Paul Signac | Neo-Impressionist painter

Paul Victor Jules Signac (1863-1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style.

Paul Signac was born in Paris. He followed a course of training in architecture before deciding at the age of 18 to pursue a career as a painter after attending an exhibit of Monet's work.

He sailed around the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes he encountered.

He also painted a series of watercolors of French harbor cities in later years.

Cao Yong, 1962 | Tibet painter

Chinese artist Cao Yong 曹勇 spent a year alone in the mountains of Tibet, and the paintings he produced were exhibited in Beijing in early 1989.

Cao Yong's canvases evoke the essence of some of the most delightful places on earth. Although Cao Yong was formally educated in China, the artist achieved maturity during seven years of self-exile in Tibet.

Then he left for Japan, where he quickly became that nation's most honored muralist. Later, he immigrated to America, in this nation know for her freedom of expression, Cao Yong has transferred to an artist who dedicates to the love of nature and passion for life through artwork.

In 1962, at the height of the great famine in China, an extraordinarily gifted child was born into hardship in Xinxian, a small town in Henan Province. Cao Yong's family, already struggling to find enough to eat, was suspected of disloyalty to the new government simply because a great-grandparent had once owned land, real estate, and banks, and because a grandparent had been a warlord.

During the Cultural Revolution, this background singled the family out for harsh treatment by the Chinese authorities. Cao Yong's family was ostracized, refused residency permits, and even denied food. While other young children of his age started kindergarten, little Cao Yong began working. At age five, Cao Yong found himself ferrying heavy baskets of gravel at a construction site.

One day a rock pit caved in, nearly crushing the tiny boy to death under the rubble. Luckily, Cao Yong survived. It was through drawing that Cao Yong found peace and consolation in those difficult years, and at age eleven his talent was recognized.

Il pittore Cinese Cao Yong 曹勇 è nato in un piccolo paese della Cina nel 1962, al tempo della grande carestia. Vita tribolata la sua, perchè la sua famiglia non era gradita al regime e il giovane Yong, tra mille difficoltà e umiliazioni, ha potuto iniziare la sua formazione in pittura che aveva solo 11 anni.

Un talento precoce. Ha trascorso un anno da solo tra le montagne del Tibet, e le pitture che ha prodotto sono state esposte a Pechino all’inizio del 1989. E’ stato arrestato dalle autorità cinesi e la polizia di Pechino ha bruciato ben sette dei suoi dipinti.

Così è fuggito dapprima in Giappone e poi, nel 1994, ha deciso di trasferirsi negli Stati Uniti, per poter esprimere liberamente la propria arte.

Il tempo vissuto in Tibet, in una sorta di auto-esilio, ha impresso un segno molto forte alla sua personalità di artista e di uomo. Per copiare i resti di antichi dipinti tibetani murali, Cao Yong, accompagnato solo da un cavallo, un cane e un fucile per la caccia, ha vissuto in completa solitudine dentro grotte di montagna primitive per quasi un anno intero. Un’esperienza epica, leggendaria, che gli ha permesso di sviluppare una profonda comprensione del collegamento tra il naturale e l’umano, così come tra il secolare e lo spirituale. È questa comprensione, questa fusione di opposti, che si respira nei suoi bellissimi dipinti, e fa sì che il suo lavoro sia molto potente e, nel senso più classico, romantico.

Henri Le Sidaner | Intimist painter

Henri Eugene Augustin Le Sidaner (1862-1939) was an French painter, known for working in the Intimist style.

Le Sidaner began his career around 1880 as a young apprentice of Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Soon he was seduced by the Parisian artistic fervour, particularly the works of both the Impressionists and the post-Impressionists.

After a few months, repressed by the academic milieu, the painter abruptly decided to settle in Étaples, a small village near Pas-de-Calais, where he finished his training in solitude.

Henry Moret (1856-1913)

Henry Moret è stato un pittore Francese.

Di impostazione Impressionista, virò stilisticamente verso il Simbolismo.

Fu uno dei più interessanti artisti che, sotto la guida di Paul Gauguin, costituirono la Scuola di Pont-Aven.

Rubens Santoro | Genre / Marine scenes painter

Rubens Santoro🎨 (1859-1941) was an Neapolitan painter of genre and marine scenes, particularly well-known today for his views of Venice.

He was born in Mongrassano and studied under Giovanni Battista at the Naples Academy.

He then won numerous prices🎨, like a silver medal in Barcelona during the Universal Exhibition in 1911.

He also received two gold medals🎨 in 1891 and 1892. The two paintings exhibited there were acquired by the King of Italy Umberto I.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Santoro see:

Rubens Santoro | Venice painting🎨

Gustave Loiseau | 260 artworks | Page 3

Loiseau was born in Paris on 3 October 1865 into an affluent commercial family. He was largely self-taught and during his youth he worked with a decorator, painting the outskirts of Paris in his free time.

An inheritance from his grandmother provided him with a certain degree of financial comfort and independence that allowed him to concentrate fully on paining and to move to Montmartre. Here he met Maxime Maufra, with whom he remained friends for the rest of his life. He enrolled at the École des Arts Décoratifs for a year, the only training in colour and drawing which he received.

In 1888 Loiseau visited Pont-Aven with Maufra, where he met Henry Moret and Paul Gauguin.

After this first visit he made frequent trips to the town. From 1893 onwards he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and after 1895 at the Galerie Durand-Ruel.

Vladimir Volegov, 1957

Russian painter Владимир Волегов is famous for his figurative paintings with his dramatic use of color and texture he creates a portrait-like treatment of the female form, captured in a frozen, yet living moment, with the surrounding bursts of color and scenery.

Henry Moret (1856-1913) | Impressionist painter

Henry Moret🎨 was a Normandy-born artist with a Breton soul devoted most of his work to Brittany, whose ever-wild landscapes and stormy seas still attract numerous artists seeking fresh inspiration.

He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne.

Moret’s Breton landscapes of the early 1890s have often been mistaken for those of Gauguin🎨.