Charles Le Brun

Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) was a French artist, painter to Louis XIV from 1662. Short Biography: In 1663 he became director of the French Academy and of the Gobelin factory...

Nicolas Lancret

Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743) was a French painter. Short Biography: His graceful fetes galantes (festive groups of courtly figures in fancy dress) followed a theme made popular...

Wilfredo Lam

Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982) was a Cuban abstract painter. Short Biography: Influenced by Surrealism in the 1930s (he lived in Paris 1937-1941), he created a semi-abstract style...

Godfrey Kneller

Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) was a German-born painter, who lived in England from 1674. Short Biography: He was court portraitist to Charles II, James II, William III, and George...

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian painter, influenced by Jugendstil ("Youth Style", a form of Art Nouveau); a founder member in 1897 of the Vienna Sezession group ("seceding"...

Paul Klee

Paul Klee (1879-1940) settled in Munich in 1906, joined the Bhute Reiter (see Kandinsky) group in 1912, and worked at the Bauhaus school of art and design (1920-1931), returning to...

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was born in Moscow, he travelled widely, settling in Munich in 1896. He was joint originator of the Expressionist Blaue Reiter movement (1911-1912), named...

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was a French painter, a student of David and leading exponent of the Neo-Classical style. Short Biography: He studied and worked in...

William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was a British painter, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Short Biography: Obsessed with realistic detail, he travelled...

Gerrit van Honthorst

Gerrit van Honthorst (1590-1656) was a Dutch painter who used extremes of light and shade, influenced by Caravaggio; with Terbrugghen he formed the Utrecht school. Short Biography...

Hans Holbein the Elder

Holbein was born in Augsburg. In 1515 he went to Basel, where he became friendly with Erasmus; in 1517 to Lucerne; he was active in Basel again (1519-1526). Short Biography: He...

William Hogarth

William Hogarth (1697-1764) was a British painter and engraver, who produced portraits and moralizing genre scenes, such as the series A Rake's Progress in 1735. Short Biography...

Hans Hofmann

Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) was a German-born Abstract Expressionist painter, active in Paris and Munich from 1915 until 1932, when he moved to the USA. He was influential among New York...

Nicholas Hilliard

Nicholas Hilliard (c.1547-1619) was a English miniature portraitist and goldsmith, court artist to Elizabeth I from about 1579. His sitters included Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh. Short...

Benjamin Haydon

Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) was a British painter, who became celebrated for his gigantic canvasses. Short Biography: His attempts at "high art" include Christ's Entry...

Frans Hals

Frans Hals (c. 1581-1666) was a Flemish-born painter of portraits, such as the Laughing Cavalier in 1624 (Wallace Collection, London), and large groups of military companies, governors...

Guercino

Guercino adopted name of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1590-1666) was an Italian Baroque painter active chiefly in Rome. Short Biography: In his ceiling painting of Aurora 1621-1623...

Matthias Grunewald

Matthias Gothardt-Neithardt Grunewald (c. 1475-1528) was a German painter, active in Mainz, Frankfurt, and Halle. Short Biography: He was court painter, architect; and engineer...

Francisco Goya

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was a Spanish painter and engraver. Short Biography: He painted portraits of four successive, kings of Spain, and his etchings include...

Giotto di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) was an Italian painter and architect. He broke away from the conventional Gothic style of the time, and had an enormous influence on subsequent Italian...

Giorgione

Giorgione del Castelfranco (c. 1475-1510) was a Italian Renaissance painter, active in Venice, probably trained by Giovanni Bellini. Short Biography: His work influenced Titian...

Charles Ginner

Charles Ginner (1878-1952) was a British painter. Short Biography: He settled in London in 1910, and from 1914 was one of the London Group set up in 1913. It included followers...

Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was a Swiss sculptor and painter, who trained in Italy and Paris. Short Biography: In the 1930s, in his Surrealist period, he began to develop...

Domenico Ghirlandaio

Domenico Ghirlandaio (c. 1449-1494) was an Italian fresco painter, head of a large and prosperous workshop in Florence. Short Biography: His fresco cycle (1486-1490) in South...