Category Archives: Artist of the Day

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 20th Century artist of the Dadaist movement, Max Ernst [German, 1891-1976] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Ernst_Max

Max Ernst (b. 1891, Bruhl, Germany; d. 1976, Paris), was born on April 2, 1891, in Bruhl, Germany. He enrolled in the University at Bonn in 1909 to study philosophy, but soon abandoned this pursuit to concentrate on art. At this time he was interested in psychology and the art of the mentally ill. In 1911 Ernst became a friend of August Macke and joined the Rheinische Expressionisten group in Bonn. Ernst showed for the first time in 1912 at the Galerie Feldman in Cologne. At the Sonderbund exhibition of that year in Cologne he saw the work of Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh. In 1913 he met Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay and traveled to Paris. Ernst participated that same year in the Erste deutsche Herbstsalon. In 1914 he met Jean Arp, who was to become a lifelong friend.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 20th Century artist of the Op Art movement, Victor Vasarely [Hungarian-French, 1908-1997] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Vasarely_Victor

Victor Vasarely, Hungarian Viktor Vásárhelyi (born April 9, 1908, Pécs, Hungary. – died March 15, 1997, Paris, France), a Hungarian-born French painter of geometric abstractions who became one of the leading figures of the Op Art movement.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 19th Century artist, Mariano Fortuny y Marsal [Spanish, 1838-1874] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Marsal_Mariano_Fortuny_y

Mariano Fortuny, in full Mariano José María Bernardo Fortuny Y Marsal (born June 11, 1838, Reus, Spain – died Nov. 21, 1874, Rome, Italy), was a Spanish painter whose vigorous technique and anecdotal themes won him a considerable audience in the mid-19th century.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 19th Century artist, Ernst Heinrich Haeckel [German, 1834-1919] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Haeckel_Ernst_Heinrich

Ernst Haeckel, much like Herbert Spencer, was always quotable, even when wrong. Although best known for the famous statement “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”, he also coined many words commonly used by biologists today, such as phylum, phylogeny, and ecology. On the other hand, Haeckel also stated that “politics is applied biology”, a quote used by Nazi propagandists. The Nazi party, rather unfortunately, used not only Haeckel’s quotes, but also Haeckel’s justifications for racism, nationalism and social darwinism.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 18th Century artist of the Rococo movement, Giovanni_Batista Piazetta [Italian, 1682-1754] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Piazetta_Giovanni_Batista

Giovanni Batista Piazzetta was an artist who sought little gain in his creations, and as a result he was impoverished for much of his life. Albeit, his paintings and drawings were renowned for their Rocco style, with subtle coloring and curvaceous forms in religious and genre subjects. Born in Venice to a sculptor, Piazzetta studied woodcarving with his father and went on to train as a painter with Antonio Molinari (1655–1704). Molinari was a Venetian Baroque painter, whose influence merged in Piazzetta with that of the Bolognese painter, Giuseppe Crespi (1665–1747), who certainly influenced Piazzetta and may have trained him some.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 15th Century artist, Konrad Witz [German-Swiss, c.1400-1446] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Witz_Konrad

Konrad Witz, (born ca. 1400, Rottweil, died ca. 1446, Basel), was a German-born painter from Rottweil in Swabia, active in Switzerland and generally considered a member of the Swiss school. He entered the painters’ guild in Basle in 1434 and apparently spent the rest of his career there and in Geneva. Little else is known of him and few paintings by him survive. These few, however, show that he was remarkably advanced in his naturalism, suggesting a knowledge of the work of his contemporaries Jan van Eyck and the Master of Flémalle. In place of the soft lines and lyrical qualities of International Gothic we find in Witz’s work heavy, almost stumpy, figures, whose ample draperies emphasize their solidity.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 15th Century artist of the Early Renaissance movement, Filippino Lippi [Florentine, 1457-1504] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Lippi_Filippino

Florentine painter, the son and pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi. who died when the boy was about 12. The boy completed his father’s work (or at least cleared up his estate) in Spoleto (the final receipts for Filippo’s frescoes in the Spoleto Cathedral was signed by Filippino) and he set off alone for Florence on 1 January 1470. He also studied with Botticelli and learned much from his expressive use of line, but Filippino’s style, although sensitive and poetic, is more robust than his master’s. The first certainly datable work by Filippino is the Annunciation on two tondi (1483–84, San Gimignano).

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 18th Century artist of the Rococo movement, Francesco Guardi [Venetian, 1712-1793] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Guardi_Francesco

Francesco Guardi (1712–93), was a Venetian painter, the best-known member of a family of artists. He is now famous for his views of Venice, indeed next to Canaletto he is the most celebrated view-painter of the 18th century, but he produced work on a great variety of subjects and seems to have concentrated on views only after the death of his brother Gianantonio (1699–1760).

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 17th Century artist of the Baroque movement, Jan Steen [Dutch, 1626-1679] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Steen_Jan

Jan Steen (born about 1626 Leyden, The Netherlands, died about 1679 Leyden, The Netherlands), was a Dutch Painter. Remarkably, given the meager living he made from art, Jan Steen was the humorist among Dutch painters. He persevered, creating nearly eight hundred pictures, most with a moral beneath the wit. A prosperous brewer’s son, Steen enrolled in Leyden University in 1646, but by 1648 he was helping to found the Leyden Guild of Saint Luke. His teachers may have included Nikolaus Knüpfer. Steen was not one to stay put; he lived in The Hague; Haarlem; Leyden, where he ran a tavern; and Delft, where he leased a brewery. He married Jan van Goyen’s daughter.