The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (137 page)

(
c.
1484–1530).
Swiss painter, designer, and poet, active mainly in his native Berne. Deutsch was one of the outstanding Swiss artists of his period, but much of his energy was expended in other activities. He fought as a mercenary in Italy and took an active part in the political and religious affairs of Berne as a passionate supporter of the Reformation, writing satires against the Pope, whom he equated with Antichrist. His paintings are related to
Baldung Grien
and
Grünewald
in their love of the grotesque (
The Temptation of St Anthony
, Kunstmuseum, Berne, 1520). Deutsch also designed wood-cuts and stained glass and a set of choir stalls for Berne Cathedral.

 
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(1827–54).
British painter. He was a friend of
Rossetti
, and was proposed for membership of the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
(to replace
Collinson
) but was never actually elected. In 1849 he ‘discovered’ Elizabeth Siddal , the archetypal Pre-Raphaelite model and Rossetti's future wife. Deverell was noted for his good looks and charm and Elizabeth was probably in love with him before he died aged 26 from Bright's disease. In his brief career he gave promise of becoming perhaps the most painterly of the Pre-Raphaelite followers (
A Pet
, Tate Gallery, London, 1853).

 
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(1711–87).
English painter, the best-known member of a family of artists. He was one of the first specialists in the small
conversation piece
and also painted single portraits of similar scale. The sitters are usually in repose, often somewhat artificially posed, and the Devis type of portrait group was animated in the next generation by
Zoffany
. Devis was a minor figure in his day and virtually forgotten until the 1930s, but since then his work has attained considerable popularity because of the doll-like charm of his figures and the delicate detail of his settings. It has also become of interest to social historians, as most of his clients were from the newly prosperous middle class. A small representative collection of his work is in the Art Gallery at Preston, his native town. He worked both in London and in Lancashire.
Anthony
(1729–1816), his half-brother, was a landscape painter. Arthur's son,
Arthur William
(1763–1822), spent the years 1785–95 in India, where he painted portraits and a series of pictures representing the arts, manufactures, and agriculture of Bengal (two examples are in the Ashmolean, Oxford), which were engraved. He lived in London from 1795, working mainly as a portraitist, but also painting
The Death of Nelson
(Nat. Maritime Mus., London,
c.
1806). Another son,
Thomas Anthony
(1757–1810), painted undistinguished portraits and
fancy pictures
. Little of his work survives.

 
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(1784–1849).
English landscape painter of Dutch extraction. He studied with the engraver, miniaturist, and painter John Raphael Smith (1752–1812), then at the
Royal Academy
and frequented the house of Dr
Monro
. Although he was an admirable painter in oils, he is best known as one of the finest exponents of watercolour of his generation. He is particularly associated with views of the countryside around Lincoln (where his wife's parents lived), in which he often uses broad
washes
of colour somewhat in the manner of
Cotman
. De Wint was a popular figure and enjoyed considerable success as a teacher.

 
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(1872–1929).
Russian impresario, famous above all as the founder of the
Ballets Russes
, through which he exerted great influence on the visual arts as well as on dancing and music. From 1890 to 1896 he studied law in St Petersburg, where he became part of a circle of musicians, painters, and writers including Léon
Bakst
and Alexander
Benois
. In 1899 he founded the magazine
World of Art
, with the object of interchanging artistic ideas with Western Europe. When it ceased publication in 1904 he concentrated for a while on organizing exhibitions, including one of Russian painting at the 1905
Salon d'Automne
in Paris—the most comprehensive to have been seen in the West up to that time. In 1907 he organized a series of concerts of Russian music in Paris, and in 1909 he brought a ballet company for the first time (this is usually described as the
Ballets Russes
, but the name was first used in 1911). The company was a sensational success, as much for the exotic designs of Bakst as for the music and choreography (the dancers included Nijinsky and Pavlova). For the next two decades, until his death in 1929, Diaghilev toured Europe and America with his ballet (he never returned to Russia after the 1917 Revolution and Paris was the main centre of his operations). He was often on the verge of bankruptcy, but he had a remarkable flair for spotting young talent and for integrating various interests and people, enabling him to bring together as his collaborators some of the foremost artistic personalities of his time; the painters who designed sets and costumes for him included
Braque
,
de Chirico
,
Derain
,
Matisse
, and
Picasso
.

 
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