I Used to Know That_ Stuff You Forgot From School - Caroline Taggart [48]
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69, Dutch): prolific portraitist and self-portraitist; creator of The Night Watch, the most famous painting in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Jan Vermeer (1632-75, Dutch): based in Delft and noted for his skillful use of light; painted everyday scenes of women reading or writing letters or playing musical instruments. Best known for his oil on canvas, Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Canaletto (Giovanni Canal, 1697-1768, Italian): famous for his views of Venice, but also spent time in London and painted scenes of the Thames.
William Hogarth (1697-1764, British): engraver; hard-hitting social satires such as The Rake’s Progress and Gin Lane.
Francisco de Goya (1746-1828, Spanish): painter, notably of the portraits Maja Clothed and Maja Nude, and the dramatic Shootings of May 3rd 1808, inspired by Spanish resistance to French occupation.
J(ohn) M(allord) W (illiam) Turner (1775-1851, British): prolific painter of landscapes and maritime scenes, most famously The Fighting Téméraire. His use of color and light and his portrayal of weather inspired the French Impressionists Monet and Renoir.
John Constable (1776-1837, British): painter of landscapes, notably The Haywain.
Edouard Manet (1832-83, French): established before the Impressionists, he adopted some of their techniques but was never quite one of that school. Famous works include Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (the one where the men are fully dressed and the women are not) and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903, American, working in England): painter, notably of The Artist’s Mother; also known as a wit. When Oscar Wilde remarked, “How I wish I’d said that,” Whistler responded, “You will, Oscar, you will.”
Edgar Degas (1834-1917, French): Impressionist who painted all those ballet dancers.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906, French): post-Impressionist and precursor of cubism, based in Provence. In addition to landscapes, famous works include The Card Players and various groups of women bathing.
Claude Monet (1840-1926, French): most important painter of the Impressionist movement, famous for the “series” paintings that studied the effect of light at different times of day and year on the same subject: Rouen cathedral, haystacks and poplars. Lived latterly at Giverny, outside Paris, now a much visited garden, and painted a series of the waterlilies (nymphéas) there.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917, French): sculptor, most famously of The Kiss, The Thinker, and The Burghers of Calais.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919, French): Impressionist, best known for Les Parapluies and Le Moulin de la Galette (a bar in Montmartre).
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903, French): the one who went to Tahiti and painted the people there.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-90, Dutch, working mainly in France): cut off part of his ear and subsequently committed suicide. Self-portraits, The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers, The Starry Night.
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925, American): portrait painter of the stars, including Ellen Terry, John D. Rockefeller, and various young ladies of fashion.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901, French): the little one. Lived in Montmartre and painted music halls, cafés, and their habitués. Works include At the Moulin Rouge and La Toilette.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973, Spanish, working mostly in France): arguably the greatest and certainly the most versatile painter of the 20th century. After the famous “rose” and “blue” periods of his early years, he was fundamental to the development of cubism, expanded the technique of collage, became involved with the surrealists, designed ballet costumes, and did a bit of pottery. His greatest painting is probably Guernica, a nightmarish portrayal of the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.
Salvador Dalí (1914-89, Spanish): surrealist and notable egomaniac. Studied abnormal psychology and dream symbolism and reproduced its