Le Nain Brothers | The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1640

A group gathers around a manger to adore the newborn Christ.

On the right, the Virgin Mary and Joseph gaze reverently at the infant, alongside two small angels.

On the left are two young boys and an old, barefooted man: they are the shepherds mentioned in the Gospel of Luke (2: 8-20).

Le Nain Brothers (fl. 17th century) | The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1640 | The National Gallery, London

Apostolos Geralis | Genre painter

Apostolos Geralis /Απόστολος Γεραλής (1886-1983) was born on the island of Mytelene and died in Athens, Greece.

In 1896 he enrolled at The School of Fine Arts, Athens, where he studied painting under Dimitrios Geraniotis, Spyros Vikatos, Georgios Jakobides and Georgios Roilos.

Between 1910-1915 he held a teaching position at the Pancyprian Gymnasium, Nicosia and later, between 1919-1920 he continued his studies in Paris, at The Julian Academy.

Georgios Jakobides | Genre painter

Greek painter Γεώργιος Ιακωβίδης / Georgios Jakobides (1853-1932) founded and was the first curator of the National Gallery of Greece in Athens.

Georgios Jakobides was one of the main representatives of the Greek artistic movement of the Munich School.

He was one of the thirty "immortal" members of Athen’s Academy when firstly created, in 1926.

His paintings, over 200, are found in the National Gallery of Athens, private collections and in museums and art galleries around the world including art galleries in Germany and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Vasily Polenov | Woman walking in a forest park, 1883

Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov / Васи́лий Дми́триевич Поле́нов (1844-1927) was born in Saint-Petersburg.

His family placed great emphasis on the importance of art and culture.

Indeed his father, Dmitri Vassilievitch Polenov (1806-1872) was a connoisseur of the artistic world, and his mother, Maria Alexeievna Voeïkova (1816-1895) a gifted portraitist of the Brullov school.

He spent his childhood in Saint-Petersburg, a major cultural center and Carely, in the Olonentsky countryside.

Safet Zec, 1943 | Poetic Realism painter

"I want my art to contribute to the strengthening of the much-needed moral renewal, which alone can break this unbearable veil of indifference".

"The way we look at the world has changed and I try to reflect this in my paintings" - Safet Zec.

Bosnian painter and engraver Safet Zec was born in Rogatica, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

After graduating from the Secondary School of Arts in Sarajevo, he continued his studies of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, where he graduated in 1969 and completed his specialization in 1972.

Miloslava Vrbova-Štefková | Ballet dancers

Czech artist Miloslava Vrbova-Štefková (1909-1991) was an traditionalist post-impressionist painter.

During the 1937-1938 Miloslava Vrbova-Štefková studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Czech Abstract painter František Kupka (1871-1957).

Besides the dancers, the ballet scenes and portraits, Miloslava Vrbova also painted landscapes and the Prague urban motifs, religious scenes (the Crucifixion in the church Žinkovie), still lifes and flowers.

Arthur John Elsley | Genre painter

Arthur John Elsley (20 November 1860 - 19 February 1952) was an English painter of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, famous for his idyllic genre scenes of playful children and their pets.

He achieved great popularity during his life and much of his work appeared in calendars, magazines and books.

Elsley was born in London, one of six children of John Elsley, coachman and amateur artist, and Emily Freer.

Elsley's father had exhibited at the British Institution Exhibition in 1845 but later in life contracted tuberculosis which forced him into early retirement.

Pasquale Celommi | A good catch, 1895

Pasquale Celommi (1851-1928) was an Italian painter, known for his outdoor scenes of Italian life in verist style.

Born in Montepagano, Abruzzo, Italy, he developed a keen eye for detail and depicted everyday life with a captivating realism.

Thanks to the help of a local landowner, Don Camillo Mezzopreti, and to a contribution of 30 lire by the Municipality, he managed to study until the year 1873, when he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.

Igor Talwinski | Ballet dancers

Igor Talwinski (1907-1983) was a notable Polish-born French painter, active primarily in France and England, known for his portraits and figure studies, particularly female figures.

His work is characterized by a figurative style, with soft modeling of faces and bodies often contrasted by lively brushwork in the backgrounds.

He was mobilized in September 1939 and was taken prisoner by the Germans.

Pasquale Celommi | Verist painter

Pasquale Celommi (1851-1928) was born in Montepagano - Italy, into a family of fishermen.

Celommi showed an early interest in art and often drew in his home as a child.

Celommi decided to receive academic training and moved Florence to study under Antonio Ciseri at the Academy of Florence.

He was a strong student and often praised by his teacher Ciseri. Celommi started exhibiting his work in various regions of Italy.

Celommi had a large exhibition in Turin and eventually in Rome.

Firmin Baes | A Master of Pastel painting

Firmin Baes (1874-1943) was a Belgian painter.

The son of the decorative painter Henri Baes, Firmin Baes was active as a portrait painter and a painter of still life subjects, figures, landscapes and interiors.

He studied under Léon Frédéric at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels between 1888-1894, and the elder artist’s influence is evident in many of Baes’s early paintings.

Pasquale Celommi | Four Seasons / Le Quattro stagioni, 1890-1901

In the series of the "Four Seasons", commissioned to Pasquale Celommi by the Commander Pasquale Ventilj, the pastoral world is reproposed through rustic "types” who reveal themselves rather self-conscious if compared to the more dramatic scenes of the same country artist Teofilo Patini.

The Four Seasons are part of the collection of the The Pinacoteca Civica of Teramo.

Pasquale Celommi | Winter / Inverno, 1890-1900 | Pinacoteca di Teramo

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.

John Frederick Lewis | Orientalist painter

John Frederick Lewis RA (London, 1804-1876) was an British painter. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in exquisitely detailed watercolour or oils.

Lewis lived for several years in a traditional mansion in Cairo, and (after his return to England) painted highly detailed works showing both realistic Genre scenes of Middle Eastern life and more idealized scenes in upper class Egyptian interiors with no traces of Western cultural influence yet apparent.

Constant Troyon | The Barbizon school of painters

Constant Troyon (1810-1865), French painter, was born in Sèvres, near Paris, where his father was connected with the famous manufactory of porcelain.

Troyon was an animal painter of the first rank, and was closely associated with the artists who painted around Barbizon.

The technical qualities of his methods of painting are most masterly; his drawing is excellent, and his composition always interesting.

It was only comparatively late in life that Troyon found his métier, but when he realized his power of painting animals he produced a fairly large number of good pictures in a few years.

Gerard ter Borch | Baroque painter

Gerard Terborch, Terborch also spelled Ter Borch or Terburg (1617-1681), Dutch Baroque painter who developed his own distinctive type of interior genre in which he depicted with grace and fidelity the atmosphere of well-to-do, middle-class life in 17th-century Holland.

Terborch’s father had been an artist and had visited Rome but from 1621 was employed as a tax collector.

Ivan Pili, 1976 | Figurative painter

Ivan Pili, concert musician, composer and visual artist, was born in Cagliari, Italy.

His artistic skills emerged from the earliest age, first on the kindergarten benches and then manifested themselves in his early portraiture works at the age of 9 years.

From 1986-1990 he attended painters in Cagliari asking for his presence in their labs to try to improve the technique of the little boy.

Victor Gilbert | Belle Époque painter

The mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century saw the introduction of art based on daily life, a depiction of everything from the street vendors to the homeless in and around France.

Artists were often deeply embroiled in the social issues of the time and sought to free themselves from the imposing historicism that had stifled art production for decades.

Léon Perrault | Genre / Academic painter

Painter of genre, history, religion and portrait Léon-Jean-Bazile Perrault (1832-1908) stands in peril of not being remembered as distinctively as his successes might merit.

For our part, we may narrow this great artist’s claims at once by rejecting his religious painting, and we may be inclined to go on and deny him the title of historical painter, so that, although we shall have paintings of religious subjects and of historical subjects to consider, we shall in truth be considering them as work of a painter of genre and portrait.

Andrew Hem, 1981 | Pop Surrealist painter

The Cambodian-born artist Andrew Hem was born during his parents’ flight from Cambodia in the wake of the Khmer Rouge genocide and his upbringing was influenced by the rural heritage of his ancestors and the urban sensibility of Los Angeles, where his family came to reside.

Being positioned within these cultural dichotomies fostered an aesthetic inspired by graffiti, as well as tribal and supernatural imagery.

Describing his compositions as dreamlike memories inspired by personal experiences, Hem’s ethereal paintings function as a window overlooking the invisible realm of the human spirit.