Dutch Post-Impressionist Painter, 1853-1890 Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 ?C 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. Some of his paintings are now among the world's best known, most popular and expensive works of art. Van Gogh spent his early adult life working for a firm of art dealers. After a brief spell as a teacher, he became a missionary worker in a very poor mining region. He did not embark upon a career as an artist until 1880. Initially, Van Gogh worked only with sombre colours, until he encountered Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism in Paris. He incorporated their brighter colours and style of painting into a uniquely recognizable style, which was fully developed during the time he spent at Arles, France. He produced more than 2,000 works, including around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches, during the last ten years of his life. Most of his best-known works were produced in the final two years of his life, during which time he cut off part of his left ear following a breakdown in his friendship with Paul Gauguin. After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide. The central figure in Van Gogh's life was his brother Theo, who continually and selflessly provided financial support. Their lifelong friendship is documented in numerous letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards. Van Gogh is a pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism. He had an enormous influence on 20th century art, especially on the Fauves and German Expressionists.  Related Paintings of Vincent Van Gogh :. | A Road at Saint Remy with Female Figure | Interior of a Restaurant (nn04) | Avenue of Poplars at Sunset (nn04) | Le Moulin de la Galette (nn04) | Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe |
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Abraham Bloemaert
(1566, Gorinchem - 27 January 1651, Utrecht), was a Dutch painter and printmaker in etching and engraving. He was one of the "Haarlem Mannerists" from about 1585, but in the new century altered his style to fit new Baroque trends. Bloemaert was the son of an architect, who moved his family to Utrecht in 1575, where Abraham was first a pupil of Gerrit Splinter (pupil of Frans Floris) and of Joos de Beer. He then spent three years in Paris, studying under several masters, and on his return to his native country received further training from Hieronymus Francken. In 1591 he went to Amsterdam, and four years later settled finally at Utrecht, where he became dean of the Guild of St. Luke. He excelled more as a colourist than as a draughtsman, was extremely productive, and painted and etched historical and allegorical pictures, landscapes, still-life, animal pictures and flower pieces. In the first decade of the seventeenth-century, Bloemaert began formulating his landscape paintings to include pictoresque ruined cottagges and other pastoral elements. In these works, the religious or mythological figures play a subordinate role. Country life was to remain Bloemaert's favourite subject, which he depicted with increasing naturalism. He drew motifs such as peasant cottages, dovecotes and trees from life and then on his return to the studio, worked them up into complex imaginary scenes. Among his pupils are his four sons, Hendrick, Frederick, Cornelis, and Adriaan (all of whom achieved considerable reputation as painters or engravers), the two Honthorsts, Ferdinand Bol and Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp.
Frans Pourbus
Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1545-1581 Painter, son of Pieter Pourbus. His work consists mainly of portraits and religious subjects, although he also executed a number of landscapes and history paintings. He worked mostly for the wealthy patrician class, and his work was instrumental in spreading the Romanism of Frans Floris (his teacher) throughout the Netherlands. It is probable that Frans Pourbus's earliest teaching was with his father in Bruges, but by 1564 he is recorded as working in the Antwerp studio of Floris. According to van Mander, Frans Pourbus and his fellow student Crispijn van den Broeck together completed an altarpiece by Floris after the latter's death in 1570. In 1566 Frans Pourbus married Susanna, a daughter of Cornelis Floris and niece of his master, and in 1569/70 he became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke, though he retained his citizenship of Bruges. Gortzius Geldorp was his pupil in Antwerp in 1570. For Ghent Cathedral Frans painted Christ among the Doctors (the Viglius Altarpiece, 1571; in situ), which includes life-size portraits of Emperor Charles V, his son Philip, their secretary Viglius ab Aytta (d 1577), Jansenius, first Bishop of Ghent (d 1576), and the Duke of Alba. A decade later Pourbus executed the portrait of the Hoefnagel Family (c. 1581; Brussels, Mus. A. Anc.), shown grouped around a harpsichord playing musical instruments, in which the artist included a self-portrait (playing a lute) at the upper left. The picture was acquired in 1696 by Constantijn Huygens the younger from a cousin, a Hoefnagel descendant, in exchange for a horse; the young girl of 15 or 16 with a parrot in her hand was Huygens's grandmother. An inventory drawn up after Frans Pourbus death lists 20 portraits by him, many from the circle of the Duke of Anjou.
Maxime Maufra
was a French landscape and marine painter, etcher and lithographer. Maufra first began painting at 18. He was encouraged to do so by two artists from Nantes: the brothers Leduc. However, he didnet fully embrace his painting career right away. Being a businessman, he only painted on his spare time from 1884 to 1890. During this time, Maufra discovered the work of the Impressionists and was able to display his works at the Paris Salon of 1886. In 1890, Maufra decided to give up commerce and to become a full-time painter. He left Nantes for Brittany, where he was able to meet Paul Gauguin and Paul Serusier. Maufra had his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1894, at Le Barc de Toutteville. Returning from Brittany, Maufra was the first painter to take up residence in The Bateau-Lavoir, a famous Parisian residence for artists. In his paintings, Maufra sometimes quoted the pointillisit technique of Pissarro or Sisley, and also took from the strong colors and powerful drawing of the Pont Aven school. However, Maufra stayed an independent artist his all life through, and dedicated his art to recording the beauty of nature.