Hans-Joachim Staude | Figurative Expressionist painter

Hans-Joachim Staude (1904-1973) is one of the most interesting (and in some ways most “eccentric”) German painters of his generation.

Yet his oeuvre is still not sufficiently known, especially in Italy where he lived and worked almost his entire life in the city of Florence.

What is lacking is a more detailed critical analysis of his close relation with Italian Novecento painting, from Ardengo Soffici to Felice Carena, in the context of modern classicism in European art between the wars.

A connection that makes the artist one of the “most Italian” of 20th-century German painters.

Antonio Fontanesi | Aprile (Sulle rive del lago del Bourget, in Savoia), 1864

Antonio Fontanesi (1818-1882) is considered one of the most important Italian painters of the XIX century. His landscapes influenced several Italian painters of the symbolist generation as well as the 20C Futurist Carlo Carrà.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Fontanesi see Antonio Fontanesi | Barbizon School painter.

Antonio Fontanesi | Barbizon School painter

Antonio Fontanesi (23 February 1818 - 17 April 1882) was an Italian painter who lived in Meiji period Japan between 1876-1878. He introduced European oil painting techniques to Japan, and exerted a significant role in the development of modern Japanese yōga (Western style) painting. He is known for his works in the Romantic style of the French Barbizon school.

Camille Pissarro | Snow Effect

Paint the essential character of things.

Dipingi il carattere essenziale delle cose.

At fifty, that is in 1880, I formulated the idea of unity, without being able to render it. At sixty, I am beginning to see the possibility of rendering it.

A cinquant'anni, nel 1880, ho formulato l'idea di unità, senza essere in grado di realizzarla. A sessant'anni sto cominciando a vedere la possibilità di realizzarla.

Claude Monet | The Rouen Cathedral series, 1892-1894

The Rouen Cathedral series was painted in the 1890s by French impressionist Claude Monet. The paintings in the series each capture the façade of the cathedral at different times of the day and year, and reflect changes in its appearance under different lighting conditions.

• Date

The Rouen Cathedral paintings, more than thirty in all, were made in 1892-1893, then reworked in Monet’s studio in 1894. Monet rented spaces across the street from the cathedral, where he set up temporary studios for the purpose. In 1895, he selected what he considered to be the twenty best paintings from the series for display at his Paris dealer’s gallery, and of these he sold eight before the exhibition was over. Pissarro and Cézanne visited the exhibition and praised the series highly.

Domenico Purificato | Neorealist painter

Domenico Purified (Fondi, 1 November 1915 - Rome, 6 November 1984) was a Italian painter, protagonist of "Neorealismo".

In the first part of his career he joined the defined current Roman, initiated by Scipione (Gino Bonichi) and Mario Mafai , shared with Raffaele Wheats. A multifaceted artist, from 1940 to 1943 he was editor of the magazine Cinema.

After the war he was the protagonist in Rome of Neorealism, capturing in his paintings some of the people, country figures and scenes of everyday life.

Claude-Marie Dubufe (1790-1864)

Born in Paris in 1790, Claude-Marie Dubufe began his apprenticeship in Jacques-Louis David's studio in 1804, although his father originally intended him for a diplomatic career.

His first shipment to the Salon in 1810 is "A Roman starves himself and his family to death, rather than touch a deposit of money entrusted to him" (location unknown). This painting was not noticed by the critics, so Claude-Marie decided to go to Italy to complete his training.

He returned to the Salon in 1812 with a large mythological scene, «Achilles taking under his protection Iphigénie, which his father Agamemnon wanted to sacrifice» (unknown location) and two portraits of women, the genre that will be the source of his success.

Odoardo Borrani | Macchiaioli painter

Odoardo Borrani (22 August 1833 - 14 September 1905) was an Italian painter associated with the Macchiaioli group.

He was born in Pisa. The Borrani family moved to Florence, where Odoardo enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1853.

There, he studied under Gaetano Bianchi, Giuseppe Bezzuoli and Enrico Pollastrini. However, he became independent of the academic styles.

His first painting while at the Academy was titled Un veglione di maschere alla Pergola.

In 1859, he painted Lorenzo the Magnificent Saves Himself From Being Murdered in the Sacristy of the Cathedral, an episode of the Pazzi Conspiracy.