Greek-born Spanish Mannerist Painter, 1541-1614
Considered a representative of late Renaissance Spanish art, El Greco was actually born in Greece, on the island of Crete. After studying in Venice under Titian, El Greco settled in Toledo, Spain in 1577. At the time he was wildly popular, his emotionally religious paintings being just the ticket for the hometown of the Spanish Inquisition. After his death his work was largely ignored until the beginning of the 20th century; now he considered one of the inspired geniuses of Western art. His distinctive style features bold shapes and colors, with elongated and slightly distorted figures.
In Toledo El Greco was in constant demand and liked living large: he maintained a private orchestra to accompany his meals. Related Paintings of El Greco :. | The Despoiling of Christ (mk08) | the burial of count orgaz | assumption of the virgin | La Purificacion del templo Roma | St. John the Baptist | Related Artists:
VIVARINI, AlviseItalian Early Renaissance Painter ,
b. 1445/46, Venezia, d. 1503/5, Venezia
Jean-Jacques Henner1829-1905
French
Jean Jacques Henner Galleries
French painter. He was born into a peasant family in the Sundgau and received his first artistic training at Altkirch with Charles Goutzwiller (1810-1900) and later in Strasbourg in the studio of Gabriel-Christophe Gu?rin (1790-1846). In 1846 he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris as a pupil of Michel-Martin Drolling and, from 1851, of Francois-Edouard Picot. While a student he was particularly drawn to portraiture, and during his frequent visits to Alsace he made portraits of his family as well as of the notables of the region. He also painted scenes of Alsatian peasant life.
COORTE, AdriaenDutch Baroque Era Painter, ca.1660-1707
Dutch painter. He painted mainly small still-lifes, but contrary to the contemporary fashion for increasingly complicated representations of flowers and fruit, he preferred to paint single objects arranged as simply as possible. Coorte's subjects were generally fruit or vegetables, sometimes shells and, more rarely, flowers or vanitas arrangements. These are generally arranged on a stone plinth or slab, often with a crack or groove on the front edge. In the larger paintings the composition is sometimes enclosed in a niche