Giacomo Leopardi | The Lonely Sparrow / Il Passero Solitario, 1835

D'in su la vetta della torre antica,

Passero solitario, alla campagna

Cantando vai finchè non more il giorno;

Ed erra l’armonia per questa valle.

Primavera dintorno

Brilla nell’aria, e per li campi esulta,

Caspar David Friedrich | Il sognatore, 1835 | Hermitage Museum St Petersburg

Pedro Salinas | Che allegria vivere / What a joy to live

Che allegria, vivere

e sentirsi vissuto.

Arrendersi

alla grande certezza, oscuramente,

che un altro essere fuori di me,

molto lontano,

mi sta vivendo.

Maria Amaral

Harvey Dinnerstein | Figurative painter

Harvey Dinnerstein (April 3, 1928 - June 21, 2022) was a figurative artist and educator.

A draftsman and painter in the realistic tradition, his work included genre paintings, contemporary narratives, complex figurative compositions, portraits, and intimate images of his family and friends.

Education

Dinnerstein was born in Brooklyn, New York, and studied with Moses Soyer, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Julian E. Levi at the Art Students League of New York.

Mary Quant | The Mother of the Miniskirt / La "Mamma della Minigonna"

"The sixties mini was the most self indulgent, optimistic 'look at me, isn't life wonderful' fashion ever devised. It expressed the sixties, the emancipation of women, the Pill and rock 'n' roll. ... It was the beginning of women's lib" - Mary Quant, 2012.

Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, DBE, FCSD, RDI (1930-2023) is a British fashion designer and fashion icon.

She became an instrumental figure in the 1960s London-based Mod and youth fashion movements.

She was one of the designers who took credit for the miniskirt and hotpants.

Ernestine Carter wrote: "It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there are three: Chanel, Dior and Mary Quant".

Philippe Mercier | Rococo painter

Philippe Mercier (also spelled Philip Mercier; 1689 - 18 July 1760) was an artist of French Huguenot descent from the German realm of Brandenburg-Prussia (later Kingdom of Prussia), usually defined to French school.

Active in England for most of his working life, Mercier is considered one of the first practitioners of the Rococo style, and is credited with influencing a new generation of 18th-century English artists.

Mercier was born c. 1689-1691 in Berlin, the son of Pierre Mercier (died 1729, Dresden), a Huguenot tapestry-worker.

Robert Högfeldt | Watercolor cartoonist

Gustaf Robert Högfeldt was born in 1894 in Eindhoven, Netherlands and died in 1986 in Stockholm.

He was a painter, primarily known for his watercolours.

His pictures often feature comical and fairytale-like narratives.

He studied in Paris, Düsseldorf and Stockholm and is represented at the Nationalmuseum and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Herbert Davis Richter | Floral still life painter

Herbert Davis Richter (1874-1955) was born in Brighton 10th May 1874. His family moved to Lansdown on the outskirts of Bath and it was at the Bath School of Art that Richter studied Furniture Design and Architecture.

He subsequently set up in business with his brother Charles, the Company Bath Cabinet Makers, with himself as Head of the Design Department.

In 1900, the Company was awarded Gold and Silver Medals at the Paris World Exhibition.

The Company was later awarded contracts for the furniture and fittings for the Cunard Liners, Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth.

Fritz Syberg | Naturalist painter

Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Syberg, generally known as Fritz Syberg, (28 July 1862, Fåborg - 20 December 1939, Kerteminde) was a Danish painter and illustrator, one of the or Funen Painters (Fynboerne) living and working on the island of Funen.

Biography

Syberg, from a poor background in Fåborg, first served a house painter's apprenticeship under Syrak Hansen, the father of fellow artist Peter Hansen before attending the Copenhagen Technical School in 1882 where Holger Grønvold taught him drawing.

After a short period at the Danish Academy (spring 1884), he attended the Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler (1885-1891) where he was the first of the Fynboerne to study under Kristian Zahrtmann.

Hanna Pauli | Genre painter

Hanna Hirsch, later Hanna Pauli (Stockholm, 13 January 1864 - 29 December 1940, Solna), was a Swedish painter; primarily of genre scenes and portraits.

Hanna Hirsch was a daughter of music publisher Abraham Hirsch. She was a friend of Eva Bonnier, and they followed each other through the painting school of August Malmström, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm.

Eva Bonnier (1857-1909)

Eva Fredrika Bonnier (1857-1909) was a Swedish painter and philanthropist.

Born in Stockholm as the daughter of publisher Albert Bonnier and a member of a leading family of publishers, Bonnier studied painting with August Malmström and became a student in the women's section of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm in 1878.

Together with her friend and co-student Hanna Hirsch, she traveled to Paris in 1883, staying there until 1889.

John Donne | Il sogno / The Dream

Per nessun altro, amore, avrei spezzato

questo beato sogno.

Buon tema per la ragione,

troppo forte per la fantasia.

Sei stata saggia a svegliarmi. E tuttavia

tu non spezzi il mio sogno, lo prolunghi.

Tu così vera che pensarti basta

per fare veri i sogni e storia le favole.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-73) | Contemplation | Royal Collection

Pedro Salinas | Non rifiutare i sogni / Don’t reject dreams / No rechaces los sueños

Non rifiutare i sogni in quanto sogni.

Tutti i sogni possono

esser realtà, se il sogno non finisce.

La realtà è un sogno. Se sogniamo

che la pietra è la pietra, quello è la pietra.

A correre nei fiumi non è un’acqua,

ma è un sognare, l’acqua, cristallino.

Marc Chagall

Vincent van Gogh | Orchard in Blossom

Vincent van Gogh | Peach Trees in Blossom, April 1888 | Courtauld Gallery, London

This is van Gogh’s last view of a plain outside Arles that he often painted since settling in the south of France in 1888.

He wrote to the painter Paul Signac "everything is small there ... even the mountains, as in certain Japanese landscapes, which is the reason why the subject attracted me".

The snow-capped peak on the right (a deliberate echo of Mount Fuji in Japan) and blossoming trees create a peaceful atmosphere.

But the bent figure at left emphasises this is a man-made landscape. | © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Vincent van Gogh | Peach Trees in Blossom, April 1888 | Courtauld Gallery, London

Questa è l'ultima veduta di van Gogh di una pianura fuori Arles che dipinse spesso da quando si stabilì nel sud della Francia nel 1888.

Gotthardt Kuehl | Impressionist painter

Gotthardt Kuehl (28 November 1850 - 9 January 1915) was a German painter and a representative of early German Impressionism. He gained wide international recognition during his lifetime.

His father, Simon Kühl, was the Sexton and organist at St. Lorenz Church. He studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (1867) and the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, (1870).

From 1878-1889, he lived in Paris. He also made study trips to Italy and the Netherlands.

In 1888, he married Henriette Simonson-Castelli (1860-1921), daughter of the portrait painter, David Simonson.

Wenzel Tornøe | Genre painter

Wenzel Ulrik Tornøe (1844-1907) was a Danish genre painter. Tornøe was the son of birch judge Jens Wenzel Tornøe (1792-1866) and Eleonore Jakobine - born Lacoppidan (1797-1872).

From 1861-65, he studied at the Art Academy and debuted in 1865 at Charlottenborg with Uffe the spages duel. 1865 came his A Poor Woman with her Child and Mignon and Harp Player, and since then he has been among the permanent exhibitors.

In 1871 he traveled to Rome, where he painted a quantity of genre pictures, for which he found many buyers so that he could extend his stay in the South over two years.

Pedro Salinas | Ciò che tu sei.. / Lo que eres.. / What you are..

Ciò che tu sei

mi distrae da ciò che tu dici.

Lanci parole veloci

inghirlandate di risa,

e m’inviti ad andare

dove mi vorranno condurre.

Fabian Perez

José Benlliure y Gil | Genre painter

From: Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga

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José Benlliure was born in Cañamelar, a seaside village in Valencia, on 30 September 1855.

The son of a modest painter and decorator and brother of the sculptor Mariano Benlliure, he studied from a very early age at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts in Valencia and at the private studio of Francisco Domingo Marqués.

In 1872 he applied to the Diputación (provincial council) of Valencia for a travel grant.

Although his application was unsuccessful, he was awarded a sum of money that enabled him to make a study trip to Paris, where he came into contact with the art dealer Goupil. On returning to Valencia, he devoted himself to painting works for the National Exhibitions.