Vasily Polenov | Woman walking in a forest park, 1883

Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov / Васи́лий Дми́триевич Поле́нов (1844-1927) was born in Saint-Petersburg.

His family placed great emphasis on the importance of art and culture.

Indeed his father, Dmitri Vassilievitch Polenov (1806-1872) was a connoisseur of the artistic world, and his mother, Maria Alexeievna Voeïkova (1816-1895) a gifted portraitist of the Brullov school.

He spent his childhood in Saint-Petersburg, a major cultural center and Carely, in the Olonentsky countryside.

Classical Realism by William Whitaker Jr.

American painter William Whitaker Jr. (1943-2018) is an artist who has been at the forefront of painting's representational revival during recent years.

The only son of an artist father, William Whitaker Jr. grew up in the special world of the working artist.

He had access to the finest art materials and was painting in watercolor and oil at the age of six.

His fondest early memories are of the sights sounds and smells of the art studio.

Whitaker loves to paint from life in an old fashioned studio.

Everett Shinn | Ashcan School painter

Everett Shinn (1876-1953), a painter, illustrator, designer and playwright who was best known for his images of the theater, was born in New Jersey in 1876.

He studied industrial design in Philadelphia from 1888-1890, and in 1893, he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

At the same time, Shinn supported himself as an artist-reporter for the Philadelphia Press, where he became friends with William Glackens, George Luks and John Sloan, whose style of urban realism influenced Shinn to depict the bleaker aspects of city life.

Ricardo Celma, 1975 | Magical realism painter

Ricardo Celma is considered one of the greatest references of contemporary realism.

His work has a mix of influences, are present the elements of Baroque, Flemish painting, Magical realism and hyperrealism.

Ricardo Celma was born in Buenos Aires.

His artistic vocation showed up at the early age of 5 when he started attending to an art workshop and he continued to do so for 20 years.

Miomir Badžić (?-2000) | Ballet dancers

Miomir Badžić was an Serbian artist, known for working in classical and realistic style.

Miomir Badžić, an exceptionally talented painter, masterfully expressed his artistic vision.

He was known for his outstanding paintings of ballerinas, historical motifs, replicas of old masters, landscapes and portraits.

With his skill, Badžić created masterpieces and left an indelible mark on the world of painting.

He devotedly created in Belgrade until the last day of his life, and his art and legacy remain immortal, although he unfortunately left us in 2020.

Jeffrey T. Larson, 1962 | Classical Realist painter

Jeffrey T. Larson was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota and grew up in the Twin Cities.

At the age of seventeen he began his classical studies with traditional atelier training under Richard Lack at the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis, MN.

Following his four- year training at Atelier Lack (1980-1984), Larson studied the work of the masters in the United States and abroad.

Édouard Manet Quotes: "Black is not a color"

• Everything is mere appearance, the pleasures of a passing hour, a midsummer night's dream. Only painting, the reflection of a reflection - but the reflection, too, of eternity - can record some of the glitter of this mirage.

• A painter can say all he wants to with fruit or flowers or even clouds.

• A good painting is true to itself.

• In una figura, cercate la grande luce e la grande ombra, il resto verrà da sé.

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.

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.

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.

Rob Hefferan, 1967 | Moonlight Lovers

Rob Hefferan is an exceptionally talented figurative artist.

His varied body of work celebrates the joyous and multifaceted forms that human beings express with limitless imagination and wit.

Rob captures the personality of each of his subjects with honesty, integrity and above all, a sacred appreciation for the unique spirit embodied within us all.

His heartfelt response to humanity is woven into the very fabric of each outstanding portrait, earning him the reputation of one of the finest contemporary realists of his generation.

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.

Vasily Polenov (1844-1927)

Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov /Васи́лий Дми́триевич Поле́нов was a Russian landscape painter associated with the Peredvizhniki movement of realist artists.

His contemporaries would call him the "Knight of Beauty" as he embodied both European and Russian traditions of painting.

His vision of life was summarized as following: "Art should promote happiness and joy".

As a painter and a humanist, he would truly believe in the civilizing mission of Art, Culture and Education.

Gianni Strino (1953-2023) | Figurative 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.

Rob Hefferan, 1968 | Ballet Dancers

Brave, forward thinking and always challenging, British painter Rob Hefferan experiments with themes, moods and styles to create thought provoking visual statements that inspire us to see beyond our limited and cultural frames of reference.

Whether working with chalk pastels, oils or acrylics, Rob’s ability and innate flair see him capture life as it is lived.

His sensitive capacity to see beyond our masks and reveal the touching truth of who we really are is a testament to his deep insight.

Daniel Ridgway Knight | Naturalist painter

Daniel Ridgway Knight was an American artist born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

He painted peasant women out of doors with great popular success.

Born: March 15, 1839, Pennsylvania, United States.

Died: March 9, 1924, Paris, France.

On view: Huntington Museum of Art, Berkshire Museum, High Museum of Art.

Periods: American Realism, Realism.

Art forms: Painting.

Children: Louis Aston Knight.

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.