• The artist was not born in the US, but became a citizen in 1920.
• The Art Students League in New York, with instructors William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, and Heatherly's Art School in London were where the artist was trained.
• The photographer Edward Weston (1886-1958) was a great friend of the artist's. They were both fascinated by capturing the art-nature connection, and wound up living near one another in the flora and fauna surrounding Carmel, California.
  
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• Some well-intentioned -- but criminally stupid -- friends had the artist committed to a mental institution after noticing the artist's studio was messy. (As if tidy artists' studios are the norm!) The friends then apparently forgot what they had done, because the artist languished there, forgotten, until death provided an escape. This incident may or may not have given rise to the expression, "With friends like that, who needs enemies?"

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 03:46:51.

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René Magritte originally appeared on About.com Art History on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 22:49:14.

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Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan originally appeared on About.com Art History on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 20:39:08.

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• The artist was Italian, and the second child of a master baker from Ferrara. (Hey, quit giggling. I said "baker.")
• Best known for a vast output of religious paintings, the artist executed three versions of the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross). The Vatican Museums own one of them.
• The artist died on the Italian Riviera southeast of Genoa, about 100 miles (as the crow flies) NNW from the island of Giglio -- scene of the recent Costa Concordia shipwreck.
  
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• In addition to being at the forefront of two Modernist movements in Italy, the artist also illustrated two books: The Betrothed (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni, and a private, Italian edition of Edgar Allen Poe's Tales. Poe had a major influence on this artist, who read Tales over and over again in its original English.

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 02:16:06.

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• The artist was American, but moved to Europe at age 27 and, with the exception of one brief return trip to the US, lived as an expatriate for 51 years.
• The artist attended the Académie Julian in Paris for only three months because Gustave Boulanger (French, 1824-1888), a professor there, advised that nothing remained to be taught or learned in the artist's training.
• The artist was born a twin. While the twin married and had children, the artist (a devout Roman Catholic) remained single and celibate, and lived with another sibling who did the same.
  
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• The artist had an in-law who was (1) a leader and teacher in the Cincinnati Art-Carved Furniture Movement, and (2) originally immigrated to the US from England not to create furniture, but to promote a phonographic writing system developed by his brother. Can you identify the furniture designer and his brother?

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 03:56:47.

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• Though this is a drawing and the artist is best known for painting, the first formal art instruction this French artist received was in sculpture.
• More than anyone had before, the artist studied color theory and optical effects by reading chemical and mathematical treatises.
• A major influence on the artist was the 1827 book Essay on the Unmistakable Signs of Art by the author -- and I am not making this up -- Humbert de Superville.
  
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• The medium (Conté crayon) and support (Michallet paper) seen above are important clues. Michallet paper has two sides: smooth and ribbed, with a heavy "tooth." The artist always used the toothy side.

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 16th, 2012 at 04:59:49.

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• The artist was a French Huguenot, born and raised in Switzerland following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
• The artist was famous for portraiture ... a long time ago. Today the artist's name is fairly obscure.
• An inveterate traveler, the artist spent four years in Constantinople and wore Turkish clothing (including a fez) forever afterwards.
  
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• Among the artist's many sitters were: Pope Clement XII; Bonnie Prince Charlie; the Empress Maria Theresa; Madame de Pompadour; Augusta, Princess of Wales; the Earls of Sandwich and Bessborough; the French royal family; and the House of Orange.

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 05:06:48.

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• The artist was born in France, but only according to modern boundaries.
• A "Northerner," this artist was the first non-Italian to travel to Rome and sketch its antiquities.
• The artist kept the Prince-Bishop of Utrecht, Philip of Burgundy, well supplied with erotic nudes. (Well, erotic in their day. Now? Not so much.)
  
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• The three sitters in this portrait are royals whose father was known by the sobriquet "The Tyrant" due to murderous actions in Sweden. Of the three, only the two girls made it adulthood, and the youngest girl -- the baby here -- had her portrait painted again about 15 years later, when Henry VIII had his scouts poking around Europe for a fourth wife. Do you know who she was and who she went on to marry instead, after rejecting England's offer? (There's another clue for you: she was smart enough to like keeping her head attached to her body.)

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 04:55:50.

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I Guess They ARE Making New Leonardos originally appeared on About.com Art History on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 22:51:10.

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On Miss Frankenthaler's Passing originally appeared on About.com Art History on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 20:20:38.

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