Winslow Homer

popular name: George Inness

date_of_death: August 3, 1894

age: 69

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Artists

best_know_for: Often called "the father of American landscape painting", George Inness was a prominent American landscape painter during the late 1800s. Although Inness's style evolved through distinct stages over a prolific career that spanned more than forty years and 1,000 paintings, his works consistently earned acclaim for their powerful, coordinated efforts to elicit depth of mood, atmosphere, and emotion. Neither pure realist nor impressionist, Inness was a transitional figure who intended for his works to combine both the earthly and the ethereal in order to capture the complete essence of a locale. A master of light, color, and shadow, he became noted for creating highly ordered and complex scenes that often juxtaposed hazy or blurred elements with sharp and refined details to evoke an interweaving of both the physical and the spiritual nature of experience.

popular name: Camille Pissarro

date_of_death: November 13, 1903

age: 73

cause_of_death: Sepsis

claim_to_fame: Artists

best_know_for: Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) was a French Danish painter and one of the key figures in the development of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Born in the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands), he moved to France at age 12 to study art. His early work was influenced by the realism of Gustave Courbet, but over time, Pissarro became a central figure in the Impressionist movement. Pissarro's style evolved throughout his career, initially focusing on capturing the effects of light and atmosphere in natural scenes. He was a key contributor to the group's revolutionary approach to painting, using loose brushwork and an emphasis on outdoor scenes. His work often depicted rural landscapes, urban scenes, and daily life. Later, influenced by Georges Seurat's pointillism, Pissarro incorporated this technique into his work during his time in Paris. Pissarro was not only important as an artist but also as a mentor and friend to many other artists, including Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin,, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Georges Seurat. Despite facing financial hardships and occasional criticism of his work, he remained dedicated to his artistic vision despite living in poverty. He continued to paint prolifically until an eye disease rendered him blind and he died shortly after in 1903, leaving behind a legacy that cemented his place as one of the most significant artists in the transition from realism to modern art. Upon his death, Camille was buried at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris, France.

popular name: Vincent van Gogh

date_of_death: July 29, 1890

age: 37

cause_of_death: Suicide - Gunshot wound

claim_to_fame: Artists

best_know_for: Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, contain few signs of the vivid colour that distinguished his later work. In 1886, he moved to Paris where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still life and landscape. His paintings grew brighter as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the South of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include series of olive trees, wheat fields and sunflowers. During his lifetime van Gogh was not commercially successful and, struggling with severe depression and poverty, committed suicide at the age of 37. He was laid to rest at Auvers-Sur-Oise Communal Cemetery in Auvers-Sur-Oise, Val-d'Oise, France.