Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA | The Royal Academy’s first president

From Royal Academy of Arts:

The Royal Academy’s first president, Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (1723-1792), was considered the leading portrait painter of his day and a key figure in the Academy. Still in print today, and widely translated, his groundbreaking Discourses in Art were hugely influential on the development of British art.

The son of a Devonshire reverend and schoolmaster, Reynolds received a comprehensive education before being apprenticed to the portrait painter Thomas Hudson aged 17. In 1749, he was invited to join the HMS Centurion on a voyage to the Mediterranean; Reynolds disembarked in Rome and stayed there for two years, studying the Old Masters. While in Rome he suffered from a bad cold which left him partially deaf so that he often carried an ear trumpet round with him, and was often depicted carrying the trumpet.

Soon after his return, Reynolds set up a studio in London and quickly established himself as a sought-after portrait painter, making important aristocratic connections in the process. His circle of friends included 18th-century notables such as the writer Dr Samuel Johnson, actor and playwright David Garrick and statesman Edmund Burke. He painted memorable portraits of all of them.

Juan de Flandes | Northern Renaissance painter

Juan de Flandes (John of Flanders, c. 1460 - 1519) was an Early Netherlandish painter who was active in Spain from 1496-1519; his actual name is unknown, although an inscription Juan Astrat on the back of one work suggests a name such as "Jan van der Straat". Jan Sallaert, who became a master in Ghent in 1480, has also been suggested.

Quotes about Johannes Vermeer

• Delacroix spoke of the Greek coin being built from the center out. Vermeer has painted in this way, according to the principles of mass.. ..How beautifully they are drawn - Vermeer does not just make a leaf and place it in the design, he relates space and leaf. [on the painting of Vermeer ‘Allegory on the New Testament]. That drapery - it is abstract – observe how this shape [a space between a shepherd and the tree] curves around the center space while the tree counter-curves opposite it, cutting an egg shape.. ..the spaces on the carpet that carry no figuration are, in fact, shapes of vital importance in building the whole…

• Arshile Gorky in: 'A visit to the Metropolitan Museum with Gorky', Ethel Schwabacher, 1947; as quoted in "Arshile Gorky, - Goats on the roof", ed. by Matthew Spender, Ridinghouse, London 2009, p. 357.

• Yes, Johannes Vermeer paints in thin layers – there is no waste effort – and those small dots – no, they are not like Seurat’s, though they contain all the light the pointillist may have wished for, concentrated, hovering before the object, but not obliterating it.. ..Vermeer is not a sun painter, but rather a moon-painter - like Uccello - that’s good, it is the pure, final stage of art, the moment when it becomes more real than reality.

• Arshile Gorky in: A visit to the Metropolitan Museum with Gorky', Ethel Schwabacher, 1947; as quoted in "Arshile Gorky, Goats on the roof", ed. by Matthew Spender, Ridinghouse, London 2009, pp. 357-58.

Hans Holbein the Younger | Northern Renaissance painter

Hans Holbein the Younger, (born 1497/98, Augsburg, Bishopric of Augsburg [Germany] - died 1543, London, England), German painter ⎆, draftsman, and designer, renowned for the precise rendering of his drawings and the compelling realism of his portraits, particularly those recording the court of King Henry VIII of England.

Holbein was a member of a family of important artists. His father, Hans Holbein the Elder, and his uncle Sigmund were renowned for their somewhat conservative examples of late Gothic painting in Germany.

Cosmé Tura | Early Renaissance painter

Cosmè Tura, Cosmè also spelled Cosimo, (born c. 1430, Ferrara [Italy] - died 1495, Ferrara), early Italian Renaissance painter who was the founder and the first significant figure of the 15th-century school of Ferrara. His well-documented career provides a detailed glimpse of the life of a court painter.

Tura was probably trained in Francesco Squarcione’s workshop in Padua and was influenced by Andrea Mantegna ⎆ and by Piero della Francesca when the latter artist was working in Ferrara (c. 1449-50).

Annibale Carracci (Italian, 1560-1609)

Annibale Carracci, (born November 3, 1560, Bologna, Papal States [Italy] - died July 15, 1609, Rome), Italian painter who was influential in recovering the classicizing tradition of the High Renaissance from the affectations of Mannerism.

He was the most talented of the three painters of the Carracci family.

The sons of a tailor, Annibale and his older brother Agostino were at first guided by their older cousin Lodovico, a painter who persuaded them to follow him in his profession.

Annibale’s precocious talents developed in a tour of northern Italy in the 1580s, his visit to Venice being of special significance.

Vincent Van Gogh | First Steps (after Millet), 1890

Artist: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Date: 1890

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 72.4 x 91.1 cm

Current location: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Charles Bukowski | Quando Dio creò l’amore / When God created love..

When God created love he didn't help most

when God created dogs He didn't help dogs

when God created plants that was average

when God created hate we had a standard utility

when God created me He created me

when God created the monkey He was asleep

when He created the giraffe He was drunk

Anna MarinovaRussian painter,1983) Spring Harmony