Guy Dessapt, 1938 | Modern impressionist painter

As a child, Guy Dessapt, Impressionist painter - showed an enthusiastic aptitude for painting which led him to the highly acclaimed Art Decoratifs School in Paris.

Here he learned about the masters of genre and grew to respect the impressionists of the 1800's.

At this time, Guy spent many days painting in the streets of Montmarte which provided him with direct exposure to a thriving arts community.

Claude Monet | Stile artistico

Claude Monet è stato il sostenitore più convinto ed instancabile del «metodo impressionista» che vide già riassunto in nuce nelle opere dell'amico Manet.

Per comprendere appieno la carica rivoluzionaria della figura di Monet, tuttavia, è necessario calarla con precisione nell'ambiente storico e artistico francese della seconda metà dell'Ottocento.

La Francia della seconda metà del XIX secolo era una nazione viva, moderna, ricca di magnificenze e di contraddizioni, che in seguito all'offensiva prussiana del 1870 aveva conosciuto un impetuoso sviluppo economico e sociale che, tuttavia, aveva inizialmente mancato di investire le arti figurative.

Jean-Marc Janiaczyk, 1966 | Dreaming of Provence

French painter Jean-Marc Janiaczyk is a self-taught artist.

He has been passionate about drawing since childhood, and in 1991, he began painting.

Years of drawing provided him with a solid foundation in artistic technique.

He experimented with watercolor, pastel, acrylic, and oil, but ultimately chose oil paint for its flexibility, creamy texture, and slow drying time, qualities that suited his evolving style.

Renoir: "If painting were not a pleasure to me I should certainly not do it"

Renoir was one of the leading painters of the Impressionist group.

He evolved a technique of broken brushstrokes and used bold combinations of pure complementary colours, to capture the light and movement of his landscapes and figure subjects.

Following a visit to Italy in 1881 his style changed, becoming more linear and classical.

Renoir was born in Limoges in south-west France, where he began work as a painter on porcelain.

Paul Gauguin | The figures

The vogue for Paul Gauguin's work started soon after his death.

Many of his later paintings were acquired by the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin.

A substantial part of his collection is displayed in the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage.

Gauguin paintings are rarely offered for sale; their price may be as high as $39.2 million US Dollars.

Odilon Redon | Apollo's Chariot, 1905-1916 | The Series

About 1900, French symbolist painter Odilon Redon (1840-1916) abandoned his trademark black charcoal drawings and began avidly experimenting with color.

He also explored new subjects, including the mythological horses of the sun.

They are driven by Apollo, god of light and poetry, or by Phaethon, the boy who foolishly tried to steer the horses and fell to his death.

Odilon Redon | Apollo's Chariot, 1905-1916 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eugene Galien-Laloue | Belle Époque painter

French painter Eugène Galien-Laloue (1854-1941) was born in Paris on 1854.

He was a populariser of street scenes, usually painted in autumn or winter.

His paintings o f the early 1900s accurately represent the era in which he lived: a happy, bustling Paris, la Belle Époque, with horse-drawn carriages, trolley cars and its first omnibuses.

Galien-Laloue's works are valued not only for their contribution to 20th century art, but for the actual history, which they document.

Paul Renard | Impressionist painter

French artist Paul Renard (1871-1920) was studied at Rotterdams Academy of Art.

He spent most of his career painting narrative street scenes of Paris for which he became renowned.

His is a well listed artist and his work can be found in galleries throughout the world.

Paris painting

"Paris is an ocean.

Explore it, and you still won’t know its depths".

-

Honoré de Balzac

"Parigi è come un oceano. Gettateci una sonda e non ne conoscerete mai la profondità.

-

Honoré de Balzac

Thierry Duval, 1957 | Paris watercolors

Thierry Duval was born in Paris, France.

His watercolors are characterized by a strong light and precision in drawing, being almost or hyperrealist in the results mainly in his Paris watercolors.

By using glazing technique he works in several steps up to get the final, very realistic result.

As was said, light is strong in almost all his artworks.

Le Pont des Arts, Paris

Le Pont des Arts / The Bridge of Arts or Passerelle des Arts is a pedestrian bridge in Paris which crosses the River Seine.

It links the Institut de France and the central square (cour carrée) of the Palais du Louvre, (which had been termed the "Palais des Arts" under the First French Empire).

Between 1802-1804, under the reign of Napoleon I, a nine-arch metallic bridge for pedestrians was constructed at the location of the present day Pont des Arts: this was the first metal bridge in Paris.

The engineers Louis-Alexandre de Cessart and Jacques Dillon initially conceived of a bridge which would resemble a suspended garden, with trees, banks of flowers and benches.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Le Pont des Arts, Paris, 1867-1868

Daniel Densborn, 1946 | Flamenco dancers

Daniel Densborn is a French self-taught painter.

Thanks to a knife and to small touches of color which he wisely applies on a canvas, he gives life to the subjects that he represents: bullfighting, hose racing, dancing.. the fury, the power of life intrinsic to his source of inspiration are thus perfectly captured.

His paintings are bold and romantic.

Victor Hugo | Surrealist Illustrator

Victor Marie Hugo (1802-1885) was not only one of France's greatest poet, novelist and dramatist, but also a prolific artist, painter, watercolourist, draughtsman and caricaturist.

Victor Hugo produced more than 4000 drawings.

Originally pursued as a casual hobby, drawing became more important to Hugo shortly before his exile, when he made the decision to stop writing in order to devote himself to politics.

Drawing became his exclusive creative outlet during the period 1848-1851.

Jean Béraud | Belle Époque painter

Jean Béraud (January 12, 1848 - October 4, 1935) was a French painter renowned for his numerous paintings depicting the life of Paris, and the nightlife of Paris society.

Pictures of the Champs Elysees, cafés, Montmartre and the banks of the Seine are precisely detailed illustrations of everyday Parisian life during the "Belle Époque".

He also painted religious subjects in a contemporary setting.

Eugène Delaplanche | Figurative sculptor

Eugène Delaplanche (28 February 1836 - 10 January 1891) was a French sculptor, born at Belleville, Seine.

He was a pupil of the neoclassical sculptor Francisque Joseph Duret (French, 1804-1865), gained the Prix de Rome in 1864 (spending 1864-67 at the Villa Medici in Rome), and the medal of honor° in 1878.

Francois Fressinier, 1968 | Mixed media painter

Born in Cognac, France to scholarly portrait photographer parents with an affinity for aesthetics, it was fitting that modern figurative artist, François Fressinier, would develop a unique, enchanting style.

His father's admiration for the works of the Old Masters and his exposure to some of the world's most historic places, along with France's Gallo-Roman ruins and Gothic churches inclined François to explore and create figurative, symbolic artwork.

In addition, his education at the Ecole Brassart in Tours afforded him the opportunity to study the drawings and paintings of old and new masters.

Camille Pissarro | Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon, 1897

Rue Saint-Honoré, dans l'après-midi. Effet de pluie ("Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon. Effect of rain") is an 1897 oil painting by Camille Pissarro.

The work was made towards the end of Pissarro's career, when he abandoned his experiments with Pointillism and returned to a looser Impressionist style.

It is part of a series of works that Pissarro made in 1897-98 from a window of the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, looking down across the edge of the Place du Théâtre Français (now the Place André-Malraux) and along the rue Saint-Honoré, portraying the people, carriages and buildings, the trees, fountains and streetlamps, in an early afternoon shower of rain.

Camille Pissarro | Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon. Effect of rain, 1897 | Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Théodore Frère | Orientalist painter

Charles-Théodore Frère (1814-1888) was a French Orientalist painter.

His younger brother, Pierre-Édouard, and his nephew and namesake, Charles Edouard Frère, were also painters.

Painter of historical subjects, genre scenes, local scenes, landscapes (with figures) and seascapes; watercolourist and draughtsman. Orientalist.

The son of a Paris music publisher, Frère studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Léon Cogniet and Camille Roqueplan.

Paul Seignac | Genre painter

During the 19th century, genre scenes were a popular subject throughout Europe.

The French painter Paul Guillaume Seignac (1826-1904) specialized in genre paintings depicting children, rural life and everyday scenes.

Claude Debussy | Danse Sacrée

"Dances for Harp and String Orchestra", in full in the original, "Danses pour harpe chromatique avec accompagnement d'orchestre d'instruments à cordes" (Dances for chromatic harp with string orchestra accompaniment), is a 1904 work by Claude Debussy.

There are two sections: Danse sacrée and Danse profane, and the work is sometimes billed accordingly.

It is a two-movement work, of about ten minutes' duration.

MAuguste Alexandre Hirsch | Calliope enseignant la musique à Orphée, 1865 | Musée d'art et d'archéologie du Périgord