for more examples of 'Great Art' & more of Peter's photos -

go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/petercrawford1946
&
http://petercrawford1946.wordpress.com/
Jacques-Louis David
Christen Købke
Belle Acadamie Jeune Homme Nu

THE MALE NUDE IN CONTEMPORARY ART

Vittorio Carvelli

Roman Gladiator
Νίκη - ( Victory)
The Birth of Dionysus
Προμηθεύς ( Prometheus)
Saint Sebastian

THE EPHEBE

Pan – Boy in the Forrest

Otto Lohmuller
 An art nude is a work of art
that takes the naked human
form as its dominant subject.
The term is used for painting,
sculpture, photography, and
mixed media. In the tradition of
Western art, nudity was
common in the painting and
sculpture of classical antiquity.
In the Christian era, early
artists who used nude models
include Michelangelo, Botticelli
and DaVinci.

Depictions of nudity refers to

nudity in all the artistic
disciplines including vernacular
and historical depictions.

Nudity in art has generally

reflected — with some
exceptions — social standards
of aesthetics and morality of their time in painting, sculpture and more recently in
photography.
Since prehistoric time, representations of the nude body has been a major theme in art.
Many cultures tolerate nudity in art more than actual nudity, with a different set of
standards of what is acceptable. For example, even in a museum depicting nudity, nudity
of a visitor is typically not accepted. On the other hand, child pornography laws often
restrict depictions even more than the depicted acts (photographs of legal acts and even
simple nudity may be illegal).

Greece

The arts of ancient Greece have

exercised an enormous influence on
the culture of many countries,
particularly in the areas of sculpture
and architecture.
In the West, the art of the Roman
Empire was largely derived from Greek
models.
In the East, Alexander the Great's
conquests initiated several centuries of
exchange between Greek, Central
Asian and Indian cultures, resulting in
Greco-Buddhist art.
Following the Renaissance in Europe,
the humanist aesthetic and the high
technical standards of Greek art
inspired generations of European artists, and well into the 19th century, the classical
tradition derived from Greece dominated the art of the western world.

In the Classical period there was a revolution in Greek statuary.

The Classical period saw changes in the style and function of sculpture. Poses became
more naturalistic (see the Charioteer of Delphi for an example of the transition to more
naturalistic sculpture), and the technical skill of Greek sculptors in depicting the human
form in a variety of poses greatly increased.

From about 500 BC statues began to depict real people.

The statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton set up in Athens to mark the overthrow of the
tyranny were said to be the first
public monuments to actual people.
At the same time sculpture and
statues were put to wider uses. The
great temples of the Classical era
such as the Parthenon in Athens,
and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia,
required relief sculpture for
decorative friezes, and sculpture in
the round to fill the triangular fields of
the pediments. The difficult aesthetic
and technical challenge stimulated
much in the way of sculptural
innovation. Unfortunately these
works survive only in fragments, the
most famous of which are the
Parthenon Marbles, half of which are
in the British Museum.
Family group on a grave marker from
Athens, National Archaeological
Museum, Athens
Funeral statuary evolved during this
period from the rigid and impersonal
kouros of the Archaic period to the highly personal family groups of the Classical period.
These monuments are commonly found in the suburbs of Athens, which in ancient times
were cemeteries on the outskirts of the city. Although some of them depict "ideal" types—
the mourning mother, the dutiful son—they increasingly depicted real people, typically
showing the departed taking his dignified leave from his family. They are among the most
intimate and affecting remains of the Ancient Greeks.
In the Classical period for the first time we know the names of individual sculptors.
Phidias oversaw the design
and building of the Parthenon.
Praxiteles made the female
nude respectable for the first
time in the Late Classical
period (mid 4th century): his
Aphrodite of Knidos, which
survives in copies, was said
by Pliny to be the greatest
statue in the world.

Greek Hellenistic sculpture

introduces the perfect
sculpture-in-the-round, -
allowing the statue to be
admired from all angles; study
of draping and effects of
transparency of clothing;
suppleness of poses.
Thus, Venus de Milo, even
while echoing a classic model,
is distinguished by the twist of
her hips.
One seeks, above all,
expressibility and atmosphere.
This search is particularly flagrant in the portraits: more than the precision of the traits
represented, the artist seeks to represent the character of his/her subject.
In the great statuary, the artist explores themes such as suffering, sleep or old age.
One such is the Barberini Faun of Munich, representing a sleeping satyr with relaxed
posture and anxious face, perhaps the prey of nightmares.
'The Drunk Woman', also at Munich, portrays without reservation an old woman, thin,
haggard, clutching against herself her jar of wine. Laocoön, strangled by snakes, tries
desperately to loosen their grip without affording a glance at his dying sons.
Pergamon did not distinguish itself with its architecture alone: it was also the seat of a
brilliant school of sculpture called Pergamene Baroque.
The sculptors, imitating the preceding centuries, portray painful moments rendered
expressive with three-dimensional compositions, often V-shaped, and anatomical hyper-
realism.
Attalus I (269-197 BC), to commemorate his victory at Caicus against the Gauls — called
Galatians by the Greeks — had two series of votive groups sculpted: the first,
consecrated on the Acropolis of Pergamon, includes the famous Gaul killing himself and
his wife, of which the original is lost (the best copy is in the Massimo alle Terme museum
of Rome, see illustration); the second group, offered to Athens, is composed of small
bronzes of Greeks, Amazons, gods and giants, Persians and Gauls. Artemis Rospigliosi
of the Louvre is probably a copy of one of them; as for copies of the Dying Gaul, they
were very numerous in the Roman period.
The expression of sentiments, the forcefulness of details — bushy hair and moustaches
here — and the violence of the movements are characteristic of the Pergamene style.
These characteristics are pushed to their peak in the friezes of the Great Altar of
Pergamon, decorated under the order of Eumenes II (197-159 BC) with a gigantomachy
stretching 110 metres in length, illustrating in the stone a poem composed especially for
the court. The Olympians triumph in it, each on his side, over Giants most of which are
transformed into savage beasts: serpents, birds of prey, lions or bulls. Their mother Gaia,
come to their aid, can do nothing and must watch them twist in pain under the blows of
the gods.
Another phenomenon appears in Hellenistic sculpture: privatization, which involves the
recapture of older public patterns in decorative sculpture. This type of retrospective style
also exists in ceramics. Portraiture is tinged with naturalism, under the influence of
Roman art.
 'HECTOR'
Jacques-Louis David - 1748-1825

Jacques-Louis David (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a highly influential
French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the pre-eminent painter of the
era.
In the 1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from
Rococo frivolity toward a classical austerity and severity, heightened feeling chiming with
the moral climate of the final years of the ancien régime.
David later became an active supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien
Robespierre (1758–1794), and was effectively a dictator of the arts under the French
Republic.
Imprisoned after Robespierre's fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another
political regime upon his release, that of Napoleon I.
It was at this time that he developed his 'Empire style', notable for its use of warm
Venetian colours. David had a huge number of pupils, making him the strongest influence
in French art of the early 19th century, especially academic Salon painting.
 'STUDY OF A NUDE BOY'
Christen Købke - 1810-1848

Christen Schiellerup Købke (26 May 1810 – 7 February 1848), Danish painter, was born
in Copenhagen to Peter Berendt Købke, a baker, and his wife Cecilie Margrete.
Købke, a national romantic, painted portraits, landscapes and architectural paintings.
Most of Købke’s portraits show friends, family members and fellow artists.
He found most of his motifs in his immediate surroundings.
Now he is recognized internationally for his well composed and harmonic paintings, for
their coloristic qualities and for his sense of the everyday life. But in his lifetime he was
almost forgotten, especially because of his early death and limited production.
Despite his talent and the praise of various contemporaries, Købke had never been
inundated with commissions.
Købke is recognized today as one of the most talented among Denmark’s Golden Age
painters and the most internationally renowned Danish painter of his generation.
His works are in the collections of not only Danish museums but also such international
museums as the J. Paul Getty Museum
'BELLE ACADEMIE JEUNE HOMME NU'

(Academic Study of a Nude Young Boy)

 'HORSES ON THE BEACH'
Michael Peter Ancher - 1849-1927

Michael Peter Ancher (June 9, 1849 – September 19, 1927) was a Danish impressionist
artist.
He is most associated with his paintings of fishermen and other scenes from the Danish
port of Skagen.
His paintings are classics and he is probably one of Denmark's most popular artists.
Michael Ancher was influenced by his traditional training at the Royal Danish Academy of
Fine Arts in the 1870s which imposed strict rules for composition, and he found it difficult
to adjust to Scandinavian painting's modern breakthrough, the "Skagen School".
His marriage to Anna Ancher did, however, introduce him to the naturalistic concept of
undecorated reproduction of reality and its colours.
By combining the pictorial composition of his youth with the teachings of naturalism,
Michael Ancher created what has been called modern monumental figurative art s.
The works of Michael Ancher can be seen at the Skagen Museum, the Royal Museum of
Fine Arts, the Frederiksborg Museum, The Hirschsprung Collection and Ribe Art Museum.
Michael Ancher received the Eckersberg Medal in 1889 and in 1894 the Order of the
Dannebrog.
 THE MALE NUDE IN CONTEMPORARY ART

Paintings and studies of the male nude have recently returned to favour, after being
neglected during the period of abstract & non representational art.
Many artists, using both traditional techniques & the latest computer generated art, are
now producing examples of the male nude which rival those of the 19th Century & the
Renaissance periods.
 'Ποσειδῶν' ( POSEIDON )

Poseidon (Greek: Ποσειδῶν; Latin: Neptūnus) was the god of the sea, storms, and, as
"Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes in Greek mythology.
The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in
Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon.Linear B tablets show that
Poseidon was venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, but
he was integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades. Poseidon
has many children.
There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities,
although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena.
 'THE BIRTH OF DIONYSUS'

Dionysus or Dionysos is the ancient Greek god of the grape harvest, winemaking and
wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy, and was also the driving force behind Greek
theater.This god who inspires joyful worship and ecstasy, festivals, and celebration is a
major figure of Greek mythology and the religion of ancient Greece.
He is included as one of the twelve Olympians in some lists.
Dionysus is typical of the god of the epiphany, "the god that comes".
Contd.
He was also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he
induces, bakkheia.
In Greek mythology, Dionysus is made out to be a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele.
He is described as a beautiful young ephebe - teenage boy.
The retinue of Dionysus was called the thiasus and was composed chiefly of maenads
and satyrs.Dionysus is a god of mystery religious rites.
 'STUDY FOR DIONYSUS – Διόνυσος'

Dionysus or Dionysos is the ancient Greek god of the grape harvest, wine-making and
wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy, and was also the driving force behind Greek
theatre.. This god who inspires joyful worship and ecstasy, festivals, and celebration is a
major figure of Greek mythology and the religion of ancient Greece. He is included as one
of the twelve Olympians in some lists.
Dionysus is typical of the god of the epiphany, "the god that comes".
He was also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he
induces, bakkheia.
'NUDE STUDY – FORESHORTENING'
'DESPAIR'
'NUDE STUDY OF THE BACK'
 'ROMAN GLADIATOR'

Vittorio Carvelli

A gladiator (Latin: gladiator, "swordsman", from gladius, "sword") was an armed

combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in
violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals.
Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives
by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh
conditions, & socially marginalized.
Gladiators, however, by dying well, could inspire admiration and popular acclaim.
They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers was
commemorated in precious and commonplace objects throughout the Roman world.
 'Νίκη' - ( VICTORY)

Vittorio Carvelli

In Greek mythology, (Greek: Νίκη "Victory") was a goddess who personified victory
throughout the ages of the ancient Greek culture.
She is known as the Winged Goddess of Victory.
The Roman equivalent was Victoria.Depending upon the time of various myths, she was
described as the daughter of Pallas (Titan) and Styx (Water), and the sister of Kratos
(Strength), Bia (violence), and Zelus (Zeal).
Nike and her siblings were close companions of Zeus, the dominant deity of the Greek
pantheon.
According to classical myth, Styx brought them to Zeus when the god was assembling
allies for the Titan War against the older deities.
Nike assumed the role of the divine charioteer, a role in which she often is portrayed in
Classical Greek art. Nike flew around battlefields rewarding the victors with glory and
fame.
This contemporary image is very unusual, in that Nike is depicted in masculine form,
holding a palm of victory.
 'Προμηθεύς' ( PROMETHEUS)
Vittorio Carvelli

In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Ancient Greek: for "forethought"), is a Titan, the son of
Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius.
He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus
and gave it to mortals.
Zeus then punished him for his crime by having him bound to a rock while a great eagle
ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day.
His myth has been treated by a number of ancient sources, in which Prometheus is
credited with – or blamed for – playing a pivotal role in the early history of mankind.
 'SAINT SEBASTIAN'
Vittorio Carvelli

Saint Sebastian (died c. 288) was a Christian saint and martyr, who is said to have been
killed during the Roman emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians. He is commonly
depicted in art and literature tied to a post and shot with arrows.
 'SAGITTARIUS - THE ARCHER'
Vittorio Carvelli

In Greek mythology, Sagittarius is identified as a centaur: half human, half horse.

In some legends, the Centaur Chiron was the son of Philyra and Saturn, who was said to
have changed himself into a horse to escape his jealous wife, Rhea. Chiron was
eventually immortalised in the constellation of Centaurus or in some version, Sagittarius.
The arrow of this constellation points towards the star Antares, the "heart of the scorpion".
 'Νάρκισσος' - ( NARCISSUS )
Vittorio Carvelli

Narcissus or Narkissos (Greek: Νάρκισσος), possibly derived from ναρκη (narke)

meaning "sleep, numbness," in Greek mythology was a hunter from the territory of
Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty.
He was exceptionally proud, in that he disdained those who loved him. As divine
punishment he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool, not realizing it was merely an
image, and he wasted away to death, not being able to leave the beauty of his own
reflection.
 'PETER PAN & TINK'
Vittorio Carvelli

Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie (1860–
1937).
A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his
never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his
gang the Lost Boys, interacting with mermaids, Indians, fairies, and pirates, and from time
to time meeting ordinary children from the world outside. In addition to two distinct works
by Barrie, the character has been featured in a variety of media and merchandise, both
adapting and expanding on Barrie's works.
For more information about J M Barrie & Peter Pan go
to: http://www.scribd.com/doc/18746429/So-Long-Ago-So-Clear
 '‫ ( 'عزرائيل‬DARK ANGEL )
Vittorio Carvelli

Azrael is the name of the Archangel of Death in some extrabiblical traditions.

He is also the angel of death in Islamic theology.
It is an English form of the Arabic name Azra'il or Azra'eil, the name traditionally attributed
to the angel of death in Islam and Sikhism, as well as some Hebrew lore.
The Qur'an never uses this name, referring instead toMalak al-Maut (which translates
directly as angel of death).
It is also spelled Izrail, Azrin, Izrael, Azriel, Azrail, Ezraeil,Azraille, Azryel, or Ozryel.
Chambers English dictionary uses the spelling Azrael.
The name literally means Whom God Helps.
Ephebos (often in the plural epheboi), also anglicised as ephebe (plural: ephebes) or archaically ephebus
(plural: ephebi), is aGreek word for an adolescent age group or a social status reserved for that age in Antiquity.

The Ephebe, or young boy, is a recurring theme in art, although particualrly associated with Greek, (Hellenic),
and Hellinistic sculpture, reliefs and vase painting.
In Europe, after the fall of Rome, interest in the ephebe as a subject for art declined until the Renaissance.
There was a further neglect of the subject in the Baroque and Rocco period, but the subject was favoured one
again in the 19th Century and continues to interest artists right up to the present day.
'PAN – BOY IN THE FORREST'
Vittorio Carvelli
'BOYS PLAYING ON THE BEACH'
Vittorio Carvelli
'JENSEITS – THE WORLD TO COME'
Vittorio Carvelli
 Ephebos (often in the plural epheboi), also Anglicised as ephebe (plural: ephebes) or archaically ephebus
(plural: ephebi), is a Greek word for an adolescent age group or a social status reserved for that age in Antiquity.
The Ephebe, or young boy, is a recurring theme in art, although particualrly associated with Greek,
(Hellenic), and Hellenistic sculpture, reliefs and vase painting.
In Europe, after the fall of Rome, interest in the ephebe as a subject for art declined until the Renaissance.
There was a further neglect of the subject in the Baroque and Rocco period, but the subject was favoured one
again in the 19th Century and continues to interest artists right up to the present day.
.

(scroll down for links to the Ephebe in the 2oth & 21st Centuries)
 'STUDY OF A NUDE BOY'
Christen Købke - 1810-1848

Christen Schiellerup Købke (26 May 1810 – 7 February 1848), Danish painter, was born in Copenhagen to
Peter Berendt Købke, a baker, and his wife Cecilie Margrete.
Købke, a national romantic, painted portraits, landscapes and architectural paintings.
Most of Købke’s portraits show friends, family members and fellow artists.
He found most of his motifs in his immediate surroundings.
Now he is recognized internationally for his well composed and harmonic paintings, for their coloristic
qualities and for his sense of the everyday life. But in his lifetime he was almost forgotten, especially because
of his early death and limited production.
Despite his talent and the praise of various contemporaries, Købke had never been inundated with
commissions.
Købke is recognized today as one of the most talented among Denmark’s Golden Age painters and the most
internationally renowned Danish painter of his generation.
His works are in the collections of not only Danish museums but also such international museums as the J.
Paul Getty Museum
'BELLE ACADEMIE JEUNE HOMME NU'
 'HORSES ON THE BEACH'
Michael Peter Ancher - 1849-1927

Michael Peter Ancher (June 9, 1849 – September 19, 1927) was a Danish impressionist artist.
He is most associated with his paintings of fishermen and other scenes from the Danish port of Skagen.
His paintings are classics and he is probably one of Denmark's most popular artists.
Michael Ancher was influenced by his traditional training at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in the
1870s which imposed strict rules for composition, and he found it difficult to adjust to Scandinavian painting's
modern breakthrough, the "Skagen School".
His marriage to Anna Ancher did, however, introduce him to the naturalistic concept of undecorated
reproduction of reality and its colours.
By combining the pictorial composition of his youth with the teachings of naturalism, Michael Ancher created
what has been called modern monumental figurative art s.
The works of Michael Ancher can be seen at the Skagen Museum, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, the
Frederiksborg Museum, The Hirschsprung Collection and Ribe Art Museum.
Michael Ancher received the Eckersberg Medal in 1889 and in 1894 the Order of the Dannebrog.
 'LA SOURCE'
Henry Charles Devilliers - (1848-68)

'SORCERERS SLAVE' 1877

Thomas Wilmer Dewing
 ' LOVE LOCKED OUT' - 1889
Anna Lea Merritt (1844-1930)

'WET CUPID'
William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)
 'PERKANAT' (TUG OF WAR)
́ Петрович
Николай ́ ́ ́
Богданов-Бельский (1868-1945) - (Nikolay Bogdanov-Belski)

'NACH DEM BADE' (GOING FOR A SWIM)

́ Петрович
Николай ́ ́ ́
Богданов-Бельский (1868-1945) - (Nikolay Bogdanov-Belski)
 NIKOLAI PETROVITCH BOGDANOV-BELSKY - SELF PORTRAIT
Nikolai Petrovitch Bogdanov-Belsky (1868–1945)

Bogdanov-Belsky was born in the village of Shitiki in Smolensk Governorate in 1868.

He studied art at the Semyon Rachinsky fine art school, icon-painting at the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1883,
modern painting at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1884 to 1889, and at the
Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg from 1894 to 1895.
He worked and studied in private studios in Paris in the late 1890s.
Bogdanov-Belsky was active in St. Petersburg.
After 1921, he worked exclusively in Riga, Latvia. He became a member of several prominent societies in
including the Peredvizhniki from 1895, and the Arkhip Kuindzhi Society from 1909 (of which he was a
founding member and chairman from 1913 to 1918).
Bogdanov-Belsky painted mostly genre paintings, especially of the education of peasant children, portraits,
and impressionistic landscapes studies.
He became pedagogue and academician in 1903. He was an active Member of the Academy of Arts in 1914.
Bogdanov-Belsky died in 1945 in Berlin.
'NUDE BOY WITH A SWORD'
Franz Stuck (1863-1928)

'AMOR'
Franz Stuck (1863-1928)
 'FRANZ STUCK - SELF PORTRAIT'
Franz Stuck (1863-1928)

Franz Stuck (February 24, 1863 - August 30, 1928) was a German symbolist/Art Nouveau painter, sculptor,
engraver, and architect.
Stuck was born at Tettenweis, in Bavaria.
From an early age he displayed an affinity for drawing and caricature.
To begin his artistic education in 1878 he went to Munich, where he would settle for life.
From 1881 to 1885 Stuck attended the Munich Academy.
He first made a name with cartoons for Fliegende Blätter, and vignette designs for programmes and book
decoration.
In 1889 he exhibited his first paintings at the Munich Glass Palace, winning a gold medal for The Guardian of
Paradise.
In 1892 Stuck co-founded the Munich Secession, and also executed his first sculpture, Athlete. The following
year he won further acclaim with the critical and public success of what is now his most famous work, The
Sin. Also in 1893, Stuck was awarded a gold medal for painting at the Chicago World's Fair and was
appointed to a royal professorship.
In 1895 he began teaching painting at the Munich Academy.
In 1897 Stuck married an American widow, Mary Lindpainter, and began work designing his own residence
and studio, the Villa Stuck.
His designs for the villa included everything from layout to interior decorations; for his furniture Stuck
received another gold medal at the 1900 Paris World Exposition.Having attained a high degree of fame by
this time, Stuck was elevated to the aristocracy on December 9, 1905 and would receive further public honours
from around Europe during the remainder of his life.
Even as new trends in art left Stuck behind, he continued to be highly respected among young artists in his
capacity as professor at the Munich Academy.
Notable students of his over the years include Paul Klee, Hans Purrmann, Wassily Kandinsky, and Josef
Albers.
Franz von Stuck died in 1928; his funeral address memorialized him as "the last prince of art of Munich's
great days". He is buried in the Munich Waldfriedhof next to his wife Mary.
'EL NIÑO DE LA BOLA' - (NUDE BOY WITH A BALL)
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)

ÑINOS EN LA PLAYA' - (BOYS ON THE BEACH)

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)
'EL BANO DEL CABALLO' - (THE HORSE'S BATH)
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)

'BAÑO'
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)
 'ÑINO JURGANDO POR LA PLAYA'
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)

'EL BOTE BLANCO' - (THE WHITE BOAT) - Javea -1905

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)
'ON THE SAND - VALENCIA BEACH'
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)
 JOAQUIN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (1863-1923)

Gertrude Käsebier

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter.
Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes.
His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native
land.
Joaquin Sorolla was the eldest child born to a tradesman, also named Joaquin, and his wife, Concepcion Bastida. His sister, Concha,
was born a year later.
In August 1865 both children were orphaned when their parents died, possibly from cholera. They were thereafter cared for by their
maternal aunt and uncle.
He received his initial art education, at the age of fourteen, in his native town, and then under a succession of teachers including
Cayetano Capuz, Salustiano Asenjo.
At the age of eighteen he traveled to Madrid, vigorously studying master paintings in the Museo del Prado.
After completing his military service, at twenty-two Sorolla obtained a grant which enabled a four year term to study painting in
Rome, Italy, where he was welcomed by and found stability in the example of F. Pradilla, the director of the Spanish Academy in
Rome.
A long sojourn to Paris in 1885 provided his first exposure to modern painting; of special influence were exhibitions of Jules Bastien-
Lepage and Adolf von Menzel.
Back in Rome he studied with Jose Benlliure, Emilio Sala, and Jose Villegas.
 .

The subject of the Ephebe has continued to interest artists into the 20th & 21st Centuries.

• Otto Lohmüller contemporary German artist

• Vittorio Carvelli contemporary Italian Artist
OTHER BLOGS BY PETER CRAWFORD

ROYAL EGYPT

SO LONG AGO - SO CLEAR

GERMAN ART
CONTEMPORARY DESIGN

GREAT ART

TOM DALEY
 FRANK HAMPSON

THE LORD OF THE HARVEST