Claude Monet | L'idillio di Giverny: tra covoni, giardini e cattedrali

Dopo la mostra organizzata da Petit, Monet poté godere del sostegno economico e morale di un pubblico finalmente svincolatosi dalle pastoie della pittura accademica.

La gloria, tuttavia, non offuscò né la sua umiltà né le sue ambizioni pittoriche, finalizzate a rendere «l'immediatezza, l'atmosfera soprattutto e la stessa luce diffusa ovunque».

Volendo indagare in maniera più accurata i problemi della luce e dalle sensazioni di colore, dunque, Monet intraprese le cosiddette serie, nelle quali uno stesso soggetto viene ripreso in decine e decine di tele, in modo tale che l'unico fattore cangiante è proprio la luce: si trattava di una escogitazione pittorica ottimale per dimostrare come la sola luce riuscisse a generare percezioni visive sempre mutevoli e stimolanti.

Claude Monet and his Muse, Camille

Camille Doncieux (15 January 1847 - 5 September 1879) was model, lover and wife of French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926), whose early paintings of her gave him his first taste of commercial and critical success.

But when Camille died young, at 32 years, after a long illness following the birth of their second child, the woman who replaced her in Monet's life was determined to obliterate her memory.

Alice, Monet's second wife, was consumed by jealousy of her departed rival and destroyed all photographic records of Camille.

Karl Gussow | Genre painter

Karl Gussow (25 February 1843, Havelberg - 27 March 1907, Munich) was a German painter and university professor.

His early inclination to art was encouraged by his family so, as soon as he completed his secondary schooling, he was enrolled at the newly founded Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar.

This led to studying the Dutch Masters in the studios of the history and genre painter, Arthur von Ramberg.

Domenico Fetti | Baroque painter

Biography from: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Domenico Fetti (1589-1623) was born in 1589, almost certainly in Rome, and is known to have been educated at the Collegio Romano.

He probably received his initial artistic training from his father, Pietro Fetti, a painter, perhaps from Ferrara, about whom very little is known.

Contemporary sources refer to Domenico Fetti as a student of Ludovico Cardi, called Il Cigoli (1559-1613).

Domenico could have entered Cigoli's shop as early as 1604, the year in which the Florentine painter came to Rome.

Walter Firle | Genre painter

Walter Firle or Walther Firle (1859-1929) was a portrait and genre painter.

Walter Firle received lessons in painting from an early age.

In 1879 he attended the Munich Academy of Art, where he was a student of Alois Gabl, Ludwig von Löfftz and Gabriel von Hackl.

During a stay in Italy the artist created numerous landscapes as well as beach and town views.