French 1600-1682 Claude Lorrain Galleries In Rome, not until the mid-17th century were landscapes deemed fit for serious painting. Northern Europeans, such as the Germans Elsheimer and Brill, had made such views pre-eminent in some of their paintings (as well as Da Vinci in his private drawings or Baldassarre Peruzzi in his decorative frescoes of vedute); but not until Annibale Carracci and his pupil Domenichino do we see landscape become the focus of a canvas by a major Italian artist. Even with the latter two, as with Lorrain, the stated themes of the paintings were mythic or religious. Landscape as a subject was distinctly unclassical and secular. The former quality was not consonant with Renaissance art, which boasted its rivalry with the work of the ancients. The second quality had less public patronage in Counter-Reformation Rome, which prized subjects worthy of "high painting," typically religious or mythic scenes. Pure landscape, like pure still-life or genre painting, reflected an aesthetic viewpoint regarded as lacking in moral seriousness. Rome, the theological and philosophical center of 17th century Italian art, was not quite ready for such a break with tradition. In this matter of the importance of landscape, Lorrain was prescient. Living in a pre-Romantic era, he did not depict those uninhabited panoramas that were to be esteemed in later centuries, such as with Salvatore Rosa. He painted a pastoral world of fields and valleys not distant from castles and towns. If the ocean horizon is represented, it is from the setting of a busy port. Perhaps to feed the public need for paintings with noble themes, his pictures include demigods, heroes and saints, even though his abundant drawings and sketchbooks prove that he was more interested in scenography. Lorrain was described as kind to his pupils and hard-working; keenly observant, but an unlettered man until his death. The painter Joachim von Sandrart is an authority for Claude's life (Academia Artis Pictoriae, 1683); Baldinucci, who obtained information from some of Claude's immediate survivors, relates various incidents to a different effect (Notizie dei professoni del disegno). John Constable described Claude Lorrain as "the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw", and declared that in Claude??s landscape "all is lovely ?C all amiable ?C all is amenity and repose; the calm sunshine of the heart"  Related Paintings of Claude Lorrain :. | Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia | Paisaje de un puerto | Landscape with Jacob and Laban (mk17) | Belagerung von La Rochelle durch die Truppen Ludwigs XIII., Oval | Noon |
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Jan van Os
Dutch Painter, 1744-1808
andre bauchant
Andre Bauchant (April 24 1873 -- August 12 1958) was a French 'naive' painter whose compositions were often informed by mythology and Classical History. He originally worked as a market gardener, after his father, before serving in World War I. He later trained as a mapmaker before deciding on a career as an artist. Bauchant was born in Chateau-Renault, Indre-et-Loire. His first exhibit was in 1920 at the Salon d'Automne. In 1927 he was commissioned by Diaghilev to design sets for Stravinsky's Apollon Musagete.
Christian Krohg
1852-1925 Norwegian Christian Krohg Gallery Krohg was educated in Germany at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe under Hans Gude[1], and later worked in Paris from 1881 to 1882. Inspired by the thoughts of the realists he chose motives primarily from everyday life ?C often its darker or socially inferior sides. Particularly well known are his pictures of prostitutes, and his novel Albertine from 1886 is about this theme. The book caused a scandal when first published, and was confiscated by the police. Krogh??s powerful and straightforward style made him one of the leading figures in the transition from romanticism to naturalism, characteristic of Norwegian art in this period. Through his periodic residence at Skagen, where he arrived for the first time in 1879, he had great influence on Anna and Michael Ancher, and provided early support to Edvard Munch. Krohg was a journalist in the Oslo newspaper Verdens Gang 1890-1910, where he wrote remarkable portrait interviews. Later he became a professor director at Statens Kunstakademi (The Norwegian Academy of Arts) 1909-1925. He was married to Oda Krohg.