His fortunes changed in 1696 with a visit from the Elector Palatine, who became his patron, and six years later made him his court painter.
history of painting
The popular story of the Judgement of Solomon is a great challenge for visual art. Here are some of the better attempts at solution, from Raphael to Blake.
A vast canvas with an apocalyptic vision of death and destruction? It must be one of John Martin’s, then. Another distinctive British narrative painter.
He first suggested the Impressionist exhibitions, co-founded their collective, and wrote their charter. Yet he didn’t achieve commercial success until he was in his sixties.
A comedy involving two couples, both tricked in different ways. One bride faints in church when accused of infidelity. The other couple didn’t know they loved one another until deceived.
An allegory of a flawed democracy by Plato, a fragment of a triptych by Bosch, then two paintings in 1922 and 1930. What is its meaning?
A selection of paintings of Yoric (Hamlet), Touchstone, and Shakespeare’s other fools, and a few from others including the great Polish Stańczyk.
Ignored bodies, a complex chain from the head of John the Baptist, and Velazquez’s royal portrait which omits the King and Queen,
Maternal love, Oedipus and the Sphinx, and a naked courtesan unveiled before a court of men, all demonstrate how important is gaze.
One of the greatest British narrative painters of the 19th century, a small selection of his best from Eris picking a golden apple in 1806 to the slaveship of 1840.
The Eclectic Light Company 