Cristina Fornarelli, 1978 | Pop Art painter

Cristina Fornarelli is an Italian contemporary figurative painter.

Fornarelli was born in Bari, in Southern Italy where light and colors have influenced her art.

After art school, she attended the Institute of Industrial Design in Rome, where she still lives and works.

Michelle Torrez, 1956 | Abstract painter

Known for her color work, Michelle Torrez does expressionistic oil paintings of figures that are intended to communicate the beauty of unlikely emotion, movement and life.

Torrez believes that the greatest influences on her work were the circumstances of her childhood and teenage years:

"My life has influenced me to look deeper to find the beauty and humanity in people and places. Even at an early age, I knew I was an artist".

Vincent van Gogh | Sunflowers series

Sunflowers (original title, in French: Tournesols) are the subject of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh.

The earlier series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, executed a year later in Arles, shows bouquets of sunflowers in a vase.

In the artist's mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions.

Vincent van Gogh | Sunflowers, 1887 | National Gallery, London

The Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's masterpiece, 1508-1512

Julius II's decision to completely renovate the decoration of the Ceiling was probably due to the serious problems of a static nature that affected the Sistine Chapel from the earliest years of his pontificate (1503-1513).

They must have been the result of the excavations carried out both to the north and to the south of the building for the construction of the Borgia Tower and for the new St Peter's.

After a long crack had opened in the Ceiling in May 1504, Bramante, then the Palace architect, was charged with finding a solution and he fixed some tie rods in the area above the Chapel.

However, the damage suffered by the old painting must have been such as to convince the pontiff to entrust Michelangelo with a new pictorial decoration.

Richard Savoie, 1959 | Romantic painter

Richard Savoie is a Quebec painter born in Moncton New Brunswick. He comes from a family of artists, the works of his uncle Roméo Savoie is part of Canada’s National Gallery.

Savoie spent part of his childhood by the sea and is still inspired by the sounds of its many moods, from the gentle lapping of waves on the shore to the thundering roar of surf whipped by a wild wind.

He studies art with Gabrielle Messier and Yolaine Lefebvre and becomes a full time artist by the 1980s.

Angelo Barabino | Divisionist painter

Angelo Barabino (Tortona, 1 January 1883 - Milan, 5 November 1950) was an Italian painter, friend and student of Giuseppe Pellizza Volpedo.

He was born in Tortona on 1 January 1883. Barabino attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and studying Volpedo who initiated him to painting in the Divisionism style.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Stile artistico

Renoir è stato uno degli interpreti più convinti e spontanei del movimento Impressionista.

Artista prodigiosamente prolifico, con all'attivo ben cinquemila tele e un numero altrettanto cospicuo di disegni e acquerelli, Renoir si è distinto anche per la sua poliedricità, tanto che possiamo distinguere numerosi periodi nella sua produzione pittorica.

È lo stesso Renoir, in ogni caso, a parlare del suo metodo di fare arte:

"Dispongo il mio soggetto come voglio, poi mi metto a dipingerlo come farebbe un bambino.

Voglio che il rosso sia sonoro e squillante come una campana, quando non ci riesco aggiungo altri rossi ed altri colori finché non l'ottengo".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir remains the best known and most popular work of art at The Phillips Collection, just as Duncan Phillips imagined it would be when he bought it in 1923.

The painting captures an idyllic atmosphere as Renoir's friends share food, wine, and conversation on a balcony overlooking the Seine at the Maison Fournaise restaurant in Chatou.

Parisians flocked to the Maison Fournaise to rent rowing skiffs, eat a good meal, or stay the night.

Sara Teasdale | Cadrà dolce la pioggia / There will come soft rains

Cadrà dolce la pioggia e si diffonderà il profumo della terra,

le rondini voleranno in cerchio stridendo;

canteranno le rane negli stagni a notte alta,

e i pruni selvatici biancheggeranno tremuli;

Jean Béraud