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.

Ilya Repin | Historical / Genre painter

Ilya Yefimovich Repin / Илья́ Ефи́мович Ре́пин, (1844-1930), Russian painter of historical subjects known for the power and drama of his works.

Born to a poor family near Kharkov, Repin learned his trade from a painter of icons named Bunakov and in 1864 became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts at St. Petersburg.

Salvatore Quasimodo | Il girasole piega a occidente / Almost a Madrigal

Il girasole piega a occidente

e già precipita il giorno nel suo

occhio in rovina e l'aria dell'estate

s'addensa e già curva le foglie e il fumo

dei cantieri. S'allontana con scorrere

secco di nubi e stridere di fulmini

quest'ultimo gioco del cielo. Ancora,

Vincent van Gogh | Sunflowers, 1888

Anne Sexton | Noi / Us

Ero avvolta nella pelliccia

nera, nella pelliccia bianca

e tu mi svolgevi

e in una luce d’oro

poi m’incoronasti,

mentre fuori dardi di neve

diagonali battevano alla porta.

Joseph Lorusso

Gwenneth Barth-White | Pastel painter

American-born Swiss international artist Gwenneth Barth-White is a Maître Pastelliste of the 150-year-old Société des Pastellistes de France and has served as its Vice President for many years.

She's a Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America, and a Signature Member of the Portrait Society of America, where she has served as faculty.

Her work has been exhibited in Geneva, Gstaad, New York, Toronto, Paris, and in many French and American venues.

Hugues Merle | The Lunatic of Etretat, 1871

"The Lunatic of Etretat" is a painting by French Academic artist Hugues Merle (1822-1881).

It is part of the collection of the Chrysler Museum of Art, in Norfolk, Virginia.

The woman’s face is a mask of suffering while she cradles, not a sleeping baby, but a wooden log!

Is Merle’s "Lunatic" mourning the loss of a child, or mad with longing for one?

Hugues Merle | Genre painter

From National Gallery of Art:

Born in 1823 at Saint-Marcellin (Isère), Hugues Merle studied in Paris with the history painter Léon Cogniet (1794-1880) and devoted himself to a wide range of subjects, from religious themes and historical anecdotes to incidents from contemporary life, particularly of the urban and rural poor.

His greatest popular successes, however, were won by scenes of maternal affection and childhood innocence that he sought to imbue with impish sweetness and sentimentality.