Flemish Baroque Era Painter, 1577-1640 Peter Paul Rubens (June 28, 1577 ?C May 30, 1640) was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp which produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically-educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV, king of Spain, and Charles I, king of England. Rubens was a prolific artist. His commissioned works were mostly religious subjects, "history" paintings, which included mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the Joyous Entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in 1635. His drawings are mostly extremely forceful but not detailed; he also made great use of oil sketches as preparatory studies. He was one of the last major artists to make consistent use of wooden panels as a support medium, even for very large works, but he used canvas as well, especially when the work needed to be sent a long distance. For altarpieces he sometimes painted on slate to reduce reflection problems. His fondness of painting full-figured women gave rise to the terms 'Rubensian' or 'Rubenesque' for plus-sized women. The term 'Rubensiaans' is also commonly used in Dutch to denote such women.  Related Paintings of Peter Paul Rubens :. | Rubens his wife Helena Fourment and their son Peter Paul | Portrait of Jan Gaspar Gevartius | Mary arrivel Race of horse | The Four Philosophers | Raub der Tochter des Leukippos |
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John Closterman
John Closterman (1660-1711) (also spelled Cloosterman, Klosterman), portrait-painter, born in Osnabruck, the son of an artist, who taught him the rudiments of design. In 1679 he went to Paris, accompanied by his countryman Tiburen, and there worked under Francois de Troy. In 1681 he came to England, and painted draperies for John Riley, at whose death, in 1691, Closterman finished several of his portraits. This recommended him to the Duke of Somerset, but he lost his favour on account of a dispute about a picture of Guercino, specially acquired for his grace, and which was afterwards purchased by Lord Halifax. In 1696 he was invited to the court of Spain, and executed the portraits of the king and queen; he also went to Italy twice, and made several acquisitions of works of art. On returning to England he obtained considerable employment, and married an Englishwoman. He buried his wife, Hannah, on 27 January 1702. According to Arnold Houbraken, he later took a mistress, who then ruined him by her extravagant habits, and ultimately left him in a state of dejection of body and mind that led to his ultimate decline. Jacob Campo Weyerman, who took much of his biographical material from Houbraken, states "Closterman had taken a beautiful mistress who, while he was away in the country, robbed him of his valuables and disappeared, actions which drove the painter into madness". He died in 1711, and was buried in Covent Garden churchyard.
Nathaniel Dance
English Painter, 1735-1811,Painter and politician, elder son of George Dance . He trained under Francis Hayman before travelling to Rome in 1754. As Nathaniel Dance he established himself as a portrait painter but was determined to succeed as a history painter. His picture the Death of Virginia (1759; untraced, but known from a sketch, London, Soane Mus.) is of documentary importance as the first dated Classical history painting by a British artist working in Rome. In 1762 Dance assisted Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, whose influence brightened his palette and introduced him to a grander clientele, including Edward Augustus, Duke of York (1739-67), who sat for both artists in 1764 (Dance's Edward Augustus, Duke of York, London, Buckingham Pal., Royal Col.). In the same year Dance painted a portrait of Angelica Kauffman (Burghley House, Cambs), with whom he was in love. He returned to London in 1765 and rapidly achieved fame as a portrait and history painter. His Timon of Athens (1767; London, Buckingham Pal., Royal Col.) was purchased by George III; but after the King appointed Benjamin West to be his history painter in 1772, Dance concentrated on portraits. He was among the 22 artists who successfully petitioned the King in 1768 to establish a Royal Academy, and he served for periods as a council member and visitor, until 1782. At the Academy's first exhibition (1769) Dance showed full-length portraits of George III and Queen Charlotte (Uppark, W. Sussex, NT); two years later he exhibited David Garrick as Richard III (Stratford-on-Avon, Town Hall). In the mid-1770s Dance became financially independent, and his output declined sharply, virtually ceasing after his marriage in 1783 to a wealthy widow. He resigned from the Academy in 1790 on his election as Member of Parliament for East Grinstead and subsequently only exhibited occasional landscapes as a 'gentleman'. In 1800 he was created a baronet and assumed the name of Dance-Holland; he died worth over
Justus Suttermans
(b Antwerp, bapt 28 Sept 1597; d Florence, 24 April 1681). Flemish painter Flemish painter,He is chiefly notable for his portraits of members of the Medici family as he was his court painter. His work can be found in both the Palatina Gallery and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and in many other galleries around the globe. During his lifetime he was feted as the finest portrait painter in Italy. He studied early on in Flanders and Antwerp, possibly with artists such as Villem de Vos, a nephew of the painter Marten de Vos and also Frans Pourbus the younger. He was eventually invited to Florence under the patronage of the Medici Family where he studied Italian portraitists such as Il Guercino, the Spanish Diego Velazquez and France's Pierre Mignard.