Confirm your knowledge of modern art history with an overview of art history events from the 17th to 20th centuries.
In what year:
Did Adam Elsheimer settle in Rome?
1600
German painter Elsheimer had a clear and direct influence on other Northern artists also in Italy at this time.
Did Claude Lorrain begin his Liber Veritatis?
1644
Lorrain is well-known for his achievements in landscape painting, and his work was much copied. In six notebooks he started a collection of tinted outline drawings colored with wash to recreate his pictures done for various buyers and sent to different countries. These notebooks he named the Liber Veritatis (Book of Truth).
Did Peter Lely become Principal Painter to Charles II?
1661
Among Lely’s most famous paintings are a series of 10 portraits of voluptuous and dreamy women from the Royal court, known as the "Windsor Beauties," that today hang at the Hampton Court Palace. During his life he collected the paintings and prints of Old Masters like Claude Lorrain, Rubens, Titian, and Veronese.
Did Elias Ashmole found his museum in Oxford?
1682
Throughout his life, Ashmole had a passion for the study of nature and became a collector of curiosities and other artifacts. Many of the objects he donated to Oxford University to create the Ashmolean Museum.
Did Benjamin West settle in London?
1763
West, who worked during the time of the American War of Independence, is famous for painting large-scale “epic” historical works. When West moved to England, he was commissioned by King George III to paint portraits of the members of the royal family.
Did Thomas Gainsborough establish his studio in London?
1774
Gainsborough is a master of 18th-century British painting, specializing in portraits. When Gainsborough moved to London at the height of his career, he settled in Schomberg House on Pall Mall where he built a studio in the garden. He remained here working until his death.
Was Eugene Delacroix’s “Death of Sardanapalus” exhibited at the Paris Salon?
1827
“Death of Sardanapalus,” a monumental painting that Delacroix exhibited early in his career, Delacroix showed his penchant for literary subjects and his empathy for the Greeks in their struggle for independence from the Ottoman Turks.
Did the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York open?
1866
Did James Ensor paint his “Entry of Christ into Brussels”?
1888
Ensor, a Belgian Expressionist painter, created a scandal with his this painting and it has become his most famous work. It is done in bright, even garish colors, in a deliberately crude style, showing the characters wearing masks indistinguishable from their actual faces.
Did Pierre Puvis de Chavannes visit America?
1894
French artist Puvis de Chavannes became the president and co-founder of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
Was the German Expressionist group Die Brucke formed in Dresden?
1905
This group of painters had a major influence on the evolution of modern art in the 20th century and created the style of Expressionism.
Did Jackson Pollock have his first one-man show in New York?
1943
Did Salvador Dali paint “The Crucifixion” now in Glasgow?
1951
Source:
- Bailey, Colin J. The Art Quiz Book: 2000+ Questions on Painters and Paintings. Station Press: Scotland, 1995.
