The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (149 page)

 
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(1754–97).
English painter and engraver, the nephew and only assistant of Thomas
Gainsborough
. He made copies and
mezzotints
of his uncle's pictures, completed others left unfinished at his death, and painted some original works in his manner, notably several portraits of actors, examples of which are in the Garrick Club, London.

 
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(1594–1643).
Flemish sculptor, active mainly in Rome, where he settled in 1618. He was a friend of
Poussin
, sharing a house with him for a time, and became a leading figure in circles devoted to classical art. Alongside
Algardi
he came to be recognized as the outstanding sculptor in Rome after the great
Bernini
(who employed him on the decoration of the
Baldacchino
in St Peter's in 1627–8), and as with Algardi , his style was much more restrained and less
Baroque
than Bernini's. Duquesnoy's two major works are the statues of
Sta Susanna
(Sta Maria di Loreto, 1629–33) and
St Andrew
(St Peter's, 1629–40). He also produced many small bronzes that spread his fame. Duquesnoy was particularly renowned for his handling of
putti
, and it is curious that someone who so unaffectedly depicted the beauty and charm of children seems to have been mentally unstable; he was a chronic procrastinator and the diarist John Evelyn , visiting Rome in 1644, said that he ‘died mad’ because his
St Andrew
‘was placed in a bad light’. Duquesnoy's father and brother were sculptors;
Jerome I
(before 1570–1641) and
Jerome II
(1602–54). His father is remembered mainly for the famous
Manneken-pis
fountain (1619) behind the town hall in Brussels. His brother worked with François in Rome and took a somewhat diluted Baroque style back to Flanders with him. The tomb of Bishop Anton Trest in Ghent Cathedral (
c.
1640–54) is considered his finest work. He is perhaps best remembered, however, for his sticky end; he was executed by strangulation in Ghent for committing sodomy in a church.

 
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(1796–1886).
American painter and engraver. His early work was mainly as an engraver and he established his reputation with his print after John
Trumbull's
Signing of the Declaration of Independence
and with portraits of eminent contemporaries. In the 1830s he turned increasingly to painting. At first he worked mainly as a portraitist, but then devoted himself to landscape, becoming a leading figure of the
Hudson River School
. Thomas
Cole
was a major source of inspiration, and Durand's most famous painting,
Kindred Spirits
(New York Public Library, 1849), was painted as a memorial to him; it shows Cole and the poet William Cullen Bryant admiring spectacular scenery in the Catskill Mountains, New York State.

 
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(1831–1922).
The best-known member of a family of French picture dealers, renowned as the first dealer to give consistent support to the
Impressionists
. He took over the family firm in 1865 and established himself as the main dealer of the
Barbizon School
painters. It was one of these—
Daubigny
—who introduced him to
Monet
and
Pissarro
when all four had taken refuge in England from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1. For years Durand-Ruel was such a solitary champion of the Impressionists that he often came near to bankruptcy, but in 1886 he achieved a breakthrough with an exhibition of their work in New York, the success of which encouraged him to open a branch of his firm there. This played a major role in building up some of the great American collections of Impressionists. After Durand-Ruel's death, Monet wrote to the dealer's son: ‘I shall never forget all that my friends and I owe to your father, in a very special way.’

 
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