Skagen painters | Art History and Sitemap

The Skagen Painters (Danish: Skagensmalerne) were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century.

Skagen was a summer destination whose scenic nature, local milieu and social community attracted northern artists to paint en plein air, emulating the French Impressionists - though members of the Skagen colony were also influenced by Realist movements such as the Barbizon school.

They broke away from the rather rigid traditions of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, espousing the latest trends that they had learned in Paris.

Peder Severin Krøyer | Summer Evening at Skagen Beach - The Artist and his Wife, 1899 | Hirschsprung Collection

When was it decided that January 1st is the new year?

The New Year is the time or day at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner.

In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system today, New Year occurs on January 1 (New Year's Day, preceded by New Year's Eve).

This was also the first day of the year in the original Julian calendar and the Roman calendar (after 153 BC).

Kike Meana, 1969 | Figurative painter

The works of Spanish painter Kike Meana demonstrate a rigorous interest in drawing.

Meana confronts us with the indoctrinated mass that this society can be and in which we all, in some way, see a reflection of ourselves.

His fantastic urban landscapes, mythical in their atmosphere, light, and colour, as well as the immense panoramic views of Havana, London and Madrid overwhelm the viewer.

Meanwhile, his more intimate pictorial approaches of these big cities show us their daily life and their hidden corners with an equal strength and beauty, even in the hard and intense series´ Metamorphosis and Matadero.

Marlène Dietrich and Édith Piaf

"My Friend Édith Piaf" by Marlène Dietrich

From the autobiographical book Marlène D., 1984

"In my eyes, she really was the sparrow, the little bird whose name she bore.

But she was also Jezebel, whose unquenchable thirst for love must have been due to a feeling of imperfection, her 'ugliness', as she put it -- her delicate, scrawny body, which she sent forth into battle like Circe, the Sirens and Lorelei, the temptress who with her incomparable vitality promised all the pleasures of the world".

Marlene Dietrich ed Édith Piaf, 1952

Vincent Van Gogh | Butterflies series

Butterflies is a series paintings made by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 and 1890.

Van Gogh made at least four paintings of butterflies and one of a moth.

The metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly was symbolic to Van Gogh of men and women's capability for transformation.

Vincent van Gogh | Butterflies and Poppies | Van Gogh Museum