1.
1840 in art
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Events from the year 1840 in art. The stamp becomes valid for postage from May 6, september 30 – Foundation of Nelsons Column laid in London, Trafalgar Square being laid out and paved around it during the year
2.
1841 in art
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Events from the year 1841 in art. M. W. Turners painting Peace - Burial at Sea, fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square, London erected to the design of Charles Barry. The planned equestrian statue of King William IV being abandoned due to lack of funds, george Hayter appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. Rand invents the collapsible zinc oil paint tube, marketed by Winsor & Newton of London, edward Lear publishes Views in Rome and its Environs. John Ruskin publishes The King of the Golden River, with illustrations by Richard Doyle
3.
1842 in art
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Events from the year 1842 in art. David Roberts begins publication of Sketches in the Holy Land, richard Dadd becomes mentally ill during a tour of the Middle East and is thought to be suffering from sunstroke. Construction work resumes on Cologne Cathedral, after a gap of three centuries. William Fox Talbot receives the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society, george R. Lewis records the famous carvings at Kilpeck church, Herefordshire. Dordrechts Museum established in the Netherlands
4.
1845 in art
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Events from the year 1845 in art. February 7 – At the British Museum in London, a drunken visitor smashes the Portland Vase which takes months to repair and it has since been reconstructed three times. March – Honoré Daumier begins publishing the series of drawings Les Gens de justice in the satirical Paris magazine Le Charivari, heinrich Hoffmann anonymously publishes Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schön kolorierten Tafeln für Kinder von 3–6 Jahren in Germany. Brita Sofia Hesselius opens a studio in Karlstad, making her the first known Swedish female professional photographer
5.
1848 in art
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Events from the year 1848 in art. April 10 – John Ruskin marries Effie Gray in Scotland, september – John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti found the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the formers family home in Gower Street. December 10 – The Leipzig Art Association opens the Städtische Museum, in Cambridge, England, the Fitzwilliam Museums Founders Building is opened. In Copenhagen, Denmark, the Thorvaldsen Museum of sculpture is opened
6.
1850 in art
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Events from the year 1850 in art. Controversial exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite paintings by Holman Hunt and Millais at the Royal Academy, james Collinson resigns from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which then dissolves. Francisco Goyas engravings, Proverbios, are posthumously published, edouard Pingret relocates to Mexico City. Grand Prix de Rome, painting, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Paul Baudry, Grand Prix de Rome, sculpture, Grand Prix de Rome, architecture, Grand Prix de Rome, music, J. A
7.
1855 in art
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Events from the year 1855 in art. July 3 – John Everett Millais and Effie Gray marry, jean Auguste Dominique Ingres exhibits Venus Anadyomene, which has taken him forty years to complete. William Bell Scott begins painting murals of Northumbrian history at Wallington Hall, the Bavarian National Museum is founded by King Maximilian II of Bavaria. Kelly, American sculptor and illustrator September 8 – William Friese-Greene, English photographer and cinematographer Willis E
8.
1857 in art
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Events from the year 1857 in art. June 22 – The South Kensington Museum, predecessor of the Victoria, lewis Carroll meets John Ruskin and begins to associate with the Pre-Raphaelites. In the same year, Ruskin publishes his Political Economy of Art, may 5 – October 17 – The Art Treasures of Great Britain exhibition is held in Manchester, one of the largest such displays of all time. Emily Mary Osborn – Nameless and Friendless O. G. W
9.
1859 in art
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Events from the year 1859 in art. March 22 – Scottish National Gallery opens to the public in Edinburgh in neoclassical premises designed by W. H. Playfair, april 26 – William Morris marries his model, Jane Burden. Edward Burne-Jones presents them with a self-painted wardrobe, frederic E. Churchs The Heart of the Andes is exhibited in New York and draws 12,000 paying visitors. The Artists Rifles set up in London as a unit of the British Army
10.
1849 in architecture
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The year 1849 in architecture involved some significant events. March 1 - Ashby railway station, Leicestershire, England, probably designed by Robert Chaplin, may 1 - Stone railway station, Staffordshire, England, designed by H. A. Hunt, opened. September 2 - Gare de lEst railway station in Paris, designed by François Duquesnay, october 30 - London Coal Exchange opened. December 1 - Gothenburg City Hall, designed by Pehr Johan Ekman, church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, central London, designed by Joseph John Scoles, completed. All Saints, Ennismore Gardens, south London, designed by Lewis Vulliamy, boston Custom House, designed by Ammi B. March - The Journal of Design and Manufactures is established by Henry Cole, may - The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin is published. Royal Gold Medal - Luigi Canina, grand Prix de Rome, architecture - Denis Lebouteux. American architect working in Baltimore John Pinch the younger, English architect working in Bath
11.
1849 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1849. March–November – La Tribune des Peuples, a romantic nationalist periodical, is published by Adam Mickiewicz. April 22 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky and fellow members of the literary Petrashevsky Circle are arrested for their progressive views. Sentenced to death on November 16 and facing a firing squad on December 23 he and some others are reprieved at the last moment, may 1 – Charles Dickenss Bildungsroman David Copperfield begins serial publication. May 10 – The Astor Place Riot takes place in Manhattan over a dispute between two Shakespearean actors, the American Edwin Forrest and the Englishman William Macready, may 28 – Anne Brontë dies of tuberculosis at Scarborough, aged 29. September 20 – Honoré de Balzac travels to Poland to meet Eveline Hanska, october 3 – Edgar Allan Poe is found on the streets of Baltimore delirious, in great distress, and. in need of immediate assistance. October–December – Thomas De Quinceys essay The English Mail-Coach appears in issues of Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, November – The English scholarly correspondence magazine Notes and Queries is first published. November 14 – A public festival is held in Denmark to celebrate the 70th birthday of Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, J. A. Leipzig publisher B. G. Teubner begins publishing the Bibliotheca Teubneriana series of editions of the Classics. Whos Who is published for the first time in the United Kingdom, philip Massingers play Believe as You List receives its first publication,218 years after its theatrical première
12.
Henry Cole
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Sir Henry Cole was a British civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending greetings cards at Christmas time, Henry Cole was born in Bath the son of Captain Henry Robert Cole, then of the 1st Dragoon Guards, and his wife Lætitia Dormer. He was sent in 1817 to Christs Hospital, and upon leaving school in 1823 became clerk to Francis Palgrave, Cole was employed in transcribing records, but found time to study water-colour painting under David Cox, and exhibited sketches at the Royal Academy. He lived with his father in a house belonging to the novelist Thomas Love Peacock, Cole drew for him, helped him in writing critiques of musical performances, and was introduced by him to John Stuart Mill, Charles Buller, and George Grote. The friends used to meet at Grotes house in Threadneedle Street for discussions twice a week, a new Record Commission was issued in 1831, and in 1833 Cole was appointed a sub-commissioner. The secretary, Charles Purton Cooper, quarrelled with the commission, and with Cole, who applied to Charles Buller for protection. A committee of the House of Commons was appointed upon Bullers motion in 1836, which reported against the system. Cole wrote many articles in support of Buller and he was appointed by Lord Langdale, who, as Master of the Rolls, administered the affairs of the commission, to take charge of the records of the exchequer of pleas. The record office was constituted in 1838 under the Public Record Office Act 1838 and he ranged a large mass of records in the Carlton House Riding School, where he was placed for the purpose 2 November 1841. His reports upon the unsuitability of this contributed to bring about the erection of the building in Fetter Lane. Coles duties at the office did not absorb his whole energy. In 1838, with the leave of his superiors, he became secretary to a committee for promoting postal reform and he edited their organ, the Post Circular, suggested by himself, of which the first number appeared 14 March 1838. He got up petitions and meetings with such energy that Cobden offered to him in 1839 the secretaryship of the Anti-Cornlaw League, parliament granted power to carry out the new postal scheme in August 1839, and the treasury offered premiums for the best proposals as to stamps. Cole gained one of the premiums, he attended the treasury to discuss details, from 1837 to 1840, he worked as an assistant to Rowland Hill and played a key role in the introduction of the Penny Post. He is sometimes credited with the design of the worlds first postage stamp, in 1843, Cole introduced the worlds first commercial Christmas card, commissioning artist John Callcott Horsley to make the artwork. Through his membership of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, the backing of Prince Albert was secured, and in 1847 a royal charter was granted to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Under the patronage of Prince Albert, Cole organised a successful Exhibition of Art Manufactures in 1847, Cole visited the 1849 11th Quinquennial Paris Exhibition and noticed the lack of an exhibition open to international participants. As one of the Commissioners, Cole was instrumental in the decision that the £186,000 surplus from the Great Exhibition would be used for improving science and art education in the United Kingdom
13.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
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The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member brotherhood and their principles were shared by other artists, including Marie Spartali Stillman and Ford Madox Brown. A later, medievalising strain inspired by Rossetti included Edward Burne-Jones, the groups intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been an influence on the academic teaching of art. In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, to the Pre-Raphaelites, according to William Michael Rossetti, sloshy meant anything lax or scamped in the process of painting. Any thing or person of a commonplace or conventional kind, the brotherhood sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. The group associated their work with John Ruskin, an English critic whose influences were driven by his religious background, the group continued to accept the concepts of history painting and mimesis, imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. The Pre-Raphaelites defined themselves as a movement, created a distinct name for their form of art. The groups debates were recorded in the Pre-Raphaelite Journal, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in John Millaiss parents house on Gower Street, London in 1848. At the first meeting, the painters John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hunt and Millais were students at the Royal Academy of Arts and had met in another loose association, the Cyclographic Club, a sketching society. At his own request Rossetti became a pupil of Ford Madox Brown in 1848, at that date, Rossetti and Hunt shared lodgings in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, Central London. Hunt had started painting The Eve of St. Agnes based on Keatss poem of the same name, as an aspiring poet, Rossetti wished to develop the links between Romantic poetry and art. Ford Madox Brown was invited to join, but the more senior artist remained independent but supported the group throughout the PRB period of Pre-Raphaelitism, other young painters and sculptors became close associates, including Charles Allston Collins, Thomas Tupper, and Alexander Munro. The PRB intended to keep the existence of the secret from members of the Royal Academy. The principles were deliberately non-dogmatic, since the brotherhood wished to emphasise the personal responsibility of artists to determine their own ideas. Influenced by Romanticism, the members thought freedom and responsibility were inseparable, nevertheless, they were particularly fascinated by medieval culture, believing it to possess a spiritual and creative integrity that had been lost in later eras. The emphasis on medieval culture clashed with principles of realism which stress the independent observation of nature, in its early stages, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood believed its two interests were consistent with one another, but in later years the movement divided and moved in two directions. The realists were led by Hunt and Millais, while the medievalists were led by Rossetti and his followers, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris
14.
John Everett Millais
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Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. A child prodigy, at the age of eleven Millais became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street. Millais became the most famous exponent of the style, his painting Christ in the House of His Parents generating considerable controversy, by the mid-1850s Millais was moving away from the Pre-Raphaelite style and developing a new and powerful form of realism in his art. His later works were successful, making Millais one of the wealthiest artists of his day. Millaiss personal life has played a significant role in his reputation. His wife Effie was formerly married to the critic John Ruskin, Millais was born in Southampton, England in 1829, of a prominent Jersey-based family. His parents were John William Millais and Emily Mary Millais, most of his early childhood was spent in Jersey, to which he retained a strong devotion throughout his life. The author Thackeray once asked him when England conquered Jersey, the family moved to Dinan in Brittany for a few years in his childhood. His mothers forceful personality was the most powerful influence on his early life and she had a keen interest in art and music, and encouraged her sons artistic bent, promoting the relocating of the family to London to help develop contacts at the Royal Academy of Art. He later said I owe everything to my mother and his prodigious artistic talent won him a place at the Royal Academy schools at the unprecedented age of eleven. While there, he met William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti with whom he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in September 1848 in his home on Gower Street. Millaiss Christ in the House of His Parents was highly controversial because of its portrayal of a working class Holy Family labouring in a messy carpentry workshop. Later works were controversial, though less so. Millais achieved popular success with A Huguenot, which depicts a couple about to be separated because of religious conflicts. He repeated this theme in later works. All these early works were painted with great attention to detail, in paintings such as Ophelia Millais created dense and elaborate pictorial surfaces based on the integration of naturalistic elements. This approach has been described as a kind of pictorial eco-system, Mariana is a painting that Millais painted in 1850-51 based on the play Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare and the poem of the same name by Alfred, Lord Tennyson from 1830. In the play, the young Mariana was to be married and this style was promoted by the critic John Ruskin, who had defended the Pre-Raphaelites against their critics
15.
Isabella (Millais painting)
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It was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1849, and is now in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. It depicts the moment at which Isabellas brothers realise that there is a romance between the two people, and plot to murder Lorenzo so they can marry Isabella to a wealthy nobleman. Isabella, wearing grey at the right, is being handed a blood orange on a plate by the doomed Lorenzo. A cut blood orange is symbolic of the neck of someone who has just been decapitated, one of her brothers violently kicks a frightened dog while cracking a nut. Millais and his colleague William Holman Hunt had both produced drawings illustrating episodes from the poem, but only Millais worked his up into a full painting, both drawings used distorted perspective and angular poses characteristic of medieval art, by which the Pre-Raphaelites were influenced. Millais also draws on the precedent of William Hogarths satirical depictions of an arranged marriage Marriage à-la-mode, the painting is structured with deliberately distorted perspective, elongating the right hand side of the table and flattening the figures ranged along it. Millais also carefully characterises each figure with equal precision, another distinctive Pre-Raphaelite feature is the inclusion of images and patterns within the image as a whole. Each of the plates has a distorted picture glazed into its surface, the base of the bench on which Isabella sits contains a carving depicting a kneeling figure under which appear the letters PRB. In 2012, British art curator Carol Jacobi discovered several likely intentional sexual symbolisms in the painting and they were all on or near the character in the front left, who is stretching out his leg and using a nutcracker. The shadow on the table near his crotch area, his leg, Jacobi said, The shadow is clearly phallic, and it also references the sex act, with the salt tipped into the shadow. She also argued that it would have been deliberate, but did not know what the intention with it was. However, she stated that it was not a Freudian slip, or a hypocritical, the imagery of masturbation and the anxieties around it and being unable to control yourself sexually would have been well known. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallerys Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource Several studies pencil on paper for Isabella painting
16.
William Holman Hunt
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William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their attention to detail, vivid color. These features were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, for Hunt it was the duty of the artist to reveal the correspondence between sign and fact. Of all the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt remained most true to their ideals throughout his career and he was always keen to maximize the popular appeal and public visibility of his works. After eventually entering the Royal Academy art schools, having initially been rejected and he formed the Pre-Raphaelite movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Along with John Everett Millais they sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth. This religious approach was influenced by the qualities of medieval art. He had many pupils including Robert Braithwaite Martineau, after a failed engagement to his model Annie Miller, he married Fanny Waugh, who later modelled for the figure of Isabella. When she died in childbirth in Italy, he sculpted her tomb at Fiesole, having it brought down to the English Cemetery in Florence and he had a close connection with St. Marks Church in Florence, and paid for the communion chalice inscribed in memory of his wife and his second wife, Edith, was Fannys sister. At the time it was illegal in Great Britain to marry ones deceased wifes sister, hunts works were not initially successful, and were widely attacked in the art press for their alleged clumsiness and ugliness. He achieved some note for his intensely naturalistic scenes of modern rural and urban life, such as The Hireling Shepherd. Hunt also painted works based on poems, such as Isabella. He eventually built his own house in Jerusalem and he eventually had to relinquish painting because failing eyesight meant that he could not achieve the quality that he wanted. His last major works, including a version of The Light of the World, were completed with the help of his assistant. Hunt died on 7 September 1910 and was buried in St Pauls Cathedral in London, Hunt published an autobiography in 1905. Many of his writings are attempts to control the interpretation of his work. That year, he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII, at the end of his life he lived in Sonning-on-Thames
17.
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
18.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt, Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a precursor of the Aesthetic movement. Rossettis art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism and his early poetry was influenced by John Keats. His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence, poetry and image are closely entwined in Rossettis work. Rossettis personal life was linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth. The son of émigré Italian scholar Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti and his wife Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, Rossetti was born in London, England and his family and friends called him Gabriel, but in publications he put the name Dante first in honour of Dante Alighieri. He was the brother of poet Christina Rossetti, critic William Michael Rossetti and his father was a Roman Catholic, at least prior to his marriage, and his mother was an Anglican, ostensibly Gabriel was baptized as and was a practicing Anglican. During his childhood, Rossetti was home educated and often read the Bible, along with the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, the youthful Rossetti is described as self-possessed, articulate, passionate and charismatic but also ardent, poetic and feckless. Like all his siblings, he aspired to be a poet and attended Kings College School and he also wished to be a painter, having shown a great interest in Medieval Italian art. He studied at Henry Sass Drawing Academy from 1841 to 1845, when he enrolled in the Antique School of the Royal Academy, after leaving the Royal Academy, Rossetti studied under Ford Madox Brown, with whom he retained a close relationship throughout his life. Following the exhibition of William Holman Hunts painting The Eve of St. Agnes, the painting illustrated a poem by the little-known John Keats. Rossettis own poem, The Blessed Damozel, was an imitation of Keats, together they developed the philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which they founded along with John Everett Millais. Their approach was to return to the abundant detail, intense colours, the eminent critic John Ruskin wrote, Every Pre-Raphaelite landscape background is painted to the last touch, in the open air, from the thing itself. Every Pre-Raphaelite figure, however studied in expression, is a portrait of some living person. Rossettis first major paintings in oil display the realist qualities of the early Pre-Raphaelite movement and his Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Ecce Ancilla Domini portray Mary as a teenage girl. I saw at once that he was not an orthodox boy, the mixture of genius and dilettantism of both men shut me up for the moment, and whetted my curiosity. Although his work subsequently won support from John Ruskin, Rossetti only rarely exhibited thereafter, in 1850, Rossetti met Elizabeth Siddal, an important model for the Pre-Raphaelite painters
19.
Knightsbridge
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Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in West London, south of Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international centres in London, alongside the West End. Knightsbridge was a hamlet located primarily in the parish of St Margaret and it also extended into the parishes of Kensington and Chelsea. It was therefore divided between local authorities from an early time. In the time of Edward I, the manor of Knightsbridge appertained to the abbey of Westminster and it was named after a crossing of the River Westbourne, which is now an underground river. It is recorded that the citizens of London met Matilda of England at the Knights Bridge in 1141, the exhibition was very popular, with over 250,000 visitors during its early months. Japanese artisans illustrated the manners, customs, and art-industries of their country, attired in their national, magnificently decorated and illuminated Buddhist temple. Five o’clock tea in the Japanese tea-house, W. S. Gilbert and his wife attended the exhibition, which is said to have inspired him to write The Mikado. When the Mikado requests of Ko-Ko the address of his son after Ko-Ko tells the Mikado that Nanki-Poo has gone abroad, the original bridge was where one of the old roads to the west that crossed the River Westbourne. The allusion may simply be to a place where cnihtas congregated, bridges, however there is possibly a more specific reference to the important cnihtengild in 11th century London and to the limits of its jurisdiction. Cniht in the pre Norman days did not have the meaning of a minor noble. There are however other claims of the origins,1. According to a topographer named Norden, the bridge was known as ‘Stonebridge’ until a knight called Sir Knyvett was attacked while walking across the bridge late at night. The knight managed to better his attackers and ‘slew the master thief with his own hand’ and this tale of Sir Knyvett’s valour supposedly gave a new name to the bridge. A claim that the bridge may have used by wealthy residents. A claim that the area was used as a place for local youths – where ‘knight’ was a slang term for ‘lad’. Even the original name of the area has come under scrutiny with some claiming it was called ‘Knightsbrigg’ while others believe it was ‘Kynesbrigg’, Knightsbridge is east of Exhibition Road and west of Sloane Street. South of this area, the district fades into Chelsea while Belgravia lies to the east, the district also has banks that cater to wealthy individuals
20.
Hyde Park Corner
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Hyde Park Corner is an area of London, located around a major road junction at the southeastern corner of Hyde Park. Six streets converge at the junction, Park Lane, Piccadilly, Constitution Hill, Grosvenor Place, Grosvenor Crescent, Hyde Park Corner tube station, a London Underground station served by the Piccadilly line, is located at the junction, as are a number of notable monuments. Immediately to the north of the junction is Apsley House, the home of the first Duke of Wellington, several monuments to the Duke were erected in the vicinity, both in his lifetime and subsequently. In the mid-nineteenth century, the space that is now the Hyde Park Corner traffic island was not entirely surrounded by roadway, in its centre stands the Wellington Arch, designed by Decimus Burton and planned as a northern gate to the grounds of Buckingham Palace. In execution it was out as a gate into the Green Park, and was originally sited directly opposite Burtons Ionic Screen. Originally, the Arch was topped with a statue of the Duke by Matthew Cotes Wyatt. The Arch was moved south because of congestion, and realigned to the axis of Constitution Hill in 1883. The boundary of Buckingham Palaces garden was moved south, and a new road named Duke of Wellington Place was created, at this time, the large equestrian statue was removed to Aldershot. It was subsequently replaced with work, entitled The Angel of Peace descending on the Quadriga of Victory, dated 1912, by the sculptor Adrian Jones. Following the passage of the Park Lane Improvement Act 1958, Park Lane was widened in the early 1960s and this left Apsley House on an island site. The InterContinental London hotel was built on the cleared site between the new route of Park Lane and Hamilton Place. At part of the scheme, a tunnel was constructed beneath the junction to allow traffic to flow freely between Knightsbridge and Piccadilly. As a result, the area around the Arch became a traffic island, mostly laid to grass, and accessible only by pedestrian underpassess. Subsequent changes to the layout in the 1990s reinstated a route between Hyde Park and the Green Park for pedestrians, cyclists and horseriders using surface-level crossings. The term is often used for Speakers Corner, which is located at the north-eastern corner of Hyde Park. The 1935 film Hyde Park Corner takes its name from the area, Hyde Park Corner was used as a codeword to announce to the government the death of King George VI in 1952
21.
John Ruskin
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John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and his writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin also penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters, the elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society and he also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation. He was hugely influential in the half of the 19th century. After a period of decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability, from the 1850s he championed the Pre-Raphaelites who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues, Unto This Last marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, in 1871, he began his monthly letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain, published under the title Fors Clavigera. In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society, as a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today. Ruskin was the child of first cousins. His father, John James Ruskin, was a sherry and wine importer founding partner and de facto manager of Ruskin, Telford. John James was born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a mother from Glenluce and his wife, Margaret Cox, née Cock, was the daughter of an aunt on the English side of the family and a publican in Croydon. She had joined the Ruskin household when she became companion to John Jamess mother, John James had hoped to practice law, but was instead articled as a clerk in London. His father, John Thomas Ruskin, described as a grocer, was an inadequate businessman, to save the family from bankruptcy, John James, whose prudence and success were in stark contrast to his father, took on all debts, settling the last of them in 1832. John James and Margaret were engaged in 1809, but opposition to the union from John Thomas, Ruskin was born at 54 Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, London, south of St Pancras railway station. His childhood was characterised by the influences of his father and mother. John James Ruskin helped to develop his sons Romanticism and they shared a passion for the works of Byron, Shakespeare and especially Walter Scott
22.
The Seven Lamps of Architecture
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The Seven Lamps of Architecture is an extended essay, first published in May 1849 and written by the English art critic and theorist John Ruskin. The lamps of the title are Ruskins principles of architecture, which he enlarged upon in the three-volume The Stones of Venice. To an extent, they codified some of the thinking behind the Gothic Revival. At the time of its publication A. W. N. Pugin and others had advanced the ideas of the Revival. Ruskin offered little new to the debate, but the book helped to capture and he also argued that no new style was needed to redress this problem, as the appropriate styles already existed. The truest architecture was therefore, the older Gothic of medieval cathedrals, the essay sketched out the principles which Ruskin later expounded upon in the three-volume The Stones of Venice published between 1851 and 1853. Practically, he suggested an honest architecture with no veneers, finishes, hidden support nor machined mouldings, the Seven Lamps was reduced to the status of a moral gloss on Alison by George L. Hersey, in High Victorian Gothic. This contrasts with the thread of modernism that holds that people must be taught to appreciate good design, put it in the drawing-room, not into the workshop, put it on domestic furniture, not upon tools of handicraft. For Ruskin, Beauty was not an inherent characteristic but a thing that could be applied to an object or withheld from it, by 1849, A. W. N. Pugin and others had already advanced the ideas of the Gothic Revival and its popularity was secured. He later went on to disclaim the essay as a wretched rant, the first effect of the book was almost immediate in the influence it had upon William Butterfields All Saints, Margaret Street Church. All Saints is considered the first Ruskinian building due to its use of brick honestly employed as a system rather than for surface decoration. Ruskins writings became a significant influence on William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement in the half of the 19th century. In 1899 Marcel Proust read a translation of Ruskins chapter The Lamp of Memory in a Belgian magazine and he projected the transforming experience onto the narrator of Du côté de chez Swann, who describes himself as a boy reading the piece in the garden at Combray. Later Proust, who translated works of Ruskin, claimed to know The Seven Lamps of Architecture by heart. Seven Lamps of Architecture and other of Ruskins writings on architecture are summarized and extensively quoted in John Unrau, writing in the preface to the first edition Ruskin remarks, Every apology is, however, due to the reader for the hasty and imperfect execution of the plates. I shall be if the reader will in such cases refer the expressions of praise to the Architecture. The following illustrations are from the third edition where the situation had been much improved, the Stones of Venice Writings of A. W. N. Pugin Notes Bibliography Online version at archive. org The Seven Lamps of Architecture public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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Prix de Rome
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The Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them to stay in Rome for three to five years at the expense of the state, the prize was extended to architecture in 1720, music in 1803, and engraving in 1804. The prestigious award was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, the Prix de Rome was initially created for painters and sculptors in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by completing a very difficult elimination contest, the prize, organised by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, was open to their students. From 1666, the winner could win a stay of three to five years at the Palazzo Mancini in Rome at the expense of the King of France. In 1720, the Académie Royale d’Architecture began a prize in architecture, six painters, four sculptors, and two architects would be sent to the French Academy in Rome founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert from 1666. Expanded after 140 years into five categories, the contest started in 1663 as two categories, painting and sculpture, in 1803, music was added, and after 1804 there was a prix for engraving as well. The primary winner took the First Grand Prize and the Second Prizes were awarded to the runners-up, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici with the intention of preserving an institution once threatened by the French Revolution. At first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state, in this way, he hoped to retain for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance. Jacques-Louis David, having failed to win the three years in a row, considered suicide. Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel attempted the Prix de Rome, but did not gain recognition. Ravel tried a total of five times to win the prize, during World War II the prize winners were accommodated in the Villa Paradiso in Nice. The Prix de Rome was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, since then, a number of contests have been created, and the academies, together with the Institut de France, were merged by the State and the Minister of Culture. Selected residents now have an opportunity for study during an 18-month stay at The Academy of France in Rome, the heyday of the Prix de Rome was during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Prix de Rome for Architecture was created in 1720, the engraving prize was created in 1804. A Prix de Rome was also established in the Kingdom of Holland by Lodewijk Napoleon to award young artists and architects, during the years 1807–1810 prize winners were sent to Paris and onwards to Rome for study. Suspended in 1851 it was reinstated in 1870 by William III of the Netherlands, since then the winners have been selected by the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam under the main headings of architecture and the visual arts. The Belgian Prix de Rome is an award for artists, created in 1832
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Gustave Boulanger
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Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger was a French figure painter known for his classical and Orientalist subjects. Boulanger was born at Paris in 1824 and he studied with Delaroche and Jollivet, and in 1849 took the Prix de Rome. His paintings are prime examples of art of the time. Boulanger had visited Italy, Greece, and North Africa, and his paintings reflect his attention to culturally correct details and his works include a Moorish Cafe, Cæsar at the Rubicon, the Promenade in the Street of Tombs, Pompeii, and The Slave Market. The recipient of medals, he became a member of the Institut de France in 1882. Boulanger taught at Académie Julian, among his students were, This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Gilman. Thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds. article name needed
25.
Ivan Aivazovsky
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Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was a Russian Romantic painter. He is considered one of the greatest marine artists in history, baptized as Hovhannes Aivazian, Aivazovsky was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there. Following his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Aivazovsky traveled to Europe and he then returned to Russia and was appointed the main painter of the Russian Navy. Aivazovsky had close ties with the military and political elite of the Russian Empire and he was sponsored by the state and was well-regarded during his lifetime. The saying worthy of Aivazovskys brush, popularized by Anton Chekhov, was used in Russia for describing something ineffably lovely, one of the most prominent Russian artists of his time, Aivazovsky was also popular outside Russia. He held numerous exhibitions in Europe and the United States. During his almost 60-year career, he created around 6,000 paintings, the vast majority of his works are seascapes, but he often depicted battle scenes, Armenian themes, and portraiture. Most of Aivazovskys works are kept in Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian museums as well as private collections, Ivan Aivazovsky was born on 17 July 1817 in the city of Feodosia, Crimea, Russian Empire. In the baptismal records of the local St. Sargis Armenian Church, Aivazovsky was listed as Hovhannes, during his study at the Imperial Academy of Arts, he was known in Russian as Ivan Gaivazovsky. He became known as Aivazovsky since c. He signed a 1844 letter with the version of his name. His father, Konstantin, was an Armenian merchant from the Polish region of Galicia and his family had migrated to Europe from Western Armenia in the 18th century. After numerous familial conflicts, Konstantin left Galicia for Moldavia, later moving to Bukovina and he was initially known as Gevorg Aivazian, but he changed his last name to Gaivazovsky by adding the Polish -sky. Aivazovskys mother, Ripsime, was a Feodosia Armenian, the couple had five children—three daughters and two sons. Aivazovskys elder brother, Gabriel, was a prominent historian and an Armenian Apostolic archbishop, the young Aivazovsky received parochial education at Feodosias St. Sargis Armenian Church. He was taught drawing by Jacob Koch, a local architect, Aivazovsky moved to Simferopol with Taurida Governor Alexander Kaznacheyevs family in 1830 and attended the citys Russian gymnasium. In 1833, Aivazovsky arrived in the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, in 1835, he was awarded with a silver medal and appointed assistant to the French painter Philippe Tanneur. In September 1836, Aivazovsky met Russias national poet Alexander Pushkin during the visit to the Academy. In 1837, Aivazovsky joined the class of Alexander Sauerweid
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Rosa Bonheur
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Rosa Bonheur, born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, was a French artist, an animalière and sculptor, known for her artistic realism. Bonheur is widely considered to be the most famous painter of the nineteenth century. Bonheur was born on 16 March 1822 in Bordeaux, Gironde and her mother was Sophie Bonheur, a piano teacher, she died when Rosa Bonheur was eleven. Her father was Oscar-Raymond Bonheur, a landscape and portrait painter, the Bonheur family adhered to Saint-Simonianism, a Christian-socialist sect that promoted the education of women alongside men. Bonheurs siblings included the animal painters Auguste Bonheur and Juliette Bonheur, francis Galton used the Bonheurs as an example of Hereditary Genius in his 1869 essay of the same title. Bonheur moved to Paris in 1828 at the age of six with her mother and siblings, her father having gone ahead of them to establish a residence and income. By family accounts, she had been a child and had a difficult time learning to read, though even before she could talk she would sketch for hours at a time with pencil. Her mother taught her to read and write by asking her to choose, the artist credits her love of drawing animals to these reading lessons with her mother. At school she was often disruptive, and she was expelled from numerous schools, after a failed apprenticeship with a seamstress at the age of twelve, her father undertook to train her as a painter. Following the traditional art school curriculum of the period, Bonheur began her training by copying images from drawing books, at fourteen, she began to copy paintings at the Louvre. She studied animal anatomy and osteology in the abattoirs of Paris and by dissecting animals at the École nationale vétérinaire dAlfort, there she prepared detailed studies that she later used as references for her paintings and sculptures. During this period, she befriended father-and-son comparative anatomists and zoologists, a French government commission led to Bonheurs first great success, Ploughing in the Nivernais, exhibited in 1849. Her most famous work, the monumental Horse Fair, measured eight feet high by sixteen feet wide and it depicts the horse market held in Paris, on the tree-lined boulevard de l’Hôpital, near the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, which is visible in the paintings background. This work led to fame and recognition, that same year she traveled to Scotland and met Queen Victoria en route. In Scotland, she completed sketches for works including Highland Shepherd, completed in 1859. These pieces depicted a way of life in the Scottish highlands that had disappeared a century earlier, and they had enormous appeal to Victorian sensibilities. Though she was popular in England than in her native France, she was decorated with the French Legion of Honour by the Empress Eugénie in 1865. Art dealer Ernest Gambart represented her, he brought Bonheur to the United Kingdom in 1855, many engravings of Bonheurs work were created from reproductions by Charles George Lewis, one of the finest engravers of the day
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Ploughing in the Nivernais
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Ploughing in the Nivernais, also known as Oxen ploughing in Nevers, is a painting by French artist Rosa Bonheur. Commissioned by the government and winner of a First Medal at the Salon in 1849, today it is held in the Musée dOrsay in Paris. The Nivernais, the area around Nevers, was known for its Charolais cattle, Rosa Bonheur gained a reputation painting animals, and Ploughing in the Nivernais features twelve Charolais oxen, in two groups of six. On a sunny autumn day they plough the land, this is the sombrage, the first stage of preparation in the fall. Humans play a role in the painting—the farmer is almost completely hidden behind his animals. The freshly-ploughed land is prominent in the foreground, while the landscape behind is basking in sunlight, the paintings clarity and light resembles that of the Dutch paintings which Bonheur had studied as part of her education. It is one of the paintings that expresses the Third Republics deep cultural attachment to the soil, according to Claire Keith. Rosa Bonheur made the painting by commission of the French government for 3000 francs, it was shown in the Salon in 1849, where it won her a First Medal. The comparison with Sand is amplified in an article in the July 1899 edition of The Literary Digest, initially intended for the museum in Lyon, it was instead exhibited in the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris and was a featured exhibit at the 1889 World Fair. The painting was moved to the Louvre and afterward to the Musée dOrsay and she made a number of copies, one of which is in the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Rosa Bonheur was claimed by New York Times critic Mary Blume as the most famous painter of her time. Besides The Horse Fair, Ploughing in the Nivernais is one of Bonheurs best-known paintings, an early admirer was Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, who copied the work in the Luxembourg before beginning a long acquaintance with the artist. George du Mauriers 1894 novel Trilby mentions such a scene, of people copying Ploughing in the Nivernais, paul Cézanne was also unimpressed, commenting that it is horribly like the real thing. Mary Blume, in 1997, said the work is more careful than inspired, affectionate but not sentimental, jean OGrady, ed. Diary of a European Tour,1900. Representative Painters of the XIXth Century, london, Sampson Low, Marston and Co. pp. 90–92. Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848–1871, rethinking France, Les Lieux de Mémoire. U of Chicago P. pp. 295–342, the New Art History, A Critical Introduction. Pilgrims in a Toxic Land, Writing the Trenches of the French Great War, the Environment in French and Francophone Literature and Film
28.
Gustave Courbet
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Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and his independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator, Courbets paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects, Courbets subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character, landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes and still lifes. He was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune, Gustave Courbet was born in 1819 to Régis and Sylvie Oudot Courbet in Ornans. Being a prosperous farming family, anti-monarchical feelings prevailed in the household, Courbets sisters, Zoé, Zélie and Juliette, were his first models for drawing and painting. After moving to Paris he often returned home to Ornans to hunt, fish and he went to Paris in 1839 and worked at the studio of Steuben and Hesse. An independent spirit, he left, preferring to develop his own style by studying the paintings of Spanish, Flemish and French masters in the Louvre. Among his paintings of the early 1840s are several self-portraits, Romantic in conception, trips to the Netherlands and Belgium in 1846–47 strengthened Courbets belief that painters should portray the life around them, as Rembrandt, Hals and other Dutch masters had. By 1848, he had gained supporters among the younger critics, Courbet achieved his first Salon success in 1849 with his painting After Dinner at Ornans. The work, reminiscent of Chardin and Le Nain, earned Courbet a gold medal and was purchased by the state, the gold medal meant that his works would no longer require jury approval for exhibition at the Salon—an exemption Courbet enjoyed until 1857. In 1849-50, Courbet painted Stone-Breakers, which Proudhon admired as an icon of peasant life, the painting was inspired by a scene Courbet witnessed on the roadside. He later explained to Champfleury and the writer Francis Wey, It is not often that one encounters so complete an expression of poverty and so, right then, I told them to come to my studio the next morning. Courbets work belonged neither to the predominant Romantic nor Neoclassical schools, instead, he maintained that the only possible source for living art is the artists own experience. He and Jean-Francois Millet would find inspiration painting the life of peasants, Courbet painted figurative compositions, landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes. He courted controversy by addressing issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar, such as the rural bourgeoisie, peasants. His work, along with that of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet and he depicted the harshness in life, and in so doing challenged contemporary academic ideas of art. The Salon of 1850–1851 found him triumphant with The Stone Breakers, the Burial, one of Courbets most important works, records the funeral of his grand uncle which he attended in September 1848
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Asher Brown Durand
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Asher Brown Durand was an American painter of the Hudson River School. Durand was born in and eventually died in Maplewood, New Jersey, the eighth of eleven children, his father was a watchmaker and a silversmith. Durand was apprenticed to an engraver from 1812 to 1817 and later entered into a partnership with the owner of the company and he engraved Declaration of Independence for John Trumbull during 1823, which established Durands reputation as one of the countrys finest engravers. Durand helped organize the New York Drawing Association during 1825, which would become the National Academy of Design, ashers engravings on bank notes were used as the portraits for Americas first postage stamps, the 1847 series. Along with his brother Cyrus he also engraved some of the succeeding 1851 issues and his main interest changed from engraving to oil painting about 1830 with the encouragement of his patron, Luman Reed. During 1837, he accompanied his friend Thomas Cole on an expedition to Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks Mountains. Durand is remembered particularly for his portrayals of trees, rocks. He was an advocate for drawing directly from nature with as much realism as possible. Durand wrote, Let scrupulously accept whatever presents him until he shall, like other Hudson River School artists, Durand also believed that nature was an ineffable manifestation of God. He expressed this sentiment and his opinions on art in his essay Letters on Landscape Painting in The Crayon. Wrote Durand, he true province of Landscape Art is the representation of the work of God in the visible creation, Durand is noted for his 1849 painting Kindred Spirits which shows fellow Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant in a Catskills Mountains landscape. This was painted as a tribute to Cole upon Coles death during 1848, at $35 million, however, it would be a record price paid for an American painting at the time. Another of Durands painting is his Progress, commissioned by a railroad executive, the landscape depicts Americas progress, from a state of nature, towards the right, where there are roads, telegraph wires, a canal, warehouses, railroads, and steamboats. During 2007, the Brooklyn Museum exhibited nearly sixty of Durands works in the first monographic exhibition devoted to the painter in more than thirty-five years, the show, entitled Kindred Spirits, Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape, was exhibited from March 30 to July 29,2007, Durand is interred in Brooklyn, New York, in Green-Wood Cemetery. List of Hudson River School artists Books Howat, John K, American Paradise, The World of the Hudson River School. New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Anatomy of Nature, Geology & American Landscape Painting, 1825-1875. The Life and Times of Asher B, hensonville, NY, Black Dome Press Corp
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Kindred Spirits (painting)
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The Kindred Spirits is a painting by Asher Brown Durand, a member of the Hudson River School of painters. It depicts the painter Thomas Cole, who had died in 1848, and his friend, the landscape painting, which combines geographical features in Kaaterskill Clove and a minuscule depiction of Kaaterskill Falls, is not a literal depiction of American geography. Rather, it is a memory of Coles discovery of the region more than twenty years prior, his friendship with Bryant. The painting was commissioned by New York art collector and advocate Jonathan Sturges as a gift to Bryant who in May 1848 had presented a eulogy for the painter Cole. I hope that you accept the picture from me as a token of gratitude for the labor of love performed on that occasion. — Letter from Sturges to William Cullen Bryant Within days of receiving the painting, Bryant wrote thank you notes to both Sturges and Durand expressing his praise for the work. ”He continued on to state that “the painting seems to me in your best manner, which is the highest praise. ”According to Bryant, visitors to his home admired the painting too. “Every body admires it greatly, he wrote, and places it high as a work of art. ”A few weeks after the painting was delivered to Bryant, while there it received high praise in the press and periodicals. By then it was known as, Kindred Spirits, an inspired by John Keats Sonnet to Solitude. In 1904, Bryants daughter Julia donated the painting to the New York Public Library, in 2005, it was sold at auction to Walmart heiress Alice Walton for $35 million, a record for a painting by an American artist. The Library was criticized for jettisoning part of the cultural patrimony. The painting was on display at the National Gallery of Art between 2005 and 2007, currently, the painting is held in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. At its heart, Kindred Spirits is a memory piece, Durand, a friend of both Cole and Bryant, depicted his friends in their companionate stance in a location they both expressed in their creative pieces. Cole would depict the area beginning in 1826 with his painting Kaaterskill Falls and the area soon became an icon of the burgeoning American landscape painting. Bryant, poet and newspaper editor, would capture the Kaaterskill in his poem “Caaterskill Falls. ”Combining two locations, Kaaterskill Falls and the Clove, in an idealized format the painting illustrates the idea of communing with Nature. As kindred spirits, Cole and Bryant both shared a passion for the American landscape. In the summer of 1840, Bryant explored the Kaaterskill area of the Catskills with Cole. ”— Essay on American Scenery Durand included the names of these kindred spirits within the landscape itself by carving in paint their names into the tree on the left side of the painting. Today, Kindred Spirits has come to both the Hudson River School and its eras culture. Conceived as a piece for Cole, Kindred Spirits may now be said to be a visual memory of the era in which it was created
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John O'Connor (painter)
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John OConnor was an Irish painter. Born in 1830, the son of Francis O’Connor and his wife, Rose Cunningham of Bath. His uncle, a lessee of the Belfast and Liverpool theaters, provided him with work as a call-boy and he married Ann Butler Fairburn on 30 Dec 1851 at St John the Evangelist in Upper Holloway, and they had 2 boys, Francis and John Peter. Unfortunately Ann died on 17 Jul 1860 at their home 6 Waverly Place, John then married Anns half sister Ellen Fairburn on 9 Jan 1862 at Islington Parish Church, and they had 2 sons, Henry and Joseph William. His grandson Terence George, by his son John Peter, married Angela Mary OConnor - the sister of Daisy Ashford - the young author of the famous book The Young Visitors. 1888 saw John OConnors health start to fail through heart disease and he was survived by his wife Ellen who herself died in 1931 at Edmonton, Middlesex. Having become a proficient painter OConnor found employment in 1848 at Drury Lane, in 1879 he was invited by Richard DOyly Carte to provide the London settings for a new Gilbert and Sullivan opera, The Pirates of Penzance. The settings were so admired that OConnor was asked to be scenic designer for the next Gilbert & Sullivan production of Patience. He began to exhibit at the Society of British Artists in 1854, OConnor at Artnet OConnor Biography at Whistler
