Wilhelm von Gegerfelt | Post-Impressionist painter

Swedish painter Wilhelm von Gegerfelt (1844-1920) painted landscapes with motifs from Venice, Brittany, Swedish coastal landscapes and from Gotland in Sweden.

Gegerfelt studied at the Royal Danish Academy from 1861-1863, at the Royal Swedish Academy from 1864-1867, and thereafter in Düsseldorf until 1872.

He then went to Paris where he developed a new technique joining Alfred Wahlberg as one of the first Swedes to represent the Modern Breakthrough in Nordic art.

Paul Signac | Neo-impressionist painter

French painter Paul Signac (1863-1935) was born in Paris.

He followed a course of training in architecture before deciding at the age of 18 to pursue a career as a painter.

He sailed around the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes he encountered.

He also painted scenes of cities in France in his later years.

David Burliuk | The Father of Russian Futurism

David Davidovich Burlyuk, Burlyuk also spelled Burliuk / Дави́д Дави́дович Бурлю́к (1882-1967), Russian poet, painter, critic and publisher who became the centre of the Russian Futurist movement, even though his output in the fields of poetry and painting was smaller than that of his peers.

Burlyuk excelled at discovering talent and was one of the first to publish the poetry of Velimir Khlebnikov and to recognize Vladimir Mayakovsky’s brilliance.

It was largely because of Burlyuk’s efforts that the Russian avant-garde became known in Europe and the United States.

Vincent van Gogh | Irises, 1889-1890

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) returned to irises again and again in the final year of his life.

While staying at the psychiatric institution in Saint-Rémy (1889-1890), the garden became one of his main sources of inspiration.

He painted several studies of irises over the course of about a year.

Sometimes a single flower, sometimes overflowing bouquets.

He experimented with colour, rhythm and composition.

A small detail: the irises we see as blue today were originally painted a vibrant purple.

Over time, some of Van Gogh’s pigments faded, subtly changing the colours.

Vincent van Gogh | Irises, 1889 | Getty Museum

Vincent Van Gogh | Sunset at Montmajour, 1888

Sunset at Montmajour is a landscape in oils painted by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh on 4 July 1888.

It was painted while the artist was at Arles, France and depicts a landscape of garrigue with the ruins of Montmajour Abbey in the background.

The painting is 73.3 cm × 93.3 cm (28.9 in × 36.7 in).

For over 100 years, it was in a Norwegian industrialist's private collection and wrongly assumed to be fake, before being re-examined, authenticated and sold to its current private owner.

The painting was temporarily on display from 24 September 2013 until 12 January 2014 as part of an exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Henri Martin | Neo-Impressionist / Symbolist painter

Henri Martin was born in Toulouse on 5 August 1860; his father was a cabinetmaker and his mother of Italian origin.

In 1877, after convincing his father with great difficulty, he enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, and studied with Jules Garipuy.

Two years later he was awarded a prize and a scholarship that enabled him to join Jean-Paul Laurens's workshop at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Alphonse Osbert | Symbolist / Pointillist painter

Alphonse Osbert (23 March 1857 - 11 August 1939) was a French Symbolist painter.

Educated at the École des Beaux-Arts, his earliest passion was for the great Spanish masters, particularly Jusepe de Ribera. A shift away from his academic style took place in the late 1880s under the influence of several acquaintances associated with Post-Impressionism* and Symbolism*.

Paul Cézanne | The Four Seasons, 1860

between 1860 and 1862, French painter Paul Cézanne, still a student at the law faculty in Aix, started out as a painter by decorating the walls of the main drawing room at Jas de Bouffan, based on the allegorical theme of The Four Seasons (Les Quatre Saisons).

He was twenty when his father bought this estate near Aix-en-Provence.

Paul Cézanne | Spring, 1861

Henri Manguin | Il pittore Fauve

Henri Manguin (1874-1949) è stato un importante pittore Francese, figura centrale del movimento dei Fauves.

Soprannominato "il pittore voluttuoso" per la sua capacità di celebrare la gioia di vivere attraverso colori caldi e luminosi, Manguin si distinse per uno stile che, pur essendo audace, mantenne sempre un equilibrio armonioso rispetto all'espressività più aggressiva di altri esponenti del gruppo.

Manguin entrò nell'École des Beaux-Arts per studiare sotto Gustave Moreau, così come Henri Matisse e Charles Camoin con cui divenne amico intimo.

Les Nabis | Art history and Sitemap

Ambitious decorative painting enjoyed a resurgence in Europe from the late 1880s through the early twentieth century.

In Paris, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis and Édouard Vuillard were among the most influential artists to embrace decoration as painting’s primary function.

Their works celebrate pattern and ornament, challenge the boundaries that divide fine arts from crafts, and, in many cases, complement the interiors for which they were commissioned.

Disaffected with the rigidly representational painting methods taught at the Académie Julian, Bonnard and Denis joined with other like-minded students in the fall of 1888 to form a brotherhood called the “Nabis”, a Hebrew word meaning “prophets”.

Vincent van Gogh | Still lifes of Shoes

Vincent van Gogh painted several still lifes of shoes, primarily between 1886-1888.

He found beauty in worn-out, mud-covered boots, viewing them as symbols of the "scars of life" and the long journeys of the working class.

Step into Van Gogh’s world, one shoe at a time Shoes were an unusual subject in Van Gogh’s time.

Most artists painted elegant still lifes, often symbolizing wealth.

Cesare Maggi | At least there's fire! / Almeno c'è il fuoco! 1898

An early work by Italian divisionist painter Cesare Maggi (1881-1961), "At least there's fire!" - signed and dated "Firenze 1898"- was one of two exhibited by the artist, not yet eighteen, at the fifty-second annual exhibition of the Society of Fine Arts in Florence (1898-1899).

Wassily Kandinsky | Post-Impressionism period, 1896-1909

One of the pioneers of Abstraction in Western art, Wassily Kandinsky's (1866-1944) early work was influenced by Art Nouveau, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles.

The number of his existing paintings increased at the beginning of the 20th century; much remains of the landscapes and towns he painted, using broad swaths of colour and recognisable forms.

Such works reveal Kandinsky’s strong interest in the tradition of capturing light and the life of cities evident in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as well as his love of vibrant and expressive color.

Miloslava Vrbova-Štefková | Ballet dancers

Czech artist Miloslava Vrbova-Štefková (1909-1991) was an traditionalist post-impressionist painter.

During the 1937-1938 Miloslava Vrbova-Štefková studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Czech Abstract painter František Kupka (1871-1957).

Besides the dancers, the ballet scenes and portraits, Miloslava Vrbova also painted landscapes and the Prague urban motifs, religious scenes (the Crucifixion in the church Žinkovie), still lifes and flowers.

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.

Sexto Canegallo | Pointillist / Futurist painter

Italian painter Giuseppe Sexto Canegallo (1892-1966) was born on 2 February 1892 in Sestri Ponente.

He attended the Linguistic Academy in Genoa, where he was a student of Lazzaro Luxardo, Tullio Salvatore Quinzio, Lorenzo Massa and Alfredo Luxoro.

His artistic style was initially influenced by the pointillist poetics of Plinio Nomellini, together with other artists such as Angelo Morbelli, Gaetano Previati and Rubaldo Merello.

Flip Gaasendam,1957 | Neo-Impressionist painter

Flip Gaasendam studied from 1977-1982 at the Minerva Academy of Groningen.

In 1988 he obtained the 'J. Egberts' price of the Pictura Association. From 1992 on, he was welcomed in the best galleries of The Netherlands.

In 1997 he participated at the ‘Painters of Minerva' exhibition, held at the same time at ‘De Twee Pauwen’ Gallery in The Hague and at Panorama Mesdag Museum.

Gaasendam’s works are present in many collections, notably at the Drenthe Museum, Gasunie, ING and Unilever.

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

Henri Matisse | Orientalist Odalisque

In 1917 Matisse relocated to Cimiez on the French Riviera, a suburb of the city of Nice.

His work of the decade or so following this relocation shows a relaxation and a softening of his approach.

This "return to order" is characteristic of much art of the post-World War I period and can be compared with the neoclassicism of Picasso and Stravinsky as well as the return to traditionalism of Derain.