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DEATHS: 1633 VAN WIERINGEN — 1616 GOLTZIUS — 1743 RIGAUD  1972 CORNELL  1928 PETERSEN   1825 DAVID 
BIRTHS: 1695 PATER — 1759 IBBETSON — 1859 FORBES  1838 SERNESI 
^ Died on 29 December 1633: Cornelis Claeszoon van Wieringen, born in 1580, Haarlem Dutch sailor and navigator who became a draftsman, painter, and etcher specialized in seascapes.
— His name first appears in the Haarlem records in 1597. It is generally assumed that he was a student of Hendrick Vroom, whose work strongly influenced his own. Documentary sources confirm that he maintained close friendships with both Hendrick Goltzius, who made woodcuts after his drawings, and Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem. Van Wieringen was more than once governor of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke, a position in which he was responsible for updating the guild’s outmoded organization. He specialized in seascapes and received commissions from the city of Haarlem, the Dutch Admiralty in Amsterdam and others. His interest lies primarily in his influence on Dutch marine painters of the 17th century. His son Claes Corneliszoon van Wieringen (fl 1636), also a painter, died young.

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The Explosion of the Spanish Flagship during the Battle of Gibraltar (1621, 138x188cm) _ On 25 April 1607, thirty Dutch ships took the Spanish fleet by surprise in the Bay of Gibraltar. The Spanish vessels, which threatened Dutch trade with Asia, were destroyed. Four thousand Spaniards and one hundred Dutchmen lost their lives in the battle. Among the dead were both the Dutch and Spanish admirals. This was the first great victory of the Eighty Years War for the Dutch fleet. The painting has been attributed to Cornelis Claeszoon van Wieringen. He has triumphantly depicted the Dutch victory with the explosion of the Spanish flagship. Dozens of Spaniards are being blown from the ship. The sea has turned red with blood. The painter has left no doubt that the enemy are Catholic. The angel decorating the ship is falling; the bishop and the Virgin Mary are being blown up; a cross is falling into the water; a monk falls down with buttocks bared. Triumph and perverse delight emanate from the painting. Small figures on the Dutch ships, left and right of the background, wait leisurely in the wings. The painter shows that they are quite unconcerned about the fate of the Spaniards.
     Among the Dutch dead was Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck [1567 – 25 Apr 1607], hit by a Spanish cannonball while standing on deck. Van Heemskerck was commemorated with a tomb in the Old Church in Amsterdam. According to an old custom, his armor were carried with his body in the funeral procession and later hung above his tomb. The left thigh piece is missing, shattered by the Spanish cannonball that killed him. Van Heemskerck had become something of a legend even before his death, having survived the winter on Nova Zembla. He was captain of Willem Barentsz's ship which became trapped in the ice off Nova Zembla in 1596.
     Van Wieringen painted another picture of the Battle of Gibraltar. It was commissioned in 1622 by the Admiralty in Amsterdam as a gift for Prince Maurice to go in the new wing of the stadholders quarters in The Hague. It is assumed that the unsigned and undated painting in the Rjksmuseum is a test piece the Admiralty commissioned from Van Wieringen in 1621. The painting used to be attributed to Hendrick Corneliszoon Vroom. Furthermore, Van Wieringen understood the subject matter: he had been a sailor before he became a painter. This gift from the Amsterdam Admiralty was intended as a token of support for Maurice, who had reopened hostilities with Spain in 1621 following a truce that had lasted twelve years (1609-1621). The painting, commemorating one of the great military triumphs of the stadholder's reign, was a clear vote of confidence in the Prince.
Capture of Damiate (1625) _ Wieringen was probably the student of Hendrick Corneliszoon Vroom (the founder of European marine painting); he ranks as his best and closest follower. Wieringen's multicolored paintings are more ornamental, his waves and whitecaps more schematic than Vroom's, and his skies (apart from those in his graphics) are little more than decorative backdrops.
      The Capture of Damiate was commissioned by Haarlem's Saint Hadrian Civic Guard, and it was originally mounted as an overmantel in the company's headquarters (a few years afterwards officers of the company commissioned Frans Hals to paint their group portrait). The painting represent a pseudo-historical event. According to tradition late twelfth-century crusaders en route to the Holy Land tried to capture Damiate, a port city at the mouth of the Nile which had its harbour protected by a heavy chain stretched across it from two moles. The chain was cut, according to the legend, when a ship from Haarlem ingeniously fitted with a specially designed saw-toothed prow and keel sailed across it. After this feat and a fierce battle the port fell to the crusaders.
      The tale exemplified the audacity and courage of early Haarlemmers, and by association, redounded to the glory of citizens of the city. By the sixteenth century the fable had acquired a mythic dimension for Haarlem's patriots. The appetite for it was satisfied by later printmakers and painters. Vroom and other artists also made drawings to stain glass windows of the subject, and Wieringen designed a huge tapestry depicting the legendary event for Haarlem's Town Hall which is still mounted there.
Landscape with hermits (40x56cm) _ Wieringen is well-known as a marine painter. This is the only known landscape painting of this painter. He did make some drawings and etchings of landscapes.
—(051228)
^ Born on 29 December 1695: Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater, French painter and draftsman who died on 25 July 1736.
— He was the only student of Watteau [10 Oct 1684 – 18 Jul 1721] (a fellow native of Valenciennes), with whom he had a somewhat touchy relationship. An unlikely legend has it that Watteau dismissed him from his studio (1713) because he was disturbed by the threat offered by his progress to his own pre-eminence; whatever the reason for their differences, they were reconciled soon before Watteau's death. Like Watteau's other imitator, Lancret, Pater repeated the master's type of 'fêtes galantes' in a fairly stereotyped fashion. He showed more originality in scenes of military life and groups of bathers (in which he gave freer rein to the suggestiveness often seen in his fêtes galantes).
— Pater was taught in his native Valenciennes by Jean-Baptiste Guidé [–1711] and also by his father, Antoine Pater [1670–1747], a sculptor whose portrait (1716; 741x581pix, 36kb) was painted by Antoine Watteau, who was also a native of Valenciennes. Jean-Baptiste Pater probably followed Watteau to Paris after the short stay that the latter made in Valenciennes around 1710. Pater thus became a student of Watteau. Watteau’s difficult character led to Pater’s dismissal.
      He then spent a few hard years on his own in Paris, before returning to Valenciennes about 1715 or 1716. He tried to work independently of the local corporation of Saint Luc, of which he was not a member; a number of comical legal difficulties ensued, and Pater returned to Paris in 1718. There he must have been in contact with Watteau, since he worked for some of the latter’s clients, such as the dealers Pierre Sirois and Edmé-François Gersaint, and the collector Jean de Jullienne.
      In the spring of 1721 the dying Watteau called Pater to him at Nogent, near Paris, apparently full of remorse for his previous attitude and wishing to instruct him in the basic tenets of his painting, and perhaps also to enlist his help in completing commissions that his failing strength did not allow him to finish himself. Pater later claimed to have learnt everything he knew during those few weeks.

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Bathers (1730, 74x60cm; 599x488pix, 58kb _ ZOOM to 2485x2024pix, 510kb)
The Joys of Country Life (1735, 54x66cm; 600x728pix, 87kb _ ZOOM to 1668x2024pix, 299kb)
–- The Offer of Flowers (Springtime) (41 x 55cm)
The Chinese Hunt (1736, 55x46cm; 980x823pix, 125kb)
–- Fête Champêtre (65x82cm; 976x1239pix, 78kb _ .ZOOM to 1952x2493pix, 618kb)
–- a different Fête Champêtre (15x20cm; 736x978pix, 63kb)
Concert Champêtre (800x1094pix, 178kb) _ Pater followed Watteau closely in the genre called fête galante, transposing his atmosphere to a more silvery one.

Relaxing in the Country (770x1081pix, 157kb)
The May Tree (34x44cm)
The Fair at Bezons (1733, 107x142cm; 389x500pix, 59kb) detail (654x900pix, 70kb) _ This fair, held annually on the first Sunday in September in a village near Versailles, inspired several artists of the period. The theme was used for a stage play as early as 1695 and also by Favart for a ballet-pantomime in 1735. Pater was a student of Watteau, whose works inspired this large composition. There is a smaller version dated 1733. The group of commedia dell'arte players at the left in the middle distance, including the white-suited figure of Gilles, reappears in Pater's Procession of Italian Comedians. In his own day, Pater's reputation was very nearly equal to his teacher's. Frederick the Great owned over forty of his paintings. The Fair at Bezons is frequently cited as Pater's masterpiece.
 
—(061226)
^ Died on 29 December 1616 (01 Jan 1617?): Hendrik Goltzius (or Goltz, Goltius), Dutch Baroque draftsman, printmaker, print publisher, and painter, born in February 1558.
— Goltzius was of German descent, the outstanding line engraver of his time. He was the leader of a group of Mannerist artists who worked in Haarlem, where he founded some kind of 'academy' with Cornelis van Haarlem and Karel van Mander. In 1590-91 he visited Rome and on his return to Haarlem he abandoned his Mannerist style for a more classical one. Goltzius's right hand was crippled, but in spite of this handicap he was renowned for his technical virtuosity and his skill in imitating the work of other great engravers such as Dürer and Lucas van Leyden.
      In his early career much of his work was reproductive, but he also produced many original compositions, including a splendid series of Roman Heroes (1586). His miniature portrait drawings were also outstanding, and the landscape drawings he made after 1600 mark him as a forerunner of the great 17th century landscape artists. His paintings are less interesting than his drawings and much less advanced stylistically.
— Goltzius was born in the German town Mülbracht (modern Bracht-am-Niederrhein). In 1577 he followed the humanist printer Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert, with whom he was studying, to Haarlem. Together with other artists such as Karel van Mander I and Cornelis van Haarlem, he introduced the complex composition schemes and the exaggerated, contorted figures of Mannerism into the Northern Netherlands. Following a journey to Italy in the 1590s, Goltzius developed a more academic and classicist style. Goltzius's oeuvre provides an interesting reflection of the changes that were occurring in Dutch art in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In his own lifetime Goltzius was famous for the technical virtuosity of his engravings. Goltzius died in Haarlem.
— Goltzius was an important artist of the transitional period between the late 16th century and the early 17th, when the conception of art in the northern Netherlands was gradually changing. Goltzius was initially an exponent of Mannerism, with its strong idealization of subject and form. Together with the other two well-known Dutch Mannerists, Karel van Mander I and Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, he introduced the complex compositional schemes and exaggeratedly contorted figures of Bartholomäus Spranger to the northern Netherlands. These three artists are also supposed to have established an academy in Haarlem in the mid-1580s, but virtually nothing is known about this project. In 1590 Goltzius visited Italy, thereafter abandoning Spranger as a model and developing a late Renaissance style based on a broadly academic and classicizing approach. Later still, his art reflected the growing interest in naturalism that emerged in the northern Netherlands from about 1600. In fact, Goltzius’s ability to emulate the style and technique of different artists and to adapt to current trends earned him distinction as a Proteus of changing shapes.
— Dolendo was an assistant of Goltzius.
— The students of Goltzius included Jacques de Gheyn II, Jan Saenredam, Salomon de Bray, Willem Jacobszoon Delff, Balthazar Gerbier, Jacques de Gheyn II, Hendrik Goudt, Pieter de Grebber, Pieter de Jode I, Jan Muller.

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Self-Portrait (1592, 36x29cm; 379x300pix, 30kb)
Funeral procession of William of Orange (1584, 685x1600pix, 323kb) _ William of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt against Spain, was assassinated by Balthasar Gerardts in Delft on 10 July 1584. The Prince's funeral took place in Delft on 3 August. A stately procesion bore the 'Father of the Nation' to his tomb in the Nieuwe Kerk. Goltzius depicted the royal funeral procession in a series of twelve prints. Together they form a five-metre frieze. This panel, the ninth in the series, shows the pallbearers preceded by stewards, chamberlains and halberdiers.
Lot and his Daughters (1616, 140x204cm; 1094x1600pix) _ A seasoned but lusty old man is seated between two naked young women. In the background a city is burning. The man is Lot, seduced by his daughters following the destruction of the city of Sodom. Goltzius painted the work in 1616. He used the Bible story to show off his skill as a painter of nudes. The two women have wonderfully soft bodies with full, gentle curves. For an old man, Lot is still remarkably muscular. To accentuate the bodies the artist draped cloth over them in contrasting colors: blue, yellow and red. The poses of Lot and his daughters are perhaps rather artificial, but that was the style of art in the period, Mannerism.
Monkey on a chain, seated (1597, 30x41cm; 1600x1193pix, 375kb) _ A monkey sits hunched over in the corner of a vaguely described area. He is kept on a chain and plays with the lock with his left hand. Hendrick Goltzius's depiction of the monkey is highly moving; the hairs on his neck and forehead standing on end, the sharply formed ear, the pink nose and the bony limbs. From about 1580, Goltzius increasingly made large drawings of this kind in different colors of chalk. He was precise about his work and portrayed the anatomy of his animals with great realism. Following his stay in Italy (1590-1591) his drawing style became more relaxed. This masterful drawing was also created rather late; about 1597. The work clearly illustrates Goltzius's expertise in working with chalk.
The Giant Hercules (1589, 56x40cm; 1600x1151pix, 621kb) _ An extremely muscular man is standing proudly in a landscape with a lion skin draped around his shoulders. He is wearing the creature's head like a cap. The lion skin and the cudgel reveal the figure to be Hercules, a hero from Greek mythology who was given a series of almost impossible tasks. Some of his heroic deeds are depicted in the background. The print's Latin caption* praises Hercules' bravery. This spectacular print by Goltzius is a tour de force in terms of engraving. The fight with the river God Achelous (in the form of a bull) is depicted in the background (left). Further off in the background the naiads (nymphs) are filling the severed horn of the bull with fruit. On the right Hercules is fighting with the giant Antaeus.
* Amphitrionade virtus terraq'3 mariq'3 / Quem latet? et tanti sæua nouerca mali? / Ille tot expositus monstris, Hydræq'3, tricorpor / Geryon atq'3 tibi, flammiuomoq'3 Caco . / Ille hìc Antæúm, et superat te Achelos bicornuum : / Naiades at truncum fruge ferace beant.
Portrait of Sculptor Giambologna (1591, 37x30cm) — Spring (1597) — Autumn (1597) — Job in Distress (1616)
Venus between Ceres and Bacchus (1590, 40x29cm) _ After training as a glass painter in his father's studio, Goltzius learned engraving from printer Dirck Volckertsz. Coornhert. From 1582 he began publishing prints and eighteen or so years later started painting. Following a journey to Italy (1590/91) he moderated his mannerist distortions and turned to portraying grand, idealized scenes, as in this masterly drawing.
      What strikes us is the emphasis on the physical and psychological interaction between Venus and Bacchus, depicted close to one another, whilst Ceres holds herself apart. This offered Goltzius an opportunity of portraying the female body from both front and back - in those days a very popular pose and representing the "nec plus ultra" of grace. The fact that Venus, Ceres and Bacchus look so lifelike is because Goltzius began at this time to use live models. The representation of Bacchus, the god of wine, in the company of Venus, the goddess of love and Ceres, the goddess of the harvest, is a reference to the old Greek saying: "Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes". This proverb, taken from Eunuchus, a comedy by Roman author Terence that was frequently staged in Goltzius' time, had become a popular maxim. As frequently happened in the 16th century, this classical theme took on a profane interpretation, which can be paraphrased as "Eating and drinking is part of the game of love".
      This composition is an extraordinary combination of different drawing techniques. The god's and goddess's naked bodies are contoured with strong brown ink brush strokes and sharp black chalk lines. These are then colored in with ink and body-color in grey, white, brown and pink tints, next to zones of stumped black and red chalk. The result is an attractive "pictorial tapestry", full of light and color nuances. The sketchy nature of certain items like the baldachino and the putti to the upper left relates to the purpose of the drawing. This is a composition sketch anticipating Goltzius' only known grisaille, dated 1599 and now conserved in London, done in grey and white oils on paper on top of a black chalk underdrawing. As with many of Goltzius' compositions, a print of this work was also published by the famous engraver Jan Saenredam.
Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus would Freeze (1602) _ The Goltzius drawings that his contemporaries admired above all were his highly finished pen and inks drawings that simulate the swelling and tapering lines of engravings - they were called 'penwerken' (pen works). There are several dazzling examples of these virtuoso performances depicting Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus would Freeze. They illustrate the popular adage, taken from Eunuchus, a comedy by Terence, that without food (Ceres, the Roman god of agriculture) and wine (Bacchus), love (Venus) is left cold. Venus's need for the assistance of food and drink for invigoration was one of Goltzius's favorite themes, he represented the subject in various ways and media at least ten times. His most stunning illustration of the proverb is now at Philadelphia. Drawn with elaborate pen lines in ink that give the effect of an engraving, half-nude Venus is seen close-up accompanied by an adoring young satyr bearing fruit and a smiling old one with his hands full of luscious grapes, obvious representatives of Ceres and Bacchus. Handsome Cupid who turns sympathetically to us, holds a large flaming torch that warms as well as illuminates the figures. Unlike most of Goltzius's penworks which are done on paper or parchment, this one is on canvas with a grey-blue oil ground that is an integral part of the scene's nocturnal effect. Unique is the conspicuous addition of flesh tones in brush and oils that are literally and figuratively warmed by the vivid red, orange, and yellow flames of Cupid's torch, also done in oil paint. The mixed media makes the work hard to classify. Is it a pen work or a painting?
Cadmus Slays the Dragon (189x248cm) _ Based on a copper engraving by Francesco Primaticcio [1504–1570] it is an allegorical painting featuring motifs from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book III, 26–94). Cadmus has been driven out of his native land and is in search of a new place to settle down. The god Apollo has replied in an oracle, promising him that he will meet a heifer and that he should follow it. Wherever the heifer lies down is where Cadmus is to build his new home and found a city (Euboea). When the heifer lies down, Cadmus sends his servants to fetch water at a nearby spring. But the servants are attacked and killed by a terrible dragon with three rows of teeth and three tongues in its mouth.
      Cadmus sets off to fight the dragon, dressed in a lion’s skin, which protects him from the monster’s poison. He wounds the dragon in the side with his spear and thrusts his lance into its gaping jaws, pinning it to a large oak tree. The artist has improved on the story somewhat, supplying the dragon with three gigantic heads. The painting captures the moment when Cadmus thrusts his lance into the monster’s mouth and pins it to the tree.
      A number of candidates have been proposed over the years as the artist behind this colossal work — painters such as Reinhold Timm [–1639] from Denmark and Jacob Rappost [–<1621] from Holstein have been named. Most recently, Goltzius has been proposed. Goltzius produced paintings and drawings, engravings and etchings, and was one of the leading figures in the Mannerism movement. He was primarily known for his technically brilliant copper engravings featuring biblical and mythological subjects, which were based on his own models and those of other artists. A journey to Italy in 1590–1591 led to a change in style, and in about 1600 he turned away from engraving and toward painting. His style was now more naturalistic and classical.
Cadmus’ Servants are Attacked by the Dragon (55x90cm) _ B&W photo of a painting based on a copper engraving by Robert de Bardous (1615), which was based on a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius. In around 1580, Hendrick Goltzius made a number of drawings dealing with the Cadmus legend. Three of these drawings are now in the possession of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. In 1615 these drawings formed the basis for works by the copper engraver Robert de Bardous. Goltzius himself made a copper engraving of Cadmus’ struggle with the dragon, which was based on a painting by Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem [1562–1638]. The large Goltzius painting, based on an engraving by Francesco Primaticcio [1504–1570], does not bear any close resemblance to Goltzius’ own drawings, but is nevertheless attributed to him on the basis of a study of painting techniques employed.
 
^ Born on 29 December 1759: Julius-Caesar Ibbetson the elder, English painter, printmaker, and writer, who died on 13 October 1817.
— Ibbetson worked mainly in his native Yorkshire, but also for a time in London and the Lake District, and he visited Java (1789). He worked in watercolor as well as oil and also made etchings. In 1803 he published a treatise on painting. Like his friend Morland, Ibbetson is said to have been given to dissipation, but his work did not obviously suffer because of this as Morland's did.
— Ibbetson specialized in fairly small landscapes and rural scenes with figures and animals, mainly of his native Yorkshire where he spent most of his life. He failed to develop a style of his own but was successful in imitating and even forging other artists. In the late 1770s he worked in London on copies and forgeries of Dutch 17th-century landscapists, which prompted Benjamin West to nickname him 'the Berchem of England'. He also produced copies after the leading contemporary English artists, such as Thomas Gainsborough and Richard Wilson. Ibbetson’s theatrical scenes for John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery in London were painted in the manner of Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg. In 1789 he visited Java and the landscapes produced there are a digression from his topographical views of Yorkshire and the Lake District, as are the various pictures he painted (a few being engraved) of high-spirited ‘jack tars’ causing mayhem ashore. Of these, Sailors carousing in the Long Room at Portsmouth (1802) is a fairly restrained example. Apart from oil, his media included watercolor and etching. In 1803 he published the treatise Painting in Oil. It demonstrates his masterly knowledge of painting techniques and is rich in insights into his own methods, one of which was modeling through ‘inner light’ achieved through application of thin glazes. There are anecdotal accounts concerning his Christian names (given to him following his Caesarean birth) and his drinking habits in the company of his friend, the artist-forger George Morland. Ibbetson's work did not obviously suffer because of this dissipation as Morland's did.

— The son of a clothier, Ibbetson was apprenticed to John Fletcher, a ship painter in Hull; in 1775 Ibbetson became a scene-painter there. In 1777 he moved to London, where he worked as a scene-painter and picture restorer. He married about three years later. From 1785 he exhibited landscapes, genre scenes and portraits at the Royal Academy. In 1787–1788 Ibbetson was personal draftsman to Col. Charles Cathcart on the first British Mission to Beijing, a voyage that included visits to Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope and Java. His watercolor False Bay, Cape of Good Hope, made on this journey, shows a picturesque roughness of foliage and rustic staffage adapted from his English landscape style. Cathcart’s death forced Ibbetson to return to England; he exhibited an oil painting of The Burial of Col. Cathcart in Java at the Royal Academy in 1789; thereafter he lived by painting landscape oils and watercolors, the subjects culled from his frequent tours. He painted occasional portraits throughout his career (e.g. Young Man) and contributed to John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery (e.g. Scene from ‘The Taming of the Shrew’). In 1789 he stayed with John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, at Cardiff Castle and visited the Isle of Wight in 1790. In 1792 he toured Wales and the surrounding area with the painter John ‘Warwick’ Smith and his companion Robert Fulke Greville, resulting in the publication of his book of engravings, A Picturesque Guide (1793). His oil painting of Aberglasyn: The Flash of Lightning evokes the sublimity of the mountainous Welsh terrain; the drama of the storm over Aberglasyn is conveyed by thick impasto and strong chiaroscuro, a way of handling paint that Ibbetson learnt from copying 17th-century Dutch masters while working for a London dealer named Clarke during the late 1770s and early 1780s. He was also an accomplished figure draughtsman and social observer: he showed four humorous paintings of sailors at the Royal Academy in 1800, a topical theme at the height of the Napoléonic Wars. In 1789 he illustrated Modern Times, a moralizing tract by John Trusler, and about 1790 painted pastoral scenes on plaster for the library ceiling at Kenwood House, London. From 1793 to 1800 he produced illustrations (engraved by J. Tookey) for John Church’s folio A Cabinet of Quadrupeds (1805).

LINKS
Sailors Carousing (Oct 1802, 43x58cm; 509x700pix, 54kb) _ A scene in an unspecified tavern at Portsmouth after one or more ships have been paid off. The painting may be a retrospective celebration of the Battle of the Glorious First of June 1794 since, although painted much later and after Ibbetson had moved to the north of England, it reuses elements of a watercolor by him showing a similar scene and dated 03 July 1794. The room is crowded with sailors and men and women carousing. The ceiling, floors and walls enclose the action and a single lamp hangs from the ceiling to the right. The outline of a carriage, with several revellers alighting or departing frames the door on the right. The opening to the left shows a seaman wearing a hat and chain, with a boatswain's whistle, borne aloft on a chair. Two bare-headed women are highlighted in the foreground: the one to the right has two men paying attention to her, and the woman on the left sits on a sailor's knee. Impropriety is implied in their conduct.
      Although sailor's pay was low and often in arrears, prize money provided welcome bonuses after victorious actions, but it was rarely saved. The narrative indicates a group of three seamen in the foreground to the left of centre both pretending to fry their watches or play 'conkers' with them. This refers back to a celebrated incident in 1762 when, after capturing a Spanish galleon, seamen of the Active and Favourite were so loaded with prize money that they were recorded as frying watches, as shown. One of the women in the foreground wears a watch around her waist.
      In the Dutch 17th-century tradition, the artist incorporates a still-life in the foreground, with a clay pipe, discarded playing cards showing each of the four suits, coins and bottles. Sailors, several with their arms around women, sit on low benches around a table to the right. This bears a china punch bowl and drinking mugs, with a sailor boy dancing on also dancing on it. To its left, a group are dancing to the music of the two fiddlers on the far left. Some of the dancers are in couples and others are groups of men carousing (including a sailor dancing with a Jewish peddler, a class well-known as purveyors of frippery to seamen). In the foreground on the right a woman attends to a sailor lying on the ground. An empty bottle to the right indicates that he has had too much to drink, and the young woman is attempting to revive him. The painting, which hovers at the interface of celebration, disorder, chaos, and disruption, was regarded as a fine example of Ibbetson's work in his own time. It was engraved as a mezzotint by William Ward RA in August 1807, with the title given here, and when sold at Christie's on 19 March 1808 fetched the highest price of the sale, an extraordinary £79. The catalogue on that occasion described it as Sailors Carousing, treated with infinite humour and spirit. The pencilling is delicate, and the colour clear and brilliant. It has sometimes been called Sailors carousing in the long room at Portsmouth, which is indeed likely, but this appears to be a later conflation from a different image, though one possibly influenced by it; George Cruikshank's caricature of Sailors carousing, or a peep in the Long Room (1825). Many inns had 'long rooms' - a phrase simply describing their largest public space, but those shown by both artists are not identifiable.
A Beached Collier Unloading into Carts (1790, 31x42cm; 509x700pix, 65kb) _ This narrative depicts a collier brig lying aground on a beach in shallow water, at low tide. Coal is being 'whipped' out of her hold in baskets, using the large iron pulley suspended from a jeer or whip footed on her deck, and tipped down a chute over her side into a cart waiting in the water below. A man mounted on a cart-horse in the central foreground carries a metal bucket of coal in his right hand and a long horse-whip over his shoulder (possibly a visual pun on the process being shown), from the ship towards the cart on shore to the right, which is waiting its turn to be loaded. The horses are all have colourful ruff-like padding of some sort behind their working collars, in blue yellow or red. The ridden horse also has a red cockade on the headband of its bridle. Other shipping has been depicted in the distance, the vessel to the right apparently being another brig, though over-scaled for the type.
      The scene shown is a frequent subject in coastal marine art of the late-18th and early 19th centuries, especially in watercolors and drawings. The north-eastern, cat-bark brigs employed in the coal trade were capacious, flat-bottomed and solidly built precisely for the purpose of 'taking the ground' to load and unload in this way, in places without deep-water quay installations.
George Biggins' Ascent in Lunardi' Balloon (1785, 50x61cm), 807x987pix, 104kb) _ In addition to an ironic and self-critical attitude of British painting to modern technology, there was an objective documentation of technical innovations in the second half of the 18th century, as in this painting.
Going to Market (1785)
Returning from Market (1785)
 
^ >Died on 29 December 1743: Hyacinthe-François-Honoré-Mathias-Pierre-André-Jean Rigau y Ros “Rigaud”, French baroque era portrait painter baptized as an infant on 18 July 1659.
— Baptized in Perpignan; awarded the Prix de Rome 1682; a prolific and successful artist of the Baroque period specializing in portraits and historical scenes; he painted royal portraits in France and England; became director of l'Académie in 1733; Trained at Montpellier before moving to Lyon and eventually to Paris in 1681, where he devoted himself to portrait painting. By 1688, when he received his first royal commission, he had a reputation among the wealthier bourgeoisie of Paris. From 1690 onward, his work, mostly for the court, consisted almost entirely of portraits. Gained admission to the academy as a historical painter in January 1700. Excelled in the great formal portrait, as in his famous painting of Louis XIV in robes of state (1701).
— Friend and rival of Largillière. He was born in Perpignan and after working in Montpellier he settled in Paris in 1681. His reputation was established in 1688 with a portrait (now lost) of Monsieur, Louis XIV's brother, and he became the outstanding court painter of the latter part of Louis's reign, retaining his popularity after the king's death. He was less interested in showing individual character than in depicting the rank and condition of the sitter by nobility of attitude and expressiveness of gesture. These qualities are seen most memorably in his celebrated state portrait of Louis XIV (1701), one of the classic images of royal majesty. Louis so admired this portrait that, although he had intended it as a present to Philip V of Spain, he kept it himself. Rigaud's unofficial portraits are much more informal and show a debt to Rembrandt (The Artist's Mother, 1695), several of whose works he owned. The output from Rigaud's studio was vast.
— “Rigaud” (or “Rigault”) was, with Nicolas de Largillièrre, one of the foremost painters of the later years of the reign of Louis XIV. While Largillierre drew his sitters from the wealthy Parisian bourgeoisie, Rigaud’s clients were drawn largely from court circles. He developed to a high level of formal perfection the portrait d’apparat, or state portrait, bringing a greater formality to the understated elegance of the portrait tradition of Titian and Anthony van Dyck. The style that Rigaud established continued to be the dominant one for official portraits in France into the 18th century. His brother Gaspard Rigaud [1661–1705] was also a portrait painter.
— Jean Ranc and Robert Tournières were assistants of Rigaud. The students of Rigaud included Hyacinthe Collin de Vermont, Jean Legros, Gustaf Lundberg.

LINKS
Self-Portrait (1692, 81x65cm)
–- Shakspeare - Henry IV~1.V.4 (engraving with hand coloring, 57x42cm; 1296x926pix, 256kb _ .ZOOM to main detail; 597kb)
— Portrait of Phillippe de Couraillon (1702, 162x150cm) _ Phillippe de Couraillon, Marquis de Dangeau, is represented in the costume of the Grand Maître des Ordres.
Louis XIV (1694, 277x194cm) _ At the end of Louis XIV's reign the outstanding painter was Hyacinthe Rigaud. Although his activity continued well into the next century, the ethical quality of his figures and the aesthetic quality of his style are part of the spirit of the Louis XIV period. Guided by Le Brun, Rigaud created in painting, as Coysevox had done in sculpture, the portrait of the 'man of quality', whose value he conveyed by the nobility of the attitude, expressiveness of the gesture, and movement of the draperies - in short, by the passion of which he showed his generous temperament to be capable. The aim was less to depict and individual and a character, as Philippe de Champaigne had done in the preceding period, than to affirm the social rank and 'condition' of the sitter, who might be the King, a minister, a financier, or a soldier, but who was always of the Court. Rigaud thus started the Court portrait, which was to have a considerable importance in Europe during the next century.
— a different Louis XIV (1701, 279x190cm; 1400x981pix, 351kb) _ This famous portrait is regarded as the very epitome of the absolutist ruler portrait. Yet it represents more than just power, pomp and circumstance. The sumptuous red and gold drapery is not only a motif of dignity, but also creates a framework that echoes the drapes of the ornate, ermine-lined robe. The blue velvet brocade ornamented with the golden fleurs-delis of the house of Bourbon is repeated in the upholstery of the chair, the cushion and the cloth draped over the table below it: the king quite clearly "sets the tone". A monumental marble column on a high plinth is draped in such a way that it does not detract from the height of the figure. Louis is presented in an elegantly angled pose, situated well above the standpoint of the spectator to whom he seems to turn his attention graciously, but without reducing the stability of his stance. Rigaud's consummate mastery of portraiture is particularly evident in the way he depicts the king's facial expression: his distanced unapproachability are not founded in Neoclassicist idealization, but in the candour of an ageing, impenetrable physiognomy. The lips are closed decisively and with a hint of irony, the eyes have a harsh, dark sheen, while the narrow nose suggests intolerance. This is a ruler who is neither good nor evil, but beyond all moral categories.
Count Sinzendorf (1712, 166x132cm) _ Several artists, whose careers and styles form a transitional period between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, enjoyed enormous success under the patronage of Louis XIV. By far the best of them was Hyacinthe Rigaud. There is a strident quality of many of his best portraits which suggest a familiarity with Spanish painters like Zurbarán. Rigaud rigidly provided the court with exactly what it wanted - a splendid, opulent and yet tasteful glorification of its new-found power and wealth.
Double Portrait of the Artist's Mother shown in two poses facing each other (1695, 83 x 103 cm) — His mother was Marie Serre (died after 1715), wife of painter Mathias “Rigaud” (died 1699).
Marie Serre (1695; oval 1360x1072pix, 324kb)
The Presentation in the Temple (83x68cm) _ The scene depicted is taken from the Gospel of St. Luke (2, 22-28): "And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord; ) And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons . And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms..."
A Scholar
Philippe V, roi d'Espagne [1683-1746] (80x62cm)
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet [1627-1704]
Le Philosophe Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle (1400x1120pix, 163kb) _ Bernard Le Bovier (or Bouyer), sieur de Fontenelle [11 Feb 1657 – 09 Jan 1757] was a French scientist and man of letters described by Voltaire as the most universal mind of the era of Louis XIV. His works set forth in embryonic form many of the characteristics ideas of the Enlightenment. His most famous book is Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (1686; 213kb _ at another site, 234kb), entertaining dialogues backing the Copernican system on the basis of the Cartesian theory of vortices which would be refuted by Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) of Isaac Newton [04 Jan 1643 = 25 Dec 1642 Julian – 31 Mar 1727 = 20 Mar 1727 Julian].
Gaspard von Gueidan Playing the Bagpipe (1735; 1400x1102pix, 209kb)
–- Fürst Wenzel Liechtenstein (1740; 1400x1102pix, 226kb)
A Middle-Aged Man (1400x1090pix, 188kb)
—(061226)
^ Born on 29 December 1859: Elizabeth Adela Armstrong Forbes, Canadian-born English artist who died on 22 March 1912.
— Elizabeth Adela Armstrong studied briefly at the South Kensington School of Art in London, then at the Art Students’ League in New York [1877–1880], mainly under William Merritt Chase. After this she traveled around Europe with her mother, studied under Frank Duveneck and J. Frank Currier in Munich and spent several months in the artists’ colony of Pont-Aven in Brittany. A Zandvoort Fisher Girl (1884) was painted while spending the summer in Zandvoort with a group of Chase’s students. In 1885 she moved to Newlyn in Cornwall and became involved with the Newlyn school, marrying in 1889 its leading practitioner, Stanhope Alexander Forbes [18 Nov 1857 – 02 Mar 1947], in 1889. In 1899, the two founded the Newlyn Art School (closed 1938), situated in a small gallery by the sea in Newlyn. A frequent subject of her paintings is children, for example School Is Out (1889), and, like the other Newlyn artists, her paintings are characterized by a plein-air naturalism. Jean Jeanne Jeannette (1892) was inspired by a second trip to Brittany in 1891 and shows the influence of Jules Bastien-Lepage. A specially constructed mobile studio enabled Forbes to work from nature in all weathers. Her later paintings are more reminiscent of second-generation Pre-Raphaelites, depicting young girls, sometimes in medieval costume, in outdoor settings.

LINKS
Volendam, Holland, from the Zuidende (1895, 27x17cm)
A May Evening (1910, 59x90cm; 416x640pix)
A Woman and Child in a Hay Field (1910, 64x53cm)
By Mounts Bay (1897, 46x32cm)
Cherry Ripe (1905, 43x33cm)
 

Died on a 29 December:

1972 Joseph Cornell, US painter born (full coverage) on 24 December 1903.

1928 Hjalmar Eilif Emanuel Peterssen, Norwegian painter born (full coverage) on 04 September 1852. —(051228)

1908 Herman af Sillén, Swedish marine painter born on 20 May 1857.

^ 1881 Ludwig Hermann van Hoom, Dutch painter born in April 1812. — {Is Hoom of whom it is said: “Hoom, sweet Hoom”?}
The Port of Rotterdam (48x80cm)
Dutch Coastal Town (61x76cm; 400x500pix, 81kb) —(051228)

1825 Jacques~Louis David, French painter born (full coverage) on 30 August 1748. —(050829)

^ 1661 Frans de Hulst, Haarlem Dutch painter born in 1610.
River Scene with a Fortified Town (53x88cm; 430x714pix, 46kb + two mouseover details 432x256pix, 23kb each _ ZOOM to 590x980pix, 93kb) —(051228)


Born on a 29 December:


^ 1868 Ludwig Ferdinand Graf, Austrian painter who died on 17 November 1932. Studierte in Wien und Paris, wandte sich nach einer impressionistischen Periode einer von P. Cézanne beeinflussten, farbig ausdrucksstarken Malweise zu. Ab 1901 Mitglied des Hagenbundes und ab 1909 dessen Präsident
Bildnis eines Mädchens (1926, 83x63cm; 402x300pix, 31kb) —(051228)

^ 1841 (17 Dec Julian) Aleksandr Karlovich Beggrov, Russian naval officer and later painter who died in 28 (15 Julian) April 1914. — Presumably the son of Karl Joachim Petrovich Beggrov [1799-1875]
–- Saint-Petersburg in Winter (1878, 33x46cm; 1012x1396pix, 98kb) the cuppola of Saint Isaac's cathedral is seen in the distance.
–- Le Tréport (1881, 25x41cm; 350x568pix, 24kb)
On deck of the frigate Svetlana (1884, 100x153 cm; 320x500pix, 53kb)
–- (beached sailboat) (646x900pix, 43kb) —(061226)

1838 Raffaello Sernesi, Italian painter who died (full coverage) on 11 August 1866. —(051228)

^ >1834 Auguste Louis Veillon, Swiss landscape painter who died on 05 January 1890. Il étudia à l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris en 1858. Il visita Rome, la Hollande, la Suisse, l'Egypte, et après avoir passé deux ans à Venise, il se fixa à Genève.
–- Au Bord du Lac (726x1139pix, 47kb)
–- En Montagne (707x1092pix, 45kb)
Le Nil près de Philae (1869, 62×100cm; 400x636pix, 35kb)
Bord du Nil (31x47cm; 400x606pix, 35kb) —(061226)


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