Vincent van Gogh | Small bottle with peonies and blue delphiniums, 1886

Vincent van Gogh began experimenting with color in his still life flower series.

By the summer of 1885, the artist created some 40 paintings with a traditional approach, meaning that the flowers were in a vase and placed in the center of the canvas.

His 1886 painting Small Bottle with Peonies and Blue Delphiniums, done with oil on painter's board -a cheaper material than canvas-, from the Gemeente Museum collection, is one of them.

Flowers became the subject of many of the artist's works during this period.

But after painting over 10 species in mid-September, he sought out other subjects including fruit, shoes, fish and budding flower bulbs.

Vincent van Gogh | Small bottle with peonies and blue delphiniums, 1886 | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Ivan Pili, 1976 | Figurative painter

Ivan Pili, concert musician, composer and visual artist, was born in Cagliari, Italy.

His artistic skills emerged from the earliest age, first on the kindergarten benches and then manifested themselves in his early portraiture works at the age of 9 years.

From 1986-1990 he attended painters in Cagliari asking for his presence in their labs to try to improve the technique of the little boy.

Édouard Manet Quotes: "Black is not a color"

• Everything is mere appearance, the pleasures of a passing hour, a midsummer night's dream. Only painting, the reflection of a reflection - but the reflection, too, of eternity - can record some of the glitter of this mirage.

• A painter can say all he wants to with fruit or flowers or even clouds.

• A good painting is true to itself.

• In una figura, cercate la grande luce e la grande ombra, il resto verrà da sé.

Eric Wallis, 1968 | Ballet dancers

"I love the movement and anatomical definition that dancers have characteristically.

There is power in their bodies that they use to convey beautiful grace and emotional verbiage.

It is difficult to capture that in a 2 dimensional work and therefore it embodies a challenge that I enjoy" - Eric Wallis.

Victor Gilbert | Belle Époque painter

The mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century saw the introduction of art based on daily life, a depiction of everything from the street vendors to the homeless in and around France.

Artists were often deeply embroiled in the social issues of the time and sought to free themselves from the imposing historicism that had stifled art production for decades.

Leo Putz | Impressionist painter

Leo Putz (1869-1940) was a Tyrolean painter. His work encompasses Art Nouveau, Impressionism and the beginnings of Expressionism. Figures and landscapes are his predominant subjects.

Leo Putz was born in Merano in South Tyrol, Italy, in 1869.

His artistic career began in 1885 under the aegis of his stepbrother.

This was Robert Poetzelberger (1856-1930) who was a professor at the Munich Academy and who taught him drawing.

Raymond Leech, 1949 | Impressionist painter

Raymond Leech was born at Great Yarmouth in East Angila and spent his childhood by the seaside.

He was influenced to take up an artistic career by his father, who taught him to draw.

In particular, he was inspired by the work of the Newlyn School, the french impressionists, Edgar Degas 1834-1917, Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919 and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901.

Renoir: "Irregularity is the basis of all art"

• "They tell you that a tree is only a combination of chemical elements. I prefer to believe that God created it, and that it is inhabited by a nymph".

• "Ti dicono che un albero è solo una combinazione di elementi chimici. Io preferisco credere che sia stato Dio a crearlo e che sia abitato da una ninfa".