Teodor Axentowicz | Academic painter

Teodor Axentowicz (1859-1938) was a Polish-Armenian painter and university professor.

A renowned artist of his times, he was also the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.

As an artist, Axentowicz was famous for his portraits and subtle scenes of Hutsul life, set in the Carpathians.

In Paris, he received the prestigious title of Officier d'Académie Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Member of Académie des Beaux-Arts.

In 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair, Axentowicz received a Special Commemorative Award in recognition of distinguished service in connection with various national sections of the Department of Art.

José Malhoa | Naturalist painter

José Vital Branco Malhoa, known simply as José Malhoa (28 April 1855 - 26 October 1933) was a Portuguese painter.

Malhoa was, with Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, the leading name in Portuguese naturalist painting in the second half of the 19th century.

They were both members of the Grupo do Leão (Lion Group), a group of artists and writers in the 1880s.

He often painted popular scenes and subjects, like his two most famous paintings: The Drunks (1907) and Fado (1910).

Randolph Rogers | Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii, 1859

"Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii" by Randolph Rogers (Waterloo, New York 1825-1892 Rome) was the most popular American sculpture of the nineteenth century.

According to Rogers, it was replicated 167 times in two sizes.

The subject was drawn from "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1834), a widely read novel by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, which ends with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in a.d. 79.

Rogers’s evocative portrayal of Nydia highlights her heroic attempt to lead two companions out of the burning, ash-covered city.

Wilhelm von Gegerfelt | Post-Impressionist painter

Swedish painter Wilhelm von Gegerfelt (1844-1920) painted landscapes with motifs from Venice, Brittany, Swedish coastal landscapes and from Gotland in Sweden.

Gegerfelt studied at the Royal Danish Academy from 1861-1863, at the Royal Swedish Academy from 1864-1867, and thereafter in Düsseldorf until 1872.

He then went to Paris where he developed a new technique joining Alfred Wahlberg as one of the first Swedes to represent the Modern Breakthrough in Nordic art.

Gerardine Jacoba | Still life painter of flowers

Came from an artistic family, the still life Dutch painter Gerardina Jacoba Van de Sande Bakhuyzen (1826-1895), was a 19th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands.

Her father was the painter Hendrik Van de Sande Bakhuyzen, and her brother was the painter Julius Jacobus Van de Sande Bakhuyzen.

Gerardina was taught by her father, as were all her numerous sisters.

She achieved great success with her oils and watercolours of flowers and still lives, winning numerous medals between 1870-1880, in which year she had an exhibition at the Grafton Gallery in London.

Paul Signac | Neo-impressionist painter

French painter Paul Signac (1863-1935) was born in Paris.

He followed a course of training in architecture before deciding at the age of 18 to pursue a career as a painter.

He sailed around the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes he encountered.

He also painted scenes of cities in France in his later years.

Tranquillo Cremona | Romantic painter

Tranquillo Cremona (10 April 1837 - 10 June 1878) was an Italian painter.

He was born in Pavia and was the brother of the mathematician Luigi Cremona.

He trained as a young man with Giovanni Carnovali. He lived in Venice from 1852-1859.

Cremona moved to Milan and he became part of the Scapigliatura movement which was characterized by bohemian attitudes and included poets, writers, musicians and artists infused with a combination of rebellious, and later anti-academic and anarchic, tendencies.

Gustav Vigeland | Figurative sculptor

Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), born as Adolf Gustav Thorsen, was a Norwegian sculptor.

Gustav Vigeland occupies a special position among Norwegian sculptors, both in the power of his creative imagination and in his productivity.

He is most associated with the Vigeland installation (Vigelandsanlegget) in Frogner Park, Oslo.

The Vigeland installation made Frogner Park into Norway's most popular tourist attraction, and the park also contains Frogner Manor with the Oslo Museum and the Henriette Wegner Pavilion.

Vigeland was also the designer of the Nobel Peace Prize medal.