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 :. | Christening | The way you hear it is the way you sing it | Samson and Delilah | Scholar at his Desk | The Doctor's Visit | Related Artists:
Henry Dawson a landscape painter, was born in Hull in 1811, but came with his parents to Nottingham when an infant, so that he always regarded the latter as his native town. His parents were poor, and he began life in a Nottingham lace factory. But even while engaged in lace-making he continued to find time for art, and used to paint small pictures, which he sold at first for about half-a-crown each. In 1835 he gave up the lace trade and set up as an artist, his earliest patron being a hairdresser in Nottingham, who possessed a taste for art. In 1844 he removed to Liverpool, where after a time he got into greater repute, and received higher prices for his works. In 1849 he came with his family to London, and settled at Croydon, where some of his best pictures were painted. Among these may be reckoned 'The Wooden Walls of Old England,' exhibited at the British Institution in 1853, 'The Rainbow,' 'The Rainbow at Sea,' 'London Bridge,' and ' London at Sunrise.'
With the exception of six lessons from Pyne received in 1838, Henry Dawson was entirely a self-taught artist, and his art shows much originality and careful realism. He studied nature for himself, but he seems in later life to have been moved by Turner's influence to try more brilliant effects than he had before dared. Many of his works indeed are very Turneresque in treatment, though he can scarcely be called an imitator of Turner, for he had a distinct style of his own.
Henry Dawson, though painting much, and selling his pictures for high prices in his later life, remained, strange to say, very little known except to artists and connoisseurs until the large and very interesting collection of his works that was made for the Nottingham Exhibition in 1878 brought him wider fame. This exhibition showed him to be a genuine English landscape painter, of no great imaginative or intellectual power, but who delighted in nature, and represented her faithfully to the best of his ability. He died in December 1878, at Chiswick, where he had for some time resided.
j. h. scheffelWismar 1690 - Västerås 1786
J.H. Scheffel kom från en borgasläkt i Wismar, en nordtysk stad som på 1600-talets införlivats med Sverige. Om Scheffels läroår vet man ingenting utöver uppgiften i en gammal biografi att han studerade till målare i Berlin, Paris och Brabant.
Scheffel dök upp i Stockholm år 1723. Uppenbarligen samarbetade han först med David von Krafft. Efter dennes död 1724 grundade Scheffel, då redan fullärd porträttör, sin egen atelj??. Ett av de första uppdragen, porträttet av borgmästare Bergstedts unga dotter, ledde till ett lyckligt och av en riklig hemgift åtföljt äktenskap med fröken Bergstedt.
Scheffel samlade redan tidigt kring sig en trogen kundkrets bland adeln och det förmögna borgarskapet. Han behöll sin framgångsrika position från 1720-talet till 1760-talet. Någon ledande hovmålare eller mest gynnad societetsmålare i Stockholm var Scheffel aldrig. Hans stadiga popularitet som pålitlig och kompetent porträttmålare rubbades emellertid inte av modets växlingar, ty han hade förmågan att smidigt följa de nya strömningarna utan att pruta på sin karga och förnuftiga konstnärliga egenart. Scheffels porträtt visar sällan prov på pretentiösa barockgester eller affekterad romantisk tillgjordhet. Hans personåtergivning var utfunderad och konstaterande. I hans digra produktion ingår stela rutinarbeten, men i bästa fall är hans målningar karaktärsstudier som bygger på en stark vision. Hans målningsteknik var kompetent men anspråkslös: i helheten fäster man uppmärksamhet vid mänskobilden, inte vid utförandet.
När Scheffel i 75-årsåldern som pensionerad drog sig tillbaka för att tillbringa tiden med sin familj var han en rask och förmögen gammal herre. Han uppnådde den för tiden ovanligt höga åldern av 91 år, enligt dottersonen till följd av sitt glada och jämna humör, sina ordentliga levnadsvanor och en till åldern anpassad flit och motion .
SCHAUFELEIN, Hans LeonhardGerman Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1480-1540
was a German painter, designer, and wood engraver. He was born in Nuremberg, probably studied under Wohlgemut, and then became the assistant of D??rer, whom he imitated. In 1512 he went to Augsburg and in 1515 removed to Nordlingen. He is a graceful narrator, and his types, though rarely accurately drawn, are attractive, but he lacks power and depth. Characteristic early paintings are the altarpiece at Ober Sankt Veit[1], near Vienna (1502), "Scenes from the Life of Christ" (Dresden Gallery), and "St. Jerome" (Germanic Museum, Nuremberg). To his Nordlingen period belong his masterpiece, the so-called "Ziegler Altar" for St. George's Church (1521), part of which is still in the church, part in the museum; "Scenes from the Story of Judith," in the town hall; and the illuminated Psalter for Count von Ottingen, now in the Berlin print room. His most important woodcuts are those for the Theuerdank of Emperor Maximilian.