Rosmery Mamani Ventura, 1985 | Pastel painter

Rosmery Mamani Ventura is an award winning hyperrealistic pastel artists from Bolivia.

She was born in Omasuyos, near Lake Titicaca where she lived until 1998.

At 14 she migrated from her rural Aymara indigenous community to the city of El Alto to work as a maid, a move that brought excitement, but also struggle.

Despite the hardships, that move was also the first step toward discovering her talent as an artist.

Johan Ericson | Landscape painter

Johan Erik Ericson (1849-1925) was a Swedish landscape painter.

He was born to Anders Eriksson, a woodcarver, and his wife Johanna, née Petersson. His father emigrated to America when he was only four.

From 1872 to 1878, he studied at the Royal Institute of Art, where his primary teacher was Per Daniel Holm.

This was followed by studies in France from 1878 to 1884, where he came under the influence of the Impressionists and served as an assistant in the studios of Alfred Wahlberg.

Jan Bogaerts (Dutch, 1878-1962)

Johannes Jacobus Maria (Jan) Bogaerts was an artist from Netherlands.

Born in the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch, in the province of North Brabant, Bogaerts attended the Koninklijke School voor Nuttige en Beeldende Kunsten in his birth city between 1893 and 1899.

He spent four years working in the studio of the fin-de siècle artist Antoon van Welie (1866-1956) and also received tutelage from him at the Den Bosch academy from 1897 until 1899.

Under his influence, Bogaerts painted figures, portraits, landscapes, parks, gardens and castle grounds in a symbolistical manner.

Alexander Sheversky, 1961 | Ballet dancers

Alexander Sheversky is an artist who truly captures the essence of beauty with his brushstrokes, whether he is painting a still life, a ballerina, or an assortment of candy in a crystal clear Mason jar.

Clean, modern, crisp. Sheversky's art speaks to his technical training, discipline, and great patience.

Alexander employes these same skills, in his daily practice of yoga.

Alexander Sheversky, born in the Republic of Moldova, the son of an accomplished artist.

Louis Aragon | Tutte le parole del mondo / Toutes les paroles du monde…

Quando tutte insieme le parole del mondo ti avrò dato

Tutte le foreste d’America e tutte le messi notturne del cielo

Quando ti avrò dato ciò che brilla e ciò che l’occhio non può vedere

Tutto il fuoco della terra come una coppa di lacrime

Il seme maschile delle specie diluviane

E la mano di un bambino

Sergey Shenderovsky

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Jeune fille (L’Eté), 1880

Renoir’s Jeune fille (L'Eté) is a pretty pastel fantasy: a plump brunette wears a breezy white chemise and a fashionable straw hat, festooned with a thick blue ribbon.

This Impressionist goddess of summer, nestled in a flowering meadow, has adorned her hat with freshly plucked blooms.

She leans towards the viewer with a sweet, languid look, her lips gently parted.

The sensuality of her expression is underscored by the casual exposure of her bare shoulder, arms and décolleté.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Jeune fille (L’Eté), 1880 | Christie's

Antonio Zoppi | Grandpa plays the accordion for Grandma

Antonio Zoppi (1860-1926) was an Italian painter, mostly of genre and costume scenes, as well as landscapes.

He was born and resident in Novara. In 1881 at Milan he exhibited: Paggio del secolo XVI.

In 1881 at Rome he exhibited: Fate la carità e In vino laetitia.

To other exhibitions he sent: Winter Sun; Dolci ricordi; Il nonno; Adele; Study of a head; A landscaper of Tobacco; and Savoy and Winter Morning.

Antonio Zoppi | Grandpa plays the accordion for Grandma / Il Nonno suona la fisarmonica per la Nonna | Simpson Galleries, Houston, Texas

William Faulkner: "I believe that man will not merely endure he will prevail!"

William Faulkner’s speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm

December 10, 1950

Ladies and gentlemen,

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before.

So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin.

Antonio Nunziante

Iain Faulkner, 1973 | Figurative / Romantic painter

Scottish painter Iain Faulkner was born in Glasgow where he was raised and educated.

He graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1996 with a BA (Honours) Degree in Fine Art.

From the onset of his professional career, the fashionable and trendy routes of contemporary and conceptual art, adopted by many of his peers, was not an option.

He chose instead to follow the more difficult and demanding path of figurative painting wherein clear, concise yardsticks of competence, draughtsmanship and painterly skills can be measured and judged, warts and all.

Marc Chagall's America Windows, 1977

The America Windows are a stunning display of the iconic style of one of the world’s most prolific and expressive artists.

They capture Marc Chagall’s unique vision as he reflected, late in his career, on the resilience and freedom of the creative spirit.

At eight feet high and thirty feet across, these stained glass windows are a vast arrangement of colors of the highest intensity - bright reds, oranges, yellows, and greens - placed against brilliant shades of blue. Representations of people, animals, and items such as writing implements, musical instruments, and artists’ tools float above a skyline of buildings and trees.

Paul-Louis Delance | Allegorical / History painter

Paul-Louis Delance (1848-1924) was a French painter and educator.

He is known for his allegorical and genre scene paintings early in his career, and his religious, and landscape paintings later in his career.

Paul-Louis Gustave Delance was born on March 14, 1848, in Paris, France.

His grandfather was Comte Joseph van Roosebeck from Belgium.

Jean-André Rixens | Orientalist painter

Jean-André Rixens (1846-1925) was a French painter, known for his classical scenes and portraits.

He was born in Saint-Gaudens. His father was a master shoemaker.

After completing his basic education, he was enrolled in 1860 at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Toulouse.

He paid for his tuition there and supported himself by painting commercial signs and making copies of artworks.

Albert Camus | Invincibile estate / Within Me

Mia cara,

nel bel mezzo dell’odio

ho scoperto che vi era in me

un invincibile amore.

Nel bel mezzo delle lacrime

ho scoperto che vi era in me

un invincibile sorriso.

Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall | The Tree of Life, 1963 | Stained glass

The Tree of Life or The Peace window - La Paix ou L’Arbre de vie - at the chapel of Cordeliers of Sarrebourg, a small town in the Vosges Mountains in France, is a stained-glass window about 15 feet (4,6 meters) wide and 12 feet (3,7 meters) high, contains several symbols of peace and love, such as the young child in the center, being kissed by an angelic face which emerges from a mass of flowers.

The Peace Window / Tree of Life is the largest stained-glass window made by Marc Chagall.

On the left, below and above, motherhood and the people who are struggling for peace are depicted.

Musical symbols in the panel evoke thoughts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which was a favourite of Mr. Hammarskjöld's.

Antonio Nunziante, 1956 | Il maestro della Metafisica

Il pittore Italiano Antonio Nunziante afferma che tra Surrealismo e Metafisica: "c’è una commistione.

Mediamente la metafisica mi da più apertura, nel senso che è una realtà possibile e più vicina a noi.

Il surrealismo invece è qualcosa di estremo, oltre una realtà.

Raramente vado oltre la realtà delle cose, infatti nel contesto della mia espressione apparentemente tutto sembra ben proporzionato e normale, ma non è proprio così".

Scottish painter Jack Vettriano dies aged 73

Scottish painter Jack Vettriano, best known for his painting The Singing Butler, has died at the age of 73.

His publicist said the artist was found dead at his apartment in Nice, in the south of France, on Saturday, 1 March 2025.

It is understood there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

Wisława Szymborska | Ritratto di Donna / Portrait of a Woman

Deve essere a scelta.

Cambiare, purché niente cambi.

È facile, impossibile, difficile, ne vale la pena.

Ha gli occhi, se occorre, ora azzurri, ora grigi,

neri, allegri, senza motivo pieni di lacrime.

Egon Schiele | Seated Woman with Bent Knees, 1917 | National Gallery of Prague

Louis Béroud (1852-1930)

Louis Béroud (1852-1930) was a French painter, a student of Léon Bonnat, renowned for his detailed and realistic works, often depicting interior scenes of famous museums, including the Louvre.

Some of his paintings are visible at the Musée Carnavalet and The Louvre in Paris.

He was awarded the medal of honour at the Salon in 1882 and won the bronze medal at the Universal.

Claude Monet | Nazi looting / Il saccheggio nazista

Under the Nazi regime, both in Germany from 1933 and in German-occupied countries until 1945, Jewish art collectors of Monet were robbed by Nazis and their agents.

Several of the stolen artworks have been returned to their rightful owners, while others have been the object of court battles.

In 2014, during the spectacular discovery of a hidden trove of art in Munich, a Monet that had belonged to a Jewish retail magnate was found in the suitcase of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of one of Hitler's official dealers of looted art, Hildebrand Gurlitt.

Claude Monet | Fécamp, bord de mer

Cecil van Haanen | Genre painter

Cecil van Haanen (1844-1914) was a Vienna-born Dutch portrait and genre painter, whose significant work was centred at Venice.

Van Haanen was the son to landscape painter Remigius Adrianus Haanen (1812–1894) and Emilie Mayer von Alsó-Rußbach.

He received early artistic training from his father and Friedrich Schilcher, and from April 1854 was educated at the pre-school of the Vienna Academy under Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger.