Georgy Kurasov / Георгий Курасов, 1958 | Cubist painter

Georgy Kurasov was born in the USSR, in what was then Leningrad. He still lives and works in the same place, but now the country is Russia and the city is called St Petersburg. Without any effort on his part whatsoever, Georgy seems to have emigrated from one surreal country to another.

His native city was irrational from the very moment of its foundation. Situated on the same latitude as the southern shores of Alaska, on the swampy delta of the River Neva where no one had ever settled before, this new capital city grew up on the very edge of a monstrous empire.

William Acton (1906-1945)

William Hamilton Mitchell Acton (16 August 1906 - 31 August 1945) was an Anglo🎨-Italian painter🎨 who died while in active service during World War II.

• Biography

William Hamilton Mitchell Acton was born in Florence on 16 August 1906, the son of Arthur Acton (1873-1953), an art collector and dealer, and Hortense Lenore Mitchell (1871-1962), the heiress of John J. Mitchell, President of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank. Harold Acton was his older brother.

He attended Chateau de Lancy, Geneva, and Eton College; at Eton his contemporaries were Robert Byron, Brian Howard, Alfred Duggan and Anthony Powell, who remembers William fondly in his memoirs.

In 1922 a reproduction of his painting, Nature Morte, appeared in the Eton Candle.

At Eton he was among the founders of the Eton Society of Arts in February 1922 with Brian Howard, Henry Yorke, his brother Harold, Robert Byron, Alan Clutton-Brock, Hugh Lygon, Anthony Powell and Colin Anderson.

In 1925 Acton moved to Christ Church, Oxford, with many of his friends, but remained for only one year.

Brian Howard wrote a satirical profile of William Acton in his Continuation of Oxford Portraits of 1925-6 which appeared in the Cherwell. Other profiles were: David Herbert, Mark Ogilvie-Grant, René Crevel, Henry Thynne, 6th Marquess of Bath and Charles Plumb.

In the previous issue the profiles had been Robert Byron, Harold Acton, John Sutro, Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, Edward Henry Charles James Fox-Strangways, 7th Earl of Ilchester.

At Oxford William Acton's friends were Hugh Lygon, Robert Byron, Brian Howard, Michael Parsons, David Plunket Greene, Roy Harrod, Evelyn Waugh and John Sutro.

After college the Acton brothers were part of a circle including Diana Mitford and her first husband, Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, John Betjeman, Roy Harrod, Henry Yorke and his wife, Robert Byron, Evelyn Waugh, Randolph Churchill and Diana Churchill.

William Acton sketched the Mitford sisters.

Not long after being demobilised from the Pioneer Corps during World War II, William Acton died on 31 August 1945 after a short illness and is buried with his family at Cimitero degli Allori.

Several works by William Acton have been sold at auctions, including "Armiola🎨" sold at Christie's in 2016 for £16,250 (£17,393 in 2018 sterling). | © Wikipedia

William Hamilton Mitchell Acton (16 agosto 1906 - 31 agosto 1945) fu un pittore Anglo🎨-Italiano🎨 che morì mentre era in servizio durante la seconda guerra mondiale.

• Biografia

William Hamilton Mitchell Acton nacque a Firenze il 16 agosto 1906, figlio di Arthur Acton (1873-1953), un collezionista d'arte e commerciante, e Hortense Lenore Mitchell (1871-1962), l'erede di John J. Mitchell, Presidente dell'Illinois Trust and Savings Bank. Harold Acton era il suo fratello maggiore.

Nel 1925 Acton si trasferì a Christ Church, Oxford, con molti dei suoi amici, ma rimase per un solo anno. 

Poco dopo essere stato smobilitato dal Corpo dei Pionieri durante la seconda guerra mondiale, William Acton morì il 31 agosto 1945 dopo una breve malattia e fu sepolto con la sua famiglia al Cimitero degli Allori.

Diverse opere di William Acton sono state vendute all'asta, inclusa "Armiola🎨" venduta a Christie's nel 2016 per £ 16.250.

Herbert James Gunn (1893-1964)

Sir (Herbert) James Gunn RA (30 June 1893 - 30 December 1964) was a Scottish landscape and portrait painter.

Sir Herbert James Gunn (also known as Sir James Gunn) was born in Glasgow on 30 June 1893, the son of Richard Gunn, a draper, and Thomasina Munro.

He studied for several years at the Glasgow School of Art and the Edinburgh College of Art.

In 1911, he went to the Académie Julian in Paris where he studied under Jean-Paul Laurens.

Stuart Luke Gatherer, 1971 | Figurative painter

Gatherer was born in 1971 to Scottish and Dutch parents. He was brought up in the Eastern Highlands of Scotland, and attended Edinburgh College of Art from where he graduated in 1995 with an MA Honors degree in Fine Art.

Successful shows in London, New York and Scotland with an ever-widening following of collectors, and with an escalating commercial value he is established as one of Scotland's most exciting young painters, building on the classical tradition of figurative painting to develop his own unique style.

Arturo Martini | Ritratto di Wally Toscanini,1925

Arturo Martini🎨, (born August 11, 1889, Treviso, Italy - died March 22, 1947, Milan), was a leading Italian sculptor and painter between World War I and II.

He moved between a very vigorous (almost ancient Roman) classicism and modernism. He was associated with public sculpture in fascist Italy, but later renounced his medium altogether.

• Futurism

Martini seems to have been an active supporter of the Futurist movement between 1914-1918. He certainly corresponded with Umberto Boccioni and produced a modernist booklet in 1918. His early works show an archaic tendency, two-dimensionality and polychrome effects.

• In Fascist Italy

His later works returned to a more traditional style, but with "irony, agility and an eclectic capacity to combine or reinterpret sources".

Between the wars, he became the semi-official sculptor of the fascist regime. He was literally overwhelmed by commitments: great monuments and commemorative works for courthouses, churches and universities. Examples include the great bronze at La Sapienza University in Rome and the memorial to the aviator Tito Minniti. He sculpted the monument to the Fallen at the Palazzo delle Poste, Naples.

• Post-war

After the fall of Mussolini, feeling that his art had been corrupted, he published an essay against sculpture in the magazine La Martini in 1945: "scultura, lingua morta" (sculpture, a dead language). He writes for example: "La scultura un'arte è da negri e senza pace" (sculpture is a black and unquiet art).
Despite this attack on his own métier, he created one significant work after the war, a marble sculpture in a tribute to the guerrilla leader Primo Visentin, known as "Masaccio", who had been killed at the end of the war in Loria (Padua) in unexplained circumstances.

Martini is as important Italian sculptor in the period between the world wars.

He worked with many materials (clay, wood, plaster, stone, especially marble, bronze, silver) but never moved far from figuration, although he was able to model abstract forms, as his atmosfera di una testa (vibrations of a head) of 1944 testifies. He exercised great influence on later Italian sculptors such as Marino Marini, Emilio Greco, Marcello Mascherini, Pericle Fazzini, and his student Fiore de Henriquez. | © Wikipedia

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and All works by Arturo Martini see:

Arturo Martini | Symbolist sculptor🎨

Arturo Martini | Portrait de Lillian Gish, 1929

Oscar Hermann Lamb (1876-1947)

Oscar Hermann-Lamb was an Italian artist🎨 born in Trieste. Like so many Triestine painters he studied in Munich, where he remained for two years, between 1895-1896.

Immediately afterwards he continued his studies in Rome and from 1900 he decided to settle in Vienna.

His friendship with the Friulian sculptor Alfonso Canciani dates back to this phase - also a resident of Vienna - to whom he dedicated a portrait, documented in the archive of the Revoltella Museum.

Especially committed to the study of the figure, in these years he produced great compositions of a Divisionist🎨 imprint (see the "I founders🎨" canvas of 1903, purchased from the Revoltella Museum).

He returned to Trieste only in 1921 and his works appeared in the first post-war exhibitions.

The most recurrent subject in the production of maturity had become the female figure, to which he knew how to give the most diverse interpretations, always characterized, however, by a refined elegance and a deep sensuality.

The "Amazzone🎨", dated 1932, is a very representative work of its mature style.

In the thirties, unable to reintegrate into the Trieste environment, he moved back to Vienna, where he died in 1947.

Oscar Hermann-Lamb nacque a Trieste nel 1876. Come tanti pittori triestini studiò a Monaco, dove rimase per un biennio, tra il 1895-1896.

Studiò disegno a Monaco di Baviera alla scuola di Ludwig Herterich, poi frequentò l'Accademia Inglese a Roma, gli studi dei pittori romani più in voga ed esercitò lo spirito e la mano copiando i quadri antichi nelle Gallerie della Capitale.

Uno dei suoi primi lavori fu "I fonditori🎨", che esposto a Trieste venne poi acquistato dal signor Bleekmann di Murzzuschlag, proprietario di una acciaieria della Sturia.

Nel 1900 si recò a Vienna e cominciò ad esporre al Kunstlerhaus. A Vienna eseguì ritratti per la famiglia Bohler.

Tornò a Trieste solo nel 1921 e le sue opere comparvero nelle prime esposizioni del dopoguerra. Il soggetto più ricorrente nella produzione della maturità era divenuta la figura femminile, alla quale egli sapeva dare le più diverse interpretazioni, sempre caratterizzate, però, da una raffinata eleganza e da una profonda sensualità. 

L' "Amazzone🎨",  datata 1932, è un'opera molto rappresentativa del suo stile maturo.

Negli anni Trenta, non riuscendo a reintegrarsi nell'ambiente triestino, si trasferì nuovamente a Vienna, dove morì nel 1947.

Nel 1912 si recò in Inghilterra e durante la prima grande guerra ha sempre lavorato a Vienna.

Si è dedicato in un primo tempo alla pittura ad olio ma in seguito ha prediletto l'acquerello, eseguendo composizioni simboliche e figure femminili idealizzate.

Si è dedicato raramente al paesaggio ed al ritratto.

Le sue opere principali sono:

• "Sehnsucht", esposta a Vienna nel 1918 alla Kiinstlerhaus e acquistata dalla ditta Bruckmann che la riprodusse e le dette larga diffusione;
• "Il bagno della dea";
• "Al chiaro di luna";
• "Isabella";
• "Danzatrice";
• "Vergini delle roccie".

Pieter de Hooch | Pittore del Secolo d'oro Olandese

Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) è stato un pittore Olandese.

All'età di sedici anni studiò ad Haarlem sotto la guida del maestro Nicolaes Berchem appena rientrato da un soggiorno in Italia.

La sua carriera si svolse all'Aia, ad Amsterdam e soprattutto a Delft, dove compose le sue opere, ritraendo scene di vita familiare della borghesia locale in vaste composizioni di carattere patriottico, in singoli ritratti o in scene di carattere.

Pieter de Hooch | Baroque Era painter

Pieter de Hooch, Hooch also spelled Hoogh or Hooghe (baptized Dec. 20, 1629, Rotterdam, Neth-buried March 24, 1684, Amsterdam), Dutch genre painter of the Delft school, noted for his interior scenes and masterful use of light.

De Hooch was a pupil of Claes Berchem at Haarlem.

From 1653 he was in the service of Justus de Grange and lived in Delft, The Hague, and Leiden.

He was a member of the Painters’ Guild of Delft from 1654-1657, but after that date there are no traces of his career until about 1667, when his presence was recorded in Amsterdam.