Abraham Bloemaert | Circe, 1625-1628

Author: Abraham Bloemaert (Dutch Mannerist painter🎨, ca.1564-1651);
Title: Circe;
Medium: Oil on canvas;
Dimensions: 22 1/8 x 19 ¼ in. (56.2 x 48.9 cm.)
Provenance: Private collection, England - with Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam and Geneva, where acquired by the present owner in 2006;
Current location: Christie's.

Daughter of Helios and Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, the enchantress Circe was notorious in Greek mythology for her knowledge of herbs and potions.

The story is recounted by Homer in the Odyssey (Book X): Odysseus and his companions came to the island retreat of the cruel sorceress on their journey home from the Trojan War. It was Circe’s way with travelers to offer them food laced with a magic potion that transformed them into swine.

Cornelis Cornelisz (1562-1638) | Mannerist painter

Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem - Dutch🎨 Golden Age painter and draughtsman, was one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in the Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals🎨 as a portraitist.

Together with Carel van Mander, Hendrick Goltzius and other artists, he started an informal drawing school that has become known in art history circles as the Haarlem Academy or "Haarlem Mannerists".

Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) | Pittrice Manierista

Lavinia Fontana (Bologna, 24 agosto 1552 - Roma, 11 agosto 1614) è stata una pittrice Italiana del tardo Manierismo**.

Lavinia era figlia del pittore Manierista Prospero Fontana, nella cui bottega poté attingere, accanto agli insegnamenti del padre, ad una vasta gamma di esperienze pittoriche, emiliane (dal Parmigianino a Pellegrino Tibaldi), venete (Veronese, Jacopo Bassano), lombarde (Sofonisba Anguissola) e toscane.

Presso il padre poté anche frequentare i Carracci (Ludovico, Agostino e Annibale), poco più giovani, ma che non mancarono di influire su di lei.

Si narra che, ricevuta dal pittore Giovan Paolo Zappi la richiesta di sposarlo, la già attempata (25 anni) Lavinia pose la condizione di poter continuare a dipingere. Zappi accettò la cosa, tanto che rinunciò in pratica a lavorare in proprio e assunse il ruolo d'assistente della moglie.

Dutch Artists | Sitemap

Abraham Bloemaert | Circe, 1625-1628 | Christies

Before the 16th century, the Church commissioned most Netherlandish art. Artists, such as Lucas van Leyden, produced elaborate altarpieces.

After independence from Spain, the chief patrons were the merchant class.

The 17th century was a golden age in portraiture, landscape, and genre painting, producing artists of the calibre of Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Jacob an Ruisdael.

Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669)

Pietro da Cortona was an Italian Baroque painter and architect.

Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important designer of interior decorations.

Diego Velázquez | Quotes

"I would rather be the first painter of common things than second in higher art".

"Preferirei essere il primo pittore delle cose comuni piuttosto che il secondo dell'arte più alta".

"Raphael, to be plain with you, for I prefer to be candid and outspoken, does not please me at all....It is Titian that bears the banner".

Pietro da Cortona | Allegory of Divine Providence, 1633-39

"The Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power" is a fresco by Italian painter Pietro da Cortona, filling the large ceiling of the grand salon of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, Italy.

Begun in 1633, it was nearly finished in three years; upon Cortona's return from Venice, it was extensively reworked to completion in 1639.

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660)

Diego Velázquez, in full Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, was the most important Spanish painter of the 17th century, a giant of Western art.

Velázquez is universally acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest artists.

The naturalistic style in which he was trained provided a language for the expression of his remarkable power of observation in portraying both the living model and still life.

Leonid Afremov | The summer sun of Sicily

Leonid Afremov (1955-2019) was an Jewish artist of Belarusian descent, mainly known as being a self-representing artist who promotes and sells his work exclusively over the internet with very little exhibitions and involvement of dealers and galleries.

Afremov was born in Vitebsk - the same town where Marc Chagall began his artistic career -and passed away on August 19th 2019 from cardiac arrest in Playa Del Carmen.

Michael Ancher | Skagen girl in a red shawl, 1881

Michael Peter Ancher (1849-1927) came to Skagen in 1874 at the age of 25, and he was the only one of the visiting artists who settled permanently in the town.

He grew up on the island of Bornholm, and at the age of 16, he began his apprenticeship as a clerk at the Kalø Manor in Djursland.

Here, he began to draw and paint in his spare time, and in 1871 he was accepted as a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

Here, he met Karl Madsen, among others, who encouraged him to go to Skagen.

Michael Ancher | Skagen girl in a red shawl, 1881

Wilhelm Tischbein | Goethe in the Roman Campagna, 1787

Title: Goethe in the Roman Campagna;

Author: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (German Neoclassical painter, 1751-1829);

Date: 1787;

Dimensions: 164.0 x 206.0 cm;

Medium: Oil on canvas;

Current location: Städel Museum, Frankfurt;

Acquisition: Acquired in 1887 as a gift by Baroness Adèle von Rothschild;

Status: On display, 1st upper level, Modern Art.

Pierre Bonnard (Francese, 1867-1947)

Pierre Bonnard è stato un pittore post-impressionista Francese, appartenente al Gruppo degli artisti Nabis.

Dopo il diploma in legge decide di dedicarsi alla pittura.

A Parigi, nel 1888 segue i corsi dell’Accademia Julian e dell’Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

È in questo periodo che conosce artisti come Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard e Ker-Xavier Roussel, con i quali forma il Gruppo dei Nabis -dall’ebraico che significa profeti, ispirati, e con i quali esporrà al Salon des Indépendants a partire dal 1891.

Gaetano Gandolfi (1734-1802)

Gaetano Gandolfi nasce a S. Matteo della Decima (Bologna), nel 1734.

Adolescente raggiunge a Bologna il fratello Ubaldo, per dedicarsi anch’egli agli studi artistici.

Fu allievo di Ercole Lelli, scultore ed anatomista, e di Felice Torelli.

Iscritto all’accademia Clementina si segnalò vincendo con raffinati rilievi numerosi premi Marsigli e con nudi d’accademia diversi premi Fiori.

Le prime opere pittoriche di Gaetano datano alla fine degli anni ’50 (S. Girolamo e S. Maria Maddalena, Bazzano, Oratorio del Suffragio; decorazione della galleria del Palazzo Malvasia con il fratello Ubaldo).

J.H.W. Tischbein | Diogenes looking for an Honest Man, 1780

"Diogenes Looking for an Honest Man" is a painting attributed to German painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829).

It depicts Diogenes of Sinope with a lantern searching for an honest man.

Diogenes of Sinope used to stroll about in full daylight with a lamp; when asked what he was doing, he would answer, "I am just looking for an honest man".

Henri Lebasque | Pittore post-impressionista

Henri Lebasque (1865-1937) fu membro fondatore del Salon d'Automne nel 1903 con il suo amico Henri Matisse ed espose al Salon des Indépendants.

Nacque in una famiglia modesta (il padre era bottaio) e si iscrisse all'Académie Colarossi nel 1886. In seguito collaborò con Ferdinand Humbert agli affreschi del Panthéon per sei anni, a partire dal 1888.

Iniziò poi ad esporre i suoi lavori presso la "Società degli Artisti Francesi" ed al Salon degli Indipendenti, lavorando assieme a Maximilien Luce e a Paul Signac.

Espose anche alla "Società nazionale di Belle arti", dove, nel 1902, conobbe Pissarro, artista che esercitò subito una grande influenza sulle sue concezioni pittoriche. Nei suoi viaggi, inoltre, si recò a Londra dove scoprì la pittura di Turner. Questi apporti culturali consolidarono la sua formazione e gli aprirono nuove vie espressive, che egli esperì sempre con grande maestria.

Jean-Léon Gérôme | Pittore / Scultore Accademico

Jean-Léon Gérôme (Vesoul, 11 maggio 1824 - Parigi, 28 gennaio 1904) è stato un pittore e scultore Francese.

Si oppose al movimento impressionista iniziato da Monet e Manet - continuando a sviluppare e conservare il neoclassicismo francese.

Le sue opere sono principalmente di tema storico, mitologico ed orientalistico portando la tradizione dell'Impero francese ad un climax.

La gamma delle sue opere comprendeva la pittura storica, la mitologia greca, l'orientalismo, i ritratti e altre materie, portando la tradizione della pittura accademica al culmine artistico.

Henri Lebasque (Post-impressionist painter, 1865-1937)

Famed as a painter of joy and light, Lebasque is admired for the intimacy of his subject matter and his unique delight in color and form.

Born in Champigné, Lebasque first trained in Angers at the School of Beaux-Arts and from 1886 onwards in Paris. Then he entered the atelier of the portraitist Leon Bonnat and began to exhibit at the annual art society exhibitions and the Paris Salons.

He later assisted Ferdinand Humbert with the decorative murals of the Pantheon.

Gaetano Esposito (1858-1911)

Gaetano Esposito è stato un pittore Italiano.

Appresi i primi rudimenti della pittura da Gaetano D'Agostino, fu poi allievo dell'Accademia di belle arti di Napoli, dove seguì i corsi di Filippo Palizzi, di Domenico Morelli e di Stanislao Lista.

William Bouguereau | L’Orientale à la grenade, 1875

At the close of the 1860s, William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s (1825-1905) reputation had been secured by his masterful portrayals of peasant life in the French countryside.

Yet the artist did not limit himself in sources of inspiration and, like many of his contemporaries, became interested in the people and culture of North Africa and the Middle East.

Konstantin Gorbatov | Boats in a Harbour, 1928

Charmed by Italy’s romantic aesthetics and inspired by its warmth and light, the Post-Impressionist artist Konstantin Ivanovich Gorbatov (1876-1945) created some of his most accomplished paintings while living on the island of Capri in the early 1920s.

Gorbatov and his wife emigrated to Berlin in 1926, but he returned annually to Italy until the beginning of World War II.

The monumental Boats in a Harbour, dated 1928, is an exquisite example of Gorbatov’s strength as a colourist and his bold mastery of light and shadow.