Vittorio Matteo Corcos | Genre painter

A Reassessment of Corcos, Sensuality and Subtlety Intact

- The New York Times, article by Roderick Conway Morris A Reassessment of Corcos, Sensuality and Subtlety Intact, Oct. 7, 2014

The Jewish community of the Tuscan seaport of Livorno produced two notable artists whose lives spanned the 19th and 20th centuries: Vittorio Corcos and Amedeo Modigliani.

Corcos enjoyed a long and prosperous international career, dying at the age of 74 in 1933. Modigliani🎨 struggled to sell his work and died little known at the age of 35 in 1920.

But whereas Modigliani🎨 is now one of the most famous of 20th-century artists, Corcos, outside of Italy at least, is virtually forgotten. One reason is that Corcos’s uninspiringly conventional society and royal portraits have obscured the fact that he also produced some genuinely idiosyncratic images.

Vittorio Matteo Corcos | An Elegant Lady in a Pink Hat and Dress, 1888

Vittorio Matteo Corcos🎨 (4 October 1859 - 8 November 1933) was an Italian painter🎨, known for his portraits.

Many of his genre works🎨 depict winsome and finely dressed young men and women, in moments of repose and recreation.

He was born to Jewish parents, in Livorno. He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence under Enrico Pollastrini.

Between 1878-1879 he worked under Domenico Morelli🎨 in Naples.

Giovanni Battista Lombardi | Ruth, 1864

Commissioned in 1859 by contessa Marietta Mazuchelli Longo, Lombardi's Ruth was the first of the artist's Old Testament subjects; a series which also included his Rebecca, Deborah, Susanna and Sulamite.

Lombardi's reputation had been built on his sensitive and innovative memorial sculpture, which he produced with his brother Giovita, in the studio in Rome which they set up in 1852.

The contessa Longo was a long-time supporter of Lombardi and indeed had previously commissioned a funerary monument to her deceased husband from the artist.

Olga Boznanska | Hands detail

Olga Boznańska (1865-1940) was a Polish painter, active in Munich and Paris.

Stylistically associated with the French impressionism, Boznańska received the French Legion of Honour in 1912, the Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1936, the Grand Prix at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques la Vie Moderne in 1937, and the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1938.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Boznańska see:

• Olga Boznanska | Impressionist painter

Adolph von Menzel | Drawing

Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (1815-1905) was a German🎨 Realist artist noted for drawings, etchings and paintings.

Along with Caspar David Friedrich🎨, he is considered one of the two most prominent German painters🎨 of the 19th century, and was the most successful artist of his era in Germany.

First known as Adolph Menzel, he was knighted in 1898 and changed his name to Adolph von Menzel🎨.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by von Menzel see:

• Adolph von Menzel | Realist painter🎨

Trent Gudmundsen, 1978 | Spring Morning

Gudmundsen's depictions of people and landscapes may seem steeped in nostalgia, but actually symbolically reflect the artist's own life: one in which he strives to live simply and tries to make time for the important moments.

Often using his own children and relatives as models in his paintings, Trent encourages and then captures authentic moments of quiet conversation or contemplation; people learning and teaching, talking and interacting, or simply enjoying a moment in thought in that fleeting time between work and play.

Mihaly Zichy | Romantic painter

Mihály Zichy (15 October 1827 in Zala, Kingdom of Hungary - 28 February 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist.

Mihály Zichy was a significant representative of Hungarian romantic painting.

During his law studies in Pest from 1842, he attended Jakab Marastoni's school as well.

In Vienna he was Waldmüller's pupil in 1844. "Lifeboat", his first major work, comes from this time.

On Waldmüller's recommendation, he became an art teacher in St. Petersburg.

He swore allegiance to freedom by painting the portrait of Lajos Batthyány, the first Hungarian prime minister, in 1849.

Mikhail Lermontov | Demon, 1829 | Chapter II

Demon / Демон is a poem by Mikhail Lermontov, written in several versions in the years 1829-1839.

It is considered a masterpiece of European Romantic poetry.

Lermontov began work on the poem when he was just 14 or 15, but completed it only during his Caucasus exile.

Lermontov wrote six major variations of the poem, and the final version was not published until 1842, after his death.