Pierre Auguste Renoir, a French impressionist painter, was noted for his radiant, intimate paintings, particularly of the female nude. Recognized by critics as one of the greatest and most independent painters of his period, Renoir is noted for the harmony of his lines, the brilliance of his colour, and the intimate charm of his wide…
In Leyden, Holland, the year of 1606, the renowned artist known as Rembrandt van Rijn was born. At age seven he began attending grammar school where he studied the classics, Latin, possibly Hebrew, and the Bible. Seven years later Rembrandt’s father made plans for sending him to a university. Rembrandt, whose only desire was to…
Piet Mondrian was born in Amersfoort , Holland in 1872 and started to study art a very early age. At the age of fourteen he moved to Amsterdam to study painting. His early work was based in nineteenth-century Dutch realism. Mondrian’s work transformed into the abstract slowly with the use of pure bright color after…
As the son of a professor of art, Picasso’s talent for drawing was recognized at an early age. An advanced student at the Barcelona Academy of Fine Arts from the age of 14, he experimented in his youth with nearly all of the “avant-garde styles” current at the turn of the century. He also became…
In 1883, the romantic artist, Martin Johnson Heade visited Florida. Impressed with St. Augustine, Heade settled there and worked in a studio in the Ponce De Leon Hotel made available to the artist by Henry Flagler, railroad magnate and developer of Florida’s east coast. The combination of St. Augustine’s Old World atmosphere, tropical vegetation, and…
Gustave Caillebotte was the first impressionist that painted realistic, photo paintings. Caillebotte was born in 1848, he was a French painter that was really influenced by impressionism. Mostly all of Caillebotte’s work was, oil on canvas style. He painted Paris Street; Rainy Day in 1877. Caillebotte was one of the less known impressionist painter during…
“The artist’s vision is more important than tradition.” Francisco de Goya, a Spanish artist, believed that the most important thing was to draw what he saw rather than following the traditional style. Unlike any other artists of his time, Goya did not tend to imitate Renaissance arts targeting classical subject matters. Instead, he tried to…
Domenikos Theotokopoulos was the last and perhaps the greatest mannerist of all time. Born on the island of Crete, Domenikos Theotokopoulos acquired the name El Greco, the Greek, in Italy and Spain. He was first trained in the Venetian School by an unknown Cretanian artist still working under the Byzantine tradition. After working as an…
Claude Oscar Monet was born November 14, 1840 in Paris, France. The initiator, advocate, and leader of the Impressionist style, Claude Monet’s many works of art serve as the definition of the Impressionist’s artwork. His father, Adolphe Monet, a grocer in Paris, brought the family to Le Havre when Claude was five. Struck by the…
Berthe Morisot, a French painter was born in 1841 into a wealthy family. Morisot started to receive painting lessons from Joseph-Benoit Guichard, and soon became interested in Impressionism. Morisot had married Eugene Manet and was declared sister in law of Edouard Manet. Though she was inspired by him and he was her mentor, she clearly…
Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839. He was to die in the same town in 1906. His life and art work was greatly influenced by this small town in France. He was the son of a shrewd business man, Louis-Auguste Cezanne. As a boy growing up in Aix, Cezanne loved to study Greek and…
Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest and most ingenious men that history has produced. His contributions in the areas of art, science, and humanity are still among the most important that a single man has put forth, definitely making his a life worth knowing. Da Vinci, born on April 15, 1452, is credited…
E.E Cummings was an unusual, yet highly acclaimed writer of the 20th century. His style of writing was much different than that of any other contemporary or even 18th and 19th century writers. Although difficult to understand at times, E.E Cummings is a very profound and inventive writer. E.E Cummings was born Edward Estlin Cummings…
Renaissance is Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). We know his life better than the lives of other artists of his time. Dürer traveled, and found, he says, more appreciation abroad than at home. The Italian influence on his art was of a particularly Venetian strain, through the great Bellini, who, by the time Dürer met him, was…