Joseph Stella | America's first Futurist painter

Joseph Stella (born Giuseppe Michele Stella, 1877-1946) was an Italian-born American Futurist painter best known for his depictions of industrial America, especially his images of the Brooklyn Bridge.

He is also associated with the American Precisionist movement of the 1910s–1940s.

Early life and education

Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras, a 1914 portrait of Coney Island by Stella now on display at Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut Stella was born to a middle-class family in Italy, in Muro Lucano, a village in the province of Potenza.

His grandfather Antonio and his father Michele were attorneys, but he came to New York City in 1896 to study medicine, following in the footsteps of his older brother Doctor Antonio Stella.

Norman Rockwell | Picasso vs. Sargent, 1966

Picasso vs. Sargent was created in 1966 by Norman Rockwell (American painter and illustrator, 1894-1978) for the January 11, 1966 edition of the LOOK magazine.

It is part of the collection of the National Museum of American Illustration.

Norman Rockwell left the Saturday Evening Post in 1963 and his paintings took a more political turn.

He spent the last decade of his life creating works that dealt with issues such as civil rights and the fight against poverty.

From 1964 Rockwell went on to create work for LOOK Magazine.

Norman Rockwell | Picasso vs. Sargent, 1966 | National Museum of American Illustration

Joseph Christian Leyendecker | Art Nouveau illustrator

German-American illustrator Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951) was one of the most prominent and financially successful freelance commercial artists in the U.S.

He was active between 1895 and 1951 producing drawings and paintings for hundreds of posters, books, advertisements, and magazine covers and stories.

He is best known for his 80 covers for Collier's Weekly, 322 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, and advertising illustrations for B. Kuppenheimer men's clothing and Arrow brand shirts and detachable collars.

He was one of the few known reportedly gay artists working in the early-twentieth century U.S.

Janice Darr Cua | Ladies and horses

Whether exercising her powers to capture the spirit of Arabians, the romance of the Renaissance, classic sensuality of femininity, or the universal bond between mother and child, Janice Darr Cua delivers striking depth and passion.

Paintings that radiate a glow that mesmerizes the viewer, a comforting warmth which evokes the passion within all.

Her work can be seen in select galleries around the world, with over thirty sell-out shows abroad as well as dozens of American exhibitions.

Cua is a sure stock, an intelligent investment as her popularity, technique, and price point increases in favor.

Eastman Johnson | Co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eastman Johnson (1824-1906) was an American painter and Co-Founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance.

Best known for his Genre paintings, paintings of scenes from everyday life, and his portraits both of everyday people, he also painted portraits of prominent Americans such as Abraham Lincoln, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

His later works often show the influence of the 17th-century Dutch masters whom he studied while living in The Hague, and he was even known as The American Rembrandt in his day.

Guy Hoff (1889-1962)

Born in Rochester, New York and trained at the Art School of the Albright Gallery in Buffalo and the Art Students League in New York City, Guy Hoff (1889-1962) is known for his cover pages for The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's and Ladies Home, among others, which often star young, beautiful women.

Guy Hoff is among the American painters who also used their talent to design illustrations for books, magazines and newspapers during the so-called 'Golden Age of American Illustration'.

Marlène Dietrich and Édith Piaf

"My Friend Édith Piaf" by Marlène Dietrich

From the autobiographical book Marlène D., 1984

"In my eyes, she really was the sparrow, the little bird whose name she bore.

But she was also Jezebel, whose unquenchable thirst for love must have been due to a feeling of imperfection, her 'ugliness', as she put it -- her delicate, scrawny body, which she sent forth into battle like Circe, the Sirens and Lorelei, the temptress who with her incomparable vitality promised all the pleasures of the world".

Marlene Dietrich ed Édith Piaf, 1952

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.

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

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

8 Notable artworks at the Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 63,000 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts.

The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovations.

One of the top comprehensive art museums in the nation, recognized for its award-winning Open Access program and free of charge to all, the Cleveland Museum of Art is located in the University Circle neighborhood.

John French Sloan | A woman's work, 1912 | Cleveland Museum of Art

Trained as a journalist, the young John French Sloan (1871-1951) explored social issues more vigorously than most of the painters of his time, portraying working-class urbanites engaged in ordinary activities.

He observed this particular scene through a rear window of his Manhattan apartment.

Perched on a narrow fire escape, a woman hangs fresh laundry to dry on clotheslines strung between tenements.

As evidenced by the painting, the labors of American women at the turn of the 1900s were most often confined to the domestic realm. | Source: © Cleveland Museum of Art

John French Sloan (American, 1871-1951) | A woman's work, 1912 | Cleveland Museum of Art

5 Masterpieces at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Woman with a Parasol in a Garden, 1875

In Woman with a Parasol in a Garden, Renoir’s language is wholly impressionistic: in a setting lacking a visible horizon, the flowers and shrubs are created with tiny dabs of colour, providing a constant interweaving of textures around the two small figures.

The woman, whose parasol shades her from the sun, stands close to the man as he leans down, perhaps to pick a flower, hinting at an intimate relationship.

Contrary to what one may think, this canvas was not painted in the countryside but in the garden of Renoir’s new studio in Montmartre.

His friend George Rivière recalled: "As soon as Renoir entered the house, he was charmed by the view of this garden, which looked like a beautiful abandoned park".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Woman with a Parasol in a Garden, 1875 | Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Margaret Mead | Remember me / Ricordati di me

Years ago, American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture.

The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the "first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed".

Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die.

"You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food.

You are meat for prowling beasts.

No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery.

Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts", Mead said.

Margaret Mead | Remember me

To the living, I am gone,

To the sorrowful, I will never return,

To the angry, I was cheated,

But to the happy, I am at peace,

And to the faithful, I have never left.

Dame Laura Knight | The Dark Pool, 1908-1918

Pascal Campion, 1973 | Conceptual illustrator / animator

Pascal Campion is a French American prolific illustrator and storyteller. He has worked decades in the field of animation, illustration and commercials.

Born in River Edge, New Jersey, Pascal began his art career at a very young age of seven when his older brother Sean, gave him the task of "copying" comic books covers in exchange for Pascal to read the comics!

At the age of three, his family relocated back to the south of France, where he spent hours sketching and drawing both comics and the beautiful landscapes of Provence.

In 1998 Pascal began his studying narrative illustration at Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg, in France.

Peter Falk (Lieutenant Columbo), the painter

Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 - June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor, singer and television director and producer.

He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo on the NBC/ABC series Columbo (1968-1978, 1989-2003), for which he won four Primetime Emmy Awards (1972, 1975, 1976, 1990) and a Golden Globe Award (1973).

In 1996, TV Guide ranked Falk No. 21 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.

He received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013.

Legge di Murphy: "La necessità procura strani compagni di letto"

Della Umanologia | Capitolo Decimo

Prima legge di socio-genetica

• Il celibato non è ereditario.

Principio di Beifeld

• Le probabilità che un giovane maschio incontri una giovane femmina attraente e disponibile aumentano in proporzione geometrica quando è con:

1) la fidanzata,

2) la moglie,

3) un amico più bello e più ricco.

Salvador Dali | Couple aux têtes pleines de nuages, 1939 | Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam

Kevin Beilfuss, 1963 | Impressionist painter

Kevin Beilfuss is an American painter living in the Chicago area with his wife, Janice and son Drew.

He attended Illinois State University where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in painting in 1985.

After working in an ad agency for a year, Kevin attended the American Academy of Art where he concentrated on painting and illustration.

Andre Kohn, 1972 | Ladies and hats

André Kohn, Russian painter, was born in Stalingrad, but was raised in the southernmost region of the Former Soviet Union near the Caspian Sea.

He spent the first 12 years of his life surrounded by nature before moving with his family to Moscow in 1984.

The precise convergence of three dynamic forces-culture, environment and talent-combined to produce one of the most collected figurative painters on the American art scene today.

Gilbert Williams, 1950 | Visionary painter

His work explores nature, ancient architecture, the cosmos and spirituality.

He drew inspiration from the ferns and Redwoods of his native California, as well as from his deep love of art history and ancient cultures.

Gilbert Williams was born in Santa Monica, California. When he was five, his family moved to Anaheim, California.

Williams' career as a professional painter began in earnest in Mt. Shasta, California, in late 1970s, when he began selling paintings in local galleries.

Over the years he has been represented in Scottsdale, AZ on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, CA and in Palm Beach, FL.

Louis Escobedo, 1952 | Colorist painter

"Color is like a person’s signature, if it’s the right color, I have to have it.

And when I find those colors that ‘work’, I feel it immediately, like hearing music so beautiful that I have to stop whatever else I’m doing and listen" - Louis Escobedo.

He began his painting career at age 6 when he won the best of show in his elementary school in Sweetwater Texas.

In 1974, after graduation from college he began his career as an artist honing his talents to become a freelance illustrator in Texas.

In 1979, he finally achieved his goal.