1.
Ghent
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Ghent is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province and it is a port and university city. With 240,191 inhabitants in the beginning of 2009, Ghent is Belgiums second largest municipality by number of inhabitants, the current mayor of Ghent, Daniël Termont, leads a coalition of the Socialistische Partij Anders, Groen and Open VLD. The ten-day-long Ghent Festival is held every year and attended by about 1–1.5 million visitors, archaeological evidence shows human presence in the region of the confluence of Scheldt and Leie going back as far as the Stone Age and the Iron Age. Most historians believe that the name for Ghent, Ganda, is derived from the Celtic word ganda which means confluence. Other sources connect its name with a deity named Gontia. There are no records of the Roman period, but archaeological research confirms that the region of Ghent was further inhabited. When the Franks invaded the Roman territories from the end of the 4th century and well into the 5th century, they brought their language with them and Celtic, around 650, Saint Amand founded two abbeys in Ghent, St. Peters and Saint Bavos Abbey. The city grew from several nuclei, the abbeys and a commercial centre, around 800, Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, appointed Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, as abbot of both abbeys. In 851 and 879, the city was attacked and plundered twice by the Vikings. Within the protection of the County of Flanders, the city recovered and flourished from the 11th century, by the 13th century, Ghent was the biggest city in Europe north of the Alps after Paris, it was bigger than Cologne or Moscow. Within the city walls lived up to 65,000 people, the belfry and the towers of the Saint Bavo Cathedral and Saint Nicholas Church are just a few examples of the skyline of the period. The rivers flowed in an area where land was periodically flooded. These rich grass meersen were ideally suited for herding sheep, the wool of which was used for making cloth, during the Middle Ages Ghent was the leading city for cloth. The wool industry, originally established at Bruges, created the first European industrialized zone in Ghent in the High Middle Ages, the mercantile zone was so highly developed that wool had to be imported from Scotland and England. This was one of the reasons for Flanders good relationship with Scotland and England, Ghent was the birthplace of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Trade with England suffered significantly during the Hundred Years War, the city recovered in the 15th century, when Flanders was united with neighbouring provinces under the Dukes of Burgundy. High taxes led to a rebellion and eventually the Battle of Gavere in 1453, around this time the centre of political and social importance in the Low Countries started to shift from Flanders to Brabant, although Ghent continued to play an important role
2.
Var (department)
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The Var is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region in Provence in southeastern France. It takes its name from the river Var, which used to flow along its eastern boundary, Toulon is the largest city and administrative capital of the Var. Other important towns in the Var include Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël, Draguignan, Brignoles, Hyères, the Department of the Var was created at the time of the French Revolution, on March 4,1790, from a portion of the former Royal province of Provence. Its capital was originally Toulon, but this was moved to Grasse in 1793 to punish the Toulonnais for having handed the town to the British in 1793, subsequently the capital was moved to Brignoles in 1795, then to Draguignan in 1797. It was not returned to Toulon until 1974,1815 - Following the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo the department was occupied by Austrian troops until November 1818. 1854 – The first railroad reaches Toulon and this move also shifted the Var River, which had given the department its name, to the new Department. 1884 – A cholera epidemic struck Toulon, the leader of the fight against the epidemic was Georges Clemenceau, a doctor and a member of the National Assembly for the Seine region. He was elected Deputy from the Var from 1888 to 1893 and Senator from 1902 to 1920, 1914–1918 – The First World War stimulates growth in shipyards and military industries in the region, but weakens the agricultural and food industry. 1942 – The German Army moves from Occupied France into the Unoccupied Zone, the French Fleet is sabotaged in Toulon Harbor to keep it from falling into German hands. The Maquis Vallier, a group of resistance fighters, is active. August 15,1944 – American and Free French forces land at Cap Nègre, at Trayas, at Saint-Tropez, at Sainte-Maxime, the Free French fleet arrived at Toulon on September 13. 1960s – About one hundred thousand French citizens were repatriated from Algeria following the Algerian War of Independence, the Department of the Var has a surface area of 6,032 km2, and 420 km of coastline, including the offshore islands. 56% of the Var is covered with forest and its geological formations are divided into two regions, one composed of limestone to the north-west of a line between Toulon and Draguignan, and of crystalline rock to the south-east. The department is in the foothills of the Alps and is largely mountainous, the major mountains include, Massif des Maures and Massif de lEsterel, along the coast, are made of quartz rock. The Sainte-Baume mountain ridge, which lies in the west, mountain of Lachens, in the northwest of the department, and the highest point in the Var. The Plateau of Canjuers is located in the northeast of the Var, in the south and west there are several plateaus, such as the plateau of Siou Blanc to the north of Toulon, which rise from 400 to 700 metres in altitude. The Canyon du Verdon, the gorges of the Verdon River, is a place for hikers, kayakers. The Îles dHyères is a group of three islands off Hyères The islands are named Porquerolles, Port-Cros, and Île du Levant, together, they make up an area of 26 km2
3.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
4.
Neo-impressionism
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Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Around this time, the peak of France’s modern era emerged, followers of Neo-Impressionism, in particular, were drawn to modern urban scenes as well as landscapes and seashores. Science-based interpretation of lines and colors influenced Neo-Impressionists characterization of their own contemporary art, the Pointillist and Divisionist techniques are often mentioned in this context, because it was the dominant technique in the beginning of the Neo-impressionist movement. Some argue that Neo-Impressionism became the first true movement in painting. The Neo-Impressionists were able to create a movement very quickly in the 19th century, partially due to its connection to anarchism. The movement and the style were an attempt to drive harmonious vision from modern science, anarchist theory, during the emergence of Neo-Impressionism, Seurat and his followers strove to refine the impulsive and intuitive artistic mannerisms of Impressionism. Neo-impressionists used disciplined networks of dots and blocks of color in their desire to instill a sense of organization, in further defining the movement, Seurat incorporated the recent explanation of optic and color perceptions. The development of theory by Michel Eugène Chevreul and others by the late 19th century played a pivotal role in shaping the Neo-Impressionist style. Ogden Rood’s book, Modern Chromatics, with Applications to Art and Industry, acknowledged the different behaviors exhibited by colored light, while the mixture of the former created a white or gray color, that of the latter produced a dark, murky color. As painters, Neo-Impressionists had to deal with colored pigments, so to avoid the dullness, mixing of colors was not necessary. There are a number of alternatives to the term Neo-Impressionism and each has its own nuance and it emphasized the studies of color and light which were central to his artistic style. This term is used today. Divisionism, which is commonly used, is used to describe a mode of Neo-Impressionist painting. It refers to the method of applying individual strokes of complementary, unlike other designations of this era, the term Neo-Impressionism was not given as a criticism. Instead, it embraces Seurats and his followers ideals in their approach to art, note, Pointillism merely describes a later technique based on divisionism in which dots of color instead of blocks of color are applied. Neo-Impressionism was first presented to the public in 1886 at the Salon des Indépendants, the Indépendants remained their main exhibition space for decades with Signac acting as president of the association. But with the success of Neo-Impressionism, its fame spread quickly, in 1886, Seurat and Signac were invited to exhibit in the 8th and final Impressionist exhibition, later with Les XX and La Libre Esthétique in Brussels. In 1892, a group of Neo-Impressionist painters united to show their works in Paris, in the Salons of the Hôtel Brébant,32, the following year they exhibited at 20, rue Laffitte
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Painting
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Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture, composition, narration, or abstraction, among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive, Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, emotive, or political in nature. A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by motifs and ideas. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action, the term painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity, every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shades between. In practice, painters can articulate shapes by juxtaposing surfaces of different intensity, thus, the basic means of painting are distinct from ideological means, such as geometrical figures, various points of view and organization, and symbols. In technical drawing, thickness of line is ideal, demarcating ideal outlines of an object within a perceptual frame different from the one used by painters. Color and tone are the essence of painting as pitch and rhythm are the essence of music, color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, and Newton, have written their own color theory. Moreover, the use of language is only an abstraction for a color equivalent, the word red, for example, can cover a wide range of variations from the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. There is not a register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic, painters deal practically with pigments, so blue for a painter can be any of the blues, phthalocyanine blue, Prussian blue, indigo, cobalt, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not, strictly speaking, colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this, the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music is analogous to light in painting, shades to dynamics and these elements do not necessarily form a melody of themselves, rather, they can add different contexts to it. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example, collage, some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet and Anselm Kiefer, there is a growing community of artists who use computers to paint color onto a digital canvas using programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required, rhythm is important in painting as it is in music
6.
Asturia
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Asturias, officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous community in north-west Spain. It is coextensive with the province of Asturias, and contains some of the territory that was part of the larger Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages. The most important cities are the capital, Oviedo, the seaport and largest city Gijón. Other municipalities in Asturias include Cangas de Onís, Cangas del Narcea, Gozón, Grado, Langreo, Llanera, Laviana, Lena, Llanes, Mieres, Siero, Valdés, Vegadeo, Asturias is also home to the Princess of Asturias Awards. In the Mesolithic period, a culture developed, that of the Asturiense. Today the Astur Celtic influence persists in place names, such as those of rivers, with the conquest of Asturias by the Romans under Augustus, the region entered into the annals of history. The Astures were subdued by the Romans but were never fully conquered, however, as it had been for the Romans and Visigoths, the Moors did not find mountainous territory easy to conquer, and the lands along Spains northern coast never fully became part of Islamic Spain. In the 10th century, the Kingdom of Asturias gave way to the Kingdom of León, through the rebellion of Henry II of Castile in the 14th century, the Principality of Asturias was established. The most famous proponents of independence were Gonzalo Peláez and Queen Urraca, after its integration into the Kingdom of Spain, Asturias provided the Spanish court with high-ranking aristocrats and played an important role in the colonization of America. Since 1388, the heir to the Castilian throne has been styled Prince of Asturias, in the 16th century, the population reached 100,000 for the first time, and within another century that number would double due to the arrival of American corn. During the 18th century, Asturias was one of the centres of the Spanish Enlightenment, the renowned Galician thinker Benito de Feijóo settled in the Benedictine Monastery of San Vicente de Oviedo. Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, a polymath and prominent reformer and politician of the late 18th century, was born in the town of Gijón. At the same time, there was significant migration to America and these entrepreneurs were known collectively as Indianos, for having visited and made their fortunes in the West Indies and beyond. Asturias played an important part in the events led up to the Spanish Civil War. For a month, a Popular Front Committee exercised control in southern Asturias, a war committee dominated by anarcho-syndicalist supporters took power in Oviedo. Troops under the command of a then unknown general named Francisco Franco Bahamonde were brought from Spanish Morocco to suppress the revolt, Franco applied tactics normally reserved for overseas colonies, using troops of the Spanish Legion and Moroccan troops, ferocious oppression followed. As a result, Asturias remained loyal to the government during the Spanish Civil War, and was the scene of an extraordinary defence in extreme terrain. With Franco eventually gaining control of all Spain, Asturias — traditionally linked to the Spanish Crown — was known merely as the Province of Oviedo from 1939 until Francos death in 1975, the provinces name was restored fully after the return of democracy to Spain, in 1977
7.
Museo del Prado
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The Prado Museum is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819, it contains important collections of other types of works. El Prado is one of the most visited sites in the world, and it is considered one of the greatest art museums in the world. The collection currently comprises around 8,200 drawings,7,600 paintings,4,800 prints, and 1,000 sculptures, in addition to a large number of other works of art and historic documents. As of 2012, the museum displayed about 1,300 works in the buildings, while around 3,100 works were on temporary loan to various museums. The museum received 2.8 million visitors in 2012 and it is one of the largest museums in Spain. The best-known work on display at the museum is Las Meninas by Velázquez, Velázquez and his keen eye and sensibility were also responsible for bringing much of the museums fine collection of Italian masters to Spain, now the largest outside of Italy. The museum is planning a 16% extension in the nearby Salón de Reinos and their efforts and determination led to the Royal Collection being enriched by some of the masterpieces now to be seen in the Prado. In addition to works from the Spanish royal collection, other holdings increased and enriched the Museum with further masterpieces, such as the two Majas by Goya. Among the now closed museums whose collections have been added to that of the Prado were the Museo del la Trinidad in 1872, in addition, numerous legacies, donations and purchases have been of crucial importance for the growth of the collection. Upon the deposition of Isabella II in 1868, the museum was nationalized and acquired the new name of Museo del Prado, the building housed the royal collection of arts, and it rapidly proved too small. The first enlargement to the museum took place in 1918, particularly important donations include Barón Emile dErlangers gift of Goyas Black Paintings in 1881. Between 1873 and 1900, the Prado helped decorate city halls, new universities, during the Second Spanish Republic from 1931 to 1936, the focus was on building up provincial museums. The art had to be returned across French territory in night trains to the museum upon the commencement of World War II, during the early years of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, many paintings were sent to embassies. The main building was enlarged with short pavilions in the rear between 1900 and 1960, in 1993, an extension proposed by the Prados director at the time, Felipe Garin, was quickly abandoned after a wave of criticism. In the late 1990s, a $14 million roof work forced the Velázquez masterpiece Las Meninas to change galleries twice, in 1998, the Prado annex in the nearby Casón del Buen Retiro closed for a $10 million two-year overhaul that included three new underground levels. In 2007, the finally executed Rafael Moneos project to expand its exposition room to 16,000 square meters. A glass-roofed and wedge-shaped foyer now contains the shops and cafeteria
8.
Seville
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Seville is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville, Spain. It is situated on the plain of the river Guadalquivir, the inhabitants of the city are known as sevillanos or hispalenses, after the Roman name of the city, Hispalis. Its Old Town, with an area of 4 square kilometres, the Seville harbour, located about 80 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, is the only river port in Spain. Seville is also the hottest major metropolitan area in the geographical Western Europe, Seville was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis. It later became known as Ishbiliya after the Muslim conquest in 712, in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan departed from Seville for the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Spal is the oldest known name for Seville and it appears to have originated during the Phoenician colonisation of the Tartessian culture in south-western Iberia and, according to Manuel Pellicer Catalán, meant lowland in the Phoenician language. During Roman rule, the name was Latinised as Hispalis, nO8DO is the official motto of Seville. It is popularly believed to be a rebus signifying the Spanish No me ha dejado, meaning It has not abandoned me, the eight in the middle represents a madeja, or skein of wool. The emblem is present on the flag and features on city property such as manhole covers. Seville is approximately 2,200 years old, the passage of the various civilisations instrumental in its growth has left the city with a distinct personality, and a large and well-preserved historical centre. The city was known from Roman times as Hispalis, important archaeological remains also exist in the nearby towns of Santiponce and Carmona. The walls surrounding the city were built during the rule of Julius Caesar. Following Roman rule, there were successive conquests of the Roman province of Hispania Baetica by the Vandals, the Suebi, Seville was taken by the Moors, Muslims from North of Africa, during the conquest of Hispalis in 712. It was the capital for the kings of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Moorish urban influences continued and are present in contemporary Seville, for instance in the custom of decorating with herbaje and small fountains the courtyards of the houses. However, most buildings of the Moorish aesthetic actually belong to the Mudéjar style of Islamic art, developed under Christian rule and inspired by the Arabic style. Original Moorish buildings are the Patio del Yeso in the Alcázar, the city walls, in 1247, the Christian King Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon began the conquest of Andalusia. The decisive action took place in May 1248 when Ramon Bonifaz sailed up the Guadalquivir, the city surrendered on 23 November 1248. The citys development continued after the Castilian conquest in 1248, Public buildings constructed including churches, many of which were built in the Mudéjar style, and the Seville Cathedral, built during the 15th century with Gothic architecture
9.
Constantin Meunier
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Constantin Meunier was a Belgian painter and sculptor. He made an important contribution to the development of art by elevating the image of the industrial worker, docker and miner to an icon of modernity. His work is a reflection of the industrial, social and political developments of his day and represents a compassionate and committed view of man, constantin Meunier was born in the traditionally working-class area of Etterbeek in Brussels. He was encouraged to pursue a career by his elder brother. He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in September 1845 and he studied under the sculptor Louis Jehotte from 1848. He also attended from 1852 the private studio of the sculptor Charles-Auguste Fraikin and his first exhibit was a plaster sketch, The Garland, shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. Soon afterwards, on the advice of the painter Charles de Groux, on his return to Belgium he was appointed professor at the Louvain Academy of Fine Arts. He was one of the co-founders of the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts of Brussels and was a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers and he was a freemason, and a member of the lodge Les Amis Philanthropes of the Grand Orient of Belgium in Brussels. Meunier died in Brussels on 4 April 1905, paintings Sculptures In 1939, the Musée Constantin-Meunier dedicated to his work was opened in the last house in which Meunier lived and worked, in Ixelles, Brussels. Today about 150 of his works are displayed there, M - Museum Leuven also holds a number of important works by Meunier. Saemann This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. P. & V. Berko, Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 &1875, Knokke 1981, pp. 466–467
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Kasbah
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A kasbah, or in older English casbah, and qasbah or qassabah in India, is a type of medina, or fortress. It was a place for the leader to live and a defense when a city was under attack. A kasbah has high walls, usually without windows, sometimes, they were built on hilltops so that they could be more easily defended. Some were placed near the entrance to harbors, having a kasbah built was a sign of wealth of some families in the city. When colonization started in 1830, in northern Algeria, there were a number of kasbahs that lasted for more than 100 years. The word kasbah may also be used to describe the old part of a city, the Spanish word alcazaba is a cognate naming the equivalent building in Andalusia or Moorish Spain. In Portuguese, it evolved into the word alcáçova, in Catalan, the evolution resulted in alcassaba. In Turkish and Urdu the word refers to a settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city, in short. In Serbo-Croatian, kasaba means an undeveloped, provincial small town, in India, a qasbah is a small town distinguished by the presence of Muslim families of rank. Bab Ksiba Kasbah of the Udayas, in Rabat, Morocco Casbah of Algiers, Algeria Kasbah of Béja, Tunisia Battle of Port Lyautey Alcazaba Rock the Casbah The Casbah Coffee Club Ksar
11.
Souk
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A souq or souk is a marketplace or commercial quarter in Western Asian and North African cities. Suq, and sometimes monti, is used for a marketplace in Malta. The equivalent Persian term is bazaar, the spelling souk entered European languages probably through French during the French occupation of the Arab countries Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia in the 19th and 20th centuries. Thus, the word souk most likely refers to Arabic/North African traditional markets, in Modern Standard Arabic the term al-sooq refers to markets in both the physical sense and the abstract economic sense. As in markets generally, prices are set by bargaining between buyers and sellers. The term is used to designate the market in any Western Asian city. A souq was originally an open-air marketplace, historically, souqs were held outside cities at locations where incoming caravans stopped and merchants displayed their goods for sale. Souqs were formed whenever a caravan or caravans arrived, since this might be infrequent, souqs often extended beyond buying and selling goods to include major festivals involving various cultural and social activities. Any souq may serve a function as being a place for people to meet in, in addition to its commercial function. Later, due to the importance of marketplaces and the growth of cities, in tribal areas, neutrality from tribal conflicts was usually declared for the period of operation of a souk to permit the unhampered exchange of surplus goods. Souks A seasonal souq is held at a set time that might be yearly, monthly or weekly, the oldest souqs were set up annually, and were typically general festivals held outside cities. For example, Souq Ukadh was held yearly in pre-Islamic times in an area between Mecca and Ta’if during the month of Dhu al-Qidah. While a busy market, it was famous for its poetry competitions, judged by prominent poets such as Al-Khansa. An example of an Islamic annual souq is Al Mirbid just outside Basra, changes in political, economic and social styles have left only the small seasonal souqs outside villages and small towns, primarily selling livestock and agricultural products. Weekly markets have continued to function throughout the Arab world, most of them are named from the day of the week on which they are held. They usually have open spaces specifically designated for their use inside cities and these are more common but less famous as they focus on commercial activity, not entertainment. During the Umayyad era the governments started leasing, and then selling, merchants then built shops on their sites to store their goods at night. Finally, the area comprising a souq might be roofed over, with its long and narrow alleys, al-Madina Souq is the largest covered historic market in the world, with an approximate length of 13 kilometers
12.
Emile Verhaeren
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Emile Verhaeren was a Belgian poet who wrote in the French language, and one of the chief founders of the school of Symbolism. He was born in a Flemish French-speaking, middle-class family in Sint-Amands, nevertheless Emile Verhaeren also spoke the local dialect. At the age of eleven, he was sent to a boarding school in Ghent run by Jesuits, the Jesuit College of Sainte Barbe. He then went to law at the University of Leuven. Here he produced his first literary efforts in a student paper, during those years, he became acquainted with like-minded students. They later became his collaborators on the revolutionary artistic magazine La Jeune Belgique, having gained his law degree, he became a trainee with Edmond Picard, a renowned criminal lawyer, who also played a pivotal role on the Brussels artistic scene. Emile Verhaeren came in frequent contact with young, radical writers and he tried only two cases in a courtroom before deciding to dedicate his life to poetry and literature. He soon became the spokesperson for the revival at the turn of the century. His articles brought many promising young talents, such as James Ensor, through these articles, he became a lifelong friend of the Neo-impressionist Belgian painter Théo van Rysselberghe, resulting in a vast body of letters. He was one of the most prolific poets of his era and his first collection of poems, Les Flamandes, was published in 1883. Inspired by the paintings of Jacob Jordaens, David Teniers and Jan Steen, Verhaeren described in a direct and often provocative, naturalistic way his country and it was an immediate success in avant-garde milieus, but caused a great deal of controversy in Catholic circles. His next book, Les Moines, was not the success he had hoped for and this, and his health problems, led to a deep crisis. In this period he published Les Soirs, Les Débâcles and Les Flambeaux noirs, on 24 August 1891 he married Marthe Massin, a talented artist from Liège. His new-found happiness found expression in three books, Les Heures Claires, Les Heures dAprès-midi and Les Heures du Soir. His later poems include Les Rythmes souverains, Les Villes à pignons and he wrote his first play, Les Aubes, in 1898. Here he waged a fight against social injustice and the decline of life in the countryside, in 1912, he produced a tragedy, Hélène de Sparte, which was performed in German and Russian, besides French. In 1898 he moved to Saint-Cloud, near Paris, by the turn of the century, he had become world-famous. His works were translated more than twenty languages
13.
Haarlem
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Haarlem is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland and is situated at the edge of the Randstad. Haarlem had a population of 155,758 in 2014 and it is a 15-minute train ride from Amsterdam, and many residents commute to the countrys capital for work. Haarlem was granted city status or stadsrechten in 1245, although the first city walls were not built until 1270, the modern city encompasses the former municipality of Schoten as well as parts that previously belonged to Bloemendaal and Heemstede. Apart from the city, the municipality of Haarlem also includes the part of the village of Spaarndam. Newer sections of Spaarndam lie within the municipality of Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude. The city is located on the river Spaarne, about 20 km west of Amsterdam and it has been the historical centre of the tulip bulb-growing district for centuries and bears the nickname Bloemenstad, for this reason. Haarlem has a history dating back to pre-medieval times, as it lies on a thin strip of land above sea level known as the strandwal. The people on this strip of land struggled against the waters of the North Sea from the west, and the waters of the IJ. Haarlem became wealthy with toll revenues that it collected from ships, however, as shipping became increasingly important economically, the city of Amsterdam became the main Dutch city of North Holland during the Dutch Golden Age. The town of Halfweg became a suburb, and Haarlem became a bedroom community. Nowadays many of them are on the Dutch Heritage register known as Rijksmonuments, the list of Rijksmonuments in Haarlem gives an overview of these per neighbourhood, with the majority in the old city centre. The oldest mentioning of Haarlem dates from the 10th century, the name probably comes from Haarlo-heim. This name is composed of three elements, haar, lo and heim, there is not much dispute about the meaning of lo and heim, in Old Dutch toponyms lo always refers to forest and heim to home or house. Haar, however, has several meanings, one of them corresponding with the location of Haarlem on a sand dune, the name Haarlem or Haarloheim would therefore mean home on a forested dune. There was a stream called De Beek, dug from the peat grounds west of the river Spaarne as a drainage canal, over the centuries the Beek was turned into an underground canal, as the city grew larger and the space was needed for construction. Over time it began to silt up and in the 19th century it was filled in, the location of the village was a good one, by the river Spaarne, and by a major road going south to north. By the 12th century it was a town, and Haarlem became the residence of the Counts of Holland
14.
Frans Hals
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Frans Hals the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter who lived and worked in Haarlem. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and he helped introduce this style of painting into Dutch art. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group portraiture, Hals was born in 1582 or 1583 in Antwerp as the son of cloth merchant Franchois Fransz Hals van Mechelen and his second wife Adriaentje van Geertenryck. Like many, Hals parents fled during the Fall of Antwerp from the Spanish Netherlands to Haarlem, Hals studied under Flemish émigré Karel van Mander, whose Mannerist influence, however, is barely noticeable in Hals work. In 1610, Hals became a member of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke and he worked on their large art collection that Karel van Mander had described in his Schilderboeck published in Haarlem in 1604. The most notable of these were the works of Geertgen tot Sint Jans, Jan van Scorel, however, the entire collection of paintings was not formally possessed by the city council until 1625, after the city fathers had decided which paintings were suitable for the city hall. The remaining art that was considered too Roman Catholic was sold to Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen and it was in this cultural context that Hals began his career in portraiture, since the market had disappeared for religious themes. The earliest known example of Hals art is the portrait of Jacobus Zaffius and his breakthrough came with the life-sized group portrait The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616. His most noted portrait today is the one of René Descartes which he made in 1649, Frans Hals married his first wife Anneke Harmensdochter around 1610. Frans was of Catholic birth, however, so their marriage was recorded in the city hall, unfortunately, the exact date is unknown because the older marriage records of the Haarlem city hall before 1688 have not been preserved. Bavochurch where both are buried, though Frans took over 40 years to join his first wife there, Anneke died in 1615, shortly after the birth of their third child and, of the three, Harmen survived infancy and one had died before Hals second marriage. As biographer Seymour Slive has pointed out, older stories of Frans Hals abusing his first wife were confused with another Haarlem resident of the same name. Indeed, at the time of charges, the artist had no wife to mistreat. After his first wife died, Hals took on the daughter of a fishmonger to look after his children and, in 1617. They married in Spaarndam, a village outside the banns of Haarlem. Frans Hals was a father, and they went on to have eight children. Contemporaries such as Rembrandt moved their households according to the caprices of their patrons, for this reason, we can be sure that all sitters were either from Haarlem or were visiting Haarlem when they had their portraits made. Hals work was in throughout his life, but he lived so long that he eventually went out of style as a painter
15.
William Merritt Chase
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William Merritt Chase was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design. William Merritt Chase was born on November 1,1849, in Williamsburg, Indiana, to the family of Sarah Swain and David H. Chase, Chases father moved the family to Indianapolis in 1861, and employed his son as a salesman in the family business. Chase showed an early interest in art, and studied under local, self-taught artists Barton S. Hays, after a brief stint in the Navy, Chases teachers urged him to travel to New York to further his artistic training. In 1870, declining family fortunes forced Chase to leave New York for St. Louis, Missouri, while he worked to help support his family he became active in the St. Louis art community, winning prizes for his paintings at a local exhibition. He also exhibited his first painting at the National Academy in 1871 and he studied under Alexander von Wagner and Karl von Piloty, and befriended American artists Walter Shirlaw, Frank Duveneck, and J Frank Currier. In Munich, Chase employed his rapidly burgeoning talent most often in figurative works that he painted in the loosely brushed style popular with his instructors, home in America, he exhibited his painting Ready for the Ride with the newly formed Society of American Artists in 1878. He also opened a studio in New York in the Tenth Street Studio Building and he was a member of the Tilers, a group of artists and authors, among whom were some of his notable friends, Winslow Homer, Arthur Quartley and Augustus Saint Gaudens. In 1881, friend and artist William Preston Phelps travelled back to Europe to team up with Chase to go on a tour of Italy, Venice. Chase cultivated multiple personae, sophisticated cosmopolitan, devoted family man, Chase married Alice Gerson in 1887 and together they raised eight children during Chases most energetic artistic period. His eldest daughters, Alice Dieudonnee Chase and Dorothy Bremond Chase, in New York City, however, Chase became known for his flamboyance, especially in his dress, his manners, and most of all in his studio. At Tenth Street, Chase had moved into Albert Bierstadts old studio and had decorated it as an extension of his own art, Chase filled the studio with lavish furniture, decorative objects, stuffed birds, oriental carpets, and exotic musical instruments. The studio served as a point for the sophisticated and fashionable members of the New York City art world of the late 19th century. By 1895 the cost of maintaining the studio, in addition to his residences, forced Chase to close it. In addition to his painting, Chase actively developed an interest in teaching, initially he took on private pupils, among his first being Dora Wheeler, a student from 1879 to 1881 who became a professional artist and a lifelong friend. Later, somewhat against his will, he was persuaded to take charge of an art-school at Shinnecock Hills, “ At the instigation of Mrs. William Hoyt, Chase opened the Shinnecock Hills Summer School on eastern Long Island, New York in 1891. Chase adopted the plein air method of painting, and often taught his students in outdoor classes and he also opened the Chase School of Art in 1896, which became the New York School of Art two years later with Chase staying on as instructor until 1907. Along with Robert Henri, who became an instructor, Chase was the most important teacher of American artists around the turn of the 20th century
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Les XX
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Les XX was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus. For ten years Les Vingt, as they called themselves, held an exhibition of their art. Artists invited over the years included Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Les XX was in some ways a successor to the group LEssor. The rejection of Ensors The Oyster Eater in 1883 by LEssor Salon, in 1893, the society of Les XX was transformed into La Libre Esthétique. Les XX was founded on 28 October 1883 in Brussels and held shows there between 1884 and 1893, usually in January–March. Unlike LEssor, which had also set up in opposition to the Salon. Instead Octave Maus acted as the secretary of Les XX, while other duties, a further nine artists were invited to join to bring the group membership of Les XX to twenty. In addition to the exhibits of its Belgian members, foreign artists were invited to exhibit. There was a tie between art, music and literature among the Les XX artists. Concerts included recently composed music by Claude Debussy, Ernest Chausson, leading exponents of the Symbolist movement who gave lectures include Stéphane Mallarmé, Théodore de Wyzewa and Paul Verlaine. Together with Maus, the influential jurist Edmond Picard and the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren provided the force behind an associated periodical, LArt Moderne. This publication aggressively defended Les XX from attacks by critics and members of the visiting public, Picard polemically fomented tensions both with the artistic establishment and within Les XX. By 1887, six of the more original members had left, sometimes under pressure from Picard and Maus. Altogether, Les XX had 32 members during the ten years of its existence, the later exhibitions were all held at the Museum of Modern Art of Brussels. The first of ten annual exhibitions was held on 2 February at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, apart from the members of Les XX, there were exhibitions by Adriaan Jozef Heymans, Jan Stobbaerts, Auguste Rodin, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Max Liebermann. Exhibition of Xavier Mellery and Jan Toorop, exhibits of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Odilon Redon and Claude Monet, including Le pont dArgenteuil and La Manneporte à Étretat. First performance of César Francks Violon Sonata, Walter Sickert, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and Georges-Pierre Seurat exhibit, with Seurat and Signac present at the opening. The major work shown is Seurats A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, in July, Les XX had an exhibition in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Academism
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Academic art, or Academicism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. In this context it is often called academism, academicism, Lart pompier, and eclecticism, in this medicean institution students learned the arti del disegno and heard lectures on anatomy and geometry. Another academy, the Accademia di San Luca, was founded about a later in Rome. The Accademia di San Luca served a function and was more concerned with art theory than the Florentine one. Accademia di San Luca later served as the model for the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture founded in France in 1648, and which later became the Académie des beaux-arts. The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture was founded in an effort to distinguish artists who were practicing a liberal art from craftsmen. This emphasis on the component of artmaking had a considerable impact on the subjects. This battle of styles was a conflict over whether Peter Paul Rubens or Nicolas Poussin was a model to follow. Debates also occurred over whether it was better to learn art by looking at nature, academies using the French model formed throughout Europe, and imitated the teachings and styles of the French Académie. In England, this was the Royal Academy, one effect of the move to academies was to make training more difficult for women artists, who were excluded from most academies until the last half of the 19th century. This was partly because of concerns over the propriety of life classes with nude models, special arrangements were often made for female students until the 20th century. Since the onset of the debate, many artists worked between the two styles. In the 19th century, in the form of the debate, the attention. One artist after another was claimed by critics to have achieved the synthesis, among them Théodore Chassériau, Ary Scheffer, Francesco Hayez, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, and Thomas Couture. William-Adolphe Bouguereau, an academic artist, commented that the trick to being a good painter is seeing color. Another development during this period included adopting historical styles in order to show the era in history that the painting depicted, called historicism and this is best seen in the work of Baron Jan August Hendrik Leys, a later influence on James Tissot. Its also seen in the development of the Neo-Grec style, historicism is also meant to refer to the belief and practice associated with academic art that one should incorporate and conciliate the innovations of different traditions of art from the past. The art world also grew to give increasing focus on allegory in art, as artists attempted to synthesize these theories in practice, the attention on the artwork as an allegorical or figurative vehicle was emphasized
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James Ensor
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James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for almost his entire life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX, Ensors father, James Frederic Ensor, born in Brussels of English parents, was a cultivated man who studied engineering in England and Germany. Ensors mother, Maria Catherina Haegheman, was Belgian, Ensor himself lacked interest in academic study and left school at the age of fifteen to begin his artistic training with two local painters. From 1877 to 1880, he attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Ensor first exhibited his work in 1881. From 1880 until 1917, he had his studio in the attic of his parents house and his travels were very few, three brief trips to France and two to the Netherlands in the 1880s, and a four-day trip to London in 1892. In 1895 his painting The Lamp Boy was acquired by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, against the advice of friends, he remained in Ostend during World War II despite the risk of bombardment. In his old age he was a figure among Belgians. He died there after an illness, on 19 November 1949. While Ensors early works, such as Russian Music and The Drunkards, depict scenes in a somber style, his palette subsequently brightened. Such paintings as The Scandalized Masks and Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man feature figures in grotesque masks inspired by the ones sold in his mothers gift shop for Ostends annual Carnival. Subjects such as carnivals, masks, puppetry, skeletons, Ensor dressed skeletons up in his studio and arranged them in colorful, enigmatic tableaux on the canvas, and used masks as a theatrical aspect in his still lifes. Attracted by masks plastic forms, bright colors, and potential for psychological impact, the four years between 1888 and 1892 mark a turning point in Ensors work. Ensor turned to themes, often the torments of Christ. Ensor interpreted religious themes as a personal disgust for the inhumanity of the world, in 1888 alone, he produced forty-five etchings as well as his most ambitious painting, the immense Christs Entry Into Brussels in 1889. Also known as Entry of Christ into Brussels, it is considered a forerunner of twentieth-century Expressionism, in this composition, which elaborates a theme treated by Ensor in his drawing Les Aureoles du Christ of 1885, a vast carnival mob in grotesque masks advances toward the viewer. Identifiable within the crowd are Belgian politicians, historical figures, nearly lost amid the teeming throng is Christ on his donkey, although Ensor was an atheist, he identified with Christ as a victim of mockery. The piece, which measures 99½ by 169½ inches, was rejected by Les XX and was not publicly displayed until 1929, after its controversial export in the 1960s, the painting is now at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. As Ensor achieved belated recognition in the years of the 19th century, his style softened
19.
Willy Finch
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Alfred William Finch was a ceramist and painter in the pointillist and Neo-Impressionist style. Born in Brussels to British parents, he spent most of his life in Finland. Alfred William Finch was born on 28 November 1854 in Brussels, Belgium to British parents, Joseph Finch and he spent his youth in Ostende. When he was twenty-four he began studying for one year in Brussels at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. On 28 October 1883 he became a member of Les XX, a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors. He was impressed by the works of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, in the following years, Finch became one of the leading representatives of his style in Belgium, along with Théo van Rysselberghe. During the early 1890s Finch switched careers from painting to pottery, in 1897, invited by count Louis Sparre, Finch moved to Porvoo, Finland, to head the Iris ceramics factory, and influenced the development of the local Jugendstil. After the factory was closed, Finch resumed his painting career, Finch died in Helsinki on 28 April 1930
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Fernand Khnopff
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Fernand Edmond Jean Marie Khnopff was a Belgian symbolist painter. Fernand Khnopff was born to a family that was part of the high bourgeoisie for generations. Khnopffs ancestors had lived in the Vossenhoek area of Grembergen Flanders since the early 17th century but were of Austrian, most male members of his family had been lawyers or judges, and young Fernand was destined for a juridical career. In his early childhood, he lived in Bruges where his father was appointed Substitut Du Procureur Du Roi and his childhood memories of the medieval city of Bruges would play a significant role in his later work. In 1864, the moved to Brussels. In his childhood Khnopff spent part of his holidays in the hamlet of Tillet not so far from Bastogne in the Luxemburg province where his maternal grand parents owned an estate. He painted several views of this village, to please his parents, he went to law school at the Free University of Brussels when he was 18 years old. During this period, he developed a passion for literature, discovering the works of Baudelaire, Flaubert, Leconte de Lisle and other mostly French authors. Khnopff left University due to a lack of interest in his law studies and began to frequent the studio of Xavier Mellery, on 25 October 1876, he enrolled for the Cours De Dessin Après Nature at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. At the Académie, his most famous student was James Ensor. Between 1877 and 1880, Khnopff made several trips to Paris where he discovered the work of Delacroix, Ingres, Moreau, at the Paris World Fair of 1878 he became acquainted with the oeuvre of Millais and Burne-Jones. In 1881, he presents his works to the public for the first time at the Salon de lEssor in Brussels, the critics appraisal of his work is very harsh, with the exception of Emile Verhaeren who writes a commending review. Verhaeren would remain a supporter and would write the first monography of the painter. In 1883, he was one of the members of the group Le Groupe des XX. Khnopff exhibited regularly at the annual Salon organised by Les XX, in 1885, he met the French novelist Joséphin Péladan the future grandmaster of the Rosicrucian Ordre de la Rose + Croix. Péladan asked Khnopff to design the cover for his new book Le Vice suprême, the vehement reaction of La Caron on this occasion made a scandal in the Belgian and Parisian press and would help to establish Khnopffs name as an artist. Khnopff continued to design illustrations for the works of Péladan, most notably for Femmes honnêtes, on several occasions Khnopff was invited as guest of honour on the exhibitions of the Parisian Salon de la Rose + Croix organised by Péladan. In 1889, Khnopff laid his first contacts with England, where he would stay, British artists such as Hunt, Watts, Rossetti, Brown and Burne-Jones would become friends
21.
Auguste Rodin
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François Auguste René Rodin, known as Auguste Rodin, was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past and he was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Pariss foremost school of art. Sculpturally, Rodin possessed an ability to model a complex, turbulent. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime and they clashed with predominant figurative sculpture traditions, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodins most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, but refused to change his style. Successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community, by 1900, he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought Rodins work after his Worlds Fair exhibit and he married his lifelong companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His sculptures suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917, Rodin remains one of the few sculptors widely known outside the visual arts community. Rodin was born in 1840 into a family in Paris, the second child of Marie Cheffer and Jean-Baptiste Rodin. He was largely self-educated, and began to draw at age ten, between ages 14 and 17, Rodin attended the Petite École, a school specializing in art and mathematics, where he studied drawing and painting. His drawing teacher, Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, believed in first developing the personality of his students so that they observed with their own eyes, Rodin still expressed appreciation for his teacher much later in life. It was at Petite École that he first met Jules Dalou, in 1857, Rodin submitted a clay model of a companion to the École des Beaux-Arts in an attempt to win entrance, he did not succeed, and two further applications were also denied. Given that entrance requirements at the Grande École were not particularly high, Rodins inability to gain entrance may have been due to the judges Neoclassical tastes, while Rodin had been schooled in light, 18th-century sculpture. Leaving the Petite École in 1857, Rodin earned a living as a craftsman, Rodins sister Maria, two years his senior, died of peritonitis in a convent in 1862. Rodin was anguished and felt guilty because he had introduced Maria to an unfaithful suitor, turning away from art, he briefly joined a Catholic order, the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Peter Julian Eymard, founder and head of the congregation, recognized Rodins talent and, sensing his lack of suitability for the order and he returned to work as a decorator, while taking classes with animal sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye. The teachers attention to detail – his finely rendered musculature of animals in motion – significantly influenced Rodin, in 1864, Rodin began to live with a young seamstress named Rose Beuret, with whom he would stay – with ranging commitment – for the rest of his life. The couple had a son, Auguste-Eugène Beuret and that year, Rodin offered his first sculpture for exhibition, and entered the studio of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, a successful mass producer of objets dart
22.
Paul Signac
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Paul Victor Jules Signac was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style. Paul Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863 and he followed a course of training in architecture before deciding at the age of 18 to pursue a career as a painter after attending an exhibit of Monets work. He sailed around the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes he encountered and he also painted a series of watercolors of French harbor cities in later years. In 1884 he met Claude Monet and Georges Seurat, many of Signacs paintings are of the French coast. He loved to paint the water and he left the capital each summer, to stay in the south of France in the village of Collioure or at St. Tropez, where he bought a house and invited his friends. Paul Signac, Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon and Georges Seurat were among the founders of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, the association began in Paris 29 July 1884 with the organization of massive exhibitions, with the device No jury nor awards. The purpose of Société des Artistes Indépendants—based on the principle of abolishing admission jury—is to allow the artists to present their works to public judgement with complete freedom, for the following three decades their annual exhibitions set the trends in art of the early 20th century. At the 1905 Salon des Indépendants, Henri Matisse exhibited the proto-Fauve painting Luxe, Signac purchased the work after the 1905 Salon des Indépendants. In 1908 Signac was elected president of the 24th Salon des Indépendants, in 1886 Signac met Vincent van Gogh in Paris. In 1887 the two regularly went to Asnières-sur-Seine together, where they painted such subjects as river landscapes. Initially, Van Gogh chiefly admired Signac’s loose painting technique, in March 1889, Signac visited Van Gogh at Arles. The next year he made a trip to Italy, seeing Genoa, Florence. In 1888, Signac discovered anarchist ideas by reading Elisee Reclus, Kropotkin and Jean Grave, with his friends Angrand Cross, Maximilien Luce and Camille Pissarro he contributed to Jean Grave’s paper Les Temps Nouveaux. His financial support was considerable, he sent regular cheques and made a gift of his works for five lotteries between 1895 and 1912, from his various ports of call, Signac brought back vibrant, colorful watercolors, sketched rapidly from nature. From these sketches, he painted large canvases that are carefully worked out in small, mosaic-like squares of color, quite different from the tiny. Signac himself experimented with various media, as well as oil paintings and watercolors he made etchings, lithographs, and many pen-and-ink sketches composed of small, laborious dots. The Neo-Impressionists influenced the next generation, Signac inspired Henri Matisse and André Derain in particular, as president of the Société des Artistes Indépendants from 1908 until his death, Signac encouraged younger artists by exhibiting the controversial works of the Fauves and the Cubists. Signac served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal, in September 1913, Signac rented a house at Antibes, where he settled with Jeanne Selmersheim-Desgrange, who gave birth to their daughter Ginette on 2 October 1913
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James Abbott McNeill Whistler
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James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American artist, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He was averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, and was a proponent of the credo art for arts sake. His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail, the symbol was apt, for it combined both aspects of his personality—his art was characterized by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative. Finding a parallel between painting and music, Whistler entitled many of his paintings arrangements, harmonies, and nocturnes and his most famous painting is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, commonly known as Whistlers Mother, the revered and oft-parodied portrait of motherhood, Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his artistic theories and his friendships with leading artists and writers. James Abbott Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on July 10,1834 and his father was a railroad engineer, and Anna was his second wife. James lived the first three years of his life in a modest house at 243 Worthen Street in Lowell, today, the house is a museum dedicated to Whistler. During the Ruskin trial, Whistler claimed St. Petersburg, Russia, as his birthplace, declaring, I shall be born when and where I want, in 1837, the Whistlers moved from Lowell to Stonington, Connecticut, where George Whistler worked for the Stonington Railroad. Sadly, during this period, three of George and Anna Whistlers children died in infancy, in 1839, the Whistlers fortunes improved considerably when George Whistler received the appointment that would make his fortune and fame - that of chief engineer for the Boston & Albany Railroad. Thus, the moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, then one of the United States most prosperous cities. The Whistlers lived in Springfield until they left the United States in late 1842, Nicholas I of Russia learned of George Whistlers ingenuity in engineering the Boston & Albany Railroad, and offered Whistler a position in 1842 engineering a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In the winter of 1842, the Whistlers moved from Springfield to St. Petersburg, in later years, James Whistler played up his mothers connection to the American South and its roots, and presented himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat. After her death, he adopted her name, using it as an additional middle name. Young Whistler was a moody child prone to fits of temper and insolence and his parents discovered in his early youth that drawing often settled him down and helped focus his attention. Beginning in 1842, his father was employed to work on a railroad in Russia, after moving to St. Petersburg to join his father a year later, the young Whistler took private art lessons, then enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts at age eleven. In 1844, he met the noted artist Sir William Allan, Whistlers mother noted in her diary, the great artist remarked to me Your little boy has uncommon genius, but do not urge him beyond his inclination. In 1847-48, his family spent some time in London with relatives, Whistlers brother-in-law Francis Haden, a physician who was also an artist, spurred his interest in art and photography. Haden took Whistler to visit collectors and to lectures, and gave him a set with instruction
24.
Alfred Verwee
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Alfred Jacques Verwee was a Belgian painter known for his depictions of animals, landscapes and seascapes. His father was the painter Louis-Pierre Verwee and his brother Louis-Charles Verwee would become a painter as well and he was originally trained to be a surveyor, but could not complete his engineering studies due to family financial difficulties. Painting had long been a hobby so, with his fathers suppor, one of his earliest influences was the French artist Constant Troyon, a member of the Barbizon school. In 1853, he took lessons from the landscape and portrait painter François Charles Deweirdt and he later enrolled at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, but attended only a few classes. His first exhibition was in 1857, but he didnt achieve true recognition until 1863, when he had a show at the Brussels Salon and he won another gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1864. On the advice of professional acquaintances, he settled in Paris and this didnt lead to the expected financial success, however, and he returned to Brussels a year later. Then, from 1867 to 1868, he lived in London but, again, commercial success was unobtainable, despite this, he married and then undertook a tour of the Netherlands. That same year, he became a member of the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts. During this time, he began painting plein air to achieve a naturalistic style, from 1875 to 1880, he attempted to create a grand vision of the Flemish countryside. In 1876, he helped establish La Chrysalide, an association that is considered a forerunner to Les XX. Two years later he, François Musin, Louis Dubois, Amédée Lynen and others were invited by the firm of Naert. The hall he decorated is now known as the Verwee-zaal, around 1880, he became fascinated with the area surrounding Knokke, and an informal artists colony slowly took root there. At the time, he began alternating between landscape and animal painting, doing the landscapes plein air and posing the animals in his studio and he is generally considered to be Belgiums first great animal painter. By 1887, he saw that Knokke could become a major tourist attraction, in 1888, he built a villa, the Fleur des Dunes and, in 1891, joined with his friend Paul Parmentier to create Knokke-Attractions, a promotional firm. His health began to deteriorate in 1892, first, he suffered from rheumatism, then was diagnosed with throat cancer. In 1895, he travelled to Southern France, Algeria and Egypt in hopes of finding a warm, a few weeks before his death, his friends brought him back to Knokke and he died at his home in Schaarbeek. Danny Lannoy, Frieda Devinck and Thérèse Thomas, Impressionisten in Knocke en Heyst, Stichting Kunstboek,2007 ISBN 978-90-5856-247-0 Norbert Hostyn, Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek, vol.12, pgs
25.
Andalucia
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Andalusia is an autonomous community in southern Spain. It is the most populated and the second largest in area of the communities in the country. The Andalusian autonomous community is recognised as historical nationality. The territory is divided into eight provinces, Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and its capital is the city of Seville. Andalusia is the only European region with both Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines, the small British overseas territory of Gibraltar shares a three-quarter-mile land border with the Andalusian province of Cádiz at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar. The main mountain ranges of Andalusia are the Sierra Morena and the Baetic System, consisting of the Subbaetic and Penibaetic Mountains, in the north, the Sierra Morena separates Andalusia from the plains of Extremadura and Castile–La Mancha on Spains Meseta Central. To the south the geographic subregion of Upper Andalusia lies mostly within the Baetic System, the name Andalusia is derived from the Arabic word Al-Andalus. Including an intense relationship with Naples, Italy, Andalusia has been a traditionally agricultural region, compared to the rest of Spain and the rest of Europe. However, the growth of the community especially in the sectors of industry and services was above average in Spain, the region has, however, a rich culture and a strong cultural identity. Many cultural phenomena that are seen internationally as distinctively Spanish are largely or entirely Andalusian in origin and these include flamenco and, to a lesser extent, bullfighting and Hispano-Moorish architectural styles. Andalusias hinterland is the hottest area of Europe, with cities like Córdoba, Late evening temperatures can sometimes stay around 35 °C until close to midnight, with daytime highs of over 40 °C common. Seville also has the highest average temperature in mainland Spain and mainland Europe. Its present form is derived from the Arabic name for Muslim Iberia. However, the etymology of the name Al-Andalus is disputed, the Spanish place name Andalucía was introduced into the Spanish languages in the 13th century under the form el Andalucía. This was a Castilianization of Al-Andalusiya, the form of the Arabic language al-Andalus. The etymology of al-Andalus is itself somewhat debated, but in fact it entered the Arabic language before this came under Muslim rule. Like the Arabic term al-Andalus, in historical contexts the Spanish term Andalucía or the English term Andalusia do not necessarily refer to the territory designated by these terms today. To designate the territories the Christians had regained by that time in the Guadalquivir valley and in the Kingdoms of Granada, in a document from 1253, Alfonso X styled himself Rey de Castilla, León y de toda Andalucía
26.
John Singer Sargent
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John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the leading portrait painter of his generation for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and his oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida. His parents were American, but he was trained in Paris prior to moving to London and his commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work and he lived most of his life in Europe. Art historians generally ignored the society such as Sargent until the late 20th century. Before Sargents birth, his father, FitzWilliam, was an eye surgeon at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia 1844–1854, after Johns older sister died at the age of two, his mother, Mary, suffered a breakdown, and the couple decided to go abroad to recover. They remained nomadic expatriates for the rest of their lives, although based in Paris, Sargents parents moved regularly with the seasons to the sea and the mountain resorts in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. While Mary was pregnant, they stopped in Florence, Tuscany, Sargent was born there in 1856. A year later, his sister Mary was born, after her birth, FitzWilliam reluctantly resigned his post in Philadelphia and accepted his wifes entreaties to remain abroad. They lived modestly on an inheritance and savings, living a quiet life with their children. They generally avoided society and other Americans except for friends in the art world, four more children were born abroad, of whom only two lived past childhood. Although his father was a patient teacher of basic subjects, young Sargent was a rambunctious child, as his father wrote home, He is quite a close observer of animated nature. His mother was convinced that traveling around Europe, and visiting museums and churches. Several attempts to have him formally schooled failed, owing mostly to their itinerant life, Sargents mother was a fine amateur artist and his father was a skilled medical illustrator. Early on, she gave him sketchbooks and encouraged drawing excursions, young Sargent worked with care on his drawings, and he enthusiastically copied images from The Illustrated London News of ships and made detailed sketches of landscapes. FitzWilliam had hoped that his sons interest in ships and the sea might lead him toward a naval career, at thirteen, his mother reported that John sketches quite nicely, & has a remarkably quick and correct eye. If we could afford to give him really good lessons, he would soon be quite a little artist, at the age of thirteen, he received some watercolor lessons from Carl Welsch, a German landscape painter. Although his education was far from complete, Sargent grew up to be a literate and cosmopolitan young man, accomplished in art, music
27.
Ralph Curtis
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Second Lieutenant Ralph Luxmore Curtis was a World War I British flying ace credited with fifteen aerial victories. He died from wounds sustained when he engaged in combat with Hermann Göring. The aviator was interred twice in Belgian cemeteries, and was commemorated on the Rainham War Memorial. Ralph Luxmore Curtis, son of William Curtis and his wife Amy Augusta Curtis, was born on 19 March 1898 in Rainham, Essex and his father was a farmer, and the family lived at Berwick Pond/Berwick Manor in Rainham. Ralph Curtis received his aviators certificate on 17 February 1917 at the London and Provincial School in Hendon, Greater London, England. However, he did so by falsifying his date of birth, claiming to have born on 19 March 1896 and, therefore. He served with No.48 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps as a second lieutenant, Ralph Luxmore Curtis is credited with fifteen aerial victories. All of them occurred while he piloted a Bristol F. 2b, in addition, most of them were in conjunction with one observer, Second Lieutenant Desmond Percival Fitzgerald Uniacke. Curtis experienced his first aerial triumph on 16 June 1917, with Second Lieutenant Laurence W. Allen as observer and it was the tenth and final victory for Allen. They destroyed an Albatros D. III from Bristol F. 2b with serial number A7107, Curtis scored his second aerial victory from his Bristol F. 2b. He and his observer Uniacke sent a two-seater out of control over Quéant, Pas-de-Calais, two days later, from Bristol F. 2b, Curtis and Uniacke sent an Albatros D. V out of control over Bapaume, Pas-de-Calais. Curtis scored his fourth aerial victory from his Bristol F. 2b when he and his observer Uniacke destroyed an Albatros D. V over Vitry, France on 7 July 1917. That same month, on 28 July 1917, the team of Curtis, Second Lieutenants Curtis and Uniacke scored a double victory on 16 August 1917 from their Bristol F. 2b. During aerial combat with two Albatros D. V aircraft, one was destroyed in flames and the other sent out of control, the next four victories for Curtis were all from Bristol F. 2b. On 20 August 1917, Curtis scored his eighth aerial victory when he and observer Uniacke sent an Albatros D. V out of control over Ghistelles. Two days later, Curtis had a victory when he, with Uniacke as observer, destroyed one Albatros D. V and sent another out of control. His eleventh kill occurred on 2 September 1917, when he and observer Uniacke sent an Albatros D. V out of control east of Diksmuide, West Flanders, Belgium. It was shared with the crew of Bristol F. 2b, pilot Lieutenant Keith Rodney Park from New Zealand and observer Second Lieutenant Alan Douglas Light from England, on 5 September 1917, it appears that Curtis had two victories, with two different observers
28.
Monet
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Monets ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property, Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. He was the son of Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubrée Monet. On 20 May 1841, he was baptized in the parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude. Despite being baptized Catholic, Monet later became an atheist, in 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy. His father wanted him to go into the familys ship-chandling and grocery business and his mother was a singer, and supported Monets desire for a career in art. On 1 April 1851, Monet entered Le Havre secondary school of the arts, locals knew him well for his charcoal caricatures, which he would sell for ten to twenty francs. Monet also undertook his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard, a student of Jacques-Louis David. On the beaches of Normandy around 1856 he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin, Boudin taught Monet en plein air techniques for painting. Both received the influence of Johan Barthold Jongkind, on 28 January 1857, his mother died. At the age of sixteen, he left school and went to live with his widowed, childless aunt, when Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he would go and sit by a window. Monet was in Paris for several years and met other painters, including Édouard Manet and others who would become friends. After drawing a low number in March 1861, Monet was drafted into the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria for a seven-year period of military service. His prosperous father could have purchased Monets exemption from conscription but declined to do so when his son refused to give up painting. While in Algeria Monet did only a few sketches of scenes, a single landscape. In a Le Temps interview of 1900 however he commented that the light, after about a year of garrison duty in Algiers, Monet contracted typhoid fever and briefly went absent without leave. Following convalescence, Monets aunt intervened to get him out of the army if he agreed to complete a course at an art school and it is possible that the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, whom Monet knew, may have prompted his aunt on this matter
29.
Auguste Renoir
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir, commonly known as Auguste Renoir, was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has said that Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau. He was the father of actor Pierre Renoir, filmmaker Jean Renoir and he was the grandfather of the filmmaker Claude Renoir, son of Pierre. Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France, in 1841 and his father, Léonard Renoir, was a tailor of modest means, so in 1844, Renoirs family moved to Paris in search of more favorable prospects. The location of their home, in rue d’Argenteuil in central Paris, although the young Renoir had a natural proclivity for drawing, he exhibited a greater talent for singing. His talent was encouraged by his teacher, Charles Gounod, who was the choir-master at the Church of St Roch at the time. However, due to the financial circumstances, Renoir had to discontinue his music lessons. Although Renoir displayed a talent for his work, he tired of the subject matter. The owner of the factory recognized his apprentice’s talent and communicated this to Renoir’s family, following this, Renoir started taking lessons to prepare for entry into Ecole des Beaux Arts. When the porcelain factory adopted mechanical reproduction processes in 1858, Renoir was forced to other means to support his learning. Before he enrolled in art school, he also painted hangings for overseas missionaries, in 1862, he began studying art under Charles Gleyre in Paris. There he met Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, and Claude Monet, at times, during the 1860s, he did not have enough money to buy paint. Renoir had his first success at the Salon of 1868 with his painting Lise with a Parasol, although Renoir first started exhibiting paintings at the Paris Salon in 1864, recognition was slow in coming, partly as a result of the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War. This loss of a favorite painting location resulted in a change of subjects. Renoir was inspired by the style and subject matter of modern painters Camille Pissarro. Although the critical response to the exhibition was largely unfavorable, Renoirs work was well received. That same year, two of his works were shown with Durand-Ruel in London, hoping to secure a livelihood by attracting portrait commissions, Renoir displayed mostly portraits at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. He contributed a diverse range of paintings the next year when the group presented its third exhibition, they included Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette
30.
Pointillism
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Pointillism /ˈpɔɪntᵻlɪzəm/ is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism, the term Pointillism was coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists, and is now used without its earlier mocking connotation. The movement Seurat began with this technique is known as Neo-Impressionism, the Divisionists, too, used a similar technique of patterns to form images, though with larger cube-like brushstrokes. The technique relies on the ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to blend the color spots into a range of tones. It is related to Divisionism, a technical variant of the method. Divisionism is concerned with theory, whereas pointillism is more focused on the specific style of brushwork used to apply the paint. It is a technique with few serious practitioners today, and is seen in the works of Seurat, Signac. However, see also Andy Warhols early works, and Pop Art, the practice of Pointillism is in sharp contrast to the traditional methods of blending pigments on a palette. Pointillism is analogous to the four-color CMYK printing process used by some printers and large presses that place dots of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. Televisions and computer monitors use a technique to represent image colors using Red, Green. If red, blue, and green light are mixed, the result is something close to white light, painting is inherently subtractive, but Pointillist colors often seem brighter than typical mixed subtractive colors. This may be partly because subtractive mixing of the pigments is avoided, the painting technique used for Pointillist color mixing is at the expense of the traditional brushwork used to delineate texture. The majority of Pointillism is done in oil paint, anything may be used in its place, but oils are preferred for their thickness and tendency not to run or bleed. Pointillism also refers to a style of 20th-century music composition, different musical notes are made in seclusion, rather than in a linear sequence, giving a sound texture similar to the painting version of Pointillism. This type of music is known as punctualism or klangfarbenmelodie
31.
Georges Seurat
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Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French post-Impressionist painter and draftsman. He is noted for his use of drawing media and for devising the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism. His large-scale work, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, altered the direction of art by initiating Neo-impressionism. Seurat was born 2 December 1859 in Paris, at 60 rue de Bondy, the Seurat family moved to 136 boulevard de Magenta in 1862 or 1863. His father, Antoine Chrysostome Seurat, originally from Champagne, was a legal official who had become wealthy from speculating in property. Georges had a brother, Émile Augustin, and a sister, Marie-Berthe and his father lived in Le Raincy and visited his wife and children once a week at boulevard de Magenta. Georges Seurat first studied art at the École Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin, near his familys home in the boulevard Magenta, Seurats studies resulted in a well-considered and fertile theory of contrasts, a theory to which all his work was thereafter subjected. His formal artistic education came to an end in November 1879, after a year at the Brest Military Academy, he returned to Paris where he shared a studio with his friend Aman-Jean, while also renting a small apartment at 16 rue de Chabrol. For the next two years, he worked at mastering the art of monochrome drawing and his first exhibited work, shown at the Salon, of 1883, was a Conté crayon drawing of Aman-Jean. He also studied the works of Eugène Delacroix carefully, making notes on his use of color and he spent 1883 working on his first major painting—a large canvas titled Bathers at Asnières, a monumental work showing young men relaxing by the Seine in a working-class suburb of Paris. Seurat also departed from the Impressionist ideal by preparing for the work with a number of drawings, Bathers at Asnières was rejected by the Paris Salon, and instead he showed it at the Groupe des Artistes Indépendants in May 1884. Seurats new ideas on pointillism were to have a strong influence on Signac. In the summer of 1884, Seurat began work on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the painting shows members of each of the social classes participating in various park activities. The tiny juxtaposed dots of multi-colored paint allow the eye to blend colors optically. It took Seurat two years to complete this 10-foot-wide painting, much of which he spent in the park sketching in preparation for the work and it is now in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting was the inspiration for James Lapine and Stephen Sondheims musical, Seurat concealed his relationship with Madeleine Knobloch, an artists model whom he portrayed in his painting Jeune femme se poudrant. In 1889 she moved in with Seurat in his studio on the 7th floor of 128bis Boulevard de Clichy, when Madeleine became pregnant, the couple moved to a studio at 39 passage de lÉlysée-des-Beaux-Arts. There she gave birth to their son, who was named Pierre-Georges,16 February 1890, Seurat died in Paris in his parents home on 29 March 1891 at the age of 31
32.
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
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A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte painted in 1884, is one of Georges Seurats most famous works. It is an example of pointillism technique, executed on a large canvas. Seurats composition includes a number of Parisians at a park on the banks of the River Seine, in 1879 Georges Seurat enlisted as a soldier in the French army and was back home by 1880. Later, he ran a small studio in Paris. The following year, Seurat began to work on La Grande Jatte, with La Grande Jatte, Seurat was immediately acknowledged as the leader of a new and rebellious form of Impressionism called Neo-Impressionism. Seurat spent more than two years painting A Sunday Afternoon, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park and he reworked the original and completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches. He sat in the park, creating sketches of the various figures in order to perfect their form. He concentrated on issues of colour, light, and form, the painting is approximately 2 by 3 meters in size. Inspired by optical effects and perception inherent in the theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and others. Seurat contrasted miniature dots or small brushstrokes of colors that when unified optically in the eye were perceived as a single shade or hue. He believed that form of painting, called divisionism at the time but now known as pointillism, would make the colors more brilliant. The use of dots of almost uniform size came in the year of his work on the painting. Although for many years it was a site, it is today the site of a public garden. When Seurat began the painting in 1884, the island was a bucolic retreat far from the urban center, the painting was first exhibited in 1886, dominating the second Salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, of which Seurat had been a founder in 1884. Seurat was extremely disciplined, always serious, and private to the point of secretiveness—for the most part, as a painter, he wanted to make a difference in the history of art and with La Grand Jatte, succeeded. Seurats painting was an impression of his own painting, Bathers at Asnières, completed shortly before. Whereas the bathers in that earlier painting are doused in light, almost every figure on La Grande Jatte appears to be cast in shadow, either under trees or an umbrella, or from another person. For Parisians, Sunday was the day to escape the heat of the city and head for the shade of the trees, and at first glance, the viewer sees many different people relaxing in a park by the river
33.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
34.
Henry Van de Velde
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Henry Clemens van de Velde was a Belgian painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered as one of the main founders, Van de Velde spent the most important part of his career in Germany and had a decisive influence on German architecture and design at the beginning of the 20th century. Van de Velde was born in Antwerp, where he studied painting under Charles Verlat at the famous Royal Academy of Fine Arts and he then went on to study at Carolus-Duran in Paris. As a young painter he was influenced by Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. In 1889 he became a member of the Brussels-based artist group Les XX, after Vincent van Gogh exhibited some work on the yearly exhibition of Les XX van de Velde became one of the first artists to be influenced by the Dutch painter. During this period he developed a friendship with the painter Théo van Rysselberghe. In 1892 he abandoned painting, devoting his time to arts of decoration and his own house, Bloemenwerf in Ukkel, was his first attempt at architecture, and was inspired by the British and American Arts and Crafts Movement. He also designed interiors and furniture for the art gallery LArt Nouveau of Samuel Bing in Paris in 1895. This gave the movement its first designation as Art Nouveau, bing’s pavilion at the 1900 Paris world fair also exhibited work by Van de Velde. Van de Velde set his face against copying historical styles, resolutely opting for original design, banning banality, Van de Veldes design work received good exposure in Germany, through periodicals like Innen-Dekoration, and subsequently he received commissions for interior designs in Berlin. Around the turn of the century, he designed Villa Leuring in the Netherlands and he also designed the interior of the Folkwang Museum in Hagen and the Nietzsche House in Weimar. In 1899 he settled in Weimar, Germany, where in 1905 he established the Grand-Ducal School of Arts and Crafts and he would oppose Hermann Muthesius at the Werkbund meeting of 1914 and their debate would mark the history of Modern Architecture. Van de Velde called for the upholding of the individuality of artists while Hermann Muthesius called for standardization as a key to development, during World War I, Van de Velde, as a foreign national, was obliged to leave Weimar, and returned to his native Belgium. Later, he lived in Switzerland and in the Netherlands where he designed the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, in 1925 he was appointed professor at the Ghent University Institute of Art History and Archaeology, where he lectured architecture and applied arts from 1926 to 1936. He was instrumental in founding in Brussels, in 1926, todays renowned architecture and visual arts school La Cambre and he continued his practice in architecture and design, which had demarcated itself significantly from the Art Nouveau phase, whose popularity was by 1910 in decline. During this period, he mentored the great Belgian architect, Victor Bourgeois, in 1933 he was commissioned to design the new building for the university library. Construction started in 1936, but the work would not be completed until the end of the Second World War, for budget reasons, the eventual construction did not entirely match the original design. For instance, the reading room floor was executed in marble instead of the black rubber Van de Velde originally intended and he was also involved in the construction of the Ghent University Hospital
35.
Georges Lemmen
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Georges Lemmen was a Belgian neo-impressionist painter. He was a member of Les XX from 1888 and his works include The Beach at Heist, Aline Marechal and Vase of Flowers. Yvonne Serruys studied in his workshop in Brussels from 1892 to 1894, P. & V. Berko, Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 &1875, Knokke 1981, p.418. Pointillism Georges Seurat History of painting Western painting Post-Impressionism http, //www. abcgallery. com/P/pointillism/lemmen. html
36.
Xavier Mellery
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Xavier Mellery was a Belgian Symbolist painter. The son of a gardener at the Royal Palace of Laeken and he attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from 1860 to 1867, one of his professors being Jean-François Portaels. Mellery won the Prix de Rome and traveled to Italy where he studied paintings from the Renaissance and his works include The Rondo of the Hours. 1885, Knight in the Order of Leopold, Mellery designed the statues of all 48 historical professions in the Petit Sablon garden in Brussels. Links to his paintings available on-line
37.
Alfred William Finch
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Alfred William Finch was a ceramist and painter in the pointillist and Neo-Impressionist style. Born in Brussels to British parents, he spent most of his life in Finland. Alfred William Finch was born on 28 November 1854 in Brussels, Belgium to British parents, Joseph Finch and he spent his youth in Ostende. When he was twenty-four he began studying for one year in Brussels at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. On 28 October 1883 he became a member of Les XX, a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors. He was impressed by the works of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, in the following years, Finch became one of the leading representatives of his style in Belgium, along with Théo van Rysselberghe. During the early 1890s Finch switched careers from painting to pottery, in 1897, invited by count Louis Sparre, Finch moved to Porvoo, Finland, to head the Iris ceramics factory, and influenced the development of the local Jugendstil. After the factory was closed, Finch resumed his painting career, Finch died in Helsinki on 28 April 1930
38.
Anna Boch
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Anna Rosalie Boch was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels, Boch participated in the Neo-Impressionist movement. Her early works used a Pointillist technique, but she is best known for her Impressionist style which she adopted for most of her career, a pupil of Isidore Verheyden, she was influenced by Théo van Rysselberghe whom she met in the Groupe des XX. Besides her own paintings, Boch held one of the most important collections of impressionist paintings of her time and she promoted many young artists including Vincent van Gogh whom she admired for his talent and who was a friend of her brother Eugène Boch. The Vigne Rouge, purchased by Anna Boch, was believed to be the only painting Van Gogh sold during his lifetime. The Anna Boch collection was sold after her death, in her will, she donated the money to pay for the retirement of poor artist friends. 140 of her own paintings were left to her godchild Ida van Haelewijn, many of these paintings show Ida van Haelewijn as a little girl in the garden. In 1968 these 140 paintings were purchased by her great nephew Luitwin von Boch, the paintings remained in the house of Ida van Haelewijn until her death in 1992. The Anna & Eugène Boch Expo opened March 30,2011, some paintings were also donated by Anna Bochs will to various museums like the Musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique. Different exhibitions of her life and work were held at the Royal Museum of Mariemont at Morlanwelz and her name is associated with famous museums like the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Musée dOrsay in Paris or the Van Goghhuis in Zundert, the Netherlands. In 2005 the Belgian historian Dr Therèse Thomas published a catalogue raisonné, in 2010 a great great great nephew of Anna Boch and Dr Therèse Thomas created the Anna Boch. com website. Since 2011 the website is edited from the Cremerie de Paris, P. & V. Berko, Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 &1875, Knokke 1981, p.51. Anna Boch. com - includes painting reproductions Newsletter on Anna Boch
39.
Realism (arts)
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Realism in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. Realism has been prevalent in the arts at many periods, and is in part a matter of technique and training. In the visual arts, illusionistic realism is the depiction of lifeforms, perspective. Realist works of art may emphasize the mundane, ugly or sordid, such as works of realism, regionalism. There have been various movements in the arts, such as the opera style of verismo, literary realism, theatrical realism. The realism art movement in painting began in France in the 1850s, the realist painters rejected Romanticism, which had come to dominate French literature and art, with roots in the late 18th century. Realism is the precise, detailed and accurate representation in art of the appearance of scenes. Realism in this sense is also called naturalism, mimesis or illusionism, realistic art was created in many periods, and it is in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. It becomes especially marked in European painting in the Early Netherlandish painting of Jan van Eyck, however such realism is often used to depict, for example, angels with wings, which were not things the artists had ever seen in real life. It is the choice and treatment of matter that defines Realism as a movement in painting. The development of increasingly accurate representation of the appearances of things has a long history in art. It includes elements such as the depiction of the anatomy of humans and animals, of perspective and effects of distance. Ancient Greek art is recognised as having made great progress in the representation of anatomy. Pliny the Elders famous story of birds pecking at grapes painted by Zeuxis in the 5th century BC may well be a legend, roman portraiture, when not under too much Greek influence, shows a greater commitment to a truthful depiction of its subjects. The art of Late Antiquity famously rejected illusionism for expressive force, scientific methods of representing perspective were developed in Italy and gradually spread across Europe, and accuracy in anatomy rediscovered under the influence of classical art. As in classical times, idealism remained the norm, intriguingly, having led the development of illusionic painting, still life was to be equally significant in its abandonment in Cubism. The depiction of ordinary, everyday subjects in art also has a history, though it was often squeezed into the edges of compositions. However these objects are at least largely there because they carry layers of complex significance, pieter Bruegel the Elder pioneered large panoramic scenes of peasant life
40.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
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Toulouse-Lautrec is among the best-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period, with Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin. In a 2005 auction at Christies auction house, La Blanchisseuse, his painting of a young laundress, sold for US$22.4 million. The last part of his name means he was a member of an aristocratic family and his younger brother was born in 1867, but died the following year. After the death of his brother, Henris parents separated and a nanny ended up taking care of him, at the age of eight, Henri went to live with his mother in Paris where he drew sketches and caricatures in his exercise workbooks. The family quickly realised that Henris talents lay in drawing and painting, a friend of his father, René Princeteau, visited sometimes to give informal lessons. Some of Henris early paintings are of horses, a speciality of Princeteau, in 1875, Toulouse-Lautrec returned to Albi because his mother had concerns about his health. He took thermal baths at Amélie-les-Bains and his mother consulted doctors in the hope of finding a way to improve her sons growth, Toulouse-Lautrecs parents, the Comte and Comtesse, were first cousins, and he suffered from congenital health conditions sometimes attributed to a family history of inbreeding. At age 13, Toulouse-Lautrec fractured his right femur, at age 14, he fractured his left. The breaks did not heal properly, modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, possibly pycnodysostosis, or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta. Rickets aggravated by praecox virilism has also been suggested, afterwards, his legs ceased to grow, so that as an adult he was extremely short. He developed an adult-sized torso, while retaining his child-sized legs, additionally, he is reported to have had hypertrophied genitals. Physically unable to participate in many activities enjoyed by males his age and he became an important Post-Impressionist painter, art nouveau illustrator, and lithographer, and, through his works, recorded many details of the late-19th-century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec contributed a number of illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s, after initially failing college entrance exams, he passed his second attempt and completed his studies. Toulouse-Lautrecs mother had high ambitions and, with the aim of her son becoming a fashionable and respected painter and he was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Studying with Bonnat placed Toulouse-Lautrec in the heart of Montmartre, an area he rarely left over the next 20 years. After Bonnat took a new job, Toulouse-Lautrec moved to the studio of Fernand Cormon in 1882 and studied for a five years. At this time he met Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh, Cormon, whose instruction was more relaxed than Bonnats, allowed his pupils to roam Paris, looking for subjects to paint. During this period, Toulouse-Lautrec had his first encounter with a prostitute, which led him to paint his first painting of a prostitute in Montmartre, a woman rumoured to be Marie-Charlet
41.
Hassan I
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Hassan I of Morocco was Sultan of Morocco from 1873 to 1894. He was the son of prince Abbas and succeeded to his uncle Mohammed IV and he was a member of the Alaouite dynasty. Moulay Hassan was among the most successful sultans, nephew of the sultan Mohammed IV, Moulay Hassan was proclaimed sultan of Morocco on the death of his uncle in 1873. His first action was to crush a revolt in the capital Fes. The new sultan was committed to continue the modernization and reform policy of his father, particularly well known is the journey Hassan I undertook in 1893. The voyage took six months and succeeded in its objective of reuniting and pacifying the tribes of several regions, the Krupp cannon he gave on this occasion to the caid of Telouet is still on display in the center of Ouarzazate. Hassan I appointed Mouha ou Hammou Zayani as Caïd of the Zayanes in Khénifra in 1877, Mouha ou Hammou Zayani was to be an important figure in the 20th century colonial war against France. In 1887 he appointed sheikh Ma al-Aynayn as his caid in Western Sahara, Ma al-Aynayn too played an important role in the struggle for independence of Morocco. Moulay Hassan I died 7 June 1894 in Marrakech, and is buried in Rabat, grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword -1882 List of Kings of Morocco History of Morocco Hassan I Dam Hassan I Airport Morocco Alaoui dynasty History of Morocco
42.
Paul Dubois (sculptor)
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Paul Dubois was a French sculptor and painter from Nogent-sur-Seine, France. His works were mainly sculptures and statues, though he was also a portrait painter, paul Dubois was born on the 18 July 1829 in Nogent-sur-Seine, France. When making his debut at the Paris Salon in 1857 he did so under the name Dubois-Pigalle, in 1858 he entered the atelier of Armand Toussaint at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. The following year he travelled to Rome, studying and copying the many sculptures and mixed with the likes of Henri Chapu, Alexandre Falguière. As an artist he did not have to struggle financial problems as his family supported all his studies. When he returned to France he completed the study of a troubadour, Chanteur florentin du XVe siècle. In 1865 and 1876, he was awarded a médaille dhonneur at the Salon des beaux-arts. His success was not limited to sculpture and as a painter he was in demand for portraits and after 1870 he gave as much time. He also taught at the Académie Julian, Dubois died from pneumonia in 1905. This museum was established by Dubois and Alfred Boucher and holds information relating to Dubois
43.
Art Nouveau
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Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts, that was most popular between 1890 and 1910. A reaction to the art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, particularly the curved lines of plants. English uses the French name Art Nouveau, according to the philosophy of the style, art should be a way of life. For many well-off Europeans, it was possible to live in an art nouveau-inspired house with art nouveau furniture, silverware, fabrics, ceramics including tableware, jewellery, cigarette cases, artists desired to combine the fine arts and applied arts, even for utilitarian objects. By 1910, Art Nouveau was already out of style and it was replaced as the dominant European architectural and decorative style first by Art Deco and then by Modernism. Art Nouveau took its name from the Maison de lArt Nouveau, in France, Art Nouveau was also sometimes called by the British term Modern Style due to its roots in the Arts and Crafts Movement, Style moderne, or Style 1900. It was also sometimes called Style Jules Verne, Le Style Métro, Art Belle Époque, in Belgium, where the architectural movement began, it was sometimes termed Style nouille or Style coup de fouet. In Britain, it was known as the Modern Style, or, because of the arts and crafts movement led by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, as the Glasgow style. In Italy, because of the popularity in Italy of designs from Londons Liberty & Co department store, in the United States, due to its association with Louis Comfort Tiffany, it was often called the Tiffany style. In Germany and Scandinavia, a style emerged at about the same time, it was called Jugendstil. In Catalonia the related style was known as Modernisme, in Spain as Modernismo, Arte joven, in Russia, it was called Modern, and Jugendstil, and Nieuwe Kunst in the Netherlands. Some names refer specifically to the forms that were popular with the Art Nouveau artists, Stile Floreal in France, Paling Stijl in the Netherlands. The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the designs of William Morris. Early prototypes of the include the Red House of Morris. In France, the style combined several different tendencies, in architecture, it was influenced by the architectural theorist and historian Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a declared enemy of the historical Beaux-Arts architectural style. For each function its material, for each material its form and this book influenced a generation of architects, including Louis Sullivan, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Antoni Gaudí. The French painters Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard played an important part in integrating fine arts painting with decoration, I believe that before everything a painting must decorate, Denis wrote in 1891. The choice of subjects or scenes is nothing and it is by the value of tones, the colored surface and the harmony of lines that I can reach the spirit and wake up the emotions
44.
Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
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Theodorus Theo van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theos unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting. Theo died at the age of 33, six months after his brother died at the age of 37, Theodorus Theo van Gogh was born on 1 May 1857 in the village Groot-Zundert in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. He was the son of Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus and his elder brother was Vincent van Gogh, who later became a famous painter. Theo worked for years at the Dutch office of the Parisian art dealers Goupil & Cie in The Hague. Theo joined the Brussels office on 1 January 1873 as their youngest employee, after Theo was transferred to the London office, he moved to the office in The Hague, where he developed into a successful art dealer. By 1884, he was transferred to the Paris main office, starting in the winter of 1880–1881, he sent painting materials as well as monthly financial support to his brother and painter Vincent van Gogh, who was living back in the Netherlands. In Paris, Theo met Andries Bonger and his sister Johanna and he married Johanna in Amsterdam on 17 April 1889 and they moved to Paris. Their son Vincent Willem was born in Paris on 31 January 1890, on 8 June, the family visited Vincent, who was living near Paris in Auvers-sur-Oise. Vincent died in July 1890 at age 37, Theo suffered from dementia paralytica, an infection of the brain, and his health declined rapidly after Vincents death. Weak and unable to come to terms with Vincents absence, he died six months later at age 33 in Den Dolder, Theo admired his elder brother Vincent for his whole life. But communicating with him proved to be difficult, even before Vincent opted to follow his artistic vocation, the communication between both brothers suffered from diverging definitions of standards, and it was evidently Theo who kept on writing letters. Therefore, mostly Vincents answers survived and few of Theos, Theo was often concerned about Vincents mental condition and he was amongst the few who understood his brother. It is known that Theo helped Vincent to maintain his artist lifestyle by giving him money and he also helped Vincent pursue his life as an artist through his unwavering emotional support and love. The majority of Theo’s letters and communications with Vincent are filled with praise, Vincent would send Theo sketches and ideas for paintings, along with accounts of his day to day experiences, to the delight and eager attention of Theo. Theo was instrumental in the popularity of Impressionist artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas by persuading his employers, Goupil & Cie, to exhibit and buy their works. In 1886, Theo invited Vincent to come and live with him in Paris, the two brothers maintained an intensive correspondence, with Theo often encouraging his depressed brother. Theo was one of the few people who Vincent could talk to, over three-quarters of the more than 800 letters Vincent wrote during his life were to Theo, including his first and his last letters
45.
Vincent van Gogh
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Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Born into a family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling and he turned to religion, and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881 and his younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept up a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, in 1886 he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still lifes and his paintings grew brighter in colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the south of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include trees, cypresses, wheat fields. Van Gogh suffered from episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor and he spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris and his depression continued and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his injuries two days later, Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves. The most comprehensive source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincents thoughts, Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support, and access to influential people on the contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincents letters to him, Vincent kept few of the letters he received, after both had died, Theos widow Johanna arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913, the majority were published in 1914, Vincents letters are eloquent and expressive and have been described as having a diary-like intimacy, and read in parts like autobiography
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