ART “4”
“2”-DAY 15 March
v.5.20 |
| BIRTH:
1839 KNIGHT |
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Died on 15 March 1941: Alexei
Georgevich Jawlensky (or Yawlensky), Russian German Expressionist
painter and printmaker, active in Germany, born on 26 March 1864. — He was born in Torzhok, but, when he was ten, his family moved to Moscow. Following family tradition, he was originally educated for a military career, attending cadet school, and, later, the Alexander Military School in Moscow. However, while still a cadet, he became interested in painting. At the age of 16, he visited the Moscow World Exposition, which had a profound influence on him. He subsequently spent all of his leisure time at the Tret’yakov State Gallery, Moscow. In 1884 he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Samogita Infantry–Grenadier’s Regiment, based in Moscow. In 1889 he transferred to a regiment in Saint-Petersburg, and later enrolled in the Academy of Art (1889–1896), where he was a student of Il’ya Repin. Indeed his works of this period reflected some of the conventions of Realism (e.g. W. W. Mathé Working, 1892). Seeking to escape the limitations on expression exhorted by the Russian art establishment, in 1896 Jawlensky and his colleagues Igor Grabar, Dmitry Kardovsky, and Marianne Werefkin moved to Munich to study with Anton Azbe. Here he made the acquaintance of another expatriate Russian artist, Vasily Kandinsky. In Munich Jawlensky began his lasting experimentation in the combination of color, line, and form to express his innermost self (e.g. Hyacinth, 1902). — LINKS — Spanish Woman (1913; 152kb) — Meditation aka The Prayer (1922; 130kb) — Seated Female Nude (1910; 120kb) — Still Life with flowers and fruits (1909, 70x91cm; 586x760pix, 147kb) — Love (1925; 106kb) _ Against the background of Russian Revolutionary art and Kandinsky’s ideas Jawlensky developed his approach to painting – the serial treatment of motifs. In the years from 1925 to 1933 the artist produced the series of portraits called Constructivist Heads, which were extremely limited in their subject and form. In his search for the prototype of the portrait he turned to the tradition of the Vera Icon and portrayals of Christ. He restricted himself to a type of face that he painted in a small format in various colours. Jawlensky wrote in a letter that his meditative “faces” expressed a state of religious emotion. |
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Born on 15 March 1839: Daniel Ridgway
Knight, US artist who died on 09 March 1924. — Knight was born in Pennsylvania. He studied and exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, were he was a classmate of Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins. In 1861, he went to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel [1823-1889], and to apprentice in the atelier of Marc-Gabriel-Charles Gleyre [1808-1874]. He returned to Philadelphia in 1863 to serve in the Union Army. During the war, Knight practiced sketching facial expressions and capturing human emotion in his work. He sketched battle scenes, recording the war for history. He founded the Philadelphia Sketch Club, where he showed works that dealt with the Civil War, mythology, and scenes from opera. In 1871 Knight married Rebecca Morris Webster and after the wedding he began working as a portrait painter in order to make enough money to return to France. In 1872, once settled in France, Knight befriended Pierre Auguste Renoir [1841-1919], Alfred Sisley [1839-1899], and Wordsworth, all of whose influences can be seen in his work. He also enjoyed a close relationship with Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier [1815-1891]. In 1875 he painted Wash Day (90x130cm) after a sketch by Meissonier for which he received critical acclaim. Knight was also strongly influenced by the works of Jean-François Millet. In 1874 while painting in Barbizon, Knight went to visit Millet and found his view of peasant life to be too fatalistic. As opposed to Millet, Knight focused on depicting the rural classes during their happier moments. Other important influences were Bastien-Lepage, with whom he is most often compared, and Jules Breton for his plein-air style. Knight's works during the 1870's and 1880's focused on the peasant at work in the field's or doing the day's chores, collecting water or washing clothes at the riverside. His Hailing the Ferry (1888) depicts two peasant girls calling for the ferryman on the other side of the river. This work, considered one of the artist's masterpieces, captures all the elements of his pre-Rolleboise period: the subdued light and color, the finely detailed figures and the artist's acute attention to detail. By the mid 1890's, Knight established a home in Rolleboise, some 60 km west of Paris. Here he began to paint the scenes that were to make his work so sought after by contemporary collectors, views of his garden. His home had a beautiful garden terrace that overlooked the Seine, a view he often used in his paintings. Collectors from across the globe vied for these works which featured pretty local girls in his garden. Works from this period include The Roses and The Letter, both of which feature pretty young women surrounded by lush flora. Knight's works present many aspects of Nineteenth Century painting, including history, genre, landscape, portrait, and floral themes. In each work, all that is aesthetic is recorded with fine detail and skill. In order to faithfully record the scenery, Knight studied the different phases of the day and their effects on the environment. Knight built a glass studio outside of his home, enabling him to paint outdoors, even in the dead of winter. Whether he was concentrating on the evening with the glow of moonlight upon the Seine River, or on a young woman in a brightly colored flower garden at midday, each scene is depicted with great detail and with specific attention to a realistic portrayal of the landscape. Knight received a third class medal at the Salon in 1888 for Hailing the Ferry and a Gold Medal at the Munich Exhibition that same year. In 1889 he was awarded a Silver Medal at the Paris Exposition and was knighted in the Legion of Honor, becoming an officer in 1914. In 1896 he received the Grand Medal of Honor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Daniel R. Knight died in Paris. — LINKS — Girl by a Stream, Flanders (1900, 82x65cm; 400x319pix, 38kb _ ZOOM to 800x638pix, 400kb _ ZOOM+ to 1200x957pix, 955kb _ ZOOM++ to 2266x1807pix, 2957kb) — The Harvesters Resting (1883, 96x130cm; _ ZOOM by clicking on “VIEW high-resolution image in browser”) — Harvest Repast (1875; 578x800pix, 149kb) — By the Riverside (81x65cm; 775x601pix, 147kb) — Breton Girl Gazing at a Stream (56x46cm) — Arranging Flowers (97kb) — La Petite Jardinière, Paris (84x66cm; 650x531pix, 626kb) — Partant pour le Travail (1899, 81x66cm) — Les Cerisiers (1896, 81x66cm) — Sur la Terrasse (Maria et Madeleine) (73x91cm) — Meditation (1899, 56x46cm) — Martha, a Day's Sport (56x46cm) — Confidence (1899, 65x80cm) — Maria on the Terrace with a Bundle of Grass (84x66cm) — The Grass Cutter (81x66cm) — Maria and Madeleine on the Terrace (1899, 74x91cm) — Maria on the Terrace, Rolleboise (84x66cm) — The Pet Dove (81x66cm) — On the Terrace at Rolleboise (66x81cm) — Gossips (81x66cm) — Returning Home (81x61cm) — In the Garden (56x48cm) — At Poissy 'Your Health' (56x46cm) — Waiting for the Ferry (1885, 66x81cm) — The Sewing Circle (89x117cm; 465x600pix, 118kb) — The Flower Girl (66x53cm) — Gathering Roses (81x66cm) — Chrysanthemums (55x46cm; 750x624pix, 413kb) — The Fisherman's Daughter (1899, 56x46cm) — Life is Sweet (1915, 83x65cm; 380x292pix, 67kb) _ Knight could have titled the vast majority of his paintings Life is Sweet. The pastoral portrait of that name is a modest vignette of idealized French peasant life, which he tirelessly presented for fifty years to eager patrons in Europe and the US. — 46 images at the Athenaeum Some others of the best paintings by Knight are: The Burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (1867) — Scene from Faust — Peasants Lunching in a Field (1875) — Market at Poissy (1876) — At the Well (1880) — Noonday Meal (1887) — (a different) Noonday Meal (undated) — Hailing the Ferry (1888) — The Water Carriers (1892) — The Shepherdess (1896) — The Trysting Place — Springtime — Landscape at Swickley, Pennsylvania — The Idler — Breton Girl Fishing — French Thrift |
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Died on 15 March 1673: Salvator
Rosa, Italian artist born on 20 June 1615, specialized in
Landscapes.
— He was one of the most original artists and extravagant personalities of the 17th century. His most popular and influential works were his landscapes, the wild and mountainous beauty of which contrasted with the pastoral scenes of Claude Lorrain. Yet Rosa also painted macabre subjects, erudite philosophical allegories, and grand historical themes; he was, moreover, the most significant satirical poet of the Italian 17th century, and there is a close relationship between his poetry and painting. His earliest biographers, Filippo Baldinucci and Giovanni Battista Passeri, both of whom knew him well, described at length his fiery temperament, his immense ambition, his learning and vivacious wit, and his often outrageous treatment of his patrons. — Rosa was a Baroque an artist of the Neapolitan school remembered for his wildly romantic or "sublime" landscapes, marine paintings, and battle pictures. He was also an accomplished poet, satirist, actor, and musician. Rosa studied painting in Naples, coming under the influence of the Spanish painter and engraver José de Ribera. Rosa went to Rome in 1635 to study, but he soon contracted malaria. He returned to Naples, where he painted numerous battle and marine pictures and developed his peculiar style of landscape — picturesquely wild scenes of nature with shepherds, seamen, soldiers, or bandits - the whole infused with a romantic poetic quality. His reputation as a painter preceded his return to Rome in 1639. Already famous as an artist, he also became a popular comic actor. During the Carnival of 1639 he rashly satirized the famous architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, thereby making a powerful enemy. For some years thereafter the environment of Florence was more comfortable for him than that of Rome. In Florence he enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Giovanni Carlo de' Medici. Rosa's own house became the centre of a literary, musical, and artistic circle called the Accademia dei Percossi; here also Rosa's flamboyant personality found expression in acting. In 1649 he returned and finally settled in Rome. Rosa, who had regarded his landscapes more as recreation than as serious art, now turned largely to religious and historical painting. In 1660 he began etching and completed a number of successful prints. His satires were posthumously published in 1710. — Salvator Rosa was a student of the Neapolitan painters Francesco Fracanzano and Aniello Falcone. Fracanzano would become his brother-in-law, and the three painters ultimately worked together in the same workshop. In 1635 Rosa left for his first sojourn in Rome, but by 1638 he had returned to Naples. In 1639 he came into conflict with the artist and papal favorite Gian Bernini, after attacking him in a literary satire. In 1640 he was summoned to the court of the Medici in Florence, where he soon found himself in the center of a group of painters, poets, and musicians called the Accademia dei Percossi. In 1649 he returned to Rome, where he would remain, with only brief interruptions, until his death. Rosa's health slowly declined, and beginning in 1664 he was often unable to work. The subjects of his painting had gradually shifted toward complicated, abstruse scenes from mythology, the Bible, literature, and history, frequently with a touch of the macabre. With these multifigured narrative paintings and allegories he hoped to attain greater recognition than gained by his landscapes and battle scenes—genres with which he had become particularly successful. In his landscapes Rosa loved "romantic," moody evocations of the sea and mountains, in contrast to the classically calm, sublime landscapes of Claude Lorrain, for example. Accordingly, he is considered a precursor and exemplar for Romantic-era Anglo-Saxon landscape painting in the late 18th and 19th centuries. He was also an important painter of portraits. — Rosa's art students included Giovanni Ghisolfi and Pandolfo Reschi. — LINKS — Self-portrait (1641, 116x94cm) _ Rosa, who originates from southern Italy, moved to Florence in 1640 and became the court painter of the Medici. He painted here idyllic landscapes, demonic, thrilling scenes and portraits, among them this self-portrait. — another Self-Portrait — Saint Humphrey (1660, 197x119cm; 775x457pix, 279kb _ ZOOM to 1550x914pix, 1102kb _ ZOOM+ to 2635x1554pix, 2803kb) _ Saint Humphrey, one of the Fathers of the Desert was among the most widely depicted saints of Western Christianity. Called Onuphrius in Latin, he was a royal prince, son of a King of Persia, who became a monk in a regular monastery, observing the regulations of monastic life like other monks. He wished to rise to greater heights of perfection, so he retired from the monastery, which was located near the city of Thebes, in Egypt, and lived as a hermit in a remote region of Egypt, far from the haunts of men. There for nearly 70 years, he lived a life of extreme asceticism, fasting, praying, and doing penance. A beautiful little church is dedicated to Saint Onuphrius in Rome. He is known as San Onofre or San Onofrio in Spanish. His feast of is 12 June. There is a San Onofre near San Diego, California, with a clothing-optional state beach. The Spaniards would name places around the world for the feast day on which they arrived and took possession. They most likely named Rio San Onofre in this way on 12 June, San Onofre's Feast Day. Saint Humphrey is the patron saint of weavers, probably because in religious paintings and sculpture he was widely portrayed covered only with his beard and some leaves about his waist. In Venezuela, San Onofrio is the patron of business, negotiations, and those seeking employment. In Caracas, the church of San Francisco contains a statue of St. Onofrio and it is always ablaze with votive candles placed by the rich and poor alike. The proprietors of many shops display a small statue of San Onofrio as evidence of their devotion to this saint. — Portrait of a Man (78x64cm) _ This portrait was also known with title Portrait of a Bandit, Portrait of the Brigand. Due to the similarity to the authentic self-portraits of the artist it is also assumed to be a self-portrait painted from a mirror. — Democritus in Meditation (1650, 344x214cm) _ Democritus, the great pre-Socratic philosopher and founder of a strictly materialist concept of the world sought new explanations for birth and death, appearance and disappearance. According to his theory of "atomism", atoms are the smallest parts of all substances, uniting and dividing in eternal swirling movements. His ethical system called for a life of moderation and tranquillity foregoing most sensual joys. Rosa depicts him in the traditional pose of melancholy, amidst a setting of decay, destruction and desolation. Animal skulls and bones, symbols of the past greatness of antiquity (vase, altar and herm) and symbols of fallen power (the dead eagle) are featured in this wasteland overcast with heavy grey clouds. An owl high in the tree is his only living companion, both a sign of night and of wisdom. Rosa's Democritus is not the philosopher who has reached the goal of his contemplation, nor does he represent serene tranquillity or the superior cognitive powers of the analytic mind. Instead, we see a forsaken thinker contemplating the things that have been the subject of his intellectual endeavours: death, the past, turbulent disquietude, fragmentation. The vanitas symbolism of the objects does not go unanswered: in the figure of the pensive philosopher lies the germ of a response, still caught in melancholy lethargy. — Diogenes casting away his cup (218x147cm; 795x512pix, 68kb) _ Diogenes of Sinope, a fourth century Cynic philosopher who lived in Athens and Corinth, despised worldly possessions so much that he made his home in a tub. The Greek biographer Diogenes Laertius, tells (VI:38) how, in an exemplary act of renunciation, he threw away his cup as redundant on seeing a boy drinking from his cupped hands. Rosa's career started in Naples, where he studied with his brother-in-law, Francesco Fracanzano, and possibly with Jusepe de Ribera, whose rich and expressive brushwork and taste for naturalistic representations of philosophers clearly had a lasting influence on Rosa throughout his career. In 1640, he moved to Florence where he worked for, among others, Giovanni Carlo de' Medici, for whom he painted Cincinnatus called from the Plough and its pendant Alexander and Diogenes, underlining a growing interest in the portrayal of subjects drawn from Roman and Greek writings. A certain scorn for society manifested itself in an interest in Stoicism and its doctrine of contempt for worldly vanities and Rosa frequently painted scenes from the lives of the ancient philosophers as an implicit criticism of the corrupt life of the city and court. The Cynic Diogenes, whose attacks on social folly were violent and sometimes witty, was of particular appeal to him, and he painted this subject on several occasions, including (as well as the present canvas) The Philosopher's Grove. In 1649, Rosa went to Rome, where he remained for the rest of his life. In the 1650s and early 1660s, he painted the grand and rocky landscapes for which he became best-known, yet continued to explore further ways of representing classical literary subjects. It is to this period that the present picture dates. It was auctioned on 09 July 2003 at Christie's in London, the estimate being £100'000 to £150'000. — River Landscape with Apollo and the Cumean Sibyl (1655, 174x259cm) _ Ovid (Metamorphoses. 14:130-153) tells how the Sibyl of Cumae, in southern Italy, was loved by Apollo. He bribed her by offering to prolong her life for as many years as there were grains in a heap of dust, in return for her embraces. She refused him and although he kept his word he denied her perpetual youth, so she was condemned to centuries as a wizened crone. The Sibyl, a young woman, is shown standing before Apollo holding out her cupped hands which contain the heap of dust. He sits on a rock before her, one hand resting on his lyre. The subject is first seen in the 17th century. — View of the Gulf of Salerno (1645, 170x260cm) _ Salvator Rosa was a prolific artist who is best known for the creation of a new type of wild and savage landscape. His craggy cliffs, jagged, moss-laden trees, and rough bravura handling create a dank and desolate air that contrasts sharply with the serenity of Claude Lorrain or the classical grandeur of Nicolas Poussin. — Human Fragility — The Return of Astraea (1644, 138x209cm; 332x504pix, 57kb) — and a charming picture: Jason Charming the Dragon |
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