Christmas with Jenny Nyström

Jenny Eugenia Nyström (1854-1946) was a painter and illustrator mainly known as the creator of the Swedish image of the jultomte on Christmas cards and magazine covers, thus linking the Swedish version of Santa Claus to the gnomes and tomtar of Scandinavian folklore.

Her father was a school teacher and piano teacher, and also the cantor of the Kalmar Castle Church.

When Jenny Nyström was eight years old, the family moved to Gothenburg, where her father had found a better paying teaching job.

Sarah Jarrett | Pop Surrealism painter

Sarah Jarrett is a collage artist and illustrator based in Norfolk, UK.

She is fascinated and inspired by the human relationship with nature and the natural world.

She loves plants, flowers, and color.

Jarrett's ladies are frequently surrounded by flowers, birds and branches, which gives them a lovely surrealistic impression.

Théophile Deyrolle | Genre painter

Théophile-Louis Deyrolle (16 December 1844, Paris - 14 December 1923, Concarneau) was a French painter, illustrator and ceramicist.

He came from a family of entomologists and naturalists who owned a well-known taxidermy shop in Paris.

Achille and Émile Deyrolle were among his relatives.

Originally, he studied architecture at the École des Beaux-arts.

While working for Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer, he met Alfred Guillou who convinced him to give up architecture for painting.

Lisi Martin, 1944 | It's Christmas Time

Spanish illustrator Lisi Martin was born in Barcelona, Catalonia.

She is the younger of 2 children, having an older brother.

She was a quiet child and claims to have started drawing at the age of 4 as a way to express her imagination.

There was no realization in her early years that she had any specific or unusual talent, but she had a clear love for art and continued to pursue it throughout her childhood.

Detlev Nitschke, 1935 | Impressionist painter

The German artist Detlev Nitschke is mainly known for his picturesque scenes and outdoor paintings (plein air), which he developed into designs for calendars and maps.

In 1954 he graduated from school as a lithographer.

He went on to continue his studies at Meisterschule Fur Druck and Graphik.

He later served as the director of a graphic company until 1969 when he opened his own studio.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir in Guernsey, 1883

Between late summer and early autumn of 1883, Pierre-Auguste Renoir spent over a month on the Channel Island of Guernsey, lodging at no. 4 of George Road, St. Peter Port.

The beach of Moulin Huet, and the nearby bay at the east end of the island's rocky south coast within walking distance from his lodgings, provided the inspiration for approximately fifteen paintings, including Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey), alongside Moulin Huet Bay, Guernsey (in the National Gallery, London) and Enfants au bord de la mer Guernsey (in the Barnes Foundation, Pennsylvania).

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey), 1883 | Christie's

Zinaida Serebriakova's 140th Birthday

Russian-born French painter Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova / Зинаи́да Евге́ньевна Серебряко́ва (1884-1967), born on this day in 1884, 140 years ago, was the First Famous Female Russian Artist.

Zinaida Serebriakova left an indelible mark on her nation’s culture through masterful paintings of the contemporary life and landscapes of her Russian homeland.

Serebriakova was born on an estate in the Kursk Province of Russia (present-day Ukraine) into a lineage full of respected artists.

Hayley Lever| Impressionist painter

Richard Hayley Lever (1876-1958) was an Australian-American painter, etcher, lecturer and art teacher.

His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Richard Hayley Lever was born and brought up in Adelaide, Australia.

He trained as an artist there under the guidance of James Ashton, an English born seascape artist whose son he was later to befriend in St Ives. In 1894 he set sail to Europe to finish his art studies.

Whilst in Paris he studied the human figure under Rene-Francois-Xavier Prinet but showed a natural inclination for open-air subjects and marine pictures.

Anton Chekhov: "Only one who loves can remember so well"

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov / Антон Павлович Чехов (1860-1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer.

His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.

Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre.

Chekhov was a physician by profession.

"Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress".

• "Il ruolo dell'artista è porre domande, non fornire risposte".

• "The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them".

Monument to Anton Chekhov and Lady with the Dog | Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine

Ivan Malinowski | Adesso è il momento..!

Adesso è il momento di fare ciò che ti piace.

Non aspettare lunedì, non aspettare domani.

Non fare allungare davanti a te la carovana

di sogni calpestati. Non aspettare.

Non frenarti per paura o viltà.

Non posporre la vita con altra morte,

e non aspettare niente dalla sorte

che non sia più della tua tenacia e della tua energia.

Marc Chagall

Ethel Léontine Gabain (1883-1950)

Ethel Léontine Gabain, later Ethel Copley, was a French-Scottish artist.

Gabain was a renowned painter and lithographer and among the founding members of the Senefelder Club.

While she was known for her oil portraits of actresses, Gabain was one of the few artists of her time able to live on the sale of her lithographs.

She also did etchings, dry-points, as well as some posters.

Fred Appleyard (1874-1963)

Fred Appleyard was a British artist known for his landscape paintings, portraits, classical subjects and allegorical compositions.

He had 41 works exhibited during his lifetime by the Royal Academy and painted the mural Spring Driving Out Winter in the Academy Restaurant.

Appleyard was born in Middlesbrough, England on 9 September 1874, the son of Isaac Appleyard, an iron merchant. His uncle was the sculptor John Wormald Appleyard.

Anaïs Nin: "L'amore non muore mai di morte naturale"..

L'amore non muore mai di morte naturale.

Muore perché noi non sappiamo come rifornire la sua sorgente.

Muore di cecità e di errori e tradimenti.

Muore di malattia e di ferite,

muore di stanchezza, per logorio o per opacità.

Vladimir Kush

Henri Lebasque | Afternoon Tea on the Terrace in Sainte-Maxime, 1914

Henri Lebasque (1865-1937) first visited the French Riveria in 1906 at the suggestion of his friend Henri Manguin.

In 1924, Lebasque relocated to the region to permanently take advantage of its unparalleled light.

In the intervening years, the artist who would earn the sobriquet "Painter of Joy and Light" returned often.

In 1914, he brought his family to the town of Sainte-Maxime, about halfway between Cannes and St. Tropez.

Here, he would undertake an idyllic series of family portraits set on the terrace of their waterfront house.

Henri Lebasque | Afternoon Tea on the Terrace in Sainte-Maxime, 1914 | Christie's

Great paintings from the Clark Art Institute

Adrien Moreau | Contemplation, 1873

The solitary woman in Moreau's painting gazes down toward a duck pond.

Her contemplative expression -and the painting's title- suggest that she has chosen this isolated spot to be alone with her thoughts.

The woman's fashionable city clothes have been painted with a degree of detail that contrasts with the more textured brushstrokes used to describe the surrounding landscape. | Source: © Clark Art Institute

Adrien Moreau (French, 1843-1906) | Contemplation, 1873 | Clark Art Institute

Maria Martinetti | Orientalist painter

Maria Martinetti (1864-1921) was an Italian painter. She was a student of Gustavo Simoni.

She lived and exhibited in Italy and France.

In 1890 she moved to the United States.

She is known for her genre paintings.

Claude Monet | Woman in the Garden, Sainte-Adresse, 1867

This is a very early Impressionist work by the group's leader, Claude Monet.

The sunlight which floods the paintings of the Impressionists - who did most of their painting out of doors, directly from nature - here plays the central role.

Monet spent his childhood in Le Havre, which he periodically visited.

The Le Coteaux estate at Sainte-Adresse near Le Havre belonged to Monet's cousin, Paul-Eugene Lecadre.

Settling here in the summer of 1867, the artist painted several landscapes in the garden of the estate, of which "Woman in the Garden" is of central importance.

Claude Monet (1840-1926) | Woman in the Garden, Sainte-Adresse France, 1867 | Source: © State Hermitage Museum

10 Masterpieces of the Musée d’Orsay

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876

This painting is doubtless Renoir's most important work of the mid 1870's and was shown at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877.

Though some of his friends appear in the picture, Renoir's main aim was to convey the vivacious and joyful atmosphere of this popular dance garden on the Butte Montmartre.

The study of the moving crowd, bathed in natural and artificial light, is handled using vibrant, brightly coloured brushstrokes.

The somewhat blurred impression of the scene prompted negative reactions from contemporary critics.

This portrayal of popular Parisian life, with its innovative style and imposing format, a sign of Renoir's artistic ambition, is one of the masterpieces of early Impressionism. | © Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) | Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Camille Pissarro | La charcutiére, 1883

Like 'The Little Country Maid', this painting was executed while the artist lived near Pontoise, north-west of Paris.

During the 1880s he became interested in painting rural market scenes, several of which were based on the markets at Pontoise and its neighbouring villages.

Such subjects allowed Pissarro to combine the study of the human figure with depictions of outdoor scenes of everyday rural life.

Although he wrote to his son Lucien that he wished the painting to have a 'certain naive freshness', hence the light and informal brushstrokes, the central figure of the 'charcutière' was painted from the model and the pose carefully studied.

Camille Pissarro | La charcutiére, 1883 | Tate Gallery

Juliette Wytsman | Impressionist painter

Juliette Wytsman (1866-1925) was a Belgian impressionist painter.

She was married to painter Rodolphe Wytsman.

Her paintings are in the collections of several museums in Belgium.

Wytsman was born as Juliette Trullemans on 14 July 1866 in Brussels, in Belgium.

She first studied under Henri Hendrickx at the Bischoffsheim Institute in Brussels.