Spanish1599–1660
Diego Velázquez
Court painter to King Philip IV of Spain for almost forty years. He painted the royal family, courtiers and servants with the same loose, confident brushwork, and later painters from Manet to Picasso studied him closely.
A life in paintings
- 1599Born
- 1628Was influenced by Peter Paul RubensMadrid
Rubens spent seven months at the Spanish court in 1628–29 on a diplomatic mission and thought highly of the young court painter Velázquez. He left little mark on Velázquez's style, but he fired his wish to see Italy and its great masters, and Velázquez sailed for Italy in 1629, soon after Rubens left.
Source: Wikipedia - 1650Taught Juan de ParejaMadrid and Rome
Born into slavery, Pareja worked for years in Velázquez's household and workshop as his studio assistant. In Rome, in November 1650, Velázquez signed a letter granting him his freedom four years later, and Pareja went on to work as an independent painter in Madrid.
Source: Wikipedia - 1656
- 1659
- 1660Died
As a student around 1883, Klimt made copies after Velázquez's royal children in the imperial collection in Vienna, and he came back to the Spanish painter all his life. Erich Lederer remembered him saying there were only two painters: Velázquez and himself.