The past few weeks have been very busy for me, and I have been miserably neglectful of my writing. When I looked at my notes recently, I realized that I had missed so many important birthdays in the past month. I can't possibly write about every single artist I missed, but here are a few whose lives I found interesting. The others will have to wait patiently until next year, when their birthdays come around again.
JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY – JULY 3RD
John Singleton Copley was born on July 3rd, 1738 in Boston Massachusetts, and died on September 9th, 1815. Little is known of Copley's schooling or his introduction to painting, although it is possible that when he was young, he was taught at least in part by his future stepfather, who was an artist himself. We do know, however, that he started to paint at a very early age, and by the time he was fourteen had already produced a significant number of quite remarkable portraits. Copley began as a professional portrait painter long before he was of age. At the age of 19, Copley responded to a number of employment offers in Nova Scotia with: "I should receive a singular pleasure in excepting, if my business was anyways slack, but it is so far otherwise that I have a large room full of pictures unfinished, which would engage me these twelve months if I did not begin any others."
Throughout his life, Copley was extremely active in both Colonial America and Britain; he is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential painter of Colonial America, and his legacy continued to influence painters late into the nineteenth century. Boston's Copley Square, Copley Square Hotel and Copley Plaza, Ohio's Copley Township, Summit County, and even the "Copley Crater" on Mercury all bear his name.
FRIDA KAHLO – JULY 6TH
Frida Kahlo was born on July 6th, 1907 in a small suburb of Mexico City. She led a life filled with sadness, heartbreak, and illness, and ultimately died at the age of forty-seven, in 1954.
Kahlo contracted polio at the age of six, which left her with a right leg that was significantly shorter and thinner than her left leg. At the age of eighteen, she got into a bus accident in multiple people were killed and in which she herself received nearly fatal injuries: an iron handrail through her pelvis, several fractured ribs, fractured legs, and a fractured collarbone. It was three months before she had recovered sufficiently to return to work.
Her accident caused her medical problems for the rest of her life and ended her dreams of becoming a doctor. During her recovery, she began to consider a career as a medical illustrator, and she began to paint portraits – of herself and of her friends – from her recovery bed.
In 1929, she married Diego Rivera, a twice-divorced self-professed womanizer twenty years older than herself, with whom she had an unsurprisingly tumultuous marriage. Rivera's incessant infidelities (including an affair with Kahlo's own sister) coupled with Kahlo's inability to have children, which she so much desired, added even more heartbreak to her already difficult life.
After spending her entire life in and out of hospitals for various medical problems, Kahlo finally died in 1954. Her death was reported to have been caused by a pulmonary embolism, but there have been suggestions of a possible suicide.
Inspired by Mexican popular culture, Kahlo employed a combined style of folk and fantasy to explore themes such as identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. She is recognized as an icon for Chicanos (Mexican civil rights activists) and for feminists.
ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI – JULY 8TH
Artemisia Gentileschi (July 8, 1593 – June 14, 1653), like Frida Kahlo, underwent hardships which she expressed in art.
Gentileschi was the eldest child of a Tuscan Painter – Orazio Gentileschi – who taught her how to draw, mix colors, and paint. Since Orazio was heavily influenced by Caravaggio, he passed that style down to his daughter. In 1611, Orazio began working with Agostino Tassi, whom he then hired to tutor Gentileschi privately. Tassi – along with another man – raped Gentileschi during this time. Gentileschi held onto the hope that Tassi would marry her, thus restoring her dignity, but he reneged on his promise, and Orazio pressed charges. There then ensued a seven-month trial during which Artemesia was examined extensively and even tortured to verify her testimony. Tassi was eventually sentenced to imprisonment for one year, but never actually served the sentence.
It has been hypothesized that the fact that many of her paintings portrayed violent themes – such as her most famous work Judith Beheading Holofernes – is due to this violence which she suffered early in her life. That being said, however, far too much attention has been played on her gender and her unfortunate youth, and not enough upon her real talent as a painter – for many years, in fact, most of her paintings were either attributed to her father or considered to be a joint effort between them. It is only in recent years that her true genius as a painter has been recognized.
Gentileschi is considered by feminists to be an important feminist figure, for her portrayal of women in her paintings as being equally important to men. In Judith Beheading Holofernes, for example, Judith is not only the protagonist but also takes center stage in the frame.
