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.
1792 in architecture
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The year 1792 in architecture involved some significant events. May 16 - La Fenice theatre in Venice, designed by Gianantonio Selva, is inaugurated with an opera performance, october 13 - Work begins on the White House, designed by James Hoban, in Washington, D. C. Church of St John-at-Hackney in London, designed by James Spiller, is built, stenbock House in Tallinn, designed by Johann Caspar Mohr, is completed. The Old State House in Hartford is probably designed by Charles Bulfinch, manjarabad fort in India is built. Sir John Soane begins work on his house in London, which becomes the Soane Museum, grand Prix de Rome, architecture, Pierre-Charles-Joseph Normand
3.
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
4.
Pastel
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A pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints. The color effect of pastels is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process, Pastels have been used by artists since the Renaissance, and gained considerable popularity in the 18th century, when a number of notable artists made pastel their primary medium. An artwork made using pastels is called a pastel, Pastel used as a verb means to produce an artwork with pastels, as an adjective it means pale in color. Pastel sticks or crayons consist of powdered pigment combined with a binder. The exact composition and characteristics of an individual pastel stick depends on the type of pastel and it also varies by individual manufacturer. Dry pastels have historically used binders such as gum arabic and gum tragacanth, methyl cellulose was introduced as a binder in the twentieth century. Often a chalk or gypsum component is present and they are available in varying degrees of hardness, the softer varieties being wrapped in paper. Some pastel brands use pumice in the binder to abrade the paper, dry pastel media can be subdivided as follows, Soft pastels, This is the most widely used form of pastel. The sticks have a portion of pigment and less binder. The drawing can be readily smudged and blended, but it results in a proportion of dust. White chalk may be used as a filler in producing pale, Pan Pastels, These are formulated with a minimum of binder in flat compacts and applied with special Soft micropore sponge tools. A 21st-century invention, Pan Pastels can be used for the painting or in combination with soft. Hard pastels, These have a portion of binder and less pigment. These can be used with other pastels for drawing outlines and adding accents, hard pastels are traditionally used to create the preliminary sketching out of a composition. However, the colors are brilliant and are available in a restricted range in contrast to soft pastels. Pastel pencils, These are pencils with a pastel lead and they are useful for adding fine details. In addition, pastels using a different approach to manufacture have been developed, Oil pastels, These have a soft, buttery consistency and they are dense and fill the grain of paper and are slightly more difficult to blend than soft pastels, but do not require a fixative
5.
George III of the United Kingdom
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He was concurrently Duke and prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire until his promotion to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britains American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence, further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In the later part of his life, George III had recurrent, although it has since been suggested that he had the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established, on George IIIs death, the Prince Regent succeeded his father as George IV. Historical analysis of George IIIs life has gone through a kaleidoscope of changing views that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them. Until it was reassessed in the half of the 20th century, his reputation in the United States was one of a tyrant. George was born in London at Norfolk House and he was the grandson of King George II, and the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. As Prince George was born two months prematurely and he was unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker. One month later, he was baptised at Norfolk House. His godparents were the King of Sweden, his uncle the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, George grew into a healthy but reserved and shy child. The family moved to Leicester Square, where George and his younger brother Prince Edward, Duke of York, Family letters show that he could read and write in both English and German, as well as comment on political events of the time, by the age of eight. He was the first British monarch to study science systematically and his religious education was wholly Anglican. At age 10 George took part in a production of Joseph Addisons play Cato and said in the new prologue, What. It may with truth be said, A boy in England born, historian Romney Sedgwick argued that these lines appear to be the source of the only historical phrase with which he is associated. Georges grandfather, King George II, disliked the Prince of Wales, however, in 1751 the Prince of Wales died unexpectedly from a lung injury, and George became heir apparent to the throne. He inherited one of his fathers titles and became the Duke of Edinburgh, now more interested in his grandson, three weeks later the King created George Prince of Wales. Georges mother, now the Dowager Princess of Wales, preferred to keep George at home where she could imbue him with her moral values
6.
Nationalmuseum
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Nationalmuseum is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museums benefactors include King Gustav III and Carl Gustaf Tessin, the museum also has an art library, open to the public and academics alike. The current building, built between 1844 and 1866, was inspired by North Italian Renaissance architecture and it is the design of the German architect Friedrich August Stüler, who also designed the Neues Museum in Berlin. The relatively closed exterior, save for the entrance, gives no hint of the spacious interior dominated by the huge flight of stairs leading up to the topmost galleries. The museum was enlarged in 1961 to accommodate the museum workshops, the present restaurant was instated in 1996. The museum building closed for renovation in 2013 and is scheduled to reopen in 2018, the Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis by Rembrandt Midvinterblot by Carl Larsson Vid bäcken by Peter Adolf Persson Hallwyl Palace Swedish Museum of National Antiquities Johan Mårtelius. Stockholm, Arkitektur Förlag AB. p.67
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Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
8.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
9.
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
10.
Richard Cosway
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Richard Cosway RA was a leading English portrait painter of the Regency era, noted for his miniatures. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood and his wife was the Italian-born painter Maria Cosway, a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. Richard Cosway was born in Tiverton, Devon, the son of a schoolmaster and he was initially educated at Blundells School but at the age of twelve he was allowed to travel to London to take lessons in painting. He won a prize from the Society of Artists in 1754 and he exhibited his first works at the age of 20 in 1762 and was soon in demand. He painted the future King George IV in 1780 and was appointed Painter to the Prince of Wales in 1785—the only time this title was ever awarded. His subjects included the Princes first wife, Maria Anne Fitzherbert, from 1995 to 1996, the National Portrait Gallery in London held an exhibition entitled Richard and Maria Cosway, Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion, with 250 works on display. On 18 January 1781, Cosway married the Anglo-Italian artist Maria Hadfield, the Cosways marriage is thought to be an arranged marriage and later a marriage of convenience due to his being 20 years her senior. Richard was well known as a libertine and commonly described as resembling a monkey, the film Jefferson in Paris depicts Maria Cosways romance with Thomas Jefferson and also depicts Richard Cosway as effeminate, something which is not certain historically. In 1784, the Cosways moved into Schomberg House, Pall Mall, in 1791 they moved to a larger house in Stratford Place. However, the marriage did not last, eventually being annulled, in later life, Cosway also suffered from mental disorders and spent some time in various institutions. He died in London in 1821 and was buried at Marylebone New Church, sir John Soane bought more than 30 objects put up for sale at auction after Cosways death. Gerald Barnett, Richard and Maria Cosway, A Biography, Tiverton, Devon, UK, Westcountry Books,1995. Philippe Bordes, Richard and Maria Cosway, Edinburgh, Burlington Magazine, daphne Foskett, Miniatures, Dictionary and Guide. Duncan MacMillan, The Cosways, RSA Journal, vol, Richard Cosway, The Macaroni Miniature Painter, The Art Amateur, vol. R. A, digital facsimile from Houghton Library, Harvard University
11.
Jacques-Louis David
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Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. David later became a supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre. Imprisoned after Robespierres fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release, at this time he developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours. After Napoleons fall from Imperial power and the Bourbon revival, David exiled himself to Brussels, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he remained until his death. David had a number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century. Jacques-Louis David was born into a family in Paris on 30 August 1748. When he was nine his father was killed in a duel. He covered his notebooks with drawings, and he said, I was always hiding behind the instructors chair. Soon, he desired to be a painter, but his uncles and he overcame the opposition, and went to learn from François Boucher, the leading painter of the time, who was also a distant relative. Boucher was a Rococo painter, but tastes were changing, Boucher decided that instead of taking over Davids tutelage, he would send David to his friend, Joseph-Marie Vien, a painter who embraced the classical reaction to Rococo. There David attended the Royal Academy, based in what is now the Louvre, each year the Academy awarded an outstanding student the prestigious Prix de Rome, which funded a three- to five-year stay in the Eternal City. Each pensionnaire was lodged in the French Academys Roman outpost, which from the years 1737 to 1793 was the Palazzo Mancini in the Via del Corso. David competed for, and failed to win, the prize for three years, each failure contributing to his lifelong grudge against the institution. After his second loss in 1772, David went on a hunger strike, confident he now had the support and backing needed to win the prize, he resumed his studies with great zeal—only to fail to win the Prix de Rome again the following year. Finally, in 1774, David was awarded the Prix de Rome on the strength of his painting of Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus Disease, a subject set by the judges. In October 1775 he made the journey to Italy with his mentor, Joseph-Marie Vien, while in Italy, David especially studied the works of 17th-century masters such as Poussin, Caravaggio, and the Carracci. Mengs principled, historicizing approach to the representation of classical subjects profoundly influenced Davids pre-revolutionary painting, such as The Vestal Virgin, mengs also introduced David to the theoretical writings on ancient sculpture by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the German scholar held to be the founder of modern art history. In 1779, David toured the newly excavated ruins of Pompeii, while in Rome, David also assiduously studied the High Renaissance painters, Raphael making a profound and lasting impression on the young French artist
12.
Samuel Jennings
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Samuel Jennings or Samuel Jenings was born in England and died in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1708. Jennings and his family arrived in West Jersey in September 1680, governor Edward Byllynge in 1682 appointed Jennings to the position of deputy-governor of West Jersey. At the instigation of William Penn, Jennings allowed himself to be elected as governor, causing a falling out with Byllynge. In 1684, Byllynge removed him from his position as deputy, Jennings later became involved in the controversy started by George Keith and Thomas Budd, siding with the Quakers. As a result, he was tried and convicted, in 1694, Jennings was sent to London for his six-day trial. He ably defended his position, and published The Case Stated while in London, after the late 1690s the government of East and West Jersey became increasingly dysfunctional. This ultimately resulted in the surrender by the Proprietors of West Jersey, annes government united the two colonies as the Province of New Jersey, a royal colony, establishing a new system of government. This reorganization and the leading up to it saw many New Jersey politicians jockeying for power. He remained of the council until his resignation in 1706, after leaving the Council, Jennings was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly for the City of Burlington, and served as Speaker during 1707. The History of Novo Caesaria or New Jersey, Samuel Smith, list of Governors of New Jersey
13.
Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences
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Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences is an oil-on-canvas painting by American artist Samuel Jennings. Jenningss painting shows a blond, white Goddess of Liberty presenting books to three grateful, supplicant blacks, in the background, former slaves are dancing and celebrating around a liberty pole, behind them is a ship on some body of water. The work is the earliest American painting extant celebrating emancipation, hiram Powerss America, Shackles, Slaves, and the Racial Limits of Nineteenth-Century Identity. Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences, A Philadelphia Allegory by Samuel Jennings
14.
Alexander Kucharsky
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Alexander Kucharsky also Alexandre Kucharsky, was a Polish portrait painter who spent his adult life in France. He himself used the spelling Kucharsky, but Kucharski is also often used, in the past, in France, the name has been given as Couaski. As a boy, he was a page to King Stanisław II Augustus and he trained first as an artist in Warsaw, in the studio of the famous painter Marcello Bacciarelli. With a bursary from King Stanisław Augustus, he travelled to Paris to work under Joseph-Marie Vien and Carle van Loo at the Académie Royale. The king of Poland wanted Kucharsky to train as a historical painter, from 1776 to 1778, Kucharsky was in the service of the Princes de Condé. Kucharsky liked to paint half-length portraits in pastels or in oils and his clients were mostly from the French and Polish aristocracy. The latter had increased in numbers in France as a result of the alliance between King Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska, after the departure from the French court of Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun in 1789, Kucharsky became painter to Queen Marie-Antoinette. Kucharskys best-known work today includes his portraits of the doomed French royal family, especially the future King Louis XVII, the final portrait, painted in 1793 of Marie Antoinette, was sold at auction by Piasa on 21 May 2003 and is attributed to Kucharsky. When signing his work, the artist used the spelling Kucharsky, throughout the years of the French Revolution, Kucharskys allegiance remained with the ancien régime. In retirement he lived near Paris at Sainte-Périne, living on a pension granted by Louis XVIII of France, list of Poles Media related to Alexander Kucharsky at Wikimedia Commons Alexander Kucharski at artnet. com Alexandre Kucharski at pere-lachaise. bleublog. ch
15.
George Stubbs
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George Stubbs ARA was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Stubbs was born in Liverpool, the son of a currier and leather merchant, information on his life up to age thirty-five is sparse, relying almost entirely on notes made by fellow artist Ozias Humphry towards the end of Stubbss life. Stubbs worked at his fathers trade until he was 15 or 16, thereafter as an artist he was self-taught. In the 1740s he worked as a painter in the North of England. He had had a passion for anatomy from his childhood, in 1756 he rented a farmhouse in the village of Horkstow, Lincolnshire, and spent 18 months dissecting horses, assisted by his common-law wife, Mary Spencer. He moved to London in about 1759 and in 1766 published The anatomy of the Horse, the original drawings are now in the collection of the Royal Academy. In 1759 the 3rd Duke of Richmond commissioned three large pictures from him, and his career was soon secure. By 1763 he had produced works for several dukes and other lords and was able to buy a house in Marylebone, a fashionable part of London. His most famous work is probably Whistlejacket, a painting of a prancing horse commissioned by the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham and this and two other paintings carried out for Rockingham break with convention in having plain backgrounds. Throughout the 1760s he produced a range of individual and group portraits of horses, sometimes accompanied by hounds. He often painted horses with their grooms, whom he painted as individuals. Meanwhile, he continued to accept commissions for portraits of people. From 1761 to 1776 he exhibited at the Society of Artists of Great Britain, Stubbs also painted more exotic animals including lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, and rhinoceroses, which he was able to observe in private menageries. His painting of a kangaroo was the first glimpse of this animal for many 18th-century Britons and he became preoccupied with the theme of a wild horse threatened by a lion and produced several variations on this theme. These and other works became known at the time through engravings of Stubbss work. Stubbs also painted pictures, but these are much less well regarded. From the late 1760s he produced work on enamel. In the 1770s Josiah Wedgwood developed a new and larger type of enamel panel at Stubbss request, Stubbs hoped to achieve commercial success with his paintings in enamel, but the venture left him in debt
16.
Utamaro
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Kitagawa Utamaro was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings and he also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects. Little is known of Utamaros life and his work began to appear in the 1770s, and he rose to prominence in the early 1790s with his portraits of beauties with exaggerated, elongated features. He produced over 2000 known prints and was one of the few artists to achieve fame throughout Japan in his lifetime. In 1804 he was arrested and manacled for fifty days for making illegal prints made depicting the 16th-century military ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Utamaros work reached Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, where it was very popular, enjoying particular acclaim in France. He influenced the European Impressionists, particularly with his use of partial views and his emphasis on light and shade, the reference to the Japanese influence among these artists often refers to the work of Utamaro. Ukiyo-e art flourished in Japan during the Edo period from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, the artform took as its primary subjects courtesans, kabuki actors, and others associated with the ukiyo floating world lifestyle of the pleasure districts. Alongside paintings, mass-produced woodblock prints were a form of the genre. Ukiyo-e art was aimed at the townspeople at the bottom of the social scale. Its audience, themes, aesthetics, and mass-produced nature kept it from consideration as serious art, in the mid-eighteenth century, full-colour nishiki-e prints became common. They were printed by using a number of woodblocks, one for each colour. Towards the close of the century there was a peak in both quality and quantity of the work. Kiyonaga was the pre-eminent portraitist of beauties during the 1780s, and the tall, graceful beauties in his work had a influence on Utamaro. Shunshō of the Katsukawa school introduced the ōkubi-e large-headed picture in the 1760s and he and other members of the Katsukawa school, such as Shunkō, popularized the form for yakusha-e actor prints, and popularized the dusting of mica in the backgrounds to produce a glittering effect. Little is known of Utamaros life and he was born Kitagawa Ichitarō in c. 1753. As an adult, he was known by the given names Yūsuke, early accounts have given his birthplace as Kyoto, Osaka, Yoshiwara in Edo, or Kawagoe in Musashi Province, none of these places has been verified. Apparently, Utamaro married, although little is known about his wife, there are, however, many prints of tender and intimate domestic scenes featuring the same woman and child over several years of the childs growth among his works. Sometime during his childhood Utamaro came under the tutelage of Sekien, Sekien, although trained in the upper-class Kanō school of Japanese painting, had become in middle age a practitioner of ukiyo-e and his art was aimed at the townspeople in Edo
