1738-1820 Benjamin West Locations Benjamin West RA (October 10, 1738 ?C March 11, 1820) was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence. He was the second president of the Royal Academy serving from 1792 to 1805 and 1806 to 1820. In 1760, sponsored by Smith and William Allen, reputed to be the wealthiest man in Philadelphia, West traveled to Italy where he expanded his repertoire by copying the works of Italian painters such as Titian and Raphael. As painted by Gilbert Stuart, 1783-84West was a close friend of Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait he painted. Franklin was also the godfather of West's second son, Benjamin. In 1763, West moved to England, where he was commissioned by King George III to create portraits of members of the royal family. The king himself was twice painted by him. He painted his most famous, and possibly most influential painting, The Death of General Wolfe, in 1770, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771. Although originally snubbed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the famous portrait painter and President of the Royal Academy, and others as over ambitious, the painting became one of the most frequently reproduced images of the period. In 1772, King George appointed him historical painter to the court at an annual fee of £1,000. With Reynolds, West founded the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. He was the second president of the Royal Academy from 1792 to 1805. He was re-elected in 1806 and was president until his death in 1820. He was Surveyor of the King's Pictures from 1791 until his death. Many American artists studied under him in London, including Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Gilbert Stuart, John Trumbull, and Thomas Sully. [3] West is known for his large scale history paintings, which use expressive figures, colours and compositional schemes to help the spectator to identify with the scene represented. West called this "epic representation". He died in London.  Related Paintings of Benjamin West :. | King Lear | Tod des Generals Wolfe | Colonel Guy Johnson | Death of Nelson | Mercury and Argus |
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Bohumil Kubista
(1884 - 1918) was a Czech painter and art critic, one of the founders of Czech modern painting. He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Prague, but left in 1906 to study at the Reale Istituto di Belle Arti in Florence. He, Emil Filla, Antonin Prochezka, and five others founded Osma (The Eight), an Expressionist-oriented group of artists. Kubišta came to his individual expression gradually, at first he was influenced by the work of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cezanne. He educated himself in in philosophy and optics, and studied colour and the geometrical construction of painting. Kubišta, like several other Czech artists of his generation, was strongly affected by the 1905 Edvard Munch exhibition in Prague. Together with Emil Filla he established the artistic group Osma in 1907. He worked in an Expressionist style until 1910, and exchanged ideas with German painters in Die Bre - ke. He also developed visual ideas learned from the work of Cezanne. His later style (approximately from 1911) was strongly influenced by cubism and expressionism. Expressionist elements, particularly his use of color but also his subject matter, immediately distinguish Kubištaes cubist work from that of founding Paris Cubists Picasso and Braque. He studied color theory, analyzing the harmonic and compositional principles of painters such as El Greco, Eugene Delacroix, Vincent van Gogh, and Edvard Munch. He also paid close attention to mathematical and geometric principles. Around 1911, he became acquainted with Jan Zrzavý and the artistic group Sursum. He died prematurely during the global 1918 flu pandemic which ravaged Europe after the First World War.
William Mctaggart
Scottish Painter, 1835-1910 was a Scottish landscape painter who was influenced by Impressionism. The son of a crofter, William McTaggart was born in the small village of Aros in Kintyre. He moved to Edinburgh at the age of 16 and studied at the Trustees' Academy under Robert Scott Lauder. He won several prizes as a student and exhibited his work in the Royal Scottish Academy, becoming a full member of the Academy in 1870. His early works were mainly figure paintings, often of children, but he later turned to land and seascape painting, inspired by his childhood love of the sea and the rugged, Atlantic-lashed west coast of his birth. The Storm, 1890, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.McTaggart was fascinated with nature and man??s relationship with it, and he strove to capture aspects such as the transient effects of light on water. He adopted the Impressionist practice of painting out of doors, and his use of colour and bold brushwork resemble qualities found in paintings by Constable and Turner, both artists whom he admired. McTaggart was skilled in the use of both oil and watercolour and, in addition to Kintyre seascapes, he also painted landscapes and seascapes in Midlothian and East Lothian. Many of his later works depict the Moorfoot Hills which could be seen from his house near Lasswade, which he moved to in 1889.
VADDER, Lodewijk de
Flemish painter (b. 1605, Bruxelles, d. 1655, Bruxelles) Flemish painter, draughtsman, engraver and tapestry designer. He was received as a master in the Brussels Guild of St Luke on 15 May 1628, probably, like his brother Hubert de Vadder, after an apprenticeship to his elder brother, Philippe de Vadder (Coeckelberghs). Lodewijk is best known as a landscape painter, although he also executed landscape engravings and drawings. He was granted a privilege to make tapestry cartoons by the Brussels city magistrate in 1644. In this capacity he worked mainly for weavers such as Jean Courdijn and Baudouin van Beveren. The latter referred to him as the best landscape painter in the country