Ivan Shishkin /Ива́н Ши́шкин | Landscape painter

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, (1832-1898), one of the most popular landscape painters of Russia. His paintings of wooded landscapes led his contemporaries to call him "tsar of the woods".

Shishkin was the son of a merchant.

He studied art with a characteristic thoroughness, first at the School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Moscow (1852-56) and then at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1856-60).

Cayley Robinson | Symbolist painter and illustrator

Frederick Cayley Robinson (1862-1927) was a British painter🎨 of idyllic scenes and domestic interiors, decorator and illustrator.

Born 18 August 1862 at Brentford, Middlesex. Studied at St John's Wood and the R.A. Schools; lived on a yacht painting realistic sea pictures 1888-90; studied at the Académie Julian in Paris 1890-2.

The influence of Burne-Jones🎨 and Puvis de Chavannes🎨, and that of Fra Angelico🎨 after a visit to Florence in 1898, caused him to adopt a more decorative manner.

Emanuele Cavalli | The Roman School

Emanuele Cavalli (1904-1981) was an Italian painter belonging to the modern movement of the Roman School.

He was also a renowned photographer, who experimented with new techniques since the 1930s.

Son of Apulian landowners, Cavalli moved to Rome in 1921 and there he became a student of Italian painter Felice Carena, also attending the local art college.

Do Fournier, 1951 | Les Nabis reminiscence

French Artist Do Fournier was born in the ancient town of Guerande, Brittany, France.

She began her career as a successful illustrator, and in 1984 changed her focus to the creation of her own paintings.

Her works were so well received, that numerous prestigious exhibitions were mounted in her native France, and she has frequently been invited to exhibit at the Salon d’Automne, Paris.

Georges de La Tour | The penitent Magdalene, 1640

With its extreme contrasts of candlelight and shadow, pared-down geometry, and meditative mood, this painting exemplifies La Tour’s painting at its most accomplished and characteristic.

These visual qualities were a powerful countertrend to Baroque painting’s typical pomp and showiness.

A native of the duchy of Lorraine in eastern present-day France, La Tour was indebted to Caravaggesque painting, but tended toward even more simplified forms.

The quiet atmosphere of this painting perfectly fits the subject, Mary Magdalen, who renounced the pleasures of the flesh for a life of penance and contemplation.

She is shown with a mirror, symbol of vanity; a skull, emblem of mortality; and a candle that probably references her spiritual enlightenment. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Penitent Magdalene, 1640 | Metropolitan Museum of Art