Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. | |
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Born | Arthur Kingsland Wheelock Jr. May 13, 1943 Uxbridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Art historian Curator Professor |
Spouse(s) | Susan Hoffman (m. 1964–1988)Perry Carpenter Swain (m. 1991) |
Children | 3 |
Relatives | Ralph Wheelock (ancestor) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Williams College Harvard University |
Thesis | The Shifting Relationship of Perspective to Optics and its Manifestation in Paintings by Artists in Delft around 1650 (1973) |
Influences | Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann [1] Seymour Slive [2] |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Art history |
Sub-discipline | Dutch art |
Arthur Kingsland Wheelock Jr. (born May 13,1943,in Uxbridge) is an American art historian,who served as Curator of Northern Baroque Paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington,D.C. until retiring in 2018. [3] Wheelock also teaches as a professor of art history at the University of Maryland. [4]
The son of Arthur,former president of Stanley Woolen Mill,and Ann Kneass,Wheelock grew up in Uxbridge and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1961. His father's side is descendant from Ralph Wheelock,attributed to be the forerunner of founding public education in the United States. Wheelock then received a Bachelor of Arts in art history from Williams College in 1965 and was part of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He then went on to receive a Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University in 1973. Wheelock's dissertation was titled "The Shifting Relationship of Perspective to Optics and its Manifestation in Paintings by Artists in Delft around 1650." In 2018,he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Arts from Dickinson University. [5]
Wheelock began his career in museums as a David E. Finley Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in 1973 and later was also named Research Curator,under director J. Carter Brown. He also commenced teaching at the University of Maryland,where he has held the post of Professor of Art History. Wheelock was appointed Curator of Dutch and Flemish Painting at the National Gallery two years later,which eventually led to his appointment as Curator of Northern Baroque Paintings. He has lectured widely on Dutch and Flemish art and has authored several publications on the subjects.
Wheelock married Susan Hoffman on June 13,1964,with whom he had three children:Laura,Matthew,and Tobey. [6] They divorced in 1988. On August 24,1991,Wheelock married Perry Carpenter Swain.
Aelbert Jacobszoon Cuyp was one of the leading Dutch Golden Age painters,producing mainly landscapes. The most famous of a family of painters,the pupil of his father,Jacob Gerritszoon Cuyp (1594–1651/52),he is especially known for his large views of Dutch riverside scenes in a golden early morning or late afternoon light. He was born and died in Dordrecht.
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime,he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter,recognized in Delft and The Hague. Nonetheless,he produced relatively few paintings and evidently was not wealthy,leaving his wife and children in debt at his death.
Uxbridge is a town in Worcester County,Massachusetts first colonized in 1662 and incorporated in 1727. It was originally part of the town of Mendon,and named for the Earl of Uxbridge. The town is located 36 mi (58 km) southwest of Boston and 15 mi (24 km) south-southeast of Worcester,at the midpoint of the Blackstone Valley National Historic Park. The historical society notes that Uxbridge is the "Heart of The Blackstone Valley" and is also known as "the Cradle of the Industrial Revolution". Uxbridge was a prominent Textile center in the American Industrial Revolution. Two Quakers served as national leaders in the American anti-slavery movement. Uxbridge "weaves a tapestry of early America".
Adriaen Brouwer was a Flemish painter active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the first half of the 17th century. Brouwer was an important innovator of genre painting through his vivid depictions of peasants,soldiers and other "lower class" individuals engaged in drinking,smoking,card or dice playing,fighting,music making etc. in taverns or rural settings. Brouwer contributed to the development of the genre of tronies,i.e. head or facial studies,which investigate varieties of expression. In his final year he produced a few landscapes of a tragic intensity. Brouwer's work had an important influence on the next generation of Flemish and Dutch genre painters. Although Brouwer produced only a small body of work,Dutch masters Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt collected it.
Gerard ter Borch,also known as Gerard Terburg,was a Dutch genre painter who lived in the Dutch Golden Age. He influenced fellow Dutch painters Gabriel Metsu,Gerrit Dou,Eglon van der Neer and Johannes Vermeer. According to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.,Ter Borch "established a new framework for subject matter,taking people into the sanctum of the home",showing the figures' uncertainties and expertly hinting at their inner lives. His influence as a painter,however,was later surpassed by Vermeer.
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington,D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughlin,a banker and co-founder of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company.
Pieter Bodding van Laer was a Dutch painter and printmaker. He was active in Rome for over a decade and was known for genre scenes,animal paintings and landscapes placed in the environs of Rome.
David C. Driskell was an American artist,scholar and curator;recognized for his work in establishing African-American Art as a distinct field of study. In his lifetime,Driskell was cited as one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of African-American Art. Driskell held the title of Distinguished University Professor of Art,Emeritus,at the University of Maryland,College Park.
Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert was a Dutch Republic-born Flemish Baroque painter.
Genre painting,a form of genre art,depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached either individually or collectively,thus distinguishing it from history paintings and portraits. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known person—a member of his family,say—as a model. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have been intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic,imagined,or romanticized by the artist. Because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter,genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie,or middle class.
Saint Praxedis is an oil painting attributed to Johannes Vermeer. This attribution has often been questioned. However,in 2014 the auction house Christie's announced the results of new investigations which in their opinion demonstrate conclusively that it is a Vermeer. The painting is a copy of a work by Felice Ficherelli,and depicts the early Roman martyr,Saint Praxedis or Praxedes. It may be Vermeer's earliest surviving work,dating from 1655.
Flemish Baroque painting refers to the art produced in the Southern Netherlands during Spanish control in the 16th and 17th centuries. The period roughly begins when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain regions to the south with the Spanish recapturing of Antwerp in 1585 and goes until about 1700,when Spanish Habsburg authority ended with the death of King Charles II. Antwerp,home to the prominent artists Peter Paul Rubens,Anthony van Dyck,and Jacob Jordaens,was the artistic nexus,while other notable cities include Brussels and Ghent.
The Allegory of Faith,also known as Allegory of the Catholic Faith,is a Dutch Golden Age painting by Johannes Vermeer from about 1670–1672. It has been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1931.
Theodore Ellis Stebbins,Jr. is an American art historian and curator. Stebbins is currently the Consultative Curator of American Art at the Harvard Art Museums.
Christopher Paul Hadley Brown,CBE is a British art historian and academic. He was director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford,England from 1998 to 2014. He is recognised as an authority on Sir Anthony van Dyck.
Thomas "Tom" Woodward Lentz Jr. is an American art historian and curator. Lentz served as the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums from 2003 to 2015. He was the ninth director in its history.
Walter Arthur Liedtke,Jr. was an American art historian,writer and Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was known as one of the world's leading scholars of Dutch and Flemish paintings. He died in the 2015 Metro-North Valhalla train crash.
Egbert Haverkamp-BegemannOON was a Dutch American art historian and professor.
Edgar "Pete" Peters Bowron is an American art historian and curator. Bowron served a director of both the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Harvard Art Museums. He is a scholar of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italian art,especially on the artist Pompeo Batoni.