Artists

Daumier earned his living from satirical cartoons from 1830 and was imprisoned in 1832 for a caricature of Louis-Philippe.

David joined the Bruges painters' guild in 1484 and worked mainly there. After Memling's death in 1494 he became the city's leading painter, continuing traditions associated with van Eyck…

David trained with Joseph-Marie Vien and won the Prix de Rome in 1774. During the Revolution he served in the Convention, voted for Louis XVI's execution and organized festivals.

Italian journeys expanded Dürer's interest in proportion and perspective alongside Northern attention to surface detail. He worked as painter, printmaker, writer and theorist.

Rubens and Titian were major influences on Van Dyck. He worked in Italy from 1621 to 1627 before continuing a successful career.

Van Eyck is documented at John of Bavaria's court in The Hague in 1422 and in Philip the Good's service from 1425.

Giotto worked principally in Florence. Major surviving fresco cycles are in Padua and Florence's Santa Croce.

Goya trained with José Luzán in Zaragoza and Francisco Bayeu in Madrid. Appointed court painter in 1786, he became First Painter to Charles IV in 1799.

Born in Cento, Guercino was largely self-taught and drew particularly on Ludovico Carracci. Pope Gregory XV summoned him to Rome in 1621.

Born in Antwerp, Hals worked mainly in Haarlem and joined its guild in 1610. He trained with Karel van Mander and painted citizens, families, civic guards and almshouse regents.

Klimt attended Vienna's School of Applied Arts from 1876 to 1883. With his brother Ernst and Franz Matsch, he undertook decorative commissions for theaters, the museum and an imperial villa.

La Tour's training remains uncertain. He settled in Lunéville, where Duke Henry II of Lorraine bought his paintings in 1623–1624. The city's destruction in 1638 destroyed his workshop.

Labille-Guiard began with miniature and pastel before training with François André Vincent. She taught women and entered the Royal Academy in 1783.

Orphaned as a child, Lippi entered a Florentine Carmelite friary. Medici patronage later supported major commissions.

Trained in the Venetian tradition, Lotto worked mainly outside Venice, especially in Bergamo from 1513 to 1525. An account book and diary begun in 1538 document later paintings.

Mantegna trained with Squarcione in Padua and married into the Bellini family in 1453. From 1460 he served the Gonzaga court in Mantua for the rest of his life.

Meléndez came from a family of painters and studied at the Madrid academy until a dispute involving his father led to both being expelled.

Millet trained with Paul Delaroche in Paris and gained recognition with The Winnower at the 1848 Salon. From 1849 he worked mainly in Barbizon among landscape painters.

Murillo became the leading painter of later seventeenth-century Seville, initially influenced by Velázquez and Zurbarán.

Originally from Dinant, Patinir is documented in Antwerp from 1515. He was closely associated with Quinten Massys, who apparently supplied figures for some landscapes and later became…

Piero was in Cosimo Rosselli's workshop in 1480 and took his professional name from him. He became known in Florence for designing processions and pageants and taught Andrea del Sarto.

Pissarro was born on St Thomas in the Danish West Indies and later worked mainly around Paris. Millet and Corot influenced his landscapes.

Rubens spent eight years studying and working in Italy before returning to Antwerp in 1608. Archduke Albert and Isabella appointed him court painter the following year.

Ruisdael came from a Haarlem family involved in painting, art dealing and frame making, probably training with his uncle Salomon.

Seurat studied at the École des Beaux-Arts with Henri Lehmann, a pupil of Ingres, and copied early Italian and seventeenth-century French painting in the Louvre.

Martini completed the monumental Maestà for Siena's government in 1315. Later commissions came from the cathedral and Santa Maria della Scala hospital; he shared a workshop with Lippo Memmi.

Tiepolo trained with Gregorio Lazzarini in Venice and drew strongly on Veronese. With his sons Domenico and Lorenzo, he decorated the Würzburg prince-bishop's residence in 1750–1753.

Titian trained in Venice with Sebastiano Zuccato and the Bellini workshops. In 1508–1509 he worked with Giorgione on the Fondaco dei Tedeschi exterior. His later clientele was international.

Vermeer became a master in Delft's painters' guild in 1653, the year he married. International collectors visited his studio despite his relatively small output.

Veronese trained with Antonio Badile in Verona and moved to Venice in the early 1550s. His church and secular commissions included the Doge's Palace and Villa Barbaro.

The daughter of painter Louis Vigée grew up in Paris and joined the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1774. Marie Antoinette became a major patron.

Friedrich trained in Greifswald and Copenhagen before settling in Dresden, where he associated with Romantic scholars and poets.

Duccio was active in Siena by 1278 and spent most of his career there. His large workshop influenced later Sienese and Florentine painters.

Ingres studied with Jacques-Louis David and won a Rome scholarship in 1801, taking it up in 1806. Raphael and other Italian masters strongly influenced him.

Rousseau was largely self-taught and worked in the Paris customs service. He exhibited regularly at the Salon des Indépendants from 1886 to 1910.

Nearly all evidence for Peeters's life comes from her paintings; the earliest dated work is from 1607. The Prado considers Antwerp her likely base.