|
Wadsworth Edward
(1889-1949). British
painter. He exhibited Post-Impressionist works
(1912), was briefly associated with the *Omega
Workshops and then the *Vorticists (1915), and
in 1933 with *Unit One.
Wadsworth
Edward
(2)
|
Wanderers, The. Group of Russian artists founded
in I870 to promote travelling exhibitions with
the idea of discovering new sources of patronage
outside the normal centres of St Petersburg and
Moscow. Tts leaders were Miasoedov, Perov and
Ge. The subject matter of their pictures
presented common life realistically.
Wappers
Gustave
(b Antwerp, 23 Aug 1803; d Paris, 6 Dec
1874). Belgian painter and teacher. He studied at the Antwerp
Academie under Mathieu Van Brée, from whom he gained a taste for
large-scale history painting and an admiration of Peter Paul
Rubens. His first subjects were strictly classical (e.g.
Regulus, 1823) and, like Van Brée, he illustrated episodes
from the life of the great Flemish painters (e.g. Van Dyck
and his Model, 1827; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.). He also painted
a few portraits (e.g. Portrait of a Lady, 1828; Antwerp,
Kon. Mus. S. Kst.). He exhibited his first work at the Salon of
1822 in Ghent. In 1824 he went to the Netherlands to look at
works by the Old Masters, and from 1826 to 1829 he lived in
Paris, during which time he ceased to exhibit at the Belgian
Salons. In Paris he frequented the studios of such Romantic
artists as Paul Delaroche and Horace Vernet but felt intimidated
by the more audacious manner of Eugène Delacroix. When he
reappeared at the Salon of 1830 in Brussels, his Sacrifice of
the Burgomaster van der Werff (Utrecht, Cent. Mus.) was
received enthusiastically. Although the subject had already been
treated by Van Brée, Wappers cast it in a new Romantic light
that reflected his time in Paris. This appealed to his Brussels
audience, but the weighty, patriotic content of the work also
encouraged claims that Wappers was a genius who had rediscovered
a distinctively Belgian national art. Since July of that year
Paris had been in the throes of revolution, and in Brussels
unrest was brewing that finally broke out in September. In this
tense atmosphere it was perhaps understandable that even such a
mediocre work should have been so enthusiastically
misinterpreted as leading the contemporary Belgian revolt
against foreign artistic influences. For the same reason
François-Joseph Navez, the head of the Belgian Neo-classical
school and a disciple of Jacques-Louis David, was widely
attacked when his Athalia Questioning Joash (Brussels,
Mus. A. Anc.) was hung opposite Wappers’s picture at the Salon
of 1830 in Brussels. In the following months Wappers hardened
his anti-classical stance and turned Navez (by now his sworn
enemy) and his followers into objects of derision.
Warburg Aby (1866—1929). German art historian.
His art library founded m Hamburg was moved to
Britain m 1933 and became, eventually, the
Warburg Institute, University of London. W.
encouraged the understanding of works of art in
the context of their religious, astrological and
hence psychological and superstitious
traditions, and their modifications and
transformations at any one moment.
Warhol Andy (1928-87). U.S. painter, print and
film maker, one of the main exponents of U.S.
*Pop art. W. became a cult figure in the 1960s.
He began his career as a commercial artist
(1949—60) and used such techniques and images in
his work. His early paintings were stylized
comic strips or advertisements; later he
produced works of repeated images using rubber
and wooden stamps and stencils which eventually
led him to reproductions made with silkscreen on
canvas. His work consists mainly of portraits
(Elvis Presley, 1962, Marilyn Monroe, 1962, Liz
Taylor, 1962—5, etc.), documentary images (car
crashes, 1962—3, electric chairs, 1963—7, etc.),
consumer goods (Campbell's soup cans, 1962-5,
Coca-Cola bottles, 1962, dollar
bills, 1962—3) and flowers, 1964—7. From 1963 on
he made, or collaborated in, films produced in
his 'factory': e.g. Sleep (1963), Umpire (1964),
Chelsea Girls (1966), Lonesome Cowboys
(1968), Trash (1970).
Washington Color Painters. U.S. group launched
by an exhibition of this name at the Washington,
D.C., Gal. of Mod. A. in 1965. Principal members
were *Louis, *Noland and Gene Davis. The group
generally employed acrylic paints — on unprimed
canvas — in their exploration of colour
qualities and relationships.
Watercolour. Painting in colours which are
soluble in water (bound with gum-arabic or
similar substances) on white or tinted paper.
W.s were known in 2nd-c. AI) Egypt, but became
an important art with Diirer; a tradition of w.
painting was created by British painters from
the 19th с
Waterhouse John William
(b Rome, 6 April 1849; d London, 10 Feb
1917).
English painter. His father was a minor English
painter working in Rome. Waterhouse entered the Royal
Academy Schools in London in 1870. He exhibited at the
Society of British Artists from 1872 and at the Royal
Academy from 1874. From 1877 to the 1880s he regularly travelled abroad, particularly to Italy. In the early
1870s he had produced a few uncharacteristic Orientalist
‘keepsake’ paintings, but most of his works in this
period are scenes from ancient history or classical
genre subjects, similar to the work of Lawrence Alma-Tadema
(e.g. Consulting the Oracle, c. 1882;
London, Tate). However, Waterhouse consistently painted
on a larger scale than Alma-Tadema. His brushwork is
bolder, his sunlight casts harsher shadows and his
history paintings are more dramatic.
Watteau Jean-Antoine (1684—1721). French
painter, draughtsman and etcher. His life is
well documented since both his dealer, Gersaint,
and his friends wrote his biography. From his
provincial home in Valenciennes and an
apprenticeship to obscure master painters, W.
made his way to Paris, where he at first worked
as a hack copyist. From 1703 tor 5 years he was
assistant to Gillot, the leading painter of
fashionable Italian theatrical scenes, painter
of the commedia dell'arte. W. now joined Audran
the court painter, who was charged with
decorations of the royal chateaux. His artistic
training was now complete and his social
ascendancy just beginning. He became a recorder
of the social life of his times, a celebrated
painter whose patrons were the richest men of
France. He was invited to join the French
Academy and in 1717 became a full member.
W.'s work was 'the deification of the ideals of
the 18th c, the spirit of the period. ..." His
world of reality was the reality of the
fairy-story, where women became goddesses and
men satyrs in fashionable clothes. He
transformed the coarse and earthly into dreams
and fantasy.
W. was deeply imbued with the spirit of the
great colourists of the past. He had ample
opportunity to study the paintings of the
masters in the colls of his patrons, and he
copied avidly. Rubens and the painters of the
Venetian school were the greatest influences on
his development. The Harlequin and Columbine (c
1715) shows this influence clearly, but the
exquisite delicacy ot the draughtsmanship and
the dreamlike sentiment is that of the mature W.
His Academy presentation piece, and perhaps his
most famous painting, the Umbarkation for
Cythera, was painted in 1717. Here the spirit of
the French *Rococo found its 1st full
expression. Elegant courtiers wend their way to
a landing-stage, where cherubs wait to conduct
them to the island. One of the last and greatest
paintings is the sign of the picture dealer
Gersaint. Painted in 1720, it is said in a
matter of 8 days, it was a triumph of
observation, composition and draughtsmanship.
The execution
and treatment of colour foreshadows the
Impressionists.
Watts George Frederick (1817—1904). British
painter. He supported himself by painting
portraits now considered among his best works,
though W. thought them unimportant compared with
his allegorical compositions; in these, e.g.
Hope, he aimed to deliver a timeless and
universal message based on his own vague moral
idealism. W. was also a sculptor, e.g. the huge
equestrian statue Physical Energy in Kensington
Gardens.
|
Weber Max
(1881-1961), Russian-born U.S.
painter who studied in Paris (1905—8), for a
time under Matisse, and was a pioneer of
avant-garde European art movements in the U.S.A.
before World War I. From *Fauvism he turned to
*Cubism and in The Geranium (1911) began to
evolve a style which combined Cubism and
*Expressionism. He attained complete Cubist
abstraction in Chinese Restaurant (1915). From
1918 he painted in a representational
Expressionist idiom.
Wegener
Gerda Gottlieb (1886 - 1940) was a Danish
illustrator and painter.
Wen-jen. Chinese scholar-painters of landscapes
working m a monochrome tradition of ink on silk
(later paper, *Sung). According to the 16th-c.
wen-jen *Tung Ch'i-ch'ang, the tradition began
with the 7th-c. painter *Wang Wei.
Wesselmann Tom
(1931— ). U.S. *Pop artist;
studied at Cooper Union, N.Y., 1956—9; included
in 'The New Realists' exhibition at the Sidney
Jams Gallery, N.Y., 1962; Matisse was one
important influence. His works, often
assemblages combining oil, enamel, collage,
found images and readymades, include the Great
American Nudes series of variations on the
theme, which began in 1962, Still Life Painting,
30 (1963) and Tit Box (1970).
West Benjamin (1738—1820). American portrait and
history painter who settled in London, having
studied in Italy, where he was influenced
by the *Neoclassicism of *Mengs. He was much
favoured by George III, was a founder-member of
the R.A. and became its president on the death
of Reynolds. His history picture Death of Wolfe
is a typical and well-known work.
Weston Edward,
was born in 1886 in Highland Park, Illinois. When he was sixteen
years old his father gave him a Kodak Bulls-Eye #2 camera and he
began to photograph at his aunt's farm and in Chicago parks. In
1903 Weston first had his photographs exhibited at the Chicago
Art Institute. Soon after the San Francisco earthquake and fire
on April 19, 1906, Weston came to California to work as a
surveyor for San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. For
a short while Weston returned to Chicago and attended the
Illinois College of Photography, but came back to California to
live in 1908 where he became a founding member of the Camera
Pictorialists of Los Angeles. He married Flora Chandler in 1909
and they soon gave birth to two sons: Edward Chandler Weston, in
1910 and Theodore Brett Weston in 1911. Weston had his own
portrait studio in Tropico, California and also began to have
articles published in magazines such as American
Photography, Photo Era and Photo-Miniature where his
article entitled "Weston's Methods" on unconventional portraiture
appeared in September, 1917. Weston's third son, Laurence Neil Weston,
was born in 1916 and his fourth, Cole Weston, in 1919. Soon after Weston
met Tina Modotti which marked the starting point of their long
relationship, photographic collaborations in Mexico and later much
publicized love affair. Modotti's husband, a political radical in
Mexico, died in 1922. That same year Weston traveled to Ohio to visit
his sister and there took photographs of the Armco Steel Plant. From
Ohio he went to New York and met Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Charles
Sheeler and Georgia O'Keefe. At this time Weston renounced Pictorialism
and began a period of transition, self-analysis and self-discipline
while making voyages to Mexico, often with Modotti and one of his sons.
Some of the photographs that he and Modotti made in Mexico were
published in Anita Brenner's book Idols Behind Altars. Weston
began photographing shells, vegetables and nudes in 1927. Weston kept
very detailed journals or "Day Books" of his daily activities, thoughts,
ideas and conversations. His first publication of these writings "From
My Day Book" appeared in 1928 - others were published after his death.
Two years later he had his first New York exhibit at Alma Reed's Delphic
Studios Gallery and later exhibited at Harvard Society of Contemporary
Arts with Walker Evans, Eugene Atget, Sheeler, Stieglitz, Modotti and
others. Weston was a Charter member of the "Group f/64" that was started
in 1932 and included Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Consuelo Kanaga and
others. They chose this optical term because they habitually set their
lenses to that aperture to secure maximum image sharpness of both
foreground and distance. Weston went even further toward photographic
purity in 1934 when he resolved to make only unretouched portraits. Even
though several large exhibitions followed, he was still of modest means
and in 1935 initiated the "Edward Weston Print of the Month Club"
offering photographs at $10 each. In 1937 he was the first photographer
to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship taking his assistant Charis Wilson
along on his travels whom he married the next year. In 1940 the book
California and the West was published with text by Charis and
photographs by Edward. The same year he participated in the U.S.
Camera Yosemite Photographic Forum with Ansel Adams and Dorthea
Lange. In 1941 he was commissioned by Limited Editions Club to
illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
Weston started experiencing symptoms of Parkinson's disease in 1946 and
in 1948 made his last photographs at Point Lobos. In 1952 his
Fiftieth Anniversary Portfolio was published with his images printed
by Brett. In 1955 Weston selected several of what he called "Project
Prints" and began having Brett, Cole and Dody Warren print them under
his supervision. Lou Stoumen released his film The Naked Eye in
1956 of which he used several of Weston's print as well as footage of
Weston himself. Edward Weston died at home on January 1, 1958.
Westwood Cynthia, figurative
painter.
Weyden Rogier van der
, or Rogier de la Pasture
(c. 1400—64). The most important early
Netherlands painter after the death of Van Eyck.
The identity of his work is disputed and he may
be identical with Rogelet, Roger of Bruges and
others. No signed paintings have survived and
very little is known about his life. He is
believed to have been apprenticed to Roger
Campin and is known to have lived in Brussels
from 1435 to 1449, when he was appointed painter
to the city. A probable visit to Italy in 1450
resulted m the Entombment which shows Italian
influence, and the Madonna with Four Saints
which carries the Medici arms and patron saints.
He painted for several members of the Burgundian court including Chancellor Rolin, for whose
foundation he painted the Last Judgement. The
Descent from the Cross is stylistically his most
important work. The action has the quality of a
relief set against a flat background, and
conveys the deep pathos of suffering. His works
show a feeling for the significance of the
action rather than realistic representation. A
fine example of this is the Adoration of the
Magi, known as the St Columba altarpiece, and
such portraits as Portrait of a Lady and Le
Grand Batard, which skilfully capture the
subjects' emotions.
|
Whistler James
Abbott McNeill McNeill (1834-1903). U.S.
painter, a notable dandy and wit. W. was a cadet
at West Point (1851—4), failed to qualify for
the army and came to Europe, studying painting
in Paris under Gleyre. He settled in London
(1859), introducing the cult of the Japanese,
which had already arrived m Pans. The famous
libel action against Ruskin (1878) ruined W. and
he lived abroad for some years. His painting
theories and doctrine of 'Art for Art's sake'
found expression m the witty and vitriolic Ten O'Clock Leclure
(1885) and The Gentle Art of
Making Enemies (1890).
The early influence of Courbet was later
modified by a greater emphasis on surface
arrangement, abstract harmonies, and close
colour and tonal relationships. In the 1860s W.
sought greater delicacy of colour and form, e.g.
'The white girl' (Symphony in White Number 2,
1864); in the 1870s the influence of Velazquez
led to greater robustness, as m the Portrait of
the Artist's Mother (1872) and 'Thomas Carlyle.
The Nocturnes depicting the blurred atmosphere
of London fuse Japanese decorative qualities
with the ideas of the French Impressionists. W.
was also a fine engraver.
Whittredge
Worthington,
born May 22, 1820, Springfield, Ohio, U.S.
died February 25, 1910, Summit, New Jersey. In full Thomas Worthington Whittredge American landscape painter
associated with the Hudson River school.
Whittredge, originally a house painter, took up portraiture and
landscape painting about 1838. Beginning in 1849 he spent five
years in Düsseldorf, Germany, and five years in Rome, where he
posed for Emanuel Leutze, who used him as the model for George
Washington in Washington Crossingthe Delaware (1851). In 1856 he
spent time sketching in Switzerland with the painter Albert
Bierstadt.
On his return to the United States in 1859, Whittredge became
inspired by the varied and rich American landscape. He settled
inNew York City, renting a space in the famous Tenth Street
Studio, and gained almost immediate recognition. In 1860 he was
elected an associate of the National Academy of Design, becoming
a full member two years later. In 1866 he went on a 2,000-mile
government inspection tour of the Rocky Mountains with the
landscape painters John Frederick Kensett and Sanford R.
Gifford. His experiences onthis journey inspired huge canvases
of vast, panoramic views such as Crossing the Platte (1870). His
most characteristic works are poetic forest scenes featuring
depths of feathery fern and mossy rocks, infused with
leaf-filtered light, e.g., Forest Interior (1881). Whittredge
did not paint landscapes for nature's sake alone but rather
chose places he loved, giving his works a personal sensibility.
By the late 1870s, Whittredge's style changed under the
influence of the then popular Hudson River school painters. He
continued painting until age 83, experimenting with various
styles as new fashions took hold of the New York art world. His
autobiography (The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge,
1820–1910) was first published in the Brooklyn Museum's journal
and was reissued in 1969.
Wiertz Antoine (1806—65). Belgian painter
of melodramatic compositions such as Triumph of
Christ (1848) in which he aimed to combine the
characteristics of Michelangelo and Rubens. He
also painted portraits and morbid scenes
depicting premature burial, suicide, madness,
etc. After his death his studio in Brussels was
turned into a mus. of his work.
Wilde John(1919-2006).
John Wilde was one of the most influential Wisconsin artists of the last
half-century, a leading practitioner of a style of American surrealism
that veered from the traditions of Salvador Dali. After being diagnosed
with cancer last summer, Wilde died Friday afternoon at his home in the
Rock County community of Evansville. He was 86.
Williams Robert Dale. Born 1972 in Reading, Pennsylvania, United
States of America
Willis Fritz.
Pin
-Up Art.
Wilson
Richard (1714—82). Landscape painter of
the English school, born in Wales. In 1729 he
was a pupil of Thomas Wright in London and from
1735 was working on his own. He had turned to
landscape before going to Italy (1750—с 1757)
where he was influenced by the work of Poussin
and Claude, and the picturesque landscapes of
Vernet and Zuccarelli. He later painted
landscapes m England and Wales, and
reminiscences of Italian scenes, works full of
serenity, light and the nuances of atmosphere.
Although his work was not popular, he had
considerable influence on Turner, Cotman,
Constable and Crome, and started the cult for
Welsh mountain landscapes.
Wilson Scottie
(1888-1972). Scottie Wilson spent much
of his childhood in Glasgow. He ran away from school at the age of nine,
unable to write anything more than his name. At sixteen he joined the
Scottish Rifles and fought on the Western Front during the first world
war. In 1931 Wilson moved to Toronto where he ran a junk shop and where
he first began to draw. 'One day I was listening to some music by
Mendelssohn', he recalls, 'and I was looking at one of my pens
looking like a bulldog, with a nib as thick as my finger - I dipped it
into a bottle of ink to try it out, doodling on the surface of the
table'. He did this for two days until the tabletop was completely
covered in designs. His pictures are characterized by their intricacy,
and are filled with strange, mythical creatures. André Breton and
Picasso were great admirers, and Wilson is represented in most major
museum collections around the world.
Wilson Will born 1957, Baltimore, Maryland.
Witte Emanuel de
(b Alkmaar, c. 1617; d Amsterdam, 1691–2).
Dutch
painter. He was one of the last and, with Pieter Saenredam, one of the
most accomplished 17th-century artists who specialized in representing
church interiors. He trained with Evert van Aelst (1602–57) in Delft and
in 1636 joined the Guild of St Luke at Alkmaar, but he was recorded in
Rotterdam in the summers of 1639 and 1640. In October 1641 his daughter
was baptized in Delft, where he entered the Guild of St Luke in June
1642 and lived for a decade, moving to Amsterdam c. 1652. He
began his long career as an unpromising figure painter, as can be seen
in the Vertumnus and Pomona (1644) and two small pendant
portraits (1648; all Rotterdam, Mus. Boymans–van Beuningen). Jupiter
and Mercury in the House of Philemon and Baucis (1647) and a
Rembrandtesque Holy Family (1650; both Delft, Stedel. Mus.
Prinsenhof) presage de Witte’s interpretation of architectural interiors
predominantly in terms of light and shade, and—in their casual drawing,
comparatively broad brushwork and uncertain articulation of space—are
stylistically consistent with the unsigned Nieuwe Kerk, Delft (c.
1651; Winterthur, Stift. Briner), showing the tomb of William the
Silent. The latter picture is based directly on Gerrit Houckgeest’s
church interiors of the same years, as is de Witte’s version of the
Nieuwe Kerk, Delft (1650–51; Hamburg, Ksthalle), with the tomb seen
from the rear. Like Hendrick van Vliet, de Witte turned from figure
painting to a subject that had always been a perspectivist’s speciality.
It can be assumed, and there is evidence in inventories, that a mostly
local demand in traditionally royalist Delft encouraged de Witte and
Hendrick van Vliet to concentrate on national monuments and the churches
that enshrined them.
|
Witz Konrad
(b Rottweil, Württemberg, c. 1400–10; d Geneva
or Basle, 1445–6).
German painter. One of the great innovators in northern European
painting, he turned away from the lyricism of the preceding generation
of German painters. His sturdy, monumental figures give a strong
impression of their physical presence, gestures are dignified and the
colours strong and simple. Even scenes with several figures are
strangely undramatic and static. The surface appearance of materials,
especially metals and stone, is intensely observed and recorded with an
almost naive precision. Powerful cast shadows help to define the spatial
relationships between objects. His fresh approach to the natural world
reflects that of the Netherlandish painters: the Master of Flémalle and
the van Eycks. He need not, however, have trained in the Netherlands or
in Burgundy as knowledge of their style could have been gained in Basle.
He remained, however, untouched by the anecdotal quality present in
their art, while Witz’s pure tempera technique differs emphatically from
the refined use of oil glazes that endows Netherlandish pictures with
their jewel-like brilliance.
Winterhalter Franz Xavier (1806—73). German
portrait painter famous as the portrayer of
European royalty, including Queen Victoria,
Prince Albert and their children.
Withers Ted.
Pin
-Up Art.
Wolf Caspar
(b Muri im Aargau, bapt 3 May 1735; d
Heidelberg, 6 Oct 1783).
Swiss painter and draughtsman. His Alpine canvases and studies
are the most important achievements of 18th-century Swiss
landscape painting. Coming from a family of cabinet makers in
the village of Muri, he went to Konstanz in 1749 to study under
Johann Jakob Anton von Lenz (1701–64), the episcopal court
painter. From this period date four figure studies in a
sketchbook (1751). Wolf then worked as an itinerant painter in
South Germany (?1753–9), being recorded in Augsburg, Munich and
Passau. In 1760 he was back in Muri, painting landscapes,
altarpieces and decorations on wallpaper and stoves, notably the
Landscapes with Biblical Stories and Parables, the
Episodes from the History of the Habsburgs, and the
Legend of St Benedict (1762–3) on the wallpaper and panels
of two rooms of the Schloss Horben near Muri. Predominant among
the paintings and drawings of the 1760s were landscapes with
wild rock formations, clearly showing his training in South
German Rococo.
Wolfli Adolph (1864 - 1930) (occasionally spelt Adolf Woelfli or Adolf
Wolfli) was a prolific Swiss artist who
is regarded as one of the
foremost artists in the Art Brut or outsider art traditions.
Wolfli Adolph
(2)
Wols
(Alfred
Otto Wolfgang Schulze)
(1913—51). German painter and poet who studied
at the Dessau *Bauhaus under Mies van der Rohe
and Moholy-Nagy; moved to Paris in 1932. He ill.
with engravings works by Kafka and Sartre.
Wood Grant (1892-1942). U.S. regionahst painter
of Iowa. His development was influenced on
visits to Europe in the 1920s, by 15th- and
16th-c. Flemish and German painting and the *New
Objectivity movement. The
technical precision and stylization which
characterize his work are also reminiscent of
U.S. folk-art. His best-known paintings are
American Gothic and Daughters of the Revolution
in which there is a strong element of satire.
Woodcut. Relief printing technique in which the
design is drawn on the plank surface of the wood
(usually pear or alder) and that part of it
which is to be white is cut away with a gouge or
knife, leaving the remainder to print black. The
w. came into use in the late 14th с for the
printing of playing-cards and block-books and
had become an artistic medium by the mid-15th c,
culminating in the work of Durer. Displaced
by the line engraving, it was revived in the
19th c. by William Morris and others. The medium
is ideally suited to subjective expression and
was widely exploited in the 1st quarter of the
20th c. by the German Expressionists, e.g.
Kirchner and Heckel, who used it with a power
and originality not attained since Durer.
Wood engraving. Relief technique of printing
which differs from the woodcut in that the
working surface of the block uses the end-grain
of the boxwood section, and a burin instead of a
gouge is used for cutting. This makes very fine
lines possible, so that effects similar to those
of line engraving can be achieved. W. e. was
developed in the mid-i8th с and was beautifully
handled by *Bewick (1753-1828). In the mid-19th
с it was used as a reproduction technique by the
Dalziel brothers and others but was revived as a
medium for original work just after World War I.
The major exponents of w. e., including Bewick
and Gwen Raverat, have used the white-line
method, i.e. the lines are cut into the block
and therefore print white in contrast with both
the woodcut and the line engraving.
Woolner Thomas
(b Hadleigh, Suffolk, 17 Dec 1825; d London, 7
Oct 1892).
English sculptor and poet. He ranks with John Henry Foley as the
leading sculptor of mid-Victorian England. He trained with William
Behnes and in 1842 enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy,
London. In 1844 he exhibited at Westminster Hall, London, a
life-size plaster group, the Death of Boadicea (destr.), in
an unsuccessful attempt to obtain sculptural commissions for the
Houses of Parliament. His earliest important surviving work is the
statuette of Puck (plaster, 1845–7; C. G. Woolner priv.
col.), which was admired by William Holman Hunt and helped to secure
Woolner’s admission in 1848 to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The
work’s Shakespearean theme and lifelike execution, stressing Puck’s
humorous malice rather than traditional ideal beauty, made it highly
appealing. Although eclipsed by Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, Woolner was an important figure in the
Brotherhood. He contributed poetry to its journal, The Germ
(1850), and his work was committed to truthfulness to nature more
consistently than that of any other Pre-Raphaelite, except for Hunt.
This is evident in Woolner’s monument to William Wordsworth
(marble, 1851; St Oswald, Grasmere, Cumbria). This relief portrait,
which conveys both the poet’s physiognomy and his intellect, is
flanked by botanically faithful renditions of flowers, emphasizing
Wordsworth’s doctrine that in Woolner’s words, ‘common things can be
made equally suggestive and instructive with the most exalted
subjects’.
World of Art, The (Mir Iskusstva). The name for
a society, exhibiting organization and a
magazine, founded in St Petersburg in 1898
similar to the *Nabis group. It brought together
artists chiefly, but also poets and musicians;
prominent members were Benois, Diaghilev and
Bakst. They were in revolt against the
'provincial nationalism' of the *Wanderers and
in contrast declared for 'Art for Art's sake'
and close ties with Western European ideas. The
magazine was ed. (1899-1904) by Diaghilev, and
his Ballet Russe is the group's most notable
production, to which most of its members
contributed.
|
W.P.A. The Works Progress (later called
Projects) Administration, an agency set up by
the U.S. government in 1934—5. It organized a
great number of projects which provided
employment during the Depression. More than 5000
artists of all kinds were among those employed,
the emphasis being on public service (writers
produced the 'American Guides', painters
decorated public buildings, there was a Federal
Theater, etc.); but from 1939 the artistic
projects were wound up. Abstract monumental
murals were made by, among others, *Gorky, *De
Kooning.
Wren Christopher
(b
East Knoyle, Wilts, 20 Oct 1632; d London, 25 Feb 1723).
English architect. The leader of the English Baroque school, he was the
creator of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, completed in his lifetime, and
remains the most famous architect in English history.
Wright Frank Lloyd,
(1869-1959), architect.
Wright
Frank
Lloyd
(2)
Wright Joseph
('Wright of Derby') (1734-97).
British painter, almost the earliest to take his
subjects from the Industrial Revolution. He
visited Italy (1773-5), tried his fortune at
Bath but, failing to oust Gainsborough as a
portrait painter there, returned to Derby, where
he spent most of the rest of his life. Apart
from a few portraits and night landscapes, his
main work was in depicting the domestic and
workshop interiors at the time of the Industrial
Revolution, where, by the light of a candle or
furnace, the figures are thrown into relief and
dramatically presented.
Wtewael Joachim
(b Utrecht, 1566; d Utrecht, 1 Aug 1638).
Dutch painter and
draughtsman. He was one of the last exponents of MANNERISM. From c. 1590
until 1628, the year of his latest known dated paintings, he employed such
typical Mannerist formal devices as brilliant decorative colour, contrived
spatial design and contorted poses. He sometimes combined such artifice with
naturalism, and this amalgam represents the two approaches Dutch 16th- and
17th-century theorists discussed as uyt den geest (‘from the
imagination’) and naer ’t leven (‘after life’). Wtewael’s activity
reflects the transition from Mannerism to a more naturalistic style in Dutch
art. Slightly over 100 of his paintings and about 80 drawings are known.
Subjects from the Bible and mythology predominate; he also painted several
portraits, including a Self-portrait (1601; Utrecht, Cent. Mus.).
Wyatt James
born Aug. 3, 1746, Burton Constable, Staffordshire, Eng. died Sept. 4, 1813, near Marlborough, Wiltshire. English architect chiefly remembered for his Romantic country houses, especially
the extraordinary Gothic Revival Fonthill Abbey. In 1762 Wyatt went to Italy, where he remained six years. On his return to
England, he designed the London Pantheon (opened 1772; later demolished), a
Neoclassical building inspired by Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The Pantheon made
Wyatt one of the most fashionable architects in England. He succeeded Sir William Chambers as surveyor general to the Board of Works
(1796) and was engaged in restoring the cathedrals of Durham, Hereford,
Lichfield, and Salisbury, as well as Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, and
Magdalen College, Oxford. These “restorations” later earned him the epithet “the
Destroyer” from such medieval revivalists of the 19th century as A.W.N. Pugin,
who had a more accurate archaeological approach. In point of originality, Wyatt's severely elegant works in the classical mode,
like Heaton Hall, Lancashire (1772), and Heveningham Hall, Suffolk (c. 1788–99),
were surpassed by the extravagance of his Gothic Revival buildings, of which the
most sensational was Fonthill Abbey (1796–1807), Wiltshire. Initially this was
built as a landscape feature and eventually developed into an extraordinary home
for the arch-Romantic William Beckford, who supervised its design and
construction. The great central tower (270 feet) collapsed in 1807, and after
Beckford sold the estate, in 1822, the house further fell into ruin. Today it
has mostly disappeared. In John Rutter's Delineations of Fonthill (1823),
however, one can still experience some of the building's grotesque, spectacular
quality that made it architecturally notorious in the Romantic period. Other
notable examples of Wyatt's Gothic country houses include Lee Priory, Kent
(1783–90), and Ashridge, Hertfordshire, completed (1808–18)by his nephew, Sir
Jeffry Wyatville. A biography of the nephew by Derek Linstrum was published in
1972.
Wyeth
Andrew
(Newell) (1917- ). U.S. painter of
genre subjects; studied under his father, the
celebrated ill. N. C. Wyeth. A most accomplished
naturalistic artist, he works in a meticulously
detailed style but invests his paintings with an
enigmatic visionary quality which raises them
above photographic naturalism.
Wysocki Charles
(1928-2002). Naive Art.
|
|
|
|