1599-1660,Spanish painter. He was apprenticed to Francisco Herrera the Elder before being trained by Francisco Pacheco. His early works were mostly religious or genre scenes. After arriving in Madrid in 1623, he painted a portrait of Philip IV that won him immediate success and an appointment as court painter. His position gave him access to the royal collections, including works by Titian, who exerted the greatest influence on his style. In his portraits from this period, only the faces and hands of the figures are accentuated, and the dark figures stand out against a light background. A visit to Italy (1629 ?C 31) further developed his style, and on his return to Madrid he entered his most productive period. Velazquez created a new type of informal royal portrait for Philip hunting lodge, and his portraits of court dwarfs display the same discerning eye as those of his royal subjects. On a second visit to Rome (1649 ?C 51) he painted a portrait of Pope Innocent X. The powerful head, brilliant combinations of crimson of the curtain, chair, and cope are painted with fluent technique and almost imperceptible brushstrokes that go far beyond the late manner of Titian and announce the last stage in Velazquez development. This portrait was copied innumerable times and won him immediate and lasting renown in Italy. In his last years he created his masterpiece, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour, 1656). In this casual scene, the artist is shown painting the king and queen in the presence of the infanta Margarita and her attendants; the nearly life size figures are painted in more or less detail according to their relation to the central figure of the infanta and to the source of light, creating a remarkable illusion of reality never surpassed by Velazquez or any other artist of his age. He is universally acknowledged as one of the giants of Western art.   Related Paintings of Velasquez :. | Omelette woman | Dwarf Juarez | Palace lady | Philip IV | Princess Margaret |
Related Artists:
Wladyslaw slewinski
(1854-1918) was a Polish painter. He was a student of Gauguin's and a leading artist of the Young Poland movement. Władysław Ślewiski was a Polish painter. He administered his estate in Poland before traveling to Paris in 1888. Once there he studied at the Academie Colarossi where he met Gauguin. The impression this encounter made on him and Gauguin's encouragement prompted Slewinski to dedicate himself to art. He submitted to Gauguin's artistic and personal influence, spending time with him in Paris and, from 1889, in Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu in Brittany. Seascapes painted during this period include Cliffs in Brittany. In 1891 Gauguin painted a portrait of Slewinski and presented it to him. During this period Slewinski exhibited in Paris, with some success, both at the Salon des Independents in 1895 and 1896 and the Galerie Georges Thomas in 1897 and 1898.
Pieter Lodewyk Kuhnen
painted Romantic Rhine landscape with ruin at sunset in 19th century
Cesare Biseo
Italian, 1843-1909