Edward Robert Hughes | Pre-Raphaelite painter

Edward Robert Hughes RWS (1851-1914) was an British painter who worked prominently in watercolours.

He was influenced by his uncle, and eminent Pre-Raphaelite, Arthur Hughes.

Having settled on his career choice, Edward Hughes attended Heatherley's in London to prepare himself for the chance of auditioning for the Royal Academy School.

Hughes became a student at the Royal Academy School in 1868.

Othon Friesz | Fauve painter

Achille-Émile Othon Friesz (6 February 1879 - 10 January 1949), who later called himself Othon Friesz, a native of Le Havre, was a French artist of the Fauvist movement.

Othon Friesz was born in Le Havre, the son of a long line of shipbuilders and sea captains.

He went to school in his native city.

It was while he was at the Lycée that he met his lifelong friend Raoul Dufy.

Félix Vallotton | Landscapes and seascapes

Vallotton's landscapes and seascapes avoided conventional views and techniques, and presented unusual viewpoints and perspectives.

The scene is sometimes seen from above, with the horizon very high in the picture, or without the sky being visible at all.

The forms are simplified, and the figures are often small and almost unrecognizable.

Felix-Vallotton | The Ball, 1899 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Gaetano Bellei | Academic / Genre painter

The Italian master Gaetano Bellei was born in Modena in 1857, died in the same city in March 1922.

A student of Adeodato Malatesta and companion of John Muzzioli.

Twenty-four he won the Retired Potetti that allowed him to travel to Rome for some time learning about yourself.

Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890

Winslow Homer started his career as a graphic reporter during the American Civil War, before going on to paint scenes of army life and the rural world with the Naturalist precision which then prevailed in American painting.

After a stay in Paris, Homer used an Impressionist palette for a while then developed a personal style midway between Realism and Symbolism.

Summer Night perfectly expresses this synthesis and may be considered one of the first masterpieces of American art still in search of its identity.

Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890 | Musée d'Orsay

Berit Kruger-Johnsen | Romantic Surrealist painter

Growing up in Oslo, Norway, nature has always played a major part in Berit Kruger-Johnsen's life.

She studied for a degree in biology and upon completion was accepted into the only graphic design school in Oslo at that time.

The only artist in my family was my grandfather, who never met. It was crazy during the Depression era and was institutionalized. I think it would be fair to say that whenever an artist or not entitled connotations in my family.

Henri Matisse | Orientalist Odalisque

In 1917 Matisse relocated to Cimiez on the French Riviera, a suburb of the city of Nice.

His work of the decade or so following this relocation shows a relaxation and a softening of his approach.

This "return to order" is characteristic of much art of the post-World War I period and can be compared with the neoclassicism of Picasso and Stravinsky as well as the return to traditionalism of Derain.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema | The Roses of Heliogabalus, 1888

"The Roses of Heliogabalus" is an 1888 painting by the Dutch-born British artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912).

It is currently owned by the Spanish-Mexican billionaire businessman and art collector Juan Antonio Pérez Simón.

The painting measures 132.7 × 214.4 centimetres (52.2 × 84.4 in).

It shows a group of Roman diners at a banquet, being swamped by drifts of pink rose petals falling from a false ceiling above.

The Roman emperor Elagabalus reclines on a platform behind them, wearing a golden robe and a tiara, watching the spectacle with other garlanded guests.