Albert Goodwin | Victorian Visionary landscapes

Albert Goodwin (1845-1932) was a British landscape painter, specialising in watercolours. Goodwin was a prolific artist, producing over 800 works and continuing to paint well into his eighties. His work shows the influences of Turner and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Goodwin was born in Maidstone in Kent, the son of a builder and one of 9 children. After leaving school he became an apprentice draper. His exceptional artistic ability was recognised at an early age and he went on to study with the Pre-Raphaelite artists Arthur Hughes and Ford Madox Brown - the latter predicting that he would become "one of the greatest landscape painters of the age".

Museum Masterpieces [Part.2]

Gyula Benczúr (Hungarian painter, 1844-1920) | Narcissus, 1881 | Hungarian National Gallery

Gyula Benczúr, a contemporary of Mihály Munkácsyand Pál Szinyei Merse, was a consistently outstanding exponent of academicism from his time at the Academy in Munich, and later a much feted artist in Budapest.

He was accomplished in every aspect of painting that could be learned from studying the works of his Renaissance and Baroque forebears.

These skills, encompassing composition and the precise, sensual depiction of details, are demonstrated in his Narcissus of 1881.

Surprisingly, however, Benczúr’s treatment of this Ovidian theme deviates from the traditional iconography.

Vincent Van Gogh | Drawings for study

Perhaps the most prolific post-impressionist painter of all time, Vincent Van Gogh gave us his mind, his heart, his soul, and, most notably, his ear. His works are probably better known generally than those of any other painter in history.

Born in 1853, Van Gogh was the son of a Dutch Protestant minister.

Early in his life, he possessed a moody temperament that would later haunt him in his efforts to become a successful artist.

His brief and turbulent life is thought to epitomize the mad genius legend.

Stuart Davis | Modern painter

Edward Stuart Davis (1892-1964) was an early American modernist painter.

He was well known for his jazz-influenced, proto-pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, bold, brash, and colorful, as well as his Ashcan School pictures in the early years of the 20th century.

With the belief that his work could influence the sociopolitical environment of America, Davis' political message was apparent in all of his pieces from the most abstract to the clearest.

Maxfield Parrish | Golden Age Illustrator

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) deeply committed to the democratization of art, was probably the most popular artist of the twentieth century in the United States after Norman Rockwell link. Like many American artists, including Winslow Homer link, Parrish began his artistic career as an illustrator and became prominent through the publication of his work in popular magazines, such as Harper’s Weekly, Scribner’s, Ladies’ Home Journal, Life, and Collier’s. 

Giovanni Giacometti | Post-Impressionist painter

Giovanni Ulrico Giacometti (1868-1933) was a Swiss painter of the beginning of the 20th century.

He is the father of the famous sculptors Alberto and Diego Giacometti and the architect Bruno Giacometti, as well as the cousin of the painter and poster designer Augusto Giacometti.

Giovanni Giacometti was born in Stampa, the Grisans on March 7th, 1868.

Encouraged by his teacher, the young Giacometti entered on the artistic career and moved to Munich in 1886 to attend the school of arts and crafts.

Johann Jungblut ~ Romantic Landscape painter

Johan Jungblut [1860-1912] was born in Sarrebourg on the French/German border in April of 1860, although in 1885 he made the German city of Dusseldorf his home. Johan Jungblut was a solitary figure who lived alone; he made frequent trips to Holland to paint, specialising in Winter scenes infused with tranquil light. Today the museums of Brooklyn and Mayence (in France) display his work.

Andreas Achenbach | Romantic painter

Andreas Achenbach, (born Sept. 29, 1815, Kassel, Hesse-died April 1, 1910, Düsseldorf, Ger.), Landscape painter, a pioneer of the German Realist school.

He studied at the Düsseldorf academy under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, but emancipated himself from the contemporary school of landscapists that delighted in the representation of Romantic scenery.