The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (68 page)

(1911– ).
French-American sculptor, born in Paris, where part of her training was with
Léger
. She married the American art historian Robert Goldwater in 1938 and settled in New York. Bourgeois started as a painter and engraver and turned to sculpture only in the late 1940s. She first achieved recognition in the 1950s for her wood constructions painted uniformly black or white, which preceded the similar works of Louise
Nevelson
. Since then Bourgeois has worked in various materials, including stone, metal, and latex, and has built up a reputation as one of the leading contemporary American sculptors. Although her work is abstract, it is often suggestive of the human figure, and sexual significance is sometimes ascribed to it.

 
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(1631–72).
Dutch painter, active mainly in his native Amsterdam. He joined the Dutch East India Company in 1661 and made two voyages to the Indies, on the second of which he died at sea. His few surviving paintings include some exquisite interior scenes that invite comparison with
Vermeer
because of their tranquil beauty and subtle colour harmonies (
Interior: Woman Cooking
, Wallace Coll., London, 1656).

 
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(d. 1475).
Netherlandish painter, born probably in Haarlem and active mainly in Louvain, where he was city painter from 1468. His major commissions there were the
Last Supper
altarpiece for the church of S. Pierre (still
in situ
, 1464–7) and two panels (out of a projected set of four) on the
Justice of Emperor Otto
for the Hôtel de Ville (Musées Royaux, Brussels, 1470–5). Apart from these, there are no documented works, but his style is highly distinctive and a convincing
œuvre
has been built up for him. His static figures are exaggeratedly slender and graceful, and often set in landscapes of exquisite beauty. There is little action, but deep poetry of feeling. Sources for his work have been sought in the mysterious Albert van
Ouwater
(who likewise seems to have had Harrlem connections), Rogier van der
Weyden
, and Petrus
Christus
, but the individuality of Bouts's work transcends any models. His style was highly influential and was continued by his two sons,
Dieric the Younger
(
c.
1448–90/1) and
Aelbrecht
(
c.
1450/60–1549). Particularly popular were small devotional images of the
Mater Dolorosa
and
Christ Crowned with Thorns
.

 
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(1811–85).
English collector. The illegitimate son of the 10th Earl of Strathmore, he married Josephine Benoîte Coffin Chevallier (1825–1874), a French actress and amateur painter, in 1852, and they devoted much of their wealth and energy to collecting. In 1869, they began to build an enormous museum at Barnard Castle in County Durham (near to the Strathmores' home at Streatlam) and it was opened to the public in 1892 (by which time the founders were dead). The building was designed by a French architect, Jules Pellechet , and
Pevsner
describes it as ‘big bold, and incongruous, looking exactly like the town hall of a major provincial town in France… gloriously inappropriate for the town to which it belongs’. It has also been described as a ‘Taj Mahal on the Tees’. The Bowes Museum is particularly rich in French paintings and applied art of the 18th cent. (it has been called ‘the
Wallace Collection
of the North’), but the most remarkable area of the collection is the fine representation of Spanish painting—the best in Britain outside London.

 
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(1920– ).
Australian painter, potter, etcher, lithographer, and ceramic artist, a member of a family who have made a name in many of the arts. His father was a sculptor and potter, his mother a painter, but he was largely self-taught as an artist. After holding his first one-man show at the age of 17, his artistic career was interrupted by the Second World War. In the 1950s he became well known in Australia, particularly for his large ceramic totem pole at the entrance to the Olympic Pool, Melbourne (for the 1956 Olympic Games) and for his series (twenty pictures)
Love, Marriage and Death of a Half-Caste
(1957–9) concerned with the life and death of an aboriginal stockman and his half-caste bride. They are done in a style combining elements of
Expressionism
and
Surrealism
. Boyd moved to England in 1959 and soon established a reputation; with
Nolan
he has become probably the best-known Australian artist of his generation.

 
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