Hans Bol – Flemish artist and Early Watercolorist

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April 26, 2011

When researching the history of watercolor painting, reference is often made to Hans Bol, as leader of one of the first schools of watercolor painting in Germany but what else do we know about Hans Bol?  Did he like to gamble perhaps at Kasino or Betsson Casino. Read on to find out.

Well, he was born in 1534 in Holland and learned his trade from his two uncles who were also painters.  At the age of fourteen, he became an apprentice to a Mechelen painter whose speciality was ‘Waterschilderen’, large scale scenes painted on canvas using opaque watercolor or tempera which were used as wall decorations instead of expensive tapestries.

It is thought that Bol’s watercolors were so widely copied that he turned to making miniatures on parchment which earned him many international clients and a good income , which he may have gambled with at Online Keno Spielen.  In addition, Bol also produced several oil paintings, illuminated manuscripts, drawings and engravings.

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

Despite the war with Spain and periods of religious unrest that led to frequent upheavals in his life, Bol continued to remain one of the most prolific and successful landscapists in the Netherlands.  Many of his paintings were views of the Flemish landscape, usually including small figures enacting a mythological or biblical scene.  One of his most famous works of art is the ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus’ which was described in detail and highly praised by Karel van Mander in the 17th century. It was inspired by Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ in which the ancient myth of Icarus is told.  In fact Bol chose the Icarus theme on several occasions.

Although Bol was once an important and admired painter, he is really only known today through his small drawings and most of his larger paintings appear to have been lost which makes his miniatures all the more important, because they are probably reproductions of his grander masterpieces. Consequently, Bol ought to be viewed not only as a superior miniature painter, but above all as an important artist who played a key role in the development of landscape art.

Categories: European Artists.

Georgia O’Keeffe

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April 21, 2011

It won’t have gone unnoticed that the majority of the biographies we have written on this site are for men.  However, there is one female watercolorist, Georgia O’Keeffe, who is one of the greatest American artists of the 20th century and we thought we should find out a bit more about her life and works.

Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 1887 and she longed to be an artist from an early age. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago between 1905-06 and a year later she went to the Art Students League in New York where she first became aware of modernist art.  Even though her student work was well received and she became an award-winning artist at the League, she found it unfulfilling and decided to quit painting to work as a commercial artist.

During the summer of 1915, she began her re-entry into the world of painting when she enrolled at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she stayed until she was offered a teaching position at Columbia College in South Carolina.  Between 1916 and 1918, she headed the art department at West Texas State Normal School in Canyon, and it was during this time that she made a handful of charcoal drawings, which she sent to a friend in New York. The friend, Anna Pollitzer, showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer and gallery owner who was so enthused with O’Keeffe’s work, that he showed them in his “291 Gallery”.

Within two years, Steiglitz had convinced O’Keeffe to move to New York and devote all of her time to painting and six years later the two would marry. While living in New York, O’Keeffe painted some of her most famous work including a series of New York City skyscraper scenes and her botanical paintings which became a signature part of her work.

It was in 1929 that she first visited the Southwest and it was this trip that would alter the course of her life forever.  She returned every summer to New Mexico to paint and when her husband died in 1946, she took up permanent residence there. She settled in Abiquiu and produced the landscape and architectural paintings for which she is best known and have come to represent her unique gift.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, O’Keeffe’s fame continued to grow throughout the world and in 1970 she was categorised by the Whitney Museum of American Art as one of the most important and influencial American painters. She passed away in March 1986 in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the age of 98 but her work remains a prominent part of both the American and international art world to this day.

"Oriental Poppies"

Categories: American Artists.

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Adrian Schiess

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April 17, 2011

Since 1987, Adrian Schiess has successfully exhibited his trademark “flat” paintings internationally. He enjoyed his first US solo museum exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art beginning October 19, 2007.

Born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1959, he is considered to be one of the most important contemporary artists today. Schiess recently began referring to his flat works as painting. Monochromatic painting or concrete art is often misinterpreted as his trademark or signature. Initially, the majority of Adrian Schiess’ work was not even classified as painting by the international art community. While he claimed to be concerned with painting as a joyful activity, he gained international recognition with his “flat works” – painted hardboards.

He calls his work, “A happening of seeing.” In early exhibitions, the paintings were the central focus. Schiess filled entire rooms with panels painted in monochrome colors on flat surfaces. The artist developed his painting on wood, paper, aluminum and photos and distributed them on the ground or on walls.

The pieces formed a parallel to his watercolor painting by use of rough edges. Both sets of work represent fragments of dreams or torn pieces of ecstatic leftovers creating concrete and illusionary meaning.

For over 20 years, Schiess has worked in the fragile media. He currently has 59 works in 84 publications offered in 9 languages.

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Categories: European Artists, German Artists.

History of the Royal Academy of Arts

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April 14, 2011

In a number of our posts, and most latterly in our biography of Paul Sandby, we have made reference to The Royal Academy of Arts so we thought it would be useful to provide a bit of background to this independent and privately funded institution.

The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in 1768 by a group of leading artists and architects under the patronage of King George III.   The first Academy was housed in Pall Mall up until 1771 when it moved to Somerset House.  It was here until 1837 when the British government took over the rooms for office space and it was therefore forced to share premises with the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.  The Academy moved to it’s current location of Burlington House in 1868.

Despite being under Royal Patronage, the Academy did not receive any state subsidies and was very much under the control of the 34 founder Members who essentially established it as a school to train artists in drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture. Amongst the famous watercolourists who trained at the Royal Academy are William Blake and J.M.W. Turner.

One of the other founding principles of the Royal Academy was to provide a venue for exhibitions that would be open to the public and give an opportunity for artists to sell their work to finance their training.  Now known as the ‘Summer Exhibition’ , it is held every year (and has been without interruption since 1769)  from May to August and has become an important feature of the art world, both nationally and internationally, attracting around 10,000 pieces of work.

Sir Joshua Reynolds - First President of the Royal Academy

Today, the Academy continues to aspire, in the words of its eighteenth century founders, ‘to promote the arts of design’.  All of the Academicians are still practising painters, sculptors, engravers, printmakers, draughtsmen and architects and are elected by their peers.  The current President of the Academy is the architect, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and he is only the 25th President in a period of spanning nearly 250 years. Current Members include Norman Foster, Tracey Emin and Anish Kapoor.

Categories: Exhibitions, Watercolour Facts.

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Paul Sandby – ‘The father of English watercolour’

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April 4, 2011

Paul Sandby was an English map-maker turned landscape watercolourist, who, together with this older brother, Thomas was one of the founder members of the Royal Academy.

He was born in Nottingham, England in 1730 and this is where he first began to work with his brother before they both moved to London in the early 1940s to join the Ordnance drawing room at the Tower of London and train as military draughtsmen.

In 1747, Paul Sandby was given the job as chief draughtsman of mapping the Scottish highlands and it was whilst undertaking this commission that he began to produce watercolour landscapes to document the changes in Scotland after the 1745 rebellion, as well as sketches of important Scottish events such as the hanging of John Young in 1751. And this is when news of his talent began to spread.

In 1752, Paul left Scotland and went to live with his brother, who was then the Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park, where together they produced landscapes of the Royal Estates at Windsor; the royal collection alone includes over 500 images painted by the Sandby brothers.

The brothers had much in common as watercolourists, but Paul was by far the better artist and also more versatile in his work. In fact he was singled out by Thomas Gainsborough, who himself declined a commission from at least one of his patrons who wanted views of his country estate with the words, “with respect to real views from nature in this country…Paul Sandby is the only Man of Genius…who has employed his pencil that way”.

But in addition to the topographical views, Sandby was also concerned with elevating the regard in which landscape was held at the Royal Academy, and he therefore painted many large imaginary views in watercolour which he wanted to be hung alongside oils on the walls of the Academy and the homes of his patrons.

He died in 1809 and was described in his obituaries as “the father of modern landscape painting in watercolours”.

Categories: European Artists, Watercolour Facts.

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