Archduke Leopold Wilhelm | Patron of the Arts

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (January 5, 1614-November 20, 1662) was an Austrian military commander, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647-1656 and a patron of the arts.

When he assumed the government of the Spanish Netherlands, Leopold Wilhelm, being a great lover of art, employed several painters from the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, including the great Dutch painter David Teniers the Younger, who he not only employed as a painter but as keeper of the collection of pictures he was then forming.

With the rank and title of "ayuda de camara", Teniers took up his abode in Brussels shortly after 1647.

Carolus-Duran | Academic painter

Charles Auguste Émile Durand, known as Carolus-Duran (Lille 4 July 1837 - 17 February 1917 Paris), was a French painter and art instructor. He is noted for his stylish depictions of members of high society in Third Republic France.

Carolus-Duran studied at the Lille Academy and then at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

In 1861, he traveled to Italy and Spain for further study, especially devoting himself to the pictures of Velázquez.

His dramatic painting Murdered, or The Assassination (1866), was one of his first successes, and is now in the Lille museum.

Abiodun Olaku, 1958 | Waterscape/Cityscape painter

Born in Lagos in Lagos, Nigeria, Abiodun Olaku has his roots in Abeokuta, Ogun state. In his third decade of avid, dedicated and progressive art practice since graduating from the prestigious Yaba College of Technology, Lagos as a painter in 1981, under the supervision and guidance of Prof. Yusuf Grillo, Kolade Oshinowo and late Dr. Isiaka Osunde. Abiodun Olaku has crystallized into one of the ‘exclusive’ masters of his generation.

Nikita Manokhin, 1989 | Palette knife painter

Nikita Manokhin Anatolyevich was born in Mariupol, Donetsk region, Ukraine, in the artists` family.

In 2005 graduated from the Mariupol City Lyceum, language faculty, English speciality.

In 2011 graduated from the Architectural faculty of Donbass National Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering.

- 'I was born in a small town of Mariupol in Ukraine, in the artists' family. I must admit, I didn't have any affection to arts or painting during my first years. Painting was quite a difficult discipline for me at school, I didn't attend any professional painting classes then. Foreign languages were much more interesting for me, so eventually in 2005 I finished Mariupol City Lyceum, English language faculty.

Archip Ivanovič Kuindži | Landscape painter

Архип Иванович Куинджи ([1842-1910) is considered one of the most talented Russian landscape painters of his generation.

Born in Ukraine, he was associated during the second half of the 1870s with a group of Russian Realist painters known as the Wanderers.

In the 1890s, he was hired to teach landscape painting at the Academy of Fine Arts but was later dismissed for sympathizing with student agitators.

Mosè Bianchi | Genre/Macchiaioli painter

Mosè Bianchi (Monza, 1840-1904) was an Italian painter and printmaker.

Bianchi's family moved from Monza to Milan and he enrolled at the Brera Academy.

Having interrupted his studies to serve in the second war of independence, he returned to attend the school of painting directed by Giuseppe Bertini.

François-Auguste Ravier | Romantic landscape painter

François-Auguste Ravier (1814 - 1895) was born in Lyons in 1814. His father, a confectioner, wanted him to pursue a career as a notary, and the young Ravier went off to Paris in 1832 to study law. His spare time was taken up with drawing and painting, and he has been said to have attended the studios of Jules Coignet (1798-1860) and Aligny (q.v.). But according to Nathalie Favier, an expert on this painter, it is possible that Ravier received advice from a number of artists without having pursued any traditional artistic training. In 1837-38 he painted in the Paris area, in the forest of Fontainebleau, and in the Dauphiné and the Bugey, a region to the east of Lyons. In Royat, in 1839, he met Corot (q.v.), whom he revered the most. Between 1840-1847, no doubt following Corot's advice, Ravier went on a number of lengthy trips to Italy to draw and paint in the Roman countryside.

Arthur Braginsky, 1965

L'arte astratta di Arthur Braginsky rappresenta un'evoluzione cruciale del suo stile, integrando la sua solida formazione accademica e teatrale con una ricerca spirituale fondata sull'equilibrio e sull'armonia cromatica.

Sebbene l'artista contemporaneo sia celebre soprattutto per i suoi ritratti figurativi e le opere di ispirazione preraffaellita, la sua produzione astratta gioca un ruolo chiave nel definire la sua visione estetica complessiva.

Utilizza quasi esclusivamente l'olio su tela, applicando stratificazioni spesse, texture visibili e velature per dare tridimensionalità alle forme indistinte.

Marlene Dietrich 1901-1992

John Bramblitt, 1971 | Palette Knife painting from a blind artist

John Bramblitt is a blind painter living in Denton Texas. He began painting after losing his sight in 2001 after a series of severe seizures. His art has been sold in over twenty countries and he has appeared internationally in print, TV and radio. He has appeared on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, ABC, and BBC Radio, and he's been featured in The New York Times and Psychology Today. He's the subject of the award winning documentary shorts "Line of Sight' and "Bramblitt". His work has received much recognition including the ‘Most Inspirational Video of 2008′ from YouTube and three Presidential Service Awards for his innovative art workshops.

Edgar Payne | Plein Air painter

Edgar Alwin Payne (1 March 1883 - 8 April 1947) was an American Western landscape painter and muralist. Payne was born in Washburn, Barry County, Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks. Washburn is in southwest Missouri, only nine miles from the Arkansas border. But that wouldn't stop this turn-of-the-century Missouri teenager from seeing the world. Before Edgar was done he would crisscross the United States, travel to Mexico, Canada, and Europe and even spend the summer in the Alps. But, like John Muir before him, and Ansel Adams after, it was the American West that most appealed to his heart.

Pablo Picasso | The Portraits

The total number of artworks he produced has been estimated at 50.000, comprising 1.885 paintings, 1.228 sculptures, 2.880 ceramics, roughly 12.000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs.

At the time of his death many of his paintings were in his possession, as he had kept off the art market what he did not need to sell.

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso was exceptionally prolific throughout his long lifetime. One of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.

Sanford Robinson Gifford | Hudson River School

Sanford Robinson Gifford was born in Greenfield, New York, in 1823. He attended Brown University from 1842-1844 and moved to New York City in 1845 where he studied drawing, perspective and anatomy under the direction of the British watercolorist and drawing-master, John R. Smith. He also studied the human figure in anatomy classes at the Crosby Street Medical college and took drawing classes at the National Academy of Design. In 1846 he visited the Berkshire Hills and the Catskill Mountains, sketching from nature.

Fabio Hurtado, 1960

Fabio Hurtado is a Spanish-Italian painter and photographer, with an unmistakable style.

His paintings recreate scenes in an almost cinematographic context which are set within the 1920's and 1930's.

His exquisite drawing skills and harmonious use of color are complementary to the overall sense of mystery surrounding his stylish and elegant characters and the roles they play in his paintings.

Andre Dluhos, 1940

Quasi 70 anni di esperienza artistica professionale, Andre Dluhos presenta uno stile audace, a spatola, con una trama pesante e una versione decisamente moderna dello stile impressionista.

Andre Dluhos è nato nella Cecoslovacchia orientale, l'attuale Slovacchia. Andre ha iniziato a dipingere all'età di otto anni.

A quattordici anni vinse il suo primo concorso artistico tra i 400 iscritti della regione.

John Joseph Enneking | Impressionist painter

John Joseph Enneking (1841-1916) was born on an Ohio farm and orphaned as a teenager.

Enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. Severely wounded in action and discharged from service.

Went to New York and then to Boston to take art lessons. Spent most of his life in Boston and New England area.

Trained in lithography and study in Europe. 1872, went abroad for four years.

Olga Boznanska | Impressionist painter

Polish painter Olga Boznańska (April 15, 1865 - October 26, 1940) was a notable female painter in Poland and Europe and was stylistically associated with the French impressionism🎨.

Boznańska was born in Kraków during foreign partitions of Poland.

She was the daughter of a railway engineer, Adam Nowina Boznański, and Eugenia née Mondan. Boznańska learned drawing first with Józef Siedlecki and Kazimierz Pochwalski locally.

She studied at the Adrian Baraniecki School for Women.

She débuted in 1886 at the Kraków Association of Friends of Fine Arts exhibition.

Hans Zatzka | Madonna with the Infant Jesus, 1930

Austrian artist Hans Zatzka was born in 1859 in Vienna.

He spent his childhood in the 19th district of Vienna, Braytenzeer Strasse, 2.

His artistic talent was noticeable at an early age.

From 1877-1882 Hans Zatska studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, his teacher was Professor Blaas.

Kazimir Malevich | Cubist/Geometric abstract painter

Kazimir Severinovič Malevič | Казимир Северинович Малевич, (1878-1935), Russian painter, who was the founder of the Suprematist school of Abstract painting.

Malevich was trained at the Kiev School of Art and the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts.

In his early work he followed Impressionism as well as Fauvism, and, after a trip to Paris in 1912, he was influenced by Picasso and Cubism.

As a member of the Jack of Diamonds group, he led the Russian Cubist movement.

Marie Bracquemond | Les grandes dames of Impressionism

Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916) was a French Impressionist artist described retrospectively by Henri Focillon in 1928 as one of "Les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt.

However, her frequent omission from books on women artists is attributable to the efforts of her husband, Félix Bracquemond, who sought to thwart her development and recognition as an artist.

His objections to her career were not based on gender but on the style she adopted-Impressionism.

Luis Claudio Morgilli, 1955 | Impressionist painter

Luis Claudio Morgilli, known artistically as Morgilli, was born in 1955.

Influential artist in the Catanduva region, São Paulo State, Morgilli already become school for many artists in hear area, just to cite some important names of his students as Ronaldo Boner, Rodrigo Zaniboni and Cassiano Pereira.

Among the many qualities of his work, it is worth noticing the fair design, and the correct use of colors and their shades.

Galina Anisimova, 1956 | Abstract painter

Russian painter Galina Petrovna Anisimova /Галина Петровна Анисимова was born in the village of Solomatino, Volgograd Region.

In 1982 she graduated from the Moscow Textile Institute named Kosygin (Department of Applied Arts).

Member of the Artists' Union of Russia since 1984.

Now he lives and works in Moscow.

Joseph DeCamp | Impressionist painter

Joseph Rodefer DeCamp (1858-1923) was a founding member of the Ten American Painters, a group of primarily Boston-based Impressionists who sought to exhibit their works in intimate, aesthetically agreeable settings with like-minded artists.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio where he studied with Frank Duveneck.

Abram Efimovich Arkhipov | Genre/En plein air painter

Aбра́м Ефи́мович Архи́пов (1862-1930) was a Russian realist artist, who was a member of the art collective The Wanderers as well as the Union of Russian Artists.

Abram Arkhipov made his name in the history of Russian art of the turn of the century as a sensitive, poetic artist who devoted all his talent to themes from peasant life.

Albin Veselka, 1979 | Plein Air/Figurative painter

Born in 1979, Albin Veselka's interest in art came at an early age. He is very grateful to his parents who were instrumental in promoting his emerging talent. In 2006 Albin received his BFA from Brigham Young University Idaho. He credits the knowledgeable and student oriented faculty of the BYUI art department for giving him "the tools all representational artist must have to open the door to communicating in the visual arts".

Artem Cheboha Rhads, 1987 | Surrealist Digital painter

Артем Чебоха RHADS is a talented digital painter from South West of Siberia, Russia who currently based in Saturn, Encelad. Чебоха creates grand and surreal digital paintings of magical places. His fantastical paintings often show improbable events like flying whales and boats. These paintings made in classical style with a modern treatment conveys a sense of grandness and divinity.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau | The two sisters, 1877

Wlliam-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) French painter, a dominant figure in his nation’s Academic painting during the second half of the 19th century. For biographical notes and earlier works by Bouguereau see Part 1.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau | Moissonneuse / The Harvester, 1875

In his own time, William-Adolphe Bouguereau [1825-1905] ⎆ was considered to be one of the greatest painters in the world by the Academic art community, and simultaneously he was reviled by the avant-garde.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Bouguereau see:

• William-Adolphe Bouguereau | Academic painter ⎆.

Virgilio Tojetti | Genre painter

Virgilio Tojetti (1851-1901), the son of the painter Domenico Tojetti (1807-1892), was born in Rome, Italy.

Tojetti was a pupil of his father and later studied in Paris with Gérôme and Bouguereau.

He was a resident of San Francisco from 1871 until about 1883 when he moved to New York City.

He became popular in the East as a painter of Genre scenes and frescoes. Tojetti died of Bright's disease in New York City on March 26, 1901.

Céline Brossard, 1960 | Abstract Mixed media painter

Born in Montreal, Celine Brossard devotes herself completely to her career in painting from her studio in the Laurentians.
Astonishingly prolific, her creative energy takes her successively from the medieval era to present days through her feminine portraits in continuous metamorphose. Whether it be women trapped, models or urban, they are witnesses of their time vacillating between seduction and their profound worries concerning their hindered freedom.

Aureliu Prodan, 1968

Aureliu Prodan was born in the family of the paintings conservator, Serafim Prodan from Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.

He received his first art lessons from his father.

Since he was a child, he loved going to the Art Museum where his father worked, to admire the exhibited paintings.

Andre Dluhos, 1940 | Abstract Palette Knife painter

Andre Dluhos was born in eastern Czechoslovakia, which is now Slovakia. Andre began to paint at eight years old.

At fourteen he won his first art competition from the region’s 400 entries.

He studied under celebrated artists and mentors at the Bratislava Art School and School of Fine Arts in Uherski Hradiste.

Favoring portraiture, figure and landscape painting, his professional career as a painter began.

Traveling and showing throughout Europe, in 1969 he decided to seek new opportunity and a new home in the United States where he now resides.

Clarence Gagnon | En plein air painter

Canadian painter Clarence Gagnon 1881-1942 is best known for his rural Quebec landscape paintings and the illustrations for Louise Hémon’s novel Maria Chapdelaine. Gagnon was also an award winning printmaker, a passionate outdoorsman, and an active promoter of Quebec handicrafts.

Clarence Gagnon was born in a small village in rural Quebec. Although he trained and maintained a studio in Paris for much of his career, he never lost his love of the Laurentians and the Charlevoix region of eastern Quebec which inspired many of his paintings. Gagnon’s mother fostered his early interest for drawing and despite his father’s wishes that he enter business, he began studying drawing and painting in 1897 at the age of sixteen under William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal.

Carlo Dolci | Baroque Era painter

Carlo Dolci, byname Carlino (25 May 1616 - 17 January 1686) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence, known for highly finished religious pictures, often repeated in many versions.

He was born in Florence, on his mother's side the grandson of a painter.

Although he was precocious and apprenticed at a young age to Jacopo Vignali, Dolci was not prolific.

Miklós Ligeti | Impressionist /Realist sculptor

Miklós Ligeti (May 1, 1871 - December 10, 1944) was a Hungarian sculptor and artist.

His sculptural style integrated elements of Impressionism and realism.

First a pupil of Alajos Stróbl in Budapest, later Ligeti learnt in Vienna.

He produced mainly memorials and portraits.

Igor Bitman, 1953 | Figurative painter

The Russian-born painter Игорь Битман, winner of the Prix Spécial du Jury van de Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Médaille d’Or of the Salon des Artistes Français surprises with a diversity of techniques in a special collection of paintings.

Few artists are able to master such a wide range of painting techniques as Bitman does. In doing so, he not only achieves a high level of artistry, but he also conveys his outstanding skills.

Besides working with oil-paint he also uses an ancient technique called encaustique in which pure pigments are dissolved in wax, and are applied on the carrier with heated utensils.

The many layers of condensed wax create a palpable surface and at the same time give the colours a unique velvet shine.

Cornelis de Vos | Children portrait, c. 1600

Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651) was a Flemish Baroque painter, best known for his portraiture. He was born in Hulst near Antwerp, now in the Dutch province of Zeeland. Little is known of his childhood. Cornelis and his younger brothers Paul and Jan studied under the little-known painter David Remeeus (1559-1626). De Vos joined the guild of Saint Luke in 1608 at the age of twenty-four, later serving as its dean in 1628. When he became a citizen of Antwerp in 1616 he listed his occupation as an art dealer.

The legend of Aci and Galatea

Metamorphoses, from the greek transformations, is a latin narrative poem in fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid, describing the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework.

Completed in AD 8, it is recognized as a masterpiece of Golden Age Latin literature.

The most-read of all classical works during the Middle Ages, the Metamorphoses continues to exert a profound influence on Western culture.

It also remains the favourite work of reference for greek myth upon which Ovid based these tales, albeit often with stylistic adaptations.

Statue of Acis and Galatea in the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris