Greek-born Spanish Mannerist Painter, 1541-1614
Considered a representative of late Renaissance Spanish art, El Greco was actually born in Greece, on the island of Crete. After studying in Venice under Titian, El Greco settled in Toledo, Spain in 1577. At the time he was wildly popular, his emotionally religious paintings being just the ticket for the hometown of the Spanish Inquisition. After his death his work was largely ignored until the beginning of the 20th century; now he considered one of the inspired geniuses of Western art. His distinctive style features bold shapes and colors, with elongated and slightly distorted figures.
In Toledo El Greco was in constant demand and liked living large: he maintained a private orchestra to accompany his meals. Related Paintings of El Greco :. | Details of The Burial of Count Orgaz | baptism of christ | Portrait of a Man | Assumption of the Virgin | St.Jerome | Related Artists:
John Quidor1801-1888
Quidor was born in Gloucester Co., N. J., and in 1826 moved to New York City where he studied painting under John Wesley Jarvis and Henry Inman. Afterward he lived on a farm near Quincy, Illinois, but returned to New York City in 1851. He was obliged to support himself by painting the panels of stage coaches and fire engines and died in abject poverty.
Although Quidor was little appreciated in his own time, after his death he was accorded a place among the best early American artists. His paintings establish a mysterious romantic setting for scenes in which he mingled macabre elements with an earthy humor. Many of his works, such as Ichabod Crane Pursued by the Headless Horseman, in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, were inspired by the writings of Washington Irving, who was a personal friend. Irving's A History of New York gave Quidor the subjects for the four paintings in the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Institute: Dancing on the Battery (c. 1860), Peter Stuyvesant's Wall Street Gate (1864), Voyage of the Good Oloff up the Hudson (1866), and The Voyage from Communipaw to Hell Gate (1866). These show Quidor's characteristic mellow and harmonious color, poetic imagination, and naïve humor.
He is represented in the Brooklyn Museum by three paintings: Dorothea, Money Diggers, and Wolfert's Will. He also painted religious subjects such as Jesus Blessing the Sick.
UDEN, Lucas vanFlemish painter (b. 1595, Antwerpen, d. 1672, Antwerpen).
Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver. He was the son of Artus van Uden (b 1544), town painter of Antwerp, and grandson of Pieter van Uden (i) ( fl 1553), founder of a noted tapestry and silk factory in the city. Lucas was probably trained by his father and in 1626-7 was enrolled in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke as a 'master's son'. On 14 February 1627 he married Anna van Woelput (d 1667). On 31 December 1649 he was registered as no longer living in the city,
MOUCHERON, Frederick deDutch painter (b. 1633, Emden, d. 1686, Amsterdam)