The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (327 page)

(1744–1819).
English flower painter, the daughter of
George Moser
(1704–83), a Swiss goldsmith, enameller, and medallist who settled in England and became the first Keeper of the
Royal Academy
. Like her father she was a foundation member of the Academy and in 1805 her name was put forward as a candidate for the presidency. Her small flower pieces in the Dutch manner were highly popular.

 
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(1860–1961).
The most famous of American
naïve
painters. She took up painting in her seventies (initially copying postcards and
Currier & Ives prints
) after arthritis made her unable to continue with embroidery, with which she had regularly won prizes at country fairs. Her first exhibition was held in a drugstore at Hoosick Falls, NY, in 1938. She was then ‘discovered’ by a collector, Louis J. Calder , and had her first ‘one-man’ show in New York in 1940 at the age of 80. In 1949 she was received at the White House by President Harry Truman and in 1960 Governor Nelson Rockefeller proclaimed her 100th birthday, 7 September, ‘Grandma Moses Day’ in New York State. She produced more than a thousand pictures (working on a sort of production line system, three or four at a time, painting first the skies and last the figures), her favourite subjects being scenes of what she called the ‘old-timey’ farm life she had known in her younger days. From 1946 her works were reproduced on Christmas cards and elsewhere and achieved widespread popularity for their brightly coloured freshness and charm. Examples are in many American collections, notably the Bennington Museum, Vermont.

 
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(
c.
1475–1555/6).
Netherlandish painter. He was born in Haarlem and the influence of
Geertgen tot Sint Jans
can clearly be seen in his rather stiff and gangling figures. As painter to Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, he accompanied her on her travels, making portraits of her courtiers. He also painted religious works. His most remarkable painting, however, is a
Landscape of the West Indies
(Frans Hals Mus., Haarlem,
c.
1525–30). Many of his paintings were destroyed in the Great Fire of Haarlem in 1576, and little is known in detail of his career.

 
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(1915–91).
American painter, collagist, writer, editor, and teacher, one of the pioneers and principal exponents of
Abstract Expressionism
. He took up painting seriously in 1941 after studying aesthetics at Stanford and Harvard universities and the erudite approach of his writings played a large part in setting the serious intellectual tone of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Motherwell was unusual among Abstract Expressionists in that his painting was essentially abstract from the beginning of his career. However, his work was deeply influenced by
Surrealism
(particularly in the use of
automatism
) and there is often a suggestion of figuration in the large amorphous shapes and bold austere colours of his paintings. Moreover, the intellectual sensibilities he brought to his work are reflected in the inspiration from literature, history, or his personal life. For example, he painted a series of works (more than a hundred pictures) entitled
Elegy to the Spanish Republic.
By the late 1960s his style had moved towards
Colour Field painting
. He was an extremely prolific artist and also displayed great energy as a writer, teacher, and lecturer. From 1958 to 1971 he was married to Helen
Frankenthaler
.

 
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(1860–1939).
Czech painter and designer. He had a highly varied career, but is best known for his luxuriously flowing poster designs, which rank among the most distinctive products of the
Art Nouveau
style. They often feature beautiful women, but have nothing of the morbid sexuality typical of the period. Some of the best known were made in Paris in the 1890s for the celebrated actress Sarah Bernhardt. Mucha also designed sets, costumes, and jewellery for her. He was successful in the USA also, making four journeys there between 1903 and 1922. A Chicago industrialist and Slavophile, Charles Richard Crane, sponsored his series of twenty huge paintings entitled
Slav Epic
(Moravsky Krumlov Castle, 1909–28). Although he is so strongly associated with Paris, Mucha was an ardent patriot, and in 1922 he settled in Prague. Czechoslovakia had become independent only in 1918 and Mucha did a good deal of work for the new nation (giving his services free), including designing its first banknotes and stamps. After a period of neglect a revival of interest in his work culminated in a large exhibition of paintings, posters, drawings; furniture, and jewellery at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1980.

 
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