Austrian Painter, 1718-1801,was one of the most outstanding Austrian painters of the late Baroque/Rococo along with Franz Anton Maulbertsch. A son of the sculptor Johannes Schmidt and a pupil of Gottlieb Starmayr, he spent most of his life at Stein, where he mostly worked in the numerous churches and monasteries of his Lower Austrian homeland. While the evolution of his style after 1750 shows that he had either spent a formative period in northern Italy or had at least had extensive contact with northern Italian works of art prior to that date, his works are also clearly influenced by Rembrandt (visible above all in his etchings) and the great fresco-painters of the Austrian Baroque, Paul Troger and Daniel Gran. Despite not having received formal academic training, in 1768 he was made a member of the imperial academy at Vienna due to his artistic merits, which by that time had already been recognized by a wider public inside and outside of Austria. Primarily he painted devotional images for private devotion and churches, including a considerable number of large altar paintings. His lively and colourful style made him extremely popular with people from all levels of society already during his lifetime. From 1780 mythological and low-life themes became increasingly frequent, only to be replaced by a renewed concentration on religious topics during the very last years of Schmidt's life. He was at that an important draughtsman and has left numerous etchings which clearly show Rembrandt's influence. While his earlier works typically show a warm chiaroscuro, from about 1770 he used increasingly stronger and more lively colours. Simultanueously, both his style and his brush technique became much more free, making him, like Franz Anton Maulbertsch, an important predecessor of impressionism. In this aspect, his mature style is completely contrary to neoclassicism, the style which increasingly dominated European art after about 1780.   Related Paintings of Martin Johann Schmidt :. | Polyphem | Diakon. Etude. | Auto-da-Fe | Rise of the Carthaginian Empire | Playing Cards |
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Carl Tragardh
(20 September 1861 - 5 June 1899) was a Swedish painter. Trägårdh studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm 1881-1883, in Karlsruhe 1883-84, and Munich until 1885. He then moved to France where he became a resident until his death. He exhibited both in Sweden and in France. He received a couple of medals and found a patron in the French singer and art collector Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830 - 1914) who bought some 40 paintings by him. His production is often landscape with grazing cattle, usually cows or sheep.
Joseph Heintz the Elder
the Elder (Basle, 11 June 1564 - near Prague, Bohemia, October 1609) was a Swiss painter, draftsman and architect. He appears to have been a pupil of Hans Bock, and to have educated himself by diligent practice in copying the works of Hans Holbein the younger. Between 1585 and 1587 he lived in Rome, registering himself a pupil; to Hans von Aachen. He next settled in Bohemia in 1591, and was at once appointed court painter to Rudolf II, but he remained in Prague for two years only, as in 1593 he was commissioned to make some copies from the antique for the emperor, and for that purpose went to Rome, where he spent some years. In 1604 we hear of him in Augsburg, and from the time we know little of his history, until his decease is recorded in a village outside of Prague. Heintz's paintings included religious images, portraits, and, following the emperor's taste, erotic mythological themes. They were at one time in high demand, but later on suffered an eclipse. Among them are a family portrait in Berne and that of Rudolf II in Vienna. He was constantly investigating subtle questions of light, and almost all of his landscapes show the interest he took in this technical matter. A notable work by him is the Rape of Proserpine, which hangs in the Dresden Gallery, and was engraved by Lukas Kilian; in the same gallery are two other works, Lot and His Daughters and Ecce Homo. Finally there is his portrait of Constance of Austria. He had a son, who bore the same name, and who painted a few religious pictures; several of these works hitherto attributed to the son are now believed to be late productions by the father.
george gower
(born c. 1540 - died London 1596) was an English portrait painter who became Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth I in 1581.