Italian Early Renaissance Painter, 1445-1510 Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or Il Botticello ("The Little Barrel"; March 1, 1445 ?C May 17, 1510) was an Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento). Less than a hundred years later, this movement, under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, was characterized by Giorgio Vasari as a "golden age", a thought, suitably enough, he expressed at the head of his Vita of Botticelli. His posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting, and The Birth of Venus and Primavera rank now among the most familiar masterpieces of Florentine art. Details of Botticelli's life are sparse, but we know that he became an apprentice when he was about fourteen years old, which would indicate that he received a fuller education than did other Renaissance artists. Vasari reported that he was initially trained as a goldsmith by his brother Antonio. Probably by 1462 he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi; many of his early works have been attributed to the elder master, and attributions continue to be uncertain. Influenced also by the monumentality of Masaccio's painting, it was from Lippi that Botticelli learned a more intimate and detailed manner. As recently discovered, during this time, Botticelli could have traveled to Hungary, participating in the creation of a fresco in Esztergom, ordered in the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi by Vitez J??nos, then archbishop of Hungary. By 1470 Botticelli had his own workshop. Even at this early date his work was characterized by a conception of the figure as if seen in low relief, drawn with clear contours, and minimizing strong contrasts of light and shadow which would indicate fully modeled forms.  Related Paintings of BOTTICELLI, Sandro :. | The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti (first episode) ghj | San Barnaba Altarpiece (Madonna Enthroned with Saints) gfj | Portrait of a Young Woman 223ff | Mystical Nativity fg | The Return of Judith to Bethulia hgg |
Related Artists:
David Hunter Strother
1816-1888 Strother was born in Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). He studied drawing under Pietro Aneora in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1829 to 1836 when he became a student of Samuel F. B. Morse in New York. Strother was an artist for The Crayon, the leading art journal of the United States at the time, and a frequent contributor to Harper's Monthly. Most of his early work was comprised of landscapes and other outdoor scenes. His art pertained mostly to Virginia and the Southern United States. Prior to the American Civil War, his art was published in books titled The Blackwater Chronicle (1853) and Virginia Illustrated (1857). During the Civil War, Strother was commissioned by the U.S. Army and assigned as a topographer due to his detailed knowledge of the Shenandoah Valley. During this time, Strother recorded his experiences in the war which he would later publish in Harper's Monthly as "Personal Recollections of the War." His accounts are considered to be unique and are highly praised for their objective viewpoint. He was involved in 30 battles, though never wounded, and was brevetted brigadier general by the War's end. After the war, topics of his pieces covered a wider range of subjects. Strother began to make works which commented on politics and race relations. He even sketched a portrait of Chief Sitting Bull. Some of his drawings were merely of individuals and groups going about their daily lives. Strother ended his career as an artist when he was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes to be the General Consul to Mexico City in 1879. He returned to West Virginia in 1885 and died there three years later. The New York Times published an obituary in which it is stated that his name was a household one during his career. Strother is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Henri Matisse Prints
French Fauvist Painter and Sculptor, 1869-1954 Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 ?C 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. As a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but principally as a painter, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the 20th century. Although he was initially labeled as a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s, he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art. Around 1904 he met Pablo Picasso, who was 12 years younger than him. The two became life-long friends as well as rivals and are often compared; one key difference between them is that Matisse drew and painted from nature, while Picasso was much more inclined to work from imagination. The subjects painted most frequently by both artists were women and still lifes, with Matisse more likely to place his figures in fully realized interiors. Matisse and Picasso were first brought together at the Paris salon of Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas. During the first decade of the 20th century, Americans in Paris Gertrude Stein, her brothers Leo Stein, Michael Stein and Michael's wife Sarah were important collectors and supporters of Matisse's paintings. In addition Gertrude Stein's two American friends from Baltimore Clarabel and Etta Cone became major patrons of Matisse and Picasso, collecting hundreds of their paintings. The Cone collection is now exhibited in the Baltimore Museum of Art. His friends organized and financed the Acad??mie Matisse in Paris, a private and non-commercial school in which Matisse instructed young artists. It operated from 1911 until 1917. Hans Purrmann and Sarah Stein were amongst several of his most loyal students.
Felix de Vigne
(16 March 1806 - 5 December 1862) was a Belgian painter. De Vinge was a history painter, engraver, art historian, and instructor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Ghent). In 1847 he published Recherches historiques sur les costumes civils et militaires, an illustrated compendium of the flags, shields and costumes of medieval guilds and military groups. He was the brother of sculptor Pieter De Vigne (1812-1877), father of Brussels architect Edmond De Vinge (1841-1918), and the stepfather of painter Jules Breton.