Nikolai Belsky | Genre painter

Russian painter Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky (1868-1945) painted mostly genre paintings, especially of the education of peasant children, portraits, and impressionistic landscapes studies.

Bogdanov was born in the village of Shitiki in Smolensk Governorate in 1868, then he added to his surname "Belsky" in accordance with the name of the Uyezd where he was born.

He studied at the elementary school where his teacher was Sergey Rachinsky, then studied icon-painting at the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1883, modern painting at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1884 to 1889, and at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg from 1894 to 1895.

Adolf von Becker | Something for the Cat, 1882

Adolf von Becker (1831-1909) was a Finnish genre painter and art professor of German descent, one of the first Finnish artists to study in Paris, who taught many of the young artists of the Golden Age of Finnish Art.

Becker was born in Helsinki, where he began his artistic studies at the newly founded Finnish Art Society Drawing School; he also studied law.

In 1853, he completed his law degree and became a trainee at the Court of Appeals in Turku.

Adolf von Becker | Something for the Cat, 1882 | Paris Salon, 1882 | Finnish National Gallery

Vincenzo Migliaro | Mercato del pesce a Porta Capuana, 1893

Vincenzo Migliaro (1858-1938) was an Italian painter born in Naples.

After learning the art of wood carving at courses held by the Società Centrale Operaia Napoletana and working in the studio of Stanislao Lista, Migliaro enrolled in 1875 at the Naples Institute of Fine Arts, where his masters included Domenico Morelli.

Hugues Merle | The Forgotten, 1850

Hugues Merle (1822–1881) has long been associated with his friend and possible rival, William Bouguereau (1825-1905).

Merle was just two years older than Bouguereau, and their thematic and artistic concerns and meticulous degree of finish resulted in comparison from critics and collectors alike.

Merle began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1847 and went on to become to teacher of Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau, Bouguereau's wife and a talented painter in her own right.

Hugues Merle | The Forgotten, 1850 | Sotheby's

Francesco Lojacono | Marina palermitana

Francesco Lojacono (Palermo, 1838-1915) è stato un pittore Italiano, considerato il più importante paesaggista dell'Ottocento siciliano.

Fu tra i primi pittori ad utilizzare la fotografia come riferimento per realizzare le sue opere.

Lojacono fu iniziato alla pittura dal padre Luigi, pittore a sua volta. Fu poi allievo di Salvatore Lo Forte.

Nel 1856, a 18 anni, si trasferì a Napoli, dove affinò le sue doti frequentando diversi pittori viaggiatori e soprattutto entrando nella scuola dei fratelli Giuseppe e Filippo Palizzi.

Antonio Ambrogio Alciati | Convegno, 1918

Nato a Vercelli nel 1878, Antonio Ambrogio Alciati (1878-1929) si trasferisce con la madre e la sorella nel 1879 a Milano per frequentare l’Accademia di Brera, dove riceve gli insegnamenti di Vespasiano Bignami, Giuseppe Mentessi e Cesare Tallone.

Quest’ultimo lo aiuta a perfezionarsi nel ritratto, introducendolo fra la ricca borghesia milanese.

Tra il 1902 e il 1910 esegue una serie di quadri d’ispirazione romantica e familiare, ma si dedica anche alla decorazione di chiese e ville lombarde, mentre nel secondo decennio del secolo il suo stile si evolve abbandonando le tonalità sfumate e la gamma spenta che rasenta il monocromo, per acquistare gradatamente un maggior vigore costruttivo e un vivace cromatismo.

Antonio Ambrogio Alciati | Convegno, 1918 | Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania

Auguste Raynaud | Awaiting his return

Auguste Raynaud (1854-1937) was a popular 19th-century Genre and portrait painter.

Born and raised in Lyon, Auguste Raynaud attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied with Danguin, Henri Lehmann and Félix-Auguste Clément.

In 1876, he moved to Lyon, rue de l'Annonciade, and presented a painting to the Société des Amis des Arts d'Avignon, entitled "Giotto, enfant dans la campagne du Tyrol".

Jules Breton | The painter of peasant life

Jules Adolphe Aimé Louis Breton (1827-1906) was a 19th-century French naturalist painter.

His paintings are heavily influenced by the French countryside and his absorption of traditional methods of painting helped make him one of the primary transmitters of the beauty and idyllic vision of rural existence.

He was one of the best known painters of his period in his native France as well as England and the United States.

Jules-Breton | The Song of the Lark, 1884 | Art Institute of Chicago

Victor Hugo: "Ti Auguro"

Ti auguro in primo luogo di amare e che, amando, tu sia riamato.

E se non è così, che sia breve il ricordo, e finito il ricordo che tu non conservi rancore.

Ti auguro che non sia così,

ma se così fosse, che tu sappia vivere senza disperazione.

Antonio Nunziante

William Bouguereau / Franz Liszt | Liebestraum (Dreams of Love)

Liebesträume (German for Dreams of Love) is a set of three solo piano nocturnes (S.541/R.211) by Franz Liszt published in 1850.

Originally the three Liebesträume were conceived as lieder after poems by Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath.

In 1850 two versions appeared simultaneously as a set of songs for high voice and piano, and as transcriptions for piano two-hands.

Camille Pissarro | Jardin et poulailler chez Octave Mirbeau, Les Damps, 1892

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) spent two weeks during September 1892 as the guest of the writer Octave Mirbeau and his wife Alice at their country home in Les Damps, a hamlet in the department of the Eure in northern France.

The artist eagerly anticipated the visit throughout the summer, both for the company, Mirbeau was among the most sensitive interpreters of his work and a fellow advocate of anarchist ideals, and for the splendid motifs to be found at Les Damps.

Camille Pissarro | Jardin et poulailler chez Octave Mirbeau, Les Damps, 1892 | Christie's

James Clarke Hook | Pittore di genere

James Clarke Hook RA (1819-1907) è stato un pittore ed incisore Inglese di scene marine, di genere e storiche e paesaggi.

Nel 1844 e nel 1845 la British Institution espose due dipinti di Hook - soggetti tratti da Shakespeare e Burns - che, insieme ai precedenti, dimostrarono la sua capacità di trattare temi del sentimento romantico e del pittoresco, allora in voga, ma in modo originale e vigoroso.

"The Song of Olden Times" (Royal Academy, 1845) segnò nettamente il futuro percorso dell'artista sotto molti aspetti tecnici.

William Bouguereau | Les oranges, 1865

The image of a mother and child is a symbol of universal relevance. It exists and is celebrated within every culture, throughout its respective history.

Through iconic works like Les Oranges, Bouguereau has made an enduring contribution to this fundamental canon of imagery and he continues to have a profound impact on how such images are produced and received to this day.

The present painting is among Bouguereau's greatest achievements. His virtuosity is apparent in every element of the painting, which was executed at the height of his genius.

Franz Liszt | Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S.244/2, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, published in 1851, and is by far the most famous of the set.

The Hungarian-born composer and pianist Franz Liszt was strongly influenced by the music heard in his youth, particularly Hungarian folk music, with its unique gypsy scale, rhythmic spontaneity and direct, seductive expression.

These elements would eventually play a significant role in Liszt's compositions.

Josef Nikolaus Kriehuber | Portrait of Franz Liszt, 1846

Jules Breton, il Poeta della Luce

Louis Aimé Aldolphe Jules Breton (1827-1906) è stato un pittore e poeta Francese.

Vincent van Gogh amava sia l'arte che la poesia.

Amava in particolar modo l'arte realista del XIX secolo e la poesia francese di Jules Adolphe Aime Louis Breton (1827-1906).

Sia l'arte che la poesia di Breton si concentravano sulla campagna francese, sui temi contadini ed, a volte, sulla sua fede cristiana.

Gustave Caillebotte | Painter - Member and patron of the Impressionists

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group.

Caillebotte's sizable allowance, along with the inheritance he received after the death of his father in 1874 and his mother in 1878, allowed him to paint without the pressure to sell his work.

It also allowed him to help fund Impressionist exhibitions and support his fellow artists and friends (Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro among others) by purchasing their works and, at least in the case of Monet, paying the rent for their studios.

Eugene de Blaas | Gypsy Girl

Eugene de Blaas, also known as Eugene von Blaas or Eugenio Blaas (24 July 1843 - 10 February 1931), was an Italian-Austrian painter in the school known as Academic Classicism.

He was born at Albano, near Rome, to a Tyrolean father and Italian mother.

His father Karl, also a painter, was his teacher.

His mother, Agnesina Auda, was a well-to-do Roman woman.

The family moved to Venice when Karl became professor at the Academy of Venice.

He often painted scenes in Venice, but also portraits and religious paintings.

Angelo Morbelli | Per 80 centesimi! 1895

"Per 80 centesimi!", opera di Angelo Morbelli, uno dei capolavori del Museo Borgogna, venne acquistata nel 1912 alla Mostra d’Arte della campagna irrigua tenutasi a Vercelli, a pochi anni dall'apertura al pubblico del Museo.

Il dipinto, firmato e datato 1895, ha avuto una lunga e tormentata elaborazione, come testimonia la corrispondenza fra l’artista e il collega Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo: iniziato nel 1893, venne ripreso prima di essere esposto nel 1895 alla Biennale di Venezia.

Luigi Pastega | Genre painter

Luigi Pastega (Venice, 1858-1927) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre subjects.

He was a pupil of Pompeo Marino Molmenti and Napoleone Nani at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice.

He continued to reside in Venice painting vedute and genre subjects in a style that recalled Giacomo Favretto.

Vincent van Gogh | Landscape under a stormy sky, 1889

Van Gogh's dramatically atmospheric Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé is one of the finest of the artist's Arles landscapes.

Painted amidst the most fruitful period of the artist's career, when his canvases were flooded with rich passages of densely-painted color, the composition depicts a verdant field under threat of an explosive rainstorm.

Van Gogh creates a scene of intense anticipation here, replete with psychological drama as the laborers hurry to finish their work before the heavens rain down upon them.

Vincent van Gogh | Landscape Under a Stormy Sky, 1889 | Sotheby's