Caspar David Friedrich | Stile pittorico e temi

«Il pittore non dovrebbe dipingere solo ciò che vede davanti a sé, ma anche ciò che vede dentro di sé. Se dentro di sé non vede nulla, allora eviti anche di dipingere ciò che vede davanti a sé»

- Caspar David Friedrich.

L'innovazione portata avanti da Friedrich si realizzò in chiave paesaggistica: Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) intendeva far evolvere la concezione classica di paesaggio, inteso solo come scenario bello da vedere, aggiungendovi il sentimento del sublime, una riunione con il sé spirituale attraverso la contemplazione della natura.

L'artista fu un personaggio chiave per trasformare il paesaggio, sino ad allora un fondale subordinato al dramma umano, in un soggetto autosufficiente.

Non a caso i dipinti di Friedrich includono spesso una Rückenfigur, ovvero una persona vista di tergo, assorta nella contemplazione del panorama.

Jean-François Portaels | Orientalist painter

Jean-François Portaels or Jan Portaels was a Belgian painter of genre scenes, biblical stories, landscapes, portraits and orientalist subjects.

He was also a teacher and director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent and the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

He is regarded as the founder of the Belgian Orientalist school.

He was praised in his time as the premier painter of 'everyday elegance and feminine grace'.

Madre Teresa / Dorian Florez | Give me someone to love..

Lord, when I am hungry,

give me someone needing food.

When I am thirsty,

send me someone needing a drink

When I am cold, send me

someone to warm

When I am grieved, send me

someone to console

When my cross grows heavy

let me carry another's cross too

Robert Henri | Ashcan School painter | Page 1

Robert Henri ~ Ashcan School painter | Part 1 ||| Robert Henri ~ Ashcan School painter [Part 2]

Robert Henri (1865-1929) was born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, in 1865, the son of a professional gambler and businessman.

In 1881 he accompanied his family to Denver. When his father was indicted for manslaughter a year later the Cozads changed their name and fled to Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In 1886 Henri enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under Thomas Anshutz, Thomas Hovenden and James B. Kelly.

In 1888 he went to Paris and enrolled at the Académie Julian under Adolphe-William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. During the summers he painted in Brittany and Barbizon, and visited Italy prior to being admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1891.

Isaac Israëls | Impressionist painter

Isaac Lazarus Israëls (1865-1934) was a Dutch painter associated with the Amsterdam Impressionism movement. The son of Jozef Israëls, one of the most respected painters of the Hague School, and Aleida Schaap, Isaac Israëls displayed precocious artistic talent from an early age.

Between 1880-1882 he studied at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, where he met George Hendrik Breitner who was to become a lifelong friend. In 1881, when he was 16, he sold a painting, Bugle Practice, even before it was finished to the artist and collector Hendrik Willem Mesdag.