1598-1664 Spanish Francisco de Zurbaran Galleries Spanish baroque painter, active mainly at Llerena, Madrid, and Seville. He worked mostly for ecclesiastical patrons. His early paintings, including Crucifixion (1627; Art Inst., Chicago), St. Michael (Metropolitan Mus.), and St. Francis (City Art Museum, St. Louis), often suggest the austere simplicity of wooden sculpture. The figures, placed close to the picture surface, are strongly modeled in dramatic light against dark backgrounds, indicating the influence of Caravaggio. They were clearly painted as altarpieces or devotional objects. In the 1630s the realistic style seen in his famous Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas (1631; Seville) yields to a more mystical expression in works such as the Adoration of the Shepherds (1638; Grenoble); in this decade he was influenced by Ribera figural types and rapid brushwork. While in Seville, Zurbur??n was clearly influenced by Velazquez. After c.1640 the simple power of Zurbaran work lessened as Murillo influence on his painting increased (e.g., Virgin and Child with St. John, Fine Arts Gall., San Diego, Calif.). There are works by Zurbar??n in the Hispanic Society of America, New York City; the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art..  Related Paintings of Francisco de Zurbaran :. | david | archangel st, gabriel. | the virgin of the caves | Versuchung des Fra Diego de Orgaz | Saint Margaret, dressed as a shepherdess. |
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Mihaly Zichy
(Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈmihaːj ˈzitʃi]; German: Michael von Zichy; October 15, 1827, Zala, Hungary - February 28, 1906, St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist. Mihely Zichy was a significant representative of Hungarian romantic painting. During his law studies in Pest from 1842, he attended Jakab Marastoni's school as well. In Vienna he was Waldmeller's pupil in 1844. "Life Boat", his first major work, comes from this time. On Waldmeller's recommendation, he became an art teacher in St. Petersburg. He swore allegiance to freedom by painting the portrait of Lajos Batthyeny, the first Hungarian prime minister, in 1849. From 1850 onwards, he worked as a retoucher, but he also did pencil drawings, water colours and portraits in oil. The series on the Gatchina hunting ordered by the Russian tsar raised him to a court artist. He founded a society to support painters in need. "Autodafe" on the horrors of Spanish inquisition was painted in 1868. He travelled around Europe in 1871, and settled down in Paris in 1874. He painted "Queen Elisabeth is Laying Flowers by the Coffin of Ferenc Deek" on Treffort's order. "Drinking Bout of Henry III", his next large scale picture came from 1875. "The Victory of the Genius of Destruction" painted for the Paris Exhibition was banned by French authorities because of its daring antimilitarist message. He left Paris in 1881 and returned to St. Petersburg after short stays in Nizza, Vienna and Zala (village). From this time onwards, he was mostly engaged in illustrations ("The Tragedy of Man" by Made - h, 1887, and twenty-four ballads of Jenos Arany, 1894 - 98).
John James Audubon
1785-1851 Audubon, John James ~ Bobwhite (Virginia Partridge), 1825Audubon developed his own methods for drawing birds. First, he killed them using fine shot to prevent them from being torn to pieces. He then used fixed wires to prop them up into a natural position, unlike the common method of many ornithologists of first preparing and stuffing the specimens into a rigid pose. When working on a major specimen, like an eagle, he would spend up to four 15 hour days, preparing, studying, and drawing it.[53] His paintings of birds are set true-to-life in their natural habitat and often caught them in motion, especially feeding or hunting. This was in stark contrast with the stiff representations of birds by his contemporaries, such as Alexander Wilson. He also based his paintings on his own field observations. He worked primarily with watercolor early on, then added colored chalk or pastel to add softness to feathers, especially those of owls and herons.[54] He would employ multiple layers of watercoloring, and sometimes use gouache. Small species were often drawn to scale, placed on branches with berries, fruit, and flowers, sometimes in flight, and often with many individual birds to present all views of anatomy. Larger birds were often placed in their ground habitat or perching on stumps. At times, as with woodpeckers, he would combine several species on one page to offer contrasting features. Nests and eggs are frequently depicted as well, and occasionally predators, such as snakes. He usually illustrated male and female variations, and sometimes juveniles. In later drawings, he had aides render the habitat for him. Going behind faithful renderings of anatomy, Audubon employed carefully constructed composition, drama, and slightly exaggerated poses to achieve artistic as well as scientific effects.
Francis Day
Francis Day CIE (1829-1889) was Inspector-General of Fisheries in India(from circa 1871) and Burma and an ichthyologist. He was born on the 2nd of March 1829 Maresfield, Sussex, UK third son of William and Ann Day. He became the medical officer in the Madras Presidency, East India Company services in 1852. Francis Day was created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1885. He was decorated with the 0rder of the crown of Italy. He retired in 1877. He wrote a monograph on fishes between 1875-1878 "The Fishes of India" with a supplement in 1888 and two volumes on "Fishes" in the Fauna of British India series in which he described over 1400 species. Also wrote British and Irish Salmonadae, which he illustrated with 9 plates, the colouring of which was done by Miss Florence Woolward. Francis Day was granted an honary LLD by the University of Edinburgh. Also Published Fishes of Malabar in 1865 Franics Day was an active member, and president of the Cheltenham Natural Sciences Society and presented papers to them. Also was an active member of the Cotswold Field Club, where he was vice president. He died at his residence, Kenilworth House, Cheltenham on the 10th of July 1889 of cancer of the stomach. Buried in Cheltenham cemetery.