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 :. | Landscape with Dune | Beach at Scheveningen | A River Scene, with a Hut on an Island. | Skaters in front of a Medieval Castle | View of Dordrecht |
Related Artists:
Johann Martin Stock
(1742 - 1800) Budapest, Magyar Nemzeti Galeria
Francesco Caccianiga
Francesco Caccianiga (1700-1781) was an Italian painter and engraver. He was born in Milan. In Bologna, he became a pupil of Marcantonio Franceschini. He afterwards visited Rome, where he established himself under the patronage of Prince Borghese, for whom he executed some considerable works in the Palazzo and the Villa Borghese. His principal works are at Ancona, where he painted several altar-pieces, among them, Marriage of the Virgin and Last Supper.
Maxime Maufra
was a French landscape and marine painter, etcher and lithographer. Maufra first began painting at 18. He was encouraged to do so by two artists from Nantes: the brothers Leduc. However, he didnet fully embrace his painting career right away. Being a businessman, he only painted on his spare time from 1884 to 1890. During this time, Maufra discovered the work of the Impressionists and was able to display his works at the Paris Salon of 1886. In 1890, Maufra decided to give up commerce and to become a full-time painter. He left Nantes for Brittany, where he was able to meet Paul Gauguin and Paul Serusier. Maufra had his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1894, at Le Barc de Toutteville. Returning from Brittany, Maufra was the first painter to take up residence in The Bateau-Lavoir, a famous Parisian residence for artists. In his paintings, Maufra sometimes quoted the pointillisit technique of Pissarro or Sisley, and also took from the strong colors and powerful drawing of the Pont Aven school. However, Maufra stayed an independent artist his all life through, and dedicated his art to recording the beauty of nature.