Jean-François Raffaëlli | La Belle Époque

Jean-Francois Raffaëlli was born in Paris into a bourgeois family in which he enjoyed a privileged childhood until the age of fourteen when a reversal of his father's business fortunes forced him to seek employment. He held a series of jobs before being placed, unwillingly, in a commercial house as a book-keeper at the age of sixteen. While working there, he began to visit the Louvre and to spend his Sundays in the Musée de Luxembourg. His initial artistic interest was in drawing and as he developed this passion, he gave up his job and supported himself by singing in theatres and churches.

Sarah Kidner, 1964 | Impressionist cityscape painter

Sarah Kidner was born in 1964. After much travelling, Sarah and her family moved to Ontario in 1969. Growing up in Toronto, Sarah was exposed to and inspired by many great art exhibitions from the Group of Seven to the French Impressionists. At the University of Toronto she studied history and philosophy. A love of skiing, hiking and travelling drew Sarah to Banff in 1987. Now living in Alberta with her twin boys, she finds the Rocky Mountains an ideal setting for creative inspiration.

La Plaza de España, Seville

Spain Square / The Plaza de España is a plaza located in the Parque de María Luisa (Maria Luisa Park), in Seville, Spain built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.

It is a landmark example of the Renaissance Revival style in Spanish architecture.

The Plaza de España, designed by Aníbal González, was a principal building built on the Maria Luisa Park's edge to showcase Spain's industry and technology exhibits. González combined a mix of 1920s Art Déco and 'mock Mudejar', and Neo-Mudéjar styles.

The Plaza de España complex is a huge half-circle with buildings continually running around the edge accessible over the moat by numerous bridges representing the four ancient kingdoms of Spain. In the centre is the Vicente Traver fountain. By the walls of the Plaza are many tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain.

Omar Sharif: Doctor Zhivago star, dies at 83

Omar Sharif, the Egyptian matinee idol who enthralled audiences around the world with his performances in the sweeping David Lean epics Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, has died. He was 83.

Sharif, who also was known for playing the smooth gambler/con man Nicky Arnstein opposite Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968) and its 1975 sequel, died of a heart attack this afternoon in a hospital in Cairo, his longtime agent Steve Kenis confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. It was reported in May that Sharif had been battling Alzheimer's.

Hendrik Mesdag | The painter of Sea scenes

Hendrik Willem Mesdag, born in a wealthy Groningen family of bankers, worked in his father’s business till the age of thirty-five. After an inheritance of his wife, Sientje van Houten, had rendered him independent, he abandoned his secure position at his father’s bank and followed his artistic ambitions. During a four years stay in Brussels he served his apprenticeship with the famous landscapist Willem Roelofs and grew familiar with the art of the Barbizon School, sharing their fascination for working in the open air (En plein air).
After a stay on the German island Norderney in 1868, Mesdag got fascinated by the sea.

James Wilson Morrice | Post-Impressionist painter

James Wilson Morrice [1865 - 1924] was one of Canada’s first modernist painters. His landscapes, which showed the beauty of the country in a way the world had never seen before, helped form the identity of Canadian art, and his commissioned war scenes brought a new perspective to World War I.

Maurice Prendergast | Post-Impressionist painter

Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1858-1924) was born in Saint John's, Newfoundland, to a shopkeeper who moved the family to Boston in 1868.

He left school after only eight or nine years and went to work for a commercial art firm. He never married and throughout his life was accompanied and supported by his brother Charles, a gifted craftsman and artist in his own right.

According to Charles, Maurice always wanted to be an artist and spent every available moment sketching. In 1892, Maurice traveled to Paris, where he spent three years.

Seung Mo Park, 1969 | Wire Sculptor

South Korean artist Seung Mo Park 성 명 박 승 모 (朴勝模) creates gorgeous sculptures from tightly wrapped aluminium wire over fibreglass forms.

Park gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Dong A University in Busan, South Korea’s second largest city after Seoul.

Making up Park’s ‘Human’ series, the figures display painstaking attention to detail, from the bone structure and curves of the human bodies, to the delicate strands of hair and the folds and wrinkles of draped clothing.

Richard Stainthorp | Wire Figurative Sculptor

British sculptor Richard Stainthorp captures the beautiful energy and fluidity of the human body using wire. The life-sized sculptures feature both figures in motion and at rest, expressed in the form of large-gauged strands that are densely wrapped around and through one another. By doing this, he gives the work an undeniable presence. Stainthorp also allows the bent wires to shine by keeping their metallic appearance free from any obvious painting or additions.

Georges Braque | Fauve / Cubist painter

Georges Braque, (born May 13, 1882, Argenteuil, France-died August 31, 1963, Paris), French painter, one of the important revolutionaries of 20th-century art who, together with Pablo Picasso, developed Cubism.

His paintings consist primarily of still lifes that are remarkable for their robust construction, low-key colour harmonies and serene, meditative quality.

Pierre-Albert Marquet | From Fauvism to Naturalism

Albert Marquet (1875-1947) was a French painter and draughtsman, known for his contributions to the Fauvist movement and later for his naturalistic landscapes.

Marquet was a studio outdoor painter: he painted from his window.

It was in Normandy that he invented his formula of a landscape viewed from high up, away from curious onlookers, with an eye for framing, simplified shapes and a very sure colour sense.

Sandro Botticelli | The Birth of Venus, 1485

"The Birth of Venus" is undoubtedly one of the world’s most famous and appreciated works of art. Painted by Sandro Botticelli between 1482-1485, it has become a landmark of XV century Italian painting, so rich in meaning and allegorical references to antiquity.

The theme comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a very important oeuvre of the Latin literature. Venus is portrayed naked on a shell on the seashore; on her left the winds blow gently caressing her hair with a shower of roses, on her right a handmaid (Ora) waits for the goddess to go closer to dress her shy body.

The meadow is sprinkled with violets, symbol of modesty but often used for love potions.

Roman Zakrzewski | Figurative painter

Polish painter Roman Zakrzewski (1955 in Oświęcim - 25 December 2014) attended the public secondary school of fine arts in Bielsko-Biała. Then he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, where he received a degree from Jerzy Nowosielski’s studio in 1985. Since he was very young, the artist has shown interest in portraits, which have become the main theme of his artistic work.

Vera Rockline | School of Paris

Vera Nikolayevna Rockline / Вера Николаевна Рохлина (Moscow, 1896 - Paris, 4 april 1934) was born in Moscow to French and Russian parentage.

She studied at the studios of the best avant-garde masters of her time; Il'ia Mashkov in Moscow, and later Alexandra Exter in Kiev.

Rockline soon became known as Mashkov's most talented student and was noted for her painterly technique.

From 1918 she exhibited her works extensively and, like many young avant-garde artists, participated in decorating the streets of the city for the anniversary of the October Revolution.

Robin Wight | Fantasy Wire Fairies Sculptures

British artist Robin Wight uses stainless steel wire to form stunning, dramatic sculptures of winged fairies dancing in the wind. The enchanting forms, which range in size from miniature to life-sized, seem to have a life of their own as they strike dynamic poses, contort their bodies, and hold onto windswept dandelions.

James Crandall | Impressionist painter

After a long career as a concept illustrator in the advertising and motion-picture industry, American painter James Crandall has shifted his focus to traditional easel painting.

He finds subject matter in everyday life, and is always looking for an intriguing play of light, or the unstaged gestures of people at work and at play.

An ongoing series of paintings depicts life in his maternal grandfather's hometown of Lucca in northern Tuscany, where he regularly visits.

Recent work also includes scenes from the rural backroads of California's Gold Country, where he and his wife Nancy make their home.

He is a Signature Member of the Oil Painters of America and an Artist Member of the California Art Club.

Hossam Dirar, 1978 | Abstract Mixed Media painter

Hossam Dirar was born and raised in Cairo, a city whose rich heritage has been a huge inspiration.
Education:
BA Fine Art, Faculty of Applied Arts, Helwan University, 1995-2000;
Graduated with honours, and won best Graduation project amongst all entries.
Major studies: Graphic Design, Painting, Printmaking, and Mixed Media.
Minor Studies: Product Design, Photography, Multimedia, Textiles and Ceramics.
He is a graduate of Helwan University where he received the highest marks of his year for his graduation project. A multi-disciplinary artist working across painting, photography, installation, video and graphic design.

Madre Teresa di Calcutta: "Ama finché’ non ti fa male"..

Ama finché’ non ti fa male,

e se ti fa male,

proprio per questo sarà’ meglio.

Se accetti la sofferenza

e la offri a Dio, ti darà’ gioia.

Johann Victor Kramer | Moonrise in Taormina

John Ottis Adams | Impressionist painter

The Landscape painter John Ottis Adams [1851-1927] was born in Amity, Indiana, a small town south of Indianapolis. He attended Wabash College in 1871, but left a year later for the South Kensington Art School in London to study under John Parker. Adams returned to Indiana in 1876, eventually settling in Muncie.
In 1880 Adams returned to Europe, traveling to the Royal Academy in Munich to study with Gyula Benczúr. In Munich, Adams met two other painters from Indiana, Theodore Clement (T. C.) Steele and William Forsyth. After seven years in Munich, Adams returned to Muncie and opened an art school there with Forsyth. Adams also taught classes in Union City and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Gustave Moreau | Symbolist painter

Gustave Moreau, (Paris, 1826-1898), French Symbolist painter known for his erotic paintings of mythological and religious subjects.

The only influence that really affected Moreau’s development was that of his master, Théodore Chassériau (1819-56), an eclectic painter whose depictions of enigmatic sea goddesses deeply impressed his student.

In the Salon of 1853 he exhibited Scene from the Song of Songs and the Death of Darius, both conspicuously under the influence of Chassériau.

Albert Marquet | Fauve painter

Albert Marquet (1875-1947) was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement.

He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse.

Marquet subsequently painted in a more Naturalistic style, primarily landscapes, but also several portraits and, between 1910-1914, several female paintings.

Zbigniew Kopania, 1949 | Still Life/Landscape painter

Zbigniew Kopania Henry was born in Lodz, Poland. Having graduated from secondary schools in 1969, he became a student at the state theatrical, television, and film college, the Faculty of Camera-Works. Included among its distinguished alumni is Roman Polanski.
Together with film and photographic activities, he cultivated paintings in the department of Art. The early stage of his painting was under the guidance of Dr. K. Zwolinska and J. Mierzejewski, a renowned painter in Poland and abroad.

Domenico Morelli | Symbolist painter

Domenico Morelli (1823-1901) was an Italian painter, who mainly produced historical and religious works.

Morelli was immensely influential in the arts of the second half of the 19th century, both as director of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples, but also because of his rebelliousness against institutions: traits that flourished into the passionate, often patriotic, Romantic and later Symbolist subjects of his canvases.

Vincenzo Gemito (1852-1929) | Figurative sculptor

Giuseppe Verdi [1813-1901]

Vincenzo Gemito born in Naples in 1852, is considered to be the most important Italian sculptor of the late nineteenth century and is increasingly regarded as one of its greatest draughtsmen.

His origins were unpromising.

An orphan street child until he was adopted by a poor artisan, he was put out as an assistant to the sculptor Emanuele Caggiano at the age of nine.

He then attached himself informally to the older but more progressive sculptor Stanislao Lista, who apparently encouraged him to work from street models.

Kevin Zuckerman | Abstract painter

Kevin Zuckerman (1960-2022) was born in St. Louis and grew up in Japan, Thailand, and Greece.

He returned to the United States to live in Washington D.C. and Chicago and now lives and works in New Mexico.

At the age of 18, Kevin entered The American Academy of Art in Chicago, IL.

After completing his training there, he began his private study with the master painter, Eugene Hall, until Hall's death in 1985.

Charles Sprague-Pearce | Academic / Orientalist painter

During the mid-nineteenth century, before America had truly established its claim to artistic originality, American artists were seduced by the fascinating Parisian art scene.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century an important group of American artists congregated in France, among them Mary Cassatt, James Abbot MacNeill Whistler - though only temporarily- and Daniel Ridgway Knight, among many others.

Masson Benoit | Still life painter

Italian painter R. Masson Benoit works in Turin. Up to 20 years studied painting at various masters. After participated in group exhibitions held several solo exhibitions. His works are a series of colors that convey the viewer a fresh emotional outburst, feeling fragrant viability tangibility. Colors are sometimes violent, sometimes calm are always in a pleasant harmony. The joyful and exciting palette R. Masson Benoit has a touching charm.

Karin Jurick | Figurative Realist painter

When painter Karin Jurick was in high school, she spent many days and hours going to train stations and museums so she could sketch the variety of people who came into her view. She would sketch fast, quickly filling up sketchbook after sketchbook, and it was just something she wanted to do – the more she did it, the better she got.

Arthur Severn | Landscape in Watercolour painter

From a well-known artistic family -his father Joseph, brother Walter and sister Mary were also painters-, Joseph Arthur Palliser Severn [1842-1931] was closely linked to John Ruskin; he married the famous art critic's niece Joan Ruskin Agnew in 1871. Severn joined Albert Goodwin and Ruskin on a trip to Italy in 1872 and the present work illustrates the influence of Ruskin's artistic theories.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Woman with a Cat, 1875

Pierre Auguste Renoir - Girl Asleep with Cat, 1880

Andrea Benetti, 1964 | Neo Cave Art

Andrea Benetti, born in Bologna in 1964, has been expressing his pictorial talents for many years to the favor of both critics and the general public of the complex world of contemporary art. His work has been shown in highly prestigious venues, and is on permanent display in at least a dozen museums, public institutions and international collections.

Yuri Obukhovsky, 1965 | Romantic painter

Юрий Обуховский was born in Perm. In 1987 he graduated from the picturesque branch of Penza Art College. KA Savitsky. Works in the genre of landscape in oil painting and watercolors, continuing and developing the traditions of Russian realistic school, or rather its direction “Romantic Realism”.

Since 1989 - exhibitions in many galleries in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

1992 - An exhibition of watercolors in London.

Alfred Wahlberg | The Düsseldorf school of painting

Herman Alfred Leonard Wahlberg (13 February 1834 - 4 October 1906) was a Swedish landscape painter from Stockholm. After receiving preparatory education at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, Wahlberg moved to Düsseldorf in 1857 to train-he was since associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.

He returned to Stockholm in 1862 and painted Svenskt insjölandskap från Kolmården (1866), which became very famous and was displayed at the National Museum of Arts.

Wahlberg moved to Paris in 1866 and displayed two paintings at the 1868 Paris Salon. He became successful in Paris and was awarded with medals at the Paris Salon in 1870 and 1872. At the 1878 World's Fair in Paris, Wahlberg was recognized with a first class medal.

Spányi Béla | En plein air painter

Béla Adalbert von Spányi (19 March 1852, Pest - 12 June 1914, Budapest) was one of Hungary’s best painters of landscapes and scenes of natural outdoor beauty.
He studied in Vienna, Munich and Paris and spent much of his time in Szolnok, a popular gathering place for artists. He was one of the assistants who worked with Árpád Feszty to produce his monumental cyclorama Arrival of the Hungarians.

Marchella Piery | Palette Knife painting

Marchella Piery is a Italian-born Canadian artist. Her family greatly valued the arts, taking an early interest in drawing and painting. She studied art at Marseille's School of Fine Arts, France.
In 1996 she moved to Canada and specialized in flower arrangements, wedding bouquets and decorations. But never stop painting on canvas.
Her passion is flowers still lifes, bouquets and vases.