England/Australia Painter , 1801-1878 Australian painter, lithographer and librarian of English birth. Son of a London merchant, he studied c. 1816 under Copley Fielding. His training was as a watercolourist and his most important works are watercolours, although he also produced paintings in oils. His early work displays the taste then current for the Picturesque. Francis Danby, David Cox and Turner were artists he admired. Martens left for India in 1832 or 1833 but at Montevideo joined Charles Darwin's expedition, replacing Augustus Earle as topographical draughtsman aboard the Beagle. The work strengthened his observation of detail and skill as a draughtsman. He left the expedition in October 1834 and, travelling via Tahiti and New Zealand, arrived in Sydney in April 1835. There he worked as a professional artist, in the 1840s and 1850s producing lithographic views of the Sydney area to augment his income. In 1863 he was appointed Parliamentary Librarian, which secured his finances. The skills he had acquired aboard the Beagle helped to gain him commissions to depict the estates around Sydney. However, his admiration for Turner, and with this the desire to elevate landscape as a subject, prompted him to subordinate line to mood in a Romantic treatment of the landscape. His thoughts were clearly stated in a lecture on landscape painting given in 1856 at the Australian Library, Sydney (see Smith, 1975).   Related Paintings of Conrad Martens :. | Coastal Scene near Exmouth | Cloud study | Australian Landscape with cattle and a stockman at a creek | Cloud Study | Sydney Harbour Looking Towards the North End |
Related Artists:
Henry Smartly
painted Ship QUEEN VICTORIA - a Close Call Entering Le Havre in 1843
Albert de Balleroy
(1828 -1873 ) - Painter
Pier Francesco Cittadini
Italian, 1616-1681,was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Bologna and painting lush and rich still lifes. Also known as Pier Francesco Cittadini. Originally trained in Rome then studied with Guido Reni. Also called il Milanese. He painted still life pictures. His two sons Giovanni Battista Cittadini and Carlo Cittadini were also still life painters.