The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (263 page)

(d. 1619).
English portrait painter. He emerged from total obscurity in 1952 with the publication of his only documented works—a pair of oval portraits at Charlecote Park, Warwickshire. Subsequently several other portraits in a different vein—full-lengths featuring elaborate Turkey carpets, dazzling metallic curtains, and poses of a starched magnificence—have been attributed to him, including a breathtaking group at Ranger's House, London. If they are indeed all by Larkin he was the genius of Jacobean painting; Ellis
Waterhouse
considered the Ranger's House portraits to be the work of ‘at least three different hands’ (one of them perhaps Isaac
Oliver's
), but technical examination in the 1980s indicated they are all from the same studio.

 
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(1679–1772).
English painter, the son of a Franco-Dutch painter of the same name (1653–1701/2) who came to England as a young man and was one of
Kneller's
assistants. The younger Laroon was a colourful character who in his long and strenuous life was a musician, singer, professional soldier, and man of pleasure; he drew and painted ‘for diversitions’, to use the words of
Vertue
. He painted portraits,
conversation pieces
, and
genre
scenes, usually fanciful in character. His nearly monochromatic, feathery style added a touch of French daintiness to the stolid English manner and he anticipated
Gainsborough
by his lightness of touch. After a long period of neglect, he was rediscovered in the 20th cent.

 
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(1853–1919).
Swedish painter and graphic artist. Although he painted large-scale murals (the best known are in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1896), he is associated particularly with intimate water-colours of the idyllic everyday life of his own home in Dalecarlia. They became popular in colour reproductions and had a lasting influence on Swedish furnishing and interior decoration.

 
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Lassaw , Ibram
.

See
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
.

 
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(1583–1633).
Dutch painter, highly esteemed in his day but now remembered mainly as the most significant of
Rembrandt's
teachers. Most of his career was spent in his native Amsterdam, but in about 1603–7 he was in Italy, where
Caravaggio
and
Elsheimer
made a strong impact on his style. He specialized in religious, historical, and mythological scenes and often chose unusual subjects that proclaimed his status as a learned artist (
The Volscian Women and Children Beseeching Coriolanus not to Attack Rome
, Trinity College, Dublin, 1622). The glossy colours, the animated gestures and facial expressions, and the dramatic lighting of Rembrandt's early works all owe much to Lastman, and his
Balaam and the Ass
(Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, 1626), for example, is clearly based on a prototype by his master (private coll., 1622). Lastman also taught Rembrandt's friend Jan
Lievens
.

 
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László , Philip de
.

(1869–1937). Hungarian-born portrait painter (and occasional sculptor)
who settled in London in 1907 and became a British citizen in 1914 (although he was interned during the First World War). He trained in Budapest, Munich, and Paris (at the
Académie
Julian) and already had an international reputation as a society portraitist when he moved to England. There his career continued in its successful course, his sitters including Edward VII and numerous members of the aristocracy (examples are in the NPG, London). According to the
Dictionary of National Biography
, he had ‘a pleasing, courteous, and exuberant manner, and was very popular in society’. He was a fast and fluent worker and his style was elegant but superficial.