Italian Rococo Era Painter, 1697-1768
Italian painter, etcher and draughtsman. He was the most distinguished Italian view painter of the 18th century. Apart from ten years spent in England he lived in Venice, and his fame rests above all on his views (vedute) of that city; some of these are purely topographical, others include festivals or ceremonial events. He also painted imaginary views (capriccios), although the demarcation between the real and the invented is never quite clearcut: his imaginary views often include realistically depicted elements, though in unexpected surroundings, and in a sense even his Venetian vedute are imaginary. He never merely re-created reality. He was highly successful with the English, helped in this by the British connoisseur JOSEPH SMITH, whose own large collection of Canaletto works was sold to King George III in 1762. The British Royal Collection has the largest group of his paintings and drawings. Related Paintings of Canaletto :. | Capriccio: The Ponte della Pescaria and Buildings on the Quay d | Ritorno del bucintoro al Molo nel giorno dell'Ascensione dopo Il (mk21) | The Grand Canal from Rialto toward the North | Grand Canal, Looking East from the Campo San Vio (detail) fd | The Rialto Bridge from the South fdg | Related Artists:
William Powell Frith1819-1909 English painter. His parents were in domestic employment before taking a hotel in Harrogate in 1826. They encouraged him to become an artist, despite his own desire to be an auctioneer. While at school in Dover, Frith sketched caricatures and copies of Dutch genre scenes (Dover Mus.) that betray his disposition to narratives. His taste did not accord with the academic training he received at Henry Sass Academy in London (1835-7) and at the Royal Academy Schools (1837). Frith began his career as a portrait painter, using members of his family as models. He first exhibited at the British Institution in 1838, and during the 1840s he established himself with his entertaining historical and literary subjects in the popular tradition of C. R. Leslie, William Mulready and Sir David Wilkie. He was a member of THE CLIQUE, which included Richard Dadd, Augustus Egg, Henry O Neil and John Phillip. His friendship with Charles Dickens began with commissions for paintings of Dolly Varden (London, V&A) and Kate Nickleby (untraced) in 1842.
Valentin SerovRussian Impressionist Painter, 1865-1911
Robert Crannell Minor (1839-1904), American artist, was born in New York City on 30 April 1839, and received his art training in Paris under Diaz, and in Antwerp under Joseph Van Luppen. His paintings are characteristic of the Barbizon school, and he was particularly happy in his sunset and twilight effects; but it was only within a few years of his death that he began to have a vogue among collectors. In 1897 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Design, New York. After 1900 he lived at Waterford, Connecticut, where he died on 4 August 1904.