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.

Vladimir Majakovskij e Maria Denisova, un Amore disperato

La storia del poema "La nuvola in calzoni" / "Облако в штанах" è collegata all'amore tormentato e non corrisposto del poeta Russo Vladimir Majakovskij (1893-1930) per la scultrice monumentale Russa, Maria Alexandrovna Denisova (1894-1944).

I due si incontrarono nel 1914 ad Odessa, durante il viaggio dei futuristi del 1913.

"La nuvola" è il capolavoro della stagione "prerivoluzionaria" di Majakovskij, uno dei testi più significativi del futurismo russo e della letteratura russa del Novecento.

Victor Nizovtsev

Composto tra il 1914-1915 da un Majakovskij poco più che ventenne, il poemetto trabocca di una forza lirica tesa, appassionata, che vuole essere dissacrante, antiborghese, antifilistea, ed è soprattutto intensamente libertaria.

Majakovskij vuol portare dentro l'arte della parola la carica dirompente di una visione nuova o rinnovata della realtà, dei sentimenti, dell'idea stessa della poesia e della scrittura.

Claude Monet | The Path through the Irises, 1914-1917

Irises, among Monet's favorite flowers, lined the pathways leading up to the house and Japanese bridge on the artist's property at Giverny.

This bird's-eye view of a garden path belongs to a series of monumental works painted during the First World War that capture the vital essence of these flowers with intensity and breadth of vision.

Late in life, as his eyesight faltered, he dispensed with subtlety and "took in the motif in large masses", waiting "until the idea took shape, until the arrangement and composition inscribed themselves on the brain". | Source: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Claude Monet | The Path through the Irises, 1914-1917 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art