ArtistPortfolio.Net

Born: 1849
Died: 1917
Gender: Male
Nationality: English

“Waterhouse’s career was a progression from classical restriction to a free application of plein-air techniques to subjects drawn from mythology.” Jeremy Maas, Victorian Painters.

John William Waterhouse was born to English parents in Rome, Italy but returned to England to attend the Royal Academy Schools. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was one of his earliest influences and he painted Graeco Roman subjects along the lines of Edwin Long, a painter of portraits, historical and biblical genre.

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Born: 1928
Died: 1987
Gender: Male
Nationality: American

“…Famous for fifteen minutes…” Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh to Czechoslovakian immigrant parents. He studied painting and design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh before settling in New York in 1950. He achieved enormous success as a commercial artist, specialising in shoe advertisements, winning the prestigious Art Directors’ Club Medal twice in1952 and 1957.

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Born: 1954
Gender: Male
Nationality: English

“In my work, I try to communicate not only the positive energies and excitement of city life, but also, the underlying dangers and feeling of unease that are also present.” Richard Walker.

Richard Walker is a successful British artist who has achieved considerable success from the mid-Seventies onwards. Working with acrylics, pastels and spray paint, he specialises in cityscapes, having a particular interest for the neon lights and electrified night skies of urban America. He has received numerous commissions and his work is held in a number of galleries. Since 1976 he has split his time between painting and teaching printmaking, drawing and design.

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Born: 1632
Died: 1675
Gender: Male
Nationality: Dutch

Jan Vermeer was a painter who excelled in portraying comfortable interior scenes that are composed with mathematical clarity and suffused with cool, silvery light. Vermeer was a master of composition and representation of space. He recorded the effects of light with superlative subtlety, delicacy, and purity of colour. Vermeer appears to us as a ghost from the past, which we can only glimpse at fleetingly and only guess at through the work he has left us. Nothing is known of his masters, models, and companions. We do not have a single handwritten line or a self-portrait. Very little is known about him except for a few surviving records, such as his birth, marriage, and death certificates. There are also stories about his family, inheritance, and debts.

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Born: 1853
Died: 1890
Gender: Male
Nationality: Dutch

“I am a man of passions, capable of and subject to doing more or less foolish things, which I happen to repent more or less afterwards… But the problem is to try every means to put those selfsame passions to good use… In the surroundings of pictures and works of art, you know how I had a violent passion for them, reaching the highest pitch of enthusiasm.” Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh was the eldest of six children born to a Dutch pastor. As a child he was very quiet and would rather be alone than play with his brothers and sisters. At 16, van Gogh’s father arranged for him to work for his uncle at a firm of art dealers in the Hague. He approached the job with enthusiasm and in time was transferred to London. Although from a well-educated family, van Gogh preferred the company of peasants to that of the well-to-do of London, and he attempted several unsuccessful careers as both schoolmaster and missionary in England and Belgium.

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