Gianni Strino, 1953 | Figurative / Realist painter

Italian painter🎨 Gianni Strino studied fine art at the acclaimed Naples Art Institute winning the medal for the best graduate artist in 1970. He taught art and art history until the demand for his work allowed him to become a full time artist.

In his striking portraits Strino not only captures the beauty of his sitters but also the reality of the everyday. He does not restrict his models to beautiful young women as many portraitists do.

Francesca Strino, 1979 | Figurative painter

Francesca Strino was born in Naples, Italy. Francesca Strino’s powerful paintings reflect the influence of her father, Maestro Gianni Strino🎨.

She graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli with specialisation in sculpture and portraiture.

She was a pupil of the great master G. Di Fiore. Her potential as an artist was soon recognised and she was invited to submit her work for an exhibition held in 2002 celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli.

René Xavier Prinet | Impressionist / Genre painter

René François Xavier Prinet (1861-1946) was a French painter and illustrator who drew his subjects from middle-class society.

He was born to Henri Prinet, an Imperial Prosecutor in Vitry-le-François.

A promotion led to him being posted in Paris, where they lived in a home not far from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

His father painted as a hobby and was supportive of his desire to study art, having him seek the advice of Louis Charles Timbal, a well-known church painter and friend of the family.

René Xavier Prinet | The Kreutzer Sonata inspired by the story by Tolstoy

Pol Ledent, 1952 | Abstract painter

Belgian painter🎨 Pol Ledent, self-taught painter, was born in Wallonie, french speaking part of Belgium.

He came to painting in 1989. He started with watercolor but felt rapidly that oil painting would make him progress more efficient in his search for light.

After a few years, because he was disappointed by the fact that he didn't succeed in painting good watercolors, he went to work again.

Rabindranath Tagore / Pol Ledent | Flower quotes

"By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower".

"Strappando i suoi petali, non raccogli la bellezza del fiore".

"Il fiore si nasconde nell'erba, ma il vento sparge il suo profumo..."

Rabindranath Tagore / Dorian Florez

"Il Grande cammina con il Piccolo. Il mediocre si tiene a distanza... "

"The Great walks with the Small without fear. The Middling keep aloof... "

"Ogni bambino che nasce ci ricorda che Dio non è ancora stanco degli uomini".

Gustave Caillebotte | Il ponte dell'Europa, 1876

Le Pont de l'Europe / Il ponte dell'Europa è un dipinto del pittore Francese Gustave Caillebotte, realizzato nel 1876 e conservato al Museo del Petit Palais di Ginevra.

In questo dipinto il pennello solerte e affettuoso di Caillebotte si rivolge alla sua città natale, Parigi, raffigurandone una delle piazze più moderne e vibranti, ovvero Place de l'Europe.

Si tratta di un mastodontico ponte ferroviario, inaugurato nel 1868, che si estende sul parco binari della stazione di Saint-Lazare raccordando ben sei strade, ciascuna delle quali prende il nome di una specifica capitale europea.

La visuale colta dall'opera, in particolare, è quella che si apre da rue de Vienne, guardando verso il centro della piazza.

Dan Beck, 1955 | Impressionist painter

Dan Beck🎨 -American painter- is an award winning artist🎨 and sought after teacher.

His paintings have found collectors in both the private and corporate world on a national level as well as from such diverse places as Canada, Japan and the Middle East.

He is in the permanent collection of the Littleton Historical Museum and has exhibited with the Phippen Museum, Prescott, Arizona.

Sir Edward John Poynter | Classicist painter

Sir Edward John Poynter, 1st Baronet GCVO, PRA (1836-1919) was an English painter, designer and draughtsman who served as President of the Royal Academy.

Poynter was the son of architect Ambrose Poynter.

He was born in Paris, though his parents returned to Britain soon after.

He was educated at Brighton College and Ipswich School, but left school early for reasons of ill health, spending winters in Madeira and Rome.

In 1853, he met Frederick Leighton in Rome, who made a great impression on the 17-year-old Poynter.

Lovers Paintings

Howard Pyle🎨 | The mermaid (detail)

"Blessed are those who will kiss always beyond the lips,

crossing the border of the pleasure,

to feed on dreams".

Alda Merini🎨

José Jiménez Aranda (1837-1903) Genre painter

Luis Jiménez Aranda was a Spanish🎨-born French painter🎨 of genre scenes🎨; many in costumbrista style. His brothers, José and Manuel also became painters.

His first art lessons came from his older brother, José, followed by classes at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría under the direction of Eduardo Cano and Antonio Cabral Bejarano.

In 1868, thanks to a four year stipend from a wealthy patron, he went to Rome to see the Old Masters and complete his studies with Marià Fortuny🎨.

Anders Zorn's palette

Anders Zorn (1860-1920) was known to use a basic color palette consisting of Lead White (Flake White), Yellow Ochre, Vermilion and Ivory Black.

This limited color palette shows tremendous range in terms of color mixing.

A large variety of tonal ranges is possible using this palette, a very important development for portrait painting.

Francisque Duret | Academic sculptor

Francisque Joseph Duret (1804-1865) was a French sculptor, son and pupil of François-Joseph Duret (1732-1816).

Before becoming a sculptor, Francisque Duret had shown interest in pursuing a career in theater.

He studied for a brief time at the Conservatoire and his friend Charles Blanc (1813-1882), in an article which he dedicated in 1866, attested to the quality of observing human behavior which Duret had acquired outside his studies of drama: "His continual studies of the pantomime led him to pin down the language of gesture and the meaning of each disposition".

Suzanne Valadon | Post-Impressionist painter

Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) was a French painter and artists' model who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France.

In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

She was also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.

Valadon spent nearly 40 years of her life as an artist. The subjects of her drawings and paintings, such as" Joy of Life" (1911), included mostly female figures, still lifes and landscapes.

Kitty Meijering, 1974 | Ballet dancers

Kitty Meijering studied at the Amsterdam University. At this University she followed a visual arts education, which she completed in 1998.

At this moment dance and specifically ballet is the main theme Kitty dedicates her time to.

This stunning new serie shows paintings of dancers in full movement and emotion. The dancers defined in warm colours seems to dance right of the paintings!

Mark Olich, 1974 | Ballet dancers photographer

"For me, ballet is movement and music, and if there is movement in the frame, if music is heard, it's a good shoot, it rarely happens"

- Mark Olich.

Mark Olich is a Russian photographer🎨 whose works are entirely focused on the worlds of theatre and dance.

Gustave Flaubert | Quotes / Aforismi

James Tissot (1836-1902)🎨 | Young Lady in a Boat

"The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe".

"L'arte di scrivere è l'arte di scoprire ciò in cui credi".
"Fate attenzione alla tristezza. È un vizio".

"Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory".
"I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings".

"Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times".
"La nostra ignoranza della storia ci porta a calunniare i nostri tempi".

Henri Chapu (1833-1891) | Allegorical sculptor

Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu was a French sculptor🎨 in a modified Neoclassical tradition who was known for his use of allegory in his work.

Born in Le Mée-sur-Seine into modest circumstances, Chapu moved to Paris with his family and in 1847 entered the Petit École with the intention of studying drawing and becoming an interior decorator.

Lynn Sanguedolce, 1959 | Figurative painter

American painter🎨 Lynn R. Sanguedolce is an award-winning🎨 artist who has been represented by prestigious galleries across the country. A professional artist for over thirty years, her work may be found in collections throughout the United States and abroad.

The inspiration for Lynn's work stems from her appreciation of the beauty of nature and the human form. Portraiture and figurative painting are particularly rewarding to Lynn, since they allow her to translate the essence of a subject's personality into a piece of fine art.

Vassilis Solidakis, 1948 | Figurative Expressionist painter

Βασίλης Σολιδάκης was born in Sitia of the Island of Crete, Greece. He boasts to be an 'Eteocris', who is considered to be the indigenous people of Crete with roots in the Minoan period.

Solidakis received training in painting since 1968 and continued his studies in the period 1973-1985 with Dimitris Perdikidis in Madrid, Spain.

He had his first solo exhibition in 1978 in Athens. More one-man and group shows followed in Greece and abroad.

Jonathan Wolstenholme, 1950 | The Surreal books

Jonathan Wolstenholme is an British painter and illustrator best known for his amazingly detailed works deriving from a love of old books.

Books on Books is a series of illustrations in which the book world is being described by… the books. Jonathan has had three one-man shows in London and has exhibited at the Singer and Friedlander Exhibition several times, also at the Discerning Eye Competition at the Mall Galleries winning a prize in 2002.

In 1997 an exhibition of Jonathan’s work was shown in New York at the ‘Works on Paper’ fair. In 2003 he had a joint show with fellow Portal artist George Underwood, this was a great success, Jonathan also took part in an exhibition of Idiosyncratic Portal Artists in Tanglewood, near Boston in 2004 and Portal painters at the Edinburgh Festival in the same year.

Wolstenholme regularly exhibits with Portal at all the major Art Fairs in London and Glasgow.

Cesare Lapini (1848-1893) | Figurative /Allegorical sculptor

Cesare Lapini (1848-1893) was born in Florence. He became one of the leading sculptors of his generation producing works in marble including allegorical works, copies after the Antique, genre subjects and portrait busts.

These he sold with great success along with works by his contemporaries in his gallery in Florence, to travellers on the Grand Tour, which, from having been limited in the 18th Century to the aristocracy and minor royalty now included the wealthy bourgeois from Britain, Germany, Russia, France and of course the United States.

Brian Scott [Briscott] | Portrait painter

Brian Scott [Briscott] British painter, a self-taught, uses colored pencils, unique perspective and captivating subjects to create stunning work.

Brian Scott is a self-taught artist and feels that it shouldn’t matter what your artistic history or education is, but that you love what you are doing. He has always been interested in art and took classes at night school, but found he did not enjoy the strict, regimented routine.

At first, Brian tried oils and acrylics but didn’t feel that he was successful in those mediums. In 2009 he turned to colored pencils where he found his niche and never looked back.

Miriam Briks, 1957 | Figurative painter

Polish-born American painter Miriam Briks was born in Wroclaw, Poland. Raised in New York, she graduated from the School of Art and Design and studied figurative painting and drawing extensively at the Art Students League of New York.

For the next six years she worked as an illustrator and art teacher in Los Angeles and Florence, Italy. She also continued her studies at the Academy of Art in Siena. Originally trained in classical art, she began exhibiting her work in Paris, Italy and England. Upon her return to the Untied States, she took up residence in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.

Ludwig van Beethoven: "L'amore vuole tutto e ha ragione.."

"L'Arte! Chi la può comprendere? A chi si può rivolgere una persona per attirare l'attenzione di questa grande Dea.."

Beethoven

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) | Beethoven

- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) è stato la figura predominante musicale nel periodo di transizione tra l'epoca Classica e Romantica.

Beethoven fu un innovatore, che ampliò il campo di applicazione della sonata, sinfonia, concerto e quartetto, e la combinazione di voci e strumenti in un modo nuovo.

La sua vita personale è stata segnata da una lotta contro la sordità, e alcune delle sue opere più importanti sono stati composti nel corso degli ultimi 10 anni della sua vita, quando era ancora in grado di sentire.

Alexander Millar, 1960 | Fly With Me

Scottish painter Alexander Millar is one of the UK's most popular contemporary artists. Born and raised in the small mining community of Springside, just outside the town of Kilmarnock on the west coast of Scotland, Millar's earliest memories were of his time spent in the company of old men dressed in dark suits smoking woodbines and large missile-shaped women decked out in big overcoats, pinnies, tartan headscarves and zipped booties, adorned with fake fur around the top.

Jeff Rowland, 1964 | VideoArt

Jeff Rowland's ideas and inspirations: 'I have always been fascinated in two areas of art; the implicit meaning and the inspiration. I was inspired to paint a rain soaked street through films I saw at the cinema.

I am always inspired to experience what I am about to paint. I remember Billy Connolly saying that he hated songs about Scotland that were written by men in London: men who had never even seen the Highlands. In other words, if you are going to do something creative, get to the very heart of it first'.

Edgar Degas | Sculpture

Degas’ sculpture stands outside the mainstream of nineteenth-century French sculpture. He was never interested in creating public monuments, and, with one exception, neither did he display his sculpture publicly. The exception was "The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer".

It was shown in the sixth Impressionist exhibition held in Paris in 1881, but the work has little to do with Impressionism. Modeled in wax and wearing a real bodice, stockings, shoes, tulle skirt, and horsehair wig with a satin ribbon, the figure astonished Degas’ contemporaries, not only for its unorthodox use of materials, but also and above all for its realism, judged brutish by some. The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer was not seen again publicly until April 1920.

Grand Prix de Rome (1663-1968) | Art history

Dea Roma, Viale Trinità dei Monti, Villa Medici, Roma

Prix de Rome, in full Grand Prix de Rome, any of a group of scholarships awarded🎨 by the French government between 1663-1968 to enable young French artists🎨 to study in Rome.

It was so named because the students who won the grand, or first, prize in each artistic category went to study at the Académie de France in Rome.

Louise Abbéma | Belle Époque painter

Louise Abbéma was a French painter (1853-1927), sculptor and designer of the Belle Époque.

Abbéma was born in Étampes, Essonne. She was born into a wealthy Parisian family, who were well connected in the local artistic community.

She began painting in her early teens, and studied under such notables of the period as Charles Joshua Chaplin, Jean-Jacques Henner and Carolus-Duran.

She first received recognition for her work at age 23 when she painted a portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, her lifelong friend and possibly her lover.

Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret | The petit Savoyard eating in front of an entrance to a house, 1877

Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (January 7, 1852 - July 3, 1929), was one of the leading French artists🎨 of the Naturalist school.

He was born in Paris, the son of a tailor, and was raised by his grandfather after his father emigrated to Brazil. Later he added his grandfather's name, Bouveret, to his own.

From 1869 he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel🎨 and Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1873 he opened his own studio with a fellow student Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois.

Berthe Morisot | "Ho peccato, ho sofferto, ho espiato"!

"Amo solo le novità estreme o le cose del passato!"

"Fissare qualcosa di ciò che passa…"

"Con mio grande stupore e felicità ho raccolto i più grandi elogi".

"Il ricordo è vero e imperituro, ciò che è sprofondato, che è cancellato, non valeva la pena di essere vissuto; dunque non c’è stato".

John Poppleton | Bodyscapes ‎painter

John Poppleton was born and raised in the suburbs of Sacramento, CA. He was introduced to photography during his junior year of high school in 1988.

He pursued all areas of photography very passionately as a hobby until becoming a professional portrait photographer in 1993, after several friends convinced him to photograph their weddings.

It has always been John’s goal to create something original and different but fantasy portraits were never part of the plan.

Charles Joshua Chaplin | Academic painter

Charles Joshua Chaplin (1825-1891) was a French painter and engraver.

His father was British and his mother french, and he only became a naturalized Frenchman in 1886, although he worked in France all his life.

He was a pupil at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1840, and he regularly visited the studio of Michel-Martin Drolling, whose pupils included Paul Baudry, Jean-Jacques Henner and Jules Breton.

Grigory Gluckmann | The Ballet dancers

Russian-born American painter Gluckmann (Glickman) Grigory Efimovich / Глюкман (Гликман) Григорий Ефимович (1898-1973) was born in Vitebsk, Russia, and studied for three years at the Art Academy in Moscow.

Because of the Revolution, in 1920 escaped to Germany, where he continued his art studies, and then went on to Florence, where he spent a year studying and familiarizing himself with the masters of the Renaissance.

After his Italian sojourn, he settled in Paris in 1924 to work and to launch his professional career as an artist.

Léon Cogniet | Romantic painter

Léon Cogniet (1794-1880) was a French🎨 history and portrait painter. He is probably best remembered as a teacher, with more than one hundred notable students.

He was born in Paris. His father was a painter and wallpaper designer.

In 1812, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-arts, where he studied with Pierre-Narcisse Guérin.

Georges Maroniez | Marine / Genre painter

Georges Philibert Charles Maroniez (1865, Douai - 1933, Paris) was a French painter, specializing in landscapes with figures.

Education and first works

Maroniez was the son of an industrialist who owned a sugar refinery in Montigny-en-Ostrevent. He displayed artistic talent at an early age, but - although not discouraged - was expected to pursue a more professional career.

Accordingly, he studied law, and afterwards served as a magistrate in, successively, Boulogne-sur-Mer (1891), Avesnes-sur-Helpe (1894) and Cambrai (1897).

Malvina Hoffman | Figurative sculptor

One of America's foremost sculptors, Malvina Hoffman (1885-1966)🎨 studied with the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin🎨 from 1910 until his death in 1917 and is recognized by some as "America's Rodin🎨".

Hoffman is perhaps best known for her monumental bronze series, "The Races of Mankind", commissioned in 1930 by Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.

Hoffman first won acclaim for her bronze sculpture of Russian dancers Anna Pavlova🎨 and Mikhail Mordkin and also studied under two other sculptors, Gutzon Borgium of Mount Rushmore fame and Herbert Adams.

Denis Chernov, 1978 | Figurative Pencil painter

Denis Chernov was born in Sambir, Lviv province, Ukraine. He lives and works in Kharkiv after graduating from Kharkiv Art College, in 1998, Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts (Chair of Graphic Art), in 2004.

He regularly participates in artistic exhibitions, both in Ukraine and abroad.

Most of Denis Chernov’s artworks are kept in private collections in Ukraine, Russia, Italy, England, Spain, Greece, France, USA, Canada and Japan. Some works have been sold at 'Christie's.

Slava Korolenkov, 1958 | Impressionist painter

Вячеслав Короленков is an Russian painter, known for work in the Figurative Impressionist style.

Korolenkov was born in the small city of Tula, not far from Moscow.

Influenced by Russian artists such as impressionist Konstantin Korovin🎨 and Nicolai Fechin, Korolenkov maintains that his greatest teacher is every sunny day that gives him a chance to breathe, smile, and chat with family and friends.

Enric Serra i Auqué | Romantic painter

Enric Serra i Auqué (1859-1918) was born in Barcelona where he later attended art school.

Due to a scholarship, he was able to move to Rome in 1879 where he studied at the Accademia di San Luca.

Soon, Serra established himself as a painter in Rome, recorded first sales success and received several commissions for the Vatican.

In 1895 he opened a studio in Paris, which became a meeting point for young Spanish artists.

Myron Barlow | Genre / Figurative painter

Myron G. Barlow (1873-1937) was raised in Detroit, Michigan and remained deeply associated with that city even after he moved to France, where he lived for most of his life.

His artistic career began during his teen years, when formal art training at the Detroit Museum School and at the Chicago Art Institute.

He then traveled to Europe and enrolled in the Ecole des Beau-Arts, Paris in the atelier of Jean-Leon Gérome.

Thomas Ehretsmann, 1974 | Narrative painter

French painter🎨 and illustrator Thomas Ehretsmann was born in Mulhouse, France.

He completed his studies at the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg in 1998 and has led a successful career in illustration for over a decade. Notably, his work has been featured in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Elle Magazine and various European and American books and journals.

In 2009, he spent several months in Norway studying with the internationally recognized painter, Odd Nerdrum🎨. He received a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of New York in 2011, and a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators West in 2013.

His works have been exhibited at Gallery Brulee in Strasbourg and at Gallery l’Oeil du Prince in Paris.