^ Born on 24 December 1919: Pierre Soulages, French abstract painter. — Pierre Soulages was born in Rodez, France. As a child, he was attracted by Romanesque art, carved menhirs, grottos and vast isolated plateaus. He is a self-taught painter. Though he had been accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts, he declined to enrol, inspired by the discovery of Cézanne and Picasso in 1938. He settled in Paris in 1946 and devoted himself entirely to painting. His first solo exhibition was held in 1949. By the 1950s, he had been propelled onto the international scene, and his works are in the collections of all the great museums. The first retrospective exhibition took place in 1960, in Hanover, Germany. His works have been exhibited without interruption from 1948 to 1995, in the United States, France, Japan (where he won the Grand Prize at the 1957 Tokyo Biennial Exhibition), Germany, Korea and China. In 1974-1975, a retrospective was shown in Africa, France, Spain, Portugal, Venezuela and several cities in Brazil. Working on a government commission from 1987 to 1994, Soulages made 104 models for stained glass windows for the Romanesque abbey church in Conques, France. — Three thousand canvases and drawings make up the artist's output. Soulages chose to use the deepest black to express his fascination with light. While black is the color he uses almost exclusively, line is his principal means of expression, and has been from the beginning. His work, at once ascetic, balanced and powerful, eschews all reference to nature and anecdote. "This rejection of the descriptive," noted Jean-Louis Andral, curator of the exhibition, "is not some sort of opportunistic or circumstantial decision, but an imperative response to the need for painterly intensity that has guided him from the outset." Soulages's compositions are dominated by rectangular shapes constructed on an elaborate play of horizontals and verticals. At first, he painted mainly on paper with walnut stain, solvents and oil. But soon the tipped artist's brush was replaced by the flat brush, palette knife and spatula so he could work the medium of paint to create more effective contrasts of flat color and streaks. The resulting textural relief becomes a focus for reflection: it reacts to the reception of light, entraps and alters it, while light in turn transforms the pictorial space.     Soulages' work can be divided into four periods: the fluid gestures of the early works from 1947, the broken constructions of the 1950s, the monumental architecture of the 1960s, and the explorations since 1979, where black unleashes its light and color. — Born on December 24, 1919 in Rodez, in southwest France, Soulages started painting very early, moved by his fascination for the contrast created by black shapes on a white page. In 1938, he briefly attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris but, disappointed by its academic rigidity, he soon dropped out and decided to work on his own. During World War II, he was a farm laborer and could not devote himself to painting until 1946 when he moved to Paris. Soulages' first exhibition, in 1947, during the Salon des Surindépendants, received immediate notice from critics and painters as different as Francis Picabia and Hans Hartung. His large dark pieces stood out against the polychromatic works of other painters. In 1948, he participated in the exhibition, Französische Abstrakte Malerei that travelled throughout Germany and won him great respect among German painters. In 1949, he had his first solo exhibition in Paris, and in 1952 he joined the Galerie Louis Carré, which carried the works of other important French artists including Fernand Léger, Raoul Dufy, and Jacques Villon.       But Soulages' consecration came from the United States where the response of professionals and collectors was the most favorable. James Johnson Sweeney, curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, visited his studio as early as 1948, purchasing a painting on behalf of the Museum in 1952. Soulages first exhibited in New York, at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1949, and at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1950, and he participated in the landmark Younger European Painters exhibition presented at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in 1953. Thereafter his reputation in the United States was solidified and many of the major US museums showed his work. From 1954 to 1968, he had solo exhibitions almost every year in New York, first at the Sam Kootz Gallery (until 1966) and then at the Knoedler Gallery. During his many travels to the United States, Soulages established lasting friendships with great US painters, notably Mark Rothko. In 1964, he received the Carnegie Award and in 1966 the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas organized the first retrospective exhibition of his work. In France, Soulages switched to the Galerie de France in Paris, in 1956, where his work has been exhibited regularly since. In 1967, the Musée National d'Art Moderne de Paris organized a retrospective exhibition, initiating a series of such exhibitions in a number of museums worldwide. Soulages work is represented in museum collections throughout the world, with 146 pieces, 45 of which are part of diverse collections in the United States. The international art world recognized Soulages' career of accomplishment, awarding him the Prix National de Peinture in France in 1987 and the Proemium Imperiale for Painting in Japan in 1992.       Pierre Soulages' abstract style corresponds to the European and US postwar movement, but it does not relate to any “school”; indeed, its singularity is striking. His canvases have no illustrative titles, not even that of “composition” – they are designated by the uniform term “painting,” followed by the dimensions of the canvas and the date of their completion. Soulages thus indicates that his paintings are objects presented to the viewer's gaze, objects inviting the viewer to construct or deconstruct his or her own meaning. But these objects are neither images nor languages: they represent nothing exterior to themselves and have no significance assigned by the painter. Rather, they aim to provoke by allowing the viewer a share of their emotions in the encounter. Frequently, before 1979, Pierre Soulages based his painting on the contrast between regions of black neighboring other dark colors and white or other light colors. His painting is characterized by the strength of its assertions, modeled by wide black touches and by the power that emerges from the rhythm of black on white. From 1979 on, his black tones invade the surface of the whole canvas, which is generally of large dimensions and often assembled in polyptichs. The entire composition escapes, however, a simple monochromatic effect as the black paint is worked in streaks and in flat tints in order to reflect the light. It offers the viewer a luminous and colorful image which is continually renewed. — LINKS — Noir, Brun, et Gris (580x776pix, 188kb) _ This very dull and random picture has provoked the pseudonymous Roger Accables to produce his Bleu, Blanc, Rouge (1000x1414pix, 729kb) which ought to stir the patriotic spirit of the citizens of the many countries whose flags displays those colors, such as those of France, the UK, the US, Liberia, Western Samoa, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, North Korea, Laos, Taiwan, Thailand. — Peinture, 324 x 362 cm, polyptyque C (1985) black (or nearly black) paint smeared over 100% of the canvas. — Peinture, 220 x 366 cm (1968) black (or nearly black) paint smeared over 98% of the canvas. — Peinture, 146 x 114 cm, 1950 black (or nearly black) paint smeared over 99% of the canvas. _ This pathetic pretense of a picture has moved Accables to transform it into       _ Dumb Mud (1000x1414pix, 297kb) — Peinture 200 x 265 cm, 20 Mai 1959 [the copyright people don't want you to see the picture by Soulages here. You would immediately know that it is junk similar to what you could produce yourself by making a big ink blot. So here is a reproduction of something very much like it and just as worthless: Peinture 200x265cm, 24 Décembre 2003, by Accables >] _ Soulages is considered by some to be the greatest French painter of his generation {that does not say much for the others!}. Nevertheless, he received his most favorable response in the United States {no comment}. This painting, in which streaks of black rise in a burst to meet the diagonal at a right angle, is one of his last pieces done in this explosive style, as well as one of his most successful. Twentieth of May 1959, like other works of the late 1950s, combines an immobility of shapes with a striking dynamism and clearly belongs to this second style particularly used since 1956. It is a piece characterized by its rhythm and the dynamic beat of its shapes in space. Wide streaks of black rise in a burst to meet the diagonal at a right angle. The play of light in Twentieth of May 1959, which is one of the last pieces of this style and one of the most successful, foreshadows Soulages' achievements since 1979. It can be compared to Eighteenth of April 1959. It also bears similarities with Twenty Second of May 1959, a piece painted in a static style of the same period. {This drivel does not represent the opinions of Art~4~2day}. Nor does the following description by Soulages of an accidental splash of tar that aroused his admiration when he was 12 or 13:       “J'avais douze ou treize ans, j'étais fasciné par cette tache. C'était tout à la fois une énorme éclaboussure et la trace laissée par le balai du cantonnier qui avait goudronné la rue. Cette belle tache avait une partie calme, lisse, pleine de noblesse qui se liait avec naturel à d'autres parties plus accidentées où les irrégularités de la matière faisaient une sorte de houle qui dynamisait sa forme. Le pourtour était d'un coté rebondi et ailleurs, quelques protubérances, quelques excroissances paraissaient à-demi inexplicables et à-demi posséder cette cohérence que prend une tache de liquide projetée sur une surface (…) Revenons à la tache. J'y lisais la viscosité, la transparence et opacité du goudron, la force de la projection, les coulures dues à la verticalité du mur, et à la pesanteur. Ces accidents conjugués avaient créé la cohérence et l'organisation plastique de cette forme qui provoquait les mouvements de ma sensibilité. Elle était jetée sur le mur et abandonnée. J'aimais l'autorité de ce noir et sa pauvreté de salissure alliée à la force de la pesanteur.” –- untitled aka Peinture, 9 novembre 1959 ? (510x407pix, 45kb) looks like a B&W photo of a smashed piece of furniture _ €1'199'200 at Sotheby's auction in Paris on 06 July 2006 (4NCRW_PF6018-124-1). _ The pseudonymous Roche Consoles has used color, fine detail, and symmetry to gloriously transform this picture into       _ Peint Turlututu aka A (2006; 724x1024pix, 244kb _ ZOOM to 1024x1448pix, 499kb _ ZOOM+ to 2048x2896pix, 1984kb) and       _ Pointure 9 large aka 24 décembre 2006 (2006; 724x1024pix, 244kb _ ZOOM to 1024x1448pix, 499kb _ ZOOM+ to 2048x2896pix, 1984kb) _ For comparison's sake you can click to dull B&W images (only slightly improved by symmetry). — Peintures, 29 mai 1956 (510x382pix, 37kb) –- Peinture, 10 octobre 1952 (670x880pix, 62kb) –- Peinture, 10 mars 1958 (900x651pix, 55kb) –- Peinture, 13 juillet 86 (890x744pix, 54kb) –- Peinture, 1er septembre 1963 (719x895pix, 88kb) — Peinture, 7 mai 1975 (44kb) _ S*>#. —(061223)

Died on a 24 December:

1904 Gustav Bauernfeind, Austrian painter born (full coverage) on 04 September 1852. —(050901)

1868 Abraham Cooper, British painter born (full coverage) on 08 September 1787. —(050903)

^ 1826 Auguste-Xavier Leprince, French painter and lithographer born on 28 August 1799. He was the son and student of the painter and lithographer Anne-Pierre Leprince and the elder brother of the painters Robert-Léopold Leprince [1800–1847) and Gustave Leprince [1810–1837]. Leprince received a medal at his first Salon of 1819 for one of six entries, five of which were landscapes of 17th-century Dutch inspiration, which came possibly via the work of Jean-Louis Demarne. Leprince quickly learnt to vary the contents of his paintings: at the Salon of 1822 his entries included three Paris street scenes, three portraits and two scenes on board a frigate. His numerous Paris street scenes usually depicted some well-known contemporary event, as in La Restoration de la Barrière du Trône, which is one of a series. The Embarkation of the Animals at the Port of Honfleur (1823) shows the successful application of Leprince’s interest in R. P. Bonington, not only in its composition and content but also in its direct observation. The painting was purchased by Louis XVIII at the highly competitive Salon of 1824. Also reminiscent of Bonington is the small-scale contemporary history painting, The Ordination (1825), again one of a series. In the last year of his short life Leprince showed himself to be a sensitive watercolor painter and lithographer, publishing a set of 12 lithographs entitled Inconveniences of a Journey by Stage-coach.

1804 Moses Haughton, British artist born in 1734.

1799 Tiberius Dominikus Wocher, Swiss artist born in 1728.

^ 1784 (17 Sep?) Giuseppe Bottani, Italian painter born in 1717. He studied first in Florence under Antonio Puglieschi and Vincenzo Meucci [1694–1766]. In 1735 he settled in Rome where, as a student of Agostino Masucci, he deepened his knowledge of the Antique and of the pictorial tradition of the 16th and 17th centuries. His paintings, executed in the classical Baroque style epitomized by Reni and Maratti, are characterized by their erudite composition, precise drawing and enamel-like colors. The large altarpiece of Saint Paola Leaving for the Holy Land (1745) reflects his study of the proto-Neo-classical style prevalent in Rome. He painted various religious works, mostly intended for churches in Pontremoli (Massa Carrara), from where his family derived. Among them are The Madonna with Saints (1756) and The Assumption of the Virgin, the Saint Francis Xavier in Ecstasy (1757) and The Ascension (1764). The painting of The Fair at Maccarese (1755) is typical of his landscape and genre scenes. In 1769 Bottani was appointed Director of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Mantua, where his activity provoked a classical trend in painting. During these years he painted a series of altarpieces for local churches, the designs for six high reliefs for a room in the Accademia and some paintings on secular themes. In his last period he painted Saint Vincent Ferrer Preaching and The Holy Family with Saints Joseph, Zeno and Stephen (1779), in both of which he demonstrates an extreme delicacy of painting.

^ 1680 (burial) Jan van Kessel, Dutch painter and draftsman baptized as an infant on 22 Sep 1641. — He has no known relationship with the Flemish artists Hieronymus van Kessel II [06 Oct 1578 – >1635], Jan van Kessel II [bap. 05 April 1626 – 18 Oct 1679], Jan van Kessel III [23 Nov 1654 – 1708]. — Today's Jan van Kessel was a follower, and probably a student, of Jacob van Ruisdael and covered the same range of subjects painted by Ruisdael, with the exception of marine paintings. However, van Kessel is best known for his townscapes and panoramic views, as exemplified by The Sluice and the New City Ramparts of Amsterdam in Winter and The Bleaching Grounds near Haarlem. He imitated the water-mills and village scenes of his friend Meindert Hobbema, as well as the waterfalls of Allaert van Everdingen, the wooded landscapes of Jan Wijnants and the winter scenes of Jan van de Cappelle. Many of van Kessel’s 120 surviving pictures, including The Avenue and The Ford in the Woods, were once attributed to van Ruisdael and these other masters (often with an authentic signature covered by the better-known name). Van Kessel is also frequently confused with other minor artists in van Ruisdael’s circle, especially Jan Vermeer van Haarlem the younger, Isaac Koene [1639–1713], Jacob Salomonszoon van Ruysdael [1630–1681] and Anthonie van Borssom. As a draftsman, van Kessel emulated van Ruisdael’s mature style, working almost exclusively in black chalk and grey wash. The best of his 70 drawings are townscapes, although his studies of trees and depictions of farmsteads are noteworthy. A number of correlations exist between his sketches and paintings.

1670 (burial) Jan Mijtens, The Hague Dutch artist born in 1614. — Nephew of Daniel Mijtens the Elder [1590-1647] and Isaac Mijtens [1602 – 22 Aug 1666], he was the son of their elder brother David, a saddle-maker in The Hague. Jan may have learnt to paint from his uncle Isaac Mijtens. After 1634 he may have been trained by his uncle Daniel, who had by then returned to The Hague; Jan married Daniel’s daughter Anna in 1642. In 1639 had been admitted to The Hague’s guild of painters, of which he became a governor in 1656. In the latter year he helped to found the painters’ society De Pictura; from 1667-1668 he was a governor of this society and from 1669-1670 its dean. He was the father of Daniel Mijtens II [07 Aug 1644 – 23 Sep 1688 bur]. Martin Mijtens I [01 Jun 1648 – 06 Aug 1736 bur] was a son of Isaac Mijtens and the father of Martin van Meytens II [24 Jun 1695 – 23 Mar 1770].

1541 Damián Forment, Spanish sculptor and painter born in 1480. Fortement influencé par les artistes italiens, il contribua à la diffusion de l'art renaissant dans les territoires de la couronne d'Aragon. Son œuvre sculptée marque la transition entre le gothique et la Renaissance (retable de l'autel du monastère de Poblet; maître-autel de la cathédrale de Huesca, 1520). Son œuvre picturale est moins importante (retable de Sigena, vers 1520). — Retable of the High Altar (1530 sculpture): photo of detail.


Born on a 24 December:

1942 Jonathan Borofsky, US installation artist, painter, and sculptor. . — LINKS —(081224)

^ >1924 Michael Goldberg, US Abstract Expressionist painter of the New York School, who, on 06 January 2008, died of a heart attack he suffered while working in his studio on the Bowery, which he took over from Mark Rothko in the 1950s. Goldberg was a painter of strong convictions who, ever since his youth was influenced by the gestural Abstract Expressionism of older painters such as Kline, Still, and de Kooning. The improvisational nature of jazz, which he admired, was also important to his work. Stuck like some of his peers with the label “second-generation Abstract Expressionist,” Goldberg shrugged it off. “Labels come and go,” he told Saul Ostrow, the conceptual artist who was a close friend, in a 2001 interview for the magazine Bomb. “It makes no difference to what you’re trying to do.” He went on to say that abstract painting is “still the primary visual challenge of our time. It might get harder and harder to make an abstract image that’s believable, but I think that just makes the challenge greater.”
      Goldberg and his second wife (his first was the writer Patsy Southgate), the artist Lynn Umlauf whom he met in 1969 and married in 1979, both taught at the School of Visual Arts. Since 1980 he had spent five months of each year in Tuscany, Italy, on an estate outside Siena. The works he produced there in the summer of 2007 were done with oil sticks pressed directly against the canvas, a method Goldberg chose some years earlier over brushing with paint. They are energetic productions based on what he called a “quasi grid,” with patchy squares of color intersected at random by strong diagonals.
      In 1938 Goldberg began classes at the Art Students League in New York. From 1940 to 1942 he attended the school run by the Abstract Expressionist painter and teacher Hans Hofmann. In 1942 Goldberg volunteered for Army service. He became a master sergeant in North Africa and Burma with the commando unit “Merrill’s Marauders”.
      After further study at the League and the Hofmann school, Goldberg became active as a painter, He frequented the Cedar Street Tavern and the Eighth Street Club, a discussion group founded by downtown artists in 1949, and he came under the influence of Abstract Expressionism. In 1951 his work made its first public appearance in the Ninth Street Show, organized by the club and the dealer Leo Castelli [04 Sep 1907 – 21 Aug 1999] for the new New York avant-garde, where a total of 256 artists were represented, including the following 60:
Alfred L. Copley “L. Alcopley” [1910-1992]
René Robert Bouche [1906 - 1963]
Theodore Brenson [1893 - 1959]
James Brooks [18 Oct 1906 – 09 Mar 1992]
Peter Busa [1914-1985]
Giorgio Cavallon [1904-1989]
Nicolas Carone [1917~]
Elaine de Kooning [12 Mar 1918 – 01 Feb 1989]
Willem De Kooning [24 Apr 1904 – 19 Mar 1998]
Robert De Niro, Sr. [17 Jan 1922 – 03 May 1993]
Enrico Donati [19 Feb 1909~]
Friedel Dzubas [20 Apr 1915 – 1994]
Hans Ulrich “Jimmy” Ernst [24 Jun 1920 – 06 Feb 1984]
Herbert Ferber [30 Apr 1906 – Aug 1991]
John Ferren [1905-1970]
Perle Fine [1908-1988]
Helen Frankenthaler [12 Dec 1928~]
Robert Goodnough [1917~]
Clement Greenberg [16 Jan 1909 – 07 May 1994]
Peter Grippe [1912-2002]
Philip Guston [27 Jul 1913 – 07 Jun 1980]
Grace Hartigan (George) [28 Mar 1922~]
Hans Hofmann [28 Mar 1880 – 17 Feb 1966]
Harry Jackson [1924~ ]
Kappell
Earl Kerkam [1891-1965]
Franz Kline [23 May 1910 – 13 May 1962]
Gitou Knoop [1909-1985]
Albert Kotin [1907-1980]
Lee Krasner [27 Oct 1908 – 19 Jun 1984]
Alfred Leslie [1927~]
Richard Lippold [03 May 1915 – 22 Aug 2002]
Seymour Lipton [06 Nov 1903 – 15 Dec 1986]
Conrad Marca-Relli [1913 – 2000]
Boris Margo [1902-1995]
George McNeil [1908-1995]
Joan Mitchell [12 Feb 1925 – 30 Oct 1992]
Robert Motherwell [24 Jan 1915 – 16 July 1991]
Costantino Nivola [05 Jul 1911 – 06 May 1988]
Jackson Pollock [28 Jan 1912 – 11 Aug 1956]
Fairfield Porter [10 Jun 1907 – 18 Sep 1975]
Richard Pousette-Dart [08 Jun 1916 – 25 Oct 1992]
Melville Price [1920-1970]
Ad Reinhardt [24 Dec 1913 – 30 Aug 1967]
Milton Resnick [07 Jan 1917 – 12 Mar 2004]
Robert Richenburg [1917-2006]
James Rosati [1911-1988]
Anne Ryan [1889-1954]
Joop Sanders [1921~]
Louis Schanker [1903-1981]
Day Schnabel [1905~]
Sonia Sekula [1918-1963]
David Smith [09 Mar 1906 – 23 May 1965]
Theodoros Stamos [1922-1997]
Joe Srefanelli [1921~]
John Stephan [1906-1994]
Jean Steubing
Bradley Walker Tomlin [19 Aug 1899 – 11 May 1953]
Jack Tworkov [1900-1982]
Esteban Vicente [20 Jan 1904 – 10 Jan 2001]
      In Goldberg's early years he and his colleagues never expected to make money at painting and created art just for themselves. In the mid 1950s buyers began to appear, such as the collector Walter P. Chrysler Jr., who, one day, came to the studio of Goldberg, who was nemployed at the time and had no bank account, and bought $10'000's worth of his work, to be paid in $2500 installments.
–- untitled (1784x1138pix, 158kb)
— Codex Comer Piede Vicentino VII (1980, 84x152cm; 370x524pix, 130kb)
— Roland (1960, 127x114cm, 519x468pix, 46kb) —(080108)

1913 Ad_Reinhardt [–30 Aug 1967], US Abstract Expressionist and Minimalist painter. — LINKS—(081223)

1903 Joseph Cornell [–29 Dec 1972], US artist and sculptor. — LINKS—(081223)

^ 1876 Josep María Sert i Badía, Barcelona Catalan artist who died in December 1945. — En 1900 se estableció en París, viajando todos los años por Italia, estudiando la composición, dibujo y colorido que caracterizan su producción. Entre sus pinturas destacan la decoración de la catedral de Vich, que haría de nuevo después de la Guerra, la de la Exposición Universal de París (1900), el Gran Salón del Palacio de Justicia de Barcelona (1909), el Palacio de la Sociedad de Naciones en Ginebra. De gran imaginación al estilo de Rubens, mezcla la Biblia y la zoología fantástica, el majismo goyesco y los títeres. También pintó las decoraciones para el Waldorf Astoria y Rockfeller Center en Nueva York. "No hago un cuadro para una sala, sino que convierto una sala en un cuadro".
— Su padre fue un notable artista que trazó excelentes cartones para la fabricación de tapices, y en él encontró Sert el primer preceptor artístico y la ayuda inicial para desarrollar su decidida vocación. De niño asistió Sert a la escuela de los padres Jesuitas de Barcelona, completando posteriormente su educación en su domicilio, bajo la dirección de un preceptor. Tras ello dedicóse a la pintura, destacando ya inicialmente su inclinación por la obra mural, especialmente las pinturas a fresco de la escuela italiana. En sus primeros tiempos produjo bastantes obras, la mayor parte de las cuales no exponía ni salían de su estudio. No obstante que esta actitud parecía semejar los iniciales ensayos que pretendían fijar un estilo o adoptar un firme camino, ya poseía su producción la perfección y personalidad de un pintor logrado. En 1900 dio a luz pública sus lienzos murales "El Cortejo de la Abundancia". Después, le encargó el obispo Torras y Bages la decoración de la catedral deVich, y empezó a realizar unos cuidadísimos bocetos, cuyos primeros frutos expuso en París en 1908 con un éxito unánime de la alta crítica de la capital francesa. La principal tarea que desarrolló Sert en su vida artística fue Ia decoración mural, y fue, en este aspecto, una de las primeras figuras mundiales de su tiempo. Entre sus más importantes realizaciones figuran las efectuadas en el hotel Waldorf Astoria, los paneles del Rockefeller Center y el salón de Ia Hispanic Society, todo ello en Nueva York; el Palacio de Justicia en Barcelona, el de San Telmo en San Sebastián; varios salones en el Palacio de la Sociedad de Naciones, en Ginebra, y otros palacios y moradas particulares de destacadas personalidades nacionales y extranjeras. En enero de 1930 fue nombrado académico de honor de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Su más celebre obra la constituye el conjunto de las citadas pinturas para la catedral de Vich, destruidas durante la guerra civil española y rehechas después por Sert una vez finalizada ésta.
      Sert era hijo de un acaudalado artista que había hecho su fortuna pintando tapices. Estudió en la Lonja y en la academia de Pedro Borrell, en Barcelona, y en 1899 viajó a París para completar su formación pictórica: estudió composición, dibujo y colorido . En 1900 decoró el pabellón del Art Nouveau en la exposición universal de Bing, y, más tarde, emprendió la magna obra de decorar la catedral de Vich, trabajó que no concluyó hasta 1929.
      Especializado en la pintura mural, Sert realizó numerosas decoraciones en mansiones europeas y norteamericanas: el palacio de los marqueses de Salamanca (Madrid), la residencia de Francisco Cambó (Barcelona), el comedor del hotel Waldorf Astoria (Nueva York), la escalinata de honor y el salón de las Crónicas del ayuntamiento de Barcelona, las dependencias del Rockefeller Center (Nueva York), la mansión de Juan March (Mallorca). De gran imaginación, al estilo de Rubens, mezcló la Biblia y la zoología fantástica, el majismo goyesco [ejemplos de Goya: Maja Vestida (1801) — La Maja y los Enmascarados (1777)] y los títeres.
— El 02 octubre 1936 se inauguró en Ginebra, en el nuevo palacio de la Sociedad de Naciones, la gran sala de los consejos, pintada por Josep Maria Sert i Badía.
— Josep Maria Sert i Badia va desenvolupar, durant la primera meitat del segle XX, una obra pictòrica per la qual se'l va considerar el millor pintor muralista dels anys trenta. La dimensió internacional del pintor queda patent en el fet que les seves teles es troben tant a Europa com a Amèrica, des del Rockefeller Center de Nova York a l'edifici de la Societat de les Nacions de Ginebra.
      Vinculat al modernisme català, Sert va viure a Paris on va tenir contacte amb els corrents més avançats del moment. La relació amb Catalunya la va mantenir a través de les seves germanes i, sobretot, pel lligam que va establir amb la ciutat de Vic, on va decorar la Catedral per encàrrec del seu amic i protector Torras i Bages. Les diferents realitzacions d'aquesta obra van ocupar etapes decisives de la seva vida artística i, per això, no és gens agossarat dir que Sert es va fer com a pintor al voltant del projecte decoratiu de Vic.
      A l'actualitat, Vic ofereix la visita a tres conjunts importants: peces de les dues primeres decoracions de la Catedral a la Capella Fonda; les pintures procedents de l'hotel Waldorf Astoria de Nova York a l'edifici del Sucre i a la impressionant decoració de la Catedral. Tot plegat, la visió més completa i àmplia que es pot veure en tot el món d'aquest pintor.

^ >1858 Eliseu Meifren i Roig, Barcelona Catalan artist who died on 13 February 1940.
— El Marne (452x600pix, 103kb)
— The artist's terrace (60x80cm; 378x512pix, 52kb) —(081223)

1837 Hans von Marées, German painte who died (main coverage) on 05 July 1887. —(090325)

^ 1810 Wilhelm Nicolai Marstrand, Copenhagen Danish painter and illustrator whose strand of earthly life ended on 25 Mars 1873. He was a student of C. W. Eckersberg at the Kunstakademi in Copenhagen (1825–1833). His art reflects his constant observation of the world around him, in particular middle-class society, and the narrative element dominated his pictures of crowds in the city streets. Throughout his life he sought inspiration from literature and the theater. In his early genre painting Moving Day Scene (1831.) it was the popular novelty of vaudeville that interested him. The October Festival (1839) reveals how Marstrand’s five-year stay (1836–1841) in Italy opened his eyes to the classical ideal of beauty. It was, however, an ideal that found little response in contemporary Denmark, and he turned towards a more anecdotal and humorous approach. In Scene of Country Life (1843), painted as a set subject for the Kunstakademi, Marstrand took as his theme a scene from Erasmus Montanus, a play by the 18th-century Danish poet and playwright Ludvig Holberg. Thereafter Holberg’s comedies provided an inexhaustible source that satisfied Marstrand’s need to pursue his investigations of human character. Family life similarly interested him throughout his career, as in his Scene of Daily Life (1857). Such group portraits as The Waagepetersen Family (1836) show an equal concern to depict the quiet details of Danish domestic life. Marstrand continued to travel abroad in search of inspiration. His stay in Venice in 1853–1854 was particularly important; his studies there of the great Venetian painters improved his understanding of the handling of color, as seen clearly in the many historical and religious paintings of his last years. Of particular interest is his mural decoration of Christian IV’s chapel in Roskilde Cathedral (1864–1866) with scenes from the life of the Danish monarch. Marstrand’s paintings have a certain facetiousness which often obscures a much deeper philosophical content. For this reason, it is his drawings that arouse more admiration; they capture the spirit of his time with sharp satire. — The students of Marstrand included Michael Ancher, Carl Bloch, P. S. Krøyer, Kristian Zahrtmann.

1689 Frans van Mieris II, Leiden Dutch painter and writer who died on 22 October 1763 — nephew of Jan van Mieris [1660-1690], son of Willem van Mieris [03 Jun 1662 – 27 Jan 1747], grandson of Frans van Mieris the Elder [16 Apr 1635 – 12 Mar 1681] — The oeuvre of Frans van Mieris II comprises portraits, several small history paintings, and many genre scenes (e.g. The Grocer’s Shop Seen through an Arched Window, 1715), which stylistically and thematically are similar to his father’s work. His most important picture, The Three Generations (1742), shows himself standing alongside his father, Willem, and holding in one hand a portrait of his famous grandfather, Frans, while pointing with the other to Houbraken’s De groote schouburgh, which lies open at an engraved portrait of the latter. In this way he demonstrated, with obvious pride, that he was from a distinguished family of painters, who for three generations had occupied a central position among Leiden artists. In addition to being a painter, he was well known for his historical and numismatic writings.

1635 Philip Brueghel, Flemish artist. — Relative? of Jan Bruegel the Elder Pieter Brueghel the Elder [1525-1569], his sons Pieter Brueghel the Younger [1564-1638] and Jan ‘Velvet’ Brueghel [1568 – 13 Jan 1625], and Velvet's son Jan Brueghel the Younger [13 Sep 1601 – 01 Sep 1678]?

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