Dutch Baroque Era Painter, ca.1625-1679 Daily life was Jan Steen's main pictorial theme. Many of the genre scenes he portrayed are lively to the point of chaos and lustfulness, even so much that a Jan Steen household, meaning a messy scene, became a Dutch proverb (een huishouden van Jan Steen). Subtle hints in his paintings seem to suggest that Steen meant to warn the viewer rather than invite him to copy this behaviour. Many of Steen's paintings bear references to old Dutch proverbs or literature. He often used members of his family as models. Jan Steen painted also quite a few self-portraits, in which he showed no tendency of vanity. Steen did not shy from other themes: he painted historical, mythological and religious scenes, portraits, still lifes and natural scenes. His portraits of children are famous. He is also well known for his mastery of light and attention to detail, most notably in textiles. Steen was prolific, producing about 800 paintings, of which roughly 350 survive. Steen's work was valued much by contemporaries and as a result he was reasonably well paid for his work. He did not have any students, but his work proved a source of inspiration for many painters.  Related Paintings of Jan Steen :. | Merry Couple | Der gekronte Redner | The Effects of Intemperance | The cheerful family | The Quack |
Related Artists:
David Klocker Ehrenstrahl
German, 1629-1698,Swedish nobleman and portrait painter who in 1652, at twenty-four years of age, at the request of Carl Gustaf Wrangel, moved to Skokloster Castle, from his art studies in the Netherlands. Between 1654 and 1661 he studied in Italy and visited the courts of both France and England. On his return he became entitled Court painter. He was raised to the nobility in 1674 and became court indendant in 1690. Mikael Dahl and David von Krafft as well as his daughter Anna Maria (born 1666) can be found among his pupils. The allegoric great hall ceiling fresco, named The Great Deeds of The Swedish Kings, in the Swedish House of Knights, made between 1670 and 1675, is considered to be his greatest work. A second version was made in Drottningholm Palace, the home of the Swedish Royal Family, in 1695. The Drottningholm fresco, also became the motive of the 1000th and ever largest postage stamp by Czeslaw Slania, the Polish
Jean-Francois De Troy
French 1679-1752 Jean-Francois De Troy Gallery Jean François de Troy was born on January 27, 1679 in Paris. The successful career of Jean François de Troy was based initially on large historical and allegorical compositions, such as Time Unveiling Truth (1733) in the National Gallery, London, but he is now most highly regarded for his smaller and more spirited scenes of elegant social life. They are among the best of those that rode on the wave of Watteau's success??indeed The Alarm, or the Gouvernante Fid??le (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1723) was attributed to Watteau in the 19th century. A versatile artist, he made tableaux de modes famous, painting histories and mythologies in a colourful and fluent manner which owed something to both Veronese and Peter Paul Rubens. He undertook commissions for Versailles and Fontainebleau between 1724 and 1737, and designed two sets of tapestries for the Gobelins, each of seven subjects, the Histoire d'Esther (1737-40) and the Histoire de Jason (1743-6). In 1738 he was appointed Director of the French Academy in Rome, and spent the rest of his life there. De Troy's wife died prematurely, and he lost of all his seven children. Jean François de Troy died on January 26, 1752 in Rome.
Konstantin Makovsky
1839 September 17 [O.S. September 30] 1915) was an influential Russian painter, affiliated with the "Peredvizhniki (Wanderers)". Many of his historical paintings, such as The Russian Bride's Attire (1889), showed an idealized view of Russian life of prior centuries. He is often considered a representative of a Salon art. Konstantin was born in Moscow as the older son of a Russian art figure and amateur painter, Yegor Ivanovich Makovsky. Yegor Makovsky was the founder of Natural class, the art school that later became as the famous Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Among the friends of the family were Karl Briullov and Vasily Tropinin. All children of Yegor became notable painters (see Makovsky). Later Konstantin wrote For what I became I think I should thank not the Academy or Professors but only my father. In 1851 Konstantin entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where he became the top student, easily getting all the available awards.