The Luminist Movement (1850-1875)

Luminism, late 19th-century painting style emphasizing a unique clarity of light.

It was characteristic of the works of a group of independent American painters who were directly influenced by the Hudson River school of painting.

The term, however, was not coined until 1954 by John Baur, director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

The most important painters in the luminist style were John Frederick Kensett, Fitz Hugh Lane, and Martin Johnson Heade; the group also included George Tirrell, Henry Walton, and J.W. Hill.

Steve Henderson, 1957 | Romantic painter

A lifetime fine artist, Steve Henderson pursued a successful career in commercial illustration before turning to fine art fulltime.

Steve’s landscape, coastal, and figurative works, which he creates in oil, watercolor, or charcoal, have been in numerous national shows and exhibitions including: Oil Painters of America, Richard Schmidt Fine Art Auction, American Society of Marine Artists, Mystic Seaport, Paint the Parks and Best of America.

Michelle Torrez, 1956 | Expressionist painter

Known for her color work, Michelle Torrez does expressionistic oil paintings of figures that are intended to communicate the beauty of unlikely emotion, movement and life.

Torrez believes that the greatest influences on her work were the circumstances of her childhood and teenage years:

"My life has influenced me to look deeper to find the beauty and humanity in people and places. Even at an early age, I knew I was an artist".

Kahlil Gibran | Quotes / Aforismi

Pablo Picasso | Le couple, 1904

"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers!".

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart".

“We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side".

"Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need".

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873) Academic painter

Born in the Grand-Duchy of Baden in 1805, of peasant stock, Franz Xaver Winterhalter received early training in Freiburg as a graphic artist.

In 1824 he enrolled at the Munich Academy for further study in painting, while continuing to earn a living with lithographic work.

Barbara McCann (1948-2011) | Impressionist painter

Barbara McCann, American painter, began her artistic endeavors with drawing as a child, and then with painting in her teenage years. Upon graduating from high school, she took a four-year apprenticeship in architectural illustration and design, which set the stage for a career in commercial art.

McCann moved to Florida in 1973, and for the next 20 years ran her own architectural illustration studio.

Julio Vila y Prades (1873-1930)

Julio Vila y Prades was a Spanish painter🎨 and muralist who also worked throughout Latin America.

Against his parents wishes, he began his artistic studies at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos with Francisco Domingo Marqués and Joaquín Agrasot🎨.

He then went to Madrid and was an assistant in the workshop of Joaquín Sorolla🎨 from 1893-1904.

Marius Borgeaud | Post-impressionist painter

Marius Borgeaud (1861-1924) was a Swiss Post-Impressionist painter. He was born in Lausanne.

Early life

Borgeaud came from a bourgeois milieu; he attended the Industrial School of Lausanne and did not intend to pursue painting.

As chance would have it, the future gallerist Paul Vallotton was one of his school-mates.

In 1888, he began working in a bank in Marseille and remained there until the death of his father the following year.