Herbert James Draper | Pittore Vittoriano

Herbert James Draper (Londra, 1863-1920) è stato un pittore Inglese dell'età Vittoriana.

Studiò arte alla Royal Academy londinese e compì svariati viaggi di studio a Roma e Parigi tra il 1888-1892.

Nel 1890 lavorò come illustratore e nel 1891 sposò Ida Williams, figlia d'un magistrato, da cui ebbe una figlia. in seguito lavorò per l'inglese Illustrated Magazine come illustratore di libri dedicati ai giovani.

Giuseppe Gigli, 1955 | Hyperrealist painter

Giuseppe Gigli was born in Arcevia (Ancona) in 1955, where he still lives and works.

In the mid 70's, after the first paintings and exhibits, he attended various schools and workshops in Florence where he specialized in the restoration of works of art.

Giuseppe spent the following 30 years as an art restorer, consulter, and dealer, proving himself on an international level and collaborating with art historians, superintendence, auction houses, galleries and museums.

Ancient Greek | Legacy

The civilization of ancient Greece has been immensely influential on language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science, and the arts. It became the Leitkultur of the Roman Empire to the point of marginalizing native Italic traditions. As Horace put it,

Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artis / intulit agresti Latio (Epistulae 2.1.156f.)

"Captive Greece took captive her uncivilised conqueror and instilled her arts in rustic Latium".

Carlo Wostry | Belle Époque painter

A painter of historical and genre subjects, Carlo Wostry (1865-1943) was also a sculptor and engraver. He studied in Vienna and also at the Baviere School in Munich, so gaining a varied and comprehensive training as a young man.

His first exhibition was in his hometown of Trieste, Italy and he painted a number of fine portraits there and soon produced a good living from his vocation as an artist.

Greatly influenced by Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) the great portrait and genre painter from Ferare, Italy.

Giovanni Boldini | Ballerine Spagnole al Moulin Rouge, 1900

No artist captured the glamour, energy and optimism of the Parisian Belle Époque better than the Italian master Giovanni Boldini.

After leaving his native Italy for the French capital in 1871, Boldini enjoyed meteoric success, attracting the support of the city's influential dealer Adolphe Goupil as well as its most esteemed members of high society.

Among those who sat for the celebrated painter were Marchesa Luisa Casati, Consuelo Vanderbilt the Duchess of Marlborough, Count Robert de Montesquieu, Giuseppe Verdi and many other cultural and societal luminaries.

Giovanni Boldini | Ballerine Spagnole al Moulin Rouge, 1905 | Christie's

Gigino Falconi, 1933 | Metaphysical painter

Gigino Falconi was born in Giulianova (Teramo) in 1933.

He began painting at the age of sixteen, and in 1954 he obtained a Liceo Artistico of Pescara.

During the early years of his career, Falconi began teaching and drawing at the middle school in his city, refining his technique by copying a thousand paintings and drawings, bringing himself to an understanding of the secrets of technique and color behind the Great Masters of every century.

Ichiro Tsuruta 鶴田-郎, 1954 | Art Déco painter

Ichiro Tsuruta was born in Hondo-shi (current Amakusa-shi), Kumamoto.

He grew up surrounded by rich nature of Amakusa area.

He has liked to paint since his childhood.

After graduating from high school, he entered Tama Art University, majored in graphic design and tried to become an illustrator.

Angelo Vadalà | Figurative painter / Sculptor

Angelo Vadalà (1940-2024) was born in Messina, Italy.

He started painting five decades ago, when he was only 12.

At the age of 18, Vadalà left Sicily to live and study in Florence, officially to attend university and study architecture.

But after two years of study at the Florence University of Architecture, Vadalà found he was distracted by what the many museums of that beautiful city contained, and not by the stone and wood that housed the art.

From his study of architecture, Vadalà had received a foundation in the art and technique of draftsmanship.

Lionello Balestrieri | Beethoven, 1900

In 1899, Lionello Balestrieri (12 September 1872 - October 24, 1958) painted a canvas depicting Beethoven -Kreutzer Sonata-, which after winning an award at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris and in 1901 in Venice, brought him fame.

The painting depicts a dimly lit garret-like apartment with a strand of listeners along the left wall, each in their own mood, while a violinist plays between them and a furnace.

Eugenio Lucas Villaamil | Belle Époque painter

Eugenio Lucas Villaamil (Madrid, 1858-1918) also known as Lucas "the younger", was born to the painter Eugenio Lucas Velázquez and Francisca Villaamil.

Until only a few years ago the information we had about his life was almost as vague as what is known about his work.

After initially training in his father’s studio as a boy, he furthered his studies at the Special School of Painting in Madrid and took part in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts three times.

Ippolito Caffi | Romantic vedutista

Italian painter Ippolito Caffi (1809-1866) was the most modern and original architectural subjects, seascapes and urban vedute artist of his time, and his paintings are so special in immortalising the soul of the places and peoples he encountered during his many trips.

He was born at Belluno.

His first works were produced at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice.

By 1830, he had won awards for his vedute at the Academy.

Daniel Densborn, 1946 | Flamenco dancers

Daniel Densborn is a French self-taught painter.

Thanks to a knife and to small touches of color which he wisely applies on a canvas, he gives life to the subjects that he represents: bullfighting, hose racing, dancing.. the fury, the power of life intrinsic to his source of inspiration are thus perfectly captured.

His paintings are bold and romantic.

Andrew Atroshenko, 1965 | Ballet dancers

Born in the City of Pokrovsk, Russia, Andrew Atroshenko became part of a gifted child program at the Children’s Art School there, and was later accepted at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art, one of the world’s most prestigious art schools.

In 1999 Atroshenko spent the entire year in the U.S.

He was invited by "Bay Arts", a New England based group, to take part in their exhibitions and activities.

Victor Hugo | Surrealist Illustrator

Victor Marie Hugo (1802-1885) was not only one of France's greatest poet, novelist and dramatist, but also a prolific artist, painter, watercolourist, draughtsman and caricaturist.

Victor Hugo produced more than 4000 drawings.

Originally pursued as a casual hobby, drawing became more important to Hugo shortly before his exile, when he made the decision to stop writing in order to devote himself to politics.

Drawing became his exclusive creative outlet during the period 1848-1851.

Jean Béraud | Belle Époque painter

Jean Béraud (January 12, 1848 - October 4, 1935) was a French painter renowned for his numerous paintings depicting the life of Paris, and the nightlife of Paris society.

Pictures of the Champs Elysees, cafés, Montmartre and the banks of the Seine are precisely detailed illustrations of everyday Parisian life during the "Belle Époque".

He also painted religious subjects in a contemporary setting.

Denis Nolet, 1964 | Romantic painter

Canadian painter Denis Nolet preferring moonlight to sunlight.

He paints scenes saturated with the romance of the night.

Denis Nolet was born in Quebec.

Denis Nolet prefers the mystery of the night to the rays of the sun, which explains his penchant for the colors he uses.

Night owl himself, it is while people sleep that the artist works.

Ron Hicks, 1965: "I like to romanticize life"

"I see things very abstractly, so I think of myself as a painter who sees shape, value, edges and texture.

I like to romanticize life.

I love the interaction of people doing...'things' - whatever it is.

It could be the most mundane thing to any passer - by, but I find great beauty in that" - Ron Hicks

Jaime Sabines | I’m not dying of love: I’m dying of you..

I'm not dying of love: I'm dying of you

my love-dying of the love of you,

of my dire need for my skin of you,

of my soul and my mouth of you,

of the miserable wretch I am without you.

I’m dying of you and me, of both

of us, of this-

ripped to shreds, torn apart,

the two of us are dying, dying of it.

Ron Hicks

Frederick Morgan | Romantic / Genre painter

Frederick Morgan (1847-1927), was an English painter of portraits, animals, domestic and country scenes.

He became known for his idyllic genre scenes of childhood.

Morgan was born in London. He was commonly known as Fred Morgan and was the son of John Morgan, a successful genre artist sometimes known as 'Jury Morgan' (after one of his paintings The Gentlemen of the Jury).

Ed Sandoval | Romantic painter

Ed Sandoval was born in Nambe, New Mexico, to a prominent Spanish family.

Hespent the childhood with a foot in two worlds; on his family’s ranch in Nambe and in Los Alamos, where his father worked as an engineer.

Benefiting from a great education both Academically and in the Arts, Ed graduated from Los Alamos High School, before earning his B.A in Fine Arts from Eastern New Mexico University.

He received a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Utah and after teaching Art there, for two years, he returned to Northern New Mexico where he headed up the Art Department at Los Alamos High School for almost a decade.

Alois Arnegger | Romantic scene painter

Alois Arnegger (1879-1967) was an Austrian painter.

Arnegger was born in Vienna. He developed his skills training at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under landscape artist Robert Russ (1867-1922) and historical artist August Eisenmenger (1830-1907).

Arnegger established a reputation as a fine portraitist and landscape artist, and was particularly well known for his Austrian snow scene paintings.

Andre Kohn, 1972 | Impressionist Figurative painter

The precise convergence of three dynamic forces, culture, environment and talent, combined to produce one of the most collected figurative painters on the American art scene today.

Raised by an artistically gifted family near the Caspian Sea in southern Russia, Andre Kohn's childhood was marked by the natural splendor of mountains and sea, and by an unfettered access to all the creative arts.

His mother was a symphony violinist and his father a noted linguist, writer and sculptor.

Both were educators trained in psychology who gave their only child unrestricted opportunity to explore the depths of art and his own obvious talent.

Bob Pejman, 1963 | Romantic painter

"There are no people in my paintings, so you can imagine yourself in the scenes", explains the artist.

Born in Vienna, Bob Pejman was surrounded by art and culture from an early age.

The son of an operatic composer and a concert musician, he spent his early childhood in Vienna, and then by way of England moved to the United States in 1976.

Pejman began painting by the age of seven, and by the time he was sixteen he had won numerous awards in group exhibitions.

Peder Mørk Mønsted (1859-1941)

Danish painter Peder Mørk Mønsted was born in Balle Mölle, near Grenna in eastern Denmark on 10th December 1859.

He studied at the Prince Ferdinand’s Drawing School, Aarhus where he studied under Andries Fritz (1828-1906), a landscape and portrait painter, before moving to Copenhagen.

Here he studied at the Royal Academy of Art between 1875-1878, and was taught figure painting by Julius Exner (1825-1910).

Bathers, 1918 by Pablo Picasso

Starting from 1918, Picasso spent all his summers at the beach, first at Biarritz, then on the Cote d'Azur or in Dinard.

These journeys inspired him to create a series of works on the theme of bathers.

This painting was created in 1918 at Biarritz and the first one of the series.

It has been a long tradition in art history for artists to depict the female figure with the sea scene, extending from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli to The Large Bathers of Paul Cezanne.

M. and I. Garmash | Romantic Impressionist painters

Michael and Inessa Garmash have created beautiful paintings, stained-glass windows, mosaics and drawings exhibited all over Europe.

Michael Garmash began a painting of their daughter for a project at school several years after their marriage.

However, their two-year-old found the painting during his absence and painted her own version of the subject.

Inessa Garmash, not wanting Michael to be upset, fixed the painting, packed it up and gave it to him to submit.

Michael handed the painting over for review and was told it was his best work ever.

Michelangelo | The young Saint John the Baptist, 1495-1496

The biographies of Michelangelo by Vasari (1550) and Condivi (1553) recount that following the artist’s return to Florence from Bologna in 1495, his first commission was for a marble sculpture of a “San Giovannino” for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’Medici (cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent), now identified as the present work.

Rather than following the model of Donatello’s Saint John the Baptist (Florence, Museo del Bargello) as other Florentine sculptors had done, Michelangelo depicted the Baptist as much younger, no more than a boy of six or seven.

Eugène Delaplanche | Figurative sculptor

Eugène Delaplanche (28 February 1836 - 10 January 1891) was a French sculptor, born at Belleville, Seine.

He was a pupil of the neoclassical sculptor Francisque Joseph Duret (French, 1804-1865), gained the Prix de Rome in 1864 (spending 1864-67 at the Villa Medici in Rome), and the medal of honor° in 1878.

Why the Michelangelo's David statue is so famous?

David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501-1504 by Michelangelo.

It is a 5.17-metre (17.0 ft)[a] marble statue of a standing male.

The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence.

Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, the statue was placed instead in a public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504.

What did the Medici family do for the Renaissance?

The Medici family's extraordinary patronage of art in Florence, it's a story that fundamentally shaped the Renaissance and left a massive legacy.

Here's a breakdown, covering their history, motivations, key figures, notable artists and the impact of their support.

Michelangelo Buonarroti | Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici, 1524-1527

Donatello | The bronze David, 1440

David is the title of two statues of the biblical hero by the Italian early Renaissance sculptor Donatello, an early work in marble of a clothed figure (1408-09), and a far more famous bronze figure and dates to the 1430s or later. Both are now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

Paul Henry R.H.A. | Post-Impressionist painter

Born in Belfast, Paul Henry (11 April 1877 - 24 August 1958) was for much of the 20th century, one of the country’s most identifiable artists, with prints of his paintings of the west of Ireland popularised by railway companies in the 1920s and Bord Fáilte in the 1940s.

In 1898 he went to Paris studying under Jean-Paul Laurens, with Constance Gore-Booth a fellow student.

The Story of Music: A Chronicle of Resonance

The impulse began, as all things do, from a foundational state of near-silence.

Not a void, mind you. A state of potential.

A world teeming with vibration, but lacking organization.

Consider the cave: a resonating chamber.

Water dripping, wind sighing… these were the first notes.

Not "music" as we understand it, but precursors.

The potential for pattern was always present.

Orazio Gentileschi | Young Woman with a Violin (Saint Cecilia), 1612 | Detroit Institute of Arts

Alexei Antonov, 1957

Alexey Antonov is a master of still life and portraiture, drawing inspiration from the techniques of Flemish masters.

He was classically trained in the prominent Russian Academy of Art in Moscow, which gave him a solid foundation for the future development and quality rarely found among young artists.

He studied the techniques of the Flemish Masters: Rubens, Van Dyke, Snyders, and others, in search of achieving refined detail, subtle tone and most importantly to capture the light and glow within the canvas.

August Macke: "The most important thing for me is the direct observation of nature in its light-filled existence"

• "I'm interested in creating a space through color contrasts, rather than by simple shadows of light and dark".

• "Mi interessa creare uno spazio attraverso contrasti di colore, piuttosto che attraverso semplici ombre di luce e buio".

August Macke | Promenade, 1913

Promenade is an oil-on-cardboard painting by the German artist August Macke (1887-1914), executed in 1913.

It is held at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich.

Chronologically, it is the first of the paintings that he created after moving to Hilterfingen in Switzerland.

Francois Fressinier, 1968 | Mixed media painter

Born in Cognac, France to scholarly portrait photographer parents with an affinity for aesthetics, it was fitting that modern figurative artist, François Fressinier, would develop a unique, enchanting style.

His father's admiration for the works of the Old Masters and his exposure to some of the world's most historic places, along with France's Gallo-Roman ruins and Gothic churches inclined François to explore and create figurative, symbolic artwork.

In addition, his education at the Ecole Brassart in Tours afforded him the opportunity to study the drawings and paintings of old and new masters.

Platone | The Arts in education

The Republic (Greek: Πολιτεία, Politeia) is a Socratic dialogue, written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning the definition of justice (δικαιοσύνη), the order and character of the just city-state and the just man ecc..

It is Plato's best-known work, and one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically.

In the dialogue, Socrates discusses with various Athenians and foreigners the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man.

Raffaello | Scuola di Atene - Platone / Raphael - The School of Athens (1509-1511)

Willem Haenraets, 1940 | Romantic lovers

Willem Haenraets was born in Rotterdam on October 9, 1940 and his talent was discovered at an early age.

When he was 16 years old, he started his education at the Academy of Arts in Maastricht.

Four years later he obtained a scholarship from the Belgian Government to study at the National Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp, in the Master class of professor Sarina (Atelier Opsomer) and professor Vaarten.

Nguyen Tuan, 1963 | Figurative sculptor

"Art is vital for me. It is almost a religion.

It means to believe in people, in life, in love.

It is a response to what is beautiful and simple.

As an artist I do what I do for no other purpose than to express my feelings" - Nguyen Tuan

Camille Pissarro | Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon, 1897

Rue Saint-Honoré, dans l'après-midi. Effet de pluie ("Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon. Effect of rain") is an 1897 oil painting by Camille Pissarro.

The work was made towards the end of Pissarro's career, when he abandoned his experiments with Pointillism and returned to a looser Impressionist style.

It is part of a series of works that Pissarro made in 1897-98 from a window of the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, looking down across the edge of the Place du Théâtre Français (now the Place André-Malraux) and along the rue Saint-Honoré, portraying the people, carriages and buildings, the trees, fountains and streetlamps, in an early afternoon shower of rain.

Camille Pissarro | Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon. Effect of rain, 1897 | Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Johan Messely, 1953 | The Secret Gardens

Johan Messely is a painter from Belgium.

Johan Messely grew up in the artistic world of his father Paul Messely, also a painter, who served as his great example and motivation.

After his studies into technical engineering and later photography, Johan settled as a professional photographer in Menen, Belgium, but eventually decided to turn painting from being just a hobby into his main occupation.

Leonard Cohen / Jack Vettriano | Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now

dance me on and on dance me very tenderly

and dance me very long we’re both of us beneath our love

we’re both of us above

dance me to the end of love

The Belle Époque: A Dream of Times Gone by Vittorio Corcos

Italian painter Vittorio Matteo Corcos (1859-1933) was known for genre works depict winsome and finely dressed young men and women, in moments of repose and recreation.

Born in Livorno, Italy, he studied drawing and painting at the Academia di Belle Arti in Florence under Enrico Pollastrini.

He then traveled to Paris where he met Léon Bonnat, and signed a contract with the Goupil and Cie, he was able to supplement his income as a portrait painter with illustrations for magazines.

Mozart | Rondo alla Turca, 1783

The Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331 / 300i, by Austrian classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is a piano sonata in three movements.

The sonata was published by Artaria in 1784, alongside Nos. 10 and 12 (K. 330 and K. 332).

The third movement of this sonata, the "Rondo alla Turca", or "Turkish March", is often heard on its own and regarded as one of Mozart's best-known piano pieces.

Théodore Frère | Orientalist painter

Charles-Théodore Frère (1814-1888) was a French Orientalist painter.

His younger brother, Pierre-Édouard, and his nephew and namesake, Charles Edouard Frère, were also painters.

Painter of historical subjects, genre scenes, local scenes, landscapes (with figures) and seascapes; watercolourist and draughtsman. Orientalist.

The son of a Paris music publisher, Frère studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Léon Cogniet and Camille Roqueplan.

Lorenzo Lotto | The Recanati Polyptych, 1506-1508

The Recanati Polyptych is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto, executed in 1506-1508 and housed in the Civic Museum of Villa Colloredo Mels, Recanati, Italy.

The work is dated and signed Laurent[ius] Lotus MDVIII.

Lotto began to work on the piece in 1506 as a devotional for the church of San Domenico in Recanati.

André Rieu | Strauss party

André Léon Marie Nicolas Rieu (1 October, 1949) is a Dutch violinist and conductor best known as the founder of the waltz-playing Johann Strauss Orchestra.

André Rieu has legions of fans worldwide and his performances have become major events in the calendar that are always guaranteed to sell out.

André Rieu tours Europe and the USA constantly and has also toured Australia and the Far East regularly.

Eugene de Blaas | Academic /Genre painter

Eugene de Blaas also known as Eugenio De Blaas or Eugen von Blaas, was born on July 24th in the Italian village of Albano, near Rome in 1843, to Austrian parents.

His career was enriched by a talented and artistic family.

His father, Carl von Blaas (1815-1894), was one of the most notable portrait painters of Roman society, a successful history portrait and fresco painter of the late Biedermeier period.

Queen Nefertiti's Long Lost Tomb

QV66 is the tomb of Nefertari, the Great Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II, in Egypt's Valley of the Queens.

It was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli (the director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin) in 1904.

Nefertari, which means "beautiful companion", was Ramesses II's favorite wife; he went out of his way to make this obvious, referring to her as "the one for whom the sun shines" in his writings, built the Temple of Hathor at Abu Simbel to idolize her as a deity, and commissioned portraiture wall paintings.