The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (431 page)

 
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(1795–1858).
Dutch painter, engraver, and book illustrator, active for almost all his career in Paris. His work was immensely popular in his lifetime, but is now generally considered sentimental. Early in his career he favoured literary themes (
Francesca da Rimini
, Wallace Coll., London 1835, and other versions), but later he turned to mawkishly treated religious subjects (
SS. Augustine and Monica
, NG, London, 1854, and other versions). He also painted many portraits. His work is well represented in the museum at Dordrecht, his native town.

 
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(1787–1870).
Dutch landscape painter, a forerunner of the
Hague School
. He is best known for carefully depicted winter scenes reminiscent of those made by 17th-cent. Dutch artists, but he also painted seascapes and was an accomplished watercolourist. His work was influential particularly on
Jongkind
, his most famous pupil.

 
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(
c.
1510/15–1563).
Italian painter and etcher. His nickname ‘Schiavone’ means ‘Slav’, reflecting the fact that he came from Zara, Dalmatia (then under Venetian jurisdiction). He worked mainly in Venice, where he was on friendly terms with
Titian
(who along with
Parmigianino
was one of the main influences on his style). His most characteristic works were fairly small-scale religious or mythological scenes for private patrons in a vigorous, painterly style.

 
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(1890–1918).
Austrian painter and draughtsman. He studied at the Vienna Academy, where he met
Klimt
, who was a strong influence on his early
Art Nouveau
style. By 1909, however, he had begun to develop his own highly distinctive style, which is characterized by an aggressive linear energy expressing acute nervous intensity. He painted portraits, landscapes, and semi-allegorical works, but he is best known for his drawings of nudes (including self-portraits), which have a disturbing and explicit erotic power—in 1912 he was briefly imprisoned on indecency charges, and several of his drawings were burnt. The figures he portrays are typically lonely or anguished, their bodies emaciated and twisted, expressing an aching intensity of feeling. His work was much exhibited, and he was beginning to receive international acclaim when he died (three days after his wife) in the influenza epidemic of 1918. He has since come to be recognized as one of the greatest
Expressionist
artists.

 
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(Dutch: ‘band of painters’). A fraternal organization founded in 1623 by a group of Netherlandish artists living in Rome for social intercourse and mutual assistance. Its members called themselves
Bentvueghels
or ‘birds of a flock’ and they had individual
Bentnames
—for example Pieter van
Laer
, one of the early leaders, was called Bamboccio. In 1720 the Schildersbent was dissolved and prohibited by papal decree because of its rowdiness and drunkenness.

 
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