Marc Chagall | Les Offrandes, 1958

In his address delivered at the inauguration on 7 July 1973 - his 86th birthday - of the Musée national message biblique Marc Chagall in Nice, the artist described the meaning he found in Biblical stories:

“It has always seemed to me and still seems today the greatest source of poetry of all time.

Ever since then, I have searched for its reflection in life and in Art.

The Bible is like an echo of nature and this is the secret I have tried to convey”

- (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, ed., Chagall, A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 295).

Les Nabis | Art history and Sitemap

Paul Sérusier - The Bois d'Amour à Pont-Aven / The Talisman (Le Talisman), 1888, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Ambitious decorative painting enjoyed a resurgence in Europe from the late 1880s through the early twentieth century.

In Paris, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis and Édouard Vuillard were among the most influential artists to embrace decoration as painting’s primary function.

Their works celebrate pattern and ornament, challenge the boundaries that divide fine arts from crafts, and, in many cases, complement the interiors for which they were commissioned.

Disaffected with the rigidly representational painting methods taught at the Académie Julian, Bonnard and Denis joined with other like-minded students in the fall of 1888 to form a brotherhood called the “Nabis”, a Hebrew word meaning “prophets”.

Vincent van Gogh | Still lifes of Shoes

Vincent van Gogh painted several still lifes of shoes, primarily between 1886-1888.

He found beauty in worn-out, mud-covered boots, viewing them as symbols of the "scars of life" and the long journeys of the working class.

Step into Van Gogh’s world, one shoe at a time Shoes were an unusual subject in Van Gogh’s time.

Most artists painted elegant still lifes, often symbolizing wealth.

Modern Masters of 20th Century | Art Quotes

Salvador Dalí | Couple aux têtes pleines de nuages, 1937

Salvador Dalí:

• "The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot".

"Il primo uomo a paragonare le guance di una giovane donna a una rosa era ovviamente un poeta; il primo a ripeterlo era forse un idiota".

Paolo Troubetzkoy | Sculptor of the Belle Époque

The Italian sculptor and painter Paolo (prince) Troubetzkoy / Павел Петрович Трубецкой (1866-1938), born on the shores of Lake Maggiore, was the illegitimate child of a Russian diplomat and an American pianist and singer, living under an assumed identity until he was acknowledged with his brothers at the age of five.

He would succeed in transforming the circumstances of his birth into assets that would lead to a dazzling international career.

Jens Ferdinand Willumsen | Symbolist / Expressionist painter

Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863-1958) was a Danish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, architect and photographer.

He became associated with the movements of Symbolism and Expressionism.

J. F. Willumsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He was the son of Hans Willumsen and Ane Kirstine.

Giuseppe De Nittis | Impressionist painter

Giuseppe De Nittis (1846-1884) - printmaker, painter and draughtsman.

Born in Barletta in Apulia, De Nittis received his first artistic training from Giambattista Calò, a local painter, before moving to Naples in 1861 to attend the Istituto di Belle Arti.

He was expelled in 1863 for failing to conform to academic practice.

At that time, De Nittis' main interest was in experimenting with plein air painting.

Moses Levy | Post-Macchiaioli painter

Moses Levy (Tunisi, 1885 - Viareggio, 1968) was born in Tunis of a British father and an Italian mother.

His son is the Tunisian-based painter Nello Levy.

Moses trained in Italy - in Lucca, Florence and the studio of Giovanni Fattori - and was subsequently active in Viareggio.

He spent almost the whole of his life in Tunisia, but continued to travel frequently between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean.

He was a member of the Group of Four in Tunis in 1936, and the Group of Ten in 1947.