Claude Monet and his Muse, Camille

Camille Doncieux (15 January 1847 - 5 September 1879) was model, lover and wife of French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926), whose early paintings of her gave him his first taste of commercial and critical success.

But when Camille died young, at 32 years, after a long illness following the birth of their second child, the woman who replaced her in Monet's life was determined to obliterate her memory.

Alice, Monet's second wife, was consumed by jealousy of her departed rival and destroyed all photographic records of Camille.

Karl Gussow | Genre painter

Karl Gussow (25 February 1843, Havelberg - 27 March 1907, Munich) was a German painter and university professor.

His early inclination to art was encouraged by his family so, as soon as he completed his secondary schooling, he was enrolled at the newly founded Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar.

This led to studying the Dutch Masters in the studios of the history and genre painter, Arthur von Ramberg.

Domenico Fetti | Baroque painter

Biography from: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Domenico Fetti (1589-1623) was born in 1589, almost certainly in Rome, and is known to have been educated at the Collegio Romano.

He probably received his initial artistic training from his father, Pietro Fetti, a painter, perhaps from Ferrara, about whom very little is known.

Contemporary sources refer to Domenico Fetti as a student of Ludovico Cardi, called Il Cigoli (1559-1613).

Domenico could have entered Cigoli's shop as early as 1604, the year in which the Florentine painter came to Rome.

Walter Firle | Genre painter

Walter Firle or Walther Firle (1859-1929) was a portrait and genre painter.

Walter Firle received lessons in painting from an early age.

In 1879 he attended the Munich Academy of Art, where he was a student of Alois Gabl, Ludwig von Löfftz and Gabriel von Hackl.

During a stay in Italy the artist created numerous landscapes as well as beach and town views.

Anthony de Mello: "La vita è quella cosa che ci accade mentre siamo occupati a fare altri progetti"

• "La vita è quella cosa che ci accade mentre siamo occupati a fare altri progetti. Siamo intenti a far colpo sugli altri. Siamo indaffarati per vincere le olimpiadi, per avere successo. E la vita ci scivola via dalle mani".

• "Nel momento in cui trasformi un bambino nella fotocopia di un altro individuo, tu calpesti e spegni la scintilla di originalità con cui è venuto al mondo".

• "La solitudine non si cura con la compagnia umana. La solitudine si cura attraverso il contatto con la realtà".

Paige Bradley | Expansion Third Life welectricity

The Ladies of the Baroque | Part 2

Ginevra Cantofoli

Italian painter, 1618-1672

Ginevra Cantofoli trained under Giovanni Andrea Sirani, the father of Elisabetta Sirani, in Bologna.

Although a generation older than Elisabetta Sirani, Cantofoli was described by Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Cesare Masini and Marcello Oretti as Elisabetta's student.

Ginevra Cantofoli | Woman in a Turban, 1650 | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Barberini, Roma.

Rob Hefferan, 1967 | Moonlight Lovers

Rob Hefferan is an exceptionally talented figurative artist.

His varied body of work celebrates the joyous and multifaceted forms that human beings express with limitless imagination and wit.

Rob captures the personality of each of his subjects with honesty, integrity and above all, a sacred appreciation for the unique spirit embodied within us all.

His heartfelt response to humanity is woven into the very fabric of each outstanding portrait, earning him the reputation of one of the finest contemporary realists of his generation.

Orsola Caccia (1596-1676) | Mannerist painter

Orsola Maddalena Caccia, born Theodora Caccia (1596-1676) was an Italian Mannerist painter and Catholic nun.

She painted religious images, altarpieces, and still lifes.

The daughter of painter Guglielmo Caccia and Laura Olivia, she was baptized Theodora Orsola on December 4, 1596.

In 1620, she entered the Ursulines convent at Bianzè, where she changed her name to Orsola Maddalena after she took her vows.