John George Todd | Genre painter

Henry George Todd (1847-1898) was an English artist active in Suffolk.

Henry was the son of George Todd (1820-1904), a painter and decorator and grainer to whom he became apprenticed.

In 1865 he attended art school and later progressed onto the Royal College of Art.

After a period working in his father's decoration and gilding business in Bury St Edmund's when both Henry and his father George exhibited their works in the Todd's St Andrew's Street North shop.

Oscar Wilde | Se non avessimo amato / Ay! had we never loved

Se noi non avessimo amato,

Chi sa se quel narciso avrebbe attratto l'ape

Nel suo grembo dorato,

Se quella pianta di rose avrebbe ornato

Di lampade rosse i suoi rami!

Caspar David Friedrich | Ruins of the Oybin, 1835 | Hermitage Museum

Louis Wain | Postcard artist

Louis William Wain (1860-1939) was an English artist best known for his drawings of anthropomorphised cats and kittens.

Wain was born in Clerkenwell, London.

In 1881 he sold his first drawing and the following year gave up his teaching position at the West London School of Art to become a full-time illustrator.

He married in 1884 but was widowed three years later.

In 1890 he moved to the Kent coast with his mother and five sisters, and, except for three years spent in New York, remained there until the family returned to London in 1917.

Giacomo Leopardi | L'infinito / The Infinite

Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle,

e questa siepe, che da tanta parte

dell’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.

Ma, sedendo e mirando, interminati

spazi di lá da quella, e sovrumani

silenzi, e profondissima quiete

Caspar David Friedrich | A Walk at Dusk, about 1830-1835 | The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Loïc Jouannigot, 1953 | Children's book illustrator

Loïc Jouannigot, born in Brittany, France, is a children's book illustrator.

A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts, he has worked for the children's book and advertising industries.

From 1987 onwards, he became known more widely as an illustrator of children's literature, with the beginning of a long series of publications on "La famille Passiflore" ("Beechwood Bunny Tails") with texts by Geneviève Huriet.

This serie has been a real best-seller, being translated in 28 languages.