French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (February 25, 1841?CDecember 3, 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau". Renoir's paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. The female nude was one of his primary subjects. In characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with one another and their surroundings. His initial paintings show the influence of the colorism of Eugene Delacroix and the luminosity of Camille Corot. He also admired the realism of Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet, and his early work resembles theirs in his use of black as a color. As well, Renoir admired Edgar Degas' sense of movement. Another painter Renoir greatly admired was the 18th century master François Boucher. A fine example of Renoir's early work, and evidence of the influence of Courbet's realism, is Diana, 1867. Ostensibly a mythological subject, the painting is a naturalistic studio work, the figure carefully observed, solidly modeled, and superimposed upon a contrived landscape. If the work is still a 'student' piece, already Renoir's heightened personal response to female sensuality is present. The model was Lise Tr??hot, then the artist's mistress and inspiration for a number of paintings. In the late 1860s, through the practice of painting light and water en plein air (in the open air), he and his friend Claude Monet discovered that the color of shadows is not brown or black, but the reflected color of the objects surrounding them. Several pairs of paintings exist in which Renoir and Monet, working side-by-side, depicted the same scenes (La Grenouill??re, 1869). One of the best known Impressionist works is Renoir's 1876 Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (Le Bal au Moulin de la Galette). The painting depicts an open-air scene, crowded with people, at a popular dance garden on the Butte Montmartre, close to where he lived. On the Terrace, oil on canvas, 1881, Art Institute of ChicagoThe works of his early maturity were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling colour and light. By the mid 1880s, however, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined, formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women, such as The Bathers, which was created during 1884-87. It was a trip to Italy in 1881, when he saw works by Raphael and other Renaissance masters, that convinced him that he was on the wrong path, and for the next several years he painted in a more severe style, in an attempt to return to classicism. This is sometimes called his "Ingres period", as he concentrated on his drawing and emphasized the outlines of figures. After 1890, however, he changed direction again, returning to the use of thinly brushed color which dissolved outlines as in his earlier work. From this period onward he concentrated especially on monumental nudes and domestic scenes, fine examples of which are Girls at the Piano, 1892, and Grandes Baigneuses, 1918-19. The latter painting is the most typical and successful of Renoir's late, abundantly fleshed nudes. A prolific artist, he made several thousand paintings. The warm sensuality of Renoir's style made his paintings some of the most well-known and frequently-reproduced works in the history of art..  Related Paintings of Pierre Renoir :. | Irene Cahen d'Anvers | Madam Charpentier Children | Ambrois Vollard | The Braid(suzanne Vdaladon) | Spring Bouquet |
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Felice Ficherelli
Italian painter , b. 1603, San Gimignano, d. 1660, Firenze Firenze,Italian painter. His most original works were easel pictures, for private collectors, often of cruel and violent subjects, which he interpreted with a morbid sensuality and ambiguous tenderness. He was brought to Florence when very young by the collector Conte Alberto Bardi (d 1632), who arranged for him to study with Jacopo da Empoli and to copy works by Andrea del Sarto. Ficherelli's clear compositions and luminous drapery, which remain evident throughout his career, reflect this training. In the early 1630s he was attracted by the delicate sfumato effects of Francesco Furini and developed a style close to that of Cecco Bravo; his works of this period include the Sacrifice of Isaac (Florence, priv. col., for illustration see Gregori, 1968, p. 26) and the Martyrdom of St Agatha (priv. col., see Cantelli, fig. 338). There followed in the late 1630s Tarquin and Lucretia, which is known in several versions (e.g. Rome, Accad. N. S Luca), the theatrical Julia Receiving the Bloodstained Garments of Pompey (Genoa, priv. col., see 1986 exh. cat., pl. 1.208), an Allegory of Patience (Florence, Bigongiari priv. col., see Gregori, 1974, fig. 23) and Antiochus and Stratonica (Auckland, C.A.G.).
marcus larson
Simon Marcus Larson, född 5 januari 1825, Lilla Örsätter, Åtvidaberg, död 25 januari 1864 i London, var en svensk målare. Han tillhörde Dusseldorfskolan och skildrade naturens krafter på ett romantiskt och dramatiskt sätt. Larson hade en kort karriär och avled vid 39 års ålder, men ses ändå som en av Sveriges främsta 1800-talskonstnärer. 1856 var Larson i Dusseldorf och på julafton skissade han på ett solnedgångsmotiv vid den bohuslänska kusten, men Larson drömde om att måla en större tavla, hans atelje var alltför trång. Så en dag när han satt i stans populäraste caf?? och drack öl fick han id??n att han skulle måla i caf??lokalen. Sagt och gjort så hyrde han lokalen i 14 dagar. Duken han spände upp var 10-12 fot hög och 18 fot bred. Efter 10 dagar var tavlan klar. Tavlan ställdes ut på akademien och det byggdes en utsiktsramp för att åskådarna skulle få en överblick över tavlan, priset var 5 Silbergroschen per titt och det annonserades att intäkterna skulle gå till välgörande ändamål, vilket fick stort uppseende, särskilt bland övriga konstnärer, utställningen varade mellan 25 jan. och 15 feb. 1857 Tavlan ställdes också ut bland annat i Köln och Berlin sedan till Salon Carre i Paris där den hyllades. Därefter ställdes den också ut i Stockholm där Larson tänkte skänka tavlan till staten tillsammans med köpet av Vattenfall i Småland, men då Larson på hösten inte fick sälja nämnda tavla tog han ned den stora tavlan och tog den med sig när han lämnade Sverige och fortsatte sina resor, han visade den under några år, sista gången någon skrivit om tavlan var 1863, Efter Larsons död i London försvann tavlan.
Rembrandt van rijn
1606-1669 Dutch painter, draughtsman and etcher. From 1632 onwards he signed his works with only the forename Rembrandt; in documents, however, he continued to sign Rembrandt van Rijn (occasionally van Rhyn), initially with the addition of the patronymic 'Harmensz.'. This was no doubt in imitation of the great Italians such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, on whom he modelled himself, sometimes literally. He certainly equalled them in fame, and not only in his own country. His name still symbolizes a whole period of art history rightfully known as 'Holland's Golden Age'. In 1970-71 a great exhibition in Paris was devoted to it under the eloquent title Le Si?cle de Rembrandt. A century before, a popular work of cultural history by C. Busken Huet referred to the Netherlands as 'the land of Rembrandt'. His fame is partly due to his multi-faceted talent. Frans Hals was perhaps at times a greater virtuoso with the brush but remained 'only' a portrait painter. Vermeer may have excelled Rembrandt in the art of illusion but was less prolific. Rembrandt was not only a gifted painter but also an inspired graphic artist: he has probably never been surpassed as an etcher, and he often seems inimitable as a draughtsman. His subjects reflect his manifold talent and interests. He painted, drew and etched portraits, landscapes, figures and animals, but, above all, scenes of biblical and secular history and mythology.