1617-1681 Dutch Gerard Ter Borch Locations Gerard Ter Borch was born in Zwolle. His first teacher was his father, Gerard Ter Borch the Elder, who in his youth had spent some years in Rome and returned with drawings he had made as well as some he had collected in Italy. The son precociously revealed his gifts as a draftsman, as shown in his drawing of a man on horseback (1625). Ter Borch traveled widely. In 1634 he was in Haarlem, in 1635 in London, in 1640 probably in Rome. A visit to Spain is reflected in reminiscences of Diego Velazquez in the style and psychological penetration of Ter Borch s portraits. His famous portrait Helena van der Schalke as a Child (ca. 1644) calls to mind Velazquez s Infantas; the placement of the figure in palpable yet undefined space, without the indication of a floor line, is a masterful adoption of the Spanish masters invention. Between 1645 and 1648 Ter Borch was in Munster, Germany, where he went to seek portrait commissions during the meetings that ended the 80 years of war between the United Provinces and Spain. His small group portrait Swearing of the Oath of Ratification of the Treaty of Munster is a rare example in Dutch 17th-century painting of the recording of an actual historical event. It includes more than 50 recognizable portraits. The painter asked for this work the enormous price of 6, 000 guilders. Apparently no buyer was found, for the picture was in the hands of his widow after his death. From 1654 on Ter Borch lived mainly in Deventer, where he married, became a citizen, held honorary office, and died on Dec. 8, 1681. Ter Borch s early paintings were mainly scenes of military life, painted with great subtlety of color and values. Later he showed a predilection for small, dainty interior scenes, in which he revealed his delight in the sheen of satin and the grace of charming women. The elegance of his figures has tended to obscure the fact that in many cases they are shown as participants in situations of amatory commerce. The figures and costumes are painted with care and high finish that is not matched in the settings and backgrounds, which are often not well realized. The Music Lesson (ca. 1675) is a characteristic late example of Ter Borchs favorite subject matter. His most able pupil, Caspar Netscher, became a successful portraitist in the small-scale and fashionable tradition of his master.  Related Paintings of Gerard Ter Borch :. | Soldier Offering a Young Woman Coins | The Ratification of the Treaty of Munster, 15 May 1648 | The Military Admirer (mk05) | The Dispatch | Three Figures conversing in an Interior, known as The Paternal Admonition |
Related Artists:
Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet
1644-1717 French Jean Baptiste Jouvenet Galleries He came from an artistic family, one of whom Noel Jouvenet may have taught Nicolas Poussin. He early showed remarkable aptitude for his profession, and, on arriving in Paris, attracted the attention of Le Brun, by whom he was employed at Versailles, and under whose auspices, in 1675, he became a member of the Acad??mie royale, of which he was elected professor in 1681, and one of the four perpetual rectors in 1707. He also worked under Charles de la Fosse in the Invalides and Trianon. The great mass of works that he executed, chiefly in Paris, many of which, including his celebrated Miraculous Draught of Fishes (engraved by Audran; also Landon, Annales, i. 42), are now in the Louvre, show his fertility in invention and execution, and also that he possessed in a high degree that general dignity of arrangement and style which distinguished the school of Le Brun. Jouvenet died on the 5 April 1717, having been forced by paralysis during the last four years of his life to work with his left hand.
Ferdinand Theodor Hildebrandt
painted Kinder in Erwartung des Weihnachtsbaumes in 1840
Francesco Francia
1450-1517 Italian Francesco Francia Locations He trained with Marco Zoppo and was first mentioned as a painter in 1486. His earliest known work is the Felicini Madonna, which is signed and dated 1494. He worked in partnership with Lorenzo Costa, and was influenced by Ercole de Roberti and Costa style, until 1506, when Francia became a court painter in Mantua, after which time he was influenced more by Perugino and Raphael. He himself trained Marcantonio Raimondi and several other artists; he produced niellos, in which Raimondi first learnt to engrave, soon excelling his master, according to Vasari. Raphael Santa Cecilia is supposed to have produced such a feeling of inferiority in Francia that it caused him to die of depression His sons Jacopo Francia and Giulio Francia were also artists.