Odilon Redon: "True art lies in a reality that is felt"

• "Black is the most essential of all colors. Above all, if I may say so, it draws its excitement and vitality from deep and secret sources of health... One must admire black. Nothing can debauch it".

• "True art lies in a reality that is felt".

• "The fundamental grey which differentiates the masters, expresses them and is the soul of all colour. My originality consists in putting the logic of the visible to the service of the invisible".

Emma Ekwall [1838-1925]

Emma Ekwall-Scheutz was the first Swedish woman - painter, received the Royal Medal. She was born on January 18, 1838. After graduating from the Academy of Painting, where she studied from 1865-1870, lived for a time in Munich and Leipzig. She painted mostly portraits of their children, floral still lifes and genre scenes. She died in 1925 in Stockholm.

George Romney | Portrait painter

George Romney (1734-1802) was the most celebrated Portrait painters of his time, along with Reynolds and Gainsborough.

He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures - including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.

He was born in Dalton-in-Furness in 1734 and after learning his craft of cabinet-making there and in Lancaster, he was apprenticed to the portrait painter Christopher Steele in 1755.

In 1757 he broke his apprenticeship and set up on his own in a studio in Kendal.

Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898)

Ivan Ivanovič Šiškin è stato un pittore Russo associato al Movimento dei Peredvižniki - un gruppo di artisti realisti Russi che protestarono contro le restrizioni accademiche e che formarono una cooperativa che evolvette nella società per mostre itineranti nel 1870, chiamata anche "Compagnia delle esposizioni di arte itinerante".

Nato a Elabuga che all'epoca faceva parte del Gubernija di Vjatka (oggi repubblica di Tatarstan) si diplomò al liceo di Kazan; in seguito studiò alla Scuola di Mosca di pittura, scultura ed architettura per quattro anni e frequentò l'Accademia Imperiale d'Arte dal 1856-1860, laureandosi con le più alte onorificenze ed una medaglia d'oro.

Bruno Lucchesi, 1926 | Genre/Figurative sculptor

Bruno Lucchesi is an Italian-American sculptor, known for his contemplative female figures and Genre figure groups.

Lucchesi was born in Fibbiano Montanino in Lucca, Italy.

He studied at the Art Institute of Lucca, then moved to Florence, Italy, where he became Assistant Professor at Florence University in 1953.

In 1958 he moved to New York City, and has since taught there at the National Academy of Design and the New School of Social Research.

Hans Baluschek | The Berlin Secession

Hans Baluschek (1870-1935) was a German painter, graphic artist and writer. Baluschek was a prominent representative of German Critical Realism, and as such he sought to portray the life of the common people with vivid frankness.

His paintings centered on the working class of Berlin. He belonged to the Berlin Secession movement, a group of artists interested in modern developments in art. Yet during his lifetime he was most widely known for his fanciful illustrations of the popular children's book Little Peter's Journey to the Moon (German title: Peterchens Mondfahrt).

Hans Baluschek after 1920 was an active member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which at the time still professed a Marxist view of history.

Francesco Vinea ~ Genre painter

Francesco Vinea (Forlì, August 10, 1845 - Florence, October 22, 1902) was an Italian painter, known for his period costume Genre subjects. He studied first at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, but had to discontinue his studies due to his poverty, and spent some time traveling without home. He worked for a photographer, also as a designer of illustrated magazines, but returned to Florence and studied under professor Enrico Pollastrini, but only for a year.

Charles Louis La Salle, 1938

Charles-Louis La Salle was born in Hanoi, Vietnam.

He spent his childhood in Indochina and adolescence in Africa.

La Salle studied at the School of Decorative Arts - Arts Déco- in Paris where he arrived at the age of 18.

Thereafter, he traveled throughout all of Europe seeking the sources of his inspiration and cultural identity.

He settled in Provence in 1966.