Sir Frederic William Burton | Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs, 1864

The subject is taken from a medieval Danish ballad translated by Burton’s friend Whitley Stokes in 1855, which tells the story of Hellelil, who fell in love with her personal guard Hildebrand, Prince of Engelland.

Her father disapproved of the relationship and ordered her seven brothers to kill the young prince.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze | Broken Eggs, 1756

Broken Eggs attracted favorable comment when exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1757.

One critic noted that the young serving girl had a noble pose worthy of a history painter.

The canvas was painted in Rome, but the principal source may have been a seventeenth-century Dutch work by Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635-1681) - State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, which Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French painter🎨, 1725-1805) would have known from an engraving.

The broken eggs symbolize the loss of the girl's virginity. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jean Baptiste Greuze | Broken Eggs, 1756 (detail) | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rembrandt | Old Woman Cutting Her Nails,1655-60

Once well known as a Rembrandt🎨, this large canvas has also been attributed to the master's pupil, Nicolaes Maes (1643-1693), and to Abraham van Dijck (ca. 1635?-1680?).

The two artists were closely associated in Dordrecht, the southern Dutch city from which several Rembrandt🎨 followers came.

Whatever its authorship, the painting must date from about 1655-60.

Moise Kisling (1891-1953)

Moïse Kisling was a Polish🎨-born French painter🎨.

He moved to Paris in 1910 at the age of 19, and became a French citizen in 1915, after serving and being wounded with the French Foreign Legion in World War I.

He emigrated to the United States in 1940, after the fall of France, and returned there in 1946.

Moïse Kisling died in Sanary-sur-Mer, Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France on April 29, 1953.

A residential street in the town is named after him.

Luigi Rossi | Symbolist / Genre painter

A Swiss painter Luigi Rossi (1853-1923) was born in Cassarate, Lugano. Having studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of Giuseppe Bertini, Rossi made his artistic debut in 1871, inaugurating a repertoire of Genre scenes🎨 with a subtle vein of social criticism that was to be a distinctive feature of his work.

Le Pho | Impressionist / Surrealist painter | Still Lifes

Lê Phổ / 黎谱 (1907-2001) was a French-Vietnamese painter, best known for his stylized depictions of figures, gardens and floral still lifes.

From 1925-1930, Le Pho studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Hanoi.

At this point, he earned a scholarship to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and he studied there for the next two years under the instruction of Victor Tardieu, a friend and companion of Henri Matisse🎨.

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

• Le Pho | Impressionist / Surrealist painter | Figures🎨

Johannes Rosierse | Genre painter

Johannes Rosierse (Dordrecht, 1818 - 1901) was a Dutch painter🎨 - from the Netherlands, who mostly painted portraits, genre scenes🎨 and candlelight-pieces.

His most important subject were interior images with staffage.

He focused on individual figures, or on groups arranged by candlelight in dark interiors.

He frequently painted kitchens, presenting a synopsis of food such as fruits and vegetables en passant.

Johannes Rosierse passed away in 1901.

Works of the artist can be seen in the museum of his hometown Dordrecht, as well as in Musée Fabre in the Southern French Montpellier.