The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (413 page)
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Authors: Ian Chilvers
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Rops , Félicien
(1833–98).
Belgian graphic artist and painter, active mainly in Paris. Rops was primarily a printmaker—one of the most brilliant and technically resourceful of his period—and his work is highly distinctive because of his vividly licentious imagination, which took delight in the morbid, perverse, and erotic. Much of his work was done as illustrations for books or for his own satirical journal
Uylenspiegel
. He was a member of the avant-garde Brussels group Les
Vingt
and his work was notably influential on
Ensor
.
Belgian graphic artist and painter, active mainly in Paris. Rops was primarily a printmaker—one of the most brilliant and technically resourceful of his period—and his work is highly distinctive because of his vividly licentious imagination, which took delight in the morbid, perverse, and erotic. Much of his work was done as illustrations for books or for his own satirical journal
Uylenspiegel
. He was a member of the avant-garde Brussels group Les
Vingt
and his work was notably influential on
Ensor
.
Rosa , Salvator
(1615–73).
Neapolitan painter and etcher. He was a flamboyant character—a poet, actor, and musician as well as an artist. Most of his career was spent in Rome, but in the 1640s he lived mainly in Florence (where he worked for the
Medici
) after he had been rash enough to satirize the great
Bernini
. His colourful personality and unswerving belief in his own genius made him a prototype of the
Romantic
artist and his fame was greatest in the 18th and 19th cents. (the story that he was a bandit seems to be a 19th-cent. invention). He was a prolific artist and painted various subjects (including spirited battle-pieces in which he surpassed his teacher,
Falcone
), but he is best known for the creation of a new type of wild and savage landscape. His craggy cliffs, jagged, moss-laden trees, and rough bravura handling create a dank and desolate air that contrasts sharply with the serenity of
Claude
or the classical grandeur of
Poussin
(a situation summed up in the famous lines from James Thomson's
The Castle of Indolence
(1748): ‘Whate'er Lorraine light-touched with softening hue,/Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew’). Rosa is also well known for his macabre subjects (notably of witches), but he himself set most store by his large historical and religious compositions, which are now considered his least attractive works. In the 1660s he turned with great success to etching. Rosa was highly influential on the development of the
Picturesque
and the
Sublime
, and he had a great vogue in England, where
Mortimer
was particularly taken with his pictures of bandits.
Ruskin
, however, was responsible for the fall of his reputation, condemning his landscapes as artificial.
Neapolitan painter and etcher. He was a flamboyant character—a poet, actor, and musician as well as an artist. Most of his career was spent in Rome, but in the 1640s he lived mainly in Florence (where he worked for the
Medici
) after he had been rash enough to satirize the great
Bernini
. His colourful personality and unswerving belief in his own genius made him a prototype of the
Romantic
artist and his fame was greatest in the 18th and 19th cents. (the story that he was a bandit seems to be a 19th-cent. invention). He was a prolific artist and painted various subjects (including spirited battle-pieces in which he surpassed his teacher,
Falcone
), but he is best known for the creation of a new type of wild and savage landscape. His craggy cliffs, jagged, moss-laden trees, and rough bravura handling create a dank and desolate air that contrasts sharply with the serenity of
Claude
or the classical grandeur of
Poussin
(a situation summed up in the famous lines from James Thomson's
The Castle of Indolence
(1748): ‘Whate'er Lorraine light-touched with softening hue,/Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew’). Rosa is also well known for his macabre subjects (notably of witches), but he himself set most store by his large historical and religious compositions, which are now considered his least attractive works. In the 1660s he turned with great success to etching. Rosa was highly influential on the development of the
Picturesque
and the
Sublime
, and he had a great vogue in England, where
Mortimer
was particularly taken with his pictures of bandits.
Ruskin
, however, was responsible for the fall of his reputation, condemning his landscapes as artificial.
Rose + Croix , Salon de la
.
.
Rosenberg , Harold
(1906–78).
American writer, one of the most influential critics in the field of contemporary art from the 1950s until his death. Early in his career he wrote poetry and essays on literary and general cultural issues, and his first important work devoted to the visual arts was an article in
Art News
in 1952 in which he coined the term
Action painting
. He was one of the major champions of
Abstract Expressionism
, writing monographs on
Gorky
(1962),
de Kooning
(1974), and
Newman
(1978). Unlike his rival Clement
Greenberg
, who was concerned only with formal values, Rosenberg had an ethical and political conception of art, believing that the critic should less ‘judge it’ than ‘locate it’, subordinating visual analysis to intellectual understanding. He thought that authentic modern art should be perpetually disruptive and he attacked the manipulative fashions created by both the marketplace and the museum.
Pop art
, for example, he treated with disdain.
American writer, one of the most influential critics in the field of contemporary art from the 1950s until his death. Early in his career he wrote poetry and essays on literary and general cultural issues, and his first important work devoted to the visual arts was an article in
Art News
in 1952 in which he coined the term
Action painting
. He was one of the major champions of
Abstract Expressionism
, writing monographs on
Gorky
(1962),
de Kooning
(1974), and
Newman
(1978). Unlike his rival Clement
Greenberg
, who was concerned only with formal values, Rosenberg had an ethical and political conception of art, believing that the critic should less ‘judge it’ than ‘locate it’, subordinating visual analysis to intellectual understanding. He thought that authentic modern art should be perpetually disruptive and he attacked the manipulative fashions created by both the marketplace and the museum.
Pop art
, for example, he treated with disdain.
Roslin , Alexander
(1718–93).
Swedish portrait painter, active mainly in France. He left his country in 1745, worked at the courts of Bayreuth (1745–7) and Parma (1751–2), and in 1752 finally settled in Paris. There he rapidly became one of the leading portraitists of the day, esteemed particularly for his skilful rendering of expensive fabrics and delicate complexions (‘Satin, skin? Go to Roslin’). He visited St Petersburg, Vienna, and Warsaw (as well as Stockholm) in the 1770s, but in spite of his international travels his elegant work was entirely French in style. His wife,
Marie-Suzanne Giroust
(1734–72), was a pastellist. One of Roslin's finest works is an enchanting portrait of her entitled
The Lady in a Black Veil
(Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1768).
Swedish portrait painter, active mainly in France. He left his country in 1745, worked at the courts of Bayreuth (1745–7) and Parma (1751–2), and in 1752 finally settled in Paris. There he rapidly became one of the leading portraitists of the day, esteemed particularly for his skilful rendering of expensive fabrics and delicate complexions (‘Satin, skin? Go to Roslin’). He visited St Petersburg, Vienna, and Warsaw (as well as Stockholm) in the 1770s, but in spite of his international travels his elegant work was entirely French in style. His wife,
Marie-Suzanne Giroust
(1734–72), was a pastellist. One of Roslin's finest works is an enchanting portrait of her entitled
The Lady in a Black Veil
(Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1768).
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