Paul Seignac | Niente ciliegie per te..

Il pittore Francese Paul Seignac (1826-1904) si specializzò in dipinti di genere che raffiguravano bambini, vita rurale e scene di vita quotidiana.

Nato a Bordeaux nel 1826, Seignac divenne allievo di Édouard Picot (1786-1868) a Parigi.

Molte delle opere di Seignac raffigurano bambini in ruoli teneri, a volte birichini, a volte intenti a giochi innocenti.

Paul Gustav Fischer | Belle Époque painter

Paul Gustav Fischer (1860-1934) was a Danish painter known for his naturalistic depictions of city life in Scandinavia and Europe.

Paul Fischer studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen.

His early works depicted city life and intricate relationships between its inhabitants.

As he became increasingly well-travelled he painted cities in Scandinavia, France and Italy.

Coppélia, The Girl with the enamel eyes

Dr. Coppélius is a doctor who has made a life-size dancing doll.

It is so lifelike that Franz, a village youth, becomes infatuated with it and sets aside his heart's true desire, Swanhilda.

She shows him his folly by dressing as the doll, pretending to make it come to life and ultimately saving him from an untimely end at the hands of the inventor.

Edgar Degas | Woman Ironing, 1876-1887

Women at work provided inspiration for Degas.

In addition to ballet dancers and cabaret singers, he also painted milliners and dressmakers, laundresses and ironers-such as the young woman here.

Writer Edmond de Goncourt described a visit to Degas' studio when the artist showed him "washerwomen and still more washerwomen...."

Degas was interested in their movements and postures, the patterns and rhythms of their work.

Degas, de Goncourt continued, had gone about "speaking their language, explaining to us technically the downward pressing and circular strokes of the iron, etc...."

Edgar Degas | Woman Ironing, 1876-1887 | National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Fritz Kreisler | Love's Joy

Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen (Old Viennese Dances) is a set of three short pieces for violin and piano composed by Austrian-American violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962).

Kreisler wrote a number of pieces for the violin, including solos for encores, such as "Liebesleid" and "Liebesfreud".

Marc Chagall | La Danse

Paul Verlaine | The Art of Poetry, 1882

A French poet of the 19th century, Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) is known for his major role in the symbolist movement and for his lyrical and melancholic poetry.

The Art of Poetry / Art poétique, dedicated to Charles Morice and published by the publisher Léon Vanier, in 1882, in the literary and artistic review Paris moderne, then in 1884 in the collection Jadis et Naguère - is one of his most famous works and serves as a true manifesto of his artistic vision.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard | Young Girl Reading, 1776 | National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Claude Debussy, "Clair de lune" and Paul Verlaine

"Suite bergamasque" is a piano suite by Claude Debussy.

He began composing it around 1890, at the age of 28, but significantly revised it just before its 1905 publication.

The popularity of the third movement, Clair de lune, has made it one of the composer's most famous works for piano, as well as one of the most famous musical pieces of all time.

Moonlight by Harald Slott-Møller (1864-1937)

Richard Strauss and Nietzsche: "Also Sprach Zarathustra"

Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 is a tone poem by German composer Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's 1883-1885 philosophical work of the same name.

Strauss conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in Frankfurt.

A typical performance lasts roughly 33 minutes.

The initial fanfare - titled "Sunrise" in the composer's programme notes - became well known after its use in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Eumir Deodato's jazz-funk hit version won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

The Strauss monument in Vienna

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Joie de vivre

"To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty!

There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them" - Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Hugo Salmson | Something in the air

Hugo Fredrik Salmson (1843-1894) was a Swedish painter, known for figures and genre scenes.

Salmson was born in Stockholm, Sweden.

He was the son of Fredrik Ludvig Salmson, a wholesaler, and his wife Maria Perlberg. He initially studied business, but soon decided on an artistic career.

In 1862, he began his studies at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts where he was trained by Johan Christoffer Boklund.

William Henry Gore | Pittore romantico

William Henry Gore RI (1857–1942) è stato un pittore ed acquerellista inglese vissuto tra la fine dell'epoca vittoriana e l'inizio del XX secolo.

È noto per i suoi paesaggi rurali del Berkshire, sua terra natale, e per i suoi piccoli dipinti di genere, raffiguranti bambini ed animali.

Gore si collocava nella tradizione del tardo Romanticismo e Naturalismo vittoriano, fioriti nel periodo a cavallo tra l'inizio del XX secolo, ma che rapidamente divennero fuori moda all'indomani della Grande Guerra e dei successivi cambiamenti sociali e politici.

Vincent van Gogh | Garden with Courting Couples, 1887

Van Gogh called this sunny park scene 'the painting of the garden with lovers'.

Couples in love are strolling under the young chestnut trees and sitting along the winding paths.

He used a free variation on the technique of the Pointillists.

Essential Facts:

Title: Garden with Courting Couples: Square Saint-Pierre

Date: Paris, May 1887

Artist: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 75.0 cm x 113.0 cm

Current location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Václav Brožík | Pittore accademico

Václav Brožík (1851-1901) è stato uno storico dell'arte, considerato il più grande pittore accademico Ceco.

Nel 1896 divenne il primo, e finora unico artista Ceco, a diventare membro dell'Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Václav Brožík studiò dal 1868 presso l'Accademia di Belle Arti di Praga sotto Emil Lauffer.

Nel 1871 si trasferì per poter proseguire i suoi studi all'Accademia di Dresda e dal 1873 all'Accademia di Monaco di Baviera, dove fu influenzato in particolare da Carl Theodor von Piloty.

Frederick Morgan ROI | Genre painter

Frederick Morgan ROI (1847-1927) is known mostly for his romantic and sentimental paintings of children in the same style as his contemporary Arthur John Elsley.

His paintings achieved great popularity in his lifetime and were widely published.

He exhibited with the Royal Academy and was a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI).

Morgan's paintings are exhibited at many art galleries and museums including the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Russell-Cotes Museum in Bournemouth.

His Turn Next was used to advertise Pears' Soap and is in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.

Anton Dieffenbach | Pittore di genere

Anton Heinrich Dieffenbach (1831-1914) è stato un pittore paesaggista e di genere Tedesco, noto per i suoi ritratti di bambini.

Si trasferì a Strasburgo con i suoi genitori nel 1840 e prese lezioni da un artista locale di nome Charles Duhamel.

Grazie alla raccomandazione di Duhamel, poté recarsi a Parigi e studiare con lo scultore James Pradier.

Fabio Cipolla | Orientalist painter

Fabio Cipolla (1852-1935) was a distinguished Italian painter of genre scenes and "costume paintings".

He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and his works were published in various periodicals.

He made his first appearance at the exhibitions in Milan in 1879 and in Turin in 1880, and in the following years he developed the adoption of a mannered narrative realism on genre subjects.

Fabio Cipolla lived and worked in Rome all his life.

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