Ernst Josephson
1851-1906
Swedish
Ernst Josephson Gallery
was a Swedish painter from a prominent Jewish family, whose main work was done on portraits and paintings of folk life.
He did his art studies in Italy, France and the Netherlands, among others, and is reputed to have said at the age of 20: "I will become Sweden's Rembrandt or die."
However, his life was marred by illness. He contracted syphilis at a relatively young age, and in 1888 he became mentally ill during a visit to Brittany, having religious hallucinations and believing that he was God and Christ.
He was later taken to hospital in Uppsala and diagnosed with schizophrenia, but continued working throughout his disease, often while in a trance-like state.
He also wrote poetry, in the collections Svarta rosor (1888, Black Roses) and Gula rosor (1896, Yellow Roses). His main work, Strömkarlen (1884, the Nix), was refused by the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm - however, Prince Eugen, Duke of Narke, bought the painting in fury over the decision.
Grandfather of Erland Josephson. Related Paintings of Ernst Josephson :. | david och saul | Der Nix | portratt av per staaff | Woman dressed in black | Byskvaller | Related Artists: RIJCKHALS, FransDutch painter (b. 1600, Middelburg, d. 1647, Middelburg) Meindert Hobbema1638-1709
Dutch
Meindert Hobbema Galleries
In the exercise of his craft Hobbema was patient beyond all conception. It is doubtful whether any one ever so completely mastered as he did the still life of woods and hedges, or mills and pools. Nor can we believe that he obtained this mastery otherwise than by constantly dwelling in the same neighbourhood, say in Guelders or on the Dutch Westphalian border, where day after day he might study the branching and foliage of trees and underwood embowering cottages and mills, under every variety of light, in every shade of transparency, in all changes produced by the seasons. Though his landscapes are severely and moderately toned, generally in an olive key, and often attuned to a puritanical grey or russet, they surprise us, not only by the variety of their leafage, but by the finish of their detail as well as the boldness of their touch. With astonishing subtlety light is shown penetrating cloud, and illuminating, sometimes transiently, sometimes steadily, different portions of the ground, shining through leaves upon other leaves, and multiplying in an endless way the transparency of the picture. If the chance be given him he mirrors all these things in the still pool near a cottage, the reaches of a sluggish river, or the swirl of the stream that feeds a busy mill. The same spot will furnish him with several pictures. One mill gives him repeated opportunities of charming our eye; and this wonderful artist, who is only second to Ruisdael because he had not Ruisdael's versatility and did not extend his study equally to downs and rocky eminences, or torrents and estuaries - this is the man who lived penuriously, died poor, and left no trace in the artistic annals of his country. It has been said that Hobbema did not paint his own figures, but transferred that duty to Adriaen van de Velde, Lingelbach, Barendt Gael, and Abraham Storck. As to this much is conjecture. Ignazio DantiItalian,1536-1586
was an Italian priest, mathematician, astronomer, and cosmographer. Danti was born in Perugia to a family rich in artists and scientists. As a boy he learned the rudiments of painting and architecture from his father Giulio, an architect and engineer who studied under Antonio da Sangallo, and his aunt Teodora, who was said to have studied under the painter Perugino and also wrote a commentary on Euclid. His older brother Vincenzo Danti would become one of the leading court sculptors of late-sixteenth-century Florence, while his younger brother Girolamo (1547-1580) would become a local Perugian painter of little fame. Danti entered the Dominican Order on March 7, 1555, changing his baptismal name from Pellegrino to Ignazio. After completing his studies in philosophy and theology he gave some time to preaching, but soon devoted himself zealously to mathematics, astronomy, and geography. In 1562, he requested a transfer from the Dominican compound in Perugia to the monastery of San Marco in Florence. Soon after, he found work on the side tutoring the children of wealthy Florentines in mathematics and science. In September 1563, he was invited by Cosimo I, Duke of Tuscany to participate in his great cosmographical project, the Guardaroba in the Palazzo Vecchio. Over the next dozen years, Danti would paint 30 maps of regions of the world (based largely upon published prints by Giacomo Gastaldi, Abraham Ortelius, Gerardus Mercator, and others) upon the cabinet doors of the Guardaroba. He would also work on many other significant scientific and cosmographic projects in Florence, including the large terrestrial globe of the Guardaroba (1564-1568), and a number of brass scientific instruments (such as an astrolabe) today in the Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence. Between 1567 and 1569, Pius V, who belonged to the Dominicans, is said to have commissioned Danti to furnish plans for the construction of a Dominican church and convent at Bosco Marengo in Piedmont; Danti acted mainly as an advisor. During his stay in Florence, Danti taught mathematics and published over a dozen scientific treatises, mostly commentaries on ancient and medieval astronomy and mathematics or explanations of how to use scientific instruments. For much of his time in Florence, Danti resided at the convent of Santa Maria Novella, and designed the quadrant (on the right) and the armillary sphere (on the left) that appear on the end blind arches of the lower facade of the church in 1572 and 1574, respectively. He also designed a large-scale gnomon for the church which would allow a thin beam of light to enter the church at noon each day through a hole just beneath the facade's rose window, although it probably was not completed by the time Danti left Florence. There were also discussions between the Duke and Danti about building a canal to place Florence in communication with both the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. However, this grandiose plan never got underway before Cosimo's death in (1574). The following year Cosimo's son, Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici, forced Danti to leave Florence (in late September 1575) on an uncertain morals charge. It is not known precisely why Francesco exiled Danti, but it should be noted that the Dominican had no trouble finding work or patrons anywhere else in Italy, although he never returned to Florence before his death. After leaving Florence, Danti became professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna. While occupying this chair he built a massive gnomon in the Bolognese church of San Petronio, the meridian line of which is still visible in the church's pavement. He also spent some time in Perugia, at the invitation of the governor, where he prepared maps of the Perugian republic. On account of his mathematical attainments, Pope Gregory XIII invited him to Rome, appointed him pontifical mathematician and made him a member of the commission for the reform of the calendar. He also placed him in charge of the painters whom the Pope had summoned to the Vatican to continue the decoration of the palace, most notably to make a number of maps of the regions of modern Italy in the newly constructed Gallery of Maps along the Cortile del Belvedere. This remarkable project, begun in early 1580 and completed about 18 months later, maps the entirety of the Italian peninsula in 40 large-scale frescoes, each depicting a region as well as a perspective view of its most prominent city. When the pontiff commissioned the architect Domenico Fontana to repair the Claudian harbour it was Danti who furnished the necessary plans. While at Rome Danti published a translation of a portion of Euclid with annotations and wrote a life of the architect Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, preparing also notes for the latter's work on perspective. In recognition of his labours Gregory, in 1583, made him Bishop of Alatri in the Campagna. Danti showed himself a zealous pastor in his new office.
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