Posts in Category: 20th Century
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent, January 12, 1856–April 14, 1925, was an American painter born in Florence to expatriate American parents. He received early art training in Florence, moved to Paris in 1874, passed the entrance examinations for the École des Beaux-Arts, and studied in the atelier of Carolus-Duran.
Sargent exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1877 and established an international career in portraiture before making London his principal base. He traveled frequently in Europe and the United States, maintained friendships with figures including Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson, and never married.
After about 1907, Sargent reduced his portrait commissions and devoted more time to watercolor, landscape, and mural projects for the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He served as an official war artist in 1918 and died in London in 1925; principal collections of his work include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Tate, the National Gallery of Art, and the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Édouard Vuillard
Édouard Vuillard, November 11, 1868–June 21, 1940, was a French painter, printmaker, and decorative artist born at Cuiseaux. He studied at the Lycée Condorcet and at the Académie Julian and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he formed lasting friendships with Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, and Ker-Xavier Roussel.
Vuillard was a founding member of the Nabis. He painted domestic interiors, portraits, and decorative panels, often using richly patterned textiles and wallpaper; he also made lithographs and designed for the theatre. Major holdings of his work are in the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d’Orsay, and Petit Palais.
From the early twentieth century, Vuillard worked closely with the dealer Jos Hessel and his wife Lucie, who became frequent subjects of his paintings. He continued to paint portraits and interiors until his death at La Baule in 1940.
Sir William Orpen
Sir William Orpen, November 27, 1878–September 29, 1931, was an Irish painter born in Stillorgan, County Dublin. He studied at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where his teachers included Henry Tonks, Philip Wilson Steer, and Frederick Brown.
Orpen worked between Dublin and London, taught at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and became a prominent portrait painter. He was also an official war artist on the Western Front during the First World War; major collections of his work include the Imperial War Museums, Tate, the National Gallery of Ireland, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After the war, Orpen continued to paint portraits in London and Paris and became a Royal Academician. He was appointed KBE in 1918. He died in London and was buried in Putney Vale Cemetery.
František Kupka
František Kupka, September 23, 1871–June 24, 1957, was a Czech painter and graphic artist.
He studied in Prague and Vienna before settling in Paris in 1896. His early work included Symbolist paintings, illustrations and satirical drawings.
Kupka became one of the earliest artists to develop fully abstract painting. His work explored color, rhythm, music, motion and geometric form.
Carrington
Dora de Houghton Carrington, known generally as Carrington, English painter, 29 March 1893 – 11 March 1932
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne, January 19, 1839–October 22, 1906, was a French painter born in Aix-en-Provence. He studied drawing in Aix and attended the Académie Suisse in Paris, where he met Camille Pissarro. He also copied paintings in the Louvre.
Cézanne worked with Pissarro in the Paris region and associated with Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and other Impressionist painters. He participated in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. Ambroise Vollard organized his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1895. Cézanne continued working in Provence and died in Aix-en-Provence.
His paintings and watercolors are held by the Musée d’Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery in London, the Barnes Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Museum, among other collections.
