Jean-Honoré Fragonard | Rococo painter

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), French Rococo painter whose most familiar works, such as The Swing (1767), are characterized by delicate hedonism.

Fragonard was the son of a haberdasher’s assistant. The family moved to Paris about 1738, and in 1747 the boy was apprenticed to a lawyer, who, noticing his appetite for drawing, suggested that he be taught painting.

François Boucher | Rococo painter

François Boucher (1703-1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style.

Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories, and pastoral scenes.

He was perhaps the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century.

Alfred Boucher | The Mentor to Camille Claudel

A French sculptor and painter, Alfred Boucher (1850-1934), was Camille Claudel's teacher and the founder of the artists' city La Ruche in Paris.

Born in Bouy-sur-Ovin (Nogent-sur-Seine), he was the son of a farmhand who became the gardener of the sculptor Joseph-Marius Ramus, who, after recognizing Boucher's talent, opened his studio to him.

He won the Grand Prix du Salon in 1881 with La Piété Filiale.

Jean-François Millet: "To tell the truth, peasant subjects suit my nature best.."

• "Art will never come except from some small disregarded corner where an isolated and inspired man is studying the mysteries of nature".

• "L'arte non verrà mai se non da qualche piccolo angolo trascurato dove un uomo isolato e ispirato sta studiando i misteri della natura".

Sidney Meteyard | Pre-Raphaelite painter

Sidney Harold Meteyard RBSA (1868-1947) was an English art teacher, painter and stained-glass designer.

A member of the Birmingham Group, he worked in a late Pre-Raphaelite style heavily influenced by Edward Burne-Jones and the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Meteyard was born in Stourbridge, his father was Oswald George Meatyard (d. 4 May 1906) and mother Emma Maria Meatyard, née Rutland (1838-1925).

He studied under Edward R. Taylor at the Birmingham School of Art, where he was to later teach for 45 years himself from 1886.

Grace Kelly: "I hated Hollywood..."

• "Ho odiato Hollywood. È una città senza pietà, conta solo il successo. Non conosco nessun altro posto al mondo in cui così tante persone soffrono di esaurimenti nervosi, dove ci sono tanti alcolisti, nevrotici e infelici".

• "I hated Hollywood. It's a town without pity. Only success counts. I know of no other place in the world where so many people suffer from nervous breakdowns, where there are so many alcoholics, neurotics and so much unhappiness".

Grace Kelly

Barbara Fox, 1956 | Watercolor painter

Barbara Fox has achieved a tremendous following on both the national and international level as a watercolor painter with a vivid and unique style.

Her paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States, including the Phillips Museum of Art in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, Mexico; the Salmagundi Club New York City; The Neville Museum in Green Bay Wisconsin; and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes | Symbolist painter

French painter Pierre Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) is known for his mural painting - large-scale decorative painting - in the Symbolism style.

Puvis's work is seen as symbolist in nature, even though he studied with some of the romanticists, and he is credited with influencing an entire generation of painters and sculptors, particularly the works of the Modernists.

One of his protégés was Georges de Feure.