 Diane von Fürstenberg, the woman who created the wrap dress Profile of Diane von Fürstenberg Diane von Fürstenberg, formerly Princess Diane of Fürstenberg (German: Diane Prinzessin zu Fürstenberg; born Diane Simone Michelle Halfin; December 31, 1946), is a Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, as the wife of Prince Egon von Fürstenberg. Following their separation in 1973 and divorce in 1983[citation needed], she has continued to use his family name. Her fashion company, Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) is available in over 70 countries and 45 free-standing shops worldwide, with the company's headquarters and flagship boutique located in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. She is president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), a position she has held since 2006; in 2014 was listed as the 68th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes; and in 2015 was included in the Time 100, as an Icon, by Time Magazine. In 2016, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from The New School.  Diane von Fürstenberg, the woman who created the wrap dress Biography of Diane von Fürstenberg Diane von Fürstenberg was born Diane Simone Michelle Halfin in Brussels, Belgium to Jewish parents. And 18 months before Fürstenberg was born, her mother, the Greek-born Liliane Nahmias was a prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp. Fürstenberg has spoken broadly about her mother's influence in her life, crediting her with teaching her that "fear is not an option". Fürstenberg attended a boarding school in Oxfordshire. She studied at Madrid University before transferring to the University of Geneva to study economics. At university, when she was 18, she met Prince Egon von Fürstenberg, the elder son of Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg, a German Roman Catholic prince, and his first wife, Clara Agnelli, an heiress to the Fiat automotive fortune and member of the Italian nobility. She then moved to Paris and worked as an assistant to fashion photographer's agent Albert Koski. She left Paris for Italy to apprentice to the textile manufacturer Angelo Ferretti in his factory, where she learned about cut, color and fabric. It was here that she designed and produced her first silk jersey dresses.  Diane Simone Michelle Halfin with Prince Egon von Fürstenberg Diane Simone Michelle Halfin married Egon von Fürstenberg in 1969 and became Her Serene Highness Princess Diane of Fürstenberg. A year after marrying, Fürstenberg began designing women's clothes: After moving to New York, she met high-profile Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, who declared her designs "absolutely smashing". She had her name listed on the Fashion Calendar for New York Fashion Week, and so her business was created. In 1973, Diane von Fürstenbergs separated from her husband Egon von Fürstenberg. In 1974, she introduced the knitted jersey "wrap dress", an example of which, due to its influence on women's fashion, is in the collection of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After the success of the wrap dress, Furstenberg was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in 1976. The accompanying article declared her "the most marketable woman since Coco Chanel." She launched a cosmetic line and her first fragrance, "Tatiana", named after her daughter. The New York Times reported that by 1979 the annual retail sales for the company were $150 million.   In 1983, Diane von Fürstenbergs and Egon von Fürstenberg divorced and two years later, Fürstenberg moved to Paris, France where she founded Salvy, a French-language publishing house. Fürstenberg started a number of other businesses including a line of cosmetics and a home-shopping business, which she launched in 1991. In 1992, Fürstenberg sold $1.2 million dollars of her Silk Assets collection in two hours on QVC. Fürstenberg relaunched her company in 1997, and reintroduced the wrap dress, which gained traction with a new generation of women. In 1998, she published her business memoir, Diane: A Signature Life.  Diane von Fürstenbergs with her second husband Barry Diller In 2001, Diane von Fürstenberg married American media mogul Barry Diller, and she built The Diller – von Furstenberg Family Foundation with her husband for which she serves as director. It provides support to nonprofit organizations in the area of community building, education, human rights, arts, health and the environment. The foundation supports The DVF Awards, presented annually to four women who display leadership, strength and courage in their commitment to women's causes. In 2011, the foundation made a $20 million commitment to the High Line. In 2004, Diane von Fürstenbergs introduced the DVF by H. Stern fine jewelry collection, and launched scarves and beachwear. In 2006, she was elected as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, a position she still holds. In 2008, she received a star on Seventh Avenue's Fashion Walk of Fame In 2009, Michelle Obama wore the DVF signature Chain Link print wrap dress on the official White House Christmas card. That same year, a large-scale retrospective exhibition entitled "Diane von Furstenberg: Journey of a Dress" opened at the Manezh, one of Moscow's largest public exhibition spaces. It was curated by Andre Leon Talley and attracted a lot of media attention. In 2010, the exhibition traveled to São Paulo; and in 2011, to the Pace Gallery in Beijing. In 2010, Fürstenberg was awarded a Gold Medal at the annual Queen Sofia Spanish Institute Gold Medal Gala. In 2011, DVF introduced a home collection, and a signature fragrance, DIANE. In 2012, Fürstenberg launched her first children’s collection with GapKids and a denim collaboration with CURRENT/ELLIOTT.  Her clothes have been worn by many celebrities including Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale, Madonna, Tina Brown, Jessica Alba, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Lopez. Google Glass made its New York Fashion Week Debut at the designer's Spring 2013 fashion show.  Kate Middleton wearing DVF wrap dress In 2018, the brand banned mohair use after a PETA exposé showed workers mutilating and killing goats to obtain it. All fur, angora and exotic skins were also banned from future collections. Further reading
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Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida self portrait 1900
Joaquín Sorolla Bastida (Valencia, 27 de febrero de 1863 - Cercedilla, 10 de agosto de 1923) fue un pintor español. Artista prolífico, dejó más de 2200 obras catalogadas. Su obra madura ha sido etiquetada como impresionista, postimpresionista y luminista.
Biografía
Cuando apenas contaba dos años de edad, fallecieron sus padres, víctimas de una epidemia de cólera. Al quedar huérfanos fueron acogidos, su hermana Concha y él, por su tía Isabel, hermana de su madre, y su marido, de profesión cerrajero. Pasados los años, su tío intentó enseñarle, en vano, el oficio de la cerrajería advirtiendo pronto que su verdadera vocación era la pintura.
Estudió dibujo en la Escuela de Artesanos de Valencia. Al acabar su formación comenzó a enviar sus obras a concursos provinciales y exposiciones nacionales de bellas artes, como la de Madrid en mayo de 1881, donde presentó tres marinas valencianas que pasaron inadvertidas, pues no encajaban con la pintura oficial, de temática histórica y dramática. Al año siguiente estudió la obra de Velázquez y otros autores en el Museo del Prado. Tras visitar el Museo del Prado, Sorolla pintó en 1883 el lienzo inédito Estudio de Cristo, descubierto en 2012, donde se observa la influencia del Cristo crucificado de Velázquez. Comienza así su "etapa realista", siendo su profesor Gonzalo Salvá. Con su amigo, el también pintor Pedro Gil, se desplazó a París durante el primer semestre de 1885, y conoció de cerca la pintura impresionista, que produjo en él, ya de regreso en Roma, variaciones en su temática y estilo, llegando a pintar el cuadro religioso El entierro de Cristo, con el que no tuvo el éxito esperado. Tomó así contacto con las vanguardias europeas, destacando el impacto que le produjeron las obras de los pintores John Singer Sargent, Giovanni Boldini y Anders Zorn. En 1888, contrajo matrimonio con Clotilde García del Castillo en Valencia, aunque vivirían un año más en Italia, esta vez en la localidad de Asís. 
Otra Margarita, 1892.
En 1889, el pintor y su familia se instalaron en Madrid y, en apenas cinco años, Sorolla alcanzaría gran renombre como pintor. En 1894, viajó de nuevo a París, donde desarrolló un estilo pictórico denominado «luminismo», que sería característico de su obra a partir de entonces. Comenzó a pintar al aire libre, dominando con maestría la luz y combinándola con escenas cotidianas y paisajísticas de la vida mediterránea.
Tras muchos viajes por Europa, principalmente Inglaterra y Francia, celebró una exposición en París con más de medio millar de obras, lo que le dio un reconocimiento internacional inusitado, conociéndose su obra pictórica por toda Europa y América. Hacia el verano de 1905 está en Jávea y realiza una serie de pinturas de niños desnudos, una de sus series más famosas y que le valieron el posterior encargo de la Hispanic Society of America. Uno de los cuadros más destacados de la serie es El baño, de 1905 y que pertenece a la colección del Museo Metropolitano de Nueva York. 
Clotilde con traje negro(Señora de Sorolla in Black), 1906, Joaquín Sorolla,Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Otra importante faceta que desarrolló en aquellos años fue la de retratista. Posaron para él personajes como Cajal, Galdós, Machado, su paisano Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, o políticos como Emilio Castelar, el rey Alfonso XIII, el presidente William Howard Taft, además de una buena colección de retratos de su familia y algunos autorretratos.
En 1914 había sido nombrado académico y, cuando terminó los trabajos para la Hispanic Society, trabajó como profesor de composición y color en la Escuela de Bellas Artes de Madrid. 
Retrato de Raquel Meller, 1918
En 1920, mientras pintaba en el jardín de su casa el retrato de la mujer de Ramón Pérez de Ayala, sufrió una hemiplejia que mermó sus facultades físicas, impidiéndole seguir pintando. Murió tres años después en su residencia veraniega de Cercedilla el 10 de agosto de 1923.
En 1932, su casa de Madrid fue reabierta como Museo Sorolla. Su principal discípulo fue Teodoro Andreu. 
Joaquín Sorolla fotografiado en 1909 por Christian Franzen
Biography
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the bright sunlight of Spain and sunlit water.
Autorretrato/self portrait by Joaquín Sorolla
His first striking success was achieved with Another Marguerite (1892), which was awarded a gold medal at the National Exhibition in Madrid, then first prize at the Chicago International Exhibition, he soon rose to general fame and became the acknowledged head of the modern Spanish school of painting. His picture The Return from Fishing (1894) was much admired at the Paris Salon and was acquired by the state for the Musée du Luxembourg. It indicated the direction of his mature output.
Sorolla painted two masterpieces in 1897 linking art and science: Portrait of Dr. Simarro at the microscope and A Research. These paintings were presented at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts held in Madrid in that year and Sorolla won the Prize of Honor. Here, he presents his friend Simarro as a man of science who transmits his wisdom investigating and, in addition, it is the triumph of naturalism, as it recreates the indoor environment of the laboratory, catching the luminous atmosphere produced by the artificial reddish-yellow light of a gas burner that contrasts with the weak mauvish afternoon light that shines through the window. These paintings may be among the most outstanding world paintings of this genre 
Portrait of Dr Simarro at the microscope, 1897, (Luis Simarro Legacy Trust, Fundación General, Complutense University)
An even greater turning point in Sorolla's career was marked by the painting and exhibition of Sad Inheritance (1899), an extremely large canvas, highly finished for public consideration. The painting earned Sorolla his greatest official recognition, the Grand Prix and a medal of honor at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, and the medal of honor at the National Exhibition in Madrid in 1901. After this painting Sorolla never returned to a theme of such overt social consciousness.
Sad Inheritance, 1899. Crippled children bathing at the sea in Valencia; in the center the image of two children affected by polio (Bancaja Collection)
within the next few years Sorolla was honoured as a member of the Fine Art Academies of Paris, Lisbon, and Valencia, and as a Favourite Son of Valencia.
Although formal portraiture was not Sorolla's genre of preference, because it tended to restrict his creative appetites and could reflect his lack of interest in his subjects, the acceptance of portrait commissions proved profitable, Sometimes the influence of Velázquez was uppermost, as in My Family (1901), a reference to Las Meninas which grouped his wife and children in the foreground, the painter reflected, at work, in a distant mirror. At other times the desire to compete with his friend John Singer Sargent was evident, as in Portrait of Mrs. Ira Nelson Morris and her children (1911). But it was outdoors where he found his ideal portrait settings, thus, not only did his daughter pose standing in a sun-dappled landscape for María at La Granja (1907), but so did Spanish royalty, for the Portrait of King Alfonso XIII in a Hussar's Uniform (1907). For Portrait of Mr. Louis Comfort Tiffany (1911), the American artist posed seated at his easel in his Long Island garden, surrounded by extravagant flowers. The conceit reaches its high point in My Wife and Daughters in the Garden (1910), in which the idea of traditional portraiture gives way to the sheer fluid delight of a painting constructed with thick passages of color, Sorolla's love of family and sunlight merged. 
My Wife and Daughters in the Garden or "Mi Esposa e Hijas en el Jardín" which is the original name, 1910.
In 1911, Sorolla signed a contract with Archie Huntington to paint a series of oils on life in Spain. Huntington had envisioned the work depicting a history of Spain, but the painter preferred the less specific Vision of Spain, eventually opting for a representation of the regions of the Iberian Peninsula, and calling it The Provinces of Spain. Despite the immensity of the canvases, Sorolla painted all but one en plein air, and travelled to the specific locales to paint them: Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Elche, Seville, Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia, Guipuzcoa, Castile, Leon, and Ayamonte, at each site painting models posed in local costume. Each mural celebrated the landscape and culture of its region, panoramas composed of throngs of laborers and locals.
These 14 magnificent murals, installed to this day in the Hispanic Society of America building in Manhattan, range from 12 to 14 feet in height, and total 227 feet in length.The major commission of his career, it would dominate the later years of Sorolla's life. By 1917 he was, by his own admission, exhausted. He completed the final panel by July 1919. 
Castilla or La fiesta del pan, 1913. First to be completed of Vision of Spain, 14 murals at the Hispanic Society in Manhattan.
Sorolla suffered a stroke in 1920, while painting a portrait in his garden in Madrid. Paralysed for over three years, he died on 10 August 1923. He is buried in the Cementeri de Valencia, Spain.
Walk on the Beach (Paseo a orillas del mar) 1909. Sorolla Museum, Madrid
After his death, Sorolla's widow, Clotilde García del Castillo, left many of his paintings to the Spanish public. The paintings eventually formed the collection that is now known as the Museo Sorolla, which was the artist's house in Madrid. The museum opened in 1932.
Sorolla's work is represented in museums throughout Spain, Europe, America, and in many private collections in Europe and America. In 1933, J. Paul Getty purchased ten Impressionist beach scenes made by Sorolla, several of which are now housed in the J. Paul Getty Museum. In 1960, Sorolla, el pintor de la luz, a short documentary written and directed by Manuel Domínguez was presented at the Cannes Film Festival. The Spanish National Dance Company honored the painter's The Provinces of Spain by producing a ballet Sorolla based on the paintings. In the very successful Spanish TV series Gran Hotel produced by Bamboo Production, Helena Sanchís, the costume designer Joaquin Sorolla's artworks as her main inspiration and reference point for the design of the protagonists in the period drama. 
Alica and Julio, the the two main protagonists in TV series Gran Hotel
Further interestBooks
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Museo Sorolla, Madrid, Spain
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Profile of Tao Porchon-Lynch
Tao Porchon-Lynch (born Täo Andrée Porchon, August 13, 1918 — February 21, 2020) was an American yoga master and award-winning author of French and Indian descent. She discovered yoga in 1926 when she was eight years old in India and studied with, among others, Sri Aurobindo and Indra Devi, B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, Swami Prabhavananda, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Even at age 101, she still taught a weekly class in New York, and led programs across the globe.
She was the author of two books, including her autobiography, Dancing Light: The Spiritual Side of Being Through the Eyes of a Modern Yoga Master, which won a 2016 IPPY Award and three 2016 International Book Awards. In the front matter endorsement, Deepak Chopra said: "One of the most acclaimed yoga teachers of our century, Tao Porchon-Lynch... is a mentor to me who embodies the spirit of yoga and is an example of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. Like yoga, she teaches us to let go and to have exquisite awareness in every moment." She was the recipient of India's highly prestigious award Padma Shri in 2019 for her excellent work in the field of Yoga. 
Biography of Tao Porchon-Lynch
Tao Porchon-Lynch was born on August 13, 1918, on a ship in the middle of the English Channel, two months premature. Her father was from France, while her mother was a native Indian (Manipuri) Her mother died when Tao was seven months old and she was raised by her aunt and uncle. Her uncle, who designed railroads, often brought her along for trips around Asia, travelling as far as Singapore. The family owned vineyards in the wine region of the Rhône River Valley, located in Southern France.
At age eight, Tao witnessed a group of youthful yoga practitioners exercising on a beach. This encounter got Porchon interested in yoga, who stated in an interview with Guinness World Records, "I wanted to do the amazing things that they were doing with their bodies." Going against the advice of her aunt, who remarked that yoga was meant predominantly for males, she started practising yoga, although she did not get involved in it professionally until much later in her life. 
Model, dancer and actress
In her early career, Porchon worked in the fashion industry. She found success as a model and won several titles, including "Best Legs in Europe". For a period of time she was signed under the Lever Brothers. She travelled around the globe modeling in such cities as Paris.
During the Second World War, Porchon moved to London and became a cabaret performer under the mentorship of Noël Coward. Notable journalist Quentin Reynolds took note of Porchon, writing that she made a "dark London brighter". Porchon-Lynch grew up speaking French and Meiteilon. Thus, she had to overcame the language barrier learning English. After the war died down, she relocated to the United States, where she got a job as an actress under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, appearing in various Hollywood motion pictures, including Show Boat (1951), also featuring Kathryn Grayson, and The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), in which she co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor. During her career as an actress, she frequently gave free yoga sessions to her fellow actors and actresses. She was also featured in the documentary If You’re Not In the Obit, Eat Breakfast, a television film which premiered in 2017. 
Yoga teacher
Tao Porchon-Lynch was married to Bill Lynch around 1962, and in 1967 she abandoned her acting job, deciding to become a full-time yogi.
In the same year, Porchon-Lynch assisted in the establishment of the American Wine Society (AWS) with her spouse. When it split into different branches across the United States, she was selected in 1970 to be the Vice-President of the AWS in Southern New York. She also frequently appeared as part of the judging panel in various wine competitions. She later became the publisher and editor-in-chief of the wine appreciation magazine, The Beverage Communicator, distributed by the AWS. With her fellow yoga practitioners, Porchon-Lynch organized annual wine appreciation trips to France. In 1976, she became one of the founders of the Yoga Teachers Alliance, now known as the Yoga Teachers Association. In 1982 her husband died and she set up the Westchester Institute of Yoga in New York, which has students from all over the world. In 1995, with Indra Devi, she flew to Israel to attend the Yoga for Peace International Peace Conference. Porchon-Lynch has also been one of B. K. S. Iyengar's disciples in yoga and reportedly the first "foreign" student of his. 
Porchon-Lynch has embraced her age and carried her yoga with her. She has mentioned, "I'm going to teach yoga until I can't breathe anymore." She received the Guinness World Records title of world's oldest yoga teacher from Berniece Bates in May 2012. Porchon-Lynch was 93 when she broke the world record. In 2013, in collaboration with Tara Stiles, she released a DVD on yoga, titled Yoga with Tao Porchon-Lynch. In addition, she published a book about meditation, titled Reflections: The Yogic Journey of Life.
In 2016, Tao Porchon-Lynch received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Award at the United Nations in recognition of her achievements in the sports world. 
Ballroom dancer and meditator
Outside of yoga, Porchon-Lynch continued to involve herself in competitive dancing, particularly in ballroom tango. She had several hundred first-place titles in competitive dancing. Her youngest dance partners were Hayk Balasanyan, Vard Margaryan and Anton Bilozorov.
In her spare time, Porchon-Lynch enjoyed meditating. In August 2014, she still drove her Smart car. 
Death
According to her representative, Tao Porchon-Lynch taught her last yoga class on 16 Febrary 2020, and passed away peacefully on the morning of 21 Febrary, 2020.
Further reading
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 Biography of Shigeru Umebayashi Shigeru Umebayashi is a Japanese composer. Once the leader of Japan's new wave rock band EX, Shigeru Umebayashi began scoring films in 1985 when the band broke up. He has more than 30 Japanese and Chinese films to his credit. In 1991, Shigeru Umebayashi scored for Japanese director Seijun Suzuki's biopic film about Japanese painter and poet Takehisa Yumeji Yumeji), one of the scores "Yumeji's Theme" was later included in Hongkong director Wong Kar-wai's film In the Mood for Love (2000), and this track became his best known work in the world. Umebayashi not only scored most of Wong Kar-wai's follow-up film, such as his film 2046 in 2004, and Grandmaster in 2013, but also worked with many other directors both in China and Japan, such as Chinese Director Zhang Yi mo for his 2004 film House of Flying Daggers. In 2009, Umebayashi scored for Tom Ford directorial debut A single man, together with several other composers including polish composer Abel Korzeniowski.  Shigeru Umebayashi beside his piano Filmography 1980s Itsuka Darekaga Korosareru (1984) Tomoyo Shizukani Nemure (1985) Sorekara (1985) Sorobanzuku (1986) Shinshi Domei (1986) Kyohu no Yacchan (1987) Getting Blue in Color (1988) 1990s Hong Kong Paradise (1990) Tekken (1990) Yumeji (1991) Ote (1991) Goaisatsu (1991) Arihureta Ai ni Kansuru Chosa (1992) Byoin he Iko 2 Yamai ha Kikara (1992) Nemuranai Machi Shinjuku Zame (1993) Izakaya Yurei (1994) Zero Woman (1995) Boxer Joe (1995) Kitanai Yatsu (1995) Hashirana Akan Yoake Made (1995) The Christ of Nanjing (1995) Shin Gokudo Kisha (1996) Izakaya Yurei 2 (1996) Ichigo Domei (1997) Isana no Umi (1997) Watashitachi ga Sukidatta Koto (1997) G4 Option Zero (1997) Fuyajo (1998) Belle Epoch (1998) 2000s 2000 A.D. (2000) Shojo (2000) In the Mood for Love (2000) Midnight Fly (2001) Hikari no Ame (2001) Onmyoji (2001) Zhou Yu's Train (2002) Onmyoji II (2003) Floating Land Scape (2003) House of Flying Daggers (2004) 2046 (2004) Hibi (2004) Fearless (2006) Daisy (2006) Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) Hannibal Rising (2007) Absurdistan (2008) Incendiary (2008) Tears for Sale (2008) The Real Shaolin (2008) Murderer (2009) 2010s True Legend (2010) Days of Grace (2011) Trishna (2011) The Grandmaster (2013) Rise of the Legend (2014) The Bride (2015) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016) The Wasted Times (2016) Selected film scores  1991, Yumeji directed by Seijun Suzuki  2000, In the mood for love (Faa yeung nin wa, original title) directed by Wong Kar-wai 2004, House of daggers directed by Zhang yi mo 2009, A single man directed by Tom Ford
 Profile of Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 in men's singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Djokovic has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles, the third-most in history for a male player, five ATP Finals titles, 34 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 13 ATP Tour 500 titles, and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for over 275 weeks. In majors, he has won a record eight Australian Open titles, five Wimbledon titles, three US Open titles, and one French Open title. By winning the 2016 French Open, he became the eighth player in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam and the third man to hold all four major titles at once, the first since Rod Laver in 1969 and the first ever to do so on three different surfaces.He is the only male player to have won all nine of the Masters 1000 tournaments.Djokovic was also a member of Serbia's winning Davis Cup team in 2010 and in the 2020 ATP Cup. Djokovic is the first Serbian player to be ranked No. 1 by the ATP and the first male player representing Serbia to win a Grand Slam singles title. He is a six-time ITF World Champion and a five-time ATP year-end No. 1 ranked player. Djokovic has won numerous awards, including the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year (four times)and the 2011 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award. He is also a recipient of the Order of St. Sava, the Order of Karađorđe's Star, and the Order of the Republika Srpska.  Biography of Novak Djokovic  Novak Djokovic (Nole) was born on 22 May 1987 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia. He is of paternal Serbian and maternal Croatian descent. His two younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, have also played professional tennis. Djokovic began playing tennis at the age of four. In the summer of 1993, the six-year-old was spotted by Yugoslav tennis player Jelena Genčić at Mount Kopaonik, where Djokovic's parents ran a fast-food parlour.Upon seeing the child Djokovic playing tennis, she stated: "This is the greatest talent I have seen since Monica Seles." Genčić worked with young Djokovic over the following six years and helped him move to the Pilić tennis academy in Oberschleißheim, Germany where 12 year old Djokovic spent four years there. At the age of 14, he began his international career, winning European championships in singles, doubles, and team competition. Djokovic turned professional in 2003 by entering the ATP World Tour. Djokovic made his first Grand Slam tournament appearance by qualifying for the 2005 Australian Open, where he was defeated by eventual champion Marat Safin in the first round in straight sets  In 2008, Djokovic won his first major title in Australian Open, marking the first time since the 2005 Australian Open that a Grand Slam singles title was not won by Federer or Nadal. Djokovic won ten tournaments in 2011, including Grand Slam tournament victories at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. He also captured a record-breaking five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, and set a new record for the most prize money won in a single season on the ATP World Tour ($12 million). In the same year, he was awarded the ranking of No. 1. Pete Sampras declared Djokovic's 2011 season as the best he has ever seen in his lifetime, calling it "one of the best achievements in all of sports."Boris Becker called Djokovic's season "one of the very best years in tennis of all time", adding that it "may not be the best statistically, but he's beaten Federer, he's beaten Nadal, he's beaten everybody that came around to challenge him in the biggest tournaments in the world." Rafael Nadal, who lost to Djokovic in six finals on three different surfaces, described Djokovic's performances as "probably the highest level of tennis that I ever saw."  Novak Djokovic won 8th Australia Open and is No. 1 tennis player in the world. On 2 Februray 2020, Novak Djokovic became champioon again at the Australian Open, which is Djokovic's 8th win, making him the first Open Era male player to win Grand Slam titles in three different decades. For his 17th Grand Slam win he received 2.5 Million Euro as prize money. Djokovic is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Following his tremendous success in the 2011 season, he began to feature on all-time greatest lists. Djokovic met his future wife, Jelena Ristić, in high school, and began dating her in 2005. The two became engaged in September 2013, and got married on on 10 July 2014. ] Their son, Stefan, was born on 21 October 2014 in Nice, France.Their daughter, Tara, was born on 2 September 2017. A resident of Monte Carlo, Djokovic was coached by former Slovak tennis player Marián Vajda from 2006 until Boris Becker took over the role of head coach in December 2013. Djokovic is a polyglot, speaking Serbian, English, French, German, and Italian. Djokovic has been reported to meditate for up to an hour a day at the Buddhist Buddhapadipa Temple in Wimbledon, and he has spoken of the positive power of meditation   Name: Alphonse Mucha original name: Alfons Maria Mucha birth place: Ivancice, Moravia, Austria Empire birth date: 24 July 1860 zodiac sign: Leo death place: Praque, Czechoslovakia death date: 14 July 1939  Profile of Alphonse Mucha Alfons Maria Mucha (24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, and designs, which became among the best-known images of the period. In the second part of his career, at the age of 43, he returned to his homeland of Bohemia-Moravia region in Austria and devoted himself to painting a series of twenty monumental canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world, which he painted between 1912 and 1926. In 1928, on the 10th anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, he presented the series to the Czech nation. He considered it his most important work. It is now on display in Brno.  Biography of Alphonse Mucha Brno Alphonse Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in the small town of Ivančice in southern Moravia, then a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, (currently a region of the Czech Republic). His father was a court usher, and his mother was a miller's daughter. Alphonse Mucha showed an early talent for drawing; a local merchant who was impressed by his work provided him free paper, a luxury at time. In 1871, Mucha became a chorister at the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, Brno, where he received his secondary school education. He became devoutly religious, and wrote later, "For me, the notions of painting, going to church, and music are so closely knit that often I cannot decide whether I like church for its music, or music for its place in the mystery which it accompanies." Mucha grew up in an environment of intense Czech nationalism in all the arts, from music to literature and painting and designed flyers and posters for patriotic rallies. His singing abilities allowed him to continue his musical education at the Gymnázium Brno in the Moravian capital of Brno, but his true ambition was to become an artist. He found some employment designing theatrical scenery and other decorations. In 1878 he applied without success to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, but was rejected and advised "to find a different career".  Vienna In 1880, at the age of 19, he traveled to Vienna, the political and cultural capital of the Empire, and found employment as an apprentice scenery painter for a company which made sets for Vienna theaters. While in Vienna, he discovered the museums, churches, palaces and especially theaters, for which he received free tickets from his employer. He also discovered Hans Makart, a very prominent academic painter, who created murals for many of the palaces and government buildings in Vienna, and was a master of portraits and historical paintings in grand format. His style turned Mucha in that artistic direction and influenced his later work. He also began experimenting with photography, which became an important tool in his later work. To his misfortune, a terrible fire in 1881 destroyed the Ringtheater, the major client of his firm. Later in 1881, almost without funds, he took a train as far north as his money would take him. He arrived in Mikulov in southern Moravia, and began making portraits, decorative art and lettering for tombstones. His work was appreciated, and he was commissioned by Count Eduard Khuen Belasi, a local landlord and nobleman, to paint a series of murals for his residence at Emmahof Castle, and then at his ancestral home in the Tyrol, Gandegg Caste. (The paintings at Emmahof were destroyed by fire in 1948, but his early versions in small format exist and are now on display at the museum in Brno.) Mucha showed his skill at mythological themes, the female form, and lush vegetal decoration. Count Belasi, who was also an amateur painter, took Mucha on expeditions to see art in Venice, Florence and Milan, and introduced him to many artists, including the famous Bavarian romantic painter, Wilhelm Kray, who lived in Munich.  Munich Count Belasi decided to bring Mucha to Munich for formal training, and paid his tuition and cost of living at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Mucha moved there in September, 1885. It is not clear how Mucha actually studied at the Munich Academy, but he did become friends with a number of notable Slavic artists there, including the Czechs Karel Vítězslav Mašek, Ludek Marold and the Russian Leonid Pasternak, father of the famous novelist Boris Pasternak. He founded a Czech students' club, and contributed political illustrations to nationalist publications in Prague. In 1886 he received a notable commission for a painting of the Czech patron saints Cyril and Methodius, from a group of Czech emigrants, including some of his relatives, who had founded a Roman Catholic church in the town of Pisek, North Dakota. He was very happy with the artistic environment of Munich: he wrote to friends, "Here I am in my new element, painting. I cross all sorts of currents, but without effort, and even with joy. Here, for the first time, I can find the objectives to reach which used to seem inaccessible." However, he found he could not remain forever in Munich; the Bavarian authorities imposed increasing restrictions upon foreign students and residents. Count Belasi suggested that he travel either to Rome or Paris. With Belasi's financial support, he decided in 1887 to move to Paris.  Alphonse Mucha's illustration for Robert de Flersilsee's book Princesse de Tripoli Paris  Mucha moved to Paris in 1888 where he enrolled in the Académie Julian and the following year, 1889, Académie Colarossi. The two schools taught a wide variety of different styles. His first professors at the Academie Julien were Jules Lefebvre who specialized in female nudes and allegorical paintings, and Jean-Paul Laurens, whose specialties were historical and religious paintings in a realistic and dramatic style. At the end of 1889, as he approached the age of thirty, his patron, Count Belasi, decided that Mucha had received enough education and ended his subsidies. When he arrived in Paris, Mucha found shelter with the help of the large Slavic community. He lived in a boarding house called the Crémerie at 13 rue de la Grand Chaumerie, whose owner, Charlotte Caron, was famous for sheltering struggling artists; when needed she accepted paintings or drawings in place of rent. Mucha decided to follow the path of another Czech painter he knew from Munich, Ludek Marold, who had made a successful career as an illustrator for magazines. In 1890 and 1891, he began providing illustrations for the weekly magazine La Vie popular, which published novels in weekly segments. His illustration for a novel by Guy de Maupassant, called The Useless Beauty, was on the cover of the 22 May 1890 edition. He also made illustrations for Le Petit Français Illustré, which published stories for young people in both magazine and book form. For this magazine he provided dramatic scenes of battles and other historic events, including a cover illustration of a scene from the Franco-Prussian War which was on the 23 January 1892 edition. His illustrations began to give him a regular income. He was able to buy a harmonium to continue his musical interests and his first camera, which used glass-plate negatives. He took pictures of himself and his friends, and also regularly used it to compose his drawings. He became friends with Paul Gauguin, and shared a studio with him for a time when Gauguin returned from Tahiti in the summer of 1893. In late autumn 1894 he also became friends with the playwright August Strindberg, with whom he had a common interest in philosophy and mysticism. His magazine illustrations led to book illustration; he was commissioned to provide illustrations for Scenes and Episodes of German History by historian Charles Seignobos. Four of his illustrations, including one depicting the death of Frederic Barbarossa, were chosen for display at the 1894 Paris Salon of Artists. He received a medal of honor, his first official recognition. Mucha added another important client in the early 1890s; the Central Library of Fine Arts, which specialized in the publication of books about art, architecture and the decorative arts. It later launched a new magazine in 1897 called Art et Decoration, which played an early and important role in publicizing the Art Nouveau style. He continued to publish illustrations for his other clients, including illustrating a children's book of poetry by Eugène Manuel, and illustrations for a magazine of the theater arts, called La Costume au théâtre.  Alphonse Mucha working on a poster for publishing house Cassan (1896) At the end of 1894 his career took a dramatic and unexpected turn when he began to work for French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt. As Mucha later described it, on 26 December 1894 Bernhardt made a telephone call to Maurice de Brunhoff, the manager of the publishing firm Lemercier which printed her theatrical posters, ordering a new poster for the continuation of the play Gismonda. The play, by Victorien Sardou, had already opened with great success on 31 October 1894 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin. Bernardt decided to have a poster made to advertise the prolongation of the theatrical run after the Christmas break and insisting it be ready by 1 January 1897. Because of the holidays, none of the regular Lemercier artists were available. When Bernhardt called, Mucha happened to be at the publishing house correcting proofs. He already had experience painting Bernhardt; he had made a series of illustrations of her performing in Cleopatra for Costume au Théâtre in 1890. When Gismonda opened in October 1894, Mucha had been commissioned by the magazine Le Gaulois to make a series of illustrations of Bernhardt in the role for a special Christmas supplement, which was published at Christmas 1894, for the high price of fifty centimes a copy. Brunhoff asked Mucha to quickly design the new poster for Bernhardt. The poster was more than life-size; a little more than two meters high, with Bernhardt in the costume of a Byzantine noblewoman, dressed in an orchid headdress and floral stole, and holding a palm branch in the Easter procession near the end of the play. One of the innovative features of the posters was the ornate rainbow-shaped arch behind the head, almost like a halo, which focused attention on her face; this feature appeared in all of his future theater posters. Probably because of a shortage of time, some areas of the background were left blank instead of his usual decoration. The only background decoration were the Byzantine mosaic tiles behind her head. The poster featured extremely fine draftsmanship and delicate pastel colors, unlike the typical brightly-colored posters of the time. The top of the poster, with the title, was richly composed and ornamented, and balanced the bottom, where the essential information was given in the shortest possible form; just the name of the theater.  Poster of Sarah Bernhardt as Gismonda (1895) by Alphonse Mucha  Poster for an evening of theater honoring Sarah Bernhardt (1896) The poster appeared on the streets of Paris on 1 January 1895 and caused an immediate sensation. Bernhardt was pleased by the reaction; she ordered four thousand copies of the poster in 1895 and 1896, and gave Mucha a six-year contract to produce more. With his posters all over the city, Mucha found himself quite suddenly famous. Following Gismonda, Bernardt switched to a different printer, F. Champenois, who, like Mucha, was put under contract to work for Bernhardt for six years. Champenois had a large printing house on Boulevard Saint Michel which employed three hundred workers, with twenty steam presses. He gave Mucha a generous monthly salary in exchange for the rights to publish all his works. With his increased income, Mucha was able to move to a three-bedroom apartment with a large studio inside a large historic house at 6 rue du Val-de-Grâce originally built by François Mansart. Mucha designed posters for each successive Bernhardt play, beginning with a reprise of one of her early great successes, La Dame aux Camelias (September 1896), followed by Lorenzaccio (1896); Medea (1898); La Tosca (1898) and Hamlet (1899). He sometimes worked from photographs of Bernhardt, as he did for La Tosca.  In addition to posters, he designed theatrical programs, sets, costumes, and jewelry for Bernhardt. The enterprising Bernhardt set aside a certain number of printed posters of each play to sell to collectors. The success of the Bernhardt posters brought Mucha commissions for advertising posters. He designed posters for JOB cigarette papers, Ruinart Champagne, Lefèvre-Utile biscuits, Nestlé baby food, Idéal Chocolate, the Beers of the Meuse, Moët-Chandon champagne, Trappestine brandy, and Waverly and Perfect bicycles. With Champenois, he also created a new kind of product, a decorative panel, a poster without text, purely for decoration. They were published in large print runs for a modest price. The first series was The Seasons, published in 1896, depicting four different women in extremely decorative floral settings representing the seasons of the year. In 1897 he produced an individual decorative panel of a young woman in a floral setting, called Reverie, for Champenois. He also designed a calendar with a woman's head surrounded by the signs of the zodiac, The rights were resold to Léon Deschamps, the editor of the arts review La Plume, who brought it out with great success in 1897. The Seasons series was followed by The Flowers The Arts (1898), The Times of Day (1899), Precious Stones (1900), and The Moon and the Stars (1902).Between 1896 and 1904 Mucha created over one hundred poster designs for Champenois. These were sold in various formats, ranging from expensive versions printed on Japanese paper or vellum, to less expensive versions which combined multiple images, to calendars and postcards. His posters focused almost entirely on beautiful women in lavish settings with their hair usually curling in arabesque forms and filling the frame. His poster for the railway line between Paris and Monaco-Monte-Carlo (1897) did not show a train or any identifiable scene of Monaco or Monte-Carlo; it showed a beautiful young woman in a kind of reverie, surrounded by swirling floral images, which suggested the turning wheels of a train. The fame of his posters led to success in the art world; he was invited by Deschamps to show his work in the Salon des Cent exhibition in 1896, and then, in 1897, to have a major retrospective in the same gallery showing 448 works. The magazine La Plume made a special edition devoted to his work, and his exhibition traveled to Vienna, Prague, Munich, Brussels, London, and New York, giving him an international reputation "I had not found any real satisfaction in my old kind of work. I saw that my way was to be found elsewhere, little bit higher. I sought a way to spread the light which reached further into even the darkest corners. I didn't have to look for very long. The Pater Noster (Lord's Prayer): why not give the words a pictorial expression?" Alphonse Mucha made a considerable income from his theatrical and advertising work, but he wished even more to be recognized as a serious artist and philosopher. He was a devoted Catholic, but also was interested in mysticism. Le Pater was published on 20 December 1899, only 510 copies were printed. The original watercolor paintings of the page were displayed in the Austrian pavilion at the 1900 Exposition. He considered Le Pater to be his printed masterpiece, and referred to it in the New York Sun of 5 January 1900 as a work into which he had "put his soul".  Cover of Le Pater (1899) by Alphonse Mucha In 1899 Alphonse Mucha also collaborated with the jeweler Georges Fouquet to make a bracelet for Sarah Bernhardt in the form of a serpent, made of gold and enamel, similar to the costume jewelry Bernhardt wore in Medea. The Cascade pendant designed for Fouquet by Mucha (1900) is in the form of a waterfall. After the 1900 Exposition, Fouquet decided to open a new shop and asked Mucha to design the interior. The centerpieces of the design were two peacocks, the traditional symbol of luxury, made of bronze and wood with colored glass decoration. To the side was a shell-shaped fountain, with three gargoyles spouting water into basins, surrounding the statue of a nude woman. The salon was further decorated with carved moldings and stained glass, thin columents with vegetal designs, and a ceiling with molded floral and vegetal elements. It marked a summit of Art Nouveau decoration. (The Salon opened in 1901, just as tastes were beginning to change, moving away from Art Nouveau to more naturalistic patterns. It was taken apart in 1923, and a replaced by a more traditional shop design. Fortunately most of the original decoration was preserved, and was donated in 1914 and 1949 to the Carnavalet Museum in Paris, where it can be seen today.)  1900, Universal Exposition, Paris The Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, famous as the first grand showcase of the Art Nouveau, gave Mucha an opportunity to move in an entirely different direction, toward the large-scale historical paintings which he had admired in Vienna. It also allowed him to express his Czech patriotism. His work appeared in many forms at the Exposition. He designed the posters, menus, displays for the jeweler and perfume maker, with statuettes and panels of women depicting the scents of rose, orange blossom, violet and buttercup. His more serious art works, including his drawings for Le Pater, were shown in the Austrian Pavilion and in the Austrian section of the Grand Palais. His work at the Exposition earned him the title of Knight of the Order of Franz Joseph I from the Austrian government, the Legion of Honor from the French Government. During the course of the Exposition, Mucha proposed another unusual project. The Government of France planned to take down the Eiffel Tower, built especially for the Exposition, as soon as the Exposition ended. Mucha proposed that, after the Exposition, the top of the tower should be replaced by a sculptural monument to humanity be constructed on the pedestal. The tower proved to be popular with both tourists and Parisians, and the Eiffel Tower remained after the Exhibit ended. Mucha's next project was a series of seventy-two printed plates of watercolors of designs, titled Documents Decoratifs, which were published in 1902 by the Librarie central des beaux-arts. They represented ways that floral, vegetal and natural forms could be used in decoration and decorative objects, featuring plates of elaborate jewel designs for brooches and other pieces, with swirling arabesques and vegetal forms, with incrustations of enamel and colored stones.  Painting of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia (1908) "You must have been very surprised by my decision to come to America, perhaps even amazed. But in fact I had been preparing to come here for some time. It had become clear to me that that I would never have time to do the things I wanted to do if I did not get away from the treadmill of Paris, I would be constantly bound to publishers and their whims...in America, I don't expect to find wealth, comfort, or fame for myself, only the opportunity to do some more useful work." In March 1904 Mucha sailed for New York with letters of introduction from Baroness Salomon de Rothschild. He intended to find funding for his grand project, The Slav Epic, which he had conceived during the 1900 Exposition. At one Pan-Slavic banquet in New York City, he met Charles Richard Crane, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, who was a passionate Slavophile and became Mucha's most important patron. He made a few trips to USA between 1904 and 1910, usually staying for five to six months. In 1906, he returned to New York with his new wife, (Marie/Maria) Chytilová, and they remained in the U.S. until 1909 and their first child, Jaroslava, was born in New York in 1909. His principal income in the United States came from teaching, and artistically, the trip was not a success; His finest work in America is often considered to be his portrait of Josephine Crane Bradley, the daughter of his patron, in the character of Slavia, in Slavic costume and surrounded by symbols from Slavic folklore and art. During his long stay in Paris, Mucha had never given up his dream of being a history painter, and to illustrate accomplishments of the Slavic peoples of Europe. He made the decision to return to his old country, still then part of the Austrian Empire. His first project in 1910 was the decoration of the reception room of the mayor of Prague. He designed and created a series of large-scale murals for the domed ceiling and walls with athletic figures in heroic poses, depicting the contributions of Slavs to European history over the centuries, and the theme of Slavic unity. These paintings on the ceiling and walls were in sharp contrast to his Parisian work, and were designed to send a patriotic message. The Lord Mayor's Hall was finished in 1911, and Mucha was able to devote his attention to what he considered his most important work; The Slav Epic, a series of large painting illustrating the achievements of the Slavic peoples over history. The series had twenty paintings, half devoted to the history of the Czechs, and ten to other Slavic peoples. The canvases were enormous; the finished works measured six by eight meters. He created the twenty canvases between 1912 and 1926. He worked throughout the First World War, when the Austrian Empire was at war with France, despite wartime restrictions, which made canvas hard to obtain. He continued his work after the war ended, when the new Republic of Czechoslovkia was created. The cycle was completed in 1928 in time for the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic  Alphonse Mucha in Prague (1928) In the political turmoil of the 1930s, Mucha's work received little attention in Czechoslovakia. However, in 1936 a major retrospective was held in Paris at the Jeu de Paume museum, with 139 works, including three canvases from the Slav Epic.
Hitler and Nazi Germany began to threaten Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. Mucha began work on a new series, a triptych depicting the Age of Reason, the Age of Wisdom and the Age of Love, which he worked on from 1936 to 1938, but never completed. On 15 March 1939, the German army paraded through Prague, and Hitler, at Prague castle, declared lands of the former Czechoslovakia to be part of the Greater German Reich as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Mucha's role as a Slav nationalist and Freemason made him a prime target. He was arrested, interrogated for several days, and released. By then his health was broken. He contracted pneumonia and died on 14 July 1939, a few weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War. Though public gatherings were banned, a huge crowd attended his interment in the Slavín Monument of Vyšehrad cemetery, reserved for notable figures in Czech culture.  name: Jules Lefebvre birth place: Tournan-en-Brie France birth date: 14 March 1836 zodiac sign: pisces death place: Paris France death date: 24 February 1911  Clémence Isaure by Jules Joseph Lefebvre Biography Jules Joseph Lefebvre (14 March 1836 – 24 February 1911) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist. He was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1836.[1] He entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet.  Rachel by Jules Lefebvre, 1888 He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1861. Between 1855 and 1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon. In 1891, he became a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. He was professor at the Académie Julian in Paris. Lefebvre is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils. Among his famous students were Fernand Khnopff, Kenyon Cox, Félix Vallotton, Ernst Friedrich von Liphart,Georges Rochegrosse, the Scottish-born landscape painter William Hart, Walter Lofthouse Dean, and Edmund C. Tarbell, who became an American Impressionist painter. Another pupil was the miniaturist Alice Beckington. Jules Benoit-Lévy entered his workshop at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Many of his paintings are single figures of beautiful women. Among his best portraits were those of M. L. Reynaud and the Prince Imperial (1874). Lefebvre died in Paris on 24 February 1911.  Judith by Jules Lefebvre, 1892 Biographie Jules Lefebvre, né à Tournan-en-Brie le 14 mars 1834 et mort à Paris le 24 février 1912, est un peintre français. Il est professeur à l'École des beaux-arts de Paris et à l'Académie Julian. Venant de Seine-et-Marne, la famille de Jules Lefebvre s'établit à Amiens vers 1836. Son père y exerce la profession de boulanger. L'enfant fréquente l'école communale de dessin où son professeur, Joseph Fusillier, remarque son talent.  Sirvienta  Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres selft portrait 1804 name: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres birth place: Montauban, France birth date: 28 August 1780 zodiac sign: Virgo death place: Paris, France death date: 14 January 1876  La Grande Odalisque (1814), the Louvre Profile of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style. Although he considered himself a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, it is his portraits, both painted and drawn, that are recognized as his greatest legacy. His expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Picasso, Matisse and other modernists. Born into a modest family in Montauban, he travelled to Paris to study in the studio of David. In 1802 he made his Salon debut, and won the Prix de Rome for his painting The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles. By the time he departed in 1806 for his residency in Rome, his style—revealing his close study of Italian and Flemish Renaissance masters—was fully developed, and would change little for the rest of his life. While working in Rome and subsequently Florence from 1806 to 1824, he regularly sent paintings to the Paris Salon, where they were faulted by critics who found his style bizarre and archaic. He received few commissions during this period for the history paintings he aspired to paint, but was able to support himself and his wife as a portrait painter and draughtsman. He was finally recognized at the Salon in 1824, when his Raphaelesque painting of the Vow of Louis XIII was met with acclaim, and Ingres was acknowledged as the leader of the Neoclassical school in France. Although the income from commissions for history paintings allowed him to paint fewer portraits, his Portrait of Monsieur Bertin marked his next popular success in 1833. The following year, his indignation at the harsh criticism of his ambitious composition The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian caused him to return to Italy, where he assumed directorship of the French Academy in Rome in 1835 but he returned to Paris for good in 1841. In his later years he painted new versions of many of his earlier compositions, a series of designs for stained glass windows, several important portraits of women, and The Turkish Bath, the last of his several Orientalist paintings of the female nude, which he finished at the age of 83. Ingres was also an amateur violin player from his youth, and played for a time as second violinist for the orchestra of Toulouse. When he was Director of the French Academy in Rome, he played frequently with the music students and guest artists. Charles Gounod, who was a student under Ingres at the Academy, merely noted that "he was not a professional, even less a virtuoso". Along with the student musicians, he performed Beethoven string quartets with Niccolò Paganini. In an 1839 letter, Franz Liszt described his playing as "charming", and planned to play through all the Mozart and Beethoven violin sonatas with Ingres. Liszt also dedicated his transcriptions of the 5th and 6th symphonies of Beethoven to Ingres on their original publication in 1840. Biography of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Early years Ingres was born in Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne, France, his father Joseph Ingres was a successful jack-of-all-trades in the arts, a painter of miniatures, sculptor, decorative stonemason, and amateur musician; his mother was the nearly illiterate daughter of a master wigmaker. From his father the young Ingres received early encouragement and instruction in drawing and music, and his first known drawing, a study after an antique cast, was made in 1789. Starting in 1786 he attended the local school École des Frères de l'Éducation Chrétienne, but his education was disrupted by the turmoil of the French Revolution, and the closing of the school in 1791 marked the end of his conventional education. The deficiency in his schooling would always remain for him a source of insecurity. In 1791, his father took him to Toulouse, where the young Jean-Auguste-Dominique was enrolled in the Académie Royale de Peinture, Sculpture et Architecture. There he studied under the sculptor Jean-Pierre Vigan, the landscape painter Jean Briant, and the neoclassical painter Guillaume-Joseph Roques. Roques' veneration of Raphael was a decisive influence on the young artist. Ingres won prizes in several disciplines, such as composition, "figure and antique", and life studies. His musical talent was developed under the tutelage of the violinist Lejeune, and from the ages of thirteen to sixteen he played second violin in the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. Ingres's well-known passion for playing the violin gave rise to a common expression in the French language, "violon d'Ingres", meaning a second skill beyond the one by which a person is mainly known. The American avant-garde artist Man Ray used this expression as the title of a famous photograph portraying Alice Prin (aka Kiki de Montparnasse) in the pose of the Valpinçon Bather. From an early age he was determined to be a history painter, which, in the hierarchy of artists established by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture under Louis XIV, and continued well into the 19th Century, was considered the highest level of painting. He did not want to simply make portraits or illustrations of real life like his father; he wanted to represent the heroes of religion, history and mythology, to idealize them and show them in ways that explained their actions, rivaling the best works of literature and philosophy.  Study of a Male Torso, 1801, National Museum in Warsaw Paris In March 1797, the Academy awarded Ingres first prize in drawing, and in August he traveled to Paris to study in the studio of Jacques-Louis David, France's—and Europe's—leading painter during the revolutionary period, in whose studio he remained for four years. Ingres followed his master's neoclassical example. In 1797 David was working on his enormous masterpiece, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, and was gradually modifying his style away from Roman models of rigorous realism to the ideals of purity, virtue and simplicity in Greek art. One of the other students of David, Étienne-Jean Delécluze, who later became an art critic, described Ingres as a student: He was distinguished not just by the candor of his character and his disposition to work alone ... he was one of the most studious ... he took little part in all the turbulent follies around him, and he studied with more perseverance than most of his co-disciples ... All of the qualities which characterize today the talent of this artist, the finesse of contour, the true and profound sentiment of the form, and a modeling with extraordinary correctness and firmness, could already be seen in his early studies. While several of his comrades and David himself signaled a tendency toward exaggeration in his studies, everyone was struck by his grand compositions and recognized his talent. He was admitted to the painting department of the École des Beaux-Arts in October 1799. In 1800 and 1801, he won the grand prize for figure painting for his paintings of male torsos and competed for the Prix de Rome, the highest prize of the Academy, which entitled the winner to four years of residence at the Académie de France in Rome. He came in second in his first attempt, but in 1801 he took the top prize with The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles. The figures of the envoys, in the right of the painting, are muscular and solid as statues, in the style taught by David, but the two main figures on the left, Achilles and Patroclus, are mobile, vivid and graceful, like figures in a delicate bas-relief. His residence in Rome was postponed until 1806 due to shortage of state funds. In the meantime he worked in Paris alongside several other students of David in a studio provided by the state, and further developed a style that emphasized purity of contour. He found inspiration in the works of Raphael, in Etruscan vase paintings, and in the outline engravings of the English artist John Flaxman. His drawings of Hermaphrodite and the Nymph Salmacis showed a new stylized ideal of female beauty, which would reappear later in his Jupiter et Thetis and his famous nudes. In 1802 he made his debut at the Salon with Portrait of a Woman (the current whereabouts of which is unknown). Between 1804 and 1806 he painted a series of portraits which were striking for their extreme precision, particularly in the richness of their fabrics and tiny details. These included the Portrait of Philipbert Riviére (1805), Portrait of Sabine Rivière (1805–06), Portrait of Madame Aymon (also known as La Belle Zélie; 1806), and Portrait of Caroline Rivière (1805–06). The female faces were not at all detailed but were softened, and were notable for their large oval eyes and delicate flesh colours and their rather dreamlike expressions. His portraits typically had simple backgrounds of solid dark or light colour, or of sky. These were the beginning of a series that would make him among the most celebrated portrait artists of the 19th century.  Madame Rivière (1805–06), oil on canvas, 116.5 x 81.7 cm, Louvre As Ingres waited to depart to Rome, his friend Lorenzo Bartolini introduced him to Italian Renaissance paintings, particularly the works of Bronzino and Pontormo, which Napoleon had brought back from his campaign in Italy and placed in the Louvre. Ingres assimilated their clarity and monumentality into his own portrait style. In the Louvre were also masterpieces of Flemish art, including the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan Van Eyck, which the French army had seized during its conquest of Flanders. The precision of Renaissance Flemish art became part of Ingres's style. Ingres's stylistic eclecticism represented a new tendency in art. The Louvre, newly filled with booty seized by Napoleon in his campaigns in Italy and the Low Countries, provided French artists of the early 19th century with an unprecedented opportunity to study, compare, and copy masterworks from antiquity and from the entire history of European painting. As art historian Marjorie Cohn has written: "At the time, art history as a scholarly enquiry was brand-new. Artists and critics outdid each other in their attempts to identify, interpret, and exploit what they were just beginning to perceive as historical stylistic developments." From the beginning of his career, Ingres freely borrowed from earlier art, adopting the historical style appropriate to his subject, and was consequently accused by critics of plundering the past. In 1803 he received a prestigious commission, being one of five artists selected (along with Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Robert Lefèvre, Charles Meynier, and Marie-Guillemine Benoist) to paint full-length portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul. These were to be distributed to the prefectural towns of Liège, Antwerp, Dunkerque, Brussels, and Ghent, all of which were newly ceded to France in the 1801 Treaty of Lunéville. Napoleon is not known to have granted the artists a sitting, and Ingres's meticulously painted portrait of Bonaparte, First Consul appears to be modelled on an image of Napoleon painted by Antoine-Jean Gros in 1802.  Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne, 1806, oil on canvas, 260 x 163 cm, Musée de l'Armée, Paris Ingres painted a new portrait of Napoleon for presentation at the 1806 Salon, this one showing Napoleon on the Imperial Throne for his coronation. This painting was entirely different from his earlier portrait of Napoleon as First Consul; it concentrated almost entirely on the lavish imperial costume that Napoleon had chosen to wear, and the symbols of power he held. The scepter of Charles V, the sword of Charlemagne, the rich fabrics, furs and capes, crown of gold leaves, golden chains and emblems were all presented in extremely precise detail; the Emperor's face and hands were almost lost in the majestic costume. At the Salon, his paintings: Self-Portrait, portraits of the Rivière family, and Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne received a very chilly reception. David delivered a severe judgement, and the critics were hostile. Chaussard (Le Pausanias Français, 1806) praised "the fineness of Ingres's brushwork and the finish", but condemned Ingres's style as gothic and asked: How, with so much talent, a line so flawless, an attention to detail so thorough, has M. Ingres succeeded in painting a bad picture? The answer is that he wanted to do something singular, something extraordinary ... M. Ingres's intention is nothing less than to make art regress by four centuries, to carry us back to its infancy, to revive the manner of Jean de Bruges? Rome and Florence After arriving in Rome, Ingres read with mounting indignation the relentlessly negative press clippings sent to him from Paris by his friends. In letters to his prospective father-in-law, he expressed his outrage at the critics: "So the Salon is the scene of my disgrace; ... The scoundrels, they waited until I was away to assassinate my reputation ... I have never been so unhappy....I knew I had many enemies; I never was agreeable with them and never will be. My greatest wish would be to fly to the Salon and to confound them with my works, which don't in any way resemble theirs; and the more I advance, the less their work will resemble mine." He vowed never again to exhibit at the Salon, and his refusal to return to Paris led to the breaking up of his engagement. Julie Forestier, when asked years later why she had never married, responded, "When one has had the honor of being engaged to M. Ingres, one does not marry." On 23 November 1806, he wrote to Jean Forestier, the father of his former fiancée, "Yes, art will need to be reformed, and I intend to be that revolutionary." Characteristically, he found a studio on the grounds of the Villa Medici away from the other resident artists, and painted furiously. Many drawings of monuments in Rome from this time are attributed to Ingres, but it appears from more recent scholarship that they were actually the work of his collaborators, particularly his friend the landscape artist François-Marius Granet. As required of every winner of the Prix, he sent works at regular intervals to Paris so his progress could be judged. Traditionally fellows sent paintings of male Greek or Roman heroes, but for his first samples Ingres sent Baigneuse à mi-corps (1807), a painting of the back of a young woman bathing, based on an engraving of an antique vase, and La Grande Bagneuse (1808), a larger painting of the back of a nude bather, and the first Ingres model to wear a turban, a detail he borrowed from the Fornarina by his favourite painter, Raphael. To satisfy the Academy in Paris, he also dispatched Oedipus and the Sphinx to show his mastery of the male nude. The verdict of the academicians in Paris was that the figures were not sufficiently idealized. In later years Ingres painted several variants of these compositions; another nude begun in 1807, the Venus Anadyomene, remained in an unfinished state for decades, to be completed forty years later and finally exhibited in 1855.  Oedipus and the Sphinx (1808), Louvre During his time in Rome he also produced numerous portraits: Madame Duvauçay, François-Marius Granet, Edme-François-Joseph Bochet, Madame Panckoucke, and that of Madame la Comtesse de Tournon, mother of the prefect of the department of the Tiber. In 1810 Ingres's pension at the Villa Medici ended, but he decided to stay in Rome and seek patronage from the French occupation government. In 1811 Ingres completed his final student exercise, the immense Jupiter and Thetis, a scene from the Iliad of Homer: the goddess of the Sea, Thetis, pleads with Zeus to act in favor of her son Achilles. The face of the water nymph Salmacis he had drawn years earlier reappeared as Thetis. Ingres wrote with enthusiasm that he had been planning to paint this subject since 1806, and he intended to "deploy all of the luxury of art in its beauty". However, once again, the critics were hostile, finding fault with the exaggerated proportions of the figures and the painting's flat, airless quality. Although facing uncertain prospects, in 1813 Ingres married a young woman, Madeleine Chapelle, recommended to him by her friends in Rome. After a courtship carried out through correspondence, he proposed without having met her, and she accepted. Their marriage was happy; Madame Ingres's faith was unwavering. He continued to suffer disparaging reviews, as Don Pedro of Toledo Kissing Henry IV's Sword, Raphael and the Fornarina (Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University), several portraits, and the Interior of the Sistine Chapel met with generally hostile critical response at the Paris Salon of 1814. After he left the Academy, a few important commissions came to him. The French governor of Rome, General Miollis, a wealthy patron of the arts, asked him to decorate rooms of the Monte Cavallo Palace, a former papal residence, for an expected visit of Napoleon. Ingres painted a large-scale Romulus' Victory Over Acron (1811) for the salon of the Empress and The Dream of Ossian (1813), based on a book of poems that Napoleon admired, for the ceiling of the Emperor's bedroom. General Miollis also commissioned Ingres to paint Virgil reading the Aeneid (1812) for his own residence, the villa Aldobrandini. The painting showed the moment when Virgil predicted the death of Marcellus, the son of Livia, causing Livia to faint. The interior was precisely depicted, following the archeological finds at Pompeii. As usual, Ingres made several versions of the same scene: a three-figure fragment cut from an abandoned version is in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, and in 1832 he made a drawing in vertical format as a model for a reproductive engraving by Pradier. The General Miollis version was repurchased by Ingres in the 1830s, reworked by assistants under Ingres's direction, and never finished; The Dream of Ossian was likewise repurchased, modified, but left unfinished. He traveled to Naples in the spring of 1814 to paint Queen Caroline Murat. Joachim Murat, the King of Naples, had earlier purchased the Dormeuse de Naples, a sleeping nude (the original is lost, but several drawings exist, and Ingres later revisited the subject in L'Odalisque à l'esclave). Murat also commissioned two historical paintings, Raphael et la Fornarina and Paolo et Francesca, and what later became one of Ingres's most famous works, La Grande Odalisque, to accompany Dormeuse de Naples. Ingres never received payment, due to the collapse of the Murat regime and execution of Joachim Murat in 1815. With the fall of Napoleon's dynasty, he found himself essentially stranded in Rome without patronage.  La Grande Odalisque (1814), the Louvre Ingres continued to produce masterful portraits, both in pencil and oils, of almost photographic precision; but with the departure of the French administration, the painting commissions were rare. During this low point of his career, Ingres augmented his income by drawing pencil portraits of the many wealthy tourists, in particular the English, passing through postwar Rome. The portrait drawings he produced in such profusion during this period rank today among his most admired works. He is estimated to have made some five hundred portrait drawings, including portraits of his famous friends. His friends included many musicians including Paganini, and he regularly played the violin with others who shared his enthusiasm for Mozart, Haydn, Gluck, and Beethoven.  The violinist Niccolo Paganini (1819) by Dominique Ingres He also produced a series of small paintings in what was known as the Troubador style, idealized portrayals of events in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In 1815 he painted Aretino and Charles V's Ambassador as well as Aretino and Tintoretto, an anecdotal painting whose subject, a painter brandishing a pistol at his critic, may have been especially satisfying to the embattled Ingres. Other paintings in the same style included Henry IV Playing with His Children (1817) and the Death of Leonardo. In 1816 Ingres produced his only etching, a portrait of the French ambassador to Rome, Monsignor Gabriel Cortois de Pressigny. The only other prints he is known to have executed are two lithographs: The Four Magistrates of Besançon, made as an illustration for Baron Taylor's Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l'ancienne France, and a copy of La Grande Odalisque, both in 1825. In 1817 the Count of Blacas, who was ambassador of France to the Holy See, provided Ingres with his first official commission since 1814, for a painting of Christ Giving the Keys to Peter. Completed in 1820, this imposing work was well received in Rome but to the artist's chagrin the ecclesiastical authorities there would not permit it to be sent to Paris for exhibition. A commission came in 1816 or 1817 from the descendants of the Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, for a painting of the Duke receiving papal honours for his repression of the Protestant Reformation. Ingres loathed the subject—he regarded the Duke as one of history's brutes—and struggled to satisfy both the commission and his conscience. After revisions which eventually reduced the Duke to a tiny figure in the background, Ingres left the work unfinished. He entered in his diary, "J'etais forcé par la necessité de peindre un pareil tableau; Dieu a voulu qu'il reste en ebauche." ("I was forced by need to paint such a painting; God wanted it to remain a sketch.) He continued to send works to the Salon in Paris, hoping to make his breakthrough there. In 1819 he sent his reclining nude, La Grande Odalisque, as well as a history painting, Philip V and the Marshal of Berwick, and Roger Freeing Angelica, based on an episode in the 16th-century epic poem Orlando Furioso by Ariosto but his work was once again condemned by critics as gothic and unnatural.The critic Kératy complained that the Grande Odalisque's back was three vertebrae too long. The critic Charles Landon wrote: "After a moment of attention, one sees that in this figure there are no bones, no muscles, no blood, no life, no relief, no anything which constitutes imitation....it is evident that the artist deliberately erred, that he wanted to do it badly, that he believed in bringing back to life the pure and primitive manner of the painters of Antiquity; but he took for his model a few fragments from earlier periods and a degenerate execution, and completely lost his way." Florence In 1820 Ingres and his wife moved to Florence at the urging of the Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, an old friend from his years in Paris. He still had to depend upon his portraits and drawings for income, but his luck began to change. His history painting Roger Freeing Angelica was purchased for the private collection of Louis XVIII, and was hung in the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, which was newly devoted to the work of living artists. This was the first work of Ingres to enter a museum. In 1821 he finished a painting commissioned by a childhood friend, Monsieur de Pastoret, The Entry into Paris of the Dauphin, the Future Charles V; de Pastoret also ordered a portrait of himself and a religious work (Virgin with the Blue Veil). In August 1820, with the help of de Pastoret, he received a commission for a major religious painting for the Cathedral of Montauban. The theme was the re-establishment of the bond between the church and the state. Ingres's painting, The Vow of Louis XIII (1824), inspired by Raphael, was purely in the Renaissance style, and depicted King Louis XIII vowing to dedicate his reign to the Virgin Mary. This was perfectly in tune with the doctrine of the new government of the Restoration. He spent four years bringing the large canvas to completion, and he took it to the Paris Salon in October 1824, where it became the key that finally opened the door of the Paris art establishment and to his career as an official painter.  The Vow of Louis XIII (1824), Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Montauban Paris The Vow of Louis XIII in the Salon of 1824 finally brought Ingres critical success. Although Stendhal complained about "the sort of material beauty which excludes the idea of divinity", most critics praised the work. The journalist and future Prime Minister and French President Adolphe Thiers celebrated the breakthrough of a new style: "Nothing is better than variety like this, the essential character of the new style." In January 1825 he was awarded the Cross of the Légion d'honneur by Charles X, and in June 1825 he was elected a member of Académie des Beaux-Arts. Lithographs of La Grande Odalisque published in 1826 in two competing versions by Delpech and Sudré found eager buyers; Ingres received 24,000 francs for the reproduction rights – twenty times the amount he had been paid for the original painting six years earlier. The 1824 Salon also brought forward a counter-current to the neoclassicism of Ingres: Eugène Delacroix exhibited Les Massacres de Scio, in a romantic style sharply contrasting to that of Ingres. The success of Ingres's painting led in 1826 to a major new commission, The Apotheosis of Homer, a giant canvas which celebrated all the great artists of history, intended to decorate the ceiling of one of the halls of the Museum Charles X at the Louvre. Ingres was unable to finish the work in time for the 1827 Salon, but displayed the painting in grisaille.The 1827 Salon became a confrontation between the neoclassicism of Ingres's Apotheosis and a new manifesto of romanticism by Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus. Ingres joined the battle with enthusiasm; he called Delacroix "the apostle of ugliness" and told friends that he recognized "the talent, the honorable character and distinguished spirit" of Delacroix, but that "he has tendencies which I believe are dangerous and which I must push back." Despite the considerable patronage he enjoyed under the Bourbon government, Ingres welcomed the July Revolution of 1830.That the outcome of the Revolution was not a republic but a constitutional monarchy was satisfactory to the essentially conservative and pacifistic artist, who in a letter to a friend in August 1830 criticized agitators who "still want to soil and disturb the order and happiness of a freedom so gloriously, so divinely won." Ingres's career was little affected, and he continued to receive official commissions and honors under the July Monarchy. Ingres exhibited in the Salon of 1833, where his portrait of Louis-François Bertin (1832) was a particular success. The public found its realism spellbinding, although some of the critics declared its naturalism vulgar and its colouring drab. In 1834 he finished a large religious painting, The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian, which depicted the first saint to be martyred in Gaul. The painting was commissioned in 1824 by the Ministry of the Interior for the Cathedral of Autun, and the iconography in the picture was specified by the bishop. Ingres conceived the painting as the summation of all of his work and skill, and worked on it for ten years before displaying it at the 1834 Salon. He was surprised, shocked and angered by the response; the painting was attacked by both the neoclassicists and by the romantics. Ingres was accused of historical inaccuracy, for the colours, and for the feminine appearance of the Saint, who looked like a beautiful statue. In anger, Ingres announced that he would no longer accept public commissions, and that he would no longer participate in the Salon. He later did participate in some semi-public expositions and a retrospective of his work at the 1855 Paris International Exposition, but never again took part in the Salon or submitted his work for public judgement. Instead, at the end of 1834 he returned to Rome to become the Director of the Academy of France. Rome Ingres remained in Rome for six years. He devoted much of his attention to the training of the painting students, as he was later to do at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He re-organized the Academy, increased the size of the library, added many molds of classical statues to the Academy collection, and assisted the students in getting public commissions in both Rome and Paris. He traveled to Orvieto (1835), Sienna (1835), Ravenna and Urbino to study the paleochristian mosaics, medieval murals and Renaissance art. He devoted considerable attention to music, one of the subjects of the academy; he welcomed Franz Liszt and Fanny Mendelssohn. He formed a long friendship with Liszt. The composer Charles Gounod, who was a pensioner at the time at the Academy, described Ingres's appreciation of modern music, including Weber and Berlioz, and his adoration for Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Gluck. He joined the music students and his friend Niccolò Paganini in playing Beethoven's violin works. Gounod wrote that Ingres "had the tenderness of an infant and the indignation of an apostle." When Stendhal visited the Academy and disparaged Beethoven, Ingres turned to the doorman, indicated Stendahl, and told him, "If this gentleman ever calls again, I am not here." His rancor against the Paris art establishment for his failure at the 1834 Salon did not abate. In 1836 he refused a major commission from the French Minister of the Interior, Adolphe Thiers, to decorate the interior of the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, because the commission had been offered first to a rival, Paul Delaroche, who refused it. He did complete a small number of works which he sent to patrons in Paris. One was L'Odalisque et l'esclave, (1839), a portrait of a blonde odalisque, or member of a harem, who reclines languorously while a turbaned musician plays. This fitted into the popular genre of orientalism; his rival Eugène Delacroix had created a painting on a similar theme, Les Femmes d'Alger, for the 1834 Salon. The setting was inspired by Persian miniatures and was full of exotic detail, but the woman's long reclining form was pure Ingres. The critic Théophile Gautier wrote of Ingres's work: "It is impossible to better paint the mystery, the silence and the suffocating atmosphere of the seraglio." In 1842 he painted a second version, nearly identical to the first but with a landscape background (painted by his student Paul Flandrin)  L'Odalisque et l'esclave, Odalisque with Slave (1842), oil on canvas, 76 x 105 cm, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore The second painting he sent, in 1840, was The Illness of Antiochus (1840; also known as Aniochus and Stratonice) a history painting on a theme of love and sacrifice, a theme once painted by David in 1800, when Ingres was in his studio. It was commissioned by the Duc d'Orleans, the son of King Louis Philippe I), and had very elaborate architectural background designed by one of the Academy students, Victor Baltard, the future architect of the Paris market Les Halles. The central figure was an ethereal woman in white, whose contemplative pose with her hand on her chin recurs in some of Ingres's female portraits. His painting of Aniochius and Stratonice, despite its small size, just one meter, was a major success for Ingres. In August it was shown in the private apartment of the duc d'Orléans in the Pavilion Marsan of the Palais des Tuileries. The King greeted him personally at Versailles and gave him a tour of the Palace. He was offered a commission to paint a portrait of the Duke, the heir to the throne, and another from the Duc de Lunyes to create two huge murals for the Château de Dampierre. In April 1841 he returned definitively to Paris.  Portrait of Comtesse d'Haussonville (1845), Frick Collection, New York Paris, Last years One of the first works executed after his return to Paris was a portrait of the duc d'Orléans. After the heir to the throne was killed in a carriage accident a few months after the painting was completed in 1842, Ingres received commissions to make additional copies. He also received a commission to design seventeen stained glass windows for the chapel on the place where the accident occurred, and a commission for eight additional stained-glass designs for Orléans chapel in Dreux. He became a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He took his students frequently to the Louvre to see the classical and Renaissance art, instructing them to look straight ahead and to avoid the works of Rubens, which he believed deviated too far from the true values of art. The Revolution of 1848, which overthrew Louis Philippe and created the French Second Republic, had little effect on his work or his ideas. He declared that the revolutionaries were "cannibals who called themselves French", but during the Revolution completed his Vénus Anadyoméne, which he had started as an academic study in 1808. It represented Venus, rising from the sea which had given birth to her, surrounded by cherubs. He welcomed the patronage of the new government of Louis-Napoleon, who would in 1852 become Emperor Napoleon III.  Vénus Anadyoméne by Dominique Ingres, 1848 1849 Ingres lost his wife and in October 1851 he resigned as professor at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1852, Ingres, then seventy-one years of age, married forty-three-year-old Delphine Ramel, a relative of his friend Marcotte d'Argenteuil. Ingres was rejuvenated, and in the decade that followed he completed several significant works, including the portrait of Princesse Albert de Broglie. In 1853 he began the Apotheosis of Napoleon I, for the ceiling of a hall in the Hôtel de Ville, Paris. (It was destroyed in May 1871 when the Paris Commune set fire to the building.) With the help of assistants, in 1854 he completed another history painting, Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII. A retrospective of his works was featured at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1855, and in the same year Napoleon III named him a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur.  The Princesse de Broglie, née Joséphine-Eléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn, 1853, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York  The Source (1856), Musée d'Orsay, Paris He continued to rework and refine his classic themes. In 1856 Ingres completed The Source (The Spring), a painting begun in 1820 and closely related to his Venus Anadyoméne. He painted two versions of Louis XIV and Molière (1857 and 1860), and produced variant copies of several of his earlier compositions. These included religious works in which the figure of the Virgin from The Vow of Louis XIII was reprised: The Virgin of the Adoption of 1858 was followed by The Virgin Crowned and The Virgin with Child. In 1859 he produced new versions of The Virgin of the Host, and in 1862 he completed Christ and the Doctors, a work commissioned many years before by Queen Marie Amalie for the chapel of Bizy. He painted small replicas of Paolo and Francesca and Oedipus and the Sphinx. In 1862 he completed a small oil-on-paper version of The Golden Age. The last of his important portrait paintings date from this period: Marie-Clothilde-Inés de Foucauld, Madame Moitessier, Seated (1856), Self-Portrait at the Age of Seventy-eight and Madame J.-A.-D. Ingres, both completed in 1859. At the request of the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, he made his own-self portrait in 1858. The only colour in the painting is the red of his rosette of the Legion of Honour. In 1862 he was awarded the title of Senator, and made a member of the Imperial Council on Public Instruction. Three of his works were shown in the London International Exhibition, and his reputation as a major French painter was confirmed once more. Near the end of his life, he made one of his best-known masterpieces, The Turkish Bath. It reprised a figure and theme he had been paint.  Mme. Moitessier, 1856 BiographieJean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres est né à Montauban le 29 août 17802. Son père, le peintre et sculpteur Jean-Marie-Joseph Ingres, a favorisé ses penchants artistiques. Il entre en 1791 à l’Académie de Toulouse où il est formé par Jean Suau, puis se rend à Paris, en 1796, pour étudier sous la direction de Jacques-Louis David. Il s’éloigne de son néo-classicisme par son dévouement à un idéal de beauté fondé sur de difficiles harmonies de lignes et de couleurs. Il peint le portrait d'amis ainsi que de Pierre-François Bernier, qu'il connaît de Montauban. Il remporte le prix de Rome à sa deuxième tentative en 1801 avec Les Ambassadeurs d'Agamemnon, mais il ne peut s'y rendre immédiatement. Il s'installe avec d'autres élèves de David à l'ancien couvent des Capucines où il peint principalement des portraits.  The Turkish Bath (1862–63), The Louvre En juin 1806, il se fiance avec Marie-Anne-Julie Forestier, mais sa relation ne résiste pas à son absence après son départ pour Rome en septembre. En 1806, Ingres découvre à Rome, Raphaël et le Quattrocento, qui marquent définitivement son style. Ces années de travail sont les plus fécondes avec les nus, parmi lesquels La Baigneuse, les paysages, les dessins, les portraits et les compositions historiques. Il est en pleine possession de son art et son séjour à Rome est aussi l'occasion de tisser des liens amicaux avec les grands commis de l'administration impériale : le comte de Tournon et sa mère, Edme Bochet et sa sœur Cécile Bochet madame Henry Panckoucke, Hippolyte-François Devillers, le baron de Montbreton de Norvins. En France, cependant, ses toiles peintes en Italie ne plaisent pas. L’artiste décide alors de rester à Rome. Il se marie en 1813 avec Madeleine Chapelle (1782-1849), une jeune modiste habitant Guéret. Ingres réalisa dix portraits de sa femme. Mais le plus célèbre tableau sur lequel elle apparait est Le Bain turc. Madeleine pose pour l'odalisque aux bras levés qui s'étire au premier plan. Le tableau a été réalisé en 1862, après la mort de Madeleine. Elle fut peinte d'après un croquis qu'Ingres avait réalisé en 1818. En 1850, il va à Châlons chez sa belle-mère pour connaître les lieux où sa femme a vécu, et y rencontre le notaire Louois Changy. Il semble y être retourné l'année suivante. À la chute de Napoléon Ier, des difficultés économiques et familiales l’entraînent dans une période financièrement difficile pendant laquelle il peint, avec acharnement, tout ce qu’on lui commande. Il sollicite ses amitiés romaines et ses bonnes relations avec les Panckoucke et les Bochet lui présentent Charles Marcotte d'Argenteuil, ami de Jacques-Édouard Gatteaux, ami proche d'Ingres. Très vite, Charles Marcotte d'Argenteuil devient un proche du peintre, jusqu'à devenir un de ses principaux mécènes jusqu'à son décès en 1864. Après la mort de Madeleine, ce dernier ira même jusqu'à lui présenter sa nièce, Delphine Ramel, qu'Ingres épousera le 15 avril 1852. De ce mariage, viendra la décision d'acheter la maison de Meung-sur-Loire avec son nouveau beau-frère, Jean-François Guille, notaire et conseiller général du Loiret, où il se retirera tous les étés pour bénéficier de la douceur et de la lumière de la Loire. Nombre de membres de la famille Marcotte seront de fidèles acheteurs, comme Philippe Marcotte de Quivières et ses frères Marcotte de Sainte-Marie et Marcotte de Genlis, le baron Charles Athanase Walckenaer, Alexandre Legentil et le baron Hubert Rohault de Fleury (tous deux initiateurs du projet de la basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre), Cécile Bochet, devenue madame Henry Panckoucke et baronne Morande-Forgeot, et le clan Ramel. En 1820, il quitte Rome pour Florence où il réside jusqu'en 1824.  Portrait of Charles Marcotte (1810), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC Il trouve finalement le succès en France avec son Vœu de Louis XIII exposé au Salon de 1824, destiné à la cathédrale de Montauban. Il devient directeur de l’Académie de France à Rome de 1835 à 1840. Appelé, le 25 mai 1862, à faire partie du Sénat impérial, il y vota jusqu'à sa mort conformément aux vœux du pouvoir. Il avait été élevé au grade de grand officier de la Légion d'honneur le 14 novembre 1855. Ingres attache au dessin une grande importance et déclarait à ce sujet : « Une chose bien dessinée est toujours assez bien peinte. » La galerie de portraits réalistes qu’il laisse, constitue un miroir de la société bourgeoise de son temps, de l’esprit et des mœurs d’une classe à laquelle il appartient et dont il trace les vertus et les limites. Ingres s’intéresse beaucoup à la texture des vêtements et des étoffes (velours, soie, satin, cachemire…) qu’il intègre dans ses œuvres afin de noter la classe sociale du personnage. Il s’inspire, à ses débuts, de l'esthétique de l’art grec, avant de se tourner vers une approche plus souple des courbes et des drapés. Ingres n'hésitait pas à accentuer l'anatomie de ses modèles pour atteindre son idéal de beauté ; ainsi, il rajouta trois vertèbres à sa Grande Odalisque. Ingres reçoit à partir de 1824 honneurs et commandes officielles. Il n'abandonne cependant pas le portrait dont celui de Monsieur Bertin, de 1832, est un sommet.  Portrait of Monsieur Bertin (1832), the Louvre Le rejet par la critique et par le public, de sa dernière peinture d'histoire Le Martyre de Saint Symphorien exposée au Salon de 1834, le détermine à accepter la direction de l'Académie de France à Rome, où il reste jusqu'en 1845. De retour à Paris, il peint à nouveau des portraits et reçoit à nouveau des commandes de grandes œuvres décoratives . Il se détache du néo-classicisme par la subordination de la forme à l'expression, simplifiant ou déformant l'anatomie pour se rapprocher de l'expression du caractère individuel. Il s'oppose aussi à l'enseignement officiel sur la nature du beau idéal. Pour l'Académie, celui-ci se traduit par un jeu de proportions canoniques, et la profondeur du savoir du peintre s'obtient par la connaissance de l'anatomie artistique, tandis qu'Ingres réprouve l'étude de l'intérieur du corps humain au profit de l'observation fine de la morphologie10, qui aboutit à représenter non pas un idéal générique, mais celui correspondant à l'individualité du modèle, et pratique la simplification des formes, condamnant la représentation du détail à l'intérieur du modelé. Dominique Ingres est aussi violoniste et devient, durant un temps, deuxième violon à l’Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. De ce loisir est née l’expression « violon d’Ingres ».  Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII, 1854, Louvre  Biography of Martin Beaupre Martin Beaupré was born in Quebec, Canada, in 1961. Over the years Martin has found his point of balance by associating art with energy. As a full-time painter Martin’s paintings are a reflection of his inner world. Martin takes us on a Zen journey which reveals a search for beauty and harmony in muffled tones, with serene, uncluttered compositions. In 1995, Martin founded the Médit’Art workshop, where he teaches modern and intuitive painting. Martin has also moderated art therapy workshops for amateur and professional painters, in the deserts of the United States and in the tropics of Hawaii. Private and corporate collectors from all over the world find Martin’s contemporary canvases arouse profound emotions. Thanks to his accomplished mastery of colors and his completely resistance-free approach. Martin’s paintings combine energy and dynamism with tranquility and serenity. The preferred luminous intensity is white, because it offers the possibility of attaining the infinite. Martin works in various mediums: oil, modeling clay, sable, Swarovski crystal and ink. Martin Beaupré has met with Buddhist monks in Thailand and Japan who have become a great source of inspiration. Martin believes the principles of Japanese art are sacred. The secret which lends power to his art is this: the void is to be embellished, but never filled. Create the maximum effect with the minimum means. Inspired by travels, Martin creates canvases imbued with Asian culture. We find works showing flowering cherry-trees, mountains, Buddha’s faces, geishas, and symbols and writings inspired by Zenga. Nothing is left to chance; there is a reason behind every detail. One thing is for certain, there is never a confrontation between form and space. Everything coexists, everything is connected. Impression of calm, instant of grace, mastery of life, everything is softened. Martin Beaupré offers us a mystical operation of the senses, a sort of voyage to the borders of the equilibrium and the immensity which reside within us. An intense poetry to be lived and explored!    
Martin Beaupré est né au Canada, à Québec en 1961. Il trouve son équilibre en associant art et énergie. Sa peinture est le reflet de son monde intérieur. Un parcours zen où se révèle la recherche de la beauté et de l'harmonie dans des tonalités feutrées, des compositions épurées et sereines. Martin Beaupré prend plaisir à transmettre sa passion et vit maintenant de son art à plein temps. En 1995, il a fondé les ateliers Médit'Art, où il enseigna la peinture moderne et intuitive. Il a offert aussi des ateliers d'art thérapie pour peintres amateurs et professionnels, dans les déserts des États-Unis et à Hawaii. Grâce à sa grande maîtrise des couleurs et à son approche libre de toutes résistances, ses toiles contemporaines suscitent de profondes émotions. Ce peintre conjugue l'énergie et le dynamisme avec le calme et la sérénité. Inspiré par ses voyages, il crée des toiles empreintes de la culture asiatique. Cerisiers en fleurs, montagnes, visages de Bouddha, geishas, ainsi que symboles et écritures inspirés du Zenga composent ses oeuvres. Rien n'est laissé au hasard, chaque détail a sa raison d'être. Martin Beau Pré a fait la rencontre de moines bouddhistes en Thaïlande et au Japon qui sont devenus une grande source d'inspiration pour lui. Les principes de l'art Japonais sont sacrés à ses yeux. Le secret qui donne puissance à son art : embellir le vide et ne jamais remplir le vide. Créer le maximum d'effet avec le minimum de moyen. L'intensité lumineuse qu'il préfère est le blanc parce qu'il lui offre les possibilités d'une rencontre avec l'infini. Ses tableaux respirent la quiétude. Il travail avec plusieurs médiums : l'huile, pâte de modelage, sable, cristal de Swarovsky, encre. Dans ses toiles, la forme et l'espace ne sont jamais en confrontation. Tout coexiste, tout est lié. Impression de calme, instant de grâce, maîtrise de sa vie, tout se dulcifie en soi. Ses tableaux sont vendus partout dans le monde et certains font partie de plusieurs collections privées ou corporatives au Canada, aux Etats-Unis, en Europe et aux Antilles. Martin Beaupré, nous propose une opération mystique des sens, une sorte de voyage vers les frontières de l'équilibre et de l'immensité qui nous habite. Une intense poésie à vivre et à découvrir!    Biography of Takehisa Yumeji Takeheisa Yumeji (Takehisa Yumeji, 16 September1884 - 1 September1934) is a Japanese poet, prose writer, graphic artist, designer, and romantic artist. His work falls on the era of Taisho (1912 - 1925), in his works the artist reflected all the features, all the unique beauty and charm of that era, in which there he interpreted both Japanese and Western cultures. Takeshi Yumeji is called the romantic of the Taishi era, an era of dynamic development of society and the active perception of the whole western world by the Japanese. The main genres in which Takeshi Yumeji worked were the female and children's portrait, everyday scenes, landscape, floral and geometric patterns. Yumeji was self-taught, he never studied drawing in any art school. At first, his landscapes were executed in a manner close to European impressionism. But then the master found his own theme and developed his own unique style, depicting girls in a kimono, their faces, postures, gestures and inner peace, leaving a bright trace in the artistic world of Japan. At present, there are several museums in Japan dedicated to the work of Yumeji: the museum house in the homeland of the artist in Okayama, the Ikaho museum in Ikaho (Gifu Prefecture), the Takeshi Yumeji Art Museum in the Bunkyo-ku district in Tokyo and the Kanazawa Museum Yuvaku Yumeji-kan 'in the city of Kanazawa. They hold exhibitions, thematic lectures, kimono and yukata displays of the Taisho era with models dressed in the style of the beautiful Yumeji. People still continue to admire his work, and artists of modern times draw inspiration from his works for their new works.
      name: James Tissot original name: Jacques-Joseph Tissot birth place: Nantes France birth date: 15 October 1836 zodiac sign: Libra death place: Chenecey-Buillon France death date: 8 August 1902  James Tissot (c. 1867-68), by Edgar Degas. (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Profile of James Tissot James Tissot was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of Paris society before moving to London in 1871, where he became famous as a genre painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life. Toward the end of his life, he dedicated all his time to painting scenes and characters from the Bible after a revelation in 1888. Biography of James Tissot1856: From Nante to Paris James Tissot was born in Nantes, a bustling sea port in a well to do family of successful drapery business. By the time Tissot was 17, he knew he wanted to pursue painting as a career despite his father's opposition. An acquired Anglophile, he began using James as his first name instead of his own given name Jacques and 1854 he was commonly known as James Tissot.  James Tissot, La Renconcontre de Faust et de Marguerite (The Meeting of Faust and Marguerite), 1860 In 1856 or 1857, Tissot travelled to Paris to pursue an education in art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as well as studying in the studios of Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe. He also studied on his own by copying works at the Louvre, as did most other artists of the time in their early years. Around this time, Tissot made the acquaintance of the American painter James McNeill Whistler, and French painters Edgar Degas with whom he would maintain long term friendship. In 1859, Tissot exhibited in the Paris Salon for the first time. He showed five paintings of scenes from the Middle Ages, many depicting scenes from Goethe's Faust. These works show the influence in his work of the Belgian painter Henri Leys (Jan August Hendrik Leys), whom Tissot had met in Antwerp earlier that same year. Other influences include the works of the German painters Peter von Cornelius and Moritz Retzsch. The French government paid 5,000 francs for his painting La Renconcontre de Faust et de Marguerite (The Meeting of Faust and Marguerite) in 1860. That same year, the young James Tissot travelled to both Italy and London, and just a few years later, the period of his interest changed suddenly from Medieval times to his own times, and his subject matters also changed to the daily life scenes of modern fashionable women. Because of that, James Tissot quickly acquired fame ,fortune as well as high critical acclaim.  Le Cercle de la rue Royale(The Circle of the Rue Royale), 1868, a scene in Paris seen from the balcony of the Hôtel de Coislin overlooking the Place de la Concorde Meanwhile, like contemporaries such as Alfred Stevens and Claude Monet, Tissot also explored japonisme, including Japanese objects and costumes in his pictures and expressing style influence.  Jeunes femmes regardant des objets japonais (vers 1869-1870) / Young girls looking at Japanese objects.
1871: From Paris to London: In 1970, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, James Tissot fought for his country in two regimes before he moved to London, said to have only 100 francs on him, but certainly with enough artistic and social connections from his earlier traveling and art exhibitions there to reestablish himself. As he did in Paris almost a decade later, James Tissot focus his effort on depicting beautiful women in their elegant dresses doing ladylike things, that winning formula quickly enabled him to buy a house in the area of St. John's Wood in London, where he had 'a studio with a waiting room where, at all times, there is iced champagne at the disposal of visitors', according to Edmond de Goncourt, one of the Goncourt brothers.  Bad News, 1872, by James Tissot  Boarding the Yacht, 1873 by James Tissot In 1875-6, James Tissot met and fell in love with Kathleen Newton, an Irish divorcee. She moved into Tissot's household in St. John's Wood in 1876 and became the painter's mistress and muse. They lived together in a semi recluse status until her death in 1882 due to Tuberculosis. Tissot frequently referred to these years with Newton as the happiest of his life, a time when he was able to live out his dream of a family life.
1882: From London to Paris: On 9 November 1882, Kathleen Newton killed herself after her consumption got worse and worse daily, and just a week later, James Tissot left London, never to return in his life time.  The Garden Bench, 1882 After returning to Paris, James Tissot tried to reestablish himself yet again with women as his protagonists, but this time in different styles, social contexts and much larger scale. In 1885,Tissot chose 15 of those large paintings for a major exhibition at the Galerie Sedelmeyer, and would call them all La Femme à Paris, representing women of different social classes as well as physical traits engaged in yet seemed aloof from a variety of social scenes and activities, from balls to circus to shops and music gardens. Unlike his previous women who idled away their life in relative solitude or familiar ambiance like decoration, the women portrayed in this series seemed a different type of Femme Nouvelle, who went out, living their life and had their own thoughts, ideas dreams. The series of La Femme à Paris also showed James Tissot's increasing affection of Japanese art, fashion and aesthetics, as he sometimes used unexpected angles and framing (like Degas with his ballet dancers) from that tradition, as if he were standing from a very close, at times intimate distance, looking at his objects.
1885-1886: Dedication to Bible:Between 1885-1886, while working on his paintings Musique sacrée, one of his series of La Femme à Paris, James Tissot had a mystic vision, that rekindled his faith in Catholic religion, and he would dedicate the rest of his life to depicting the scenes of Bible.  The Ark Passes Over the Jordan, between 1896 and 1902 At a time when French artists were working in impressionism, pointillism, and heavy oil washes, Tissot was moving toward realism in his watercolors. To assist in his completion of biblical illustrations, Tissot traveled to the Middle East in 1886, 1889, and 1896 to make studies of the landscape and people. His series of 365 gouache (opaque watercolor) illustrations showing the life of Christ were shown to critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences in Paris (1894–5), London (1896) and New York (1898–9), before being bought by the Brooklyn Museum in 1900. They were published in a French edition in 1896–7 and in an English one in 1897–8, bringing Tissot vast wealth and fame. During July 1894, Tissot was awarded the Légion d'honneur, France's most prestigious medal.  Jesus found in the temple James Tissot spent the last years of his life working on paintings of subjects from the Old Testament. Although he never completed the series, he exhibited 80 of these paintings in Paris in 1901.  James Tissot, The Resurrection 1902: DeathThe religious graphic works James Tissot created the last phase of his life not only deviated dramatically in terms of subject matters, but also demonstrated a completely different sensibility. One can even say they were done someone else other than James Tissot himself, a portraitist of belle époque elegance. It seems as if the reawakening of his religious belief had not only changed his soul, but also his paint brush.
On 8 August 1902, James Tissot died in Doubs, France in the Château de Buillon, a former abbey which he had inherited from his father in 1888. His grave is in the chapel sited within the grounds of the chateau. Widespread use of his illustrations in literature and slides continued after his death with The Life of Christ and The Old Testament becoming the "definitive Bible images". His images provided a foundation for contemporary films such as the lifestyle themes in The Age of Innocence (1993). In the first half of the 20th century, there was a re-kindling of interest in his portraits of fashionable ladies and some fifty years later, these were achieving record prices.  name: Pierre-Paul Prud'hon birth place: Cluny France birth date: 4 April 1758 zodiac sign: Aries death place: Paris France death date: 16 February 1823  PORTRAIT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, 1805 BiographiePierre-Paul Prud'hon nait à Cluny, le 4 avril 1758, septième et dernier enfant de Christophe Prudon, maître tailleur de pierre. A dix-neuf ans, Prud'hon épouse le 17 février 1778, Jeanne Pennet, la fille d'un notaire. Ce mariage ne sera pas très heureux mais il en aura un fils, Jean, né en 1778, qui deviendra aussi peintre et graveur. Il poursuit ses études, et vient, en 1780, à Paris où il est adressé au graveur Wille par son compatriote le baron de Joursanvault, qui est aussi son bienfaiteur, et pour lequel il illustre une Méthode de basse et une Méthode de blason. En 1783, revenu à Dijon, il y concourt bientôt pour le Prix de Rome régional des états de Bourgogne. Prud'hon part pour Rome où il arrive le 3 janvier 1783 avec son camarade Pierre Petitot. Cependant, malgré ses amis, malgré la sollicitude du cardinal de Bernis, de Canova, il y vit dans la solitude, dans la mélancolie, et parfois dans la gêne. Il voyage en Italie de 1784 à 1788. Revenu à Paris, il acquiert une certaine renommée avec quelques tableaux allégoriques repris dans des gravures, mais son amitié avec Robespierre l’oblige à quitter Paris et il part vivre en Franche-Comté de 1794 à 1796. Il vit alors de portraits et d’illustrations pour l’éditeur et imprimeur Pierre Didot. Il est élu membre associé de l’Institut en 1796 et revient alors à Paris où sa carrière prend un nouvel essor. Le Louvre met à sa disposition un atelier pour réaliser La Sagesse et la Vérité descendant sur la terre de 1798 à 1799. Il peint également pour l’hôtel du financier de Lannoy, des décors allégoriques qui sont beaucoup appréciés, et des plafonds au Louvre. Le gouvernement lui attribue un atelier à la Sorbonne où sa femme Jeanne vient le harceler. Pour lui échapper, le peintre demande la protection de Vivant Denon, directeur des musées. En 1808 il peint La Justice et la Vengeance Divine poursuivant le Crime.  La Justice et la Vengeance divine poursuivant le Crime, par Prud'hon Il est nommé chevalier de la Légion d'honneur le 22 octobre 1808. Il rompt définitivement avec son épouse acariâtre et se lie à l'artiste-peintre Constance Mayer, sa collaboratrice, et s'installe avec elle.  PORTRAIT DE L’IMPÉRATRICE JOSÉPHINE DANS LE PARC DE MALMAISON, 1805 Il fait le portrait de l'impératrice Joséphine, (conservé à Paris au musée du Louvre), et, en 1811, nommé professeur de dessin de la souveraine, il fait le portrait du petit Roi de Rome, présenté au Salon de 1812. Il est élu membre de l'Académie des beaux-arts, au fauteuil no 3 de la section Peinture, succédant à François-André Vincent, en 1816. Le 26 mai 1821, Constance Mayer, dépressive, se tue, la douleur de Prud'hon est profonde. Il termine le tableau qu'elle a laissé inachevé, Une famille malheureuse, et l'expose au Salon de 1822. Il meurt l'année suivante et il est inhumé à Paris au cimetière du Père-Lachaise. Il est apprécié par Stendhal, Balzac, Delacroix, Millet et Baudelaire pour la qualité de son clair-obscur et son réalisme subtil. Plusieurs de ses œuvres furent gravées par son confrère Jacques-Louis Copia, tandis qu'Antoine François Gelée fut médaillé au Salon de 1842 pour son interprétation du tableau La Justice et la Vengeance Divine poursuivant le Crime. Biography Love Seduces Innocence, Pleasure Entraps, and Remorse Follows Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (April 4, 1758 – February 16, 1823) was a French Romantic painter and draughtsman best known for his allegorical paintings and portraits such as Madame Georges Anthony and Her Two Sons (1796). Notably, he painted a portrait of each of Napoleon's two wives. He was an early influence on Théodore Géricault.  Pierre-Paul Prud'hon was born in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. He received his artistic training in the French provinces and went to Italy when he was twenty-six years old to continue his education. On his return to Paris, he found work decorating some private mansions. His work for wealthy Parisians led him to be held in high esteem at Napoleon's court. His painting of Josephine portrays her not as an Empress, but as a lovely, attractive woman, which led some to think that he might have been in love with her. After the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine, he was also employed by Napoleon' s second wife Marie-Louise. Prud'hon was at times clearly influenced by Neo-classicism, at other times by Romanticism. Appreciated by other artists and writers such as Stendhal, Delacroix, Millet and Baudelaire for his chiaroscuro and convincing realism, he is probably most famous for his Crucifixion (1822, Louvre), which he painted for St. Etienne's Cathedral in Metz. The young Théodore Géricault had painted copies of work by Prud'hon, whose "thunderously tragic pictures" include his masterpiece, Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, where oppressive darkness and the compositional base of a naked, sprawled corpse obviously anticipate Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.  External links: john singer sargent self portrait name: john singer sergeant birth place: Florence Italy birth date: 12 January 1856 zodiac sign: Capricorn death place: London England death date: 14 April 1925 languages: English, French, Italian, German Biography of John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent ( 12 January, 1856 – 14 April, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury.He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.  Portrait of Carolus-Duran, 1879 by John Singer Sargent He was born in Florence to American parents, and trained in Paris before moving to London, living most of his life in Europe. He enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, although not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his Portrait of Madame X, was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but instead resulted in scandal. From the beginning his work is characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. Art historians generally ignored "society" artists such as Sargent until the late 20th century.  Teresa Gosse by John Singer Sargent 1885
The unrivaled recorder of male power and female beauty in a day that, like ours, paid excessive court to both." Subjects of John Singer Sargent: society ladies
Subjects of John Singer Sargent: Artists  Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife by John Singer Sargent 1885  Claude painting by the edge of a wood by John Singer Sargent 1885  name: John William Godward birth place: Wimbledon London, England birth date: 9 August 1861 zodiac sign: Leo death place: London England death date: 13 December 1922  Waiting for an answer by John William Godward 1889 with artist possible self portrait Profile of John William GodwardJohn William Godward (9 August 1861 – 13 December 1922) was an English painter from the end of the Neo-Classicist era. He was a protégé of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema but his style of painting fell out of favor with the rise of modern art. He committed suicide at the age of 61 and is said to have written in his suicide note that "the world is not big enough for myself and a Picasso". His estranged family, who had disapproved of his becoming an artist, were ashamed of his suicide and burned his papers. Only one photograph of Godward is known to survive.  Contemplation, 1903 by John William Godward Biography of John William GodwardJohn William Godward was born on 9 August 1861. His father was an investment clerk at the Law Life Assurance Society in London, and the family eventually lived in Wimbledon. Being the firstborn and the oldest son, it was assumed that Godward would follow his father into the world of insurance. Even though Godward was already showing more interest in his creative side, he found himself training to be an insurance clerk. But when Godward’s father decided to offer him a job, John Williams Godward refused, so his father arranged for him to train as an architect – a much more lucrative, respectable career than a simple artist. Between 1879 and 1881, Godward studied under William Wontner, a family friend who was also an architect and designer. But happily for Godward, he \worked alongside Wontner’s son, William Clarke Wontner, himself a painter who would go on to become a popular painter of landscapes and murals. As for Godward’s own artistic training, it’s not known where he trained and with whom. There are no records of him at the Royal Academy Schools. However, it could be that Godward was helped in some way by William Clarke Wonter who, in 1885, was teaching at the St John’s Wood Art School, whose students typically went on to the Royal Academy Schools.
His first work dates from around 1880, and in 1887, Godward had one of his paintings, ‘The Yellow Turban’, accepted at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Godward greatly admired the leading Classicists of the time; Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s influence can be seen in Godward’s use of marble and textiles, and that of Sir Frederic Leighton can be seen in the glossy finish of his paintings. Like Alma-Tadema, who was not only a painter but also an archaeologist who visited historical sites, Godward, too, meticulously studied details such as architecture and dress to give his work authenticity. He also painstakingly studied any feature he used in his paintings, from wild flowers to animal skins.  Dolce Far Niente, 1897  When the heart is young, 1902  Dolce Far Niente, 1904 (When the heart is young) Godward’s father died in 1904. The following year, Godward made his first visit to Italy, which he found captivating. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Godward had always preferred privacy and anonymity. In 1912, he left for Italy with one of his models (the one in ‘Dolce Far Niente’). Outraged, his family severed all contact with him.  In the days of Sappho, 1904  Violet, Sweet Violet by John William Godward (1906)
By 1921, with his health failing, suffering from depression and no longer enchanted with Italy, he returned to England. But the country he returned to was no longer interested in the Classical style. In fact, it proved to be nothing short of hostile toward his style of art. As the world’s artistic preference started to embrace modern art, Godward would become one of the last, best European Classical painters. Although not as prolific as he had been, Godward continued painting. What was possibly his last completed work, titled, ‘Contemplation’, was sold to a firm of art dealers.  Contemplation, 1922 by John William Godward Godward chose to end his life on 13th December 1922. According to the newspaper report of his death, the cheque for his last painting Contemplation had been left pinned to his door.
Although saddened by his death, his family also felt disgraced; no Godward had committed suicide before, and to have it so publicly reported, with the accompanying inquest, left them more angry than sad. His mother, Sarah, literally cut his image from family photographs, and his personal papers were destroyed. If he was mentioned at all, it was only in whispers. For many years after his death, Godward’s paintings held little value. They couldn’t be found at art dealers; between the 1940s and 1960s, many of them had passed their Godwards to Harrod’s to sell. By the end of the 1970s, Godward the painter and his art had faded into obscurity. Ironically Godward’s art is seeing a huge revival. His painting Dolce Far Niente was sold foralmost 1.5 million dollars in New York in 2012, and another painting Summer Idleness: Day Dreams for which the buyer has paid £100 only at Harrods, an ‘impulse buy’ after a lunch in London, was sold by the daughter of the buyer in October of 2012 for £320,000, yet another one ‘A Fair Reflection’, which would have been worth about £5,000 in 1979, sold for £900,000.  A Fair Reflection, 1915 by John William Godward Further reading Books  John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism
John William Godward was a passionate and extremely accomplished practitioner of the 19th century Graeco-Roman Classic style. Swanson's book describes an enigmatic, tormented personality and confirms Godward's intense, if narrow, genius. American author and art historian Vern Grosvenor Swanson interviewed three remost family members of John William Godward in order to write this book  photo of John William Waterhouse circa 1886 birth place: Rome Italy birth date: 6 April 1849 zodiac sign: Aries death place: London England death date: 10 February 1917 Profile of John William WaterhouseJohn William Waterhouse was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His artworks were known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend. Born in Rome to English parents who were both painters, Waterhouse later moved to London, where he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art. He soon began exhibiting at their annual summer exhibitions, focusing on the creation of large canvas works depicting scenes from the daily life and mythology of ancient Greece.  Cleopatra 1888 by John William Waterhouse “ … Waterhouse is among the most popular Victorian Artists, and many of his paintings have become icons of femininity recognized the world over. With the glowing colour, compelling composition and Impressionist-infected technique, these paintings are admired for their beauty, yet at the same time have the power to transport viewers into a romantic world of myth and legend. Waterhouse’s art reflects, not only his distinctive ideal of female beauty, but also a lifelong fascination with the Romantic and Symbolistic themes of passion, magic and transformation, spiritual, erotic and physical … like other Victorian artists, Waterhouse was neglected throughout much of the 20th century, but today he is acknowledged as a crucial inheritor of the Pre-Raphaelite legacy.” Biography of John William Waterhouse1849: birth John William Waterhouse was born in the city of Rome to the English painters William and Isabella Waterhouse in 1849, and his early life in Italy has been cited as one of the reasons many of his later paintings were set in ancient Rome or based upon scenes taken from Roman mythology.  In 1854, Waterhouses' parents returned to England and moved to a newly built house in South Kensington, London. Waterhouse was encouraged to draw, and often sketched artworks that he found in the British Museum and the National Gallery. In 1871 he entered the Royal Academy of Art school, initially to study sculpture, before moving on to painting.  Undine, 1873 by John William Waterhouse John William Waterhouse's early works were not Pre-Raphaelite in nature, but were of classical themes in the spirit of Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton. In 1874 his painting Sleep and his Half-brother Death was exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. The painting was a success and Waterhouse would exhibit at the annual exhibition every year until 1916, with the exception of 1890 and 1915.  Sleep and his Half-brother Death, 1874 In 1883 Waterhouse married Esther Kenworthy, the daughter of an art schoolmaster from Ealing who had exhibited her own flower-paintings at the Royal Academy and elsewhere. In 1895 Waterhouse was elected to the status of full Academician. He taught at the St. John's Wood Art School, joined the St John's Wood Arts Club, and served on the Royal Academy Council.  Dolce far Niente, 1880 Subjects of John William Waterhouse  The Lady of Shalott, 1888 One of Waterhouse's best known subjects is The Lady of Shalott, a study of Elaine of Astolat as depicted in the 1832 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who dies of a mysterious curse after looking directly at the beautiful Lancelot. He actually painted three different versions of this character, in 1888, 1894, and 1916.
But in her web she still delights  Ophelia, 1889 Another of Waterhouse's favorite subjects was Ophelia which could have been inspired by paintings of Ophelia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais. He submitted his 1888 Ophelia painting in order to receive his diploma from the Royal Academy.  Ophelia, 1894 Waterhouse would paint Ophelia again in 1894 and 1910, and the 1894 version is perhaps the most familiar one which depicts Ophelia just before her death, putting flowers in her hair as she sits on a tree branch leaning over a lake.  Ophelia, 1910 John William Waterhouse had planned another painting in the series, called Ophelia in the Churchyard but could not finish it because he was gravely ill with cancer by 1915, and died two years later.  Miranda -- The Tempest, 1916  Original name: Lourens Alma Tadema Name: Lawrence Alam-Tadema birth place: Dronryp, Netherland birth date: 8 January 1836 zodiac sign: Capricorn death place: Wiesbaden, Germany death date: 25 June 1912  Lawrence Alma-Tadema in 1870 Profile of Lawrence Alma-TademaSir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, was a Dutch painter of special British denizenship. Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean Sea and sky. Though admired during his lifetime for his draftsmanship and depictions of Classical antiquity, his work fell into disrepute after his death, and only since the 1960s has it been re-evaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century British art.  Unconscious Rivals (1893), oil on panel, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. Biography of Lawrence Alma-TademaLourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of Dronrijp in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the nearby city of Leeuwarden, where his father Pieter's position as a notary would be more lucrative, but Pieter died two years later when Lourens was only four, leaving his mother with five children. His mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children's education. He received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers. It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer; but in 1851 at the age of fifteen he suffered a physical and mental breakdown and given only a short time to live, he was allowed to spend his remaining days as he wanted, drawing and painting. Thus miraculously he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist. From 1858, Tadema began working with the painter Baron Jan August Hendrik Leys, whose studio was one of the most highly regarded in Belgium. Under his guidance Alma-Tadema painted his first major work: The Education of the children of Clovis (1861). This painting created a sensation among critics and artists when it was exhibited that year at the Artistic Congress in Antwerp. It is said to have laid the foundation of his fame and reputation. In 1862 Alma-Tadema left Leys's studio and started his own career, establishing himself as a significant classical-subject European artist.  The Education of the Children of Clovis (1861), oil on canvas, 127 × 176.8 cm, private collection. Queen Clotilde, wife of King Clovis, is shown training her three young children the art of hurling the ax to avenge the death of her father. By Lawrence Alma-Tadema In September 1863, Lawrence Alma-Tadema married to Marie-Pauline Gressin Dumoulin, the daughter of a French journalist, they had two daughters and one son, who died after a few months of birth. While on his honeymoon, Tadema went to Italy with his wife, his first visit there, and it was that he developed his interest in depicting the life of ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter which fascinated him and would inspire much of his work in the coming decades.  portrait of Lawrence Alma-Tadema's two daughters: Anna (in front) and Laurence by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1873 In 1869, Tadema's wife died and he himself suffered health problems, he went to London in search of better medical opinion, and there he met and fell in love with Laura Theresa Epps, which made him decide to move to London, where he would spend the rest of life.  A Greek Woman (1869) Oil on canvas, Private Collection by Lawrence Alma-Tadema After his arrival in England, Alma-Tadema's career was one of continued success. He became one of the most famous and highly paid artists of his time, acknowledged and rewarded. By 1871 he had met and befriended most of the major Pre-Raphaelite painters and it was in part due to their influence that the artist brightened his palette, varied his hues, and lightened his brushwork.  The Sculpture Gallery (1874) Oil on canvas, Private Collection by Lawrence Alma-Tadema In 1872 Alma-Tadema organised his paintings into an identification system by including an opus number under his signature and assigning his earlier pictures numbers as well. Portrait of my sister, Artje, painted in 1851, is numbered opus I, while two months before his death he completed Preparations in the Coliseum, opus CCCCVIII. Such a system would make it difficult for fakes to be passed off as originals.  Photo of Lawrence Alma-Tadema On 19 June 1879, Alma-Tadema was made a full Academician, his most personally important award. Three years later a major retrospective of his entire oeuvre was organised at the Grosvenor Gallery in London, including 185 of his pictures.  Antony and Cleopatra (1883) Oil on canvas, Private Collection by Lawrence Alma-Tadema In 1883 he returned to Rome and, most notably, Pompeii, where further excavations had taken place since his last visit. He spent a significant amount of time studying the site, going there daily. These excursions gave him an ample source of subject matter as he began to further his knowledge of daily Roman life. One of his most famous paintings is The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888) – based on an episode from the life of the debauched Roman Emperor Elagabalus (Heliogabalus), the painting depicts the Emperor suffocating his guests at an orgy under a cascade of rose petals. The blossoms depicted were sent weekly to the artist's London studio from the Riviera for four months during the winter of 1887–1888.  The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888), oil on canvas, 132.1 × 213.7 cm, private collection. Alma-Tadema's output decreased with time, partly on account of health, but also because of his obsession with decorating his new home, to which he moved in 1883. Nevertheless, he continued to exhibit throughout the 1880s. In 1899 he was Knighted in England, only the eighth artist from the Continent to receive the honour. During this time, Alma-Tadema was very active with theatre design and production, designing many costumes. He also spread his artistic boundaries and began to design furniture, often modelled after Pompeian or Egyptian motifs, illustrations, textiles, and frame making. His diverse interests highlight his talents. Each of these exploits were used in his paintings, as he often incorporated some of his designed furniture into the composition, and must have used many of his own designs for the clothing of his female subjects.  Silver Favourites, 1903, oil on wood, 69.1 × 42.2 cm, Manchester Art Gallery. In 1909 Alma-Tadema's wife, Laura, died at the age of fifty-seven. Three years later in the summer of 1912, Alma-Tadema was accompanied by his daughter Anna to Kaiserhof Spa, Wiesbaden, Germany where he was to undergo treatment for ulceration of the stomach.He died there on 28 June 1912 at the age of seventy-six.  Portrait of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema by mehrdad Jamshidi, Iranian painter Style of Lawrence Alma-Tadema The Women of Amphissa (1887) Oil on canvas, Private Collection by Lawrence Alma-Tadema Alma-Tadema's works are remarkable for the way in which flowers, textures and hard reflecting substances, like metals, pottery, and especially marble, are painted – indeed, his realistic depiction of marble led him to be called the 'marbellous painter'. His work shows much of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch masters. By the human interest with which he imbues all his scenes from ancient life he brings them within the scope of modern feeling, and charms us with gentle sentiment and playfulness. From early in his career, Alma-Tadema was particularly concerned with architectural accuracy, often including objects that he would see at museums – such as the British Museum in London – in his works. He also read many books and took many images from them. He amassed an enormous number of photographs from ancient sites in Italy, which he used for the most precise accuracy in the details of his compositions. Alma-Tadema was a perfectionist. He worked assiduously to make the most of his paintings, often repeatedly reworking parts of paintings before he found them satisfactory to his own high standards. One humorous story relates that one of his paintings was rejected and instead of keeping it, he gave the canvas to a maid who used it as her table cover. He was sensitive to every detail and architectural line of his paintings, as well as the settings he was depicting. For many of the objects in his paintings, he would depict what was in front of him, using fresh flowers imported from across the continent and even from Africa, rushing to finish the paintings before the flowers died. It was this commitment to veracity that earned him recognition but also caused many of his adversaries to take up arms against his almost encyclopaedic works  The Finding of Moses (1904) Oil on canvas, Private Collection by Lawrence Alma-Tadema Alma-Tadema's work has been linked with that of European Symbolist painters. As an artist of international reputation, he can be cited as an influence on European figures such as Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff. Both painters incorporate classical motifs into their works and use Alma-Tadema's unconventional compositional devices such as abrupt cut-off at the edge of the canvas. They, like Alma-Tadema, also employ coded imagery to convey meaning to their paintings.  Preparation in the Colosseum (1912) Oil on canvas, Private Collection  Georges de Feure photo by Marcel Schwob Georges de Feure (real name Georges Joseph van Sluÿters, 6 September 1868 – 26 November 1943) was a French painter, theatrical designer, and industrial art designer in the symbolism and Art Nouveau styles. De Feure was born in Paris. His father was an affluent Dutch architect, and his mother was Belgian. In the 70s, the family had to move to the Netherlands due to the Franco-Prussian war, and they were back to Paris in the 80s.
In 1886, de Feure was one of the eleven students admitted at the Rijkscademievoor Beeldende Kunsten(Royal Academy of Arts) in Amsterdam, but he left for Paris in 1889 since he felt that formal academic training had nothing to offer him. Being of very independent nature, de Feure never again took up formal artistic studies, and forged his own independent path. Georges de Feure lived in Montmarte, and became part of the bohemian community. Later he would become friend of Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel. 
His main subject was woman, not any woman in particular, but woman as an ideal, as an existence, beautiful yet anxious, sometimes he even put them in menacing environment to show their anxiety. In 1890, Georges was recognised by French painter Puvis de Chavannes as one of the most important painters of French Symbolism movement.  La Botaniste. Pastel, 1896
Between 1890 to 1900, Georges de Feure was not only painter, but also poster designer and illustrator. He was influenced by Jules Chéret in his posters for the café concert but most likely was never his pupil.
« un des ensembles décoratifs les plus exquis et parfaits que notre époque ait créés » From 1900, the career of the artist took a different direction. Samuel Bing (1838-1905), founder of the House of Art Nouveau, asked him to design the facade of the Pavilion of Art Nouveau at l'Exposition Universelle de 1900 and later also some part of the interiors as well as some furniture. This is the beginning of a fruitful collaboration, Georges de Feure would design not only furniture but also vases and jewellery. 
Afterwards, Georges de Feure also worked for newspapers, created theatre designs for Le Chat Noir cabaret and posters. In August 1901, de Feure was nominated Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur for his contribution to the decorative arts. In 1903, there held a retrospective exhibition in Paris of Georges de Feure, and after that he went to Hambourg and La Haye.
During the first 10 years of 20th century, he continued his decorative design, and his style slowly evolved from Art Nouveau to that of Art Deco. During the First World War, he moved to London where he designed costumes and set for the theatres. In the 1920s, he was artistic adviser for the shops of French haute couturiere Madeleine Vionnet.  In 1943, Georges de Feure died in poverty at the age of 75 years in the occupied Paris. Further interest Gian Lorenzo Bernini self portrait name: Gianlorenzo Bernini original name: Cavaliere Bernini birth place: Naples birth date: 7 December 1598 zodiac sign: Sagittarius death place: Rome death date: 28 November 1680 Biography of Gian Lorenzo BerniniGian Lorenzo Bernini, is an Italian artist, painter, sculptor, architector, inventor, he is credited to have created the Baroque style of sculpture. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was, also and even more prominently, the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful...."In addition, he was a painter (mostly small canvases in oil) and a man of the theater: he wrote, directed and acted in plays (mostly Carnival satires), for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches. As architect and city planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as massive works combining both architecture and sculpture, especially elaborate public fountains and funerary monuments and a whole series of temporary structures (in stucco and wood) for funerals and festivals. His broad technical versatility, boundless compositional inventiveness and sheer skill in manipulating marble ensured that he would be considered a worthy successor of Michelangelo, far outshining other sculptors of his generation. His talent extended beyond the confines of sculpture to a consideration of the setting in which it would be situated; his ability to synthesize sculpture, painting, and architecture into a coherent conceptual and visual whole has been termed by the late art historian Irving Lavin the "unity of the visual arts".  1620s: David and Apollo Gianlorenzo Bernini sculpted this life-sized sculpture of David for Pope Paul V’s nephew during the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic religion was being challenged by Protestantism. Portrayed at the moment of battle, David infringes forcefully on the viewer’s space. The sculpture captures David as he launches the stone at the giant Goliath. There is a lot of movement in this sculpture with David bending at the waist and his arms twisted to one side. David’s clothing twists dramatically around his body accentuating the power David is putting behind the stone. At his feet lays his discarded armor. His face is full of emotion and he seems more human-like, more relatable. David shows intense determination with his clenched jaw and furrowed brow. The energy and tension of David’s body activates the space around him implying the existence of an opponent.  David by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1623-1624, Borghese Gallery, Rome  David by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1623-1624, Borghese Gallery, Rome The sculpture of Apollo and Daphne is the last of Bernini's work commissioned by the Borghese family, and remains one of his most popular sculptures. The influence of antique sculptures (Apollo of Belvedere) and of contemporary paintings (such as those by Guido Reni) are clearly seen in this masterpiece.  Apollo and Daphne(243 cm) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1622-25, Galleria Borghese, Rome 1647-1652: Ecstasy of Saint Teresa  The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1647-1652  The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1647-1652  The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1647-1652 « Le Bernin, ah ! le délicieux Bernin [...]. Il est puissant et exquis, une verve toujours prête, une ingéniosité sans cesse en éveil, une fécondité pleine de grâce et de magnificence ! ... »  The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1647-1652
1648-1651: Fontana dei Quatro Fiumi (Fountain of Four Rivers)  Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi(Fountain of Four Rivers) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy Public fountains in Rome served multiple purposes: first, they were highly needed sources of water for neighbors in the centuries prior to home plumbing. Second, they were monuments to the papal patrons.  Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi(Fountain of Four Rivers) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy The circumstances of how Bernini won the commission of this public moment are described as follows in Filippo Baldinucci's The life of Cavaliere Bernini (1682):
 Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi(Fountain of Four Rivers) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy 1665: King Louis XIV  Gianlorenzo Bernini self portrait, 1665 According to French diarist, a steward at the court of Louis XIV Paul Fréart de Chantelou's diary, the process of selecting suitable marble block took several days to accomplish, and the bust took just over three months to carve.  Bust of Louis XIV by Antonio Canova, 1665, Salon de Diane Palace of Versailles While searching for a block of marble there was some discussion with members of the court about whether or not Bernini would make a full body statue or a bust. Bernini began drawing after the marble block had been selected. However, it seems that once he had done this initial work, Bernini chose to work only during sittings with the king. His pupil, Giulio Cartari, began work on carving down the chosen block of marble (and would later do much of the drapery work), and then Bernini took over, taking forty days to complete the work. He had hoped to have twenty sittings with the king during the final carving process, but in fact there were thirteen of around one hour each. The bust is modelled heavily after an earlier bust that Bernini made almost a decade ago of Francesco d'Este, the duke of Modena, and other than the fact that Louis' cloak was slightly longer horizontally a person would not be able to tell that one was of higher nobility.  Bust of Francesco I d'Este, duke of Modena by Antonio Canova, 1650-1651  Bust of Louis XIV by Antonio Canova, 1665, Palace of Versailles Bernini's son and biographer, Domenico Bernini, noted the artistic arguments of his father as to why the King agreed to sit for such a length of time, explaining that the artist preferred to work from Truth rather than rely on the unnecessary imaginative extras that would creep into working from sketches. Equally, Bernini wanted to see the king, as he did many of this other sitters, not remaining immobile, but sitting and talking in such ways that Bernini could capture all his characteristics. Such an approach, with Bernini wishing to capture the figure in physical and psychological motion, was a common element of Bernini’s work: “mere resemblance is inadequate. One must express what goes on in the heads of heroes,” Bernini is recorded as saying. Bernini also observed the king in other locations - playing tennis, resting after lunch, or simply walking around court. Art historian and biographer of artists Filippo Baldinucci records numerous events that advertise Bernini’s supposed influence on French culture, including one incident where Bernini rearranged the King’s hair to give greater exposure to the King’s brow - the new stye was apparently followed by all at the French court, and became known as the Bernini modification. Contemporary art historians are sceptical of this however; Jeanne Zarucchi claims that the alteration was deliberate, altering the shape of the King's head in an unflattering manner.  Musée du Louvre, Paris, France But King Louis XIV's hairstyle apart, what if Gianlorenzo had tried harder to please the Sun King? What if the Great Bernini had designed Louvre?
 Biografia Giorgio Lupano (Trofarello, 5 ottobre 1969) è un attore italiano. Diplomatosi nel 1993 alla scuola del Teatro Stabile di Torino diretta da Luca Ronconi, nasce artisticamente come attore di teatro, lavora poi anche per il cinema e per la televisione. Uno dei suoi primi ruoli importanti è nel 2000, quando è tra i protagonisti del film Il manoscritto del Principe, diretto da Roberto Andò. Nel 2004 è nuovamente sul grande schermo con i film E ridendo l'uccise, diretto da Florestano Vancini e Sotto falso nome, diretto da Roberto Andò. In televisione ha recitato nella miniserie televisiva Regina dei fiori (2005), nel telefilm di Canale 5 R.I.S. 4 - Delitti imperfetti (2007) e nella miniserie TV La stella della porta accanto, andata in onda nel settembre 2008 su Rai 1. Nel 2009 per il cinema prende parte alla produzione internazionale La papessa diretto da Sönke Wortmann. Nell'autunno 2010 è protagonista della prima stagione di Paura di amare su Rai 1 e nel 2013 è protagonista anche nella seconda stagione. Dal 2017 fa parte del cast principale della serie Sacrificio d'amore nel ruolo di Corrado Corradi, coinvolto nel triangolo amoroso con sua moglie Silvia e uno dei lavoratori Brando Prizzi. Dal 2018 interpreta il personaggio di Luciano Cattaneo nella soap opera pomeridiana di Rai 1 Il paradiso delle signore.  Biography  birth place: London England birth date: 7 july 1915 zodiac sign: Cancerian death place: Westminster England death date: 24 march 1979  Yvonne Mitchell (7 July 1915 – 24 March 1979) was an English stage, television and film actress. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include Julia in the 1954 BBC adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. She retired from acting in 1977. Profile of Yvonne Mitchell Biography of Yvonne MitchellYvonne Mitchell was born Yvonne Frances Joseph, but in 1946 changed her name by deed poll to Yvonne Mitchell. She was Jewish. Already an experienced stage actress, Mitchell made her speaking film debut in The Queen of Spades (1949), although she played an uncredited minor role in Love on the Dole eight years earlier. She had several prominent film roles over the next three decades, winning a British Film Award for The Divided Heart (1954) and the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival for Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957). She appeared as Mildred in the controversial film Sapphire (1959). Yvonne Mitchell was voted 'Television Actress of the Year' for 1953 by the Daily Mail newspaper, mainly for her role as Cathy in the Nigel Kneale/Rudolph Cartier adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights. The next year, she appeared in another Kneale/Cartier literary adaptation in the role of Julia, with Peter Cushing as Winston Smith, in their adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four. She starred as Lea in the 1973 BBC TV production of Colette's Cheri. She continued to appear in television guest roles until the late 1970s, in series such as Out of the Unknown (in 1966); her final screen role was in the BBC science-fiction series 1990 (1977). Mitchell was married to the journalist, film and theatre critic and novelist Derek Monsey (1921–1979) and they lived in a village in the south of France.  Yvonne Mitchell with her husband Derek Monsey and their daughter at home  Outside acting, Mitchell was also an established author, writing several books for children and adults as well as winning awards for playwriting. Her plays include The Same Sky. She wrote an acclaimed biography of the French writer Colette, and her own autobiography was published in 1957.  Mitchell died of cancer, aged 63, in 1979. Monsey died the same year, roughly one month earlier. Their daughter Cordelia Monsey is a theatre director and a long-term associate of both Sir Peter Hall and Sir Trevor Nunn.[citation needed] Yvonne Mitchell's grandson is the drummer and violinist, Mitch McGugan.  Yvonne Mitchell at home Filmography The Queen of Spades (1949) - Lizaveta Ivanova Children of Chance (1949) - Australia Turn the Key Softly (1953) - Monica Marsden The Divided Heart (1954) - Sonja Escapade (1955) - Mrs. Stella Hampden Yield to the Night (1956) - MacFarlane Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) - Amy Passionate Summer (1958) - Mrs. Pawley Tiger Bay (1959) - Anya Sapphire (1959) - Mildred Conspiracy of Hearts (1960) - Sister Gerta The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) - Constance Wilde Johnny Nobody (1961) - Miss Floyd The Main Attraction (1962) - Elenora Moreno Genghis Khan (1965) - Katke The Corpse (1971) - Edith Eastwood The Great Waltz (1972) - Anna Strauss Demons of the Mind (1972) - Hilda The Incredible Sarah (1976) - Mam'selle Nido de Viudas (1977) - Elvira  Yvonne Mitchell in Escapade 1955  Name: Alessandro Preziosi Birth place: Naples, Italy Birth date: 19 april 1973 Nationality: Italian Languages: Italian, English Height: 1,87m Elegant character 2003-2004: TV series Elisa di Rivombrosa as Fabrizio Ristori.  2007 film I Vicerè as principle character Consalvo  In 1894, Italian Writer Federico de Roberto (Napoli, 16 gennaio 1861 – Catania, 26 luglio 1927) wrote the novel I Vicerè.It was the story about Uzeda, a Sicilian princely family in 19th century Sicily faithful to the Bourbon kings, begins to lose its power, with the Unification of Italy in 1861 and the rise to power of Giuseppe Garibaldi and Vittorio Emanuele II, ). In 2007 Italian director Roberto Faenza adapted it into a historical film with the same title, and Alessandro Preziosi played the principle character Consalvo.  Alessandro Preziosi in film I Vicerè  Alessandro Preziosi in film I Vicerè as Consalvo  Name: lambert wilson Birth place: Neuilly-sur-Seine,Paris, France Birth date: 03 august 1958 zodiac sign: leo Nationality: French Languages: French, English, Italian, Spanish Occupation: actor, singer height / taille / altezza / alto / Größe / 高さ / 高度: 1.9m weight / poids / peso / Gewicht / 重量: 76-80kg  Il n'y a que l'amour qui m'intéresse dans la vie. Je place la sphère sentimentale bien avant la carrière ou les considérations matérielles, loin devant l'art. Chaque fois que je prends l'avion, j'imagine qu'une catastrophe survienne. Qu'emporterais-je des rives de la Terre? Le temps que j'ai passé à me consacrer à l'amour: ce serait mon trésor.¨ Biography of Lambert Wilson Lambert Wilson was born on 3 August 1958 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris. Both his father Georges Wilson and mother Nicole Wilson were both actors, so he grew up in the theatrical ambience.  Lamber Wilson`s early dream was to become an actor in US, as he was fascinated about Hollywood, and he wanted to be away from his father to prove he does not need his father to achieve success. He went to England to study English and then went to America. It was a long struggling journey. He appeared in various American films, but none made him ``French Robert Redford ``, his idol, and some of the films he participated were never released. And it was in France, his home country which he had tried to escaped from, that he finally achieved fame and commerical success.  chronicle of elegant characters: 2008: Commes les autres  year: 2010 category: film title: comme des autres role: Emmanuel director: Vincent Garenq synoposis: Emmanuel and Philippe are a loving gay couple, until when Emmanuel wants to have a child, and he decides to take the plunge altough Philippe does not and they seperate. And he has the child in an unusal way, breaking another heart. 2010: le comte de Chabannes  year: 2010
category: film title: la princesse de montpensier role: le comte de Chabannes director: bertrand tavernier Synopsis: (inspired by original story by madame de la fayette) It's a love story romanticized between the Duke of Guise and Miss de Mézière, forced to marry the Prince of Montpensier.  Biography Lino Guanciale (21 maggio 1979) è un attore italiano. Nasce in Abruzzo da padre medico e madre insegnante, la sua carriera d'attore inizia in teatro: diretto da Gigi Proietti recita in Romeo e Giulietta, spettacolo che inaugura il Silvano Toti Globe Theatre di Roma. Nel 2009 debutta al cinema con Io, Don Giovanni di Carlos Saura, nei panni di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Nel 2011 esordisce anche in televisione con la fiction Il segreto dell'acqua, trasmessa su Rai 1. Nonostante i lavori per il grande e il piccolo schermo, non abbandona comunque il teatro; fra il 2011 e il 2012 è uno dei protagonisti de La resistibile ascesa di Arturo Ui di Bertolt Brecht, per la regia di Claudio Longhi, premiato come miglior spettacolo dell'anno dall'Associazione Nazionale dei Critici Teatrali.  Biography Lino Guanciale is an Italian actor. Born in Abruzzo, his career as an actor started in theatre in Romeo e Giulietta directed by Gigi Proietti. In 2009, he debuted in cinema with film Io, Don Giovanni directed by Carlos Saura, playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. And in 2011 he started his career on TV with the series Il segreto dell'acqua, on Italian channel Rai 1. But while working on both small and big screen, Lino never gave up theatre. elegant character2015 La Dama Veleta as Conte Guido Fossà     Louis Garrel, né le 14 juin 1983 à Paris, est un acteur et réalisateur français. Biographie Louis Garrel, né le 14 juin 1983 à Paris, est un acteur et réalisateur français. En 2006, il a reçu le César du meilleur espoir masculin pour Les Amants réguliers et fut nommé deux fois au César du meilleur acteur dans un second rôle.  Guardare un'opera d'arte che mi fa riflettere su qualcosa che sentivo dentro di me e non ero ancora riuscito ad articolare. A Parigi ho visto la mostra di un pittore francese: aveva ritratto un fiore che conoscevo bene, ma del quale non avevo mai colto la grazia. Ecco la felicità, ciò che quell'artista mi ha fatto scoprire. Louis Garrel est le fils du réalisateur Philippe Garrel et de l'actrice et réalisatrice Brigitte Sy, ainsi que le petit-fils de l’acteur Maurice Garrel. Son père emploie très tôt son fils devant la caméra. Le jeune Louis joue alors en compagnie de sa mère et de son grand-père dans les films de son père, et tout spécialement dans Les Baisers de secours (1989) à l'âge de six ans. Louis Garrel poursuit sa carrière au cinéma en tournant notamment dans deux évocations de mai 68 : Innocents - The Dreamers de Bernardo Bertolucci en 2003 avec Eva Green et Les Amants réguliers de Philippe Garrel en 2005. C'est pour ce dernier film qu'il obtient en 2006 deux récompenses : l'Étoile d'or de la révélation masculine décernée par l’Académie de la presse du cinéma français et le César du meilleur espoir masculin.  Innocents - The Dreamers, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003 Biography Louis Garrel is the son of French director Philippe Garrel and French actress and director Brigitte Sy, and also grandson of French actor Maurice Garrel. His father used Louis in front of the camera early on, and young Louis played with his mother and his grandfather in the films of his father, in particular in Les Baisers de secures (1989) when he was 6 years old. Louis Garrel was first noticed because of the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci's drama Innocents - The Dreamers released in 2003 where he played the twin brother of Eva Green. Two years later, he played in his father's film Les Amants réguliers for which he was awarded the César award for most promising actor.  "Ho letto Il mestiere di vivere dello scrittore italiano Cesare Pavese. Cerco il senso dell’esistenza. Sono ateo, non ho ricevuto un'educazione religiosa e il cinema è il mio catechismo" Romance  2009-2012: with Italian-French actress, screenwriter and director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, elder sister of Carla Bruni, wife of French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy.  Louis Garrel with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, elder sister of Carla Bruni 2015- with French model and actress Laetitia Casta, whom he married in 2017  Louis Garrel with his wife Laetitia Casta  Peter O'toole in film Lawrence of Arabian (1962) name: Peter O'toole original name: Peter Seamus O'Toole birth place: Connemara Ireland birth date: 2 August 1932 zodiac sign: Leo death place: London England death date: 14 december 2013  "I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony." Profile of Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole was a British stage and film actor of Irish descent. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company before making his film debut in 1959. He achieved international recognition playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for which he received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was nominated for this award another seven times – for Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982), and Venus (2006) – and holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations for acting without a win. In 2002, O'Toole was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements.[1] He was additionally the recipient of four Golden Globe Awards, one British Academy Film Award and one Primetime Emmy Award.   Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in film Lawrence of Arabia (1962)  Colonel T.E. Lawrence, better known in history as Lawrence of Arabia (16 August 1888 - 19 May 1935) Biography of Peter O'Toole Peter O'Toole with his wife Sian Phillips and their daughter Kate  1950s: Shakespeare and George Bernard shaw O'Toole attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) from 1952 to 1954 on a scholarship after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's drama school in Dublin by the director Ernest Blythe, because he couldn't speak the Irish language. At RADA, he was in the same class as Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Brian Bedford. O'Toole described this as "the most remarkable class the academy ever had, though we weren't reckoned for much at the time. We were all considered dotty. O'Toole began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company from 1956 to 1958, appearing in productions of King Lear (1956), The Recruiting Officer (1956), Major Barbara (1956), Othello (1956), and The Slave of Truth (1956). He also acted in George Bernard Shaw's plays: as Henry Higgins in Pygmalion (1957), as Tanner in Man and Superman (1958), a performance he would reprise often during his career. O'Toole made his London debut in a musical Oh, My Papa and gained fame on the West End in the play The Long and the Short and the Tall, performed at the Royal Court starting January 1959.  Peter O'Toole 1960: Lawrence of Arabia  Peter O'Toole in film Lawrence of Arabia (1962)  Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in film Lawrence of Arabia (1962)  Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in film Lawrence of Arabia (1962)  Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in film Lawrence of Arabia (1962)  Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in film Lawrence of Arabia (1962) O'Toole made his television debut in 1954, and at the beginning of 60s, he made a few films, but his major break came in November 1960 when he was chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in Sir David Lean's $12 million epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962), after Marlon Brando proved unavailable and Albert Finney turned down the role. His performance was ranked number one in Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. The role introduced him to US audiences and earned him the first of his eight nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor.  Peter O'Toole and Daliah Lavi visited by Princess Margaret, 1965  Peter O’Toole and Ursula Andress in What’s New, Pussycat?, 1965  Peter O'Toole in his home smoking, 1965  Peter O'Toole and Romy Schneider on the film set of "What's new, Pussycat?" 1966: How to steal a million  Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn in film How to Steal a Million (1966)  Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn in film How to Steal a Million (1966)  Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn in film How to Steal a Million (1966)  Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn in film How to Steal a Million (1966)  Peter O'Toole in cardigan "I can't stand light. I hate weather. My idea of heaven is moving from one smoke-filled room to another." |
