Johan Christian Dahl | Romantic painter

Born in Bergen Norway and trained at the Copenhagen Academy, Johan Christian Clausen Dahl (1788-1857) nonetheless spent most of his working career in Germany.

He is thus claimed by all three schools for their own, although it was his influence on the latter that was more important, as from 1824 until his death he held the senior professorship of art at the Dresden Academy.

His memories of his homeland, however, provided him with themes that he reused throughout his career, but it was his attention to nature and use of the plein-air sketch that earned him the Dresden appointment in preference to Friedrich.

Camille Claudel, Debussy and La Valse, 1891

Created at the height of her artistic career, Camille Claudel's🎨 La Valse, is a stunning example of the sophistication and skill of the young sculptress.

This dynamic rendering of a couple in movement, with its detailed and complex treatment surface and form, is considered among her best sculptures.

Claudel created La Valse near the end of her 10 year love affair with Auguste Rodin🎨, a passionate relationship filled with conflict, hard work, disputes and ultimately disappointment. One of her most erotic sculptures, Claudel presented her dancers naked in the first version, which has sadly since disappeared.

Piero della Francesca | The lives of the artists, Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1568)

Piero della Francesca (1422-1492)

Truly unhappy are those who, laboring at their studies in order to benefit others and to make their own name famous, are hindered by infirmity and sometimes by death from carrying to perfection the works that they have begun.

And it happens very often that, leaving them all but finished or in a fair way to completion, they are falsely claimed by the presumption of those who seek to conceal their asses’ skin under the honorable spoils of the lion.

And although time, who is called the father of truth, sooner or later makes manifest the real state of things, it is none the less true that for a certain space of time the true craftsman is robbed of the honor that is due to his labors; as hap happened to Piero della Francesca of Borgo a San Sepolcro.

Trisha Lambi, 1962 | Figurative painter🖌

Trisha Lambi🎨: "I am an Australian painter🎨 born in Warwick, a small country town in Queensland. I was raised on a farm as part of a large, happy family.

My earliest memories are of drawing and reading for my maiden aunts when I was about 4 or 5 while my brothers and sisters were having a great time playing outside!
I still love to draw and read - the maiden aunts didn't put me off..

Light on form is my inspiration.

My latest work represents a fusion of the figurative into landscape using strong lighting and moody palettes to provide dramatic narratives.

After school I started a Bachelor of Visual Arts however the lure of money and independence proved too strong and I joined the workforce.

Louise Rayner | Watercolour painter

Louise Ingram Rayner (21 June 1832 - 8 October 1924) was a British watercolour artist.

Rayner was born in Matlock Bath in Derbyshire. Her parents Samuel Rayner and Ann Rayner (née Manser) were both noted artists, Samuel having been accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy when he was 15. Four of Louise's sisters - Ann ("Nancy"), Margaret, Rose and Frances - and her brother Richard were also artists.

Harold Harvey | Genre painter

Harold Harvey (1874-1941) was a Newlyn School painter who painted scenes of working class Cornish fishermen, farmers and miners and Cornish landscapes.

He was born in Penzance and trained at the Penzance School of Arts under Norman Garstin and the Académie Julian in Paris (1894-1896).

Private life

Harold Charles Francis Harvey was born to Mary Bellringer Harvey and Francis McFarland Harvey on 20 May 1874 in Penzance.

His father was a bank clerk. During his youth, he was home schooled. From 1894-1896, he studied art at the Academie Julian in Paris under Norman Garstin. In 1896, he studied at both the Académie Delécluse and the Academie Colarossi.

Sergio Lopez, 1983 | Landscape / Figurative painter

San Francisco Bay Area based Fine Artist Sergio Lopez specializes in Plein air and innovative figure paintings, oil Landscapes and Contemporary Figures, gouache paintings and charcoal drawings.

Sergio Lopez is a graduate of the Academy of Art in San Francisco – and is an exemplary painter in a variety of mediums.

Emilia Castañeda, 1943 | The Secret Gardens

Emilia Castañeda Martinez is a Spanish painter.

She was born in Madrid, but moved to Barcelona with her family as a child. She began training in 1956 at the academy of the painter Víctor Esteban Ripaux and at Escola de la Llotja in 1959 and Escuela Massana in 1969.

By the 70s she had finished her studies and became a professional painter.

Her works focus on the nude, generally placed in an abstract and dreamlike background that include objects that offer clues to the story told by the central figures.

Her work has been compared with that of modernists such as Gustav Klimt, Anglada Camarasa and with the French symbolist school.

Some of her works have been rejected by art galleries due to their erotic themes. | © Wikipedia