Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Literature

Literature was integrated into the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's artistic practice from the beginning (including that of Rossetti), with many paintings making direct literary references.

For example, John Everett Millais' early work, Isabella (1849), depicts an episode from John Keats' Isabella, or, the Pot of Basil (1818).

Rossetti was particularly critical of the gaudy ornamentation of Victorian gift books and sought to refine bindings and illustrations to align with the principles of the Aesthetic Movement.

Rossetti's key bindings were designed between 1861-1871.

He collaborated as a designer/illustrator with his sister, poet Christina Rossetti, on the first edition of Goblin Market (1862) and The Prince's Progress (1866).

Matthijs Roling, 1943 | Figurative painter

Dutch painter and teacher Matthijs Röling (Oostkapelle, 1943) received the prize for his entire painted oeuvre. The jury was particularly impressed by the fact that his teaching at the Academie Minerva in Groningen has been no less inspirational to large numbers of younger artists than his painting.

In 1983 Matthijs Röling began working on large-scale decorative projects, such as monumental canvases and wall and ceiling paintings. In recent years these projects have come to occupy an increasingly important place within Röling's highly diverse oeuvre. His manner has been compared to that of the Old Masters, and the illusionistic scenes he paints on walls and ceilings are reminiscent of frescoes.

Notwithstanding these parallels with the past, Röling's work is distinguished by his independence, integrity and craftsmanship.

Frederic Shields | Pre-Raphaelite painter

Frederic James Shields (Hartlepool, 14 March 1833 - 26 February 1911, London) painter and decorative artist, born at Hartlepool on 14 March 1833, was the third of the six children of John Shields, a bookbinder and printer, by his wife Georgiana Storey, daughter of an Alnwick farmer. His brothers and sisters all died in infancy. His father, after fighting as a volunteer in Spain for Queen Isabella (1835-6), removed to Clare Market in London, where the boy's mother opened a dressmaker's shop.

Frederic attended the charity school of the parish of St. Clement Danes until the age of fourteen. Having shown an early talent for drawing, he worked from the antique at the British Museum for a few months after leaving school, and on 4 Oct. 1847 was apprenticed to Maclure, Macdonald and Macgregor, a firm of lithographers.

His indenture was for a term of three years, but after about a year he was sent for by his father, who had obtained work at Newton-le-Willows, although he was unable to provide for his family. He helped Frederic to find employment at 5s. a week with a firm of mercantile lithographers in Manchester.

An ingrained piety, a love of literature, and a passion for sketching enabled Shields to face stoically nine years of grinding poverty and of uncongenial drudgery at commercial lithography.

Vittorio Matteo Corcos

Vittorio Matteo Corcos (Livorno, 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.

In 1880, the artist established himself in the Parisian art scene, falling into the circles of Léon Bonnat and Giovanni Boldini.

Between 1881-1886, he frequently exhibited at the Salon.

His works are held in the collections of the Uffizi in Florence and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome.

Abbott Fuller Graves | Impressionist painter

Abbott Fuller Graves (1859-1936) was an American painter and illustrator who specialized in decorative open air garden paintings and floral still lifes.

His use of thick brushstrokes, bright colors, and natural light shows the influence of European impressionism.

Graves was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1859, the son of James Griswold Graves and Eliza Nicholls (Fuller). Hoping to become an architect, Graves attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but did not graduate.

Graves went to Paris and Italy in 1884 to refine his skills as a flower painter. In Europe, he roomed with Edmund C. Tarbell.

Max Nonnenbruch | Young Beauty, 1892

Max Nonnenbruch (25.01.1857 in Viersen; † 13.03.1922 in München, Munich) was a famous German painter🎨 in the Art Nouveau🎨 Jugendstil Early 1900s Period.

Nonnenbruch was one of the most widely exhibited and popular painters of fin de siecle Germany; his work was frequently reproduced in woodcut or photogravure and appeared in the great journals and newspapers of the day.

A member of the Munich School, the name given to a group of artists who studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich during its most influential period, Nonnenbruch originally concentrated on history and genre painting🎨, the specialty of Wilhelm Lindenshmit the Younger (1829-1895), his professor at the Academy.

Guglielmo Ciardi | Veduta painter

Guglielmo Ciardi (1842-1917) was an Italian painter. He was born in Venice, the son of an official of the Austrian government.

Ciardi enrolled in 1861 at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied perspective with Federico Moja and landscape and seascape with Domenico Bresolin, taking over the latter’s teaching post in 1894.

He went to Florence in 1868 and formed friendships with Giovanni Costa and the Macchiaioli painters.

Elise MacDonald | Magical Surrealist painter

Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Graduated with a BA(Fine Art) from Wits University.

First exhibition at Crake Gallery, Jhb in 1982.

Thereafter exhibited in group show at the Everard Read Gallery, Jhb.

After relocating to Knysna in 1996 exhibited at Trent Read's Knysna Fine Art gallery.

After a serious illness in 2009, her passion for painting was re-ignited.

In 2012 Elise had a mini exhibition at Trent Read’s Knysna Fine Art Gallery and in 2015 she had a solo exhibition at the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in Cape Town.

Elise’s work is now in private collections worldwide.