The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (60 page)

(1616–80).
Dutch painter and etcher. He was a pupil of
Rembrandt
in the mid-1630s and in his early work imitated his master's style so well as to create occasional difficulty in distinguishing between them. The portrait of Elizabeth Bas in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, is the best-known instance; it was acknowledged as a Rembrandt until 1911, when it was attributed to Bol by
Bredius
, and although this opinion is still generally accepted, there has been renewed support for Rembrandt as the author (as well as some for Jacob
Backer
). As Bol's career prospered, both as a portraitist and a painter of historical subjects, his style moved away from that of Rembrandt, becoming blander and more elegant in the manner of van der
Helst
. In 1669 he married a wealthy widow and seems to have stopped painting. Sir Godfrey
Kneller
was Bol's most distinguished pupil.

 
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(1842–1931).
Italian painter. one of the most renowned society portraitists of his day. His vivacious brushwork and gift for making his sitters look graceful and poised recalled the work of his even more successful contemporary, John Singer
Sargent
, and like Sargent he had an international career, working mainly in Paris, but also in London (1869–72). Apart from portraits, his work includes some excellent street scenes of Paris. There is a Boldini museum in his native Ferrara. See also
MACCHIAIOLI
.

 
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(1907–81).
Russian-born painter who settled in New York in 1923 and became an American citizen in 1929. In 1933 he was deeply impressed by some paintings by
Mondrian
and he became one of America's most committed exponents of geometrical abstraction. He was a founding member of
American Abstract Artists
in 1936 and his mural for the Williamsburgh Housing Project, New York, of that year was one of the first abstract murals to be commissioned. Bolotowsky was also a playwright and an experimental film maker.

 
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(1466/7–1516).
Italian painter, the pupil and assistant of
Leonardo
and the most talented of his followers in Milan. He painted religious subjects and portraits (an example of each is in the National Gallery, London). The beautiful female portrait in the Louvre known as
La Belle Ferronnière
is attributed to Boltraffio by some authorities and to Leonardo by others.

 
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(1890–1957).
British painter, He gave up an apprenticeship as a lithographer to devote himself to painting, studying under
Sickert
and at the
Slade
School. Whilst still a student he showed an advanced understanding of avant-garde Continental painting, particularly
Cubism
and
Futurism
(he visited Paris in 1913), and he became associated with the
Vorticists
, although he disclaimed any formal connection with them. His best-known work of this time is probably
In the Hold
(Tate, London, 1913–14), a dazzlingly coloured abstraction of fragmented geometric forms. After early success, he became dismayed at the failure of a one-man show in 1919, and thereafter worked in isolation. From the 1920s he travelled widely, and at this time began moving away from abstraction to a heavily-worked, somewhat
Expressionist
figurative style, painting mainly portraits and landscapes. Much of his later career was devoted to teaching, and he had a strong influence on pupils such as
Auerbach
and
Kossoff
. At the time of his death he was little appreciated, but his reputation has since soared; a major exhibition was devoted to him at the Tate Gallery in 1988.

 
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