Naturalism - 19c.

Naturalism in art refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. The Realism movement of the 19th century advocated naturalism in reaction to the stylized and idealized depictions of subjects in Romanticism, but many painters have adopted a similar approach over the centuries. An important part of the naturalist movement was its Darwinian perspective of life and its view of the futility of man up against the forces of nature. Naturalism is a type of art that pays attention to very accurate and precise details, and portrays things as they are.

Albert Charpin "Woman with Lambs"

Naturalism can be considered a reaction to the Rococo style and embodied characteristics like unaffected, honest, simple and people in natural settings/jobs. Unlike the Rococo time period there was no ornamentation in these paintings and they were very direct and simple. These paintings also had moral undertones and portrayed non-aristocratic people.

Artists: William Bliss Baker, Albert Charpin, Caspar David Friedrich, John Martin, John Crome.

Neo-romanticism - 19c.

The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism. It has been applied to contemporary composers who rejected or abandoned the use of the devices of avant-garde modernism.

   Characteristics of neo-romanticism include the expression of strong emotions such as terror, awe, horror and love. The movement sought to revive romanticism and medievalism by promoting the power of imagination, the exotic and the unfamiliar. Other characteristics include the promotion of supernatural experiences, the use and interest in Jungian archetypes and the semi-mystical conjuring of home and nation.

   Human emotions were as important as the supernatural. Neo-romanticism sought to promote ideas such as perfect love, the beauty of youth, heroes and romantic deaths. These included the romantic traditions of Lord Byron.

Representatives: Antoni Lange, Andrew Logan, Alan Reynolds, Ian Finlay, Laurie Lee

Neo-classicism - 1750-1880

Neoclassicism  is the name given to Western movements in thedecorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome. The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, latterly competing with Romanticism. In architecture the style continued throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and into the 21st. The term "Neoclassical" was not invented until the mid-19th century, and at the time the style was described by such terms as "the true style", "reformed" and "revival"; what was regarded as being revived varying considerably. Ancient models were certainly very much involved, but the style could also be regarded as a revival of the Renaissance, and especially in France as a return to the more austere and noble Baroque of the age of Louis XIV, for which a considerable nostalgia had developed as France's dominant military and political position started a serious decline. Ingres's coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, to the disapproval of critics.

   Neoclassicism is a revival of the styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period,which coincided and reflected the developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style. While the movement is often described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism, this is a great over-simplification that tends not to be sustainable when specific artists or works are considered, the case of the supposed main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres, demonstrating this especially well.

   Neoclassicism was strongest in architecture, sculpture and the decorative arts, where classical models in the same medium were relatively numerous and accessible; examples from ancient painting that demonstrated the qualities that Winckelmann's writing found in sculpture were and are lacking. Winckelmann was involved in the dissemination of knowledge of the first large Roman paintings to be discovered, at Pompeii and Herculaneum and, like most contemporaries except for Gavin Hamilton, was unimpressed by them, citing Pliny the Younger's comments on the decline of painting in his period.

Representatives: Giuseppe Appiani, Franz Caucig, Jonas Damelis, Camillo Guerra, Antonín Machek, Giuseppe Levati, Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov

Romanticism - 18-19c.

Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions.

J. M. W. Turner  "The Fighting Téméraire"     

Although the movement was rooted in the German Sturm und Drangmovement, which prized intuition and emotion over Enlightenment rationalism, the ideologies and events of the French Revolution laid the background from which both Romanticism and the Counter-Enlightenment emerged.  The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own original work through this process of "creation from nothingness", is key to Romanticism, and to be derivative was the worst sin. This idea is often called "romantic originality." Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief and interest in the importance of nature. 

   However this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. In contrast to the usually very social art of the Enlightenment, Romantics were distrustful of the human world, and tended to believe that a close connection with nature was mentally and morally healthy. Romantic art addressed its audiences directly and personally with what was intended to be felt as the personal voice of the artist. Romanticism first showed itself in landscape painting, where from as early as the 1760s British artists began to turn to wilder landscapes and storms, and Gothic architecture, even if they had to make do with Wales as a setting.

   FranciscoGoya is today generally regarded as the greatest painter of the Romantic period; there were also Eugène Delacroix, J.M.W. Turner, Thomas Cole, and LouisJanmot who worked in this manner.

Ivan Aivazovsky (1)

One of the most fascinating and richly talented artists of the past two centuries was undoubtedly the Armenian-Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Ethnically an Armenian, he was born the city of Feodosiya which was then a part of the Russian Empire. Today Feodosiya is a port city in the Crimean Ukraine.

Although Aivazovsky was born in 1817 into a poor family, his father did an amazing job of providing him with a high quality education, teaching him to speak several languages fluently. The young Aivazovsky also showed extraordinary artistic potential from an early age, which proved to be his ticket to a future life of wealth and fame as one of Europe’s most brilliant artists.

Aivazovsky earned a seat in the Simferopol gymnasium No. 1. His most important training came in Russia’s St. Petersburg Academy of Arts – his raw talent was his payment for a first-class education.

This talent earned him a huge amount of work from the Russian Navy. For them he painted numerous images of the sea and ships – a commission which would keep his income flowing and earn him many important connections with powerful people.

Aivazovsky was able to travel widely in his long life of 82 years. One of the most significant locations for him would be Istanbul in modern-day Turkey. There he received a number of commissions from the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Many of his paintings are still on display today in the magnificent palaces of the former Ottoman rules.

"Stormy Sea at Night", 1849

"The Ninth Wave", 1850

Brig "Mercury" Attacked by Two Turkish Ships, 1890

In his later years, Aivazovsky established as art school in the city of his birth, Feodosiya. When he died in 1900 at age 82, he left behind an astounding 6,000 paintings. Many of these can be found throughout Europe today. Also, Aivazovsky’s works have stood the test of time. Some of his paintings have been recently sold at art auctions, commanding enormous values of $5 million to $10 million.

In 1977, an asteroid was named after him by a Soviet astronomer. Aivazovsky has been referenced in a poem by Anton Chekhov and has even had postage stamps issued in his honor in Russia, Armenia and the Ukraine. Thus, Ivan Aivazovsky is an artist who can now be considered among the “immortals.”

Ivan Aivazovsky presentation 1
Ivan Aivazovsky presentation 2
Ivan Aivazovsky youtube
Ivan Aivazovsky youtube_the_2nd_variant

Ivan Aivazovsky (2)

Aivan Aivazovsky

Aivazovsky was born in the town of Feodosiya (Theodosia), Crimea (Russian Empire) to a poor Armenian family. His brother was the Armenian Archbishop Gabriel Aivazovsky. His family moved to the Crimea from Galicia (then in southern Poland, now in Ukraine) in 1812. His talent as an artist earned him sponsorship and entry to the Simferopol gymnasium №1 and later the St.Petersburg Academy of Arts, which he graduated with a gold medal. Earning awards for his early landscapes and seascapes, he went on to paint a series of portraits of Crimean coastal towns before travelling throughout Europe. In later life, his paintings of naval scenes earned him a long-standing commission from the Russian Navy stationed in the Black Sea.

In 1845, Aivazovsky went to İstanbul upon the invitation of Sultan Abdülmecid I, a city he was to travel to eight times between 1845–1890. His works are found in dozens of museums throughout Russia and the former Soviet republics, including the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, and the Aivazovsky Art Gallery in Feodosiya, Ukraine. The office of Turkey's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gül, has Aivasovsky's paintings on the wall.

Aivazovsky was deeply affected by the Hamidian massacres of Armenians in Asia Minor in 1895, painting a number of works on the subject such as "The Expulsion of the Turkish Ship," and "The Armenian Massacres at Trevizond." and renouncing a medal which had been awarded to him in İstanbul. He spent his last years in Feodosia where he supplied the town with water from his own estate, opened an art school, began the first archaeological excavations in the region and built a historical museum. Aivasovsky died in Feodosiya in 1900.

Presentation # 1

Presentation # 2 (full version)

Video

Ivan Aivazovsky: The Black Sea

I decided to describe this landscape, searching my albums with pictures. Actually I have many of them. My mother has shown them to me when I was a child. I still remember that moments.

Size: If we are going to speak about the size of the picture, we are to say that, from my point of view, it’s very big (149×208 sm). But, on the other hand we should point out that the prominent Russian painter, I. Aivazovsky used such a size to show us how the Black Sea is big. It’s the illustration of the sea with the help of the size of the canvas.

Shape: To mu mind the shape of the canvas suit the subject matter. It’s not only presents the sea itself, but also, as it’s very long and thin one add to the drama of the landscape. The drama is also shown because it’s the storm in the sea on the picture.

Artist’s Statement: It’s very difficult to answer this question whether Aivazovsky has achieved his aim or not to make a drawing of this landscape, but it’s clear to us that a painting is hide inside of itself the soul of an artist. Kramskoy supposed “The Black Sea” to be the best work of Aivazovsky.

Title of the Painting: The title of the painting is “The Black Sea”. It tells me, that on the picture I’ll sea the Black sea, but actually it’s not only the Black, but black by its color: there is a storm. That’s why we may say that the artist used such a title not only to paint the Black sea, or it can not be the Black sea at all, but to show us the darkness of the heavy sea.

Subject Matter: The painting is of the sea landscape in a bad weather. It’s intriguing, because there is a small fishing boat in the background which tries to come home through the environment and the question appears: Does it complete its mission? I clearly understand the symbolism in the painting as I have already mentioned above.

Emotional Response: The painting generates an emotional reaction in me: I’ve searched a picture to make an analyze and this landscape impressed me greatly by its deep and intrigue with the boat into the distance. The overall mood of the painting is mysteriousness, it seems like something will appear from the water: also there is such a sense like the storm will come to an end because the sky is started to lift in the background of canvas. Personally I think that it’s suitable for the subject.

Composition: Truly speaking there is only one element of the painting – the sea. It becomes darker and darker from the foreground up to background. The fishing boat is hardly seen on the general background. My eye flows across the whole painting. The main focus of the painting slap-bang in the center of the painting, both vertically and horizontally. There is something that draws my eye into the painting: it’s the boat, we can’t notice it at first sight. I don’t think that it’s been slavishly copied from reality or from a photograph it is the imagination of the painter, the condition of his soul, his mood and life.

Skill: The artist display the so-called “level-to-stare at”, because without this action it’s impossible to understand the idea, having seen the boat. General feelings say that Aivazovsky is the master and a very renowned and imaginative painter.

Medium: The canvas 149×208 sm, oil paints, pencils and imagination of the creator was used to create the painting. The artists has done all his best with the possibilities presented by his choice of medium.

Color: Color has been used realistically (green, black and emerald sea, white foam of water-waves and grey sky) and used to convey emotion at the same time: black sea is symbolized trouble and coming misfortune, emerald sea frightens the viewer and grey sky doesn’t give us a chance to escape from the will of the God. The colors are cool and they suit the subject.

Texture: I’d like to see the painting in “real life.”

J. M. W. Turner (1)

Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in London on April 23, 1775, and became one of the greatest English artists. In spite of his prolific work, Joseph Mallord William Turner produced exceptional and great works. The source of his insatiable inspiration were ships and water, but throughout his life he was also fascinated by dramatic scenes of nature. Turner's parents, his father was a barber and his mother a butcher's daughter, lived in a flat in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. Little is known about his mother. When Joseph Mallord William Turner turned 25 years old, she was hospitalized in a mental hospital, where she died four years later. Joseph Mallord William Turner had a very close relationship to his father, who recognized his son's talent and supported him by exhibiting his works in the family's barber shop.

Joseph Mallord William Turner was self-taught, he never trained as an artist but learned quickly and was very talented. At the age of 14, Turner received a scholarship to the Royal Academy and a year later, in 1790, showed his first watercolor in the academy's annual exhibition. The critics and his supporters alike were enthusiastic about the skills of the talented young artist.

Joseph Mallord William Turner received great recognition, but remained withdrawn, taciturn and sometimes even grumpy. He kept his technique a secret in an almost jealous way and kept silent about his private life. At the age of 26 Turner was admitted to the Royal Academy.

Afterwards Turner undertook travels across Great Britain. He captured his experiences in sketches that formed the basis for his watercolors. In 1796 he produced his first oil painting ("Fishermen at Sea") and three years later became an extraordinary member of the Royal Academy. During that time Joseph Mallord William Turner already enjoyed financial independence. He moved out of his parents' house and rented a place in Harley Street. In 1799, Turner visited William Beckford, one of his benefactors, and was so impressed by two paintings by Claude Lorrain, that he was determined to paint large, historical paintings himself. 

That year he also undertook his first trip to mainland Europe. His first destination was France, where he wanted to see the pictures exhibited in the Louvre, that had been stolen by Napoléon. In 1804 Joseph Mallord William Turner was financially able to build a gallery onto his house, in which he exhibited his own works. This was a unique constellation in the English art scene of the time. Three years later he became a professor of perspective at the Royal Academy. Meanwhile Turner had become one of the leading English landscape painters alongside John Constable. Many of his works were shown in a second large exhibition in 1819. 

That same year Turner's trip to Italy became the trigger for a radical change in his career, he was amazed by the southern light. Within four months he produced over 2000 pencil sketches of Rome and its surroundings. Having returned to England, he began to paint his idea of the power of light. Even though he did not change his style abruptly, he drew a clear line between his commissioned work and his experiments, in which his ideas unfolded fully.

Many of his most famous pictures were created in the last few years of his life, during which Turner retreated ever more from social life, because of his ill health.

Joseph Mallord William Turner died aged 76 on December 19, 1851 in London. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. In his will he left 300 oil paintings and almost 20,000 drawings and watercolors to the English state. He asked for his works to be exhibited in a separate gallery. Most of them can now be seen in the Tate Gallery. 

Joseph Mallord William Turner was a pioneer and exponent of Impressionism.

LINKS:
Presentation1-Presentation2
Doc1-Doc2
Video

J. M. W. Turner (2)

Joseph Mallord William "J. M. W." Turner, RA (23 April 1775 – 19 December 1851) was a British Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevatedlandscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.

Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He made many visits to Venice. On a visit to Lyme Regis, in Dorset he painted a stormy scene (now in the Cincinnati Art Museum).

Important support for his work came from Walter Ramsden Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, nearOtley in Yorkshire, who became a close friend of the artist. Turner first visited Otley in 1797, aged 22, when commissioned to paint watercolours of the area. He was so attracted to Otley and the surrounding area that he returned to it throughout his career. The stormy backdrop of Hannibal Crossing The Alps is reputed to have been inspired by a storm over the Chevin in Otley while he was staying at Farnley Hall.

Turner was a frequent guest of George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont at Petworth House in West Sussex and painted scenes that Egremont funded taken from the grounds of the house and of the Sussex countryside, including a view of the Chichester Canal. Petworth House still displays a number of paintings.

Turner exhibited his first oil painting at the academy in 1796, Fishermen at Sea. A nocturnal moonlit scene off the Needles, Isle of Wight. The image of boats in peril contrasts the cold light of the moon with the firelight glow of the fishermen's lantern. Wilton said that the image: "Is a summary of all that had been said about the sea by the artists of the eighteenth century."and shows strong influence by artists such as Horace Vernet, Philip James de Loutherbourg and Willem van de Velde the Younger. The image was praised by contemporary critics and founded Turner's reputation, botas an oil painter and as a painter of maritime scenes.

As Turner grew older, he became more eccentric. He had few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for 30 years and worked as his studio assistant. His father's death in 1829 had a profound effect, and thereafter he was subject to bouts of depression. He never married but had a relationship with an older widow, Sarah Danby. He is believed to have been the father of her two daughters born in 1801 and 1811.

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first president of the Royal Academy. King George III appreciated his merits and knighted him in 1769.

Reynolds studied painting in London and in 1742 began as a portraitist in Devon. He was able to study the Italian masters when Commodore Keppel, a friend, took him to Italy in 1749. After three years of study and travel, Reynolds returned and took London by storm. Intensely ambitious, Reynolds used his wit and charm as well as his artistic talents to advance himself, and within a year he was besieged with portrait commissions and was employing assistants. He maintained a gallery not only of his own works but also those of old masters whose paintings he bought and sold. He entertained the world of wealth and fashion and the great literary figures of the day. When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, Reynolds was inevitably elected president and was knighted the following year. His annual discourses before the Academy have literary distinction and are a significant exposition of academic style, propounding eclectic generalization over direct observation, and allusion to the classical past over the present.

     

Lord Keppel                                                                              Lady Caroline Howard

The Grand Style, thus proclaimed, was of enormous influence in the development of English portraiture. At 59, Reynolds had a paralytic stroke but recovered sufficiently to continue his work for several years. Before he lost his sight (1789), his style had become warmer and less formal, having been influenced by Rubens. Reynolds painted more than 2,000 portraits and historical paintings, depicting almost every notable person of his time. He often used experimental painting methods, which resulted in works now poorly preserved. His portraits of Commodore Keppel, Dr. Johnson, Lady Caroline Howard, Mrs. Siddons, Sterne, Goldsmith, Garrick, Gibbon, and Edmund Burke are among the many fine examples that are of historical interest. Reynolds's works are in nearly every major museum in the western world. He is best represented in the National Gallery, London, but examples of his work are to be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Cleveland Museum of Art; and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Karl Bryullov

  Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852) was regarded as a key figure in transition from the Russian neoclassicism to romanticism. Painter, aquarellist and graphic artist, master of historical painting, portratist, landscape and genre painter he was a son of Academic in ornamental sculpture P.L.Bryullov.

      From 1809-1822 he was a student at the Academy of Arts. His teachers were A.I.Ivanov, A.Ye.Yegorov, V.K.Shebuyev. From 1822 until 1834 as a pensioner from the Society for the Encouragement of Artists he lived and worked in Italy, where he painted the famous canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii" (1830-1833, The State Russian Museum, St.Petersburg), which won the Grand Prix in Paris. At the same time a series of portraits was made, including the painting "Lady on Horseback" (1832), which brought him great fame. 

       In 1835 he set out on a journey round Greece and Turkey, during which he drew a series of graphic works. In the sanme year he returned to Russia, and until 1836 he lived in Moscow, where he became acquainted with A.S.Pushkin. He then moved to St.Petersburg. Between 1836-1849 he worked as a teacher at the Academy of Arts. He painted several portraits of artists, including N.V.Kukolnik (1836), I.P.Vitali (1837) and I.A.Krylov (1839). He was on friendly terms with M.I.Glinka and N.V.Kukolnik.

      From 1843-1847 he painted murals for the Kazansky and Issakiyevsky Cathedrals in St.Petersburg (they were later completed by P.V.Basin). Due to illness he left for the Island of Madeira in 1849. During his stay on the island he painted many water colour portraits of his friends and acquaintances ("Riders. Portrait of E.I.Mussard and E.Mussard", 1849). From 1850 he lived in Italy. He was a member of the Milan and Parma Academies and the Academy of St Lucas in Rome.

Karl Bryullov's Techniques:

      Bryullov’s work was the height of late Russian romanticism. When feelings of harmonious integrity and world beauty give way to tragedy and conflict in life, with interest in life's passions, unusual themes and situations. Bryullov combined the dramatic tension of the subject with the romantic effect of light and sculptural plasticity in the figures, which are classically perfect.

     His paintings underwent a considerable evolution, typical of the romantic era, from the joyful acceptance of life in his early canvases ("The Rider", 1832) to the complicated psychology in his later work ("Self-Portrait", 1848), anticipating the achievements late 19th century artists, such as I.E.Repin ("Portrait of M.P.Mussorgsky", 1881). Bryullov influenced many great Russian artists, among whom were many his successors and imitators.

Bryullov's outstanding works

The Rider 1832

The Last Day of Pompeii 1830-1833

Italian Noon 1827

Links:

• Presentation 1
• Presentation 2
• Film

Rococo - 18-19c.

Rococo is an 18th-century artistic movement and style, which affected several aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, decoration, literature, music and theatre. The Rococo developed in the early part of the 18th century in Paris, France as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry and strict regulations of the Baroque, especially that of the Palace of Versailles. In such a way, Rococo artists opted for a more jocular, florid and graceful approach to Baroque art and architecture. Rococo art and architecture in such a way was ornate and made strong usage of creamy, pastel-like colours, asymmetrical designs, curves and gold. Unlike the more politically focused Baroque, the Rococo had more playful and often witty artistic themes. With regards to interior decoration, Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings.

 

 François Boucher, Le Déjeune

Though Rococo originated in the purely decorative arts, the style showed clearly in painting. These painters used delicate colors and curving forms, decorating their canvases with cherubs and myths of love. Portraiture was also popular among Rococo painters. Some works show a sort of naughtiness or impurity in the behavior of their subjects, showing the historical trend of departing away from the Baroque's church/state orientation. Landscapes were pastoral and often depicted the leisurely outings of aristocratic couples.

Artists: Antoine Watteau, Jean-Baptiste van Loo, Antony Van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, William Hogarth. 

William Hogarth

Hogarth, William: English painter and engraver. He was one of the leading British artists of the first half of the 18th century. He was trained as an engraver and by 1720 had established his own business printing billheads, book illustrations and funeral tickets. In his spare time he learnt to paint, firstly at St. Martin's Lane Academy and then under Sir James Thornhill, whose daughter he married in 1729. He made a name for himself with small family groups (e.g. The Wollaston Family, 1730, H.C. Wollaston's Trustees) and conversation pieces (e.g. The Beggar's Opera, one of several versions, c1729, London, Tate Gallery). Around this time he also set himself up as a portrait painter. Shortly afterwards, in c1731, he executed his first series of modern morality paintings, a totally new concept intended for wider dissemination through engraving.A Harlot's Progress (six scenes, destroyed by fire) was followed by A Rake's Progress (c1735, eight scenes, London, Sir John Soane's Museum) and Marriage a la Mode (c1743, six scenes, London, National Gallery). So popular were the engravings of the first series that they were soon pirated, and Hogarth's subsequent campaign against the pirates led to the Copyright Act of 1735. Unfortunately, as well as the engravings sold, he always had difficulty selling the original paintings. Hogarth compared his sequential paintings to theatrical performances, and thus in each series, minor vices and social affectations are incidentally satirized as the main theme - the punishment of a major vice - takes centre stage.

Also the butt of his satire was the prevailing taste for all things French and Italian (a special concern of Hogarth's, as foreign artists were, he felt, robbing him of his livelihood). A related series is The Election(1754, four scenes, London, Sir John Soane's Museum), while an independent painting in a similar vein is O the Roast Beef of Old England (1748, London, National Gallery). This latter painting was inspired by a trip to Calais during which he was arrested as a spy when caught drawing the fortifications, an incident represented at the left of the painting. Despite his by now exacerbated xenophobia, he did attempt to show his ability in the Italian Grand Manner, although the results, e.g.Sigismunda (1759, London, Tate Gallery), are not among his most successful works and were very poorly received.

If anything, the fascinating wealth of anecdotal invention and perceptive caricature in his morality paintings tends to obscure his very considerable abilities as a painter. This ability, most evident in his fluent and vigorous brushwork, is better revealed in his sensitive portraits - although his natural pugnacity and insistence on painting what he saw as the truth precluded him from a successful career in this field. Significantly, among his most accomplished portraits are the vivaciousShrimp Girl and the affectionate Artist's Servants (both London, Tate Gallery), both uncommissioned, while his most acclaimed official portrait was of a friend, Captain Coram (1740, London, Thomas Coram Foundation).

From 1735 to 1755 he ran his own academy in St. Martin's Lane, this being generally credited as an important forerunner of the Royal Academy founded a few years after his death in 1768. Indeed, Hogarth did more than any other artist to establish a credible English school of painting. In the late 1730s he gathered a group of painters together to paint history paintings for presentation to Thomas Coram's Foundation, the exhibition of which was immensely successful. In 1753 he published The Analysis of Beauty, written from the conviction that an artist has a better understanding of the arts than do connoisseurs. An important contribution to contemporary aesthetics, it is notable for Hogarth's espousal of the 'S' line, a line of beauty supposedly inherent in all successful works of visual art. His Painter and his Pug (1745, London, Tate Gallery), a kind of visual manifesto, portrays the artist as personifying solid English common sense, as well as displaying the famous 'S' line on his palette.

презентация 1 
презентация 2

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough FRSA (christened 14 May 1727 – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver in Suffolk, and, in 1740, left home to study art in London with Hubert Gravelot, Francis Hayman, and William Hogarth. In 1746, he married Margaret Burr, and they became parents of two daughters. He moved to Bath in 1759 where fashionable society patronised him, and he began exhibiting in London. In 1769, he became a founding member of the Royal Academy, but his relationship with the organization was thorny and he sometimes withdrew his work from exhibition. Gainsborough moved to London in 1774, and painted portraits of the king and queen, but the king was obliged to name as royal painter Gainsborough's rival Joshua Reynolds. In his last years, Gainsborough painted relatively simple landscapes and is credited (with Richard Wilson) as the originator of the 18th century British landscape school. Gainsborough died of cancer in 1788 and is interred at St. Anne's Church, Kew, Surrey. He painted quickly and his later pictures are characterised by a light palette and easy strokes. He preferred landscapes to portraits. 

   Gainsborough was noted for the speed with which he applied paint, and he worked more from observations of nature (and of human nature) than from application of formal academic rules. The poetic sensibility of his paintings caused Constable to say, "On looking at them, we find tears in our eyes and know not what brings them." Gainsbrough said, "I'm sick of portraits, and wish very much to take my viol-da-gam and walk off to some sweet village, where I can paint landskips(sic) and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease." His liking for landscapes is shown in the way he merged figures of the portraits with the scenes behind them. His later work was characterised by a light palette and easy, economical strokes.

   His most famous works, Portrait of Mrs. Graham; Mary and Margaret: The Painter's Daughters; William Hallett and His Wife Elizabeth, nee Stephen, known asThe Morning Walk; and Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher, display the unique individuality of his subjects. Gainsborough's only known assistant was his nephew, Gainsborough Dupont. In the last year of his life he collaborated with John Hoppner in painting a full length portrait of Charlotte, Countess Talbot.

Presentation 1

Presentation 2

Film