Édouard Manet | Le déjeuner sur l'Herbe, 1863

Rejected by the jury of the 1863 Salon, Manet🎨 exhibited Le déjeuner sur l’herbe under the title Le Bain at the Salon des Refusés (initiated the same year by Napoléon III) where it became the principal attraction, generating both laughter and scandal.

Yet in Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, Manet🎨 was paying tribute to Europe's artistic heritage, borrowing his subject from the Concert champêtre - a painting by Titian🎨 attributed at the time to Giorgione🎨 (Louvre) - and taking his inspiration for the composition of the central group from the Marcantonio Raimondi engraving after Raphael's Judgement of Paris🎨.

Mark Arian, 1947 | Romantic Figurative painter

"To me, art is an expression of the rapture of being… hopefully unveiling a fragment of the radiance within all form. I believe that art can awaken the soul to the timeless presence of beauty and truth" - Mark Missman🎨.

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Mark Missman - Arian🎨 spent many hours throughout his youth in museums studying the painting techniques of the masters.

Ettore Tito (1859-1941)

Ettore Tito, pittore di formazione veneziana, ottenne all'inizio del secolo una fama europea e fu nominato nel 1929 Accademico d'Italia.

Ebbe a Napoli come primo maestro l’olandese Van Haanen, ma ben presto si recò a Venezia dove studiò con Pompeo Marino Molmenti.

Espose il suo primo quadro, Pescheria vecchia a Venezia, alla Biennale di Venezia del 1887, quadro che ebbe grande successo e fu acquistato dal Governo per la Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Roma.

Dosso Dossi | Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, 1518

Artist: Dosso Dossi (Italian High Renaissance painter, ca.1490-1542) (attributed to).

Date: 1518.

Medium: Oil on wood panel.

Dimensions: 74.5 × 57.2 cm.

Current location: Collezione: National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.

The recent (2008) identification of the subject of this painting as Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519) answered a long-running mystery.

This portrait had previously been considered to be that of a young man. This is largely on account of the dagger which is held in the sitter’s hands and the belief that no single Italian Renaissance🎨 portrait of a woman ever showed the sitter holding a weapon.

However, certain aspects of the painting indicate that the sitter is indeed a woman.

Pino Daeni | Romantic painter

Pino Daeni (November 8, 1939 - May 25, 2010) was an Italian / American book illustrator and painter.

He is known for his style of feminine, romantic women and strong men painted with loose but accurate brushwork.

Considered one of the highest paid book illustrators of his time, he created over 3.000 book covers, movie posters and magazine illustrations.

Claude Monet: "Il piacere più nobile è la gioia della comprensione"!

"Seguo la Natura senza poterla cogliere... forse il fatto di essere diventato pittore lo devo ai fiori".

"I am following Nature without being able to grasp her... I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers".

"It took me time to understand my waterlilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them".

"Mi ci è voluto del tempo per capire le mie ninfee. Li avevo piantati per il piacere di farlo; Li ho coltivati senza mai pensare di dipingerli".

Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo | High Renaissance painter

Benvenuto Garòfalo, byname of Benvenuto Tisi (1481-1559), Italian painter, one of the most prolific 16th-century painters of the Ferrarese school.

Garofalo’s first apprenticeship was with Domenico Panetti and later with the Cremonese painter Boccaccio Boccaccino.

Garofalo’s two visits to Rome in the first and second decades of the century greatly influenced his style, as did the work of Dosso Dossi, especially in the treatment of landscape backgrounds.

Peder Mork Mønsted | Snowy winter landscapes

Danish master Peder Mørk Mønsted (1859-1941) was best known for his ability to capture ‘types’ of landscapes, scenes of nature that embodied the essence of a country or region.

His favorite motifs include snowy winter landscapes, still water and forests.

He traveled throughout Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Middle East, painting such views, visiting Italy, France, Switzerland, Norway, Greece, Algiers and Egypt.

His most popular paintings, however, were scenes from Scandinavia, especially his native Denmark.