BIRTH:
1756 RAEBURN |
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Died on 04 March 1916: Franz
Marc, born on 08 February 1880, German Expressionist
painter, specialized in Animals,
is killed fighting in WW I, near Verdun. Marc was born in Munich. He studied at the Munich Art Academy and traveled to Paris several times where he saw the work of Gauguin, Van Gogh, and the Impressionists. With Kandinsky, he founded the almanac Der Blaue Reiter in 1911 and organized exhibitions with this name. He was a principal member of the First German Salon d'Automne in 1913. At the beginning of World War I, he volunteered for military service. Franz Marc was a pioneer in the birth of abstract art at the beginning of the twentieth-century The Blaue Reiter group put forth a new program for art based on exuberant color and on profoundly felt emotional and spiritual states. It was Marc's particular contribution to introduce paradisiacal imagery that had as its dramatis personae a collection of animals, most notably a group of heroic horses. Tragically, Marc was killed in World War I at the age of thirty-six, but not before he had created some of the most exciting and touching paintings of the Expressionist movement. LINKS Dog Lying in the Snow (1911, 62x105cm) |
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Born on 04 March 1756: Sir Henry
Raeburn, Scottish painter specialized in Portraits
who died on 08 July 1823. Raeburn was born in 1756, in Edinburgh, was orphaned, educated at Heriot’s Hospital in Edinburgh, and brought up under the general supervision of his elder brother William. In 1772, he was apprenticed to James Gilliland, an Edinburgh goldsmith. While he was still an apprentice he began to paint miniatures, first in watercolors, then in oils. In 1780, he married Anne Leslie, widow of Count Leslie, who was 12 years his senior and the mother of 3 children. In 1782, he joined the class under the supervision of Alexander Runciman. In April 1784 he left Edinburgh for Italy, where he stayed until 1887. On his return he settled in Edinburgh, and soon attained pre-eminence among Scottish artists. He was knighted by George IV in 1822, and appointed king’s limner for Scotland a few days before his death. His style was to some extent founded on that of Reynolds, but his bold brushwork and brave use of contrasting colors make his works original. Among his sitters were the writer Sir Walter Scott, philosopher Hume, songwriter and printer Boswell, critic and essayist John Wilson and other outstanding men of Scotland. Born in Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, the second son of a mill owner, Raeburn was orphaned at the age of six. His brother placed him in George Heriot's hospital (a home for orphans) in 1765, where he received a classical education and learned the rudiments of gentlemanly behavior. From 1772 to 1778 he was apprenticed to James Gilliland, a goldsmith and jeweler, and began to paint miniatures. Largely self-taught as an artist, without formal classes in drafsmanship or anatomy, he may have received some instruction from David Deuchar, an engraver and etcher. His first known attempt at full-scale portraiture is George Chalmers (1776). In 1784, shortly before Raeburn left for Italy, he met Sir Joshua Reynolds, who gave him introductions to Pompeo Batoni and Gavin Hamilton. While the Roman experience left little mark on his work, Raeburn was impressed by the sculpture he viewed and may have been inspired also to a fuller use of color and chiaroscuro. He returned to Edinburgh at the age of thirty to become its leading portraitist. He visited London in 1819 to determine the feasibility of establishing a studio there, but the keen competition persuaded him to return to Edinburgh. There he worked in comparative isolation from the changing fashions in London, although he exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1792 to 1823. President of the Society of Scottish Painters in 1812, Raeburn was appointed King's Limner and Painter for Scotland in 1823, the year he died. Leading Scottish portrait painter during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In about 1771 Raeburn was apprenticed to the goldsmith James Gilliland and is said to have studied with the Edinburgh portrait painter David Martin briefly in 1775. But for the most part Raeburn was self-taught, progressing from miniature painting to full-scale portraiture. A portrait of George Chalmers (1776) is Raeburn's earliest known portrait, and its faulty drawing and incorrect perspective suggest the artist's lack of formal training. By his marriage to a wealthy widow in 1778, he achieved financial security, and during the next four years he considerably improved his artistic skill. In London in 1785, while en route to a tour of Italy, he met Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose works were already familiar to him from Scottish collections and engravings. A man of many interests and a good conversationalist, Raeburn became a popular member of the new cultured Edinburgh society. By about 1790 he had painted the portrait of his wife and the double portrait of Sir John and Lady Clerk, in which the artist experimented with unusual lighting from behind the sitters' heads. During the following decade Raeburn produced some of his most brilliant portraits, such as Sir John Sinclair (1795), which foreshadowed the MacNab (1813), in which tonalities became darker and lighting more contrasted. LINKS Sir Duncan Campbell, Scot Guards (1815) John Tait of Harvieston (1800) Sir William Napier, Baronet (1810, 241x149cm) Alexander Carre of Cavers (1802, 90x70cm) Mrs. Alexander Henderson (1800, 76x64cm) The Binning Children (1811) The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddlingston Loch (1795) Lieutenant Colonel William Shirriff H.E.I.C.S. Sir John Sinclair (1795, 238x154cm)_ Raeburn, the leading Scottish portrait painter of his period, painted directly on to the canvas without preliminary drawings, and his vigorous, bold handling - sometimes called his 'square touch' - could be extraordinarily effective in conveying the character of rugged Highland chiefs. |
Born
on 04 September 1700: Lorenzo Pasinelli,
Italian artist born on 04 September 1629. La formazione di Pasinelli si svolse dapprima presso il pesarese Cantarini, e in seguito presso Flaminio Torri, col quale si manifestarono presto contrasti. Dalle opere dell'inizio degli anni '70, quali lo Svenimento di Giulia della Pinacoteca di Bologna, appare evidente l'innesto sul classicismo reniano di una forte impronta neoveneta, o per meglio dire neoveronesiana, che si manifesta attraverso l'uso di una materia rarefatta, ma di vibrante e raffinata cromia. La stesura sprezzante, a tocchi corposi di colore, si accentua nel decennio successivo, come dimostra la Sant'Orsola, anch'essa nella Pinacoteca bolognese. La poetica dell'artista, nella quale l'elegante e rapida condotta della pittura convive col registro languido e patetico dei sentimenti, si rivelera' fondamentale per la pittura bolognese a venire, in particolare per le importanti personalita' del Dal Sole e del Creti. Amore disarmato dalle ninfe di Diana (118x157cm) Subito dopo la consegna del Miracolo di Sant'Antonio per la chiesa bolognese di San Francesco (oggi in San Petronio) il Pasinelli esegui' per il Senatore Francesco Ghisilieri un Amore disarmato dalle Ninfe di Diana. Esposto dal proprietario nel cortile del suo palazzo in occasione della festa del Corpus Domini, il quadro suscito' molte critiche per l'uso eccessivo delle tonalita' rossastre. Piu' che alla tela dello stesso soggetto della collezione Claas di Londra, la descrizione del quadro Ghisilieri sembrerebbe meglio rispondere a questa tela di Modena per la patina dolcemente accaldata delle carnagioni e il timbro bruno dei colori. Qualora se ne accetti l'identificazione col dipinto Ghisilieri, questo Amore disarmato sara' da datarsi dopo la pala del Miracolo di Sant'Antonio, che nel 1686 il Malvasia ricorda gia' presente in San Francesco. Esistono due copie della figura di Amore dormiente, una delle quali si conserva nel Museo Civico di Modena, l'altra in collezione privata. Fanciulla con gabbietta vuota (74x54cm) La poetica immagine sottintende un delicato significato allegorico: l'innocenza della fanciullezza che, come un bene prezioso mal custodito, troppo presto e irrimediabilmente si perde. Il soggetto e' tra quelli piu' divulgati dai generisti tra XVII e XVIII secolo, ma qui il tenue contenuto morale non altera la sincerita' davvero commovente della raffigurazione, cosicche' il dipinto conserva la freschezza del riporto diretto, nella tradizione dell'abbozzo dal vero inaugurata da Annibale Carracci. Le connotazioni stilistiche rinviano pero' ad una datazione ben piu' avanzata rispetto ai modelli carracceschi ai quali la tela parrebbe ricollegarsi, toccando ormai l'ultimo quarto del secolo. In un primo tempo riferito a Francesco Stringa, il quesito attributivo e' stato risolto a favore di Lorenzo Pasinelli, anche se rispetto all'aulico accento che compone le immagini del pittore bolognese, questo dipinto sorprende per la bonarieta' della fanciulla, cosi' dichiaratamente umile e dimessa. |