A Tea Time Quiz - Ten Artistic 'T's

Answer: J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner was an exponent of Romanticism and produced many celebrated works in both oils and watercolours. He was particularly praised for his ability to evoke scenes by his portrayal of light; his 'The Fighting Temeraire' (1839), which depicted a grand old warship being towed away for scrap at sunset, is an excellent example of this and was voted Britain's favourite painting in a poll conducted by BBC Radio in 2005.

Turner's life was almost as colourful as his art and his later years were portrayed in the biopic film 'Mr Turner' in 2014, with Timothy Spall playing the title role. Turner achieved great artistic and financial success from his paintings during his lifetime and spent a lot of time with the aristocracy and other wealthy patrons. He died at the age of 76 in 1851 at the London home of his lover Sophia Booth, with whom he had cohabited for many years under the pseudonym of "Mr Booth".

Answer: Theophanes the Greek

When Theophanes the Greek was born in the mid-14th century, Constantinople (which later became Istanbul) was the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire. Despite having been in decline for centuries, the Byzantine Empire covered large parts of modern day Greece and Turkey, a fact that probably explains the sobriquet by which Theophanes was known.

Theophanes moved to Russia in around 1370 and spent the remainder of his career there. He became particularly famed for his iconography and religious murals, but although he was prolific and is believed to have produced hundreds of paintings, very few works can actually be firmly attributed to him. The frescoes of the Church of the Transfiguration in the city of Novgorod are however known to have been painted by Theophanes. He later became a significant influence on the work produced by artists of the Novgorod School, who were noted for their use of traditional Byzantine styles.

Answer: David Teniers the Younger

The Flemish artist David Teniers the Younger was one of three prominent artists named David Teniers active during the 17th century. He is thought to have produced around 2,000 works over the course of his lifetime and his paintings are included in the collections of many of Europe's major art galleries. While his known works cover a variety of subjects, the vast majority depict country scenes and peasant life in the area surrounding his native Antwerp, Belgium. In addition to painting, Teniers also managed the art collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and successfully petitioned King Philip IV of Spain for a charter to set up the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp - which at that time was part of the Netherlands and under the control of the Spanish Habsburg royal dynasty.

David Teniers the Younger was the son of the artist David Teniers the Elder and the father of the artist David Teniers III. In addition, several other sons of David Teniers the Elder were painters. To add to this family connection to the world of fine art, David Teniers the Younger was married to Anna Brueghel, daughter of Jan Brueghel the Elder, granddaughter of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and a ward of Peter Paul Rubens.

Answer: Titian

One of the great artists who belonged to the Venetian school in the 16th century, Titian painted a wide range of subjects, but mainly focused on depictions of mythological beings, religious scenes and portraits. One of his particularly famous set of paintings, produced for King Philip II of Spain, was known as the "poesie" series and consisted of depictions of scenes from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'. The set included 'Diana and Actaeon' (acquired by the National Gallery in London and National Gallery of Scotland in 2009) and its sequel 'The Death of Actaeon' (which was purchased by the National Gallery in 1972).

Titian was extremely successful during his lifetime, as evidenced by the fact that he produced works for kings and royalty and amassed a substantial fortune. Titian's 1551 portrait of King Philip II was even sent to Queen Mary I of England during the negotiations for their marriage. Titian died in 1576 during an outbreak of the plague in his home city of Venice, his exact age was unknown but he was believed to have been around 88 years of age and possibly even nearly 100.

Answer: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - or to give him his full name, Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa - was born to the Comte and Comtesse de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa in 1864. As a teenager he suffered multiple broken bones in his legs, which subsequently failed to grow and left Henri with child-sized legs for the rest of his life. Although the actual cause of his disability remains unknown, his name has been given to one of its possible causes: a congenital bone disorder called pycnodysostosis. As was common in many royal and aristocratic families, his parents were closely related (maternal first cousins) and his medical problems may have resulted from a history of inbreeding in his family.

His physical disabilities led Toulouse-Lautrec to painting and his artistic skill, particularly with detailed crowd scenes and vivid colour, was soon recognised. He studied under several established artists in Paris's Montmartre district and eventually gained recognition for his paintings of the city's social scenes, including those of the famed Moulin Rouge. However, his lifestyle reflected the subject of his art and he developed severe alcoholism and died from related complications at the age of just 36. He didn't live long enough to inherit his father's aristocratic title.

Answer: Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey, who lived from 1890 to 1970, travelled extensively and visited both China and Japan, along with countries in the Middle East and Europe. He was particularly noted for his abstract works that were influenced by the calligraphy of the Far East, many of which featured white or pale symbols over an intricately painted background that covered the entire canvas. This style became known as "white writing" and his novel technique of painting over the full area of the picture is believed to have inspired other famous abstract artists, including Jackson Pollock.

The Carnegie Prize dates back to 1896 and was awarded as part of the Carnegie International art exhibition. It takes its name from its founder, the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who intended to use the exhibition as a source to increase the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Tobey was awarded the prize in 1961 jointly with the Italian sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Other famous winners of the award include Augustus John (1924), Henri Matisse (1927) and Pablo Picasso (1930).

Answer: Jules Tavernier

Jules Tavernier (not to be confused with a character of the same name on the British TV soap opera 'East Enders') was a 19th century French artist who spent the latter part of his life in Hawaii, painting volcanoes. Earlier in his career he travelled across the USA, illustrating scenes he saw along the way for 'Harper's Magazine' and spent some time painting in California before he sailed to the Hawaiian Islands. He died in Hawaii's capital city, Honolulu, in 1889.

The Volcano School was the name given to a group of artists who visited the Hawaiian Islands and painted scenes of volcanic eruptions. Most of the works associated with this school were painted in the 1880s and 1890s, a period when Kilauea and Mauna Loa were particularly active.

Answer: Cy Twombly

Painter and sculptor Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. was born in Virginia in 1928, but moved to Rome in 1957 and lived there for the majority of his life. His nickname, "Cy", came from the world of baseball. His father, a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox in the early 1920s, was also known as Cy Twombly after the famous baseball player Cy Young.

Although many of Twombly's paintings look like random scribbles or splodges of paint to the untrained eye, some of his most famous works such as 'Leda and the Swan' and 'Nine Discourses on Commodus' were based on Greek mythology and Roman history. His background working in cryptography for the U.S. Army also influenced his artistic style. His paintings and sculpture have been in the collections of some of the world's top modern art galleries (for example the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Guggenheim in Bilbao) and sold for tens of millions of dollars.

Answer: Tintoretto

The Venetian painter Tintoretto was an exponent of Mannerism, the name given to the style of painting popular in the latter years of the Renaissance period from 1525 to 1600. Tintoretto was a well-known and sought after painter during his lifetime and his artwork includes masterpieces such as 'The Miracle of the Slave' of 1548 and 'The Last Supper' of 1592-94. Most of Tintoretto's work featured religious and Biblical scenes or images from classical mythology.

Although he became famous under the one-word name Tintoretto, he was known in childhood as Jacopo Robusti as, apparently, his father had once 'robustly' defended Padua during the War of the League of Cambrai. Later research suggested that his birth name may in fact have been Jacopo Comin. However, the nickname under which he found fame was derived from his father's occupation as a dyer (or 'tintore' in Italian) and means 'little dyer' or 'son of the dyer'. He was also known as 'Il Furioso' thanks to the speed at which he completed the vast number of works that have been attributed to him.

Answer: Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany was born in New York in 1848. He was the son of the founder of the famous luxury retailer, Tiffany & Co. Tiffany studied art at the National Academy for Design in 1866 and 1867 and went on to work first as a painter and then as a glassmaker - the field in which he gained particular fame and fortune. Although Tiffany lamps are probably the most famous of Tiffany's designs, he also produced stained glass windows, jewellery and decorative glassware amongst other things.

Tiffany's fame was such that the term 'Tiffany lamp' is often applied to any table lamp with a stained, leaded glass shade regardless of whether it was designed by Tiffany himself or even manufactured by his company. Tiffany's Art Nouveau style of interior design was also famously installed at the White House under the Presidency of Chester Arthur (although it was all removed again by Theodore Roosevelt in 1902). He died in 1933 at the age of 84.