SECTION 1: Key Information by Painter J-L

Pittura

Painters have been listed alphabetically ignoring all prefix except Le, La, El & Van, eg Van Gogh is listed as such.   Last names -or town names before surnames existed- take precedence over preceding  names, except where this would be positively misleading, eg Rembrandt & not Van Rijn.   Well-known nicknames  take precedence over real names, eg Volterra rather than Riciarelli.

 

CONTENTS: SURNAMES  BEGINNING WITH LETTERS:

J K L

J

–JACKSON, Gilbert, recorded 1622-40, GB; 

Influences: Cornelius Johnson L&L
Career: He was based in London but probably travelled to the provinces to find work Waterhouse1953 p64.   He painted a group of Oxford portraits W&M p79
Oeuvre: Portraits L&L
Characteristics: He liked dresses of strong grass green, often with garish vermillion bows L&L.   His Oxford portraits (Brasenose, Oriel) are frontal, dry, one dimensional but not his best work W&M p79
Verdict: He was much inferior to Johnson Waterhouse1953 p64.   He was in the native painting tradition which featured a fresh & frank attempt at the portrayal of character but with a restricted technique, mediocre composition, & a non-illustrious clientele W&M pp 78, 81

Jacobello da Messina.   See da Messina

Jacobello del Fiore.   See del Fiore

Jacopo da Empoli.  See da Empoli

..JACQUE, Charles, 1813-94, France:

Background: He was born in Paris Norman1977
Career: He exhibited at the Salon between 1845 & 1870 Norman1977
Oeuvre: Animal paintings, especially flocks of sheep & farmyard scenes Norman1977
Grouping: Barbizon Norman1977
Friend: Millet who was close Norman1977

Jacquermart de Hesdin.   See de Hesdin

..JAGGER, David, 1891-1958, England:

Background: Born Kilnhurst, near Sheffield.   His father was a colliery manager & amateur artist & his brother & sister became artists E&L p96
Training: Sheffield School of Art E&L p96
Career: In 1914 he moved to London & was excused military service on health grounds but was a strong pacifist.   He showed frequently at the RA from 1917 to 1958.   During the 1920s & 30s his portraits were in huge demand & his sitters included many of the great & famous E&L p96
Speciality: Portraiture E&L p96
Characteristics: His manner was similar to that of Orpen & William Nicholson.   Jagger’s work has a painterly quality with visible brushstrokes  E&L pp 12, 9

–JAMESONE, George, c1590-44, Scotland:

Background: He was born & active in Aberdeen, the son of a successful & wealthy mason who had advantageous social & political connections with the nobility Grove16 p897
Training: Apprenticed to the painter John Anderson, 1612-c17 Grove16 p897
Career: He was responsible for the decoration of Edinburgh for the coronation of Charles I in 1633 for which he produced brightly coloured portraits of the king’s ancestors.   He opened a second studio in Edinburgh, & Sir Colin Campbell, 8^th Laird of Gloeorchy, became an important patron.  He was identified as an anti-covenanter & was imprisoned in Edinburgh’s Tolbooth, 1640 Grove16 pp 897-8, Macmillan1990 pp 62-3.
Oeuvre: It mostly consists of bust & half-length & portraits of distinguished sitters some of which have innovative features & backgrounds & as in Anne Erskine Countess of Rothes & her Two Daughters, 1626; Sir Archibold Acheson, 1631; Genealogy of the House Gloeorchy, 1635; & Self-Portrait, 1637-40 (all at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh) Macmillan1990 pp 63-6, Grove16 p897
Characteristics/Phases: His work, which is similar to that of Cornelius Johnson, is without any element of Baroque drama.  Most works are reticent, sensitive & marked by pensive delicacy as in Mary Erskine Countess of Marischal, 1626 (Scottish National Portrait Gallery).   Nevertheless in his far more ambitious full length work featuring Anne Erskine the clothing is marvellously rich & elaborate with her height exaggerated to give her courtly elegance.  His last portraits are markedly inferior Grove16 pp 897-8,  Macmillan1990 pp 62-4, Grove16 p898
Pupil: Michael Wright for five years from 1636 L&L, Grove16 p897
Status/Innovation: He was by 1633 the leading painter in Scotland & was the first recognisably modern Scottish artist Macmillan1990 pp 9, 50

..JANMOT, Anne (Jean), 1814-92, France:

Background: He was born in Lyons Norman1977
Training: Bonefond in Lyons, & Ingres & Flandrin in Paris Norman1977
Influences: The 14^th & 16^th century Italian masters Norman1977
Career: He travelled widely & decorated many churches Norman1977
Characteristics: His work features poetic depth & enigmatic expression.   It has been described as a marriage between Ingres & the visionary Norman1977
Grouping; The Lyons school Norman1977

-Hieronymous JANSSEN/JANSSENS (The Dancer) 1642-93, Belgium=Antwerp:

Background: He was born in Antwerp Grove17 p7
Training: Christoffel van der Laemen Grove17 p7
Career: By 1643-4 he was a master Grove17 p7
Speciality: Like van der Laemen he specialised in dance scenes, set in a palace or on a terrace outside.   The figures are flamboyantly & elegantly posed so as to reflect the increasingly aristocratic lifestyles of the rich burghers who bought such pictures Grove17 p7, Vlieghe p154
Characteristics: His work features architecture including both existing & imaginary buildings, & he played  with columns, windows & other elements, creating monumental structures.   The dramatic & theatrical effect is intensified by chiaroscuro, but his structures are sometimes clumsy & unconvincing Grove17 p7.
Verdict: He was a minor genre painter & follower of Frans II Francken L&L

-Abraham JANSSEN, 1573/4-1632, Belgium=Antwerp:

Background: When his father died his mother re-married a fairly well-off schoolmaster with artistic & intellectual interests Grove17 p3
Training: Jan Snellinck, a follower of Marten de Vos, from 1584-5 Vlieghe p20
Influences: Spranger, de Vos, Titian, Michelangelo, Raphael, antique sculpture, & then later by Caravaggism L&L, Vlieghe pp 20, 39-40

Career: He worked in Rome from about 1597 to 1601 & after his return became a member of the Guild of St Luke  Vlieghe p20
Oeuvre: Historical, religious & mythological subjects often on a large scale Grove17 p3
Phases/Characteristics: His early work was Mannerist, then he painted in a powerful, monumental, classicizing style with a limited number of life-size figures expressed pathos, & finally he responded to Rubens by loosening his brushwork & structure L&L, Vlieghe pp 20, 40

Patrons/Clientele: His wife’s family were very active in the art trade & his secular works were produced for the bourgeoisie & the open market Vlieghe pp 20, 42
First known 17^th century Flemish painting of a classical subject which is strongly emotional, erotic & monumental Vlieghe p21.
Status: He was a leading artist in Antwerp before Rubens L&L
Grouping: Even his later work does not have the dynamic flamboyance of the High Baroque Vlieghe p42

..JANSSON, Karl, 1840-74, Finland:

Background: He was born at Finstrom in the Aland Islands into a poor peasant family Grove17 p9
Training: The School of Drawing at Turku, 1860-2; at the Konstakademi in Stockholm, 1862-7; & in Dusseldorf, 1868-70, under Benjamin Vautier & Ludwig Knaus Grove17 p9
Career: He withstood pressure to become a patriotic history painter & after his return from Dusseldorf he enjoyed the largesse of the provincial governor with whom he resided.   He died of  tuberculosis Ateneum p59, Kent p88, Grove17 p9

Oeuvre: Genre paintings Ateneum p59
Characteristics: [His few paintings were remarkably varied.]   They included a colourful portrait of a cheerful old woman, a sombre painting of an absorbing card game, & a painting which displays a sensitive use of colour & a contra jour light effect Ateneum pp 58, 60-1, Grove17 p9.
Innovation: The portrayal of Finnish working life Grove17 p9
Grouping: Genre painting of the Dusseldorf School of which he was the greatest exponent Kent p88

 Jardin.   See Dujardin

..JARNEFELT, Eero, 1863-1937, Finland; Rural Naturalism Movement

Background: He was from the port city Viipuri on the edge of Karelia Kent p144
Training: At the Art Society’s drawing school & during 1883-6 in St Petersburg where he was taught by his uncle & at the St Petersburg Academy.   Then at the Academie Julian Kent p144, Ateneum p91
Influences: The Barbizon painters & Bastien-Lepage Kent p224
Career: During 1886-91 he was in Paris Kent p144
Oeuvre: Landscapes & portraits Kent p224
Speciality: Paintings of autumnal nature & cloudy days Ateneum p91
Characteristics: Works that create mood & atmosphere through the use of light & nature Kent p224
Beliefs: Genuine representation requires personal understanding & experience; “in nature & reality is the fountain-head of painting, in sensitivity of expression its lifeblood” Ateneum p91
Verdict: He was one of the finest portraitists in Finnish art Ateneum p91
Grouping: Realism Ateneum p91

Jaspers.   See Gaspars

-JAWLENSKY/YAVLENSKY,  Alexi von, 1864-1941,  Germany (Russia):  Tzarist Impressionism and Social Realism Movement

Jean de Paris.  See Perreal

..JEANRON, Philippe-Auguste, 1809-77, France; Victorian Modern Life Movement

Background: Born Boulogne-sur-Mer Grove17 p464
Career: He began by working in the ironworks of Haute-Vienne but returned to Paris in 1828 & exhibited regularly in the Salon from 1831 to 1848.   He moved in the circle of the leading Republicans, Cavaignac & Ledru-Rollin, was involved in the 1830 Revolution through the Societe Libre de Peinture et de Sculpture, & wrote articles saying that the academic tradition should be replaced by realism in the service of the people.   After the 1848 Revolution he became head of the national museums where his achievements were impressive.   However, after the abortive left-wing insurrection of June 1849, he was demoted to director of the Mussee des Beaux-Arts, Marseille Grove17 p464
Oeuvre/Phases: During the 1830s he was a leading Realist painter & depicted scenes from the daily life of working people.   From the 1850s he increasingly painted landscapes of the Boulogne area Grove17 p464

..JEAURAT, Etienne, 1699-1789, France:

Background: Born Paris Grove17 p465.   Around 1743, when Hogarth visited Paris, there was a growing clamour for social reform & an increasing concern over the degradation of the urban population Wakefield p132
Training: He was Nicolas Vleughel’s favourite pupil Grove17 p465
Influences: This was not Italian but obviously included Hogarth Grove17 p465
Career: He accompanied Vleughels when he was appointed director of the Academie Francaise in Rome, 1824.   Jeaurat became a member of the Academy Royale in 1833, becoming a professor in 1843 & rector in 1765 Grove17 p465
Oeuvre/Characteristics: Besides a decreasing number of rather dry & conservative history paintings, he produced from the late 1740s domestic interiors & scenes of Parisian street life, of a type rarely attempted.   They are not overtly moralizing & included a police raid, charlatans, stall-holders & actors.   They are not overtly moralizing & portray in a starkly realistic style the seamier side of Parisian life Grove17 p465, Wakefield p132.
Circle: He belonged to a group of satirical writers & actors: Piron, Colle, Vade, the Comte de Caylus, etc.   They belonged to the Societe du Bout de Banc, presided over by the actress Mlle Quinaut Wakefield p132, Gove17 p466
Legacy: His work is the most valuable pictorial record of urban life in mid 18^th century France.   He set an example that was followed by Demachy, Debucourt & later Boilly Wakefield p132

-JENKINS, Paul, 1923-, USA:

Background: He was born in Kansas City OxDicMod
Influences: Morris Lewis & Helen Frankenthaler L&L
Career: He settled in Paris in 1953 & then worked there & in New York   OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings, sculpture & theatre designs OxDicMod
Characteristics/technique: Abstract works built up from of veils & rills of prismatic paint poured on to the canvas OxDicMod
Aim: to confront us with visual splendour L&L

Jenneret.   See Le Corbusier

..JENNY, Niel, 1945-, USA:

Background: Born Tarrington, Connecticut OxDicMod
Training: He was self-taught Wikip
Influences: A reaction against minimalism & photo-realism Wikip
Oeuvre: Paintings OxDicMod
Characteristics: From the late 1960s he produced broadly executed figurative paintings with a monochrome background & within a black frame.   Sometime they relate to American rural life.   He depicted objects that have a cause and effect relationship with a deadpan humour OxDicMod, Wikip
Grouping: Bad Painting Wikip

-Alfred JENSEN, 1903-81, USA (Guatemala City):

Background: He was born in Guatemala City.  His father was s Danish entrepreneur & his mother a German-Polish governess Wikip
Training: Hans Hoffman in Munich, 1926, & then around 1929 Othon Friesz & Charles Dufresne at the Academie Scandinave in Paris Wikip
Influences: Masson & Herbin, & later Goethe’s colour theory, Mayan & Chinese calendrical systems, etc, etc L&L, Wikip
Career: From 1910 to 1917 he lived in Denmark.   He then worked as a cabin boy, cowboy, chicken farmer, & lumber salesman in Guatemala & San Diego.   He moved to America in 1934 & in 1951 settled in New York  Wikip, L&L
Phases: In 1951 he began painting in an Abstract Expressionist style & in 1960 adopted his diagrammatic style Wikip
Characteristics: His mature work features grids of brightly coloured triangles, squares & circles in thick impasto.   They are hypnotically repetitive patterns of private symbols that have the mesmerizing optical effect of Islamic decoration Wikip, Rose p231
Patron: Saidie May, wealthy art collector & fellow student in Munich Wikip
Circle: Rothko, Sam Francis, Jean Dubuffet & Allen Kaprow Wikip

..Christian JENSEN, 1792-1870, Denmark:

Training: At the Copenhagen Academy under Lorentzen, 1810-6, & at the Dresden Academy Norman 1987 p92, NG1984 p121
Oeuvre: Portraits NG1984 p121.
Career: He was in Rome from around 1819 to 1821.   After his return he soon became popular & around 1827 was the busiest portraitist in Denmark.   However, his finances became strained, his work less consistent, & he began to lose ground.  To supplement his income he copied older paintings.   After 1837 he regularly travelled abroad mainly to England & Russia in search of commissions.  Around 1847 he almost gave up painting.   He then worked as a museum conservator NG1984 p121.
Characteristics: His brushwork was free & unlike the painters of the Eckersberg school he showed no special feeling for the rendering of light NG1984 p121.
Reception: He never won the reputation he deserved Norman1987 p92
Influenced: Kobe NG1984 p121

-JERVAS/JARVIS, Charles, c1675-1739, England (Ireland); Baroque:

Background: Born Dublin & his mother belonged to the Irish landed elite Grove17 p507, Wikip
Training: Under Kneller whose assistant he became Grove17 p507
Career: He made copies of the Raphael cartoons at Hampton Court which he sold Dr George Clark of All Souls who financed his trip to Rome via Paris, 1699- 1709; then settled in London; gained instant success as a fashionable portrait painter; & in 1723 became Principal Portrait Painter to George I, a position was continued under George II; married money; & made several trips to Ireland Waterhouse1953p149, Grove 17 pp 507-08, Hayes1991 p25
Oeuvre: Portraits & at least one notable animal painting webimages
Characteristics: His portraits are mostly half-length but a goodly number are standing full length, many of his works are enhanced  by lively postures & gestures such as a hand to the head.   Some have notable landscape backgrounds as in Lady Wortley Montagu, c1719 (NG, Ireland, Dublin).   He made good use of colour which was generally of a rich nature at their best his silks, satins are soft & flowing, which was rare at that time Webimages, Waterhouse1953 p150
Circle: The fashionable literary milieu which included Addison, Swift & especially Pope.   He taught the latter painting & they co-edited an art treatise Solkin2015 p72
Repute/Verdict: George Virtue said his portraits had no blood in them & he has continued to be castigated.  He has been criticised as a dull painter, unable to draw, with look-alike women & a limited repertory of poses Waterhouse1953 p150, Grove17 p507, OxDicArt, Burke p105. [A more just & less repetitious verdict is that he helped usher in the Golden Age of British Painting]

..JETTEL, Eugen, 1845-1901, Austria:

Training: At the Vienna Academy under Zimmerman from 1860 Norman1977
Career: During 1873-75 he was based in Paris but in 1895 he settled in Vienna Norman1977
Oeuvre: Landscapes of the broad, flat lands of northern France & Belgium Norman1977
Characteristics: An intimate & slightly dreamy mood, with a fine colour sense Norman1977
Influence: He was an important link between the Barbizon school & visiting German etc artists Norman1977

-JOEST OF KALKAR/HAARLEM, Jan, c1457-1519, Netherlands (Germany):

Influences: Albert Outwater & Gerard David L&L
Career: In 1509 he settled in Haarlem L&L
Oeuvre: Portraits & altarpieces L&L
Characteristics: An expressive mix of Late Gothic agitation & Italianate Renaissance clarity L&L
Pupil: Possibly Bartel Bruyn who was a relative L&L

-JONGKIND, Johan, 1819-91, Netherlands:

*Augustus JOHN, 1878-1961, Gwen’s brother, Wales/England:

Background: He was born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire.   His father was a solicitor L&L, OxDicMod.
Training: 1894-8 at the Slade where he was the most brilliant student of his day OxDicArt; Harrison p22
Influences: Not by Cezanne Harrison p23.
Career: In his early days he appeared timid & unremarkable but. after damaging his head while diving in 1897, he & his art changed dramatically OxDicMod.   He taught at Liverpool University, 1900-02, & ran Chelsea Art School with his friend Orpen, 1903-7 OxDicMod.   In 1903 he joined NEAC & in 1904 had his first highly successful exhibition OxDicArt, Harrison p23.   He was a founder member of the Camden Town Group,1911 Harrison p36.   During 1911-4 he led a nomadic & Bohemian life.   His work was shown prominently at the Armory Show in 1913.   He was a Canadian War artist but only produced studies of individual soldiers, not the monumental paintings requested.   In 1928 he became an RA OxDicArt, L&L.
Personal: In 1901 he married Ida Nettleship, a fellow Slade student, but even before her death in 1907 had fathered a child by ‘Dorelia’ McNeill OxDicMod.
Oeuvre/Phases:  Portraits of the rich and famous including many literary figures, women & children, gypsies,  OxDicArt, L&L   From  1910-11 to 1914 he painted small idyllic landscapes, romanticised the gypsies of north Wales, & produced ambitious semi-Symbolist figure compositions with stylized forms OxDicMod, Harrison p23.
Verdict: He squandered much of his considerable talent.   His portraits glamorised the wealthy & his genre sentimentalised the poor Harrison p40.
Friends: Innes & Lees with whom he sometimes painted OxDicMod
Firsts: He set a new code for artistic behaviour Spalding1986 p22
Grouping: In 1914 John was seen as a Symbolist influenced by Puvis de Chevannes along with Orpen, William Rothenstein, William Strang & Stanley Spencer UFJ p47.
Repute: As late as 1937 he was described as undoubtedly a great artist & the leader during the first quarter of the century of all that was rebellious, independent & vital in British art Harrison p22.   By the mid-1950s his work was being called into question L&L.

*Gwen JOHN, 1876-1939, Augustus’ sister, Wales/France:

Background: She was born at Haverford West, Wales L&J p9
Training: At the Slade under Fred Brown & Steer, 1895-8, & then lessons in Paris from Whistler from whom she derived her initial delicate greyish tonality L&J p9, OxDicMod
Influences: McEvoy L&J p9

Career: In 1899 she returned to London but in 1904 settled permanently in France.  She lived in Paris with Dorelia, who became Augustus’ mistress, &   earned her living by modelling for Rodin etc.   Although she was somewhat puritanical, he became her lover in a relationship to which she was totally & violently committed.   He encouraged her to eat well & take exercise but from early on she engaged on self-neglect.   From 1911 she lived at Meudon on the Parisian outskirts, from 1915 to 1921 visited Pleneuf, near St Malo, every summer.   In 1913 her Girl Reading at the Window was exhibited at Armory Show & in 1926 she had her only solo exhibition at the New Chenil Galleries L&J pp 9, 16.  She wrote that her solitude “sometimes seems a sort of obstinacy”, & in 1927 “I  will not be troubled by people”.   After 1926 she painted little & apparently concentrated on tiny sketches often of postage stamp size.   Towards the end she ceased to paint, seldom went anywhere, & allowed herself to die L&J pp 9,16, OxDicMod, Holroyd1 pp 59-60  & 2 p171, Grove17 p608, OxDicMod

Religion, etc: In 1912 she began Roman Catholic instruction & was received into the Church in 1913.   “My religion & my art, these are my life”.   She had no political interests L&J pp 12, 36, OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Portraits, a few interiors & flower studies, watercolours & drawings.  L&L
Feature: [She painted what must be one of the least sexy nudes of a young woman ever painted]  L&J p54

Characteristics/Phases: Initially her painting was of a NEAC type & were the result of prolonged observation & control of tone.   This period ended in 1903 when she went on a walking expedition with Dorelia & whom she painted in warm colours & as not lacking animation   Her portraits are three-quarter length of young girls & women seated in bare interiors    They appear to be painted with total honesty but seem unknowable.  Around 1915, when she began painting more pictures for John Quinn, & there was a major change in her technique.   Her paintings now feature touches of chalky warmly coloured,  opaque paint with no drawn lines in which details of dress & background are obscure.   This was [questionably] her best period & it lasted to around 1925 L&J p10, 17-20, 22-9, 46-7, 56-57.

Patrons: In 1910 Augustus put her in touch with John Quinn who bought a picture & from 1912 paid her a regular annual allowance in return for paintings L&J p12
Friends: Rainer Maria Rilke L&J p12

Repute: She was little known when she died but since the 1960s has been the subject of numerous books & exhibitions OxDicMod

*JOHNS, Jasper, 1930-, USA:

– Cornelius/Cornelis JOHNSON/JONSON/VAN CEULEN, 1593-c1662:

Background: His father & mother fled to Antwerp during the religious persecution; brought up within a group of French & Flemish religious exile families (Olivers, Gheeraerts, Colts & De Critzes) centred on Austin Friars Dutch Reformed church W&M p64

Training: Netherlands? L&L

Influences: Mytens, Van Dyke L&L

Career: He mainly lived in London where he had an extensive practice OxDic Art; works date from 1619 L&L sometime in 1630s lived at Bridge, Kent, probably staying with Dutch merchant (Sir Arnold Braems) painting local families (Campions/Oxendens/Peytons/Masters/ Hammonds/Dormers) W&M p66; 1643 fled to Netherlands; death Utrecht L&L

Phases: Meticulous/enamelled/rather wooden early portraits W&M p65, L&L; becomes freer/more sensitive with delicate colour sense W&M p66; from c1640 Van Dyke influence with increased elegance in smaller portraits & more liquid technique, large pictures strongly influenced; Dutch pictures in lighter/finer manner W&M pp 66-7

Characteristics: Middle period works mainly half-length portraits to waist with without hands against plain backgrounds; sober costume without draperies PiperD p90; in fictive stone oval surround; shy/retiring charm L&L; sensitive characterisation OxDicArt; sitters appear reserved sitting a little behind picture plane, yet at ease & unself-conscious PiperD p90

 Innovations: Records a new level of life PiperD p90

Patronage: Worked for court, though only exceptionally do sitters appear as courtiers, but clientele far wider extending to squirachy PiperD p90; popular with England travellers in Low Countries or exiled Royalists W&M p67

Verdict: at best when working on small scale OxDicArt; not great PiperD p89

..Eastman JOHNSON, 1824-1906, USA:

Background: Born in Lovell, Maine Norman1977
Training: Self-taught at first, then studied with Couture in Paris Norman1977
Influences: Influenced by the Düsseldorf school, Rembrandt and the Dutch 17^th century school.  Johnson shared a studio with Leutze in Düsseldorf Norman1977
Career: He began as a portraitist in crayon.   After Düsseldorf, Johnson was offered the post of court painter in The Hague Norman1977
Oeuvre: A genre painter and portraitist Norman1977
Characteristics: Developed a technically distinguished style of narrative painting drawn from American life.   His work tends to sentimentalize Norman1977

 ..William H. JOHNSON, 1901-70, USA:

Training: During the 1920s he studied for three years in France Barter p73
Influences: African sculptures Barter p75
Career: He returned to America in 1929 & began exhibiting with the Harmon Foundation.   In 1930 he married the Danish artist Holcha Krake & they lived in Denmark & Norway until 1938 when they settled in downtown New York.   Johnson joined the WPA Federal art Project & began teaching at the Harlem Community Art Centre Barter pp 73, 75
Characteristics: He developed a boldly coloured & highly patterned style depicting the daily lives of blacks in Harlem.   These are thickly painted with heavy black outlining Barter pp 73, 75

*Allen JONES, 1937-, England:

*David JONES, 1895-1974, England:

..Joe JONES, 1909-63, USA:

Background: Saint-Louis from the working-class Barter p116
Training: He was self-taught Barter p116
Influences: Precisionism Barter p149
Career: Initially he was an apprentice with his house painter father but soon began to produce paintings which he exhibited with the St Louis Art Guild.  During the 1930s he received federal art project support Barter pp 93, 147
Oeuvre ‘Characteristics:  Paintings of depressed areas, & manual industrial & farming workers, sometimes with those in charge present, & often under overcast skies Webimages
Friends: Jack Conroy, whose best-known novel was The Disinherited, 1933 Barter p48
Politics: He was a Communist Barter p116

 -Thomas JONES, 1742-1803, Wales:

Background: He was born at Pencerrig, Powys, the son of a landowner Grove17 p640
Training: William Shipley’s Art School in the Strand,  1761;St Martin’s Lane Academy; & Richard Wilson, 1763-5.  A fellow student was William Hodges Wilson taught him to make direct oil sketches of landscape Grove17 p640, DIA p128.
Career: Between 1765 & 1780 he exhibited at the Society of Arts & was much engaged in its affairs.  During 1776-83 he was in Italy, mainly in Rome & Naples.   He then settled in London & exhibited at the RA.  However he effectively gave up professional painting & lived off rents.   In 1789 he inherited the family home at Pencerig & retired there & painted less Grove17 pp640.
Technique: By the early 1770s he was using oil on paper for his landscape studies Grove17 p640 –1.
Oeuvre: Plein air sketches, history paintings, country house portraits & townscapes Grove17 p641.
Phases: After Italy he painted Wilson-like pictures based on his Italian sketchbooks, but with a much more precise touch & less fine treatment of light DIA p128.
Innovations: He may be seen as the imitator of a tradition of early French landscape painting in Italy which climaxed in Corot’s views of Rome, especially because of Jones’ contact with Valenciennes DIA pp11-12, 129
Friends: John Hamilton Mortimer, Joseph Farrington & Richard Paton, & Francis Wheatley DIA p128.
Gossip: He co-habited with his housekeeper but married her after the birth of a daughter Grove17 p641
Repute: He came to the attention of art historians in 1954 DIA p128

Joos van Clev&Cleef.  See van Cleve

**JORDAENS, Jacob, 1593-1678, Belgium: Baroque

Training : van Noort L&L
Influences: Rubens, Van Dyke, Caravaggio L&L
Career: 1615 master Antwerp painters’ guild, 1621-2 Dean; from c1620 many works completed with pupils’ help; from 1635 called to work from Rubens’ sketches & after death to complete his decorations for Queen’s House, Greenwich, etc; c1655 became Calvinist  but continued to accept RC church commissions  L&L
Oeuvre: prolific including religious & portraits OxDicArt
Speciality: Satyr & Peasant (from Aesop); The King Drinks (12^th Night feast) OxDicArt
Phases: from 1620-35 greater Realism, tendency to crowd pictures, preference for burlesque even in lofty themes; later pictures restrained Classical/cooler colours  L&L
Characteristics: thick impasto, strong chiaroscuro, colour often rather lurid, large works, courser types than Rubens,  especially hearty rollicking peasants OxDicArt
Status: leading Antwerp painter after Rubens death L&L
Grouping: Baroque Murrays1959

 -JORN/JORGENSEN, Asger, 1914-73, Denmark:

Background: Born in Verjum, Jutland OxDicMod
Training:  He was Leger’s Academy for nearly a year & worked for Le Corbusier on a mural OxDicMod
Career: Initially he trained as a teacher.   During the occupation he printed a banned periodical.   After his return to Paris he was a founder member of Cobra in 1948 OxDicMod.   Here he was a leading member of the Expressionist semi-abstract tendency seen as part of Art Informal L&L.   In 1951 he was ill with tuberculosis .   After recovering he travelled widely but mainly lived in Paris & northern Italy.   In 1957-61 he participated in Situationist International.   He wrote several books on art, those after 1962 being published by his Scandinavian Institute for Comparative Vandalism.   In his last years he concentrated on sculpture OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings, sculpture & design OxDicMod
Speciality: He modified old paintings from junk shops.   Here demonic creatures stalk in placid landscapes OxDicMod
Characteristics: His brushwork was usually violent OxDicMod.   The paintings are sometimes abstract but typically peopled with mythical creatures that are precariously balanced between monstrous & black humour L&L
Beliefs: Underlying his writings was an attempt to reconcile his Communism with a belief in a creative elite OxDicMod

-JOSEPHSON, Ernst, 1851-1906, Sweden: Rural Naturalism Movement

Background: Born Stockholm into a Jewish cultural family Kent p122, Norman1977

Training: At the Stockholm Academy, 1867-76, & briefly with Gerome in Paris, 1874 Norman1977

Influences: The17^th century Venetians, Rembrandt the Impressionists Norman1977, Grove17 p662

Career: He contracted syphilis as a young man.   During 1877-82 he visited Holland, Italy & Spain.   From 1882 to 88 he was in Paris & led a group of anti-academic Swedish artists.  Having participated in a demonstration against the conservative Academy in 1871, he led a demand in 1885 that the Academy be thoroughly reformed with greater diversity in courses, the right to choose instructors, & the abolition of medals.   In 1886 a rival Artists’ Association/Konstnarsforbundet was founded.  He attended spiritualist seances & from 1888 suffered from a form of schizophrenia though he recovered sufficiently to continue working, & returned to Sweden Grove17 p662, Kent p122, Norman1977

Oeuvre: Portraits, genre, landscapes & mythological works Norman1977

Phases: Initially he was a conventional northern Realist, but during the 1880s  the principal subject was the mythical water sprite as in Water Sprite, 1882 (Kunstmuseum, Goteborg).  According to myth the Sprite tempts people into the water where they drown & here he or she is responding to music in the moonlight.  After his breakdown his paintings became more graphic in technique & their treatment of religious themes utterly personal & bizarre Norman1977, Grove17 p602, Nationalmuseum website

Characteristics: His post-realist pictures are distinguished for their intensity & vitality as in Gaslisa/Lise the Gooseherd, 1888-90 (Private) [but Wikimedia Commons] OxDicMod

Legacy: Though little known in his lifetime his later works influenced the Swedish Expressionists OxDicArt

Repute: He is not itemised in the Oxford Companion

Collections: Konstmuseum Goteborg & Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

-JOUVENET, Jean, 1644-1717, maternal uncle of Restout the Younger, France: Rococo

Background: He was born at Rouen into an artist family Allen p198,  OxDicArt
Training: He joined Le Brun’s studio Blunt1954 p273.
Influences: Raphael in his later work Blunt1954 p274
Career: In 1661 he went to Paris OxDicArt.   During 1697-1706 he painted four massive & impressive paintings for the Priory of S. Martin-des-Champs, Paris, though now elsewhere Allen p198
Phases: His early decorations in the Salon de Mars at Versailles are pure Le Brun.   However, his later St Bruno in Prayer displays Baroque emotionalism & the Baroque tendency became still more marked in the Priory paintings Blunt1954 pp 273-4
Characteristics: His work was never fully Baroque & not inspired by Rubens but by late Raphael.  He never used composition in depth or Baroque drapery, & the movements are in diagonal straight lines, not curve.   His style is a free & more lively version of Le Brun & his colour is not Flemish but le Brun-like.   His his work has a strong element of naturalism which would have shocked Le Brun, vide the relish with which he painted the piles of dead fish in one of the Priory paintings  Blunt1954 p27
Status: He was the leading French religious painter of his generation OxDicArt
Patrons: Le Brun awarded many royal commissions OxDicArt, L&L.   The Church was his mainstay Wakefield p12
Trained: Restout L&L

-JUAN DE FLANDES,  1496-1519, Spain (Belgium):

Juanes.   See de Jaunes

*JUEL, Jens, 1745-1802, Denmark:

Background: He was born at Balslev on the island of Funen the son of a vicar Grove17 p677

Training: In Hamburg under the German artist Johann Gehmann & then in Copenhagen at Kunstakademie until 1771 L&L, Grove17 p677

Influences: Carl Pilo at the academy, Dutch 17^th century realist painting & Chardin Grove17 pp 677-78, L&L

Career: During 1772-79 he visited Dresden, Rome; Paris & Geneva.  In 1780 he became court painter, & in 1782 a member of the academy, becoming a professor in 1784, though he much preferred to paint.  In 1795-97 & 1799-1801 he served as director Grove17 p678

Oeuvre: Besides portraits he painted landscape; genre; & still-life, especially flowers OxDicArt

Phases: Early on he produced some of his finest works, particularly the [as in] Holstein Girl, 1766-67 (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen) with her distinctive almond shaped eyes & almost hypnotic gaze.  He painted sober & intimate likenesses of townspeople & professional men, employed a rococo manner when depicting royalty & aristocrats, & latterly his work was more classical  following French & English portraiture L&L, Grove17 p678

Feature: A notable aspect of Juel’s work is the way in which his figures are, as in the work of Gainsborough, made an integral, fundamental  part of the world of nature in which they are situated.  This is shown by his Rydberg Family Portrait, 1796-77) but perhaps above all by his [as in] Portrait of Mme de Prangins in her Park, 1777.  Juel went on painting remarkable works until his death in A Boy Running, 1802 (Staten’s Museum, all three) he created a masterly [as in] illusion of motion NG1984 pp 80-81, 84-85

Innovations/Legacy: He was among the first Danes to paint pure landscapes based on studies from nature as in A Thunderstorm Brewing behind a Farmhouse in Zealand, 1790s (Staten’s Museum) which is a fine example of early Danish Romanticism & had a considerable influence on Eckersberg Grove17 p678, NG1984 pp 82-83

Friend: Nicolai Abilgaard, the Danish Neo-classical artist in Rome Grove17 p678

..JURGENS, Grethe, 1899-, Germany=Hanover:

Background: She was born at Holzhausen near Osnabruck but grew up in Wilhelmshaven Hayward1979 p127
Training:  At the State School of Arts & Crafts, Hanover, 1919-22 under Burger-Muhlfeld Hayward1979 p127
Career: Between 1922 & 1928 she was the publicity-artist for the Hackethal Wire & Cable Works, Hanover, & then for the business periodical Der Manufakaturist.   During 1931-2  she was a founder, along with Thomas & Wegner,  of Wachsbogen (The Wax Sheet, because it was cheaply printed), & became its editor.   In 1933, commissioned by the Kolnische Zeitung, she went to Positano etc with Gustav Schenk, her long term companion,  to illustrate his article.  In the following years she did much book-illustration Hayward1979 p127, Galerie St Etienne
Oeuvre: Paintings of the surrounding scene & her times with an emphasis on people  Galerie St Etienne
Aim: It was not the depiction of interesting types or an appeal to social conscience, although she was left-wing Galerie St  Etienne
Grouping: Neue Sachlichkeit Hayward  pp 20, 127  

Justus of Ghent.   See Van Ghen

K

**KAHLO, Frida, 1907-54, Mexico:

Background: Kahlo’s father was a Jewish German-born photographer & her mother Mexican OxDicMod, L&L

Training: She was mainly self-taught OxDicMod

Influences: Henri Rousseau, O’ Keeffe & Rivera but mainly Mexican folk art OxDicMod, L&L

Career: In 1925 Kahlo became a semi-invalid, often in severe pain, due to a traffic accident.    During her convalescence she began painting portraits of herself & others.   In 1928 she married Rivera but separated, divorced, re-married, & had an affair with Trotsky etc, but they remained emotionally dependent OxDicMod, L&L

Oeuvre: Mostly portraits but also still-life, often of flowers & fruits L&L

Characteristics: Her best work combines a colourful almost naive vigour with delicacy but her painting is very uneven.   Her paintings of her own physical & psychic pain, for instance as a wounded deer or with her spine as a broken column, are narcissistic & nightmarish OxDicMod

Beliefs: Kahlo strongly supported the Mexican movement which rejected European & aristocratic culture in favour of national folk culture.   In her latter years she returned to a firm allegiance to Stalinist Communism OxDicMod
Status: Breton arranged a Parisian show of her work in 1939.   Although she did not regard herself as a Surrealist she was one in spirit OxDicMod
Repute: During her life she was overshadowed by Rivera but she has now become a feminist heroine admired for her courage in the face of suffering & left-wing politics OxDicMod

*KALF, Willem, 1619-93, Netherlands=Amsterdam:

Background: His father was a wealthy Rotterdam cloth merchant L&L

Career: During 1642-6 Kalf was in Paris.   Sometime after 1651 he moved to Amsterdam L&L

Oeuvre: Still life & interior scenes L&L

Phases/Characteristics: Early on he painted pleasant & stable interiors with prominent still-life copper & brass vessels & utensils to the sides of the foreground; also true still-lifes with jumbled costly vessels.   Between about 1653 & 1663 he painted his best known still-lifes with fewer objects, no longer in disarray, in vertical format on richly patterned oriental carpets against dark backgrounds.   The handling of textures is masterly with  manipulation of warm & cool colours.   There is often a contrasting glass of red wine, the reddish brown of a carpet with a yellow peeled lemon, & blue & white porcelain L&L, OxDicArt 

Innovation: Pronkstill even which are still-lifes of ostentation, though his works suggest meditation rather than luxury L&L

Status/Verdict: He was probably the greatest Dutch still-life painter L&L
Legacy: His copper vessels & utensils to one  side in the foreground influenced Chardin, etc L&L

***KANDINSKY, Wassily, 1866-1944, Russia; Expressionism 

Background: Born in Moscow but grew up in Odessa.   His father was a prosperous tea merchant who early on provided a generous allowance OxDicMod.   Murnau was a picturesque tourist town in Bavarian Alps, near Staffel lake Behr p36

Training: During 1886-92 Kandinsky studied law & economics at Moscow University.   After lecturing in law, he decided in 1896 to become painter, went to Munich & trained with Anton Azbe, meeting Jawlensky & Werefkin.   In 1900 he entered the Munich Academy studying under von Stuck.   Here he met Klee, later a close friend OxDicMod

Influences: Initially Gauguin & the Fauves L&L. Bavarian & Russia folk art with which homes were decorated, together with the piety & simplicity found at Murnau where Kandinsky etc wore local costume Behr pp 32, 34, 36, OxDicMod.   Traditional painting behind glass was widespread in the Staffel area.   It reminded Kandinsky of Russian & Vologda folk art BecksM p32.   Mysticism & theosophy were other factors.   He owned Besant & Leadbetter’s 1905 Thought Forms, which is an account of a higher world with cloud-like illustrations.   Arp & Miro were later influences OxDicMod

Milestones: In 1889 Kandinsky made an expedition to Vologda province, where he was profoundly impressed by Northern folk art BecksM p192.   Around 1895 he saw a Monet haystack.   Initially upset by its indistinct painting, he was then inspired by its sheer colour & light, & the fairytale splendour of the painting OxDicMod, Dube p106.   In 1908 he entered his studio & saw an incandescently lovely painting which turned out to be his own work on its side.   Kandinsky concluded that subject matter was unnecessary & harmful Read1959 p190

Career: In 1896 he moved to Munich & this was his centre until 1914, though he travelled widely & spent 1906-7 in Paris.    After the breakdown of his marriage, he lived with Gabriele Munter, a former student.   From 1908 they lived in Munich & Murnau, where they bought a house which became a meeting place for avant-garde artists.    His book Concerning the Spiritual in Art appeared in 1911    OxDicMod, Behr pp 32, 36.
In 1909 Kandinsky became the first President of the avant-garde Neue Kunstlervereinigung Munchen (New Artists Alliance).    However, he left at the end of 1911, along with Munter & Marc, after a dispute over the hanging of his picture.    This led to the foundation of the Blaue Reiter, which was later joined by Jawlensky & Werefkin.    Kandinsky now enjoyed growing fame & his work was exhibited at the Knave of Diamonds exhibition in Moscow, 1912, & at the Armory Show in New York, 1913    Dube pp 95-7, 98-101, OxDicMod.

Soon after the War started he went to Moscow but without Munter with whom relations had become increasingly strained.   In 1917 he was happily married to a young woman who was admiring & understanding OxDicMod, BecksM pp 115, 118.   From the beginning of 1918 he & Malevich belonged to the art board of the new Commissariat of the Enlightenment, & lead the film & theatre section, & with Tatlin etc he ran the board’s international office.   In 1920 he was co-founder of the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKUK) but left in 1921 after increasing conflict with Rodchenko.   He was opposed to the growing & complete subordination of fine art to industrial design L&L, OxDicMod, BecksM p194.
At the end of 1921 he went to Berlin & between 1922 & 1933 worked at the Bauhaus directing the mural workshop & teaching the preliminary course on the elements of form & colour.   In 1934 he went to Paris where he lived until his death BecksM p194, OxDicMod

Oeuvre: Paintings, dry points, lithographs, woodcuts & design OxDicMod

Stages: To begin with he painted naturalistic portraits & landscapes; & also smaller scenes from old Russian life & legends, sometimes in tempera & in Art Nouveau form L&L.   He used strong colours & from about 1908 his subjects were vestigial & his forms flatter & more attenuated forms Dube pp 109-10, OxDicMod.

His works were completely Abstract from 1910 & his last pictures with subjects are from 1913 Dube p111-2.   During 1912-14 his paintings were poetic & expressive (with no paintings in 1915).    In Grey, 1919, with it piled-up forms, marked the end of  “my dramatic period”.

During the 1920s his paintings became almost Supremist & cooler style L&L, BecksM pp 120-1.   His works were more geometrical during his Bauhaus period when he used circles (“I love the circle”), triangles, arrow-like shapes, & wavy lines.   Latter works had new element of fantasy with amoeba-like forms OxDicMod

Method: He claimed that his forms were not due to reasoning & invention but to spontaneous inner feelings.   It was only necessary to copy or to shape the forms while working.   Nevertheless, he was a methodical & fastidious worker Dube p112

Theory: Art can be emancipated from external necessity, eg copying nature, & can be based on internal necessity where a precise symbolic language is employed, eg fluctuating lines which show movement, purpose & growth.   Colours express emotional reactions, eg yellow is brash & upsetting & blue suggests heavenliness because of its purity, infinity & peacefulness.   The artist with his inner needs selects appropriate visual symbols but Kandinsky knew that the procedure could be reversed with the artist beginning with colour & form in which colours & shapes are not used to express an internal need, but to escape it & create a pure, impersonal & universal art Read1959 pp 193-5.   Figure drawing is a non-art slavery Behr pp 34-5.   

-KANE, John, 1860-1934, USA (Scotland):

Background: Born in Scotland, the son of a miner OxDicMod
Career: He emigrated to America in 1879 & moved around doing various labouring jobs.   In 1891 he lost a leg but remained agile.   He married in 1897, took to drink after a son’s death & his wife left, after this he lived a wandering life.   Around 1910 he produced his first oils OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Portraits, landscapes, interiors & cityscapes of industrial Pittsburgh OxDicMod
Characteristics: Meticulous observation with naive stylization & imaginative reconstruction OxDicMod
First American naive painter to have work accepted at a major exhibition (1927) OxDicMod
Repute: During his latter years he achieved considerable acclaim & became something of a celebrity OxDicMod

-KANOLDT, Alexander, 1881-1939, Germany:

Background: He was born in Karlsruhe where his father was professor & director of painting at the Academy Hayward1979 p128“
Training: 1899-1900 at the School of Arts & Crafts, Karlshuhe, & 1901-4 at the Academy of Art Hayward1979 p128
Influences: Initially Feininger & de Chirico but later Carra & Derain Hayward1979 p128
Career: Kanoldt moved to Munich in 1908 Hayward1909 p128.   In 1909 he was a foundation member (& then secretary) of the Munich New Artists’ Association & in 1913 of the New Secession of Munich.   After visits to Italy, he showed at the Neue Sachlichkeit exhibition in 1925 & became a professor at Breslau Academy.   In 1931 he moved to Garmish where he formed a private school.   From 1933 to 1936 he directed the State School of Art in Berlin L&L.   Bitter over Expressionism he had made a purifying pact with the Nazis Roh p116,   However, he resigned in 1936 & some pictures were confiscated as degenerate Hayward1979 p128
Phases/Characteristics: His earlier work is simplified & stylised with dark contours.   It might be called expressionistic but was strikingly quiet & impregnated with heavy, hypernaturalistic colours.   Gradually his style became more photographic with a smooth , lacquered surface.   This led to frigid & lifeless portraits & still-lifes, though a few landscapes are better.  His later work was increasingly torpid Roh pp115-6
Friends: Schrimpt from 1924 Hayward 1979 p128
Status: Magic Realism Willett p112

..KANTOR, Morris, 1896-1974, USA (Russia):

Background: Born in Minsk OxDicMod
Influences: At the Independent School of Art OxDicMod
Career: He emigrated to America in 1911, aimed at becoming a cartoonist but turned to painting OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings OxDicMod
Phases: During 1919-24 he experimented with abstraction juggling with a variety of isms in what are considered his best works.   In 1924 he adopted a naturalistic style & from 1928 concentrated on views from his apartment on Union Square, some of which are somewhat eerie OxDicMod

.. KARLOVSZKY, Bertalan, 1858-1938, Hungary:

Background: He was born at Munkaes Wikip
Career:  He moved to Budapest with his parents when very young Wikip
Training: After three years at a military academy he went to the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, studying under Otto Seitz; was invited to Paris by Mihaly Munkacsy & spent a year in his studio; exhibited his genre painting in the Salon; returned to Hungary, 1894, & settled in Budapest.  He ran a painting school for many years, & became a Professor at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, 1928 Wikip
Oeuvre: Genre paintings, historical works, & portraits, nudes & still-life Wikip, webimages
Speciality: The tragic, anguished face & downcast hands indicating despair [as] in his moving Portrait of Count Gyula Andrassy, Jr, c1918 PitturaImages
Patronage/Reception: He made contact with American art dealers, & his work became popular in the United States & fetched high prices Wikip

..KASATKIN, Nikolai Alexeyevich, 1859-1930, Russia; Tzarist Impressionism:

Background: He was born in Moscow into the family of an engraver Lebedev Pl 16
Training: At the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture & Painting under Perov, 1873-83 Lebedev Pl 16
Career: In 1891 he joined the Wanderers.  He lived for several months apparently painting in a coal mining area.   During 1894-1917 he taught at the Moscow School.   He joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia Lebedev Pl 16, Leek p183, Bown1991 p33
Oeuvre: Nearly all his principal paintings deal with workers’ life, labour & struggle, though his Woman Miner, 1894 looks remarkably happy  Lebedev Pl 16
Characteristics: His brushwork was of an Impressionist type Lebedev Pl 16-8, Petrova p86
Innovations: In Soviet times his works were seen as anticipating Socialist Realism Lebedev Pl16

-KASSAK, Lajos, 1887-1967, Hungary:

Career: In 1916 he created the journal MA which also presented avant-garde exhibitions.   MA provided was the focus for a loose artistic grouping called the Activists.   They were influenced by Cubism, Expressionism & Futurism; & they agitated for Socialism, several producing posters for the Communist regime.   Kassak was prominent in the Republic in 1919 but his journal was banned by the Communists.   He went to Vienna where MA continued.   It & the associated art centre gave prominence to Russian developments & Dada.   He returned to Hungary in 1926 & influenced new generations of Hungarians L&L, OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings, sculpture, prints, collages OxDicMod

..KATSMAN, Evgeni, 1890-1976,  Russia:

Background:  He was born in Kharkov Bown1991 p242
Training: At the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture until 1916 Bown1991 p242
Oeuvre: Paintings & coloured pastel drawings Bown1991 p242
Career: Between 1923 & 1932 he belonged to the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia of which he was a founder member.   During the mid-1920s he visited Repin to try to lure him back to Russia & in 1933 met up with Stalin, Voroshilov, Brodski, & Alexandra Gerasimov to pave the way for Socialist Realism.   He was active in the campaign against formalism within the Moscow Section of the Union of Soviet Artists.   At its conference in 1937 he threateningly interrogated an artist who had previously criticised him.   Although Jewish he flourished during the anti-Semite campaign after the war & became a member of the USSR Academy of Arts in 1947 Bown1991 pp 57, 92, 133, 208-9, 242
Oeuvre: Paintings & coloured pastel drawings Bown1991 p242
Phases: Around 1941 he began, like others,  to paint portraits of Russian leaders, viz Suvorov Bown1991 p149
Beliefs: “only a realist can be a Soviet artist,   Whoever is not a realist is a complete shit…” Brown 1991 p93

-KATZ, Alex, 1927-, USA:

Background: He was born in New York L&L
Influences: Initially Abstract Expressionism OxDicMod
Phases: Early on he painted cut-out figures which he glued to plywood L&L.   During the late 1950s he developed a kind of figurative painting with large flat areas of colour that have sometimes been related to Pop Art, though he rejected commercial imagery OxDicMod
Characteristics: He produced powerful figure paintings; often large & rather bleakly presented with little or no context L&L.   Close-ups of heads are sometimes cropped unexpectedly; & some paintings of figures in groups stress human interaction & power play OxDicMod
Aim: Like Pearlstein, he wanted to reintroduce realism & the figure in order to compete with the scale & strength of American abstract art OxDicMod

-KAUFFER, Edward McKnight, 1890-1954, USA:

Background: He was born at Great Falls, Montana Grove17 p850
Training: At the Art Institute, 1912, & in Paris at the Academie Moderne, 1912-4 Grove17 p850
Influences: Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism, & then Constructivism & Surrealism L&L
Career: In 1914 he settled in London, virtually abandoned easel painting in 1921, & worked on poster design for London underground & the Great Western Railway.   In 1940 he returned to America, settled in New York , produced posters for government agencies during the war, & then for American Airlines & the New York subway OxDicMod, L&L
Oeuvre: Posters, book illustrations & textile design etc OxDicMod
Patrons: Frank Pick at the underground OxDicMod
Grouping: He belonged to Group X & the London Market Group WestS1996
Influence: It was large OxDicArt

*KAUFFMANN, (Maria Anna) Angelica, 1741-1807, Switzerland:

Background: She was born at Chur, Graubunden.   Her father Joseph, 1707-82, was a minor portrait & mural painter Grove17 p850
Training: Her Father L&L
Career: She was a child prodigy & assisted her father as he moved from job to job.   Between 1762 & 1766 they visited Florence, Rome, Naples, then Rome again etc.   Contact was made with artists who painted in an emerging Neo-classical style, including Benjamin West; with Winckelmann whose portrait she painted (1764); & with the British community in Rome.   In 1766 she moved to London at the invitation of Joseph Smith.   She rapidly emerged as a leading portrait painter & became a founder-member of the RA where she exhibited history & subject paintings of an innovative type.   However she earned the bulk of her substantial income from portraits mostly of women many of whom she allegorized.   In 1781 she married Antonio Zucchi. & the couple returned to the Continent.   (She had been duped into marrying an adventurer in1767 but he died in 1780.)    Angelica & Zucchi ultimately settled in Rome, she enjoyed the patronage of Grand-Duke Paul of Russia.   She continued to send works back to England, executing work for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery.   After 1795 she became less active & the Napoleonic Wars reduced commissions Grove17 pp 850-2, L&L.
Oeuvre: Initially she only painted portraits but from around 1764 she produced history paintings.   She produced decorative work & designs for Robert Adam, though not all of the panels ascribed to her Grove17 pp 850-1
Phases/Characteristics: Initially her style was sprightly but provincial Grove17 p850 .  Her mature work owes much to Neo-Classicism & at its best has great charm, though it can be rather insipid OxDicArt.   For 15 years after her return to Rome she painted some of her finest work: bold in scale, well composed & richly coloured.   Her work was vital & ambitious Grove17 pp 852-3.
Innovations: Scenes from English medieval history Grove17 p 851.
Circle: Batoni, Gavin Hamilton, Nathaniel Dance, Reynolds Grove17 p850, L&L.
Status: After Batoni’s death she was the most successful & famous painter in Rome Grove17 p852.
Grouping: Neo-Classical Grove 17 p850

*KAULBACH, Bernard Wilhelm, Von, 1805-74, Germany:

Background: He was born at Arolsen, the son of an unsuccessful painter Norman1977
Training;  At the Dusseldorf Academy, 1822-6, under Cornelius Grove17 p855.
Career: He followed Cornelius to Munich in 1826 where he collaborative with other pupils & then engaged in independent work.   His preliminary version of the  Battle of the Huns, 1834-7, made him famous.   He became court painter to Ludwig I of Bavaria around 1836, & was later in Italy where he made landscape studies in oil.    He returned to classical idealism due to Cornelius & painted the monumental Destruction of Jerusalem, 1836-46.   In 1849 became director of the Munich Academy L&L, Norman1977, Grove17 p855.
Oeuvre: Oils, frescos, portraits during the 1840s, & graphic work Norman1977, Grove17 p855.
Speciality: His illustrations which were a mixture of satire Realism & included sensuous illustrations of Goethe’s female characters Norman1977
Progeny: His son Hermann was a painter Norman1977

-KAWARA, On, 1933-, Japan:

Background: He was born in Japan L&L
Career: He travelled to West & then settled in New York in 1965 L&L
Phases: Painting but then Conceptual Art L&L
Speciality: Paintings expressing Japan’s post-war collapse L&L

..KEATING, Sean/John, 1889-1977, Ireland:

Background: He was born in Limerick OxDicMod
Training: Limerick Technical College; 1911 the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, under Orpen Grove17 p875
Career: In 1915 he went to London as Orpen’s assistant; but in 1916 returned to Dublin.   He taught at the Metropolitan School of Art, 1936-54, becoming a professor.   Between 1948 & 1962 he was President of the Royal Hibernian Academy.   He opposed Modernism Grove17 p875
Speciality: Vigorous & picturesque Irish peasants OxDicMod
Innovation: The West of Ireland as source for patriotic & heroic, almost propagandistic subject matter that was adopted by the Irish nationalist movement OxDicMod

..KELLER, Albert von, 1844-1920:

Background: He was born into a distinguished Swiss family Norman1977
Training: von Ramberg Norman1977
Career: In 1892 he supported the Munich Secession Norman1977 Oeuvre: Sparkling little paintings of Munich high society but during the 1880s he turned to mystic-religious works Norman1977

-KELLY, Ellsworth, 1923-:

Background: He was born in Newburgh, New York OxDicMod
Training: At the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 1941-2, & after army service at the Boston Museum School, 1946-8 OxDicMod
Career: From 1948 to 1954 he lived in Paris , then settled in New York OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings, sculpture & prints OxDicMod
Phases: In 1949 he switched from figurative to abstract art & during the mid-1950s was recognised as a leading exponent of Hard-Edge painting OxDicMod
Characteristics: His paintings are clearly & simply constructed, sometimes being individual panels of identical size in different uniform colours.   His work has a poetic sensitivity to colour OxDicMod, L&L
Beliefs: “I have never been interested in paintliness”; “I want to eliminate the ‘I made this” from my work” MOMAH p21
Forerunner: Minimalism MOMAH p21
Innovation:  The shaped canvas OxDicMod

Kempeneer.   See de Campana

..KENNEDY, William, 1859-1918, Scotland; Rural Naturalism

Training: Paisley School of Art; & during the early 1880s at the Academy Julian McConkey1989 p157
Influences: Bastien-Lepage McConkey1989 p157; Whistler Billcliffe p202
Career: In 1887 he tried with Walton to form the Glasgow Boys into a formal group.  He painted scenes of army life scenes.   During the 1890s he  increasingly worked in England; & in 1912 moved to Tangier due to ill health McConkey1989 p157
Phases: Initially he painted peasant pictures; & during the late 1880s modern subject matter McConkey1989 p42.   His rural paintings of the 1890s lack the bite of his naturalist work of the 1880s.   The handling is looser & the compositions less organised but, unlike many Glasgow Boys, he did not paint crowd-pleasing pot boilers or many portraits Billcliffe p202

-KENNINGTON, Eric, 1888-1960, England:

Background: He was born in Liverpool, the son of the painter Thomas Kennington, 1856-1916 OxDicMod
Training: The Lambeth School of Art, 1905-7 Grove17 p899
Influences: His father painted poverty & hardship OxDicMod
Career: He exhibited at the RA from 1908.   During 1914-5 he served in France but was invalided out & then had a solo exhibition at the Goupil Gallery where The Kensingtons at Laventie was a great success.   He became an official War Artist (& again during the Second World War), & then largely painted portraits, but also illustrated books & sculpted inter-War public monuments L&L; OxDicArt
Oeuvre: He is mainly known for genre drawings & paintings of soldiers & airmen, & his memorial sculpture L&L; OxDicArt
Phases: Early paintings of cockney life which attracted attention OxDicMod
Politics: He exhibited a sculpture at the Artists International Association OxDicMod

-KENSETT, John, 1816-72, USA:

Background: He was born at Gais, Connecticut Norman1977
Influences: At the time his paintings were seen as a reaction to the Civil War Groseclose p131
Career: He was involved in the Civil War Groseclose p131.   During the 1840s Kensett travelled & studied in Italy, Germany & England L&L.   He helped found the Metropolitan Museum Hughes1997 p171
Characteristics: Luminous & abstractly minimal landscapes that are a silent meditations on nature’s hidden truths Bjelajac r p212, L&L
Personal: He was sociable, clubbable & benevolent Hughes1997 p171
Friends: George Curtis who edited the Transcendentalist Harper’s Weekly Groseclose p130
Grouping: The Hudson River School or Luminism L&L, Groseclose p130

-Rockwell KENT, 1882-1971, USA:

Background: He was born at Tarrytown Heights, New York OxDicArt
Training: After starting training as an architect at  Columbia University he switched to painting under Henri L&L
Career: He earned money by working as a lobsterman & ship’s carpenter etc & loved exploring remote areas including Tierra del Fuego.   His outspoken left-wing views led hounding by investigating committees donning the post-war period. In 1962 he became a member of the USSR Academy of Art & in 1967 received a Lenin Peace Prize L&L
Oeuvre: Paintings & book illustration OxDicMod
Speciality: Scenes of the great outdoors OxDicMod
Characteristics: He had a dramatic style in which tonal contrasts dominate his monumental compositions L&L
Status/Reception: His paintings appealed to the pioneer spirit & by the 1920s he was one of America’s most popular artists OxDicMod

-William KENT, 1685-1748, England:

Background: He was born at Bridlington Grove17 p900
Training: During 1714-5 he studied painting in Rome L&L
Career: He was the guide & agent for Grand Tourists & met Burlington OxDicArt.   In 1719 he undertook his first work for him by completing Ricci’s paintings at Burlington  HouseL&L.   His decorations there & at Kensington Palace were unsuccessful.   He became an  architect, designer, & landscape gardener; working from 1734 on Holkham Hall OxDicArt
Innovations: With Burlington he converted England to Palladianism OxDicArt
First: He painted the earliest medieval history subjects in British art OxDicArt
Verdict: According to Walpole his painting was below mediocrity but he restoreed architectural science, & was the father of modern gardening, seeing that “all nature was a garden” OxDicArt

KERSTING, Georg, 1785-1847, Germany=Dresden:

Background: He was born at Gustrow, Mecklenburg Grove17 p916
Training: During 1805-9 in Copenhagen at the academy where he was taught Classical draftmanship & careful observation Norman1987 p158
Influences: The clarity & brilliance of the Danish school Grove17 p916
Career: He went to Dresden in 1808, associated with Friedrich & his circle, & went on a walking tour with him through the Zittow Mountains & the Riesenberbirge in 1910.   He enlisted in the Lutzower Corps in 1813 & on his return painted related subjects.   In 1818 he  became director of painting at Meissen & had little time for painting Grove17 p916, Norman1987 p158, Vaughan2004 p145.
Oeuvre: Portraits in interior settings of adults & his children etc Grove 1987 p916  
Characteristics: Stillness & solitude like Friedrich & a loving comprehension of the psychology of the young paintings of his children.   His post- Lutzower works feature the forest that was a powerful, traditional German image & semi-medieval German costume  Norman1987 p158, Grove17 p916, Vaughan2004 p149.
Friend: Friedrich to whom he was close Norman1987
Influence: He greatly raised the low artistic standards at Meissen by training porcelain painters & providing new designs Grove17 p916
Repute: There was a long period of oblivion until the Berlin centennial exhibition of German art in 1906 & the rediscovery of German Romantic painting Grove17 p916

Kessel.   See van Kessel 

..KET, Dick, 1902-40, Netherlands:

Background: Born in den Helder Wikip
Training: The Kunstoefening in Arnhem, 1922-5 Wikip
Career: Born with a serious heart defect,  he was unable to travel, had phobias & from 1930 lived secluded in his parents’ house Wikip
Oeuvre: Still-life & self-portraits etc Wikip
Grouping: Magic Realism Wikip 

-KETEL, Cornelis, 1548-1616, Netherlands=Amsterdam:

Background: He was born in Gouda OxDicArt
Training: Anthonie Blocklandt in Delft, & then in Paris & Fontainebleau, 1566 L&L
Career:  Unable to find work because of the Dutch Wars of Religion, he went to London in 1573 where he painted portraits.   In 1581 he returned & settled in Amsterdam L&L
Oeuvre: portraits; also allegorical works which have mainly been lost L&L
Speciality: Life-sized civic-guard group portraits which he painted in Amsterdam L&L
Characteristics: Ketel was able to capture a realistic likeness & his portraits are forceful L&L
First to introduce liveliness into civic guard paintings by depicting guardsmen standing & by emphasising their weapons, etc Haak pp105, 173
Personal/Circle: Ketel was a cultivated man who frequented intellectual circles & a good friend of Van Mander Haak p173
Feature: He could paint portraits using only his fingers or toes Haak p173 

-KETTLE, Tilly, 1735-86, England:

Background: He was born in London Grove18 p1
Training: At the St Martin’s Lane Academy Waterhouse1953 p270
Influences: St Martin’s Lane Academy Waterhouse1953 p270
Career: He began by working in the Midlands & London but, after rejection by the RA, he visited India & successfully painting nabobs, 1796-76.   When back in London he was unsuccessful & died returning to India L&L, OxDicArt
Characteristics: He tended to to give heads a football shape but used pleasant & decorative colouring Waterhouse1953 p270
Patronage: He established good relations with the native princes Grove18 p1
First significant painter to go to India L&L
Status: He enjoys a fairly high rank among the lesser portraitists of his time Waterhouse1953 p270

-Adrian KEY, c1515-after 89, Willem’s nephew, Flanders:

Career: In 1568 he joined the Antwerp Guild OxDicArt
Oeuvre: Assured, solid & sober portraits of famous people; also altarpieces L&L, OxDicMod
Status: He was highly regarded in his day OxDicArt

-Willem KEY, c1515-68, Adrian’ uncle, Belgium, Antwerp:

Training: Around 1540 by Lambert Lombard in Liege OxDicArt
Career: In 1542 he joined the Antwerp Guild where he spent the rest of his working lifeOxDicArt|
Oeuvre: Assured, solid & sober portraits of famous people; also altarpieces L&L, OxDicArt
Status: He was  highly regarded in his day OxDicArt

*KHNOPFF, Fernand, 1858-1921, Belgium:

Background: He spent his childhood in Bruges, where his father was a magistrate GibsonM p234
Training: Law studies which he abandoned.   He then attended the Academie  de Beaux-Arts, Brussels GibsonM p234
Influences: Mellery GibsonM p234.   He was thrilled by Moreau, Millais, Burne-Jones seen in 1878 in Paris.    Mallarme who was his favourite poet L&L
Career: In 1883 he helped found LesXX.   During the 1890s he exhibited regularly at the Rose+Croix L&L
Phases: Initially naturalism L&L
Characteristics: His art centred on meditation & he painted intensely atmospheric, dreamy images of unreal situations & strange compositions.   Yet every effect is precise & calculated .  Some of his late work features a young woman & an ancient Greek winged bust.   His paintings are melancholy with women as sphinxes or angels, & his themes are pride, isolation, cruelty & disdain  L&L, Lucie-S p122, GibsonM p234
Personal/Verdict: Khnopff was a dandy & obsessed with his sister who was his preferred model & with whom he was in love.   He had the dandy’s dedicated pessimism & fanatical interest in precision GibsonM pp 91, 94, 234, Lucie-S1972 p122
Political: he was involved with the art section of the Maison du People which was sponsored by the Parti Ouvrier Belge WestS1993 p37
Grouping : He was the greatest Belgium Symbolist GibsonM p234
Repute: His reputation has now recovered Lucie-S1972 p123

**KIEFER, Anselm, 1945-, Germany:

Background: Born at Donaueschingen OxDicMod
Training: Beuys at the Dusseldorf Academy, & Horst Antes Hughes1991 p407, OxDicMod
Career: He originally studied law & made provocative but absurd photos entitled Occupations of himself giving a Nazi salute in places throughout Europe.    From the early 1970s he turned to painting OxDicMod.   He ceased activity in 1991-3, moved to southern France, travelled widely & in his work became more preoccupied with theology & mysticism L&L
Oeuvre: Paintings & sculpture OxDicMod

Characteristics/Phases: His early work dealt with the big historical & mythological themes alluding to Wagner cum Siegfried & the German cultural tradition which the Nazis appropriated.   His work was obsessed with the collision between German & Jewish history. From the later 1980s he tended to look outside Germany for his themes OxDicMod, Hughes1991 p407.   He used oil & acrylic paint sometimes over a photo with additions of many types including straw, sand & shaped metal sheets.   Sometimes the painting was hacked & colour was rejected L&L.   Although his colour is monotonous it has a lugubrious intensity & while his drawing lacks fluency & clarity it seems to provide a grinding earnestnessHughes1991 p409

Aim: He tried to reinstate painting as an art of high seriousness OxDicMod
Grouping: His early work is sometimes considered Expressionist but is better seen as political rather than self-expressive Neo expressionism Lucie-S2003, OxDicMod
Reception: His work, like that of Baselitz, was attacked for its obsession with nationalistic themes but was praised by American & British commentators OxDicMod
Verdict: Despite its magniloquence, his work carries its messages without pompous narcissism of so many of his peers Hughes1991 p409

*KIFF, Ken, 1935, GB:

Training: 1955-61 at the Hornsey School of Art L&L
Influences: Matisse, Picasso & Klee
Career: He taught part-time at the Chelsea School of Art & the Royal College of Art.   Though he works in London, he has spent periods in America, mostly working on monotypes L&L
Oeuvre: Paintings, prints & drawings L&L
Technique: Although they may seem spontaneous & even feverish, his paintings emerge from a long process of making & revising L&L
Characteristics: His colours & brushwork are often vivid.   He sometimes incorporates fantastical images in his essentially visionary work L&L
Beliefs: “I have to keep looking at the tradition, at the work which embodies the understanding of the artists who understood most” L&L
Status: He is often seen as a late Expressionist L&L

..KIPRENSKY/SCHWALBE, Orest, 1773-1836, Russia:

Background: Born in the Orienbaum district, Petersburg Province.   He was the illegitimate son of the landowner but was adopted by the landowner’s serf & manservant who soon married his mother.   Kiprensky was freed at birth 50Rus p62, Grove18 p74

Training: 1798 at the St Petersburg Academy Grove18 p74

Influences: Rubens, Rembrandt & van Dyke for his portraits Norman1977

Career: During 1809 Kiprensky went to Moscow but returned to St Petersburg in 1812.   In both he busily painted portraits & participated in their vigorous artistic life.   In 1816 he went to Rome, returned to Russia 1823, but settled in Rome in about 1828 50Rus pp 63-64, Norman1977.   After his return he became disheartened at the depressing situation following the Decembrist uprising of 1825 &, although not involved, he had many associates who were exiled.   In his last years he married an Italian woman & converted to Catholicism Grove17 pp 75-6

Oeuvre: Portraits & history paintings Norman1977

Phases/Characteristics: His early portraits are executed with flawless technique & finish.   They display a psychological insight & colouristic power paralleling those of Gros & Gericault.   However in Italy, under the spell of Raphael & Mannerism, he produced idealised beggar boys & peasant girls Leek p127, Norman1977, Hamilton1983 p362.

Innovations: His early works are seen as initiating Romanticism in Russia Norman1977.   Hitherto portrait painters had seen those they painted primarily as types & members of a class but with Kiprensky the focus was on the particular person Hamilton1983 pp 359-62.   He was also one of the first Russian painters to use the self-portrait to explore his own personality, of which he painted a number between 1808 & 1827 Grove18 pp 74-5

Status: He was the leading Russian portrait painter of the romantic period Grove18 p74

Repute: He apparently died in almost complete oblivion Grove18 p76

*KIRCHNER, Ernst-Ludwig, 1880-1938, Germany; German Impressionism and Expressionism Movement

Background: He was born at Aschaffenburg, the son of a distinguished chemist in the paper industry OxDicMod

Training: Architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden because of his father opposed painting.   Apart from the winter of 1903-4 when he had classes in painting in Munich, he was self-taught OxDicMod

Influences: Rembrandt’s drawings from which derived a technique of depicting motion by means of bold strokes.   Gauguin, van Gogh, Munch, Fauvism & he claimed Polynesian & other primitive art.   Berlin with its big city dynamism was from 1911 a powerful stimulus Dube pp 38, 42, OxDicMod

Career: From childhood he was nervous, imaginative & had nightmares.   In 1905 he founded Die Brucke with fellow students at Dresden.   During 1908 he first spent the summer on the Baltic Island of Fehmarn.   He visited Bohemia with his new friend Otto Mueller during 1911 & settled in Berlin.   Die Brucke dissolved in 1913 partly due to his criticism of  colleagues.   During 1914-5 he served in the army but was discharged.   After a physical & mental breakdown, treatment at a sanitorium, being hit by a car in Berlin, & a long recuperation, he settled near  Davos in 1907.   By 1921 he had recovered from heavy dependence on drugs but he never fully achieved mental health.   During the mid-1930s he suffered mentally & physically, was distressed by his inclusion in the 1937 Nazi exhibition of degenerate art, & ended by shooting himself OxDicMod, Dube p209

Oeuvre: Figure composition, nudes, portraits, woodcuts, etchings & lithographs OxDicMod

Phases/Characteristics:

(a) Dresden: From the start his work was strictly two dimensional with large & forseeable brushstrokes.   By 1908 his paintwork was churning & impasted.   He next developed what he later termed Hiroglyphics which were simplified, linear two dimensional forms with pure planes of colour, though some plasticity soon re-appeared.    The use of distemper which he learned from Mueller in 1910 enabled him to rapidly cover larger surfaces Dube pp 39-42. 

(b) Berlin: Here Kirchner employed the techniques he had mastered to produce his great masterpieces.   His work was differentiated by it energetic draftsmanship, greater angularity, almost Gothic construction with curves that converge or radiate & vigorous hatching.   Gradually his paintings appear conifer-like & the vantage point is low down Dube p42, Roh p58.   He portrayed modern city life including cafes, dance halls, & above all women on parade in the street.   They were based on his rapid sketches in the Friedrichstrasse district which was well known for its low-life & prostitution.   However, whether they were good-time girls or prostitutes is not clear.   Soliciting was illegal.   Hence the circumspect poses, deadpan faces, & clothing such plumed hats & widow’s veils with which streetwalkers disguised & advertised themselves.   Unlike the later work of Dix & Grosz, Kirchner’s paintings are non-judgemental.   They were realists of a social type whereas Kirchner was preoccupied by composition & colour Roh p58, ShearerW1996, Behr pp 50-1, Dube p51 [Wanted more deadpan images]. He used a cleverly chosen, narrow range of colours, using unmixed paint.   He harmonised red with blue, black with purple & red, madder with with brown & cobalt blue, two kinds of green, & yellow & ochre Dube p42.

[Complete with sections on subsequent work.   See Dube, Grove, Behr etc.  What is missing above is something on his nudes]

Aim: This from 1900 was to renew German art.   At an exhibition of the Munich Secession he was dismayed by the insignificant content & lifeless execution of what he saw.   Later after seeing an exhibition of French Neo-Impressionist pure bright colour became another goal Dube p38.

Personal: He was attractive, exuberant, passionate, distrustful & an obsessive worker Dube p36.

Status/Verdict: He was the dominant & most gifted & experimental member of Die Brucke Dube p36
Friends: Fritz Bleyl from 1903, Erich Heckel from 1905 , Schmidt-Rottluff from 1906 Dube p20
Grouping: Expressionism OxDicMod

[See Bowness pp 101-2]

-KISLING, Moise, 1891-1953, France & Poland;

Background: Born Cracow L&L
Training: At the Cracow Academy OxDicMod
Influences: Cubism OxDicMod
Career: He moved to Paris in 1910.  During the War he volunteered for the Foreign Legion, was wounded & invalided out in 1915.   During 1917-20 he lived in the south of France but returned to Paris, where he had a successful exhibition, 1921.   From 1941 to 1946 he was in America, mainly in New York but with a year in Hollywood.  After returning to France he lived at Snary-sur-Mer, near Toulon OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Portraits, nudes & landscapes OxDicMod
Characteristics: His work is melancholic & was to begin with eclectic.   It became semi-naturalistic & marked by elegant draftsmanship & delicately modulated colours OxDicMod, L&L
Circle: Chagall, Modigliani, Soutine. Derain, Gris & Picasso OxDicMod
Friends: Artur Rubenstein, the pianist OxDicMod

*KITAJ, R. B/Brooks, Ronald, 1932-, USA:

Background: He was born in Cleveland, Ohio OxDicMod

Training: At the Cooper Union, New York, 1950-51; the Academy in Vienna, 1951-2; the Ruskin School, Oxford, 1958-9; & the Royal College of Art, 1959-61 OxDicMod

Influences: His Jewish identity: what happened at Auschwitz & Mahler’s homelessness as a Jew OxDicMod

Career: During 1950-55 he divided his time between working as a merchant seaman & studying art.   After serving in the US army in Germany during 1956-7, he moved to England where he mainly lived.   His first solo exhibition was in 1963 & in 1976 he directed an exhibition for the Arts Council attacking abstract & conceptual art & defending art rooted in observation, especially of human beings.   A 1994 retrospective at the Tate had strongly negative reviews, although not the subsequent shows at Los Angeles & New York.   Adverse reception has been attributed to the anti-literary prejudice of art critics, anti-Americanism & some anti-Semitism.   His American wife died of a brain hemorrhage after & Kitaj said, “They tried to kill me & they got her instead”.   In 1986 he was widely accused of emotional blackmail for The Critic Kills when it was exhibited at the RA.   In 1997 he settled in Los Angeles, finally committing suicide L&L, OxDicMod.

Oeuvre/Phases: Paintings & considerable use of screen printing.   After seeing Degas on a Parisian visit in 1975, he largely turned to pastel OxDicMod

Characteristics: Like his contemporaries most of his work in the 1960s was derived from second hand imagery but his sources were mainly historical, political & intellectual OxDicMod.   His later work has a dramatic, sometimes with a moodily romantic quality L&L

Beliefs: He saw himself as a pilgrim in an ugly world made beautiful by intellect & creativity L&L

Influence: This has been marked L&L

-KLAPHECK, Konrad, 1935-, Germany:

Background: He was born in Dusseldorf OxDicMod
Training: At the Dusseldorf Academy OxDicMod
Career: In 1979 he became a professor at the Dusseldorf Academy OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings L&L
Characteristics: Typewriters, then bicycles, telephones & other mass produced objects painted in a monumental fashion, assertively, impersonally & on a plain ground in simplified forms & colours.   They have a visionary character with titles indicating the meaning L&L
Grouping: He has been seen as a late Surrealist & a forerunner of Superrealism OxDicMod

**KLEE, Paul, 1879-1940, Germany/Switzerland; Expressionism Movement

Background: He was born near Berne & his father was a music teacher, & was himself an accomplished violinist Hodge2014 p6, ShearerW1996

Training: At the  Munich Academy where he joined Stuck’s class, 1900 Dube p209

Influences: Von Marees, Van Gogh, Cezanne & the creativity supposedly manifest in popular & tribal culture, & in the art of children & the insane  L&L, Grove18 p109

Oeuvre: This was prolific & comprised some 9000 works ShearerW1996

Career: During 1901-2 he was in Italy, & in 1905 visited Paris.   In 1906 he married the pianist Lily Strumpf & moved to Munich.   In 1911 he made contact with the Blaue Ritter group & in 1912  exhibited graphics in its second exhibition.   In that year he visited Paris & met Delaunay whose work encouraged him to embrace colour.   In 1914 he visited Tunis visit with Macke & referred to  ”this blessed moment.   Colour & I are one.    I am a painter” Read 1959 p180.   During 1916-9 he served in the Germany army.   Between 1921 & 1931 he taught at the Bauhaus, & during 1931-33 he was a professor at the Dusseldorf Academy.   After his dismissal he lived in Basle.   Thirteen works were included in the Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich.   During 1935 he started suffering from a debilitating illness ShearerW1996, Read1959 p180

Characteristics/Phases:  His work is always related however indirectly to nature ShearerW1996 .

(a) Initially it was monochromatic & graphic with an exquisitely precise & sensitive line.   It was highly manneristic & displayed fantasy & a humour that persisted.   Yet it was intellectual & reflected his lifelong quest for the laws of pictorial structure & elemental, underlying symbols ShearerW1996, Grove18 p108

(b) In 1914 under the Tunisian skies there was a marked change in Klee’s art.   Colour now became an independent form of expression & graphic works were largely displaced by watercolours which feature blocks of colour within which there are gentle tonal transitions or little or no difference.   The colouring is generally but not always light & features orange, pink, yellow & soft green.   It has been described as mystical [but evocative or lyrical might be more appropriate] Hodge2014 pp 29-37, 40-2, 44, 46.   

(c) From 1919 he began working extensively in oil, & his colouring became sharper & less mellow with large area which are uniformly dark or deep, bright red.     During the later 1920s he became more, but not entirely, abstract Grove18 p110, Hodge2014 pp 51, 54-6, 60, 63, 64, 72-3, 76-82, 85-6.

(d) In 1928 he went to Egypt & this inspired a large number of striated compositions Grove18 p111, Hodge2014 pp 90, 95

(e) In 1931 he stated painting works in a pointillist style which are more gently coloured Grove 18 p118, Hodge2014 pp 96, 99

(f) His late works feature bold black lines & hieroglyphics.   They have been regarded as humour of a sardonic type Hodge2014 pp 103, 106, 108-9, 111-7, 119, 121, 123, 124, ShearerW1995

Aim/Beliefs: In much of his work tried to achieve a naïve & untutored quality.   “The more fearful the world becomes, the more art becomes abstract” Grove18 p108, Hughes1991 p316

Reception: In 1919 a large exhibition of his works established his international reputation.   The French Surrealists were devotees of Klee’s work which they included in their first exhibition in 1925 ShearerW1996, Grove18 p111

Friends: Kubin from about 1910 &  Kandinsky from 1911 Dube pp 148-9

*KLEIN, Yves, 1928-62, France:

Background: He was born in Nice & his mother & father, who specialised in fantastic landscapes with horses, were painters.   Klein’s fascination with the spiritual had as it background Manessier’s paintings, Messiaen’s music, Bresson’s films, & the wave of church building.   Another fascination was the photos of the outlines of bodies on the earth at Hiroshima OxDicMod, Grove18 p119

Training: He was self-taught L&L

Influences: Rosicrucianism through a book by the occultist Max Heindel who believed in a new age of pure spirit & the end of ego-materialism OxDicMod

Career: During the mid-1940s he began painting & this became his vocation from around 1950.   However he made money as a judo instructor.   He spent 1952-3 in Japan where he became a black belt & in 1954 published a textbook on judo OxDicMod.   In 1955 he settled in Paris, & in 1956 exhibited monochromes in various colours.   They looked like decorative wall patterns which was precisely what Klein wished to avoid.   He then used his patented International Klein Blue (IKB) for which a chemist had produced a binding agent that absorbs pigment without diminution of intensity.   Next he painted monochromes in in rose & gold.   In 1958 he caused a sensation in Paris at the Galerie Iris Clert.   It was completely empty (Le Vide) with white walls.   Guests were served cocktails which coloured their urine IKB, & Klein tried to conger up the spirit of the void in the empty gallery before opening time.   In 1960 he made monochromes by models pressing their naked blue-dipped bodies against canvases.   This was accompanied by 10 minutes of sound on a single note alternating with 10 minutes silence.   A film recreation with jazz made him so angry that it may have contributed to his heart attack & death soon after he attended the premiere OxDicMod, MOMAH p242, Grove18 p119

Aim & Belief: The detachment of the immaterial spirit of creation from objects & commercial purposes.   “Malevich was actually standing before the infinite – I am in it”.   The removal of the subjective emotion from colour so imparting a metaphysical quality.   Monochrome is “an open window to freedom, as the the possibility of being immersed in the immeassurable existence of colour”  L&L, MOMAH p242, OxDicMod, Grove18 p117.

Friends: Arman, a sculptor best known for junk assemblages OxDicMod

Verdict: He was a showman OxDicArt.   His monochrome body images were probably his most powerful achievement: a  haunting, shadowy & sometimes sinister fusing of the corporeal & the disembodied OxDicMod

Status: He was one of the most influential figures in the European avant-garde during the post-war period.   The group Nouveaux Realists was founded in his studio in 1960.   However the group showed little interest in painting & Klein was the only painter OxDicMod, L&L, TurnerEtoPM p276,

Influence: This was on the development of Minimal art, thought most minimalists were non-religious & materialists OxDicMod

KLIMT, Gustav, 1862-1918, Austria:

Background: His father was an engraver OxDicMod

Training: 1876-83 at the School of Applied Arts, Vienna OxDicMod

Influences: Hans Mackart, Impressionism, Symbolism & Art Nouveau.   They included Fernant Khnopff, Jan Toorop & Aubrey Beardsley together with Byzantine & Mycenean art  OxDicMod, Grove18 p129

Career: 1892 saw the death of his father & his brother Ernst.   This led to depression (which also affected his mother & sister Klara) & henceforth it was recurrent Hodge2014 p13.   He finished Mackart’s staircase work in the Kuntshistoriches & quickly became successful as a painter of sumptuous decorative schemes.   In 1897 he left the conservative Vienna Artists Association & helped establish the Vienna Session.   From 1894 to 1905 he worked on the controversial allegorical murals for the University of Vienna.  During 1909-11 he produced mosaics for the dining room of the Palace Stocklet, Brussels.   He rarely left Vienna, except for summer visits to a lake district spa OxDicMod

Oeuvre: Portraits, landscapes Hodge2014

Speciality: Strong women & femmes fatales Hodges2014 p17

Phases: From about 1899 to 1910 Klimt’s paintings often included gold leaf & other embellishments Hodge2014 p41

Characteristics:  His figures are more or less naturalistic but clothing or background is embellished with rich decoration.   His works have an extraordinary lush sensuality OxDicMod.   The figures are in harmony with their backgrounds & in many cases it is difficult to tell tell where one ends & the other begins Hodge2014 pp 34-6, 38-57, 61-5, 101-2, 104, 106-110, 113, 115, 116, 118, 121-2, 125   His landscapes are dense all-over paintings of water, woodlands, fields, flowing meadows, or of buildings in close connection with creepers trees & each other.   There is little or no sky Hodge2014 pp 68-93      

Patronage: Official commissions dried up after 1905, but there was a large private demand for his work OxDicMod.  The majority of his sitters were the wives & sisters of the Viennese, often Jewish, haute bourgeoisie Grove18 p131

Relationships: He was exceptionally close to his mother & sister, with whom he mostly lived.   From the early 1890s he had a very close relationship with Emile Floge (Ernst’s wife’s sister), although it was probably platonic.   Klimt had numerous affairs with models etc, & at least 14 illegitimate children Hodge2014 pp 12-

Verdict: He superbly evokes an age of luxury & optimism OxDicArt.   There is a constant tension between ecstacy cum life & terror cum death.   Even his portrait figures appear to be defying fate.   Life’s seductions are more potent in death’s vicinity.   The two–dimensionality of his work negates space & time GibsonM p138

Repute: At the end 1890s he quickly switched from being an establishment figure to an avant-garde hero.   He was criticised by the Futurists as self-indulgent & irrelevant OxDicMod.   Karl Kraus was one of his most vocal & persistent critics Vergo pp 55, 83, 219.   

-KLINE, Franz, 1910-62:

Background: He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the son of a German father & an English mother OxDicMod

Training: Art at Boston University, 1931-5, & the Hatherley School of Art, London, 1937-8 OxDicMod

Influences: De Kooning & more important seeing his drawings enlarged by projector led to his move to abstraction OxDicMod

Career: In 1938 he settled permanently in New York

on white canvases & then, sometimes on glowing colours L&L, OxDicArt, Hughes pp 481-2

Characteristics/Phases: His early work was representational & included urban landscapes & portraits.   He switched to abstraction at the end of the 1940s in an expressive calligraphic style using bold black backgrounds on a white ground.   Late on he sometimes incorporated vivid colours OxDicMod, OxDicArt.   His best work indicates the barely controlled excitement of painting.   Everything seems to colliding, collapsing,  precariously rising, & evolving.   There are bars wedges & stormy masses Everitt p37, Anfam p46.   However, he was a deliberate painter as his use of the projector shows Hughes pp 480-1.

Aim: “Instead of making a sign you can read, you make a sign you can’t read” Anfam p46

Verdict: His best work was during the early & mid- 1950s when he produced superb monochromes, his later use of colour has been judged unsuccessful.   However, Andrus, 1961, has been seen as a renewal that was cut short Hughes p481, Anfam pp 46, 255

Grouping: Abstract Expressionism of which he was one of the most original exponents OxDicMod

*KLINGER, Max, 1857-1920, Austria:

Background: He was born in Leipzig L&L
Training: At the academies of Karlsruhe & Berlin L&L
Career: He spent the years 1833-6 in Paris, 1886-8 in Berlin & 1888-93 in Rome, sending work to avant-garde exhibitions in Vienna & Munich.   He retuned to Leipzig where he long worked on a synthesis of Christian & pagan concepts.   After about 1897 he gave priority to etching & sculpture OxDicArt, L&L
Oeuvre: Paintings, etchings & sculpture L&L
Characteristics: His work is complex, technically, stylistically & intellectually, full of symbols & fantasy OxDicArt.    His work like that of Stuck, Bocklin, Greiner, Kubin & Rops often conveys a sense of evil Lucie-S1972 p157.   However, his history paintings are somewhat more comfortable L&L
Grouping: Klinger was not associated with any movement but much of his work was Symbolist L&L
Innovations: His etchings foreshadow Surrealism OxDicArt

..KLINT, Hilma a, 1862-1944, Sweden:

Background: She was the daughter of a Swedish naval commander Wikip
Training: At Techniska Skolan in Stockholm & the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, 1882-7 Wikip
Influences: Her transition to abstraction was self-generated Wikip
Career: She painted orthodox art to earn money.   Her mystical studies began in 1879 & she belonged to a circle of women, The Five, who were inspired by Theosophy.   They held seances & recorded the messages they received from The High Masters.   Her abstracts were never publicly displayed Wikip.
Phases/Characteristics: As early as 1896 she engaged in automatic drawing & between 1906-8 & 1912-5  painted geometric abstracts under what she thought was the direction of The High Masters & for the Temple, though she never understood what this was.   She said they were painted swiftly & without thought or preliminary drawing.   They often depict symmetrical dualities, such as a bisected circle with differing colours to right & left, & feature letters & words.    Blue indicating female, yellow male, pink for physical love & red for red for spiritual.   After these works she continued without guidance to paint abstracts.   The temple works were mostly big oils & the later ones were smaller & sometimes in watercolour Wikip, Grove30 p711.
Repute: She directed that abstracts were to be secret for 20 years.   A Foundation was established for their exhibition & there a room dedicated to her work in Moderna Museet, Stockholm Wikip.

..KLUMPKE, Anna, 1856-1942:

Background: Her father was a wealthy realtor in San Francisco Wikip
Training: At the Academie Julian under Tony Robert-Fleury & Jules Lefebre, 1883-4 Wikip
Career: During childhood she became crippled.   She first exhibited at the Salon in 1884.   Attempted treatment in Europe let to her parents separation & divorce.  She went to a Swiss boarding school & in 1877 the family moved to Paris.    She exhibited at the Salon in 1884 &, after training, returning to America for some years, taught in Boston but was back in Paris by 1889.   In 1895 she met Rosa Bonheur by whom she had been fascinated since childhood.   By 1998 they were in love & living together with Bonheaur providing a studio & Klumpke painting her etc.   When Bonheur died in 1899 Klumpke inherited her estate & set up a memorial museum etc.   She now divided her time between France, Boston, & San Francisco where she settled during the 1930s.   During the War she had set up a military convalescent hospital Wikip
Oeuvre: Mainly genre, often pastoral scenes with female figures, together with portraits, often female Wikip

–KLYUN, Ivan, 1873-1942, Russia:

Background: He was born at Bol’shiye Gorky in Vladimir province Grove18 p141

Training: In Warsaw, Kiev & Moscow L&L
Influences: The Purists & Leger etc led to his   return to representational painting in the mid-1920s L&L
Career: He was close to Malevich from 1913, joined the Union of Youth group, & contributed to their final exhibition during 1913-4.   He signed Malevich’s Suprematist Manifesto, 1915 but broke with him & it 1919.   In 1917 he started directing the Commission for Enlightenment’s exhibition programme & from 1918 taught at the Higher Artistic Technical Studios & the Free Art Studios.  He was denounced by Beskin during the campaign for Socialist Realism during the early 1930s Grove18 p141, Bown1991 p119
Oeuvre: Painting, & around 1915 abstract sculptural reliefs Grove18 p141
Phases: Initially his work was Symbolist.   Around 1917 he produced small Suprematist works depicting single geometric forms in various colours against white backgrounds.   During the 1920 he turned to practical design work but he contributed to the exhibition of Easel Painters in 1925.   After experimentation he finally adopted a simplified figurative style resembling Purism L&L, Grove18 p141

-KNAPTON, George, 1698-1778, England; British Golden Age

Background:  He was the son of a city merchant Grove18 p142

Training: Under Jonathan Richardson & then at the St Martin’s Lane Academy Wikip, L&L

Career: In 1723 he was a founder –member of the Roman Club, a society of literary men & artists with aspirations to connoisseurship.  During 1725-32 he was in Italy where he studied painting acquiring s very correct judgement concerning the arts, produced a few portraits & landscapes & befriended numerous Grand Tourists.  In 1736 he became a founder member of the Society of Dilettanti.  This was dining club of former visitors to Italy which hoped to promote the arts.  After a trip to see the ruins at Herculaneum, he began painting his fellow members, becoming the Society’s first official portraitist in 1740.  He was the art adviser to Frederick Prince of Wales & he & George Vertue were commissioned to produce a catalogue of pictures at Kensington Palace, Hampton Court & Windsor in 1850; & then became Surveyor & Keeper of the King’s pictures in 1765 Grove18 p142, Wikip, Walpole 2 p326, Solkin2015 p133, L&L, BurkeJ p176.

Oeuvre: Portraits in oils & pastel L&L, Grove18 p142

Characteristics: He painted lively & direct portraits of individuals  of a  highly accomplished & painterly type as in Portrait of a Woman (Yale Centre of British, 1735-45).  She is looking confidently  at the viewer & the work is enhanced by the bouquet & staff which she is holding; & he makes excellent use of his customary silver grey to depict her clothing.  Another striking [as in] work is his group portrait of Dr Samuel Watham with his Wife & Children, 1755 (Birmingham City Art Gallery) with its animated figures & areas of distinctive pale olive colour.  Knapton’s work is highly diverse & includes for instance an [as in] interesting sporting work The Hon John Spencer & his son out Shooting, 1745 (Althorp House, Northants) with its landscape background & black servant who has an important role because he is restraining the dog  L&L, web images, Grove18 p142

Speciality: During 1741- 49 he completed 23 of Dilettanti members.  They are in three quarter formats, have animated poses & many wear fancy dress as in Samuel Savage, 1744 (Society of Dilettanti, London) Grove 18 pp 142-43, Solkin 2015 p133, L&L

Innovation: His Dilettanti portraits are distinctively at odds with contemporary norms.   They are seria ludo: the serious playfulness of a highly refined game in which elite identities are simultaneously asserted & undermined, as in the Italian masquerade in which the Dilettanti had engaged, & upon which the club’s own rituals were based, as in his pleasing & accomplished Portrait of Charles Sackville (Society of Dilettanti, London) during the Florentine Saturnalia of 1738 in which he is pictured as a Roman consul returning from a campaign although he had devoted his Grand Tour to cultivating a reputation for libertine excess.  Another important innovatory feature of his Dilettanti portraits was that they were intended to hang together & have a collective identity. Although  Knapton’s Dilettanti portraits followed in the footsteps of Kneller’s Kit-cat club portraits they were innovatory because of their humorous fancy dress  L&L, Waterhouse 1953 pp 165-66, Solkin 2015 pp 133-4, WestS1996

Features: He used Van Aken for drapery  Waterhouse1953 p167.  The Family of Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1851 (Windsor Castle).  This is a masterly work in rich colour with strong  chiaroscuro in which the figures make striking gestures & the young royal children are playing in front of the looming background portrait of the late Prince.  However, it has like all his large-scale works been thought a failure because of its lack of a necessary Grand Manner webimage, BurkeJ pp 176-77, Grove18 p142.  Such a verdict indicates that its author, an art historian at the Paul Mellon Centre, was in need of a sight test.  The painting is a supreme example of Grand Manner painting.  According to the Royal Collection Trust, which owns the work, it is the most original & perhaps the only allegorical image of a constitutional monarchy.  To the left of the enthroned Princess, wearing a mourning veil, is a statue of Britannia below which there is a crown, a Cap of Liberty, & documents inscribed Magna Charta & Act of Settlement Web entry for the painting.  Surely such a picture qualifies as Grand Manner?

 Grouping: [He belonged to the British Golden Age & his Dilettanti Portraits reflect a new consciousness among artists that British painting & British artists had entered a new & distinct phase.]

 Patronage: After his return from Italy, he made good use of his contacts to obtain commissions Grove18 p142

 Repute: He is not itemised in the Oxford Companion,  or more than mentioned in many of the most obvious sources, though Sir Joseph Burke was an honourable exception.   Knapton has long been regarded as a minor painter & is in the tradition of John Riley & Jonathan  Richardson with an old-fashioned technique so that he fails to apply paint in such a way that his work is a pleasure to look at BurkeJ pp 176-77, Redgrave p18, Waterhouse1953 pp165-66

Verdict: [The failure of so many art historians to recognise Knapton’s originality & greatness or even to seriously look at his work reflects badly on the objectivity & dedication of art historians.]

Pupils: Francis Cotes L&L

Brother: Charles, 1700-60, was also an artist Wikip

KNAUS, Ludwig, 1829-1910, Germany:

Background: He was born at Wiesbaden Norman1977
Training: From 1846 at the Dusseldorf Academy under Shadow & Sohn Norman1977
Career: During 1852-60 he mainly lived in Paris but travelled to England & Italy.   After a stay in Berlin he settled at Dusseldorf, 1867-74, but then returned to Berlin Norman1977
Oeuvre: He almost exclusively painted peasant scenes Norman1977
Phases: His earlier work was the freshest Norman1977
Characteristics: His work was anecdotal emphasizing the psychology of his characters.   His brushwork was fluent & his palette bright & dominated by a golden tone Norman1977
Circle: Lessing & the Realist faction at Dusseldorf Norman1977
Status: in the late 19^th century his international renown was only matched by Menzel among German painters Norman1977
Grouping: The Dusseldorf School Norman1977
Influence: From 1860 the example of his cheerful village scenes can be traced throughout Europe Norman1977

*KNELLER, Sir Godfrey/Godfried, 1646-1723, England (Germany); Baroque

Background: He was born in Lubeck, where his father was the city surveyor W&M p192.   The dullness of much of his late works was due to the lack of stimulating & understanding patrons, of which Richardson complained Stewart p8

Training: Ferdinand Bologna (Rembrandt’s pupil) in Amsterdam; then in Italy OxDicArt

Influences: Mignard, Voet, Maratta, Baciccia & Bombelli (early on)  W&M p193, Piper p142

Career: During 1672-75 he was in Italy where he encountered Maratta & Baciccia.   Around 1675 he moved to England.   In 1689 he became Principal Painter, initially with Riley.  In 1692 he was knighted & he became a Baronet in 1715 OxDicArt.   During  1690-1 he painted the full-length Hampton Court Beauties.   He also painted a series of Admirals &  the 1702-17 Kit-Cat Club portraits, 1702-17.   During 1711- 6 he was Governor of the first art Academy in London Waterhouse1953 pp 141-2

Oeuvre: Mass produced fashionable portraits with sitters only posing for the drawing of the face & with the help of a large team of specialised (mainly foreign) assistants OxDicArt

Farming Out: He employed Gaspars to paint postures Waterhouse1953 p98

Phases: His early portraits are Bol-like but around 1677 his style changed & from 1685 was more or less his mature with Lely-like poses & unquiet gestures, but with the figures stiffened up Waterhouse1953 pp 138-9.   After a trip to Brussels in 1697 in which he studied the works of Rubens he lightened his palette & introduced more bravura Grove18 p145.   In his later years much of his work was perfunctory with an increasing use of tiresome mannerisms W&M p196.   However there was greater characterisation in some final portraits, eg the melancholy in the images of Pope & Jacob Tonson Piper p147.

Feature: Sitters’ mouths are almost invariably tight shut & the lips of the men seldom give any indication of feeling save for hostility & arrogance.   However, a few of the women display the trace of a smile, as in his portrait of Lady Wortley Montague ArtUK

Characteristics: His average portrait was slick & mechanical & for male sitters monotonous, though this was partly due to heavy fashionable wigs OxDicArt.   The niceties of character, & very often all character, were omitted Piper p145.   Indeed much of his artwork displays a downright shoddiness Waterhouse1953 p145.   Almost all his women are insipid with formulaic elongated eyes, rubber-stamp mouths that are full but succinct Piper pp 142-5.   Nevertheless he was capable of better work & was less elegant & more forthright than Lely OxDicArt.   He was able to paint a face with admirable economy & even his inferior work has a certain virility & down-earth-quality Waterhouse1953 p13.   He lacked Lely’s richness of texture & his early work was very thin & tended to brown monochrome W&M p193.   Even where he took pains he generally played down most of the composition in order to throw greater force into the head, an unworthy trick.   Walpole thought his heads were extremely graceful with admirably disposed hair, though the draperies were carelessly finished Walpole2 p204.   His sitters are seen from below as if they existed on some more elevated plane HookJ p80.  

Issue: His work raises the problem of whether to judge according to his run of the mill productions or his best work.    Waterhouse, who says Kneller can only be usefully judged from his outstanding work, notes his wonderfully sharp eye for character Waterhouse1953 pp 138-9.

Aim: He was obsessed with capturing the likeness of his sitters Grove18 p146.

Innovations: Kneller popularised, although he did not invent the hand-in-waistcoat portrait Solkin2015 pp 86-7.  He was one of first to paint documentary likeness of a historical personality rather than a work of art.   He produced one of the first actor portraits in a character part  Waterhouse1953 pp 138-9.   He was the last foreign-born artist to dominate English painting OxDicArt.  

Period: Kneller’s standardised faces were partly due to the temper of age with the Augustan face as a polite urbane mask Piper p145.   His shoddy work mirrors the period’s cynicismWaterhouse1953 p138

Politics: He was a Whig as his Kit-Cat association shows W&M p199

Gossip: He reportedly had up to 14 sitters daily OxDicArt.   Kneller assaulted an investigator from the Painter-Stainer company W&M p194.   He had an affair with a Quaker’s wife whom he purchased (sic) & by whom he had a daughter Walpole2 p210

Status: He was the leading portraitist in England in the late 17^th century & early 18^th  century OxDicArt

Grouping: He has been regarded as a Baroque painter, although his  latter work has been thought Rococo-like HookJ p186, W&M p196.   [However, he does not qualify as true Baroque: his work lacks the necessary dramatic & theatrical element.]    His earlier work fits [with that of Maratta] into Baroque classicism Grove18 p145.

Personal: His arrogance & conceit were legendary & he lived in great state in a country House at Whitton W&M pp 104, 197

Repute: During the latter part of the 18^th century he fell into low esteem because of the difficulty of deciding which works were by his own hand & the belief that he was merely motivated by money. Walpole said he painted one picture for fame but sacrificed 20 to lucre & had consummate negligence.   Not until the early 20^th century with the work of Collins Baker was he ere-evaluated Walpole2 p202

–KNIGHT, Dame Laura, 1877-1970, England:

Background: She was from a Derbyshire lace-making family.   Her mother & father parted before her birth & she gave art lessons SpenceFT 13/7/2013, Fox p97

Training: 1889-94 at the Nottingham  School of Art where she bitterly resented being banned from the life class OxDicMod, SpenceFT13/7/2013

Influences: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Israels,  etc, as seen on three visits to Holland while at Staithes Fox p98, ShearerW1996

Career: At 12 she spent a year with a great aunt in S. Quentin & had lessons from a local artist SpenceFT 13/7/2013, Fox p97.   In 1903 she  married Harrold her fellow student.  They went to live at Staithes, a dour fishing village on the North Yorkshire coast, which she loved.    Between 1907 & 1918 they lived at Newlyn.   They lived a belated “carefree life of sunlit pleasure” working hard all day & dancing half the night away, etc.   In 1918 London they settled in London, although for some years they returned to Cornwall to paint during the summer Fox pp 98, 102.   During World War II she became an Official War Artist & in 1946 went to Nuremberg to record the war trials OxDicMod

Oeuvre: Genre scenes, portraits, etchings from 1922, & ceramic & glass design during the 1930s ShearerW1996

Phases/Characteristics: Her sombre Dutch inspired paintings at Staithes, often dark cottage interiors,  were succeeded by Newlyn School landscapes, & beech scenes in which figures were set against the immensity of sea & sky.   Her palette became much brighter & her technique more Impressionistic.   After the War she painted ballet, circus, & finally gypsy scenes ShearerW1996, McConkey1989 pp133-5.   Her Newlyn paintings have joie de vivre & her ballet scenes have a snapshot quality Fox p99, SpenceFT 13/7/13.   During the war she produced precise images of factory work & airmen ShearerW1996

Status: During the inter-war period she was one of the most highly regarded British artists OxDicMod

Clientele:  At 36 she was “able to sell everything I touched” Spence FT 13/7/2013

Grouping: Realism at Staithes & then British Impressionism at Newlyn McConkey1989 pp 133-5

First: In 1936 she became the first female RA since 1768 OxDicMod

Repute: By 1977 it had sunk low.   The Oxford History of English Art 1870-1940 she received an incidental mention of 15 words Farr p339.   [Her work is now celebrated.]

..KNIGHT, Harold, 1874-1961, Laura’s husband, England:

Background: He was born in Nottingham, the son of an architect & amateur artist Fox1985 p119

Training: Nottingham School of art under William Foster, where he met Laura, & then in 1904 to Paris at the Atelier Julian under Constant & Laurens Fox1985 p119, McConkey1989 p157

Career: In 1894 he went to Staithes, in 1905 to Holland spending time in Amsterdam & Laren, & in 1907 to Newlyn.   He started exhibiting at the RA in 1896 & became an RA in 1937.   He was a conscientious objector & was forced to work on the land in deep isolation & depression.   After the war he was happy to move to London Fox1985 pp119-21

Oeuvre: Genre & portraits Fox1985 pp119-21

Phases/Characteristics: Initially genre scenes of fishing communities & peasants in Staithes, Holland & Newlyn.   At Staithes he painted sombre, tonal, Realist scenes but  at Newlyn he brightened his colours & painted a series of impressionistic outdoor leisure scenes & women in more superior interiors.   His best period was probably before the War Fox1985 pp 119-20, McConkey pp 7, 133, 157

Personal: He was quiet & reserved & cynically humorous Fox1985 p119

Grouping: English Impressionism McConkey1989

..KNIGHTS, Winifred, 1899-1947, England:

Background:  She was born in Streatham, South London.   Her father was a prosperous sugar merchant in the City E&L p98

Training: She enrolled at the Slade in 1915 &, after a year out, returned in 1918, studying under Tonks & Fred Brown.   From 1920 to 1925 she studied at the British School in Rome E&L p98, Wikip.

Influences: Early Italian Renaissance art, together with social & personal concerns such as war & peace, & women’s working rights E&L p98

Career: In 1920 she was the first woman to win the Rome Scholarship in Decorative Painting.   She married fellow student Thomas Monnington in 1924, they had a son in 1934, but she painted less & less E&L

Repute:  Her work was little known until a retrospective exhibition at Dulwich in 2016 E&L p98

Non-Modernism: The history of The Marriage of Cana, 1923, [is significant].   It toured internationally, was put into storage at the Tate, was hung on an inaccessible stairwell in the British School’s London office, was turned down by the Tate & the Fitzwilliam Museum, but in 1958 it was finally accepted by the National Art Gallery of New Zealand Wikip

Grouping:  She participated in the revival of religious imagery in the 1920s Wikip

..KNUPFER, Nicolaus, c1605-55, Netherlands (Germany)= Utrecht:

Background: He was born & trained in Leipzig NGUtrecht p62
Career: During the late 1620s he went to Utrecht & became Abraham Bloemaert’s assistant NGUtrecht p62
Oeuvre: He painted biblical, mythological, literary & genre subjects NGUtrecht p62.
Characteristics: His paintings were usually small & he frequently employed dramatic poses using bold strokes with flashing white highlights.   He did not lack talent, his work has humour & he tells a good story NGUtrecht p63, Haak p319
Pupils: These were numerous & included Jan Steen & Pieter Volmarijn NGUtrecht p62, Haak p319

-KNYFF/KNIJFF, Leonard, 1650-1722, Netherlands:

Background: He was born in Haarlem the son of the painter Wouter Knijff, & the brother of the marine painter Jacob Wikip
Career: He moved to London around 1681 & stayed apart from trips to the Netherlands.   He collaborated with Jan Kip on producing Britannia Illustrata, 1708-9, which is illustrated with meticulously detailed topographical views of palaces & country houses, together with their formal gardens, soon to disappear,  & amusingly depicted figures & horses L&L, Wikip.
Oeuvre: Landscapes, animals, & occasional portraits L&L

-Ferdinand KOBELL, Wilhelm’s father, 1740-99, Germany; 

Background: He was born at Mannheim Grove18 p173
Training: At the Zeichnungsakademie in Mannheim under Peter von Verschaffelt Grove18 p173
Influences: Italianate Dutch 17^th century landscape painters & Claude Grove18 p174.
Career: After studying law he became a secretary to the Electoral court in Mannheim   After art training he was between 1764 & 1766 a scenery painter & then had an Electoral painting post.   In 1768 he was sent to Paris to learn etching & on his return was in 1771 appointed Cabinetts –Landschaftsmaller.   In 1786 he was commissioned by the Elector Archbishop of Mainz to produce a series of landscapes which are his most important works.   In 1798 he became Director of the Director of the Mannheim Gamalde Galerie in Munich.    In his later years he did little painting Grove18 pp 173-4
Oeuvre: Paintings & etchings Grove18 p173
Characteristics: His landscapes are mainly an ideal image based on plein air studies.   However his paintings for the Elector Archbishop portray an identifiable landscape & foreshadow 19^th century Realist landscape Grove18 p174.
Innovation/Influence: A light source that was realistic, & which influenced 19^th century landscapists Grove18 p174

-Wilhelm von KOBELL, 1766-1855, Ferdinand’s son, Germany:

Background: He was born in Mannheim Grove18 p175
Training: His father & at the Mannheim Academy Norman1977
Influences: Dillis & Horace Vernet in Paris, 1809-10 Norman1977
Career: In 1792 he became court painter in Munich & between 1814 & 1826 was professor at the Munich Academy until the post was discontinued by Cornelius as too trivial.   However, he remained popular with the bourgeois patrons of Biedermeier painting Norman1977
Oeuvre: landscape paintings.   Also, a series of large works commissioned by Prince Ludwig depicting Bavarian heroism against Napoleon Norman1977
Phases: Initially his works were like the Dutch 17^th century masters Norman1977
Characteristics: Panoramic views with low linear horizons & sunlit foreground figures caught with crystalline clarity Norman1977
Innovations: He founded the Munich School Norman1977

-KOBKE, Christen, 1810-48, Denmark:

Background: His father was a master baker JacksonD p115

Training: During 1822-33 he was at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; & from 1828 under Eckersberg JacksonD p115

Influences: Eckersberg’s Roman views at his studio apartment.   Constable is not mentioned in Kobke’s letters but his work was widely known JacksonD pp 27, 42.   The nationalist art historian Hoyen, whom he met in 1831 JacksonD pp 47-8

Career: In 1819 the family moved to the Citadel just outside the Copenhagen ramparts, where his father worked until 1833.   His first success was in 1831 when pictures were purchased by the Fine Art Society.   In 1832 he rented a studio with his friend Sodring.   In 1833 the family moved house & Kobke set up a studio there.   During 1837 he married his cousin.   In 1838-40 he was in Italy (mainly Naples), where he travelled via Germany & Austria JacksonD pp 115-6

Oeuvre: Landscapes, buildings & portraits Grove18 pp 177-80

Technique: Despite his preoccupation with realism, he subtly altered details to achieve greater monumentality & panoramic sweep in accord, as inspired by the classical tradition of landscape & Claude whom he greatly admired Grove18 p180

Speciality: The rendering of architectural silhouettes & the light of the Danish sky Grove18 p178.

Characteristics: Paintings with contrasts involving large masses of bright colour, often some variation of pink on red NG1984 p48

Grouping: He painted numerous Luminist landscapes Wilmerding p226

Gossip: He never went further from home than where could get back to dinner NG1984 p12

Verdict: He was the supreme Golden Age painter & its most adventurous colourist NG1984 p48

Repute: This was not great in Danish cultural circles until around 1900 NG1984 p42

-KOBKE, Christen, 1810-48, Denmark:

Background: His father was a master baker JacksonD p115

Training: During 1822-33 he was at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; & from 1828 under Eckersberg JacksonD p115

Influences: Eckersberg’s Roman views at his studio apartment.   Constable is not mentioned in Kobke’s letters but his work was widely known JacksonD pp 27, 42.   The nationalist art historian Hoyen, whom he met in 1831 JacksonD pp 47-8

Career: In 1819 the family moved to the Citadel just outside the Copenhagen ramparts, where his father worked until 1833.   His first success was in 1831 when pictures were purchased by the Fine Art Society.   In 1832 he rented a studio with his friend Sodring.   In 1833 the family moved house & Kobke set up a studio there.   During 1837 he married his cousin.   In 1838-40 he was in Italy (mainly Naples), where he travelled via Germany & Austria JacksonD pp 115-6

Oeuvre: Landscapes, buildings & portraits Grove18 pp 177-80

Technique: Despite his preoccupation with realism, he subtly altered details to achieve greater monumentality & panoramic sweep in accord, as inspired by the classical tradition of landscape & Claude whom he greatly admired Grove18 p180

Speciality: The rendering of architectural silhouettes & the light of the Danish sky Grove18 p178.

Characteristics: Paintings with contrasts involving large masses of bright colour, often some variation of pink on red NG1984 p48

Grouping: He painted numerous Luminist landscapes Wilmerding p226

Gossip: He never went further from home than where could get back to dinner NG1984 p12

Verdict: He was the supreme Golden Age painter & its most adventurous colourist NG1984 p48

Repute: This was not great in Danish cultural circles until around 1900 NG1984 p42

*KOCH, Joseph, 1768-1839, Austria; Nazarene Movement

Background: He was born in Obergilbeln in the Tyrol & his father was a peasant Norman1987 p172

Training: 1791 at the Stuttgart art School under von Hetch who was a pupil of David.   However, he disliked the conventional artistic instruction & left Norman1987 p172, Grove18 p182

Influences: Claude & Poussin together with the Neoclassicism of Carstens & Thorvaldsen in Rome.   He was later influenced by the Nazarenes with whom he worked Norman1987 p172, L&L, OxDicArt.

Career: Between 1791 & 94 he made sketching trips in the Swiss Alps.   In 1795 he settled in Rome, sketched in the Campagna & became & became an important member of the group of northern artist.   Koch heard about Kant’s theory of the mathematical sublime (where the mind is overwhelmed by the vastness of nature) through lectures (1795) by the critic Carl Fernow.   In 1806 he married a peasant’s daughter from Olevano.   During 1812-15 he was temporarily in Vienna which was a centre of the medieval revival.   Here Schlegel encouraged him to focus on medieval themes & he was in contact with the Nazarenes, with several of whom he was in 1825-8 to paint a fresco cycle in the Villa Massimo in Rome.   Koch was interested in the natural sciences & romantic philosophy Grove18 pp182-3, L&L, Norman pp 172, 175

Oeuvre: landscape & History paintings L&L

Specialities: Mountain landscapes L&L

Characteristics: His work features clear lighting & a precise rendering of forms L&L.   Although his works show the grandeur & sublimity of nature there is an almost complete exclusion of mood.   The light is generally cold, clear, neutral & factual Novotny pp 70-1

Status: Although Koch has been treated as a Biedermier artist, he is [more properly] seen as a traditional figure who heightened the grandeur, structural clarity, linearity, detailing & scientific accuracy of the classical landscapes of Claude, Lorraine & Dughet.   He gave Ideal landscape a more heroic direction by moving from the traditional sites to mountain scenery.   He was a bridge between Neoclassicism & Romanticism Norman1987, Grove18 pp182-3, L&L

Influence: It was powerful on 19^th century German landscape & he inspiring the young Germans who went to Rome, viz Fohr, Richter, Preller, Rotmann as well as the Oliviers Norman1987 p172, Grove18 p182

..Barend Cornelis KOEKKOEK, 1803-62, son of Johannes Hermanus & brother of Marinus & Johannes, Netherlands:

Background: He was born at Middleburg Norman1977
Training: His father Norman1977
Influences: Hobbema & Wijnants Norman1977
Career: He travelled extensively in Germany,Switzerland & Belgium.   In 1841 he settled at Cleves where he started an art school.   He exhibited at the Salon & was awarded various honours Norman1977
Oeuvre: Mostly wooded landscapes & snow scenes Norman1977
Characteristics: Luminous skies & careful brushwork Norman1977
Status: He was the most important member of the family Norman1977
Grouping: The Dutch Romantic school Norman1977
Reception: He was criticised for inkling

..Hermanus KOEKKOEK, son of Johannes Hermanus & brother of Barend Cornelis, Marius & Johannes, 1815-82:

Training: His father Macconnal-Mason site
Oeuvre: Scenes of daily life along the Dutch coast & river landscapes Norman1977, Macconnal-Mason site
Career: He worked in Dugerdam & Amsterdam Macconnal-Mason site
Characteristics: He had looser brushwork than his father & brothers Norman1977
Grouping: He can be termed a Romantic Macconnal-Mason site

..Johannes Hermanus KOEKKOEK,  1778-1851, the father of the line,  his sons were Barend Cornelis, Marius & also Johannes, 1811-31, Netherlands:

Background: He was born at Veere Norman1977
Training: Self-taught Norman1977
Oeuvre: Marine & river views Norman1977
Characteristics: Careful detail, clear colours & a smooth satin finish Norman1977

..Johannes Hermanus Barend KOEKKOEK, Johannes Hermanus’ son & Willem’s brother, 1840-1912:

Influences: He came under the influence of the Hague School Wikip
Oeuvre; Beach & marine scenes, landscapes Norman1977, Wikip,
Phases: He started in the Romantic vein of his father & his works were carefully painted with fine detailing.   After 1864 his style was more Realist & his works were painted more freely Wikip, Daatsellar

..Marinus KOEKKOEK, 1807-68, son of Johannes Hermanus & brother of Barend Cornelis & Johannes, Netherlands:

Background: He was born at Middleburg Wikip
Career: He mostly worked in Hilversum & Amsterdam Wikip
Oeuvre: He was a landscape painter of distinction Norman1977

..Willem KOEKKOEK, 1839-95, Heramus’ son & brother of Johannes Hermanus Barend, Netherlands:

Background: He was born in Amsterdam Wikip
Career: He worked in The Hague, Utrecht & Amsterdam but moved to London in 1881 Norman1977, Wikip
Oeuvre: Landscapes & townscapes National Gallery

[The Koekkoeks were probably the last of the great dynasties of painters that were, especially in the Low Countries, such a feature of art before the 19th century.]

**KOKOSCHKA, Oskar, 1886-1980, Austria/Czechoslovakia; Expressionism Movement

Background: He was born in Pochlarn in Bohemia with Austrian & Czech parents L&L, OxDicMod

Training: Between 1905 & 1909 at the School of Arts & Crafts, though he also worked at the Wiener Werkstatatte painting fans & designing postcards etc OxDicMod.   However, he was not taught painting & was self-taught Dube p180

Influences: A Van Gogh exhibition of 1906 made a big impression.   He adopted Klimt’s strictly linear style in drawing  Dube p180

Career: He mainly grew up in Vienna.   In 1908 he exhibited at the Kunstschau exhibition organised by the Klimt circle; & during 1909-10 his psychological portraits began to make an impact.   Two of his plays were performed in 1909.   He had a tumultuous relationship during 1909-12 with Alma Mahler, the composer’s widow.  OxDicMod, L&L.   In 1910 he went to Berlin where, with Herwarth Walden, he founded Der Sturm, the first German magazine for contemporary art Dube p180.    He volunteered for the Austrian army & during 1915 he was badly wounded & in 1916 suffered shell-shock.   In 1917 he settled in Dresden where he taught at the Academy, 1919-24.   This was followed by a period of travel & during the early 1930s he lived in Paris.   However, he disliked the city & returned to Vienna, but left for Prague in 1934 OxDicMod, L&L.   Here he met Olda Palkovska, his future wife, & became friendly with Masaryk Faerna p8.   In 1938 he fled to Britain & spent the war years in London, Cornwall & Scotland.   He settled finally at Villeneuve in Switzerland, 1953, but until 1963 gave Summer Schools on Seeing at Salzburg OxDicMod, L&L

Oeuvre: Portraits, landscapes, religious & political subjects, graphic work, plays etc OxDicMod, Dube p185, Faerna p9

Phases: Between 1909 & 1912 he painted portraits that are seen as the first to reveal modern existential anxieties.   During the latter 1920s he increasingly painted landscapes.   His most important  works in his later years are allegorical & mythological L&L, OxDicMod.

Characteristics: He was throughout steadfastly unaffected by artistic developments & continued to pursue his highly personal & imaginative version of pre-1914 Expressionism OxDicMod.   In his early portraits he projected his own anguish & torment on to his sitter giving them an hallucinatory quality Dube p184.   From around 1919 his paintings began to take on the edgy palette dominated by yellows, blues & greens characteristic of German Expressionism Faerna p8

Circle: From 1908 he was in contact with the architect Adolf Loos, the writer Kraus, the composer Schonberg & others in the intellectual avant-garde Dube p182, L&L

Kokoscha’s tapestry designs & picture book at the Kuntschau exhibition attracted the attention of Adolf Loos who promised to solicit commissions for him & provide financial support if he would leave the Werkstatte Dube pp 181-2.   Kraus, when referring to Kokoscha said that the truth of a genius that distorts is higher than that of anatomy.   In the presence of art reality is only an optical illusion Dube p184

Beliefs: Kokoschka called the projection of himself on to his sitters the fourth dimension Dube p184.   He was from about 1931 outspokenly opposed to the Nazis OxDicMod

Feature: In 1919 he commissioned a life-size & hyper-realistic doll in the image of Alma Mahler to use as model & companion L&L, Faerna p22

Repute: His earlier work was received with contempt in Vienna, but not in Germany Dube pp 184-5.   His painting in England failed to arouse interest with the public L&L

..KOLLER, Rudolf, 1828-1905, Switzerland:

Background: He was born in Zurich.   His father owned a brewery Norman1977
Training: In Zurich with Schweizer, Obrist & Ulrich; & at the Dusseldorf Academy Norman1977
Influences: Troyen & Breton Norman1977
Career: In 1847 visited Brussels & Antwerp with Bocklin; & in 1848 Paris, to which he subsequently returned every year or so Norman1977
Oeuvre: He was an animal & landscape painter who tried to interpret the mood & mystery of nature Norman1977
Status: A Realist Norman1977

*KOLLOWITZ, Kathe, 1867-1945, Germany:

Background: She was born in Konigsburg where her father was a prosperous & politically radical businessman MacGregor pp 397, 400

Training: At the Berlin School of Art, 1884, & in Munich, 1887 ShearerW1996

Influences: She lived in a small flat which was unsuitable for oils & large canvases MacGregor p400.   Max Klinger’s in his pamphlet Painting & Drawing (1891) argued that graphics were best for portraying  resignation & misery OxDicMod

Career: In 1891 she married a doctor who worked among the Berlin poor & lived in the working class district of Prenzlauer Berg.   She got to know women who visited her  husband.   During 1893-7 she had her first great success with etchings of The Silesian Weavers’ Revolt, but was turned down for medal by the Kaiser’s advisory committee because of her unvarnished naturalism.    In 1902-8 Kollowitz produced her print cycle illustrating the Peasants’ war during the 1520s.   She helped her son Hans to join the army, & persuaded her husband to let the underage Peter volunteer.   He was soon killed & she went into deep depression.   She became hostile to militarism & the War; & after it was over a pacificist.   Her 1924 print cycle Krieg showed the suffering on the home front.   She became more overtly political with her Memorial to Karl Liebknecht & a series of posters including Bread!, 1924.   In 1927 she visited Russia but was not impressed.   In 1933 she was forced to resign from the Berlin Academy – of she had become the first woman member in 1919- & she was banned from exhibiting by the Nazis.    In 1935 she produced her print cycle Death & was visited & threatened by the Gestapo MacGregor pp 400-5, 412; OxDicMod, ShearerW1996

Oeuvre: Graphic art & sculpture L&L

Characteristics: Her work displays a traditional Christian image of suffering & a capacity for compassion MacGregor p400.   It is uncompromisingly serious & often deeply pessimistic OxDicMod

Grouping: She is often classed as an Expressionist but her work is better considered as a mix of Symbolism & Social Realism OxDicMod

Verdict: Her work is a highpoint of 20^th century graphic art OxDicMod

Politics: She was against revolutionary Communism, as she had seen too much hatred with state building on that not God’s work.   In 1932 she signed the Urgent Call for Unity encouraging voters to reject the Nazis in 1932 elections MacGregor pp 410-12

Beliefs: moved by women visiting husband but compassion initially unimportant; simply found proletarian life beautiful (1941) MacGregor p400

Friends: Liebknecht OxDicMod

Reception: Berlin national collections bought  her work in 1902 & 1905 L&L.   Her work was criticised by the Communists for its pessimism.   She was never declared a Degenerate OxDicMod

-Jacob KONINCK the elder, c1614-active 1690, Philips’ brother & Solomon’s cousin, Netherlands=Amsterdam etc:

Background: He was born in Amsterdam the son of a goldsmith  Grove18 p228
Influences: Jan Lievens Grove18 p228
Career: In 1633 he was in Dordrecht & from 1637 to 1645 was in Rotterdam.   He then moved to The Hague, to Amsterdam in 1651, to Copenhagen around 1676, having quarreled with guild members who accused him of unfair competition, but returned to Amsterdam.   He struggled with financial difficulties throughout his life Grove18 p228
Oeuvre: Landscapes Grove18 p228

-Philips (de) KONINCK, 1619-88, Jacob’s brother & Solomon’s cousin, Netherlands=Amsterdam:

Background: He was born in Amsterdam Grove18 p228
Training: His brother L&L
Influences: Rembrandt & Seghers L&L
Career: Around 1640 he returned to Amsterdam & associated with Rembrandt  L&L.  He ran prosperous shipping firm & during his final decade painted little OxDicArt
Oeuvre: Landscapes, genre & portraits L&L.   He was a prolific draftsman OxDicArt
Characteristics: His landscapes are panoramic with realistic scenery, unbroken horizons, subtle alternations of luminous sunlight & transparent shadow under carefully studied cloudy skies L&L
Verdict: His landscapes rival Ruisdael’s OxDicArt

-Solomon KONINCK, 1609-56, cousin of  Phillips & Jacob, Netherlands:

Background: Born Amsterdam Grove18 p227
Training: After drawing lessons, he was apprenticed to Francois Venant, who was Lastman’s brother-in-law, & finally Claes Moeyaert Grove18 p227.
Influences: Rembrandt, Rubens & Dou Grove18 p228
Career: By 1632 he was a member of the Guild of St Luke Grove18 p227.
Oeuvre: Men engaged in activities, religious & historical scenes L&L, Grove18 p228
Characteristics/Verdict: He imitated Rembrandt in pictures of hermits, old men & philosophers in their studies; & he exaggerated Rembrandt’s early predilection for rich & exotic costumes, dramatic gestures & light & shadow contrasts.   His detailing is too meticulous, with an emphasis on books & other accessories, & his religious paintings are merely theatrical OxDicArt, Grove18 pp227-8
Grouping: He was a Fine Painter Grove18 p227

Kooning.   See De Kooning

..KORIN, Pavel, 1892-1967, Russia:

Background: He was born at Palekh Bown1991 p243
Training: At the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture under Korovin & Malyutin, 1912-16 Bown1991 p243
Career: During 1908-11 he worked in the icon-painting studios of the Donski monastery in Moscow.   In 1918-19 he taught at the Moscow Free Art Studios, & during 1919-22 he made anatomical drawings in the anatomy theatre of the 1^st Moscow University.   From 1932 to 59 he ran the restoration studios at the Pushkin Museum Bown1991 p243.   In 1937 Korin was accused of working on a religious picture, the never completed Departing Rus.   Nevertheless he was not interfered with & enjoyed secret respect Bown1991 p129.  Around 1949 he was attacked again but in 1952 was awarded a Stalin Prize for mosaics in the Komsomolskya-Koltsevaya metro station Bown1991 pp 216, 243
Oeuvre: Painter & monumental artist.   Historical & religious subjects; portraits Bown1991 p243
Beliefs: He was deeply religious Bown1991 p129

..KOROVIN, Konstantin, 1861-1939, Russia; Russian Critical and Tzarist Impressionism Movement

Background: He was born into a well-to-do merchant family which later ran into hard times 50Rus p158

Training: At 14 he began architecture at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture, but around 16 transferred to painting under Alexi Savrasov & Vasily Polenov.   He went to the Academy at St Petersburg but soon returned due to its conservatism 50Rus p158

Influences: Viktor Vasnetsov & Russian themes, the stern northern coastlines, & Impressionism 50Rus pp 179-80

Career: At 14 he teaching drawing to earn money.   He gained fame with Chorus Girl, 1883, & entered Mamontov’s Abramtsevo circle.   During the later 1880s he visited France, Spain, & the North to which he made another trip in 1894 with Serov.   This led to his designing the Northern Railway pavilion at the All-Russian Exhibition at Nizhny Novgorod, 1896, & the Russian pavilions at World Exhibition in Paris, 1900.   From 1901 he taught at the Moscow School & increasingly focused on theatre work.   During the War he worked on camouflage & during 1918-9 at the Free Art Studios.   He then moved to Paris for treatment for his son.   Here he painted to make money & worked on theatrical design 50Rus p159

Grouping: Late Impressionism Grove18 p389

Oeuvre: Landscapes, townscapes, genre, portraits, still life around 1912, & stage design at Abramtsevo after 1885, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg etc 50Rus pp 178-9

Characteristics/Phases: Colour was his principal means of expression especially from about 1910 when influenced by his stage design his technique also became broader & freer.   This was his peak period.   His colour included gentle dispersed light, delicate shades of grey in his northern landscapes & the bright lights of advertisements & cafes in Paris 50Rus pp 178

Brother: Sergey, 1858-1908 was also an artist Grove18 p389

..KOSSAK, Julius von, 1824-99, Poland:

Background: Born in Wisnicz Norman1977
Training: Studied at Lvov University, at the St Petersburg Academy and in Warsaw.   In Paris he studied under Bonnat and Vernet Norman1977
Oeuvre: A watercolourist and painter of battle scenes, rural genre and horses. Kossak recorded Poland’s victories over Napoléon Norman1977
Foreshadowed: Kossak was the first in a line of Polish rural genre painters with a strong streak of nationalism Norman1977

-KOSSOFF, Leon, 1926-, GB:

Background: Russia-Jewish immigrant parents in London’s East End OxDicMod
Training: 1949-53 at the St Martin’s School of Art; 1953-6 at the Royal College of Art; 1950-2 at Bomberg’s evening classes at the Borough Polytechnic OxDicMod
Career: His reputation grew slowly but 1996 he had a Tate retrospective OxDicMod
Phases: He increasingly used light, even silvery, tones L&L
Sources: Kossoff preferred to work from the model Wilcox1990 p41
Characteristics: His extremely heavy impasto, paint surface appears to be heaving & boiling, although he is more structured & less Abstract than Auerbach, who was another Bomberg pupil, & he often used thick black outlines OxDicMod.   Kossoff was fascinated with the physical nature of paint Spalding1986 p230.   His work features an extraordinary range of surface textures & colours, eg tremulous depths of pinkish grey, & gradations of Venetian red & salmon pink.   His paintwork is never opaque Hughes1990 pp 344-5

..KOVALEVSKAYA, Zinaida, 1902-72, RUSSIA:

Background: Born Volsk Bown1991 p243
Training: Kazan Art-Technical Institution until 1927 under Pavel Benkov Bown1991 p243
Career: In 1930 she moved to Samarcand & worked in the ethnographic department of the Uzbek State Scientific Research Institute & later in the Samarkand Art Institute.    She was Benkov’s companion Bown1991 p243
Oeuvre: Uzbek life especially women; portraits Bown1991 p243
Characteristics: A feathery touch, bright colour & a powerful decorative sense.   Like other painters from the eastern & trans-Caucasian republics, unhampered by Russian desolation, she produced joyful peasant scenes after the war.   Her Tomato Picking, 1948 (Private) has the mellifluous delicacy of a Renoir with incandescent scarlet fruit amid silvery tones of sunlight & shade Bown1991 p203
Collections: Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art, Nukur.

..KOWALSKI-WIERUSZ/WIERUSZ-KOWALSKI, Alfred von, 1849-1915, Poland:

Background: Born in Suwalk Norman1977
Career: After studying in Warsaw, Dresden and Prague Kowalski settled in Munich in 1876, becoming a professor at the Academy. His work was highly regarded in Germany and he enjoyed an international reputation Norman1977
Oeuvre: A painter of landscapes, peasants and scenes from rural life in Russia, Galicia and Poland Norman1977
Characteristics: Kowalski’s penchant for drama and movement is interpreted with careful finish and cool palette Norman1977
Career: He settled in Munich in 1876 & became a professor at the Academy Norman1977
Oeuvre: Landscapes, peasants and scenes from rural life in Russia, Galicia and Poland. Norman1977
Characteristics: His penchant for drama and movement is interpreted with careful finish and a cool palette. Norman1977
Reception: His work was highly regarded in Germany and he enjoyed an international reputation. Norman1977

..KRACKER, Johann Peter, 1719-1779,  Austria:

Background: Born Vienna into a family of sculptors Grove18 p417
Training: Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Vienna, 1733-44, while studying fresco painting as an apprentice Grove18 p417.
Influences: Paul Troger Grove18 p417
Career: In the late 1740s he settled in Moravia & worked in Hungary, Prague, Lower Austria, etc.   His ceiling fresco in St Niklas on the Kleinseite, Prague, 1760-1, is a brilliant innovatory blending of architecture with less emphasis on the figures below & more of the sky scene,  in 1768 he bought a house in Eger & remained the bishop’s court painter until his death Grove18 p417,  Hempel p139.
Oeuvre: Altarpieces & frescos in churches & monasteries, portraits, etc Grove18 p417
Grouping/Verdict: Faded & repetitious late Baroque Grove18 p417

..KRAFFT, Johann, 1780-1856, Austria:

Background: Born Hanau Norman1977

Training: Hanau drawing school & the Vienna with Fugger, 1799.   Then with David, 1801 Norman1977

Influences: The heroic contemporary scenes of David, Gerard & Gros Norman1977

Career: He spent 1805-7 in Vienna & 1808-9 in Rome. where he painted several French generals.   After returning to Vienna he painted portraits & in 1813 his Militiaman’s Farewell was a  major success.   This was followed by Napoleonic battle paintings.   In 1815 he became a member of the Academy & in 1823 a professor.   He was co-founder of the Kunstverein in 1818 & Director of the Imperial Gallery, Belvedere, in 1828.   During 1826-33 he painted three monumental wall paintings for the imperial chancellery depicting scenes from the life of Franz I Norman1977

Oeuvre: History, genre & portrait paintings Norman1977

Status: He was a link between Neoclassicism, Realism & Biedermeir genre Norman1977

Characteristics: His current history & imperial family paintings were romantic, patriotic & packed with charming genre-style detail Norman 1987 p 42

Innovations: He was, along with his pupil Danhauser, the father of Viennese genre painting Norman1987 pp 18, 32.   It was in  his work that the crucial change from classical to national historical painting took place.   Kraft broke new ground at the Academy by pointing students towards visible reality & away from antiquity & the Middle Ages Waissenberger p174

Beliefs: “One should see pure nature without preconceived opinions Waissenberger p174

Repute: His paintings of current history & scenes featuring the imperial family were very popular & his portraits were much in demand Norman1987 p42

Pupils: Franz Eybl Waissenberger p177

..KRAMER, Jacob, 1892-1962, England (Russia):

Background: He was born in the small Ukrainian town of Klintsky into a middle class Jewish family.   His father Max was a painter Wikip

Training: Leeds School of Art, 1907-13, & the Slade, 1913-4 Wikip

Influences: The Leeds Art Club, a radical modernist grouping which introduced him to Kandinsky etc Wikip

Career: The family came to England in 1900 & settled in Leeds, though Jacob ran away for a period.   He was involved in but did not adopt Vorticism, served in France from 1918, & later taught at the Leeds School of Art Wikip

Oeuvre: Paintings, portraits, illustrations Wikip

Characteristics: Sharp, angular paintings with simplified, geometric figures.   Many featuring Jewish persecution using dark & moody colours with swirling blood reds & blacks in a dramatic twisted style  BBC4site

Aim: To see the spiritual form beyond the physical appearance

Friends: David Bomberg, Jacob Epstein, Mark Gertler, Herbert Read Wikip, BBC4site

Status: He was one of Britain’s greatest artists in the 1920s & 30s, & a central figure in the Leeds art movement BBC4site

Grouping: English Expressionism Wikip

Collections: Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds University Art Gallery

*KRAMSKOI/KRAMSKOY, Ivan, 1837-87, Russia; Tzarist Impressionism Movement

Background: He was born in the village of Novaya Sotnya, near Ostrogozhsk the son of a town council clerk 50Rus p111

Training: At the St Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1857 50Rus p111

Influences: Ivanov’s Christ Appearing to the People Norman1977

Career: He assisted a visiting photographer as a re-toucher, left his village, & ended up in St Petersburg.   At the Academy his flat was the meeting place for progressive students & 14 were refused permission to choose their own subject in a prize competition.   They were put under secret surveillance.   In 1863 Kramskoi was the moving spirit in the formation of an artists’ co-operative.   He joined the Wanderers & exhibited at its first show in 1871 & Christ in the Wilderness was the big event at its 1872 show.   In 1873 he spent the summer close to Tolstoy’s estate, & which resulted in two portraits.   Between 1874 & 1879 he painted a series of portraits of cultural celebrities for Pavel Tretyakov.   He kept on working despite personal misfortunes 50Rus pp 113-4

Oeuvre: Over 400 portraits & a few religious & genre paintings Hamilton1983 pp 376-7

Characteristics: His portraits are striking likenesses & psychologically intense capturing characteristic poses with unadorned backgrounds & in pedestrian colour.   The three portraits he exhibited at the first Wanderers’ exhibition of 1871 were all in monochrome Hamilton p376, Blakesley p43

Aim: He believed that there should be a native school of art as shown by the barrage of letters which he & Stasov wrote to Repin criticising the adoption of French techniques as advocated by Turgenev Blakesley pp 48-9.

Verdict: His most enjoyable works are his portraits of eminent contemporaries L&L

Grouping: [His portraits were strict Realism & he avoided the opportunity to romanticise See Blakesley pp 43, 45]

Reception: Christ in the Wilderness was denounced as anti-religious but welcomed by progressives 50Rus p113

Collections: Tretyakov & the Russian Museum

Kremser-Schmidt.   See Schmidt, Martin

..KREUGER, Nils, 1858-1930, Sweden:

Background: He was from an old merchant family Kent p125
Training: Konstakadamien in the mid-70s & then Edvard Perseus’ Free Painting School, Stockholm Kent p224
Influences: Bastien-Lepage & the Barbizon School Kent p224
Career: In 1881 he went to Paris & in 1882 to Grez-Sur-Loing, where he spent much of his time for the next three years.   In 1892 he joined Karl Nordstrom & Richard Bergh in forming Sweden’s most important colony at Varberg on the coast just south of Goteborg  Kent p125, Jacobs pp 33-4, 91
Characteristics/Oeuvre: Lyrical landscapes Kent p224
Style: He sometimes painted in a Pointillist manner Kent p224
Grouping: He was one of the group of Scandinavian artists who arrived at Grez in 1882 & unlike some of the others remained for some years Jacobs p33
Friends: Richard Berg & Karl Nordstrom Kent p125

-KRIEGHOFF, Cornelius, 1815-72, Canada (Netherlands):

Background: He was born in Amsterdam to a German father & a Flemish mother Reid p59
Career: He fought in the Seminole Wars in Florida, re-enlisted but apparently deserted & went to Canada around 1841 apparently moving from place to place in the Great Lakes region in order to paint.   After going to Paris & copying in the Louvre he lived from 1846 in the Montreal region & then after teaching painting moved to Montreal in 1849 & to Quebec in 1853.   He apparently made a trip to Europe to improve his skills but returned around 1854 Reid pp 59-65, Norman1977
Oeuvre: Genre scenes of the daily life of the locals & Indians together with seasonal landscapes Reid pp 60-64, L&L
Characteristics: His work was colourful & detailed his genre was picturesque Reid p62, OxDicArt
Patronage: His clientele in Quebec City was almost exclusively drawn form the English-speaking governing classes, where he had close friends & supporters among business-men.    Those who were French speaking probably regarded his genre as patronising Reid p62
Collections: NG Canada, Ottawa

*KROHG, Christian, 1852-1925, Norway:

Background: Born Aker near Oslo Norman1977
Training: At Ksrlsruhe under Gussow Norman1977
Influences: Manet stylistically Norman1977.   Zola etc, who explored the physical & mental sufferings of individuals in the lower strata.   Also the death of  his sister from TB in 1868 Rosenblum p379
Career: After studying law he took up painting in 1873.   He moved to Berlin in 1875 & visited Paris in 1880-1.   In 1884 he settled in Oslo where he became a leader of the avant-garde Norman1977
Oeuvre: Depictions of the lower depths of society; also interiors & genres scenes of fishermen & fjord life Norman1977
Aim: Paintings that inspired an awareness of moral & social issues.   He was the leading exponent of Tendens painting intended to promote social advance Kent pp 118, 224
Friends: Klinger Norman1977
Grouping: Realism Norman1977
Feature: His novel Albertine, 1886, is about a working class girl forced into prostitution by middle class mores & police oppression.   It led to prosecution & notoriety L&L
Reception: His lower depth paintings cause violent controversy Norman1977
Pupils: Ludwig Karsten Kent p202

*KROYER, Peter, 1851-1909, Denmark; Rural Naturalist Movement

Background: Her was born at Stravanger Norman1977

Training: 1864-70 at the Copenhagen Academy; 1877 under Bonnat in Paris Norman1977

 Influences: Velazquez Norman1977

Career: In 1855 he founded a  private School in protest against the conservative Copenhagen Academy Norman1977   He went to Spain & Italy in 1879,  returned to France & joined  art colonies at Concarneau & near Barbizan.   In 1882 he went to Skagen where he stayed regularly for next 25 years Weisberg1992 pp 243, 245.   In 1887 he became a member of  the Academy.   He was the pivot of the Skagen plein air painters Norman1977

Phases: Initially his work was Eckersberg-like but after Paris it dark-toned Realism.   During the 1890s he switched to a bright Impressionist palette Norman1977

Oeuvre: Fishermen, landscapes, portraits Norman1977

Characteristics: His pictures tend to have high horizons, & there are notable examples of empty foreground space Hirschprungske Samling, Copenhagen

Similarities: His light palette & also his technique are reminiscent of Stanhope Forbes Hirschprungske Samling. Copenhagen

Innovations: He introduced Realist painting to Denmark Norman1977

..Cornelis KRUSEMAN, 1797-1857, uncle of Jan & Frederik, Netherlands:

Background: He was born in Amsterdam Norman1977
Training: At Amsterdam Academy under Daiwaille a history painter Norman1977
Influences: Louis Robert & Schnetz Norman1977
Career: In 1821 he visited Paris & then went to Italy.   He returned to the Netherlands in 1824.   His idealized religious works were popular after Napoleon’s defeat & the re-establishment of Calvinism & so were his national history scenes Norman1977
Oeuvre: Historical & biblical subjects & Italian peasant scenes Norman1977

..Frederik KRUSEMAN, 1817-60, Cornelis’ nephew & Jan’s cousin, Netherlands:

Background: He was born in Haarlem Norman1977
Influences: The landscape Koekkoek tradition of the Koekkoeks Norman1977
Oeuvre: Landscapes Norman1977

..Jan KRUSEMAN, 1804-72, Cornelis’ nephew & Frederick’s cousin, Netherlands:

Background: He was born in Haarlem Norman1977
Training: His uncle & during 1822-24 with David & Navez in Brussels  Norman1977
Influences: Ingres Norman1977
Career: Between 1830 & 1850 he was director of the Amsterdam Academy.   His portraits brought him fame & favour at court Norman1977
Oeuvre: History paintings & portraits Norman1977

..KRYLOV, Porfiri, 1902-, Russia:

Background: He was born Shchelkunovo in the Tula region Bown1991 p243
Training: At the Higher Artistic-Technical Institute where Moscow, until 1927 Bown1991 p243
Career: In 1947 he became a member of the USSR Academy of Arts Bown1991 p243
Grouping: With fellow students Kupriyanov & Sokolov he formed the Kukpriyanov Bown1991 p243.   See Kupriyanov for this group

–KUBIN, Alfred, 1877-1959, Austria; Ashcan School

Background: He was born at Leitmeritz, Bohemia OxDicMod

Training: After working as a photographer’s assistant he went to Munich in 1898 & to study art OxDicMod

Influences: Klinger after his 1901 discovery of his engravings, also Goya, Munch, Ensor, Redon GibsonM pp 139, 235;.   His paintings were, like those of  Redon, what was  seen through a microscope (1905) Dube p152.   Schopenhaur Roh p43

Career: He had a painful adolescence featuring terror & depression.    During 1896-7 he suffered  depression, & he attempted suicide on his mother’s grave GibsonM pp 139, 235.   In 1903 he had a breakdown following his fiance’s death OxDicMod.   In 1905 he visited Redon & in 1906 acquired Zwickeld Castle GibsonM pp 139, 235.   He mainly lived there but travelled widely & was an  early member of Kandinsky’s Neue Kunstlerveringung Lucie-S1972 p158.   He exhibited at the second Blau Ritter show OxDicMod.   He turned to the teachings of Buddha & the Upanishad Roh p43

Oeuvre: Largely graphic work, illustrating about 100 books & albums Roh p43

Phases: His later works were  often overpopulated;  19^th century genre themes seem to reappear, though in dusky twilight Roh p44

Characteristics: His work displays a sense of evil  & nightmarish terror during the early 1900s.   There are monsters of all sorts, defenceless victims, & malevolent but dispassionate female power carrying the message that whoever succumbs to sexuality is lost LucieS1972 p157, GibsonM pp 139-41.   He had an unchanging spidery style OxDicMod

Friends: Klee, Marc & Kandinsky GibsonM p235, OxDicMod

Beliefs: His creatures are not caricatures; “dream drawing…gives the general direction, but it isn’t  enough … the chaotic abyss gorges eternally on the world” Roh p44

Grouping: His work was on the borderline between Symbolism  & Expressionism ShearerW199

Influenced: Surrealists OxDicMod

–KUBISTA, Bonhumil, Czech:

Background: He was born in Vickovice, Bohemia OxDicMod
Training: In Prague & Florence L&L
Influences: Munch & Kirchner & L&L
Career: In 1907 he helped found The Eight & visited Paris in 1909.   He joined Die Brucke in 1911.   Poverty forced him to join the army in 1913.   In 1918 he died of influenza L&L, Dube p33,
Oeuvre: Paintings & graphic work OxDicMod
Characteristics: Initially his work was Expressionistic with elements of Fauvist colour.  In 1909 his work became markedly Cubist, using it to express spiritual truths at once personal & relevant to modern urban life L&L
Status: He was a leading Czech Cubist OxDicMod

..KUEHL, Gotthardt, 1850-1915, Germany:

Background: He was born at Lubeck Wikip
Training: At the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts & in Munich, 1870 Wikip
Influences: Dutch 17^th century art, Manet, Bastien-Lepage Weisberg1992 p207
Career: He lived in Paris from 1878 to 1889 & visited Italy & made study trips to the Netherlands.   Afterwards he moved to Munich where he was a  cofounder of the Munich Secession in 1892.   In 1895 he became a professor at the Dresden art Academy & in 1902 founded the artists’ group Die Elbier Wikip, Weisberg1992 p207
Oeuvre: Interiors, genre, townscapes Wikip
Characteristics: His works display a strong sensitivity to light with a subtle mastery of back lighting to enliven a static interior Weisberg1992 p207
Grouping:  Naturalism Weisberg1992 p207

-Justus KUHN, recorded1798-17, USA (Germany):

Career: He settled in Annapolis, Maryland L&L
Oeuvre: Portraits of local notables from three interrelated Catholic families, though he was a Protestant L&L, Grove18 p501
Innovations: The first known American depiction of a black person Grove18 p501
Status: He is the earliest documented portraitist in the American South Grove18 p501

-Walt KUHN, 1877-1949, USA;

Background: He was born in born New York OxDicMod
Training: 1901-3 in Paris & Munich L&L
Career: At first he ran a bicycle shop etc but in 1899 he began working as a cartoonist in San Francisco .   Between about 1904 & 1914 he worked as a cartoonist & illustrator in New York.   Kuhn & Arthur Davies were the chief architects of the Armoury Show, 1913.   He died in a mental hospital after a nervous breakdown OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings including still-lifes & landscapes; cartoons;  illustrations; designs OxDicMod
Speciality: Circus performers from the 1920s, usually single figures seated or half-length, boldly & frontally presented against a stark background, often in strong colours OxDicMod
Phases: His early paintings were influenced by Fauvism but after the Armoury Show he experimented with Cubism.   He then reverted to a much more naturalistic style

-KUINJI/KUINDZHI, 1842-1910, Russia:

Background: He was born at Maripole .   His father was a poor cobbler 50Rus p133

Training: At the St Petersburg Academy, where  Repin & Vasnetsov were his friends 50Rus p133

Influences: Savrov, Vasiliev, Shiskin 50Rus p133

Career: Orphaned early, he lived with relatives.   After spending several months with the painter Aivazovsky he went to St Petersburg aiming to enter the Academy of Arts.   He suffered reverses but in 1868 his Tartar House was exhibited at the Academy & he was accepted as an external student.    During the summer of 1872 he painted on Valaam Island, Lake Ladoga & he later visited Britain, France, Belgium & Germany.   In 1875 he joined the Wanderers, & in 1876 Ukrainian Night attracted attention & it was shown at the World Exhibition, 1878.   After 1882 he painted little, feeling he was faltering; & in 1894 became professor of landscape at the Academy.   In 1897 he was stripped of his professorship for involvement in a student strike 50Rus pp 133-6 

Oeuvre: Landscapes 50Rus pp 133-7

Technique: He undertook extensive preparatory work to discover an expressive composition & harmonious colouring , eg the perfect positioning of trees in Birch Grove.   His rendering of moonlight was the result of intense experimentation 50Rus pp 135-6

Speciality: Mysterious Ukranian moonlit nights 50Rus p133

Characteristics: Many of his earlier have muted tones reflecting the harshness of rural life.   In the later 1870s he began experimenting with a completely different tonal range which resulted in works that had a luminist quality & intense chiaroscuro Leek p61, 50Rus p135

Reputation: His work was seen as celebrating Russia identity L&L

Status/Grouping: Kuinji was one of the leading  Russian Luminists Wilmerding pp 228-32

Pupils: Bogayevsky; Borisov; Purvit; Roerich: Rylov 50Rus p136

Kukrynisky.   See Krylov; Kuprityanov; Sokolov

-KULMBACH, Hans von, c1480-1522, Germany=Nurembourg:

Influences: Venetian painting through de’Barberi who visited Nuremberg during 1500-3 Murrays1959, OxDicArt
Career: Around 1522 he joined Durer’s workshop in Nuremberg, & in 1511 became a citizen.   During 1514-6 he painted altarpieces for Krakow, which he visited L&L, Murrays1959
Oeuvre: Paintings & woodcuts L&L
Characteristics: His work was Durer-like though his colour was less harsh & his line less agitated & hard L&L
Status: He was Durer’s most important pupil except for Grien L&L

-KUNIYOSHI, Yasuo, 1893-1953, Japan/USA:

Background: Born in Okayama OxDicMod
Training: Los Angeles and at the Arts Students League from 1916-20 OxDicMod
Influences: Pascin & Derain during the late 1920s L&L
Career: He emigrated to America in 1906 but moved to New York in 1909.   During the Second World War he designed anti-Japanese posters.   From 1933 he taught at the Art Students League OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Still life, landscapes etc L&L
Phases/Characteristics: Until the early 1930s he painted in a slightly whimsical manner often with pastoral imagery.   During the 1930s his work became more sensuous, including pictures of moody women.   His later work, reflecting a deeper social conscience, & it has harsher colouring & sometimes disquieting imagery OxDicMod

-KUPECKY/KUPETZKY, Jan/Johannes, 1667-1740, Czech; Baroque

Background: He was born in Prague into a weaver’s family of Moravian Brethren & with them had to emigrate to Pezinok in Hungary Hempel p138, Grove18 p524
Training: Under Benedikt Klaus in Vienna, 1684-6 Hempel p138
Career: When 15 he ran away to avoid becoming a weaver & after training lived in Italy, 1686-1709, where after years of hardship he established a workshop  in Rome around 1700.  He accepted an invitation from Prince Adam von Liechtenstein to go to Vienna , & in 1723 moved to Protestant  Nuremberg where he felt safer Hempel p138, L&L
Oeuvre: Prolific portraits L&L
Feature: He painted Prince Eugene & Peter the Great Hempel p138
Characterises: Sober realism featuring an appreciation of shadow, light & colour, & the psychology of his sitters whom he portrayed in some king of activity, preferably making music.   He was perfectly capable of depicting 18^th century lightness & grace as in Franziska Wussin , c1716 (NG Prague) Hempel p138, Pl 82A
Friend: Johann Fussli Hempel p138
Grouping: Baroque Hempel p138, L&L
Legacy: His work inspired portrait painters who wanted to get away from Rococo Hempel p138

*KUPKA, Frantisek, 1871-1957, France (Czech):

Background: He was born in Opocno in eastern Bohemia OxDicMod

Training: At the Academies of Prague & Vienna, 1889-92 &1892-3 OxDicMod

Influences: Symbolism, Fauvism, the supernatural & then theosophy OxDicMod

Career: In 1896  he settled in Paris initially illustrating fashion & anarchist journals.   He volunteered for military service & fought on the Somme, designed posters etc & became a captain.   He became a professor at the Prague Academy in Paris.   In 1931 he was a founder member of Abstraction-Creation but resigned in 1934 L&L, OxDicMod

Phases/Characteristics: From 1909 he experimented with depicting motion which led by 1912  to complete abstraction & lyrical colour effects.   His later work was geometric OxDicMod

Aim: To produce paintings with colours & rhythms would be like music OxDicMod

Status/Verdict: Like Kandinsky he was a major creative force in modernism dedicated to exploring the non-visible L&L

Circle: Villon, Duchamp, Gleizes, Leger, etc L&L

Reception/Repute: He gradually gained a considerable reputation but his pioneering role in abstraction was not recognised until 1958 OxDicMod

..KUPRIN, Alexander, 1880-1960, Russia; Tzarist Impressionism Movement

Background: He was born Borisoglebsk, Voronezh province Grove18 p528

Training: After studying privately with Yuon etc, he went in 1906 to the Moscow School of Painting & Sculpture under Korovin  Grove18 p528

Influences: French Impressionism & Post-Impressionism in the collections of Morozov & Shechukin  Grove18 p528

Career: He was a leading member of the Knave of Diamonds which he joined in 1910.   During 1913-4 he made a trip to Paris.   In 1918 he became a professor at the Free Art Studios in St Petersburg & the Higher Artistic & Technical Workshops.   He designed hoardings etc in the early propaganda campaign & during 1928-32 taught at the textile Institute, Moscow Elliott p12, Grove18 p528

Oeuvre: Landscapes, still life & during the 1920s porcelain, textile & stage design Bown p116, Grove18 p528

Characteristics/Phases: Between about 1910 & 1919 in his Jack of Diamonds period he endeavored to bring together popular & peasant art with Cezanne & Cubism.   During the 1930 he made [partial] adjustment to Socialist Realism by painting [some] industrial landscapes.   His works were throughout vigorously colourful Grove18 p528

Status/Grouping: He was among the Moscow landscapists who did not want to paint Socialist Realism but were patriotic & happy to work in the traditional formal values insisted upon during the 1930s.   Other artists included Aleksandr Mozoroz, Nikolai Krymov & Sergei Gerasimov Bown1991 p116

Circle: Falk, Goncharova, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Larionov, Aristarkh Lentulov, Malevich, Vasily Rozhdestvensky, Tatlin Grove18 p528  

..KUPRIYANOV/KUPRILIANOV, Mikhail, 1903-1990, Russia:

Background: He was born in Tetyyushi in the Kazan region Bown1991 p243

Training: He left the Higher Artistic Technical Institute Moscow in 1929 Bown1991 p243

Career: He met & began to collaborate with Porfiri/Porfirii Krylov & Nikolai Sokolov when training & in the 1930s established themselves as leading caricaturists & illustrators, each contributing to a work.   They were the Kukryniksy collective.   It produced the first war poster We Will Mercilessly Rout & Destroy The Enemy.   Kupriyanov became a member of the USSR Academy of Arts in 1947 Bown1991 pp 145,  243

Oeuvre: Paintings, graphic art & illustrations Bown1991 p243

..KUSNETSOV/ KUZNETSOV, Pavel, 1878-1968, Russia:

Background: He was born at Saratov, like Borrisov-Mussatov, where his father was an icon painter Gray p75, Bown1991 pp 44, 243

Training: At a studio of painting & drawing at Saratov Bown1991 p243.  During 1895-6 under Borrisov-Mussatov & from 1897 at the Moscow College under Levitan & Serov, although the latter did not influence him much Gray p75

Influences: To begin with Barbizon & Polenov Gray p75.  Icon painting Bown1991 p 46

Career: In 1906, invited by Diaghilev, he exhibited successfully at the World of Art show Gray pp 75-6.   In the 1920s Kusnetsov was an important figure in the art world, a member of the ruling body of Izo NarKomPros (the art department of People’s Commissariat for Education) & chairman of The 4 Arts.   He was criticised for formalism & lack of Socialist subject matter but in the late 1930s he was publicly applauded for devoting himself seriously to industrial subjects.   In 1949 he was again censured for deviating from Socialist Realism.   He taught at various State Free Artistic Studios etc, 1918 & 1945-8 Bown1991 pp 44, 120-1, 216

Characteristics: Initially he had a flat decorative manner inspired by a pantheistic sense of man’s unity with the elements & not, like Mussatov, of a creature engulfed by nature Gray p76.   In the 1920s he continued to use primitivist, non-academic conventions of space & lightBown1991 pp 21, 44

Groupings: The Blue Rose Gray p75

..KUSTODIEV, Boris, 1878-1927, Russia:

Background: He was born Astrakhan.   His father was a schoolteacher who died young 50Rus p236

Training: With a local artist, & in 1896, after being at a theological seminary, at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts; & in Repin’s studio 50Rus pp 236-7

Influences: His 1903 trip to the Volga region 1903; folk art & tales 50Rus pp 236-8

Career: His mother rented the wing of a rich provincial merchant’s house & he became familiar with social class.   He helped Repin with his State Council picture & painted the right side etc.   In 1903 he made a trip to France & Spain.   He was involved in the 1905 Revolution, making vicious caricatures of tsarist officials & painting pictures of the strike at the Putilovsky factory, etc.   Although he spent a year in a Swiss clinic with spinal TB, his work was still radiantly optimistic.   Later he suffered from leg paralysis.   He welcomed the Revolution from the start, produced images of Lenin for mass reproduction, illustrated books on Lenin, & painted pictures celebrating the Revolution 50Rus pp 236-40

Oeuvre: genre, portraits, book illustration from 1905, & stage-sets from 1911 50Rus pp 236-7, 241

Speciality: Inhabitants & scenes of rural life 50Rus p239

Aim: The expression of the love of life, all things Russian, happiness & cheerfulness 50Rus p236

Friends: Gorky 50Rus pp 239-40

L

..LABAS, Alexander, 1900-1988, Russia:

-LABILLE-GUIARD, Adelaide, 1749-1803, France:

Background: She was born in Paris & her father was a haberdasher who lived next door to the miniaturist Francois-Elie Vincent (1708-90) TurnerDtoI p285

 Training: Around 1763 with Vincent, about 1771 pastel painting with de la Tour, & from 1776 oil painting in Vincent’s studio TurnerDtoI p285

Career: By around 1780 she had mastered oil painting.   In 1783 she became a member of the Academy where she fought for equal female rights.   She produced aristocratic & royal portraits, & then those of revolutionary leaders TurnerDtoI pp 285-6

 Oeuvre: It was smallish & comprised miniatures, pastels during 1774-95, & oils from about 1780 to 1800 TurnerDtoI p286

Characteristics: Labille-Guard’s portraits were direct & candid, often half-length with simple backgrounds.    But she also painted full-length with more elegant costumes & settings with a play of shadows.   Her palette was restrained with harmonies of blue, grey or brown.    Her works are highly finished & her technique was meticulous but not over-emphatic.   Expressions were subtly nuanced with a direct gaze & informal pose or gestures.    However, her royal portraits were traditional, formal & Van Dyke-like TurnerDtoI p286, Wakefield p77

Personal: She married Louis Nicolas Guiard, a financial clerk in 1769 but they were legally separated in 1779.   In 1800 she married Francois-Andre Vincent, her lifelong companion TurnerDtoI pp 285-6.

Verdict: She produced many first-rate portraits & has been under rated Wakefield p77

Labrador.   See El Labrador

..LACOMBE, Georges, 1868-1916, France:

Background: He was born at Versailles into an affluent, cultivated & artistic family receiving early advice from George Bertrand, Alfred Roll & Henri Gervex Grove18 p598
Training: His mother Laura, 1834-1924, who was a painter & printmaker.   After briefly working with Roll, he entered the Academie Julian where he associated with the Nabis members Grove18 p598, Chasse p122
Career: He summered at Cammaert on the Brittany coast from 1888 to 1897; befriended Paul Serusier, 1892; became familiar with Gauguin, 1893-4; was attracted by the Nabis & participated in their group exhibitions; settled near Alencon in Normandy, 1897; & lived in relative obscurity Grove18 p598
Oeuvre/Phases/Characteristics: Initially he painted Breton figural scenes & stylised landscapes featuring flat patterns & mysterious, often anthropomorphic, imagery as in Vorhor, the Green Wave, 1896-7 (Indianapolis Museum of Art).  He gradually turned to more naturalistic landscapes, & by 1907 had adopted a freer style & painted luminous scenes more typical of Impressionism.   Also sculpture Grove18 p598
Beliefs: He was a Theosophist, was violently anti-clerical Chasse p13,
Innovation: Works that combined Nabis & Symbolist ideals with his personal vision of nature Grove18 p598
Feature: He was philosophically opposed to selling his art Grove 18 p598
Repute: His work is little known Chasse p122
Grouping: He played an extremely active part in the Nabis circle & his studio in Versailles was a Nabis meeting place Chasse p68

..LACROIX, Charles-Francois (Lacroix de Marseille), c1700-82, France:

Background: Born Marseille Wikip
Training: Joseph Vernet, being his closest pupil Wakefield p161
Career: He went to Rome, 1754; exhibited with great success from 1776; & spent much time between Italy & Provence Wakefield p161, Wikip
Oeuvre: Landscape & marine paintings Wikip
Characteristics/Verdict: His work was extraordinarily Vernet-like but his work had excessively sweet tones, his  compositions were rather more crowded & elaborate with stronger verticals & tall, curving ships’ masts which produce a graceful effect.  Sometimes however he produced excellent paintings as in his capriccio Mediterranean Seaport, 1750 (Hotel Sandelin, St Omer) Wakefield pp160-1

Laer.   See van Laer

-LAERMANS/LAEREMANS Eugene, 1863-1940, Belgium: Social Realism

Background: Born Brussels.  He was a deaf-mute from eleven & to some extent isolated Grove18 p625, L&L
Training: At the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1882-7, & La Patte de dindon, a free  Grove18 p625
Influences: The social unrest in late 19^th century Belgium Grove18 p625
Career: From the 1890s he exhibited at the salons & La Libre Esthetique, the successor of Les XX.   He went blind in 1924 & became a baron in 1927 Grove18 p625
Oeuvre: Paintings of the urban proletariat & farm labourers at their daily tasks, pastoral themes & landscapes  Grove18 p625
Speciality: Largish paintings of protest marches, as in Evening of the Strike, 1893 (Musee d’Art Moderne, Brussels)  Grove18 p625
Characteristics: Throughout his mood is tragic with unrefined surfaces, dullish colours, & distortion Grove18 p625
Innovations: He was a forerunner of Expressionism in Belgium Grove18 p625

..LA FARGE, John, 1835-1910, USA:

Background: He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, of French origin. Norman1977
Training: He studied law and architecture, & then briefly under Couture in Paris Norman1977
Influences: The Pre-Raphaelites & William Morris Norman1977

Career: He visited Europe in 1856 including France & England.   After returning to America to enter a law firm but around 1860 was persuaded by William Morris Hunt, whose pupil he became, to take up art professionally.   In 1876 he received his first important fresco commission at Trinity Church Boston.   Late on he visited Japan & Samoa Norman1977
Oeuvre: Paintings, murals & stained glass etc Norman1977

Phases/Characteristics: He began by painting landscapes, flowers and still lifes in a naturalistic style but his most important work was mural decoration at churches and public buildings, with scenes from the Bible and from Greek and Roman mythology and history Norman1977
Workshop: It produced sculpture, furnishings & paintings Norman1977
Innovation: He introduced Japanese prints to America Norman1977
Grouping: He was part of the late-century upsurge of idealist & linked to the Arts & crafts movement Norman1977

..Paulus LA FARGUE, 1729-82, Netherlands:

Background: Born the Hague the son of a notary into a Huguenot family of high standing originally from Bordeaux Grove18 p628
Influences: Jan Van Heyden Grove18 p628
Career: He joined Pictura, the painters’ confraternity in The Hague, 1761, & in 1768 belonged to the Royal Academy of Art, the Hague Grove18 p628, Wikip
Oeuvre: Townscapes, landscapes, current events & portraits.  Also prints Grove18 p628
Phases: Initially he painted views in The Hague but in the 1760s added Rotterdam, & during the 70s Delft, Leiden, Haarlem Amsterdam Wikip
Characteristics: His topographical paintings are clearly delineated in lively colour & chiaroscuro  featuring charming little figures Wikip
Innovations: Status: He was the most talented, versatile & productive member of the family Grove18 p628
Patrons: The French Ambassador Lousi-Auguste-Augustin, Comte d’Affry, & the English envoy Sir Joseph Yorke, etc Grove18 p628
Siblings: Isaac, 1726-1805; Karel, 1735-c78; & Maria, 1743-1813, were painters Wikip

-LA FRESNAYE, Roger de, 1885-1925, France:

Lagoor.   See de Lagoor

..LAGRENEE, Louis (Jean-Francois) the Elder, 1724-1805, France:

Background: Born Paris Grove18 p641
Training: Carl Vanloo Wakefield p106
Influences: Guido Reni, Domenichino, Boucher & Natoire Wakefield p106
Career: In 1749 he won the Prix de Rome but only spent 1754 at the Academie de France, Rome; on his return to Paris, 1755, was elected to the Academie Royale; scored a great success at the at the Salon of 1765 where his work was highly praised by Diderot (although in 1771 he condemned him); was Director of the St Petersburg Academy, 1760-2;  appointed professor at the Academie Royale, 1762; was Director of the Academie de France, Rome, 1781-5; became Recteur of the Academie Royale, 1785, & curator of national museums, 1804  Grove18 p641, Wakefield p106
Oeuvre: Religious, historical & mythological works Wakefield p106
Characteristics/Verdict: Smooth, brilliant execution & polished charm with clearly articulated forms, elegantly draped figures, subtle transitions from light to shade, suave undemanding variety, & elevated themes as in Lot & his daughter (Stourhead).  He had more skill than imagination & was not at ease with large-scale works Wakefield p106, Grove18 p642
Phases: In 1765 he exhibited devotional paintings in which he deliberately rejected Rococo & revived 18^th century classicism Grove18 p642
Innovation: With Joseph-Marie Vien & Greuze he moved French painting from Rococo to classicism.  Paintings which celebrated the patriotic male exemplum were an aspect of this shift.  Although it culminated in the work of David, it had been anticipated by Lagrenee in his Fabricius Lucinus Refusing the Gifts of Pyrrhus, 1777 (Musee Rene-Princeteau, Libourne) & later works Grove18 p642, Rosenblum1967 pp 61, 63, Fig 58,63, See also Neoclassicism in Section 9
Patrons: Comte de Caylus, La Live de Jully & Madame Geoffrin Wakefield p106
Grouping: His work hovers between Rococo & a graceful, decorative classicism Wakefield p106
Collections: Stourhead Wakefield p106

-LAGUERRE, Louis, 1663-1721, France/England: 

Background: He was born at Versailles Waterhouse1953 p56
Training: Early on under the Jesuits & briefly with Lebrun Waterhouse1953 pp 56-7
Career: He came to England in 1983/4 as an assistant to Ricard.   They worked for Verrio at Christ’s Hospital & during 1689-94 at Chatsworth.   He painted at Sudbury Hall (1691-5), at Burghley, at Devonshire House (1704), at Marlborough House (1713-4), & at Blenheim (1719/20) where the Salon is his masterpiece.   From about 1711 Thornhill tended to supplant him Waterhouse1953 p126, L&L
Oeuvre: Allegorical murals & latterly portraits & history paintings L&L
Characteristics: His work was learned L&L
Verdict: His execution & invention are generally considered far superior to Verrio’s L&L

La Heyre.   See de La Heyre

..LAKTIONOV, Alexander, 1910-72, Russia:

Background: He was born at Rostov-on-Don Bown p243
Training: 1926-9 at the Rostov Art School; 1932-8 at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture, Leningrad Bownp p243
Career: During 1936-44 he taught at the Institute.   He was awarded a Stalin Prize in 1948 for A Letter from the Front Bownp243

Largillierre.  See de Largilliere

-LAM, Wilfredo, 1902-82, Cuba:

Background: Born Saguna La Grande.  His father was Chinese & his mother mixed African, Indian & European OxDicMod
Training: The Academy, Havana, 1930-3
Influences: Jungle scenery & savage ceremonies OxDicMod
Career: In 1924 he settled in Madrid; went to Paris, 1938, & worked in Picasso’s studio; joined the Surrealists; left for Martinique with Masson & Breton, 1941; returned to Cuba, 1942; made various visits to Haiti; spent time in Cuba, New York & Paris, 1947-52; settled in Paris,1952; & lived near Genoa in the 1960s OxDicMod, L&L
Oeuvre/Characteristics: He fused totemic & Voodoo imagery with Picasso-based Surrealism to produce energy-filled works combining human, animal & vegetable elements in what are sometimes menacing semi-abstract images.   His work ranges widely from being clear cut & unmodulated to highly complex paintings of an all-over type in colours ranging from light to dark L&L, OxDicMod, webimages

-LAMB, Henry, 1883-1960, GB:

Background: Although born in Adelaide he was brought up in Manchester where his father was a mathematics professor Baron p89, OxDicMod

Training: Chelsea Art School, & during 1907-8 under Blanche in Paris OxDicMod

Career: Under parental pressure he studied medicine but in 1904 became an artist OxDicMod.  He worked in Brittany in 1908, 1910 & 1911, & in Ireland, 1912-3.    Lamb had a studio in Fitzroy Street 1901-11 & probably began to attend meetings of the Fitzroy Street Group.   He then belonged to Camden Town & was a founder member of the London Group, but withdrew before its first exhibition Baron p89.   In 1914 he returned to medical studies & saw medical service in France, Macedonia & Palestine.   He was gassed & became an official War Artist (in both conflicts).   He exhibited at NEAC 1905-14, was associated with Bloomsbury, & became an RA in 1949 OxDicMod, TurnerEtoPM p89, Baron p89.

Oeuvre: Portraits, landscapes & late still-lifes OxDicMod

Speciality: Sensitive & restrained portraits of the Bloomsburyites OxDicMod

Oeuvre: Portraits, landscapes & late still-lifes OxDicMod

..Louis LAMBERT, 1825-1900, France:

Background: He was born in Paris Norman1977
Training: Delacroix & Delaroche Norman1977
Career: In 1857 his success, which became international, was launched with his Cat & Parrot the Salon Norman1977
Oeuvre: Animal paintings, being known as the Raphael of cats Norman1977

-George LAMBERT, 1700-65, England:

Training: Wootton from whom he learning something about ideal landscape OxDicArt
Influences: Dughet & Claude Kitson1969 p43
Career: From 1726 onwards, he was a scenery painter, working at Covent Garden from1732.  In 1735 he was a founder-member of the Beef-Steak Club to which actors, men of letters & artists belonged Grove18 p672.   He became the recorder of country houses for the Burlington circle Burke p117.   Lambert became a governor of the Foundling Hospital in 1746 Grove18 p672
Oeuvre: Handsome Dughet-like works together with more realistic topographical views OxDicArt
Phases: His final manner was Claudian with a grasp of atmospheric vision.   He used vivid use greens, blue-greens & buttery yellows Burke pp117-8

Characteristics: His country-house portraits have oblique viewpoints & dramatic cloudscapes unlike the conventional topographical version Grove18 p672
Feature: He did not paint his own figures OxDicArt
First: English-born oil landscape & country house portrait painter Waterhouse1953 pp 156, 238.
Status: He was the leading English landscape painter of his day OxDicArt

Verdict:  Opinions about Lambert’s quality differed widely & still do.   He was praised by Hogarth for his skill in painting the sky but dismissed by Constable as an imitator of Italian art Burke pp 114-5, 117.   More recently his work has been criticised as having a pastiche Claudian quality & as imitating the superficial elements in Claude’s work, i.e. the smooth handling, colour & vocabulary Kitson1969 pp 9, 43.   On the other hand he has been praised for his fresh & direct way of portraying landscape Grove18 p672.   These divergent opinions may be explained by a disregard for his interesting & original non-Italianate works See Burke p114
Circle: Hogarth & Scott Burke p115

..LAMI, Eugene, 1800-1890, France:

Background: He was born in Paris Norman1977
Training: 1815 with C. Vernet & 1815 with Gros
Influences: His friend Bonnington who introduced him to English watercolour style, & later the military scenes of H. Vernet & Raffet Norman1977
Career: He visited England in 1826 (with Bonnington) & again in 1848-52.   With Isabey & Granet he was court painter to Louis-Philippe Norman1977
Oeuvre: Watercolours, lithographs & occasional oils recording aristocratic life under the Restoration & Second Empire Norman1977
Characteristics: Latterly he painted both grandiose official occasions & relaxed views of court, cafe & society life treated with sparkling daintiness & attention to detail reminiscent of the French 18^th century Norman1977

..Johann Baptist LAMPI, the elder, 1751-1830, Italy:

Background: He was born at Romeno in the South Tyrol & was the son of Matthias Lampi, 1698- 1780 who as a minor church & decorative painter Grove18 p682
Training: Initially with his father & during 1770-73 in Verona with Francesco Lorenzi who was a pupil of Gianbattista Tiepolo Grove18 p683
Influences: At first the late Baroque style of the Tiepolo school Grove18 p683
Career: He worked in Salzburg, Verona, Trento, Innsbruck & then in Vienna from 1783 Norman1977.   Here he soon became the foremost court portrait painter Grove18 p683.    During 1788-91 he lived in Poland & then, until 1797, in St Petersburg.   After returning to Vienna, he taught at the Academy Norman1977
Oeuvre: Portraits Norman1977
Phases: Initially he worked in the Baroque tradition but by 1779 his paintings had become more Classical Norman1977, Grove18 p683
Characteristics: He became a skilful portraitist & was able to convey personality.   His work ranges from the cold, emphatic style of formal portraits to lively, expressive likenesses of his friends & family Grove18 p683

..Johann Baptist LAMPI, the Younger,  1775-1837,  Franz Xaver’s father, Austria:

Background: He was born at Trento Norman1977
Influences: Lawrence when he came to Vienna for the Congress Norman1977
Career: He worked at St Petersburg from about 1795 to 1805 but then returned to Vienna.   Lampi became a member of the Academy in 1813 Norman1977
Oeuvre: Portraits Norman1977
Characteristics: His works are very similar to those of his father with whom he collaborated Grove18 p683

..Franz Xaver  LAMPI, 1782-1852,  Johann Baptist the Younger’s son,  Poland (Austria):

Background: He was born at Klagenfurt Grove18 p683
Training: His father & Viennese workshops Grove18 p683
Influences: For his landscapes the Baroque, Salvator Rosa & Claude-Joseph Vernet Grove18 p683
Career: He travelled to Germany, Italy & Hungary but from about 1815 settled in Warsaw.   Here he was soon successful & fashionable Grove18 p683
Oeuvre: Portraits, altarpieces, mythological works & fantastic mountain landscapes Grove18 p683
Speciality: Young women beautiful & graceful in muslin shawls portrayed in opulent interiors or landscapes
Characteristics: His male portraits emphasise dignity, he had superb technique, & his work is highly polished Grove18 pp 683-4

-LANCRET, Nicholas, 1690-1743, France; Rococo

 Background: He was born in Paris Grove18 p693
Training: He began training as an engraver, was apprenticed to a moderately successful history painter, was enrolled at the Academie Royale, & was briefly at Gillot’s workshop where he learned to love the theatre Grove18 p692, Wakefield p38
Career: In 1719 he joined the Academy as peintre de fetes galantes Wakefield p38
Phases: He began as a history painter & was then a pasticheur of Watteau, but soon developed his own style Grove18 p Wakefield p37
Characteristics: Although he painted large works of importance, his small paintings are especially notable.  They have a direct simplicity with considerable delicacy of colour & modelling.   They are robust & factual in contrast to Watteau’s elusive & poetic works, although his Mlle Camargo is an evocative depiction of the famous ballet dancer Wakefield pp 38-9, Grove18 p693.
Innovations: He pioneered 18^th century intimist genre painting when depiction of the upper-classes enjoying leisure was somewhat novel Wakefield p39
Grouping: Rococo See Levey1990 p82
Patronage: Frederick the Great, Louis XV who commissioned steadily from the mid-1730s, & many of aristocratic buyers Grove18 pp 692-3
Influenced: Boucher, Hogarth & Gainsborough Grove18 p693
Collections: At Charlottenburg & the Neues Schloss, Potsdam.

-LANDERS, Sean, 1962-, USA

*LANDSEER, Sir Edwin, 1802-73, GB; Troubadour Movement

Background: Landseer was born in London.   His father John (1760s-1852) was an engraver & writer OxDicArt, Grove18 p720
Training: His father, Haydon & at the RA Schools Grove18 p722

Career: Landseer was an infant prodigy & he exhibited at the RA when 13.   He had continuous professional & social success, & was Queen Victoria’s favourite painter.    In 1824 he first visited the Highlands which he adored, making many subsequent visits.   During the 1840s he produced numerous deer & stag paintings.   He was terribly overworked.  In the 1860s he had broken health, with bouts of madness & drank during his last years OxDicArt, OxCompArt, Treuherz1993 p30, Nancy Durrant Times 27/11/18
Oeuvre: Animal subjects, history paintings, portraits (being the one British painter to produce memorable portraits of Victoria & her family), engravings, & sculpture (including the Nelson column lions) OxDicArt, Treuherz p16

Patrons: He had loyal clients particularly among those with Scottish estates.   They enjoyed his company & were keen to figure in sporting scenes Nancy Durrant Times 17/11/18
Friends: Dickens & Thackeray OxDicArt
Circle: Leslie, Wilkie, Cope, & Mulready at Sheepshanks’ dinners Errington p47
Characteristics: Anthropomorphism in which human types are sometimes disguised as animals; frequent animal sentimentalisation L&L

Verdict: [Opinions differ widely].  He has been criticised for   superficial work that appealed to the public rather than to genuine painters etc, & he has been indicted both for cruelty & sentimentality OxCompArt, OxDicArt.   The Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner is seen as sentimental.   On the other hand, he has been described as a fine naturalistic artist; & it has been pointed out that he brought the epic & heroic qualities of High Art to animal painting in his deer & stag series, where they are shown as free but doomed L&L, Treuherz1993 p30

Personal: He was charming & with his curly hair thought good looking.   Landseer was a very good shot.   When painting Georgina, Duchess of Bedford, she took him as her lover.   He was 21 & she was 20 years older.   The affair is thought to have lasted 30 years but it was indulgently ignored by the Duke Nancy Durrant Times 17/11/18
Legacy: He, together with Scott, helped create the romantic view of Scotland Nancy Durrant Times 17/11/18

..LANE, Fitz Hugh, 1804-1865, USA:

Background: Born at Gloucester, Massachusetts Grove18 p18
Training: He was largely self-taught Norman1977
Influences: The British marine specialist Robert Salmon who was resident in Boston Grove18 p726.
Career: He began painting in 1840.   During 1845-7 he ran a lithographic firm in Boston.   In 1849 he settled in Gloucester & earned his living from lithographic views of the old port.   In the 1850s he made some sea trips down the coast of Maine Grove18 p726, Norman1977
Oeuvre: Marine paintings Norman1977
Phases: His work developed from uninspired town & harbour views, & portraits of ships, into the most sensitive luminist Wilmerding p40

Characteristics: His work was from the start spare, meticulous & unrhetorical with a careful detailing of ships & rigging with the help of photography.   He painted harbour & bay scenes with enormous skies, low horizons & frozen ripples on still, light-reflecting water.   Lane was not a topographical but a conceptual artist.   He rearranged natural features & objects to create a more ordered & geometric scene.   And what distinguishes his works from those closer to the European tradition is that abstract relationships are not hidden but self-evident.   His works with their dominant stillness are often scenes at dawn or dusk.   Unlike contemporary artists he painted places that were close to home Grove18 pp 726-7, Wilmerding p44, Norman1977
Status: With Lane he was one of the principal Luminists Norman1977
Personal: He was a cripple Norman1977
Reception/Repute: Although his local reputation was strong, he was not a national figure until Luminism gained recognition from the late 1940s Grove18 p726, Wilmerding p12

*LANFRANCO, Giovanni, 1582-1647, Italy; Baroque

Background: He was from Parma L&L
Training: Agostino Carracci L&L
Career: In 1602 he went to Rome & worked under Annibale Carracci.   During 1609-12 he was in Emelia following rivalry with Annibale’s pupils & followers.   In 1612 he went back to Rome.   In 1633-46 he was in Naples due to his eclipse at the Barberini court by Bernini & da Cortona.   From 1646 he was in Rome OxDicArt, L&L

Oeuvre: Frescos, & easel paintings which though less renowned were notable OxDicArt
Phases/Characteristics: He modified the classicising Carracci style with Caravaggesque chiaroscuro & Correggio’s more painterly mode L&L.   In the 1620s he created dramatic scenes of larger-than-life figures of an anticlassical type as shown by Moses & the Messanger from Canaan & Elijah Receiving Bead from the Widow of Zarephath, 1621-4 H&S pp 70-71

Status: When back Rome in he gradually overtook his arch-rival Domenichino as the leading frescoist.   Lanfranco was the most successful fresco painter in Naples OxDicArt, L&L
Innovations: He was a founder of High Baroque with da Cortona & Guercino, & his dome at S. Andrea della Valle, 1625-7, ended the dominance of Bolognese classicism in Rome OxDicArt
Influenced: Later Neapolitan decorative painters including Giordano, Preti & Solimena OxDicArt, L&L

..LANGER, Johann, 1756-1824, Germany:

Background: Born Calcum Norman1977
Training: At Dusseldorf where he had a Baroque training with classical overtones Norman1977
Career: He became professor & then director (1790) at the Dusseldorf Academy.    In 1808 he became first director of the Munich Academy where his classicism aroused some hostility Norman1977
Oeuvre: History & portrait paintings Norman1977
Grouping: Neoclassical Norman1977
Legacy: His son Robert (1783-1846) was a classicist influenced by Mengs & David.   He was an influential teacher in Munich Norman1977

..LANGETTI, Giambattista, 1625-76:

Training: Rome under Cortona Wittkower1973 p347
Influences: Giordano Wittkower1973 p347
Characteristics: Violent chiaroscuro painted with a loaded brush Wittkower1973 p347
Influenced: Loth & Zanchi Wittkower1973 p347

..LANGLEY, Walter, 1852-1922, England: ; Rural Naturalism 

Background: He was born in Birmingham, the son of a tailor & an illiterate mother F&G p93
Training: At 15 he was apprenticed to a lithographer & then studied industrial design at the National Training School, South Kensington for two years Grove18 p744, F&G p94
Influences: Herkomer, Francis Hinkley & Josef Israels Grove 18 p744
Career: He first visited Newlyn in 1880; painted en plein air in Brittany, 1881; settled at Newlyn, 1882, but went to London during 1986-7; & painted in Holland around 1895 F&G pp 94-5, Grove18 p744
Oeuvre/Phases: Genre paintings initially in watercolour but from 1892 he also exhibited in oils F&G p93
Characteristics: Carefully observed cottage interiors as in Memories, 1885 (Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery) & dramatic outdoor scenes.  His large-scale works combine broad, simplified handling with an exceptional depiction of textures & an understanding of facial expression Grove18 p744, F&G p99
Specialities: Scenes of sadness, loneliness or disaster which in particularly feature women &/or the aged as in But men must work & women must weep, 1882 (Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery) & Disaster, 1889 (Birmingham Museums & Art Galleries, both Langley p11, F&G pp 106-07.  Another Speciality was fishwives as in Breadwinners, 1896 (Penlee House)
Verdict: He had an extraordinary technical expertise in watercolour F&G p99
Politics: He supported Charles Bradlaugh & his sympathy for the Cornish fisherfolk was sincere & lasting F&G p99
Status: He was the first major artist to settle in Newlyn & figure painter to depict incidents in the lives of fisherfolk F&G pp 93,95;
Reception: In 1895 he was invited to provide a self-portrait for the Uffizi collection of those by great artists, & in 1897 Tolstoy cited a Langley painting as true art Tolstoy p225

-LANYON, Peter, 1918-64, England:

Background: He was born at St Ives into a prosperous & cultivated family.   His father was a concert pianist & composer.   On Sunday evenings friends gathered at the Lanyons for music & to discuss painting & poetry Cross1995 p77
Training: At the Penzance School of Art, 1937, & briefly at the Euston Road School in 1938.   Then under Ben Nicholson & Naum Gabo at St Ives OxDicMod, Cross1995 p77
Influences: His deep attachment to the area of West Penwith where he grew up Cross1995 p76
Career: He went to Clifton College.   After serving in the RAF during 1940-6, he taught at the Bath Academy of Art, 1950-7.   In 1946 when there was a dispute within the St Ives Society of Artists over the display of abstract art Lanyon led the move for a for a separate exhibition & in 1949 became active in the new Penwith Society of Arts.   However, in 1950 he resigned & broke permanently with Nicholson & Hepworth because, although his work was of a radical type, he felt strongly that abstraction & figuration were not incompatible.   From 1957 he travelled, exhibited & taught in America but St Ives remained his home.   He died in a gliding accident Cross1995 pp 77, 85, 88-90, 128 OxDicMod

Oeuvre: Paintings, murals & prints etc OxDicMod, Cross1995 pp 130, 132
Technique: His early paintings were produced with reworking so extensive that the canvas might be worn through.   However, final versions appear to have been swiftly completed.   He did not paint a view from a single place but combined bits & pieces into a picture Cross1995 pp 124-7, 130
Characteristics/Phases: Early on following Gabo he made assemblages from found objects that were often brightly painted.   In 1949 he made what he described as a breakthrough from Garbo-Nicholson-Hepworth abstraction with drawings & paintings at Portreath.   Many of his early paintings feature dull browns, greys, blues & black.    From 1953 when he visited Italy his colour became more intense & there was greater tonal contrast.   Now preoccupied with the relationship between myth & landscape the sea began referring to the male & the shore to the female.    After visiting America his handling became gestural & his colour more pronounced & less atmospheric, with primary reds, blues & greens.   Shapes were more clearly formed with the parts of the painting more spatially differentiated.   He took up gliding in 1959 & his paintings were now inspired by the sky OxDicMod, Garlake pp 12-3, 24, 28, 30-1, 35, 38, 45, Cross1995 pp 126-77, 130, 132-3.

Politics: He was strongly Left-wing & seriously considered fighting on the republican side in the Spanish civil war Cross1995 p77
Innovations: The reinvention of landscape in age of abstract art Wullschlager FT24/10/2016
Beliefs: “impossible for me to make a painting which has no reference to the very powerful environment in which I live” Wullschlager FT24/10/2016
Circle: He loathed Nicholson & pissed against his house daily Wullschlager FT24/10/2016.   His American friends included Rothko, Motherwell & Kline Cross1995 p128

*LARIANOV, Mikhail, 1881-1964, Russia:

Background: He was born at Tiraspol near Odessa where his father was a doctor OxDicMod

Training: 1898-1908 at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture under Serov & Korovin.   He had three suspensions for disagreeing with staff OxDicMod, Grove18 p792.
Influences: His war injuries impaired his concentration & resulted in a decline in artistic vitality Grove18 p702

Career: Goncharova who was a fellow student became his life-long companion & collaborator.   In 1906 he visited Paris with Diaghilev & returned to organise a series of avant-garde exhibitions & groups, viz the Golden Fleece exhibition of modern French painting in Moscow, 1908; the Knave of Diamonds, 1910; the Donkey’s Tail exhibition, 1912; & the Target exhibition, 1913.   Here Rayonism, which was inspired by Russian Futurism, was launched.   It was elaborated in three manifestos during 1913.   In 1914 the couple accompanied Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes to Paris.   After being invalided out of Russia army, he & Goncharova left Russia permanently.   During 1919 they settled in Paris.   From 1923 he virtually abandoned easel painting & devoted himself to graphic work & theatrical design for Ballets Russes.   In 1929 following Diaghilev’s death he resumed painting but gradually sank into obscurity, illness & poverty OxDicMod, ShearerW1996, Grove18 pp 792-3,

Phases/Characteristics: His early work was Impressionist but, after an excursion into Symbolism, from 1909 he & Goncharova developed Neo-primitivism with marrying the bright colours & coarse brushwork of the Fauves with naive & expressive Russian folk art OxDicMod

Circle: In 1912 Larionov became closely involved with the Russian literary avant-garde.   He later became an important member of the Ecole de Paris & was friendly with Cubist & Dada painters     Grove18 pp 792-3

Status/Influence: He was one of the leading Modernists prior to the War & the Golden Fleece exhibition led many young Russian artists to desert Symbolistic painting for the brighter palette & cruder forms of post-Impressionism & Fauvism OxDicMod, Grove18 p792

-LARKIN, William, c1585-1619, England:

Background: He was born in London & was almost certainly the son of an innkeeper who lived near to Robert Peake, the portrait painter to Henry Prince of Wales Grove18 p795
Oeuvre: Portraits both miniature & full-size L&L
Career: He was working as a portrait painter by 1609-10 when he painted Edward first Baron Herbert of Cherbury.   Larkin was connected to Richard Sackville third Earl of Dorset & also to Isaac Oliver.   This has led to a portrait of Richard being attributed to Larkin.   It is a dazzling Jacobean work in vibrant colour & with his costume splendidly depicted Grove18 p795
Characteristics: Larkin had an exaggeratedly stiff & flat style with a painstaking rendering of expensive fabrics & elaborate patterns of lace & embroidery, & Turkey carpets L&L
Collections: The Rangers House, Blackheath, although there is only circumstantial evidence that the paintings of Richard Sackville etc are Larkin’s  L&L, Grove p795

.. LAROON, Marcellus,  The Younger, 1679-1772, England:

Background:  He was the son of a French portrait painter who moved to England from The Hague Grove18 p796, Wikip
Training: At Kneller’s Academy Grove18 p796
Influences: Watteau, Philip Mercier & David Teniers Grove18 p796
Career: After attending a peace conference at Ryswick as a page he was one to Charles Montague, 4^th Earl of Manchester in Venice.  Back in London, 1698, he worked as a singer for Colley Cibber at the Drury Lane Theatre; enlisted in the army, 1707; & fought in Flanders, Spain & Scotland.   After leaving the army he began concentrating on art, 1732.   In the late 1750s he settled in Oxford Grove18 p796
Oeuvre/Phases: Paintings & drawings including Commedia dell’arte, Conversation Pieces & genre as in A Musical Tea-Party & A Dinner Party, c1740 (Kensington Palace), & stage scenes Grove18 p796:
Phases: In Oxford he mostly produced detailed & crowded drawings Grove18 p796
Innovation: Genre scenes that were not typical Conversation Pieces or satire as in Laroon’s Lover in a Glade, c1745 (Yale Centre for British Art)
Circle: He belonged to the Rose & Crown Club

*LARSSON, Carl, 1853-1919, Sweden:

Background: He was born in the Stockholm slums L&L

Training: At the Academy in Stockholm OxDicMod

Influences: Bastien-Lepage & later for his decorative work Japanese woodcuts & Art Nouveau.   The Larssons were impressed by William Morris & the Arts & Crafts movement Grove19 pp 801-2

Career: During 1882-5 he worked at Grez-sur-Loing painting in the open air & in 1891 went to Florence L&L.   At Grez he met the painter Karin Bergo, the daughter of an affluent Swedish businessman.   They were married in 1883 & returned to Sweden in 1885.   During 1886-92 he belonged to the radical Artists Union & was in charge of Valands Malarskola in Goteborg where he applied innovative methods of instruction.   In Goteborg he came into contact with Pontus Furstenberg who commissioned his first large-scale decorative & allegorical work of 1888-9.    In 1889 the Larssons were given a log cabin which was used as a holiday home at Lilla Hyttnas, Sundborn.   During the 1890s they transformed it & settled there in 1901 OxDicMod, Grove18 p801.

Oeuvre: Paintings, watercolours, murals, illustrations, prints & around 160 portraits OxDicMod, Grove18 p802

Speciality: Watercolours & pen-&-ink drawings of Lilla Hyttnas OxDicMod

Characteristics: He had a talent for plein air painting which is especially evident in his paintings at Grez with their subtle gradations of tone & overall silver colouring

Legacy: His watercolours of Lilla Hyttnas had a lasting influence on Swedish furnishing & interior decoration OxDicArt

*LASTMAN, Peter, 1583-1633, Netherlands=Amsterdam:

Influences: Caravaggio & Elsheimer in Rome L&L, OxDicArt
Career: In about 1603-6 he was in Rome but then returned to his native Amsterdam L&L
Oeuvre: Religious, historical & mythological scenes often using unusual subjects OxDicArt
Phases: Around 1610 he introduced crowds of figures to intensify & comment on the dramatic action L&L
Status: He was highly esteemed in his own day OxDicArt
Innovation; He was narratively clearer & more realistic & expressive than earlier Dutch Italianate painters L&L
Feature: He introduced classical & orientalising accessories, eg turbans, to locate the scene L&L
Grouping: The Pre-Rembrandtists L&L
Pupils: Lievens & Rembrandt to whom he passed on, as shown in his early works, glossy colours, dramatic lighting, & animated gestures & facial expressions L&L, OxDicArt

*LATHAM, John, 1921-2006, GB:

Background: He was born at Livingstone/Maramba in Northern Rhodesia/Zambia  OxDicMod
Training: Chelsea School of Art, 1946-50 OxDicMod
Career: He served in the Royal Navy.   During the 1960s he ritually burnt piles of books.   In1966, when he was a part-time lecturer at the St Martin’s School of Art. he chewed up pages from the library copy of Clement Greenberg’s Art & Culture & put them in acid.   MoMA bought what resulted.  Later he tried to make links between artists & industry  OxDicMod
Aim: Social change OxDicMod
Grouping: Neo-Dada of which he was a pioneer L&L
Repute: His ideas were widely mocked within the art world during the 1970s partly because collaboration with business was scorned in what was a Marxist climate OxDicMod

..LA THANGUE, Henry, 1859-1929, England:

Background: He was born at Croydon McConkey1989 p157
Training: Lambeth School Art, the RA Schools, & the Ecole des Beaux-Arts Bouguereau’s  studio  McConkey1989 p157, Weisberg1966 p117
Influences: Bastien-Lepage Weisberg1966 p117
Career: During the early 1880s he painted with his old school friend Stanhope Forbes his old school friend in Brittany.   After travelling extensively in rural France, returned & lived at South Walsham in Norfolk, at Rye, before settling at Bosham near Chichester in 1890.   He was a founder member of NEAC.   Latterly he mainly painted Provencal & Ligurian subjects Weisberg1966 p117, McConkey1989 p157
Oeuvre: Rural genre & landscape JenkinsA, McConkey1989 p150

Technique: Square-brush in his early works Weisberg1966 p117
Phases: His early peasant-type paintings in England, as represented by Leaving Home(c1890), were closer to social realism than his later & less poignant works, such as The Ploughboy (1900).   From 1893 he was increasingly interested in light effects.   His peasants became types rather than individuals & their faces lack expression.   By 1900 he was using broken & heavily loaded brushwork; warm pigments conveying the feeling of heavy summer in tranquil countryside JenkinsA pp 142-6, Weisberg1966 p121.     His work was increasingly nostalgic OxDicMod

Patronage: The wealthy Bradford industrialist Herbert Mitchell, John Maddocks & other Bradford collectors of British & French rural naturalism JenkinsA p134, Weisberg1966 p118.
Grouping: Naturalism or British Impressionism McConkey Weisberg1966, McConkey1989 p157
Reception & Repute: The Man with the Scythe, 1896, was purchased by the Chantry Bequest & by the late 1890s La Thangue had considerable success in England & America Weisberg1966 p121.    During the 20^th century his reputation sunk low & he was still not itemised in the Yale

Dictionary in 2000, although in that year he was key figure in a notable exhibition Jenkins

La Tour.   See de La Tour

-LAURENCIN, Marie, 1885-1956, France:

Background: She was born in Paris L&L
Training: Largely self-taught OxDicMod
Career: She joined the Bateau-Lavoir circle in Montmartre & became the lover of Apollinaire.   During 1914-20 she lived in Spain & Germany L&L, OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings, illustrations & stage design OxDicMod
Speciality: Decorative composition often with oval-faced, almond eyed young girls in gentle, pastel colours L&L, OxDicMod
Verdict: Her work was lyrical, charming but rather repetitive OxDicMod
Friend: Picasso L&L

..LAURENS, Jean-Paul, 1838-1921, France:

Background: Born in Fourquevaux, Haute Garonne, of humble origins Norman1977
Training: Studied at Toulouse and in Paris with L. Cogniet and Bida (1860) Norman1977
Career: Laurens first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1863 Norman1977
Oeuvre: A history painter.   He generally selected scenes of terror or catastrophe, such as the Inquisition, which was a recurring theme. Laurens also executed murals for many important buildings, including the Panthéon Norman1977

Characteristics: Thorough research to ensure historical accuracy, and naturalistic rendering of detail Norman1977
Repute: Among the last artists of the 19^th century to achieve high honours as a history painter Norman1977
Personal: Laurens’ sons Paul Albert and Jean Pierre were also artists Norman1977

..LAURENT, 1859-1929, France: Troubadour Movement

..LAUREUS, Alexander, 1783-1832, Finland:

Lautrec See Toulouse-Lautrec:

-LAVERY, Sir John, 1856-1941, GB; Rural Naturalism and British Impressionism Movement

Background: He was born in Belfast OxDicMod
Training:  Around 1876 at the Glasgow School of Art; at Hatherley’s in London around 1881-3; & at the Academie Julian in Paris Bilcliffe pp 22-3

Influences: Whistler; Bastien-Lepage; & Stott of Oldham around 1884 L&L, Billcliffe p97
Career: He was orphaned & brought up on an Ulster farm & then with relatives at Saltcoats, Ayrshire.   After running away to Glasgow more than once & doing various jobs, he was apprenticed to a Glasgow photographer.   In 1879 he set up as a portraitist, & in 1881 was elected to Glasgow Art Club.   During 1883-4 he spent his summers at Grez-sur-Loing Billcliffe pp 22, 81.   In 1888 he was chosen to paint Queen Victorian’s visit to the Glasgow International Exhibition where he depicted crowd scenes, tea-houses, stands & visitors McConkey1989 pp 44, 157.   During 1885-96 he mainly lived Glasgow, & then settled in London, often wintering in Morocco.   In 1897 & 1900 he returned to Grez.   He married an American society beauty OxDicMod, McConkey1989 p100, L&L

Phases: He painted costume & historical pictures until 1882.   In 1884 he became firmly naturalist & in the following year painted The Tennis Party which is a supreme example of naturalist technique.  However, he soon began painting semi-anecdotal modern life subjects using naturalistic handling.   His portrait painting increased.   Although much of his work was rather shallow, particularly his big exhibition pictures, the sketches for them, & the, small un-commissioned figure & landscape paintings, which he painted as much for pleasure as profit display his French training & natural fluency Billcliffe pp 22, 97, 179, 185, 188, 302.
Status: He was an immensely successful & fashionable portraitist from around 1888 L&L, McConkey1989 p157

Verdict: His early works have quality & charm, & his society portraits are deft, fluid & shallow L&L, OxDicArt.   He glamorised the wealthy Harrison p40.   He said he had spent his life pleasing sitters & not telling the truth, 1940 OxDicMod
Grouping: The Glasgow Boys Bilcliffe

-Jacob LAWRENCE, 1917-2000, USA; British Golden Age

Background: He was born in Atlantic City, NJ OxDicMod
Training: The Harlem Art Workshop & other New York schools OxDicMod

Influences: The black art critic Alain Locke (Harvard & Oxford); believed in art directed at blacks but embodying modernist & universal values.   Lawrence undertook length research at New York public library on negro history.   He used the colours with which Harlemites decorated their homes & lives during Depression.  The influence of Cubism & Matisse is seen in his flat silhouette form Hughes1997 pp 455-7
Career: During 1940-41 he produced 60 Migration of the Negro paintings dealing with the post-War black migration from the South to the North.   In 1972 he settled in Seattle OxDicMod

Oeuvre: Works about Black history, Harlem life, desegregation in the South, etc OxDicMod
Phases: His later work is more decorative & contains less social comment OxDicMod

Characteristics: His figures are stylised with strong, angular, flattened forms in brilliant colours OxDicMod.   However, there is a notable absence of Social Realist caricature, propagandism & sentimentality in the Migration series in view of their subject matter Hughes1997 p456

Innovation: He broke with the idealised, primitivistic, art Deco Noble Negro, which was itself a reaction against racism Hughes1997 p455

Status: He was one of the first blacks to win artistic recognition OxDicMod.
Verdict: The Migration of the Negro series is perhaps the most powerful socially committed work of the 1930s & 40s Hughes1997 p454

*Sir Thomas LAWRENCE, 1769-1830, England:

Background: He was born at Bristol.   His father was a Supervisor of Excise who just after Thomas’ birth became an innkeeper first in Bristol & from 1773 at Devizes.   The environment was surprisingly cultured as, due to his father’s fondness for literature & the arts.   There were prints, books & music Levey2005 pp 25, 32-3
Training: Almost none, he was a child prodigy OxDicArt
Career: In 1787 he moved to London L&L.   His reputation was established in 1790 with Queen Charlotte.   Lawrence went to the Continent in 1818 to paint the allied leaders in the fight against Napoleon.   In 1820 he became PRA.   He helped found the National Gallery OxDicArt

Phases: The failure of his portrait of Queen Charlotte to please led to him painting flattering & glamorous works after 1789 Vaughan 1999 pp 94-5
Characteristics: His brushwork was fluid & lush but his work was uneven, and sometimes careless, because of an excessive number of commissions OxDicArt
Feature: He asked sitters to come for sessions so he could paint their hands alone Levey 2005 p314.   Lawrence had a close Relationship with George IV his “generous patron” who gave him a gold medal & chain when he became President of the RA, & even paid him promptly Levey p238

Verdict/Repute:  This has been very mixed.  According to Roger Fry, his technique was masterly but his vision was relatively commonplace & undistinguished.   In his later portraits of women everything is falsified so they appear fragile & elegant.   He painted eyes too well: they were over transparent & limpid.   Many of his pictures were bad but some were masterpieces Fry1934 pp 91-5.   At his best he had a feeling for paint that few British artists can rival OxDicArt.   He seemed to be permanently adolescent, putting paid to the grand picture by revealing its vacuity without providing any substantial replacement Vaughan1999p95.   His reputation has been at undeservedly low ebb: he was the greatest British portrait painter of the 19^th century Levey2005 p313

Personal: He was handsome & charming, constantly in debt, & he helped young artists OxDicArt
Influence: In Vienna when he was painting the Congress & on Amerling, who contacted Lawrence in London & copied in his studio Norman1987 pp 20, 30

..Cecil LAWSON,  1851-82, England:

Background: He was born in Shropshire of Scottish parents.  His father William was a portrait painter WoodDic
Influences: Constable & Rubens’ landscapes Treuherz1993 p189
Oeuvre: Paintings & watercolours WoodDic
Specialities: Sunsets, mists, moonlight & unusual compositions etc Treuherz1993 p189
Career: In 1861 he went to London & scored his first notable success at the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery with The Minister’s Garden, 1878 WoodDic
Oeuvre: Paintings & watercolours WoodDic
Characteristics: At first he painted small, detailed studies of fruit & flowers.  Later he achieved a poetic realism without recourse to idealised or symbolic figures.   He was singularly sensitive to the grandeur & bold rhythms of nature WoodDic Treuherz1993 p189

..Ernest LAWSON, 1873-1939, USA:

Background: He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but spent part of his youth in Kansas City Gerdts1980 p112
Training: In Mexico, 1889; at the Art Students League, 1890; under Twachtman & J. Alden Weir at Cos Cob Connecticut; & at the Academie Julian, 1893 Gerdts1980 p112
Influences: Sisley Gerdts1980 p113
Career: He painted at Moret-sur-Loing, which was popular with Impressionists.   Here he met Sisley.   He returned to America in 1894 & settled in New York painting in & around the city.   Around 1904-5 he began developing a close relationship with The Eight.   In 1931 he moved to Florida Gerdts1980 p113
Oeuvre: Landscapes frequently with figures & a few portraits Gerdts1980 p112
Speciality: Views of the Haarlem & East Rivers, the Hudson & the cliffs at Hoboken, sometimes with diagonally viewed bridges & viaducts, & with squatters living in shacks   Gerdts1980 p113
Characteristics/Phases: In some of his early his early work has palette was rather restricted but it later widened & he became more concerned with real rather than suggested space.   His vigorous facture matched the rugged scenery he painted sometimes in enamel paint.   In Florida he depicted the tropical landscape in an expressive manner using flame-like paint to produce a crudish tapestry effect Gerdts1980 p113
Grouping: Impressionism OxDicArt
Verdict: He was the least distinguished member of the Eight OxDicArt
Status: American Impressionism Gerdts1984 p283
Feature: In Paris he became friends with Somerset Maugham & is Frederick Lawson in Of Human Bondage Gerdts1980 p113

 ..LEADER, Benjamin, 1831-1923, England, Academic Painting from 1845; Academic Movement

Influences: He greatly admired Constable Wood1999 p80

Career: 1881 he achieved great popularity with February Fill Dyke Treuherz1993 p190

Phases: Welsh views with superficial Pre-Raphaelite brightness; then broader & more subdued; many pictures similar to February Fill Dyke Treuherz1993 p190

Verdict/Aim: Opinions differ.   Treuherz says that, when occasionally he abandoned picturesque & chocolate-box effects, he attained greater individuality Treuherz1993 p190.    According to Christopher Wood, he tried to paint the countryside in an honest, naturalistic & unaffected way, without forced effects Wood1999 pp 76, 80 

Friends: Vicat Cole Treuherz1993 p190

 *LEAL, Juan de Valdes, 1622-90, Spain=Seville; Baroque

Background: He was born in Seville, the son of a Portuguese father L&L
Training: Antonio del Castletillo in Cordoba L&L
Career; He spent his early years working in Cordova but settled in Seville by 1656.   Leal founded the Seville Academy with Murillo & Francisco Herrera the Younger L&L, OxDicArt
Oeuvre: He was also an engraver OxDicArt
Speciality:  His gruesomely expressive & realistic vanitas paintings L&L
Characteristic: Vivid movement & colouring, dramatic lighting OxDicArt
Status: After Murillo he was the leading Sevillana painter in 2^nd  half of the 17^th century L&L

-LEAR, Edward, 1812-1888, England:

Background: He had 20 siblings, & was brought up in a fair degree of comfort, but was forced to earn a living at 15 due to the bankruptcy & imprisonment of his father Maas p 99

Training: He was largely self-taught but, worried by his lack of training; he latterly went to the RA Schools & took lessons from Holman Hunt Treuherz1993 p119

Influences: Hunt’s brilliant colour Trequherz1993 p119

Career: In the early 1830s he was a draftsman for the Zoological Society, & between 1832 & 1836 worked for Lord Derby at Knowsley Park Maas p84.   However, his eyesight became strained.   In 1837 he went to Italy & then roamed widely in Albania, Greece, Turkey, Egypt & India.   In 1871 he settled at San Remo, Italy.   His first book of nonsense poems appeared in 1846 OxDicArt, L&L, Treuherz p118.   However, he regarded landscape painting as more importantReynolds1987 p154.  While working in out of the way places he was frequently pelted with stones, surrounded by robbers, manhandled & left penniless Maas p90

Technique: On his travels he made hundreds of annotated pencil drawings to which he later added ink line & watercolour washes Treuherz1993 p119

Phases: In the 1830s he began topographical painting, first in watercolour but then in oils OxDicArt

Characteristics:  His landscapes were inspired by its romantic features such as jagged mountains, precipices, ravines, huge trees & distant views at sunset.   The watercolours are predominantly linear & his oils are sometimes almost abstract Maas p100 

Verdict: Lear was one of the most original landscape painters of the 19^th century Maas p100.   His sketches are freer & more original than his studio work Treuherz p119.   His best work captures the particular qualities of light L&L. 

Personal: Lear was epileptic, depressive, shy & lonely Treuhetz1993 pp 118-9.   He said he hated oil painting, which was like grinding his nose off Reynolds p154.  Lear also said that he opted for “liberty, hard living & filth as the most professionally useful” form of landscape painting Maas pp89-90

Feature:  When sketching in the East he wore a straw hat with a brim as large as a cart-wheel with a white calico cover Reynolds1987 p176.   He gave 12 drawing lessons to Queen Victoria in 1846 which she praised Maas p85  

..LE BARBIER/LE BARBIER, Jean-Jacques-Francois, 1738-1826: France; Neo-Classicism

Background: Born Rouen Grove19 p9
Training: Studied in Rouen then at the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris under Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre Grove19 p9
Influences: The Neo-classical style of Joseph-Marie Vien and Jacques-Louis David Grove19 p9
Career: He was in Rome 1767-8; in Switzerland 1776; returned to France, 1780;  & was elected to the Academie Royale with Jupiter Asleep on Mount Ida (Ecole Nationale Superior, Beaux-Arts), 1785.   In 1790, the Assemblee Nationale commissioned Lebarbier, who had already demonstrated the warmth of his republicanism, and he then painted The Heroic Courage of the Young Desilles at the Nancy Affair, 30 August 1790 (Musee Historique Lorraine, Nancy) Grove19 p9
Oeuvre: Landscapes; religious, mythological & historical subjects; pen and ink & wash drawings; illustrations; & cartoons for the Beauvais tapestries emphasising French assistance to American colonists, 1786 Grove19 p9
Characteristics/Phases: Initially he painted peaceful, non-political scenes including a woman making an offering to Venus, 1778, & a female Turkish Bath, 1785.  These were to be replaced by works of highly political nature in the revolutionary era.  However, the Desilles painting did not portray a blood thirsty revolutionary but an officer who was sacrificing his life trying to prevent a fratricidal conflict between his mutinous fellow soldiers & their royalist opponents Rosenblum1967 p91, Fig 93
Feature: Following the swift political changes his painting of Desilles was no longer politically correct when completed as by then he was seen as a counter-revolutionary traitor Grove19 p9
Grouping: Neo-Classicism Grove19 p9

..LE BLANC, Horace, 1580-1637, France; Baroque:

Background: Born Lyon Grove19 p14
Training: Venice with Palma Giovane who was Titian’s pupil Allen p97
Career: He was in Rome in 1660 & belonged to the Accademia di S Luca; returned to Lyon in 1610 & was appointed master of the painters’ guild being re-appointed several times until 1629.   He was much in demand producing works for monastic establishments in & around Lyon Grove19 p14
Oeuvre: Religious & decorative works Grove19 p14
Characteristics: His work was not restrained & classical: it was dramatic & animated with twisting & contrapposto figures  as in Teresa of Avila (Museum of Fine Arts, Lyon, 1621) & Martyrdom of St Sebastian, 1624 (Musee de Rouen) Allen p98
Pupils: Jacques Blanchard & Francois Perrier Allen p97, Grove19 p14

Lebrun: See Vigee-Lebrun

**Charles LE BRUN / LEBRUN, 1619-90, France:

Background: He was born in Paris, the son of a master sculptor Gareau p7.   The Academy became an instrument in the effort by Louis XIV & his officials to enhance the position of the crown,  this led to jockeying within the Academy for political support See T&C p100, Allen pp 129, 130.            .   .  

Training: Perrier when he was thirteen, & then Vouet with whom he soon quarrelled Gareau pp 7-8.  .         

Influences: Da Cortona; Van Dyke for naturalism & the warm colouring of portraits L&L.   Le Brun’s theory of the passions derives directly from Descartes’ Trait des passions de l’ame, 1649, with its narrowly mechanical account of the passions Allen p140.

Career: He was a child prodigy Gareau p7.   Cardinal Richelieu commissioned three paintings around 1639-41 but died in 1642 Grove19 p39.   During 1642-6 Le Brun was in Rome studying with Poussin etc.   The trip was financed by the French Chancellor Pierre Seguier with whom Le Brun had connections through his mother Allen p127, T&C p97, Grove19 p19.  After his return Le Brun pinned his hopes on the Chancellor & became involved in the plans for the Academy.   However, his rivals had the support of the Superintendent of  Royal Buildings & at one stage they succeeded in having him expelled from the Academy.   Just in time Le Brun was able to came to an understanding with Colbert who saw him as the man able to execute vast projects to enhance royal power T&C pp 98, 100 . 

As a painter Le Brun had achieved success around 1650 with his illusionistic Baroque ceiling at the Hotel Lambert.   His first royal commission was in 1661.   Between 1663 & 1690 he was director of the French Academy of Painting & Sculpture &, until the death of his patron Colbert in 1683, he was virtual dictator of visual arts.   During 1671-86 he designed the decorations of the royal apartments together with the ceiling paintings at Versailles L&L, Kitson1966 p12.   In 1667 he inaugurated a series of conferences at the Academy based on paintings in the royal collection Grove19 p22.  He backed the Pessimists in the Quarrel of Colour & Design OxDicArt.

Oeuvre: Religious paintings, ancient world history paintings, mythological & allegorical works, together with portraits, drawings & tapestry design Gareau, OxDicCon, webimages     

Phases:  The vigorous design & handling of his very early Hercules & the Horses of Diomedes, c1640, is entirely lacking in his later works Blunt1954 p245.  From1661 his mature style was like that of Poussin but it was freer, more picturesque & less severely heroic.   After1683, with decreasing royal commissions, he produced smaller, intimate & luminous works L&L

Characteristics: His work was more Rubenesque than Poussinesque, & he tried (unsatisfactorily) to balance the grand movement of the former with the accuracy & discipline of the latter Allen pp 160-1.   His works are sometimes marred by figures who are in are in stock theatrical poses, especially those involving hands & arms See Gareau pp 146, 149, 153, 155, 163, 177, 185, 197.   Le Brun, unlike Poussin, had a taste for violence.   However, he could also produce solid & superficially Poussinesque work, like Moses Striking the Rock, 1648-50, & peaceful devotional subjects such as the Holy Family, 1655 Allen pp 127-30.  Many of Le Brun’s paintings have a dark tonality & a distinctive palette.   There is almost no green as opposed to blue-green, & not much light yellow or pink.   On the other hand, there is an abundance of glowing red Gareau pp 153,  177, 183, 185,  197-8, 202-3,  214-5, 221-2.     Another point about Le Brun’s colouring is that light appears to be coming in different & inconsistent directions, as if the scene is being illuminated by a number of spotlights.   In his Nativity there are seven or eight sources of light Grove19 p20, Gareau pp 177, 181, 185, 203-4, 209-10, 215-6 , 221-2 T&C p102.

Grouping: Although he championed the rational Classicism of Poussin, he relied for his vast decorative works on a classically tempered Baroque which owed much to Da Cortona.   His decorative work at Versailles was Baroque-classicism L&L, Kitson1966 p71.   Le Brun’s work certainly has strong Baroque features.   These include drama & composition where there is a marked use of diagonals.   [Some of  his enormous paintings are ill composed].   In his Alexander Porus it is difficult to see what is happening because Porus does not stand out; & in The Death of Meleager a servant girl who is supposed to be waiting on him is looking in the opposite direction T&C  pp 102-3, Gareau pp 184-5.   Classical compositions which are relatively straightforward  & where the figures are upright appear to be a rarity Gareau pp147, 153, 159, 161, 163, 165, 173, 175, 177, 183, 209, 215, 221, but see p183.   

Innovations: He formulated rules for depicting emotional expressions in his treatise Methode pour apprendre a dessiner les passions,1698 Kitson1966 p12, L&L

Verdict: Opinions differ.   According to Jacques Thuillier he deserves a place among the greatest masters who fully, nobly & lucidly all the possibilities of his art T&C p95.   His work, especially before Versailles, been seen as a Pandora’s Box of vigorous but incompatible elements from Raphael, Giulio Romano, Poussin, Cortona, Reni & Rubens Allen p128,  

Influence: Le Brun has been accused of imposing  through the Academy a discipline that proved fatal to inspiration.   That French painting lost its vitality under Louis XIV, leading to  a period of mawkishness & hollow rhetoric, is not denied by one of Le Brun’s most enthusiastic admirers.  It is conceded that he was in charge of a whole team of artists of mediocre talent but argued this malaise took place despite Le Brun & also extended to literature.   Moreover Blanchard & de la Fosse who were colourists were given at least as much work in the decoration of Versailles as those who were Poussinistes T&C p107, Allen p107.      

 Pupils: Francois Verdier, Rene-Antoine Houasse, & Michael Corneille, the Younger TurnerRtoI p258, L&L

 Legacy: Under Lebrun’s leadership & with Colbert’s backing Paris replaced Italy as the artistic capital of Europe L&L

 Repute: During the 17^th century his battle scenes & other works were regarded as models but in the 19^th century his reputation waned & it did not recover until a great exhibition of his works in 1963.   It was organised by Jacques Thullier & Jennifer Montague  Grove 19 p25    

*Sir Christopher LE BRUN, 1951-, England; Baroque Classical

Background: Born Portsmouth L&L
Training:  The Slade, 1970-4, & the Chelsea School of Art, 1974-5 Wikip
Influences: Emotional & expressive painters including Delacroix, Puvis de Chevannes, Monet & Guston L&L
Career: Commissions of importance include a series of paintings on Wagner’s operas & a biblical works in the Liverpool Catholic cathedral.  He was elected to the RA in 1996 & was the President during 2011-9 Wikip
Oeuvre: Paintings, prints & from 1997 sculpture  L&L
Characteristics: Figurative works of a poetic & cloudy nature, though sometimes precise, which usually convey a feeling of sadness, together with all over, gestural abstracts &  colourful geometric paintings ArtUK, webimages, L&L
Wife: The artist Charlotte Verity Wikip

Leck.   See van der Leck

-LE CLERC/LE CLERC, Jean, c1590-1633, France

Background: He was born at Nancy into a family in the service of Duke Charles III of Lorraine Grove19 p35
Training: Saraceni Wikip
Influences: Caravaggio Grove19 p35
Career: In Italy from at least 1617 where he was living in the same house as Saraceni.  He returned to Nancy, where he ran a busy studio, received commissions from the ducal family1622 Grove19 p35
Oeuvre: Religious & historical paintings & murals,  portraits & etchings Grove19 p35
Characteristics: His paintings appear to be large & dramatic but their authorship is in doubt.   They include a candle-lit Nocturnal Concert (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) Grove19 p35
Influence: Georges de la Tour? L&L

..LECOMTE DE NOUAY, Jean, 1842-1923, France; Troubadour Movement

Background: Born in Paris Norman1977
Oeuvre: A history, portrait and landscape painter Norman1977
Training: Studied under Gleyre, Signol and Gérôme, whose favourite pupil he became Norman1977
Career: Lecomte won the second Rome prize in 1872.   He painted the king and queen of Romania, which earned him numerous commissions for churches there. Norman1977
Characteristics: A carefully detailed manner. Lecomte was a sensitive portraitist Norman1977

*LE CORBUSIER/JEANERET, Charles Edward, 1887-1865, Switzerland/France:

Background: Born La Chaux de Fonds, the son of a watchcase designer & a music teacher Grove19 p39
Training: He studied engraving at the local art school before turning to architecture L&L
Career: In 1917 he settled in Paris & in 1918 founded Purism with Oxenfant & began to paint, continuing to do so throughout his life  OxDicMod, L&L, Grove19
Oeuvre: Paintings, watercolours, illustrations, lithographs, design work & architecture for which he is primarily known OxDicMod  

Phases: Initially he painted still-life works featuring musical instruments, bottles & piles of plates in a highly stylised & simplified manner as in Still Life with a Pile of Plates, 1920 (Moma, etc).  He used sombre earth colours with more dynamic hues for emphasis.  As he became more confident Ozelfant’s influence lessened, his tonality became lighter & the juxtaposition of forms more fluent.  During the later 1920s he moved away from Purist iconography, he became increasingly interested in the female nude & organic shapes such as bones & rocks.  His work became more dynamic & imaginative, though he continued to eschew decoration for its own sake.  From 1929 he occasionally introduced human figures Grove19 p48, Brigstoke

Characteristics: His works are of a clear-cut nature usually well filled with areas & shapes of differing sizes & configurations  -rectangular. rounded & irregular- sometimes with superimposed lines, areas,  objects- usually in bright or contrasing colour & from 1929 sometimes containing stylised figures.   There are also a few highly simplified landscapes Wikip, OxDicMod

Politics: Despite a significant role in the anti-Fascist Exposition Internationale,1937, he backed reactionary groups in the 1920s & 30s including George Valois’ Revolutionary Fascist Party or Blue Shirts.  During the occupation he supported Vichy.   This was an aspect of his obsession with order, & the need to cleanse cities & re-order society through communal living See Hyperallergic on web, Zeldin p1149. Grove 19 p44, etc

Status: He occupies a small niche in the history of modern painting as co-founder of Purism Brigstoke

–  LE FAUCONNIER, Henri, 1881-1945/6, France:

Background: He was born at Hesdin, Pas-de-Calais OxDicMod
Training: Mainly at the Academie Julian OxDicMod
Career: He came to Paris in 1901, gave up law at the University of Paris for painting, & in 1911 exhibited with the Cubist at the Salon des Independants, 1911.   The War years were spent in the Netherlands.   Latterly he became a recluse L&L, OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Mainly of figure subjects, including nudes & allegories OxDicMod
Phases: In about 1914 his work became more Expressionist but it still retained Cubist structural features.  After 1920 he gradually abandoned Expressionism for a more restrained style OxDicMod
Repute: He is not generally held in high regard OxDicMod
Influence: He played an important part in promoting Cubist mannerisms & Expressionism in the Netherlands.   His work was shown in Germany & Moscow during 1912-4 OxDicMod, L&L

..LECOQ DE BOISBAUDRAN, Horace, 1802-97, France:

Background: Born in Paris Norman1977
Career: In the 1850s he ran a school in which he stressed painting from nature and from memory Norman1977
Oeuvre: Boisbaudran painted portraits and religious themes Norman1977
Beliefs: He urged his pupils to steep themselves in a scene so that they could paint it from memory Norman1977
Verdict: Boisbaudran was more important as a teacher Norman1977

√√√..LEE, Frederick, 1798-1879, England:

Training: At the RA Schools from 1818 WoodDic
Career: He left the army due to ill-health, first exhibited at the RA in 1824 & became an RA in 1838.   He mainly lived in Barnstable WoodDic
Oeuvre: Landscapes mostly of Devon & Scotland, seascapes & still-life WoodDic
Characteristics: His landscapes were idealised & with conventional green & smiling views of the British countryside, & his rustic  genre was sentimental  WoodDic Treuherz1993 p63
Reception: His work was popular WoodDic
Grouping:  He was one of a large body of Victorian artists who mainly catered for town dwellers who wanted contented-looking peasants.   Others such painters included Birkett Foster, William Collins & William Collins Wood1999 p85  

.. John Ingle LEE, 1839-82, England:

Background: He was born in Liverpool.  His father sold straw bonnets & associated materials & became affluent Newall2016 p113
Training: During 1858-60 he sporadically attended classes at the Liverpool Academy Newall2016 p113
Influences: Almost certainly Henry Nelson O’Neil Newall2016 p114
Career: In 1859 he began exhibiting at the Liverpool Academy & moved to London in the mid-1860s moving to an impressive house with a studio in Hampstead around 1875, though it is unlikely that his affluence was due to painting.   He exhibited at the RA & Royal Society of British Artists Newall2016 pp 113, 116-7
Oeuvre: Genre & landscape  Newall2016 pp 113-5
Characteristics: Heightened striking & sometimes strident colours,  attention to detail & a photograph finish Newall 2016 pp112, 114-6
Patrons: John Miller Newall2016 p115
Reception: It was critical in Liverpool Newall2016 p114
Grouping: Liverpool School Pre-Raphaelite Newall2016 pp 113-7

Frans Van LEEMPUTTEN, 1850-1914, Belgium:

..LEFEBRE/LEFEBVRE, Jules, 1836-1912, France: Academic:
Background: He was born in Tournan, Seine-et-Marne Norman1977
Training: In Leon Cogniet’s studio from 1852 Grove19 p65
Influences: Mannerism when in Rome, especially Andrea del Asarto, & Ingres and Realism shaped his appreciation of the female form Grove 19 p65, Norman1977
Career: He was outstandingly successful; he won the first Rome prize in 1861, sending his first painting to the Salon from Rome in 1864.  In 1866 the death of his parents, etc, led to a severe depression.  He was a professor at the Academie Julian from the 1870s almost until his death, & he taught Fernand Knopff & Kenyon Cox, insisting on absolute accuracy in in the depiction of nature Norman1977, Grove19 pp 65-66.
Oeuvre: A painter of myth, allegory and initially historical works, he was also a highly successful portraitist. The female nude was his special preoccupation as in his Lady Godiva, c1890 (Musee Picardie, Amiens) with its notable vertical & suggestive entryway webimage
Characteristics: Precise draughtsmanship, delicate colour & lubricity as in his Boy Painting a Tragic Mask, 1863 (Museum of Art & History, Auxerre)
Reception: He received commissions for decorations, including a ceiling for the Paris Hotel de Ville.  American collectors were avid purchasers &, although some critics were favourable harsh judgements appeared from the from 1875, Norman1977, Grove19 p66
Legacy: He had many imitators Grove19 p66
Verdict: [He had an immaculately polished technique & employed the full range of ways in which artists are able to enhance their works ranging from marked chiaroscuro to accomplished colouring & brushwork as in his posthumous Portrait of Julia Foster Ward (St Petersburg Museum of Fine Art, Florida) [Wikimedia Commons]
Repute: He is not itemised in the Oxford Companion or OxDicCon

..LEGA, Silvestro, 1826-95, Italy:

Background: Born in Modigliana, Forli Norman1977
Oeuvre: Lega was a lyrical painter of naturalistic landscapes and intimate genre scenes Norman1977
Training: Studied in Florence.   After fighting with Mazzini’s troops in 1848 he continued his studies in Ciseri Norman1977
Career: In 1859 he joins Maccs L&L; retires to Tuscan countryside, painting life untroubled by political/urban turmoil as in After Lunch 1868 (Pinacoteca di Brera) R&J p302
Phases: Lega painted some military scenes from 1859, but was fully converted to Realism in 1861 Norman1977
Characteristics: After the 1870s his brushwork became progressively broader and more summary Norman1977

 **LEGER, Fernand, 1881-1955, France:

Background: Born in Argentan of peasant farming ancestry OxDicMod

Training: He was apprenticed to an architect in Caen, 1897-99, & at the Academie Julian & elsewhere while working OxDicMod

Influences: After 1920 his paintings were influenced by classic French paintings both ancient & modern C&M pp 137, 141-2

Career: In 1900 he settled in Paris where he worked as an architectural draftsman & photographic re-toucher.   He was overwhelmed by Cezanne exhibition at the Salon d’Automne, 1907.   In 1908 rented a studio in La Ruche, became friends with Robert Delaunay, met & admired Rousseau, & participated in the gatherings at Puteaux in the studio of the Villons.   In 1912 he exhibited with the Puteaux group at the Salon de La Section d’Or in the Galerie La Boetie; & he had his first solo exhibition at Kahnweiler’s gallery.   During the War he was a sapper in the front line, was gassed, spent more than a year in hospital, & was discharged in 1917.   In 1920 he met Le Corbusier & Ozenfant with whom he became closely associated &, in 1924,   established a teaching studio, the Academie de l’Art Moderne with the latter   During the Second World War he lived in America & taught at Yale etc.  He returned to France in 1945 & joined the Communist Party to which he had long been sympathetic OxDicMod, C&M pp 136-7 

Oeuvre: Paintings, murals & theatre design OxDicMod

Phases/Characteristics: His early paintings were Impressionist; he was briefly influenced by Fauvism, but turned to Cubism in 1909.   His Cubist works were similar to those of the Salon group.  He disjointed forms but did not greatly fragment them & his colour was much brighter than that of Braque & Picasso.   By 1914 his work was almost completely abstract.   However, in the army he met ordinary French people, decided that his future work must clearly address the reality of modern life.   He also became impressed by the beauty of machinery, when he saw the glinting metal of a gun in the sunshine.   From 1920 his work was focused on the human figure.   This was now fully unified & depicted as almost robot-like.   His compositions had perfect balance, & more tranquil themes of leisure now predominated (after a brief period of strident colour & dynamic movement) OxDicMod, C&M pp 136-7.

Repute: He has been highly regarded by fellow artists & art historians, but not by the wider public OxDicMod      

 ..Alphonse LEGROS, 1837-1911, France; Victorian Modern Life Movement

Background: Born Dijon into a penurious family Norman1977
Training: Ingres Studio4/1931

Career: In 1863 he settled in England (& in 1881 was naturalized) OxDicArt; 1876 He became a Professor at the Slade in 1876 OxDicArt.   Here he continued the rigorous drawing teaching introduced by predecessor Pointer & fostered interest in French painters (Millet & Lhermitte) who depicted peasant hardship Treuherz1993 pp 176-7, 193-4.   Herged pupils (Gotch etc) to study in Paris Hepburn p11

Characteristics: Austere paintings & etchings of tramps & wanderers in landscape Treuherz1993 p194.   His work was entirely rural & French in subject Treuherz1987 p65

Verdict: He was a fine draftsman but too sentimental OxDicArt

Friends: Fantin-Latour & Bastien-Lepage (close), Whistler (close) Hepburn p11, Norman1977    

-Jean LEGROS, France, 1671-1745, France:

Background: Born Paris.   His father (Pierre Legros the Elder) & his brother (Pierre Legros the Younger) were sculptors Grove19 p89, L&L
Training: At the Academy under Rigaud L&L
Career: He was a member of the Academie Royale web
Oeuvre/Characteristics: Portraits which he painted in a rich style as in Nicolas Costou, 1722 (Chateau, Versailles) L&L, Grove19 p89

..LEHMANN, Karl, 1814-82, France (Germany):

Background: Born in Kiel; his father Leo was an artist, as was his brother Rudolf Norman1977
Oeuvre: A history painter and portraitist Norman1977
Training: Lehmann studied in Hamburg until 1831, when he entered Ingres’ studio in Paris Norman1977
Influences: He was one of the most successful pupils of Ingres Norman1977
Repute: He was one of the most renowned decorators of his day Norman1977
Influenced/Legacy: Lehmann’s dedication to the classical tradition was lastingly embodied in his establishment of an eponymous prize, awarded for outstanding academic painting Norman1977

*LEIBL, Wilhelm, 1844-1900, Germany; Victorian Modern Life and Rural Naturalism Movement

Background: He was born in Cologne where his father directed the cathedral choir Met1981 p269

Training: Cologne, 1861-4, & at the Munich Academy under Anchutz, Ramberg & Piloty, 1864-9 Met1981 p269

Influences: Hals, whom he regarded as the greatest of all painters, & Courbet, although by this time he was already a mature artist Novotny pp 287-8, 292-3

Career: He was initially apprenticed to a locksmith Met1981 p269.  After encountering critical opposition, he turned his back on Munich & painted peasant scenes in southern Germany.   However, after briefly settling in Paris in 1869, he returned to Munich, 1870-3 Norman1977.   There he led a group of artists, the Leibl Circle, who paralleled the Paris Realists Met1981 p270.   Then, after more opposition, he moved to Unterschondorf on the Ammersee where he produced some of his most solid images L&L.   His work was included in the Berlin Secession exhibition, 1899 Met1981 p270.

Oeuvre: Portraits & group of figures with the background merely indicated Novotny p288

Technique: He used both an open form & one that was delicate, enamelled & smooth (unlike the painters in the Leibl group who only used the former) Novotny p288

Phases: From 1873 to the beginning of the 1880s he developed a new highly finished style inspired by Holbein but his work latterly became looser & more Impressionistic Norman1977, Novotny p289

Characteristics: He painted simple figure paintings, seldom with more than three people & with powerful form & harmonious tone & colour Norman1977.   His work is filled with tranquillity, & has a touching modesty & outstanding naivety.  He sees everything exactly like a still-life & his concentration on technical perfection sometimes leads to the chill of an over-refined artistry, but at other times it produces a pictorial structure so compact & concentrated that it has a Vermeer-like greatness Novotny pp288-9, 294

Aim: To achieve perfection as accurate as that of any master in the past Novotny p288

Friends: Courbet from 1869 Norman1977

Status: His status in Germany is equivalent to that of Courbet in France Norman1977

Circle: Wilhelm Trubner, Carl Schuch, Karl Hagemeister, Louis Eysen & Hans Thomas C&C p59

Grouping: Realism C&C p57; Naturalism Weisberg1992 p191.

Influence:  During the 1870s he revolutionized painting in Munich Norman1977

..LEICKERT, Charles, 1818-1907, Netherlands:

Background: Born in Brussels Norman1977
Training/Influences: Leickert studied with Hove, Nuyen and Schelfhout, with whose work his own is closely related Norman1977
Oeuvre: Landscapes Norman1977
Characteristics: Leickert’s work is in the tradition of the great 17^th century Dutch masters, but he used a brighter palette and more summary brushwork Norman1977

..LEIGH, Thomas, early 17^th century, England:

Career: He appeared twice at court hearings in London, went to Chester where he worked for the painter John Souch.   According to the Chester archives the painter Edward Bellen took on two journeymen Thomas Leigh & his son which suggests that there were two T. Leighs Stephanie Roberts, Web

Oeuvre: Portraits of which at least 13 are known Stephanie Roberts, Web

..Edward Blair LEIGHTON, 1853-1922, Academic Painting from 1845; Academic Movement

Background: Son of the portrait painter & historical painter Charles Blair Leighton, 1825-55 Wooddic.
Career: He exhibited at the RA from 1878 to 1920 Wooddic
Oeuvre: Classical, medieval & Regency subjects Wood1999  p246.
Characteristics: His elegant ladies in landscapes or interiors have a similar charm to Tissot’s Wooddic.
Grouping:  He belongs to the costume painting category Treuherz pp 169-70, See Costume Paintings

Lord Frederic LEIGHTON, Lord Frederic, 1830-96, GB; Aestheticism Movement

Background: He was born in Scarborough.   His father inherited a fortune in 1841 & then gave up his career as a doctor for European travel Newall1990 pp 9, 141

Training: In 1842 he enrolled at the Academy, Berlin, & during 1845 at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence.   In 1846 he studied at the Stadelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt & in 1849 joined the atelier of Alexandre Dupuis in Paris.   Leighton returned to the Stadelsches Kunstinstitut in 1850 where he studied under Von Steinle Newall1990 p141, Andrews1964 p69 

Influences: Ingres, Scheffer & Couture during his Parisian period Wood1999 pp 184-6.   From Robert Fleury he learned much about colouring & he said that he was indebted to Bougereau for his sense of form Rhys p10.   In the1850s Costa showed him the expressive possibilities of landscape Newall1990 p71.  He had a passion for Venetian art & owned more than 20 such works MinInstArt p106.    His father had been opposed an artistic career unless his son became eminent & he spent his whole life trying to achieve this Wood1999 p183.   Steinle imparted a sense of high-minded dedication & became a lifelong friend Wood1999 p184

Career: In 1839-40 the family visited Paris & Rome.   During 1840-1 he attended University College School, London.   Between 1841 & 48 the Leighton family were in Germany, Switzerland & Italy.   During 1848-9 he went with his family to Brussels & Paris.   In 1851 he visited London & in the 1852 family home was established in Bath.   He visited Austria & Italy, & in 1853 met Costa & Mason in Rome & went painting & sketching with them in the Campagna.   In 1855 Cimabue’s Madonna was exhibited at RA & purchased by the Queen.   During 1855-58 he was in Paris where he met Ingres, & writers & critics (including Baudelaire & Gautier) who pioneered l’art pour l’art.   After returning to London he made contact with the Pre-Raphaelites.   In 1866 he visited Spain & moved into his new house in Holland Park Newall1990 pp 20-1, 141-2.   His first major Classical picture (Syracusian Bride Leading Wild Beasts to the Temple of Diana) appeared in 1866 & in the following year his first female nude, Venus Disrobing Wood1999 pp 181, 188.   In 1867 he visited Asia Minor & Greece, & during 1895 he made a trip to North Africa & Italy.   He became an RA &, in 1878, president of the Academy.   During 1879 he first used Dorothy Dene as a model.   In 1885 he became a baronet & just before his death a baron Newall1990 p142

Oeuvre:  This was mainly in oil but included watercolour & fresco.   He painted classical, biblical, historical & literary subjects; a surprising number of landscapes; & occasional portraits.   He was also a sculptor Newall1990

Technique: He thought out the whole painting in minute detail before starting & seldom altered anything; then in most cases he made a black & white chalk sketch on brown paper; next he posed & drew the model in the nude & transferred the entire design onto the canvas by squaring off.    A true sketch in oils was made with the figure painted in warm monochrome from life.   The draperies were then laid on the figure & made to approximate as closely as possible to the first sketch, although the process was often piecemeal as the model was unable to hold still sufficiently long.   The background & accessories were now added & proportions of the picture might well be tinted with a colour opposite to that finally intended, eg a soft ruddy tone for the future sky.   Finally top colours were rapidly applied.   In this way Leighton produced a work in which the inspiration of the moment was never permitted.   He worked with endless energy & determination Rhys pp 55-8, 60  

Phases: His early work had a tight & niggling Nazarene style but, after his stay in Paris, his work became looser, broader & more Classical with monumental yet sumptuous figures in rich & mellifluous colours Wood1999 p186.   The psychological content of his pictures became increasingly complex in the late 1860s & the 1870s, frequently showing the contending forces of life & death.   In one Hercules Wresting with Death for the Body of Alcestis, 1871, which shows the transience of ideal beauty, Leighton reveals himself as a full blooded aesthete as well as a classical painter Grove19 p104.    During the 1870s Leighton started developing brooding, slumbering & languorous females.   He created a mood of passive nostalgia & yearning for a lost world of beauty & order, with luxuriant & opulent colour Wood1999 pp 186, 189.   His women during his last years were alone, full length & independent Newall1990 p133. 

Speciality: Melancholy & brooding Sybils that convey feelings of sadness through misfortune & disappointed love Wood1999 p181

Characteristics: His work, like that of his mentor von Steinle, [could be seen as lacking vigour.   Alternatively his figures can be viewed as noble & stately].    Even when moving, they remain highly decorative & graceful.   They often are often shown sitting, recumbent, leaning or even drooping  See Newall, Andrews1964 p69.   His figures have sad & soulful faces, even on happy occasions as in Golden Hours.   They never smile & his subject matter is generally unhappy See Newall, Andrews1964 p69.    The nudes have a high-minded sexlessness with smoothed out form & waxen surface Clark1956 pp 163-4.   His paintings reveal the power of beauty to refine & elevate the human spirit.   Portraits are formal &, if commissioned, highly finished but those of his friends were painted with economy & directness Wood1999 pp 186, 192. 

Beliefs: He thought Classical subjects provided supreme scope for the display of pure artistic qualities Wood1999 p188.   However, Leighton did not care about archaeological exactitude MinInstArts p125.   After seeing Nature unfold in summer glory he said (1853 before joining Costa & Mason) that the artist “cannot without sacrilege pass over the least thing sealed with the love of the Creator” Barrington1 p132.   In general he considered that violent passions are unsuitable subject for art because what is hideous & transitory should not be perpetuated Rhys p8

Personal: He said he never got what he most wanted in life & on his deathbed lamented that it was a pity to die just as he was about to paint better.   He was aloof & urbane, but not without close friends Wood1990 p183.   Those that were close & enduring included Adelaide Sartoris from 1853 until her death in 1879,  & Giovanni Costa (Nino in his letters) from the same year, & Browning from 1854.   The relationship  with Adelaide gave Leighton emotional security & entry into high society.   It also resulted in his friendship with Browning & Henry Greville, which was particularly intimate.    His close friends addressed him as Fay Berrington1 pp 27-8, Newall p141, MinInstArts p96.   He privately helped a number of young artists including Clausen, Beardsley & Alfred Gilbert MinInstArts p96

Verdict: He turned the Classical revival into a serious movement & his life was one long struggle to escape from his domineering & interfering father Wood1999 pp 182-4.    According to Henry James, his work displayed  “so much beauty, so little passion, so much seeking, &, on the whole, so little finding” James p149

Grouping:  He was the most intellectual & rigorous adherent of the Aesthetic Movement Grove19 p104

Circle in Rome, c1850: Thackeray, the Brownings Rhys pp9-10

Patrons: Stewart Hodgson who was a wealthy stockbroker with a Surrey house) Wood1999 p190

Reception: Although Cimabue’s Madonna was a great success, the years 1859-64 were marked by critical hostility & reverses.   His contributions to the RA were rejected or badly hung Grove19 p103.   However, 1964 was a turning point: he exhibited two popular works (Dante in Exile & Golden Hours) & became an Associate of the RA MinInstArts p96

Repute: [At the time of his death Leighton’s reputation was very high.]   He received what was in effect a state funeral.   His coffin was carried in procession from the Academy to St Paul’s accompanied by a detachment of the Artists’ Volunteers who marched with arms reversed.   The whole length of the route was lined with people Barrington2 p337.   By the early 1960s his reputation could scarcely have been lower & his work was condemned as a national abdication of taste Hbook p223.   However  in 1960 he was being acclaimed as one of the greatest British artists of the late 19^th century Newall1990 back cover. 

..Adolphe LELEUX, 1812-91,  Armand’s brother, France; Victorian Modern Life Movement

Background: He was born in Paris Grove19 p115
Training: An apprenticeship in engraving with Alexandre Six deniers Grove19 p 115
Career: He exhibited at the Salon from 1835, fought in the 1848 revolution & painted iconic scenes, many of which were engraved.   He had a profitable career Grove19 p115
Oeuvre: Rural & genre scenes including the rural poor painted in Picardy & Brittany
Characteristics: Initially his work was markedly realist but his style softened & lacked definition & focus Grove19 p115
Reception: His realism was praised by Gautier for its sincerity, though he later turned critical.  He was a favourite of Napoleon III.   By his death he had fallen into obscurity Grove19 p115

..Armand LELEUX, 1818-85, Adolphe’s brother, France:

Background: He was born in Paris Grove19 p115
Training: By his brother Grove19 p115
Influences: Bonvin Grove19 p115
Career: He first exhibited at the Salon in 1839, & in 1846 was sent to Spain by the French government & visited Switzerland to which he returned frequently after his marriage to the Swiss painter Louise Giraud, 1824-85.   In 1863 he went to Italy Grove19 p115
Oeuvre: Paintings & prints.   He produced intimate domestic scenes, landscapes, rural genre & portraits Wikip
Characteristics: Some of his work was created in a direct simple style & his Spanish scenes show his ability to depict nature & the effects of sunlight in rich colours, but he preferred intimate scenes of family life Grove19 p115
Reception: He was regarded as an important contemporary realist & he was a favourite artist of Napoleon III Grove19 p115

**LELY, Sir Peter, 1618-80, Netherlands/England, Baroque:

Background: He was born in Soest in Westphalia, north west Germany where his father was an officer in a Dutch regiment serving the Elector.  His parents were from distinguished families.  Lely was a name he assumed Grove19 p119

Training: Haarlem under Pieter de Grebber L&L

Influences: Dobson at first, & also Van Dyke but Lely’s work was earthier & less refined L&L, OxDicCont

Career: Around 1643 he moved to England, became a freeman of the Painter-Stainers Company, 1647; was living in a house on the Piazza in Covent Garden; & became Principal Painter to Charles 11, 1661, with an annual pension, & was naturalised in 1662.  He was knighted in 1680, lived in great style &, according to Samuel Pepys, was haughty Grove19 pp 119, 122-23, W&M p176

Oeuvre: It was enormous & he employed a team of assistants of which the best known were John Greenhill & William Wissing OxDicArt, Hayes1991 p19

Phases/Development: Initially he painted figures in landscapes of which his finest is [the as in] the sensuous  Sleeping Nymphs by a Fountain, c1650 (Dulwich Picture Gallery).  However, he soon turned to the more profitable field of portraiture where death & departure removed potential competitors, namely Van Dyke, William Dobson & Cornilius Johnson.  He portrayed Charles & his Children, Oliver Cromwell & his son Richard,  & after the Restoration became Principal Painter to the King, 1661, & proceeded to paint bewigged courtiers, together with a series of sleepy, voluptuous Windsor Beauties, clad in exquisite silks, 1662-68, which were painted for the Duchess of York (Hampton Court), although perhaps the most notable & erotic work of this type was his previous [as in] Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Strickland, 1659 (Savanah College of Art & Design, Georgia). The Beauties contrast with his splendidly masculine Admirals, 1666-67 (mostly at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)  as in Edward Montague First Earl of Sandwich, 1666) (Queen’s House, Greenwich) OxDicCon p260, Grove19 pp119-20l, Brigstocke, Murrays1959, web. 

Later his sitters display an  over-weening arrogance & after the Restoration he painted monotonous & stereotyped society portraits,  devoid of psychological insight & of a stereotyped form as in The Countess of Gramont, c1663, which is one of his Windsor Beauties, Hampton Court Palace, W&M pp 171, 173.  From the later 1660s his colour became less bright & his paint thin, dry & rough.  The underpaint is clearly visible & produces a deep red-grey tone as in Anne Duchess of Norfolk, c1677 (Arundel Castle).   Moreover the drawing of draperies became more formalised.  Some of his last works  are almost monochrome  in sombre, atmospheric colour enlivened by touches of liquid impasto Millar pp 20-21, W&M p175

Posture Painters: He used John Baptiste Gaspar’s to paint postures & had standard body poses numbered one to eight.   In order that the head would fit on the body he had standard positions for the head.   He sometimes ordered bodies & then added heads Waterhouse1953 p98, S-T p13, Hayes1991 p19

Characteristics: He was a lively colourist whose compositions, though repetitive, were impressive.   However, the faces of virtually all his sitters are at an oblique angle the only exceptions being a few profiles, children, & the rare adult painted full-face See Millar Pl 16, 28, 47, 53 for these exceptions.   His works are of painterly nature & he employed rich & varied colour ranging from contrasting dark bottle green to striking yellow, in a portrait which is enhanced by areas of blue & cream as in Anne Hyde, Duchess of York (NPG) 1661.   Much of his work is repetitive & it is sometimes hard to tell his sitters apart as, for instance, in his depictions of Lady Dering, 1651 (Parham Park) & Elizabeth Wriothsley, Countess of Northumberland, 1656 (RCT) .  His young women have a suggestive dishevelment & a contented sensuality Waterhouse1953 Figs 76 & 53, OxDicArt, ClarkG p400.   His work displays a tactile & Baroque opulence of paint PiperD p131.

Specialities: Paintings of music making of an individual & poetic nature as in his Music Lesson, c1665 (Osterley Park, NT) which reflects his own fondness for music, & also his striking paintings of children as in The Little Girl in Green  (Chatsworth House), & Henry Sidney (Penhurst)  [Dates wanted] are perhaps the finest portraits of children painted in England before Reynolds & Gainsborough Grove19 pp 119-20, Millar pp 18,16, 30, 34, 38, 40-42, 64

Innovation: Portraits set in a landscape, as in The Three Younger  Children of Charles I, 1647 (NT, Petworth House, Sussex).  This became a dominant British type until the end of the 18^th century.  It is a charming intimate work which echoes Van Dyke L&L; web caption

Contemporary Verdicts: According to Dryden he painted many graceful pictures but few likenesses because he always studied himself more than his sitters.   Pepys remarked that the Beauties were, “very good but not like” PiperD p131

Issue: It is unclear whether the criticism of similar looking women is justified.   It was then fashionable for society women to look like the King’s current mistress Baldock p37

Grouping: He belongs with the Dutch Classicists & he produced hundreds of portraits in an International Baroque style Murrays1959, MB

Status & Legacy: Along with Van Dyke & Kneller he was one of the foreign portrait painters who demined English painting during the 17^th century.  By sheer tenacity he retained his supremacy over his principal rivals, &  established a tradition which, consolidated by Kneller, Jervas & Hudson, lasted for almost a century, until Hogarth Millar pp 5, 21, OxDicCon

Patronage: Early on he secured the patronage of rich & cultivated noblemen including the Earls of Leicester, Salisbury, Pembroke & Northumberland Grove19 p120

Reception: His work encountered contemporary criticism with Pepys describing a portrait as, “good but not like” Millar p5

Repute: This was seriously damaged by portraits from his studio to which he contributed little Grove19 p119

*LE MOYNE/LEMOYNE/LEMOINE, Francois, c1688-1737, France: Baroque & Rococo

Background: He was born in Paris & his stepfather was the portraitist Robert Tournieres Grove19 p142, Oxford Companion

Training: He worked from 1701 in the studio of Louis Galloche, a leading Rubenstein & one of the most original teachers of his time; & he studied at the Academie Royale Grove19 p142, L&L, Wakefield p42

Influences: Rubens’ colour, the Bolognese  painters’ clarity & grace of drawing; & Correggio & Veronese OxDicArt, L&L

Career: In 1718 he became a full member of the Academie; made a trip to Italy with the financier Francois Berger, from latish in 1723, visiting Bologna, Venice & then Rome.  He exhibited at the Salon, 1725, obtained prestigious commissions & in particular the [as in] Louis XV Giving Peace in Europe, 1729, & the Apotheosis of Hercules, 1736, which was the last large-scale Baroque decoration in France (Versailles, both).  After being appointed Premier Paintre he committed suicide after the death of his wife & his great protector at court the Duc d’Antin. Moreover, he was apparently obsessed with the belief that he had not received the rewards & recognition that he deserved  Grove19 pp 142-43, L&L, Allen p217, etc

Oeuvre: Religious & mythological works Grove19 p142

Characteristics/Phases/Verdict: His work was in the grand tradition of Lebrun as modified by the later & lighter taste of the court of Louis XV.  Like the Italian Marcantoni Franceschini whose work he would presumably have seen in Bologna  he painted sveltely elegant females with graciously relaxed poses & tapered, somewhat elongated, limbs as in Perseus Delivering Andrameda, 1723 (Wallace Collection, London).   Although his very late work The Apotheosis of Hercules, 1733-36 (Chateau, Versailles) is a work of enormous skill, it suffers from the loss of belief in Classical mythology which had occurred under Louis XIV.  It lacks conviction: the figures are trite & vacant OxDicArt, NGArt1986 p450, Allen p217

Status: He was leading French painter from around 1725 until his death L&L

Status: He marks the transition from Baroque to Rococo.   His Classicism, liking for allegory, love of scale are taken from the 17^th century, but he has an 18^th century preference for what is light, elegant & clear in colour Lucie-S1971 p133

Patrons: Berger Grove19 p142

Legacy/Pupils: Through his example & his pupils Natoire & Boucher he helped create a new school of painting in France, & The [as in] Bather, 1724 (The Hermitage, St Petersburg) looks forward to the sensual art of Boucher L&L, Oxford Companion

Collections: Versailles OxDicArt

– LEMOINE, Marie-Victoire, 1754-1820,  Marie-Denise Villers & Marie-Elisabeth Gabiou’s sister, France:

Background: Born Paris Wikip

Training: Francois-Guillaume Menageot, early 1770s Wikip

Career: Initially she lived & worked in the same house as Menageot next door to Vigee-Le Brun’s studio.  She exhibited at the Salon between 1896 & 1814 Wikip

Oeuvre/Characteristics: Miniatures & portraits, especially women & children, including her self- portrait Studio of a Woman Painter (The Met).  They are mostly of the head & shoulders & of a carefully painted naturalistic type.  She also painted a few mythical works & still-life flowers works Wikip, L&L,webimages but not many

Patron: The French royal family L&L

Innovation: She made her living by painting & never married Wikip

Sisters: Marie-Denise Villiers, 1774-1821, & Marie-Elisabeth Gabiou who closely imitated her style L&L

LE NAIN, Mathieu c1605-77, brother of Antoine & Louis, France; Northern Realism Movement

-LENBACH, Franz von, 1836-1904, Germany:

Background: Born Schopenhauer, the son of a building contractor Norman1977, MET1981p270

Training: After an apprenticeship he had lessons from the genre & animal painter Johann Hofner; studied for a year at the Augsburg polytechnic school where he began to paint independently; & went to the Munich Academy,1854, under Piloty in 1857 MET1981 p270, Wikip

Career: He went through Italy to Rome with Piloty, 1857-8; taught at the newly founded Weimer Kuntrschule along with Bocklin, 1860-62; returned to Munich where he met the connoisseur Count Schack who commissioned him, & Hans von Marees to copy old masters in Rome,1864; was sent by Schack to southern Spain & Madrid, 1867; returned to Munich, 1868; began to be acclaimed for his portraits; from 1871 divided his time between it, Berlin & Vienna; & in 1875-6 visited Egypt with Hans Makart.   In 1878 he first met Bismarck & of whom he ultimately made 80 portraits Norman1977, MET1981 pp 138, 270

Oeuvre: Primarily portraits of the aristocratic, artistic, industrial & political elite but also genre works as in Two Shepherd Boys on a Grassy Incline/Zwei Hirtenknaben am enemy Gras hang, c1859 (Lenbachhaus, Munich) Wikip, MET1981 pp 31, 270

Characteristics: In his portraits he concentrated on the heads, especially the eyes, but painted the rest in summary fashion.   His portraits are dramatic, naturalistic, painterly, & psychologically acute as in his Otto, Prince Bismark/Otto Furst Bismarck, 1890 (Lenbachhaus, Munich), & in his numerous portraits of his daughter, Marion, around 1900, as in Marion Lenbach, Daughter of the Artist, 1900 (The Met).   They were his other great speciality Norman1977, L&L, MET1981 pp 140, 270

Phases: After 1880 he only painted portraits which by the 1890s were almost entirely from photos, & he worked too fast Norman1977, MET1981 p270, Wikip

Innovations: He is seen as a forerunner of the Munich Realists Norman1977

Collections: Staatliche Galley, Munich, which is located in his old house; & the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington state

-LENS, Andreas, 1739-1822, Belgium; Neo-Classicism:

Background: Born Antwerp, the son of the flower painter Cornelis (died after 1766).   When he was in Rome Winckelmann’s theories were influential  Grove19 p165
Training: Under Charles Ykens II & Balthazar Beschey Grove19 p165
Influences: In Rome he was fascinated by recent archaeological digs in the Campagna & much interested in the paintings of Raphael, Guido Reni & the Carracci Grove19 p165
Career: He became court painter to Charles Alexandre, Duke of Lorraine, Governor-General of the Netherlands, 1764; spent 1764-8 in Rome, etc; returned to Antwerp, 1768; & attempted to reform Belgian taste & the Antwerp Academy of which he had become a director & teacher prior to his trip to Italy.  He met opposition, engaged in battle with the Guild of Saint Luke & ultimately with the help of Duke of Lorraine succeeded in freeing painters from guild restrictions.   Subsequently he decorated rooms & painted pictures for bourgeoisie & nobility, & wrote a book on his Neo-classical theories which drew on Winckelmann but he ultimately ceased paintingGrove19 pp 165-6, Wikip, L&L
Oeuvre: Religious & mythological works L&L
Characteristics: He had a smoothly graceful style featuring clear drawing, precise line & sober composition L&L, Grove19 p169
Innovations: He was one of Belgium’s first Neo-Classical artists L&L
Pupils: Joseph Francois Grove19 p169
Repute: It did not revive until the beginning of the 19^th century Grove19 p169

Leonardo da Vinci .    See Da Vinci, Leonardo

Lepage.   See Bastien-Lepage

*LEPICE, (Michael-)Nicolas, Bernard, 1735-84 confusable with Leprince, 1735-84,  France; 18th Century Realism Movement

Background: He was born in Paris, the son of the engraver Bernard, 1698-1755, Grove 19 pp 216-7
Training: Engraving by his father & the studio of Carle Van Loo L&L,Grove19 p216
Influences: Chardin & Greuze L&L
Career: He gained Academy membership,1769; became assistant & then full professor, 1770 & 1777; he obtained major commissions for the Battiments du Roi from the Marquis de Marigny & Comte d’Angiviller
Oeuvre: Religious, historical & mythological works, portraits, & above all his genre paintings of poachers, peasant kitchens & market scenes   Grove19 pp216-7, L&L, Wakefield p135
Characteristics: His technique was meticulous, his colouring with its silvery tones was refined & subtle, & his power of observation was powerful Grove19 pp 217-8.  Like those of Greuz, Jeurat & Aubry his genre paintings feature sensibilite: a quasi-religious attitude of mind which stressed feeling instead of reason & valued kindness more highly than noble deeds or the observance of a religious behavioural code.  Much of his genre was painted in soft brown & greys with a slightly flickering touch & he produced works of great charm as in Fanshon Rising in the Morning (Musee de Saint-Omer) Wakefield pp 126, 135
Innovation: Inspiring national historical subjects  L&L
Pupils: Carle Vernet, Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Jean-Joseph Taillasson & Henr-Pierre Danloux Grove19 p217
Collections: The Louvre

-LEPINE, Stanislas, 1835-92, France; True Impressionism

Background: He was born at Caen Grove19 p218
Training: Corot L&L
Influences: Johann Jongkind Grove19 p218
Career: He began exhibiting at the Salon 1859, & exhibited at the  first Impressionism Exhibition, 1874 Grove19 p218, L&L
Oeuvre: Landscapes & Parisian townscapes L&L, Grove19 p218.
Speciality: Nocturnes of the port of Caen & the steep banks of the Seine & the movement of water.  Also overcast days & cloudy skies in Paris Grove19 p218
Characteristics: At his best his works have remarkable skilled tone modulation through soft brushstrokes, thus suggesting light effects without emphatic colours L&L
Grouping: Although his interest in light effects anticipated Impressionism, their depiction & his brushwork

-LE PRINCE, Jean-Baptise, 1734-81, France, confusable with Lepic France:

Background: He was born at Metz into a family of ornamental sculptors & gilders Grove19 p219. Levey p143
Training: Boucher, around 1750 L&L, Grove19 p219
Influences: 17^th century genre & landscape painters from the Low Countries Grove19 p219
Career: By 1757 he was in St Petersburg where he painted decorative works for the palaces of Empress Elizabeth &, after his return, 1763, specialised in paintings & etchings of Russian customs, costumes & landscapes.  In 1765 he became a member of the Academy & launched a virtual campaign for his picturesque roseries Grove19 p219, L&L, Levey p143
Oeuvre: Landscapes, pastoral & Classical subjects & etchings Grove19 pp 219-20, Levey p143
Characteristics/Verdict: Saturated brushwork & incisive drawing.  He was able but not particularly interesting or inventive, even his Russian genre is weak because his idealised figures lack vitality Grove19 p219, Hamilton1954 p444
Innovations: He perfected the aquatint technique & created a new genre based on direct observation of Russian subjects Grove19 p219

..LE SIDANER, Henri, 1862-1939, France:

Background: Born in Port Louis, Mauritius Norman1977
Training: Le Sidaner studied with Cabanel and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but abandoned academic training in 1882 to settle at Etaples and devote himself to landscape painting Norman1977
Career: He exhibited at the Salon in 1887, and at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1894 Norman1977
Oeuvre: Landscapes, interiror and flower pieces Norman1977
Characteristics: Le Sidaner painted in the Impressionist manner, adding a poetic and literary element to his work Norman1977

..Charles Robert LESLIE, 1794-1859, George’s father, England; Troubadour

Background: He was born at Clerkenwell, London, & his father, Robert, was an American.  The family moved to Philadelphia in 1800 Grove19 p239, WoodDic
Training: With George Sully & at the Royal Academy Schools from 1813 WoodDic, Grove19 p239
Influences: Constable’s  looseness & breadth of  brushwork  Reynolds1987 p13
Career: During an apprenticeship, 1808-15, to a publishing firm he decided to become a painter; & with money from the Pennsylvanian Academy of Fine Arts arrived in London, 1811.  In 1826 he became an RA.  During 1833-4 he briefly returned to America as drawing master at West Point.   His Memoirs of the Life of John Constable appeared in 1843 Grove19 p239-40
Oeuvre: Historical & literary genre WoodDic, Reynolds1987 p13
Specialities: Comic subjects from Molier,  Shakespeare & Cervantes Treuherz1993 p22
Phases: From 1813 he worked as a history painter & produced portrait for money but then gradually switched to literary genre.  Here gesture & accessories were rendered from life in a painterly & & dramatic style with taste & affection, using rich colour, & without caricature as in Slender, with the assistance of Shallow, Courting Anne Page, 1825 (Yale Centre for Birish Art) Grove19 p240, Reynolds1987 p13
Friends: Wahington Irving from whom he acquired a taste for humorous literature; & Constable about he wrote in his Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, 1843 Grove19 p239-40
Circle: Initially the American history painters around West: Washington Allston, Charles King & Samuel Morse.  Later he associated with Landseer, Cope, Wilkie & Mulready at Sheepshanks’ dinners Grove19 p239, Errington p47

..George Dunlop LESLIE, 1835-1921, Charles’ son, England; Troubadour

Training: At Carey’s School of Art & the RA Schools, M&M p58
Career: He exhibited at the RA from 1857 & later at the Grosvenor Gallery; was elected an RA in 1876 Gallery WoodDic, Wikip#
Influences/Inspiration:  “All my life I have regarded good-looking girls with feelings of gratitude” M&M p88
Oeuvre/Phases/Characteristics: After a brief Pre-Raphaelite phase, he painted some historical genre in the 1860s as in for both types The Convent Garden (Studley House, Liverpool) but he mostly produced  undemanding pictures of pretty women as in Sun & Moon Flowers, 1890 (Guildhall Art Gallery).  During the 1880s he painted landscape after moving to Wallingford, Oxfordshire as in September Sunshine, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight & from 1906 lived in Lindfield, Sussex M&M p58, Wikip
Grouping: The St John’s Wood Clique WoodDic
Friends: George Storey & Henry Stacy Marks who were close M&M p58
Brother/Sister/Son: Robert Charles, 1826-1901, was also a painter who specialised in marine subjects.  Mary Leslie, 1833-1907, was also an artist & so was George’s son Peter, 1877-1953 Grove19 p240, WoodDic, Wikip

..LESSING, Karl, 1808-80, Germany:

Background: He was born at Breslau/Wroclaw, the great grandnephew of Gotthold Lessing, the philosopher Grove19 pp242,  245Training: In architecture under Schinkel at the Konigliche Bau-Akademie & then under Schadow at the Kunstakademie, 1825 Grove19 p243Career: In 1826 he followed Schadow, now Director of the Kunstakademie, to Dusseldorf.   Until 1858 he worked at the Akademie without an official position & was then became Director of the Gemaldegalerie in Karlsruhe.   He made numerous sketching trips, including the Hartz mountains, but apart from a trip to Switzerland in 1866 did not go abroad Grove19 pp 243-4
Oeuvre: He was mainly a landscapist but also produced history paintings until 1867 Grove19 p244
Speciality: History Paintings depicting Luther & Huss in which he uses past events to comment on the tensions between Protestant Prussia & the Catholic Rhineland which it ruled Grove19 p244
Characteristics: He strove for atmosphere & animated landscape settings following in the landscape tradition of Schinkel & Caspar David Friedrick.   In works from the 1830s his landscapes tended to be more realistic & his dramatic history paintings have strong psychological characterization Grove19 p244.
Status: His history paintings made him one of the most celebrated & controversial of his age in Germany with their allusion to the struggle of the liberal middle class for political independence  Grove19 p244.
Grouping/influence: He was a forerunner of German realism Grove19 p244

..LESSORE, Helen, 1907-94, England, John’s mother/Sickert’s sister-in-law, England:

Background: Born London OxDicMod
Training: The Slade, 1924-8 OxDicMod
Career: 1934 married Major Frederick Lessore, the brother of Therese, Sickerts’s third wife, who had opened the Beaux Arts Gallery,1923.  After death in 1951 it she ran it until its closure, 1965.  Before the war the gallery supported the avant-garde with exhibitions for Wood & Hepworth; &  post-war it was committed to figurative painting with the first solo shows for Auerbach & Kossoff; exhibitions for Freud, Bacon) & especially for the Kitchen Sink School including Bratby, Middleditch, Smith & Greaves).  According to Bratby the gallery was concerned, not with joy presented in oils, but with misery of the soul.  She became an RA in 1986 OxDicMod, Spalding1986 p162, etc
Oeuvre: She painted portraits; figure subjects,  interiors & landscapes OxDicMod, webimages
Characteristics: Her works paintings are pleasing & accomplished, & her [as in] Symposium 1, is a somewhat curious but interesting work, 1974-77 (The Tate) webimages

..LESSORE, John, 1939-, Helen’s son & Sickert’s nephew,  England:

Training: The  Slade, 195-61 OxDicMod
Influences: Sickert Wilcox1990 pp 16-7
Career: Had his first 1965 first solo at the Beaux Arts, 1965; & in 1978 stated teaching at the Norwich School of Art OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Landscapes, figure subjects & portraits OxDicMod
Sources: He made quick drawings to capture the subject Wilcox p16
Characteristics: Quiet paintings with a deceptive ease of execution & surprising figure groupings as in Moguls & Starlets, Yellow Tent (Government Art Collection, 1993) Wilcox1990 pp 16-7

..Le SUEUR, Eustace, 1616-55, France; Baroque Classical

Background: Born Paris, the son of an illiterate artisan from Picardy who had moved to Paris T&C p83, Grove19 p246
Training: In Vouet’s studio from about 1632 to around 1642 Blunt1954 p201, Grove19 p246
Influence: Poussin & Raphael after the early 1640s, & profoundly by Cortona via Romanelli from 1646 Blunt1954 p202, Waterhouse1962 p55
Career: In 1644-5 he became a master in the Paris painters’ guild & during 1645-8  painted 22 works depicting the Life of St Bruno (Louvre) which established his reputation.  He was a foundation member of the Royal Academy, 1648, & became Painter Ordinaire du Roi Grove19 p247, T&C p84
Oeuvre: Religious works, devotional paintings, historical & mythological works, portraits & tapestry design Grove19 pp 246-7
Phases/Characteristics: Until the early 1640s his work was Vouet-like & in 1645 he completed a series of tapestry designs as in Polyphemus in the Bath of the Nymphs (Musee Magnin, Dijon) which is animated, dramatic & painted in rich colour with marked chiaroscuro.   There was then a change as in his Death of Raymond Diacre, 1645-8,  in the Life of St Bruno (Louvre) to work of a calmer type in which his draperies & figures were no longer agitated but luminosity was maintained, the backgrounds now faintly clouded in a silver mist.   During his final years, despite one large inferior painting,  he produced his best work as in The Deposition, c1651 (Louvre) & Christ in the House of Martha & Mary, c1563 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).  These are works of great sensibility with a meticulous treatment of spatial composition in which the feelings of the participants are clearly revealed Blunt1954 pp 201-2, T&C pp 86-7, Allen pp 117-20.
Circle: He had many contacts among the wealthy patrons & men of letters who were the cultural leaders during the Regency of Anne of Austria T&C p84
Status/Grouping: He was a leading painter of historical, mythological, pictures in 17^th century France & has been seen as a founder of French classicism but his work could be animated & lively work Grove19 p246, T&C p43
Repute: He was long considered the equal of Poussin & Le Brun, but from around 1850 his reputation went into decline but has more recently been re-evaluated Grove19 p246

..LEU, Hans the Younger, c1490-1531, Switzerland:

Background: He was born at Zurich Grove 19 p256
Training: He was apparently apprenticed to his father, & then travelling as a journeyman attached himself  to Durer in Nuremberg & Grien in Freiburg Grove 19 p256
Career: By 1514 he was active in Zurich; short of money served as mercenary, 1515-9; due to the shortage of religious commissions because of the Reformation he allied himself to the Catholic party although under the influence of Zwingli; & was stabbed to death during a fight between religious factions near Zurich  Grove19  p256, Wikip
Oeuvre: Paintings, woodcuts, drawings & stained-glass design Wikip, Grove19 p256
Characteristics: His landscape paintings as in St Gerome, 1515 (Kunst Museum, Basle) feature landscape typical of the Danube School Grove19 p250
Innovation: His romantically inclined pen & ink drawings, romantically inclined of the landscape of the Alpine foothills as in Landscape with Mountains & Lake, c1620 (Kupferstichkabinett, Basle)
Status: He was a leading Swiss painter of the period Grove 19 p256
Grouping: The Danube School

LEUTZE, Emanuel, 1816-69, Germany/USA:

Background: Born Württemberg, Bavaria, the son of a radical who fled persecution to America Norman1977
Influences: Local patronage sent him to Düsseldorf in 1840, where he studied with Lessing Norman1977
Oeuvre: Historical painter. Leutze’s patriotic Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) was a sensation and is still familiar to American schoolchildren Norman1977
Circle: One of the leaders of the Düsseldorf School Norman1977
Characteristics: His technical skill and high skill are typical of Düsseldorf Norman1977
Status: The most honoured of the many Düsseldorf-trained Americans after his return to America in 1859 Norman1977
Personal: One of the founders of the revolutionary club Malkasten, he also shared in the street fighting of 1848 Norman1977

 -LEVINE, Jack, 1915-2010, USA:

Background: Born in Boston OxDicMod
Training: He had childhood lessons at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; & from 1929 to 1923 he attended painting classes at Harvard OxDicMod
Influences: Roualt, Soutine & other French Expressionists OxDicMod.   He also admires Rembrandt & Titian for their mastery of the group portrait Getlein p14
Career: From 1935 to 1940 he worked intermittently for the Federal Art Project OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Painter & draftsman, including some portraits OxDicMod
Characteristics: His work mainly consisted of social satire in which he mercilessly attacked avarice, corruption & hypocrisy with great subtlety.   However, some of his work was gentler & merely poked fun.   In the 1950s he turned to biblical subjects OxDicMod

**LEVITAN, Isaak, 1860-1900, Lithuania/Russia; Tzarist Impressionism

Background: He was born at Kibarty/Kibaerta, a small town in Lithuanic.   His father was from a well-to-do traditional Jewish family.  The family was large & poor & moved to Moscow where the parents soon died 50Rus p168, Grove19 p276

Training: The Moscow School of Painting where from around 1875 he was taught by Aleksey Savrasov, Vasily Perov, & Vasily Polenov King p23, 50Rus p168, Grove19 p276.

Career: In 1884 he became part of the artistic circle at Savva Mamontov’s villa at Abramtsevo  & executed stage designs.   It was no until the mid-1880s that his material circumstances improved.   He began exhibiting with the Wanderers in 1884 but did not join until 1890.   In that year he first went abroad travelling to Berlin, Paris & other French towns, & to Italy where he painted Grove19 p276, 50Rus p169, King pp 58-65.

During his last years Levitan suffered from a serious heart condition that, first diagnosed in 1894.  Despite this he took up a teaching position at the Moscow School of Painting where he was a caring & innovative teacher King pp 104, 113.

Oeuvre: Mostley landscapes including pastel sketches Grove17 p276

Phases: His works from the mid-1880s  painted under the influence of Polenov used bright, saturated colours & marked contrasts of light & shade in a search for poetic effects similar to contemporary work by Serov etc Grove19 p276.   During 1889-90 he made longish summer painting trips to small towns along the Volga where he was deeply moved by its grandeur & sense of distance.   His paintings are redolent with thoughts of the nation & its destiny Grove19 p 276.  A late painting of the river, & one that is exceptionally vibrant is Fresh Wind on the Volga, 1895 King p36.

Characteristics: His landscapes, though sometimes regarded as melancholy, are exceptionally joyful & this even where the sky is overcast or stormy King pp 8, 15, 36, 42-3, 44, 64, 83, 101.   His last finished  painting The Lake Rus, 1899-1900, is light filled & joyous but so also are his scenes which portray the different seasons King 14-5, 40-1, 62-3, 80, 84, 86-7, 116-8, Grove19 p277.  Another feature of his works is the importance attached to Russian Orthodox churches & shrines, especially in his majestic At Eternal Rest, 1894 King pp 44, 52-3, 68-9, 70-1, Leek pp 66-7.

Personal: His early hardships & intense work damaged his health; “I cannot be even vaguely happy…without painting”.   Sometimes he was almost suicidal with despair 50Rus p169.   Because he was Jewish he had to leave Moscow in 1879 for several months  after the attempted assassination of Alexander II.   Only the intervention of the eminent physician Dr Dmitri Kuvshinnikov enabled Levitan & his siblings to return.  In 1892 he was almost forced to leave.  He was the husband of the painter Sophia Petrovna Kuvshinnikova  with whom Levitan had a long affair.   Chekhov who felt that Levitan wasted too much time on senseless love affairs wrote a biting story, The Grasshopper, in which Levitan figures, thinly disguised.   This almost led to a duel & a period of estrangement between Levitan & Checkov King  p83, Wikip.

Innovations: His Autumn Day at Sokolniki, 1879, displays a unity of nature & humanity previously unknown in Russian art Grove19 p276.

Verdict: His paintings are the incarnation of Mother Russia.   When painting at dusk he heard church bells & deliberately made the sign of the cross King pp 8-9.

Patronage: Pavel Tretyakov who began buying his works in 1880 50Rus p168.    

Friends: Chekhov from 1885 & Polenov 50Rus p169, King p30.

Influence: His landscapes of mood had a profound impact on Russian landscape painting Grove19 p276

 .. LEVITIN, Anatoli Pavlovich, 1921-2018, confusable with Levitan, Russia; Soviet Impressionism:

Background: He was born in Moscow Swanson p126
Training: At Secondary Art School, Academy of Arts until1941 & after demobilisation in Leningrad at the Department of Painting of the Repin Institute under Zaitsev, Ovsyannikov & Ostova Swanson p126
Influences: Repin, Serov, Isaac Levitan, Manet, Sisley, etc Swanson p126
Career: During 1942-5 he served at the front He joined the Communist Party in 1954 Bown1991 p244
Oeuvre: Subject paintings including historical works of the Soviet era, portraits & a few landscapes Swanson p126
Characteristics: His paintings are focused on people of all types.   He has the ability to be amazed by ordinary objects & faces, & to capture exquisitely harmonious colours Swanson pp 33, 126
Feature: His painting A Fresh Edition of the Factory Newspaper, 1950, was mildly subversive Bown1991 pp199-200
Grouping: Soviet Impressionism Swanson p126

..LEVITSKY, Dmitry, 1735-1822, Russia:

Background: Born Kiev, the son of a priest who was an amateur painter & etcher 50Rus p42

Training: His father & then, 1852, under Antropov in St Petersburg 50Rus p42

Career: In 1762 he gained prominence when he exhibited six masterly portraits in the Academy, where he taught from 1771 to 1787.   During the 70s & 80s he produced his best work & he constantly received  court commissions.   These included seven portraits of noble girls from the Smolny Institute.   During the 80s Levisky painted a series of small-scale portraits of the nobility mostly in natural attitudes against neutral backgrounds.   However, towards the end of the century he fell out of favour, lived in solitude, became involve in freemasonry, was increasingly religious & experience hardship.   He also began to lose his sight & painted his last work in 1812 50Rus pp 42-3, 46

Oeuvre/Characteristics: He produced female portraits of great beauty, each with a distinctive range of colour 50Rus p44.  These often convey youthful purity, unaffected poses, directness of manner & poetic charm.  However, his work was very varied & used a great number of compositional devices, with models drawn from several social classes.   It ranged from ceremonial portraits to more intimate pictures, especially of his friends, in which he attempted to convey the sitters’ thoughts & character.   Although he had to limit the force of his characterisation in his portraits of aristocrats, he nevertheless managed to convey negative impressions where necessary.   At the end of the 1790s his work deteriorated Grove19 p278-9 

Circle: Progressive thinkers & writers 50Rus p44

Verdict: He was the greatest portraitist Russia had yet known Hamilton p349

Grouping: He belongs to the age of Classicism

..LEVY-DHURMER, Lucian, 1865-1953, France:

Background: He was born into a Jewish family in Algiers Wikip
Training: Drawing & sculpture at the Ecole  Superieure de Dessin et de Sculpture from 1882 Wikip
Influences: Renaissance art as seen around 1892 in Italy & by 1914 Whistler & Monet Wikip
Career: From 1886 he oversaw the decoration of ceramics & worked as a decorator etc.   In 1895 he went to Paris & embarked on painting Wikip
Oeuvre: Paintings & pastels Wikip
Phases: After 1901 he moved away from Symbolism & painted landscapes Wikip
Characteristics: Many of his landscapes are painted  in a cloudy impressionistic manner in monochromatic colour.  Attractive, erotic young & mysterious women are a feature of his work Webimages
Grouping: He was equally attracted by Art Nouveau & Symbolism Masini pp 75-6

..George Robert LEWIS, 1782-1871, John Frederick’s uncle, England; Romantic Naturalism

Background: Born in London

Training: Under Fuseli at the RA Schools WoodDic

Career: He exhibited at the RA 1805-17, was Dr Dibdin’s draughtsman on the Continent, drawing & engravings for his Biographical & Picturesque Tour through France & Germany, 1821WoodDic

Oeuvre: Painter of landscapes usually with figures in various weathers & times of the day featuring harvest scenes & pilgrimages; portraits, etc.  Engravings for books WoodDic, webimages

Characteristics: Factual un-emotional Realism as in Herford, Dyneo, & the Malvern Hills, from the Haywood Lodge, Harvest Scene, 1816 (Tate Gallery) R&J p156

Innovations: He painted exhibition works on the spot, & his very objectivity & attempt at exact transcription, seemingly lacking both style & emotion, heralds a major ambition of many mid-century artists from the Pre-Raphaelites to Monet   R&J pp156-7

Grouping: Romantic Naturalism R&J pp186-7

Collections: Tate Gallery

Son: Leonard, 1826-1913, was a writer & painter of watercolour landscapes, exhibiting from 1848 to 98 Grove19 p285

George’s Brother: William Lewis, active 1804-38, was an amateur landscape painter who exhibited over 200 works Grove19 pp284-5

..John Frederick LEWIS (Spanish Lewis), 1805-76, nephew of George Robert, England:

Background: He was born at Walton-on-Thames  & was the son of Frederick Christian Lewis the Elder, 1779-1856, who was an engrave & landscape painter  Grove19 p285, WoodDic

Training: His father & from 1820 in Lawrence’s studio Grove19 p285, DIA p276

Career/Phases: He had precocious talents, spent two  years at Windsor painting animal & sporting works for George IV, & went to Scotland painting Highland landscapes Sitwell p75.  By 1827 he had turned from oils to watercolour.  He spent 1832-3 in Spain which had galvanic effect on his painting Grove19 p285. Maas p91.   In 1837 he went to Paris, Rome, & Constantinople, & in 1841 settled in Cairo.  He adopted native dress & way of life.  Thackeray describing him as “like a languid lotus eater” Treuherz1993 pp 119-20.  However, he was exceptionally industrious, began at eight & worked throughout the day Maas pp 92-3.  The Hareem, 1849, created a sensation when it was exhibited in 1850.  He returned to London in 1851, switched back to oils which was quicker & more lucrative, & went on painting exotic Oriental scenes Treuherz1993 pp 119-120, Grove19 p285.

Oeuvre & Technique: Oils & watercolours,  He independently evolved a similar method to that of the Pre-Raphaelites applying colour with a minute touch to white grounds so producing jewel-like effects.  His return to oils involved minimal effects in handling & none in style Treuherz1993 p120, Grove19 p285

Speciality: Light coming through lattices Sitwell pp 75-6

Characteristics: His work displays tact, sensibility & excellent composition & he was adept at drawing mosques & minarets Sitwell p76.  He depicted the Middle as luxurious, sensual &  traditional but with an absence of anecdote, sentimentalism & moral fervour Treuherz1993  p120, Maas p92.

Verdict/Status: He was the great Oriental watercolour painter of the 19^th century & one of the most completely satisfying Victorian painters Sitwell p76, Maas p91

*(Percy) Wyndham LEWIS, 1882-1957, England:

Background: His father was American & he was born on a yacht off Nova Scotia OxDicMod

Training: 1898-1901 at the Slade OxDicArt

Influences: Nietzsche Searle p577

Career: He came to England as a child.   Between 1901 & 1908 he was on the Continent, mainly in Paris, where he was friendly with Augustus John OxDicArt.   In 1911 he was a founder member of the Camden Town Group Harrison p36.   In the Post-Impressionist exhibition  of 1912  two of his drawings were exhibited  Harrison p67.   In 1913 he led a walkout from Omega saying Fry had stolen a commission Harrison pp 72, 74.   He was a founder member of the London Group in 1914 TurnerEtoPM p235.   He also formed the Rebel Art Centre & edited Blast.   Between 1915 & 1917 he served with the Royal Artillery & then as an Official War Artist.   In 1919 he founded  Group X in an abortive attempt to revive Vorticism.   From the late 1920s he mostly devoted himself writing & made savage attacks on Bloomsbury etc.  During the second World War Lewis lived in North America &, after his return, was art critic of The Listener, 1946-51, where he promoted Bacon & Colquhoun.   By 1951 he was almost blind OxDicMod

Oeuvre: Paintings, novels & criticism OxDicMod

Phases: Little of his early work survives OxDicMod

From 1911 he developed semi-abstract style likened to Cubism & Futurism.   It was angular, machine-like & impersonally mechanical OxDicArt.   In his later years he produced incisive portraits, more naturalistic than his earlier work but with bold, hard simplified form OxDicMod

Beliefs: He, like D. H. Lawrence lashed out furiously against a stupid populace incapable of refinement Searle p577.   Cubism was mere visual intelligence lacking significance & spiritual weight.   The Futurists had the vivacity lacking in Cubism  but without their great plastic qualities.   He said that his own work was eclectic with mastered & vivid vitality OxDicArt

Politics: He supported the British Fascist Party, praised Hitler & backed Franco OxDicMod

Innovations: He was among the first abstractionists OxDicArt

Status: Prior to the first World War he was one of the leaders of the British avant-garde OxDicMod

Verdict: One of the most original & idiosyncratic British artists in the earlier part of the 20^th century OxDicMod

-LEWITT, Sol, 1928-2007, USA:

Background: Born Hartford, Connecticut OxDicMod
Training: Fine art, Syracuse University OxDicMod
Career: After serving in Japan & Korea, 1951-2  he settled in New York, worked as a graphic designer, painted; turned to sculpture in the early 1960s & became a leading exponent of Minimalism with his  structures OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Wall drawings for which he usually only  issued instructions & leaving the execution to others.  Prints & in the 1980s works in gouache of a geometric or all-over pattern variety, together with those of a black blotch nature OxDicMod, Wikip, webimages, etc  

Leyden.   See van Leyden

..LEYS, Baron Hendrik, 1815-69, Netherlands:

Background: Born Antwerp Norman1977
Training: Antwerp Academy & with his brother-in-law De Braekeleer Norman1977
Influences: Wappers & then Rembrandt, Terborch & de Hooch Norman1977
Career: In 1835 he was in Paris where he  frequently visited  the studio of Delacroix Norman1977
Oeuvre: History paintings with a careful reconstruction of ordinary 16^th & 17^th century life Norman1977
Phases: Initially he painted  dramatic history scenes but in 1839 turned from Romanticism to more truthful historical scenes.    The 1850s saw the full development of his new Realist approach.  An 1852 visit to Germany brought him into contact with the works of Durer, Cranach & Holbein & fired his interest in the 16^th century to which most of his later paintings were devoted Norman1977
Characteristics: His paintings are smoothly finished & display a still-life painter’s enjoyment of textures & surfaces.  He laid stress on psychological truth Norman1977
Innovation: His paintings represent the first important Belgium contribution to Realism Norman1977

-LEYSTER, Judith, 1609-60, Jan Molenaer’s wife, Netherlands=Haarlem/Amsterdam

Background: She was the daughter of a Haarlem brewer, though he was forced to sell Haak p236
Training: Frans Hals L&L
Influences: The Utrecht Caravaggists Haak p236
Career: She was admitted to the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1633.   In 1636 she married Jan & they lived in Amsterdam from 1637 to probably 1648 when they were back in the Haarlem neighborhood.  There are no painting dated after 1652 Haak p 236, SuttonP pp233, 260
Oeuvre: Genre & some portraits, still life & brilliant floral watercolours L&L, Haak p237
Phases: From the 1630s she painted small paintings like Jan’s, & some of their paintings are almost indistinguishable.   Her earlier works are painted with brilliance L&L, Haak p237
Status: She was exceptional both as a woman painter & for her quality Haak p236

..LHERMITTE, Leon, 1844-1925, France: Rural Naturalism

Background: He was born in Mont-Saint-Père, Picardy, & his father was a school teacher  Norman1977, Wikip
Training: At the Special School of Drawing & Mathematics/National School of Fine Arts under  Lecoq de Boisbaudran, & the Paris School of Fine Arts Norman1977, Wikip
Career: Though he had a studio in Paris most of his working life was spent in the village of his birth.  He first exhibited at the Salon of 1864 & gained recognition with The Harvesters’ Pay, 1882; visited England, 1869; returned regularly to sell pictures; & belonged to the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts Norman1977, Wikip
Oeuvre: Paintings, pastels & etchings of peasant scenes & also urban work, genre scenes & religious paintings Norman1877, Wikip, webimages
Characteristics: His paintings have a picturesque charm & his work combines the subject matter of Millet with an Impressionist palette Norman1977
Friends: Henri Fantin-Latour & Whistler Wikip
Influence: On Van Gogh who much admired his beautiful work Wikip      

-LHOTE, Andre, 1885-1962, France:

Background: He was born in Bordeaux OxDicMod
Training: After apprenticeship to an ornamental sculptor. 1897, he studied sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, 1898-1904, painting in his spare time OxDicMod
Career: In 1905 he gave up sculpture for painting & settled in Paris, 1906, & establishing the influential Academie Montparnasse, 1922 OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Paintings including landscapes, interiors, still-life, mythological scenes, & sculpture OxDicMod
Phases: His early paintings were Fauve-like but from 1911 he used Cubist mannerisms OxDicMod
Characteristics: His paintings featured complicated interacting planes  & semi-geometric forms with clear boundaries in unmodulated bright colour OxDicMod, webimages

..LIBERI, Pietro, 1614-87, Italy=Venice; Baroque

Background: Born Padua Wikip
Training: Padovanino: his most famous & successful pupil  Waterhouse1962 pp 117,120
Career: He travelled to Turkey, Sicily, France, Spain & various places in Italy including Rome; & at one time a mercenary Wikip
Feature: He was held in bondage by pirates for eight months Wikip
Oeuvre: Oils & frescoes including altarpieces & historical subjects, some of which are in notable places including The Battle of the Dardanelles  (Doge’s Palace) & Crucifixion & Madeleine  (S. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice) Wikip
Speciality: Salacious cabinet pieces as indicated by his nickname il Libertino Wikip
Characteristics: Dramatic compositions featuring diagonal effects & chiaroscuro webimages
Verdict: His work has been described as feeble academic eclecticism & stately, though eloquent, eloquent nonsense Wittkower1973 p347. Waterhouse1962 p129
Friend: Sebastiano Mazzoni Waterhouse1962 p129
Grouping: Baroque Waterhouse1962 pp 117,120

.. LICHERIE, Louis, 1629-87, France:

Training: Louis Boullogne Wikip
Career: In 1666 he entered Le Brun’s workshop & during 1667-70 was Director of the drawing & design school at Gobelins.   He joined th Academy in 1679 & in 1681 became an assistant professor Wikip
Oeuvre: Religious works Wikip
Phases/Characteristics: He began as a conscientious disciple of Le Brun but in his diploma Abigail Bringing Presents to King David, 1679, delicate lights play over an unsophisticated landscape T&C p107

*LICHTENSTEIN, Roy, 1923-97, USA:

Background: He was born in New York into an upper middle-class, German-Jewish family.  Not bombastic but wry & humorous with a lovely giggle, cool but not sophisticated, rather reticent, & serious but not tortured Wikip, Aspen FT26/1/13.  The art-historical context for Lichtenstein’s work was the emergence of the blockbuster exhibition, as presaged by the exhibition of the Mona Lisa at the Met, 1963.  This changed what the public expected a major art gallery to provide, & how they came to view their role Hughes1997 pp 522-23

Training: Under Reginald March at a summer course at the Art Students League, 1939; & at Ohio State University under Hoyt Sherman who was a late Fauvist who introduced him to modernism in a period dominated by American Scene Painting.  After military service he graduated in Fine Arts, 1949 Grove19 p328

Influences: Picasso, Kandinsky, Klee & Miro Grove19 p328

Career: He taught at Ohio, 1946-51; at the State University of New York, Oswego, from 1957; & at Douglass College, Rutgers University in New Brunswick, 1960-63.   He moved to New York around 1964 to be at the centre of the art scene Grove19 p328, L&L, Wikip

Oeuvre: Paintings, prints, sculpture from the 1970s & decorative arts Grove19 p327, OxDicMod

Beliefs: “I really don’t think that art can be gross & over-simplified & remain art…it must have some subtleties, & it must yield to aesthetic unity, otherwise it’s not art” Dunne p5

Phases/Development:

(a) In the late 1950s he worked in an Abstract Expressionist manner OxDicMod

(b) In the early 1960s he switched to Pop Art, having met Allan Kaprow, etc, at Rutgers who were interested in Happenings.  His Pop began with two related series The War paintings inspired by trashy, popular comic books of the 50s which he transformed into images of he-men & weaponry as in Wham, 1963 (The Tate), & the Romance paintings based on girly ephemera showing cute young lovelorn women, etc.  The tension between dramatic content & cool presentation became his trademark in instantly recognisable paintings in a restricted, artificial palette, with heavy black outlines & fields of tiny coloured dots which mirror those to be found in cheap commercial printing  Sooke pp 2-3

(c) In the mid-1960s he began making Pop versions of paintings by Cezanne, Mondrian, etc, & also started screen-printing OxDicMod, Grove19 p328, L&L

Characteristics/Purpose/Aim: The crucial feature of his work was that it was deliberately second hand & of a humorous nature.  He was not interested in mimesis, meaning the representation of the external world itself.  His concern was the conventions which commercial artists had adopted in order that their work might be readily intelligible & appealing.  Hence his declaration, “I’m never drawing the object itself.  I’m only drawing a depiction of the object”.  He did not want to paint anything for its own sake his sole concern was the style which had been adopted.  [This provokes the question of why he took so much trouble painting & did not resort to a verbal critique.  It might be answered that he was the product of his time & the post-war economic boom & its advertising].  However, with rare exceptions his images did not incorporate brand names, or cartoon characters, making the enigmatic declaration, “There’s something about brand names that I don’t care for”.  The answer is presumably that he regarded himself as a serious painter & was seeking to make an original contribution to painting, though he rejected the notion of the artist as a spontaneous creative genius.  In 1966 he reported that, although he used varying subject matter, his real interest was, “doing a painting”: an ambiguous remark by which he probably meant producing work of  a humorous nature, as in for instance Forget It! Forget Me! 1962 (Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts) Sooke pp 33-37, 1001 p800, Osterwold p184 

Technique: He usually began by making a pencil or crayon drawing of his source image, or images where he used a combination.  Employing a projector he would then trace his sketch on to a canvas using a pencil, enlarging & adjusting its composition & design.  This involved the enhancement of an original image not only by its enlargement but also by its isolation & removal from a narrative sequence but also by tightening & simplifying the design & colouring, making the latter more trenchant by concentrating on blue, red & yellow.  Only then would he begin to paint, sometimes helped by assistants, adding black outlines at the end.  Hence his works were in fact handmade & far from being mechanical copies, although curiously one of their distinctive features was the way in which he stencilling in the print dots which were to be found in cheap printed source material L&L, OxDicArt.  They were truly original because of their new form which was now almost classical in works even more trivial, banal & mechanical than the source material, as in Girl with a Ball, 1961 (MoMA) Sooke p35, Osterwold p184

Comparison with Warhol: He was a painter who, unlike Warhol, was interested in shapes, viewing paintings upside down Aspen FT26/1/13.   Liechtenstein tended to remove detail from his comic strip sources in order to obtain visual impact, whereas Warhol’s works were pure appropriation OxDicMod.

Status: He was a central figure in American Pop Art Grove19 p328

Verdict: [He must be regarded as a humourist but not a satirist because although his work was ironic this was of a gentle type & satire involves irony or exaggeration which is intended to mock or criticise & Lichtenstein merely observed.  It is significant that although he painted during the Vietnam & Civil Rights era, & produced  notable war paintings, he did not engage in social or political commentary See Osterwold p184, webimages  

Patronage/Reception: During the 1960s the major American museums, the richest in the world & with boards of trustees increasingly selected because of their wealth & influence, were on the lookout for work that was innovative.  They began to sprout departments of contemporary art & to search for blockbuster exhibitions.  Lichtenstein’s work met their requirements & he became the most popular Pop artist despite his work being criticised in the magazine Life for tediously copying the banal See Hughes1997 pp 522-25; Dunne p5

Legacy: The way in which he critiqued culture by reproducing its icons in a new context became a major trend in late 20^th century art 1001 p800

– LICINI, Osvaldo 1894-1958, Italy:

Background: Born Montre Vidon Corrado, near Ascoli, the son of a commercial artist Grove19 p329, OxDicMod
Training: At the Accademia’s di Belle Arti, Bologna, from 1911, & Florence, 1917-26 Grove19 p329
Influences: Matisse & Raoul Duffy Grove19 p329
Career: He lived on the Cote d’Azur & in Paris, 1917-26; exhibited at the Salon des Independents, 1924; returned to Italy, 1926; exhibited with Novecento Italiano in Milan; joined Abstraction-Creation, 1935; & signed Marinetti’s manifesto, 1938 -it protested against the anti Semite & modernist laws- & that of the Gruppe Primordial Futurist.  After the war he became the first Communist mayor of Monte Vidon Corrado Grove19 pp 329-30, Braun p436
Oeuvre: From c1930 Abstract & Construct paintings; later semi-Sur work L&L
Phases/Characteristics: Initially landscape painting but from around 1930, his work was geometric & Constructivist but it gradually became more lyrical & fantastic.  After the war he filled his canvasses with fields of intense colour & imaginative figures    Grove19 pp 329-30, Braun p436, Pl 160-2
Beliefs: He said his abstraction against “the excessive naturalism & materialism of the 20^th century.   Painting is the art of colours & signs: signs expressive of force, will& the idea, while colour expresses magic” Braun p436
Circle: Modigliani, Picasso, Kisling & Jean Cocteau Grove19 p329

*LICINIO, Bernardino, c1490-1550, Italy=Venice; High Renaissance:

Background: Born Venice Grove 19 p330
Influences: The tradition & possibly the workshop of Giovanni Bellini; Giorgione; Titian; Palma Vecchio & in portraiture Lorenzo Lotto Grove 19 p330, L&L, Freedberg p228
Oeuvre: Religious paintings, portraits including group works for which he seems to have been the principal Venetian painter Grove 19 p330m Freedberg p228
Characteristics: He arranged saints symmetrically around the central Virgin & Child, ignoring Titian’s innovative treatment.  His portraits have a sober realism which resembles those of Moroni.  He was a painter within the mainstream of Venetian art Grove 19 p330, L&L
Verdict: His talent was of a minor nature & he imitated other artists but in a restricted & banal fashion like a craftsman with a fashion book.  The portraits, which were his best work, were hard-surfaced & meticulous, & can produce a strong presence & a decorative effect.   His major altarpiece, a Madonna Enthroned with Saints, 1535 (Friary, Venice) is executed with a diligence  exceptional in his religious paintings Freedberg p228
Grouping: High Renaissance Wikip
Brother: Arriego was also a painter Grove 19 p330

* LIEBERMANN, Max, 1847-1935, Germany; Rural Naturalism and German Impressionism Movement

..LIER, Adolf, 1826-82, Germany=Munich:

Background: Born Herrnhut, the son of a goldsmith  Norman1977, Wikip
Training: Draftsman ship at the trade schools in Zittau & Dresden, briefly in the studio of Gottfried Semper, & under Richard Zimmermann in Munich Wikip, Norman1977
Influences: The Barbizon School Norman1977
Career: After studying architecture, he turned to painting around 1849.   He visited Paris in 1861 & 1864-5;  England, 1865,  painted from nature in L’Isle Adam in northern France with Hules Dupre, 1868;  & visited Holland, 1873.  He  founded a private school of landscape painting in Munich 1863; joined the Dresden & Munich Academies, 1868 & 1877; & became a professor at the latter in 1881 Norman1977.
Oeuvre: Landscapes with figures webimages
Characteristics: It was Barbizon-like but adapted to the Bavarian landscape & with pronounced poetic note & mood featuring tints of autumn, hurrying evening clouds reflected in a flooded field, etc, as in The Theresienwiese, Munich, 1882 (Bayerich, Statsgemaldesammlungen, Munich).  Some of his work cannot be distinguished from American Luminism Norman 1977 Wilmerding p224
Innovations:  He helped initiate Stimmunggslandschaft or mood landscape Norman 1977

Liesborn.   See Master of Liesborn

* LIEVENS, Jan, 1607-74, Netherlands=Leiden:

Background: He was born at Liden, the son of embroiderer, hatmaker & seller Grove19 p 348
Training: Under Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, 1617-9 OxDicArt
Influences: The Utrecht Caravaggisti, particularly Gerrit Van Hornhorst & later Van Dyck Grove19 p348
Career: He returned to Leiden where he worked closely with Rembrandt between about 1625 & 31 sharing models & probably a studio, & working  on each other’s pictures.  Around 1632 he went  to England & painted portraits; during 1635-44 he was in Antwerp after which he lived in Amsterdam Grove19 pp 348-9, L&L
Oeuvre: Religious works & history  paintings, landscapes, portraits, prints from around 1625  & pen & ink drawings Grove19 pp 347-9
Phases/Characteristics: Early on like Rembrandt, his work featured half-length figures & strong chiaroscuro from artificial light.  From 1628 he his colours became more monochromatic with increased impasto to define form.  Around 1630 he painted his best works such as Job on the Dung-hill, 1631 (NG Canada, Ottawa).  In Antwerp he completely adopted the Baroque style of Van Dyck & Rubens as in Holy Family with the Young Baptist (church of S. Carlo Borromeo).  He now painted in a light, elegant manner.  However, his landscapes are of high quality featuring a very subtle use of colour as in Landscape with Pollarded Willows, 1640 ( Foundation Custodia, Institute Netherlandish, Paris)
Verdict: He did not sustain his early brilliance being superior to Rembrandt in some respects -grand invention & boldness-  but latterly under Van Dyke’s influence he has been considered second rate L&L, OxDicArt, Clark1978 p49
Patrons: From 1628 he supplied paintings to the Stadholder Frederick Henry & his wife Amelia Van Solms Grove19 pp 348-9

Life of the Virgin, Master of.   See Master of the Life of the Virgin

.. LIGOZZI, Jacopo, 1547-1627, Italy:

Background: Born in Verona
Training: Part of Florentine reform movement Bailey pp 35, 243
Influences: Follower of Santi di Tito Bailey pp 35, 243
Career: Hired by well to do families in 1590’s with other professional artists.  Painted S. Giovannino Angel’s Chapel, smaller than other side chapels with only three main panels for painting.  Jacob’s Ladder on left, Fall of the Rebel Angels on the right and an altarpiece; Seven Archangels Bailey pp 35, 243
Oeuvre: Alterpieces and lateral frescos Bailey pp 35, 243
Characteristics: Classicizing manner. Figurative
Status: Late Renaissance and Mannerist Pevsner1968 p15

*LIMBOURG BROTHERS, Pol, Herman, Jean/Jehanequin, first recorded 1399-1416, Malouel’s nephews, Netherlands/France; International Gothic Movement 

Background: He was born at Nijmegen OxDicArt
Training: Apprenticed to a goldsmith in Paris L&L
Influences: Paul appears from copies he made to have visited Florence & Siena Murrays1959
Career: They became illuminators for the Duke of Burgundy from 1402 &, after his death, for his brother the Duke of Berry, until their deaths L&L, OxDicArt
Oeuvre: Illustrations in the Tres Riches Heuer’s, 1413-16, & parts of two other books L&L
Characteristics: Decorative elegance, Italian idealisation & sharp observation of natural phenomena & social reality, including peasant activities & recreations by nobles with a masterly rendering of space L&L, OxDicArt
Grouping: International Gothic L&L
Status: They played an important part in the development of northern landscape & genre OxDicArt

..LINDHOLM, Berndt, 1841-1914, Finland:

Background: Born in Loviisa Grove19 p408

Training: From 1856-61 at the School of Drawing, Turku; then at the Dusseldorf Academy but he left in order to study under Gude (Holmberg’s former teacher) at Karlsruhe Grove19 p408

Influences: Holmberg, Daubigny & Corot Levanto p52, Grove19 p408

Career: He worked & studied in Paris during 1868-70 & 1873-76.   Here he became dedicated to French art, particularly the Barbizon School with an emphasis on colour.   Feeling that his French inspired work was not sufficiently appreciated in Finland, he moved to Goteborg in Sweden in 1876, becoming the custodian of the Konstsmuseum.   In his later years he went to Norway to paint in summertime Grove19 p408

Oeuvre: Landscapes Levanto p52

Speciality: Forest settings & Sweden’s rocky shorelines & crashing waves Grove19 p408

Phases: His early work has a light pictorial quality but in Sweden his style became more deliberate, Realist & conservative Grove19 p408

Characteristics: His early subjects were extremely unassuming: a pasture with birches, a seashore, a corn field painted to achieve a simplified & direct effect Levanto p53

– LINDNER, Richard, 1901-78, USA (Germany); Neo-Expressionist

Background: He was born in Hamburg & grew up in a bourgeois household in Nuremberg Grove19 p409

Training: The Kunst Akademie, Munich, 1925-7 Grove19 pp409-10

Influences: He cited Nuremberg’s  fairy-tale appearance, toy-capital status , & suffocating smugness.   Also, Expressionism, Cubism & works by psychotics seen in 1925 Grove19 p409-10. Brigstocke

Career: From 1929 he was art director, working on graphic design,  at the large publisher Knorr & Hirth; fleeing arrest, he went to Paris, 1933; & after arrest as an alien, 1939, joined the French army.  In 1941 he went to New York & became a highly successful illustrator for Fortune, Harper’s, Vogue, etc.  From 1952 he entirely switched to art & taught  at the Pratt Institute.   In 1953 he began spending half his time in Paris Grove19 pp410-1

Phases/Characteristics: During the 1950s, using pastel colours & refined draughtsmanship, he produced autobiographical tonal paintings often in late Victorian settings & characterised by fantasy & nostalgia, as in Child’s Dream, 1952 (Whitney) & The Meeting, 1953 (MoMA).  In the 1960s & after his work focused on the glitzy, gangsterism American scene using flat, brilliantly colour planes in which representation is combined with abstract elements as in East 69^th Street,1972 (Boymans-van-Beuningrn museum, Rotterdam).   His work from the early 1970 was a compromise between his previous styles Grove19 pp 410-1

Verdict: His art is a brilliant exploration of personal obsession Grove19 p411

Grouping: Although he was not a Pop artist his work anticipated its imagery &, because of his debt to Expressionist exaggeration, [he can be regarded as a Neoexpressionist] See Brigstocke

-LINNELL, John, 1792-1882,  Palmer’s father-in-law, England:Romantic Sublime:

Background: He was born in London, the son of a FrameMaker Grove19 p426.

Training: Varley & the RA School L&L

Career: Linnell made his reputation & fortune as a fashionable portraitist & miniaturist.   He was a member of his friend Blake’s Shoreham Circle.   In 1852 he settled at Redhill OxDicArt, L&L

Phases: His early work is naturalistic & he often used a  camera obscura or other device.   His late work is less focused & more generalised & conventional L&L, OxDicArt

Characteristics: His pictures have distinctive brownie-yellow colours, broad technique & fleecy masses of cloud.   His figures are totally dominated by the landscape & have no individuality Wood1999 pp80-1

Aim: He was intensely religious & tried to imbue his landscapes with a mystical sense of the grandeur of nature: “The business of art should bed to create spiritual perceptions”.   In 1828 he wrote to Palmer that the harvest was “that glorious type of everlasting harvest of spirits, the gathering of saints”.   He was a Baptist,  joined the Plymouth Brethren, but then abandoned all denominations, relying on his own interpretation of the scriptures.   Linnell was a fanatical believer in the virtues of hard work & self-help  Wood1999 pp 79-81.

Repute: He was widely considered to be Turner’s successor Wood1999 p79

√√√-LIOTARD, Jean-Etienne, 1702-89, Switzerland & France; Rococo

Background: He was born in Geneva to French Protestnat parents who had fled after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes K&L p127

Training: Under the painter Jean-Baptiste Masse (a close friend of Nattier) K&L p127

Influences: Liotard was probably impressed by the success of the pastelist Rosalba Carriera K&L p127

Career: He arrirved in Paris in 1723.   From 1736 to 1758 he travelled widely & spent 1738-42 in Constantinople & 1743-5 in Vienna.   Then in London during 1755 he enjoyed a warm welcome executed pastel portraits of the Princess of Wales & her nine children.  He settled in Geneva in 1758 but continued to travel widely until late in life K&L p127, Grove19 p435

Oeuvre: Pastels but some oils K&L p127

Speciality: In Constantinople he produced some remarkable genre studies which seem to have something of the romantic response to languorous moods & exotic costume of Lewis [the Orientalist] K&L p127. 

Phases: At the end of his life when he was out of fashion he produced still-life pastels of flowers & fruit Grove19 p436.

Characteristics: Regardless of the social position of his sitters he painted them with startling directness, & against a plain background, usually grey-brown.   He avoided symbols of rank or office.   Although there was little exploration of character, he produced a powerful likeness Grove19 pp 436-7, K&L p128.

Feature: He wore Turkish dress & this & his long beard contributed to his celebrity when he returned to Europe Grove19 p435.

*Filipino LIPPI,  1406/7-69, Filippo’s son, Italy=Florence; International Gothic and Fantasy Movement 

Background:  Born Prato Grove 19 p445

Training: His father & from around 1472 he was apprenticed to Botticelli Brigstocke

Career: He was in Spoleto with his father, 1467-9; returned to Florence after his father’s death; by 1472 was working with Botticelli; completed the lower fresco tier in the Brancaccio chapel, Florence, 1481-3; was commissioned to decorate the Strozzi chapel in S. Maria Novella but was called to Rome to decorate Cardinal Carafa’s chapel in S. Maria sopra Minerva, 1488-93; & did not complete the Strozzi chapel until 1502 L&L

Oeuvre: Paintings, frescoes & cassone panels Grove19 p445

Characteristics/Phases: Apart from the Masaccio-like fresco in Brancaccio chapel, his works are similar to those of Botticelli and the young Leonardo in their restless play of ornamental lines, & planes using Low Country colour.  In some works, there is even more nervousness & agitation than in those of Botticelli, draperies flutter wildly & figures float or posture.  However, this is not true of his masterpiece the Vision of St Bernard, c1485-7 (Bardia Florentina) or the Madonna & Child with St Dominic & St Jerome, c1485 (NG).  These like some other paintings have a grace & a poetic atmosphere, together with detailed & striking landscape & as in Virgin & Child with St John & Adoration of the Kings (both c1480, NG).  The late works are even more monumental as in the Marriage of St Catherine, 1501, together with the frescoes in the Strozzi Chapel which show his desire to obtain emotional excitement & display his knowledge of antique objects (S. Domenico, Bologna) L&L, Murrays pp 220, 222-3, Gould p41 Brigstocke

Grouping: Filipino is usually treated as an Early Renaissance artist [but is a transitional figure between it & the High Renaissance] Wollflin1889 pp 285-6, Gould p41, L&L

**Fra Filippo LIPPI, 1406/7-69, Filipino’s father, Italy=Florence:

Background: Born Florence Grove 19 p439
Influences: Masaccio who may have been his teacher, Fra Angelico, Donatello, & art in the Low Counties, including Rogier Van der Weyden & Jan Van Eyck  Murrays1963 p90, Grove19 p439, L&L

Career: He was an orphan & was raised in the Carmelite friary of S.Maria del Carmine in Florence where in 1421 he took his vows but left it in 1432 to travel & paint without renouncing his vows.  He painted important fresco cycles at Prato & Spoleto cathedrals, 1542-64 & 1467-9.  When chaplin to her order, he introduced Lucrezia Buti to elope with him in 1456.  After years of dispute their union was regularised under Medici influence.  He had a classic artistic temperament, was easy-going & impulsive, worked in fits & starts, & failed to complete the Prato project L&L, The Collector site, Venturis p134.

Gossip: Lucrezio Buti, asked Lippi when he was drawing her, “Brother is this to be the Lamentation or the Resurrection?   For you have risen?” Jones p16
Oeuvre: Frescoes & panel paintings in tempera for religious & civic institutions in Florence, etc Grove19 pp 440

Phases/Characteristics/Verdict: His early work was Massachio-like.  From the 1430s to the early 1450s  he tried, without abandoning Masaccio’s special & volumetric implications, to counteract the severity & constraining tendency of single point perspective by means of vibrant colours & decorative use of line.  In the later 1450s he introduced greater decorative fantasy & his late frescoes a new monumentalism with emphasis on deep space & a dramatic combination of realism & decoration.  Although his conception of space is no more than approximate, his work never lacks charm, gracefulness & inventiveness L&L, Venturis p134
Innovation: A new type of Madonna, which has been termed bourgeoise.   She is depicted as an elegant Florentine woman dressed in the current fashion with the intention of humanising her & making her less remote & unapproachable as in his Madonna & Child, 1440 (NG Art).   He took joy in female beauty & pioneered the motif of a woman walking in a billowing dress with an airy, almost dancing step.   Collector site, Venturis pp134-5.

Anticipations: Leonardo because of his growing interest in aerial perspective & tonal painting L&L

Patrons: The Médicis & Alessandri who were old patricians & Carlo Marsuppini who represented new wealth BurkeP p82

Pupil: Probably Botticelli L&L                                                 

Status: He was a leading painter in Renaissance Florence Grove19 p439

Reception/Repute: He was highly regarded in his day for the charm & lively grace but early 20^th century critics dismissed him as a mere illustrator though he is now seen as a complex experimentalist L&L

*LISS/LYS, Johann/Jan/Giovanni, c1597-1630, Italy=Venice (Germany); Baroque and proto-Rococo

Background: Born Oldenburg.  Venetian painting by indigenous artists was in general at a low ebb when Liss was there [largely due to uninspired work in the workshops established by the great Renaissance artists] Grove19 p471, Waterhouse1962 pp 117-20, Wittkower p106.
Training: In the Netherlands, probably Amsterdam, possibly Goltzius OxDicArt
Influences: Haarlem Mannerism & Hendrick Goltzius.  Then his friend Fetti on a visit to Venice, 1621, who showed him how to Italianise his small Dutch genres; Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Elsheimer, the Brill brothers,  during his Roman period Grove19 p473, L&L, Brigstocke
Career: During 1615-9 he apparently worked in Haarlem, Amsterdam, & Antwerp where he was  in contract with Hals & Jordaens.  In 1621 he went to Rome via Venice, & settled in Venice, 1624, dying of plague in Verona Grove 19 p 471, L&L, Waterhouse1962 p125, Brigstocke
Oeuvre: Mythological works, rustic genre, dramatic Old Testament stories, & excellent cabinet pictures Waterhouse1962 p125, Wittkower1973 p106
Technique: According to Sandrart who knew him his working methods were frenzied.  He painted with consummate technical assurance Brigstocke
Characteristics: He, like Fetri, had a painter’s touch in which the spirited, laden brushstroke was crucial, a passion for curved arrangements, & employed a rich, warm, light & tender light palette as in his masterpiece The Vision of St Jerome (S, Niccolo dei Tolentino, Venice) Waterhouse1962 p125
Verdict: He was one of the most original & poetic painters of his time Brigstocke
Grouping: His work was eclectic but by 1624 it was more Baroque than that of any other Venetian painter; part of a discontinues & largely disapproved line of painters from elsewhere who maintained Venice tradition of excitingly handled paint surface L&L, Waterhouse1962 p120
Legacy: With Fetti he reinvigorating Venetian colourism & his late style anticipated the Rococo with a free handling of paint & disintegration of form.   He greatly influenced Piazetta, Pittoni,  Sebastiano Ricci & Fragonard Waterhouse1962 p125 Wittkower1973 p106, L&L
Status: He was one of the few painters working in Venice during the 17^th century of European significance Grove19 p473

 **LISSITZKY, El, 1890-1947, Russia:

 Background: He was born at Pochinok, near Smolensk OxDicMod

Influences: Malevich’s advocacy of pure geometric form at Vitebsk OxDicMod

Career: During 1909-14 he studied engineering at Darmstadt, returning to Russia when the War started.   Exempt from military service due to poor health, he worked in an architect’s office in Moscow & with Chagall illustrated Jewish books.   In 1919 Chagall made Lissitzky professor of architecture & graphic art at his art school at Vitebsk.   He produced a series of abstract paintings which he termed Proun: an acronym for Project for the affiramation of the new.   They look like plans for three-dimensional constructions & he described them as the interchange station between painting & architecture.   After a brief period as professor at Vkhutemas in Moscow, he was sent to Berlin in 1921 where he staged the first major exhibition of Russian modern movement art in the West at the Van Diemen Gallery.   In 1923 he designed a Proun room for the Great Berlin Art Exhibition, an early instance of installation art.   He worked on Constructivist magazines & made contact with van Doesburg, members of De Stijl, Moholy-Nagy, Gabo & Gropius (at a Bauhaus exhibition).   During 1923-25 he lived in Switzerland & from 1925 to 1928 in Hanover.   He then returned to Moscow & having abandoned painting, devoted himelf to typography & industrial design OxDicMod, L&L.

 Oeuvre: Paintings, graphic art & design, architecture OxDicMod

Characteristics: His mature work was a fusion of Malevich’s Suprematism, Tatlin’s Constructivism, & Mondrian’s Neo-Plasticism OxDicMod

Status: He was the best known Russian abstract artist in the West OxDicMod

Personal/Beliefs: He had a friendly personality & was a more orthodox Communist than Malevich L&L, OxDicMod

Influenced: Moholy-Nagy L&L

*LOCHNER, Stephan, active 1430-51, Germany=Cologne; Northern Renaissance and International Gothic Movement

Influences: These were increasingly Netherlandish  L&L
Phases: His decorative International Gothic style became more naturalistic L&L
Characteristics: Work with a soft  & luminous prettiness even in scenes of martryism & damnation  L&L
Status: He was the leading Cologne painter of his time OxDicArt

..LOFFTZ, Ludwig von, 1845-1910, Germany:

Background: Born in Darmstadt Norman1977
Training: Nuremberg under August von Kreling & Karl Raupp, & from 1870 at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts under Wilhelm von Diez Wikip, Norman1977
Influences: The early masters particularly Matsya, Holbein & Van Dyke Norman1977
Career: He was a professor in 1874 & then director of the Munich Academy,1893-9 Norman1977
Oeuvre: Landscapes, genre, history paintings & religious works Norman1977, Wikip
Characteristics/Verdict: His landscapes appear to be poetic, tranquil & somewhat melancholy as in Eurydice(Nue Pinakothek) 1898, & his religious paintings display deep feeling & solemn grandeur.  He had great technical skill & his handling of chiaroscuro was masterly Wikip
Pupils: Anton Azbe & Lovis Corinth webimages, Wikip
Grouping: The Munich School where  he belonged to the Realist generation Norman1977
Pupils: Anton Azbe & Lovis Corinth webimages, Wikip
Grouping: The Munich School where  he belonged to the Realist generation Norman1977

*LOHSE, Richard, 1902-88, Switzerland:

Background: He was born in Zurich Grove19 p 541
Training: At the School of Arts & Crafts, Zurich, & then apprenticed to a commercial artist OxDicMod, L&L
Influences: De Stijl, Mondrian, Klee, Arp, Tauber-Arp, Vantongerloo, Vordemberg-Gildeward L&L
Career: He became a graphic designer & painted in his spare time L&L
Oeuvre: His abstract work is geometric often with chequer-board or grid patterns.   Nevertheless, they are dynamic, have refined colour, radiance & beauty in which all elements are equally valued.   They are often joyous  OxDicMod, L&L
Phases: In his early work he experimented with various subjects & styles but in the 1940s he was a leading Concrete artist
Politics: They were left-wing & he associated  his paintings with democratic principles  L&L
Reception: From about 1950 he started gaining an international reputation OxDicMod
Grouping:  Constructivism, Concrete Art & Elementalism L&L, OxDicMod

* LOUIS/BERNSTEIN, Morris, 1912-1962, USA: (needs more)

Background: He was born in Baltimore OxDicMod
Training: The Maryland Institute of Fine & Applied Arts, Baltimore, 1927-32 Grove19 p724
Influences: Franenthaler, like her he used unprimed canvases MOMAH p246
Innovations: The application of paint without brushes.   He poured it down a tilted canvas MOMAH p246

*LOMAZZO, Giovanni/Gian Paolo, 1538-1600, Italy=Milan; Mannerism Movement

Training: Gaudenzio Ferrari Murrays1959
Influences: Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo & Mantegna & Pontormo via Ferrari Blunt1940 p138
Career: In 1572 he went blind L&L.   His spent his later years mainly writing on art.   His Trattato della Arte della Pittura was published in 1584 & the Idea del Tempio della Pittura in 1590. Together they form the 16^th century’s largest & most comprehensive art treatise L&L, OxDicArt
Oeuvre: Painter, poet, & art theorist L&L
Style: A highly self-conscious academic Mannerism with repoussoir figures, double contrapposto & obscure allegorical allusions, but he avoided extremes & made a partial return to Classical composition Blunt1940 pp 137-8

-LOMBARD, Lambert, 1506-66, Belgium=Liege:

Background: He was born in Liege Grove19 p547
Training: Gossart in Middleburg L&L
Influences: Raphael’s stanze & van Scorel L&L, OxDicArt
Career: In 1537-8 he made a trip to Rome.   He was a man of scholarly inclinations & provided Vasari with information on Netherlandish artists L&L, OxDicArt
Oeuvre: Painter, although few works can be assigned to him with certainty, draftsman; engraver & architect OxDicArt
Characteristics: The portraits associated with him are lively & strongly characterised & his religious paintings are somewhat academic OxDicArt
Pupils: Floris & Willem Key L&L

..LONDONIO, Francesco, 1723-83, Italy=Milan: Baroque & Rococo

Background: Born in Milan Wikip
Training: Trained under Ferdinando Porta and Giovanni Battista Sassi, Milan Wikip
Influences: Studied engraving with Benigno Bossi Wikip
Career: Empress Maria Theresa of Austria appointed Londonio as art designed for La Scala Wikip
Oeuvre: Painter, engraver and scenographer Wikip
Phases: Baroque / Rococo style Wikip
Characteristics: Known for paintings and etchings of rustic pastoral landscapes and subjects; mainly animals and peasants. Especially popular among wealthy patrons in Northern Italy Wikip

..LONG, Edwin, 1829-91, England, Academic Painting from 1845

Background: Born in Bath, the son of a hairdresser Grove19 p625, Wikip

Training: By John ‘Spanish’ Phillip Grove19 p625

Influences: Velasquez & other Spanish masters Wikip

Career:  Went to London met Phillip & accompanied him to Spain & Egypt, exhibited at the RA1855-9, visited Egypt & Syria, 1874,  & his Babylonian Marriage Market was a sensation at the RA, 1875.  It  later obtained a record price for a work by a living English artist.  He became rich & commissioned two houses in Hampstead by Norman Shaw.  In 1881 he became an RA Wikip, WoodDic, Grove19 p625 

Oeuvre/Phases: Initially a portrait painter he then produced Spanish subjects before turning to elaborate biblical & Egyptian & ancient world scenes, but sometimes he simply portrayed dusky maidens Wikip, WoodDic, Treuherz1993 p177, WoodC1999 p225

Characteristics: Pleasurable paintings that are well composed, employ light effects & chiaroscuro; & use colour of a mellow & harmonious type as in Queen Esther, 1878 (NG of Victoria, Melbourne).  They are sometimes erotic webimages

Verdict: His work has been seen as somewhat derivative & despite its early quality as then repetitive Maas p184, Wikip

Status: He was the leading British late Victorian painter of pictures of exotic eastern civilizations WoodC 1999 p227

Grouping: He has along with Valentine Princip, Simeon Solmon & John Godward, etc, been classed as a Lesser Olympian; & also as belonging to the late Victorian Academy WoodC1999 pp 222-33, Treuherz1993 pp 160

Repute: It did not last WoodDic

Collections: Russell-Cotes Museum, Bournemouth

-Pietro LONGHI, 1702-1785, Alesandro’s father, Italy=Venice; 18th Century Realism

Background: Born Venice, the son of a silversmith Brigstocke.
Training: With Antonio Balestra, & in Bologna under Giuseppe Crespi/Lo Spagnuolo Grove19 p634, Steer p198
Influences: For his genre works these may include Hogarth, Watteau & 17^th century northern artists Grove19 p635
Career: He returned to Venice before 1732; became a member of the Academy, 1756;  taught there, 1758-80, & was the founder-director of the academy of drawing & engraving at the Palazzo Pisani Brigstocke, Baur p56, Grove19 p635
Oeuvre: It was prolific & included small conversation pieces, genre scenes of high & low life some frescoes Pignatti, Steer p198, OxDicArt
Phases: Initially he painted history & religious works some in fresco.  These were not successful & from around  1745 he mainly painted genre under Crespi’s influence Baur p56, Grove19 pp 634-5
Characteristics: His genre works were often gently satirical with a Venetian  feeling for diffused light effects.   His works have more variety & greater penetration than Dutch 17th century genre but his figures are static & rigid Steer p198,  Antall pp 203-4
Reception: His work was very popular but he does not appear to have sold to English visitors OxDicArt
Status: With Gian Tiepolo he was the only significant genre specialist in 18^th century Venice Steer p198
Verdict/Repute: He was not a great or good painter & his irony was no substitute for Hogarth’s critical argumentative spirit Levey1959 p106, Antall p204
Son: Alexandro, 1733-1813 was a well-known portrait painter L&L

 -LOPES, Gregorio, 1490-1550, Portugal:

..LOPEZ Y PADILLA, Eugenio, 1824-1870, Spain:

Background: Born in Alcala de Henares Norman1977
Training: Studied at the Madrid Academy Norman1977
Influences: Strongly influenced by Goya, following him in both subject matter and style.   Velasquez was also an important influence Norman1977
Oeuvre: A noted colourist, Padilla painted many scenes of war, revolution, execution and inquisition, as well as bullfights and dream sequences.   Padilla also executed frescoes for the Madrid Opera House Norman1977

**Ambrogio LORENZETTI, active 1319-48, Pietro’s brother, Italy=Siena:

Influences: Giotto (the weightiness of his figures) OxDicArt; Giovanni Pisano’s sculpture (like Duccio) Murrays1959
Career: He worked independently from Pietro apart from one (lost) fresco OxDicArt.  Around 1318 he was possibly in Florence.   In 1327 he entered the Florentine guild & was in the city in 1331-2 Murrays1959.   During 1347 Ambrogio was a member of Siena’s Consiglio della Campagna, an exceptional role for an artist at this period & one showing his prestige Norman p30,
Characteristics: He did not share Martini’s elegance & was in the tradition of Duccio.   Lorenzetti’s observation of talkative crowds was acute OxDicArt.   [His style was clearly not of an International Gothic type] but was naturalistic Norman p89.
Innovations: He pioneered the naturalistic painting of landscape & townscape OxDicArt.   Two small landscape panels, probably from  the mid-1320s, are the earliest known pure Italian landscape paintings L&L.   His Good Government fresco is the first great panoramic view of town & country since classical times Martindale p216
Status: He was one of the outstanding Italian artists of his time OxDicArt

**Pietro LORENZETTI, Pietro recorded 1320-c48, Ambrogio’s brother, Italy=Siena:

Training: Perhaps Duccio Murrays1959
Influences: Giotto (the weightiness of his figures) OxDicArt; Giovanni Pisano’s sculpture (like Duccio) Murrays1959
Career: He worked independently from Pietro apart from one (lost) fresco OxDicArt.  He painted frecos in the Lower Church of S. Francesco, Assisi, but what & when he painted is a matter of controversy L&L, OxDicArt, White pp 374-8.
Oeuvre: Panels & frescos Martindale pp 212-3.
Technique: He used tempera on dry plaster for those in the Lower Church of San Francesco, Assisi White p374
Characteristics: He did not share Martini’s elegance & was not in the tradition of Duccio.   His work was emotionally expressive OxDicArt.   His delight in descriptive detail sometimes ran riot Martindale pp 214-5.  [His style was clearly not of an International Gothic type] but was naturalistic Norman p89.
Status: one of the outstanding Italian artists of his time OxDicArt

Lorenzo di Credi.   See di Credi

Lorenzo Monaco.    See Monaco

Lorenzo Veneziano.   See Veneziano

Lorraine.   See Claude

** CLAUDE GELEE/LORRAIN, c 1605-82,  Italy (France):     

Background: He was born into a peasant family at Champagne not far from Nancy, in the then independent Duchy of Lorraine.  During 1610-40 there was an upsurge in landscape painting in Italy, especially in Rome & much of it by north European artists Grove7 p389, Blunt1954 p195.

Career/Training: After training as a pastrycook, he moved to Rome around 1618; was employed in the house of the landscape painter Agostino Tassi & gradually moved from cooking to painting.  He went to Naples around 1623 , & worked under the German artist Geoffreso Wals for two years.   Back in Rome he was taught by Agostino Tassi, who specialised in landscape & illusionistic architecture, visited Naples around 1623, studied under the Flemish artist Goffredo Wals, travelled through Venice, the Tyrol & Bavaria, returned briefly to Lorraine in 1625 where he painted architectural backgrounds for the court painter Claude Deruet in Nancy, & returned to & settled in Rome by 1627.  It is hard to believe that he failed to revisit the bay of Naples Blunt1954 pp195-96, Brigstocke.  

Influences: The late Mannerists, Elsheimer’s landscape of mood, the Brill brothers & Albani Murrays1959, NGArt1986p366.   He was haunted throughout his career  by the beauty of the Gulf of Naples Blunt1954 p196

Oeuvre: Landscapes in oils with figures & almost always animals & imposing trees which were usually at the side of the canvas, together with water front scenes with ships, buildings & figures; & also tree portraits, etc, employing chalk & brown wash.  He was an accomplished etcher Langdon illustration, OxDicArt

Characteristics/Features: The extreme simplicity of his paintings obscures his rich observation, subtle tonality, delicate drawing & immense preparation Clark1949 p124.  He pushed the principal subject matter back to accentuate space, this being a rare Baroque feature in his work Kitson1966 p12.  His works display a nostalgia for the lost world of antiquity as in  Landscape with the Arch of Constantine & the Colosseum (Trustees of the Grosvenor Estate) Martin p249.  The landscapes display a notable absence of any signs of rural labour, viz hedges, ditches, haystacks, & ploughed fields RuskinMP Pt 9, Ch5, Sec 12.  Another perhaps more important feature of his work is the pleasing mellow colour of his skies & subject matter.  This ranges from blue for the open sky, pale orange-brown for the clouds to a rich brown purple for the landscape especially for sunrise or sunset.  Moreover, the scene is often enhanced by off-white highlights & marked chiaroscuro as in Landscape with Tobias & the Angel, 1639-40 (Prado).  Such paintings are an ostensive definition of beauty, not of expressive parts but of the totality, of the overall mood of pastoral delight where the viewer feels there is an Arcadian God in this place, as in Landscape with Apollo & the Muses, 1652 (NG Scotland, Edinburgh) Fry1920 pp 156-58, Langdon pp 59, 102-03.   He followed Sandrart’ s example by painting from nature Brigstocke, Clark1949 pp 122, 124.

Drawings: His powers of design are most evident in some of his drawings.  He made three types  drawings, viz preparatory composition, detailed studies of trees, rocks etc, & impressions of general effects of nature, e.g. mist effect, contrasting gloom & dazzling light on water & plains Fry pp 158-9.  

Development/Phases:

It was not until the exquisite [as in] Landscape with a River/The Mill, 1631 (Museum of Fine Art, Boston) that Claude found his own voice & began painting works that were innovatory because of his handling of light & creation of mood of cool tranquillity, & in particular the way in which the dark trees stand out against the rosy sky with its area of glorious intense lapis-lazuli blue & with the mill, the water being illuminated by bright sunlight which has also picked out some of the figures & animals Langdon p23, Grove7 pp 390-91, web image.

(i) Attempts have been made to divide his work into different periods Grove7 pp 389. 393, 397. However, as some critics have recognised, there are early, middle & late paintings which are remarkably similar in colouring, tonal values & ambience as in Pastoral Landscape, 1638 (Parham House), Landscape with David & three Heroes, 1658 (NG), & The Landing of Aeneas in Latium, 1675 (Anglesey Abbey, National Trust) Murrays1959 p82,  Langdon pp 50, 106-07,127.   During his period of so-called Pastoral Period of 1640-50 he did not cease producing seaport views Langdon pp 61, 95, 98-99.  His [as in] Landscape with a Procession to Delphi, 1650 (Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome) is supposed to mark the transition to his Grand Style era, 1650-60,  when he is credited with beginning to produce heroic, grave & elevated works of a biblical or classical nature featuring majestic trees & rocky cliffs, emphasising the middle-distance Langdon pp 86-87, 97, 101–02.  However, this is what he had already being doing as in Landscape with Hagar & the Angel, 1646 (NG).

(ii)  Nevertheless, he did break new ground in his late work after about 1660 as in  Landscape with Psyche at the Palace of Cupid, 1664 (NG), [the as in] Mount Parnassus with Minerva visiting the Muses, 1680 (Cumner Gallery of Art, Jacksonville, Florida)  & in [the as in] Ascanius & the Stag, 1682 (Ashmolean, Oxford).  They feature slender figures in dark, bottle green landscape set against grey, silvery skies with slate-coloured clouds.  These are works of heightened emotionalism & haunting sadness with a dream-like quality Grove7 p397, Langdon pp 130-31, 133, 136; L&L; webimages

Comparison with Poussin & Other Artists: He & Poussin had different roots, with Claude deriving from the Northerners in Rome, Brill & Elsheimer; whereas Poussin drew on Bellini, Titian, Annibale Carracci & Domenichino Blunt1954 p196.   Claude’s work has the pastoral serenity of the Golden Age in contrast to Poussin’s heroic vision of ancient Rome Blunt1954 p196, OxDicArt.   Unlike Elsheirmer, Rembrandt & Turner Claude had no sense of boundless space & time.   His space was a limited recession from the pictures’ front plane ending in a luminous backcloth.   Claude was not  interested in time past.  This explains his inconsistent use of antique & modern dress.   He lacked any Romantic interest in the remote past Wilenski pp 102-5

Method/Technique: Sandrart says Claude was in the fields before sunrise & until sunset to study red skies.   He then hurried home with suitably mixed colours Martin p61.   Claude accurately sketched  scenes from which he derived ideally composed landscapes Hussey p10.   However, the composition was conceived first & then its elements were then assembled Allen p77.  Like many 17^th century artists, he used a white ground followed by one varying in tone & colour depending on the nature of the intended work. His unusually intense blues were due to his use of expensive lapis lazuli.  Especially in his later work he glazed his works with numerous thin, semi-transparent paint layers.  Hence tones & colours vary over the finished surface & provide some works with extraordinary luminosity & vitality.  However, few of his works are in pristine condition Grove7 p399   

Innovation: It has been asserted that he was the first painter to find  the Roman Campagna beautiful as opposed to merely interesting, although this ignores Paul Brill.   However, he does appear to have established landscape as a means of artistic expression as subtle & varied as religious & historical painting.   His idealized landscapes & seascapes were highly original because of the previous belief that idealisation was only applicable to the human figure Blunt1954 p197, Langdon p25, Allen p 77.  Although others had depicted the sun, Claude was the first artist to both do so & use it as the source of light for the whole work as in his Harbour Scene, 1634 (The Hermitage, St Petersburg).   Another striking innovation was to paint the sun itself together with a beam of sunlight as in Seaport with the Embarkation of St Ursula, 1641 (NG).   Here the viewer’s eye is drawn irresistibly towards it & this is reinforced by the ships & buildings receding into the distance Grove7 pp 392-93.  In his later paintings the use of light for dramatic effects, as in the work of Elsheimer & his own earlier work, was replaced by the use of light for its own sake.  It now played on forms & textures as in his final work Ascanius & the Stag (Ashmolean Oxford.  Here & in his work of the last two decades the eye level was raised & the view was kept as open as possible enabling the eye to roam at will over a spacious panorama.  Forms melt & figures become unnaturally elongated.   He also painted sunlit scenes without the irrational spotlighting of different areas, a mistake made by Leonardo in The Virgin of the Rocks, c1508 (NG).  Although he did not invent Ideal Landscape, he brought it to a new pitch of refinement Grove7 pp 389, 392-93; OxDicArt

Patrons/Reception: Claude always worked on commission, at first sometimes for agents but increasingly receiving direct orders Kitson1969 p6.   Urban VIII was his special patron, owning seven of his paintings, & his nephew Tadeo Barberini was one of Claude’s first admirers .  He received a large order from Philip IV of Spain  around 1536 -the most important foreign commission in Italy during the first half of the 17^th century- for large landscapes featuring hermits & anchorites, etc.   It was made via the Crescenzi brothers, who were among the first to employ Claude Grove7 p394, Haskell pp 41, 172-73.  By about 1637 he had become the leading landscapist in Italy.  He was in constant & overwhelming demand from the highly placed & powerful.  As early as 1635 Claude, he had found himself compelled to keep a record of his paintings as copies were being sold as originals  Kitson1969 p6, Haskell p116, 121, etc  Later there was a general decline in the number of great patrons.  The old families were increasingly impoverished & new ones were more reluctant to settle in Rome. However, Lorenzo Onofrio, Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples, commissioned landscapes  from Claude as well as other artists.  Moreover, the Colonna the one old family who continued to buy purchased a large series of works from 1662 including The Enchanted Castle & other mythological scenes including Claude’s last painting  Haskell pp 155-56

Pupils: His assistant Gian Desideria, & Angelucci, c 1623-47 who became a significant landscape painter Grove2 p43, & 7 p399

Legacy: There should be an area of light at the centre of a landscape & everything should be subordinated to a single mood Clark1949 p139.   It was in England that his impact was greatest.   However, his earliest followers, Wooton & Lambert, were dazzled by his illusionistic skills & their works had a pastiche quality.  It was not until artists. such as Wilson, visited Italy & saw for themselves that this ceased Kitson1969 p9.   Claude also played a major though indirect part in the transformation of the face of Britain.  His paintings inspired Stourhead & other English landscape gardens with their gently rolling lawns, groves of trees, classical temples & ruins.  Stourhead was created by the banker Henry Hoare who had returned from a Grand Tour in Italy with a painting by Claude & then employed William Kent to remodel Stourhead in Wiltshire  & create an idyllic pastoral landscape.  Claude had a crucial impact on the Theory of the Picturesque & when the Napoleonic wars made prevented Continental visits & sketching tours became fashionable Claudian views were deliberately selected.  Turner appreciated the grandeur of Claude’s seaport views & Constable admired the naturalism of his early paintings while Danby was moved to sadness & nostalgia of a poetic & romantic nature.  Corot’s early works were inspired by Claude,  in Germany he influenced Carl Carus, the late works of Samuel Palmer  were a final Claudian reflection pp 9-10, Wikip re English landscape garden, Grove7 p878,& 23 pp 885-86; Vaughan1980 p129          

Repute: He painted two pictures for English customers & by about 1700 his works were being imported at a steady rate but it was not until the 1720s when Jonathan Richardson admired Claude, that his reputation soared.  It lasted for over a century Kitson1969 p9.  Nevertheless, his reputation has fluctuated widely over time & between countries & his work came under serious critical attack by Ruskin in his Modern Painters.  He described Claude’s work as artificial, lacking innovation & said that his drawing looked like that of a ten-year-old.   Moreover, from around 1900 his works began to seem conventional & dull until an upsurge in scholarly interest from 1945 Grove7 p401        

Grouping: The Baroque apart, there were two contemporary artistic strands, viz the Romantic which included Elsheimer & which for Dutch art  culminated with Rembrandt, & the classical-architectural-picturesque which ran from Paul Bril to Claude & Poussin, & culminated for Dutch art with Vermeer Wilenski p59

Verdict: Fry criticised his oils for having a timid & formulaic composition & balance, & he thought his drawings superior because of their freedom & originality.   However, according to Michael Kitson, his art is subtle & elusive, repaying a patient, subjective response in which the viewer needs to open up to the harmonies in which he specialised Fry p160, Kitson1969 p5

Collections: Most of his greatest works are in aristocratic & other collections in the British Isles Kitson1969 p5

**LO SPAGNUOLO/SPAGNOLETTO/CRESPI, Giuseppe Maria 1664-1747, Italy=Bologna:

*LOTH, Johann Carl, 1632-98, Italy(Germany)=Venice; Baroque:

Background: He was  born in Munich, the son of the painter Johann Ulrich, c1600-62, & his mother was a miniaturist & a sculptor’s daughter Grove19 pp705-6, L&L
Training: His father L&L
Influences: The tenebrism of Caravaggio’s Venetian followers & Giambattista Langetti L&L, Wittkower p347
Career: After a short period in Rome, he settled in Venice from 1656 working in the studios of Pietro Liberi & Giovanni Langetti.  In 1692 he became court painter to the Emperor Grove19 p706
Oeuvre/Characteristics: Altar & mythological easel paintings often featuring & dominated by a striking nude figure with a well-developed & well-placed body using decorative chiaroscuro & rich colour as in the Good Samaritan, 1697 (Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Brunswick) Grove19 pp 706-7 Wikip
Workshop: It was large & produced paintings for European aristocrats & altarpieces for Venetian & Bavarian churches L&L
Verdict: His work has been described as prosaic [but bold, animated & inventive might be more appropriate terms] L&L, webimages
Status: He was a leading artist in Venice L&L
Grouping: Baroque Wikip
Friends: Willem Drost & Antonio Zanchi L&L, Grove19 p706
Pupils: Daniel Seiter L&L
Brother: Franz, 1639-1710, was a painter, often collaborating with Carl Wikip

**LOTTO, Lorenzo c1480-1556/7, Italy=Venice:

Training: Giovanni Bellini along with Giorgione & Titian OxDicArt
Influences: Raphael with whom he worked on the Stanza in 1509 RAVenice p175
Career: During 1508-12 he was in Rome & between 1513 & 1626 lived mainly in Bergamo.   He then returned to Venice but from 1530 mainly worked in various towns in the Marches.   In 1554 when partially blind he became a lay-brother at the monastery in Loreto OxDicArt
Characteristics: Lotto’s style was idiosyncratic & stands somewhat apart from the central Venetian tradition OxDicArt,   His works were deeply pious but uneven.   Lotto’s portraits displayed psychological unrest & freshness of observation  RAVenice p176, OxDicArt.   Colours were used for expression & impact, not decorative balance RAVenice p42
Innovations: Portraiture of the lower classes (Man in a Felt Hat, c1541) Bayer p121
Personality: He had a nervous & difficult temperament OxDicArt
Grouping: He was one of Longhi’s Lombard Painters of Reality (while in Bergamo) Bayer p106

-LOWRY, L (aurence) S (tephen), 1887-1976, England:

Background: He was born at Glossop in Derbyshire & lived all his life in the Manchester area.  Lowry frequently referred to his unhappy childhood.   His  mother was an exceptional pianist but complained that her health & career had suffered since his birth.  She was uninterested in his work which she did not like.  After his father died in 1932 his mother, disliking other helpers, expected him to care for her when he was not collecting rents.   She became more & more unwell & finally took to her bed Grove19 p734, OxDicMod, Grange pp5-8, 16-7, L&S p12.

Training: After some private lessons, he went to evening classes under Adolphe Valette for painting & drawing at the Municipal College of Art, 1905-15; & at Salford School of Art, 1915-25 L&S p12, Grove19 p734.

Influences: Daumier, Impressionism to some extent,  Expressionism, & Pendlebury which he initially intensely disliked but ultimately became his obsession.  The play Hindle Wakes which caused him to see beauty in the industrial mill towns L&S p80, WestS1996, Grange pp 9-10

Career: After leaving school in 1904, he worked as a clerk with a firm of chartered accountants, was employed as a rent collector & then chief cashier for the Pall Mall Property Company, 1910-52; lived in the respectable Victoria Park area of Manchester until the family was forced to move to Pendlebury, near Manchester, 1909-1948.   In 1923 he was invited to lunch by W. H. Berry, director  of the Oldham art Gallery, whose wife, Daisy Jewell, headed the framing department of a London-based company, James Bourlet & Sons.  Henceforth she & its director,  Armand Blackley, worked tirelessly to make Lowry better known & his works were then regularly exhibited at the Salon d’ Automne & Société des Artistes Francois.   Lowry also exhibited with NEAC, 1927-36, & also at the RA, when he bothered to send in paintings.  He was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists, 1934; gained support from the Lefevre Gallery, London, from 1939; became an official war artist, 1942, but produced little which caused irritation;  lived in a small, unmodernised house in Mottram-in-Londendale, Cheshire from 1948; & was elected an RA after being approached by its secretary, 1962 Grove19 pp 734-5, Grange  pp 16-7, L&S p16, 77, 80.

Oeuvre: Townscapes, country scenes, seaside & harbour views, & occasional portraits.  From 1910 to the late 1930s he painted the scenes around Manchester & Pendlebury Grove19 pp 734-5, OxDicMod, Grange p13,

Characteristics: His work largely divides into a number of distinct categories.  (a) There are his continuing drawings of buildings, streets, & also his figure studies, which date back to his period of training Grange pp 11-2, 14-6, 20, 27, 32-4, 36-44, 46-8, 56-9, 62-3, 68, 70-3, 94-105, 117, 124-5.  (b)  He also produced some gloomy but impressive industrial, street & park scenes with limited or vestigial colouring & greater tonal contrasts as in a Manufacturing Town, 1922 (The Science Museum) & Peel Park, Salford, 1927 (City of Salford Art Gallery) Grange pp 30-1, 35, 45, 69, 74-5.  (c) From 1920 onwards he painted a few works of a social realist nature as in A Doctor’s Waiting Room, c1920 (the Lowry) Grange pp107, 112,  L&S pp 63, 115.   (d) His most distinctive work is of a naive type   These are street scenes often crowded with scurrying, forward- leaning stick-like figures, mostly black though occasionally plum coloured, on a white ground & with  houses & industrial buildings in the background.  Inter-personal relationships are infrequent & there are no shadows as in Going to Work, 1959 (The Lowry) Grange pp 49, 60-1, L&S pp 23, 54, 61-2, 64, 72, 89, 93.     

Phases: After his father’s death his painting was confined to the post-evening period when his mother was asleep.   He produced relatively little & his paintings tended to be grim as in The Lake, 1937, the self-portrait Head of a Man, 1938 (The Lowry) Grange pp 17, 113.  

Aim: “to put the industrial landscape on the map because nobody had done it … & I thought it was a great shame” Grange p11.

Innovation: The emphasis on & celebration of ugliness as in River Scene/Industrial Landscape, 1935 (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne) L&S pp 39, 43, 50, 60).   Here his work contrasts with that of Vallete who found beauty in the light effects produced by industrial pollution & murk (See Valette).   “I am attracted to decay, I suppose; in a way to ugliness, too .  A derelict house gets me…I’ d been told it [St Luke’s Church, Old Street. London] had the ugliest spire in the world.  So naturally I had to go & look at it” L&S p69

Autobiographical: “Everything in my life has just happened.  There is a grotesque streak in me… My characters?  They are all people you might see in a park.  They are real people sad people; something has gone wrong in their lives.  I’m attracted to sadness…I’m a very lonely man.  But I like to be lonely.  I can go where I please.  I don’t have to worry about anybody”.   “I’m not dedicated …I’ve never felt like some artists, who take it all frightfully seriously.  I go long stretches without doing any”.   “Had I not been lonely none of my work would have happened…I work because there there’s nothing else to do”.  “I think I must have been what they call a ‘cold fish’ …I didn’t even notice there was a Great Slump”.   When his painting The Cripples was criticised as cold-hearted he replied that he had suffered profound stress & depression while looking after his mother & knew what it is to want to commit suicide.   “What is there left?” he would repeatedly ask his office colleagues after her death.  “I had no need to paint after she died”, he said many years later, “I have not cared much about anything since she died”  L&S pp 76, 80-1, Grange p18, 2

Verdict: His work is noted for its subject matter rather than for any great artistic merit WestS1996

Misapprehensions: That he was self-taught; that he was slow to gain recognition which is a mistaken view if only because he exhibited at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts as early as 1918-9; that he was reclusive Grove19 pp 734-5.   Another mistaken belief is that his paintings of stick people are charming & painted with affection.  [On the contrary they are stylised & dehumanised.    His popularity appears to have led to an uncritical acceptance of his work.   As the above Autobiographical  Details indicate he was a deeply flawed & disturbed individual.   This is shown by his continued preoccupation with his mother, his belief that cripples were numerous,  his savage satire, his imaginary dream woman called Ann, & his disturbing drawings & paintings of scantily dressed women in positions of severe distress Grange p25, L&S pp 37, 131   However, it is necessary to recognise that some of his pictures reveal a genuine sense of humour & that he adopted an avuncular attitude to a young female artist to whom he bequeathed his miscellaneous belongings Grange pp 22, 24-5.   The final misapprehension about Lowry is that his crowds of stick individuals represented the proletariat & are to be seen as a curious form of Socialist Realism because, like so many artists of his time, he was a Socialist.  He loathed the Labour Party

Collections: The Lowry, Salford.

-LO ZINGARO/SOLARIO, Antonio de, active 1502-18, Italy=Venice, confusable with Andrea Solari/Solario:

Lucas van Leyden.  See van Leyden

..LUCAS, John Seymour, 1849-1923, England:

Background: He was the nephew of the portrait painter John Lucas, 1807-74 WooDic
Influences: Meissonier Maas p240
Career: He exhibited at the RA from 1867 & became an RA WoodDic 
Oeuvre: Mostly costume paintings & genre works set in the 17^th & 18^th centuries or episodes from English history.   He also painted portraits WoodDic
Grouping: He was one of the artists who produced costume paintings, & quasi-historical works with a romantic appeal, to  which Walter Dendy Saddler & Frank Topham also belonged Maas p240.

** LUCE, Maximilien, 1858-1941, France;  Neo-Impressionism & Naturalism:

Background: He was born in Paris, the son of a railway clerk, & was brought up in the working-class surroundings of Montparnasse subsequently moving to the southern suburb of Montrouge & to Montmartre, where the Sacre-Coeur is located, in 1887 Grove19 p767, Wikip

Training: After apprenticeship to the wood engraver Theophile Hildebrand, he assisted Eugene Froment in the production of engravings for various French & also foreign publications including The Graphic; & he sporadically attended classes at the Academie Suisse & in the studio of Carolus-Duran.  He also had other training including drawing classes at the Gobelins tapestry factory Norman1977, Grove19 p767, Wikip

Influences: Leo Gausson & Emile-Gustave Peduzzi whom he knew through Froment’s studio & who introduced him to Seurat’s technique around 1884, & with whom he began painting landscape subjects around Lagny-sur-Marne.  His pure colours & flat modelling were probably inspired by Japanese prints Wikip, Grove19 p767

Career: In 1887 he first exhibited at the Salon des Independents & except for 1915-19 exhibited at every subsequent show, being elected president in 1935 but resigning in 1935 in protest against the Vichy anti-Jewish laws Norman1977, Wikip

Oeuvre: It was huge both paintings & prints of townscapes, landscapes, industrial scenes, genre & religious works, still-life, etc, etc.  Besides oils & watercolour he used gouache & pastel.  He did many paintings of a socially polemical sort portraying the life of French & Belgian workers Grove19 p767, Wikip, L&L

Phases/Characteristics: After 1872 started painting in oils; turned to full-time painting around 1883 when opportunities for engraving became scarce; & around 1884 he was introduced to Seurat’s Neo-Impressionism & he painted in a Pointillist manner for many years but ultimately returned to more conventional Impressionist brushwork Wikip, Norman1977

Characteristics: Clear-cut works employing wide range of colour ranging from muted grey to striking reds, blues, purples & yellows.  His works are of a pleasing nature as in The Port of Saint-Tropez, 1893 (private collection) [but Wikimedia Commons], which is fresh & vibrant work & also displays his pointillist technique.   What distinguishes his & other naturalist works is the way in which the artist appears to have caught & frozen a specific, characteristic & a riveting instant, equivalent to the verbal descriptions in novels by Zola & Huysmans as in his Iron Foundry, 1899 (Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo in The Netherlands).  This was one of his industrial scenes & the product of his repeated visits from 1895 to the Borinage, the industrial & coal-mining area of Belgium Weisberg1982 pp 237-39, webimages, Grove19 p767

Grouping: Neo-Impressionism Norman1977

Circle: Seurat, Signac, Henri-Esmond Cross, & Pissarro, accompanying him to London in 1892 Wikip 

Politics: He was an anarchist-communist & was imprisoned for his activism in 1894 having been suspected of assassinating the President; & he was re-arrested in 1896 when the Spanish King visited Paris L&L, Wikip

Collection: Musee Maximilien Luce, Mantes-la-Jolie

– LUINI, Bernardino, c1480-before 1532, Italy; High Renaissance:

Background: He was presumably born in Luini Grove19 p783

Training: Apparently by Gian Scotto who was an obscure artist who worked in Milan cathedral Grove19 p783

Influences: Bramantino & other Milanese painters in his pre-Leonardo period prior to 1510-20 during which he was apparently fully aware of the innovations of Leonardo & also Raphael.  Lioni was apparently aware of the latter’s Roman paintings adopting his design & spatial innovations Murrays1959, Grove19 p784

Oeuvre: Mainly religious works in fresco & oils Grove19 pp 783-85

Phases: Before he came under Leonardo’s influence, he painted gay & enjoyable works as in the fresco fragments (Wallace Collection) but subsequently the gloom of Leonardo’s overworked surface had a deleterious impact, though his [as in] Madonna & Child in the Rose Garden (Brera) is seen as being very Leonardesque Murrays 1959, & 1963 p245, Grove19 p784

Feature & Key Works: It is especially important when considering Luini not to get bogged down in what art historians may have said but to consider some of his most important & innovative paintings.  In early works such as the [as in] Collection of Manna, c1614 (Brera, Milan), which is a fresco, he painted works with attractive landscape backgrounds in soft colours whereas the gesturing, grieving figures in richly coloured clothing in his Deposition, 1516 (S. Giorgio al Palazzo, Milan) stand out against a dark background.   Meanwhile he produced the Madonna & Child/Madonna of the Rose Bush with its sad Virgin, animated Child & meticulously painted roses supported on a well-devised trellis.  There was also his innovatory genre work the Boy with a Puzzle, of which there is a copy (National Trust, Stourhead, Wiltshire. Another important stage were the frescoed scenes from the Life of the Virgin, 1525 (Sanctuary, S Maria dei Miracoli, Saronno) with the combination of severe architecture, idealised figures, freely painted landscape & fresh colour in the [as in] Presentation in the Temple make this cycle one of the high points of Renaissance art.  The culmination of Luini’s work was the huge fresco of the Crucifixion, 1529-32, S Maria deli Angioli, Lugano.  It was unprecedented & visually overwhelming so as to  impress the congregation with the significance of the Passion Grove19 pp784-85, Bayer p11, webimages.

Critical Verdict: His work has been regarded as Leonardesque but of a vulgarised, superficial, sentimentalised, derivative, muted, & uninvolving nature.  It is also said that where he did not copy Leonardo his work was old-fashioned & that his chiaroscuro was exaggerated Murrays, Freedberg pp264-65, Murrays1963, p245 OxDicArt, L&L.  Nevertheless his paintings have also been regarded sometimes in the same breath &/or the same author as innovatory, complex, freshly coloured, independent-minded & idealised Grove19 pp 784-86, Murrays1963, p245, Bayer p241.

Repute: His works were very popular from about 1790 until 1900, & were eulogised by Ruskin.  They were heavily restored with few surviving in a good state.  Subsequently his work was heavily criticised by the Italian art critic Lionello Venturi who said his work was unimaginative & “monotonous in his inventions”,  [a truly bewildering contradiction.]   Of late the Yale Dictionary has censured his exaggerated chiaroscuro, superficial adoption of Leonardo’s facial types & expressions, & his old-fashioned style when he was not copying Grove19 p786, L&L.

Grouping: He belonged to a group of High Renaissance artists active around 1500 who influenced by Leonardo & Raphael created a Lombard Renaissance style Grove19 p783

..LUKE, John, 1906-1975, Ireland:

Background: Born in Belfast into a large family.   His father was a riveter in a shipyard E&L p101
Training: Evening classes at the Belfast College of Art 1923-4, but from 1927 to 1930 at the Slade on a scholarship E&L p101
Career: Luke returned to Belfast in 1931.   During the War he lived in County Armagh but then returned to Belfast E&L p101
Oeuvre/Phases: In 1933 he began using tempera, & also turned his back on the Slade tradition & stated to paint from his imagination.   Latterly he worked very slowly on his highly stylised compositions E&L p101

..LUKS, George, 1866-1973, USA; Ashcan School

Background: Born in Pennsylvania, the son of a doctor Hughes1997 p329
Training: 1884 At the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts OxDicMod
Influences: Manet’s bravura techniques OxDicMod
Career: He travelled in Europe; & became an illustrator on the Philadelphia Press, 1894; went to New York & turning more to painting, 1896; became  a member of The Eight; taught at the Art Students League; & ran own School OxDicMod
Oeuvre: Painting, often of earthy subjects; & graphic art OxDicMod
Personal: He was flamboyant with a Bohemian pose, told tall tales, posed as an ex-boxer & identified with the poorer classes OxDicMod
Verdict: His work was uneven, vigorous, spontaneous but its vitality was often superficial OxDicMod
Friends: Glackens, Shinn & Sloan OxDicMod

..LUNDBYE, Johan. 1918-48, Denmark; National Romanticism

Background: Born in Kalundborg Grove19 p797

Training: At the Copenhagen Academy under Johan Lund & the animal painter Christian Holm, but not under Eckersberg Norman1987 p98

Influences: Kobke for colour & subtle light effects; Friedrich & Dahl; & the Danish art historian Niels Hoyen with his concept of a truly national school of landscape painting Norman1987 p 98, NG1984 p227, Grove19 p797

Career: During 1845-6 he was in Italy & he visited Germany & the Low Countries.  He died as an army volunteer in the Danish-German war of 1848-51 Norman1977, Grove19 p797

Personal: He had strong mood swings when his high aspirations were frustrated NG1984 p227

Oeuvre: Landscapes & animal paintings Grove19 p797

Aim: “My life’s objective as a painter is: To paint our beloved Denmark with all the simplicity & modesty characteristic of her.  What beauty is to be found in these fine lines of our hills…in our forests, fields & moors” NG1984 p232

Phases: His early landscapes can be located but from the early 1840s he painted pictures which convey its general character as in Open Country in the North Zealand (Staten’s Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen) NG1984 pp 227, 232

Characteristics: He avoided the glassy high finish of Eckerberg’s faithful pupils together with their down-to-earth approach.   The landscapes he depicted were of an unthreatening type & in his larger canvases he emphasises the typical features of Danish landscape: open, flat & terminating in a low tree-fringed horizon below a vast sky.  These poetic works are close to the elegiac mood of Friedrich & Dahl.  Furthermore, he painted numerous works of a luminist nature Norman1987 p98, Grove19 p797, Wilmerding p22

Status/Grouping: He is considered the most important Danish Romantic-Nationalist landscapist in the 1840s NG1984 p227

Grouping: Romantic-Nationalism NG1984 p227

..LUNDSTROM, Vilhelm, 1893-1950, Denmark:

-LUNDQVIST, Evert, 1904-94, Sweden; Neo-Expressionism

Background: He was born in Stockholm Grove19 p797

Training: Carl Wilhelmsen’s Stockholm art school,1924; the Academie Julian, Paris, 1924-5; & the Konsthogskola, Stockholm Grove19 p798

Influences: James Ensor around 1937 Grove19 p798

Career: During 1931-2 &1933 he was in Paris; had a deep depression,1936-7; went to France & Italy in 1947, & became a professor at the Konsthogskola, 1960 Grove19 p798.

Oeuvre: Paintings & engravings Grove19 p797

Phases: His early work was dry & realistic, & then had simplified impasto forms & restrained colour.  After his depression he painted grotesque works in a swift expressionist style.  Then in the early 1940s, after tightly structured impasto works, his style became more gestural.  In the late 1940s his works were almost abstract, ultimately with disturbing figures Grove19 p798.

Characteristics: The works are highly diverse.  They range from lyrical abstracts in harmonious, monostatic colours, & abstracts composed of strongly coloured curved stripes, to realistic works; & they feature crudely painted figure & still-life paintings which are presumably what is regarded as his Neo-Expressionist work artnet site.  

Grouping: In the early 1940s he was associated with Olle Nyman, Roland Kempe & Staffan Hallstrom in the Salsjo-Duvnas group.   From about 1955 he was a leader of  the Neo-Expressionist movement Grove19 p798, L&L.

-LURCAT, Jean,  1892 – 1966 France:

Background: Born Bruyère’s, Vosges Grove19 p807

Training: At the Ecole des Beaux-Arts & Academie Colarossi Grove19 p807

Influences: Surrealism in the 1920s Grove19 p808

Career: He began by studying medicine; went to Pairs, 1912; during the 1920s he travelled in the Mediterranean & Middle East; from 1936 he produced tapestry design for the Gobelin & Aubusson workshops which led during the 1940s & 50s to fame & commissions.  He joined the Resistance & after the war settled at Tours-Saint-Laurent L&L, OxDic Mod, Grove19 p807

Oeuvre: Subject paintings, landscapes, murals & tapestry design Grove19 pp 807-8

Phases: During the 1920 his landscapes became increasingly nightmarish & desolate, after 1930 even larger.  After the war he gave up oils but painted prolifically in gouache Grove19 p808, L&L

Characteristics: He painted effortlessly & was a skilled colourist Grove19 pp 807-8

Grouping: Initially Cubism L&L                                                             

Collections: Atelier-Musee Jean-Lurcat, Tours-Saint-Laurent

Lys.  See Liss