Oil on canvas; 35 x 68 cm.

Giuseppe Abbati was an Italian artist who belonged to the group known as the Macchiaioli. Abbati was born in Naples and received early training in painting from his brother Vincenzo. He participated in Garibaldi's 1860 campaign, suffering the loss of his right eye at the Battle of Capua. Afterwards he moved to Florence where, at the Caffè Michelangiolo, he met Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega, and the rest of the artists who would soon be dubbed the Macchiaioli.

While his early paintings were interiors, he quickly became attracted to the practice of painting landscapes en plein air. His activity as a painter was interrupted during 1866 when he enlisted again in the army for the Third Independence War, during which he was captured by the Austrians and held in Croatia. Returning to civilian life at the end of the year, he moved to Castelnuovo della Misericordia and spent the final year of his life painting in the countryside. Abbati died at the age of thirty-two in Florence after his own dog bit him, infecting him with rabies.

His paintings are characterized by a bold treatment of light effects. He often painted a luminous landscape scene as seen through the doorway of a darkened interior, as in the View from the Wine Cellar of Diego Martelli (1866). Some of his late landscapes are in the greatly elongated horizontal format often favored by the Macchiaioli.

Tags:   giuseppe abbati abbati painter 19th century italian 1863 1860s castiglioncello marina landscape realism private collection seascape macchiaioli

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Oil on panel; 70 x 60 cm.

Andreas Achenbach was a German landscape painter. Born at Kassel, he began his art education in 1827 in Düsseldorf under Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow at the Düsseldorf Academy of Painting. He studied at St Petersburg and traveled in Italy, Holland and Scandinavia. In his early work he followed the pseudo-idealism of the German romantic school, but on removing to Munich in 1835, the stronger influence of Louis Gurlitt turned his talent into new channels, and he became the founder of the German realistic school. Although his landscapes evince too much of his aim at picture-making and lack personal temperament, he is a master of technique, and is historically important as a reformer. He received a medal of the first class in Paris in 1855. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary says of him that "he was regarded as the father of 19th century German landscape painting."

A number of his finest works are to be found at the Berlin National Gallery, the New Pinakothek in Munich, and the galleries at Dresden, Darmstadt, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Leipzig and Hamburg. Many of his paintings are in galleries in the United States. He died in Düsseldorf. His brother, Oswald Achenbach (1827–1905), was also a painter.

Tags:   andreas achenbach achenbach painter 19th century german 1851 1850s landscape with a stream hermitage landscape trees realism

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Oil on canvas; 83.2 x 107.3 cm.

Andreas Achenbach was a German landscape painter. Born at Kassel, he began his art education in 1827 in Düsseldorf under Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow at the Düsseldorf Academy of Painting. He studied at St Petersburg and traveled in Italy, Holland and Scandinavia. In his early work he followed the pseudo-idealism of the German romantic school, but on removing to Munich in 1835, the stronger influence of Louis Gurlitt turned his talent into new channels, and he became the founder of the German realistic school. Although his landscapes evince too much of his aim at picture-making and lack personal temperament, he is a master of technique, and is historically important as a reformer. He received a medal of the first class in Paris in 1855. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary says of him that "he was regarded as the father of 19th century German landscape painting."

A number of his finest works are to be found at the Berlin National Gallery, the New Pinakothek in Munich, and the galleries at Dresden, Darmstadt, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Leipzig and Hamburg. Many of his paintings are in galleries in the United States. He died in Düsseldorf. His brother, Oswald Achenbach (1827–1905), was also a painter.

Tags:   andreas achenbach achenbach painter 19th century german 1853 1850s sunset after a storn on the coast of sicily metropolitan museum of art landscape seascape boat realism

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Oil on canvas; 123 x 100 cm.

German painter. He studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, as did his elder brother, the painter Andreas Achenbach (1815–1910), who was the main influence on him other than his teacher, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer. At a very early stage he began to prepare studies for landscapes in the area around Düsseldorf, sketching boulders, rocks, bushes, trees and people. From 1843 he went on many study tours, visiting Bavaria in 1843 and northern Italy and Switzerland in 1845. The Bavarian and Italian Alps stimulated him to create a unified approach to landscape painting. In such early works as Landscape (1846; Düsseldorf, Kstmus.) his receptiveness to atmospheric values can be seen, even if the precise detail and clear articulation into foreground, middle ground and background still clearly show his debt to Schirmer.

Tags:   oswald achenbach achenbach painter 19th century german a mountainous landscape private collection landscape mountain rocks romantic

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Aivazovsky was born in the Crimea, to a poor Armenian family. . His talent as an artist earned him sponsorship and entry to the Simferopol gymnasium №1 and later the St.Petersburg Academy of Arts, from which he graduated with the gold medal. Earning awards for his early landscapes and seascapes, he went on to paint a series of portraits of Crimean coastal towns before traveling throughout Europe. In later life, his paintings of naval scenes earned him a longstanding commission from the Russian Navy.

In 1845, Aivazovsky went to Constantinople upon the invitation of Sultan Abdülmecid, a city he was to travel to eight times between 1845-1890. During his long sojourn in Constantinople, Aivazovsky was commissioned for a number of paintings as a court painter by the Ottoman Sultans Abdülmecid, Abdulaziz and Abdulhamid, 30 of which are currently on display in the Ottoman Imperial Palace.

Due to his long life in art, Aivazovsky became the most prolific Armenian painter of his time. He left over 6,000 works at his death in 1900. As of 2006, Aivazovsky's works have been auctioned for as much as $3,200,000, and his international reputation continues to grow. On June 14, 2007 his painting "American Shipping off the Rock of Gibraltar" sold for 2,710,000 pounds, "the highest price paid at auction for Aivazovsky"

Tags:   ivan aivazovsky aivozovsky painter 19th century russian 1842 1840s the bay of naples by moonlight realism landscape

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