# data[].attributes.body
Welcome to the wonderful brain that functions in the head of Kayla Pepple!

# data[].attributes.body
John Constable was a landscape painter born East Bergholt in Suffolk. He first took up painting and drawing under the guidance of local amateur artist, John Dunthorne. Constable had a turning point in 1795 where he met Sir George Beaumont. He was exposed to Beaumont's collection of major paintings by the Old Masters. In 1799, John entered the Royal Academy of Schools in London to embark on a career in painting. John Constable married his wife Maria in 1816 and set up home in Bloomsbury the following year. He did not find central London to be suiting, so he moved his family to Hampstead permanently from 1827 on. Due to the demand of a large family, the commercial success of his paintings became increasingly important. Because of this, Constable adopted a painstaking process of making full-size preparatory sketches. It helped him to coordinate motifs and balance color, light and shade, solving compositional problems while retaining the freshness of his smaller drawings and oil sketches. In the early 1820s in Hampstead, he embarked on a series depicting clouds and atmospheric effects. He wrote to his friend John Fisher, "that landscape painter who does not make his skies a very material part of his composition---neglects to avail himself of one of his greatest aids." After 1869, when Constable abandoned oils for outdoor sketching, two of his most powerful watercolors depict places he had visited while staying with his friend John Fisher in the Bishop's Palace in Salisbury. During this time, the public expected polished oil paintings done in the studio. Constable created open air sketches that were valued for their freshness and vitality. The practice of sketching in oils spread throughout Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. His studies from nature showing motifs such as a portion of landscape and various effects of light, shade, or weather. Constable applied color in a variety of ways, rich impasto (thick applied paint), glazes (translucent oil paint), heavy dots of bright color and light touches of pure white. He used quick strokes with a brush bearing only a small amount of paint gaving a dappled 'dry brush' effect, allowing the colors underneath to show though. John Constable transformed the genre of all oil sketching from one used for recording landscape motifs to a means of capturing transient effects of light and weather. His watercolor sketches were painted with opaque pigments, experimented with different brushes, used a coarse-haired brush to produce thick, shadowy details. He also used the end of the handle of his brush to score and abrade the paper, removing paint and bringing fine touches of light to dark areas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Turner and Constable: Who was the greater artist?

# data[].attributes.headline
A farmhouse and church at Houghton, Sussex, watercolour, John Constable, 1834, England.

# data[].attributes.subject
A farmhouse and church at Houghton, Sussex, watercolour, John Constable, 1834, England.

# data[].attributes.body
As stated above, John Constable used the end of the brush handle to score and abrade the paper. Which removed paint and brought fine touches of light to dark areas. This can be seen in his watercolor 'A farmhouse and church at Houghton.' Although John Constable was known for his revolutionary oil paints, he experimented in the realm of watercolor. Just like in his oils, Constable finds ways to bring attention to light and weather. His subject matter focuses on the serene landscapes of the country. He had a nostalgic attachment to the countryside from his boyhood. Even as sketches, John's watercolors are breathtaking. The mood of the environment is portrayed in such unique ways that the viewer sees how each scene means to Constable. But he does it in new experimental ways. The sketches are done in a way that you can see the expression of each paint stroke.

# data[].attributes.headline
Brighton Beach, oil painting, John Constable, 1824, England.

# data[].attributes.subject
Brighton Beach, oil painting, John Constable, 1824, England.

# data[].attributes.body
John Constable did most of his paintings in the open air. For this particular oil sketch, he put down a colored 'ground' (initial coating or priming) to the entire paper. He purposely let the ground color peak through in parts of the painting to create a certain atmosphere. The ground color in this painting is a soft pink for a sunny July evening. The ground color gives the painting a sort of soft glow that comes with the setting sun. Although it is a rough sketch, the subjects and scene are still in focus enough for the viewer to capture the atmosphere of the painting. There are thinker patches of paint on the grassy areas. Just like most of his paintings, he used different and unique ways to create portrayals of light and weather. The long shadows show the late setting of the scene. Open air oil paintings were not a common occurrence during this time because the public expected polished oil paintings done in the studio.

# data[].attributes.headline
Barges on the Stour, with Dedham Church in the Distance, oil painting, John Constable, 1811, England.

# data[].attributes.subject
Barges on the Stour, with Dedham Church in the Distance, oil painting, John Constable, 1811, England.

# data[].attributes.body
He painted outdoors in order to quickly and freely capture the ever-changing light and movement of the environment. These sketches would be look backed on as references for Constable's larger pieces. As this is not intended to be a final piece but an impression, the viewer can see 'the artist's virtuoso painting ability to create fresh and spontaneous illustration of the world around him.' The brushstrokes of different colors are mixed together which shows the rapid speed of which Constable painted. This technique is also known as 'alla prima' (first attempt). The swirls of color demonstrate how the blending of the colors capture the mood and a feel of a subject at a moment in time.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/constables-oil-sketches
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/constables-watercolour-sketches
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/john-constables-sketches
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/john-constable-an-introduction
https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/john-constable

# data[].attributes.headline
This all looks good for an art history research project, but this is history of design I'm afraid. Constable was only a painter, he didn't design at all. I would suggest you find a Victorian designer to discuss.

# data[].attributes.subject
This all looks good for an art history research project, but this is history of design I'm afraid. Constable was only a painter, he didn't design at all. I would suggest you find a Victorian designer to discuss.

# data[].attributes.body
Christopher Dresser was an industrial designer born in Glasgow. He has claim to being the first industrial designer having been a man who found new ways of designing for production that few of his contemporaries could have imagined. He worked for a large and varied number of manufacturers and created designs for silver plate, cast iron, furniture, ceramics and glass, as well as textiles, carpets, and wallpaper. Dresser prided himself in finding out about the latest industrial processes. He grasped both the properties of materials and the processes of production and adapted his designs and aesthetics to them brilliantly. In 1847, at the age of 13, Dresser enrolled at the new School of Design at Somerset House, London. At this time, the school was concerned with the need to produce designers for industry. Dresser studied botany as part of his courses and specialized in "art botany." He was able to translate his knowledge of botany and the natural world into a new approach to functional and decorative design. He deprived inspiration from his botanical studies however, did not encourage direct copying from nature, but rather used it as inspiration for abstract forms. Dresser abandoned all thoughts of a career, concentrating instead on establishing himself as a freelance designer. He became one of the first people to run a large free-lance design studio. He developed a style based on his early mentor, Owen Jones, who taught at the School of Design. Dresser was keen to raise the standard of workmanship but within the context of better design. He took the application of simple ornamentation in metalwork to new levels, being aware that it could serve a double function of beautifying an object and at the same time strengthening it. All the items he designed had to be pleasing to the eye but also 'fit for the pleasure' for which they were made. Dresser put as much thought into the pouring ability of a teapot as he did the complex pattern of a textile. Ornament, shape, color, and function were all important to Dresser. His teapots epitomized how innovative he could be and revealed his principles of design extended to their most extreme conclusion. Some now view his metalwork, with its strikingly rigorous and stark forms, as an astonishing prefigurement of the modernist design of the Bauhaus, but his style is probably better understood as an extreme version of high Victorian aestheticism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Christopher Dresser: Middlesbrough's forgotten designer - BBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An exhibition highlights the work of Middlesbrough's forgotten design guru Christopher Dresser

# data[].attributes.body
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was a fashion designer born in Saumar, France in 1883. She was one of five children and the family lived in abject poverty. When her mother died from tuberculosis, her father dumped his three daughters at an orphanage and disappeared. Afterwards, Chanel went to Moulins to work as a seamstress and eked out a wage by singing in a bar, where she was nicknamed Coco after a song she sang. Her professional life began in 1906 when she became the mistress to a French textile heir and racehorse owner. But being the mistress of a busy man was not enough for Chanel. She became a milliner to pass the time. She met an Englishman and fell in love. He took her to Paris and she set up her first millinery establishment in rue Cambon in January of 1910. Chanel was not happy with the fussy, encumbering pre-world War I high fashion look and when Chapel gave her a boutique in Deauville in 1913. She began an insidious private war to try to make women as modern and comfortable as men were. Chanel was increasingly intrigued by the casual elegance of men's clothing. In Deauville, she introduced casual knits and dresses that were shockingly simple compared to what was coming out of the salons of the couturiers in Paris. The 1914-1918 war (WWI) was not a time for extravagance and the privations of war made women more receptive to simplicity then they might have been otherwise. In the 20s she launched her first perfume and eventually introduced the Chanel suit and the little black dress. Coco Chanel's designing motto consisted of the luxury of simplicity; the insistence on perfection of workmanship and quality of materials. Perhaps her most lasting gift to fashion was the need for fashionable women to be slim and keep slim throughout her entire life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Who Was Coco Chanel?

Fashion designer Coco Chanel, born in 1883, in France, is famous for her timeless designs, trademark suits and little black dresses. Chanel was raised in an orphanage and taught to sew. She had a brief career as a singer before opening her first clothes shop in 1910.

In the 1920s, she launched her first perfume and eventually introduced the Chanel suit and the little black dress, with an emphasis on making clothes that were more comfortable for women. She herself became a much revered style icon known for her simple yet sophisticated outfits paired with great accessories, such as several strands of pearls.

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

As Chanel once said,"luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury."

Early Life

Famed fashion designer Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. Her early years were anything but glamorous. At age 12, after her mother's death, Chanel was put in an orphanage by her father, who worked as a peddler.

Chanel was raised by nuns who taught her how to sew-a skill that would lead to her life's work. Her nickname came from another occupation entirely. During her brief career as a singer, Chanel performed in clubs in Vichy and Moulins where she was called "Coco."

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing, and Chanel herself said that it was a "shortened version of cocotte, the French word for 'kept woman,'" according to an article in The Atlantic.

Coco Chanel's Fashion Empire

Around the age of 20, Chanel became involved with Etienne Balsan, who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris. She soon left him for one of his wealthier friends, Arthur "Boy" Capel. Both men were instrumental in Chanel's first fashion venture.

Opening her first shop on Paris's Rue Cambon in 1910, Chanel started out selling hats. She later added stores in Deauville and Biarritz and began making clothes.

Her first taste of clothing success came from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey on a chilly day. In response to the many people who asked about where she got the dress, she offered to make one for them. "My fortune is built on that old jersey that I'd put on because it was cold in Deauville," she once told author Paul Morand.

Chanel became a popular figure in Parisian literary and artistic worlds. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and Jean Cocteau's play Orphée, and counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends.

Coco Chanel's First Perfume

In the 1920s, Chanel took her thriving business to new heights. She launched her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, which was the first to feature a designer's name. Perfume "is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion. . . . that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure," Chanel once explained.

The fragrance was in fact also backed by department store owner Théophile Bader and businessmen Pierre and Paul Wertheimer, with Chanel developing a close friendship with Pierre.

A deal was ultimately negotiated where the Wertheimer business would take in 70 percent of Chanel No. 5 profits for producing the perfume at their factories, with Bader receiving 20 percent and Chanel herself only receiving 10 percent. Over the years, with No. 5 being a massive source of revenue, she repeatedly sued to have the terms of the deal renegotiated.

Iconic Designs: Chanel Suit & Little Black Dress

In 1925, Chanel introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. Her designs were revolutionary for the time-borrowing elements of men's wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions. She helped women say goodbye to the days of corsets and other confining garments.

Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel's little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for evening wear.

Closing Down Shop

The international economic depression of the 1930s had a negative impact on Chanel's company, but it was the outbreak of World War II that led her to close her business. She fired her workers and shut down her shops.

After the war, Chanel left Paris, spending some years in Switzerland in a sort of exile. She also lived at her country house in Roquebrune for a time.

Return to Fashion

At the age of 70, in the early 1950s, Chanel made a triumphant return to the fashion world. She first received scathing reviews from critics, but her feminine and easy-fitting designs soon won over shoppers around the world.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S COCO CHANEL FACT CARD

Relationships and a Marriage Proposal

Beginning in 1920, Chanel had a short-lived relationship with composer Igor Stravinsky. Chanel had attended the notorious world premiere of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" in 1913.

Around 1923, she met the wealthy Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, aboard his yacht. The two started a decades-long relationship. In response to his marriage proposal, which she turned down, she reportedly said, "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster-but there is only one Chanel!"

Nazi Collaborator?

During the German occupation of France, Chanel got involved with a Nazi military officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. She got special permission to stay in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, which also operated as German military headquarters.

After the war ended, Chanel was interrogated about her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator. Some have wondered whether friend Winston Churchill worked behind the scenes on Chanel's behalf.

While not officially charged, Chanel suffered in the court of public opinion. Some still viewed her relationship with a Nazi officer as a betrayal of her country.

When and How Coco Chanel Died

Chanel died on January 10, 1971, at her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. She never married, having once said "I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird." Hundreds crowded together at the Church of the Madeleine to bid farewell to the fashion icon. In tribute, many of the mourners wore Chanel suits.

A little more than a decade after her death, designer Karl Lagerfeld took the reins at her company to continue the Chanel legacy. Today her namesake company is held privately by the Wertheimer family and continues to thrive, believed to generate hundreds of millions in sales each year.

Famous Movies, Books, and Plays on Coco Chanel

In 1969, Chanel's fascinating life story became the basis for the Broadway musical Coco, starring Katharine Hepburn as the legendary designer. Alan Jay Lerner wrote the book and lyrics for the show's song while Andre Prévin composed the music. Cecil Beaton handled the set and costume design for the production. The show received seven Tony Award nominations, and Beaton won for Best Costume Design and René Auberjonois for Best Featured Actor.

Several biographies of the fashion revolutionary have also been written, including Chanel and Her World (2005), written by Chanel's friend Edmonde Charles-Roux.

In the 2008 television movie Coco Chanel, Shirley MacLaine starred as the famous designer around the time of her 1954 career resurrection. The actress told WWD that she had long been interested in playing Chanel. "What's wonderful about her is she's not a straightforward, easy woman to understand."

In the 2008 film Coco Before Chanel, French actress Audrey Tautou played Chanel in her early years, from childhood to the founding of her fashion house. In 2009, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky detailed Chanel's relationship with the composer.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fashion designer Coco Chanel, born in 1883, in France, is famous for her timeless designs, trademark suits and little black dresses. Chanel was raised in an orphanage and taught to sew. She had a brief career as a singer before opening her first clothes shop in 1910.

# data[].attributes.headline
Teapot, Christopher Dresser, made by James Dixon and Sons, 1879.

# data[].attributes.subject
Teapot, Christopher Dresser, made by James Dixon and Sons, 1879.

# data[].attributes.body
Unlike his designs for ceramics and glass, his designs for metalwork objects tend to be fully abstracted from their organic source. His teapots normally were symmetrical with rectilinear shapes and undecorated surfaces. The handle is made from a different material in order to handle the hot teapot. Just like Dresser's chair below, he found inspiration from Japanese design. The geometrical shape of the teapot shows how innovative Dresser was for his time period. The teapots epitomized how innovative he could be and revealed his principles of design extended to their most extreme conclusion.

# data[].attributes.headline
Chair, Christopher Dresser, made by Chubb & Co, 1883.

# data[].attributes.subject
Chair, Christopher Dresser, made by Chubb & Co, 1883.

# data[].attributes.body
The chair is a simple form with an unusual arrangements of vertical and diagonal struts in the back. He found inspiration from Japanese Design which can be seen from the ebonised finish and the arrangement of the struts in the back of the chair. Dresser also chose to use mahogany instead of cheaper timber such as, deal or pine, which is normally used in painted furniture. According to the sale catalogue of 1883, the chair was intended for a drawing room or boudoir. The chair illustrates his belief in minimum carving required for good decoration. Even though he criticized the use of curved legs and back support due to the inherent weakness of the cross-grained timber necessary in this construction, Dresser approved of small brackets uniting the seat to the back since this added strength in the frame. The chair has a simple yet complicated design that perfectly expresses Dresser's innovative and imaginative skill as a designer.

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.dormanmuseum.co.uk/collections_dresser_history.html
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O8247/chair-dresser-christopher/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/christopher-dresser-teapots/

# data[].attributes.headline
Chanel Suit, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, 1925.

# data[].attributes.subject
Chanel Suit, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, 1925.

# data[].attributes.body
The suit she launched in 1925 had a collarless jacket and a well-fitted skirt. This design was revolutionary because she helped women say goodbye to the days of corsets and other confining garments. She borrowed elements of men's wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Little Black Dress, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, 1926.

# data[].attributes.subject
Little Black Dress, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, 1926.

# data[].attributes.body
Coco Chanel recognized the need for post-war mourning but thought it could be more chic than the traditional women's needs. As usual she turned to formal menswear; the stiff white collar and starched cuffs made a chic declaration of masculine conformity and superiority. Black was the color for funerals, not casual evening wear. She changed the meaning of the black dress.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/education/gabrielle-coco-chanel-1883-1971
https://www.biography.com/people/coco-chanel-9244165

# data[].attributes.body
Morris Lapidus was an architect born in 1902 in Odessa, Russia. His family then left a year later to the Unites Stated and settled in Brooklyn. He attended Boys High School, New York University, and Colombia University's architecture school. He began working as an architect in 1927. A few years later he married his sweetheart Beatrice Perlman. At Columbia he planned on becoming a stage designer, but he began his career in retail design. While other architects were searching for work, Lapidus supervised the construction of more than 500 stores, storefronts, and showrooms for Lerner, Bonds, Howard Clothes, and such show chains as Florsheim, Baker, and A.S. Beck.  He pioneered the use of bright colors, lights, and sweeping curvilinear forms to sell merchandise. Morris Lapidus once said, "I put the merchandise in the open where customers could go over and touch it. Before that the customers needed a salesman to get the items out for him." He worked 20 years before designing his first building.  Many of his innovations in the use of lighting, fabric, and color have become staples of American design. Critics noted that his work exerted enormous influence over the design of one of the biggest and most American tourist attractions--modern day Las Vegas. Lapidus was steep in classical architecture, but he created an eye-catching mixture of French Provincial and Italian Renaissance. He also lavished ornament upon ornament. Lapidus traced his populist style to a childhood influence--Coney Island's Luna Park. A critic suggested that his appeal was to 'the great mass of people who don't know the difference between architecture and Coney Island.' He found wonderment in Coney Island when he was six and he never out grew it. After being shunned by architecture critics and architects for much os his long career, he and his work are now referred to with respect by a new generation of writers and postmodernist architects. Critics decided he had been a postmodernist before the term existed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Morris Lapidus- Architect | Icon | American Original

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uODPiCoMD-g Architect Morris Lapidus was best known for his glamorous Miami Beach hotels, the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc, and for saying "Too much is never enough." But he had one project that was his favorite: Miami Beach's Lincoln Road Mall.

# data[].attributes.body
The Fontainebleau is Morris Lapidus' most famous work and is still a South Florida landmark. It was once called "the nation's grossest national product." Lapidus proudly referred to it as "the world's most pretentious hotel." He intended to satisfy his clients and appeal to the aspirations and fantasies of the hotel’s clientele, characterized a “both…and” rather than “either…or” attitude toward design that fueled expectations of upward nobility. He used many lavish designs in his plans for the Fontainebleau. Some designs found in the resort can be 27 colors of paint, woggles shaped like an artist's palette, boomerang and table shaped cut-outs in the ceilings, amoeba-like cutouts in the walls, swiss cheese holes, beanpoles, and metal rods supporting nothing. It had a "Staircase to Nowhere" that actually led to a modest cloakroom. It was designed so that dinner guests could leave their coats and parade down in their jewelry and extravagant dresses to the delighted stares in the hotel lobby. The marble floors were inlaid in a bow-tie motif, which was patterned after Lapidus' signature bow-tire attire. The bellboys wore gold braided purple uniforms. When designing the resort, Lapidus adhered with the following design principles: get rid of corners, use sweeping lines, use light to create unusual effects, use plenty of color, try to get drama, keep changing the floor levels, and people are attracted to light. One of the main features of the Fontainebleau was its sweeping curves. They created curved hallways which created a sense of anticipation for the guests. The coffee shop in the Fontainebleau featured decoration from eighteenth-century French furniture and Italian Renaissance architecture.

# data[].attributes.body
Morris Lapidus designed the Eden Roc for Harry Mufson. Instead of curves, Lapidus designed the Eden Roc with subtle angles and cantilevered balconies. The "Mona Lisa" Room also featured decoration from eighteenth-century French furniture and Italian Renaissance architecture.

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/19/arts/morris-lapidus-an-architect-who-built-flamboyance-into-hotels-is-dead-at-98.html?mcubz=3
https://ncbjmeeting.org/blog/2015/08/09/fontainebleau-a-colorful-history/