Adolphe Henri Laissement | Genre painter

Henri Laissement was was a French portrait and genre painter.

In 1872, at the age of 18 he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts studying under Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889) who greatly influenced his drawing technique.

He made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1879 and continued to exhibit there regularly until 1912.

He received a number of accolades over the years including honourable mention awards in 1882 and 1889, a third class medal in 1898, a bronze medal in 1900, and a second class medal in 1905.

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg | Neoclassical painter

Having won the Great Grand Prize for painting awarded by the Royal Danish Academy in 1809, the Danish painter Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853) set out from Copenhagen the following year with Rome as his ultimate destination.

He spent three years in Paris along the way, including one year as a pupil of the foremost European painter of the era, Jacques-Louis David.

Eckersberg was arguably David's most important foreign follower.

Absorbing both his austere Neoclassical idealism and his admonition never to stray from nature, the master's teachings prepared him for Rome as well as his subsequent career as a mentor to younger painters.

Christine Løvmand | Flower painter

Christine Marie Løvmand (19 March 1803 - 10 April 1872) was a Danish artist who specialized in paintings of flowers and still lifes. She was one of the few women at the time who gained recognition as a painter.

As a child, Løvmand helped her sick mother look after the five children in the family. When her father died in 1826, she resolved to work hard to support the family.

From 1824, both Christine and her sister Frederikke started to have painting and drawing lessons with the flower painter Johannes Ludvig Camradt.

In 1827, the two sisters began to exhibit at Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition.

La Grotta di Altamira | Patrimonio della Umanità

"Dopo Altamira, tutto è decadenza", esclamò Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, incantato dinanzi allo spettacolo delle pitture rupestri nella grotta spagnola di Altamira.

Molti pittori sono stati influenzati dalle opere delle grotte di Altamira.

Le Grotte di Altamira sono delle caverne spagnole famose per le pitture rupestri del Paleolitico superiore raffiguranti mammiferi selvatici e mani umane. Si trovano nei pressi di Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, 30 chilometri ad ovest di Santander. Queste grotte sono state incluse tra i Patrimoni dell'umanità dell'UNESCO nel 1985.

Nel 2008 il nome del patrimonio è stato modificato da "Grotte di Altamira" in "Arte rupestre paleolitica della Spagna settentrionale" in seguito all'aggiunta di 17 altre grotte.

Charles Spencelayh | Genre painter

Charles Spencelayh (October 27, 1865 - June 25, 1958) was an English genre painter and portraitist in the Academic style.

Spencelayh was born in Rochester in Kent, and first studied at the National Art Training School, South Kensington. He showed his work at the Paris Salon, but most of his exhibitions were in Britain.

Between 1892-1958, he exhibited more than 70 paintings at the Royal Academy, including "Why War" (1939), which won the Royal Academy ‘Picture of the Year’. He had a solo exhibition at The Sunderland Art Gallery in 1936.