Mary Quant | The birth of miniskirt / La nascita della minigonna

"The sixties mini was the most self indulgent, optimistic 'look at me, isn't life wonderful' fashion ever devised. It expressed the sixties, the emancipation of women, the Pill and rock 'n' roll. ... It was the beginning of women's lib" - Mary Quant, 2012.

Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, DBE, FCSD, RDI (born 11 February 1930) is a British fashion designer and fashion icon.

She became an instrumental figure in the 1960s London-based Mod and youth fashion movements.

She was one of the designers who took credit for the miniskirt and hotpants.

Ernestine Carter wrote: "It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there are three: Chanel, Dior and Mary Quant".

Philippe Mercier | Rococo painter

Philippe Mercier (also spelled Philip Mercier; 1689 - 18 July 1760) was an artist of French Huguenot descent from the German realm of Brandenburg-Prussia (later Kingdom of Prussia), usually defined to French school.

Active in England for most of his working life, Mercier is considered one of the first practitioners of the Rococo style, and is credited with influencing a new generation of 18th-century English artists.

Mercier was born c. 1689-1691 in Berlin, the son of Pierre Mercier (died 1729, Dresden), a Huguenot tapestry-worker.

Robert Högfeldt | Watercolor cartoonist

Gustaf Robert Högfeldt was born in 1894 in Eindhoven, Netherlands and died in 1986 in Stockholm.

He was a painter, primarily known for his watercolours.

His pictures often feature comical and fairytale-like narratives.

He studied in Paris, Düsseldorf and Stockholm and is represented at the Nationalmuseum and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Herbert Davis Richter | Floral still life painter

Herbert Davis Richter (1874-1955) was born in Brighton 10th May 1874. His family moved to Lansdown on the outskirts of Bath and it was at the Bath School of Art that Richter studied Furniture Design and Architecture.

He subsequently set up in business with his brother Charles, the Company Bath Cabinet Makers, with himself as Head of the Design Department.

In 1900, the Company was awarded Gold and Silver Medals at the Paris World Exhibition.

The Company was later awarded contracts for the furniture and fittings for the Cunard Liners, Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth.

Fritz Syberg | Naturalist painter

Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Syberg, generally known as Fritz Syberg, (28 July 1862, Fåborg - 20 December 1939, Kerteminde) was a Danish painter and illustrator, one of the or Funen Painters (Fynboerne) living and working on the island of Funen.

Biography

Syberg, from a poor background in Fåborg, first served a house painter's apprenticeship under Syrak Hansen, the father of fellow artist Peter Hansen before attending the Copenhagen Technical School in 1882 where Holger Grønvold taught him drawing.

After a short period at the Danish Academy (spring 1884), he attended the Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler (1885-1891) where he was the first of the Fynboerne to study under Kristian Zahrtmann.

Hanna Pauli | Genre painter

Hanna Hirsch, later Hanna Pauli (Stockholm, 13 January 1864 - 29 December 1940, Solna), was a Swedish painter; primarily of genre scenes and portraits.

Hanna Hirsch was a daughter of music publisher Abraham Hirsch. She was a friend of Eva Bonnier, and they followed each other through the painting school of August Malmström, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm.

Eva Bonnier (1857-1909)

Eva Fredrika Bonnier (1857-1909) was a Swedish painter and philanthropist.

Born in Stockholm as the daughter of publisher Albert Bonnier and a member of a leading family of publishers, Bonnier studied painting with August Malmström and became a student in the women's section of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm in 1878.

Together with her friend and co-student Hanna Hirsch, she traveled to Paris in 1883, staying there until 1889.

John Donne | Il sogno / The Dream

Per nessun altro, amore, avrei spezzato

questo beato sogno.

Buon tema per la ragione,

troppo forte per la fantasia.

Sei stata saggia a svegliarmi. E tuttavia

tu non spezzi il mio sogno, lo prolunghi.

Tu così vera che pensarti basta

per fare veri i sogni e storia le favole.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-73) | Contemplation | Royal Collection