Albert Birkle | Magic realism painter

Albert Birkle (1900-1986) was a German painter and draftsman.

Albert Birkle was born in Charlottenburg, then an independent city and since 1920 part of Berlin.

His grandfather on his mother's side, Gustav Bregenzer, and his father, Carl Birkle, both were painters, originally from Swabia.

Albert Birkle was trained as a decorative painter in his father's firm.

From 1918 to 1924, he studied at the Hochschule für die bildenden Künste/College of Fine Arts, a predecessor of today's Universität der Künste Berlin.

Gregorio Sciltian | Magic Realism painter

"The only true and supreme purpose of the art of painting has been and will always be that of obtaining the illusion of reality" - Gregorio Sciltian.

Gregorio Sciltian / Գրիգոր Շիլտյան (Nakhicevan, Armenia 1900 - Rome 1985) was an Italian-Armenian painter, designer, and medallist.

Sciltian is well known for his portraiture and trompe-l'œil compositions.

Giuseppe Verdi: "Torniamo all'antico e sarà un progresso"

• Gli artisti veramente superiori giudicano senza pregiudizi di scuole, di nazionalità, di tempo. Se gli artisti del Nord e del Sud hanno tendenze diverse, è bene siano diverse.

• Really superior artists judge without being prejudiced by school, nationality or period. If the artists of north and south exhibit different tendencies, it is good that they are different!

Giovanni Boldini | Ritratto di Giuseppe Verdi

Richard Wagner: "L'uomo si distingue dall'animale in virtù della compassione verso l'animale stesso"

• Joy is not in things; it is in us.

• La gioia non è nelle cose; è in noi.

• The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human voice.

• L'organo più antico, più vero, più bello della musica, l'origine alla quale solo la nostra musica deve il suo essere, è la voce umana.

• Music is the inarticulate speech of the heart, which cannot be compressed into words, because it is infinite.

• La musica è il discorso inarticolato del cuore, che non può essere compresso in parole, perché è infinito.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Portrait of Richard Wagner, 1882 | Musée d'Orsay

Damiano Taurino, 1949 | Figurative sculptor

Italian sculptor Damiano Taurino was born in Galugnano, in the municipality of San Donato di Lecce, the beautiful land of Salento, rich in historical traditions dating back thousands of years to the ancient Greek civilization and messapica (1000 BC).

This land, with its historical and cultural heritage, is able to inculcate in the young Damiano, the secret desire of the model, the ability to extract, from a piece of clay, images and figures lovely.

At age 16 he emigrated to Switzerland, he settled in Horgen-Zurich and spent a period devoted to education and training.

Lytras Nikephoros | Orientalist / Genre painter

Lytras Nikephoros / Λύτρας Νικηφόρος (1832-1904) was a Greek painter, born in Tinos.

He studied painting at the Athens School of Arts (1850-1856) taught by the brothers Philippos and Georgios Margaritis, the monk Agathangelos Triantafyllou, Raffaello Ceccoli and Ludwig Thiersch, whom he also assisted in the iconography of the Russian Church in Athens (1853-1855).

In 1860 after teaching Elementary Graphics at the School of Arts for two years (1856-1858), he left for Munich where first on a scholarship from the Greek government and then with the support of Baron Simon Sinas, he completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, his principal teacher being Karl von Piloty.

Xavier Bueno | Modern painter of Reality

Xavier Bueno (1915-1979) was an Italian painter of Spanish origin.

Xavier Bueno was born in Vera de Bidasoa, son of the writer and journalist Javier Bueno, who was a correspondent in Berlin of the Madrid newspaper ABC.

In 1925 the family settled in Geneva; five years later, Xavier enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts showing a precocious talent.

After a return with his mother to Spain, in Madrid, he attended the Academy of San Fernando and followed a painting course held by Vazquez Diaz.

Matthijs Maris | Romantic / Symbolist painter

Matthias Maris (17 August 1839 - 22 August 1917) was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer. He was also known as Matthijs Maris or Thijs.

He initially belonged to the Hague School, like his two brothers, Jacob and Willem, but his later works deviated more and more from that school into a unique style influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites.

He was born in The Hague.

At the age of twelve, he registered at the Hague Academy of Art, but did not pass the entrance exam.

Therefore, he took lessons from Isaac Cornelis Elink Sterk, secretary of the academy.