The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (324 page)

(
c.
1498–1554).
Italian painter, active mainly in his native Brescia and the neighbourhood.
Ridolfi
says he was a pupil of
Titian
and certainly his influence is apparent in Moretto's work. He was the leading Brescian painter of his day and had a large practice as a painter of altarpieces and other religious works, the best of which display an impressive gravity and a poetic feeling for nature (
St Giustina with a Donor
, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,
c.
1530). However, his portraits, although much less numerous, are considered to be generally of higher quality and of greater importance historically. It seems likely that he introduced the independent full-length portrait to Italy, for although
Vasari
credits Titian with this distinction, Moretto's
Portrait of a Gentleman
of 1526 in the National Gallery, London, antedates any known example by Titian by several years. The National Gallery has an outstanding collection of works by Moretto , including two other portraits, which show the thoughtful qualities he passed on to his pupil
Moroni
.

 
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(1837–1913).
American financier, industrialist, and art collector. The son of a financier and head of one of the most powerful banking houses in the world, Morgan used his personal fortune to spend lavishly on works of art. His main collecting activities were in manuscripts and rare books and after his death his son, also
John Pierpont Morgan
(1867–1943), endowed the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York as a research institute and museum in memory of his father. It has superb collections of
illuminated manuscripts
and Old Master drawings and also contains stained glass, sculpture, and metalwork. The
Metropolitan Museum
in New York also received an important bequest from the elder Morgan, who was chairman of its governing board for many years.

 
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(1841–95).
French
Impressionist
painter.
Fragonard
was her grandfather and she was brought up in a highly cultured atmosphere. She was a pupil of
Corot
, but the chief formative influence on her work was
Manet
, whom she met in 1868, and whose brother she married in 1874. In her turn she is said to have persuaded Manet to experiment with the Impressionist ‘rainbow’ palette and with
plein-air
painting
. After Manet's death in 1883 she came under the influence of
Renoir
. Her pictures were regularly accepted for the
Salon
, but she was a strong opponent of conventional academic teaching and a champion of the Impressionist ideals; she exhibited in all the Impressionist exhibitions except the fourth (1879), when she was prevented from participating by ill health. She specialized in gentle domestic scenes, painted in a delicate, feathery technique, and was also an excellent marine painter. Her watercolours are as accomplished as her oils. She was renowned for her beauty and charm and often posed for Manet.

 
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(1762/3–1804).
English painter, mainly of scenes from rural life, the son and pupil of
Henry Morland
(1719?–97), a painter of portraits and
fancy pictures
who was also a dealer, forger, and restorer. George was precocious and a fluent worker and produced a huge amount of work, in spite of leading a dissolute life and often being drunk, in hiding from his creditors, or in prison. His name is particularly associated with small scenes of middle and lower-class rural life, usually drawn more from the tavern and the stable than the cottage. The quality of his work is uneven, but at his best he showed a spirited technique and a sure sense of tone. His paintings became extremely popular and he was much imitated and forged; his brother-in-law William
Ward
made
mezzotints
of many of his pictures. With
Wheatley
and
Ibbetson
he established the village scene in the English painter's repertory.

 
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(1931– ).
British painter. In the 1960s he was one of the pioneers of
Superrealism
(a term he coined), but his work later became extremely loose in handling, often depicting animals in lush landscapes. In 1984 he was the first winner of the
Turner Prize
, a decision that occasioned much controversy as Morley had been living in New York since 1964.

 
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