The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (42 page)

(brother of Gilbert Bayes ). See
CAMDEN TOWN GROUP
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1734–95).
Spanish painter. He had an eminently successful career, becoming court painter to Charles IV and director of the Academy of San Fernando, but he is now remembered almost solely because he was the brother-in-law of
Goya
, who spent some time in Bayeu's studio in the 1760s and later painted a memorable portrait of him (Prado, Madrid, 1795). Bayeu painted portraits and also did much decorative work, particularly making
cartoons
for the royal tapestry factory, where he succeeded
Mengs
as director in 1777.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1841–70).
French painter, one of the early
Impressionist
group. As a student in
Gleyre's
studio in Paris (1862) he befriended
Monet
,
Renoir
, and
Sisley
, with whom he painted out of doors at Fontainebleau and in Normandy. He was, however, primarily a figure painter rather than a landscapist, his best-known work being the large
Family Reunion
(Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 1867–8). Bazille was killed in action during the Franco-Prussian War, cutting short a promising career. He came from a wealthy family and had given generous financial support to Monet and Renoir.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1912–63).
American painter, one of the minor masters of
Abstract Expressionim
. From 1936 to 1941 he worked for the
Federal Art Project
, and during the war he was attracted to
Surrealism
and experimented with various types of
automatism
. In the early 1950s he attained his characteristic style, which was not fully abstract but used strange
biomorphic
shapes, akin to those of
Miró
, suggesting animal or plant forms in an underwater setting (
Mammoth
, Tate, London, 1957). He said, ‘It is the mysterious that I love in painting. It is the stillness and the silence. I want my pictures to take effect very slowly, to obsess and to haunt.’

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1633–99).
English portrait painter and copyist. Her portraits, often of clergymen, are dull derivations from her friend
Lely
, but the diaries of her painting activities kept by her husband Charles, an artist's colourman, afford an interesting picture of contemporary artistic practice. Several examples from her prolific output are in the National Portrait Gallery, London. A son,
Charles
(b. 1660), was mainly a
miniaturist
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1872–98).
English illustrator, a leading figure of
Aestheticism
and of
Art Nouveau
. Beardsley had little formal training, but he read voraciously and studied the art of the past and present, and his highly distinctive style was based on sources including
Burne-Jones
(who encouraged him) and Japanese prints (see
UKIYO-E
). He made a name for himself in 1893 with illustrations for an edition of Malory's
Morte d' Arthur
, and in the following year he became the rage with the publication of his illustrations to the English version of Oscar Wilde's
Salome
and the appearance of the first issue of
The Yellow Book
, a quarterly periodical of which he was art editor. Owing perhaps partly to the tuberculosis which carried him off at the age of 25, his work had a morbid suggestion of depravity which made it the most controversial illustration of its day. Some of his work was frankly pornographic, including illustrations for his own
Story of Venus and Tannhauser
(he wrote poetry as well as prose), which was privately published in an unexpurgated edition in 1907. In spite of his ill health and early death, Beardsley's output was prodigious.