The 18th century is a period in which colossal transformations took place in all spheres: political, social, public. Europe introduces new genres into Russian painting: landscape, historical, everyday life. The realistic direction of painting becomes predominant. A living person is a hero and bearer of the aesthetic ideals of that time.

The 18th century entered the history of art as a time picturesque portraits. Everyone wanted to have their own portrait: from the queen to an ordinary official from the provinces.

European trends in Russian painting

Famous Russian artists of the 18th century were forced to follow Western fashion at the behest of Peter I, who wanted to Europeanize Russia. He gave great importance development visual arts and even planned to build a specialized educational institution.

Russian artists of the 18th century mastered new techniques of European painting and depicted on their canvases not only kings, but also various boyars, merchants, patriarchs, who tried to keep up with fashion and often commissioned local artists to paint a portrait. At the same time, the artists of that time tried to enrich the portraits with household items, elements of the national costume, nature, and so on. Attention was focused on expensive furniture, large vases, luxurious clothes, interesting poses. The image of people of that time is perceived today as a poetic story by artists about their time.

And yet, the portraits of Russian artists of the 18th century differ from the portraits of invited foreign painters in a striking contrast. It is worth mentioning that artists from other countries were invited to train Russian artists.

Types of portraits

The beginning of the 18th century was marked by the appeal of portrait painters to semi-ceremonial and chamber views. Portraits of painters of the second half of the 18th century give rise to such types as front, semi-ceremonial, chamber, intimate.

The front one differs from others in the image of a person in full growth. Glitter of luxury - both in clothes and in household items.

A semi-front view is an image of a knee-length or waist-length model.

If a person is depicted on a neutral background up to the chest or waist, then this type of portrait is called chamber.

The intimate look of the portrait suggests an appeal to inner world the hero of the picture, while the background is ignored.

portrait images

Often, Russian artists of the 18th century were forced to embody the customer's idea of ​​himself in a portrait image, but in no way a real image. It was important to take into account the public opinion about this or that person. Many art historians have long concluded that the main rule of that time was to depict a person not so much as he really was, or as he would like to be, but as he could be in his best reflection. That is, in the portraits of any person they tried to portray as an ideal.

First artists

Russian artists of the 18th century, whose list is generally small, are, in particular, I. N. Nikitin, A. P. Antropov, F. S. Rokotov, I. P. Argunov, V. L. Borovikovsky, D G. Levitsky.

Among the first painters of the 18th century are the names of Nikitin, Antropov, Argunov. The role of these first Russian artists of the 18th century was insignificant. It was reduced only to writing a huge number of royal images, portraits of Russian nobles. Russian artists of the 18th century - masters of portraits. Although often they simply helped foreign craftsmen paint the walls of a large number of palaces and make theatrical scenery.

The name of the painter Ivan Nikitich Nikitin can be found in the correspondence of Peter I with his wife. His brush belongs to the portrait of the king himself, Chancellor G. I. Golovin. There is nothing artificial in his portrait of the outdoor hetman. Appearance is not altered by a wig or court attire. The artist showed the hetman as he does in real life. It is in the truth of life that the main advantage of Nikitin's portraits lies.

Antropov's work is preserved in the images of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kyiv and portraits in the Synod. These works are distinguished by the artist's penchant for yellow, olive colors, because he is a painter who studied with the master of icon painting. Among his famous works- portraits of Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter I, Princess Trubetskoy, Ataman F. Krasnoshchekov. Antropov's work combined the traditions of original Russian painting of the 17th century and the canons of the fine arts of the Petrine era.

Ivan Petrovich Argunov is a famous serf portrait painter of Count Sheremetyev. His portraits are graceful, the poses of the people depicted by him are free and mobile, everything in his work is precise and simple. He is the creator of a chamber portrait, which will later become intimate. Significant works artist: the couple Sheremetyev, P. B. Sheremetyev in childhood.

You should not think that at that time no other genres existed in Russia, but the great Russian artists of the 18th century created the most significant works in the portrait genre.

The pinnacle of the portrait genre of the 18th century was the work of Rokotov, Levitsky and Borovikovsky. The person in the portraits of artists is worthy of admiration, attention and respect. The humanity of the senses stands out hallmark their portraits.

Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov (1735-1808)

Almost nothing is known about Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov, an 18th-century Russian artist from the serfs of Prince I. Repnin. This artist writes portraits of women softly and airily. Inner beauty is felt by Rokotov, and he finds the means to embody it on canvas. Even the oval shape of the portraits only emphasizes the fragile and elegant appearance of women.

The main genre of his work is a half-dress portrait. Among his works are portraits of Grigory Orlov and Peter III, Princess Yusupova and Prince Pavel Petrovich.

Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky (1735-1822)

The famous Russian artist of the 18th century, Dmitry Grigoryevich Levitsky, a student of A. Antropov, was able to sensitively capture and recreate in his paintings the mental states and characteristics of people. Depicting the rich, he remains truthful and unbiased, his portraits exclude obsequiousness and lies. His brush owns a whole gallery of portraits of great people of the 18th century. It is in the ceremonial portrait that Levitsky reveals himself as a master. He finds expressive poses, gestures, showing noble nobles. Russian history in faces - this is how Levitsky's work is often called.
Paintings belonging to the artist's brush: portraits of M. A. Lvova, E. I. Nelidova, N. I. Novikov, the Mitrofanovs.

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757-1825)

Russian artists of the 18th and 19th centuries are distinguished by their appeal to the so-called sentimental portrait. The artist Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky paints pensive girls, who are depicted in his portraits with light colors, they are airy and innocent. His heroines are not only Russian peasant women in traditional dress, but also respected ladies of high society. These are portraits of Naryshkina, Lopukhina, Princess Suvorova, Arsenyeva. The pictures are somewhat similar, but it is impossible to forget them. is distinguished by the amazing subtlety of the transmitted characters, the almost elusive features of emotional experiences and the feeling of tenderness that unites all the images. In his works, Borovikovsky reveals all the beauty of a woman of that time.

The legacy of Borovikovsky is very diverse and extensive. There are in his work both ceremonial portraits, as well as miniature and intimate canvases. Among the works of Borovikovsky, the most famous were the portraits of V. A. Zhukovsky, G. R. Derzhavin, A. B. Kurakin and Paul I.

Paintings by Russian artists

Paintings of the 18th century by Russian artists are written with love for a person, his inner world and respect for moral virtues. The style of each artist, on the one hand, is very individual, on the other hand, it has several common features with others. This moment determined the very style that emphasizes the character of Russian art in the 18th century.

Most 18th century Russian artists:

1. "Young Painter" Second half of the 1760s The author Ivan Firsov is the most enigmatic artist of the 18th century. The painting depicts a boy in a uniform who paints a portrait of a little beautiful girl.
2. “Farewell of Hector to Andromache”, 1773 Author Anton Pavlovich Losenko. The last painting of the artist. It depicts a scene from the sixth canto of Homer's Iliad.
3. "Stone bridge in Gatchina near Connetable Square", 1799-1801. Author Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin. The picture shows a landscape view.

And still

Russian artists of the 18th century still tried to reveal the truth and the true characters of people, despite the conditions of serfdom and the wishes of wealthy customers. The portrait genre in the 18th century embodied the specific features of the Russian people.

Undoubtedly, it can be said that visual arts The 18th century was not influenced by European culture, yet it led to the development of national Russian traditions.

Great foreign artists

Foreign artists

The paintings of Lorenzetti harmoniously combined the traditions of Sienese painting with its lyricism and the generalization of forms and the perspectiveness of spatial construction characteristic of Giotto's art. Although the artist uses religious and allegorical subjects, the features of contemporary life clearly appear in the paintings. The conditional landscape, characteristic of the paintings of the 14th century masters, is replaced by Lorenzetti with recognizable Tuscan landscapes. Very realistic, he writes vineyards, fields, lakes, sea harbors, surrounded by impregnable rocks.

Eik Wang
Country: Netherlands

The homeland of the Van Eyck brothers is the city of Maaseik. Little information has been preserved about the elder brother Hubert. It is known that it was he who began work on the famous Ghent altar in the church of St. Bavo in Ghent. Probably, the compositional design of the altar belonged to him. Judging by the preserved archaic parts of the altar - "Lamb Worship", figures of God the Father, Mary and John the Baptist, - Hubert can be called a master of transition. His works were much closer to the traditions of late Gothic (abstract-mystical interpretation of the theme, conventionality in the transfer of space, little expressed interest in the image of a person).

Foreign artists

Albrecht Dürer, the great German artist, the largest representative of the Renaissance culture in Germany. Born in Nuremberg in the family of a goldsmith, a native of Hungary. Initially, he studied with his father, then with the Nuremberg painter M. Wohlgemut (1486-89). During the years of study and during the years of wanderings in southern Germany (1490-94), during a trip to Venice (1494-95) he absorbed the heritage of the 15th century, but nature became his main teacher.

Bosch Jerome
(1450-1516)
Country: Germany

Hieronymus Bosch, the great Dutch painter. Born in Herzogenbosch. His grandfather, grandfather's brother and all five uncles were artists. In 1478 Bosch married a wealthy patrician Aleid van Merwerme, whose family belonged to the highest aristocracy. There were no children from this marriage, and he was not particularly happy. Nevertheless, he brought material well-being to the artist, and, having not yet become sufficiently famous, Bosch could afford to paint the way he wanted.

Botticelli Sandro
(1445-1510)
Country: Italy

Real name - Alessandro da Mariano di Vanni di Amedeo Filipepi, the great Italian painter of the Renaissance. Born in Florence in the family of a tanner. Initially, he was sent to study with a certain Botticelli, a goldsmith, from whom Alessandro Filipepi got his last name. But the desire for painting forced him in 1459-65 to study with the famous Florentine artist Fra Philippe Lippi. Early works of Botticelli ( Adoration of the Magi, Judith and Holofernes and especially madonnas - Corsini Madonna, Madonna with a Rose, Madonna with Two Angels) were written under the influence of the latter.

Verrocchio Andrea
(1435-1488)
Country: Italy

Real name - Andrea di Michele di Francesco Choni, an outstanding Italian sculptor. Born in Florence. He was a famous sculptor, painter, draftsman, architect, jeweler, and musician. In each genre, he established himself as a master innovator, not repeating what his predecessors did.

Carpaccio Vittore
(c. 1455/1465 - c. 1526)
Country: Italy

Carpaccio Vittore (c. 1455 / 1465 - c. 1526) - Italian painter. Born in Venice. He studied under Gentile Bellini, was strongly influenced by Giovanni Bellini and partly by Giorgione. Watching events closely modern life, this artist knew how to saturate his religious compositions with a lively narrative and many genre details. In fact, he created an encyclopedia of the life and customs of Venice in the 15th century. They say about Carpaccio that this master is "still at home, in Venice." And even the very idea of ​​Venice is inseparably connected with the memory of greenish, as if visible through sea ​​water paintings by a brilliant draftsman and colorist.

Leonardo da Vinci
(1452 - 1519)
Country: Italy

One of the greatest Italian Renaissance artists, Leonardo da Vinci was also an outstanding scientist, thinker and engineer. All his life he observed and studied nature - the heavenly bodies and the laws of their movement, the mountains and the secrets of their origin, water and winds, the light of the sun and the life of plants. As part of nature, Leonardo also considered a person whose body is subject to physical laws and at the same time serves as a “mirror of the soul”. He showed his inquisitive, active, restless love for nature in everything. It was she who helped him discover the laws of nature, put her forces at the service of man, it was she who made Leonardo the greatest artist, with the same attention capturing a blossoming flower, an expressive gesture of a person and a foggy haze enveloping distant mountains.

Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1475 - 1564)
Country: Italy

“A man has not yet been born who, like me, would be so inclined to love people,” the great Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo wrote about himself. He created brilliant, titanic works and dreamed of creating even more significant ones. One day, when the artist was working on marble developments in Carrara, he decided to carve a statue from a whole mountain.

Rafael Santi
(1483 - 1520)
Country: Italy

Raphael Santi, great Italian Renaissance painter and architect. Born in Urbino in the family of J. Santi - court painter and poet of the Duke of Urbino. He received his first painting lessons from his father. When he died, Rafael moved to T. Viti's studio. In 1500 he moved to Perugio and entered the workshop of Perugino, first as a student, and then as an assistant. Here he learned the best features of the style of the Umbrian school of painting: the desire for an expressive interpretation of the plot and the nobility of forms. Soon he brought his skill to the point that it became impossible to distinguish a copy from the original.

Titian Vecellio
(1488- 1576)
Country: Italy

Born in Pieve di Cadoro - small town on the border of the Venetian possessions in the Alps. He came from the Vecelli family, very influential in the town. During the war between Venice and Emperor Maximilian, the artist's father rendered great services to the Republic of St. Mark.

Foreign artists

Rubens Peter Paul, the great Flemish painter. "King of painters and painter of kings" was called the contemporaries of the Fleming Rubens. In one of the most beautiful corners of Antwerp, Rubens Hughes is still located - the artist's house, built according to his own design, and a workshop. About three thousand paintings and many wonderful drawings came out of here.

Goyen Jan Wang
(1596-1656)
Country: Holland

Goyen Jan van is a Dutch painter. Passion for painting manifested itself very early. At the age of ten, Goyen began to study drawing with the Leiden artists I. Swanenburg and K. Schilperort. The father wanted his son to become a glass painter, but Goyen himself dreamed of being a landscape painter, and he was assigned to study with the mediocre landscape painter Willem Gerrits in the city of Goorn.

Segers Hercules
(1589/1590 - c. 1638)
Country: Holland

Seghers Hercules is a Dutch landscape painter and graphic artist. He studied in Amsterdam with G. van Coninxloo. From 1612 to 1629 he lived in Amsterdam, where he was accepted into the guild of artists. Visited Flanders (c. 1629-1630). From 1631 he lived and worked in Utrecht, and from 1633 - in The Hague.

Frans Hals
(c. 1580-1666)
Country: Holland

The decisive role in the formation of national art at an early stage in the development of the Dutch art school was played by the work of Frans Hals, its first great master. He was almost exclusively a portrait painter, but his art meant a lot not only to the portraiture of Holland, but also to the formation of other genres. Three types of portrait compositions can be distinguished in Hals's work: a group portrait, a commissioned individual portrait, and a special type of portrait images, similar in nature to genre painting, cultivated by him mainly in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Velasquez Diego de Silva
(1559-1660)
Country: Spain

Born in Seville, one of the largest art centers in Spain at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. The artist's father came from a Portuguese family who moved to Andalusia. He wanted his son to become a lawyer or a writer, but did not prevent Velazquez from painting. His first teacher was Fr. Herrera the Elder, and then - F. Pacheco. Pacheco's daughter became Velazquez's wife. In the workshop of Pacheco Velasquez was engaged in painting heads from nature. At the age of seventeen, Velasquez received the title of master. The career of a young painter developed successfully.

Country: Spain

El Greco
(1541-1614)
Country: Spain

El Greco, real name - Domenico Theotokopuli, the great Spanish painter. Born into a poor but enlightened family in Candia, Crete. Crete at that time was a possession of Venice. He studied, in all likelihood, with local icon painters, who still preserved the traditions of medieval Byzantine art. Around 1566 he moved to Venice, where he entered the workshop of Titian.

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi
(1573-1610)
Country: Italy

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi, an outstanding Italian painter. The emergence and flourishing of the realistic trend in Italian painting of the late 16th - early 17th centuries is associated with the name of Caravaggio. The work of this remarkable master played a huge role in the artistic life of not only Italy, but also other European countries. The art of Caravaggio attracts us with great artistic expressiveness, deep truthfulness and humanism.

Carracci
Country: Italy

Carracci, a family of Italian painters from Bologna in the early 17th century, the founders of academism in European painting. At the turn of the 16th - 17th centuries in Italy, as a reaction to mannerism, an academic trend in painting took shape. Its main principles were laid down by the Carracci brothers - Lodovico (1555-1619), Agostino (1557-1602) and Annibale (1560-1609).

Brueghel Peter the Elder
(between 1525 and 1530-1569)
Country: Netherlands

Anyone who has read the wonderful novel by Charles de Coster, The Legend of Thiel Ulenspiegel, knows that the whole people participated in the Dutch revolution, in the struggle against the Spaniards for their independence, a cruel and merciless struggle. Just like Ulenspiegel, Peter Brueghel the Elder, one of the founders of realistic Dutch and Flemish art, was also a witness and participant in these events.

Van Dyck Anthony
(1599- 1641)
Country: Netherlands

Van Dyck Anthony, an outstanding Flemish painter. Born in Antwerp in the family of a wealthy businessman. Initially studied with the Antwerp painter Hendrick van Balen. In 1618 he entered the workshop of Rubens. He began his work by copying his paintings. And soon became the main assistant to Rubens in the performance of large orders. He received the title of master of the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp (1618).

Poussin Nicolas
(1594-1665)
Country: France

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), an outstanding French painter, a leading representative of classicism. Born in the village of Andely in Normandy in the family of a small landowner. Initially, he studied in his homeland with a little-known, but rather talented and competent wandering artist K. Varen. In 1612 Poussin went to Paris, and there J. Aalleman became his teacher. In Paris, he became friends with the Italian poet Marine.

XVII (17th century)

Foreign artists

Cape Albert Gerrits was a Dutch painter and etcher.

He studied with his father, the artist J. Keip. His artistic style was influenced by the painting of J. van Goyen and S. van Ruysdael. Worked in Dordrecht. The early works of Cuyp, close to the paintings of J. van Goyen, are monochrome. He paints hilly landscapes, country roads running into the distance, poor peasant huts. The paintings are most often made in a single yellowish tone.

Ruisdael Jacob van
(1628/1629-1682)
Country: Holland

Ruisdal Jacob van (1628/1629-1682) - Dutch landscape painter, draftsman, etcher. He probably studied with his uncle, the painter Salomon van Ruysdael. Visited Germany (1640-1650s). He lived and worked in Haarlem, in 1648 he became a member of the painters' guild. From 1656 he lived in Amsterdam, in 1676 he received degree doctor of medicine and entered the list of Amsterdam doctors.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
(1606-1669)
Country: Holland

Born in Leiden to a miller's family. The father's affairs during this period were going well, and he was able to give his son a better education than other children. Rembrandt entered the Latin school. He studied poorly and wanted to paint. Nevertheless, he finished school and entered Leiden University. A year later, he began taking painting lessons. His first teacher was J. van Swanenburg. After staying in his studio for more than three years, Rembrandt went to Amsterdam to the historical painter P. Lastman. He had a strong influence on Rembrandt and taught him the art of engraving. Six months later (1623) Rembrandt returned to Leiden and opened his own workshop.

Terborch Gerard
(1617-1681)
Country: Holland

Terborch Gerard (1617-1681), famous Dutch painter. Born in Zwolle in a wealthy burgher family. His father, brother and sister were artists. Terborch's first teachers were his father and Hendrik Averkamp. His father made him copy a lot. He created his first work at the age of nine. At the age of fifteen, Terborch went to Amsterdam, then to Haarlem, where he came under the strong influence of Fr. Khalsa. Already at this time he was famous as a master household genre, most willingly painted scenes from the life of the military - the so-called "guardrooms".

Canalletto (Canale) Giovanni Antonio
(1697-1768)
Country: Italy

Canaletto's first teacher was his father, theater decorator B. Canale, whom he helped design performances in theaters in Venice. He worked in Rome (1717-1720, early 1740s), Venice (since 1723), London (1746-1750, 1751-1756), where he performed works that formed the basis of his work. He painted veduts - urban landscapes, depicted streets, buildings, canals, boats sliding on the sea waves.

Manyasco Alessandro
(1667-1749)
Country: Italy

Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749) was an Italian painter, genre and landscape painter. He studied with his father, the artist S. Magnasco, then with the Milanese painter F. Abbiati. His style was formed under the influence of the masters of the Genoese school of painting, S. Rosa and J. Callo. Lived and worked in Milan, Florence, Genoa.

Watteau Antoine
(1684-1721)
Country: France

Watteau Antoine, an outstanding French painter, whose work is associated with one of the significant stages in the development of everyday painting in France. The fate of Watteau is unusual. Neither in France nor in neighboring countries was there in the years when he wrote his best things, not a single artist capable of competing with him. The titans of the seventeenth century did not live to see the age of Watteau; those who, following him, glorified the eighteenth century, became known to the world only after his death. In fact, Fragonard, Quentin de La Tour, Perronneau, Chardin, David in France, Tiepolo and Longhi in Italy, Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough in England, Goya in Spain - all this is the middle, or even the end of the 18th century.

Lorrain Claude
(1600-1682)
Country: France

Lorrain Claude (1600-1682) - French painter. At an early age he worked in Rome as a servant for A. Tassi, then became his student. The artist began to receive large orders in the 1630s, his customers were Pope Urban VIII and Cardinal Bentivoglio. Since that time, Lorrain has become popular in Roman and French art connoisseurs.

XVIII (18th century)

Foreign artists

Gainsborough Thomas, an outstanding English painter, creator of the national type of portrait. Born in Sudbury, Suffolk, the son of a cloth merchant. The picturesque surroundings of the town, located on the River Stour, attracted Gainsborough from childhood, endlessly depicting them in his childhood sketches. The boy's passion for drawing was so great that his father, without hesitation for a long time, sent his thirteen-year-old son to study in London, which at that time had already become the center of artistic life.

Turner Joseph Mallord William
(1775-1851)
Country: England

Turner Joseph Mallord William - English landscape painter, painter, draftsman and engraver. He took painting lessons from T. Molton (c. 1789), in 1789-1793. studied at the Royal Academy in London. In 1802, Turner was an academician, and in 1809, a professor in the academic classes. The artist traveled extensively in England and Wales, visited France and Switzerland (1802), Holland, Belgium and Germany (1817), Italy (1819, 1828). His artistic style was formed under the influence of K. Lorrain, R. Wilson and Dutch marine painters.

Jan Vermeer of Delft
(1632-1675)
Country: Holland

Jan Vermeer of Delft is a great Dutch artist. There is almost no information about the artist. Born in Delft in the family of a burgher who owned a hotel. He was also engaged in the production of silk and traded in paintings. Perhaps that is why the boy became interested in painting early. Master Karel Fabricius became his mentor. Vermeer soon married Katherine Bolney, the daughter of a wealthy burgher, and already in 1653 he was admitted to the guild of St. Luke.

Goya y Lucientes Francisco Hosse
(1746-1828)
Country: Spain

One day, little Francisco, the son of a poor altar gilder from a village near the Spanish city of Zaragoza, painted a pig on the wall of his house. A stranger passing by saw a genuine talent in a child's drawing and advised the boy to study. This legend about Goya is similar to those that are told about other masters of the Renaissance, when the true facts of their biography are unknown.

Guardi Francesco Lazzaro
(1712-1793)
Country: Italy

Guardi Francesco Lazzaro - Italian painter and draftsman, representative of the Venetian school of painting. He studied with his older brother, the painter Giovanni Antonio, in whose studio he worked with his younger brother Niccolò. He painted landscapes, paintings of religious and mythological themes, historical compositions. He worked on the creation of decorative decorations for the interiors of the Manin and Fenice theaters in Venice (1780-1790).

Vernet Claude Joseph
(1714-1789)
Country: France

Claude Joseph Vernet is a French painter. He studied first with his father A. Vernet, then with L. R. Viali in Aix and with B. Fergioni, from 1731 - in Avignon with F. Sovan, and later in Italy with Manglar, Pannini and Locatelli. In 1734-1753. worked in Rome. In the Roman period, he devoted a lot of time to work from nature in Tivoli, Naples, on the banks of the Tiber. He painted landscapes and sea views ("Seashore near Anzio", 1743; "View of the bridge and castle of St. Angel", "Ponte Rotto in Rome", 1745 - both in the Louvre, Paris; "Waterfall in Tivoli", 1747; "Morning in Castellammare", 1747, Hermitage, St. Petersburg; "Villa Pamphili", 1749, Pushkin Museum, Moscow; "Italian harbor", "Sea coast with rocks", 1751; "Rocks near the sea", 1753 - all in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg). These works amaze with their virtuosity in the transmission of the light and air environment and lighting, reliability and fine observation.

Vernet Horace
(1789-1863)
Country: France

Vernet Horace is a French painter and graphic artist. Studied under his father, Carl Vernet. Writing in the era of the heyday of the art of romanticism, the artist uses in his works the means inherent in the romantics. He is interested in a person in the power of natural elements, in extreme situations. Vernet depicts warriors fighting fiercely in battles, hurricanes and shipwrecks (“Battle at Sea”, 1825, Hermitage, St. Petersburg).

Delacroix Eugene
(1798 - 186)
Country: France

Born in Charenton in the family of the prefect. He received an excellent education. He studied painting first at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, then at the workshop of P. Guerin (1816-22), whose cold skill had less influence on him than the passionate art of the romantic T. Gericault, with whom he became close at the School. A decisive role in the formation of the pictorial style of Delacroix was played by copying the works of old masters, especially Rubens, Veronese and D. Velasquez. In 1822 he made his debut in Talon with a painting "Rook Dante"(“Dante and Virgil”) based on the plot from the first song of “Hell” (“The Divine Comedy”).

Gericault Theodore
(1791-1824)
Country: France

Born in Rouen in a wealthy family. He studied in Paris at the Imperial Lyceum (1806-1808). His teachers were K. J. Berne and P.N. Guerin. But they did not influence the formation of his artistic style- in the painting of Géricault, the tendencies of the art of A. J. Gros and J. L. David are traced. The artist visited the Louvre, where he made copies of the works of old masters, especially admired his painting by Rubens.

Artvedia Art Gallery - biography of contemporary artists. Buy, sell modern paintings artists from different countries.

Hiroshige Ando
(1797-1858)
Country: Japan

Born in Edo (now Tokyo) in the family of a petty samurai Ando Genemon. His father was the foreman of the city fire department, and the life of the family was quite secure. Thanks to early education, he quickly learned to understand the properties of paper, brush and ink. The general level of education of that time was quite high. Theaters, prints, ikeba-fa were part of everyday life.

Hokusai Katsushika
(1760-1849)
Country: Japan

Hokusai Katsushika is a Japanese painter and draftsman, master of color woodcuts, writer and poet. Studied with engraver Nakayama Tetsuson. He was influenced by the artist Shunsho, in whose workshop he worked. He painted landscapes in which the life of nature, its beauty are closely connected with the life and activities of man. In search of new experiences, Hokusai traveled a lot around the country, making sketches of everything he saw. The artist sought to reflect in his work the problem of the relationship between man and the nature around him. His art is permeated with the pathos of the beauty of the world and the awareness of the spiritualized principle introduced by man into everything he comes into contact with.

Foreign artists

Bonington Richard Parkes is an English painter and graphic artist. From 1817 he lived in France. He studied painting in Calais with L. Francia, from 1820 he attended the School of Fine Arts in Paris, where A. J. Gros was his teacher. From 1822 he began to exhibit his paintings in the Paris Salons, and from 1827 he took part in exhibitions of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Ensor James
(1860-1949)
Country: Belgium

Ensor James (1860-1949) Belgian painter and graphic artist. The artist was born and raised in the port city of Ostend, where he spent almost his entire life. The image of this seaside town with narrow streets inhabited by fishermen and sailors, with annual carnival carnivals and the unique atmosphere of the sea often appears in many of his paintings.

Van Gogh Vincent
(1853- 1890)
Country: Holland

Van Gogh Vincent, the great Dutch painter, a representative of post-impressionism. Born in the Brabant village of Groot Zundert in the family of a pastor. From the age of sixteen he worked for the Painting Company, and then as a teacher's assistant in a private school in England. In 1878 he got a job as a preacher in a mining area in southern Belgium.

Anker Mikael
(1849-1927)
Country: Denmark

Anker Mikael is a Danish artist. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (1871-1875), as well as in the workshop of the Danish artist P. Kreyer. Later, in Paris, he worked in the workshop of Puvis de Cha-vannes, but this period was not reflected in his work. Together with his wife Anna, he worked in Skagen, in small fishing villages. In his works, the sea is inextricably linked with the images of Jutland fishermen. The artist depicts people in the moments of their hard and dangerous work.

Modigliani Amedeo
(1884-1920)
Country: Italy

How subtly and elegantly Anna Akhmatova spoke about Amedeo Modigliani! Still - she was a poet! Amedeo was lucky: they met in 1911 in Paris, fell in love with each other, and these feelings became the property of the art world, expressed in his drawings and her poems.

Eakins Thomas
(1844-1916)
Country: USA

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and at the School of Fine Arts in Paris (1866-1869). The formation of his artistic style was greatly influenced by the work of the old Spanish masters which he studied in Madrid. Since 1870, the painter lived in his homeland, in Philadelphia, where he was engaged in teaching activities. Already in the first independent work Eakins showed himself as a realist (Max Schmitt in a Boat, 1871, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; On a Sailboat, 1874; Sailing Boats on the Delaware, 1874).

Kent Rockwell
(1882-1971)
Country: USA

Kent Rockwell is an American landscape painter, draftsman, graphic artist, and writer. Studied with a representative of the plein air school of the artist William Merritt Chase in Shinnecock on Long Island, then with Robert Henry at the School of Art in New York, where he also attended the classes of Kenneth Miller.

Homer Winslow
(1836-1910)
Country: USA

Homer Winslow is an American painter and draftsman. He did not receive a systematic education, having mastered only the craft of a lithographer in his youth. In 1859-1861. attended the evening drawing school at the National Academy of Arts in New York. From 1857 he made drawings for magazines, in civil war(1861-1865) collaborated on the illustrated weekly Harper's Weekly, for which he made realistic drawings of battle scenes, distinguished by expressive and strict forms. In 1865 he became a member of the National Academy of Arts.

Bonnard Pierre
(1867-1947)
Country: France

Bonnard Pierre - French painter, draftsman, lithographer. Born in the vicinity of Paris. In his youth, he studied law while drawing and painting at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Académie Julian. He was fond of Japanese engraving. Together with the artists E. Vuillard, M. Denis, P. Serusier, they formed the core of a group that called itself "Nabi" - from the Hebrew word "prophet". The members of the group were supporters of symbolism less complex and literary than the symbolism of Gauguin and his followers.

Marriage Georges
(1882-1963)
Country: France

Marriage Georges - French painter, engraver, sculptor. In 1897-1899. studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre, then at the Academy of Amber and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1902-1903). His early work is marked by the influence of the Fauvists, especially A. Derain and A. Matisse. It was during this period that the artist most often turns to the landscape genre: he paints harbors, sea bays with boats, and coastal buildings.

Gauguin Paul
(1848-1903)
Country: France

Gauguin Paul (1848-1903), an outstanding French painter. representative of impressionism. Born in Paris. His father was an employee of the Nacional newspaper of a moderate republican persuasion. A change in political course forced him to leave his homeland in 1849. On a ship bound for South America he suddenly died. Gauguin spent the first four years of his life in Lima (Peru) with his mother's relatives. At the age of 17-23, he served as a sailor, stoker, helmsman in the merchant and navy, sailed to Rio de Janeiro and other distant cities.

Degas Edgar
(1834-1917)
Country: France

Edgar Degas was a contradictory and strange person at first glance. Born in the family of a banker in Paris. The offspring of an aristocratic family (his real name was de Ha), he abandoned the noble prefix from his youth. He showed interest in drawing as a child. Received a good education. In 1853 he passed the bachelor's degree examinations and began to study jurisprudence. But already at that time he studied with the painter Barrias, then with Louis Lamothe. Like Édouard Manet, he was being groomed for a brilliant career, but he dropped out of law school for the School of Fine Arts.

Deren Andre
(1880-1954)
Country: France

Derain Andre - French painter, book illustrator, engraver, sculptor, one of the founders of Fauvism. He began painting in Shatu in 1895, his teacher was a local artist. In 1898-1900. studied in Paris at the Career Academy, where he met A. Matisse, J. Puy and A. Marquet. Very soon, Deren left the academy and began to study on his own.

Daubigny Charles Francois
(1817-1878)
Country: France

Daubigny Charles Francois - French landscape painter, graphic artist, representative of the Barbizon school. He studied with his father, the artist E. F. Daubigny, then with P. Delaroche. Influenced by Rembrandt. In the Louvre, he copied the paintings of the Dutch masters, his works by J. Ruisdal and Hobbema were especially attractive. In 1835-1836. Daubigny visited Italy, and in 1866 went to Holland, Great Britain and Spain. But these trips were practically not reflected in the artist's work, almost all of his works are devoted to French landscapes.

Dufy Raoul
(1877-1953)
Country: France

Dufy Raoul - French painter and graphic artist. He studied in Le Havre, in the evening classes of the Municipal Art School, where he taught Luye (1892-1897). Here Dufy met O. J. Braque and O. Friesz. During this period, he painted portraits of his family members, as well as landscapes similar to those of E. Boudin.

Isabey Louis Gabriel Jean
(1803-1886)
Country: France

Isabey Louis Gabriel Jean (1803-1886) - French romantic painter, watercolorist, lithographer. He studied with his father, miniaturist J.-B. Isabah. He was influenced by the painting of the English marine painters and the Lesser Dutch of the 17th century. Worked in Paris. In search of new experiences, Isabey visited Normandy, Auvergne, Brittany, Southern France, Holland, England, and as an artist accompanied an expedition to Algeria.

Courbet Gustave
(1819-1877)
Country: France

Courbet Gustave is an outstanding French painter, a wonderful master of a realistic portrait. "... never belonged to any school, to any church ... to any regime, but only to the regime of freedom."

Manet Edouard
(1832-1883)
Country: France

Edouard MANET (1832-1883), an outstanding French artist who rethought the traditions of narrative realistic painting. “Brevity in art is both a necessity and an elegance. A person who expresses himself briefly makes you think; a verbose person gets bored.

Marche Albert
(1875-1947)
Country: France

Marquet Albert (1875-1947) - French painter and graphic artist. In 1890-1895. studied in Paris at the School of Decorative Arts, and from 1895 to 1898 - at the School of Fine Arts in the workshop of G. Moreau. He painted portraits, interiors, still lifes, landscapes, among which are views of the sea, images of harbors and ports. In the landscapes created by the artist in the late 1890s - early 1900s. noticeably strong influence of the Impressionists, in particular A. Sisley ("Trees in Billancourt", ca. 1898, Musée des Arts, Bordeaux).

Monet Claude
(1840-1926)
Country: France

Monet Claude, French painter, founder of impressionism. "What I write is a moment." Born in Paris in the family of a grocer. He spent his childhood in Le Havre. In Le Havre, he began to make cartoons, selling them in a stationery shop. E. Boudin drew attention to them and gave Monet the first lessons in plein air painting. In 1859, Monet entered the Paris School of Fine Arts, and then at the Gleyer atelier. After a two-year stay in Algeria for military service(1860-61) returned to Le Havre and met Jonkind. The landscapes of Ionkind, full of light and air, made a deep impression on him.

Pierre Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919)
Country: France

Pierre Auguste Renoir was born into the family of a poor tailor with many children, and from early childhood he learned to "live in clover" even when there was no piece of bread in the house. At the age of thirteen, he already mastered the craft - he painted cups and saucers at a porcelain factory. The paint-stained work blouse was on him even when he came to the School of Fine Arts. In Gleyre's atelier, he picked up empty paint tubes thrown by other students. Squeezing them to the last drop, he purred something carelessly cheerful under his breath.

Redon Odilon
(1840-1916)
Country: France

Redon Odilon - French painter, draftsman and decorator. In Paris, he studied architecture, but did not complete the course. For some time he attended the School of Sculpture in Bordeaux, then studied in Paris in the studio of Jerome. As a painter, he was formed under the influence of the art of Leonardo da Vinci, J. F. Corot, E. Delacroix and F. Goya. The botanist Armand Claveau played an important role in his life. Having a rich library, he introduced the young artist to the works of Baudelaire, Flaubert, Poe, as well as to Indian poetry and German philosophy. Together with Clavo Redon studied the world of plants and microorganisms, which was later reflected in his engravings.

Cezanne Paul
(1839-1906)
Country: France

Until now, one of the participants in the first exhibition on the Boulevard des Capucines, the most silent of the visitors to the Gerbois cafe, Paul Cezanne, has remained in the shadows. It is time to get closer to his paintings. Let's start with self-portraits. Let's take a closer look at the face of this high-cheeked bearded man, which looks like a peasant (when he is wearing a cap), then a sage-scribe (when his steep, powerful forehead is visible). Cezanne was both one and the other, combining the peasant's stubborn industriousness with the probing mind of a research scientist.

Toulouse Lautrec Henri Marie Raymond de
(1864-1901)
Country: France

Toulouse Lautrec Henri Marie Raymond de, an outstanding French artist. Born in Albi in the south of France in a family that belonged to the largest aristocratic family, who once headed Crusades. He showed talent as an artist since childhood. However, he took up painting after falling from a horse (at the age of fourteen), as a result of which he became disabled. Soon after his father introduced him to Prensto, Henri began to constantly come to the studio on the Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré. For hours he could watch the artist draw or paint.

Foreign artists

Dali Salvador, the great Spanish artist, the largest representative of surrealism. Born in Figueres (Catalonia) in the family of a famous lawyer. At the age of sixteen, Dali was sent to a Catholic college in Figueres. The Pichot family had a huge influence on the formation of his personality. All family members owned musical instruments organized concerts. Ramon Pichot is a painter who worked in Paris and knew P. Picasso closely. In the house of Pichotov, Dali was engaged in drawing. In 1918, his first exhibition took place in Fegueras, favorably noted by critics.

Kalninsh Eduardas
(1904-1988)
Country: Latvia

Kalninsh Eduardas - Latvian marine painter. Born in Riga in the family of a simple craftsman, he began to draw early. The first teacher of Kalnins was the artist Yevgeny Moshkevich, who opened in Tomsk, where the boy's family moved at the beginning of the First World War, a studio for novice painters. After 1920 Kalniņš returned to Riga with his parents and in 1922 entered the Latvian Academy of Arts. Vilhelme Purvitis, a student of AI Kuindzhi, became his teacher.

The 19th century left indelible imprints on all forms of art. This is a time of changing social norms and requirements, tremendous progress in architecture, construction and industry. Reforms and revolutions are being actively carried out in Europe, banking and government organizations are being created, and all these changes have had a direct impact on artists. Foreign artists of the 19th centuries brought painting to a new, more modern level, gradually introducing such trends as impressionism and romanticism, which had to go through many trials before becoming recognized by society. Artists of past centuries were in no hurry to endow their characters with violent emotions, but depicted them as more or less restrained. But impressionism had in its features an unbridled and bold fantasy world, which was vividly combined with romantic mystery. In the 19th century, artists began to think outside the box, completely rejecting the accepted patterns, and this fortitude is transmitted in the mood of their works. During this period, many artists worked, whose names we still consider great, and their works - inimitable.

France

The 19th century is rich in bright creators who made a huge contribution to art. Foreign artists of the 19th century opened the doors to several new trends, such as post-impressionism and romanticism, which, in fact, turned out to be a difficult task. Most of them tirelessly proved to society that their work has the right to exist, but many succeeded, unfortunately, only after their death. Their unbridled character, courage and willingness to fight are combined with exceptional talent and ease of perception, which gives them every right to occupy a significant and significant cell.