German (Resident in Britain) 1734-1810 Johann Zoffany Galleries Painter of portraits, conversation pieces, and theatrical scenes, Zoffany was born in Germany and came to England about 1758 after studying in Italy. He began by painting clock faces and doing hack work, before turning to painting theatrical scenes, especially depicting David Garrick. He was favoured by the royal family. George III nominated him for the Royal Academy in 1769 and recommended him to the duke of Tuscany.  Related Paintings of Johann Zoffany :. | Self-Portrait as a Monk | Charles Towneley and friends in his library, | John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich | Portrait of female | Archduchess Maria Christina |
Related Artists:
Jozef Szermentowski
painted Village near Kielce in 1870
Maffei, Francesco
Italian Baroque Era Painter, 1605-1660 Italian painter. He probably trained with his father, Giacomo Maffei, before joining the workshop of the Maganza family in Vicenza. His early works, such as the Ecce homo (ex-Dianin priv. col., Padua, see Pallucchini, 1981,), were influenced by the eclectic style, between Veronese and the Bassani, of Alessandro Maganza. The St Nicholas and the Angel (1626; Vicenza, S Nicola da Tolentino), with colours like those of Veronese, yet lighter, suggests Maffei's rapid development of an independent style that is both rugged and moving. His interest in narrative, already evident in scenes from the Life of St Cajetan (Vicenza, S Stefano), was developed in the later Martyrdom of the Franciscan Minors at Nagasaki (Schio, S Francesco), which is datable to about 1630. Here, the contrast between the pale, silvery tones of the background and the darker foreground figures is derived from Tintoretto, but the exaggerated Mannerist treatment of the main figures also recalls the art of such French engravers as Jacques Bellange and Pierre Brebiette. At the same time there is also an echo of the extreme stylizations of Giovanni Demio.
Merson, Luc-Olivier
French Painter, 1846-1920 French painter and illustrator. He was the son of the painter and art critic Charles-Olivier Merson (1822-1902) and trained initially at the Ecole de Dessin in Paris under Gustave Adolphe Chassevent (1818-1901) and then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils. He made his d?but at the Salon in 1867 and won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1869 with the melodramatic work, the Soldier of Marathon (1869; Paris, Ecole N. Sup. B.-A.). As a prizewinner he then spent five years in Italy, where he was impressed and influenced by the works of the Italian Primitives, as is apparent in such works as St Edmund, King and Martyr (1871; Troyes, Mus. B.-A. & Arch?ol.), with its muted colours and rigid composition. In the Salon of 1875 he exhibited Sacrifice for the Country, St Michael, which had been commissioned as a design for a Gobelins tapestry for the Salle des Ev?ques in the Panth?on, Paris. Soon afterwards he was chosen to decorate the Galerie de St Louis in the Palais de Justice, Paris, with scenes from the life of Louis IX. This resulted in two large works, Louis Opening the Doors of the Gaols on his Accession and Louis Condemning Sire Enguerrand de Coucy (both 1877). He also used historical, often religious, subjects for his smaller-scale works, as in St Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Fish (1880; Nantes, Mus. B.-A.).