Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen | Surrealist /Abstract painter

Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen (December 24, 1909 - September 13, 1957) was a Danish painter, writer and art theorist.

Born in Copenhagen, he studied under Axel Revold at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts from 1927-1929, and then, under Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky at Bauhaus Dessau from 1930 to 1931.

He was a Surrealist painter and agitated for the style in several publications.

Stanislas Lepine | Seine painting

Born in Caen in 1836, Victor Edouard Stanislas Lépine (1836-1892) began his artistic career following the manner of the ship-painter Johan Barthold Jongkind and specialising in the rendering of nautical views such as Sailing Boats in Caen Harbour. In 1855 the painter moved to Paris and in 1859 he made his début at the Salon, exhibiting Port of Caen, Moonlight Effect.
Stanislas Lépine specialised in painting picturesque urban views, recurrently choosing to feature the River Seine and the old streets of Paris. In 1860 Lépine undertook a more professional apprenticeship under the guidance of Jean Baptiste-Camille Corot and during this period met the artist Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904).

Harald Engman | Cityscape painter

Harald Rudyard Engman (1903-1968) was a Danish painter. Above all, he is remembered for his fierce use of satire in criticizing and resisting the German occupation of Denmark during World War II.

Little has been published about Engman's life. It is known that he traveled as a working seaman and spent some time living in New York City's Chinatown around 1920.

He began to show paintings in Copenhagen in the mid 1920s. He became part of a group of self-styled "Underground Painters".

His shows always inspired controversy as he utilized caricature and satire to mercilessly criticize social ills and those in power especially the growing power of the Nazi Party in Germany.

Jan Mankes | Symbolist / Realist painter

Jan Mankes (15 August 1889, Meppel, Drenthe - 23 April 1920, Eerbeek) was a Dutch painter*. He produced around 200 paintings, 100 drawings and 50 prints before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 30.

His restrained, detailed work ranged from self-portraits to landscapes and studies of birds and animals. His work is now exhibited in his native Netherlands in the Museum of Modern Art Arnhem, Museum Belvédère Heerenveen and Museum MORE Gorssel.

Howard Schatz, 1940 | Surrealist photographer

The photographs of Howard Schatz are exhibited in museums and photography galleries internationally and are included in innumerable private collections.

He has received international acclaim for his work and has won virtually every award in his field including numerous “Photographer of the Year” awards and Gold Medals in the most prestigious competitions.

His work has been published in twenty-three monographs.

William Merritt Chase | The Plein Air Scenes

William Merritt Chase [1849-1916] won many honors at home and abroad, was a member of the National Academy of Design, New York, and from 1885 to 1895 was president of the Society of American Artists.

He became a member of the Ten American Painters after John Henry Twachtman died.

Chase's creativity declined in his later years, especially as modern art took hold in America, but he continued to paint and teach into the 1910s.

During this period Chase taught such up and coming young artists as Arthur Hill Gilbert and Edward Hopper.

One of his last teaching positions was at Carmel, California in the summer of 1914.

Camille Claudel | L’Abandon, 1988-1905

The present work, known in its final state as L’Abandon, can trace its origin to the 1888 plaster by Claudel known as Sakountala. Based on the eponymous Indian legend of the 5th century in which the heroine loses the affection of her beloved prince, only to regain it once more, the plaster was awarded an honorable mention at the Salon that same year. In fact, Sakountala most likely inspired Rodin and his famous composition of the following year, L’Eternelle idole.

Max Buri | Portrait / Genre painter

Max Alfred Buri (1868-1915) was an Swiss painter. While still at school he was given drawing lessons by Paul Volmar (1832-1906) in Berne.

From 1883 he was a pupil of Fritz Schider (1846-1907) in Basle, where he became acquainted with the works of Hans Holbein the younger and Arnold Böcklin.

In 1886 he went to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, transferring in 1887 to Simon Hollosy's painting school.