The Golden Age in the British Painting

Mykola Kornylovych Pymonenko
Mykola Kornylovych Pymonenko (Ukrainian: Микола Корнилович Пимоненко), sometimes spelled Pimonenko (Russian: Николай Корнилович Пимоненко, Nikolay Kornilovich Pimonenko ) (March 9, 1862, Kiev – March 26, 1912, Kiev) was a Ukrainian painter. One of the most eminent Ukrainian genre painters Pymonenko was widely acclaimed in the Russian Empire; A member of the Imperial Academy of Arts since 1904 and of a progressive Peredvizhniki artistic movement and the turn of the century.
A number of Pimonenko's paintings are, in fact, generalized portraits which are the embodiment of a popular ideal of the working man. The artist also turned to the theme of peasant labour, depicting typical scenes from everyday life against the backdrop of a landscape.
Pymonenko created illustrations for several of Taras Shevchenko's poems. In total, he produced over 700 genre scenes, landscapes, and portraits. Pymonenko also took part in the painting of the murals in Saint Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kiev.

Victim of Fanaticism
Victim of Fanaticism

Easter morning prayer in Little Russia
Easter morning prayer in Little Russia

Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woollen goods, and his wife, the sister of the Reverend Humphry Burroughs.[1] When he was 13 he impressed his father with his drawing skills and he was allowed to go to London to study art in 1740.
He was an English portrait and landscape painter. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver in Suffolk, and, in 1740, left home to study art in London with Hubert Gravelot, Francis Hayman, and William Hogarth. In 1746, he married Margaret Burr, and they became parents of two daughters. He moved to Bath in 1759 where fashionable society patronised him, and he began exhibiting in London. In 1769, he became a founding member of the Royal Academy, but his relationship with the organization was thorny and he sometimes withdrew his work from exhibition. Gainsborough moved to London in 1774, and painted portraits of the king and queen, but the king was obliged to name as royal painter Gainsborough's rival Joshua Reynolds. In his last years, Gainsborough painted relatively simple landscapes and is credited (with Richard Wilson) as the originator of the 18th century British landscape school. Gainsborough died of cancer in 1788 and is interred at St. Anne's Church, Kew, Surrey. He painted quickly and his later pictures are characterised by a light palette and easy strokes. He preferred landscapes to portraits. Cecil Kellaway portrayed Gainsborough in the 1945 film Kitty.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Andrews
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Andrews

The Painter`s Daughters Chasing a Butterfly, (1756)
The Painter`s Daughters Chasing a Butterfly, (1756)

John Constable
John Constable (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English Romantic (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English Romantic painter (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".[2]
John Constable was born in East BergholtJohn Constable was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River StourJohn Constable was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in SuffolkJohn Constable was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in Suffolk, to Golding and Ann (Watts) Constable. His father was a wealthy corn merchant, owner ofFlatford MillJohn Constable was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in Suffolk, to Golding and Ann (Watts) Constable. His father was a wealthy corn merchant, owner ofFlatford Mill in East Bergholt and, later, Dedham Mill in Essex. Golding Constable owned a small ship, The Telegraph, which he moored at Mistley, which he moored at Mistley on the Stour estuary, and used to transport corn to London. He was a cousin of the London tea merchant, Abram Newman, which he moored at Mistley on the Stour estuary, and used to transport corn to London. He was a cousin of the London tea merchant, Abram Newman. Although Constable was his parents' second son, his older brother was mentally handicapped, which he moored at Mistley on the Stour estuary, and used to transport corn to London. He was a cousin of the London tea merchant, Abram Newman. Although Constable was his parents' second son, his older brother was mentally handicapped and John was expected to succeed his father in the business. After a brief period at a boarding school in Lavenham, which he moored at Mistley on the Stour estuary, and used to transport corn to London. He was a cousin of the London tea merchant, Abram Newman. Although Constable was his parents' second son, his older brother was mentally handicapped and John was expected to succeed his father in the business. After a brief period at a boarding school in Lavenham, he was enrolled in a day school in Dedham. Constable worked in the corn business after leaving school, but his younger brother Abram eventually took over the running of the mills.
Constable quietly rebelled against the artistic culture that taught artists to use their imagination to compose their pictures rather than nature itself. He told Leslie, "When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture"
Died31 March 1837 (aged 60)
HampsteadHampstead, LondonHampstead, London, England

Boat-building near Flatford Mill 1815
Boat-building near Flatford Mill 1815

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds c. 1825.
Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds c. 1825.

William Hogarth
William Hogarth (10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".
William Hogarth was born at Bartholomew Close in London to Richard Hogarth, a poor Latin school teacher and textbook writer, and Anne Gibbons. In his youth he was apprenticed to the engraver Ellis Gamble in Leicester Fields, where he learned to engrave trade cards and similar products. Young Hogarth also took a lively interest in the street life of the metropolis and the London fairs, and amused himself by sketching the characters he saw. Around the same time, his father, who had opened an unsuccessful Latin-speaking coffee house at St John's Gate, was imprisoned for debt in Fleet Prison for five years. Hogarth never spoke of his father's imprisonment.[citation needed]
Hogarth became a member of the Rose and Crown Club, with Peter Tillemans, George Vertue, Michael Dahl, and other artists and connoisseurs
Died 26 October 1764 (aged 66)
London, England

Hogarth's Servants, mid-1750s.
Hogarth's Servants, mid-1750s.