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Anguissola, Lucia Lucia Anguissola (1536 or 1538-1565 to 1568) was an Italian Mannerist painter of the late Renaissance. Born in Cremona, Italy, she was the third daughter among the seven children of Amilcare Anguissola and Bianca Ponzoni. Her father was a member of the Genoese minor nobility and encouraged his five daughters to develop artistic skills alongside their humanist education. Lucia most likely trained with her renowned eldest sister Sofonisba Anguissola. Her paintings, mainly portraits, are similar...

Arnoux, Guy Guy Arnoux (1890-1951) achieved a measure of success with stencil-coloured zinc plate prints and decorative style painting on historic themes or serial concepts, such as "Seven Capital Sins" of "Four Elements," and was an accomplished book illustrator as well. However, he was at his best with humorous work. Long a prominent member of the Salon des Humoristes, he also helped to organise their annual events. A French artist, illustrator, and graphic designer, he illustrated n...

Beardsley, Aubrey Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) was a renowned British artist and illustrator, celebrated for his striking and often controversial works during the late Victorian period. Born in Brighton, Beardsley showcased a remarkable talent for drawing from a young age. He later moved to London, where he became integral to the Aesthetic Movement, which emphasised art for art's sake, celebrating beauty and style over moral considerations. Beardsley produced extensive illustrations for books and magazines...

Bazille, Frédéric Jean Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) was a French Impressionist painter. Many of Bazille's major works are examples of figure painting in which he placed the subject figure within a landscape painted en plein air. Frédéric Bazille was born in Montpellier, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, into a wealthy wine merchant Protestant family. Bazille grew up in the Le Domaine de Méric, a wine-producing estate in Castelnau-le-Lez, near Montpellier, owned by his family. He became interested in p...

Begas, Carl Carl Joseph Begas, or Karl Begas, (1794-1854) was a German painter who played an important role in the transition from Romanticism to Realism. He was the first in a multi-generational "dynasty" of artists. His family (originally "Begasse") came from Belgium, in the region near Verviers and Liège. He was the third child of Franz Anton Begasse (1764-1842), a judge, and his wife, Susanne née Hoffstadt. In 1802, they moved to Cologne, where he received his first artistic training ...

Beaman, Sydney Hulme Sydney George Hulme Beaman (1887-1932) was a British author, actor and illustrator. He was best known as the creator of the Toytown stories and their characters, including Larry the Lamb. He also illustrated the 1930s John Lane edition of a Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Beaman was born in Tottenham, London, on 28 February 1887, the eldest of three children. As a child he was particularly interested in mechanical objects. According to his lifelong friend Hendrik Baker, his attention t...

Bennett, John Whitchurch John Whitchurch Bennett (1790-1853) was a British army officer, official and printer, and was also known as a naturalist. Bennett served in the Royal Marines from 1806 to 1815. He transferred to the British Army in 1815, and in 1816 was posted to Ceylon. He served there until 1827. His rank in 1815 was 2nd lieutenant; he was placed on half-pay in 1819. With a civil service appointment in Ceylon, he served in junior posts, and then was appointed magistrate of the Mahagampattu district, at Gall...

Benedictus, Edouard Édouard Bénédictus (1878-1930) was a painter, writer, composer and chemist who started his career in the Art Nouveau period. He wrote an influential article in L'Art décoratif in 1912. However, he was greatly receptive to the stylistic evolution started in 1912 and that became Art Deco. Appreciated for his portfolios "Variations" in 1923 and "Nouvelles Variations" in 1928, he became one the most famous protagonists of the floral Art Deco. He played a special role in the Pa...

Bedford, Francis D. Francis Donkin Bedford (1864-1954), also known as F. D. Bedford, was a British artist and illustrator. He was born in Notting Hill and lived in London. He painted genre scenes and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1892. Bedford's works include illustrations for A Book of Nursery Rhymes (1897), The Books of Shops (1899), Four and Twenty Toilers (1900), The Visit to London (1902), Forgotten Tales of Long Ago (1906), Runaways and Castaways (1908), Peter and Wendy (1911), The Magic Fishbone...

Bennett, Harriet M. Harriet M. Bennett (b.1853) was an illustrator who worked extensively, and perhaps exclusively, for Ernest Nister publishers. Little is known about this English watercolour painter but she specialised in children's book illustrations. She worked at Forest Hill, London and exhibited many paintings at The Royal Academy between 1877 and 1892, her specialty being nineteenth-century figure subjects.

Beskow, Elsa Elsa Beskow, née Maartman (1874-1953), was a famous Swedish author and illustrator of children's books. Among her better-known books are Tale of the Little Little Old Woman and Aunt Green, Aunt Brown and Aunt Lavender. Born in Stockholm, her parents were businessman Bernt Maartman (1841-1889), whose family came from Bergen, Norway, and teacher Augusta Fahlstedt (1850-1915). Beskow studied Art Education at Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, then called Tekniska skola...

Betts, Ethel Franklin Ethel Franklin Betts Bains (1877-1959) was an American illustrator primarily of children's books during the Golden Age of American Illustration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ethel Franklin Betts was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest daughter of doctor Thomas Betts and housekeeper Alice Whelan. Illustrator Anna Whelan Betts was her older sister. Betts attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before enrolling in illustrator and teacher Howard Pyle's...

Blair, John John Blair (1850-1934) was a Scottish painter, predominantly of watercolour landscapes. Of humble beginnings in Berwickshire, he moved to Edinburgh to study and spent the rest of his life there. His paintings mainly reflect the landscapes around him, both of urban settings and also of the castles, sea and lochs of the Borders, although he also painted figures and still lifes. As well as his original work, his paintings were viewed by a wide audience in the form of picture postcards, book endp...

Bertall Charles Albert d'Arnoux, known as Bertall (or Bertal, an anagram of Albert) or Tortu-Goth (1820-1882) was a French illustrator, engraver, caricaturist, and early photographer. His father was a former war commissioner. His family wanted him to study at the Ecole Polytechnique, but he chose to study painting, and spent several years in the studio of Michel Martin Drolling, at the end of which he decided to devote himself exclusively to illustration and caricature. On the advice of Balzac, w...

Bevalet, Louis Victor Louis Victor Bevalet (1808-1887) was a French illustrator who specialised in scientific illustrations and taxidermy. His father, Antoine Germain Bevalet (1783/84-1864) was also an artist; his mother, Anne Marie Patin, died shortly after his birth. Bevalet married Sophie Augustine Gaffet in 1841 in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. Bevalet was a student of Nicolas Geneviève Huet and Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Between 1835 and 1836, he participated as a draftsman and preparator on a scientific v...

Blacklock, William K. William Kirkbride Blacklock (1870-1924) was born in 1870, the son of William Blacklock who was a painter, and Eleanor Kirkbride. He signed his paintings William K. Blacklock but later adopted William Kay Blacklock as a signature. It seems that his details have been previously conflated with another William Blacklock who was born 2 years later. Blacklock married Ellen Eliza Richardson from Hackney, London. The couple made their first home in Chelsea, London, where Blacklock attended the Royal ...