Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

Eugène Delacroix ⎆ was a French ⎆ romantic painter regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the french Romantic school.

Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement ⎆.

A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish writer Walter Scott and the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres ⎆, Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modeled form.
Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of greek and roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic.
Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.

However, Delacroix was given neither to sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire:

"Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible".

Domenico Ghirlandaio | Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni, 1488

Title: Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni.

Author: Domenico Ghirlandaio - Italian ⎆ Early Renaissance painter ⎆ (1449-1494).

Date: 1488.

Medium: Mixed media on panel.

Dimensions: 77 x 49 cm.

Current location: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA | The Royal Academy’s first president

From Royal Academy of Arts:

The Royal Academy’s first president, Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (1723-1792), was considered the leading portrait painter of his day and a key figure in the Academy. Still in print today, and widely translated, his groundbreaking Discourses in Art were hugely influential on the development of British art.

The son of a Devonshire reverend and schoolmaster, Reynolds received a comprehensive education before being apprenticed to the portrait painter Thomas Hudson aged 17. In 1749, he was invited to join the HMS Centurion on a voyage to the Mediterranean; Reynolds disembarked in Rome and stayed there for two years, studying the Old Masters. While in Rome he suffered from a bad cold which left him partially deaf so that he often carried an ear trumpet round with him, and was often depicted carrying the trumpet.

Soon after his return, Reynolds set up a studio in London and quickly established himself as a sought-after portrait painter, making important aristocratic connections in the process. His circle of friends included 18th-century notables such as the writer Dr Samuel Johnson, actor and playwright David Garrick and statesman Edmund Burke. He painted memorable portraits of all of them.

Juan de Flandes | Northern Renaissance painter

Juan de Flandes (John of Flanders, c. 1460 - 1519) was an Early Netherlandish painter who was active in Spain from 1496-1519; his actual name is unknown, although an inscription Juan Astrat on the back of one work suggests a name such as "Jan van der Straat". Jan Sallaert, who became a master in Ghent in 1480, has also been suggested.

Quotes about Johannes Vermeer

• Delacroix spoke of the Greek coin being built from the center out. Vermeer has painted in this way, according to the principles of mass.. ..How beautifully they are drawn - Vermeer does not just make a leaf and place it in the design, he relates space and leaf. [on the painting of Vermeer ‘Allegory on the New Testament]. That drapery - it is abstract – observe how this shape [a space between a shepherd and the tree] curves around the center space while the tree counter-curves opposite it, cutting an egg shape.. ..the spaces on the carpet that carry no figuration are, in fact, shapes of vital importance in building the whole…

• Arshile Gorky in: 'A visit to the Metropolitan Museum with Gorky', Ethel Schwabacher, 1947; as quoted in "Arshile Gorky, - Goats on the roof", ed. by Matthew Spender, Ridinghouse, London 2009, p. 357.

• Yes, Johannes Vermeer paints in thin layers – there is no waste effort – and those small dots – no, they are not like Seurat’s, though they contain all the light the pointillist may have wished for, concentrated, hovering before the object, but not obliterating it.. ..Vermeer is not a sun painter, but rather a moon-painter - like Uccello - that’s good, it is the pure, final stage of art, the moment when it becomes more real than reality.

• Arshile Gorky in: A visit to the Metropolitan Museum with Gorky', Ethel Schwabacher, 1947; as quoted in "Arshile Gorky, Goats on the roof", ed. by Matthew Spender, Ridinghouse, London 2009, pp. 357-58.

Hans Holbein the Younger | Northern Renaissance painter

Hans Holbein the Younger, (born 1497/98, Augsburg, Bishopric of Augsburg [Germany] - died 1543, London, England), German painter ⎆, draftsman, and designer, renowned for the precise rendering of his drawings and the compelling realism of his portraits, particularly those recording the court of King Henry VIII of England.

Holbein was a member of a family of important artists. His father, Hans Holbein the Elder, and his uncle Sigmund were renowned for their somewhat conservative examples of late Gothic painting in Germany.

Cosmé Tura | Early Renaissance painter

Cosmè Tura, Cosmè also spelled Cosimo, (born c. 1430, Ferrara [Italy] - died 1495, Ferrara), early Italian Renaissance painter who was the founder and the first significant figure of the 15th-century school of Ferrara. His well-documented career provides a detailed glimpse of the life of a court painter.

Tura was probably trained in Francesco Squarcione’s workshop in Padua and was influenced by Andrea Mantegna ⎆ and by Piero della Francesca when the latter artist was working in Ferrara (c. 1449-50).

Annibale Carracci (Italian, 1560-1609)

Annibale Carracci, (born November 3, 1560, Bologna, Papal States [Italy] - died July 15, 1609, Rome), Italian painter who was influential in recovering the classicizing tradition of the High Renaissance from the affectations of Mannerism.

He was the most talented of the three painters of the Carracci family.

The sons of a tailor, Annibale and his older brother Agostino were at first guided by their older cousin Lodovico, a painter who persuaded them to follow him in his profession.

Annibale’s precocious talents developed in a tour of northern Italy in the 1580s, his visit to Venice being of special significance.

Vincent Van Gogh | First Steps (after Millet), 1890

Artist: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Date: 1890

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 72.4 x 91.1 cm

Current location: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Charles Bukowski | Quando Dio creò l’amore / Yes Yes

When God created love he didn't help most

when God created dogs He didn't help dogs

when God created plants that was average

when God created hate we had a standard utility

when God created me He created me

when God created the monkey He was asleep

when He created the giraffe He was drunk

Anna MarinovaRussian painter,1983) Spring Harmony

Van Gogh | Sunflowers, 1888

This is one of five versions of Sunflowers on display in museums and galleries across the world.

Van Gogh made the paintings to decorate his house in Arles in readiness for a visit from his friend and fellow artist, Paul Gauguin.

"The sunflower is mine", Van Gogh once declared, and it is clear that the flower had various meanings for him.

Vincent van Gogh | Sunflowers, 1888 | National Gallery, London

Larry Duke | Ballet Dancers

Nord Carolina based artist Larry Duke is an American painter ⎆, know for working in in the Figurative Impressionism style ⎆. As a young person, Duke discovered an aptitude and love for drawing and has enjoyed art ever since.

His interest intensified and became even more passionate 11 years ago when he started oil painting with a local artist (Manny Rashet). Over the past six years he has worked with Andy Braitman where he mastered his unique combination of loose brush work and palette knife ⎆.

Giovanni (Nino) Costa | Genre painter

Giovanni Costa (15 October 1826 - 31 January 1903), often known as Nino Costa, was an Italian landscape painter and patriotic revolutionary.

Giovanni Costa was born in Rome on 15 October 1826, the fourteenth of the sixteen children of Gioacchino Costa (died 1842) and Maria Chiappi (died 1857).

His father was from Santa Margherita Ligure and as a young man had moved to Rome, where he opened a wool-spinning factory and achieved wealth and position.

The family lived in a large house in Piazza San Francesco a Ripa, in Trastevere, close to the factory.

Felix Revello de Toro, 1926 | Figurative painter

Spanish artist Félix Revello de Toro was born in Malaga on June 10, 1926, the son of art teacher José María Revello Cazar. He started painting when he was 13 years old. The City Hall of Malaga helped him study at the Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.

He became a university professor for 17 years in Barcelona, and then decided to dedicate himself solely to painting. He became one of the best portrait painters in Spain, and in 1991 he was asked to paint the official portraits of the King and Queen of Spain.

Gerard Terburg (1617-1681)

Gerard ter Borch (December 1617 - 8 December 1681), also known as Gerard Terburg, was an influential and pioneering Dutch ⎆ genre painter who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.
He influenced fellow Dutch painters ⎆ Gabriel Metsu, Gerrit Dou ⎆, Eglon van der Neer and Johannes Vermeer ⎆.

According to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Ter Borch:

"established a new framework for subject matter, taking people into the sanctum of the home"

showing the figures’ uncertainties and expertly hinting at their inner lives. His influence as a painter, however, was later surpassed by Vermeer ⎆.

Gerard ter Borch (Zwolle, dicembre 1617 - Deventer, 8 dicembre 1681) è stato un pittore Olandese ⎆, specializzato in scene di genere e ritratti.
La sua prima formazione avvenne presso il padre Gerard ter Borch il Vecchio, per poi diventare allievo del pittore di paesaggi Pieter de Molijn ad Haarlem. Stimolato dalla pittura di Rembrandt e degli italiani, nel 1635 si mise in viaggio e soggiornò lungamente in Inghilterra, dove incontrò Anton van Dyck, in Spagna e a Roma.

Rientrò in patria nel 1645 e risiedette ad Haarlem, Amsterdam e Münster (in Vestfalia), dove fra il 1646-1648 fu ritrattista per l'ambasciatore olandese, durante le negoziazioni di pace con la Spagna. Visse poi in numerosi altri posti, fino a stabilirsi a Deventer, dove morì nel 1681.
Abile ritrattista, si specializzò nella pittura di interni e di scene domestiche della borghesia, spesso con gentili accenni ironici.

Nella cura della bellezza fisica del sui soggetti traspaiono infatti talvolta accenni alla transitorietà delle cose mondane e della ricchezza, alla fugacità capricciosa dell'amore, all'essenza talvolta vuota e vana della mondanità.

Fu un vero maestro nel cogliere le sfumature più sottili, tanto figuratamente nella psicologia, quanto realmente nella stesura pittorica, dove seppe cogliere con maestria il diverso incedere della luce sui più svariati materiali.

John French Sloan

John French Sloan (Lock Haven, 2 agosto 1871 - Hanover, 7 settembre 1951) è stato un pittore Statunitense, e uno dei fondatori della scuola d'arte americana Ashcan.

È conosciuto per le sue immagini di genere urbano e per la sua particolare abilità nel catturare l’essenza della vita nel quartiere di Chelsea, New York.

Nel 1971 il dipinto Wake of the Ferry (1907) fu riprodotto in un francobollo statunitense in onore di Sloan.

Gerald Harvey Jones (1933-2017)

American painter Gerald Harvey Jones, the celebrated impressionist, better known to his peers and patrons as G. Harvey, was a modest man whose humility belies his unqualified success.

His images have influenced a worldwide enthusiasm and demand for contemporary American art for a generation.

Few artists have intrigued and captivated art collectors as widely as the celebrated painter, G. Harvey.

During his storied career, has painted turn-of-the-century America as no other artist.

Marià Fortuny i Marsal | Romantic / Orientalist painter

Marià Fortuny i Marsal - complete name Marià Josep Maria Bernat Fortuny i Marsal (June 11, 1838 - November 21, 1874), known more simply as Marià Fortuny or Mariano Fortuny, was the leading Spanish painter of his day, with an international reputation.

His brief career encompassed works on a variety of subjects common in the art of the period, including the Romantic fascination with Orientalist themes, historicist genre painting, military painting of Spanish colonial expansion, as well as a prescient loosening of brush-stroke and color.

Le visioni di Victor Crisostomo, 1941

Victor Crisostomo è un artista contemporaneo di Lima, Perù, e ritrae le persone e le culture del suo paese natale nei suoi ritratti vivaci e accattivanti.

Queste immagini avvincenti fondono la tradizione con un tocco contemporaneo.

La dicotomia tra passato e presente sarebbe normalmente difficile e proibitivamente complessa, tuttavia Victor, un nativo americano di origine Inca Qechua, colma senza sforzo i due estremi mentre viaggia nelle giungle del Sud America per la sua ricerca e ispirazione.

Pablo Neruda | If your eyes / Se non fosse per i tuoi occhi..

John Singer Sargent | Two Girls with Parasols at Fladbury, 1889

If your eyes were not the color of the moon,

of a day full of clay, and work, and fire,

if even held-in you did not move in agile grace like the air,

if you were not an amber week,

not the yellow moment