Arthur Schopenhauer: "No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose"

• "Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see".

• "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident".

• "Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude".

• "If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him".

Antonio Nunziante

Louis Toffoli | Abstract Cubist painter

Louis Toffoli (1907-1999) was a French modernist artist, born in 1907, known for his characteristic post-cubist transparent paintings.

A twentieth century French painter and printmaker, Louis Toffoli studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Trieste in 1924. In 1928 he exhibited his paintings in that city and was promptly condemned by Mussolini's fascist regime.

Two years later Toffoli emigrated to Paris and began regularly exhibiting at the Salon d'Automne, Salon des Independants, Salon des Peintres Temoins de leur Temps and elsewhere.

With the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-1945) Louis Toffoli sought refuge in the countryside of Touraine and worked for the French Resistance. After the war he returned to Paris and received his French citizenship in 1947.

John Haag, 1980 | Realist / Impressionist painter

John Haag is a professional artist whose work has been described as a fusion of impressionism and realism. Specializing in oil and charcoal, Haag began painting at the age of 18 and selling his work at age 21. He had his first solo show at age 24 in Park City, UT. Working primarily as a portrait artist in his early career, Haag’s work can be found in private collections throughout the US and has been commissioned by many prominent Americans, including the late world renowned author/speaker Steven R. Covey.

Rainer Maria Rilke ~ Do not be afraid, it’s me / Non aver paura, sono io..

William Zorach (1887-1968) Spring in Central Park, 1914

Do not be afraid, it’s me.
You do not feel that I infringe on you,
with all your senses?
He put wings, my heart,
and now, white flies around your face.
Do not you see my soul before you,
adorned with silence?
And my prayer of May,
not ripe to your eyes, like a tree?
If you dream, I’m your dream,
but if you’re awake, I am your will;
master of all glory arch my silence starry

Max Streckenbach | Floral still life painter

Max Theodore Streckenbach (1863-1936) was born in Eckernförde, Germany on May 18, 1863 to Udo Streckenbach and Marie Wiebke. Streckenbach was the son of a pharmacist and, as such, was sent to study medicine after finishing high school at Schleswig Catholic School (1876-1885).

He studied medicine in Munich, Berlin, Rostock, Kiel and Bern, Switzerland before returning to his home town of Eckernförde.

His fondness for botany led him to take lessons from his role model, the French painter Fantin-Latour.

Ernesto Canto da Maia | Symbolist sculptor

Ernesto Canto da Maia (1890-1981) was born in 1890 at Ponta Delgada (São Miguel island, Azores) in the midst of a wealthy family. In 1907, after graduating at high school, he leaves to Lisbon and enrols at the Drawing Class of the Fine Arts School, having Ernesto Condeixa, José Luís Monteiro and José Alexandre Soares as teachers. In 1912, he participates at the I Portuguese Caricature Exhibit with a set of small statuetes which criticize the frivolity of life at the cities.

Axel Törneman | The father of Swedish Modernism

Johan Axel Gustaf Törneman (28 October 1880 - 26 December 1925) was one of Sweden's earliest modernist painters. Born in Persberg, Värmland, in Sweden, he grew to work in several modernist styles, was one of the first Swedish expressionist artists, and became a part of the international avant-garde in art after embracing more abstract art styles in Germany and France that were evolving there during the early 1900s. He created his most famous paintings, Night Café I and II, and Trait, in France in 1905. These night café paintings, made from studies in the Place Pigalle, and in other nightclubs popular with artists such as Café du Rat Mort (Dead Rat Café), are seen as two of Swedish modernism's most important works, and are considered breakthrough work of Swedish modernism.

Pyotr Nilus | La Belle Époque

The grandson of General, a member of the War of 1812, Pyotr Alexandrovich Nilus / Пётр Александрович Нилус (1869-1940) was a famous artist, especially in Odessa, where he studied at the Art School (1883-1889). But studies at the Academy of Fine Arts is over for P. Nilus in the year. By doing it in 1889, a year later he left her to do independent work. He made ​​such a bold move young Pyotr Nilus on the advice of great authority - IE Repin, who believed that not every talent academy is good, otherwise it just standardizes.