Giacomo Favretto | Genre painter

The Venetian painter Giacomo Favretto (1849-1887) is one of the most important masters of the Italian Nineteenth century, mainly depicting Genre subjects in his native city.

A true “innovator” of the Venetian school during the second half of the century, he both revived and modernised the unique aspects of great Veneto tradition, from Longhi to Tiepolo - that had been abandoned in the first half of the Nineteenth century in favour of paintings of history and landscape.

Born in Venice into a family of humble origin, Favretto enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1864, where he trained under Pompeo Molmenti. He was said to have been discovered in a stationer's shop cutting out silhouettes to make a living. By age 30, he had lost sight from one eye.

Vincenzo Irolli | Genre painter

Vincenzo Irolli (1860-1949) was an Italian painter.

Vincenzo Irolli enrolled at the of Naples Institute of Fine Arts, where his masters included Gioacchino Toma, in 1877 and graduated three years later.

The work he presented regularly at the exhibitions of the Naples Società Promotrice di Belle Arti as from 1879 comprised portraits and Genre scenes.

He became a member of the Circolo Artistico Napoletano in 1890 and worked with Giovanni Migliaro and other local artists on decorations for the Caffè Gambrinus at the end of the decade.

Muriel Dolemieux, 1954

"My life as an artist really began in 1973 when I graduated from “l’Ecole Nationale des Sciences Géographique” - National Geographic Sciences Institute in Paris, as an Artist Cartographer. But I always knew I would be an artist.

When I was a kid I never asked myself if I was able to draw, I just did it ... It was in my blood!

Some of my ancestors and parents are famous artists, such as Guillaume Coustou, Nicolas de Largillière, Nicolas and Edouard Gatteaux, Henri Viot my Great-Grand-Father, Simone de Boutray my Grand-Mother, Martine Gayet my Mother..."

Christian Rohlfs | Expressionist painter

German painter Christian Rohlfs (1849-1938) is one of the important representatives of German Expressionism.

Rohlfs was born in Gross Niendorf, Kreis Segeberg in Northern Germany.

He took up painting as a teenager while convalescing from an infection that was eventually to lead to the amputation of a leg in 1874.

He began his formal artistic education in Berlin, before transferring, in 1870, to the Weimar Academy.

Washington Maguetas, 1942 | Impressionist painter

Innocence and beauty and also the impact of different aesthetic and emotional experiences which Washington Maguetas has had in the course of a long artistic career.

Many of his work hark back to a late 19th-century world of elegance and exquisite natural settings.

Brasilian painter Washington Maguetas is a prolific artist of great versatility who has absinfuences together with the spirit of his native land Brazil to produce paintings which reflect the best elements of both traditions.

David Farrant, 1938 | Modern Impressionist painter

Born in London in 1938, David Farrant has built a reputation as one of the country’s finest figurative painters. Like Hopper or Vettriano, David is inspired by everyday scenes of human interaction, and he reproduces these against a living background of muted colors and complex shadows.

His early career was spent teaching art whilst also working very successfully as a portrait painter. He no longer paints portraits preferring to concentrate on his figurative painting.

David works in oil and acrylic; he likes to work on a fairly large format and tries to hint at a story in the composition of the paintings. He gets his inspiration from observing people in everyday situations and the impact of light, especially sunlight, is very apparent in his work.

Mr. and Mrs. Garmash | Romantic Impressionist / Plein Air painters

Michael and Inessa Garmash are considered two of the finest Romantic Impressionists of our day.
Their incredible talent is only matched by their love and career stories.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Mr. and Mrs. Garmash, see:

• Michael and Inessa Garmash | Romantic Impressionist painters ➦.

Leonardo da Vinci | Perché la pittura non è connumerata nelle scienze..

Trattato della Pittura - Parte prima /30

Perché gli scrittori non hanno avuto notizia della scienza della pittura, non hanno potuto descriverne i gradi e le parti. Ed essa medesima non si dimostra col suo fine nelle parole; essa è restata, mediante l'ignoranza, indietro alle predette scienze, non mancando per questo di sua divinità.

E veramente non senza cagione non l'hanno nobilitata, perché per sé medesima si nobilita senza l'aiuto delle altrui lingue, non altrimenti che si facciano le eccellenti opere di natura.