ART “4”
“2”-DAY 17 April
v.8.30 |
| DEATHS:
1679 VAN KESSEL
—1970 GNOLI
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Born on 17 April 1852:
Laura Theresa Epps Alma~Tadema,
British painter and illustrator who died on 15 August 1909. — Born in a family whose friends included such artists as Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown, at an early age she made copies from the Antique in the British Museum, London, and later studied at the British Museum School under William Cave Thomas [1820–1884] and William Bell Scott. In 1870 she began her studies under Lawrence Alma-Tadema [08 Jan 1836 – 28 Jun 1912], whose second wife she became in 1871. The principal subjects of her paintings are children at play, often placed in 17th-century Dutch settings, among Dutch furniture and accessories modeled on those in her husband’s collection. She emphasized everyday scenes in domestic interiors, as seen in Airs and Graces. Although the costumes and setting of this painting, as well as the general composition with the light coming from a window on the right, as in Sunshine, are characteristic of 17th-century Dutch works, the anecdotal sentiment conveyed by the pretty, graceful girls dancing vainly is thoroughly Victorian in feeling. She also painted children in contemporary settings, portraits of children (mainly in pastel), still-lifes (e.g. Still-life with a Self-portrait) and some Classical subjects. From 1873 she exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and in other galleries in London and elsewhere in Great Britain. She also showed in Berlin and Paris and in 1878 was one of only two women to be invited to participate in the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where she was awarded a silver medal. She also produced illustrations for the English Illustrated Magazine. She went frequently with her husband to Italy, where she made a number of small landscape studies, and to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. As she also signed her canvases L. Alma-Tadema, her paintings are sometimes confused with those of her husband. Her sister Ellen [Nellie] Gosse (fl 1879–1890) and her stepdaughter Anna Alma-Tadema [1865–1943] were also painters. — LINKS –- A Knock at the Door (1897, 64x45cm; 860x596pix, 59kb) _ This domestic interior, in which an elegantly dressed woman stands in front of a mirror, brings to mind similar Dutch scenes painted two centuries earlier. Details, such as the Delft tiles along the floor, the open casement window, and the date of 1684 on the calendar, serve as references to seventeenth-century Holland. Like its predecessors, the painting at first glance appears to be an allegory for domestic diligence, though its full meaning remains vague. As the title indicates, the woman has just heard a knock at the door, possibly from a suitor. She has dropped her embroidery on the chair and hurried to the mirror to check on her appearance. — Sunshine _ a young girl sitting on a window sill, looking out. — Gathering Pansies (33x24cm; 1452x1000pix, 427kb) — A Carol (38x23cm) — Queen Katherine of France (1888; 386x250pix, 56kb). |
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Died on 17 April (18 October?) 1679: Jan
van Kessel II, Antwerp, Flanders, still
life and flower
Baroque
painter, draftsman, and designer, baptized as an infant on 05 April 1626,
sometimes designated as Jan van Kessel I, because he was the first painter
of that name. But the real Jan van Kessel I was his grandfather, a draper.
The father of Jan van Kessel II was the painter Hieronymus (= Jeroom) van
Kessel [06 Oct 1578 bapt. – 1636+]. David
Teniers the Younger [15 Dec 1610 – 25 Apr 1690] was the uncle-in-law
of Jan van Kessel II, having married in 1637 his mother's sister Anna Brueghel.
The Dutch landscape artist Jan van Kessel [1641 – 24 Dec 1680] was
apparently unrelated. — Jan van Kessel II of Antwerp was the son of the painter Hieronymus van Kessel and the grandson of Jan Brueghel. Van Kessel specialized in small oil paintings on copper and wood. Jan van Kessel painted many animals (especially insects) and flowers, as well as some mythological and biblical scenes. His choice of subject leaned towards those which included animals and plants; for example, he painted Noah's Ark. — Jan van Kessel II began his training as a painter in 1635 with Simon de Vos [28 Oct 1603 – 15 Oct 1676] and was also taught by his uncle Jan Breughel II [13 Sep 1601 – 01 Sep 1678]. In 1645 he was registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a flower painter, but he also depicted, in both oil and watercolor, animals, birds, fish and insects, as well as a variety of still-life subjects. He continued the traditions of his maternal grandfather, Jan I “Velvet” Brueghel [1568 – 13 Jan 1625], and was also influenced by Daniel Seghers [05 Dec 1590 – 02 Nov 1661]. Van Kessel painted garlands and bouquets of flowers, but is best known for small, jewel-like pictures, often on copper, of insects or shells against a light background, executed with strong color and great exactitude. At his marriage to Maria van Apshoven [–1678] in 1647, one of the witnesses was his uncle David Teniers II, who had married Breughel’s daughter Anna ten years previously. In 1655 Jan van Kessel II bought a house opposite the cemetery of the Saint Joriskerk in Antwerp, but by the end of his life all his possessions were heavily mortgaged in order to pay off his debts. Jan II taught two of his seven sons to paint, Ferdinand van Kessel [07 Apr 1648 – 1696], who painted in the style of his father, and Jan van Kessel III [1654-1708] (aka, erroneously, Jan van Kessel II)., who followed in the portrait tradition of his grandfather. — LINKS — Insects and Fruit (11x16cm) _ In this painting on copper, a caterpillar is crawling over a small branch, surrounded by butterflies and other insects. Although this painting appears to be a realistic still life, it is actually more like a sampler. The small animals are accurately depicted, only the relation between them and the space around them is not entirely precise. This kind of painting was probably specially intended for people who had a scientific interest in plants and animals. These detailed studies were often produced as prints. — Insects (1660; 600x864pix _ ZOOM to 1400x2016pix) — The Animals (1660, 175x123cm) _ This triptychon contains 40 sections (17x23cm each). The animals are placed in a setting (Netherlandish, mountainous, exotic) corresponding to the species. (8 rows of 5 separate pictures each, tiny in the reproduction) — The Mockery of the Owl (170x234cm) _ The fully-fledged animal painting emerged in the late 16th century with the rise of biological research and collections of rare creatures. Jan van Kessel in The Mockery of the Owl demonstrates a thorough knowledge of exotic animals. The artist uses a narrative subject as a vehicle for painting his animals. — Still-Life (42x77cm) _ This Antwerp artist's teacher and uncle was Jan Brueghel the Younger, and therefore he was a direct descendant on his mother's side from Pieter the Elder [1525-1569] and Jan the Elder (“Velvet”). He painted chiefly still-lifes, frequently representing food laid out sumptuously on light-colored tables and depicted with the delicacy of a miniaturist, using lively colors of a predominately red tint laid on with the tip of the brush. The documentary, informative, educational, and communicative function of these richly laid tables, in which the individual objects are simply added on and depicted from a slightly raised viewpoint, is combined with the evident intention of demonstrating the affluence of the wealthy patrons of these works. It is also possible to discern allegorical intentions alluding to the five senses or the four elements, but while such an interpretation is quite plausible, the principal aim is a purely aesthetic one, offering this profusion of beautiful objects, rendered with exquisite skill, as a simple feast for the eyes. There is a companion piece to this painting, a variation on the same theme. — Still Life with Fruit and Shellfish (1653) — Africa (central panel, detail) (1666) — Europe (central panel, detail) (1666) — 6 prints at FAMSF |
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Born on 17 April 1833: George Vicat Cole,
English painter who died on 06 April 1893. — {He must have favored
Cole colors, especially coal black.} — The eldest son of the landscape painter George Cole [1810–1883] and Eliza Vicat, he worked in his father’s studio in Portsmouth copying, in black and white, engravings after Turner, Constable and Cox. He accompanied George Cole on sketching tours, visiting the Moselle region in 1851. His work was first exhibited at the British Institution in 1852, and later that year his family moved to London. He married Mary Ann Chignell in 1856. In 1853 two of his works were accepted by the Royal Academy, where he continued to exhibit until 1892. He was a regular exhibitor at the Society of British Artists, of which he became a member in 1858. He was elected ARA in 1870 and RA in 1880. — George Vicat Cole was born at Portsmouth, son of the landscape painter George Cole, and in his practice he followed his father's lead with marked success. He exhibited at the British Institution at the age of nineteen, and was first represented at the Royal Academy in 1853. His election as an associate of this institution took place in 1870, and he became an Academician ten years later. He died in London. The wide popularity of his work was due partly to the simple directness of his technical method, and partly to his habitual choice of attractive material. Most of his subjects were found in the counties of Surrey and Sussex, and along the banks of the Thames. — LINKS — Autumn Morning — On Holmbury Hill — On the Tamar, Devon (1875) — On the Run (1869, 66x102cm) — Deer in a Woodland Glade (1862, 91x122cm) — A Welsh Landscape (1859, 104x153cm) — The Swan at Pangbourne (57x77cm) — The Pool of London (1888, 1950x305cm) |
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>Died on 17 April 1970: Domenico
Gnoli II, Italian painter and stage designer born on 03
(02?) May 1933. His interest in art was encouraged by his father, the art historian Umberto Gnoli, and his mother, the painter and ceramicist Annie de Garon, but his only training consisted of lessons in drawing and printmaking from the Italian painter and printmaker Carlo Alberto Petrucci [1881–]. After holding his first one-man exhibition in 1950, he studied stage design briefly in 1952 at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome; he enjoyed immediate success in this field, for example designing a production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It for the Old Vic Theatre in London in 1955. He then began to live part-time in New York, where he began to work as an illustrator for magazines such as Sports Illustrated. During this period he drew inspiration from earlier art, especially from master printers such as Jacques Callot and Hogarth, from whom he derived his taste for compositions enlivened by large numbers of figures stylized to the point of caricature. In other works he emphasized the patterns of textiles or walls, boldly succumbing to the seduction of manual dexterity and fantasy in a style that was completely out of step with the prevailing trends of the 1950s. — Nato a Roma, Domenico Gnoli comincia giovanissimo la sua carriera come scenografo e illustratore, lavorando per importanti riviste e per l’editoria. In seguito a lunghi soggiorni a Londra, New York, Parigi, dopo il 1955 si dedica alla pittura, iniziando così anche un’intensa attività espositiva in prestigiose gallerie e musei europei e americani. Nel 1962 l’amico Ben Jakober lo convince a trasferirsi nella capitale francese, dove incontra la pittrice Yannick Vu che diventerà sua moglie. Qui ha la possibilità di intrecciare importanti relazioni che lo inseriranno nel circuito del mercato internazionale. Proseguono numerose le mostre che lo portano a viaggiare, soprattutto all’estero, e ad affermarsi come uno dei più ricercati protagonisti dell’arte figurativa degli anni Sessanta. Dopo una breve malattia, muore prematuramente a New York. — LINKS — Senza Natura Morta n.1 (1966) _ a tablecloth covered round table top with nothing on it. _ This has been carried to the ultimate by the pseudonymous Don Enrico Gnauli dei Ignobili in his _ Senza Niente aka Without a Polar Bear Attempting to Break Into an Abandoned Igloo During a Snow Storm White-Out in the Arctic (2006; screen filling, 1kb _ ZOOM to 93'200x65'900pix, 1kb) and _ Senza Natura Morta, Senza Tavolo, Senza Tovaglia, Senza Sforzo, Senza Significato, Senza Arte, Senza Tutto aka Without the Caged Raven Which Was Substituting For a Canari as Poison Gas Detector in an Coal Mine Tunnel Six Hundred Meters Underground, After the Raven Died Signaling a Gas Leak and, Contrary to What Happens All Too Often in Similar Situations, Every Single Miner Fled Unhurt to Safety, Following Which the Lights Failed, a Tremendous Explosion Was Heard, and the Tunnel Collapsed, at Midnight on a Moonless Night Under a Heavily Overcast Sky (2006; screen filling, 1kb _ ZOOM to 93'200x65'900pix, 1kb). — Poltrona (1967, 203x143cm; 800x556pix, 158kb) _ Gnauli has doubled this picture and modified it to become _ L'insouciant et le poltron (2006; screen filling, 206kb _ ZOOM to 932x1318pix, 509kb) which he has further evolved into the much more colorful, intricate, and interesting symmetrical abstractions _ Paul trôna aka Pooch Coop (2006; screen filling, 358kb _ ZOOM to 1318x1864pix, 1934kb) and _ Pot, le trône aka Loop Spool (2006; screen filling, 389kb _ ZOOM to 1318x1864pix, 1752kb). –- Le Bouton (900x597pix, 54kb) _ The button has been duplicated in a brighter color in Gnauli's otherwise abstract _ But On No Tub (2006; screen filling, 306kb _ ZOOM to 932x1318pix, 817kb) –- Pelliccia (900x565pix, 89kb) almost monochrome _ Gnauli has put the button (preceding image) on the coat and given bright colors to Gnoli's dull images, resulting in _ Boutonné aka Ton Bouton (2006; screen filling, 244kb _ ZOOM to 932x1318pix, 411kb). Then he has surpassed himself by metamorphosing this into the splendid symmetrical abstraction _ Pas le taux aka Leper Repel (2006; screen filling, 351kb _ ZOOM to 1318x1864pix, 1509kb) –- Shoulder (510x446pix, 18kb) of a business suit, a picture suitable at best for an advertisement of men's clothing. — La cravatta (1967; 439x225pix, 15kb) same remark as above. Gnauli was provoked into combining these two pictures and transforming them into the colorful abstraction _ Should Her Craving for Him Wearing a Tie on His Shoulder Be Repressed? aka Deity Tied (2006; screen filling, 361kb _ ZOOM to 932x1318pix, 921kb). — La mela — Il ricciolo. —(070415) |
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