French Romantic Painter, 1798-1863
For 40 years Eugene Delacroix was one of the most prominent and controversial painters in France. Although the intense emotional expressiveness of his work placed the artist squarely in the midst of the general romantic outpouring of European art, he always remained an individual phenomenon and did not create a school. As a personality and as a painter, he was admired by the impressionists, postimpressionists, and symbolists who came after him.
Born on April 28, 1798, at Charenton-Saint-Maurice, the son of an important public official, Delacroix grew up in comfortable upper-middle-class circumstances in spite of the troubled times. He received a good classical education at the Lycee Imperial. He entered the studio of Pierre Narcisse Guerin in 1815, where he met Theodore Gericaul Related Paintings of Eugene Delacroix :. | Illustration for Goethe's Faust | Woman of Algiers in their Apartment | Autoportrait dit en Ravenswood ou en Hamlet | The Disciples at Emmaus, or The Pilgrims at Emmaus | Jewish Wedding in Morocco | Related Artists:
David van der PlasDavid van der Plas (1647-1704), was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter.
David van der Plas became famous as a portrait painter, and his most illustrious patron was Cornelis Tromp. In 1684 he married Cornelia van der Gon of Haarlem, the daughter of the castellan (kastelein) of the Oude Doelen, the meeting quarters of the Haarlem schutterij (the building currently houses the Stadsbibliotheek Haarlem). David van der Plas' brother-in-law was the painter Govert van der Leeuw and his pupil was Jacob Appel.
His wife Cornelia van der Gon was the rich heiress of the Amsterdam architect Adriaan Dortsman (ca. 1636-1682), who designed the round Lutheran church on the Singel. The marriage was childless, and Cornelia spent her time on her doll houses, which Dortsman had helped design and which Van der Plas helped decorate. The landscape painter Jan Wijnants also painted miniatures for these doll houses. Cornelia died in 1701, and after the death of Van der Plas, the doll houses were sold at auction to Sara Rothe, who used them to decorate her own doll houses.
Arkhip Ivanovich KuindzhiRussian Painter, 1842-1910
Ukrainian painter, active in Russia. Initially self-taught as an artist, he twice failed the St Petersburg Academy's entrance examination, despite coaching by the marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky. In 1868, however, he was accepted as an external student. He persevered against conservative prejudice and poverty throughout his early career, supplementing his income by retouching photographs. In his early landscape paintings he often sought to capture seasonal moods, as in Autumn Mud (1872; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.). A more human focus, however, is noticeable after 1874, when he joined the travelling exhibitions society the WANDERERS: the village houses dominate the landscape setting in Evening in Ukraine (1878; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.). Kuindzhi's principal interest, however, was in lighting, and he obtained striking effects by using vivid colours, chiaroscuro contrasts and simple but cleverly conceived designs. Spectacular paintings, such as the Birch Grove (1879; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.), greatly moved contemporary viewers. Through years of experimentation, Kuindzhi developed a highly original technique, which he applied to an increasingly typical, at times almost visionary, treatment of subjects such as snow-covered mountains and moonlight (e.g. Elbnis: Moonlit Night, 1890-95; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.). Due to imperfections in the paints he used, many of his canvases soon darkened.
MINDERHOUT, Hendrik vanFlemish painter (b. 1632, Rotterdam, d. 1696, Antwerpen).
Dutch painter, active in the southern Netherlands. For unknown reasons, he was known as the 'Green Knight of Rotterdam'. In 1644 he married Margareta van den Broecke, and in 1652 he went to Bruges, where in 1663 he entered the Guild of St Luke; the marine painting that he submitted to the Guild to become a member used to be displayed in the Salle d'Acad?mie as a companion piece to the picture submitted by Rubens on his entry to the Guild. In 1672 van Minderhout moved to Antwerp, where he was admitted to the Guild the same year and where, in return for exemption from all obligations as a guild member, he presented a large canvas representing an Eastern seaport. In 1673 he married his second wife, Anna-Victoria Claus. They had five children, including two sons, Antoon van Minderhout (b 26 Sept 1675; d 22 Dec 1705) and Willem August van Minderhout (b 28 Aug 1680; d 31 June 1752), who also became painters. Hendrik van Minderhout painted mostly sea and harbour views, in the tradition of Jan Baptist Weenix and Johannes Lingelbach. His subjects included the port of Antwerp, as well as imaginary views of Mediterranean harbours and oriental seaports