Spanish Baroque Era Painter, 1599-1660 Spanish painter. He was one of the most important European artists of the 17th century, spending his career from 1623 in the service of Philip IV of Spain. His early canvases comprised bodegones and religious paintings, but as a court artist he was largely occupied in executing portraits, while also producing some historical, mythological and further religious works. His painting was deeply affected by the work of Rubens and by Venetian artists, especially Titian, as well as by the experience of two trips (1629-31 and 1649-51) to Italy. Under these joint influences he developed a uniquely personal style characterized by very loose, expressive brushwork. Although he had no immediate followers, he was greatly admired by such later painters as Goya and Manet  Related Paintings of Diego Velazquez :. | Ignudi (df01) | Juan de Pareja (detail) (df01) | Democrite (df02) | Mercure et Argus (df02) | Saint john the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos |
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Alfred Rethel
1816 Diepenbend/Aachen-1859 Dusseldorf, was a German history painter. Rethel was born in Aachen in 1816. He showed an interest in art in his early life, and at the age of thirteen he executed a drawing which procured his admission to the academy of D??sseldorf. Here he studied for several years, and produced, among other works, a figure of St Boniface, which attracted much attention. At the age of twenty, Rethel moved to Frankfurt, and was selected to decorate the walls of the imperial hall in the Rmer with figures of famous men. At the same period he produced a series of designs illustrative of Old Testament history. Four years later, Rethel was the successful competitor for the work of ornamenting the restored council house of his native city with frescoes depicting prominent events in the career of Charlemagne, but the execution of this work was delayed for some six years. Meanwhile Rethel occupied himself with the production of easel pictures and of drawings. In 1842, he began a striking series of designs dealing with the Crossing of the Alps by Hannibal, in which the weird power which animates his later art becomes first apparent. In 1844 Rethel visited Rome, executing, along with other subjects, an altar-piece for one of the churches of his native land. In 1846, he returned to Aachen, and commenced his Charlemagne frescoes.
Henrietta Johnston
b.born before 1670, probably Ireland buried March 7, 1729, was an early American pastellist. Born Henrietta Deering, probably in Ireland, she married in 1705 and emigrated to America in 1707, settling in Charles Towne (now Charleston, South Carolina). A total of 40 pastel portraits by Johnston are known, dating from 1707 to around 1725. After her husband's death in 1716, Johnston was forced to support herself and her children, becoming possibly the first professional female painter in America. She's a very talented artist.
Albert Baertsoen
Belgian, 1866-1922.Belgian painter and etcher. The son of a successful mill-owner and an excellent musician, he was a pupil and friend of Gustave Den Duyts (1850-97), and later, at the Ghent Acad?mie, of Jean Delvin (1853-1922). He was involved in the exhibiting society LEssor in Brussels as well as the triennial salons held in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent in rotation. Among his earliest important works are The Scheldt at Dendermonde (1887; Ghent, Mus. S. Kst.), which he painted beside Isidore Meyers (1836-1917) and Franz Courtens in a Realist style characteristic of the Dendermonde school. In 1889-90 he attended the studio of Alfred Roll in Paris, where he met Jacques-Emile Blanche and Charles Cottet, and became particularly closely associated with Frits Thaulow, Emile-Ren? M?nard and Edmond Aman-Jean. He exhibited regularly at the Salon in Paris. Although Baertsoen is considered to be one of the first Belgian Impressionists, he belonged to no particular school. He was more than a descriptive landscape painter, for he sought to evoke through the depiction of the natural world a mood of melancholy and resignation. He painted silent streets, rocks, rivers and canals in Bruges, Li?ge, Nieuwpoort, Diksmuide and in London, where he stayed during World War I. His most important paintings, however, were inspired by his native town, Ghent, of which he built up a remarkable portrait over the years in such works as Barges in the Snow (1901) and Ghent in the Evening (1903; both Brussels, Mus. A. Mod.). A broad, spontaneous technique, great delicacy of nuance, deep sincerity as well as a certain meditative quality characterize his work, which is limited in quantity. Baertsoen played an important role in Belgian cultural life of his period and was elected to the Acad?mie Royale des Beaux-Arts in 1919.