Auguste Rodin | Artworks and Quotes

"The human body is first and foremost a mirror to the soul and its greatest beauty comes from that".

"Il corpo umano è prima di tutto uno specchio dell'anima e da questo deriva la sua più grande bellezza".

"L'artista deve creare una scintilla prima di poter fare un fuoco e quindi nasce l'arte, l'artista deve essere pronto a consumarsi al fuoco della sua stessa creazione".

Paul Gauguin | Washerwomen in Arles, 1888

"Washerwomen in Arles" - Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands - was painted in that French town, where Paul Gauguin settled late in 1888 summoned by Vincent van Gogh, who hoped to found a community of artists there.

The work captures the painter’s concern in emphasising expressiveness over and above formalism, which entailed his final break with Impressionism.

This principle, for which Gauguin coined the term Syntheticism, was characterised by non-mimetic representations of nature, the rejection of the third dimension taken from Japanese prints and the separation of colour in broad contrasted planes by means of dark lines.

Paul Gauguin | The Washerwomen in Arles | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Augustus John (1878-1961) | Post-Impressionist painter

Augustus John, in full Augustus Edwin John (born January 4, 1878, Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales-died October 31, 1961, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England), Welsh painter who was an accomplished portraitist, muralist and draughtsman.

John studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1894-1898. By age 20 he had won a reputation as one of the most brilliant draughtsmen in England.

His portraits and other paintings done around 1900 gained attention for their vigour and skillful technique.

John was greatly influenced by the work of Old Master painters, especially Peter Paul Rubens, as can be seen in the strong and sensuous Smiling Woman (c. 1908), a portrait of John’s second wife, Dorelia.

Robert Lee Berran (1923-2020) Figurative painter /Illustrator

Robert Lee Berran was born in Mt. Vernon, NY on December 24, 1923 and was raised in Scarsdale, NY. Between the ages of 19-22 he served as a medic during World War II under General Patton's third army in Europe. After the war he studied at the Art Students League in NYC from 1947-1950.

After leaving the Art Students League, he painted movie posters for 20th Century Fox. Four years later he joined the Illustrators Group where artists were predominately from the Haddon Sundbloom School of Painting.

His work at the Illustrators Group was for prestigious clients such as Ford and Coca-Cola. Subsequently Bob illustrated for the Seventh Day Adventists for their series of children's books "My Bible Friends" which are still popular today.

Gustav Feith (1875-1951) | Flowers painter

Born in Vienna, Gustav Feith was known as a watercolorist and graphic artist and became well-known for his pieces of flowers.

Feith trained both with an apprenticeship as a lithographer with Ferdinand Pamberger (Austrian painter, 1873-1956) and also as a painting student with Josef Hasselwander (Austrian painter, 1812-1878).

Feith also worked as a draftsman in the Vienna Graphic Arts Institute.

Friedrich Von Amerling | Academic painter

Friedrich von Amerling (14 April 1803 - 14 January 1887) was an Austro-Hungarian portrait painter in the court of Franz Josef.

He was born in Vienna and was court painter between 1835-1880. With Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller he is one of the outstanding Austrian portrait painters of the 19th century.

Henri Fantin-Latour | Immortality, 1889

Henri Fantin-Latour | Immortality, 1889 | National Museum Wales

The personification of Immortality holds the palm of victory and scatters flowers onto a tomb inscribed "DELACROIX".

Behind, the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral and the dome of the Panthéon national monument emerge from the Paris skyline.

Fantin-Latour was greatly inspired by the works of Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), whose naturalistic use of colour and form continued to be controversial long after his death.

Raphael - Portraits

Raffaello (1483-1520)🎨, nato Raffaello Sanzio, fu incoronato "Principe dei pittori" da Giorgio Vasari, un biografo di artisti del XVI secolo.

Da suo padre, Raffaello imparò a dipingere; nella sua città natale, Urbino, ha vissuto la vita di corte intellettuale.

Un anno dopo la morte improvvisa di suo padre, Raphael entrò nel laboratorio del principale pittore di Urbino all'età di dodici anni e superò rapidamente il suo maestro.

All'età di 21 anni, Raffaello si era trasferito a Firenze, dove ha abbracciato le opere di Michelangelo e Leonardo da Vinci.

A Firenze, i suoi numerosi dipinti della Madonna col Bambino mostrano il suo caratteristico calore umano, la sua serenità e figure sublimemente perfette.