Dutch Baroque Era Painter, ca.1625-1679
Daily life was Jan Steen's main pictorial theme. Many of the genre scenes he portrayed are lively to the point of chaos and lustfulness, even so much that a Jan Steen household, meaning a messy scene, became a Dutch proverb (een huishouden van Jan Steen). Subtle hints in his paintings seem to suggest that Steen meant to warn the viewer rather than invite him to copy this behaviour. Many of Steen's paintings bear references to old Dutch proverbs or literature. He often used members of his family as models. Jan Steen painted also quite a few self-portraits, in which he showed no tendency of vanity.
Steen did not shy from other themes: he painted historical, mythological and religious scenes, portraits, still lifes and natural scenes. His portraits of children are famous. He is also well known for his mastery of light and attention to detail, most notably in textiles. Steen was prolific, producing about 800 paintings, of which roughly 350 survive.
Steen's work was valued much by contemporaries and as a result he was reasonably well paid for his work. He did not have any students, but his work proved a source of inspiration for many painters. Related Paintings of Jan Steen :. | The Drunken couple. | Love Sickness | The Effects of Intemperance | Arrival of a Visitor | Grace Before Meat | Related Artists:
John sell cotmanEnglish Romantic Painter, 1782-1842
English painter and etcher. Cotman was born in the parish of St Mary Coslany, Norwich, the son of Edmund Cotman, a hairdresser, later a haberdasher, and Ann Sell. In 1793 he entered Norwich Grammar School as a 'freeplacer'. In 1798 he moved to London, where he worked as an assistant to the publisher Rudolph Ackermann. Following in the footsteps of Turner and Thomas Girtin he joined Dr Monro's 'Academy' in 1799 and became a member of the sketching society that had developed around the personality and talent of Girtin.
Currier and IvesAmerican Publisher, 1834-1907
Carlo Dolci1616-1686
Italian
Carlo Dolci Locations
Italian painter. The major Florentine painter of the 17th century, he enjoyed an international reputation in his own lifetime. He was a gifted portrait painter and painted a number of large altarpieces, but his reputation is largely based on his half-length, single-figure paintings, characterized by their intense religiosity and meticulous technique. His mature style was complex and sophisticated. Intended for cultivated and aristocratic circles, his was never a popular art in any sense. Baldinucci described the painter tormented fantasy and dark fantasms, and his disturbed personality is evident throughout his work after the later 1640s.