| Biography of old oil painting master Bernardo Bellotto what we can copy |
|
Bernardo Bellotto
Italian painter, engraver & printmaker
born 1721 - died 1780
Apprentice to:
Canaletto (1697-1768).
Student of:
Canaletto (1697-1768).
Nephew of:
Canaletto (1697-1768)
|
|
Bernardo Bellotto, pupil and
nephew of
Canaletto,
had a highly successful international
career.
Canaletto,
whose name Bellotto sometimes illegally
adopted, especially during Bernardo
Bellotto’s stay in Poland, was Bernardo
Bellotto’s uncle on Bernardo Bellotto’s
mother’s side and had trained the young
artist for many years. By 1738, Bellotto was
already a member of the Venician Painters’
Guild. Still under
Canaletto’s guidance, the young
Bellotto traveled extensively in Italy.
Bernardo Bellotto went to Rome, Florence, Turin, Milan and
Verona. In each city Bernardo Bellotto left memorable
images, giving a precocious demonstration of
Bernardo Bellotto’s ability to capture not
only the architectural or natural features,
but also the specific quality of the light
in each place Bernardo Bellotto visited. View with the
Villa Melzi d'Eril. View of the Gazzada.
Arno in Florence. Signoria Square in
Florence. |
|
After returning briefly to Venice, in the
summer of 1747, Bellotto accepted an
invitation from Augustus III, the Elector of
Saxony, and moved to Dresden. During the ten
years the artist spent there, Bernardo
Bellotto produced a
remarkable series of wonderful views of the
city and its surroundings. Bernardo Bellotto repeated these
paintings for the Prime Minister, Count
Brühl, who eventually sold Bernardo
Bellotto’s collection to Catherine II the
Great into St. Petersburg. With the purchase
of the collection, Catherine the Great
bought many of Bellotto’s finest topographic
works. The Old Market Square in Dresden, The
New Market Square in Dresden, Pirna Seen
from the Right Bank of the Elbe are not only
convincing in and for themselves, but also
remind us of what happened to all that
beauty after Dresden was bombed to the
ground in the Second World War. |
|
Bellotto had enormous success and Bernardo
Bellotto’s reputation spread throughout the
whole of Central Europe. In 1758, the
Empress Maria-Teresa summoned him to Vienna,
where Bernardo Bellotto painted views of the capital’s
Gothic and Baroque monuments.
Bernardo Bellotto’s next stop was Munich
where, from 1761, Bernardo Bellotto worked for the Elector
of Bavaria. After five years there Bellotto
returned to Dresden. In 1764-1766, Bernardo
Bellotto was a
teacher at the Dresden Academy.
In late 1766, Bernardo Bellotto went to Warsaw.
Bernardo Bellotto had
hoped eventually to reach St. Petersburg and
work for Empress Catherine II but Bernardo
Bellotto stayed
permanently in Warsaw at the urging of the
recently crowned king, Stanislaus II
Augustus Poniatowski. Bernardo Bellotto’s
views of Warsaw are nearly all collected in
the city’s Royal Castle. Thanks to the fact
that their poetic quality was combined with
faultless accuracy, they were used as a
draft for rebuilding Warsaw after its
near-total destruction in the Second World
War.
Bernardo Bellotto died in Warsaw in 1780. |
|
For FULL catalogue pls click "Catalogue" at the TOP of the page.
|
|