Your Art Gallery: Portraits Quiz | Art

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. We begin with a portrait of the French writer �mile Zola in his late 20s. Painted in 1868, it is the work of which artist who is widely considered a key figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism?

Answer: �douard Manet

Born in Paris in 1832, �douard Manet took the Parisian art world by storm with his 1863 depiction of fully dressed men and a nude woman in 'Le d�jeuner sur l'herbe' ("The Luncheon on the Grass"). The same year, his "Olympia" created a scandal.

His 1868 oil on canvas portrait of �mile Zola is now part of the collection at the Mus�e d'Orsay in Paris.

2. Going back to the 16th Century, our next offering is a portrait of Saint James the Apostle. It is the work of which German, widely regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance?

Answer: Albrecht D�rer

Born in Nuremberg, then in the Holy Roman Empire, in 1471, Albrecht D�rer first came to prominence with his woodcuts in his early twenties. His best known works include "Knight, Death and the Devil" (1513), "Saint Jerome in his Study" (1514) and his haunting Jesus-like self-portrait painted in 1500.

His 'Apostel Jakobus' ("The Apostle James"), an oil on canvas painted in 1516, is now part of the collection at the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence.

3. Racing forward to the early 20th Century, our next portrait depicts the French artist Jeanne H�buterne at the age of 23, less than a year before her tragic death. She was the common-law wife and a frequent subject for which Italian artist with a distinctive painting style?

Answer: Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was born in Livorno, Italy in 1884. His portraits and nudes are recognizable by their distinctive elongated faces and bodies.
Modigliani and Jeanne H�buterne moved to Nice in the south of France in mid-1918 and their daughter was born there later that same year. They returned to Paris the following year with H�buterne pregnant again but by this time Modigliani was suffering from tuberculous meningitis made worse by his drug habit. He died on January 24, 1920 and a day later the distraught H�buterne jumped from a fifth-floor window, killing herself and their unborn child. It was not until 10 years later that H�buterne's family allowed her remains to be moved to P�re Lachaise Cemetery to lie beside those of Modigliani.

'Portr�t der Jeanne H�buterne', an oil on canvas painted in 1919 is currently part of a private Paris collection.

4. Numerous famous artists have painted the English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer David Garrick. The pictured portrait is the work of which Swiss-born artist who was a founding member of the "Royal Academy" in London?

Answer: Angelica Kauffman

Born Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann in 1741 in Chur, the capital of the Swiss canton of Graub�nden, Angelica Kauffman arrived in England in the 1760s and her portrait of Garrick, then in his 50s, was one of her earliest works. One of her closest friends in England was Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the pair each painted portraits of the other. Both were driving forces behind the formation of the Royal Academy in 1768 -- Kauffman and Mary Moser were its only female founding members. Other famous portraits by Kauffman include one of the German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

5. This portrait depicts Cosimo I de' Medici, who ruled as the first Duke of Tuscany for 37 years in the mid-16th Century. Which Florence-born Mannerist artist painted this and many other members of the court?

Answer: Il Bronzino

Born Agnolo di Cosimo in Florence in 1503, he was known as 'Il Bronzino' because of the relatively dark colour of his skin. Mannerism was a style that lasted through much of the 16th Century, between the last years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520 and the emergence of the Baroque style some 60 years later. Works by Il Bronzino can be seen in many of Europe's major galleries, amongst them his "Portrait of a Young Man" in the National Gallery in London, "Portrait of Don Garcia de' Medici" in the Prado in Madrid, and "Holy Family" in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

'Ritratto del granduca Cosimo I de' Medici in armatura' ("Portrait of the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici in Armour") is a 1545 tempera on wood that is now part of the collection at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, home to many of his best-known works.

6. Artists frequently paint portraits of themselves and their artistic friends. This portrait of Baroque painter Pieter Snayers is by which Flemish artist who was a leading court painter in 17th-Century England?

Answer: Sir Anthony van Dyck

Born Antoon van Dyck in 1599 in Antwerp, then part of the Spanish Netherlands and now in Belgium, Sir Anthony van Dyck was knighted by England's King Charles I during his year-long stay in London in 1630.

Van Dyck's 1613 "Self-Portrait" hangs in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and the painting of him by fellow Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens can be seen in The Louvre in Paris. Van Dyck's royal portraits include "Charles I at the Hunt" (The Louvre), "Henrietta Maria and the dwarf, Sir Jeffrey Hudson" (National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.) and "Charles I in Three Positions", which is one of 26 of his works that are part of the British Royal Collection.

Van Dyck's 'Bildnis des Schlachtenmalers Pieter Snayers', a color of oak panel completed in 1633, is part of the collection at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany.

7. This 1630 portrait depicts the then Spanish Infanta, Maria Anna of Austria, a future Holy Roman Empress. Who is the painter, the court artist of King Philip IV of Spain and a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age?

Answer: Diego Vel�zquez

Diego Rodr�guez de Silva y Vel�zquez was born in Seville in 1599. Amongst his many works are numerous portraits of the Spanish royal family as well as other notable European figures of the time. His most famous work is perhaps 'Las Meninas ("The Maids of Honour"), painted in 1656, shortly before his death, which hangs in the Prado in Madrid.

Vel�zquez portraits can be found in galleries around the world. Amongst the best known are "Philip IV in Brown and Silver" from 1536 (National Gallery in London), "Portrait of Innocent X" from 1560 (Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City) and "Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress" from 1659 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna).

Maria Anna, the subject of our featured portrait, was the daughter of King Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. Born in 1606, she would later be Queen Consort of Hungary and Bohemia as the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. It can be seen in the Museo del Prado in Madrid along with many other works by Vel�zquez.

8. This 1838 portrait of the Polish composer Fr�d�ric Chopin was originally part of a larger painting depicting both Chopin and his lover, the novelist Georges Sand. Who is the artist, the leader of the French Romantic School in the 19th Century?

Answer: Eug�ne Delacroix

Ferdinand Victor Eug�ne Delacroix was born in 1798 in Saint-Maurice, a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. Delacroix painted numerous self-portraits as well as landscapes, notably of North Africa, allegorical paintings, and paintings of animals, particularly horses. Some of his best-known works include "Rider Attacked by a Jaguar" painted in 1835 and on display at the National Gallery in Prague, "The Fanatics of Tangier" (Minneapolis Institute of Arts) and "Horses coming out of the sea", an 1860 work that is part of The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.

Our featured portrait of Chopin hangs in The Louvre in Paris, along with many other works by this artist, including perhaps his most famous work, "Liberty Leading the People". The other half of this painting can be seen in the Ordrupgaard art museum in J�gersborg Dyrehave, north of Copenhagen in Denmark.

9. This portrait of the Duke of Wellington was painted in 1814, shortly before his famous victory at Waterloo. Who is this artist, a Spanish Romantic painter, widely considered as both the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns?

Answer: Francisco Goya

Francisco Jos� de Goya y Lucientes was born in 1746 in the small town of Fuendetodos in Aragon, Spain. The Spanish court painter during the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV, and many of his portraits depict the royal family, for example the expansive "Charles IV of Spain and His Family" from 1800. Goya remained in court through the subsequent Peninsular War (1807-14) and many of his most famous paintings such as "The Third of May 1808" portray that conflict.
The largest collection of Goya's work, including those mentioned above and many of his latter-period "Black Paintings", are displayed at the Prado in Madrid.

Our featured portrait of the Duke of Wellington can be seen at the National Gallery in London.

10. This 1633 portrait depicts the Dutch merchant and explorer Pieter van den Broecke. It was painted by which artist, one of the most important portrait painters of the 17th Century Dutch Golden Age?

Answer: Frans Hals

Frans Hals was born in either 1582 or 1583 in Antwerp, then in the Southern Netherlands and now in Belgium. He painted many portraits of wealthy citizens and their wives, although his most famous work, "The Laughing Cavalier", which is part of the Wallace Collection in London, is of an unknown subject. He also painted numerous group portraits such as "The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1627" which can be seen in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, Netherlands.

Our featured portrait was part of the Iveagh Bequest, now housed at Kenwood House, a former stately home in Hampstead, London now managed by English Heritage.

Source: Author EnglishJedi

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
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Your Art Gallery: Portraits Trivia Quiz

Welcome to your own private art gallery. In the first room are portraits by some of the greatest artists of all time. Can you identify the artist by the style?

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