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Pierre Auguste Renoir
Birth name Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Born February 25, 1841
Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France
Died December 3, 1919
Cagnes-sur-Mer, Provence-Alpes-Cte d'Azur, France
Nationality French
Field Painting
Famous works Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, 1876
Luncheon of the Boating Party ,1880
Nude (painting), 1910
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (February 25, 1841?December 3, 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau".
Biography
Youth
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France, the child of a working class family. As a boy, he worked in a porcelain factory where his drawing talents led to him being chosen to paint designs on fine china. He also painted hangings for overseas missionaries and decorations on fans before he enrolled in art school. During those early years, he often visited the Louvre to study the French master painters.
The Theater Box, 1874 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Courtauld Institute Galleries, LondonIn 1862 he began studying art under Charles Gleyre in Paris. There he met Alfred Sisley, Frdric Bazille, and Claude Monet.At times during the 1860s, he did not have enough money to buy paint. Although Renoir first started exhibiting paintings at the Paris Salon in 1864,recognition did not come for another ten years, due, in part, to the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War.
During the Paris Commune in 1871, while he painted on the banks of the Seine River, some members of a commune group thought he was a spy, and were about to throw him into the river when a commune leader, Raoul Rigault, recognized Renoir as the man who had protected him on an earlier occasion.
In 1874, a ten-year friendship with Jules Le Coeur and his family ended,and Renoir lost not only the valuable support gained by the association, but a generous welcome to stay on their property near Fontainebleau and its scenic forest. This loss of a favorite painting location resulted in a distinct change of subjects.
Maturity
Renoir experienced his initial acclaim when six of his paintings hung in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. In the same year two of his works were shown with Durand-Ruel in London.
The Swing (La Balan?oire), 1876, oil on canvas, Muse d'Orsay, ParisIn 1881, he traveled to Algeria, a country he associated with Eug?ne Delacroix, then to Madrid, Spain to see the work of Diego Velzquez. Following that he traveled to Italy to see Titian's masterpieces in Florence, and the paintings of Raphael in Rome. On January 15, 1882 Renoir met the composer Richard Wagner at his home in Palermo, Sicily. Renoir painted Wagner's portrait in just thirty-five minutes. In the same year, Renoir convalesced for six weeks in Algeria after contracting pneumonia, which would cause permanent damage to his respiratory system.
In 1883, he spent the summer in Guernsey, creating fifteen paintings in little over a month. Most of these feature Moulin Huet, a bay in Saint Martin's, Guernsey. Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands in the English Channel, and it has a varied landscape which includes beaches, cliffs, bays, forests, and mountains. These paintings were the subject of a set of commemorative postage stamps, issued by the Bailiwick of Guernsey in 1983.
While living and working in Montmartre, Renoir employed as a model Suzanne Valadon, who posed for him (The Bathers, 1885-7; Dance at Bougival, 1883)and many of his fellow painters while studying their techniques; eventually she became one of the leading painters of the day.
In 1887, a year when Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee, and upon the request of the queen's associate, Phillip Richbourg, he donated several paintings to the "French Impressionist Paintings" catalog as a token of his loyalty.
In 1890 he married Aline Victorine Charigot, who, along with a number of the artist's friends, had already served as a model for Les D?jeuner des canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881), and with whom he had already had a child, Pierre, in 1885. After his marriage Renoir painted many scenes of his wife and daily family life, including their children and their nurse, Aline's cousin Gabrielle Renard. The Renoirs had three sons, one of whom, Jean, became a filmmaker of note and another, Pierre, became a stage and film actor.
Girls at the Piano, 1892, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Muse d'Orsay, Paris.
Later years
Around 1892, Renoir developed rheumatoid arthritis. In 1907, he moved to the warmer climate of "Les Collettes," a farm at Cagnes-sur-Mer, close to the Mediterranean coast. Renoir painted during the last twenty years of his life, even when arthritis severely limited his movement, and he was wheelchair-bound. He developed progressive deformities in his hands and ankylosis of his right shoulder, requiring him to adapt his painting technique. In the advanced stages of his arthritis, he painted by having a brush strapped to his paralyzed fingers.
During this period he created sculptures by directing an assistant who worked the clay. Renoir also used a moving canvas, or picture roll, to facilitate painting large works with his limited joint mobility.
In 1919, Renoir visited the Louvre to see his paintings hanging with the old masters. Pierre-Auguste Renoir died in the village of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur, on December 3.
Artworks
Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (Le Bal au Moulin de la Galette), 1876, Pierre-Auguste RenoirRenoir's paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. The female nude was one of his primary subjects. In characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with one another and their surroundings.
His initial paintings show the influence of the colourism of Eug?ne Delacroix and the luminosity of Camille Corot. He also admired the realism of Gustave Courbet and ?douard Manet, and his early work resembles theirs in his use of black as a color. As well, Renoir admired Edgar Degas' sense of movement. Another painter Renoir greatly admired was the 18th century master Fran?ois Boucher.
A fine example of Renoir's early work, and evidence of the influence of Courbet's realism, is Diana, 1867. Ostensibly a mythological subject, the painting is a naturalistic studio work, the figure carefully observed, solidly modeled, and superimposed upon a contrived landscape. If the work is still a 'student' piece, already Renoir's heightened personal response to female sensuality is present. The model was Lise Tr?hot, then the artist's mistress and inspiration for a number of paintings.
In the late 1860s, through the practice of painting light and water en plein air (in the open air), he and his friend Claude Monet discovered that the color of shadows is not brown or black, but the reflected color of the objects surrounding them. Several pairs of paintings exist in which Renoir and Monet, working side-by-side, depicted the same scenes (La Grenouill?re, 1869).
One of the best known Impressionist works is Renoir's 1876 Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (Le Bal au Moulin de la Galette). The painting depicts an open-air scene, crowded with people, at a popular dance garden on the Butte Montmartre, close to where he lived.
On the Terrace, oil on canvas, 1881, Art Institute of ChicagoThe works of his early maturity were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling colour and light. By the mid-1880s, however, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined, formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women, such as The Bathers, which was created during 1884-87. It was a trip to Italy in 1881, when he saw works by Raphael and other Renaissance masters, that convinced him that he was on the wrong path, and for the next several years he painted in a more severe style, in an attempt to return to classicism. This is sometimes called his "Ingres period", as he concentrated on his drawing and emphasized the outlines of figures.
After 1890, however, he changed direction again, returning to the use of thinly brushed color which dissolved outlines as in his earlier work. From this period onward he concentrated especially on monumental nudes and domestic scenes, fine examples of which are Girls at the Piano, 1892, and Grandes Baigneuses, 1918-19. The latter painting is the most typical and successful of Renoir's late, abundantly fleshed nudes.
A prolific artist, he made several thousand paintings. The warm sensuality of Renoir's style made his paintings some of the most well-known and frequently-reproduced works in the history of art.
Assessment
Acknowledging modern criticism of Renoir's sensuality, Sir Lawrence Gowing wrote:
“ "Is there another respected modern painter whose work is so full of charming people and attractive sentiment? Yet what lingers is not cloying sweetness but a freshness that is not entirely explicable...One feels the surface of his paint itself as living skin: Renoir's aesthetic was wholly physical and sensuous, and it was unclouded...These interactions of real people fulfilling natural drives with well-adjusted enjoyment remain the popular masterpieces of modern art (as it used to be called), and the fact that they are not fraught and tragic, without the slightest social unrest in view, or even much sign of the spacial and communal disjunction which some persist in seeking, is far from removing their interests."
Albert Aurier, an art critic and early essayist on the impressionists, wrote in 1892:
“ "With such ideas, with such a vision of the world and of femininity, one might have feared that Renoir would create a work which was merely pretty and merely superficial. Superficial it was not; in fact it was profound, for if, indeed, the artist has almost completely done away with the intellectuality of his models in his paintings, he has, in compensation, been prodigal with his own. As to the pretty, it is undeniable in his work, but how different from the intolerable prettiness of fashionable painters."
In a preview to the exhibition 'Renoir Landscapes 1865-1883' at the National Gallery, London in spring 2007, The Guardian wrote that "Even Degas laughed at his friend's style, calling it as puffy as cotton wool," but that "if we're going to love him, we need to love his chocolate box qualities, too."
Jean-Francois Millet
Birth name Jean-Francois Millet
Born October 4, 1814
Gruchy, Gruville-Hague, Normandy
Died January 20, 1875
Nationality French
Field Painting, Sculpting
Jean-Fran?ois Millet (October 4, 1814 ? January 20, 1875) was a painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. He is noted for his scenes of peasant farmers. He can be categorized as part of the movement termed "naturalism", but also as part of the movement of "realism".
Born in the village of Gruchy, in Grville-Hague (Normandy), Millet moved to Paris in 1838. He received his academic schooling with Paul Dumouchel, and with Jrome Langlois in Cherbourg. After 1840 he turned away from the official painting style and came under the influence of Honor Daumier. In 1849 he withdrew to Barbizon to apply himself to painting many, often poetic, peasant scenes.
The Gleaners
The Gleaners, 1857. Mus?e d'Orsay, Paris.One of the most well known of Millet's paintings is The Gleaners (1857), depicting women stooping in the fields to glean the leftovers from the harvest, is a powerful and timeless statement about the working class. The Gleaners is on display in Paris's Mus?e d'Orsay.
Picking up what was left of the harvest was regarded as one of the lowest jobs in society. However, Millet offered these women as the heroic focus of the picture; previously, servants were depicted in paintings as subservient to a noble or king. Here, light illuminates the women's shoulders as they carry out their work. Behind them, the field that stretches into the distance is bathed in golden light, under a wide, magnificent sky. The forms of the three figures themselves, nearly silhouetted against the lighter field, show balance and harmony.
The Angelus
Evening Prayer, 1857-1859. Mus?e d'Orsay, Paris.
The Sower, 1850. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.Commissioned by a wealthy American, Thomas G. Applet!!on, and completed during the summer of 1857, Millet added a steeple and changed the initial title of the work, Prayer for the Potato Crop to The Angelus when the purchaser failed to take possession in 1859. Displayed to the public for the first time in 1865, the painting changed hands several times, increasing only modestly in value, since some considered the artist's political sympathies suspect. Upon Millet's death a decade later, a bidding war between the US and France ensued, ending some years later with a price tag of 800,000 gold francs.
The disparity between the apparent value of the painting and the poor estate of Millet's surviving family was a major impetus in the invention of the droit de suite, intended to compensate artists or their heirs when works are resold.
The Angelus was reproduced frequently in the 19th and 20th centuries. Salvador Dal? was fascinated by this work, and wrote an analysis of it, The Tragic Myth of The Angelus of Millet. Rather than seeing it as a work of spiritual peace, Dal? believed it held messages of repressed sexual aggression. Dal? was also of the opinion that the two figures were praying over their buried child, rather than to the Angelus. Dal? was so insistent on this fact that eventually an X-ray was done of the canvas, confirm!!ing his suspicions: the painting contains a painted-over geometric shape strikingly similar to a coffin. (N?ret, 2000) However, it is unclear whether Millet changed his mind on the meaning of the painting, or even if the shape actually is a coffin.
Claude Monet
Claude Oscar Monet
Birth name Claude Oscar Monet
Born November 14, 1840
Paris, France
Died December 5, 1926
Giverny, France
Nationality French
Field Painter
Movement Impressionism
Famous works Impression, Sunrise
Rouen Cathedral series
London Parliament series
Claude Monet also known as Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet (November 14, 1840 ? December 5, 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise.
Early life
Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of June 30, 1878. 1878.Monet was born on November 14, 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the ninth arrondissement of Paris.[3] He was the second son of Claude-Adolphe and Louise-Justine Aubr?e Monet, both of them second-generation Parisians. On May 20, 1841, he was baptized in the local parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette as Oscar-Claude. In 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery store business, but Claude Monet wanted to become an artist. His mother was a singer.
On the first of April 1851, Monet entered the Le Havre secondary school of the arts. He first became known locally for his charcoal caricatures, which he would sell for ten - twenty francs. Monet also undertook his first drawing lessons from Jacques-Fran?ois Ochard, a former student of Jacques-Louis David. On the beaches of Normandy in about 1856/1857 he met fellow artist Eug?ne Boudin who became his mentor and taught him to use oil paints. Boudin taught Monet "en plein air" (outdoor) techniques for painting.
On 28 January 1857 his mother died. He was 16 years old when he left school, and went to live with his widowed childless aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre.
Paris
On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt, 1868. An early example of plein-air impressionism, in which a gestural and suggestive use of oil paint was presented as a finished work of art.When Monet traveled to Paris to visit The Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Monet, having brought his paints and other tools with him, would instead go and sit by a window and paint what he saw. Monet was in Paris for several years and met several painters who would become friends and fellow impressionists. One of those friends was ?douard Manet.
In June of 1861 Monet joined the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria for two years of a seven-year commitment, but upon his contracting typhoid his aunt Madame Lecadre intervened to get him out of the army if he agreed to complete an art course at a university. It is possible that the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, whom Monet knew, may have prompted his aunt on this matter. Disillusioned with the traditional art taught at universities, in 1862 Monet became a student of Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Fr?d?ric Bazille, and Alfred Sisley. Together they shared new approaches to art, painting the effects of light en plein air with broken color and rapid brushstrokes, in what later came to be known as Impressionism.
Monet's 1866 Camille or The Woman in the Green Dress (La Femme ? la Robe Verte), which brought him recognition, was one of many works featuring his future wife, Camille Doncieux. Shortly thereafter Doncieux became pregnant and bore their first child, Jean. In 1868, due to financi
al reasons, Monet attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Seine.
Franco-Prussian War
Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant) (1872/1873).During the Franco-Prussian War (1870?1871), Monet took refuge in England. While there, he studied the works of John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner, both of whose landscapes would serve to inspire Monet's innovations in the study of color.
After a brief stay in Zaandam (where the police suspected him of revolutionary activities and a first visit Amsterdam, Monet lived from 1871 to 1878 at Argenteuil, a village on the Seine near Paris, and here were painted some of his best known works. In 1873 or 1874, he briefly returned to Amsterdam.
In 1872 (or 1873), he painted Impression, Sunrise (Impression: soleil levant) depicting a Le Havre landscape. It hung in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874 and is now displayed in the Mus?e Marmottan-Monet, Paris. From the painting's title, art critic Louis Leroy coined the term "Impressionism", which he intended to be derogatory, however the Impressionists appropriated the term for themselves.
Later life
In 1870, Monet and Camille Doncieux married and in 1873 moved into a house in Argenteuil near the Seine River. They had a second son, Michel, on March 17, 1878. In that same year, he moved to the village of V?theuil. Madame Monet died of tuberculosis in 1879.
Monet moved into the home of Ernest Hosched?, a wealthy department store owner and patron of the arts. After her husband was bankrupted, Alice Hosched?, continued to live in their home in Poissy with Monet and helped to raise his two sons, Jean and Michel, alongside her own six children. They were Blanche, Germaine, Suzanne, Marthe, Jean-Pierre, and Jacques. In April 1883 they moved to Vernon, then to a house in Giverny, Eure, in Upper Normandy, where he planted a large garden where he painted for much of the rest of his life. Following the death of her estranged husband, Alice Hosched? married Claude Monet in 1892.
In the 1880s and 1890s, Monet began "series" paintings, in which a subject was depicted in varying light and weather conditions. His first series exhibited as such was of Haystacks, painted from different points of view and at different times of the day. Fifteen of the paintings were exhibited at the Durand-Ruel in 1891. He later produced series of paintings of Rouen Cathedral, poplars, the Houses of Parliament, mornings on the Seine, and the waterlilies on his property at Giverny.
Monet was exceptionally fond of painting controlled nature: his own garden in Giverny, with its water lilies, pond, and bridge. He also painted up and down the banks of the Seine.
Between 1883 and 1908, Monet traveled to the Mediterranean, where he painted landmarks, landscapes, and seascapes, such as Bordighera. He painted an import!!ant series of paintings in Venice, Italy, and in London he painted two import!!ant series ? views of Parliament and views of Charing Cross Bridge. His wife Alice died in 1911 and his oldest son Jean, who had married Alice's daughter Blanche, Monet's particular favourite, died in 1914. After his wife died, Blanche looked after and cared for him. It was during this time that Monet began to develop the first signs of cataracts.
During World War I, in which his younger son Claude served and his friend and admirer Clemenceau led the French nation, Monet painted a series of Weeping Willow trees as homage to the French fallen soldiers. Cataracts formed on Monet's eyes, for which he underwent two surgeries in 1923. The paintings done while the cataracts affected his vision have a general reddish tone, which is characteristic of the vision of cataract victims. It may also be that after surgery he was able to see certain ultraviolet wavelengths of light that are normally excluded by the lens of the eye, this may have had an effect on the colors he perceived. After his operations he even repainted some of these paintings, with bluer water lilies than before the operation.
Waterlilies, 1920-26.
Death
Monet died of lung cancer on December 5, 1926 at the age of 86 and is buried in the Giverny church cemetery. Monet had insisted that the occasion be simple; thus, only about fifty people attended the ceremony.
His famous home and garden with its waterlily pond were bequeated by his heirs to the French Academy of Fine Arts (part of the Institut de France) in 1966. Through the Fondation Claude Monet, the home and gardens were opened for visit in 1980, following refurbishment. In addition to souvenirs of Monet and other objects of his life, the home contains his collection of Japanese woodcut prints. The home is one of the two main attractions of Giverny, which attracts tourists from all over the world.
Paul Cezanne
Paul Cezanne
Self portrait c. 1875
Birth name Paul C?zanne
Born January 19, 1839
Aix-en-Provence
Died October 22, 1906
Aix-en-Provence
Nationality French
Field Painting
Movement Post-Impressionism
Famous works Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier, 1893-94
Forest (painting), 1902-04
Paul Cezanne (IPA: [pl sezan], January 19, 1839 October 22, 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. C?zanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. The line attributed to both Matisse and Picasso that C?zanne "is the father of us all" cannot be easily dismissed.
Czanne's work demonstrates a mastery of design, colour, composition and draftsmanship. His often repetitive, sensitive and exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognisable. Using planes of colour and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields, at once both a direct expression!! of the sensations of the observing eye and an abstraction from observed nature, Czanne's paintings convey intense study of his subjects, a searching gaze and a dogged struggle to deal with the complexity of human visual perception.
Life and work
Femme au Chapeau Vert (Woman in a Green Hat. Madame C?zanne.) 1894-1895
Early years and family
The Czannes came from the small town of Cesana now in West Piedmont, and it has been assumed that they were ultimately of Italian origin. Paul Czanne was born on January 19, 1839 in Aix-en-Provence, one of the southernmost regions of France. On February 22nd, Paul was baptized in the parish church, with his grandmother and uncle Louis as godparents. His father, Louis-Auguste Czanne (July 28, 1798 October 23, 1886), was the cofounder of a banking firm that prospered throughout the artist's life, affording him financial security that was unavailable to most of his contemporaries and eventually resulting in a large inheritance. On the other hand, his mother, Anne-Elisabeth Honorine Aubert (September 24, 1814 October 25, 1897), was vivacious and romantic, but quick to take offence. It was from her that Paul got his conception and vision of life. He also had two younger sisters, Marie, with whom he went to a primary school every day, and Rose.At the age of ten, Paul entered the Saint Joseph boarding-school, where he studied drawing under Joseph Gibert, a Spanish monk, in Aix. In 1852 Czanne entered the Collge Bourbon (now Lyce d'Aix), where he met and became friends with mile Zola, who was in a less advanced class. He stayed there for six years, though in the last two years he was a day scholar. From 1859 to 1861, complying with his father’s wishes, Czanne attended the law school of the University of Aix, while also receiving drawing lessons. Going against the objections of his banker father, he committed himself to pursuing his artistic development and left Aix for Paris in 1861. He was strongly encouraged to make this decision by Zola, who was already living in the capital at the time. Eventually, his father reconciled with Czanne and supported his choice of career. C?zanne later received an inheritance of 400,000 francs from his father, which rid him of all money fears.
Czanne the artist
The Cardplayers, an iconic work by C?zanne (1892).In Paris, Czanne met the Impressionists, including Camille Pissarro. Initially the friendship formed in the mid-1860s between Pissarro and Czanne was that of master and mentoree, with Pissarro exerting a formative influence on the younger artist. Over the course of the following decade their landscape painting excursions together, in Louveciennes and Pontoise, led to a collaborative working relationship between equals.
Czanne's early work is often concerned with the figure in the landscape and comprises many paintings of groups of large, heavy figures in the landscape, imaginatively painted. Later in his career, he became more interested in working from direct observation and gradually developed a light, airy painting style that was to influence the Impressionists enormously.
Nonetheless, in Czanne's mature work we see the development of a solidified, almost architectural style of painting. Throughout his life he struggled to develop an authentic observation of the seen world by the most accurate method of representing it in paint that he could find.
To this end, he structurally ordered whatever he perceived into simple forms and colour planes. His statement "I want to make of impressionism something solid and lasting like the art in the museums", and his contention that he was recreating Poussin "after nature" underscored his desire to unite observation of nature with the permanence of classical composition.
Les Grandes Baigneuses, 1906: the triumph of Poussinesque stability and geometric balance.
Optical phenomena
Czanne was interested in the simplification of naturally occurring forms to their geometric essentials, he wanted to "treat nature by the cylinder, the sphere, the cone" (a tree trunk may be conceived of as a cylinder, a human head a sphere, for example).
Additionally, the concentrated attention with which he recorded his observations of nature resulted in a profound exploration of binocular vision, which results in two slightly different simultaneous visual perceptions, and provides us with depth perception and a complex knowledge of spatial relationships. We see two different views simultaneously; Czanne employed this aspect of visual perception in his painting to varying degrees. The observation of this fact, coupled with Czanne's desire to capture the truth of his own perception, often compelled him to render the outlines of forms so as to at once attempt to display the distinctly different views of both the left and right eyes. Thus C?zanne's work augments and transforms earlier ideals of perspective, in particular single-point perspective.
Exhibitions and subjects
Still Life with a Curtain (1895) illustrates Cezanne's increasing trend towards terse compression of forms and dynamic tension between geometric figures.Czanne's paintings were shown in the first exhibition of the Salon des Refuss in 1863, which displayed works not accepted by the jury of the official Paris Salon. The Salon rejected Czanne's submissions every year from 1864 to 1869. Czanne continued to submit works to the Salon until 1882. Through the intervention of fellow artist Antoine Guillemet, Czanne exhibited The Portrait of the Artist's Father, 1866 (National Gallery, Washington), his first and last successful submission to the Salon.
Before 1895 C?zanne exhibited twice with the Impressionists (at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874 and the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877). In later years a few individual paintings were shown at various venues, until 1895, when the Parisian dealer, Ambroise Vollard, gave the artist his first solo exhibition. Despite the increasing public recognition and financial success, Czanne chose to work in increasing artistic isolation, usually painting in the south of France, in his beloved Provence, far from Paris. He concentrated on a few subjects and was highly unusual for 19th-century painters in that he was equally proficient in each of these genres: still lifes, portraits, landscapes and studies of bathers. For the last, Czanne was compelled to design from his imagination, due to a lack of available nude models. Like the landscapes, his portraits were drawn from that which was familiar, so that not only his wife and son but local peasants, children and his art dealer served as subjects. His still lifes are at once decorative in design, painted with thick, flat surfaces, yet with a weight reminiscent of Courbet. The 'props' for his works are still to be found, as he left them, in his studio (atelier), in the suburbs of modern Aix.
Although religious images appeared less frequently in C?zanne's later work, he remained a devout Roman Catholic and said, "When I judge art, I take my painting and put it next to a God-made object like a tree or flower. If it clashes, it is not art."
Death of Czanne
One day, he was caught in a storm while working in the field. Only after working for two hours under a downpour did he decide to go home; but on the way he collapsed. He was taken home by a passing driver. His old housekeeper rubbed his arms and legs to restore the circulation; as a result, he regained consciousness. On the following day, he intended to continue working, but later on he fainted; the model he was working with called for help; he was put to bed, and he never left it again. He died a few days later, on October 22, 1906. He died of pneumonia and was buried at the old cemetery in his beloved hometown of Aix-en-Provence.
Main periods of Czanne's work
Various periods in the work and life of Czanne have been defined. Czanne created hundreds of paintings, some of which command considerable market prices. On May 10, 1999, Czanne's painting Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier sold for $60.5 million, the fourth-highest price paid for a painting up to that time. As of 2006, it is the most expensive still life ever sold at an auction.
The Overture to Tannhuser: The Artist's Mother and Sister, 1868.
The dark period, Paris, 1861-1870
In 1863 Napoleon III created by decree the Salon des Refus?s, at which paintings rejected for display at the Salon of the Acad?mie des Beaux-Arts were to be displayed. The artists of the refused works included the young Impressionists, who were considered revolutionary. Czanne was influenced by their style but his inept social relations with them he seemed rude, shy, angry and given to depression resulted in a period characterized by dark colors and the heavy use of black, unlike either his earlier watercolours and sketches at the cole Spciale de dessin at Aix-en-Provence, in 1859 or his subsequent works. Among the works of his dark period were paintings such as The Murder (c.1867-68); the words antisocial or violent are often used.
Impressionist period, Provence and Paris, 1870-1878
After the start of the Franco-Prussian War in July, 1870, Czanne and his mistress, Marie-Hortense Fiquet, left Paris for L'Estaque, near Marseilles, where he changed themes to predominantly landscapes. He was declared a draft-dodger in January, 1871, but the war ended in February and the couple moved back to Paris, in the summer of 1871. After the birth of their son Paul in January, 1872, in Paris, they moved to Auvers in Val-d'Oise near Paris. Czanne's mother was kept a party to family events, but his father was not informed of Hortense for fear of risking his wrath. The artist received from his father an allowance of 100 francs.
Jas de Bouffan, 1876.Pissarro lived in Pontoise. There and in Auvers, he and Czanne painted landscapes together. For a long time afterwards, Czanne described himself as Pissarro's pupil, referring to him as "God the Father" and saying, "We all stem from Pissarro". Under Pissarro's influence Czanne began to abandon dark colours and his canvases grew much brighter.
Leaving Hortense in the Marseille region, Czanne moved between Paris and Provence, exhibiting in the first (1874) and third Impressionist shows (1877). In 1875, he attracted the attention of the collector Victor Chocquet, whose commissions provided some financial relief. But Czanne's exhibited paintings attracted hilarity, outrage and sarcasm; for example, the reviewer Louis Leroy said of Czanne's portrait of Chocquet: "This peculiar looking head, the colour of an old boot might give [a pregnant woman] a shock and cause yellow fever in the fruit of her womb before its entry into the world".
In March 1878, Czanne's father found out about Hortense and threatened to cut Czanne off financially but, in September, he decided to give him 400 francs for his family. Czanne continued to migrate between the Paris region and Provence until Louis-Auguste had a studio built for him at his home, Jas de Bouffan, in the early 1880s. This was on the upper floor and an enlarged window was provided, allowing in the northern light but interrupting the line of the eaves. This feature remains today. Czanne stabilized his residence in L'Estaque. He painted with Renoir there in 1882 and visited Renoir and Monet in 1883.
Mature period, Provence, 1878-1890
Jas de Bouffan, 1885-1887.In the early 1880's the Cezanne family stabilized their residence in Provence, where they remained, except for brief sojourns abroad, from then on. The move reflects a new independence from the Paris-centered impressionists and a marked preference for the south, Czanne's native soil. Hortense's brother had a house within view of Mont Sainte-Victoire at Estaque. A run of paintings of this mountain from 1880-1883 and others of Gardanne from 1885-1888, are sometimes known as "the Constructive Period".
The year 1886 was a turning point for the family. Czanne married Hortense. In that year also, Czanne's father died, leaving him the estate purchased in 1859; he was 47. By 1888 the family was in the former manor, Jas de Bouffan, a substantial house and grounds with outbuildings, which afforded a new-found comfort. This house, with much-reduced grounds, is now owned by the city and is open to the public on a restricted basis.
Also in that year Czanne broke off his friendship with ?mile Zola, after the latter used him, in large part, as the basis for the unsuccessful and ultimately tragic fictitious artist Claude Lantier, in the novel (L'Œuvre). Czanne considered this a breach of decorum and a friendship begun in childhood was irreparably damaged.
Final period, Provence, 1890-1905
Still Life with Apples and Oranges, 1895-1900.Czanne's idyllic period at Jas de Bouffan was temporary. From 1890 until his death he was beset by troubling events and he withdrew further into his painting, spending long periods as a virtual recluse. His paintings became well-known and sought after and he was the object of respect from a new generation of painters.
The problems began with diabetes in 1890, destabilizing his personality to the point where relationships with others were again strained. He travelled in Switzerland, with Hortense and his son, perhaps hoping to restore their relationship. Czanne, however, returned to Provence to live; Hortense and Paul junior, to Paris. Financial need prompted Hortense's return to Provence but in separate living quarters. Czanne moved in with his mother and sister. In 1891 he turned to Catholicism.
Czanne alternated between painting at Jas de Bouffan and in the Paris region, as before. In 1895 he made a germinal visit to Bib?mus Quarries and climbed Mt. Ste. Victoire. The labyrinthine landscape of the quarries must have struck a note, as he rented a cabin there in 1897 and painted extensively from it. The shapes are believed to have inspired the embryonic 'Cubist' style. Also in that year, his mother died, an upsetting event but one which made reconciliation with his wife possible. He sold the empty nest at Jas de Bouffan and rented a place on Rue Boulegon, where he built a studio.
The relationship, however, continued to be stormy. He needed a place to be by himself. In 1901 he bought some land along the Chemin des Lauves ("Lauves Road"), an isolated road on some high ground at Aix, and commissioned a studio to be built there (the 'atelier', now open to the public). He moved there in 1903. Meanwhile, in 1902, he had drafted a will excluding his wife from his estate and leaving everything to his son. The relationship was apparently off again; she is said to have burned the mementos of his mother.
From 1903 to the end of his life, he painted in his studio, working for a month in 1904 with ?mile Bernard, who stayed as a house guest. After his death it became a monument, Atelier Paul C?zanne, or les Lauves.
Legacy
Czanne's explorations of geometric simplification and optical phenomena inspired Picasso, Braque, Gris, and others to experiment with ever more complex multiple views of the same subject, and, eventually, to the fracturing of form. Czanne thus sparked one of the most revolutionary areas of artistic enquiry of the 20th Century, one which was to affect profoundly the development of modern art.
Rembrandt
Rembrandt van Rijn
Self portrait by Rembrandt, detail (1661).
Birth name Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Born July 15, 1606
Leiden, Netherlands
Died October 4, 1669
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nationality Dutch
Field Painting, Printmaking
Famous works Dana?, 1636
Jacob de Gheyn III, 1632
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632
Belshazzar's Feast, 1635
Night Watch, 1642
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 ? October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most import!!ant in Dutch history.[citation needed] His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.
"He combined more delicate skill with more energy and power," states Chambers' Biographical Dictionary. "His treatment of mankind is full of human sympathy" (J.O. Thorne: 1962).
Works
Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee, 1633. Oil on canvas.In a letter to a patron, Rembrandt offered the only surviving explanation of what he sought to achieve through his art: the greatest and most natural movement, translated from die meeste ende di naetuereelste beweechgelickheijt. The word "beweechgelickhijt" is also argued to mean "emotion" or "motive". Whether this refers to objectives material or otherwise is open to interpretation; either way, Rembrandt seamlessly melded the earthly and spiritual as has no other painter in Western art.
Earlier 20th century connoisseurs claimed Rembrandt had produced over 600 paintings, nearly 400 etchings, and 2,000 drawings.[citation needed] More recent scholarship, from the 1960s to the present day (led by the Rembrandt Research Project), often controversially, have winnowed his oeuvre to 300 paintings. It is likely he made many more drawings in his lifetime than 2,000, but those extant are more rare than presumed. He was a prolific painter of self-portraits, producing almost a hundred of them (including some 20 etchings) throughout his long career. Together they give us a remarkably clear picture of the man, his appearance, and ? more import!!antly ? his psychological make-up, as revealed by his richly-weathered face.
Among the more prominent characteristics of his work are his use of chiaroscuro, the theatrical employment of light and shadow derived from Caravaggio but adapted for very personal means; his dramatic and lively presentation of subjects, devoid of the rigid formality that his contemporaries often displayed; and a deeply felt compassion for mankind, irrespective of wealth and age.
His immediate family ? his wife Saskia, his son Titus, and his common-law wife Hendrickje ? often figured prominently in his paintings, many of which had mythical, biblical, or historical themes.
Life
Self-portrait at 22 years old
Rembrandt's wife Saskia (1636), painted by RembrandtRembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606 (traditionally) but more probably in 1607 in Leiden, the Netherlands. Conflicting sources state that his family either had 7, 9 or 10 children.[citation needed] His family was quite well-to-do; his father was a miller, his mother was a baker's daughter. As a boy he attended Latin school and was enrolled at the University of Leiden, although according to a contemporary he had a greater inclination towards painting; he was soon apprenticed to a Leiden history painter, Jacob van Swanenburgh. After a brief but import!!ant apprenticeship with the famous painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden, which he shared with friend and colleague Jan Lievens. In 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students, among them Gerrit Dou.
In 1629 Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman and poet Constantijn Huygens, the father of Christiaan Huygens (a famous Dutch mathematician and physicist), who procured for Rembrandt import!!ant commissions from the court of the Hague. As a result of this connection, Prince Frederik Hendrik continued to purchase paintings from Rembrandt until 1646.
By 1631, Rembrandt had established such a good reputation that he received several assignments for portraits from Amsterdam. As a result, he moved to that city and into the house of an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburg. This move eventually led, in 1634, to the marriage of Rembrandt and Hendrick's cousin, Saskia van Uylenburg. This was likely both a marriage of love and a shrewd business choice. Saskia came from a good family (her father had been lawyer and burgemeester (mayor) of Leeuwarden). When Saskia, as the youngest daughter, became an orphan, she lived with an older sister in Het Bildt. They were married in the local church, without the presence of his relatives.
Rembrandt's house in Amsterdam, now the Rembrandt House MuseumIn 1639, Rembrandt and Saskia moved to a prominent house in the Jodenbreestraat in the Jewish quarter, which later became the Rembrandt House Museum. It was there that Rembrandt frequently sought his Jewish neighbours to model for his Old Testament scenes. Although they were by now affluent the couple suffered several personal setbacks; their son Rumbartus died two months after his birth in 1635, and their daughter Cornelia died at just 3 weeks of age in 1638. Only their third child, Titus, who was born in 1641, survived into adulthood. Saskia died in 1642 soon after Titus's birth, probably from tuberculosis. Rembrandt's drawings of her on her sick and death bed are among his most moving works.
During Saskia's illness, one Geertje Dircx was hired as Titus' caretaker and nurse, and possibly also became Rembrandt's lover. She would later charge Rembrandt with breach of promise. Rembrandt worked to have her committed to an asylum.
In the late 1640s Rembrandt began a relationship with the much younger Hendrickje Stoffels, who had initially been Rembrandt's maidservant. In 1654 they had a daughter, Cornelia, bringing Hendrickje an official reproach from the Reformed church for "living in sin." The two were considered legally wed under common law, but Rembrandt had not married Henrickje, so as not to lose access to a trust set up for Titus in his mother's will. Rembrandt was not summoned to appear for the Church council because he was not a member of the Reformed church. However, a number of the church Elders were among those to whom Rembrandt owed money, and sought to apply pressure indirectly. To her credit, Stoffels did not leave Rembrandt, and later helped save him and his art.
Rembrandt lived beyond his means, buying art (including bidding up his own work), prints (often used in his paintings), and rarities, which probably caused his bankruptcy in 1656. His insolvency led to an auction of most of his paintings and large collection of antiquities. He also had to sell his house, and his printing-press, and move to a more modest accommodation on the Rozengracht. Here, Hendrickje set up a corporation with Titus, employing Rembrandt and thereby sheltering him from creditors. In 1661 he was contracted to complete work for the newly built city hall, but only after the artist who had been previously commissioned died before completing his own work.
Rembrandt outlived both Hendrickje and Titus. Rembrandt died soon after his son, on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Westerkerk.
Periods, themes, and styles
The Abduction of Europa, 1632. Oil on panel. The work is considered to be "...a shining example of the 'golden age' of baroque painting."[3]It was during Rembrandt's Leiden period (1625-1631) that Lastman's influence was most prominent. Paintings were rather small, but rich in details (for example, in costumes and jewelry). Themes were mostly religious and allegorical. During his early years in Amsterdam (1632-1636), Rembrandt began to paint dramatic biblical and mythological scenes in high contrast and of large format. He also began accepting portrait commissions.
In the late 1630s, Rembrandt produced a few paintings and many etchings of landscapes. Often these landscapes highlighted natural drama, featuring uprooted trees and ominous skies. From 1640 his work became less exuberant and more sober in tone, reflecting personal tragedy. Biblical scenes were now derived more often from the New Testament than the Old Testament, as had been the case before. Paintings became smaller again. An exception is the huge The Night Watch, his largest work, as worldly and spirited as any previous painting. Landscapes were more often etched than painted. The dark forces of nature made way for quiet Dutch rural scenes.
In the 1650s, Rembrandt's style changed again. Paintings increased in size. Colours became richer, brush strokes more pronounced. With these changes, Rembrandt distanced himself from earlier work and current fashion, which increasingly inclined toward fine, detailed works. Over the years, biblical themes were still depicted often, but emphasis shifted from dramatic group scenes to intimate portrait-like figures. In his last years, Rembrandt painted his most deeply reflective self-portraits, and several moving images of both men and women--- in love, in life, and before God.
Museum collections
In the Netherlands, the most notable collection of Rembrandt's work is at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, including De Nachtwacht (The Night Watch) and De Joodse bruid (The Jewish Bride).
Many of his self-portraits are held in The Hague's Mauritshuis.
His home, preserved as the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, houses many examples of his etchings.
Prominent collections in other countries can be found in Berlin, Kassel, St. Petersburg, New York City, Washington, D.C., The Louvre and the National Gallery, London.
Selected works
Young Woman in Bed, 1647. Oil on canvas.
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632. Oil on canvas.An Artist in His Studio (1629) - The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
The Raising of Lazarus (1630) - Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
A Turk (1630-1635) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Portrait of Nicolaes Ruts (1631) - Frick Collection, New York
Philosopher in Meditation (1631) - Louvre, Paris, France
Jacob de Gheyn III (1632) - Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, England
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1631) - Mauritshuis, The Hague
Portrait of a Noble (Oriental) Man (1632) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Abduction of Europa (1632) - J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee (1633) - Formerly at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; stolen in 1990 and still at large
Artemisia (1634) - Oil on canvas, 142 x 152 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Belshazzar's Feast (1635) -National Gallery, London
Sacrifice of Isaac (1635) - State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
The Prodigal Son in the Tavern (c. 1635) - Oil on canvas, 161 x 131 cm
Gemldegalerie, Dresden
The Blinding of Samson (1636) -Stdel, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Dana? (1636) - State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Landscape with the Good Smaritan (1638) - Czartoryski Museum, Krakw
Portrait of Saskia with a Flower (1641) - Oil on wood, 98,5 x 82,5, Gem?ldegalerie, Dresden
The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq, better known as the Night Watch (1642) - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Christ Healing the Sick (c. 1643, also known as The Hundred Guilders Print) - Etching, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, , nicknamed for the huge sum (at that time) paid for it
Girl at a Window (1645) - (Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, England
An Old Lady with a Book (1647) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Beggars Receiving Alms at the Door of a House (1648) - National Gallery of Art, Netherlands
The Philosopher (1650) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The Mill (1645/48) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (1653) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Bathsheba at Her Bath (1654) - Louvre, Paris
Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife (1655) - National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
A Man In Armour (1655) - Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
A Woman Holding a Pink (1656) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph (1656) - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel, Galerie Alte Meister, GK 249
The Apostle Paul (1657) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Selfportrait (1658) - Frick Collection, New York
Philemon and Baucis (1658) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Christ and the Woman of Samaria: an Arched Print (1658) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1659)
Selfportrait (1659) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Selfportrait (1660) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves (1660) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan (1660) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Conspiracy of Julius Civilis (1661) - Nationalmuseum, Stockholm) (Julius Civilis led a Dutch revolt against the Romans) (most of the cut up painting is lost, only the central part still exists)
Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (Dutch De Staalmeesters, 1662) - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Portrait of a Man in a Tall Hat (1662) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
A Young Man Seated at a Table (1662-1663) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
A Young Man, perhaps the artist's son, Titus (1663) - (Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, England
The Three Crosses (1663) - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Lucretia (1664) - The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The Jewish Bride (1664) - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Lucretia (1666) - The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
Return of the Prodigal Son (1669) - State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Night Watch
Main article: Night Watch (painting)
The Night Watch or The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq, 1642. Oil on canvas; on display at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.Rembrandt painted The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq between 1640 and 1642. This picture was called the Patrouille de Nuit by the French and the Night Watch by Sir Joshua Reynolds because, upon its discovery, the picture was so dimmed and defaced by time that it was almost indistinguishable and it looked quite like a night scene. After it was cleaned, it was discovered to represent broad day ? a party of musketeers stepping from a gloomy courtyard into the blinding sunlight.
The piece was commissioned for the new hall of the Kloveniersdoelen, the musketeer branch of the civic militia. Rembrandt departed from convention, which ordered that such genre pieces should be stately and formal, rather a line-up than an action scene. Instead he showed the militia readying themselves to embark on a mission (what kind of mission, an ordinary patrol or some special event, is a matter of debate). Contrary to years of speculation, the work was hailed as a success from the beginning. Parts of the canvas were cut off to make the painting fit on the designated wall when it was moved to Amsterdam town hall in 1715. The painting now hangs in the largest hall of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it occupies the entire rear wall (as of February 2007, the museum remains closed for renovations, but the Rembrandts are being shown in a nearby adjacent part of the building).
Expert assessments
The Polish Rider - A Lisowczyk on horseback. The subject of much discussion. The person depicted was identified as Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, Marcjan Aleksander Ogi?ski (1632-1690)In 1968 the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) was started under the sponsorship of the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Scientific Research (NWO). Art historians teamed up with experts from other fields to reassess the authenticity of works attributed to Rembrandt, using all methods available, including state-of-the-art technical diagnostics, and to compile a complete critical catalog of his paintings. As a result of their findings, many paintings that were previously attributed to Rembrandt have been taken from the list. Many of those are now thought to be the work of his students.
One example of activity is The Polish Rider, in New York's Frick Collection. Its authenticity had been questioned years before by several scholars, led by Julius Held. Many, including Dr. Josua Bruyn of the Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, attributed the painting to one of Rembrandt's closest and most talented pupils, Willem Drost, about whom little is known. The Frick Museum itself never changed its own attribution, the label still reading "Rembrandt" and not "attributed to" or "school of". More recent opinion has shifted in favor of the Frick, with Simon Schama in his 1999 book 'Rembrandt's Eyes', and a Rembrandt Project scholar, Ernst van de Wetering (Melbourne Symposium, 1997) both arguing for attribution to the master. Many scholars feel that the execution is uneven, and favour different attributions for different parts of the work.
Another painting, Pilate Washing His Hands, is also of questionable attribution. Critical opinion of this picture have varied considerably since about 1905, when Wilhelm von Bode described it as "a somewhat abnormal work" by Rembrandt. However, most scholars since the 1940s have dated the painting to the 1660s and assigned it to an anonymous pupil. The composition is reminiscent of mature works by Rembrandt but the Rembrandtesque surface effects fail to convey anything like the master's command of illumination and modeling. The name of his only known pupil of the 1660s, Arent de Gelder, has been put forward speculatively.
The Hundred Guilder Print, c.1647-1649, etching.The attribution and re-attribution work is ongoing. In 2005 four oil paintings previously attributed to Rembrandt's students were reclassified as the work of Rembrandt himself: Study of an Old Man in Profile and Study of an Old Man with a Beard from a US private collection, Study of a Weeping Woman, owned by the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet, painted in 1640.
Rembrandt's own studio practice is a major factor in the difficulty of attribution, since, like many masters before him, he encouraged his students to copy his paintings, sometimes finishing or retouching them to be sold as originals, and sometimes selling them as authorized copies. Additionally, his style proved easy enough for his most talented students to emulate. Further complicating matters is the uneven quality of some of Rembrandt's own work, and his frequent stylistic evolutions and experiments. It is highly likely that there will never be universal agreement as to what does and what does not constitute a genuine Rembrandt.
Name and Signature
"Rembrandt" is a modification of the spelling of the artist's first name that he introduced in 1633. Roughly speaking, his earliest signatures (ca. 1625) consisted of an initial "R", or the monogram "RH" (for Rembrant Harmenszoon; i.e. "son of Harmen"), and starting in 1629, "RHL" (the "L" stood, presumably, for Leiden). In 1632, he used this monogram early in the year, then added his patronymic to it, "RHL-van Rijn", but replaced this form in that same year and began using his first name alone with its original spelling, "Rembrant". In 1633 he added a "d", and maintained this form consistently from then on, proving that this minor change had a meaning for him (whatever it might have been). This change is purely visual; it does not change the way his name is pronounced. Curiously enough, despite the large number of paintings and etchings signed with this modified first name, most of their documents that mentioned him during his lifetime retained the original "Rembrant" spelling. (Note: the rough chronology of signature forms above applies to the paintings, and to a lesser degree to the etchings; from 1632, presumably, there is only one etching signed "RHL-v. Rijn," the large-format "Raising of Lazarus," B 73).
Optical theory
In an article published on September 16, 2004 in The New England Journal of Medicine, Margaret S. Livingstone, professor of neurobiology of Harvard Medical School, suggests that Rembrandt, whose eyes failed to align correctly, suffered from stereo blindness. She made this conclusion after studying 36 of Rembrandt's self-portraits. Because he could not form a normal binocular vision, his brain automatically switched to one eye for many visual tasks. This disability could have helped him to flatten images he saw, and then put it onto the two-dimensional canvas. In Livingstone's words, this could have been a gift to a great painter like him, "Art teachers often instruct students to close one eye in order to flatten what they see. Therefore, stereo blindness might not be a handicap ? and might even be an asset ? for some artists." However, among Rembrandt's greatest talents was an ability to create the illusion of full volume, the perception of which requires healthy stereoptic vision.
Works
Rembrandt - Hendrickje at an Open Door
Rembrandt - Self Portrait
The Philosopher in Meditation
Rembrandt - The Syndecs of the Clothmakers' Guild
Rembrandt baadster
Rembrandt en Saskia in De Verloren Zoon 1635
Rembrandt, Portret van Haesje v.Cleyburg 1634
Rembrandt Abraham en Isaac, 1634
Rembrandt Afneming van het kruis. 1634
Rembrandt Artemis, 1634
Rembrandt Artiest in zijn studio, 1629
Rembrandt Bathsheba in het bad, 1654
Rembrandt Buste van oude man met bontmuts. 1630
Rembrandt Christus aan het volk getoond
Rembrandt De aartsengel verlaat Tobias en zijn gezin. 1637
Rembrandt, The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen. 1638
scrap from wikipedia