English Romantic Painter, 1775-1851 Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 ?C 19 December 1851) was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker, whose style is said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Although Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, he is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Turner's talent was recognised early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterised by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. According to David Piper's The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called "fantastic puzzles." However, Turner was still recognised as an artistic genius: the influential English art critic John Ruskin described Turner as the artist who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature." (Piper 321) Suitable vehicles for Turner's imagination were to be found in the subjects of shipwrecks, fires (such as the burning of Parliament in 1834, an event which Turner rushed to witness first-hand, and which he transcribed in a series of watercolour sketches), natural catastrophes, and natural phenomena such as sunlight, storm, rain, and fog. He was fascinated by the violent power of the sea, as seen in Dawn after the Wreck (1840) and The Slave Ship (1840). Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity on the one hand (note the frequent scenes of people drinking and merry-making or working in the foreground), but its vulnerability and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on the other hand. 'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God - a theme that artists and poets were exploring in this period. The significance of light was to Turner the emanation of God's spirit and this was why he refined the subject matter of his later paintings by leaving out solid objects and detail, concentrating on the play of light on water, the radiance of skies and fires. Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding primarily to optical phenomena. Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway painted (1844).His early works, such as Tintern Abbey (1795), stayed true to the traditions of English landscape. However, in Hannibal Crossing the Alps (1812), an emphasis on the destructive power of nature had already come into play. His distinctive style of painting, in which he used watercolour technique with oil paints, created lightness, fluency, and ephemeral atmospheric effects. (Piper 321) One popular story about Turner, though it likely has little basis in reality, states that he even had himself "tied to the mast of a ship in order to experience the drama" of the elements during a storm at sea. In his later years he used oils ever more transparently, and turned to an evocation of almost pure light by use of shimmering colour. A prime example of his mature style can be seen in Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway, where the objects are barely recognizable. The intensity of hue and interest in evanescent light not only placed Turner's work in the vanguard of English painting, but later exerted an influence upon art in France, as well; the Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet, carefully studied his techniques.  Related Paintings of Joseph Mallord William Turner :. | In the red | Lincoin from the Brayford (mk47) | Landscape | Ein gestrandetes Schiff | Surf |
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Carl Blechen
German Romantic, 1798-1840 was a German painter, specializing in fantastic landscapes, sometimes with demons and grotesque figures. Born in Cottbus, he drew the attention of prominent architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who cast him as a decorative painter. Blechen however aimed for higher work and began producing landscape paintings. In 1827 he went to Italy
pehr hillestrom
Pehr Hilleström (1732-1816) var en svensk målare och vävare, professor vid Konstakademiens läroverk från 1794 och dess direktör från 1810. I unga år var han en av Sveriges främsta gobelängvävare men övergick sedan till måleri. Han är mest känd för sina vardagsskildringar av sin tids levnadssätt. Han målade pigor och tjänstefolk som arbetar, överklassen i de fina salarna, enkelt folk i stugorna och bilder från olika bruksmiljöer. Genom det räknas han som den största skildraren av den gustavianska samtiden. Pehr Hilleström är far till konstnären Carl Petter Hilleström och farfars farfars far till Gustaf Hilleström. Pehr Hilleström föddes i 1732 Väddö, Roslagen, troligtvis den 18 november. Han växte upp under fattiga omständigheter på Väddö prästgård vid sin farbror som var kyrkoherde där. Han var son till en militär och äldst i en syskonskara på 12 barn. Hans far råkade redan 1719 i rysk fångenskap men hade 1723 lyckats återvända till Sverige och då tagit sin tillflykt till brodern på Väddö. 1743 flyttade familjen Hilleström från Roslagen till Stockholm, där Pehr, 10 år gammal, sattes i lära hos tapet- och landskapsmålaren Johan Philip Korn (1727-1796) samt mellan åren 1744-1747 även hos den invandrade tyske solfjädermålaren Christian Fehmer. Utöver detta fick han även undervisning vid kungliga ritareakademin där Guillaume Thomas Taraval (1701-1750) och Jean Eric Rehn (1717-1793) var läromästare. Efter inrådan från Carl Hårleman sattes Hilleström 1745 i lära hos Jean Louis Duru (-1753). Duru var hautelissevävare och hade kallats till Sverige för att göra textila utsmyckningen av Stockholms slott. Tanken var att Hilleström skulle utbildas till Durus medhjälpare. 1749 visade Hilleström upp ett första läroprov som visades upp för deputationen som gillade det så mycket så att han fick en belöning på 180 daler kopparmynt. När Duru dog i slutet av 1753 så fick Hilleström fullborda den påbörjade kappan för tronhimmelen i det kungliga audiensrummet. Han var då så skicklig att det knappt kunde märkas någon skillnad mellan hans och hans lärares arbete. Lönen var blygsam men vid 1756 års riksdag fick han samma årslön som Duru hade haft, och han fick en beställning på ett vävt porträtt av Hårleman utfört i hautelisse. Åren 1757-58 var Hilleström på en längre och för tidens konstnärer sedvanlig studieresa till utlandet. Färden gick till Paris, Belgien och Holland, bland annat med en vidareutbildning i gobelängteknikerna som mål. I Paris blir Hilleström erbjuden att studera måleri i François Bouchers atelj??, men störst intryck tog han där av genre- och stillebenmålaren Jean-Baptiste-Sim??on Chardin, som undervisade honom vid franska målarakademien. Väl hemma i Stockholm fortsatte han visserligen att göra tapeter, mattor, stolsöverdrag och dylikt för hovet. Men så småningom fylldes slottet behov av vävnader samtidigt som Hilleström fortsatte studera måleri.
Alfred R. Waud
American, 1828-1891,was an American artist and illustrator, born in London, England. He is most notable for the sketches he made as an artist correspondent during the American Civil War. Before emigration, Alfred Waud had entered the Government School of Design at Somerset House, London, with the intention of becoming a marine painter. This did not come to fruition, but as a student, he also worked as a painter of theatrical scenery. He intended to pursue that work in the United States, when he immigrated in 1850, seeking employment with actor and playwright John Brougham. In the 1850s, he worked variously as an illustrator for a Boston periodical, the Carpet-Bag, and provided illustrations for books such as Hunter's Panoramic Guide from Niagara to Quebec (1857). The period during the American Civil War was time when all images in a publication had to be hand drawn and engraved by skilled artist. Photography existed but there was no way to transfer a photograph to a printing plate since this was well before the advent of the halftone process for printing photographs. Photographic equipment was too cumbersome and exposure times were to slow to be used on the battlefield. An artist such as Waud would do detailed sketches in the field, which were then rushed by courier back to the main office of the newspaper they were working for. There a staff of engravers would use the to sketches create finished engravings for publication. In 1860 Alfred Waud became an illustrator or special artist (a full time paid staff artist) for the New York Illustrated News. In April 1861, the newspaper assigned Waud to cover the Army of the Potomac, Virginia main Union army. He first illustrated General Winfield Scott in Washington, D.C., and then entered the field to render the First Battle of Bull Run in July. Waud followed a Union expedition to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina the next month. That autumn, he sketched army activity in the Tidewater region of Virginia. Waud joined Harper's Weekly toward the end of 1861, continuing to cover the war. In 1864 Alfred brother, William Waud (who up to that time had been working with Frank Leslie Illustrated Newspaper), joined Alfred on the staff of Harper's and they worked together during the Petersburg Campaign. Alfred Waud attended every battle of the Army of the Potomac between the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861 and the Siege of Petersburg in 1865. Alfred was one of only two artists present at the Battle of Gettysburg. His depiction of Pickett Charge is thought to be the only visual account by an eyewitness. Waud died in 1891 in Marietta, Georgia, while touring battlefields of the South.