ART 4
2-DAY 10 June
v.8.50 |
| DEATH:
1924 KING |
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Born on 10 June 1845: Jean-Joseph-Benjamin“-”Constant,
French painter and printmaker who died on 26 May 1902, specialized in Orientalism.
— Benjamin-Constant (as he called himself) was a leading painter of Oriental themes and a teacher of French academic painting. He spent his youth in Toulouse, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. A municipal scholarship enabled him to enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1866. By the following year he was a student in the Ecole de la Rue Bonaparte under the history painter Alexandre Cabanel, and he competed unsuccessfully for the Prix de Rome in 1868 and 1869. His first Salon exhibit, Hamlet and the King (1869), established his reputation as a colorist. Constant submitted a number of other traditional history paintings, such as Samson and Delilah (1872). During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), however, he traveled to Spain, visiting Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba and Granada, where he came under the influence of the Orientalist painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal. In 1872 Constant went to North Africa and stayed for two years, during which he was fascinated by the azure skies, colorful costumes and exotic beauty of the Moroccan people. Exotic harem women and dramatic quasi-historical subjects were the mainstay of Constant's output. — Constant's students included Ernest Leonard Blumenschein [26 May 1874 – 1960], Frank Dumond, William Horton, William Kendall, Caroline Lord, Granville Redmond, Guy Rose, Joseph Henry Sharp, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Sears Gallagher, Charles Courtney Curran, António Teixeira Carneiro, Carlos Baca Flor, Pedro Blanes Viale, Robert Brough, Józef Czajkowski, Paul Peel, Maurice Prendergast, Leo Putz, George Agnew Reid, José Maria Veloso Salgado [02 April 1864 – 22 Jun 1945], Aurélia de Sousa, Henry Ossawa Tanner. LINKS — The Entry of Mahomet II into Constantinople (1876 _ ZOOMable to 3390x2487pix, 4086kb) — a different Entrance of Mohammed II into Constantinople (150x100cm _ ZOOMable to 2000x1319pix, 451kb, as above) — Arabian Nights (47x89cm; 528x1000pix, 111kb) — Contemplation (140x 93cm; 1000x648pix, 168kb) — Guarding the Chieftain (61x49cm; 1000x817pix, 260kb) — The Palace Guard with Two Leopards (100x62cm; 1000x585kb, 178kb) — L'Impératrice Théodora Au Colisée (157x133cm, 1189x1000pix, 232kb) — Herodiade (1881, 130x95cm; 1000x733pix, 203kb) — The Throne Room In Byzantium (101x74cm; 1440x1000pix, 247kb) — Paris Welcoming The World (42x66cm) — Mme M. S. Derviz — An Arab Woman (55x45cm) –- Drying Clothes (900x708pix, 39kb) _ Unusual for Constant is this everyday scene of domestic work, the subject of which is a lowly woman. Her direct gaze may be a reflection of changing social perceptions in this period, whereby peasants were portrayed as proud and honest folk. The soft warm tones create an exotic languor which charm the onlooker with a dream of Eastern promise. –- Afternoon Languor (88x70cm; 892x654pix, 85kb) –- Arabe Assis (89x64cm; 892x626pix, 47kb) –- Sur la Terrace (65x102cm; 510x848pix, 82kb) —(070609) |
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>Born on 10 June 1557: Leandro
dal Ponte Bassano del Grappa, Italian Mannerist
painter who died on 15 April 1622, son of Jacopo Bassano [1510 – 13
Feb 1592], and brother of Francesco Bassano II [07 Jan 1549 –
03
Jul 1592], Gerolamo Bassano [08 Jun 1566
– 08 Nov 1621], and Giambattista Bassano [1555-1613]. Leandro Bassano's
students included Tiberio
Tinelli [1586-1638]. Leandro worked in the Venetian studio of the family under Francesco, his elder brother who ran the Venetian branch of the workshop. Francesco committed suicide a few months after his father's death, then Leandro took over the workshop. He was the chief portrait painter of the family, and his portraits are closely allied to the portraits by Tintoretto. Leandro both acquired some distinction and popularity working in Venice, he was knighted by the Doge in 1595 or 1596 (thereafter he sometimes added 'Eques' to his signature). — Leandro entered the workshop of his father Jacopo Bassano when very young and soon developed a style of painting strongly based on drawing. Leandro used fine brushwork, with cool, light colors, smoothly applied in well-defined areas, unlike his father, who painted with dense and robust brushstrokes. From 1575 Leandro’s participation in the workshop increased, and he became his father’s principal assistant after Francesco Bassano il giovane moved to Venice in 1578. Jacopo’s will indicated that Leandro should take over the running of the shop, for Francesco was infirm after his suicide attempt, Giambattista was mediocre and incompetent and Gerolamo was combining the painter’s trade with medical studies at the University of Padua. LINKS Moses Striking the Rock (102x12cm) An Old Man (116x96cm) _ Formerly attributed to Tintoretto. — Pénélope défaisant son ouvrage (1575, 92x85cm) _ Leandro n'est considéré le plus souvent que comme l'élève le plus original de son père, Jacopo Bassano. S'il travaille dans la même veine, en poursuivant notamment les recherches luministes auxquelles Jacopo s'est consacré dans sa dernière période, la personnalité propre de Leandro est pourtant bien cernée aujourd'hui. La composition étrangement moderne a soulevé des questions sur l'intégrité de l'oeuvre qui, selon certains, pourrait n'être qu'un fragment et représenter une femme au travail parmi d'autres. A la fin du XIXe siècle, le tableau a même perdu quelque temps son titre, Pénélope devenant une "ouvrière en guipure devant son métier". Ce petit flottement montre bien l'originalité déroutante du sujet. Malgré la célébrité du récit homérique, son iconographie est assez rare et imprécise. Les détails anecdotiques sont d'ailleurs limités ici au strict minimum, à savoir le métier et surtout la lampe, prétexte à un exercice technique saisissant sur le jeu de la lumière. La pénombre envahissante ne sert qu'à intensifier la couleur, posée en empâtements généreux dans la grande tradition familiale. Bien loin des effets de bougie des peintres caravagesques, c'est une dimension poétique et onirique que créent les contrastes inédits de Leandro Bassano. –- The Deposition (61x75cm; 730x900pix, 79kb) _ There are various versions from the workshop of Jacopo Bassano and sons, some in a vertical format and most with variations in the background figures. The best is probably of 1582 (154x225cm) now at the Louvre. –- The Queen of Sheba Before King Solomon (53x41cm; 900x701pix, 143kb) _ This illustrates I Kings 10:1-10, 13 (particularly verses 6-9): The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon's fame, came to test him with subtle questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue, and with camels bearing spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject in which she was interested. King Solomon explained everything she asked about, and there remained nothing hidden from him that he could not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon's great wisdom, the palace he had built, the food at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendance and garb of his waiters, his banquet service, and the holocausts he offered in the temple of YWH, she was breathless. “The report I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true,” she told the king. “Though I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes, I have discovered that they were not telling me the half. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report I heard. Happy are your men, happy these servants of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom. Blessed be YWH, your God, whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel. In his enduring love for Israel, YWH has made you king to carry out judgment and justice.” Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. ... King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she desired and asked for, besides such presents as were given her from Solomon's royal bounty. Then she returned with her servants to her own country. In the picture, among those present, the one who seems to be paying the most attention to what the queen is saying, is the camel in the back. _ Compare: _ by Raphael [06 Apr 1483 – 06 Apr 1520]: Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (796x1124pix, 294kb) _ by Piero della Francesca: The Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (1452, 336x364cm; 810x877pix, 112kb) _ detail (928x727pix, 137kb) _ by Conrad Witz: King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (1435, 84x79cm; 910x794pix, 192kb) _ by Nicolaus Knüpfer: The Queen of Sheba Before Solomon (759x851pix, 171kb) _ by Giovanni Demin [1789-1859]: Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (105x138cm) _ by Lavinia Fontana [24 Aug 1552 – 11 Aug 1614]: Visit of the Queen of Sheba (382x502pix, 78kb) _ by Giorgio Giulio Clovio [1498–1578]: .Solomon Praised by the Queen of Sheba (631x408pix, 32kb) (manuscript illumination detail) _ by Francesco del Cossa: .The Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (482x515pix, 32kb)
_ by Hans
Holbein II: Solomon
and the Queen of Sheba (1535 drawing, 23x18cm; 1010x807pix, 158kb)
_ anonymous: Solomon receiving the queen of Sheba, who is bringing gifts (manuscript illumination; 642x657pix, 321kb) _ strange slightly transparent gray creatures the size of dogs glare at Solomon (here's one >>>). They presumably are intended as camels by an artist who has never seen one. _ anonymous: The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon (engraving; 912x1111pix, 89kb gif) _ anonymous: The Queen of Sheba Offers Gifts to Solomon (manuscript illumination; 618x750pix, 251kb) Solomon is a dwarf on a high throne surrounded by teddy bears. –- Three Martyrs (07 Jun 1578, 102x79cm; 900x695pix, 86kb) painted by Jacopo Bassano with the assistance of his son Leandro. — A Young Man (600x544pix) —(070609) |
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Died on 10 June 1924: Henry
John Yeend King, London English landscape and rustic genre
painter born on 21 August 1855. — Before embarking on a career as an artist he worked in a glassworks for three years. He apprenticed for three years to the firm of O'Connor, glass painters. Afterwards he studied painting under William Bromley before going to Paris to study under Bonnat and Cormon. Yeend King was a typical late Victorian painter of rustic genre, often garden scenes with pretty girls, but his robust plein air technique and bold colors reflects his Paris training. — Yeend King was an important Victorian artist. He was born in London and began his education as a choirboy at the Temple Church. One of the artist’s earliest recollections was of being locked in the building one afternoon after practice: “I had to spend the night in a cabin built of pew cushions, while my father was inquiring at every hospital in London. After three weeks’ rest with a bad cold, on going back to my choral duties I was summoned to an interview with a Bencher, who, after regaling me with cake and wine, presented me with five shillings for having been a ‘good boy,’ and ‘for not having thrown my boots through one of the stained-glass windows.’ The idea of doing such a thing had never occurred to me.” He continued his schooling at the Philological School before being apprenticed to O'Connor's, the glass painters, of Bernes St., London for three years. After working at O'Connor's he went to study painting under the Victorian artist William Bromley, RBA, and then he went to Paris to study under Léon Bonnat [1833 - 1922] and Fernand Cormon [1854 - 1924]. His academic training in Paris, along with a definite influence of the French Realists and Impressionists, helped mold his fully matured style of carefully modeled figures, plein air technique and bold coloration. Yeend King lived in London for most of his life however, like many of his contemporaries his heart was 'in the country'. He traveled extensively throughout England and France in search of suitable subject matter. In 1885 he wrote and illustrated an article entitled “A Round in France” for The Magazine of Art - giving both a visual and written tour of the French countryside leading to Brittany. His specialty was scenes of rustic genre and the countryside - almost never showing the heavily industrialized cities. His paintings depict pretty farm girls (often using his own daughter as a model) at work in the fields or on the farm - much like the French Realist artist Julien Dupré; or women at rest in tranquil landscapes or cottage gardens. In 1881 he married Edith Lilian Atkinson, daughter of T.L. Atkinson (the mezzotint engraver), and they had one daughter - Lilian (who became an artist). In 1879, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artist (RBA) and in 1886 was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (of which he later became vice-president). He was also a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil-Colours and was a frequent exhibitor at all the major exhibition halls; showing 115 works at the RBA, 38 at the RI and 94 at the Royal Academy. Yeend King also exhibited paintings throughout Europe and the United States - winning medals in Paris, Berlin and Chicago. The editor of The Magazine of Art made the following comments about his painting entitled Loiterers that was displayed at the Exhibition of British Artists in 1883: Mr. Yeend King’s Loiterers – two young girls among the sand hills on the shore of a summer sea under a sultry sky, with the sense of glowing heat and lassitude rendered with power and breadth. It was at the Royal Academy exhibit of 1897 that the Council of the RA, as trustees for the permanent collection in New South Wales, purchased The Garden by the River and in 1898 the Tate Gallery, under the Chantrey Bequest, purchased Milking Time. Yeend King was an important and influential artist and was noted by the London Times in an article on 06 June 1924 as: “ In appearance Yeend King was a contrast to the conventional idea of an artist, being clean-shaven, wearing his hair short, and having a genial smile and a great fund of humor. Like most painters, however, he was a real Bohemian, with a wonderful collection of funny stories, which he told well. He was seldom without a snuff-box, although he was not a constant snuff-taker.” — LINKS — The Herdman's Lunch (59x89cm; 362x560pix, 53kb _ ZOOM to 907x1400pix, 259kb) — The Rush Gatherers (51x76cm) — Faggot Gatherers on a Path (61x91cm) — Friendly Neighbors (62x92cm) — Gossips (51x76cm) — Two Ladies Punting on the River (61x46cm; 1000x731pix, 162kb) _ only one of the ladies is punting, and rather lackadaisically at that (it is significant that there is no daisy in the picture, unless that is the name of one or both of the ladies, which seems unlikely compared with, say, Mabel and Nancy); the only one one board who seems fully awake and alert is the dog, though its name is almost certainly not Daisy either. — Fishing on a Sunday Afternoon (41x31cm; 900x666pix, 105kb) — Milking Time (1898, 122x184cm) — Homeward Bound (1895, 51x76cm; 449x662pix, 33kb) — An Evening Stroll (53x46cm; 480x391pix, 36kb) — Landscape with cottage and duck pond — The Letter (71x56cm; 771x600pix, 502kb) — The Old Mill, Mapledurham — The Peaceful Village — In the Garden (91x71cm) — The Old Mill (102x76cm) — Off to School (91x71cm) — Afternoon Picnic (51x76cm) — Gathering Flowers (51x76cm) — Cabbage Gatherer (61x46cm) — Feeding Time in the Garden (102x76cm) — Feeding the Doves (51x76cm) — Feeding the Ducks (51x76cm; 750x1157pix) — a different Feeding the Ducks (51x76cm) — Picnic on the river (51x76cm) — Fishing by the River (61x102cm) — Victorian Garden (36x53cm) — Twas the Night Before Christmas (41x61cm) — Watering the Roses (28 x 22 — The Miller's Geese (61x46cm) — By the Gate (61x46cm) — A Walk in the Country (61x91cm) — Fishing on a Quiet Backwater (61x91cm) — Their Favorite Spot (46x61cm) — Summer Landscape (36x25cm) — A Summer Garden (15 x25cm) — March Meadows (102x76cm) — The Ferry (102x152cm) — Waiting for the Ferry (50x75cm; 750x1127pix, 96kb) two women waiting — different Waiting for the Ferry (60x50cm; 480x395pix, 41kb) only one woman — Girl Waiting for a Ferry (51x76cm) different girl, different place — Watching the Trout (102x76cm) — Crossing the Stream (36x28cm) — Crossing the Road (51x41cm) — A Pensive Moment (58x43cm) — By the Riverside (66x48cm) //— Some of his other paintings are: — From Green to Gold (1889) — Landscape with a Windmill — River Banks and Blossoms (1909) — A Cottage Garden, Braemar — The Woodyard — Landscape — Lathkill Dale, Derbyshire — Girls Herding Geese — The Millstream |
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>Born on 10 June 1859: James Guthrie,
Scottish painter who died on 06 September 1930. — He originally enrolled at Glasgow University to study law but in 1877 his father, a member of the Scottish clergy, allowed him to train as a painter under James Drummond [1816–1877]. In 1878 Guthrie began work in John Pettie’s studio in London where he was encouraged to produce academic history and genre paintings. Every summer from 1878 to 1881, however, Guthrie returned to Scotland to paint landscapes alongside Joseph Crawhall and E. A. Walton. He was influenced by the work of Jean-François Millet and the Barbizon school and in the spring of 1882 completed his first major realist painting, Funeral Service in the Highlands. — LINKS Statesmen of World War I (includes the Maharaja of Bikaner; Sir Robert Laird Borden; Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour; Andrew Bonar Law; Edward Patrick Morris, Baron Morris; Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum; Sir Jose...) (1930) Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (1930) Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (1930) —(070609) |
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Born on 10 June 1857: Edward Henry Potthast,
US Impressionist
painter who died on 10 (09?) March 1927. — Potthast, son of a German cabinet maker, was born in Cincinnati. At a young age he showed a natural inclination toward art, filling the blank pages and margins of his school books with drawings. He was apprenticed at an early age to a lithographer and attended night classes at the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati. He studied under Fernand Cormon. He interrupted his studies to travel to Europe in 1882 and 1887, visiting Antwerp, Munich, Paris and Barbizon. His early work features the dark tonalities of the Munich school, evident in Dutch Interior (1890). After his move to New York in 1896, Potthast’s palette brightened. There he embarked on what was to become his primary subject: New York beach scenes in which spirited groups of families and children cavort under the strong, even light of the summer sun, as in Sailing Party. Obviously influenced by Impressionism — well established in the US by this time — Potthast applied his pigments with a thickly laden brush, obliterating facial expression but conveying gaiety and warmth through his high-keyed color schemes, energetic brushwork and sharply cropped compositions. Potthast was known as a modest, shy, and diligent person who painted almost every day. A bachelor who enjoyed life, much of Potthast's work focuses on leisure activity, especially that of women and children. As a mature artist, Potthast's fame rests on his beach scenes, completed in the last twenty years of his life. These paintings display the unique synthesis of the US Realist's subject matter and the US Impressionist's painting technique particular to Potthast's large body of work. LINKS –- Beach Scene (31x41cm; 925x1200pix, 107kb) –- A Sailing Party (76x102cm; 913x1200pix, 76kb) –- The Wave (935x1200pix, 92kb) –- Snowy Mountain (952x600pix, 77kb) –- The Conference (61x76cm; 911x1200pix, 57kb) –- Holiday (63x76cm; 955x1200pix, 65kb) |
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