The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (28 page)

atelier
.

French term for an artist's workshop or studio. The term ‘ateliers libres’ was sometimes applied to the private
académies
that became centres for avant-garde art in 19th-cent. Paris.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

atlas
(pl. atlantes).

A sculpted male figure used in place of a column or other supporting feature in architecture. In Greek mythology, Atlas was the giant who supported the sky, and atlantes are often depicted so as to suggest the strain of carrying a huge weight on the shoulders. The female equivalent—the
caryatid
—is, in contrast, usually shown standing serenely upright.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

atmospheric perspective
.

An alternative term for
aerial perspective
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1658–1734).
The best-known member of a family of French painters and decorators. He was one of the most prominent decorators of the time, but most of his work has been destroyed or obscured by later additions. A great number of drawings survive, however, and these show him to have been one of the leading figures in the creation of the
Rococo
style. In 1704 he was appointed curator at the Luxembourg, where
Rubens's
Marie de Médicis
cycle was then housed, and he introduced his pupil
Watteau
to this masterpiece by an artist who was to have an enormous influence on his work.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1785–1851).
American painter-naturalist. Born at Haiti, the illegitimate son of a chambermaid and a French sea captain, he was educated in France and received instruction in drawing from J.-L.
David
. He moved to the USA in 1803 to avoid conscription in Napoleon's army and lived as a naturalist, hunter, and taxidermist, also earning some money as a portraitist and drawing master. His combined interests in art and ornithology grew into a plan to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species of North America. Audubon was unable to find a publisher for this ambitious enterprise in America, so he went to England in 1826. His
The Birds of America, from Original Drawings, with 435 Plates Showing 1,065 Figures
was published in four volumes of hand-tinted aquatints (1827–38) and now ranks among the most famous and prized books of the world. The engraver and publisher was the London firm of Robert Havell and Son. It was followed by
The Viviparous Quadrupeds of America
(1845–8), which was completed by his son
John Woodhouse Audubon
(1812–62) after his sight failed in 1846. His other son,
Victor Gifford Audubon
(1809–60), also assisted his father. Many of Audubon's original drawings are in the New-York Historical Society.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1931– ).
German-born painter who came to Britain in 1939 and adopted British nationality in 1947. He studied under David
Bomberg
, whom he found an inspiring teacher. His work (characteristically nudes and townscapes) is in the
Expressionist
vein of Bomberg's late paintings and is remarkable for its use of extreme
impasto
, so thick that the paint at times seems modelled rather than brushed.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search