Mark Beck, 1957

American Artist Mark Beck is considered one of the country's top realism and landscape painters.

With a unique vision and decades-long career, he is well known for his iconic and bold images of the American landscape.

You can see his paintings in films, international ad campaigns, and on magazine covers.

Beck's artwork currently resides in some of the world's most prestigious art collections.

Lucio Massari | Madonna of the Laundry, 1620

"Mary washed, Joseph laid... "

The subject of this painting really seems to illustrate the famous lullaby your grandparents or parents used to sing to you when you were a child.

You know, no one can escape household affairs, not even Joseph, Mary and Jesus!

The scene depicted by the Bolognese painter Lucio Massari (1568-1633) is in fact very unusual: every member of the Sacraiglia works with commitment and organization to clean and iron the laundry.

Lucio Massari Holy Family (Madonna of the Laundry), 1620 | Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze

Pablo Picasso | My Love has withered away / Il mio amore è appassito..

I have walked through starless nights not caring what the world cared for

Amidst sighs of desperation and exasperation, i 'ave walked; only for you

you were always like the fresh mist of dawn

Yet, like the honey of the bee.

Pablo Picasso | The Meeting / The-Embrace, -1900 | Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia

Alison Friend, 1973

Alison Friend is a British artist, born in Doncaster, South Yorks.

Her paintings are inspired by nature and her cheeky sense of humour.

Dreamy delicate brush strokes abound every canvas where she captures the secret lives of animals. Every character comes to life on canvas whether having a lolly or a gin.

Alison Friend graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 1996 with a degree in Fine Art specialising in Printmaking.

Jane Graverol | Surrealist painter

Jane Graverol (1905-1984) was a Belgian surrealist painter of French extraction.

Life

Jane Graverol was born in Ixelles on 18 December 1905 to Alexandre Graverol and Anne-Marie Lagadec.

After a traditional education, she enrolled in the Brussels Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in 1921, where she was taught by Jean Delville and Constant Montald.

Reinaldo Arenas | My Lover The Sea / Io sono quel bambino....

Io sono quel bambino con la faccia tonda e sporca,

che in ogni angolo ti infastidisce

con il suo "mi dai una monetina"?

Io sono quel bambino con la faccia tonda e sporca, certamente non voluto, che da lontano

contempla gli autobus, in cui gli altri bambini ridono

forte, e fanno salti molto grandi.

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky | At the Door of the School | The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

150 years of the First Impressionist Exhibition, 1874-2024

150 years ago, on April 15, 1874, a group of artists called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. organized an exhibition in Paris that launched the movement called Impressionism.

Its founding members included Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro, among others.

Thirty-one artists had gathered to hold their own art fair, outside the official Salon, in a declaration of independence that marked the birth of a groundbreaking art movement.

Claude Monet | Impression, Sunrise, 1872 | Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet

Joan Llimona | Romantic painter

Joan Llimona i Bruguera (1860-1926) was a Spanish artist who rose to popularity at end of the Romantic movement in Europe.

Llimona was a key contributor to the modernist movement.

Despite his brief life, Llimona made a lasting impact on the modernist movement in European art during the early 20th century.