beside the easel

Norwegian Highlands in Sunrise, 185 Hans Fredrik Gude was born on March 13, 1825 in Oslo (formerly Christiania), Norway. A Romanticist from the Düsseldorf school of painting , a German Romanticist school in the mid-1800's that produced an impressive array of artists painting in a very detailed yet powerfully emotional way. The landscape as an artistic genre, although very common today, was often regarded as a lower genre and something not as "serious" as the more religious, historical or portrait genres that dominated the art world for centuries. German Romanticism changed that in a relatively short period of time and attracted artists from all over the world to study at the prestigious Düsseldorf Academy . Gude's career established him as an icon of Norwegian artists and became a master of the seascape and a distinguished art professor in his later years. He often collaborated with artist Adolph Tidemand, a highly skilled portrait and figure painter on ...

The Three Droves, 1656 Born October 1, 1620 in Haarlem, Netherlands, Nicolaes Berchem was a Dutch landscape painter. Berchem is known for his strong use of light, lush verdant landscapes and elegant figures yet sadly, is not given due attention for his incredible gifts. Berchem was an incredibly prolific painter and also produced many etchings and drawings during his lifetime in Haarlem and Amsterdam. Although not exactly a household name, Berchem was highly esteemed in his day. He taught some of the leading Dutch artists of the Golden Age, including Karel Dujardin , Pieter de Hooch , Jan van Huchtenburg, and Jacob Ochtervelt among others. In The Three Droves above, Berchem's stunning light bathes this scene in romantic warmth. Judging by the greenish-yellow tone in the sky we see that Berchem glazed it in warm yellows, and the way that tree off to the right is silhouetted against that orange glow is breathtaking. He uses the warm tones as a motif throughout the painting, ...

Rear view of the Houses at Schloßfreiheit, 1855 Eduard Gaertner was a German architectural painter born on June 2, 1801 in Berlin. Known for his stunning attention to detail and his natural use of light, Gaertner was a Romantic who captured the everyday life of Germany with a fondness for the world he lived in. By this time it seems the era of the veduta had waned since Canaletto, yet Gaertner's views are more personal and real. He lived during the early years of photography and this had a marked effect later in his career. Looking at his beautiful scenes, we can sense a yearning for experiencing the moment and not just capturing it, as a camera can. The love of nature and architecture together summarize the sharp eye of Gaertner and in these examples we'll explore why. In Rear view of the Houses at Schloßfreiheit above, Gaertner uses perspective in a Classic veduta style with prominent architecture, but it is the way that late afternoon sun bathes the buildings while l...

Viejo desnudo al sol, 1863 Born on June 11, 1838 in Reus, Spain, Marià Fortuny ( Mariano José María* Bernardo Fortuny y Marsal ) was a Romantic Catalan Spanish painter. He was known for his loose, distinctive brushwork, strong colors and a rich breadth of subject matter such as Academic drawings, military, portraiture and Orientalism. At a time when many painters of his era were taking more lucrative portraiture commissions while balancing their own individual styles, Fortuny's Romantic independence gave him a fresh eye, no matter where he pointed his brush. And while France was in the beginnings of breaking from the Salon and rising toward Impressionism, Fortuny seems to have absorbed outside influences from Paris and Rome into his own uniquely Spanish style. Sadly, his characteristic genius—like some notably great artists before him—was cut short and Fortuny passed away at the very young age of 36. One can only wonder what direction he would have taken had he lived ...

Raft of the Medusa, 1819 Continuing our theme of French artists, Jean Louis Théodore Géricault was born on September 26, 1791 in Rouen, Northern France. Géricault was a pioneer in Romanticism, a newer, more vigorous and less polished realism than the prevailing NeoClassicism of the day. Expressiveness, independent thought and thicker brushstrokes helped pave the way for a movement that would change history and lead the way to modernism. His oeuvre would cover a range of material from military to horses, even so far as doing studies of mental patients at a hospital. Many of the studies from that experience lead to quite macabre subjects, painting skulls, severed limbs and body parts, yet Géricault's portraits are what separate him from his contemporaries. Géricault would only live to the age of 32. In Raft of the Medusa above, Géricault's first major work and his most famous, depicts a true story of a highly publicized shipwreck near the coast of West Africa where the Médu...