Из жизни дам которым немного за 40 - век 19
Alexander Hugo Bakker Korff


b The Hague, 31 Sept 1824; d Leiden, 31 Jan 1882). Dutch painter and draughtsman. He first trained under Cornelis Kruseman at the Academie in The Hague (1841-5), then specialized in history painting at the Antwerp Academie under Gustaf Wappers from 1845 to 1848. He set up as a painter in The Hague in 1848 and exhibited large history paintings in 1848 and 1849. An example of a history painting from this period is Death bed of Frederick Henry (Apeldoorn, Pal. Het Loo; study, Leiden, Stedel. Mus. Lakenhal). By 1852 he was living in Leiden but the following year, because of failing eyesight, he temporarily gave up painting until 1858 or 1859, when he started painting small-scale, realistic genre scenes based on photographs (e.g. The Pastry Cook; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.). From 1861 until his death he regularly exhibited genre paintings. Most of these are small and generally depict one or more women (never men) engaged in conversation or domestic occupations. He was awarded the knighthood of Leopold when The Romance (untraced; copy, 1880; Leiden, Stedel. Mus. Lakenhal) was shown in Brussels in 1869. Though highly respected, he lived a solitary life and had no direct pupils. Bakker Korff's career can be divided into three phases: large-scale history paintings (1845-52); small, realistic scenes of working-class people, painted from photographs (1859-60); and small, slightly ironical scenes of women in meticulously detailed interiors (1861-82), for example Under the Palms (1880; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.). The very high standard of craftsmanship in his paintings after 1861, compared to his rather awkward, early history paintings, testifies to the influence of photography. He made numerous drawings of two types: casual crayon drawings that served as preparatory sketches for his paintings, and pen-and-ink drawings, sometimes touched up with watercolour, as records of his finished paintings intended for sale.