Daniel Graves, “The Power of Wisdom and Beauty”, 2013, Oil on Linen, 70 x 50 cm
Born in 1949, Daniel Graves graduated with honors in 1972 from Balimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art, where he studied anatomy and painting under painter Joseph Sheppard and sculptor Frank Russell. He traveled to Florence, Italy, studying history painting and etching with classical artist Richard Serrin at Florence’s Villa Schifanoia Graduate School of Fine Art from 1972 to 1973.
Moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota, Daniel Graves studied in the atelier of classical realist painter Richard Lack from 1975 to 1976, where he associated with a thriving circle of classical realist painters trained by Lack and Ives Gammell, a classical realist painter of symbolic images. Graves moved to Florence in 1978, decided to remain there and began working under Nerina Simi, renowned painter and drawing teacher. During that time he became acquainted with portrait and fresco painter Pietro Annigoni, who has received praise for his classical portraits of Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1982, Daniel Graves, with his compatriot, painter and historian Charles H Cecil, a student of Ives Gammell, opened a teaching atelier in Florence which they operated together until 1990. Graves created the Florence Academy of Art in 1991 to train artists in the materials, techniques, and craftsmanship of figurative realism. Today the Academy operates ateliers in Jersey City, New Jersey, and in Mölndal, Sweden.
“When we look into the eyes of a Rembrandt self-portrait, how much closer can we get to knowing the soul of another human being? Rembrandt’s hands mixed the paint we see, but what is actually before us is a blend of his image with ours and that of every human. There is no substitute for this experience.” —-Daniel Graves
Image reblogged with thanks to https://danielgravesart.com
The Florence Academy of Art’s website is https://www.florenceacademyofart.com