Featured Artists' Biographies (P - Q)

Dialogo de Calaveras (Un 'Charro' y Si Amor) (Dialogue of Skeletons 'A Horseman and his love) (Sold)

View larger image and more information for Signo by Pablo Palazuelo.

Pablo Palazuelo (Madrid, Born, 1916): Currently regarded as one of the preeminent Spanish artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Palazuelo initially studied architecture and was educated at the School of Arts and Crafts, Oxford University, England. He returned to live in Madrid in 1939 and began his career as a painter. At first influenced by Cubist elements within the art of Picasso and Cezanne, Palazuelo moved increasingly towards abstraction. In this regard, the paintings of Paul Klee proved a major inspiration.

Palazuelo went to live and work in Paris in 1948. His work was shortly thereafter exhibited throughout France and he was invited to annually exhibit with the Salon de Mai. In 1950, Palazuelo joined the influential Galerie Maeght and in 1952 he received the coveted Kandinsky Prize. In 1958, Palazuelo also received the Carnegie Prize from the United States.

View larger image and more information for Cendrillon (Cinderella) by Jules Pascin (Julias Pincas).

Jules Pascin (Julias Pincas) (Widdin, Bulgaria, 1885 - Paris, 1930): One of the most famous artists of the early twentieth century, Jules Pascin actually spent much of his youth at a local bordello where he was cared for by the Madame. At the age of seventeen he traveled to Berlin, Vienna and Munich and began supporting himself by selling drawings to leading German periodicals. In particular, his illustrations for the satirical magazine, Simplicissimus, gained him both an early and strong reputation throughout Europe.

Pascin moved to Paris in 1905 and immediately became a leading figure among the artists of Montmartre, along with Modigliani, Soutine and Chagall. Pascin painted portraits and large historical canvases, but his reputation was based almost entirely upon his charged depictions of the women in pastel, conte and etching. Many scholars have compared his art in this field to that of Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas.

View larger image, more information and other original works of art by Peter Paul.

Peter Paul (Strelitz, Germany, Born, 1943): A famous contemporary German lithographer, etcher and painter, Peter Paul has established a strong reputation for his unique architectural imagery. He studied art in Berlin at the Institute of Fine Arts (1965-66) and in Hamburg (1966-69), under such modern masters as Paul Wunderlich, Allen Jones and David Hockney. Paul then taught graphic art techniques at the Institute of Fine Arts, Hamburg, from 1969 to 1974.

After 1974 Peter Paul traveled and worked in Italy, Ireland and the United States. He won the prestigious Prize of Rome in 1974 which enabled him to live and work in that city for a period of two years. Variation Serlio II was created by the artist at this time and published by Grafos Verlag in Germany in a signed, limited edition of seventy-five s as well as a handful of artist proofs (marked 'e. a.').

View a larger image, more information and other original works of art by Joseph Pennell.

Joseph Pennell (Philadelphia, 1857 - Brooklyn, New York, 1926): Commonly referred to as the 'Dean of American Printmakers' no individual artist had as much influence upon the shaping of early twentieth century American art as Joseph Pennell. His critical and opinionated books such as Lithography and Lithographers (1900) and Etching and Etchers drew the ire of many artists and collectors in Britain, France and the United States. Yet throughout his career his striking architectural etchings and lithographs were admired internationally. Even his great mentor and close friend, Whistler, exclaimed that Pennell had a most unique gift for creating a composition.

Shortly after graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Joseph Pennell departed for London (1884) where he lived for the most part until the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. Frequent artistic trips to Germany, France, Italy and, later, America, made him an international figure. Forever inventive, Pennell's etchings, lithographs and drawings won major awards in Paris, Dresden, Milan, Barcelona, Florence, Amsterdam and in London. Upon his return to the United States, Joseph Pennell was the first artist to seriously depict the modern urban environment. His etchings and lithographs of the growing skyscrapers of Manhattan and the massive industrial sites of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia changed the course of American art. Joseph Pennell was elected a full Academician of the prestigious National Academy in 1909. Examples of his original prints and drawings are included in most of the world's major museums, including the Cabinet des Estampes, Paris, the British Museum, London, the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, and the Library of Congress, Washington.

View larger image, more information and other original works of art by Elizabeth Piper.

Elizabeth Piper (London, Active, 1892 - 1932): A British etcher and painter of the early twentieth century, Elizabeth Piper studied at the Clifton School of Art, Bristol and at the R.C.A. She later completed her education in both Belgium and Paris. She was appointed an Associate of the Royal Engravers in 1892 and was also a member of the Royal West of England Academy. During her career, Elizabeth Piper exhibited her etchings and paintings at the Royal Academy, the Royal Engravers and elsewhere. Among the many purchasers of her art were the city of Leeds and Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. She lived and worked in Chelsea, London and Stanmore, Middlesex.

After 1900, Piper devoted her efforts almost exclusively to her greatest artistic interest, the medium of etching. This original etching hails from a set of forty etchings published around 1910 in Bristol depicting English churches. They clearly show her delicate talents at rendering architecture and the surrounding landscapes.

View a larger image, more information and other original works of art by Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Venice, 1720 - Rome, 1778): In the field of the art of architecture one man stands well above the others. Beginning with his first Vedute di Roma etching in 1748, Giovanni Battista Piranesi fashioned an illustrious career which forever changed our manner of viewing man among his constructed creations.

Piranesi's most acclaimed series of etchings are his Prisons, the Vedute di Roma and the Antichita Romane. First published in 1756, the Antichita Romane established Piranesi's reputation in Europe as the leading protagonist of Roman archaeology. A talented architect as well as an artist, Piranesi's aim in the Antichita was both to record the vanishing past for scholars and to inspire contemporary designers to emulate the great Roman achievements of the past.

The complete Antichita Romane consists of two hundred and fifty large etchings and was initially published in four weighty volumes. Setting out a then new system of archaeological inquiry into the study of antiquity, Piranesi devoted the first volume to the urban structure of ancient Rome, particularly its walls, defenses, aqueducts and monuments. The second and third volumes dealt with the extensive remains of tombs and funerary moments around Rome. The fourth and final volume depicted the great feats of Roman engineering, such as bridges and monumental structures which contains some of the most impressive work from the entire series.

View larger image, more information and other original works of art by Charles Adams Platt.

Charles Adams Platt (New York City, 1861 - 1933): A painter, architect, etcher and writer, Charles Adams Platt quickly became one of America's most highly regarded landscape artists during the late nineteenth century. He first studied art at the National Academy of Design and at the Art Students League of New York before finishing his formal training under Boulanger and Lefebvre, in Paris. During his successful career Platt received many awards, including the bronze medal from the Paris Exposition of 1900. He was a full member of the Society of American Artists (1888), the National Academy of Design (Associate, 1897: Academician, 1911), the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Institute of Architects, the New York Etching Club and the London Society of Painter-Etchers.

Charles Adams Platt was taught etching by his friend and fellow artist, Stephen Parrish, in 1880. Parrish (1846-1938) lived in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and thus many of Platt's initial etchings dealt with scenes from this locality. From 1880 through 1890, Platt devoted himself almost exclusively to the art of etching and produced over one hundred works of art in this medium.

View larger image, more information and other original works of art by George Taylor Plowman.

George Taylor Plowman (Le Sueur, MN, 1869 - Cambridge, MA, 1932): One of America's best known etchers of the early twentieth century, George Plowman actually spent much of his career as an architect. Upon graduating from the University of Minnesota (1892), Plowman assisted D. H. Burnham with constructing many buildings for the World's Fair in Chicago. During the following years, Plowman received commissions for building both in France and the United States. From 1904 to 1909 he acted as superintendent of architecture for the University of California, at Berkeley.

George Plowman was a full member of the New York Society of Etchers, the Salmagundi Club, the Chicago Society of Etchers, the Print Makers' Society of California and the Boston Society of Etchers. His etchings are included in the collections of such major international galleries as the British Museum, the Luxembourg Museum, the National Academy, Washington, the South Kensington Museum, London, the Library of Congress and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

View larger image, more information and other original works of art by Samuel Prout.

Samuel Prout (Norfolk, 1783 - London, 1852): Undoubtedly, Samuel Prout has been recognized as one of the greatest watercolour painters from the golden age of this medium. Yet he was also an important early pioneer in the medium of lithography, exploring this art's vast potential of light, shade and texture. Born in Norfolk, Prout received his early art education at the Plymouth Grammar School. He was first employed as a topographical artist at the tender age of fourteen to sketch views of Cornwall. He continued work in a similar vein for the following two decades, gaining a strong reputation for his pencil, lithograph and watercolour views of Cambridgeshire, Essex, Wiltshire and Devon, as well as many English rural views.

After 1819, Prout became a frequent traveler on the Continent, visiting and sketching Belgium, Flanders, Italy, Germany, the Rhine and France. The lithographs he created from these excursions influenced artists throughout Europe. Prout's masterful attention to atmosphere, detail and the effects of light and shade were without parallel, and an entire generation of artists after him tried in vain to emulate his art.

View larger image, more information and other original works of art by Wilhelmina Schutz Pulsifer 'Mina Pulsifer'

Wilhelmina Schutz Pulsifer 'Mina Pulsifer' (Leavenworth, Kansas, 1899 - San Diego, 1989): One of California's greatest women artists, Mina Pulsifer was born and raised in Leavenworth, Kansas, and first studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute. She moved to San Diego in 1924 and resumed her studies at the San Diego Academy, under Eugene de Vol and Otto Schneider. She also took independent lessons in portraiture and figure studies from Frederick Taubes.

Mina Pulsifer was a full member of the San Diego Art Guild and served as its President in 1944. Her art was included in many major California exhibitions, including the California Pacific International Exposition of 1935. Today her original lithographs and engravings are housed in the collections of the Boston Public Library, the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the National Museum, Jerusalem, as well as in major public galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.

Pedro Quetglas Ferrer (Xam) (Palma, Majorca (Mallorca) 1915 - 2001): An important, twentieth century artist of Majorca (Mallorca), Pedro Quetglas Ferrer studied at the Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Artisticos, Palma, and at the School of Arts and Crafts, Munich. He began his career as a cartoonist, poster designer and painter. In 1944 he was introduced to the art of the woodcut and, during the following years, dedicated much of his oeuvre to the graphic arts.

Pedro Quetglas Ferrer's first one man exhibition took place in 1951 at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Palma. Afterwards his art was exhibited in such international centers as Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Paris and New York. He was the recipient of medals and prizes at the Salon d'Automne, Paris (1951 & 1966), Grabado Alfredo Guido (1953) and at the Bienal Hispanoamericana. In 1980 Pedro Quetglas Ferrer was appointed professor at the Academia de Belles Arts de Sant Sebastia de Palma. A large, retrospective exhibition of his art took place in 1989 at Sa Llotja de Palma.