Gérard Daran, 1946

Gérard Daran, born in Toulouse, is a French painter and draftsman.

He studied at the Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, Strasbourg and Paris, specializing in the figurative painting, particularly in the academic figure.

He has worked and lived in Paris since 1968.

William Witherington | The Robin | Art in Detail

British School, mid 19th century, oil on canvas genre painting depicting a father and two children watching a robin in the lane a few feet away from their cottage doorstep.

William Frederick Witherington (26 May 1785 - 10 April 1865) was an British painter and academic. Born in London, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1805. Except for one year he exhibited annually at the Royal Academy from 1811 until his death. He was elected A.R.A. on 1 November 1830 and R.A. on 10 February 1840. He retired as an academician on 28 May 1863.

Rembrandt | Susanna and the Elders, 1647

Susanna and the Elders is a 1647 painting by Rembrandt, now in the Gemaldegalerie in Berlin.

It is an oil on panel painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt and represents the story of Susanna from the Bible.

The scene shows the moment when Susanna is surprised at the moment she enters her bath.

Susanna and the Elders is a theme from the Old Testament often depicted by Rembrandt, particularly in his drawings.

William Etty | Victorian era painter

William Etty (10 March 1787 - 13 November 1849) was an British artist. He was the first significant British painter of figures and still lifes. Born in York, he left school at the age of 12 to become an apprentice printer in Hull.

He completed his apprenticeship seven years later and moved to London, where in 1807 he joined the Royal Academy Schools.

There he studied under Thomas Lawrence and trained by copying works by other artists. Etty earned respect at the Royal Academy of Arts for his ability to paint realistic flesh tones, but had little commercial or critical success in his early years in London.

Jacques Volpi, 1948 | Palette Knife painter

Jacques Volpi is a very famous painter from southern France, of the school of painting cévenole and Provençal.

He is born in 1948 in the town of Ales in the Gare.

Winner of numerous awards and medals.

He paints by using the technique of the "knife". The subjects are animated by persons, the colours are lively. It is famous for his persons in the rain of noon of France. He exposes internationally and the works are a part of prestigious collections all over the world.

Liudmila Kondakova /Людмила Кондакова, 1956

A classic painter whose artistic vision is expressed through "romantic realism", Liudmila Kondakova is one of Russia's most treasured exports.

Born in Russia, Людмила Кондакова immigrated to the United States in 1991.

A graduate of the Grabar Center in Moscow, she also attended Russia’s School of Sacred Arts, the Moscow Pedagogical Institute and the Moscow Art Institute.

Kondakova connects her highly trained background to her artistic expression this way: "In my art, the essence and beauty has always rested in the details".

Kerry Hallam, 1937 | Abstract Impressionism painter

Kerry Hallam is a British impressionist artist who has produced approximately twelve thousand paintings and whose work is included in collections held by Brigitte Bardot and Björn Borg as well as decorating the permanent residence of Monaco's Ambassador to the United States. Hallam was trained in Chesterfield and London, and has been based in Nantucket since 1981. Hallam has developed a reputation as a wise rogue and enjoyed success with exhibitions worldwide, including one entitled figure Paintings of Other Men's Future Ex-Wives. His work has been shown at art galleries in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Beverly Hills.

Gerrit Dou | Baroque painter

Gerrit (Gerard) Dou (1613-1675) was born in Leiden - an cultural, intellectual and commercial crossroads for much of Europe in the seventeenth century.

Situated halfway between The Hague and Amsterdam, it had a prosperous textile industry and the first Protestant university in The Netherlands.

Dou's father, Douwe Jansz, owned a successful glass engraving workshop in Leiden.

Dou himself studied the craft for two and a half years with a leading glassmaker, developing an eye for fine details that became characteristic of his painting style.

Lorenzo Bartolini | Venus (after Titian)

The Venus of Urbino was one of the inspirations for Édouard Manet's 1863 Olympia in which the figure of Venus is replaced with the model Victorine Meurent.

Reclining Venus, after Titian by Lorenzo Bartolini at the Uffizi Museum was perhaps commissioned in 1820 by Lord Robert Castlereagh, Marquis of Londonderry.

For the realization of the sculpture, Bartolini availed himself of the presence in Florence of his friend Ingres, for whom in 1821 he obtained permission of the Uffizi Gallery to realize a copy of Titian's Venus.

Evgeny Kouznetsov, 1960 | Romantic Lovers

Russian painter Евгений Кузнецов was born in Stavropol. In 1979 he graduated from the Stavropol art school. 1988 - art-graphic faculty of the Kuban State University (Krasnodar).

Member of the Union of Artists of Russia since 1991. He is also one of the founders of the International Community of Artists "Solar Square".

He participated in international fairs and exhibitions of contemporary art, which took place in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, France, India and Russia.

Leonardo da Vinci | Differenza dalla Pittura alla Scultura

Trattato della Pittura

Parte prima | Capitolo 39

Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura | Testo Integrale

La prima maraviglia che apparisce nella pittura è il parere spiccata dal muro od altro piano, ed ingannare i sottili giudizi con quella cosa che non è divisa dalla superficie della parete; qui in questo caso lo scultore fa le opere sue che tanto paiono quanto elle sono, e qui è la causa che il pittore bisogna che faccia l'ufficio della notizia nelle ombre, che sieno compagne de' lumi.

Vicki Sullivan, 1961 | Portrait /Figurative /Realist painter

Vicki Sullivan is an Australian Realist painter who focuses on portraiture.

She is a member of Portrait Artists Australia and the Melbourne Society of Women Sculptors and Painters founded in 1902, has participated in National and International exhibitions with her portraits, and has been a finalist in several Art Renewal Center International Salon Competitions.

Johan Zoffany | Neoclassical painter

Known primarily as a painter of portraits, conversation pieces and theatrical subjects, Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) was born Johannes Josephus Zauffaly, in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.

The son of an architect and court cabinet maker, he was brought up at the court of Alexander Ferdinand, Prince von Thurn und Taxis, and enjoyed court patronage throughout his career.

When the Prince took up residence at Regensburg, Johan was apprenticed to a local painter, Martin Speer (c.1702-65).

Claude WeisBuch | Impressionist /Modern painter

Plaude Weisbuch (1927-2014) was born in Thionville, France and was a pupil at L'École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy.

As a painter, engraver, and exceptional lithographer, Claude Weisbuch has painted active motifs, such as musicians, horses, characters.

Dominating in his work, by the relief and the velvety line which characterizes dry-point, his etchings are the strongest representations of his figures, intensely lively after 1960s.

Johannes Vermeer | The Art of Painting, 1666

The Art of Painting, also known as The Allegory of Painting, or Painter in his Studio, is a 17th-century oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

Many art historians believe that it is an allegory of painting, hence the alternative title of the painting.

After Vermeer's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary it is the largest work by the master.

Its composition and iconography also make it the most complex Vermeer work of all.