Oreste Cortazzo | Painter of the Belle Époque

Oreste Cortazzo (1836, Rome - 1910, Paris) was an Italian-born French painter, graphic artist and illustrator.

His family originally came from Ceraso, in the Province of Salerno.

Around 1848, he began an apprenticeship with his father, Michele (1808-1865), who was also a painter and a great admirer of Titian. (Some of Michele's works may be seen at the Palace of Caserta, near Naples.)

Jaroslav Seifert | Di pomeriggio uno scroscio di pioggia..

Di pomeriggio uno scroscio di pioggia

fece profumare anche l’erba pesta

e la sera, piena di primaverile malinconia,

lenta s’univa alla notte.

Jeff Rowland

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Tête de jeune fille coiffée d'un chapeau de jardin, 1895

"I have taken up again, never to abandon it, my old style, soft and light of touch", Renoir wrote to his dealer Durand-Ruel in 1888, full of enthusiasm for his latest efforts.

"This is to give you some idea of my new and final manner of painting - like Fragonard, but not so good" (quoted in J. House, Renoir in the Barnes Foundation, New Haven, 2012, p. 121).

Renoir's new approach represented a sea-change after the controversial Ingres-inspired method he cultivated in the previous decade.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Tête de jeune fille coiffée d'un chapeau de jardin, 1895 | Christie's

Jaroslav Seifert | Se al cuore si potesse dire / If one could tell one’s heart…

Se al cuore si potesse dire:

non correre!

Se potessi ordinargli: brucia!

Già si spegne.

Marc Chagall

Romà Ribera | Painter of the Belle Époque

Romà Ribera i Cirera (Barcelona, 1848-1935) was a Catalan genre painter.

He specialized in contemporary scenes from upper-class social events, rendered in meticulous detail, but also did numerous scenes from life in the 17th and 18th centuries.

He studied at the Escola de la Llotja and at the private school operated by Pere Borrell del Caso.

In 1873, he went to Rome to complete his studies.

While there, he met Marià Fortuny, who works would influence his style.