Jules Worms | The furtive message, 1877

In the "Furtive Message" Jules Worms (French academic painter, 1832-1924) re-creates a Spanish street as it might have appeared in the time of Goya.

The background is based on a watercolor sketch the artist made during an 1877 visit to Salamanca.

The picturesque setting forms a backdrop for a farce.

Jules Worms | The furtive message, 1877 | Haggin Museum, California

Vincenzo Sorrentino, 1956 | Neo Baroque painter

Vincenzo Sorrentino was born in Torre Annunziata, (Naples) Italy.

He is an illustrator, painter, sculptor and modeler of ceramic works.

His exhibition activity began in 1984 in institutional places, private galleries and at cultural institutes.

He taught painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, and since 2001 he his a professor of fresco theory and technique at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.

Antonio Mancini | Verist painter

Antonio Mancini (14 November 1852 - 28 December 1930) was an Italian painter.

Mancini was born in Rome and showed precocious ability as an artist.

At the age of twelve, he was admitted to the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, where he studied under Domenico Morelli (1823-1901), a painter of historical scenes who favored dramatic chiaroscuro and vigorous brushwork, and Filippo Palizzi.

Mancini developed quickly under their guidance, and in 1872, he exhibited two paintings at the Paris Salon.

Alexei Butirskiy, 1974 | Cityscape painter

Born in Moscow, Russian painter Алексей Бутырский entered Moscow Art College in 1992.

In 1996 he completed his studies at the Art College and graduated with an Excellence Diploma.

In 1998 he graduated from the Russian Academy of the Arts where he studied under respected professor, L.S. Hasyanova.

He graduated from the Academy with the highest honors attainable.

Alexei currently serves as Professor of Drawing at the same academy.

Jacques Van Den Abeele, 1960 | Figurative sculptor

Jacques Van den Abeele, Belgian sculptor, is exhibited in galleries spread over Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States of America.

He realized also monumental sculptures for state orders.

For Jacques Van den Abeele, art is above all a quest for the essential foundations of existence, moving towards what lies behind appearances: feelings, emotions, fears.

Anna Klumpke | Catinou knitting, 1887

Encouraged by an independent, educationally oriented mother, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (1856-1942) was a copyist in the Luxembourg Museum and studied at the Académie Julien in Paris.

She enjoyed an education guided by the concept that women artists could compete with their male counterparts.

In her memoirs of 1940, Klumpke cites a most influential moment in her childhood: receiving the gift of a Rosa Bonheur doll.

Her admiration of Bonheur, the French painter of animals, led her to paint the aging woman’s portrait - which is considered a companion piece to her portrait of leading suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Louis Aragon | Amor mio, non dire niente / Mon Amour ne dis rien

Amor mio non dire niente

lascia cadere queste due parole nel silenzio

Come una pietra a lungo lisciata fra i palmi delle mie mani

Una pietra veloce e pesante una pietra

Che cada nel profondo della nostra vita

DU Kun 杜昆, 1982 | Surrealist painter

DU Kun /杜昆 born in Sichuan, China.

Under the influence of his art teacher father DU began studying painting from the age of four, later graduating from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts’ Oil Painting program.

Today he works between Tianjin and Beijing as his base, and is particularly widely renowned as a young Chinese artist for his creativity and the brilliance of his techniques.

Further, since his student days, in addition to his work as a painter DU Kun has been applying his talents in the field of music.

David Bowers, 1956 | Surrealist painter

David Michael Bowers was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and graduated from art school in Pittsburgh in 1979.

He began working as a staff artist at various studios in the Pittsburgh, PA area.

Two years later, David began teaching his craft at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he lectured for ten years and was honored as the Keynote Speaker for the Class of 2003.

In 1991, David began his illustration career working mostly with book publishers in New York City in which he completed over one hundred book covers in the span of over ten years.

Meadow Gist, 1975 | Impressionist painter

Meadow Gist chooses the subject matter she paints to express a love and respect of a simpler life, when you grew your own food and more things were crafted by hand.

This is what attracted her to being an artist in the first place, "crafting a unique item that has a piece of me in it, and I can say "I made that".

She enjoys presenting a romantic view of bygone days, and sharing a little of this optimism with all who view her paintings.

Her inspiration comes from the painting of the Russian Impressionists and the way they paint daily life, as well as the Orientalists and the pride they bring to the simple man.

Salvador Dali: "Adoro i miei nemici quando sono intelligenti"

"Ho sfondato il muro della spudoratezza con una disciplina da caserma" - confidava Salvador Dalí in una intervista del 1961 alla giornalista e scrittrice italiana Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006), mentre, nelle successive riflessioni tuonava contro gli pseudo moralisti: "Non sono io il pagliaccio ma lo è questa società mostruosamente cinica e così ingenuamente incosciente che gioca a fingere di essere seria per meglio nascondere la propria follia".

Coco Chanel: "Fashion changes, but style endures"!

Coco Chanel and Romy Schneider

• "Where should one use perfume? A young woman asked. Wherever one wants to be kissed".

• "It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong".

And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid, but I don’t think I’m a run-of-the-mill person".

I’ve been in business without being a businesswoman, I’ve loved without being a woman made only for love".

The two men I’ve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness".

Francisco Sanchis Cortés, 1969 | Impressionist figurative painter

The Valencian painter Francisco Sanchis Cortés has an enviable genetic line that leads him in pursuit of the fine arts.

A line that genetically connects the best manners of Hispanic roots, heir to the demonic fictional painting of the Pinazo, Emilio Sala, Mongrell and Sorolla.

A narrative line in which he tells a lot about the story of the matter and his ability to move.

A line in which knowing how to paint is essentially valued, precisely to characterize the motifs, with humanity in the gestures of the characters and above all with an outcrop of a romantic character.

Santiago Carbonell, 1960 | Visionary painter

Born in Quito, Ecuadorian painter Santiago Carbonell emigrated to Mexico in 1986.

Carbonell studied painting in Barcelona and was part of a group of young painters influenced by informalism.

Tàpies was an influential figure for him.

Tachism and working with different materials, accidents, chance, and texture are all highly influential in his works.

Nancy Boren, 1955 | Impressionist painter

Nancy Boren’s first painting, a watercolor, was done at age 12 while sitting next to her artist father, James Boren, as he painted at the Grand Canyon.

Since then she has branched out to original print making and oil painting, depicting a variety of landscape and marine subjects, and is often captivated by scenes in which the figure fills the canvas.

She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Abilene Christian University and cites the influence of notable traditional painters such as Sargent, Sorolla and Fechin.

Giacomo Moretti, 1939 | Genre painter

Giacomo Moretti is an Italian painter born in Cava dei Tirreni in the province of Salerno Italy. For some years he lived in Naples where in 1971 he received, on the occasion of the First Neapolitan Biennial of Contemporary Painting, the diploma with a gold medal.

He later moved to La Rochelle, France. Giacomo Moretti has achieved great success among collectors, obtaining interesting prices.

Luigi Bazzani | Neo-Pompeian painter

Luigi Bazzani, also called Il Bazzanetto, was an Italian painter, illustrator and watercolorist.

He was born November 8, 1836, in Bologna, Italy.

Bazzani studied at Bologna's Accademia di Belle Arti then traveled to France, Germany and, eventually, Rome where he settled down in 1861 and began to specialize in genre and landscape subjects as well as set designs for theaters.

Many of his paintings featured the remains of the city's monuments from classical antiquity.

Rosmery Mamani Ventura, 1985 | Pastel painter

Rosmery Mamani Ventura is an award winning hyperrealistic pastel artists from Bolivia.

She was born in Omasuyos, near Lake Titicaca where she lived until 1998.

At 14 she migrated from her rural Aymara indigenous community to the city of El Alto to work as a maid, a move that brought excitement, but also struggle.

Despite the hardships, that move was also the first step toward discovering her talent as an artist.

Johan Ericson | Landscape painter

Johan Erik Ericson (1849-1925) was a Swedish landscape painter.

He was born to Anders Eriksson, a woodcarver, and his wife Johanna, née Petersson. His father emigrated to America when he was only four.

From 1872 to 1878, he studied at the Royal Institute of Art, where his primary teacher was Per Daniel Holm.

This was followed by studies in France from 1878 to 1884, where he came under the influence of the Impressionists and served as an assistant in the studios of Alfred Wahlberg.

Jan Bogaerts (Dutch, 1878-1962)

Johannes Jacobus Maria (Jan) Bogaerts was an artist from Netherlands.

Born in the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch, in the province of North Brabant, Bogaerts attended the Koninklijke School voor Nuttige en Beeldende Kunsten in his birth city between 1893 and 1899.

He spent four years working in the studio of the fin-de siècle artist Antoon van Welie (1866-1956) and also received tutelage from him at the Den Bosch academy from 1897 until 1899.

Under his influence, Bogaerts painted figures, portraits, landscapes, parks, gardens and castle grounds in a symbolistical manner.