Caravaggio | Life and works

Arrogant, rebellious and a murderer, Caravàggio's short and tempestuous life matched the drama of his works. Characterised by their dramatic, almost theatrical lighting, Caravàggio's paintings were controversial, popular, and hugely influential on succeeding generations of painters all over Europe.

Born Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), Caravàggio is the name of the artist's home town in Lombardy in northern Italy.

In 1592, at the age of 21 he moved to Rome, Italy's artistic centre and an irresistible magnet for young artists keen to study its classical buildings and famous works of art. The first few years were a struggle. He specialised in still lifes of fruits and flowers, and later, half length figures (as in 'The Boy bitten by a Lizard') which he sold on the street.

Ikenaga Yasunari, 1965 | The modern muses

Japanese painter🎨 Ikenaga Yasunari's [池永康晟] serene and soothing portraits of modern women evoke a dreamy nostalgia through their faded golden hues and elegant floating poses.

Using a Menso brush, mineral pigments, and soot ink on linen cloth, Yasunari continues the ancient tradition of Nihonga painting while simultaneously bringing modern elements to play, such as present-day clothing styles and floral textile designs.

The result is both beautiful and melancholy, capturing the timelessness of the Nihonga style as well as its dimming presence through the years.

Michael Flohr, 1975 | Urban Impressionism painter

Michael Flohr paints in a style called urban impressionism. His atmospheric street scenes are brilliantly composed with bold color applications and fascinating narrative lines.

Meet rising star Michael Flohr. The original he’s working on will probably sell within hours of being displayed in a gallery, for this talented, hard-working young man is riding a wave of popularity with the public--and growing esteem from the art community--that gains momentum with each new painting and limited edition release.

Steve Hanks | Watercolor | Figurative painter

Steve Hanks (1949-2015) is recognized as one of the best watercolor artists working today. The detail, color and realism of Steve Hanks' paintings are unheard of in this difficult medium.

A softly worn patterned quilt, the play of light on the thin veil of surf on sand, or the delicate expression of a child - Steve Hanks captures these patterns of life better than anyone.

Anne Dewailly, 1964 | Figurative painter

Anne Dewailly is a French artist, born in Roubaix, she lives and works in the North of France.

Self-taught, she never received any training but her painting reveals great precision and a certain technical expertise. She varies pictorial techniques, using paint brushes, palette knife, a rag but even her fingers to apply paint on canvas.

"My inspiration glows when looking at authentic people. Often women, close by or just down the street. Especially now that serious developments challenge us, young women, regardless race or color, are the sparks of my fire of passion to visualize serenity" - Anne Dewailly.

Renzo Vespignani | Neorealist painter

Renzo Vespignani (1924-2001) was an Italian painter, printmaker and illustrator.

Vespignani illustrated the works of Boccaccio, Kafka and T. S. Eliot, among others.

In 1956, he co-founded the magazine Citta Aperta ("City Opened") and in 1963, co-founded the group II Pro e II Contro (Pro and Con) for neorealism in figure art.

Renzo Vespignani was born in Rome, Italy in 1924, and he grew up in a Roman working-class suburb named Portonaccio.

Evandro Schiavone, 1984 | Surrealist painter

Evandro Schiavone is a professional Brazilian artist who was born in Salto, Sao Paulo. He makes spectacular surreal paintings to blow the viewer mind.

He started his first drawing lessons when he was 12-year-old, before that Evandro invested all of his energy into music and sports. Today Evandro Schiavone gives art classes.

His artwork is influenced a lot by Salvador Dalí’s artwork who is known as the most recognized surrealistic painter and artist.

Evandro Schiavone’s surreal paintings present us dream and lyric colored worlds, where are subverted and the logic do not apply. We appreciate the wonderful surreal paintings of Evandro Schiavone.

Kelvin Lei, 1954 | Ballet dancers

Kelvin Lei is an Chinese painter, known for work in the Figurative style.

Kelvin Lei was born in Guangzhou, China and grew up with a passion for art and drawing.

His dedication to his craft led him to Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under China’s finest portrait artists, Yang Zhi Guang and Ou Yang.

His career took off in Hong Kong where local and European Galleries started representing his work.

Kelvin Lei, 1954 | Figurative painter

Born in Guangzhou, China, Kelvin Lei’s passion for art and drawing began at a young age.

Studying at the renowned Guangzhou Academy of Fine arts, he trained under Yang Zhi Guang, and important figure in Chinese art, as well as Ou Yang, a prestigious oil painter.

From their teachings, Kelvin learned the foundation and techniques of portraiture, figure drawing, and oil painting.

After his studies, Kelvin moved to Hong Kong and started his art career in the late 1970s.

Hessam Abrishami, 1951 | Abstract painter

Born in the city of Shiraz, Iran, Hessam Abrishami was the son of middle class parents and one of eight brothers and sisters.

At age 15, through the inspiration and encouragement of a high school teacher, Hessam discovered both his love of art and his own talent for painting. As a result he became almost obsessed with painting.

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky | Expressionist painter

Obituary: Marie-Louise von Motesiczky

by Peter Black, Saturday, 15 June 1996

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (October 24, 1906 - June 10, 1996) was a painter of exceptional humanity and wit whose portraits and still lifes deserve an honoured place in European art.

Born in Vienna in 1906, she had a long productive life despite the tragic upheaval of leaving Austria in 1938, and suffering many years of British indifference to German art. The paintings have always had their influential admirers, but have only sporadically received the public attention due to them.

Elena Bond, 1965 | Ballet dancers

Elena Bond /Елена Бонд is an Russian painter⏭, known for work in the Impressionist style⏩. Bond was born in Samara, Russia.

For biographical notes and other works by Elena Bond see:

• Elena Bond, 1965 ~ City Reflections ⏯

Mark Boyle | Plein air painter

• Artist Statement:

In my early years, I explored ravines and woods near my house. Often being late for dinner lost in another world. A serious interest in painting developed at 11 years old. As I recall, my first painting was of a rainbow trout. My parents hired local artists to instruct me privately during my teen years.

A person who really taught good basics was Carl Christophersen. In painting lessons, Carl taught me to divide objects into shapes and planes with hard and soft edges.

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893)

James McNeill Whistler, con cui Grimshaw ha lavorato nei suoi studi di Chelsea, ha dichiarato: "Mi consideravo l'inventore dei notturni finché non ho visto le foto di Grimmy al chiaro di luna".

John Atkinson Grimshaw è stato un artista Inglese dell'era vittoriana noto per le sue scene notturne di paesaggi urbani.

Oggi è considerato uno dei grandi pittori dell'era vittoriana, nonché uno dei migliori e più affermati artisti di paesaggi notturni e urbani di tutti i tempi.

È stato definito un "pittore straordinario e fantasioso" dal critico e storico Christopher Wood in Victorian Painting (1999).

L'amore di Grimshaw per il realismo derivava dalla passione per la fotografia, che alla fine si sarebbe prestata al processo creativo.

George Richmond | Painter and miniaturist

George Richmond RA (28 March 1809 - 19 March 1896) was an English painter and portraitist. In his youth he was a member of The Ancients, a group of followers of William Blake.

Later in life he established a career as a portrait painter, which included painting the portraits of the British gentry, nobility and royalty.

He was the son of Thomas Richmond, miniature-painter, and was the father of the painter William Blake Richmond as well as the grandfather of the naval historian, Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond.

A keen follower of cricket, Richmond was noted in one obituary as having been "an habitué of Lord's since 1816".

Metal sculpture

There are two families of metals: ferrous and non ferrous. All ferrous metals contain iron. Non ferrous metals include aluminium, zinc and copper and its alloys, for example bronze.

Metals can be hammered without breaking or cracking them in order to shape them, they can also be melted and used in moulds or made into wire and modelled - this makes them ideal media for sculptors to work with.

The use of bronze for making cast sculpture is very ancient, and bronze is perhaps the metal most traditionally thought of as a sculptural medium.

Paul Hedley, 1947 | Figurative painter

Paul Hedley spending his childhood in Chatham, Kent. He studied art at Medway College of Art from 1966-68, and then later at Maidstone College of Art where he was awarded the Diploma in Art and Design.

Paul Hedley has been painting ever since he can remember. An education based on traditional art techniques of drawing and painting plus the influence the French artists Edgar Degas 1834-1917 and Edouard Vuillard 1868-1940 have influenced the development of his art works.

Paul Verlaine | Art Poétique / L'Arte Poetica, 1882

Arte poetica /Art Poétique fu scritta dal poeta simbolista francese Paul Marie Verlaine (1844-1896) nel 1882, mentre era in carcere in Belgio.

Il titolo richiama l'analogo poemetto del poeta latino Orazio, assunto, nei secoli, come la migliore sintesi della visione classicista del poetare.

La celebre lirica di Verlaine, riscrivendo le regole della poesia, fu subito considerata Il Manifesto della nuova scuola Simbolista.

Edgar Degas - Young Girl Reading on the Floor

Gottfrid Kallstenius | Romantic painter

Gottfrid Samuel Nikolaus Kallstenius (13 July 1861 - 26 May 1943, Nacka) was a Swedish painter.

Gottfrid Kallstenius was born at Västervik, Sweden. His brother Evald Gustaf Götrik Kallstenius (born 1868) was a zoologist and member of the ill-fatedBjörling–Kallstenius Expedition. After preparatory studies with Edvard Perséus, he was admitted to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1884 and graduated in 1888 after receiving two medals for his work.

In 1891, he married the painter Gerda Roosval.

Shortly after, he was awarded a travel scholarship and they spent a summer in Paris, completing their educations.

The Saliga, 1901-1909

Ewelina Ladzinska | Abstract Figurative painter

Ewelina Ładzińska, polish painter, is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts. Painting becomes a pretext for the creative process, women in the case of Ładzińskiej are the epitome of the elements, trying to harness the seemingly opposite colors are included in the amazing coherent whole feminine features.

The artist can show the inside of their models, using the expression, which can be read in each line left to stain or color.

Suspended somewhere between abstraction and chaotic perception, touch, gaze and the individual characteristics of the concrete, unambiguous assessment of escape.

Emma Ciardi (1879-1933) | Impressionist painter

Emma Ciardi (1879-1933), Italian painter🎨 born in Venice🎨, daughter of the painter Guglielmo Ciardi and the sister of Beppe Ciardi.

Studied with her father, who taught her to paint directly from nature. Partly through her admiration for Guardi, began to paint Venetian views and the gardens of the great Italian villas with their fountains, statues, cypresses etc., animating these scenes with imaginary figures in elegant eighteenth-century costumes.

Louis Béroud | Mona Lisa al Louvre, 1911

Louis Béroud (Lione, 17 gennaio 1852 - Parigi, 9 ottobre 1930) è stato un pittore Francese.

Louis Béroud nacque a Lione, ma quando aveva nove anni la famiglia si trasferì a Parigi, dove egli avrebbe trascorso tutta la vita.

Giovanissimo, entrò nell'atelier di Léon Bonnat per studiare pittura e, già a partire dal 1873, iniziò ad esporre al Salon.

Alcuni dei suoi dipinti sono visibili al Musée Carnavalet ed al Louvre di Parigi.

Il 22 agosto 1911, Béroud entrò nel Louvre ed andò al Salon Carré dove la "Monna Lisa" era stata in mostra per cinque anni.

Ma sul muro dove il "Monna Lisa" era solito appendere, tra i Correggio "Matrimonio mistico" e di Tiziano "Allegoria di Alfonso d'Avalos", sedeva solo quattro pioli di ferro.

Louis Béroud | Mona Lisa au Louvre, 1911

James Pradier | Neoclassical sculptor

Jean-Jacques Pradier (1792-1852) was born in Geneva to a family of horologists, like his celebrated namesake Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).

He apprenticed as a watchcase engraver and then trained at Geneva's Ecole de Dessin before joining his elder brother, engraver Charles-Simon Pradier, in Paris around 1807-1808.

He entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and worked with painter Baron Gérard, who remained a vital influence and ally, and studied sculpture with François-Frédéric Lemot, won the Prix de Rome in 1813, and stayed at the Villa Medici as a pensionnaire until late 1818.

Albert Desmangles, 1957 | Fantasy painter

Self-taught renowned artist Albert Desmangles was born in Port-au-Prince.

His interest in art began at a very early age.

By the age of six he was sketching faces in the dust of the school's tiles. In high school, his brother, noted artist Henry Bastien, taught him drawing, perspective and the use of color.

Bastien also gave him several lessons in gouáçhe - a technique using paints mixed with water and gum to create opaque colors.

Since 1980, he has participated in many exhibits in Haiti, Europe, United States, and Japan.

His work is highly valued by art collectors worldwide.

Valentine Cameron Prinsep | Pre-Raphaelite painter

Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1838-1904), often known as Val Princep was a British painter of the Pre-Raphaelite school.

For the first few years of his artistic career, Prinsep was very closely involved with the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

He later gained academic honours for large decorative and historical subjects.

His family were connected with the East India Company.

Henri Lebasque | Figure et paysages

The following collection include the Landscape paintings by French post-impressionist painter Joseph Henri Baptiste Lebasque (1865-1937).
Henri Lebasque was born on September 25, 1865, in Champigné, France.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- by Henri see:

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Henri Lebasque | Post-Impressionist painter🎨

For other works by Henri see:

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Henri Lebasque | Post-Impressionist painter | Figures🎨

Giovanni Maranghi, 1955 | Mixed media painter

Giovanni Maranghi, Italian painter, was born in Lastra a Signa, near Florence. Maranghi studied at the Liceo Artistico Art High School the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Florence, and the Accademia di Belle Art in Florence.

He began showing his work in the mid-1970s and has had exhibitions in Italy, Holland, Belgium, United States, Turkey and France.

Just turned twenty he found space for a personal exposition at the San Frediano Gallery in Bari.

From this moment, several personal and collective expositions followed both in Italy and abroad. Among the most important dates of these first years, should be remembered the one at the Spinetti Art Gallery of Florence (1982), the one at the Dalders Gallery in Amsterdam (1985), and at the Diva Gallery of Bruxelles (1887).