Lely
I’ve been musing for a while now on the rich mine of names that are the surnames of artists, poets and writers.
Many of them have a great ring in themselves, as well as carrying strong artistic connotations.
With the most famous, it is as though their names “mean” their paintings.
Say Monet, for instance, and lovely, soft, impressionistc images float into the mind.
Here, then, is my pick of the artists:
- Alma — Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema, Anglo-Dutch (1836-1912)
- Anquetin – Louis Anquetin, French (1861-1932)
- Ayala – Josefa de Ayala Figueira, Spanish (1630-84)
- Beale – Mary Beale, English (1633-99)
- Beaux – Cecilia Beaux, American (1855-1942)
- Bellocq – Gabrielle Bellocq, French (1920-99)
- Blair — Edmund Blair Leighton, English (1852-1922)
- Brangwyn – Frank William Brangwyn, Welsh (1867-1956)
- Braque – Georges Braque, French (1882-1963)
- Breton – Jules Breton, French (1827-1906)
- Carriera – Rosalba Carriera, Italian (1675-1757)
- Cassatt – Mary Cassatt, American (1844-1926)
- Cézanne – Paul Cézanne, French (1839-1906)
- Chase — William Merritt Chase, American (1849-1916)
- Chéret – Jules Chéret, French (1836-1932)
- Constable – John Constable, English (1776-1837)
- Copley – John Singleton Copley, American (1737-1815)
- Corot – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French (1796-1875)
- Cosway – Richard Cosway, English (1742-1821), and his wife Maria Cosway, Italian (1760-1838)
- Dali – Salvador Domènec Felipe Jacinto Dalí I Domènech, Marquis de Púbol, Spanish (1904-89)
- Delacroix – Eugene Delacroix, French (1798-1863)
- Delaroche – Paul Delaroche, French (1797-1856)
- Donatello – Donatello di Nicolo Bardi, Italian (1386-1466)
- Doré – Gustave Doré, French (1832-83)
- Draper – Herbert James Draper, English (1863-1920)
- Durer – Albrecht Dürer, German (1471-1528)
- Emin – Tracey Emin, British (b.1963)
- Escher — Mauritz Cornelis Escher, Dutch (1898-1972)
- Etty – William Etty, English (1787-1489)
- Fantin – Henri Fantin-Latour, French (1836-1904)
- Galizia – Fede Galizia, Italian (1578-1630)
- Gainsborough – Thomas Gainsborough, English (1727-88)
- Gaudi – Antoni Gaudí I Cornet, Spanish (1852-1926)
- Godward – John William Godward, English (1861-1922)
- Gogh – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch (1853-90)
- Gower – George Gower, English (c.1540-96)
- Goya – Francisco de Goya, Spanish (1746-1828)
- Holman – William Holman Hunt, English (1827-1910)
- Hunt – see Holman
- Klimt – Gustave Klimt, Austrian (1862-1918)
- Kneller – Sir Godfrey Kneller, Anglo-Dutch (1646-1723)
- Lavery – Sir John Lavery, Irish (1856-1941)
- Leighton – Frederick, Lord Leighton, English (1830-96), also see Blair
- Lely – Sir Peter Lely, Anglo-Dutch (1618-80)
- Leyster – Judith Leyster, Dutch (1609-60)
- Magritte – René Magritte, French (1898-1967)
- Manet – Édouard Manet, French (1832-83)
- Matisse – Henri Matisse, French (1869-1954)
- Merian – Maria Sibylla Merian, German (1647-1717)
- Merritt – see Chase
- Millais — Sir John Everett Millais, English (1829-96)
- Millet – Jean-François Millet, French (1814-75)
- Miró — Joan Miró i Ferrà, Catalan (1893-1983)
- Monamy – Peter Monamy, English (1681-1749)
- Monet – Claude Monet, French (1840-1926)
- Moreau – Gustave Moreau, French (1826-98)
- Morisot – Berthe Morisot, French (1841-95)
- Nash – Paul Nash, English (1889-1946)
- O’Keeffe – Georgia O’Keeffe, American (1887-1986)
- Opie — John Opie, Cornish (1761-1807) — his wife Amelia was a novelist; Julian Opie, British (b. 1958)
- Orpen – Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, Irish (1878-1931)
- Ozenda — Ozenda, Francçois (1923-76)
- Pajou – Jacques-Augustin Pajou, French (1730-1809)
- Paxton – William McGregor Paxton, American (1869-1941)
- Picasso – Pablo Picasso, Spanish (1881-1973)
- Poynter – Edward John Poynter, English (1836-1919)
- Quiller – William Quiller Orchardson, Scottish (1832-1910)
- Ramsay – Allan Ramsay, Scottish (1713-84)
- Raffet – Denis Auguste Marie Raffet, French (1804-60)
- Raphael – Raffaello Sanzio de Urbino, Italian (1483-1520)
- Redon – Odilon Redon, French (1840-1916)
- Rembrandt – Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch (1606-69)
- Renoir – Pierre Auguste Renoir, French (1841-1919)
- Rethel – Alfred Rethel, German (1816-59)
- Rodin – Auguste Rodin, French (1840-1917)
- Rockwell – Norman Rockwell, American (1894-1978)
- Romney – George Romney, English (1734-1802)
- Rousseau – Henry Julien Félix Rousseau, French (1844-1910)
- Rossetti – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English (1828-82)
- Rubens – Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish (1577-1640)
- Sargent – Sir John Singer Sargent, American (1856-1925)
- Seurat – Georges Pierre Seurat, French (1859-91)
- Singer – see Sargent
- Sirani – Elisabetta Sirani, Italian (1638-65), and her father Giovanni Andrea Sirani (1610-70
- Sisley – Alfred Sisley, Anglo-French (1839-99)
- Staël – Nicolas de Staël, Russo-French (1914-55)
- Steele – Theodore Clement, American (1847-1926)
- Tadema – see Alma
- Tanguy – Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy, French (1900-55)
- Titian — Tiziano Vecellio, Italian (c.1488-1576)
- Turner – Joseph Mallord William Turner, English (1775-1851)
- Yeats – John “Jack” Butler Yeats, Irish (1871-1957)
- Valadon – Suzanne Valadon, French (1865-1938)
- Vermeer — Jan Vermeer, Dutch (1632-75)
- Veronese – Paolo Veronese, Italian (1528-88)
- Vigée – Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, French (1755-1842)
- Villon – Jacques Villon, French (1875-1963)
- Watts – George Frederick Watts, English (1817-1904)
- Whistler – James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (1834-1903)
- Zoffany – Johann Zoffany, German (1733-1810)
Footnote: Zeffy at Baby Names From Yesteryear’s recent post — The Peale Family — about the family of American artist and naturalist Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827) demonstrates nicely that naming children after your favorite artists has a long tradition!
Nook of Names
