Stephen Gjertson, 1949 | Classical realism painter

Stephen Gjertson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Trained by Richard Lack (1928-2009) at Atelier Lack during the early 70's, Gjertson has spent twenty years creating works that reflect his love of nature and family, and his deeply held religious convictions.

His style is natural and personal, revealing his respect for, and knowledge of, both the academic and impressionist traditions.

Mark Stock | The Butlers in Love

Mark Stock (1951-2014) was an American painter.

He was born in Frankfurt, Germany.

The son of an Army officer, Stock lived in many states across America before settling in St. Petersburg, Florida.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he studied under Theo Wujcik.

Upon graduating in 1976, Stock was hired to work at Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles as a lithographer.

Mario Puccini | The Italian van Gogh

Mario Puccini (1869, Livorno - 1920, Florence) was an Italian Post-Macchiaioli painter, who specialized in landscapes and village scenes.

He was sometimes referred to as "The Italian Van Gogh".

His father was a baker. He worked in his father's bakery and sketched as a hobby until his talent was noticed by Giovanni Fattori, who encouraged him to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, which he did, against parental objections, in 1884 when he was only fifteen.

Alexis Le Borgne, 1995 | Watercolor painter

Alexis Le Borgne is an award-winning French-Vietnamese professional artist based in France.

He describes his art as evolving with time and being marked by continuous questioning and desire to learn in perpetuity.

From still lifes to interior scenes, as well as the animal world, imaginary landscapes and character settings, each of Le Borgne's subjects "brings its stone to the edifice", helping him to better understand and grasp the world around him.

Oreste Cortazzo | Painter of the Belle Époque

Oreste Cortazzo (1836, Rome - 1910, Paris) was an Italian-born French painter, graphic artist and illustrator.

His family originally came from Ceraso, in the Province of Salerno.

Around 1848, he began an apprenticeship with his father, Michele (1808-1865), who was also a painter and a great admirer of Titian. (Some of Michele's works may be seen at the Palace of Caserta, near Naples.)

Jaroslav Seifert | Di pomeriggio uno scroscio di pioggia..

Di pomeriggio uno scroscio di pioggia

fece profumare anche l’erba pesta

e la sera, piena di primaverile malinconia,

lenta s’univa alla notte.

Jeff Rowland

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Tête de jeune fille coiffée d'un chapeau de jardin, 1895

"I have taken up again, never to abandon it, my old style, soft and light of touch", Renoir wrote to his dealer Durand-Ruel in 1888, full of enthusiasm for his latest efforts.

"This is to give you some idea of my new and final manner of painting - like Fragonard, but not so good" (quoted in J. House, Renoir in the Barnes Foundation, New Haven, 2012, p. 121).

Renoir's new approach represented a sea-change after the controversial Ingres-inspired method he cultivated in the previous decade.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Tête de jeune fille coiffée d'un chapeau de jardin, 1895 | Christie's

Jaroslav Seifert | Se al cuore si potesse dire / If one could tell one’s heart…

Se al cuore si potesse dire:

non correre!

Se potessi ordinargli: brucia!

Già si spegne.

Marc Chagall

Romà Ribera | Painter of the Belle Époque

Romà Ribera i Cirera (Barcelona, 1848-1935) was a Catalan genre painter.

He specialized in contemporary scenes from upper-class social events, rendered in meticulous detail, but also did numerous scenes from life in the 17th and 18th centuries.

He studied at the Escola de la Llotja and at the private school operated by Pere Borrell del Caso.

In 1873, he went to Rome to complete his studies.

While there, he met Marià Fortuny, who works would influence his style.

Rosario de Velasco | Magic Realism painter

Rosario de Velasco Belausteguigoitia (Madrid, 1904 - Barcelona, 1991) Spanish painter.

Born in Madrid, in her early years she started an active painting career.

Pupil of Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza, developed a neo-traditional style imbued with Magic Realism.

Her favourite subjects were seascapes, portraits and landscapes.

Felix Schlesinger | Genre painter

Felix Schlesinger (1833-1910) was a German genre painter of the Düsseldorf School.

Felix Schlesinger was born in a family of painters.

In 1848, he received his first artistic training from Friedrich Heimerdinger at his birthplace Hamburg, later in Antwerp, at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and in Paris.

Between 1861 and 1863 he worked mainly in Frankfurt am Main, before he finally settled in Munich.

Danny Day, 1964 | Romantic Realism painter

Danny Day has established a reputation worldwide for the high quality of his original works of art.

Danny has made it a lifelong quest to master and refine his version of realism, perfecting the "master’s technique" of oils on canvas.

Rich color and eye popping clarity are the hallmarks embodied in his works, which range in genre from sports to wildlife, auto racing, and lush romantic portraits.

Danny has also added commercial photography to his repertoire.

Désiré Thomassin | Naturalist painter

Désiré Thomassin was an Austrian painter and composer.

His father was the charge d’affaires of the Duchy of Parma in Vienna, his mother was from Regensburg.

After the death of the father in 1867 the remaining family moved to Regensburg.

There he finished his school and attended the local lyzeum for two terms till 1878.

Then he studied music in Munich under Josef Rheinberger (composition) and Max Hieber (violin).

Carl Schlesinger | Genre / Landscape painter

Carl Schlesinger (1825-1893) was a Swiss-German genre and landscape painter.

Schlesinger began his painting apprenticeship in Hamburg, with Gerdt Hardorff and Hermann Kauffmann and continued it in 1844 at the Prague Academy with Christian Ruben.

Konstantinos Kavafis | Candele / Candles / Κεριά

Stanno i giorni futuri innanzi a noi

come una fila di candele accese

dorate, calde e vivide.

Restano indietro i giorni del passato,

penosa riga di candele spente:

le più vicine danno fumo ancora,

fredde, disfatte, e storte.

Matthias Stom | An Old Woman and a Boy by Candlelight | Birmingham Museum

Ludovico Marchetti | Genre painter

Ludovico Marchetti (Rome, 1853-1909, Paris) was an Italian-born painter of genre scenes, who spent most of his life in France.

His artistic education began in the studios of Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish painter who lived in Rome during the 1870s.

Shortly after completing his studies there, in 1878, aged twenty-five, he moved to France, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Adrien Moreau | Genre painter

Adrien Moreau (1843-1906) was a French genre and historical painter, sculptor and illustrator.

Moreau was born in Troyes in Aube department.

He began his artistic training as an apprentice glassmaker, but left for Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under Léon Cogniet and Isidore Pils.

James Jebusa Shannon | Portrait / Genre painter

Sir James Jebusa Shannon RA (1862-1923) was an Anglo-American artist.

Shannon was born in Auburn, New York, and at the age of eight was taken by his parents to Canada.

When he was sixteen, he went to England, where he studied at South Kensington, and after three years won the gold medal for figure painting.

Ingeborg Plockross Irminger (1872-1962)

Ingeborg Plockross Irminger (1872-1962) was a Danish artist who is remembered both for her sculptures and for the miniature porcelain statues of animals and human figures she designed while working for Bing and Grøndahl.

A bronze cast of her 1903 bust of the writer Herman Bang was installed on Sankt Annæ Plads in Copenhagen in 2012.

Valdemar Irminger | Romantic painter

Valdemar Heinrich Nicolas Irminger (1850-1938) was a Danish painter.

Born in Copenhagen, Irminger attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1867 and 1873.

He went to Italy on a scholarship from 1884 to 1887.

In 1888, he won the Academy's medal for Motiv fra Børnehospitalet ved Refsnæs (View from the Children's Hospital at Refsnæs) and the following year for Fra et Børnehospital (From a Children's Hospital).

Albert Ludovici Jr. | Genre painter

Following the profession of his father Albert Johann Ludovici (1820-1894), Albert Ludovici Jr. R.B.A. (1852-1932) spent his life between Paris and London, painting scenes of society at leisure.

His genre paintings were the most popular, particularly his studies of the interaction of couples, whether in public places or of private moments in their homes and lives - these paintings have universal appeal.

But he also painted landscapes and interior scenes in both watercolour and gouache as well as in oils.

Giuseppe Barison | Genre painter

Giuseppe Barison (1853-1931) was a Triestiner painter and engraver, active in Venice.

He was born in Trieste, Austrian Empire to a family of modest means.

His father was a tailor. Barison found a patron in the aristocratic Anna De Rin, who placed him in apprenticeship with the painter Carl Haase (1820-1876) in Trieste, and then enrolled him in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

Willy Brandes | Genre painter

Willy Brandes (1876-1946) was a German painter.

Willy Brandes was born in Bornstädt near Potsdam.

At a young age he began an apprenticeship as a decorative painter.

He studied under Albert Hertel (1843-1912) and Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (1842-1915) at the Berlin Academy and later was a master student of Eugen Bracht (1842-1921).

Janet Knight | Figurative painter

Janet Knight is an professional award winning Melbourne artist.

With painting experience of over 25 years, Janet graduated from Ballarat University majoring in graphic design.

Janet’s current works are an indication of her dedication to her passion and her field.

With her connection to nature and the environment Janet’s unique personal skills and interpretation she always manages to finish a piece with a unique style all of her own.

Józef Chełmoński | Genre painter

Józef Marian Chełmoński (1849-1914) was a Polish painter of the realist school with roots in the historical and social context of the late Romantic period in partitioned Poland.

He is famous for monumental paintings now at the Sukiennice National Art Gallery in Kraków and at the MNW in Warsaw.

Chełmoński was born in the village of Boczki near Łowicz in central Congress Poland under the Russian military control.

His first drawing teacher was his father Józef Adam (a small leaseholder and administrator of Boczki village). His mother was Izabela née Łoskowska.