Oleg Oprisco, 1987 | Surrealist / Conceptual photographer

Ukrainian Fine Art photographer Oleg Oprisco is born in the small town of Lviv, in western Ukraine.

Oprisco is known for his conceptual shots that involve elaborately constructed props and scenes that capture his distinct sense of surreality.

Relying on neutrals and subdued tones rather than a bold color palette, the mysterious, dreamlike images tend to center on a single figure within a quiet and unoccupied landscape.

Georges Maroniez | Genre painter

Georges Philibert Charles Maroniez (1865, Douai - 1933, Paris) was a French painter, specializing in landscapes with figures.

Education and first works

Maroniez was the son of an industrialist who owned a sugar refinery in Montigny-en-Ostrevent.

He displayed artistic talent at an early age, but - although not discouraged - was expected to pursue a more professional career.

Accordingly, he studied law, and afterwards served as a magistrate in, successively, Boulogne-sur-Mer (1891), Avesnes-sur-Helpe (1894) and Cambrai (1897).

Jeremiah Stermer's realistic surrealism

Jeremiah Stermer was born in Baltimore in 1946.

He started his artistic path at the age of 11.

He considers himself a realist / surrealist, meaning that the theme is always surrealistic, but the painting is made in a traditional way.

He states that he draws and paints very naturally, and that he pays the particular attention on the air around the subjects of his paintings and considers the mood as the crucial element of his works.

Ionut Caras, 1978 | Surrealist photographer

Romanian professional photographer and "photo mechanic" Ionut Caras was born and lives in Iasi, Romania.

Caras describes himself as a 'photo mechanic' and has created the series of mindboggling pictures using the computer program.

His passion for photography began seven years ago when Kara discovered the processing of photographs, artistic of composition.

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".

Claude Debussy / Paul Verlaine | Clair de Lune, 1869

Clair de Lune is a French poem written by Paul Verlaine (French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement, 1844-1896) in 1869.

It is the inspiration for the third and most famous movement of Debussy's 1890 Suite bergamasque of the same name.

The poem has also been set to music by Gabriel Fauré.

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer | Sérénade au clair de lune, Venise | Christie's

Derek Boshier | Pop art painter

Biography from the Tate Gallery

British painter, sculptor, photographer and printmaker Derek Boshier ((1937-2024)) studied painting and lithography at Yeovil School of Art in Somerset (1953-7), Guildford College of Art (1957-9) and the Royal College of Art, London (1959-62), where he was one of the students associated with Pop art.

Boshier juxtaposed contrasting styles within his paintings, but he favoured topical subject-matter such as the space race, political events and the Americanisation of Europe.

Grace Kelly: "I hated Hollywood..."

• "Ho odiato Hollywood. È una città senza pietà, conta solo il successo. Non conosco nessun altro posto al mondo in cui così tante persone soffrono di esaurimenti nervosi, dove ci sono tanti alcolisti, nevrotici e infelici".

• "I hated Hollywood. It's a town without pity. Only success counts. I know of no other place in the world where so many people suffer from nervous breakdowns, where there are so many alcoholics, neurotics and so much unhappiness".

Grace Kelly