John McGhie (1867-1952) | Seascape / Genre painter

John McGhie was born in Lesmahagow near Lanark in Scotland in 1867; the son of a grocer. He showed an early interest in drawing and painting, but was initially apprenticed to an architect before persuading his father to allow him to enrol at the Glasgow School of Art.

Following a year’s study in Glasgow he was awarded🎨 a scholarship to study for three years at the Royal Academy School in London where he was taught by Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896); amongst other renowned artists.

Octave Denis Victor Guillonnet (1872-1967)

Octave Denis Victor Guillonnet was a French painter🎨, great decorator of national palaces and designer, a portrait painter and illustrator.

Guillonnet was extraordinarily precocious as an artist, entering the studio of Lionel Royer at the age of thirteen and, incredibly, gaining his first medal at the Paris Salon🎨 two years later.

J.T. Winik | Figurative painter

Kingston based artist J. T. Winik obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Bachelor of Education at the University of Western Ontario in London.

Since 1996, J.T Winik has dedicated herself entirely to painting, dividing her time primarily between Spain, Holland and Canada. Winik's work frequently incorporates the female form.

Recurring themes examine the emotional tension within the psychological context of various dualities: power and fragility, angst and felicity, and passion and passivity.

Cesare Pavese / Filippo Anivitti: I will pass by Piazza di Spagna

Filippo Anivitti (1876-1955) | The Spanish Steps, Rome | Christie's

There will be a clear sky.

The streets will open out

onto the hills of pines and stone.

The tumult of the streets

will not disturb the still air.

Flowers blotched

with colour by the fountains

will eye you

like amused women. Steps

terraces swallows

will sing out in the sun.

Léon Spilliaert | Symbolist painter

Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946), also Leon Spilliaert, was a Belgian symbolist painter and graphic artist.

Spilliaert was born in Ostend, the oldest of seven children of Léonard-Hubert Spilliaert, a perfumer, and his wife Léonie (née Jonckheere).

From childhood, he displayed an interest in art and drawing. A prolific doodler and autodidact, he was predominantly a self-taught artist.