Lorenzo Vallés | History / Genre painter

A painter of history, mythology, genre scenes and landscapes, Lorenzo Vallès (1830-1910) was born in Madrid.

He first studied art at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid, together with the renown artist Federico del Campo.

Born in a modest family, he was fostered by the Duke of Sesto who granted him with a pension, thus giving himthe opportunity to go and study art in Rome in 1853.

There, he joined a significant communauty of emigrant artists and, above all, the Spanish colony of painters who included Rafael Senet y Perez (1856-1926), Marià Fortuny i Marsal and Martín Rico y Ortega (1833-1908), who had already found a great international demand fortheir works.

Leo Gestel | Cubo-Futurism / Modernist painter

Leo Gestel | Lady with Large Hat in Summer House, 1913 | Frans Hals Museum

This portrait of a ladym clothed in red and with a penetrating gaze, was not painted in a single style.

Like many artists in the 1910s, Leo Gestel was inspired by the international avant-garde.This included movements such as French Cubism and Italian Futurism.

The structure of the work is of a Cubist nature. The mosaic patern in the background brings Futurism to mind.

The Futurists attempted to record velocity and movement in their art. The circular forms in this painting suggest a dynamic of this kind.

The elegant and self-confident-looking lady was an artist friend of the painter, Else Berg.

Gestel became acquinted with her, and her husband Mommie Schwarz, through the art collector Piet Boendermaker of Bergen.

Gestel painted this portrait of her during a sojourn to Majorca. | Source: © Frans Hals Museum

Nora Heysen | Portrait / Still-life / War painter

From: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

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Daughter of renowned landscape painter Hans Heysen, Nora Heysen (1911-2003) established her own reputation as a distinguished portrait and still-life painter, becoming the first woman to win the Archibald Prize and to be appointed an Australian official war artist during the Second World War.

Born at Hahndorf, South Australia, the fourth child of Hans and Selma Heysen, Nora received her earliest art training from her father.

At fifteen she commenced studies at the School of Fine Arts, Adelaide, under F. Millward Grey, where she received a traditional academic training, learning to draw from plaster casts and live models.

Harald Moltke (Danish painter, 1871-1960)

Harald Viggo Moltke was a Danish painter, author and explorer. Among his activities Moltke, participated as draftsman in four Arctic expeditions.

Harald Moltke was born in Helsingør, the son of Oskar Peter August Moltke (1828–82) and Karen Marie Jensdatter (1849-1939). He spent 10 years in North Carolina as a child between 1874 and 1884. After the death of his father, the family returned to Denmark.

In 1889, he began a course of study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, which he completed in 1893.

Frans Hogerwaard | Impressionist painter

Dutch painter Frans (François) Hogerwaard (1882-1921) was known for his (mundane) portraits and figures, and for his landscapes.

Like his brother the painter George Hogerwaard, Frans Hogerwaard was born on Java in the Dutch Indies.

He was educated at the School of Arts and Crafts in Haarlem and then at the Rijksacademie of Amsterdam (1904-1906), where he became close friends with Tjeerd Bottema and Wim de Haas.

Albert Chevallier Tayler | Genre painter

Albert Chevallier Tayler (1862-1925) was an British artist who specialised in portrait and genre painting, but was also involved in the plein air methods of the Newlyn School.

He studied at Heatherley's School of Art, Royal Academy Schools and with avant-garde painters in Paris.

He was educated at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire.

Furcy de Lavault | Still life with flowers

Marie-Albert-Tibule Furcy De Lavault (1847-1915) was a fine painter of landscapes, still lifes and above all, flowers.

Marie-Albert-Tibule Furcy de Lavault was born in Saint-Genis (Charente-Inférieure), France.

He debuted at the Salon of 1880 with Fleurs de Printemps (Spring Flowers) and Nature Morte (Still Life).

These early Salon entries show Furcy de Lavault’s propensities towards the long-established tradition of still lifes and an interest in flowers.

Giacomo Leopardi | The Lonely Sparrow / Il Passero Solitario, 1835

D'in su la vetta della torre antica,

Passero solitario, alla campagna

Cantando vai finchè non more il giorno;

Ed erra l’armonia per questa valle.

Primavera dintorno

Brilla nell’aria, e per li campi esulta,

Caspar David Friedrich | Il sognatore, 1835 | Hermitage Museum St Petersburg