The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (515 page)

 
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(1805–73)
. German painter, the most successful court portraitist of his period. He was based in Paris for most of his career, but he painted most of Europe's royalty and was a particular favourite of Queen Victoria, who called him ‘excellent, delightful Winterhalter’ (the royal collection has more than a hundred of his paintings). His style was romantic, glossy, and superficial and his portraits have until recently generally been valued more as historical records than as works of art. However, a major exhibition of his work at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Petit Palais, Paris, in 1987 brought him into the limelight again. Winterhalter was also an accomplished lithographer. His brother
Hermann
(1808–91) was his assistant. A watercolour by him,
A Girl of Frascati
(signed but until recently given to his brother), is in the Wallace Collection, London.

 
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Wiszniewski , Adrian
.

See
GLASGOW SCHOOL
.

 
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(1695–1754)
. The outstanding Dutch decorative painter of the 18th cent., active mainly in his native Amsterdam. He had his principal training in Antwerp and learned much from
Rubens's
ceiling paintings in the Jesuit Church there (his drawings became valuable records after the paintings were destroyed by fire in 1718). De Wit's style, however, was much lighter than Rubens's, with a
Rococo
delicacy and charm. He was a Catholic and was the first Dutch artist since the 16th cent. to carry out a good deal of decorative work for Catholic churches, but he was at his best in domestic ceiling decorations (
Bacchus and Ceres in the Clouds
, Huis Boschbeek, Heemstede, 1751). His name has entered the Dutch language to describe a kind of
trompe-l'œil
imitation of marble
reliefs
for which he was renowned; such pictures, usually set over a chimney-piece or door, are called ‘witjes’ (
wit
is Dutch for ‘white’). De Wit was also an engraver and a noted collector of Old Master drawings.

 
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Witt , Sir Robert
.

See
COURTAULD
.

 
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(1615/17–91/2)
. Dutch painter, born at Alkmaar and active there, then in Rotterdam (by 1639), Delft (by 1641), and Amsterdam (by 1652). His range was wide, including history paintings,
genre
scenes (notably of markets) and portraits, but after he settled in Amsterdam he concentrated on architectural paintings (primarily church interiors—both real and imaginary).
Houbraken
wrote that ‘in the painting of churches, no one was his equal with regard to orderly architecture, innovative use of light and well-formed figures’, and this verdict has been endorsed by posterity, for his paintings are very different in spirit from the sober views of most Dutch architectural specialists, making powerful use of the dramatic play of light and shadow in the lofty interiors. His life was unhappy (he was constantly in debt) and when his body was found in an Amsterdam canal it was suspected that he had committed suicide.

 
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