1.
1766 in art
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Events from the year 1766 in art. July 19 – A baronetcy is created for British sculptor Henry Cheere, englands oldest surviving Georgian theatre is constructed in Stockton-on-Tees. The Drottningholm Palace Theatre is reopened as an house in Stockholm, Sweden, in its surviving form. Denis Diderots Essais sur la peinture is published
2.
1769 in science
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The year 1769 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below. March 4 – French astronomer Charles Messier first records the Orion Nebula, june 3 – Transit of Venus is observed from many places in order to obtain data for measuring the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The weather in Pondicherry is cloudy that day, le Gentil had also missed the 1761 transit through bad luck. November 9 – Transit of Mercury, james Cook observes this from Mercury Bay in New Zealand. Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovers a method of mass-producing phosphorus, in September he completes a full-size experimental engine at Kinneil House in Scotland. July 3 – Richard Arkwright is granted a British patent for a spinning frame able to spin thread mechanically. October 23 – Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrates a steam-powered artillery tractor in France, march 16 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville returns to Saint-Malo following a three-year circumnavigation of the world with the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile, with the loss of only seven out of 330 men
3.
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
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The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the summer months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, architectural designs and models, when the Royal Academy was founded in 1768 one of its key objectives was to establish an annual exhibition, open to all artists of merit, which could be visited by the public. The first Summer Exhibition took place in 1769, it has held every year since without exception. Today, around 1,000 works are selected each year from as many as 10,000 entries representing some 5,000 artists, any artist may submit up to two works at a fee of £25 per piece for selection by The Summer Exhibition Selection and Hanging Committee. Due to the significant increase in the volume of entries over recent years, the number of entries per artist was reduced to 2, the committee is formed from the Council of Academicians and is traditionally chaired by the President of the Royal Academy. In addition to those selected by the committee, all 80 Academicians are entitled to have six of their own pieces in the exhibition. The 2005 exhibition theme was Printmaking and the multiple, in 2006, the theme was From Life. In 2008, the theme was Man Made, the theme for 2010 was Raw. In 2011, the committee agreed to have no specific theme. For the 2006 exhibition, the received a statue and a plinth from David Hensel. By mistake, the two parts were judged independently, with the result that the statue was rejected and the put on display. The RA Summer Exhibition usually opens to the public in early June, the main event is called Varnishing Day, the day that, according to popular legend, artists would come to add a final coat of varnish to their paintings. Traditionally, artists walk in procession from Burlington House to St Jamess Church, Piccadilly, at the opening reception the shortlists for various prizes are announced. Over £70,000 prize money, including the £25,000 Charles Wollaston Award, is awarded each year at the Summer Exhibition, in addition, a £10.000 architectural prize is awarded. Almost all exhibited works are for sale, the Academy receives 30% of the purchase price, in 2003, this amounted to a sum of some £2,000,000 for the institution, which receives no financial support from the state or crown. The Royal Academy revisited, Victorian paintings from the Forbes magazine Collection, new York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
4.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
5.
Hermitage Museum
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The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1754 by Catherine the Great and has open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of only a small part is on permanent display. The collections occupy a complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace. Apart from them, the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya, the museum has several exhibition centers abroad. The Hermitage is a state property. Since July 1992, the director of the museum has been Mikhail Piotrovsky, of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five, namely the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre, are open to the public. The entrance ticket for foreign tourists more than the fee paid by citizens of Russia. However, entrance is free of charge the first Thursday of every month for all visitors, the museum is closed on Mondays. The entrance for visitors is located in the Winter Palace. A hermitage is the dwelling of a hermit or recluse, the word derives from Old French hermit, ermit hermit, recluse, from Late Latin eremita, from Greek eremites, literally people who live alone, which is in turn derived from ἐρημός, desert. Originally, the building housing the collection was the Small Hermitage. Today, the Hermitage Museum encompasses many buildings on the Palace Embankment, apart from the Small Hermitage, the museum now also includes the Old Hermitage, the New Hermitage, the Hermitage Theatre, and the Winter Palace, the former main residence of the Russian tsars. In recent years, the Hermitage has expanded to the General Staff Building on the Palace Square facing the Winter Palace, the Western European Art collection includes European paintings, sculpture, and applied art from the 13th to the 20th centuries. It is displayed, in about 120 rooms, on the first, drawings and prints are displayed in temporary exhibitions. Since 1940, the Egyptian collection, dating back to 1852 and it serves as a passage to the exhibition of Classical Antiquities. A modest collection of the culture of Ancient Mesopotamia, including a number of Assyrian reliefs from Babylon, Dur-Sharrukin, the collection of Classical Antiquities occupies most of the ground floor of the Old and New Hermitage buildings. Its floor is made of a marble mosaic imitating ancient tradition, while the stucco walls
6.
Perseus and Andromeda (Rubens)
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Perseus and Andromeda is a 1622 painting by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens featuring the ancient Greek myth of Perseus and Andromeda after the formers defeat of the Gorgon. The paintings shows the Gorgons reflection on Perseus shield, the painting also shows Tobiano Pegasus, the goddess of glory over Perseus head and several putti. The bottom of the painting partially shows Cetus, killed by Perseus earlier and this painting probably remained in Rubens house until his death, an engraving from 1684, depicting the facade of Rubens house in Antwerp, shows the painting through the window of the second floor. In the summer of 1769 the painting was acquired by the Russian Hermitage Museum from the collections of Heinrich von Brühl and it is now housed in the Rubens Hall on the second floor of the Hermitage Museum
7.
Joshua Reynolds
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Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits. He promoted the Grand Style in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect and he was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and his father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer, seven years his senior, author of Devonshire Dialogue, in 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshuas pupilage, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy. His other siblings included Frances Reynolds and Elizabeth Johnson, as a boy, he came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life. The work that came to have the most influential impact on Reynolds was Jonathan Richardsons An Essay on the Theory of Painting, having shown an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who had been born in Devon. Hudson had a collection of old master drawings, including some by Guercino, although apprenticed to Hudson for four years, Reynolds only remained with him until summer 1743. Having left Hudson, Reynolds worked for some time as a portrait-painter in Plymouth Dock and he returned to London before the end of 1744, but following his fathers death in late 1745 he shared a house in Plymouth Dock with his sisters. In 1749, Reynolds met Commodore Augustus Keppel, who invited him to join HMS Centurion, of which he had command, while with the ship he visited Lisbon, Cadiz, Algiers, and Minorca. From Minorca he travelled to Livorno in Italy, and then to Rome, while in Rome he suffered a severe cold, which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Reynolds travelled homeward overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice, and he was accompanied by Giuseppe Marchi, then aged about 17. Apart from a brief interlude in 1770, Marchi remained in Reynolds employment as an assistant for the rest of the artists career. Following his arrival in England in October 1752, Reynolds spent three months in Devon, before establishing himself in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. He took rooms in St Martins Lane, before moving to Great Newport Street and he achieved success rapidly, and was extremely prolific. In 1760 Reynolds moved into a house, with space to show his works and accommodate his assistants. Alongside ambitious full-length portraits, Reynolds painted large numbers of smaller works, in the late 1750s, at the height of the social season, he received five or six sitters a day, each for an hour. By 1761 Reynolds could command a fee of 80 guineas for a full-length portrait, the clothing of Reynolds sitters was usually painted either by one of his pupils, his studio assistant Giuseppe Marchi, or the specialist drapery painter Peter Toms. Lay figures were used to model the clothes and he had an excellent vantage from his house, Wick House, on Richmond Hill, and painted the view in about 1780
8.
Knight
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A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, in Europe, knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors, during the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, often, a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback, since the early modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, as in the British honours system, often for non-military service to the country. The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame, furthermore, Geoffroi de Charnys Book of Chivalry expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knights life. This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes world, in the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations. Some orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become the subject of legend, each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement. This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, cavalier, the special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht and this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which also meant knight, the Anglo-Saxon cniht had no connection to horsemanship, the word referred to any servant. A rādcniht, riding-servant, was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback, a narrowing of the generic meaning servant to military follower of a king or other superior is visible by 1100. The specific military sense of a knight as a warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years War. The verb to knight appears around 1300, and, from the same time, an Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as knight, the medieval knight, both Greek ἳππος and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo-, horse. In the later Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, equus, was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the English cavalier, Italian cavaliere, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider, German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are derived from Germanic rīdan, to ride, in turn derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-, in ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris from which European knighthood may have been derived. Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, in the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin
9.
Joseph Ducreux
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He was made a baron and premier peintre de la reine, and drew the last portrait ever made of Louis XVI before the king’s execution. His less formal portraits reflect his fascination with physiognomy and show an interest in expanding the range of facial expressions beyond those of official portraiture, born in Nancy, France, Ducreux may have trained with his father, who was also a painter. When Ducreux went to Paris in 1760, he trained as the student of the pastelist Maurice Quentin de La Tour. Jean-Baptiste Greuze was an important influence on Ducreuxs oil technique, in 1769, Ducreux was sent to Vienna in order to paint a miniature of Marie Antoinette before she left the city in 1770 and married Louis XVI of France. Ducreux was made a baron and premier peintre de la reine in rewards for his services, Ducreux was given this appointment by Marie-Antoinette even though he was not a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which had been founded in 1648. The academy was strictly hierarchical and the posts of first painter, ordinary painter, at the outbreak of the French Revolution, Ducreux traveled to London. There he drew the last portrait made of Louis XVI before the kings execution. Jacques-Louis David became one of Ducreuxs associates when the returned to Paris in 1793. David helped Ducreux continue an official career, Ducreuxs residence became an informal salon for artists and musicians, who commissioned portraits from him. One of these musicians was his friend Étienne Méhul, who is said to have based the character of one of his operas on Ducreux. His eldest son Jules was a painter and infantry captain who died in the Battle of Jemappes and his eldest daughter, Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux, also became a painter. These works may have been copies after De La Tour, from 1760 onward, Ducreux kept a list of his works, but throughout his lifetime, he rarely signed his paintings. Thus, many of his works remain erroneously attributed to other artists, other portraits by Ducreux include those done of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos and Maria Theresa of Austria, as well as those mentioned above of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Ducreux also made several well-known self-portraits in the 1780s and 1790s, in another, Portrait de lartiste sous les traits dun moqueur, the artist guffaws and points at the viewer. As evidenced by these self-portraits, Ducreux attempted to free from the constraints of traditional portraiture. Le Discret, for example, is the portrait of a man asking for silence and his expression is timorous, his finger is pressed against his mouth in alarm as he silently demands discretion or prudence. Ducreuxs self-portrait Portrait de lartiste sous les traits dun moqueur has become subject to internet popularity as part of an internet meme
10.
Portrait miniature
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A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolour, or enamel. They were especially valuable in introducing people to other over distances. Soldiers and sailors might carry miniatures of their loved ones while traveling, the first miniaturists used watercolour to paint on stretched vellum. During the second half of the 17th century, vitreous enamel painted on copper became increasingly popular, in the 18th century, miniatures were painted with watercolour on ivory, which had now become relatively cheap. As small in size as 40 mm ×30 mm, portrait miniatures were used as personal mementos or as jewellery or snuff box covers. The portrait miniature developed from the manuscript, which had been superseded for the purposes of book illustration by techniques such as woodprints. Lucas Horenbout was another Netherlandish miniature painter at the court of Henry VIII and these might be paintings, or finished drawings with some colour, and were produced by François Clouet, and his followers. Following these men we find Simon Renard de St. André, others whose names might be mentioned were Joseph Werner, and Rosalba Carriera. The colours are opaque, and gold is used to heighten the effect and they are often signed, and have frequently also a Latin motto upon them. Hilliard worked for a while in France, and he is identical with the painter alluded to in 1577 as Nicholas Belliart. Hilliard was succeeded by his son Lawrence Hilliard, his technique was similar to that of his father, but bolder, Isaac Oliver and his son Peter Oliver succeeded Hilliard. Isaac was the pupil of Hilliard, Peter was the pupil of Isaac. The two men were the earliest to give roundness and form to the faces they painted and they signed their best works in monogram, and painted not only very small miniatures, but larger ones measuring as much as 10 in ×9 in. They copied for Charles I of England on a small scale many of his famous pictures by the old masters, other miniaturists at about the same date included Balthazar Gerbier, George Jamesone, Penelope Cleyn and her brothers. Samuel Cooper was a nephew and student of the elder Hoskins and he spent much of his time in Paris and Holland, and very little is known of his career. His work has a breadth and dignity, and has been well called life-size work in little. His portraits of the men of the Puritan epoch are remarkable for their truth to life and he painted upon card, chicken skin and vellum, and on two occasions upon thin pieces of mutton bone. The use of ivory was not introduced until long after his time and his work is frequently signed with his initials, generally in gold, and very often with the addition of the date
11.
Self-portrait
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A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, Portrait of a Man in a Turban by Jan van Eyck of 1433 may well be the earliest known panel self-portrait. He painted a portrait of his wife, and he belonged to the social group that had begun to commission portraits. The genre is venerable, but not until the Renaissance, with increased wealth and interest in the individual as a subject, a self-portrait may be a portrait of the artist, or a portrait included in a larger work, including a group portrait. Many painters are said to have included depictions of specific individuals, including themselves, in these works, the artist usually appears as a face in the crowd or group, often towards the edges or corner of the work and behind the main participants. Rubenss The Four Philosophers is a good example and this culminated in the 17th century with the work of Jan de Bray. Many artistic media have used, apart from paintings, drawings. In the famous Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck is probably one of two figures glimpsed in a mirror – a surprisingly modern conceit. The Van Eyck painting may have inspired Diego Velázquez to depict himself in view as the painter creating Las Meninas, as the Van Eyck hung in the palace in Madrid where he worked. This was another modern flourish, given that he appears as the painter, in what may be one of the earliest childhood self-portraits now surviving, Albrecht Dürer depicts himself as in naturalistic style as a 13-year-old boy in 1484. In later years he appears variously as a merchant in the background of Biblical scenes, leonardo da Vinci may have drawn a picture of himself at the age of 60, in around 1512. The picture is often reproduced as Da Vincis appearance, although this is not certain. In the 17th century, Rembrandt painted a range of self-portraits, family and professional group paintings, including the artists depiction, became increasingly common from the 17th century on. From the later 20th century on, video plays a part in self-portraiture. Vigée-Lebrun painted a total of 37 self-portraits, many of which were copies of earlier ones, Women artists have historically embodied a number of roles within their self-portraiture. Most common is the artist at work, showing themselves in the act of painting, or at least holding a brush and palette. Often, the viewer if the clothes worn were those they normally painted in. Images of artists at work are encountered in Ancient Egyptian painting, one of the first self-portraits was made by the Pharaoh Akhenatens chief sculptor Bak in 1365 BC
12.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
13.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
14.
Grasse
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Grasse is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department, on the French Riviera. The town is considered the capital of perfume. It obtained two flowers in the Concours des villes et villages fleuris contest and was made Ville dArt et dHistoire, three perfume factories offer daily tours and demonstrations, which draw in many of the regions visitors. In addition to the perfumeries, Grasses other main attraction is the Cathedral, dedicated to Notre Dame du Puy, in the interior, are three works by Rubens and one by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a French painter native of the town. Other sights include, Saracen Tower, standing at 30m, the first festival was on August 3-4,1946. Decorated floats drive through the town, with women in skimpy costumes on board. Garlands of jasmine decorate the center, and the fire department fills a fire truck with jasmine-infused water to spray on the crowds. There are also fireworks, free parties, folk music groups, there is also an annual international exhibition of roses held in May each year. The Gare de Grasse railway station offers connections with Cannes, Nice, Grasse is the centre of the French perfume industry and is known as the worlds perfume capital. Many noses are trained or have spent time in Grasse to distinguish over 2,000 kinds of scent, Grasse produces over two-thirds of Frances natural aromas. This industry turns over more than 600 million euros a year, Grasses particular microclimate encouraged the flower farming industry. It is warm and sufficiently inland to be sheltered from the sea air, there is an abundance of water, thanks to its situation in the hills and the 1860 construction of the Siagne canal for irrigation purposes. The town is 350 m above sea level and 20 km from the Coast, jasmine, a key ingredient of many perfumes, was brought to southern France by the Moors in the 16th century. Twenty-seven tonnes of jasmine are now harvested in Grasse annually, there are numerous old parfumeries in Grasse, such as Galimard, Molinard and Fragonard, each with tours and a museum. The trade in leather and tanning work developed during the twelfth century around the canal that runs through the city. This activity produced a strong unpleasant odor, at the time of the Renaissance perfume manufacturers began production of gloves, handbags and belt, to meet the new fashion from Italy with the entourage of Queen Catherine de Medici. The countryside around the city began to grow fields of flowers, in 1614, the king recognized the new corporation of glovers perfumers. In the middle of the century, the perfumery was experiencing a very important development
15.
Christopher Hewetson
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Christopher Hewetson was a neoclassical sculptor of portrait busts. Born in Ireland, he was active in Rome, Hewetson was born in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1737/8 the son of Lieutenant Christopher Hewetson whose ancestry was from Yorkshire. His father died in 1744 when Christopher was only 7, leaving his mother Eleanor with four children to raise. He studied at Kilkenny College, where his uncle the Rev. Dr Thomas Hewetson was headmaster, in 1765 he arrived in Rome with the American painter Henry Benbridge. He remained in Rome for the remainder of his life with the exception of two visits to Naples in 1766 and 1797. With the assistance of Thomas Jenkins, Hewetson received commissions from numerous British and he also sculpted busts of a number of local churchmen. Antonio Canova was at Rome during part of Hewetsons stay, the rivalry between the two sculptors emerged in two great commissions, the Tomb for Pope Clemens XIV and the Tomb for Pope Clemens XIII, both won by Canova. In the last phase of his career Hewetson held a production, he sculpted copies after the Antique - sometimes in marble. His workshop was in Via San Sebastianello, very close to Piazza di Spagna and he died at Rome in 1798, where he was buried in the Protestant Cemetery. His inventory after death, recently found, revealed the presence of 12 busts, some left unfinished, ulrich Thieme – F. Becker, Hewetson Cristopher, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kunstler, vol. Pietrangeli, a cura di G. Incisa della Rocchetta, Vincenzo Monti a Roma, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Palazzo Braschi, Roma,1955, pp.47,50, tav. Pietrangeli, La Protomoteca Capitolina, Roma,1955, pp.8,36,73,78, an unknown bust by Chrisopher Hewetson, Antologia di Belle Arti, s. s. Christopher Hewetson, An Irish Sculptor in Rome, Walpole Society 34, 42-54 at 50 and pl. XVIIIc Anne Crookshank in Brian de Breffny, the Irish World, The Art and Culture of the Irish People,146,147, and 170. Brian de Breffny, ed. Ireland, A Cultural Encyclopaedia,105 -106, Christopher Hewetson, Concise Biography and Preliminary Catalogue Raisonné, Irish Arts Review 3,52 -75, no. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, 228-230, 254-255, Christopher Hewetson and his monument to Dr. Baldwin in Trinity College, Dublin, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 134-135
16.
Charles Townley
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Charles Townley FRS was a wealthy English country gentleman, antiquary and collector. He travelled on three Grand Tours to Italy, buying antique sculpture, vases, coins, manuscripts and Old Master drawings and paintings, many of the most important pieces from his collection, especially the Townley Marbles are now in the British Museums Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. The marbles were overshadowed at the time, and still today, Charles Townley was born in England at Towneley Hall, the family seat, near Burnley in Lancashire, on 1 October 1737. He also made excursions to the south of Italy and Sicily. His solitary publication was an account of the Ribchester Helmet in Vetusta Monumenta, a Roman cavalry helmet found near Towneley Hall and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1791. He became a member of the Society of Dilettanti 1786, a large archive of Townleys papers, including diaries, account books, bills, correspondence, and catalogues, was acquired by the British Museum in 1992. A bust of Townley was made in Carrara marble in 1807 by his associate and friend and it shows Townley in herm form – head and neck only, without full shoulders or arms – with a bare neck, dishevelled hair and a pensive expression. The trustees of the museum obtained a parliamentary grant specifically for the purpose, the smaller antiquities, including coins, engraved gems, and pottery, followed in 1814. Townley fully intended to leave this collection to the British Museum, engaged in discussion with him are three fellow connoisseurs, the palaeographer Charles Astle, Hon. Charles Francis Greville, F. R. S. and Pierre-François Hugues DHancarville. Prominent in front are Townleys Roman marble of the Discobolos, the Nymph with a Shell, of which the most famous variant was also in the Borghese collection and a Faun of the Barberini type. On a pedestal in front of the fireplace, the Boys Fighting from the Barberini collection had been Towneleys first major purchase, in 1768. In point of fact, Towneleys only Greek original appears to have been the relief on the left wall above the Bust of a Maenad posed on a wall bracket. The so-called Bust of Clytie perches on the small writing-table, in Zoffanys assembly of the Townley marbles and it was extensively reproduced in marble, plaster, and the white bisque porcelain called parian ware for its supposed resemblance to Parian marble. Goethe owned two casts of this, the Bust of Clytie was apparently Townleys favourite sculpture and the one he took with him when he was forced to flee his home during the anti-Catholic riots of 1780. The Townley Venus on a Roman well-head that serves as drum pedestal had been discovered by Gavin Hamilton at Ostia, the marble Townley Vase, also furtively exported, stands on the bookcase at the rear, it was excavated about 1774 by Gavin Hamilton at Monte Cagnolo. Townley at the B. M. and Cavaceppi at the Clarendon Gallery, B. F. Cook, The Townley Marbles London, The British Museum Press,1985
17.
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet
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Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet was a Welsh landowner, politician and patron of the arts. Williams-Wynn was the eldest son of the marriage of his father, Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet. He was a baby when his father was killed by a fall from his horse while out hunting, and he inherited the extensive Wynnstay estates, the largest in North Wales. On his coming of age in 1770, he held an extravagant party for 15,000 guests, an embroidered suit which he may have worn on this occasion is in the possession of the National Museum of Wales. The influence of the family had declined during his long minority, Sir Watkin was Member of Parliament for Shropshire from 1772 to 1774, and for Denbighshire from 1774 until his death in 1789. He was criticized for poor attendance and he was Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire from 1775-1789. He had three sons and two daughters from this marriage, including Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet, and Charles Williams-Wynn. Sir Watkin made a Grand Tour to Europe from June 1768, in Rome Pompeo Batoni painted him with some companions, and a classical subject, Bacchus and Ariadne was commissioned later, in 1774. The Rococo silver-gilt toilet service he gave to his first wife, the Neoclassical grave monument for her is by Joseph Nollekens, in St Marys Church, Ruabon, Clwyd. Sir Watkin played a significant role in the development of art in Wales, as a patron of landscape painting there. He brought both Richard Wilson and Paul Sandby to his seat at Wynnstay, Sandby staying six weeks in the summer of 1770, giving lessons to the family as well as painting, on his first visit to Wales. The next year Sandby returned and from 21 August to 4 September 1771 he, from the sketches made on the tour Sandby published twelve aquatint Views in North Wales in 1776, and five of his Views in Wales of 1777. Matching sets from South Wales came from his tours there with Sir Joseph Banks, a more ambitious tour together, to Italy, was planned but cancelled after Sir Watkins second marriage. Sir Watkin commissioned Robert Adam to build 20-21 St Jamess Square in London which was constructed between 1771 and 1775, Sir Joshua Reynolds received several commissions from Sir Watkin, some of which remain with the family. He supported the Concerts of Antient Music, and is caricatured by James Gilray in a depiction of King George III of England attending one he organized, hughes, Peter, Williams-Wynn, Sir Watkin, 4th Baronet of Wynnstay. Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, accessed June 13,2015, subscription required Rhagor, One of the wealthiest families of Wales, National Museum Wales Thomas, Peter, D. G. Biography in History of Parliament Online, extracted from The History of Parliament,1964 The Williams-Wynn collection | National Museum Wales. A History of the World - Object, Watkin Williams-Wynn in Rome, the Wider Picture – Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, a slideshow by Wrexham Council about the wider connections between Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, 4th Baronet, and cultural life in 18th-century Britain
18.
Ozias Humphry
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Ozias Humphry was a leading English painter of portrait miniatures, later oils and pastels, of the 18th century. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1791, and in 1792 he was appointed Portrait Painter in Crayons to the King, Humphry is the spelling Ozias himself used in his signature on the backing card of his miniature of Charlotte, Princess Royal. This is also the spelling given in the catalogues of the exhibitions of the Royal Academy from 1779 to 1795. The different spelling in the far more common form of Humphrey may originally well be due to a mistake but was already in use during his own lifetime. It appears thus in the Royal Academy catalogues for the years 1796 and 1797 as well as in the writings of Horace Walpole, Humphry is the generally used spelling today. Born and schooled in Honiton, Devon, Humphry was attracted by the gallery of casts opened by the Duke of Richmond and he also studied art in Bath, in Bath, he lodged with Thomas Linley. As a young artist, his talent was encouraged by Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds and his problems with his sight, which ultimately led to blindness, began in the early 1770s and forced him to paint larger works in oils and pastel. He traveled to Italy in 1773 with his great friend George Romney, stopping en route at Knole, near Sevenoaks in Kent and his stay in Italy lasted until 1777. This failed to reach its minimum estimate in a Christies auction in April 2007 and he compiled a fifty-page manuscript A Memoir of George Stubbs, based on what Stubbs had related to him, it is the only contemporary biography. This was edited and privately published in the 1870s and republished in 2005 and he also knew William Blake and commissioned copies of some of his illustrated books. At least one of Blakes letters to him is a significant document for Blakes biographers, from 1785 to 1787, he travelled to India, producing many miniatures and sketches. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1791, in 1792 he was appointed Portrait Painter in Crayons to the King. Most of his portraits of the Royal Family are still in the Royal Collection. His sight finally failed in 1797, and he died in 1810 in Hampstead, the bulk of his possessions came into the hands of his natural son, William Upcott, the book collector. From him the British Museum acquired a number of papers relating to Humphry. He is alluded to in some lines by Hayley, Humphry is said to be the painter of the Rice portrait of Jane Austen, although both the attribution and the identity of the sitter are disputed. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Humphry. 7 works by Humphry from the National Portrait Gallery Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections
19.
Windsor Castle
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Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is notable for its association with the English and later British royal family. The original castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror, since the time of Henry I, it has been used by the reigning monarch and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. Inside the castle walls is the 15th-century St Georges Chapel, considered by the historian John Martin Robinson to be one of the achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic design. Gradually replaced with stone fortifications, the castle withstood a siege during the First Barons War at the start of the 13th century. Edwards core design lasted through the Tudor period, during which Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made increasing use of the castle as a royal court and centre for diplomatic entertainment. Windsor Castle survived the period of the English Civil War, when it was used as a military headquarters for Parliamentary forces. At the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II rebuilt much of Windsor Castle with the help of the architect Hugh May, Queen Victoria made a few minor changes to the castle, which became the centre for royal entertainment for much of her reign. Windsor Castle was used as a refuge for the family during the Luftwaffe bombing campaigns of the Second World War. It is a popular tourist attraction, a venue for hosting state visits, today, more than 500 people live and work in Windsor Castle, making it the largest inhabited castle in the world. Windsor Castle occupies 13 acres, and combines the features of a fortification, a palace, the present-day castle was created during a sequence of phased building projects, culminating in the reconstruction work after a fire in 1992. It is in essence a Georgian and Victorian design based on a medieval structure, since the 14th century, architecture at the castle has attempted to produce a contemporary reinterpretation of older fashions and traditions, repeatedly imitating outmoded or even antiquated styles. Although there has some criticism, the castles architecture and history lends it a place amongst the greatest European palaces. At the heart of Windsor Castle is the Middle Ward, a formed around the motte or artificial hill in the centre of the ward. The motte is 50 feet high and is made from chalk originally excavated from the surrounding ditch, the Round Tower is in reality far from cylindrical, due to the shape and structure of the motte beneath it. The western entrance to the Middle Ward is now open, the eastern exit from the ward is guarded by the Norman Gatehouse. Wyatville redesigned the exterior of the gatehouse, and the interior was later converted in the 19th century for residential use. The Upper Ward of Windsor Castle comprises a number of major buildings enclosed by the bailey wall
20.
Alexander Roslin
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Alexander Roslin was a Swedish portrait painter who worked in Scania, Bayreuth, Paris, Italy, Warsaw and St. Petersburg, primarily for members of aristocratic families. He combined insightful psychological portrayal with a representation of fabrics. In his choice of style and lustrous, shimmering colors Alexander Roslin exemplifies Rococo and he lived in France from 1752 until 1793, a period that spanned most of his career. Rococo artists opted for a more jocular, elegant and ornate style, characterized by lightness, elegance and graceful approach to art and architecture. The painting by Roslin depicting Jeanne Sophie de Vignerot du Plessis, Alexander Roslin was born on 15 July 1718, in Malmö, Sweden, the son of naval physician Hans Roslin and Catherine Wertmüller. Stockholm had become an intellectual and artistic center since Queen Christina had established connections with Paris, at the age of sixteen he became apprenticed to the court painter Georg Engelhard Schröder in Stockholm, studying painting there until 1741 and beginning to paint large portraits in oils. Schröder was influenced by Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas de Largillière, in 1741, Roslin settled in Gothenburg, and the following year moved to Scania, where he remained until 1745 painting portraits and also creating religious paintings for the church at Hasslöv. In 1745, Roslin left Sweden for Bayreuth, where he had invited to work for Frederick. In 1747, he moved to Italy to study the works of the great masters, while in Italy he portrayed, among others, the family of Philip, Duke of Parma in 1752. In the same year Roslin moved to Paris, at the age of 34, here, in 1759, he married the pastel painter Marie-Suzanne Giroust. The couple had three sons and three daughters, in 1768 Roslin painted her dressed in Bolognese fashion, Lady with Veil, a portrait that the art critic, writer and philosopher Denis Diderot judged très piquante. In 1767 he painted a portrait of them both, she is depicted working in pastels on a portrait of Henrik Wilhelm Peill, while Roslin points at a gold box he received from Peill as a present. The frame of the painting is inscribed Loin et près, showing that the portrait was a token of friendship and this painting was purchased by the Swedish National Museum in 2013. In Paris he was a protégé of François Boucher and his work became fashionable. He was chosen as a member of the French Art Academy and his early portraits are painted in bright, cool colours, and show the influence of Jean-Marc Nattier and Hyacinthe Rigaud. Around the 1760s he started using daring colouring in his paintings, such as in the portrait of his wife, Lady with Veil, and the Jennings Family. Roslin had great skill in painting the surfaces and texture of precious materials such as fabrics and jewels. In Paris he soon became one of the foremost portraitists of his time, valued mostly for practiced rendering of fabrics and gentle complexions
21.
Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert
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Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert or Jean Pierre Antoine Tassaert was a sculptor of Flemish extraction, who, after a successful career in France, became a leading portrait sculptor in Berlin. Tassaert was born in Antwerp where he was baptised on 19 August 1727 and he trained in Antwerp and London. From 1744 he resided in Paris where he studied in the atelier of René-Michel Slodtz, in 1769 Tassaert was approved at the French Académie Royale but he was never received as a full member academician. After Slodtzs death in 1764, he emerged as a sculptor in his own right and he exhibited frequently at the Salon, mainly showing small mythological and allegorical figures and groups. His work was well liked by the aristocracy and the Marquise de Pompadour was one of his patrons and he received many commissions and worked at least since the mid-fifties at the Pavilion du Roi of the art-loving general tax collector Etienne-Michel Bouret. He finally became court sculptor of the Count of the Provence, Tassaert had married the miniature painter Marie-Edmée Moreau in Paris in 1758. Because of the strain of raising a large family, Tassaert wished to find a steady employment. In June 1775, after a career of about 30 years in Paris, the contract for his appointment had been signed by the Prussian king Frederick the Great. The position of first royal sculptor had been vacant for years when Tassaert took on the post. The appointment of Tassaert had been brokered by the French encyclopaedist Jean le Rond dAlembert, Tassaert had also sent the king some of his works in order to support his application for the position. One of the sculptures he sent was a statute of a Bathing Venus, story has it that the Prussian king liked the sculpture so much that he did not dare to take it out of its box out of fear it might be damaged. The position at the court guaranteed Tassaert, in addition to fees for his work, an income, paid assistants, a free studio. The house and studio promised by the king were completed in 1779, here Tassaert also set up a kind of master-studio, where he trained young sculptors. The most famous of his pupils was Gottfried Schadow who would be his successor as court sculptor and he commenced a period of intense artistic activity in Berlin. His first major works were four statues of Bacchus, a faun. In addition to smaller works for the royal palaces, Tassaert was commissioned by the king to make statues of General von Seydlitz. Tassaert also produced in this period a series of penetrating portraits such as that of Moses Mendelssohn, the artistic activity in Berlin gradually subsided in the final years of Frederick the Great. Upon his death in 1786, his nephew the King Frederick William II revived the support for the arts, from this period date a number of decorative works which have been preserved in the royal palaces
22.
Johan Zoffany
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Johan Joseph Zoffany, RA was a German neoclassical painter, active mainly in England. His works appear in many prominent British National galleries such as the National Gallery, London and his name is sometimes spelled Zoffani or Zauffelij. Of Bohemian origin, Johan Zoffany was born in Frankfurt on 13 March 1733 and he undertook an initial period of study in a sculptors workshop in Ellwangen in the 1740s and later at Regensburg with the artist Martin Speer. In 1750, he travelled to Rome, entering the studio of Agostino Masucci, in autumn 1760 he arrived in England, initially finding work with the clockmaker Stephen Rimbault, painting vignettes for his clocks. He also was popular with the Austrian Imperial family and in 1776 was created Baron by the Empress Maria Theresa, Johan Zoffany was a Freemason and was initiated into the Craft on 19 December 1763 at The Old Kings Lodge No 28. He was a master of what has called the theatrical conversation piece. Zoffany has been described by one critic as the real creator, in the later part of his life, Zoffany was especially known for producing huge paintings with large casts of people and works of art, all readily recognizable by their contemporaries. Though Zoffany made several visits to continental Europe and India in his lifetime, he remained in Britain and he is buried in the churchyard of St Annes Church, Kew. The painter Thomas Gainsborough was, by that artists own request, in the comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, by Gilbert and Sullivan, the Major-General brags of being able to distinguish works by Raphael from works by Gerard Dou and Zoffany. Zoffany lived in Lucknow for a time, during his return to England, the survivors held a lottery in which the loser was eaten. William Dalrymple thus describes Zoffany as having been the first and last Royal Academician to have become a cannibal. Despite the high profile the artist enjoyed in his day, as painter in London and Vienna, Zoffany has, until very recently. In 1920 Lady Victoria Manners and Dr. G. C. Williamson published John Zoffany, R. A. his life and works. 1735–1810 – the first in-depth study of the artist and his work, privately printed, presumably at some cost and this was followed by Johan Zoffany, 1733–1810, Mary Websters short but authoritative illustrated guide for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In December 2009, the first full biography was published, Johan Zoffany, Artist, in 2011 Mary Webster published her long-awaited monograph on the artist, Johan Zoffany 1733–1810. A2014 book by David Wilson describes Zoffany’s relationship with Robert Sayer, in this way he helped to secure Zoffany’s international reputation. Sayer and the artist became longstanding friends as well as business associates, in 1781 Zoffany painted Robert Sayer in an important ‘conversation piece’. The Sayer Family of Richmond depicts Robert Sayer, his son, James, from his first marriage, on Sayer’s death in 1794 the house was to become the residence of a future king of Great Britain
