The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (422 page)

 
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(1600/3?–70).
Dutch landscape painter, active in his native Haarlem, where he became a member of the painters' guild in 1623. His earliest works show the influence of Esaias van de
Velde
and in the 1630s he was so close in style to Jan van
Goyen
that it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the work of the two artists. They both excelled in atmospheric, virtually monochromatic river scenes and are the leading masters of this type of picture. In the 1640s his landscapes became somewhat more solid and colourful, perhaps reflecting influence from his nephew, Jacob van
Ruisdael
. Late in his career he occasionally painted still lifes. He was immensely prolific and many galleries have examples of his work. His son
Jacob Salomonsz. van Ruysdael
(1629/30–81) was also a landscape painter. An example of his rare work is
A Waterfall by a Cottage
(NG, London), which shows he worked in a style similar to that of his illustrious cousin and near-namesake, with whom he has sometimes been confused in documentary references.

 
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(1847–1917).
American painter of imaginative subjects. He lived and worked most of his life as a solitary and dreamer in New York, and his methods and approach were largely self-taught. His pictures reflect a rich inner life, with a haunting love of the sea (he was born at the fishing port of New Bedford, Mass.) and a constant search to express the ineffable: ‘Have you ever seen an inch worm crawl up a leaf or twig, and then clinging to the very end, revolve in the air, feeling for something to reach something? That's like me. I am trying to find something out there beyond the place on which I have a footing.’ This imaginative quality and eloquent expression of the mysteriousness of things is expressed typically through boldly simplified forms and eerie lighting (
The Race Track
or
Death on a Pale Horse
, Cleveland Museum of Art). In spite of his self-imposed isolation Ryder's works became well known in his lifetime and he has been much imitated and faked. His own paintings have often deteriorated because of unorthodox technical procedures. He was greatly admired by Jackson
Pollock
.

 
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(1694–1770).
Flemish-born sculptor, a member of an Antwerp family of artists, who settled in England about 1720. He soon achieved success and in the 1730s was the leading sculptor in the country. The highpoint of his career was winning the commission for the monument to William III in Queen Square, Bristol (1735), in preference to
Scheemakers
. This is generally regarded as the finest equestrian statue made in England in the 18th cent. However, from about 1740 (the year of Scheemakers's acclaimed Shakespeare monument in Westminster Abbey), Rysbrack began to lose ground to Scheemakers and also to
Roubiliac
. He was a versatile and prolific artist, hard-working and popular. His output included tombs, statues, and portraits (often in the form of busts in the
antique
manner, a fashion he introduced to England), and he also made architectural elements such as chimneypieces. His style was vigorous and dignified, less sombre than that of Scheemakers. He did not match the brilliant vivacity that characterizes Roubiliac's work, but he could sometimes rival him in beauty of handling. Rysbrack's best-known work is perhaps the monument to Sir Isaac Newton (designed by
Kent
) in Westminster Abbey (1731), with its eloquent reclining figure of the great scientist.

 
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(1862–1926).
Belgian painter, graphic artist, and designer. He was a founder of the avant-garde group of
Les Vingt
(XX) in 1883. This group encouraged an interest in innovative art largely through contact with France, and Rysselberghe, who met
Seurat
in Paris, became the leading Belgian exponent of
Neo-Impressionism
. In 1898 he moved to Paris and was associated with the
Symbolist
circle of writers and artists; his painting
A Reading
(Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, 1903) shows several leading literary figures including André Gide and Maurice Maeterlinck. In 1910 he settled in Provence, where he abandoned Neo-Impressionism for a broader style of painting. His work is well represented in the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller at Otterlo.

 
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