Teodor Axentowicz | Academic painter

Teodor Axentowicz (1859-1938) was a Polish-Armenian painter and university professor.

A renowned artist of his times, he was also the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. As an artist, Axentowicz was famous for his portraits and subtle scenes of Hutsul life, set in the Carpathians.

In Paris, he received the prestigious title of Officier d'Académie Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Member of Académie des Beaux-Arts.

In 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair, Axentowicz received a Special Commemorative Award in recognition of distinguished service in connection with various national sections of the Department of Art.

Willard Leroy Metcalf | The Ten American painters

Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. His family moved to a farm in Maine in 1863, but eventually returned to Massachusetts, purchasing a home in Cambridgeport in 1872. Metcalf's parents, themselves artistically inclined, early recognized their son's talents and encouraged his proper training.

He served first as an apprentice to a wood engraver and later as a student of George Loring Brown (1814-1889), a portrait and landscape painter of considerable reputation at the time.

Metcalf also took evening life drawing classes at the Lowell Institute and was the first student to receive a scholarship to the Museum of Fine Arts school, which he attended from 1877-1878.

The careful draughtsmanship that Metcalf learned as a student in Boston served him well when he was commissioned to illustrate series of stories about the Zuni Indians.

Theodore Robinson | The first American impressionist

Long considered the first American impressionist, Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) was born in Irasburg, Vermont, but spent most of his childhood in the rural Midwest, predominantly Wisconsin.

Robinson’s formal art education began at the Art Institute of Chicago (1869-1870) and continued at the National Academy of Design in New York (1874-1876), where he was one of the founders of the Art Students League.

In 1876 he journeyed to Paris and entered the atelier of the academician Carolus-Duran but later moved to the École des Beaux-Arts to study with Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Tina Garrett, 1974

In 2012, after a career as a freelance cartoon illustrator and graphic designer, the Scottsdale Artists’ School awarded Tina the first of two merit scholarships based on a handful of self-taught pastel portraiture, and she began learning how to paint, dedicating herself to the full-time practice of understanding oil painting.

By 2014 Tina earned the first of four Purchase Awards in the 11th and 12th International ARC Salons. Tina’s works, “City Blues”, “String of Pearls”, "Melancholy" and "Bravado" are now part of the Art Renewal Center's renowned permanent collection.

Tina’s recognitions also include Best of Show in the 51st National Women Artists of The West Show, Oil Painters of America Online Showcase 1st Prize, The International Artist Magazine People and Figures Grand Prize, NOAPS Best of America People’s Choice Award and Second Prize awards and Portrait Society of America International Art of The Portrait Competition Select 50.

The Giverny Art Colony, 1885-1915

Between 1885 and 1915, the village of Giverny attracted more than 350 artists (Americans accounted for the majority) from at least eighteen countries around the world (including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Great Britain and Poland) - transforming from a sleepy community to a vibrant and important Artists' Colony.

The presence of master Claude Monet (known to the American artists through both Parisian and American exhibitions), who settled in the village in 1883, attracted a small band of artists, including Theodore Robinson, Willard Metcalf, Louis Ritter, Theodore Wendel and John Leslie Breck.

John Leslie Breck | Garden at Giverny, 1887-91

Louis Ritter (1854-1892)

Born: 1854, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America.

Died: 1892, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Biography

Louis Ritter’s landscape paintings of scenes in Europe and on the New England coast demonstrate the influence of new trends in European art that were just beginning to infiltrate American painting in the 1870s and 1880s.

Born in Cincinnati, he studied at the McMicken School of Design in 1873-74.

In 1878 he went to Munich, Germany, like many of his fellow compatriots, to enroll in the prestigious Royal Academy of Munich, where he won a silver medal in drawing.

Ritter studied with influential American painter and teacher Frank Duveneck, a native of the Cincinnati area.

Rupert Bunny | Colorist / Symbolist painter

Australian painter Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (1864-1947) was one of the most successful expatriate artists of his generation.

No other Australian artist achieved the critical acclaim that he enjoyed in Paris. An erudite painter of ideal themes, and the creator of the most ambitious Salon paintings produced by an Australian, Bunny is an exotic in the history of Australian art.

An exhibition, Rupert Bunny artist in Paris, curated by Deborah Edwards, Senior Curator of Australian Art, will honour the work of this great Australian artist.

The exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales will showcase more than 85 of his most significant paintings, many unseen in Australia, including works from the Musée d’Orsay and Fonds national d’art contemporain in Paris and private lenders including Kerry Stokes, Jeffrey Archer and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

George Underwood, 1947 | Fantasy painter

George Underwood was born in Bromley Kent. George Underwood joined Beckenham Art School in 1963. At art school George Underwood became more and more interested in music. As a result he pursued a career in the music world.

Along with life long friend David Bowie he made one record -The King Bees- and also a solo record under the name Calvin James. After deciding that the music business was not for him, George returned to art studies and then worked in design studios as an illustrator. Initially he specialised in fantasy, horror and science fiction book covers.

Many of George Underwood's colleagues in the music business asked him to do various art works for them. This led to George becoming a freelance artist. Art work for the first T Rex album and later David Bowie’s Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust album covers established him as a leading and creative art illustrator.