Zinaida Serebriakova's 140th Birthday

Russian-born French painter Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova / Зинаи́да Евге́ньевна Серебряко́ва (1884-1967), born on this day in 1884, 140 years ago, was the First Famous Female Russian Artist.

Zinaida Serebriakova left an indelible mark on her nation’s culture through masterful paintings of the contemporary life and landscapes of her Russian homeland.

Serebriakova was born on an estate in the Kursk Province of Russia (present-day Ukraine) into a lineage full of respected artists.

Hayley Lever| Impressionist painter

Richard Hayley Lever (1876-1958) was an Australian-American painter, etcher, lecturer and art teacher.

His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Richard Hayley Lever was born and brought up in Adelaide, Australia.

He trained as an artist there under the guidance of James Ashton, an English born seascape artist whose son he was later to befriend in St Ives. In 1894 he set sail to Europe to finish his art studies.

Whilst in Paris he studied the human figure under Rene-Francois-Xavier Prinet but showed a natural inclination for open-air subjects and marine pictures.

Sphinx of Naxos

The Sphinx of Naxos, also Sphinx of the Naxians, now in the Archaeological Museum of Delphi, is a 2.22 meter tall marble statue of a sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a woman, the chest and wings composed of the impressive feathers of a prey bird turned upward, and the body of a lioness.

The Sphinx stood on a 10 meter column that culminated in one of the first Ionic capitals, and was erected next to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, the religious center of Ancient Greece, in 560 BCE.

The first fragments were excavated from the sanctuary of the Temple of Apollo in 1860. The remainder was found in 1893.

6 Famous Sculptures of the Galleria Borghese, Rome

The Galleria Borghese Museum houses and displays a collection of ancient sculptures, bas-reliefs and mosaics, as well as paintings and sculptures dating from the 15th through the 19th centuries.

Among the masterpieces of the collection - the first and most important part of which goes back to the collecting of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1579-1633), nephew of Pope Paul V - are paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Antonello da Messina and Giovanni Bellini and sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Antonio Canova.

The works are displayed in the 20 frescoed rooms that, together with the portico and the entrance hall, constitute the spaces of the Museum open to the public.

More than 260 paintings are housed in the storerooms of the Galleria Borghese, which are located above the floor of the Pinacoteca and set up like a picture gallery.

Cristoforo Stati (Italian, 1556-1619) | Adone and Venere, XVI-XVII | Installation Galleria Borghese

Anton Chekhov: "Only one who loves can remember so well"

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov / Антон Павлович Чехов (1860-1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer.

His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.

Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre.

Chekhov was a physician by profession.

"Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress".

• "Il ruolo dell'artista è porre domande, non fornire risposte".

• "The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them".

Monument to Anton Chekhov and Lady with the Dog | Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine

Ivan Malinowski | Adesso è il momento..!

Adesso è il momento di fare ciò che ti piace.

Non aspettare lunedì, non aspettare domani.

Non fare allungare davanti a te la carovana

di sogni calpestati. Non aspettare.

Non frenarti per paura o viltà.

Non posporre la vita con altra morte,

e non aspettare niente dalla sorte

che non sia più della tua tenacia e della tua energia.

Marc Chagall

Ethel Léontine Gabain (1883-1950)

Ethel Léontine Gabain, later Ethel Copley, was a French-Scottish artist.

Gabain was a renowned painter and lithographer and among the founding members of the Senefelder Club.

While she was known for her oil portraits of actresses, Gabain was one of the few artists of her time able to live on the sale of her lithographs.

She also did etchings, dry-points, as well as some posters.

Fred Appleyard (1874-1963)

Fred Appleyard was a British artist known for his landscape paintings, portraits, classical subjects and allegorical compositions.

He had 41 works exhibited during his lifetime by the Royal Academy and painted the mural Spring Driving Out Winter in the Academy Restaurant.

Appleyard was born in Middlesbrough, England on 9 September 1874, the son of Isaac Appleyard, an iron merchant. His uncle was the sculptor John Wormald Appleyard.