Charles Rennie Macintosh

Happy Birthday Charles Rennie Mackintosh!! This Scottish architecture was from 1868 and born in Glasgow. He is regarded as one of the most innovative design creators of the 20^th century. He apprenticed with local architects and studied drawing at the Glasgow School of Arts. After a tour of Italy his style began to mature and he started introducing innovative features and decorative elements. He also worked in furniture design and watercolor. Considered his masterwork, the design for the new Glasgow School of Arts was a mix of styles and influences and is pictured below.

John Trumbull

 Happy Birthday John Trumbull!! American painter John Trumbull was born in 1756 and recognized right away as a precocious child with a talent for drawing. He studied in England and returned to America to create any historical renditions of early America. He had a natural gift for narrative painting as exhibited in his Battle at Bunker's Hill below. The central group of soldiers gather around General Warren who has been mortally wounded through the head with a musket ball. The diagonal compositional line carries the eye through the painting from upper left to lower right.

Asher Benjamin

 Happy Birthday Asher Benjamin!! This American architect was born in 1771. His work provided a transition between Federal and the Greek Revival periods of architectural design. He work was in New England, but his designs were copied throughout the Midwest and South. An example of his Greek Revival design is the William Ellery Channing house, built in 1835, on Boston's Beacon Hill.

Mabel Lucie Attwell

Happy Birthday Mabel Lucie Attwell!! British illustrator born in 1879 today, Attwell dew whimsical characters for children's books. She was married to a painter and it is said that her drawings are based on her daughter. She did study art but left to pursue her own style, preferring illustration to mundane still life and classical emphasis. She began by drawing illustrations for magazines, but then received commissions for children's books and even created the pictures for an edition of Peter Pan.

Raoul Dufy

Happy Birthday Raoul Dufy!! Born in 1877, Dufy was a French Fauvist. He began working at the young age of 14 for a coffee importing firm. He became interested in art and took night classes before going into the military in 1900. He won a scholarship and studied art in Paris. Here he became acquainted with the art of Claude Monet and the like. He was moved toward Fauvism after seeing Henri Matisse's work and began to paint with rich, lush colors. His work is primarily landscapes. He also worked with tapestry and ceramic design and mural painting.

Albert Besnard

You may notice I am posting the day's birthday a day early...well we are trying to make it to Italy tomorrow, early morning and I may not be able to get to a computer. We are flying on buddy passes and were bumped today...so we try again tomorrow! Anyway, I will be posting info and tidbits from our trip throughout most of June!

Happy Birthday Albert Besnard!! Born on June 2, in 1849, this French artist was born to parents who were both artists, his mother a well-known miniaturist. He studied at Ecole des Beaux-Arts and then won the Grand Prix of Rome. Following his marriage to sculptress Charlotte Dubray, Besnard began developing his defining technique featuring an incredible handling of light and dark. An example of this style is his portrait of Madame Roger Jourdain.

Gerald Scarfe

Happy Birthday Gerald Scarfe!! Born in 1936, English illustrator, Scarfe suffered from asthma as a child; perhaps this led him to focus on art. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London and became a political cartoonist, contributing to Punch (magazine) and Private Eye. His latest book was published in October of 2010, The Making of Pink Floyd's Wall. He has created political cartoons for the London Sunday Times for 45 years and worked for the New Yorker Magazine for 20 years.