Léon Bonnat (1833-1922) | Academic painter

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat was a French painter🎨, Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur and professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1882.

Bonnat won a medal🎨 of honour in Paris in 1869, going on to become one of the leading artists of his day.

Bonnat was quite popular with American students in Paris. In addition to his native French, he spoke Spanish and Italian and knew English well, to the relief of many monolingual Americans.

Yvonne Canu | The Last of Neo-Impressionists

Yvonne Canu (1921-2008) was a French painter, considered part of Neo-Impressionism, who used the techniques of Pointillism in her works.

She was born to French parents in Meknes in Morocco in 1921.

She began her studies at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, but they were interrupted by World War Two.

Antonio Duarte, 1942 | Figurative painter

Antonio Duarte is an award winning painter from Portugal.

Antonio Duarte was born in Portugal where he graduated from Escola Artes Plasticas of Coimbra and Escola De Belas Artes of Lisbon.

Since graduating he pursued a career as a professional artist in Europe, where his work was shown in many exhibitions in Spain, Portugal and Germany.

Today his paintings form part of private and public collections across Europe.

Jacob Collins, 1964 | Realist / Figurative painter

Jacob Collins is an American realist painter working in New York City.

He is a leading figure of the contemporary classical art revival.

He has founded several schools of art including the Water Street Atelier, the Grand Central Academy of Art and the Hudson River Fellowship.

Jacob Collins was born in New York City.

He comes from a family of artists and scholars. His great-uncle was Meyer Schapiro.

Edmond Aman-Jean | Symbolist painter

Edmond Aman-Jean (1858-1936) was a French symbolist painter, who co-founded the Salon des Tuileries in 1923.

Life

His father was the owner and operator of an industrial lime kiln.

He had his first art lessons with Henri Lehmann at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where he shared a workshop with Georges Seurat.

He also befriended the Symbolist painters, Alphonse Osbert and Alexandre Séon.

Henri Lebasque (1865-1937)

Dubbed “the painter of joy and light", Henri Lebasque vibrantly evoked the sun-dappled landscapes and plush interiors of the French Riviera.

A transitional figure between the Impressionists and the Fauves, his lively compositions show an attentiveness to the subtle shifts and diffusions of natural light as well as a readiness to inject purely expressive hues and gestures to a boldly emotive affect.

Henri Lebasque was born on September 25, 1865 in Champigné, Maine-et-Loire, France.

Edward Cucuel (1875-1954)

Edward Cucuel was born as the son of a newspaper publisher in San Francisco. Already at the age of 14 he attended the local academy of arts. Still a teenager he was employed as an illustrator by the newspaper "The Examiner".

When the 17-year-old Cucuel was sent to Paris, he entered the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi. Then he went to Jean-Léon Gérôme🎨 at the Académie des Beaux Arts.

In 1896 Edward Cucuel returned to the USA and settled in New York.

Arthur Streeton | Impressionist painter

Sir Arthur Streeton (1867-1943) was one of the foremost Australian Impressionist painters, and his paintings continue to count among the most iconic images of Australian art.

Streeton’s artistic training began aged 15, with night classes in design at Melbourne’s National Gallery School, while he worked as an office clerk and, later, as an apprentice lithographer.

He read amateur art manuals imported from Europe and America that encouraged painting en plein air.