Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1596-1656 Jan van Goyen was born in Leiden on Jan. 13, 1596. Apprenticed from the age of 10, he had several masters. About 1617 he went to Haarlem to study with Esaias van de Velde, an important innovator in the Haarlem movement of realistic landscape painting. Van Goyen's works between 1621 and 1625 are sometimes hard to distinguish from those of his teacher. They are colorful, detailed views of villages and roads, usually busy with people, as in Winter (1621). It was Van Goyen's usual practice to sign or monogram and date his paintings. He traveled extensively through the Netherlands and beyond, recording his impressions in sketchbooks, occasionally with dates and often depicting recognizable scenes. Thus the chronology of his development is clear. His paintings of the late 1620s show a steady advance from the strong colors and scattered organization of his early works toward tonality and greater simplicity and unity of composition. By 1630 he was painting monochromes in golden brown or pale green; he played a leading part in the tonal phase of Dutch landscape painting. In 1631 Van Goyen settled in The Hague, where he became a citizen in 1634. The simplicity, airiness, and unification of his compositions continued to increase in his abundant production of dune landscapes, river views, seascapes, town views, and winter landscapes. The River View (1636) displays a river so open and extensive as to suggest the sea, with reflections that prolong the vast and luminous sky. In its monumentalization of humble structures and its composition built on a firm scaffolding of horizontal and vertical forces, it forecast at this early date developments that dominated landscape painting in the 1650s and later. In the Village and Dunes (1647) the traditional double-diagonal composition still exists, but it is dominated by horizontal and vertical accents. Stronger contrasts of light and dark replace the earlier tonality. In the last year of his life Van Goyen produced an eloquent new style, in which powerful forms stand out against the radiant sky and water in an exquisitely balanced composition (Evening Calm; 1656). The commission in 1651 to paint a panoramic view of The Hague for the Burgomaster's Room shows the high regard in which Van Goyen was held. He was enormously productive; well over 1,000 of his paintings still exist, and almost as many drawings.   Related Paintings of Jan van Goyen :. | River Landscape (mk08) | Winter Landscape with Farmhouses along a Ditch. | Mouth of the Meuse | Landscape with Skaters | slottet montfort |
Related Artists:
Matilda Browne
1869-1947
Palmezzano, Marco
Italian, Approx. 1459-1539 .Italian painter. His earliest work was probably on the fresco decoration (c. 1480-84) of the vault of the sacristy of the treasury in the Santa Casa, Loreto, designed by Melozzo da Forl?. He then probably went to Rome, where he may have painted the fresco in the apse of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Longhi). In 1493 Palmezzano is documented working with Melozzo on the fresco decoration in the Feo Chapel,
Ayne Bru
Ayne (Aine) Bru (probably a Catalanization of Hans Bren) was a 16th century Renaissance painter of German origin who worked in Catalonia. He may have proceeded from Lummen, in the Duchy of Brabant. He is sometimes also called Lucius de Brun. His surname may also suggest provenance from the town of Brenn. In 1502, he was hired to paint the main altar (retablo) in the church of the monastery of Sant Cugat del Valles, for which he was paid a staggering wage between 1504 and 1507. On the central panel, Bru depicted the martyrdom of Saint Cucuphas (in Catalan, Sant Cugat) with enormous realism. The executioner cuts the saint's throat while Cucuphas remains tied to a tree trunk. Nearby, there appear another knife (in a basket) and a dog sleeping peacefully. This work is now at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya). The dog from Bru's painting of Cucuphas' martyrdom was later borrowed by Salvador Dale for a painting called "Dale Contemplating Nude" or "Dale Dale Dale". The vast countryside that serves as a background anachronistically includes the actual monastery of Sant Cugat. Another panel, depicting Saint George (sometimes identified as Saint Candidus or simply as "Warrior Saint"), was attached to this one. It has been rejoined and is visible at the National Art Museum of Catalonia. Marcel Durliat believes that though the expressionism in this painting is evidence of a Germanic artistic tradition, Bru's Quattrocento depiction of the standing figures in contemporary dress, as well as other details, indicate that the painter may have lived or studied in Northern Italy before moving to Barcelona.