1.
1795 in art
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Events from the year 1795 in art. Nicolas-Jacques Conté patents the modern pencil lead in France and produces the first Conté sticks, william Blakes monotypes Nebuchadnezzar, Newton, The Night of Enitharmons Joy and Pity. Giuseppe Ceracchis marble portrait bust of George Washington Philip James de Loutherbourgs painting Lord Howes action, françois-Xavier Fabres Portrait of Lord Holland. François Gérards portrait of fellow-artist Jean-Baptiste Isabey with his daughter and his painting Bélisaire, francisco Goyas Self-portrait in the studio. Guillaume Guillon-Lethières painting The Death of Cato of Utica John Hoppners Portrait of the Frankland sisters
2.
1780s in archaeology
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The decade of the 1780s in archaeology involved some significant events. 1786, Antonio Bernasconi and Colonel Antonio del Rio examine the ruins of Palenque, making the first map of the site,1780, Tomb of the Scipios rediscovered in Rome. 1786, Gold thumb ring of Senicianus discovered near Calleva Atrebatum in England,1789, The Stony Stratford Hoard uncovered in England. Xagħra Stone Circle first discovered in Malta,1785, Engineer Diego Ruiz visits and publishes the first account of El Tajín. 1789, Saggio di lingua Etrusca by Luigi Lanzi,1780, The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is formed. 1783, The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is incorporated,1783, June 13 - Thomas Young, English Egyptologist. 1784, July 25 - Richard William Howard Vyse, English soldier,1785, November 24 - Philipp August Böckh, German classical scholar and antiquarian. 1786, December 11 - William John Bankes, English Member of Parliament, explorer,1787, March 28 - Claudius James Rich, English traveller and scholar. 1788, September 10 - Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes,1788, December 29 - Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, Danish archaeologist
3.
1786 in architecture
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The year 1786 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings. Casa de Esteban de Luca, Buenos Aires, Argentina, creaking Pagoda, Tsarskoe Selo, Russia, designed by Georg von Veldten. Golghar, Patna, India, built by Captain John Garstin, henley Bridge, designed by William Hayward of Shrewsbury, who died before construction had begun. Schloss Bellevue in Berlin, Germany, designed by Philipp Daniel Boumann, st. Catherines Cathedral, Kherson, Ukraine, built by General Ivan Gannibal. Grand Prix de Rome, architecture, Charles Percier
4.
Boydell Shakespeare Gallery
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During the 1790s the London gallery that showed the original paintings emerged as the projects most popular element. The works of William Shakespeare enjoyed a popularity in 18th-century Britain. Several new editions of his works were published, his plays were revived in the theatre and numerous works of art were created illustrating the plays and specific productions of them. Capitalising on this interest, Boydell decided to publish an illustrated edition of Shakespeares plays that would showcase the talents of British painters and engravers. He chose the noted scholar and Shakespeare editor George Steevens to oversee the edition, the press reported weekly on the building of Boydells gallery, designed by George Dance the Younger, on a site in Pall Mall. Boydell commissioned works from famous painters of the day, such as Joshua Reynolds, however, the long delay in publishing the prints and the illustrated edition prompted criticism. Because they were hurried, and many illustrations had to be done by lesser artists, the project caused the Boydell firm to become insolvent, and they were forced to sell the gallery at a lottery. In the 18th century, Shakespeare became associated with rising British nationalism, Shakespeare appealed not only to a social elite who prided themselves on their artistic taste, but also to the emerging middle class who saw in Shakespeares works a vision of a diversified society. The mid-century Shakespearean theatrical revival was probably most responsible for reintroducing the British public to Shakespeare, Shakespeares plays were integral to the theatres resurgence at this time. Despite the upsurge in theatre-going, writing tragedies was not profitable, Shakespeares works filled the gap in the repertoire, and his reputation grew as a result. By the end of the 18th century, one out of six plays performed in London was by Shakespeare. The actor, director, and producer David Garrick was a key figure in Shakespeares theatrical renaissance, garricks Drury Lane theatre was the centre of the Shakespeare mania which swept the nation. The visual arts played a significant role in expanding Shakespeares popular appeal. In particular, the conversation pieces designed chiefly for homes generated an audience for literary art. This tradition began with William Hogarth and attained its peak in the Royal Academy exhibitions, which displayed paintings, drawings, the exhibitions became important public events, thousands flocked to see them, and newspapers reported in detail on the works displayed. They became a place to be seen. In the process, the public was refamiliarized with Shakespeares works, the rise in Shakespeares popularity coincided with Britains accelerating change from an oral to a print culture. Towards the end of the century, the basis of Shakespeares high reputation changed and he had originally been respected as a playwright, but once the theatre became associated with the masses, Shakespeares status as a great writer shifted
5.
Francisco Goya
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Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of late 18th and early 19th centuries and throughout his career was a commentator. Immensely successful in his lifetime, Goya is often referred to as both the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns and he was also one of the great portraitists of modern times. He was born to a modest family in 1746 in the village of Fuendetodos in Aragon and he studied painting from age 14 under José Luzán y Martinez and moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs. He married Josefa Bayeu in 1773, the couples life together was characterised by an almost constant series of pregnancies and miscarriages, Goya was a guarded man and although letters and writings survive, little is known about his thoughts. He suffered a severe and undiagnosed illness in 1793 which left him completely deaf, after 1793 his work became progressively darker and more pessimistic. His later easel and mural paintings, prints and drawings appear to reflect a bleak outlook on personal, social and political levels and he was appointed Director of the Royal Academy in 1795, the year Manuel Godoy made an unfavorable treaty with France. In 1799 Goya became Primer Pintor de Cámara, the then-highest rank for a Spanish court painter, in the late 1790s, commissioned by Godoy, he completed his La maja desnuda, a remarkably daring nude for the time and clearly indebted to Diego Velázquez. In 1801 he painted Charles IV of Spain and His Family, in 1807 Napoleon led the French army into Spain. Goya remained in Madrid during the Peninsular War, which seems to have affected him deeply. Although he did not vocalise his thoughts in public, they can be inferred from his Disasters of War series of prints and his 1814 paintings The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808. Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of Bordeaux, accompanied by his much younger maid and companion, Leocadia Weiss, there he completed his La Tauromaquia series and a number of other, major, canvases. Following a stroke left him paralyzed on his right side. His body was later re-interred in Spain, Francisco Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain, on 30 March 1746 to José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. The family had moved that year from the city of Zaragoza, José was the son of a notary and of Basque origin, his ancestors being from Zerain, earning his living as a gilder, specialising in religious and decorative craftwork. He oversaw the gilding and most of the ornamentation during the rebuilding of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, Francisco was their fourth child, following his sister Rita, brother Tomás and second sister Jacinta. There were two sons, Mariano and Camilo. His mothers family had pretensions of nobility and the house, a modest brick cottage, was owned by her family and, perhaps fancifully, about 1749 José and Gracia bought a home in Zaragoza and were able to return to live in the city
6.
Charles III of Spain
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Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. While he was the son of Philip V of Spain, he was the eldest son of Philips second wife. In 1731, the 15-year-old Charles became the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I, following the death of his childless granduncle Antonio Farnese. In 1734, as Duke of Parma, he conquered the kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily, and was crowned king on 3 July 1735, reigning as Charles VII of Naples and Charles V of Sicily until 1759. In 1738 he married Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, daughter of Polish king Augustus III, Charles and Maria Amalia resided in Naples for 19 years. Charles succeeded to the Spanish throne on 10 August 1759, after the death of his half-brother King Ferdinand VI of Spain who left no heirs. As King of Spain Charles III made far-reaching reforms such as promoting science and university research, facilitating trade and commerce and he also tried to reduce the influence of the Church and avoided costly wars. His previous experience as King of Naples and Sicily proved valuable as King of Spain and he did not achieve complete control over the States finances, and was sometimes obliged to borrow to meet expenses. Most of his reforms proved to be successful and his important legacy lives on to this day, historian Stanley Payne wrote that Charles III was probably the most successful European ruler of his generation. He had provided firm, consistent, intelligent leadership, personal life had won the respect of the people. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht concluded the War of the Spanish Succession and reduced the political and military power of Spain, which the House of Bourbon had ruled since 1700. Moreover, the House of Savoy gained the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Kingdom of Great Britain gained the island of Minorca, in 1700, Charles father, originally a French prince, became King of Spain as Philip V. For the remainder of his reign, he attempted to regain the ceded territories. Elisabeth and Philip married on 24 December 1714, she proved a domineering consort. On 20 January 1716, Elisabeth gave birth to the Infante Charles of Spain at the Real Alcázar of Madrid and he was fourth in line to the Spanish throne, after three elder half-brothers, the Infante Luis, Prince of Asturias, the Infante Felipe, and Ferdinand. Because the Duke Francesco of Parma and his heir were childless, Elisabeth sought the duchies of Parma and she also sought for him the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, because Gian Gastone de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was also childless. He was a distant cousin of hers, related via her great-grandmother Margherita de Medici, the birth of Charles encouraged the Prime Minister Alberoni to start laying out grand plans for Europe. In 1717 he ordered the Spanish invasion of Sardinia, in 1718, Alberoni also ordered the invasion of Sicily, which was also ruled by the House of Savoy
7.
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson
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Anne-Louis Girodet was a French painter and pupil of Jacques-Louis David, who participated in the early Romantic movement by including elements of eroticism in his paintings. Girodet is remembered for his precise and clear style and for his paintings of members of the Napoleonic family and he lost his parents in his early youth. The care of his inheritance and education fell to his guardian, M. Trioson, médecin-de-mesdames, Girodet took the surname Trioson in 1812. In school he first studied architecture and pursued a military career and he changed to the study of painting under a teacher named Luquin and then entered the school of Jacques-Louis David. At the age of 22 he successfully competed for the Prix de Rome with a painting of the Story of Joseph and his Brethren. From 1789 to 1793 he lived in Italy and while in Rome he painted his Hippocrate refusant les presents dArtaxerxes and Endymion-dormant, back in France, Girodet painted many portraits, including some of members of the Bonaparte family. In 1806, in competition with the Sabines of David, he exhibited his Scène de déluge and he returned top his theatrical style in La Révolte du Caire. Girodet was a member of the Academy of Painting and of the Institute of France, a knight of the order of St. Michael, at a sale of his effects after his death, some of his drawings realized enormous prices. Girodet produced a vast quantity of illustrations, amongst which may be cited those for the Didot Virgil, fifty-four of his designs for Anacreon were engraved by M. Châtillon. Delecluze, in his Louis David et son temps, has also a life of Girodet. Girodet, Romantic Rebel was the first retrospective in the United States devoted to the works of Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, the exhibition assembled more than 100 seminal works that demonstrated the artists range as a painter as well as a draftsman. The peculiarities which mark Girodets position as the herald of the movement are already evident in his Sleep of Endymion. He has an inclination to the ancient style, and a statuary expression is very perceptible in his works. His drawing is correct, and of great precision, his colouring is rich, transparent and he works with equal care and genius. He loves to produce effect by strong lights but they are in unison with the spirit of the pieces. The same incongruity marks Girodets Danae and his Quatre Saisons, executed for the king of Spain, French painting 1774-1830, the Age of Revolution. New York, Detroit, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Detroit Institute of Arts, miscellaneous works Three portraits by Girodet Works of Girodet at http, //www. the-athenaeum. org
8.
Oath of the Horatii
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Oath of the Horatii, is a large painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David painted in 1784 and now on display in the Louvre in Paris. The painting immediately became a success with critics and the public. It depicts a scene from a Roman legend about a dispute between two warring cities, Rome and Alba Longa, and stresses the importance of patriotism and masculine self-sacrifice for ones country. Instead of the two cities sending their armies to war, they agree to choose three men from each city, the victor in that fight will be the victorious city. From Rome, three brothers from a Roman family, the Horatii, agree to end the war by fighting three brothers from a family of Alba Longa, the Curiatii. The three brothers, all of whom appear willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of Rome, are shown saluting their father who holds their swords out for them, of the three Horatii brothers, only one shall survive the confrontation. Aside from the three brothers depicted, David also represents, in the right corner, a woman crying whilst sitting down. She is Camilla, a sister of the Horatii brothers, who is betrothed to one of the Curiatii fighters. The principal sources for the story behind Davids Oath are the first book of Livy which was elaborated by Dionysius in book 3 of his Roman Antiquities, however, the moment depicted in Davids painting is his own invention. It grew to be considered a paragon of neoclassical art, the painting increased Davids fame, allowing him to take on his own students. In 1774, David won the Prix de Rome with his work Érasistrate découvrant la cause de la maladie d’Antiochius and this allowed him to stay five years in Rome as a student from the French government. There he met Pecoul, contractor for the buildings, and Pecouls daughter. The kings assistant, Charles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, commissioned Oath of the Horatii with the intention that it be an allegory about loyalty to the state, nevertheless, David departed from the agreed-upon scene, painting this scene instead. The painting was not completed in Paris, but rather in Rome, ultimately, Davids picture manifests a progressive outlook, deeply influenced by Enlightenment ideas, that eventually contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy. As the French Revolution approached, paintings increasingly referred to the loyalty to the rather than the family or the church. Painted five years before the Revolution, the Oath of the Horatii reflects the tensions of the period. In 1789, David painted The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, as revolution in France loomed, paintings urging loyalty to the state rather than to clan or clergy abounded. Although it was painted nearly four years before the revolution in France, in the painting, the three brothers express their loyalty and solidarity with Rome before battle, wholly supported by their father
9.
Mather Brown
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Mather Brown was a portrait and historical painter, born in Boston, Massachusetts, but active in England. Brown was the son of Gawen and Elizabeth Brown, and descended from the Rev, increase Mather on his mothers side. He was taught by his aunt and around 1773 became a pupil of Gilbert Stuart. He arrived in London in 1781 to further his training in Benjamin Wests studio, entered the Royal Academy schools in 1782 with plans to be a miniature painter, among these were large paintings of scenes from English history, as well as scenes from Shakespeares plays. However, despite their success he began to concentrate on portraiture and his first successes were with American sitters, among others his patron John Adams and family in 1784–85, this painting is now in the Boston Athenæum. In the spring of 1786, he began painting the earliest known portrait of Thomas Jefferson and he also painted Charles Bulfinch the same year. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts, other paintings include the Prince of Wales, later George IV, Queen Charlotte, and Cornwallis. A self-portrait now belongs to the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, a falling off of patronage in the mid-1790s, and failure to be elected to the Royal Academy, led Brown to leave London in 1808 for Bath, Bristol, and Liverpool. He settled in Manchester, returning to London almost two decades later, in 1824, where, even after Wests death, he continued to imitate his teachers style of painting, unable to secure commissions, Brown eventually died in poverty in London. Evans, Dorinda, Mather Brown, Early American Artist in England, union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies. ULAN Full Record Display for Mather Brown, Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute
10.
Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he was elected the second Vice President of the United States, Jefferson was primarily of English ancestry, born and educated in colonial Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law and he became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nations first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System, as President, Jefferson pursued the nations shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the countrys territory, as a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. Jeffersons second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U. S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory. Jefferson mastered many disciplines, which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and he was a proven architect in the classical tradition. Jeffersons keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society and he shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. He was well versed in linguistics and spoke several languages and he founded the University of Virginia after retiring from public office. He was a letter writer and corresponded with many prominent and important people throughout his adult life. His only full-length book is Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson owned several plantations which were worked by hundreds of slaves. Most historians now believe that, after the death of his wife in 1782, he had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. Various modern scholars are more critical of Jeffersons private life, pointing out the discrepancy between his ownership of slaves and his political principles, for example. Presidential scholars, however, consistently rank Jefferson among the greatest presidents, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13,1743, at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent and was born a British subject and his father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen, his mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of a friend who had named him guardian of his children, the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757, his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph. Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello and he assumed full authority over his property at age 21
11.
Charles Bulfinch
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Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession. Bulfinch split his career between his native Boston and Washington, D. C. where he served as Commissioner of Public Building and built the intermediate United States Capitol rotunda, Bulfinch was born in Boston to Thomas Bulfinch, a prominent physician, and his wife, Susan Apthorp. He was educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard University, from which he graduated with an AB in 1781, Thomas Jefferson became something of a mentor to him in Europe, as he would later be to Robert Mills. Upon his return to the United States in 1787, he became a promoter of the ship Columbia Redivivas voyage around the world under command of Captain Robert Gray and it was the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe. In 1788 he married Hannah Apthorp, his first cousin and their sons include Thomas Bulfinch, author of Bulfinchs Mythology, and Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, Unitarian clergyman and author. Bulfinchs first building was the Hollis Street Church and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791. He built several churches in Boston, of which New North is the last standing, serving from 1791 to 1795 on Bostons board of selectmen, he resigned due to business pressures but returned in 1799. From 1799 to 1817, he was the chairman of Bostons board of selectmen continuously, and served as a paid Police Superintendent, improving the streets, drains. Under his direction, both the infrastructure and civic center of Boston were transformed into a classical style. Bulfinch was responsible for the design of the Boston Common, the remodeling and enlargement of Faneuil Hall, there was no payment for his services as selectman, and he received only $1,400 for designing and overseeing the construction of the State House. In the summer of 1817, Bulfinchs roles as selectman, designer, in this position he was paid a salary of $2,500 per year plus expenses. In 1829 Bulfinch completed the construction of the Capitol,36 years after its cornerstone was laid, during his interval in Washington, Bulfinch also drew plans for the State House in Augusta, Maine, a Unitarian Church and prison in Washington, D. C. In 1827, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary member and he returned to Boston in 1830, where he died on April 15,1844, aged 80, and was buried in Kings Chapel Burial Ground in Boston. His tomb was moved to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. In 1943, a United States Liberty ship named the SS Charles Bulfinch was launched, the ship was scrapped in 1971. Bulfinch was known for attaching tunnels to the homes he erected within New England, the tunnel would run 2 to 5 feet within these homes and the chimneys and fireplaces would be built above their terminus. This would alleviate the problem of poor flashing in between the homes and the tunnel and the flue created a draw system bringing fresh air into the tunnel. This advance might have first been realized by General Jonathan Waldo when he restructured the old fort in Salem
12.
Thomas Gainsborough
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Thomas Gainsborough FRSA was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. He surpassed his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds to become the dominant British portraitist of the half of the 18th century. He painted quickly, and the works of his maturity are characterised by a light palette and he preferred landscapes to portraits, and is credited as the originator of the 18th-century British landscape school. Gainsborough was a member of the Royal Academy. He was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woollen goods, and his wife, the artist spent his childhood at what is now Gainsboroughs House, on Gainsborough Street. The original building survives and is now a dedicated House to his life. Gainsborough was allowed to leave home in 1740 to study art in London and he assisted Francis Hayman in the decoration of the supper boxes at Vauxhall Gardens, and contributed to the decoration of what is now the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children. In 1746, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr, a daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. The artists work, then consisting of landscape paintings, was not selling well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748–1749 and concentrated on painting portraits, in 1752, he and his family, now including two daughters, moved to Ipswich. Commissions for personal portraits increased, but his clientele included mainly local merchants and he had to borrow against his wifes annuity. The Artists family and Self-Portrait In 1759, Gainsborough and his moved to Bath. There, he studied portraits by van Dyck and was able to attract a fashionable clientele. In 1761, he began to work to the Society of Arts exhibition in London. He selected portraits of well-known or notorious clients in order to attract attention, the exhibitions helped him acquire a national reputation, and he was invited to become a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1769. His relationship with the academy was not a one and he stopped exhibiting his paintings in 1773. In 1774, Gainsborough and his moved to London to live in Schomberg House. A commemorative blue plaque was put on the house in 1951, in 1777, he again began to exhibit his paintings at the Royal Academy, including portraits of contemporary celebrities, such as the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland
13.
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
14.
Jean-Laurent Mosnier
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Jean-Laurent Mosnier was a French painter and miniaturist. Court painter under the Ancien Régime, Mosnier began, from 1789, many times academician, he left considerable work and high quality, both in miniature painting. Jean-François Heim, Claire Beraud, Philippe Heim, Lounge painting of the French Revolution, Paris, olivier Blanc, Portraits of Women, artists and models at the time of Marie Antoinette, Paris, Carpentier,2006. Media related to Jean-Laurent Mosnier at Wikimedia Commons
15.
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
16.
John Trumbull
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John Trumbull was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings. His Declaration of Independence was used on the reverse of the two-dollar bill, Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, to Jonathan Trumbull and his wife Faith Trumbull. His father served as Governor of Connecticut from 1769 to 1784, both sides of his family were descended from early Puritan settlers in the state. The young Trumbull entered the 1771 junior class at Harvard College at age fifteen, due to a childhood accident, Trumbull lost use of one eye, which may have influenced his detailed painting style. As a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, Trumbull rendered a service at Boston by sketching plans of the British works. He witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill and he was appointed second personal aide to General George Washington, and in June 1776, deputy adjutant-general to General Horatio Gates. He resigned from the army in 1777 after a dispute over the dating of his officer commission, in 1780 he traveled to London, where he studied under Benjamin West. At Wests suggestion, Trumbull painted small pictures of the War of Independence and he painted about 250 in his lifetime. On September 23,1780, British agent Major John André was captured by Continental troops in North America, after news reached Great Britain, outrage flared and Trumbull was arrested, as having been an officer in the Continental Army of similar rank to André. He was imprisoned for seven months in Londons Tothill Fields Bridewell, after being released, Trumbull returned to the United States. In 1784, following the British recognition of the United States independence, while working in his studio, Trumbull painted Battle of Bunker Hill and Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec. Both works are now in the Yale University Art Gallery, in 1785 Trumbull went to Paris, where he made portrait sketches of French officers for the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis. With the assistance of Thomas Jefferson, serving there as the US minister, while in Paris, Trumbull is credited with having introduced Jefferson to the Italian painter Maria Cosway, they became lifelong intimate friends. Trumbulls painting became widely known due to an engraving of it by Asher Brown Durand. All now hang in rotunda of the United States Capitol, congress reportedly authorized only funds sufficient to purchase these four paintings. Trumbulls The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar,1789, in 1831 Trumbull sold a series of 28 paintings and 60 miniature portraits to Yale University for an annuity of $1,000. This is by far the largest single collection of his works, the collection was originally housed in a neoclassical art gallery designed by Trumbull on Yales Old Campus, along with portraits by other artists. His portraits include full lengths of General Washington and George Clinton, New York also bought his full-length paintings of Alexander Hamilton and John Jay
17.
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
18.
Benjamin Haydon
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Benjamin Robert Haydon was an English painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactless dealings with patrons and he was troubled by financial problems throughout his life, which led to several periods of imprisonment for debt. He gave lectures on art, and kept extensive diaries that were published after his death, at an early age he showed an aptitude for study, which was carefully fostered by his mother. At the age of six he was placed in Plymouth Grammar School, and at twelve in Plympton Grammar School, reading Albinus inspired him with a love for anatomy, and from childhood he wanted to become a painter. Full of energy and hope, he left home, on 14 May 1804, for London and he was so enthusiastic that Henry Fuseli asked when he found time to eat. In 1807, at the age of 21, Haydon exhibited, for the first time, the painting he entered, The Repose in Egypt, was bought by Thomas Hope a year later for the Egyptian Room at his townhouse in Duchess Street. This was a start for Haydon, who shortly afterwards received a commission from Lord Mulgrave. That same year, he took on his first pupil, Charles Lock Eastlake, Haydon was fascinated by the Elgin Marbles, and believed that they provided evidence that ancient Greek artists had studied anatomy. The income was not enough to pay off all his debts, much of what he saw there disappointed him, he described Raphaels Transfiguration, a painting he had particularly wanted to see, as small & insignificant. On returning to England, he produced Christs Entry into Jerusalem, while painting another large work, the Resurrection of Lazarus, his financial problems increased, and he was arrested but not imprisoned, the sheriff-officer taking his word for his appearance. In October,1821, he increased his commitments when he married Mary Hyman, in 1823 Haydon spent two months imprisoned for debt in the Kings Bench Prison, where he received consoling letters from leading men of the day. While there, he drew up a petition to Parliament in favour of the appointment of a committee to inquire into the state of encouragement of historical painting, which was presented by Lord Brougham. During 1825, following an agreement for his support with his lawyer, Thomas Kearsey, Haydon turned, rather unwillingly, to portrait painting. His works in the genre were, however, attacked in a review in Theodore Hooks weekly newspaper John Bull. Haydon later blamed the article for his loss of clientele, following a second period of incarceration at the Kings Bench Prison in 1827, he painted the Mock Election inspired by an incident he had witnessed there. The picture was bought by King George IV for £500, encouraged by this success, he painted a companion picture, Chairing the Member, returning to the prison to make drawings of some of the inmates. A third painting of contemporary life showed the audience at a Punch and his hopes that the king would buy this work were disappointed, a setback he blamed on the actions of the Keeper of the Kings Pictures, William Seguier. Curtius Leaping into the Gulf, and Uriel and Satan, as a supporter of parliamentary reform, he had the idea of painting a grand canvas of a meeting on Newhall Hill, addressed by Thomas Attwood, leader of the Birmingham Political Union
19.
William Mulready
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William Mulready RA was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his depictions of rural scenes. William Mulready was born in Ennis, County Clare, in 1802, he married Elizabeth Varley, a landscape painter. Their three children, Paul Augustus, William, and Michael also became artists and his relationship with his wife however deteriorated gradually over the years, which is detailed in papers stored at the library of the Victoria and Albert Museum. His strong Catholic beliefs prevented any chance of a divorce but they separated and he accused her of bad conduct but shied from providing details. In a letter to him in 1827 she blamed him entirely for the collapse of their marriage, suggesting cruelty, pederastic activities and his son, William Mulready Junior, lived in London and maintained a career of a portrait painter and picture restorer. He had five children. They also were trained as artists, Augustus Edwin Mulready was the most successful of them and became known as a member of the Cranbrook Colony of artists. Many of his pictures show landscapes, before he started to build a reputation as a genre painter from 1808 on. Besides this, he illustrated books, including the first edition of Charles and Mary Lambs Tales from Shakespeare in 1807. The book was popular as it was a sequel to the The Butterflys Ball. Mulreadys paintings were popular in Victorian times and his first painting of importance, Returning from the Ale House, now in the Tate Gallery, London, under the title Fair Time, appeared in 1809. In 1815 he became an Associate of the Royal Academy and R. A. in 1816, in the same year, he also was awarded the French Légion dhonneur. Mulreadys most important pictures are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, in the former are 33, among them Hampstead Heath, Giving a Bite, First Love, The Sonnet, Choosing the Wedding Gown, and The Butt. In the latter are five, including a Snow Scene, in the National Gallery, Dublin, are Young Brother and The Toy Seller. His Wolf and the Lamb is in Royal possession, in 1840, Mulready designed the illustrations for the postal stationery, known as Mulready stationery were introduced by the Royal Mail at the same time as the Penny Black in May 1840. Stationery manufacturers, whose livelihood was threatened by the new lettersheet, only six days after their introduction, on May 12, Rowland Hill wrote that, I fear we shall have to substitute some other stamp for that design by Mulready. The public have shown their disregard and even distaste for beauty, essentially Mulreadys designs were a folly. He died at the age of 77 in Bayswater, London and is buried in the nearby Kensal Green Cemetery where a monument to his memory was erected
20.
Genre art
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Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, some variations of the term genre art specify the medium or type of visual work, as in genre painting, genre prints, genre photographs, and so on. Rather confusingly, the meaning of genre, covering any particular combination of an artistic medium. Painting was divided into a hierarchy of genres, with painting at the top, as the most difficult and therefore prestigious. But history paintings are a genre in painting, not genre works, the following concentrates on painting, but genre motifs were also extremely popular in many forms of the decorative arts, especially from the Rococo of the early 18th century onwards. Single figures or small groups decorated a huge variety of such as porcelain, furniture, wallpaper. Genre painting, also called genre scene or petit genre, depicts aspects of life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known member of his family. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class. Genre themes appear in all art traditions. These were part of a pattern of Mannerist inversion in Antwerp painting, giving low elements previously in the background of images prominent emphasis. The generally small scale of these paintings was appropriate for their display in the homes of middle class purchasers. Often the subject of a painting was based on a popular emblem from an Emblem book. The merry company showed a group of figures at a party, other common types of scenes showed markets or fairs, village festivities, or soldiers in camp. In Italy, a school of painting was stimulated by the arrival in Rome of the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer in 1625. He acquired the nickname Il Bamboccio and his followers were called the Bamboccianti, whose works would inspire Giacomo Ceruti, Antonio Cifrondi, jean-Baptiste Greuze and others painted detailed and rather sentimental groups or individual portraits of peasants that were to be influential on 19th-century painting. Spain had a tradition predating The Book of Good Love of social observation and commentary based on the Old Roman Latin tradition, practiced by many of its painters and illuminators
21.
1863 in art
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Events from the year 1863 in art. March – American-born painter James McNeill Whistler settles close to the River Thames in Chelsea, London, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris becomes independent of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Julia Margaret Cameron takes up photography, alexander Gilchrists Life of William Blake, Pictor Ignotus is published in London, edited posthumously by Anne Gilchrist. May 17 – Opening of first exhibition of the Salon des Refusés in Paris, and coining of the term avant-garde
22.
Albrecht Adam
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Albrecht Adam was a German painter of battles and horses. Born in Nördlingen, he began an apprenticeship as a confectioner, however, influenced by the director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Nuremberg and later by Johann Rugendas, he turned towards painting – mainly battlefields and horses. After participating in the Austrian campaign of 1809, he stayed for a time in Vienna, most of Adams subsequent works deal with Napoleons Russian campaign, during which he was attached to the Bavarian contingent as a war artist. In addition to his title as court painter, he was given an officers rank, among other works, he painted a diary of the campaign in 83 scenes. In 1815, Adam moved to Munich, where he was occupied by the emperors and his studio in Munich was frequently visited by Theodor Horschelt, who later became well known for his paintings of the Russian Caucasian War. He worked until an age, recording battles and portraying horses, even though in his late works he was supported by the help of his sons, Benno, Eugen. It is traced, that he lived at Sing Straße 13 in Munich around 1850, Adam died in Munich in 1862
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