| ART “4”
“2”-DAY 17 November
v.6.a0 |
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>Born on 17 November 1690: Noël-Nicolas
Coypel, Parisian painter, mostly of mythological subjects,
who died on 14 December 1734. — Son of Noël Coypel [25 Dec 1628 – 24 Dec 1707] by his second marriage, Noël-Nicolas Coypel was trained by his father and at the Académie Royale.Noël-Nicolas, who seems to have had a rather timid personality, was at first overshadowed by his very successful half-brother, Antoine Coypel [12 Apr 1661 – 07 Jan 1722], who had a strong Italian element in his style. Noël-Nicolas Coypel's unremarkable earliest known works, Manna from Heaven and The Sacrifice of Melchizedek (both 1713), were painted the year before his marriage to Françoise Legendre. He was approved (agréé) by the Académie on 31 December 1716 and was received (reçu) as a full member in 1720 with Neptune Rescuing Amymone. This work owes a great debt to the lively and colorful art of Louis Boullogne II, as did its predecessor, The Adoration by the Shepherds (1715). Often lacking in compositional imagination, Noël-Nicolas successfully based a number of his pictures on reworkings of paintings by other artists. These include a very polished and attractive Sacrifice of Isaac (1721), inspired by Antoine’s version of the same theme (1707), and Arion and the Dolphin (1724), based on a composition by Louis de Silvestre of 1701. A dynamic, well-organized work, Arion and the Dolphin is the only example of an official commission from the Bâtiments du Roi in Noël-Nicolas’s oeuvre. Noël-Nicolas painted with much more charm than his half-brother Antoine, but he did not achieve the worldly success of the other members of the family. Indeed, he was the best painter of the family, but is the least famous. Chardin Antoine's son Charles-Antoine Coypel [11 Jul 1694 – 14 Jun 1752] was a much more forceful character than Noël-Nicolas. — Jean-Siméon Chardin was a student and briefly an assistant of Noël-Nicolas Coypel. — Photos of a 1730 terra cotta bust (36x66x43cm) of Noël-Nicolas Coypel, sculpted by his friend Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne [1704-1778]: from the front _ close-up from 1/4 left _ from the lower right _ from the right, 3/4 back — Madame de Bourbon-Conti (1731, 138x107cm; 1050x823pix, 123kb) _ Noël-Nicolas Coypel belonged to a French family of painters of which Noël was the head. Noël-Nicolas painted mainly mythological subjects, but he seems to have had a rather timid personality and did not achieve the worldly success of the other members of the family. Indeed, he was the best painter of the family, but is the least famous. Chardin was briefly his assistant. — Le char de Saturne (680x700pix) — L'Apothéose d'Hercule (185x150cm) — Neptune enlevant la nymphe Amymone (128x152cm; 512x617pix, 59kb) —(061116) |
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>Died on 17 November 1767: Giovanni
Battista Pittoni, Venetian painter and draftsman of religious,
historical, and mythological pictures, born on 20 June 1687. — He was very popular in his day and ranks as one of the best contemporaries of Tiepolo, whom he succeeded as President of the Venice Academy of Painting, 1758-61. Pittoni never left Italy, but he nevertheless received important foreign commissions from the Swedish, Austrian, and German courts. His early work was much indebted to Piazzetta and Sebastiano Ricci, but his style later became lighter and more colorful under the influence of Tiepolo (1696–1770) — With Giambattista Tiepolo and Piazzetta, Pittoni was one of the three most representative history painters of the Venetian Rococo. Besides altarpieces for Venetian and other churches as well as devotional images for private clients on both sides of the Alps, he painted subjects from mythology and Classical literature for collectors and connoisseurs in a Rococo idiom all his own; it is these secular pictures for which he is best known. Zava Boccazzi’s catalogue raisonné of Pittoni’s paintings (1979) includes 247 extant autograph works and 117 paintings now lost, destroyed or untraced. Binion’s catalogue raisonné of the artist’s drawings (1983) lists 304 sheets. Pittoni’s total output must have been far larger, as is evident from the drawings, many of which are studies for unknown works. For instance, Pittoni must occasionally have painted decorations for secular buildings and palazzi, probably in fresco, though none has yet come to light, with the notable exception of the few frescoes with scenes from the Life of Diana, painted in 1727 in the palazzetto Widman in Bagnoli di Sopra near Padua. (The extensive fresco cycle in Villa Baglioni in Massanzago, earlier believed to be by Pittoni, has now been conclusively assigned to Tiepolo). — Anton Kern was a student of Pittoni. — LINKS — Annunciation (1758, 153x206cm) _ Of the many painters who followed Sebastiano Ricci [1659–1734] and Pellegrini [1675–1741], very few achieved results of any degree of originality. Of those who did Giambattista Pittoni turned the lessons of Ricci to his own use in a personal style whose elegant, rhythmic composition and delicate tonal clarity clearly announce his involvement in the world of rococo. Pittoni's taste for virtuoso display intensified still further towards the end of his career. It was in this period (1758) that he painted the 'Annunciation' to decorate the 'stanza dello studio' of the Old Academy which had been founded in 1750 at the Fonteghetto della Farina. The theatrical layout of the composition and the precious refinement of the drawing lend the sacred subject the air of an animated ballet with wonderfully fresh chromatic harmonies. –- The Death of Saint Joseph (1723; 995x605pix, 57kb) — Death of Sophonisba — Saints Jerome and Peter of Alcantara — The Sacrifice of Polyxena — The Vision of Saint Anthony of Padua |
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Born on 17 November 1793: Francis Danby,
English painter of Irish birth, specialized in landscapes,
who died on 10 February 1861. — Danby was born in Ireland but worked in Bristol for the first part of his career, where his landscapes and scenes of rustic life made him the best known member of the Bristol School. In 1824 he moved to London where he concentrated on painting large-scale Biblical subjects and fantasy landscapes rivalling those of John Martin. After his wife left him in 1829 he moved to Switzerland and Paris. He returned to London in 1838 but his paintings became increasingly unfashionable. — Danby was a landowner’s son and studied art at the Dublin Society. In 1813 he visited London, then worked in Bristol, initially on repetitious watercolors of local scenes: for example View of Hotwells, the Avon Gorge (1818). In about 1819 he entered the cultivated circle of George Cumberland [1754-1849] and the Rev. John Eagles [1783-1855]. Danby’s discovery of the ‘poetry of nature’ in local scenery and insignificant incident was influenced by the theories of Eagles, published as The Sketcher (1856), and, less directly, by those of William Wordsworth, who had been associated with Bristol earlier in the century. Danby’s distinctive work began with the small panel paintings he produced for his Bristol audience. Boy Sailing a Little Boat (1822.) recalls the rustic scenes of William Collins and the Bristol artist Edward Villiers Rippingille, but Danby emphasized the effect of sun and shade rather than sentiment Danby became the best-known member of the Bristol school of painters but preferred to exhibit more ambitious paintings in London. The Upas, or Poison-tree in the Island of Java attracted considerable attention when first shown at the British Institution in 1820, by its large scale (168x229cm) and sublime motif: a despairing adventurer coming upon the remains of his predecessors in the moonlit poisoned valley. It has deteriorated badly, like many of his works. Disappointed Love (1821) was his first Royal Academy exhibit. It differs from his Bristol works in its narrative content and in the pathetic fallacy by which the oppressive trees and wilting weeds echo the girl’s despair. When Danby moved to London in 1824 he abandoned naturalistic landscape and contemporary genre subjects to concentrate on painting poetical landscapes in the manner of Claude Lorrain and J. M. W. Turner’s Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps (1812), and also large biblical scenes to rival John Martin. Danby’s relationship with Martin was ambiguous, but undoubtedly competitive. Danby was elected ARA following the exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1825 of the Delivery of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus. xiv) (1825). His poetic treatment of landscape seems to have inspired Martin’s Deluge, which was shown the following year at the British Institution. Danby himself was already contemplating painting a Deluge and his An Attempt to Illustrate the Opening of the Sixth Seal in turn owed much to Martin’s conception of the Sublime. Danby quarreled with the Royal Academy in 1829, when not elected RA (Constable won by one vote). At the same time his marriage had collapsed, and he had taken a mistress; his wife left London with the Bristol artist, Paul Falconer Poole, whom she subsequently married. The ensuing scandal forced Danby to move abruptly to Paris in 1830. Between 1831 and 1836 he worked in Geneva, producing chiefly watercolors and topographical paintings. He then lived in Paris, copying Old Master paintings. He returned to London late in 1838 where Deluge (1840.) reestablished his reputation when exhibited privately in Piccadilly, London, in May 1840. A huge rock rises in the midst of the flood, swarming with figures who struggle to gain the highest point. Their diminution implies immensity. The color is appropriately, but uncharacteristically, somber. Despite its success, it was his last work of this type. Danby continued to paint poetic fantasy landscapes throughout the 1840s and 1850s (e.g. Enchanted Castle - Sunset, 1841), although they became increasingly unfashionable. He also produced landscapes and marine paintings, which derive in color and conception, although not in execution, from those of Turner. These found admirers, although they were too rich in color and imprecise in detail for wide popularity. Evening Gun (1848, destroyed, but replica exists), showing naval vessels in harbor, was well received at the Royal Academy in 1848 and the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1855. Danby moved to Exmouth, Devon, in 1847 where he built boats and painted. He was embittered by a life of nearly constant debt and by his failure to gain academic honors. He died a few days after Poole was elected RA. Two of his sons, James Francis Danby [1816-1875] and Thomas Danby [1817-1886], became painters. — LINKS –- The Deluge (1840, 284x452cm; 599x954pix, 40kb _ .ZOOM to 1782x2835pix, 734kb) _ This painting depicts the story of the Flood as told in the book of Genesis (6:12 - 8:22). It shows the terrible punishment brought down by a wrathful God upon sinful mankind. In this huge, bleak painting Danby shows the weather at its most overwhelming and destructive, God’s flooding of the world described in the Bible (Genesis 7). Helpless naked figures, including a lion {a naked lion, how tragic!}, cling or are caught in the branches of a fallen tree and clamber to the rock’s summit as the waters rise. Black cataracts of water continue to fall as the red sun slips below the horizon. But there is some hope, in the distance bathed in moonlight, is Noah’s Ark, and on the right in a curious episode a glowing angel grieves over a dead mother and her presumably innocent child. — The Deluge (1840, 71x110cm) _ smaller version. –- The Shipwreck (The Wreck of the Hope) (1859, 77x107cm; 684x952pix, 48kb _ .ZOOM to 1782x2835pix, 992kb) _ As so often in paintings by Danby and his contemporary and rival John Martin, humanity appears insignificant and helpless in the face of nature’s power. A wrecked ship lurches to one side, about to be swamped by the stormy seas or dashed upon the rocks. Most of it is already submerged and time is running out for the remaining survivors. One of the lifeboats is upturned in the water, some figures cling to wreckage on the left, while the rest wait desperately in line for the sole escape route to the rocks on the right. Those unfortunate enough to be shipwrecked on Chesil Beach in centuries past may have been saved from a watery grave but if they landed on the long stretch of shingle between Abbotsbury and Wyke Regis they had still not reached safety. Along there the beach is separated from the mainland by the brackish waters of The Fleet and although the locals were ready to cross the water in their small boats they were aiming to return with looted goods not passengers. Probably the wealthiest ship ever to founder on Chesil Beach was the Dutch vessel Hope. The ship had been away from her home port Amsterdam far many months on a most profitable voyage to South America, trading illegally in the Spanish colonies where Spanish settlers exploiting the gold and silver mines had almost unlimited wealth to pay for European goods. The Hope was in effect smuggling, for although Spain failed to supply her colonists adequately, foreign ships were unwelcome. The rewards for the trade were high, but the risks were great and the Hope was armed with 30 guns to repel any attempt at capture. Having almost completed her hazardous voyage home, the Hope encountered storms in the English Channel and on 16 January 1749 she came ashore almost opposite Fleet House. Is there a suggestion of deliberate wrecking on that night? One writer claimed there was no light showing from Portland lighthouses 'whether from intense mists and particular fogginess of the air, or from the neglects of the persons concerned. I shall not pretend to determine'. Whatever the true cause of the wreck, word soon spread that the ship was reputed to be carrying £50'000 in gold and silver and a 'merciless battalion' descended on the beach in search of her treasure. There was little assistance for the Dutch vessel's Captain and crew who had to haul their own boat down the shingle to cross The Fleet. The organised plunder continued for over a week as the looters turned the stones over and over in the raw January weather searching for gold. It was a scene of complete lawlessness and the size of the mob increased each day. There is no real explanation as to why it took so long for armed law enforcement officers to control the situation but it may be that those who should have been in charge had their 'agents' down on the beach joining in the plunder. Eventually the looters were dispersed, some of the gold was recovered and one man, Augustin Elliott of Portland and several accomplices, were put on trial. Perhaps not surprisingly, the verdicts were 'Not guilty' for it would have been difficult to find local jurors unconnected with the crowd of thousands involved in stealing the cargo of the Hope. _ Das Eismeer (1824; 600x802pix, 189kb), by Caspar David Friedrich [1774-1840], has long been misidentified as his lost The Wreck of the Hope, a different ship bearing the same name, lost in a sea of ice. — Sunset at Sea, after a Storm (1824, 90x143cm) _ This astonishingly dramatic sky shows the clouds of a violent storm dispersing in the red glow of a setting sun. But however beautiful the effect of limpid blue seen through brilliant orange, this sky carries a threat. Just visible in the left foreground is a raft to which cling the few feeble survivors of a shipwreck. They have survived the storm but now night is falling. The drama of the picture made it a hit when it was exhibited at the 1824 Royal Academy exhibition. It made Danby’s name and was bought by the artist Sir Thomas Lawrence. — Children by a Brook (1822, 35x46cm) _ This is one of several small poetic landscapes with figures that Danby painted during his early years in Bristol. The scene is probably imaginary but inspired by the landscape of the Frome valley at Stapleton. Such works were painted for local collectors, unlike the more spectacular pictures Danby sent up for exhibition in London, where he moved in 1824. — Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream (20x28cm). |
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>Died on 17 November 1842: John Varley,
London painter and draftsman born on 17 August 1778. — At the age of 15 he attended an evening drawing school in Holborn, London, run by J. C. Barrow. Throughout his career he worked primarily in watercolor. His first exhibited work was a View of Peterborough Cathedral (1798). In between sketching expeditions to Wales (1798 or 1799, 1800 and 1802) and Yorkshire (1803) he made topographical views of towns — particularly of half-timbered buildings in Hereford, Leominster, Conway, and Chester — drawn in the picturesque idiom of the late 18th century. From 1800 until as late as 1820 he attended evening classes at Dr. Monro’s ‘Academy’ in London and also visited Monro’s cottage at Fetcham, Surrey. In company with Monro he painted the watercolor View from Polsden, Surrey (1800), which shows the influence of Thomas Girtin. This painting is inscribed Study from Nature, an inscription that recurs on some of his work as late as 1831. — The students of Varley included David Cox, John Dobson, Copley Fielding, William Henry Hunt, John Linnell, William Mulready, James Sant, William Turner. — LINKS –- Suburbs of an Ancient City (1808, 72x96cm; 766x1024pix, 55kb) _ This picture by one of the founder members of the Old Watercolour Society is an outstanding example of the early nineteenth-century exhibition watercolor. On a large scale and with its grandiose, Poussinesque composition, classical buildings and monumental figures, it perfectly summarizes the aspirations of heroic, classical and literary themes. — Holy Island Castle (1810, 11x13cm; full size) _ Varley toured Northumberland in 1808, and the area provided him with subject matter for watercolors for several years. This is one of several showing the castle on Lindisfarne, an island connected to the Northumbria coastline by a causeway that disappears at high tide. The castle dates to the sixteenth century, but the historic associations of the island go back to the sixth century. A number of artists in search of picturesque subjects with strong historical associations painted not only the Castle but also the ruined priory on Lindisfarne. — A Market Bazaar, Cairo (584x800pix, 138kb) — A Moorish Courtyard (800x623pix, 95kb) — A Street in Boulaq, near Cairo (1881, 51x38cm; 1000x734pix, 159kb) — Cairo Street Scene (643x800pix, 124kb) — Tomb of a Sheik in the South of Cairo (633x800pix, 87kb) — Cader Idris, North Wales (1819, 43x61cm) — Tegwin Ferry With Snowdon in the Distance From Near Harlech, North Wales (1812, 26x48cm) — Battersea Mills (15x28cm) — Looking under the Bridge (28x24cm; 390x329pix, 63kb) — Figures And Sheep on the Shore of Lake Geneva, With the Château de Chillon in the Distance (16x29cm) — 102 images at the Tate most are of prints or of pencil sketches. —(061111) |
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Born on 17 November 1612: Pierre~François Mignard I “le Romain”,
French Baroque
painter who died on 13 May 1695. — Pierre Mignard, influenced by training in Italy, became the most outstanding portrait painter of his generation; his career was to some extent hampered by the opposition of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris and Charles Le Brun, and reached its high point when he succeeded the latter as Premier Peintre du Roi. — Pierre Mignard studied first under Jean Boucher in Bourges, then copied the 16th-century decorations at the château of Fontainebleau by Rosso Fiorentino, Francesco Primaticcio and other artists. He later went to Paris, where in 1633 he entered the studio of Simon Vouet, the most prominent representative of the Italian Baroque style in France. There he formed a lasting friendship with the painter and, later, writer Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy. Towards the end of 1635 Mignard left Paris for Rome, staying in Italy until October 1657. Monville, his first biographer, recorded several portraits painted in Italy, as well as some large religious compositions, including a Saint Charles Giving Communion to the Dying (1677). Only two portraits are known to survive, those of The Ambassador of Malta to the Holy See: Commandeur Des Vieux (1653) and A Man presumed to be Senator Marco Peruta, which was painted during Mignard’s stay in Venice in 1654. Both portraits already show the quality that was to make Mignard one of the outstanding portrait painters of his time: the ability to catch a vivid and natural likeness, in contrast to the stern stiffness of earlier 17th-century French portraiture. — Much better known than his brother Nicolas Mignard “d'Avignon”, [07 Feb 1606 – 20 Mar 1668], Pierre Mignard “le Romain” was the rival of Le Brun but an exponent of the same Academic theories. Like Le Brun he was a student of Vouet, but he went to Rome in 1636 and remained there until 1657, forming his style on the approved models of the Carracci, Domenichino and Poussin. He returned to Paris on the orders of Louis XIV and decorated the dome of the Val-de-Grâce (1663), but his principal importance was as portrait painter to the Court. He revived the earlier Italian type of allegorical portrait, and a good example is the Marquise de Seignelay as Thetis (1691). He was strongly opposed to the Académie Royale, and, in spite of his own stylistic origins, championed the Venetian or 'colorist' school; this, however, was probably only to oppose Le Brun. When Le Brun died in 1690 Mignard was at once made Premier Peintre, and, on the King's orders, the Academy had, in a single sitting, to appoint Mignard Associate, Member, Rector, Director, and Chancellor of the body he had so long opposed. — Among his students were de Poilly, Jacques-Philippe Ferrand, Nicolas Vleughels. — LINKS — Self-Portrait (173kb) — Clio (1689, 144x115cm) _ The Mignards followed the style of the Bolognese painters, especially that of Domenichino. On this painting Clio, the Muse of the historians, is a direct descendant of Domenichino's saints, in a somewhat more theatrical way. — Perseus and Andromeda (1679, 150x198cm) _ Ovid tells how Andromeda, daughter of an Ethiopian king, was chained to a rock by the seashore as a sacrifice to a sea-monster. Perseus (the son of Danaë whom Jupiter caused to conceive after turning himself into a shower of golden rain) flying overhead on Pegasus, the winged horse, fell in love at first sight. He swooped down just in time, slew the monster and released Andromeda. The picture represents the moment following the freeing of Andromeda. — The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Children (1691, 194x155cm) _ Pierre Mignard, known in his native France as Le Romain, lived in Rome from 1636 (visiting Venice and other northern Italian cities in 1654-5) until summoned home by King Louis XIV in 1657. His style was largely based on Annibale Carracci, Domenichino and Poussin. However, he pretended allegiance to Titian and Venetian colorism on his return to France, mainly to oppose his rival Lebrun, whom he succeeded in 1690 as First Painter to the King and Director of the Royal Academy. Despite all his years abroad, his work looks to us unmistakably French, at least as relating to the France of the Sun King's court: calculated and grand. Hogarth's xenophobic English judgment, half a century later, might apply to this superb portrait: 'insolence with an affectation of politeness'. But Mignard was doing no more than following the wishes of his sitter, the widow of Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Seignelay, Minister for the Navy. Catherine-Thérèse de Matignon, Marquise de Lonray, veuve de Seignelay, instructed Mignard to portray her as the sea-nymph Thetis, to whom was said (according to Ovid's Metamorphoses XI, 221-3): 'O goddess of the waves, conceive: thou shalt be the mother of a youth who, when to manhood grown, shall outdo his father's deeds and shall be called greater than he.' Past writers have attributed Mme de Seignelay's transformation into a sea goddess to her husband's office, but it was shown that this passage from Ovid is the key to the portrait. Like Thetis, Mlle de Matignon, of old Norman nobility, had been married off against her will to a social inferior: Colbert, her husband's father and the great Minister of the King, was the son of a draper. The goddess's husband, Peleus, had to rape Thetis to 'beget on her the great Achilles', the most celebrated Greek hero of the Trojan War. 'The hero's mother, goddess of the sea, was ambitious for her son' and by descending into the fiery crater of Etna, the volcano seen here smoking in the background, obtained for him armor made by Vulcan, the blacksmith god. This is the armor, 'work of heavenly art', worn in the guise of Achilles by Marie-Jean-Baptiste de Seignelay, the eldest son for whom Mme de Seignelay had just bought a military commission. The painting's brilliant effect depends in large measure on the vast expanse of Thetis' best ultramarine-blue cloak, contrasting wonderfully with the coral and pearls in her hair, and the mauves and greens of Achilles' garments. Ultramarine was the costliest of pigments, more expensive than gold itself and for that reason seldom used by this date, and never in such quantities. Thus did Mme de Seignelay confound the rumors put about by 'mauvaises langues' that she was bankrupt. And there is more: other rumors circulated that the noble widow either was, or wished to be, mistress to the king. The Cupid proffering a precious nautilus shell brimming over with a king's ransom in jewels publicizes the liaison as a fait accompli. Thus might a classical education, and the talents of a Roman-trained and responsive artist, be put to insolent use 'with an affectation of politeness'. — The Heavenly Glory (1663) _ The Val-de-Grâce is one of the most important Baroque churches in Paris. It was designed by François Mansart, its dome follows the example of that of Saint Peter's in Rome. The circular fresco of the dome depicts the Trinity in Glory surrounded by saints, martyrs, and illustrious personalities. There are more then 200 figures in the composition including Queen Anne of Austria (the wife of Louis XIII), founder of the church. — The Virgin of the Grapes (1645, 121x94cm) _ [compare Madonna and Child with Grapes (1537) by Lucas Cranach the Elder] — The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine (1669; 233kb) — A Young Lady (1680; 178kb) — Girl Blowing Soap Bubbles (1674, 132x96cm) |
Gottfried Mind (or Mindt) “le Raphaël des Chats”, Swiss artist
born in Bern on 25 September 1768. {It seems that the Internet has not quite lost
its Mind, in fact it has more than one, but not many} — He showed talent
for drawing, and for little else (it seems he was autistic), as a child. He studied
under the painter Sigmund Hendenberger in Bern. |
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