Author: The Artist Editorial

John Flaxman, born in 1755 in England, was an English sculptor, designer, and illustrator. He is known as a leader in English Neoclassical art.  As a child, Flaxman would spend a lot of time in his father’s plaster-casting shop. Here he learned the technique of sculpting used by his father. In his spare time, he read a lot of classic literature, from the likes of Dante and Homer, and this remained a huge influence on his work throughout his career.  Flaxman enrolled in the Royal Academy of School in 1770, and by 1775 he was working for the renowned potter…

Gerolamo Induno, born in 1825, was an Italian painter. His status as a soldier added authenticity to the military scenes that he became famous for. Induno took formal art lessons at the Brera Academy where he studied for 7 years. Induno had an older brother named Domenico who was also a famous artist. The two brothers often collaborated together on artworks. Gerolamo’s first exhibition was in 1845. This exhibit was made up of a series of portraits and a scene from The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni. All these works have been lost. Induno and his brother were both soldiers that…

Auguste Rodin, born in 1840, was a French sculptor. He is considered by many to be the greatest sculptor of portraits in the history of sculpture. Rodin grew up in a poor family. He had an interest in drawing from a young age and enrolled in a drawing school at age 13. In his late teens, he attempted to enter the École des Beaux-Arts but failed the entrance exams three times. At 18 he began working as a decorative stone worker to support himself. He held this position for the next 17 years, but the strict restrictions put on decorative…

Michelangelo, born in 1475, was an Italian painter, poet, architect, and sculptor. He’s most well known today for his incredibly detailed and realistic sculptures as well as his work on the World famous Sistine Chapel.  Michelangelo was born into a middle-class family of bankers in Tuscany, Italy. Due to his mother’s ill health, he was sent to live with his nanny. The nanny was married to a stonecutter who worked in a marble quarry. Michelangelo continued to live with the couple, even after his mother died, and it’s believed that this is what led to his fascination with marble.  At…

Viktor Vasnetsov was born in 1848 and was a Russian artist specializing in the historical and mythological subject matter. He is one of the co-founders of romantic nationalist painting as well as Russian folklore art. He was also prominent in the movement of Russian revivalists.  Vasnetsov grew up in a remote Russian village with his six siblings and priest father. His father was known to be philosophically inclined, and his grandfather was a painter. This influence led to Vasnetsov and one of his brothers becoming excellent painters. His first paintings were of village life and the associated landscapes of his…

Vasily Surikov, born in 1848, was a Russian history painter. Much of his artwork has been used as illustrations which makes them familiar to people in the modern age.  Surikov grew up in a poor household, and his widowed mother struggled to make ends meet after his father died of tuberculosis. He showed an interest in drawing at school and his art teacher encouraged him to pursue this interest. His first works appear formally around 1862. His family could not afford further education, however, so he took a job as a government clerk to support himself. It was through connections…

Konstantin Makovsky, born in 1839, was a Russian painter. He was affiliated with the Peredvizhniki (The Wanderers), a group of realist Russian painters who opposed the academic restrictions in art. He is most well known for his many historical paintings which depict an ideal life in Russia of centuries past.  Makovsky’s father was an amateur painter and art figure and his mother was a composer. This influence from his parent’s interests led to the artist showing an interest in music and art from a young age. At the age of 12, Makovsky enrolled in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture,…

Nikolai Ge, born in 1831, was a Russian painter and Russian symbolist. He is most well known for his artwork on historical and religious elements. Ge grew up in a Russian noble family, so his life was one of wealth and luxury. Ge studied mathematics and physics first at Kyiv University and later at Saint Petersburg University.  Nikolai Ge decided to give up his career in science in 1850 and chose instead to study at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. He graduated in 1857 with a gold medal for one of the paintings he produced during this…

Benjamin West, born in 1738, was an American-born historical painter. Benjamin West is best known as the first American artist to achieve international fame by making his mark in historical painting. He was one of the most prominent people of American Colonial Art.  West showed considerable talent with the paintbrush from an early age, so he was sent to Philadelphia in 1756 to pursue an education in painting. By 1758 he was a successful portrait artist in New York City, and two years later he set sail for Italy, drawn to the country by the rapid development of Neoclassicism. West…

Maurice Esteve was a French painter. He was born in Culan, France in 1904. He was primarily self-taught, although he did study at the Académie Colarossi in Paris in the 1920s. While he was in Paris he was influenced a lot by Cubist art, of which Paul Cézanne influenced him the most. He is known for establishing a new artistic language, whereby he displayed form and color with poetic abstractions. In the late 1920s, Esteve began to move away from realism and his first solo exhibition followed soon after in 1930. Robert Delaunay was another great influence on Esteve’s work,…