graphiques, impressions
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker, celebrated as the most pivotal Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born in Fuendetodos, Aragon, Spain, on March 30, 1746, Goya's work reflects a tumultuous period of history, intertwining the personal, political, and social upheavals of his time with a bold and innovative artistic vision. His early career was marked by portraits of the Spanish aristocracy and royalty, as well as Rococo style tapestry cartoons for the royal palace. However, following a severe illness in 1793 that left him deaf, his art took on a darker and more pessimistic tone.
Goya's oeuvre is vast, encompassing around 700 paintings, 280 prints, and several thousand drawings, through which he depicted a wide range of subjects from the whimsical to the macabre. Notable among his works are "The Naked Maja," "The Clothed Maja," "The Family of Charles IV," "The Third of May 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid," and "Saturn Eating His Children." His etchings, particularly the series "Los Caprichos" and "The Disasters of War," are celebrated for their intricate detail, emotional depth, and critical social commentary.
Goya's contribution to art goes beyond his mastery of painting and printmaking. He is often considered the bridge between the Old Masters and modern art, introducing themes and techniques that would influence countless artists in the centuries to follow. His ability to capture the essence of his era, the human condition, and the complexities of his own psyche, makes his work universally relatable and enduringly relevant.
His most famous paintings are housed in prestigious museums worldwide, including the Museo del Prado in Madrid, which holds an extensive collection of his works. The Prado's collection serves as a testament to Goya's significant impact on art and culture, offering insight into the artist's unique perspective on the world around him.
For collectors and experts in art and antiques, Francisco de Goya's legacy is a beacon of artistic innovation and historical significance. His works not only adorn the walls of museums but also continue to inspire and provoke thought among audiences across the globe.
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Jacques Callot was a baroque printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine (an independent state on the north-eastern border of France, southwestern border of Germany and overlapping the southern Netherlands). He is an important person in the development of the old master print. He made more than 1,400 etchings that chronicled the life of his period, featuring soldiers, clowns, drunkards, Gypsies, beggars, as well as court life. He also etched many religious and military images, and many prints featured extensive landscapes in their background.
William Nicholson was a British painter of still-life, landscape and portraits. He also worked as a printmaker in techniques including woodcut, wood-engraving and lithography, as an illustrator, as an author of children's books and as a designer for the theatre.
Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovidius (Ovid), was an ancient Roman poet who lived during the reign of Emperor Augustus.
Most of the information about the life and work of Ovid, scholars have drawn from his own works, as well as from the works of Seneca the Elder and Marcus Fabius Quintilianus. Ovid was from a fairly high class of "horsemen", studied rhetoric at the maestros of oratory of the ancient Roman Empire, and then went traveling, visiting Athens, Asia Minor and Sicily. As a young man, Ovid held minor public offices, was a member of the college of civil affairs, and served in an office that performed spiritual and secular duties at the state level.
However, Ovid was much more attracted to poetry, and he resigned and about 29-25 BC joined the circle of those chosen under the patronage of Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus. After publishing Amores, a collection of love-erotic lyrics, around 15-16 BC, Ovid became one of Rome's most popular poets. He became famous for his works in the genre of elegy, as well as for his epic poem Metamorphoses (8 AD), which became one of the most important sources in the study of classical mythology.
For reasons unknown to us, in 8 A.D. Ovid was disgraced and exiled for the rest of his life to Tomes on the Black Sea, where he wrote his "Mournful Elegies" and a poem cycle entitled "Letters from Pontus". A contemporary of Virgil and Horace, Ovid was one of the three canonical representatives of Latin literature.
George Stubbs was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Reynolds or Gainsborough. Stubbs' output includes history paintings, but his greatest skill was in painting animals, perhaps influenced by his love and study of anatomy. His series of paintings on the theme of a lion attacking a horse are early and significant examples of the Romantic movement that emerged in the late 18th century. His painting, Whistlejacket hangs in the National Gallery, London.
William Nicholson was a British painter of still-life, landscape and portraits. He also worked as a printmaker in techniques including woodcut, wood-engraving and lithography, as an illustrator, as an author of children's books and as a designer for the theatre.
![Bible, German | [Weimar Elector’s Bible], 1768, finely bound by Johann Georg Dachau](/assets/image/picture_3530780/76ab9/nvwdvs4jdjiwgyrzawmys1hf-bfbodud9bfclkbyoclb1qikahsbn9dr7iivta6o1698927154jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![Bible, German | [Weimar Elector’s Bible], 1768, finely bound by Johann Georg Dachau](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_3530780/76ab9/nvwdvs4jdjiwgyrzawmys1hf-bfbodud9bfclkbyoclb1qikahsbn9dr7iivta6o1698927154jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
William Curtis was a British botanist and entomologist, editor of the oldest botanical publication in Great Britain.
Curtis became interested in natural history in his youth, and at the age of 25 had already published "Instructions for the Collection and Preservation of Insects", particularly butterflies. In 1779 he founded his own London botanical garden at Lambeth and published Flora Londinensis (1777-1798), a 6-volume work on urban nature.
In 1787 Curtis began publishing the later popular Botanical Magazine, which also featured hand-colored plates by artists. This magazine has changed its name several times over time, but is still continued by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as a publication for those interested in horticulture, ecology or botanical illustration. Interestingly, the magazine was entirely hand-colored until 1948.
Paul Decker the Younger was a German painter and engraver.
He created engravings of biblical subjects, architectural landscapes and battle scenes.
Nicolas Sanson the Elder (Nicolas Sanson d’Abbeville) was a French cartographer who served under two kings in matters of geography. He has been called the "father of French cartography." He gave lessons in geography both to Louis XIII and to Louis XIV. Active from 1627, Sanson issued his first map of importance, the "Postes de France". After publishing several general atlases himself he became the associate of Pierre Mariette, a publisher of prints. He died in Paris on 7 July 1667. Two younger sons succeeded him as geographers to the king. Sanson's maps were used as a model by his son, Guillaume, and, at least initially, by Duval, his nephew, in his 1664 folio map and 1660 atlas minor map. In 1692 Hubert Jaillot collected Sanson's maps in an Atlas nouveau.
![Charles Le Brun | Grand escalier du chateau de Versailles. Paris, [1725], from the library of the Duchesse de Berry](/assets/image/picture_3553008/ec9f0/uetj65gqqo2ruc9jwwadbwuz3io4pimo93nkrxgxopcbddyau3e7vp6zhjxxem1699092113jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![Charles Le Brun | Grand escalier du chateau de Versailles. Paris, [1725], from the library of the Duchesse de Berry](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_3553008/ec9f0/uetj65gqqo2ruc9jwwadbwuz3io4pimo93nkrxgxopcbddyau3e7vp6zhjxxem1699092113jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
Charles Le Brun was a French painter, draftsman and chief decorator of the Palace of Versailles.
Charles came from an educated and respected family, trained in painting in Italy and very soon his talents were appreciated in the highest circles of France. In 1660 Le Brun painted "The Family of Darius before Alexander", which brought him the reputation of a brilliant French painter, and in 1664 he received the position of the first painter of the king. Thereafter he received more and more commissions and more honors.
From 1662 Le Brun controlled all the artistic projects of the royal court. In the Palace of Versailles, Lebrun created beautiful decorations: the Ambassadors' Staircase, the Hall of Mirrors, the Peace Room and the War Room. In each of his designs, he emphasized the king's achievements. He was also responsible for the decoration of the State Apartments, which was entrusted to the greatest artists of the time, who worked from his drawings. Le Brun also designed most of the statues in the park at Versailles. This enormous work cemented his reputation as a true seventeenth-century genius, as well as one of the founders, ideologues, and chief representatives of the classicist "grand style" of King Louis XIV's era.
In 1648 Le Brun became a founding member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and in 1663 - the manager of the Manufacture of tapestries.
Charles Le Brun was not only the creator of the "grand style", but also contributed to the rebirth of classicism into academism.
![Low Countries | Le grand théâtre profane du duché de Brabant [bound uniformly with] Le grand théâtre sacré du duché de Brabant, The Hague, 1730, 1734](/assets/image/picture_3553024/e511c/3pxzidpqncdewbfvj6izl9ztdbwxrlcszxo02ukckkfm1ip-iuwlupupyz-plx-1699092718jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![Low Countries | Le grand théâtre profane du duché de Brabant [bound uniformly with] Le grand théâtre sacré du duché de Brabant, The Hague, 1730, 1734](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_3553024/e511c/3pxzidpqncdewbfvj6izl9ztdbwxrlcszxo02ukckkfm1ip-iuwlupupyz-plx-1699092718jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![Joseph Moore | Eighteen views taken at & near Rangoon [with] Frederick Marryat. Six plates illustrative of the combined operations in the Birman Empire. London, [1825]–1826](/assets/image/picture_3553036/73b36/ogkz7ej7pmjb0dxzilgka9asopsy-briouw0kk1ebedk85uervj4n3chgn4c4le1699093504jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![Joseph Moore | Eighteen views taken at & near Rangoon [with] Frederick Marryat. Six plates illustrative of the combined operations in the Birman Empire. London, [1825]–1826](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_3553036/73b36/ogkz7ej7pmjb0dxzilgka9asopsy-briouw0kk1ebedk85uervj4n3chgn4c4le1699093504jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
Joseph Nash the Elder was a British watercolor painter and lithographer.
Nash was a member of the Society of Watercolor Painters and exhibited there extensively with his paintings. He specialized in historic buildings and palaces and produced several lithographed albums, the most important of which was the monumental work The Mansions of England in Old Times (1839-49). This four-volume book was very popular with his contemporaries; lithographs from it were printed in newspapers, all of which encouraged the public to visit museums and historical sites more.
In 1846 Joseph Nash lithographed David Wilkie's Oriental Sketches, and in 1848 a series of views of Windsor Castle based on his own drawings.
His only son, Joseph Nash, Jr. was a marine painter and a member of the Royal Institute of Watercolor Painters.