Richard Morris Hunt

Happy Birthday Richard Morris Hunt!! American architect, born today in 1827, Hunt was the first American architect to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He founded American Institute of Architects. Hunt was a renowned statesman as well, creating the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty and the facade of the Metropolital Museum of Art and many other prominent buildings and homes in New York City. He designed the Biltmore Estate, N. Carolina, the largest private mansion in America. The All Souls Episcopal Cathedral (Asheville, North Carolina)  is one of the last works designed by Richard Morris Hunt.

Andrea Kauffman

Happy Birthday Andrea Kauffman!! This woman was a Swiss Neoclassical painter, born in 1740 and although she was born in Switzerland, she grew up in Austria. Her father was a painter as well and it was he who taught her. He took her to Italy, France and Spain, and she became quite skilled by age 12. She was most adept at classical allegorical and historical painting, and these were exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. She, with some other painters was commissioned to decorate St. Paul's Cathedral and along with fellow painter Biagio Rebecca was responsible for the Academy's Somerset House lecture room. Her self portrait is below.

Andrei Ryabushkin

Happy Birthday Andrei Ryabushkin!! Russian painter, born in 1861, this artist concentrated on Russian genre scenes. Both his father and brother were painters and when he was orphaned at age 14, he began his artistic study at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Following his training there, he went on to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts, which resulted in a stipend for independent study. Instead of traveling to Rome or Italy, Ryabushkin went to the towns and villages of rural Russia, studying the history and painting the common people in their everyday life. He also painted frescoes and created mosaics for the cathedrals at Novgorod and St, Petersburg. The painting included today is titled A Young Man Breaking into the Girls' Dance. I love the colors and patterning of the peasant girls' dresses and scarves, contrasted with the upstanding posture, plain shirt and traditional Russian fur cap of the boy. 

Andrea della Robbia

Happy Birthday Andrea della Robbia!! This Italian Renaissance sculptor, born in 1423, is one of the only ceramics sculptors (dear to me since this is one of my mediums) I have written about. His uncle was the famed sculptor, Luca della Robbia, and Andrea trained in the family studio, eventually taking it over. His uncle began the use of terra cotta (a low fire red clay), for altar pieces and smaller works since it was much lighter than stone and easier to transport. Andrea went on to become the most important ceramics glaze ("paint" for clay giving it color and shine) sculptor of the 15th century.

Walt Kuhn

Happy Birthday Walt Kuhn!! American painter, born in 1877, Walt Kuhn was interested in art and theater from an early age. He sold his first illustrations to a magazine at age 15. After traveling to Paris and Munich where he studied art, Kuhn returned to New York to begin his career in earnest. Kuhn was one of the artists responsible for initiating the Armory Show of modern art in 1913. He was especially enamored with the bold color and expressive style of the Fauves. His mature style focused on vaudeville, the circus and the colorful figures of that genre: clowns, acrobats, etc. Sadly his personality became more and more bizarre as he grew older and he was institutionalized at the end of his life. The painting The Two Clowns (1940) is an excellent example of his expressionistic style.

Aert de Gelder

Happy Birthday Aert de Gelder!! Born in 1645, Gelder was a Dutch painter. He was one of the last students of Rembrandt, studying with him in his studio in Amsterdam. I was fortunate to visit Rembrandt's house in Amsterdam 5 years ago, and see the studio where these two artists conspired! His painting of King David is displayed at the Rijksmuseum, also in Amsterdam, and considered his most important work. One of the rooms I loved in the house was used for storage of items used in Rembrandt's portraits, such as the turban you see on the King. It was lined with shelves and loaded with hats, stones, shells, pieces of interesting wood, vases, etc. Gelder was the only artist to paint in Rembrandt's distinctive style in the latter part of the 17^th century. Please note the use of Rembrandt lighting, a bright illumination of the subject's face (dark behind), guiding the viewer to the center of interest in the picture.

Arshile Gorky

Happy Birthday Arshile Gorky!! Born in Armenia, in 1904, Gorky was an Abstract Expressionist painter influenced by the Surrealist movement. Fleeing Europe prior to WWII, he came to America where he lived for the rest of his life. He became friends with Willem de Kooning, and trained himself by studying the work of other artists, Cubists (compositions) and Surrealists (ideas) in particular, developing his own style by 1940. He believed in an inner vision of artists, guiding their work unconsciously. His work is considered a bridge between European abstractions and American painting of the 40's and 50's. The painting I am including today is titled Enigmatic Combat.