German painter (b. 1497, Augsburg, d. 1543, London). Hans Holbein the Younger, born in Augsburg, was the son of a painter, Hans Holbein the Elder, and received his first artistic training from his father. Hans the Younger may have had early contacts with the Augsburg painter Hans Burgkmair the Elder. In 1515 Hans the Younger and his older brother, Ambrosius, went to Basel, where they were apprenticed to the Swiss painter Hans Herbster. Hans the Younger worked in Lucerne in 1517 and visited northern Italy in 1518-1519. On Sept. 25, 1519, Holbein was enrolled in the painters' guild of Basel, and the following year he set up his own workshop, became a citizen of Basel, and married the widow Elsbeth Schmid, who bore him four children. He painted altarpieces, portraits, and murals and made designs for woodcuts, stained glass, and jewelry. Among his patrons was Erasmus of Rotterdam, who had settled in Basel in 1521. In 1524 Holbein visited France. Holbein gave up his workshop in Basel in 1526 and went to England, armed with a letter of introduction from Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, who received him warmly. Holbein quickly achieved fame and financial success. In 1528 he returned to Basel, where he bought property and received commissions from the city council, Basel publishers, Erasmus, and others. However, with iconoclastic riots instigated by fanatic Protestants, Basel hardly offered the professional security that Holbein desired. In 1532 Holbein returned to England and settled permanently in London, although he left his family in Basel, retained his Basel citizenship, and visited Basel in 1538. He was patronized especially by country gentlemen from Norfolk, German merchants from the Steel Yard in London, and King Henry VIII and his court. Holbein died in London between Oct. 7 and Nov. 29, 1543. With few exceptions, Holbein's work falls naturally into the four periods corresponding to his alternate residences in Basel and London. His earliest extant work is a tabletop with trompe l'oeil motifs (1515) painted for the Swiss standard-bearer Hans Baer. Other notable works of the first Basel period are a diptych of Burgomaster Jakob Meyer zum Hasen and his wife, Dorothea Kannengiesser (1516); a portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach (1519); an unsparingly realistic Dead Christ (1521); a Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Saints (1522); several portraits of Erasmus, of which the one in Paris (1523 or shortly after), with its accurate observation of the scholar's concentrated attitude and frail person and its beautifully balanced composition, is particularly outstanding; and woodcuts, among which the series of the Dance of Death (ca. 1521-1525, though not published until 1538) represents one of the high points of the artist's graphic oeuvre. Probably about 1520 Holbein painted an altarpiece, the Last Supper, now somewhat cut down, which is based on Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, and four panels with eight scenes of the Passion of Christ (possibly the shutters of the Last Supper altarpiece), which contain further reminiscences of Italian painting, particularly Andrea Mantegna, the Lombard school, and Raphael, but with lighting effects that are characteristically northern. His two portraits of Magdalena Offenburg, as Laïs of Corinth and Venus with Cupid (1526),   Related Paintings of HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger :. | Portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach a | Unknown Young Man at his Office Desk sf | Portrait of Elihu Yale | The Solothurn Madonna (detail) | Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (detail) sf |
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Pierre-Jacques Cazes
(1676-1754) was a French historical painter, known as the teacher of, among others, Chardin. In 1703, he became part of the Academie, was named as director in 1743 and chancellor in 1746. He also worked in the Galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre in 1727 and produced a large number of religious paintings for churches in Paris and Versailles. His historical painting is in the same academic tradition as the French painters Charles Le Brun and Charles de Lafosse. He also painted paintings with mythological motifs and genre scenes. A portrait the artist wearing a wig and holding a portfolio was presented to the Academie Royale in 1734 by Chardin's friend Joseph Aved.
BRIL, Paul
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, ca.1554-1626 Painter, printmaker and draughtsman, brother of Matthijs Bril. According to van Mander, Paul studied in Antwerp with Damiaan Wortelmans (1545-after 1588/9) before travelling to Rome, via Lyon, c. 1574, to join his brother, whom, according to Baglione, he assisted on Vatican commissions after 1576. However, no document places Paul in Rome before 1582, and in any case Matthijs was probably not there until c. 1575. Paul's first known independent works are monumental frescoes dating from the late 1580s. They include a dramatic rendering of Jonah and the Whale (1588) in the Scala Santa in the Vatican (based on a drawing by Matthijs; Paris, Louvre) and a series of landscape lunettes (c. 1589) in the Lateran Palace.
Henry Lejeune
(12 December 1819 - 5 October 1904) was an English painter of landscapes, genre, literary and biblical scenes. He became well-known for his genre paintings of children. Henry Le Jeune was born in London, the son of Anthony Le Jeune, a professional musician of Flemish origin, and the third of five children. After showing an early interest in art he was encouraged by his family to study the art collections in the British Museum. In 1834 Le Jeune was admitted to the Royal Academy where, after winning 4 silver medals in succession, he won a gold medal in 1841 for the biblical painting "Samson Bursting his Bonds". He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840 with a work entitled "Joseph Interpreting the Dream of Pharaoh's Chief Butler". From 1845-48 he taught at the Government School of design at Somerset House, and from 1848-64 was curator and instructor at the Royal Academy. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1863 and an honorary retired associate in 1886. Le Jeune married Dorothy Lewis (1815-1864) on 21 June 1844 and had five sons and three daughters. He lived in London all his life, dying in Hampstead in 1904.