Martin Luther King: "I Have a Dream"!

"I have a dream" - "Ho un sogno" - è la frase con cui viene identificato il discorso tenuto da Martin Luther King il 28 agosto del 1963 davanti al Lincoln Memorial di Washington al termine di una marcia di protesta per i diritti civili.

"Sì, è vero, io stesso sono vittima di sogni svaniti, di speranze rovinate, ma nonostante tutto voglio concludere dicendo che ho ancora dei sogni, perché so che nella vita non bisogna mai cedere.

Se perdete la speranza, perdete anche quella vitalità che rende degna la vita, quel coraggio di essere voi stessi, quella forza che vi fa continuare nonostante tutto.

Ecco perché io ho ancora un sogno...

Ho il sogno che un giorno gli uomini si rizzeranno in piedi e si renderanno conto che sono stati creati per vivere insieme come fratelli".

Carl Wilhelmson | Genre painter

Carl Wilhelm Wilhelmson (186-1928) was a Swedish painter, graphic artist, amateur photographer and art teacher.

His father, Anders Wilhelmson, was a "Bästeman" (a type of Naval Master), who died in a shipwreck in 1875. His mother, Amalia, opened a small shop to support the family.

Some relatives were in the printing business so, in 1881, he was apprenticed to the lithographers Meyer and Köster in Gothenburg.

He also took evening classes at the School of Design and Crafts. He later became a full time student of Carl Larsson🎨 at the Valand Academy.

Willem Haenraets, 1940 | Impressionist painter

With soft colors, the artist conjures up a romantic world of beautiful illusion on his canvasses. Hollandaise painter Willem Haenraets was born in Rotterdam and his talent was discovered at an early age.

Haenraets was just 16 when he started his training at the academy in Maastricht, which he followed with further education at the Antwerp art academy.

Granted a scholarship for talented students, he received his artistic polish as a master craftsman student of the renowned professors Sarina and Vaarten.

Haenraets’ creations are evidence that the great tradition of the Belgian-Dutch school has received a flourishing sequel. The old masters certainly would have given him a nod of approval.

Nadežda Petrović (1873-1915) | Impressionist painter

Nadežda Petrović / Надежда Петровић was a Serbian painter and one of the women war photography pioneers in the region.

Considered Serbia's most famous impressionist and fauvist, she was the most important Serbian female painter🎨 of the period.

Born in the town of Čačak, Petrović moved to Belgrade in her youth and attended the women's school of higher education there.

In 1893, she became an art teacher at the school and later taught at the women's university in Belgrade. Afterwards, she obtained a stipend from the Serbian Ministry of Education to study art in the private school of Slovenian artist Anton Ažbe in Munich.

Percy Bysshe Shelley | Love's Philosophy / Filosofia dell'amore

Caspar David Friedrich🎨 (German Romantic painter, 1774-1840) | On the Sailing Boat | State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

The fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single,

All things by a law divine

In one another's being mingle-

Why not I with thine?

Willem Haenraets, 1940 | Romantic lovers

Willem Haenraets is an Hollandaise painter, known for the Plein-air watercolors.

When he was 16 years old, he started his education at the Academy of Arts in Maastricht.

Four years later he obtained a scholarship from the Belgian Government to study at the National Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp, in the Master class of professor Sarina (Atelier Opsomer) and professor Vaarten.

Laila Bell | Figurative sculptor

Laila Bell is a Danish born artist working and teaching in Byron Bay Australia.

Laila was born north of Copenhagen, Denmark.

From an early age she knew the path in her life would be too express herself in some form of art.

This desire brought her to study full time for 5 years at Copenhagen Art School, examining many different mediums and learning the classical way of drawing and studying the figure.

Hodges Soileau, 1943 | Plein Air painter

American painter Hodges Soileau is a native of Southwest Louisiana with a career that has taken him to live in many parts of the country.

His Cajun accent is all but gone, but his cultural ties remain strong. His most successful 25 year illustration career has presented him with opportunities to work with major publishing houses in New York City gracing the covers of more than 300 books.

Hodges was a 23 year member of the prestigious Society of Illustrators in New York City. During this time, he received many citations of merit for work exhibited in annual shows.

He was selected to execute the painting for the Illustrators 29th Annual Call for Entries, and chaired 35 annual exhibitions.