Alphonse Osbert | Symbolist / Pointillist painter

Alphonse Osbert (23 March 1857 - 11 August 1939) was a French Symbolist painter.

Educated at the École des Beaux-Arts, his earliest passion was for the great Spanish masters, particularly Jusepe de Ribera. A shift away from his academic style took place in the late 1880s under the influence of several acquaintances associated with Post-Impressionism* and Symbolism*.

Paul Cézanne | The Four Seasons, 1860

between 1860 and 1862, French painter Paul Cézanne, still a student at the law faculty in Aix, started out as a painter by decorating the walls of the main drawing room at Jas de Bouffan, based on the allegorical theme of The Four Seasons (Les Quatre Saisons).

He was twenty when his father bought this estate near Aix-en-Provence.

Paul Cézanne | Spring, 1861

Henri Manguin | Il pittore Fauve

Henri Manguin (1874-1949) è stato un importante pittore Francese, figura centrale del movimento dei Fauves.

Soprannominato "il pittore voluttuoso" per la sua capacità di celebrare la gioia di vivere attraverso colori caldi e luminosi, Manguin si distinse per uno stile che, pur essendo audace, mantenne sempre un equilibrio armonioso rispetto all'espressività più aggressiva di altri esponenti del gruppo.

Manguin entrò nell'École des Beaux-Arts per studiare sotto Gustave Moreau, così come Henri Matisse e Charles Camoin con cui divenne amico intimo.

Les Nabis | Art history and Sitemap

Ambitious decorative painting enjoyed a resurgence in Europe from the late 1880s through the early twentieth century.

In Paris, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis and Édouard Vuillard were among the most influential artists to embrace decoration as painting’s primary function.

Their works celebrate pattern and ornament, challenge the boundaries that divide fine arts from crafts, and, in many cases, complement the interiors for which they were commissioned.

Disaffected with the rigidly representational painting methods taught at the Académie Julian, Bonnard and Denis joined with other like-minded students in the fall of 1888 to form a brotherhood called the “Nabis”, a Hebrew word meaning “prophets”.

Vincent van Gogh | Still lifes of Shoes

Vincent van Gogh painted several still lifes of shoes, primarily between 1886-1888.

He found beauty in worn-out, mud-covered boots, viewing them as symbols of the "scars of life" and the long journeys of the working class.

Step into Van Gogh’s world, one shoe at a time Shoes were an unusual subject in Van Gogh’s time.

Most artists painted elegant still lifes, often symbolizing wealth.

Cesare Maggi | At least there's fire! / Almeno c'è il fuoco! 1898

An early work by Italian divisionist painter Cesare Maggi (1881-1961), "At least there's fire!" - signed and dated "Firenze 1898"- was one of two exhibited by the artist, not yet eighteen, at the fifty-second annual exhibition of the Society of Fine Arts in Florence (1898-1899).

Wassily Kandinsky | Post-Impressionism period, 1896-1909

One of the pioneers of Abstraction in Western art, Wassily Kandinsky's (1866-1944) early work was influenced by Art Nouveau, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles.

The number of his existing paintings increased at the beginning of the 20th century; much remains of the landscapes and towns he painted, using broad swaths of colour and recognisable forms.

Such works reveal Kandinsky’s strong interest in the tradition of capturing light and the life of cities evident in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as well as his love of vibrant and expressive color.

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.

Robert Antoine Pinchon | Post-Impressionist painter

Claude Monet referred to him: "As a surprising touch in the service of a surprising eye".

Among Robert Antoine Pynchons' important works are a series of paintings of the River Seine, mostly around Rouen and landscapes depicting places in or near Upper Normandy.

Robert Antoine Pinchon (1886-1943) was a French Post-Impressionist landscape painter of the Rouen School- l'École de Rouen.

He was consistent throughout his career in his dedication to painting landscapes en plein air.

Sexto Canegallo | Pointillist / Futurist painter

Italian painter Giuseppe Sexto Canegallo (1892-1966) was born on 2 February 1892 in Sestri Ponente.

He attended the Linguistic Academy in Genoa, where he was a student of Lazzaro Luxardo, Tullio Salvatore Quinzio, Lorenzo Massa and Alfredo Luxoro.

His artistic style was initially influenced by the pointillist poetics of Plinio Nomellini, together with other artists such as Angelo Morbelli, Gaetano Previati and Rubaldo Merello.

Flip Gaasendam,1957 | Neo-Impressionist painter

Flip Gaasendam studied from 1977-1982 at the Minerva Academy of Groningen.

In 1988 he obtained the 'J. Egberts' price of the Pictura Association. From 1992 on, he was welcomed in the best galleries of The Netherlands.

In 1997 he participated at the ‘Painters of Minerva' exhibition, held at the same time at ‘De Twee Pauwen’ Gallery in The Hague and at Panorama Mesdag Museum.

Gaasendam’s works are present in many collections, notably at the Drenthe Museum, Gasunie, ING and Unilever.

Othon Friesz | Fauve painter

Achille-Émile Othon Friesz (6 February 1879 - 10 January 1949), who later called himself Othon Friesz, a native of Le Havre, was a French artist of the Fauvist movement.

Othon Friesz was born in Le Havre, the son of a long line of shipbuilders and sea captains.

He went to school in his native city.

It was while he was at the Lycée that he met his lifelong friend Raoul Dufy.

Félix Vallotton | Landscapes and seascapes

Vallotton's landscapes and seascapes avoided conventional views and techniques, and presented unusual viewpoints and perspectives.

The scene is sometimes seen from above, with the horizon very high in the picture, or without the sky being visible at all.

The forms are simplified, and the figures are often small and almost unrecognizable.

Felix-Vallotton | The Ball, 1899 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Henri Matisse | Orientalist Odalisque

In 1917 Matisse relocated to Cimiez on the French Riviera, a suburb of the city of Nice.

His work of the decade or so following this relocation shows a relaxation and a softening of his approach.

This "return to order" is characteristic of much art of the post-World War I period and can be compared with the neoclassicism of Picasso and Stravinsky as well as the return to traditionalism of Derain.

Odilon Redon | Hommage a Goya, 1885 | The series

Homage to Goya (Hommage à Goya) is an portfolio of 6 lithographs on chine appliqué reveal Redon's admiration for the Spanish painter and printmaker, who died in 1828.

This series is one of many that Odilon Redon created throughout his career.

Nearly two-thirds of his lithographs took the form of portfolios - prints connected conceptually by a theme or narrative and physically by a folder or binding.

Odilon Redon | Hommage a Goya, 1885 | Scharf Gerstenberg Collection

Raffaello Gambogi | Post-Macchiaioli painter

Raffaello Gambogi (Livorno, 1874-1943) was an Italian painter, mainly of urban landscapes and genre scenes.

In 1891 Gambogi obtained a scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, where he studied under Giovanni Fattori.

Paul Gauguin | The Siesta, 1892-94

The unaffected grace and communal ease of Tahitian women impressed Gauguin enormously.

The artist worked on this painting over an extended period, incorporating numerous changes.

The skirt of the woman in the foreground, for example, was originally bright red; there was a dog in the position now occupied by the basket at lower right; and the woman seated at the left edge of the porch was previously situated further to the left. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Felix Vallotton | Still life with gladioli, 1924

Félix Vallotton's still life paintings are characterized by their formal simplicity, striking compositions, and a cool, detached sensibility.

While still lifes were a minor subject for him earlier in his career, they became prominent in his work from around 1910 onwards.

In his later years, painting in his studio in Honfleur, Vallotton concentrated particularly on still lifes, particularly flowers, fruits and vegetables, very carefully arranged and painted with extreme precision.

Paul Gauguin | Post-Impressionist painter

Paul Gauguin, in full Eugène-Henri-Paul Gauguin (born June 7, 1848, Paris, France-died May 8, 1903, Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia) French painter, printmaker and sculptor who sought to achieve a "primitive” expression of spiritual and emotional states in his work.

The artist, whose work has been categorized as Post-Impressionist, Synthetist and Symbolist, is particularly well known for his creative relationship with Vincent van Gogh as well as for his self-imposed exile in Tahiti, French Polynesia.

His artistic experiments influenced many avant-garde developments in the early 20th century.

Van Gogh | Saintes-Maries (series)

Saintes-Maries is the subject of a series of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made in 1888.

When Van Gogh lived in Arles, he took a trip to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on the Mediterranean sea, where he made several paintings of the seascape and town.

The work he produced in Saintes-Maries took on a more experimental and expressive style than his earlier work.

Over the course of his visit, Van Gogh made two paintings of the sea, one of the village, and nine drawings.