Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Tête de jeune fille coiffée d'un chapeau de jardin, 1895

"I have taken up again, never to abandon it, my old style, soft and light of touch", Renoir wrote to his dealer Durand-Ruel in 1888, full of enthusiasm for his latest efforts.

"This is to give you some idea of my new and final manner of painting - like Fragonard, but not so good" (quoted in J. House, Renoir in the Barnes Foundation, New Haven, 2012, p. 121).

Renoir's new approach represented a sea-change after the controversial Ingres-inspired method he cultivated in the previous decade.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Tête de jeune fille coiffée d'un chapeau de jardin, 1895 | Christie's

Jaroslav Seifert | Se al cuore si potesse dire / If one could tell one’s heart…

Se al cuore si potesse dire:

non correre!

Se potessi ordinargli: brucia!

Già si spegne.

Marc Chagall

Romà Ribera | Painter of the Belle Époque

Romà Ribera i Cirera (Barcelona, 1848-1935) was a Catalan genre painter.

He specialized in contemporary scenes from upper-class social events, rendered in meticulous detail, but also did numerous scenes from life in the 17th and 18th centuries.

He studied at the Escola de la Llotja and at the private school operated by Pere Borrell del Caso.

In 1873, he went to Rome to complete his studies.

While there, he met Marià Fortuny, who works would influence his style.

Rosario de Velasco | Magic Realism painter

Rosario de Velasco Belausteguigoitia (Madrid, 1904 - Barcelona, 1991) Spanish painter.

Born in Madrid, in her early years she started an active painting career.

Pupil of Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza, developed a neo-traditional style imbued with Magic Realism.

Her favourite subjects were seascapes, portraits and landscapes.

Felix Schlesinger | Genre painter

Felix Schlesinger (1833-1910) was a German genre painter of the Düsseldorf School.

Felix Schlesinger was born in a family of painters.

In 1848, he received his first artistic training from Friedrich Heimerdinger at his birthplace Hamburg, later in Antwerp, at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and in Paris.

Between 1861 and 1863 he worked mainly in Frankfurt am Main, before he finally settled in Munich.

Danny Day, 1964 | Romantic Realism painter

Danny Day has established a reputation worldwide for the high quality of his original works of art.

Danny has made it a lifelong quest to master and refine his version of realism, perfecting the "master’s technique" of oils on canvas.

Rich color and eye popping clarity are the hallmarks embodied in his works, which range in genre from sports to wildlife, auto racing, and lush romantic portraits.

Danny has also added commercial photography to his repertoire.

Désiré Thomassin | Naturalist painter

Désiré Thomassin was an Austrian painter and composer.

His father was the charge d’affaires of the Duchy of Parma in Vienna, his mother was from Regensburg.

After the death of the father in 1867 the remaining family moved to Regensburg.

There he finished his school and attended the local lyzeum for two terms till 1878.

Then he studied music in Munich under Josef Rheinberger (composition) and Max Hieber (violin).

Carl Schlesinger | Genre / Landscape painter

Carl Schlesinger (1825-1893) was a Swiss-German genre and landscape painter.

Schlesinger began his painting apprenticeship in Hamburg, with Gerdt Hardorff and Hermann Kauffmann and continued it in 1844 at the Prague Academy with Christian Ruben.