Happy Birthday Édouard Manet!

It’s Édouard Manet’s birthday - born on this day - January 23, 1832. To this day, Manet is still considered to be the father of Modernism.

Édouard Manet -the eldest son of an official in the French Ministry of Justice- had early hopes of becoming a naval officer. After twice failing the training school's entrance exam, the teenager instead went to Paris to pursue a career in the arts. There he studied with Thomas Couture and diligently copied works at the Musée du Louvre.

The biennial (and later, annual) Parisian Salons were considered the most expedient way for an artist to make himself known to the public, and Manet submitted paintings to Salon juries throughout his career. In 1861, at the age of twenty-nine, he was awarded the Salon's honorable mention for The Spanish Singer.

David Gray, 1970 | Classical Realist painter

David's Gray signature style reveals a personal and contemporary expression of beauty and order which pays homage to the Classical Tradition in its craftsmanship. Collectors of David's work often relate that his painting provoke a sense of peace, stillness, or a contemplative mood.

His award winning works have been covered by major art publications including Southwest Art, Art of the West, and American Art Collector.

David also teaches several workshops per year in portraiture and still life painting throughout the United States and abroad.

In addition to his well known signature style, David is also currently exploring a more contemporary sensibility in recent works. Keep an eye out for more new paintings to be released in this exciting, organic style.

Gianni Strino, 1953 | Figurative / Realist painter

Italian painter🎨 Gianni Strino studied fine art at the acclaimed Naples Art Institute winning the medal for the best graduate artist in 1970. He taught art and art history until the demand for his work allowed him to become a full time artist.

In his striking portraits Strino not only captures the beauty of his sitters but also the reality of the everyday. He does not restrict his models to beautiful young women as many portraitists do.

Daniela Astone, 1980 | Figurative Realist painter

Daniela Astone was born in Pisa, Italy and raised in Porto Santo Stefano, in Maremma (Italy), a costal town south of Florence. She discovered her passion for drawing and painting at a very young age, and began nourishing and cultivating her craft early on.

In 1998, after graduating from the High School for Visual Arts of Grosseto, she moved to Florence to study illustration at the International school of Comix.

Upon arriving, she first worked in illustration, then, in 2001, enrolled in The Florence Academy of Art🎨, where she is now an instructor. In 2003, Daniela participated, as a student, in the exhibition, "Realism Revisited" at Panorama Museum, Bad Frankenhausen, Germany.

Arkady Plastov (1893-1972) Socialist Realist painter

Arkady Alexandrovich Plastov / Аркадий Александрович Пластов was a Russian🎨 socialist realist painter. Plastov was born into a family of icon painters in the village Prislonikha in the Russian Governorate of Simbirsk.

He attended the sculpture department of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture beginning in 1914.

Bo Bartlett, 1955 | Realist / Figurative painter

Bo Bartlett is an American🎨 Realist painter with a modernist vision. His paintings are within the tradition of American Realism as defined by artists such as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth.

Like these artists, Bartlett looks at America's land and people to describe the beauty he finds in everyday life. His paintings celebrate the underlying epic nature of the commonplace and the personal significance of the extraordinary.

"Bartlett was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where realist principles must be grasped before modernist ventures are encouraged.

Liseth Visser, 1960 | Classical Realist painter

Dutch artist🎨 Liseth Visser a.k.a. ElisabethV paints her pictures in a classic realistic way using oils. She paints on panels and works both on a commission and non-commission basis.

She uses a traditional labour-intensive technique with under-layers, under-paintings and lots of (half) transparent to create softness, depth and glow within the final layers, this to achieve a natural and realistic skin tone in a poetic ambiance.

He Lihuai 何力怀, 1961 | Realist painter

Mr. He Lihuai 何力怀 - Chinese painter🎨 - was born in Chongqing. He worked as an art designer at Capital Museum from 1985-1996 after receiving Art of Bachelor degree in oil painting at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 1984.

As a member of Chinese Artists Association and a professional artist.

He has been honored as a very talented oil painter in contemporary China.

He's paintings have been exhibited regularly at home and abroad as well as at the art auction company gave held by the organizations like Baoli and Zhongding, many of which have been kept by domestic and overseas art lovers.

He Lihuai è nato a Chongqing nel 1961. Ha lavorato come designer d'arte al Capital Museum dal 1985-1996 dopo aver conseguito la laurea in pittura ad olio presso la Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts nel 1984.

È membro della Chinese Artists Association ed artista professionista.

È stato onorato come talentuoso pittore ad olio nella Cina contemporanea.

I suoi dipinti sono stati esposti regolarmente in patria ed all'estero, nonché presso la società di aste d'arte tenutasi da organizzazioni come Baoli e Zhongding, molte delle quali sono state conservate da appassionati d'arte nazionali e d'oltremare.

Bryan Larsen, 1975 | Romantic Realist painter

American painter Bryan Larsen has been drawing and painting since childhood.

As a young person he was also fascinated with math and science and always found creative ways to mix the two worlds.

After acquiring a strong foundation in art while studying illustration, and a greater appreciation for the sciences during mechanical engineering studies, he decided to take the plunge and return to his first love: fine art.

Diego Rivera | Social Realist painter / muralist

Considered the greatest Mexican painter of the twentieth century, Diego Rivera (1886-1957) had a profound effect on the international art world.

Among his many contributions, Rivera is credited with the reintroduction of fresco painting into modern art and architecture.

His radical political views and tempestuous romance with the painter Frida Kahlo were then, and remain today, a source of public intrigue.

Kei Mieno 三重野慶, 1985 | Realist painter

Kei Mieno is a Japanese artist born in Hiroshima who has been painting professionally for more than 10 years already.

In 2007 Mieno graduating from Hiroshima City University - Faculty of Arts, Department of Fine Arts, Department of Oil Painting.

This painter specializes in hyperrealism, and mostly uses oil paint to create his masterpieces.

HongNian Zhang, 1947 | Realist painter

HongNian Zhang 张红年 is an Chinese painter🎨, who works in the Western academic tradition. Works by this gifted artist have been exhibited and acquired by museums, galleries, corporations and private collectors across the globe.

Growing up in China, Mr. Zhang became accomplished in art at a young age. He was one of the top students at the highly selective and prestigious Central Art Academy’s Affiliated High School in Beijing.

The instruction there was rigorous, paving the road for his future success. Unfortunately, the Cultural Revolution broke out and temporarily forestalled his art career. In 1970, Zhang and his classmates were sent to a forced labor camp in the remote countryside. He labored there for 4 years and creating art was prohibited.

George Bellows | Ashcan School painter

George Wesley Bellows, (1882-1925), American painter and lithographer noted for his paintings of action scenes and for his expressive portraits and seascapes.

Bellows attended Ohio State University before moving in 1904 to New York City, where he studied at the New York School of Art under Robert Henri, leader of the group of American realist painters called The Eight.

Tracey Harris, 1970 | Realist painter

Tracey Harris is a Contemporary Realist painter specializing in figurative and still life oil paintings. She is an award winning artist who's artworks are collected nationally and internationally.

Education:

1995 - Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, England;

1992 - Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri.

Experience: - Tracey Harris is an emerging artist specializing in contemporary representational painting. She has exhibited internationally and nationally winning numerous awards.

At a recent solo exhibition an art dealer, Timothy Ward, of Ward and Ward, wrote of Harris’ work: “Few modern paintings effectively pay homage to traditional aesthetic choices such as chiaroscuro.

Atsushi Suwa / 諏訪敦, 1967 | Realist figure painter

Born in Hokkaido, Japan, Atsushi Suwa studied oil painting at Musashino Art University, graduating in 1992.

Two years later he was nominated by the Department of Culture of Japan to be an Overseas Art Trainee and traveled to Spain.

In 1995, he became the first Asian artist to receive the top award at the 5th International Painting Competition, presented by the Fundacion Barcelo in Mallorca, Spain.

After resuming his career in Japan, he went on to receive the Award for Excellence at the 22nd Rising Artists Exhibition, presented by the Sompo Japan Museum of Art in 2003.

Ramiro Ramírez Cardona, 1954 | Surrealist / Realist painter

Ramiro Ramírez Cardona was born in Columbia, in a family of self-taught artists, sculptors and painters.

The human body rather than a being erotic or leakage eager libido, is itself, by its immediate essence, a dreamer, a creator and it is through the body, of that battered body, which has become a being communicating with dreams, ambitions, doubts and loneliness, that man has imagined and amazes us every day.

Boleslaw Szankowski | Portrait painter

Bolesław Szańkowski (1873-1953) was an Polish painter, known for working in the Realist style.

Szańkowski studied at the academies in Cracow and Munich with Ludwig Herterich and in Paris with Benjamin-Constant, Gaudara and Jean Paul Laurens.

He went on to work in Munich, where he contributed to the periodicals, Youth (Jugend) and Simplicity (Simplicissimus).

From 1907 to 1925 he participated in the annual exhibitions of the Munich Glass Palace.

Richard Schmid, 1934 | Realist / Impressionist painter

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, American🎨 Master painter Richard Schmid became one of the foremost Impressionist painters🎨 of the Southwest in the late 20th century.

He is known for what he calls "The Grand Manner", a certain mingling of virtuosity and unrestrained joy in art.

His earliest artistic influence came from his maternal grandfather, Julian Oates, an architectural sculptor. Richard's initial studies in landscape painting, figure drawing, and anatomy began at the age of twelve and continued into classical techniques under William H. Mosby at the American Academy of Art in Chicago.

Mosby, a graduate of the Belgian Royal Academy in Brussels and the Superior Institute in Antwerp, was a technical expert on European and American realism.

Studies with him involved working exclusively from life, at first using the conceptual and technical methods of the Flemish, Dutch and Spanish masters, and eventually all of the late 19th century European and American painters.

Andrew Loomis | Realist illustrator / Art instructor

William Andrew Loomis (1892-1959), better known simply as Andrew Loomis, was an American🎨 illustrator, author, and art instructor.

His commercial work was featured prominently in advertising and magazines; however, Loomis is best known as author a series of instructional art books printed throughout the 20th century.

Long after his death, Loomis' realistic style has continued to influence popular artists. Born in Syracuse, New York, Loomis grew up in Zanesville, Ohio and spent much of his working life in Chicago, Illinois.

He studied at the Art Students League of New York under George Bridgman and F.V. du Mond when he was 19. Loomis then went back to Chicago to work at an art studio and study at the Art Institute of Chicago.

After military service in World War I, Loomis worked for a couple of advertising agencies before opening his own studio in downtown Chicago.

Hasan Saygin, 1958 | Abstract Realist painter

Hasan Saygin was born in Karamanli, Turkey. He spent his childhood and followed his primary education in his native town, Karamanli.

In 1977, he entered the School of Fine Arts in Istanbul.

In 1982, he decided to come to Paris and settled permanently.

He organized personal exhibitions in many Parisian galleries: 26 Gallery (Place des Vosges), Vendôme Gallery (rue de la Paix) and Michèle Boulet Gallery; in the Draguignan Museum, in the castle of Gordes, in Salerno in France, in the castle of Vascoeuil in France, as well as in Belgium (Gevaert Gallery in Bruges, castle of Ingelmunster, etc ...), in Almeria, Spain and in the U.S (in Vero Beach, Florida).