Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888) | Academic painter

Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger was a French figure painter, Academic artist and teacher known for his Classical and Orientalist subjects.

The Néo-Grecs and the Prix de Rome

Boulanger was born in Paris in 1824.

He never knew his father, and when his mother's death left him orphaned at the age of fourteen, he became the ward of his uncle, Constant Desbrosses, who in 1840 sent him to study first under the history painter Pierre-Jules Jollivet and then at the atelier of Paul Delaroche, where Boulanger met and befriended his fellow student Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Anna Gardell-Ericson (Swedish, 1853-1939)

Anna Maria Gardell-Ericson was a Swedish painter and watercolorist. She specialized in coastal scenes and landscapes with lakes or rivers.

Her father, Johan Theodore Gardell, is generally described as a landscape painter, although he may have been primarily a local administrative officer.

At the age of sixteen, she began painting and displayed sufficient talent for her to be sent to Switzerland to begin her studies.

Later, she studied with Per Daniel Holm at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm; making her début at one of the Academy's exhibitions in 1875. The following year, she won a bronze medal at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

Candace Lovely, 1953

Candace Whittemore Lovely is an American impressionist painter known for her paintings of contemporary American life, including landscapes of treasured locales and people at play in idyllic locations. She lives and works in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

In 1991, Lovely painted the official portrait of former First Lady Barbara Bush that now hangs in the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

She has been called "the grand dame of Boston painters".

Domingo Alvarez Gomez, 1942

Domingo Alvarez Gomez is a world-renowned artist who was born in Barcelona, where he still lives and works.

He loved drawing and painting from an early age and was destined to become an artist. He is completely self-taught.

On completing his studies in 1966 he traveled to London before quickly becoming a highly sought-after book illustrator for many publishing houses and design studios in his native Spain.

In 1971 he became editor of a very influential Spanish art magazine. This time in his life was pivotal in shaping his future.

Alan Ayers | Cover painter for Romances

Alan Ayers is an Award winning cover artist for romance novels in the historical category by Romance Writers of America's network of published authors

A native of Gainesville, Florida, I graduated from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art with a BFA in 1981.

Although I was trained traditionally, and created images in acrylic and oil for many years, I've been working digitally since 1995.

I feel the digital world has brought a new energy to my work. I am very comfortable working with a tablet, and often forget I'm not "pushing paint around".

I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the most talented art directors in publishing and advertising. I greatly enjoy the process of working as a team to create the strongest images possible. I live with my wife Jeanne and our spoiled whippet in Lancaster, PA.

Henry John Yeend King | Victorian genre painter

Henry John Yeend King (1855-1924) was a British artist best known for his paintings of rustic English farms and young women strolling in the countryside.

His technique was influenced by Impressionism, but is notably more restrained, detailed, and realistic in its application.

Born on August 21, 1855 in London, England, King went on to study as a glass painter, later traveling to Paris to study under Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat and Fernand Cormon where he learned Impressionist techniques.

The plein-air technique prevalent in France influenced his art, and on his return to England he chose to specialise in landscapes and depictions of rustic genre.

Yeend King lived in London for most of his life however, like many of his contemporaries his heart was 'in the country'.

Henri Matisse | Notes of a Painter, 1908

Quotes from: 'Notes d'un Peintre' (Notes of a Painter), Henri Matisse, in 'La Grande Revue', Paris, 25 December 1908; as quoted in Artists on Art - from the 14th - 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London

"What I am after, above all, is expression. Sometimes it has been conceded that I have a certain technical ability but that, my ambition being limited, I am unable to proceed beyond a purely visual satisfaction such as can be procured from the mere sight of a picture.

But the purpose of a painter must not be conceived as separate from his pictorial means, and these pictorial means must be the more complete (I do not mean complicated) the deeper is his thought. I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it".

Ten American Painters, 1897-1918

The Ten American Painters (also known as The Ten) was an artists' group formed in 1898 to exhibit their work as a unified group.

John Henry Twachtman, J. Alden Weir and Childe Hassam were the driving forces behind the organization. Dissatisfied with the conservatism of the American art establishment, the three artists recruited seven others from Boston, New York City, and elsewhere on the East Coast, with the intention of creating an exhibition society that valued their view of originality, imagination, and exhibition quality.

The Ten achieved popular and critical success, and lasted two decades before dissolving.

Foundation

In America, popular painting styles usually originated on the east coast in cities like New York and Boston.

The Ten continued a tradition of artists forming new groups in reaction to a lack of support from existing artists' groups. Thus, the National Academy of Design (founded in 1825 by students dissatisfied by the conservatism of the older American Academy of the Fine Arts) eventually became too conservative to suit the artists who in 1877 initiated the Society of American Artists so they could meet and exhibit their work as a collective.

Frank W. Benson | Summer, 1909