| a sweeping but indispensable term applied to the profound shift in Western attitudes
to art and human creativity that dominated much of European culture in the first half of the 19th century,
and that has shaped most subsequent developments in art. |
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Albert Bierstadt
Determining at an early age to become a painter, Bierstadt returned to his native Germany to study art.
In 1858 Bierstadt joined an expedition to survey a wagon road from Wyoming to the Pacific. In 1860 he
exhibited the first of his Rocky Mountain landscapes, winning rave reviews. Thus encouraged, he made
numerous trips into the American West, proving himself to be popular with the public. He had a great
technical skill and imaginative power that has greatly appealed to viewers even today.
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Sir Frank Dicksee
Sir Francis Dicksee was born in London and learned to paint from his father, who was already a painter
of portraits and historical genre. Dicksee's paintings have a decorative effect. He painted Romantic
genre, social drama, works of allegory, scenes from literature, and history. Towards the latter part
of his career, he painted mostly elegant society portraits.
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Lord Frederick Leighton
Leighton was an English academic painter and sculptor, born in Scarborough, England. Leighton first
started learning art at the age of ten in Rome, Italy, and later studied all over Europe. He painted
mythological and historical subjects, and earned a great reputation. The day before his death in 1896,
Leighton was given the rank of baron (Lord), the first English painter to receive that distinction.
Leighton admired the rich coloring of the landscapes in Spain and Egypt, where he spent a lot of time
painting.
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John William Godward
John William Godward devoted his whole life to painting girls in classical robes, usually posing
decoratively on a marble terrace. Unfortunately, during his lifetime of painting, his chosen subject
matter was "out", and he found himself unable to sell his artwork. He was so frustrated by this, that
he committed suicide by putting his head in a gas oven. His family was so ashamed of Godward and his
suicide that they destroyed almost all of his papers and photographs. Not one photograph of him survives.
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John William Waterhouse
Waterhouse was a painter of classical, historical, and literary subjects. He was born in 1849 in Rome,
where his father worked as a painter. His early works were of classical themes and later painted mostly
genre scenes. Waterhouse had a growing interest in themes associated with the Pre-Raphaelites,
particularly tragic or powerful femmes fatales. Buy one of his prints to show that you are "femme
fatale"�or that you have fine taste in art.
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Featured Artists
