Rembrandt | Musical Company, 1626

The subject of this painting is a mystery: is it an exhortation to praise God through singing and string music, or a scene of seduction with the old woman as a procuress?

In any case, in this early work Rembrandt used elements from his own surroundings: his mother modelled for the old woman, and Rembrandt’s own features can be recognized in the young man. | Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt | Musical Company, 1626 | Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

On the face of it, the theme of Music Allegory is straightforward enough: a music party in an interior, a common subject in Dutch art, though one to which Rembrandt himself would never return.

Three figures - a seated young woman singing, a man playing a bass gamba and a standing youth playing the harp - make music while an older woman listens on.

Rubens and Brueghel | The Five Senses Allegory | Art workshops

The "Five Senses" is a set of Allegorical paintings created at Antwerp in 1617-1618 by two Flemish masters Jan Brueghel the Elder (Dutch painter, 1568-1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (Dutch painter 1577-1640), with Brueghel being responsible for the settings and Rubens for the figures.

They are now in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

They are all painted in oils on wood panel, approximately 65 by 110 centimetres (2 ft 2 in × 3 ft 7 in) in dimensions.

Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Bruegel the Elder | Allegory of Sight, 1617 | Museo del Prado

Thomas Sully | Portrait painter

Thomas Sully (1783-1872) was born in 1783 in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, the youngest son of nine children born to the actors Matthew and Sarah Chester Sully. At the suggestion of his father's brother-in-law, a theater manager in Virginia and South Carolina, the Sullys emigrated to the United States in 1792. Sully attended school in New York until his mother's death in 1794, when he returned to live with his family in Richmond. From there they moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where the future artist performed on the stage with his parents and siblings.

Thomas Sully | Mother and Child, 1827

Thomas Sully (June 19, 1783 – November 5, 1872) was an American portrait painter, who was born in Britain but lived most of his life in Philadelphia.
For biographical notes and works by Sully see Thomas Sully | Portrait painter.  

José Rivas | Abstract painter

Born of Spanish decendants and raised in the West Coast, Jose is a Vancouver-based graphic designer and a graduate from Capilano Univerisity’s IDEA - Illustration and Design - Program.

A lover not a fighter, Jose lives to work because it feels like play.

A socialite by nature, he loves talking about food or films directed by Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick.

Among other things, He’s a sucker for color schemes and beautiful sunsets.