The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (221 page)

Hermitage
, St Petersburg.

The largest public museum and art gallery in Russia and one of the most important in the world. It takes its name from a pleasure pavilion adjoining the Winter Palace, built to the order of Catherine the Great in 1764–7 (the ‘Little Hermitage’) for the display of her treasures. In 1787 it was incorporated in a new building (the Old Hermitage). Catherine was one of the most voracious collectors of all time and at her death in 1796 the imperial collections were estimated to total nearly 4,000 pictures. From 1802 pictures by Russian artists began to be added to the imperial collections. In 1837 the Winter Palace was ravaged by fire and the New Hermitage was built by the German architect Leo von Klenze, 1840–9. It was opened to the public by Nicholas I in 1852. In the following year the Czar sold over 1,200 pictures, but the collection continued to grow, doubling the number of its pictures between 1910 and 1932 despite extensive sales by the Soviets (after the Russian Revolution in 1917 the imperial collections came into public ownership). The representation of Western painting is rich in virtually every period and school, but perhaps most notably in 17th-cent. Dutch painting (the largest collection in the world) and in French painting of the late 19th and early 20th cents (almost all the great figures of
Impressionism
and
Post-Impressionism
are well represented). Many of the French paintings come from the collections of two Moscow businessmen who were among the outstanding collectors and patrons of their time: Ivan Morozov (1871–1921) and Sergei Shchukin (1851–1936). They commissioned new works as well as buying through dealers.
Matisse
was a particular favourite of both men, and Shchukin's interest also extended to
Cubism
. After the Revolution their collections were nationalized and later distributed between the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The collections of the Hermitage include much in addition to painting, notably extensive holdings of Central Asian and Oriental Art.

 
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(1920– ).
British painter, writer, and designer. His early paintings were influenced by
Braque
and
Matisse
, but in 1956 he turned to abstraction; in the same year he settled in Cornwall, becoming a member of the
St Ives School
. His abstracts have been varied, including stripe paintings—vertical and horizontal—as well as looser formats with soft-edged shapes, but all his work is notable for its vibrancy of colour. He has written several books, including
The Changing Forms of Art
(1955),
The Shape of Colour
(1973), and studies of
Vlaminck
(1947),
Hitchens
(1955), and Braque (1958).

 
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(
c.
1590–1656?).
Spanish painter and engraver, a representative of the transition from
Mannerism
to
Baroque
. With his older contemporary
Roelas
, under whose influence he developed, he helped to prepare the way for the new naturalistic style of the School of Seville in the early 17th cent.
St Basil Dictating his Rule
(Louvre, Paris), which is generally considered his masterpiece, shows his work at its most bold and vigorous. About 1638 Herrera moved to Madrid, where he died. According to
Palomino
, Diego
Velázquez
was Herrera's pupil, but if this was so it could only have been for a short time. His son,
Francisco Herrera the Younger
(1627–85), painter and architect, spent many years in Italy, where he is said to have fled from his father's notoriously bad temper and may have studied architecture and fresco painting in Rome. He returned to Spain after his father's death and was appointed
Murillo's
deputy at the Academy of Seville when it was founded in 1660. Soon afterwards he moved to Madrid, where he was appointed Painter to the King (Charles II) in 1672 and Master of the Royal Works in 1677. His greatest achievement was the design (subsequently modified) of the church of El Pilar at Saragossa, begun in 1681. His work as a painter, airy and colourful, owed much to the example of Murillo.

 
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Herring , John Frederick Sen
.

(1795–1865).
British sporting and animal painter, the best-known member of a family of sporting artists. He had great success as a painter of racehorses, regularly doing portraits of the winners of the Derby and St Leger, and his work enjoyed wide popularity in engravings. His three painter sons included
John Frederick Jun
. (died 1907), and he also had a painter brother,
Benjamin Herring Sen
. (1806–30). It is often not easy to distinguish between the work of the various members of the family.

 
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(1637–1712).
Dutch painter, active in Amsterdam. He painted some landscapes and still lifes, but is celebrated as one of the greatest of all townscape painters. His views of towns are done with loving attention to detail, but the harmonious colours and sunny light of his elegantly composed pictures prevent the precise way he rendered foliage, bricks, and architectural detail from appearing dull or dry. In spite of the seemingly objective nature of his work, van der Heyden often took liberties with topographical accuracy and he also painted
capricci
. Painting was only a part of his activity, for he was also involved in civic administration in Amsterdam. The fire hose in said to have been his invention and it is included in his
Brandspuiten-boek
(‘Fire Engine Book’), a volume about fire-fighting equipment, illustrated with his own engravings, that he published in 1690.

 
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