became a naval officer. With a stipendium from the Academy, he travelled to Italy in 1857 where he painted Torvet i Ariccia efter Solnedgang, considerably enhancing his reputation in Denmark. The painting was acquired by Statens Museum for Kunst in 1863. Other notable works are Axsamlersken (1866) and Postbudet med det længe ventede Brev (1877). After recovering from a serious illness, he travelled to Rome in 1881 but died there the following year
Pollaiuolo, Jacopo
Approx. 1441-1496 Painter, brother of Antonio Pollaiuolo. He was described as a painter in the membership records of the Compagnia di S Luca, which he joined in 1472. According to tradition, he initially trained under Andrea del Castagno. In his 1480 tax return Piero reported that he had a small house adjoining the family home '...which I use when I have painting to do'. He produced many paintings for the Florentine workshop,