Well-known nicknames take precedence over real names, eg Volterra rather than Riciarelli. From about , until he went mad in the later s, he had a considerable vogue Waterhouse p Oeuvre : Portraits OxDicArt Characteristics : His best portraits have considerable individuality but he was less successful when he painted below the waist Waterhouse p He, like other Swiss artists, idealised motifs derived from Dutch 17 th century art.
From to the early s he painted ten huge paintings of the Danish dynasty for the Christianborg Palace, of which only three survive. From the s his brushwork became broader with strong impasto. During he taught at the Dusseldorf Academy Norman Characteristics : Strong colour effects caught with loosely flowing brushwork.
His work sometimes has an anecdotal flavour due to the inclusion of processions, village festivals etc Norman Grouping : The Dusseldorf School Norman In he returned to America where he painted portraits. He settled in Muncie, Indiana, in where he painted.
Its members often painted together at sites in Indiana. In he helped form the Society of Western Artists where he exhibited regularly from until A distinctive feature of his work is the virtual absence of pretty young women doing little or nothing which are so frequent in American Impressionism. He also exhibited by invitation at the Vorticist exhibition at the Dore Galleries in Harrison pp , 67, Background : He was born in Leuxiel in the Haute-Saone region.
By the early s he had a studio in Paris. However, he appears to have recognised that some scenes were too depressing to find purchasers, though he continued to paint scenes of human need Weisberg pp 90, His paintings seem to have had an increasingly obvious social message Weisberg pp 90, 92 Politics : He was a strong Dreyfusard Weisberg p91 Verdict : His large-scale figure compositions are among the most evocative social commentaries on the suburban deprivation which was the other face of bellepoque Paris RA p Reception : He exhibited to great acclaim in the Salons of the s RA p In he left Germany, travelled widely but mainly lived in Paris.
