Key artists and their works

his dog runs around trying

to protect his master from death – signed and dated by Durer at the

bottom left – fox has his tail wrapped around knight’s lance – Devil

close behind the knight

C. Diego Velazquez (Spanish 1599 – 1660) Baroque Painter

Velazquez is considered the most significant 17th-century Spanish artist. His works are naturalistic and

employ diverse brushstrokes and subtle color harmonies. The combination

of these techniques makes him a prime example of a forerunner of

Impressionism. He was a precocious painter whose works are tied to the

court of King Philip IV. His portraits involve subjects assuming great poses

in elaborate costumes to which he adds intimate details.

The life and work of Velazquez are detailed in The Art of Painting (1649),

written by his father-in-law Francesco Pacheo. The court painter and

scholar Antonio Palomino also published two other volumes containing

information about the artist. The Spanish Parnassus, published in 1724,

includes the first complete biography of the painter.

One of his earliest paintings, Waterseller of Seville (c.1620), was painted

when he was barely 20, according to his father-in-law. The painting is

labeled as a bodegon (paintings of everyday life, especially involving

food). Basically, these genre paintings are still lifes, but they may contain

human subjects. The subject of the painting, the waterseller,

offers a young boy a drink of water poured from a large clay

jug. Behind and between the two primary subjects, a dim

image of a third man can be seen, watching the two. His

idealized version of the waterseller is contrary to the usual

connotation of these often scoundrel entrepreneurs who make

money from the needs of the public to escape the heat of the

summer in Seville. King Philip presented this painting to the

Duke of Wellington to celebrate the Duke’s victory over

Napoleon’s army.

Another bodegon by Velazquez is Old Woman Frying Eggs

(1618). This genre painting shows the influence of

chiaroscuro with an intense light focused on the old woman and the boy while the rest of the painting recedes

into the darkness. The picture is so realistic it could have ben a photograph of the scene, especially revealing

the yolks of the eggs surrounded by their whites floating in the bright red pan.

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 25

While these works are important in Velazquez’s career, it was not until he received the patronage of King

Philip that won him immediate success in the art world. As the court painter of Philip IV, he was primarily

tasked with painting pictures of the royal family and their entourage.

According to Pacheo, King Philip maintained a chair in Velazquez’s studio

to watch the artist as he painted.

One of the drawbacks of being the court painter, his choice of subjects was

limited. He painted a few works that were not portraits. His religious

paintings were also limited after he accepted Philip IV’s portraitist

position. One of those paintings, The Coronation of the Virgin (1641-

1644), was probably commissioned by the queen consort of Philip IV. This

painting shows the Virgin Mary in the center, flanked by Jesus on the left

and God on the right. The figures appear in an inverted triangle that can be

viewed as a heart-shape with the holy spirit (the dove) rising between and

above the figures.

He painted hunting scenes of the King and other portraits that were less

formal than was the common practice of the era. His equestrian portraits

were used to decorate the Hall of Realms, a Madrid palace wing. This

painting, titled Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV (1635-36), shows King

Philip sitting astride a horse as it rears on two legs. The background is a

landscape that does not detract from the focus of the painting, so that Philip

IV dominates the viewer’s focus.

Additionally, he painted history

paintings to show Spanish

military victories that were used to decorate the places of the king.

One of those paintings, The Surrender of Breda (1635), is

considered one of his most significant works. It shows the Dutch

surrender of the key to the city to the Spanish during the Eighty

Years’ War. Note how the Dutch are shown on the left and the

Spanish victors on the right. Velazquez showed the Spanish

soldiers with all their weapons while the Dutch stood defenseless

in their defeat.

Perhaps Velazquez’s most famous painting is of the king’s daughter,

the Infanta Margarita Theresa. The royal ladies and ladies-in-waiting

look like porcelain dolls with elaborate coiffures and hooped skirts.

The portrait appears natural with observers, almost like a portrait,

watching as Velazquez (also in the painting) attempts to capture the

young princess on canvas. Las Meninas (1656) (Spanish for ladies-

in-waiting) features the five-year-old princess, her chaperone, maids

of honor, two little people, and a dog. A mirror at the end of the room

reflects images of the King and Queen. A nun and priest are deep in

conversation behind the Infanta, and the queen’s chamberlain is

shown in silhouette either entering or leaving through the door at the

back. The court jester playfully pokes the dog with his foot while

Velazquez shows himself painting the large canvas on the left side of

the portrait. Notice the other paintings that appear in the background, lining the walls of the hall.

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 26

Key Works include:

• Christ on the Cross (1631-32) – shows the crucifixion of Christ – thin

halo circles Christ’s head – his face is covered with long hair – shows

intense chiaroscuro – a poem “El Christo de Velazquez” describes the

spirituality and mystery of the painting

• The Forge of Vulcan (1630) – mythological painting –

a noncommissioned work but painted at the request of Rubens

– depicts the moment when Apollo visits Vulcan telling him

about the infidelity of his wife, Venus

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 27

A. Vincent Van Gogh – ( Dutch 1853 – 1890) - Post-Impressionist & Expressionist – Painter

Van Gogh was a Post-Impressionist artist whose works ushered in the Expressionism movement. He is

known for brilliant colors, emphatic brushwork, and contoured lines in his work. His brother Theo

became his caretaker and trusted confidante, to whom Vincent wrote multiple letters describing his works

and his feelings. He worked as a language teacher and lay preacher. In fact, Van Gogh considered studying

theology as a profession, but disputes with church authority caused him to abandon that dream. Afterward,

he focused his attention on art and painting, specifically. He wrote to Theo that he would sign his paintings

“Vincent” to show that he was one of the common people. Although his art career was very short, he created

800 paintings and 850 drawings – completing 200 of those paintings in the last 15 months before he

committed suicide.

Initially, Van Gogh painted three types of works – still life, landscape, and figure, primarily as these related

to the lives of peasants like The Potato Eaters (1885).

Later, he became close friends with Paul Gaugin. They

lived together in

Arles at the

“Yellow House”

for two months in

late 1888.

However, a violent

argument between

the two resulted in

Van Gogh losing

his ear – Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889). Police reports were

incomplete, and although Van Gogh claimed he had cut off his ear,

historians believe that Gaugin cut off his friend’s ear with a sword and

threw the sword into the Rhone River.

He suffered from a form of temporal epilepsy that presented as

delusions and psychotic attacks. Van Gogh could not face the mental stress he was experiencing and

requested to be admitted to an asylum at Saint-Remy-de-Provence for medical treatment. Here, he painted

several works, The Starry Night, Cypresses, Irises, and Garden of the Asylum. (Note: The Starry Night can

be found earlier in this work.) Much of the work here used muted colors instead of the bright colors of his

work in Arles, like The Yellow House (1888). After leaving the asylum, he

moved to Auvers-Sur-Oise to be close to his brother. It was here that he

shot himself and died in July 1890.

Key Works include:

• Van Gogh’s Chair (1888) – rustic wooden chair with pipe and pipe

tobacco – Notice the onion box with “Vincent” in the background.

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 28

• The Café at Terrace (on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night)

(1888) – in its original showing, it was called Coffee House, in the

Evening – contains lots of contrasting colors and tones and bold brush

strokes

• Irises (1889) – still life painted while in the asylum – the

background of the painting was originally pink but has faded

because of the type of red pigments he used

• Irises in the Garden, Saint Remy (1889) – one of the first

subjects he painted at the asylum – one of four in the study of irises

Van Gogh painted – held a record in 1987 as the most expensive

artwork when it sold for $100 million – only a single iris is of a

contrasting color

• Sunflowers (1888) – often referenced sunflowers in his letters to Theo and

Gaugin – painted 11 works of sunflowers – Gaugin painted portrait of Van Gogh

painting sunflowers (The Painter of Sunflowers) – Margaret Thatcher mistakenly

called the paintings “Van Gogh’s Chrysanthemums” – was one of the first artists to

use the yellow oil paint to paint the flowers

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 29

B. Pablo Picasso – (Spanish 1881-1973) – Modernist (Cubist) Painter and Sculptor

Although Picasso is often viewed as the master of cubism, his work moved from naturalism to cubism to

surrealism. He was a sculptor, printmaker, ceramics artist, etching artist, and a writer. He shaped the

direction of modern art throughout his long career. Besides seeing two World Wars, the Korean War, and

the Vietnam War, he appeared in film, had four children, and was a poet.

He was born in Spain but lived most of his life in France. While Picasso

was raised in the Catholic church, he declared that he was an atheist when

he became an adult. Picasso was taught art by his father at the School of

Fine Arts in Barcelona and would later attend the top art school in Spain,

the art academy in Madrid. While in art school, he painted one of his

earliest works, his sister’s communion, when he was only 15 (First

Communion (1896)). It shows his sister kneeling before the altar, dressed

in a bright white communion dress.

When he moved to Paris in 1900, he was so poor that he had to burn many

of his paintings for heat. By 1901, he moved back to Madrid, where he

illustrated articles and created cartoons for Young Art magazine. During

this time, he began signing his work simply as Picasso.

Picasso’s work can be easily identified and categorized in definite

periods. Those periods include:

• Blue Period – 1901 – 1904

• Rose Period – 1904 – 1906

• African Art and Primitivism – 1907 – 1909

• Analytic Cubism – 1907 -1912

• Synthetic Cubism – 1912 – 1919

• Neoclassicism and Surrealism – 1919 – 1929

His later years included combinations of these period works, although the Blue Period, Rose Period, and

African Period are probably his most recognized and distinguishable periods. During the last 17 years of his

life, from 1956 – 1973, he created more than 17 portraits. Art critics contend

that some of these paintings show the beginnings of Neo-Expressionism.

After the suicide of his friend, Picasso’s

works turned dark. His Blue Period featured

paintings of beggars, including starved

mothers and children, painted in dark blues

and violets. One of the most famous paintings

of this period includes the Old Guitarist

(1903). An old beggar sits along the street

with his head bowed, playing a brown guitar

with bony hands. A special note about this

painting should be recognized. This painting

is an excellent example of pentimento, where another image can be seen behind

the panting. The pentimento in The Old Guitarist shows at least two other

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 30

paintings on the canvas under his masterpiece. You can see the image of a woman in this detail from the

painting.

During his Rose Period, Picasso’s work was much brighter, using many shades of

reds and pinks in his paintings of clowns and circus figures. Harlequins were also

favorite subjects for the artist during this period. Acrobat and Young Harlequin

(1905) shows characteristics of both the Blue and Rose Periods. While the subject

matter is dressed in red, the melancholy expressions of the two performers remind

us of his Blue Period subjects.

His African-influenced Period was also called

his Negro or Black Period. His most famous

painting of this period, Les Demoiselles

d’Avignon (1907), is recognized as the

beginning of cubism. The large painting took

nine months to complete. When he first

exhibited the painting in 1916, it was considered immoral. He made

hundreds of sketches of the work before beginning it. It lacks any type

of perspective and contains no vanishing point. The two figures on the

right are painted with African masks,

showing the influence of African art on the

painter’s work. Avignon is not the name of the famous French city but rather a

street in Barcelona.

Picasso worked with Georges Braque from 1907 to 1909, and their work during

this period became the beginning of Cubism. The paintings from this period

consisted of earth tones and images that were deconstructed and put back together

with elaborate geometric forms. A sculpture from this period, Head of a Woman,

Fernande (1909), shows the head and face as a series of flat planes stuck together.

The bronze sculpture’s jagged forms and sharp geometric surfaces comprise the

first Cubist sculpture.

Ma Jolie (1911-12), which means “My Pretty

Girl,” is a painting from his Synthetic Period.

Picasso named the artwork after a song that was popular at the time. In the

lower center, a strummed guitar can be seen with four fingers. A treble clef

and a floating smile can also be found amid the geometric shapes of the

painting. He combines black lettering, a treble clef, and near abstraction to

create the representation of music.

One of the premier Picasso paintings is his protest of the acts of war.

Guernica (1937) may be his most famous work. He painted it as a response

to the bombing of a Spanish town during the Spanish Civil War. Almost

colorless, the painting’s images are intense. Picasso chose only to use

blacks, blue, and white to create the enormous painting (11 feet tall and

25.6 feet wide). Two prominent figures in the painting (the bull and the horse) are contradictory figures.

The bull represents Fascism, and the horse represents the people of Guernica. Picasso was adamant that the

painting not be returned to Spain until Francisco Franco was dead and Spain would become a free republic.

It remained in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until 1981, before it was returned to Spain.

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 31

Key Works include:

• Boy with a Pipe (1905) - painted during Rose Period – shows a boy

in France holding a pipe in his left hand and wearing a garland of

flowers on his head – one of the most expensive paintings sold by

Picasso during his lifetime ($30,000)

• Three Musicians (1921) – painted during the Synthetic

Cubist Period – large painting more than 2 meters wide

and high – gives the appearance of cut paper – clarinet

player on left dressed as Pierrot in blue, guitar player in

the middle dressed as Harlequinn in orange and yellow

diamond-shaped costume, and a singer dressed as a

monk on the right holding sheet music – Gertrude Stein

called the painting a still-life

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 32

F. Rembrandt (van Rijn) – (Dutch 1606 – 1669) – Baroque Painter and Printmaker

Rembrandt is known as the painter of light and shade and focuses on realism. As an early painter, he painted

many portraits, including drawings and formal self-portraits. In fact, Rembrandt is recognized as the first

significant self-portraitist. He painted biblical and historical scenes

plus “allegorical history pieces.” He also created etchings that brought

him international fame even during his lifetime. While recognized as a

Baroque painter, he is also considered a forerunner of the Romantic art

movement. His earlier works are more detailed, and his later ones show

a looser style. Many of his paintings focus on the fleshy skin around the

eyes of older people.

He was only one of six siblings who survived out of ten. His first name

(Rembrandt) is rare in the Dutch language. He signed his work with

variations of his initials, including RH, RHL, and RHL van Rijn. Later

he began signing his work with his first name only, at first without the

“d,” and lastly with the spelling we recognize today.

Periods of Rembrandt’s works

include the Leiden Period,

where he focused on small-scale history paintings and tronies.

Tronies were fictionalized single figures dressed in imaginary,

Middle Eastern, or Asian costumes. The subjects symbolized old

age, bravery, and purity. During this time, he painted Raising of

Lazarus (1630) and completed two etchings of this subject. Other

works during this early period included Judas Repentant and The

Artist in His Studio (1628). In The Artist in His Studio, Rembrandt

deviated from the norm. The artist seems lost in oversized clothing,

as if he were posing for the painting to begin on the enormous easel

facing him in the foreground.

After the Leiden period, Rembrandt’s style changed somewhat, and he developed a technique that played

with light – almost creating a spotlight effect. While this can be seen in the Lazarus painting to a small

degree, it became much more prominent in his later works. Night

Watch (aka Militia Company of District II Under the Command

of Captain Fans Banninck Cocq. 1644) illustrates the use of this

new technique. The painting was commissioned to celebrate the

entry of Marie de Medici into Amsterdam. The company mascot,

the young girl in the foreground, wears a dead chicken on her belt

since the talons were symbols for the group. Other men in the

painting are preparing their muskets. The scene is meant to show

movement, not the period's usual static portrait poses.

Rembrandt's new use of lighting highlights both the young girl

and the captain.

Other periods of his work include the Amsterdam Periods, in

which he painted multiple portraits, and another group portrait, the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 33

(1632). By being the only surgeon wearing a hat, Tulp is revealed

as the most crucial figure in the painting, and the corpse is the

body of a criminal hanged for theft. This work was not the only

painting of surgeons completed by Rembrandt. He painted

another anatomy lesson in 1656 with Dr. Jan Deijman as the

principal surgeon in the piece.

As previously noted,

Rembrandt was famous

for his many self-

portraits. One of those, the 1640 self-portrait, can be called a trompe

l’oeil – that fools the viewer into believing something untrue. In this

painting, he is wearing a costume presumably to represent the

famous woodcut artist Albrecht Durer. Many pictures from this

period include still lifes, portraits, and group portraits that use the

deception exhibited by trompe l’oeil creations.

Key Works include:

• The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633) – oil on canvas – stolen in 1990 from a

museum in Boston – depicts the Bible story of Jesus calming the Sea of Galilee

from the New Testament Gospel of Mark

• The Three Crosses (1653) – etching and drypoint – depicts the

crucifixion of Christ - supposedly represents the exact moment of

Jesus’s death – contains intricate iconography – one of over 300

Biblical works by Rembrandt

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 34

• The Blinding of Samson (1636) – depicts the Biblical scene of Samson,

tricked by Delilah, being seized by Philistines, and having his eyes gouged out

– use of chiaroscuro prominent in the painting

• Joseph Accused by Potiphar’s Wife (1655) – one of several

paintings and etchings – shows Iempsar (Potiphar’s wife) from Genesis

39:6-13 accusing Joseph of seducing her – Rembrandt showed all three

subjects in the painting based on the play by Joost van den Vondel staged

in the same year – similar theme presented in The Denial of Saint Peter

(1660) – showing guilt and the gravity and consequences of deception

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 35

G. Claude Monet – (French 1840 – 1926) Impressionist Painter

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Water Lilies and Impression: Sunrise are the most memorable creations by this French painter. He drew

caricatures of friends and painted natural landscapes using the interplay of light to create his images.

Monet’s landmark painting gave the name to the Impressionist movement of the 19th century. He began as

a realist painter whose teacher encouraged him to paint outside En

Plein air. One of his first paintings was View at Rouelles, Le

Havre (1858). This painting is a realistic landscape that could have

been a color photograph. A small boy sits on the creek bank

fishing. Even the ripples where his line lands in the water can be

seen. Like others of the Realist movement, this painting focuses

on the accuracy of the subject matter without embellishments

often included in Romantic paintings.

In 1861, Monet was drafted into the Les Chasseurs d’Afrique, a cavalry unit deployed to Algeria. While he

did paint a few works during his service, none survived, but he used his

memories of his deployment in future paintings. When he returned to Paris, he

shared a studio with Renoir where the

two artists focused on historical art.

Since the artists often painted together,

they influenced each other’s works.

During this time, he painted a life-size

portrait of his future wife, Woman in a

Green Dress (1866), for exhibition. He

completed the work in four days to

meet Courbet’s direction to paint

something “quickly and well, in a

single go.” The portrait combined the traditional approach of portrait painting

with a modern subject. Other later paintings of Camille are more representative

of Impressionism, as can be seen in Madame Monet and Child (1875). In this Plein-air painting, Camille is

busy sewing as a child seated at her feet looks at a book while a toy horse sits near the child.

Monet’s final portrait of Camille is of her on her deathbed after the birth of

their second son. The dark blues and grays reveal his devastation at the loss

of his wife. This painting, Camille Monet on Her Deathbed (1879), is one of

the darkest works created by the artist. Ironically, the year of Camille’s death

also marked the end

of the Impressionist

group.

During a visit to the

Netherlands with his

wife, he painted 24

canvases, including

Zaandam (1871).

This painting begins to show his impressionist style

as the reflections in the water, and even the

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 36

buildings lack a definition of line. He used long lines of white to show where the water reflects the light.

This marine painting is one of several that Monet completed during his lifetime. In fact, upon the couple’s

return to Paris, Monet acquired a floating studio on the Seine where he painted many of his landscapes.

After becoming disillusioned with the structure of the Salon, Monet formed a collaborative group with

Cezanne, Pissarro, and Dega. The group called itself the Cooperative and Anonymous Association of

Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers and presented its first exhibit in

1874. Monet exhibited Impression: Sunrise (1872) at this

exhibition. Art critics made fun of the paintings, calling them

amateur and unfinished, even claiming the works resembled

wallpaper more than art. One critic, M. Louis Leroy, dubbed the

style Impressionism a derisive term. In this painting, a bright orange

sun casts an orange reflection in the water. The color of the sun is

so intense that other images in the painting seem to disappear,

causing the viewer to search for the boats in the harbor. While this

painting gave the movement its name, it is atypical in its use of

color and expressive brushstrokes. Even Monet recognized that the painting was incomplete as the image

of dockyards is only hinted. It creates the idea that Monet was attempting to capture a single moment in

time with a near-abstract technique. However, it is considered the preeminent Impressionist painting.

One of Monet’s early works is the series of paintings of the Rouen Cathedral at

different times from 1892 through 1894. This series of artworks includes more than

30 paintings, each at a different time of the year and day. By focusing on the same

subject throughout the series, Monet was able to capture the different impressions

viewers experienced as they studied the different views. The painting shown here is

the 1894 oil on canvas called Rouen Cathedral, Full Sunlight. Other series created

by Monet include trains (Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare (1877)),

wheat stacks (Wheatstacks (End of Summer) (1890-91)), and water lilies in his

garden pond (Water Lilies – Evening Effect (1897-98)). Using a single motif for a

series of paintings allowed Monet to show how light changed the view of a given

subject.

Key Works include:

• Haystacks (1890) (aka Wheatstacks) -

series of 25 paintings with a similar scene

painted at different times of the day and

different seasons – he started on two

paintings on the same day and had his

assistant bring more canvases because the

light was changing so quickly that he

couldn’t capture the image as he wished – he

returned with the unfinished canvases and

tried to match the time of day with the

canvas most like that image

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 37

• Woman with a Parasol (1875) (aka The Stroll or Madame

Monet and Her Son) – depicts his wife and their son on a windy

day – viewer appears to be seated at the bottom of the hill looking

up at the figures and the sky

• The Artist’s Garden at Giverny (1900) – painted near

the end of his life when Monet was painting pictures of

areas around his home – the flowers are pink and purple

irises in areas underneath trees with different amounts of

light falling on the flowers – his house can be seen in the

background

KAAC Study Guides Middle Grades Arts & Humanities 38