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We are in the painting era of classicism, which is partly accompanied by romanticism and the romantically transfigured view of the visual artists. The main features of this art epoch are strongly oriented towards the Italian Renaissance and Greek-Roman antiquity. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this artistic form of expression emerged during the Age of Enlightenment and is characterized by ideals such as reason and rationality, but also by emotional emphasis and sensuality. As a result of different currents, we find ourselves in an epoch that is endowed with different ideals.
Richard Westall was an English painter and illustrator. He was strongly oriented towards the current neoclassical style and created graceful fantasy compositions, which were in great demand at that time. Among other things he painted paintings for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, he was respected for his portraits of historical and literary origin and he inspired the people of the time especially for his portraits of Lord Byron. The young watercolorist, who was known for his unusually rich color effects and engraving, spent his early childhood in Herford, England. Still in his childhood, the then artist moved to London after his mother died and his father went bankrupt. There Richard soon began training as a heraldic silver engraver, until in the late 18th century his main patron Richard Payne Knight described him as an outstanding artist and aroused great interest in him. Before the talented Englishman devoted himself to oil painting and watercolour techniques, he published etchings, aquatints (some printed in colour) and mezzotints from his own paintings or drawings. In the early days of this art he also made some lithographs. As a watercolorist and prolific book illustrator, both for fiction and poetry, he was the leader of a reform of figure painting in his era. At the same time Thomas Girtin also created a change in landscape painting. The brilliance of Westall's coloring was considered new and amazing in his time, although he used opaque pigments on a large scale. His contemporary Thomas Gray. Byron, who greatly admired his work, declared that "the brush has beaten poetry".
Westall was a smaller and slimmer painter and had a fragile health. In his later years he was Queen Victoria's master draughtsman and taught her the art of painting and drawing. His work as teacher to the Queen was his last professional activity before he retired and had to be supported by the Duchess of Kent together with a blind sister. This was therefore the end of his time as a painter and his artistic activities, which continue to inspire us to this day.
We are in the painting era of classicism, which is partly accompanied by romanticism and the romantically transfigured view of the visual artists. The main features of this art epoch are strongly oriented towards the Italian Renaissance and Greek-Roman antiquity. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this artistic form of expression emerged during the Age of Enlightenment and is characterized by ideals such as reason and rationality, but also by emotional emphasis and sensuality. As a result of different currents, we find ourselves in an epoch that is endowed with different ideals.
Richard Westall was an English painter and illustrator. He was strongly oriented towards the current neoclassical style and created graceful fantasy compositions, which were in great demand at that time. Among other things he painted paintings for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, he was respected for his portraits of historical and literary origin and he inspired the people of the time especially for his portraits of Lord Byron. The young watercolorist, who was known for his unusually rich color effects and engraving, spent his early childhood in Herford, England. Still in his childhood, the then artist moved to London after his mother died and his father went bankrupt. There Richard soon began training as a heraldic silver engraver, until in the late 18th century his main patron Richard Payne Knight described him as an outstanding artist and aroused great interest in him. Before the talented Englishman devoted himself to oil painting and watercolour techniques, he published etchings, aquatints (some printed in colour) and mezzotints from his own paintings or drawings. In the early days of this art he also made some lithographs. As a watercolorist and prolific book illustrator, both for fiction and poetry, he was the leader of a reform of figure painting in his era. At the same time Thomas Girtin also created a change in landscape painting. The brilliance of Westall's coloring was considered new and amazing in his time, although he used opaque pigments on a large scale. His contemporary Thomas Gray. Byron, who greatly admired his work, declared that "the brush has beaten poetry".
Westall was a smaller and slimmer painter and had a fragile health. In his later years he was Queen Victoria's master draughtsman and taught her the art of painting and drawing. His work as teacher to the Queen was his last professional activity before he retired and had to be supported by the Duchess of Kent together with a blind sister. This was therefore the end of his time as a painter and his artistic activities, which continue to inspire us to this day.