Nils Kreuger | Paris painting

Nils Edvard Kreuger (11 October 1858 - 11 May 1930) was a Swedish painter.

After studying at the Perséus school of painting, Nils Kreuger came to Paris in 1881. Under the influence of the French plein air style of painting he produced landscapes and cityscapes of Paris and its region, often at dawn or dusk, in the mist, rain or snow. In 1887 he returned home to Sweden and settled in Varberg, where he from 1893 painted together with Richard Bergh and Karl Nordström.

Luigi Bartolini | Colors /Colori

Black, you are Black Hell, its dark portals,
the arch of Styx, the shadow of evening, the breath of night,
the dismal quilt that lastly shrouds our bodies;
black, color and bestower of Death.

Red, you of all colors are the youngest,
before you all sadness fades away and is put to flight;
color of fragrant blooms, of burning lips,
you are the soul of the senses, oh earthly color!

John Burden, 1943

Burden: "In painting my job is to peel away the never ending layers that describe us. Like the archeologist, I use hard won skills. But what I uncover has been waiting – forever. I've been sharpening my skills by drawing, painting, or designing just about every day for the past forty years, or more".

Visual arist P. John Burden is a classically trained Canadian and British subject. Burden's work includes original acrylic paintings, watercolour paintings, and traditional and modern artist’s prints.

His art is symbolic or surrealist, using representational skills from a lifetime of drawing, painting, design. John Burden also illustrates books for all ages and has work in collections worldwide.

Classically trained in printmaking and painting, etc, at City and Guilds, London, U.K. where he was awarded the rare Certificate of Exceptional Merit.

Catherine Calcagni: Mi crolla addosso la notte

Mi crolla addosso la notte

"your wild kiss in the dark" che...

in assenza di te

sprofonda e avanza

dentro di me...

Mara Light

Filippo Palizzi | Pastore addormentato con il suo cane, 1850-1855

Filippo Palizzi (1818-1899) con il fratello Giuseppe, rappresenta il primo tentativo di un indirizzo verista nella pittura italiana dell'Ottocento.

Sulla scia della Scuola di Posillipo e di una spontanea inclinazione orientò il suo lavoro verso una dettagliata osservazione del vero.

Fu tra i primi pittori a interessarsi di fotografia ed a praticarla, sulla base di conoscenze tecniche molto approfondite.

Filippo Palizzi | Verist painter

Filippo Palizzi (1818-1899) was an Italian painter. Filippo Palizzi was born in Vasto (Chieti).

He moved to Naples in 1837 and enrolled at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts, but withdrew after a few months to attend the private school of the painter Giuseppe Bonolis.

Contact with his brother Giuseppe, who moved to France in 1844, introduced him to the painting of the Barbizon School.

Tanvi Pathare | Figurative painter

Tanvi Pathare, born in Mumbai, India, showed a growing interest in the fine arts since a very early age.

She graduated with honors from the prestigious Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai where she received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting.

Following the allure of the realistic tradition of painting from nature, Tanvi attended The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy, graduating from the Painting Program in 2012.

Lionel Percy Smythe | Victorian landscape watercolors painter

Lionel Percy Smythe (1839-1918) was Wyllie's older half-brother and the eldest of three illegitimate children that their mother, Katherine Benham, a singer, had with Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford (though the family always claimed a marriage).

He was born in London on 4 September 1839 and spent his early years in France, where his younger sister and brother were born, though the family returned to London in 1843 and lived in Gloucester Crescent, Camden.

Leonardo da Vinci | Differenza tra la Pittura e la Scultura

Trattato della Pittura

Parte prima | Capitolo 32

Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura | Testo Integrale

Tra la pittura e la scultura non trovo altra differenza, senonché lo scultore conduce le sue opere con maggior fatica di corpo che il pittore, ed il pittore conduce le opere sue con maggior fatica di mente.

Provasi cosí esser vero, conciossiaché lo scultore nel fare la sua opera fa per forza di braccia e di percussione a consumare il marmo, od altra pietra soverchia, ch'eccede la figura che dentro a quella si rinchiude, con esercizio meccanicissimo, accompagnato spesse volte da gran sudore composto di polvere e convertito in fango, con la faccia impastata, e tutto infarinato di polvere di marmo che pare un fornaio, e coperto di minute scaglie, che pare gli sia fioccato addosso; e l'abitazione imbrattata e piena di scaglie, e di polvere di pietre.

Guy Rose (1867-1925) | Impressionist painter

Guy Rose was an American painter who is recognized as one of California's top Impressionist painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Guy Orlando Rose was born March 3, 1867 in San Gabriel, California. He was the seventh child of Leonard John Rose and Amanda Jones Rose.

His father was a prominent California senator. He and his wife raised their large family on an expansive Southern California ranch and vineyard - the San Gabriel Valley town of Rosemead bears the family name. In 1876 young Guy Rose was accidentally shot in the face during a hunting trip with his brothers. While recuperating he began to sketch and use watercolors and oil paints.

Albrecht Dürer | Woodcuts and Engravings

Undisputed master of the woodcut, German painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is one of the most celebrated Northern Renaissance painters and printmakers. His original etchings, engravings and woodcuts contain exquisite detail and elaborate imagery drawing on religious and philosophical ideas.

For biographical notes notes -in english and italian- on Dürer see Albrecht Dürer ~ Renaissance painter.

Albrecht Dürer | Hands study

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was a painter, printmaker and theorist of the German Renaissance.

Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties, due to his high-quality woodcut prints.

He was in communication with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 he was patronized by emperor Maximilian I.

Albert Carrier-Belleuse | La Melodie, 1887

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (born Albert-Ernest Carrier de Belleuse; 12 June 1824 - 4 June 1887) was a French sculptor. He was one of the founding members of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and was made an officer of the Legion of Honour.

His work encompassed all manner of sculptural subjects and materials, and his naturalism incorporated a breadth of styles: unembellished Realism, neo-Baroque exuberance, and Rococo elegance.

For biographical notes notes -in english and italian- on Carrier de Belleuse see Albert Carrier-Belleuse ~ Chryselephantine sculpture.

Albert Carrier-Belleuse | Rembrandt sitting with book

Albert Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) was instrumental in popularising the fashion for ideal portraits of historical personalities. After his return from England in 1855, he created a lively series of fantasy busts of great artists.

The Rembrandt was one of the first of the sculptor's series of busts and was exhibited at the 1863 Union Centrale in Faience with a bust of Durer. These two were soon followed by portraits of Beethoven, Mozart, Michelangelo and Raphael, and in 1874, Rubens, van Ostade, Velazquez and Murillo were added to the series.

Paul Gagni | Paris painting

Paul Gagni (1893-1962) was a Post-Impressionist Artist. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He exhibited at the Autumn Salon and the Salon of Independent Artists. He is well known for his Paris street scenes.

Arthur Schopenhauer: "No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose"

• "Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see".

• "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident".

• "Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude".

• "If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him".

Antonio Nunziante

Louis Toffoli | Abstract Cubist painter

Louis Toffoli (1907-1999) was a French modernist artist, born in 1907, known for his characteristic post-cubist transparent paintings.

A twentieth century French painter and printmaker, Louis Toffoli studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Trieste in 1924. In 1928 he exhibited his paintings in that city and was promptly condemned by Mussolini's fascist regime.

Two years later Toffoli emigrated to Paris and began regularly exhibiting at the Salon d'Automne, Salon des Independants, Salon des Peintres Temoins de leur Temps and elsewhere.

With the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-1945) Louis Toffoli sought refuge in the countryside of Touraine and worked for the French Resistance. After the war he returned to Paris and received his French citizenship in 1947.

John Haag, 1980 | Realist / Impressionist painter

John Haag is a professional artist whose work has been described as a fusion of impressionism and realism. Specializing in oil and charcoal, Haag began painting at the age of 18 and selling his work at age 21. He had his first solo show at age 24 in Park City, UT. Working primarily as a portrait artist in his early career, Haag’s work can be found in private collections throughout the US and has been commissioned by many prominent Americans, including the late world renowned author/speaker Steven R. Covey.

Rainer Maria Rilke ~ Do not be afraid, it’s me / Non aver paura, sono io..

William Zorach (1887-1968) Spring in Central Park, 1914

Do not be afraid, it’s me.
You do not feel that I infringe on you,
with all your senses?
He put wings, my heart,
and now, white flies around your face.
Do not you see my soul before you,
adorned with silence?
And my prayer of May,
not ripe to your eyes, like a tree?
If you dream, I’m your dream,
but if you’re awake, I am your will;
master of all glory arch my silence starry

Max Streckenbach | Floral still life painter

Max Theodore Streckenbach (1863-1936) was born in Eckernförde, Germany on May 18, 1863 to Udo Streckenbach and Marie Wiebke. Streckenbach was the son of a pharmacist and, as such, was sent to study medicine after finishing high school at Schleswig Catholic School (1876-1885).

He studied medicine in Munich, Berlin, Rostock, Kiel and Bern, Switzerland before returning to his home town of Eckernförde.

His fondness for botany led him to take lessons from his role model, the French painter Fantin-Latour.

Ernesto Canto da Maia | Symbolist sculptor

Ernesto Canto da Maia (1890-1981) was born in 1890 at Ponta Delgada (São Miguel island, Azores) in the midst of a wealthy family. In 1907, after graduating at high school, he leaves to Lisbon and enrols at the Drawing Class of the Fine Arts School, having Ernesto Condeixa, José Luís Monteiro and José Alexandre Soares as teachers. In 1912, he participates at the I Portuguese Caricature Exhibit with a set of small statuetes which criticize the frivolity of life at the cities.

Axel Törneman | The father of Swedish Modernism

Johan Axel Gustaf Törneman (28 October 1880 - 26 December 1925) was one of Sweden's earliest modernist painters. Born in Persberg, Värmland, in Sweden, he grew to work in several modernist styles, was one of the first Swedish expressionist artists, and became a part of the international avant-garde in art after embracing more abstract art styles in Germany and France that were evolving there during the early 1900s. He created his most famous paintings, Night Café I and II, and Trait, in France in 1905. These night café paintings, made from studies in the Place Pigalle, and in other nightclubs popular with artists such as Café du Rat Mort (Dead Rat Café), are seen as two of Swedish modernism's most important works, and are considered breakthrough work of Swedish modernism.

Pyotr Nilus | La Belle Époque

The grandson of General, a member of the War of 1812, Pyotr Alexandrovich Nilus / Пётр Александрович Нилус (1869-1940) was a famous artist, especially in Odessa, where he studied at the Art School (1883-1889). But studies at the Academy of Fine Arts is over for P. Nilus in the year. By doing it in 1889, a year later he left her to do independent work. He made ​​such a bold move young Pyotr Nilus on the advice of great authority - IE Repin, who believed that not every talent academy is good, otherwise it just standardizes.

Vida Gábor | Genre painter

Vida Gábor (1937-1999) was born to a simple working Hungarian family in 1937. He became attracted to music in his early youth and received a music scholarship. He studied and mastered the flute. In 1956, he began working as a flute soloist in the Philharmonic orchestra for the Budapest Opera and continued for 25 years. Although, he has always been painting and sculpting throughout his life, he decided to dedicate himself completely to painting in 1977. Being a perfectionist, he decided to achieve the highest standards in this fine art and to create his own unique style.

Salvatore Fiume | Figurative painter

Salvatore Fiume (1915-1997) was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, writer and stage designer.

His works are kept in some of the most important museums in the world, among which the Vatican Museums, the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg, the Museum of Modern Art of New York, the Pushkin Museum of Moscow and the Galleria d'Arte Moderna of Milan.

Jean-Francois Raffaelli | Cityscape painter

Jean-François Raffaëlli (April 20, 1850 - February 11, 1924) was a French Realist painter, sculptor and printmaker who exhibited with the Impressionists.

Sandro Botticelli | Mystic Nativity / Natività mistica, 1501

The 'Mystic Nativity' shows angels and men celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. The Virgin Mary kneels in adoration before her infant son, watched by the ox and the ass at the manger. Mary's husband, Joseph, sleeps nearby. Shepherds and wise men have come to visit the new-born king. Angels in the heavens dance and sing hymns of praise. On earth they proclaim peace, joyfully embracing virtuous men while seven demons flee defeated to the underworld.

Sandro Botticelli | Calumny of Apelles / La calunnia di Apelle, 1496

The Calumny of Apelles is a tempera painting by Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. Based on the description of a painting by Apelles, the work was completed in approximately 1494. It is on display in the Uffizi in Florence.

In The Calumny of Apelles, Botticelli drew on the description of a painting by Apelles, a Greek painter of the Hellenistic Period.

Edward Lamson Henry | Genre painter

Edward Lamson Henry (January 12, 1841 - May 9, 1919), commonly known as E.L. Henry, was an American genre painter, born in Charleston, South Carolina.

• Early life

Though born in Charleston, by age seven his parents had died and Henry moved to live with cousins in New York City. He began studying painting, there and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1860 he went to Paris, where he studied with Charles Gleyre and Gustave Courbet, at roughly the same time as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley.

Honoré de Balzac | Quotes / Aforismi

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

• A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.
• There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.
• True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.
• There are some women whose pregnancy would make some sly bachelor smile.
• Love has its own instinct, finding the way to the heart, as the feeblest insect finds the way to its flower, with a will which nothing can dismay nor turn aside.

Dmitry Balahonov, 1971 | Saint Petersburgh painting

Dmitry Balahonov /Дмитрий Балахонов was born February 6, 1971. From early childhood, he studied at different art schools. In 1989 he graduated from art school in the city of Bobruisk, after serving in the army engaged in the work of a professional. Since 1992 he has been working independently in the Mogilev. In 1995, goes to live abroad, working with galleries in Tel Aviv, holds solo exhibitions. In 1999 he moved to live in Mogilev, actively cooperates with many galleries and salons of Moscow and St. Petersburg, Minsk.

Georgi Lapchine | Neo-Impressionist painter

Georgi (Georgy, Georges) Alexandrovich Lapchine / Георгий Александрович Лапшин (1885-1950) was born in Moscow. In the early 1900s Lapshin studied at the Stroganov School. In 1906-1909 he lived in Paris, studied with Cormon and J. F. Lhermitte.

Returning to Moscow, participated in the group exhibition of independence (1910), was the founder and permanent participant of "free art" (1911-1917).

In 1918-1922 works were exhibited in Moscow on the 1st and 2nd shows a picture of professional union painters in Moscow (1918), the 2nd National Exhibition of paintings (1919), the 47th exhibition TPHV (1922), as well as the 1st Russian art Exhibition in Berlin (1922). In 1924 he moved to Paris.

Carlo Russo, 1976 | Still life / Figurative painter

Carlo Russo was born in Philadelphia PA. He is currently based in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, where he maintains his studio and teaches painting and drawing in addition to creating his newest works. Carlo graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2004 where he focused his studies in the  methods and practices of traditional realism. Since his graduation, he has been a full-time artist and has exhibited his works in numerous galleries across the United States.