Rachel Ruysch | Baroque painter

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), who has been called the "most celebrated Dutch woman artist of the 17th and 18th centuries", was successful for nearly 70 years as a specialist in flower paintings.

Born in The Hague, Ruysch moved to Amsterdam with her family when she was three.

Her maternal grandfather, Pieter Post, was an important architect and her father, Frederik Ruysch, an eminent scientist from whom she learned how to observe and record nature with great accuracy.

Matthias Stom | Baroque painter

Matthias Stom or Matthias Stomer (1600-1652) was a Dutch, or possibly Flemish, painter who is only known for the works he produced during his residence in Italy.

He was influenced by the work of non-Italian followers of Caravaggio in Italy, in particular his Dutch followers often referred to as the Utrecht Caravaggists, as well as by Jusepe de Ribera and Peter Paul Rubens.

The Ladies of the Baroque | Part 1

As in the Renaissance Period, many women among the Baroque artists came from artist families. Artemisia Gentileschi is an example of this.

She was trained by her father, Orazio Gentileschi, and she worked alongside him on many of his commissions.

Luisa Roldán was trained in her father's (Pedro Roldán) sculpture workshop.

Artemisia Gentileschi | Judith and her maid with the head of Holofernes, 1613 | Gallerie degli Uffizi, Firenze.

Michaelina Wautier | Baroque painter

Michaelina Wautier, also Woutiers (1604-1689), was a painter from the Southern Netherlands.

Only since the turn of the 21st century has her work been recognized as that of an outstanding female Baroque artist, her works having been previously attributed to male artists, especially her brother Charles.

Wautier was noted for the variety of subjects and genres that she worked in.

This was unusual for female artists of the time who were more often restricted to smaller paintings, generally portraits or still-lifes.

Maria Sibylla Merian | Baroque Era Illustrator

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a German naturalist and scientific illustrator.

She was one of the earliest European naturalists to observe insects directly. Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Merian family.

Merian received her artistic training from her stepfather, Jacob Marrel, a student of the still life painter Georg Flegel.

Merian published her first book of natural illustrations in 1675.

Elga Sesemann | Expressionist painter

Elga Sesemann (March 28, 1922 - January 21, 2007) was a Finnish post-war neo-romantic painter.

She was an expressionist whose themes often included melancholy, depression, anxiety and loneliness.

Sesemann was born in Viipuri (Vyborg) on the Karelian Isthmus.

Sesemann's family is of German origin and grew up speaking German and Russian.

Pablo Neruda | Ode al primo giorno dell’anno / Ode to the First Day of the Year

Lo distinguiamo dagli altri

come se fosse un cavallino

diverso da tutti i cavalli.

Gli adorniamo la fronte

con un nastro,

gli posiamo sul collo sonagli colorati,

Olga Darchuk, 1976

Karl Feiertag | Genre painter

Karl Holiday (1874, Vienna - 1944, Weidling) was an Austrian painter.

Karl Urlaub studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Franz Rumpler, Kasimir Pochwalski and Josef Mathias Trenkwald.

He worked in Vienna and Munich for various advertising companies and moved to Weidling with his wife.