Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun | Rococo painter

Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun (1755-1842) was one of the most successful portraitists of 18th century France, gaining renowned in particular for her self-portraits and depictions of courtly women, Queen Marie Antoinette most famously.

Born in Paris as the eldest child of the portraitist Louis Vigée (1715-1767) and Jeanne Maissin, Vigée Le Brun was trained by her father from an early age.

She succeeded in gaining entrance to the Académie de Saint-Luc at the age of just nineteen, a remarkable accomplishment for a woman at the time.

Giuseppe Canella | Vedutista / Cityscape painter

Giuseppe Canella (28 July 1788 - 11 September 1847), also referred to as Giuseppe Canella the Elder, was an Italian painter🎨.

Initially trained by his father Giovanni, an architect, fresco painter and set designer, Giuseppe Canella started out producing stage sets and decorating stately homes in Verona and Mantua.

His brother, Carlo Canella🎨, was also a painter. It may have been under the influence of Pietro Ronzoni, a landscape painter of international renown active in Verona, that he took up landscape painting.

The first views were not produced until 1815, after a short stay in Venice. After making his debut at the Fine Art Exposition at the Brera Academy of 1818, he made a long journey through Spain, the Netherlands and France for study purposes.

Notre-Dame de Paris, 1345 | A cathedral of Art and history

Notre-Dame de Paris, also known as Notre-Dame Cathedral or simply Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France.

The cathedral is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.

The innovative use of the rib vault and flying buttress, the enormous and colorful rose windows, and the naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration all set it apart from earlier Romanesque architecture.

George Lawrence Bulleid | Victorian-Era painter

British painter🎨 George Lawrence Bulleid (1858-1933) was born in Glastonbury, Somerset in 1858, the son of a local solicitor and Councillor.

Bulleid joined the family firm but in 1881 but soon left to study at the Marylebone and West London School of Art under the instruction of the Principal, George Simpson.

As with so many Victorian artists of the time, he had a strong affection for classicism and antiquity, his early work would typically be of dark and sombre canvases with groups of figures arranged within an architectural structure, or contemplative individuals at moments of decision or classical melancholy.

Mattia Preti | Baroque Era painter

Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 - 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist🎨 who worked in Italy and Malta. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Saint John.

Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called Il Cavalier Calabrese (the Calabrian Knight) after appointment as a Knight of the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) in 1660.

His early apprenticeship is said to have been with the "Caravaggist" Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, which may account for his lifelong interest in the style of Caravaggio🎨.

Thomas Dewing | Tonalist painter

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (May 4, 1851 - November 5, 1938) was an American painter working at the turn of the 20th century.

Schooled in Paris, Dewing was noted for his figure paintings of aristocratic women. He was a founding member of the Ten American Painters and taught at the Art Students League of New York. The Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution has a collection of his works.

He was the husband of fellow artist Maria Oakey Dewing.

Personal life and education

Thomas was born in Boston, Massachusetts to parents Sophronia Durant and Paul Dewing, and served as a lithographic apprentice until at least 1870 when he was 19 years old.

He later studied at the Académie Julian in Paris with Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre beginning in 1876.

Mahmoud Said | Pioneer of modern Arab art

Mahmoud Said Bey / حمود سعيد (April 8, 1897 - April 8, 1964) was an Alexandrian judge and modern painter.

Mahmoud Said was born in Alexandria, Egypt; his father, Muhammad Said Pasha, was of Turkish origin and was the former Prime Minister of Egypt.

Queen Farida of Egypt was his niece and she described him as "a quiet, gentle, oppressively timid man".

After receiving his high school diploma, he went on to law school, receiving his degree in 1919.

Filippo Palizzi | Girl on the rock in Sorrento, 1871

Filippo Palizzi (Vasto, Chieti, 1818 - Naples 1899) was an Italian painter.

The Girl on the Rock in Sorrento is in the Balzan Collection in Milan, Italy.

The Barbizons were concerned with light and simple rustic and genre scenes.

Ettore Tito | Genre painter

Ettore Tito (17 December 1859 - 26 June 1941) was an Italian artist, particularly known for his paintings of contemporary life and landscapes in Venice and the surrounding region.

He trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice and from 1894-1927 was the Professor of Painting there.

Tito exhibited widely and was awarded the Grand Prize in painting at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.