Giovanni Boldini | The French Cityscapes

Born in Ferrara, the Italian painter* Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931)* moved to Paris in 1871, where painted a number of landscapes in suburban locations outside Paris.

His work from 1871-1886: the bustling streets and squares to cafés, theaters, and concert halls- reflects the influence of his contemporaries: Degas, Manet, Caillebotte, Meissonier, and Fortuny among others.

Caravaggio | Buona ventura / The Fortune teller, 1630

La Buona Ventura - The Fortune Teller, è un dipinto ad olio su tela dove Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio 1571-1610 sfoggia la propria conoscenza della pittura di genere, premessa sulla quale in seguito Caravaggio costruirà una vera e propria rivoluzione che investe il significato stesso del 'fare pittura'.

Il quadro rappresenta una zingara che, mentre legge la mano ad un giovane soldato, gli sfila abilmente l’anello. Secondo un biografo, Caravaggio avrebbe invitato a posare per il quadro una zingara che passava per caso per strada.

Il dipinto è una precoce espressione dell’immaginario della zingara dedita al furto ed anche ammaliatrice, capace di incantare ed ingannare.

La versione romana della Buona Ventura (1593-1594)

Marie Laure Vareilles, 1966 | Surrealist photographer

Marie-Laure Vareilles is an French interior designer.

She has traveled on all continents, with her camera, showing the diversity of the countries that make the planet.

Over the years, she immortalized cultures, landscapes, people.

The cultures around the world continue to evolve.

She puts her work to the service of the memory of peoples that make our planet.

Ernest Barrias | La Nature se dévoilant / Nature Unveiling Herself, 1899

"La Nature se dévoilant" was commissioned in 1889 to decorate the new medical school in Bordeaux.

A young woman, the allegory of nature, is slowly lifting the veils she is wrapped in.

When he had finished the first version in white marble for the school, Ernest Barrias (1841-1905) designed a second statue in polychrome, for the ceremonial staircase of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, in Paris.

Trish Biddle | Romantic painter

Showcasing her sense of design, American artist Trish Biddle captures the Art Deco style of fashion, elegance, sophistication and the simplicity of the era.

Tamara De Lempicka who defined Art Deco painting as we know it, Argentinean tango dancers and depression era dance marathons have all inspired Trish’s vintage, figurative paintings.

The faces are obscured purposely to allow the viewer to identify with the images of the graceful dancers their own romantic notions.