Helen Allingham RWS | Victorian era painter

Helen Allingham RWS (née Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson; 26 September 1848 - 28 September 1926) was an British* watercolour painter and illustrator of the Victorian era.

Biography

Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson was born at Swadlincote in Derbyshire, the daughter of Alexander Henry Paterson, a medical doctor, and Mary Herford Paterson.

Helen Paterson was the eldest of seven children. The family moved to Altrincham in Cheshire when she was one year old.

In 1862 her father and her 3-year-old sister Isabel died of diphtheria during an epidemic.

The family then moved to Birmingham, where some of Alexander Paterson's family lived.

William Dyce | Pre-Raphaelite painter

Prof William Dyce FRSE RSA RA (1806-1864) pioneer of state art education in Great Britain.

Dyce studied at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh and the Royal Academy schools, London.

One of the first British students of early Italian Renaissance painting, he visited Italy in 1825 and 1827-1828, meeting in Rome a group of young German painters, the Nazarenes.

Claude Monet | The Houses of Parliament, 1900-1905

Claude Monet painted a series of oil paintings of the Palace of Westminster, home of the British Parliament, in the fall of 1899 and the early months of 1900 and 1901 during stays in London.

All of the series' paintings share the same viewpoint from Monet's window or a terrace at St Thomas' Hospital overlooking the Thames and the approximate canvas size of 81 cm x 92 cm (32 in x 36 3/8 in).

They are however painted during different times of the day and weather circumstances.

Robert Antoine Pinchon | Post-Impressionist painter

Claude Monet referred to him: "As a surprising touch in the service of a surprising eye".

Among Robert Antoine Pynchons' important works are a series of paintings of the River Seine, mostly around Rouen and landscapes depicting places in or near Upper Normandy.

Robert Antoine Pinchon (1886-1943) was a French Post-Impressionist landscape painter of the Rouen School- l'École de Rouen.

He was consistent throughout his career in his dedication to painting landscapes en plein air.

Arthur John Elsley | Genre painter

Arthur John Elsley (20 November 1860 - 19 February 1952) was an English painter of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, famous for his idyllic genre scenes of playful children and their pets.

He achieved great popularity during his life and much of his work appeared in calendars, magazines and books.

Elsley was born in London, one of six children of John Elsley, coachman and amateur artist, and Emily Freer.

Elsley's father had exhibited at the British Institution Exhibition in 1845 but later in life contracted tuberculosis which forced him into early retirement.

Pasquale Celommi | A good catch, 1895

Pasquale Celommi (1851-1928) was an Italian painter, known for his outdoor scenes of Italian life in verist style.

Born in Montepagano, Abruzzo, Italy, he developed a keen eye for detail and depicted everyday life with a captivating realism.

Thanks to the help of a local landowner, Don Camillo Mezzopreti, and to a contribution of 30 lire by the Municipality, he managed to study until the year 1873, when he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.

Pasquale Celommi | Verist painter

Pasquale Celommi (1851-1928) was born in Montepagano - Italy, into a family of fishermen.

Celommi showed an early interest in art and often drew in his home as a child.

Celommi decided to receive academic training and moved Florence to study under Antonio Ciseri at the Academy of Florence.

He was a strong student and often praised by his teacher Ciseri. Celommi started exhibiting his work in various regions of Italy.

Celommi had a large exhibition in Turin and eventually in Rome.

Paul Chabas | Figurative painter

Paul Émile Chabas (1869-1937) was a French painter and illustrator and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

He was born in Nantes, and had his artistic training under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1890.

He was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 and in 1912 received the Médaille d’honneur.

His preferred subject was a young girl in a natural setting.

Firmin Baes | A Master of Pastel painting

Firmin Baes (1874-1943) was a Belgian painter.

The son of the decorative painter Henri Baes, Firmin Baes was active as a portrait painter and a painter of still life subjects, figures, landscapes and interiors.

He studied under Léon Frédéric at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels between 1888-1894, and the elder artist’s influence is evident in many of Baes’s early paintings.

Pasquale Celommi | Four Seasons / Le Quattro stagioni, 1890-1901

In the series of the "Four Seasons", commissioned to Pasquale Celommi by the Commander Pasquale Ventilj, the pastoral world is reproposed through rustic "types” who reveal themselves rather self-conscious if compared to the more dramatic scenes of the same country artist Teofilo Patini.

The Four Seasons are part of the collection of the The Pinacoteca Civica of Teramo.

Pasquale Celommi | Winter / Inverno, 1890-1900 | Pinacoteca di Teramo

Everett Shinn | Ashcan School painter

Everett Shinn (1876-1953), a painter, illustrator, designer and playwright who was best known for his images of the theater, was born in New Jersey in 1876.

He studied industrial design in Philadelphia from 1888-1890, and in 1893, he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

At the same time, Shinn supported himself as an artist-reporter for the Philadelphia Press, where he became friends with William Glackens, George Luks and John Sloan, whose style of urban realism influenced Shinn to depict the bleaker aspects of city life.

Robert Henri | Painter and Art teacher

Robert Henri (1865-1929) was an influential American painter and a leading figure of the Ashcan School of American realism.

He is best known for his belief in "art for life's sake", which encouraged artists to find subject matter in the everyday, often gritty, urban life around them, and for his profound impact as a teacher on a generation of American artists.

Antonio Canova | Paolina Borghese, 1805-1808

The reclining Paolina Borghese as Venus Victrix in the center of the room holds an apple in her hand, evoking the Venus Victrix in the judgement of Paris, who was chosen to settle a dispute between Juno (power), Minerva (arts and science) and Venus (love).

The same subject was painted on the ceiling by Domenico de Angelis (1779), framed by Giovan Battista Marchetti's tromp d'oeil architecture, and was inspired by a famous relief on the façade of the Villa Medici.

This marble statue of Pauline in a highly refined pose is considered a supreme example of the Neoclassical style.

Edward Robert Hughes | Pre-Raphaelite painter

Edward Robert Hughes RWS (1851-1914) was an British painter who worked prominently in watercolours.

He was influenced by his uncle, and eminent Pre-Raphaelite, Arthur Hughes.

Having settled on his career choice, Edward Hughes attended Heatherley's in London to prepare himself for the chance of auditioning for the Royal Academy School.

Hughes became a student at the Royal Academy School in 1868.

Othon Friesz | Fauve painter

Achille-Émile Othon Friesz (6 February 1879 - 10 January 1949), who later called himself Othon Friesz, a native of Le Havre, was a French artist of the Fauvist movement.

Othon Friesz was born in Le Havre, the son of a long line of shipbuilders and sea captains.

He went to school in his native city.

It was while he was at the Lycée that he met his lifelong friend Raoul Dufy.

Félix Vallotton | Landscapes and seascapes

Vallotton's landscapes and seascapes avoided conventional views and techniques, and presented unusual viewpoints and perspectives.

The scene is sometimes seen from above, with the horizon very high in the picture, or without the sky being visible at all.

The forms are simplified, and the figures are often small and almost unrecognizable.

Felix-Vallotton | The Ball, 1899 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Gaetano Bellei | Academic / Genre painter

The Italian master Gaetano Bellei was born in Modena in 1857, died in the same city in March 1922.

A student of Adeodato Malatesta and companion of John Muzzioli.

Twenty-four he won the Retired Potetti that allowed him to travel to Rome for some time learning about yourself.

Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890

Winslow Homer started his career as a graphic reporter during the American Civil War, before going on to paint scenes of army life and the rural world with the Naturalist precision which then prevailed in American painting.

After a stay in Paris, Homer used an Impressionist palette for a while then developed a personal style midway between Realism and Symbolism.

Summer Night perfectly expresses this synthesis and may be considered one of the first masterpieces of American art still in search of its identity.

Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890 | Musée d'Orsay

Lord Frederic Leighton | Cymon and Iphigenia, 1884

Cymon and Iphigenia is an oil on canvas painting by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA.

The painting does not bear a date but was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1884.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, purchased it at a Christie's auction in London in 1976.

John Frederick Lewis | Orientalist painter

John Frederick Lewis RA (London, 1804-1876) was an British painter. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in exquisitely detailed watercolour or oils.

Lewis lived for several years in a traditional mansion in Cairo, and (after his return to England) painted highly detailed works showing both realistic Genre scenes of Middle Eastern life and more idealized scenes in upper class Egyptian interiors with no traces of Western cultural influence yet apparent.