Dante Gabriel Rossetti | Autumn Song, 1848

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf

How the heart feels a languid grief

⁠Laid on it for a covering,

⁠And how sleep seems a goodly thing

In autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift heat of the brain

Falters because it is in vain

Renoir: "La fotografia ha liberato la pittura da molte faccende noiose.."

• "The only way to understand painting is to go and look at it. And if out of a million visitors there is even one to whom art means something, that is enough to justify museums".

• "L'unico modo per capire la pittura è andare a guardarla. E se su un milione di visitatori ce n'è anche uno per cui l'arte significa qualcosa, questo è sufficiente per giustificare i musei".

• "Photography freed painting from a lot of tiresome chores, starting with family portraits".

• "La fotografia ha liberato la pittura da molte faccende noiose, a cominciare dai ritratti di famiglia".

Bulgarian Art History and Sitemap

Pavel Mitkov, 1977 | Impressionist /Abstract painter

The early impetus of Bulgarian traditions in the arts was cut short by the Ottoman occupation in the 14th century, and many early masterpieces were destroyed.

Native artistic life emerged again in Bulgaria during the national revival in the 19th century.

Among the most influential works were the secular and realist paintings of Zahari Zograph in the first half of the century and Hristo Tsokev in the second half.

At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, Bulgarian painters such as Anton Mitov and the Czech-born Ivan Mrkvichka produced memorable works, many of them depicting the daily life of the Bulgarian people.

Gerrit Dou | L'eremita, 1664

Figlio di un incisore del vetro, Gerrit Dou (1613-1675) iniziò imparando ad incidere e dipingere il vetro.

Nel 1628 fu apprendista di Rembrandt.

Qui Dou apprese l'arte del chiaroscuro, il contrasto di luce e ombra che divenne la sua specialità: le sue scene a lume di candela divennero di gran moda.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Portraits

• "The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself and carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion. It is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion".
• "L'opera d'arte deve afferrarti, avvolgerti in se stesso e portarti via. È il mezzo con cui l'artista trasmette la sua passione. È la corrente che egli emette che ti trascina nella sua passione".

- Pierre Auguste Renoir

Gustave Caillebotte | Attività collezionistica

Dopo che nel 1876 il fratello minore René lo ammonì dell'inesorabile brevità della vita, Caillebotte - intimamente turbato - dispose il suo testamento a soli ventotto anni.

Una delle clausole ivi previste, in particolare, contemplava un lascito della sua intera collezione artistica al governo francese. Caillebotte, infatti, fu uno dei più convinti collezionisti di pitture impressioniste e, qualora ne avesse l'opportunità, non esitava ad aiutare i suoi colleghi acquistandone le opere.

Pian piano arrivò ad accumulare opere d'arte di vari artisti a lui contemporanei: Camille Pissarro (diciannove), Claude Monet (quattordici), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (dieci), Alfred Sisley (nove), Edgar Degas (sette), Paul Cézanne (cinque) ed Édouard Manet (quattro).

Dante Gabriel Rossetti | La Bella Mano / Lovely hand

O lovely hand, that thy sweet self doth lave

In that thy pure and proper element,

⁠Whence erst the Lady of Love's high advent

Was born, and endless fires sprang from the wave:—

Even as her Loves to her their offerings gave,

⁠For thee the jewelled gifts they bear; while each

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)

Gustave Caillebotte - French painter, art collector and impresario who combined aspects of the academic and Impressionist styles in a unique synthesis.

Born into a wealthy family, Caillebotte trained to be an engineer but became interested in painting and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

He met Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet in 1874 and showed his works at the Impressionist exhibition of 1876 and its successors.

Caillebotte became the chief organizer, promoter, and financial backer of the Impressionist exhibitions for the next six years, and he used his wealth to purchase works by other Impressionists, notably Monet, Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Berthe Morisot.