RA (December 23, 1769 - August 13, 1850) was a British portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy. He was born in Dublin, of an old Catholic Irish family, and his father, a merchant, regarded the profession of a painter as an unsuitable occupation for a descendant of the Shees. Martin Shee nevertheless studied art in the Dublin Society, and came to London. There, in 1788, he was introduced by William Burke to Joshua Reynolds, on whose advice he studied in the schools of the Royal Academy. In 1789 he exhibited his first two pictures, the "Head of an Old Man" and "Portrait of a Gentleman." Over the next ten years he steadily increased in practice. He was chosen an associate of the Royal Academy in 1798, in 1789 he married, and in 1800 he was elected a Royal Academician. He moved to George Romney's former house in Cavendish Square, and set up as his successor. Shee continued to paint with great readiness of hand and fertility of invention, although his portraits were eclipsed by more than one of his contemporaries, and especially by Thomas Lawrence. The earlier portraits of the artist are carefully finished, easy in action, with good drawing and excellent discrimination of character. They show an undue tendency to redness in the flesh painting defect which is still more apparent in his later works, in which the handling is less "square," crisp and forcible. In addition to his portraits he executed various subjects and historical works, such as Lavinia, Belisarius, his diploma picture "Prospero and Miranda", and the "Daughter of Jephthah." In 1805 he published a poem consisting of Rhymes on Art, and a second part followed in 1809. Lord Byron spoke well of it in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Shee published another small volume of verse in 1814, entitled The Commemoration of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other Poems, but this was less successful. He also produced a tragedy, Alasco, set in Poland. The play was accepted at Covent Garden, but was refused a licence, on the grounds that it contained treasonable allusions, and Shee angrily resolved to make his appeal to the public. He carried out his threat in 1824, but Alasco was still on the list of unacted dramas in 1911. He also published two novels - "Oldcourt" (1829, in 3 volumes) and "Cecil Hyde" (1834).  Related Paintings of Martin Archer Shee :. | Mrs Arthur Kenworthy | Oratorio di Santa Maria Maddalena, | Terug van de Vischvangst | Allegory of the Planets and Continents | The mountain |
Related Artists:
George Adolphus Storey
(1834-1919), Painter was an English portrait painter, genre painter and illustrator. Storey was born in London, but educated in Paris. When he returned to London, he worked briefly for an architect before studying under J. M. Leigh and J.L. Dulong. Though not a pupil he was also encouraged by William Behnes the sculptor, whose studio he visited. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1852 and studied at the Royal Academy schools from 1854. He was strongly incluenced by the Pre-Raphaelites but gave them up under influence of Charles Robert Leslie. Storey worked in North London, establishing a reputation as a genre and portrait painter, and also as an illustrator. He drew elegant pictures of middle class people for love stories and the like. Storey became ARA in 1875 and was a member of the Arts Club from 1874-95. He exhibited at the British Institution, the Royal Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street and the New Watercolour Society. He also published his autobiography in 1899, containing valuable information about the St John's Wood Clique, of which he was a member until he moved to Hampstead. From 1900, he was also the Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, and became RA in 1914.
Benjamin C.Brown
American,is best remembered for his Impressionist renderings of the Sierra Mountains and poppy-filled spring meadows.1865-1942
Louis Gallait
(9 or 10 May 1810 - 20 November 1887) was a Belgian painter. His d his reputation especially with the large painting of Charles V's abdication. Gallait's works were considered as the basis for a desirable renewal of historical paintings because of the realism, costume faithfulness and colorful posture of his paintings. His last artwork was sent on tour in Germany and that led to new signals even among German historians. He was also a distinguished portrait painter. Gallait died in Brussels in 1887. There is a painting by Louis Gallait at the Norton Art Museum in West Palm Beach, Florida ("Art and Liberty").