Clair De Lune A Valmondois, Etching
The pupil of his father Edmé-François, he attended the studio of Paul Delaroche, went to Rome, and on his return became a picture restorer at the Louvre. His own style of painting evolved in the direction of the Barbizon School (although he did not live or work in that locality) and he was an enthusiastic practitioner of out-of-doors painting, very much concerned with atmospheric effects. He first attracted public attention and praise at the Salon of 1848 with a series of landscapes of the Morvan (Valley of the Cousin, Musée d'Orsay), and he maintained his popularity, despite the fact that his brushwork became increasingly free and spontaneous. Although Dutch influence was evident in his works, as, indeed, was that of Constable, his style was never derivative, and it is obvious that his work would have appealed to the younger generation of artists which was to produce Impressionism.
From the begining, Monet was one of his devoted admirers; the two first met at Trouville in 1865, and in 1868 Daubigny was largely instrumental in getting works by Monet, as well as by Manet, Pissarro, Bazille, Morisot, Renoir and Sisley, admitted to the Salon, in which he was serving as a jury member. It was also Daubigny who first introduced Monet to his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, in January 1871 when they were all in London; who persuaded him to go to Holland in 1872; and who bought his Canal in Zaandam (Collection of Mr & Mrs Clifford, New York). It is not without interest, too, that Monet's famous floating studio, in which he was painted by Manet (1874; Bayerische Staatsgalerie, Munich), was based on a similar botin that Daubigny, who was particularly attracted to river scenes, had used some two decades earlier.
There can be little doubt that of all the older artists who presided over the genesis of Impressionism, Daubigny was one of the most helpful and, stylistically, one of the most influential.
"Daubigny, Charles François (1817 - 1878)." The Thames & Hudson Encyclopaedia of Impressionism. London: Thames & Hudson, 1990. Credo Reference. Web. 11 October 2012.
La Potichomanie, Lithograph
Honoré Daumier was an important French lithographer and painter. His lithographs are valuable documents for the political and social history of his period, and his paintings, largely unappreciated during his lifetime, are now held in high esteem.
He studied briefly in an academic studio before learning lithography. The Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 gave him the opportunity to express his republican sentiments in his caricatures. At other times, censorship confined him to social satire (he was even imprisoned in 1833 for criticizing the government). In the mid 1840s he became increasingly interested in painting, while still producing lithographs for his livelihood. Contemporaries knew him mainly as a graphic artist: in his lifetime he showed only six paintings in official exhibitions.
During the 1830s Daumier's political cartoons—published in the newspapers La Caricature and Le Charivari—included Gargantua (1831), an earthy caricature of Louis-Philippe's corrupt government, and the famous Rue Transnonain 14 April 1834 (1834), in which he abandons the satirical manner to show the pathetic aftermath of a military slaughter of civilians.
In 1836 Daumier began a series on the invented character Robert Macaire, personifying the chicanery of commercial society. He produced several great series of lithographs in the 1840s, for example Ancient History (1842), a lampoon of Neoclassicism. His targets were often pomposity and pretentiousness, as in the series Men of Justice (1845 - 8): here the flowing robes and black - white contrast of the legal costume allowed impressive pictorial effects. He invented the character of Ratapoil, of which he also made a sculpture in bronze (1850; Louvre, Paris) to satirize the unscrupulous brigands of Napoleon III.
"Daumier Honoré (1808 - 1879)." A Biographical Dictionary of Artists, Andromeda. London: Andromeda, 1995. Credo Reference. Web. 10 October 2012.
Red Piano, Color Lithograph
American painter, sculptor, printmaker, illustrator, performance artist, stage designer and poet. Clothing and domestic objects featured prominently in Dine's paintings of the 1960s. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he was viewed as a forerunner of the figurative and Neo-Expressionist trends.
"Dine, Jim." The Dictionary of Art. New York:Grove,1996. v. 8 p.902-906
Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935) is an American pop artist. He is sometimes considered to be a part of the Neo-Dada movement. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, attended Walnut Hills High School, the University of Cincinnati, and received a BFA from Ohio University in 1957. He first earned respect in the art world with his Happenings. Pioneered with artists Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow, in conjunction with musician John Cage, the "Happenings" were chaotic performance art that was a stark contrast with the more somber mood of the expressionists popular in the New York art world. The first of these was the 30 second The Smiling Worker performed in 1959.
From Wikipedia October 11, 2012
Matthaus Evangelium, Lithograph
Otto Dix was a German artist, painter, print maker and watercolorist. His depictions of mechanized warfare and post-war Berlin continue to shape our impressions of the Great War and Weimar society. Along with George Grosz, Dix was one of the more important figures in New Objectivity. While Grosz delved into the shadows of modern society, Dix stared into the abyss.
From The Online Otto Dix Project website, October 29, 2012
Fiscal Flight, Color Etching 20/150
David Driesbach has been an exhibiting artist since 1949 and an educator from 1952 to 1991. He has studied with Mauricio Lasansky and Stanley William Hayter. He has exhibited in over 250 one man shows and a very large number of national and international juried and invitational exhibitions and workshops.
David has a lifetime of artistic endeavors and is well respected as an educator who instilled strong artistic commitments in a large impressive group of students. He is an internationaly known expert and innovator in the printmaking field who helped to create technical advances in color viscosity printing.
From his official website October 29, 2012