French 1690-1743 Nicolas Lancret (22 January 1690 ?C 14 September 1743), French painter, was born in Paris, and became a brilliant depicter of light comedy which reflected the tastes and manners of French society under the regent Orleans. His first master was Pierre d'Ulin, but his acquaintance with and admiration for Watteau induced him to leave d'Ulin for Gillot, whose pupil Watteau had been. Two pictures painted by Lancret and exhibited on the Place Dauphine had a great success, which laid the foundation of his fortune, and, it is said, estranged Watteau, who had been complimented as their author. Lancret's work cannot now, however, be taken for that of Watteau, for both in drawing and in painting his touch, although intelligent, is dry, hard and wanting in that quality which distinguished his great model; these characteristics are due possibly in part to the fact that he had been for some time in training under an engraver. The number of his paintings (of which over eighty have been engraved) is immense; he executed a few portraits and attempted historical composition, but his favorite subjects were balls, fairs, village weddings, etc. The British Museum possesses an admirable series of studies by Lancret in red chalk, and the National Gallery, London, shows four paintings--the "Four Ages of Man" (engraved by Desplaces and l'Armessin), cited by d'Argenville amongst the principal works of Lancret. In 1719 he was received as Academician, and became councillor in 1735; in 1741 he married a grandchild of Boursault, author of Aesop at Court.  Related Paintings of Nicolas Lancret :. | Mademoiselle de Camargo Dancing | The Four Times of the day Morning | Winter | Manhood | The Dancer Camargo |
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Pier Francesco Mola
(9 February 1612 - 13 May 1666) was an Italian painter of the High Baroque, mainly active around Rome. Mola was born at Coldrerio (now in Ticino, Switzerland). At the age of four, he moved to Rome with his father Giovanni Battista, a painter. With the exception of the years 1633 - 40 and 1641 - 47, during which he resided in Venice and Bologna, respectively, he lived for the rest of his life in Rome. His early training was with the late mannerist painter Cavalier D'Arpino, and he worked under the classicizing Francesco Albani. His masterpiece is the fresco in the gallery of Alexander VII in the Quirinal Palace Gallery, entitled Joseph making himself known to his Brethren (1657). He made six versions of The Flight into Egypt, the earileist and best of which is the first one, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt. He was elected Principe of the Accademia di San Luca, the Roman artists' professional association, in 1662, but his last years were neither profitable nor prolific. One of his pupils was Antonio Gherardi. With his looser style and handling, more naturalistic palette, and interest in exploring landscape elements, Mola rebelled against the prevailing, highly-theoretical classicism of such leading 17th-century Roman painters as Andrea Sacchi.
Agnolo Gaddi
Italian Early Renaissance Painter, ca.1345-1396 Son of Taddeo Gaddi. Through both his brother Giovanni and his father, Agnolo was heir to the Giottesque tradition and to a successful family enterprise, which he directed with enormous success up to the turn of the 15th century. He is first mentioned as a painter in 1369, when he assisted his brother Giovanni and Giovanni da Milano in decorations for Urban V (reg 1362-70) in the Vatican. Although he probably did not assume full responsibility for the workshop until his brother Giovanni death, he must have begun accepting his own commissions as early as the 1370s. The nature of his early work and whether it included an altarpiece dated 1375 (Parma, G.N., 435), however, remains a matter of debate. Logical or likely though it may be, the notion that this early activity developed out of his brother Giovanni still little-known art is hypothetical. Whereas the works grouped around Giovanni name are all small panels, Agnolo was an artist who, like his father, excelled in wall painting. Indeed, three monumental fresco cycles (see below), in the Castellani Chapel (painted c. 1384) and the choir (painted c. 1388-93) of Santa Croce, Florence, and the chapel of the Sacra Cintola (doc. 1393-5) in Prato Cathedral, constitute the artist most notable surviving works and offer a basis for reconstructing the content and chronology of his oeuvre.
DOBSON, William
English Baroque Era Painter, ca.1611-1646 English painter. His father, William Dobson, was a gentleman of St Albans employed by Francis Bacon, Viscount Verulam, on the building and decoration at Verulam House and Gorhambury; he was also probably Master of the Alienation Office and a member of the Painter-Stainers' Company, but according to John Aubrey, 'he spending his estate luxuriously upon women, necessity forced his son William Dobson to be the most excellent painter