The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (212 page)

(1889–1927).
Czech sculptor. After training in Prague, he worked with
Bourdelle
in Paris, 1909–10, and was attracted by
Cubism
. He was among the first to apply the principles of Cubism to sculpture and on his return to Prague in 1911 he formed one of a small group of avant-garde artists attempting a fusion of Cubism with
Expressionism
. An example of his work from this time is
Cubist Bust
(Tate Gallery, London, 1912–13). After the First World War he developed a more popular and naturalistic style based upon folk art. He committed suicide by drowning.

 
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(1912–87).
Italian painter. He was a forceful personality and Italy's leading 20th-cent. exponent of
Social Realism
; he never subordinated artistic quality to political propaganda, but his art was often the direct expression of his hatred of injustice and the abuse of power. In 1931 he abandoned legal studies for painting, in which he was mainly self-taught. He settled in Rome in 1937 and in the following year became a founder member of the anti-Fascist association
Corrente
. Fascism was not his only target, however, for he also pilloried the Mafia and in 1943 published a series of drawings protesting against the massacres that took place under the German Occupation of Italy. After the war (in which he worked with the Resistance) he became a member of the
Fronte Nuovo delle Arti
in 1946. His post-war works were often inspired by the struggles of the Sicilian peasantry, and his other subjects included the 1968 student riots in Paris, a city he often visited. Many of his paintings were large, with allegorical overtones, typically painted in a vigorous
Expressionist
style.

 
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(1802–92).
French illustrator. Little is known about his life. He was a soldier as a young man and travelled widely, leading a vagabond life. According to
Baudelaire
, who immortalized him as ‘The Painter of Modern Life’ in his celebrated essay of that name (1863), Guys began to draw without instruction in 1847—but this is probably putting it too late. In 1854 he went to the Crimean War as Special Correspondent of
The Illustrated London News
, for which he had been working in London from 1848. He is most remembered, however, for his pictorial record of Paris life during the Second Empire in lively drawings reinforced by washes of tone or colour.

 
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(
c.
1628–after 1685).
Dutch landscape painter. Little is known of his life, but he travelled extensively in Switzerland and Italy in the 1650s and is best known for Italian scenes. The finest is generally regarded as being
Lake Trasimene
(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), which shows how well he could capture the golden sunlight of Umbria. The figures in his paintings are often the work of other artists, notably
Berchem
and Adriaen van de
Velde
.

 
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(1737–1807).
German landscape painter, active in Italy from 1768. In 1786 he became court painter to Ferdinand IV of Naples. He was a sensitive upholder of the
ideal landscape
tradition of
Claude
, which he seasoned with touches of
Romanticism
. Much of his prolific output was devoted to views of famous sites, which were eagerly sought by foreign visitors to Italy. He came from a family of artists and often collaborated with his brother
Johann Gottlieb Hackert
(1744–73).
Goethe
met Hackert in 1787 and wrote his biography in 1811. His work is exceptionally well represented at Attingham Park in Shropshire.

 
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