Patrick Le Hec'h, 1965 | Illusionist photographer

The Hec'h Patrick began his academic training at the School of Graphic Art Corvisart Paris.

On his release he worked briefly as an illustrator and graphic designer before accepting the artistic direction of a communications agency.

Inspired by the romantic and surreal, is detected in its early creations of the atmosphere that are visionary painters: Giorgio De Chirico 1888-1978, Tanguy, Bocklin, Delvaux and René François Ghislain Magritte, 1898-1967.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | Il ritrattista del "Popolo della notte"

Agli effetti della produzione artistica lautreciana questa diversificazione sociale così massiccia risultò determinante.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), infatti, concepì i suoi dipinti come fedele specchio della quotidianità urbana di Montmartre, nel segno di una ripresa (e, anche, di un aggiornamento) del programma espresso da Charles Baudelaire nel 1846:

«La nostra epoca non è meno ricca di temi sublimi di quella precedente [...]

Ho osservato che la maggioranza degli artisti che hanno condannato i soggetti moderni si sono accontentati di soggetti pubblici e ufficiali [...]

Ci sono invece dei soggetti privati che sono molto più eroici di quelli pubblici.

Lo spettacolo della vita alla moda e le migliaia di esseri - criminali e mantenute - che galleggiano alla deriva nei bassifondi di una grande città. [...]

La vita della nostra città è piena di spunti poetici e meravigliosi: ne siamo avvolti, vi siamo immersi come in una meravigliosa atmosfera, ma non ce ne accorgiamo» - Charles Baudelaire.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | La vita e le opere

Il conte Henri-Marie-Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (Albi, 24 novembre 1864 - Saint-André-du-Bois, 9 settembre 1901) è stato un pittore francese, tra le figure più significative dell'arte del tardo Ottocento.

Divenne un importante artista post-impressionista, illustratore e litografo e registrò nelle sue opere molti dettagli degli stili di vita bohémien della Parigi di fine Ottocento.

Toulouse-Lautrec contribuì anche con un certo numero di illustrazioni per la rivista Le Rire, durante la metà degli anni novanta.

Soffriva di picnodisostosi, una malattia genetica delle ossa, che può portare a manifestazioni cliniche apparentemente simili al nanismo.

Toulouse-Lautrec morì a soli 37 anni circa, a causa dell'alcolismo o della sifilide.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | Post-Impressionist painter

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, in full Henri-Marie-Raymonde de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (born Nov. 24, 1864, Albi, France-died Sept. 9, 1901, Malromé), French artist who observed and documented with great psychological insight the personalities and facets of Parisian nightlife and the French world of entertainment in the 1890s.

His use of free-flowing, expressive line, often becoming pure arabesque, resulted in highly rhythmical compositions (e.g., In the Circus Fernando: The Ringmaster, 1888).

The extreme simplification in outline and movement and the use of large colour areas make his posters some of his most powerful works.

Alfio Presotto, 1940 | Neo-romantic painter

Alfio Presotto is a Venetian painter trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and, in 1960, joined the Realism group of Milan.

He has exhibited his paintings of him in numerous exhibitions and reviews throughout Italy and beyond.

In 1969 he exhibited at the U.S.A.L.B.A. in Milan, the exhibition at the Salotto Rossini in Pesaro in 1970 and participation in the Salon Art Libre in Paris in 1974.

Thomas Benjamin Kennington | Victorian painter

Thomas Benjamin Kennington (1856-1916) was an English genre, social realist and portrait painter.

He was a founder member of the New English Art Club (NEAC) and the Imperial Arts League.

Life and works

Kennington was born in Grimsby in Lincolnshire and trained in art at the Liverpool School of Art (winning a gold medal), the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, and the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied under Bouguereau and Robert-Fleury.

He later moved to Chelsea in London.

Albert Einstein's letter to Marie Curie, 1911

Marie Skłodowska Curie (7 November 1867 - 4 July 1934) was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes.

She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.

Maya Angelou / Nick Alm | Still I rise / Ancora mi sollevero!

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Michael Cheval, 1966 | Playhouse of Quintessence

Michael Cheval | Gina Lollobrigida's portrait

“Playhouse of Quintessence” series of paintings embodies Michael Cheval’s philosophical reflections and his attempt to express a certain phenomena via limited means.
At the core of this idea lies the principle of theatrical pantomime where the language of gestures is most important. The task was further complicated b...y the artist’s restriction to use only the face (or the mask) and the hands.