4 posts tagged “artists”

Working on art and literature research for my web analytics company helped me define which artists I choose to put on a pedestal. What can I say, my favorite painters were always Impressionists. I find it so sad, that most of them did not witness their success as artists and went through a lot of heartache and suffering during their lifetime. It is probably, no use to start telling you about the most famous ones, those who proudly stand in the first row of art, if I might put it that way. I am more interested in those whose names are not mentioned a lot in wide circles of art lovers. I’d rather tell you a story about a quiet painter who was considered to be an “ideal Impressionist”.

French Impressionist of English origin Alfred Sisley lived his entire life in France, apart from a brief period that he spent in London. He was born in Paris in 1839 and in the early 1860s got acquainted with Impressionists Bazille, Monet and Renoir. They worked together trying to capture the transient effects of sunlight. The result was astonishing: their paintings were more broadly painted and more colorful than audience was accustomed to seeing at the time.

Sisley was luckier than many of his Impressionist friends because he had opportunities to exhibit his works several times and, of course, that he had not have to think of money. He was supported by his father and received his allowance quite regularly. But soon this material support all vanished.

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As I am interested in history of music, art, and literature, I would like to share my interests related to biographies the famous composers, artists, poets, writers, architects. Since I started working for funeral home directory I tend to think more about life and death, people's destiny, etc ...

Let me start with Vincent van Gogh - Dutch Post-Impressionists artist. This genius had a short life - did not last more than forty years on this earth. But his paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces.

I never knew his middle name - Willem. Yes, his full name was Vincent Willem van Gogh. The guy was born in 1853, in a place called Groot-Zundert. Seems, this was some kind of a village in tin the southern part of Netherlands. Van Gogh was the son of Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus van Gogh, who was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church.

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I went through more manuscripts and found more interesting personalities from so called Dark Ages.

In my previous post I mentioned that Medieval women worked a lot on illumination. Manuscript illumination affords us many of the named artists of the Medieval Period including Ende, a tenth century Spanish nun; Guda, a twelfth century German nun; Claricia, twelfth century laywoman in a Bavarian scriptorium. Hildegard of Bingen is a particularly fine example of a German Medieval intellectual and artist. She wrote "The Divine Works of a Simple Man", "The Meritorious Life", sixty-five hymns, a miracle play, and a long treatise of nine books on the different natures of trees, plants, animals, birds, fish, minerals, and metals. From an early age, she claimed to have visions. When the Papacy supported these claims by the headmistress, her position as an important intellectual was galvanized. The visions became part of one of her seminal works, which consists of thirty-five visions relating and illustrating the history of salvation. The illustrations showing Hildegarde experiencing visions while seated in the monastery at Bingen, differ greatly from others created in Germany during the same period. They are characterized by bright colors, emphasis on line, and simplified forms. While Hildegard likely did not pen the images, their nature leads one to believe they were created under her close supervision.

In the twelfth century there was the rise of the city in Europe, along with the rise in trade, travel, and universities. These changes in society also influenced the lives of women. Women were allowed to head their spouses' businesses, if they were widowed. Women also became more active in illumination. Many women worked alongside their husbands or fathers, including the daughter of Maitre Honore and the daughter of Jean le Noir. By the 13th century, most illuminated manuscripts were being produced by commercial workshops, and by the end of the Middle Ages, when production of manuscripts had become an important industry in certain centers, women seem to have represented a majority of the artists, and scribes, employed, especially in Paris.

I processed a lot of the manuscripts on a research, and I found a lot about the women in the Middle Ages. Especially, about the ones with artistic talents. In the Medieval period, women often worked alongside men. They created manuscript illuminations, embroideries, and carved capitals and what-not. Documents show that they also were brewers, butchers, wool merchants, and iron mongers. Women who were artists, often were of two literate classes, either wealthy aristocratic women or nuns. Women in the former category often created embroideries and textiles. Those in the later category often produced illuminations, and even composed church music.