Coba Ritsema | The Amsterdamse Joffers group

Jacoba Johanna (Coba) Ritsema (26 June 1876, Haarlem - 13 December 1961, Amsterdam), was a portrait painter from the Netherlands.

Together with eight other artist friends, she founded an artists' association, which was introduced by the art critic Albert Plasschaert as the Amsterdam Joffers. The group of female artists contributed significantly to the acceptance of women in art at that time.

Jacoba, or Coba, was born in 1876 as the daughter of the book printer Coenraad Ritsema and his wife Jeanette (Jannetje) Moulijn in an artistic family with one sister and two brothers.

Marcel Dyf | Still life

French painter Marcel Dyf (1899-1985) noted for his portraits and bouquets of flowers, his inspiration for many compositions often came from his wife Claudine Godat, who posed for him and allowed him to immortalize the spirit of womanhood.

His pastoral scenes capture French countryside with unique color, light and vibrancy.

For an artist to be considered an "Impressionist" in the purest meaning of the word, he must know how to transfer his personal feelings to the canvas.

Gioacchino Toma | Genre painter

Gioacchino Toma (24 January 1836 - 12 January 1891) was an Italian art instructor and painter, noted primarily for historic, realistic and genre subjects in a Romantic style.

Toward the end of his life, Toma authored his autobiography, Memories of an Orphan (Ricordi di un Orfano, Giannini and Figli, 1886) relating a series of memories to his son, Gustavo: his difficult childhood; his tenacity; his desire for redemption; and his civil and political commitment.

Arthur Claude Strachan | British Cottages

Predominantly a landscape and cottage painter in watercolour, Arthur Claude Strachan (1865-1935) was born in Edinburgh on 15th March 1865, the son of George Strachan, an architect, and his wife, Mary (née Dalrymple).

He studied art in Liverpool and later travelled throughout the UK painting the country landscapes.

Between 1885-1929 he exhibited in London and in the provinces and also showed four works at the Royal Academy.

The whole Strachan family moved to Liverpool some time in the 1880s.

Vladimir Kush, 1965 | The Metaphorical Realism

The Founder of Metaphorical Realism, Vladimir Kush once showed enthusiasm for the German Romanticism of Caspar Friedrich, admired works of the Impressionists from Édouard Manet to Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, and took interest the Russian Symbolists, Kandinski, Petrov-Vodkin and Filonov.

From reproductions, Vladimir, for the first time, learned about Surrealist painters - René Magritte and Salvador Dali.

But Vladimir sought his own direction, his own creative method.

Vladimir remembered a precept given by Dali: “Any rewarding painting is grasp and retention of the Unknown”.