1599-1660,Spanish painter. He was apprenticed to Francisco Herrera the Elder before being trained by Francisco Pacheco. His early works were mostly religious or genre scenes. After arriving in Madrid in 1623, he painted a portrait of Philip IV that won him immediate success and an appointment as court painter. His position gave him access to the royal collections, including works by Titian, who exerted the greatest influence on his style. In his portraits from this period, only the faces and hands of the figures are accentuated, and the dark figures stand out against a light background. A visit to Italy (1629 ?C 31) further developed his style, and on his return to Madrid he entered his most productive period. Velazquez created a new type of informal royal portrait for Philip hunting lodge, and his portraits of court dwarfs display the same discerning eye as those of his royal subjects. On a second visit to Rome (1649 ?C 51) he painted a portrait of Pope Innocent X. The powerful head, brilliant combinations of crimson of the curtain, chair, and cope are painted with fluent technique and almost imperceptible brushstrokes that go far beyond the late manner of Titian and announce the last stage in Velazquez development. This portrait was copied innumerable times and won him immediate and lasting renown in Italy. In his last years he created his masterpiece, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour, 1656). In this casual scene, the artist is shown painting the king and queen in the presence of the infanta Margarita and her attendants; the nearly life size figures are painted in more or less detail according to their relation to the central figure of the infanta and to the source of light, creating a remarkable illusion of reality never surpassed by Velazquez or any other artist of his age. He is universally acknowledged as one of the giants of Western art.   Related Paintings of Velasquez :. | Archbishop of Cape Verde | Jacob give Joseph a coat of blood | Assumption | The Louise Asia gram raises | Princess Margaret |
Related Artists:
Arthur Boyd Houghton
English Painter and Illustrator , 1836-1875 His work was varied and was revered during the mid-19th century. He traveled to America and Russia, creating illustrations for The Graphic and for numerous books, including The Arabian Nights and Don Quixote. His work was strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Paul Hogath wrote a biography, published in 1981 by Gordon Fraser Work by this artist is held within various public collections incluiding Tate Britain in London, as well as a number of private collections around the world. Houghton is best known for etchings but also produced a number of oil paintings, many of his wife and children. He also wrote a little poetry which was published in his lifetime.
Charles Van Beveren
Charles van Beveren, born at Mechlin in 1809, was instructed in the rudiments of art in the academy of his native city and at Antwerp. He settled in Amsterdam in 1830, subsequently visiting Paris, Rome, and other cities of Italy, and distinguished himself as a painter of history, genre, and portraits. He died at Amsterdam in 1850. The best known of his works are: The Confession of a Sick Girl (in the Pinakothek at Munich). Male Figure. A study (in the Rotterdam Museum). The Vision of St. Ignatius. The Death of St. Anthony of Padua (in the church of Moses and Aaron at Amsterdam, his chef-d'oeuvre).
Franz von Defregger
(after 1883 Franz von Defregger) (30 April 1835 - 2 January 1921) was an Austrian artist known mostly for his genre and history paintings. He was born in Ederhof at Stronach, in Tyrol, the son of a prosperous farmer. In 1860, following his father's death, Franz sold the family's farm and went to Innsbruck, where he studied with the sculptor Michael Stolz. He went to Munich in 1861 to study under Hermann Dyck and Hermann Anschetz. In 1863 he travelled to Paris, where he continued his artistic education autodidactically by a routine of figure drawing and a thorough study of the museums, art collections and studios. On 8 July 1865 he returned to Munich, where from 1867 to 1870 he studied alongside Hans Makart and Gabriel Max in the studio of history painter Karl von Piloty. Defregger became one of the leading genre painters in Munich, and became a professor of history painting at the Munich Academy, where he continued to teach until 1910. He died in Munich in 1921.