The Dying Swan

The Dying Swan (originally The Swan) is a solo dance choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to Camille Saint-Saëns's Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des animaux as a pièce d'occasion for the ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed it about 4,000 times.

The short ballet (four minutes) follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905.

The ballet has since influenced modern interpretations of Odette, heroine of Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, and has inspired non-traditional interpretations as well as various adaptations.

Antoon van Welie | Anna Pavlova as the Dying Swan, 1938

Augustus Edwin Mulready | From morn til night, 1889

“From morn til night” is an oil on canvas artwork by British genre painter Augustus Edwin Mulready, created in 1889.

The painting is part of the collection of the Christie's London.

Augustus Edwin Mulready (1844-1904) came from a family of artists.

Augustus Edwin Mulready | From morn til night, 1889 | Christie's

JoAnn Peralta | Romantic painter

Fine Artist JoAnn Peralta's fine art paintings have captivated collectors with her keen sense of mood and lush brushwork since 2004.

Each painting invokes a timeless romantic flair towards life and sets a tone of intrigue through her use of lighting and color.

The beauty of light with a contemporary, modernist touch is what Peralta describes as her inspiration.

Her passion for the West, historical and romanticized, are what dominate her vision and scope as it pertains to her hispanic and Italian ancestry and it continues to draw Masters of the American West, Autry Museum patrons and collectors.

Rocco Normanno, 1974 | Caravaggio's inspired painter

Rocco Normanno was born in Taurisano, a small town in the province of Lecce.

There, he completed his secondary education at the Professional Institute for Commerce, and, in 2003, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.

Normanno currently lives and works in Tuscany.

Rocco Normanno stands out as an artist who freely expresses himself with an autonomous language, but who refers to Caravaggio’s poetics by painting ordinary people, making them become great interpreters of biblical or mythological themes revisited in own way.

Elli Michler | I wish you Time

I don't wish you all sorts of gifts.

I just wish you, what most people don't have.

I wish you the time to be happy and to laugh

and if you use it, you can make something out of it.

I wish you the time for your doings and thinking,

not only for yourself, but also to give away.

Václav Brožík | Academic painter

Václav Brožík (1851-1901) was a Czech painter who worked in the academic style.

Brožík was born on 6 March 1851 in Třemošná, Bohemia, Austrian Empire (now the Czech Republic).

He came from a poor family, studying lithography and porcelain painting through apprenticeships.

Louis-Ernest Barrias | Romantic / Art Nouveau sculptor

Louis-Ernest Barrias (1841-1905) was a French sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school.

In 1865 Barrias won the Prix de Rome for study at the French Academy in Rome.

Barrias was involved in the decoration of the Paris Opéra and the Hôtel de la Païva in the Champs-Élysées.

His work was mostly in marble, in a Romantic realist style indebted to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky | At School Doors, 1897

Descending from peasant class, Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky dedicated a significant portion of his work to rural schoolchildren.

His heroes hover indecisively at the classroom door, solve problems at the blackboard, read books or converse with the teacher.

The master's idealistic paintings upheld the notion that education was capable of improving public morality and overcoming the backwardness of the Russian countryside.

This lovingly painted and slightly sentimental canvas was possibly inspired by the personal memories of the artist, who attended Sergei Rachinsky's village school in Tatevo, Smolensk Province.