Marc Chagall | Paris through my window, 1913

After Marc Chagall moved to Paris from Russia in 1910, his paintings quickly came to reflect the latest avant-garde styles.

In "Paris Through the Window", Chagall’s debt to the Orphic Cubism of his colleague Robert Delaunay is clear in the semitransparent overlapping planes of vivid color in the sky above the city.

The Eiffel Tower, which appears in the cityscape, was also a frequent subject in Delaunay’s work. For both artists it served as a metaphor for Paris and perhaps modernity itself.

Chagall’s parachutist might also refer to contemporary experience, since the first successful jump occurred in 1912. Other motifs suggest the artist’s native Vitebsk.

Marc Chagall | Paris through my window, 1913 | The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation

Paul Hagemans (1884-1959)

Born in Antwerp, Paul Hagemans was the son of the celebrated Belgian landscape painter Maurice Hagemans (1852-1917).

Hagemans received early artistic instruction from his father but at the age of fifteen enrolled at the Academy of Antwerp.

Here he was fortunate enough to be tutored by one of the most important landscape painters of nineteenth century Belgium, Isidore Verheyden as well as receiving classes in figure painting from Herman Richir.

Ernest Laurent | Neo-impressionist painter

Ernest Joseph Laurent (June 8, 1859 – June 25, 1929) was a French painter and printmaker. He was born in Gentilly and died in Bièvres, Essonne.

Laurent was a Neo-impressionist artist whose main influences were his instructor Ernest Hébert and his friend Georges Seurat.

Laurent took second prize in the Prix de Rome in 1889 and in 1890, Laurent arrived in Rome, where Hébert remained Director of the Académie de France.

From Rome, he went to Assisi where he underwent a mystical experience.

It would profoundly influence his art.

Emil Nolde, l'Espressionista perseguitato dal nazismo..

Emil Nolde (1867-1956) riscoperto e rivalutato dopo la seconda guerra mondiale, viene oggi considerato uno dei maggiori rappresentanti dell’Espressionismo.

Nel 1926 Nolde conseguì una laurea honoris causa all’università di Kiel.

Pochi anni dopo cominciò ad essere perseguitato dai nazisti perché Hitler considerava il modernismo un'arte degenerata: dal 1937 i suoi lavori furono vietati e non gli fu permesso di acquistare i materiali per dipingere.

Tuttavia, con l'aiuto segreto degli amici, in quegli anni produsse segretamente una serie di dipinti nei quali il suo stile si fece più pacato e disteso.

Emil Nolde (nato Hans Emil Hansen) è stato un pittore ed incisore Tedesco-Danese. È stato uno dei primi espressionisti, membro di Die Brücke, ed è stato uno dei primi pittori di pittura ad olio ed acquarello dell'inizio del XX secolo ad esplorare il colore.

Vasiliy 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.

The Wanderers’ movement and the Abramtsevo Circle

During the 1880s, his work was spotted by Vladimir Stassov, a supporter of the traveling exhibition society (the Wanderers), which he joined then.

This artistic movement was born from the desire to break with the themes imposed by the Academy to better represent contemporary concerns. In addition, the members promote the accessibility of art among the people by organizing traveling exhibitions (not limited to the artistic centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg).