Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain. He was the first child of Don Jose Ruiz y Blasco, an art teacher, and Maria Picasso y Lopez. At an early age Pablo showed an interest in drawing. His first words were “piz, piz”, which is short for “lapiz”, the Spanish word for pencil.

At the age of 7, Pablo began receiving art instruction from his father. His father believed that an artist’s training should include copying the masters and drawing the human body from plaster casts and live models. The precision of Pablo’s paintingtechnique grew until it soon surpassed that of his father.

In 1895, Pablo’s father accepted a position at Barcelona’s School of Fine Arts. He asked officials to allow his son to take the entrance exam. The officials were impressed with Pablo’s abilities and admitted him to the academy. As a student he lacked discipline but made friends and continued to grow as an artist.

At the age of 16, Pablo’s father enrolled him in Spain’s most distinguished art school, Madrid’s Royal Academy of San Fernando. However, his instruction at the Royal Academy lasted only a short time as he struggled to accept formal instruction. In spite of these difficulties, his time in Madrid was not wasted. Pablo visited Madrid’s museums and saw the paintings of Diego Velasquez and Francisco Goya, though it was the works of El Greco that he admired most.

In 1900, Picasso made his first trip to Paris. At that time Paris was considered to be the art capitol of Europe. While in Paris, Picasso’s work began to attract the attention of art collectors. By 1905, he had become a favorite of American art collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein. It was through them that Picasso met French artist Henri Matisse. The two became lifelong friends.

In 1907, Picasso painted one of his most important works – Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,– creating with painter and sculptor Georges Braque the brand new art movement known as “Cubism”. Cubism allowed the artist to show his/her model from many different viewpoints. In the paintings of earlier times, the artist showed his subject from one particular viewpoint. In cubist paintings the artist may show the front and the side of a person’s face at the same time.

Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France. He is best remembered as the co-founder of Cubism, and for Cubist works Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), Three Musicians (1921) and Guernica (1937). As a young boy, Pablo Picasso was a prodigy whose skills became an expressive power that profoundly affected the art of the twentieth century.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was born in Paris, France on November 14, 1840. He was the second child of Louise-Justine Aubry and Claude Adolphe Monet. In 1845, the Monet family settled near the ocean in Ingouville, France.

In 1851, Claude began attending school. He studied many subjects including art. When he was a young teenager it became apparent he had artistic ability. Claude would draw caricatures of his teachers on his schoolwork. By the time he was 15 he had developed a reputation as a caricature artist, and his caricatures were displayed in the window of a local frame maker’s shop where people began to recognize their fellow villagers in the drawings. Claude soon began to charge people to draw their caricatures and was able to make a steady income.

Claude’s mother died on January 28, 1857. The Monet family soon moved to Le Havre, France. A year later the young artist met landscape painter Eugene-Louis Boudin, a mentor who first introduced Claude to Plein Air (outdoor) painting. Claude was reluctant at first to leave the studio and the familiarity of indoor scenes. Eventually he joined Eugene, spending many hours painting directly from nature. The ocean particularly inspired Claude. He liked the way the light reflected off objects and the water.

In 1860 Monet was drafted into the military and sent to Algeria. During these years of service Monet did not paint at all. Upon his return to Paris he picked up where he left off and began painting again. Monet also met Camille Doncieux in Paris, and then married her in 1870. Camille modeled for many of his paintings.

Monet became known as an “Impressionist” – a title derived from his painting, “Impression, Sunrise “. The work has an unfinished look, which was very different from the paintings of artists who lived before him. The brush strokes were lively and spontaneous, capturing the feeling of the moment. He said, “Landscape is nothing but an impression, and an instantaneous one, hence this label that was given us, by the way because of me.”

In his later works Monet continued to capture the affect of light. Sometimes he wouldpaint the same object over and over again, but at different times of day or year. Examples of these works include his haystacks, morning views of the Seine, the Gare Saint-Lazare, Poplars, the Thames, Rouen Cathedral, and his celebrated series of water lilies.

Claude Monet died in Giverny, France on December 5, 1926. It took many years for people to appreciate his work. Today, the art of Monet is an inspiration to many artists around the world.

 

Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, a small Italian village near Arezzo, Tuscany. For several generations, his family had worked as bankers in Florence. His father, Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti di Simoni, also held occasional government positions. At the time of Michelangelo’s birth, his father was serving as a Florentine government agent in Caprese and his mother was in failing health. His parents decided to entrust the care of Michelangelo to the wife of a stonecutter who lived in the town of Settignano where his father owned a marble quarry and a small farm. Michelangelo’s mother died when he was 6 years old.

From childhood Michelangelo was drawn to the arts. However, his father considered this pursuit below the family’s social status and tried to discourage him. Michelangelo’s father recognized his intellectual potential and enrolled him in the school of masterlinguist, Francesco Galeota, to prepare young Michelangelo for a career in business. Michelangelo, however, showed no interest in his schooling. He preferred to copypaintings from churches and seek the company of painters. Through the course of his studies, Michelangelo met a student of painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most fashionable painters in Florence.

In 1488, at age thirteen, Michelangelo followed his interest in the arts, and became an apprentice in Domenico’s workshop. Michelangelo’s decision to defy his father and risk his family’s social standing in Florence created a distance between them that would haunt Michelangelo throughout his life.

In 1489 Michelangelo left his apprenticeship after one year and excepted an invitationfrom Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent, a retired sculptor and ruler of Florence. There he studied sculpture and anatomy at the school in the Medici gardens. During his studies, he was introduced to important scientists, and poets. Though their radical ideas were often at odds with the artist’s strong religious beliefs, these men intrigued him. Their impact is evident even in his earliest works. His most important works during this time include the Madonna of the Steps (1490-1492) and Battle of the Centaurs (1491-1492).

Lorenzo de’ Medici died in 1492, and the Medici family fell from power. As a result, Michelangelo decided to return to Florence for a short time prior to moving to Rome. It was there that he carved his Pieta, a sculpture of Mary supporting the crucified Christ across her knees.

In 1501 Michelangelo returned to Florence. Recognized, as the most talented sculptor of central Italy, he was commissioned to carve the Biblical hero “David” for the Florence Cathedral. Seven years later he received one of his most important commissions when Pope Julius II asked him to paint the 12,000 square foot ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564. He excelled in poetry, sculpture, painting, and architecture, and his idealized and expressive works have encouraged many to regard him as one of the greatest masters of European art.

Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh was born in 1853 and grew up in Holland. He was raised in a religious family with his father being a minister. When his school ended, Vincent followed his uncle’s profession and became an art dealer learning the trade in Holland and then working in England and France. Vincent was successful and initially happy with his work. However, he soon grew tired of the business of art, especially in Paris, and lost interest in the trade. After returning home, Vincent began to study theology. While very passionate and enthusiastic, he failed exams to enter a couple programs. Characteristic of his personality, he was intelligent, able to speak multiple languages, but he did not think that Latin was a language for preaching to the poor. During this period, he worked as a missionary in a coal mining community living with hard working poor common people. As his development as a preacher was stalling, his interest in those around him was increasing. His life as an artist was beginning.

In 1880, at 27 years old, Van Gogh entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium. The following winter, living in Amsterdam, Vincent fell in love, had his heart broken, and began painting. The next few years would result in little success both in love and art.

Potato Eaters

Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters, his first major work, was painted in 1885. By this time, he was still having difficulty finding love, but was beginning to receive interest in his paintings. He was now fully devoting himself to painting: living frugally, studying color theory, and admiring the works of artists like Peter Paul Rubens. Unfortunately, as would be his entire life, his paintings were still difficult to sell. His brother Theo, an art dealer and the recipient of many letters from Vincent, commented that there should be more color in his work. Van Gogh was painting peasants and rural landscapes using dark earth tones. Around this same time,Impressionism, with its bright vivid colors, was becoming popular.

The next year, Vincent moved to Paris where his art began to take on the style that would make him famous. In Paris, he was discussing art with some of the most avant-garde and influential artists of his time – painters like Gauguin, Bernard, and Toulouse-Lautrec. He was using more color, applying the paint with thick, bold brushstrokes, and painted all that surrounded him. Van Gogh arranged to show his work, to positive reviews, but was still unable to sell any pieces.

One of Van Gogh’s dreams as an artist was to start a colony for artists in Arles in the south of France. Vincent moved to Arles where he was joined by Gauguin. While there, Van Gogh entered the most productive and creative period of his life painting his famous Sunflowers. However, it also was a time of great turmoil for Vincent beginning a period of hospital stays for mental illness and physical decline.

After just ten years of painting and producing some 900 paintings, Vincent van Gogh took his own life in 1890. Never fully appreciated in his own time, it wouldn’t take long for the art world to recognize the genius they lost. Within twenty years of his death, there were memorial shows of his works all over the world – influencing generations of artists to come.

Leonardo da Vinci

Born out of wedlock in Vinci, Italy (just outside Florence), Leonardo’s illegitimate standing kept him from receiving a good education and excluded him from the most lucrative occupations. However, such limitations never hindered (and perhaps even fueled) da Vinci’s desire for knowledge and great ambition.

At the age of 15, da Vinci became the apprentice of the painter Andrea del Verrochio in Florence, where his skills as an artist developed, flourished and even intimidated his mentor. While always interested in inventions, it was a change of scenery in 1482 that truly unleashed the inventor in da Vinci.

Looking for a broader scope of work, da Vinci moved from Florence, widely considered the cultural capital of Italy, to Milan, a much more political and militaristic city. There, da Vinci sold himself to Duke Ludovico Sforza (a successful military leader called “the dark one”) as a military engineer. In the city that “lived and died by the sword”, da Vinci began developing many of his famous war inventions.

Da Vinci spent 17 years in Milan working for the Duke, inventing, painting, sculpting, studying science and conceiving an endless stream of innovative and daring ideas. Without a doubt, the 17 years spent in Milan were da Vinci’s most productive period. But, of course, all things must come to an end.

In 1499, the French invaded Milan and Duke Sforza was sent fleeing the city. Leonardo spent the remaining years of his life traveling to cities like Venice and Rome to work on different projects, with a greater concentration on his art (starting on his most famous piece, the Mona Lisa, in 1503) and studies in anatomy (da Vinci conducted over 30 autopsies in his lifetime).

After envisioning hundreds of inventions, bringing to life legendary works of art and making breakthroughs in a vast array of other fields (ranging from astronomy to architecture), da Vinci died in 1519 at the age of 67.