The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (70 page)

(1596–1674).
Dutch
genre
and history painter, active mainly in his native Delft. He travelled widely in Italy and France, 1614–28, and drew on a variety of influences for his most characteristic paintings—small nocturnal scenes with vivid effects of light. Works such as the
Scene of Sorcery
(Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux) have earned him the reputation of ‘an interesting independent who cannot easily be pigeonholed’ (J. Rosenberg , S. Slive , and E. H. ter Kuile ,
Dutch Art and Architecture
, 1600–1800, 1966). Bramer was also one of the few Dutch artists to paint frescos in Holland, but none of his work in the medium has survived. He evidently knew well the greatest of his Delft contemporaries,
Vermeer
, for he came to the latter's defence when his future mother-in-law was trying to prevent him from marrying her daughter. In fact, it is likely that Bramer, rather than Carel
Fabritius
, was Vermeer's teacher.

 
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Bramley , Frank
.

See
NEWLYN SCHOOL
.

 
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(1876–1957).
Romanian sculptor, active mainly in Paris, one of the most revered and influential of 20th cent. artists. After studying in Bucharest and afterwards in Vienna and Munich, in 1904 he settled in Paris, where he spent many years of poverty and hardship. In 1906 he was introduced to
Rodin
, whose offer to take him on as assistant Brancusi refused with the famous comment that ‘No other trees can grow in the shadow of an oak.’ His work of this time was in fact influenced by Rodin's surface animation, but from 1907 Brancusi began creating a distinctive style, based on his feeling that ‘what is real is not the external form but the essence of things.’ From this time his work (in both stone and bronze) consisted largely of variations on a small number of themes (heads, birds, a couple embracing—
The Kiss
) in which he simplified shapes and smoothed surfaces into immaculately pure forms that sometimes approach complete abstraction. He was particularly fond of ovoid shapes—their egg-like character suggesting generation and birth and symbolizing his own creative gifts. (His woodcarvings, on the other hand, are rougher—closer to the Romanian folk-art tradition and to African sculpture.) His reputation abroad began to grow after five of his sculptures were shown at the
Armory Show
, New York, in 1913, and during the 1920s his name became newsworthy when he was involved in two celebrated art scandals. In 1920 his
Princess X
was removed by police from the
Salon des Indépendants
because it had been denounced as indecent (there is a clear resemblance to a phallus); and in 1926 he became involved in a dispute with the US Customs authorities. They attempted to tax his
Bird in Space
(one of his most abstract works) as raw metal, rather than treat it as sculpture, which was dutyfree. Brancusi was forced to pay up to get the work released for exhibition, but he successfully sued the Customs Office, winning the court decision in 1928. During the 1930s he travelled widely. In 1937 he made sculpture (including the enormous
Endless Column
, nearly 30m. high) for the public park at Tirgu Jiu near his birthplace and in the same year he visited India to design a Temple of Meditation (never built) for the Maharajah of Indore. By the time of his death he was widely regarded as the greatest sculptor of the 20th cent.
Brancusi's originality in reducing natural forms to their ultimate—almost abstract—simplicity had profound effects on the course of 20th-cent. sculpture. He introduced
Modigliani
to sculpture,
Archipenko
and
Epstein
owed much to him, and
Gaudier-Brzeska
was his professed admirer. Later, Carl
Andre
claimed to have been inspired by
Endless Column
, converting its repeated modules into his horizontal arrangements of identical units. More generally, Henry
Moore
wrote of Brancusi: ‘Since the Gothic, European sculpture had become overgrown with moss, weeds—all sorts of surface excrescences which completely concealed shape. It has been Brancusi's special mission to get rid of this undergrowth and to make us once more shape-conscious.’ On his death Brancusi bequeathed to the French Government his studio and its contents, which included versions of most of his best works (they often exist in multiple replicas in different materials). The studio has now been reconstructed in the
Pompidou Centre
in Paris. There is another outstanding Brancusi collection in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 
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(1867–1956).
British painter, etcher, and designer, born at Bruges of Welsh parentage. Brangwyn was apprenticed to William
Morris
(1882–4), and like his master was active in a variety of fields. He was an
Official War Artist
in the First World War and was a skilful etcher and lithographer, but he became best known for his murals. His most famous undertaking in this field was a series of 18 panels on the theme of the British Empire, commissioned by the House of Lords. They were begun in 1926 and rejected—amid great controversy—in 1930. Offers for the panels came from all over the world, and in 1934 they were installed in the Guildhall in Swansea. During his lifetime Brangwyn had a great reputation on the Continent, and there is a museum devoted to him in Bruges and another almost entirely given over to his work in Orange. He was one of the finest draughtsmen of his time, but his painting tended to the decoratively sentimental.

 
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(1882–1963).
French painter, graphic artist, and designer. Initially he followed his father's trade of house painter, but in 1902–4 he took lessons at various art schools in Paris, including briefly the École des
Beaux-Arts
. Through his friendship with his fellow students
Dufy
and Friesz, he was drawn into the circle of the
Fauves
, and in 1905–7 he painted in their brightly coloured, impulsive manner. In 1907, however, two key events completely changed the direction of his work: first, he was immensely impressed by the
Cézanne
memorial exhibition at the
Salon d'Automne
; and secondly, he met
Picasso
, in whose studio he saw
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
. Although he was initially disconcerted by it, he soon began experimenting with the dislocation and fragmentation of form it had introduced, and the two men worked in close association until the outbreak of the First World War, jointly creating
Cubism
.
The Portuguese
(Kunstmuseum, Basle, 1911) is one of the best-known paintings of this phase of Braque's career, and the first picture to incorporate
stencilled
lettering. Braque also took the lead with the
papier collé
technique of introducing pieces of imitation wood engraving, marbled surfaces, etc., stuck on to the canvas. In 1914 he enlisted in the French Army and was twice decorated for bravery before being seriously wounded in the head in 1915 and demobilized in 1916. After the war his work diverged sharply from that of Picasso. Whereas Picasso went on experimenting restlessly, Braque's painting became a series of sophisticated variations on the heritage of his pre-war years. His style became much less angular, tending towards graceful curves. He used subtle muted colours and sometimes mixed sand with his paint to produce a textured effect. Still life and interiors remained his favourite subject, and many critics regard his
Studio
series, begun in 1947, as the summit of his achievement. Braque also did much book illustration, designed stage sets and costumes, and did some decorative work. By the end of his career he enjoyed immense prestige and he was given a state funeral—an occasion that seemed at odds with his life of unassuming dedication to his art.