A Passion for the Arts in St. Louis

(August 18, 1909 — April 19, 1978) John Koch was a self-educated artist. Born in Toledo, Ohio and raised in Ann Arbor Michigan, he attended local public schools, graduating from high school in 1927. As a teenager, he studied charcoal drawing—his only experience with formal art instruction. In 1928, Koch traveled to Paris where he…

(August 17, 1923 – August 14, 2002) Larry Rivers was born as Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg in the Bronx, New York in the family of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. Rivers took up painting in 1945 and studied at the Hans Hofmann School from 1947–48. He earned a BA in art education from New York University in 1951. His work was quickly acquired by the Museum of…

(16 August 1557 – 22 March 1602) Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the Progressives) in Bologna. This teaching academy promoted the Carracci emphasized drawing from life. It promoted progressive tendencies…

(15 August 1702 – 30 December 1788) Giacomo Francesco Zuccarelli was an Italian artist of the late Baroque or Rococo period. He is considered to be the most important landscape painter to have emerged from his adopted city of Venice during the mid-eighteenth century, and his Arcadian views became popular throughout Europe and especially in England where he resided for two extended periods. His patronage extended to the…

(14 August 1714 – 3 December 1789) Claude-Joseph Vernet was born in Avignon in 1714, the son of Antoine Vernet (1689-1753), an artisan painter of architectural decorations, coach panels, and the like. He moved to the studio of Philippe Sauvan (1697-1792), a leading history painter in Avignon, and then worked with Jacques Viali (active 1681-1745), a…

(August 13, 1921 – July 31, 1990) Painter, printmaker, muralist, Academy Award wining documentarian, and art professor Jan Stussy was born in Benton County, Missouri, in 1921. His family relocated to Southern California when he was a child, and in the late 1930s he took courses at the Art Center School in Pasadena, studying under Barse Miller.…

(August 12, 1947 – June 18, 2010) Joseph Maurice Deal was an American photographer who specialized in depicting how the landscape was transformed by people. Deal was born in Topeka, Kansas on August 12, 1947, and was raised in Albany, Missouri and St. Paul, Minnesota. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. After his graduation…

(August 11, 1957 – May 5, 2012) Willie Robert Middlebrook, Jr. was an American photographer, artist and strong advocate for the African-American community in Los Angeles. He received many honors during his lifetime, including two Visual Artist Fellowships in photography from the National Endowment for the Arts, and many commissions for public works including the Los Angeles Metro Expo/Crenshaw Station. His…

(August 10, 1848 – October 29, 1892) Born in Clonakilty, Ireland, in 1848, William Michael Harnett was brought to Philadelphia as an infant by his immigrant parents, a shoemaker and a seamstress. After several years of Catholic schooling, he began to contribute to his family’s support by selling newspapers and working as an errand boy.…

(August 9, 1792 – February 13, 1863) Alvan Fisher was one of the earliest American pioneers of both landscape and genre painting. Born to Aaron and Lucy Fisher in Needham, Massachusetts, Alvan grew up in Dedham, where the artist was to reside for the rest of his life. After studying in Boston with John Ritto Penniman,…