Russian Painter, 1842-1910 Ukrainian painter, active in Russia. Initially self-taught as an artist, he twice failed the St Petersburg Academy's entrance examination, despite coaching by the marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky. In 1868, however, he was accepted as an external student. He persevered against conservative prejudice and poverty throughout his early career, supplementing his income by retouching photographs. In his early landscape paintings he often sought to capture seasonal moods, as in Autumn Mud (1872; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.). A more human focus, however, is noticeable after 1874, when he joined the travelling exhibitions society the WANDERERS: the village houses dominate the landscape setting in Evening in Ukraine (1878; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.). Kuindzhi's principal interest, however, was in lighting, and he obtained striking effects by using vivid colours, chiaroscuro contrasts and simple but cleverly conceived designs. Spectacular paintings, such as the Birch Grove (1879; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.), greatly moved contemporary viewers. Through years of experimentation, Kuindzhi developed a highly original technique, which he applied to an increasingly typical, at times almost visionary, treatment of subjects such as snow-covered mountains and moonlight (e.g. Elbnis: Moonlit Night, 1890-95; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.). Due to imperfections in the paints he used, many of his canvases soon darkened.  Related Paintings of Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi :. | Eventide | Landscape | North | Cloud | Birch Grove (nn02) |
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Hans Vredeman de Vries
(1527 - c. 1607) was a Dutch Renaissance architect, painter, and engineer. Vredeman de Vries is known for his publication in 1583 on garden design and his books with many examples on ornaments (1565) and perspective (1604). Born in Leeuwarden and raised in Friesland, in 1546 Vredeman de Vries went to Amsterdam and Kampen. In 1549 he moved to Mechelen where the Superior Court was seating. Sebastian, his brother, was the organist in the local church. Vredeman de Vries designed ornaments for merry parades of Charles V and Philip II. Studying Vitruvius and Sebastiano Serlio, (translated by his teacher Pieter Coecke van Aelst), he became an internationally known specialist in perspective. He continued his career in Antwerp, where he was appointed city architect and fortification engineer. After 1585 he fled the city because of the Spanish occupation by Alessandro Farnese. Then the Protestants had to leave the city within two years. Vredeman de Vries moved to Frankfurt and worked in Wolfenbettel, designing a fortification and a new lay-out of the city for Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Leneburg. After his death the project was cancelled and Hans worked in Hamburg, Danzig (1592), Prague (1596) and Amsterdam (1600). On his trips Vredeman was accompanied by his son Paul and Hendrick Aerts. Vredeman de Vries tried to get an appointment at the University of Leiden in 1604. It is not known when and where Hans Vredeman de Vries died, however, it is recorded that his son Paul was living in Hamburg when he inherited.
Master of the Legend
active in Cologne ca 1490/1500 Austrian painter and woodcutter. He is named after two altarpiece wings with three scenes from the Legend of SS Cosmas and Damian: the Miraculous Healing of the Leg, A Husband Commending his Wife to the Saints and the Delivery of the False Message by the Devil (Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.). He is thought to have been the earliest disciple of Lucas Cranach the elder in Austria and to have been later influenced by both Albrecht Altdorfer and J?rg Breu the elder. His rather stately figures are in splayed-out, often affected poses, with the feet and knees twisted outwards, appearing almost dislocated.
CLERCK, Hendrik de
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, ca.1570-1630 Flemish painter and draughtsman. In 1587 he was working in Rome with the Brussels painter Frans van de Kasteele. That he subsequently lived in Brussels is confirmed by documentary evidence and by his status as court painter to the governors of the southern Netherlands. Stylistically, de Clerck's work (both paintings and drawings) is close to that of the Antwerp late Mannerist Marten de Vos, traditionally thought to have been his teacher, but it is possible that he was apprenticed to Joos van Winghe in Italy. He was later a member of the Brussels painters' guild, where from 1601 to 1611 Jan van Overstraeten was registered as his pupil. It was in 1594 that de Clerck was appointed court painter in Brussels, first to Archduke Ernest. In 1596, after the Archduke's death, his brother Emperor Rudolf II arranged for de Clerck to stay on as court painter in the service of the new Archdukes, Albert and Isabella. In 1609 de Clerck and Wenceslas Cobergher were commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the oratorium in the archducal palace in Brussels