Beatrice Parsons | Garden painter

Beatrice Emma Parsons (1870–1955) was a British painter and is best known for her watercolours of garden subjects. Parsons, along with George Samuel Elgood and Ernest Arthur Rowe, is considered one of the leading English painters of gardens.

Parsons was born in Peckham, South London, England in 1870.

She was sister to Karl Parsons, a stained-glass artist, who commemorated their family in a stained-glass window in St. Matthew's Church, Oxhey.

Parsons attended the Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls and studied at King's College London, before attending the Royal Academy Schools, where she won three prizes.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir at the Museum Barberini

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | The Pear Tree, 1877

In the early 1860s Pierre-Auguste Renoir had studied in the Paris atelier of Swiss history painter Charles Gleyre.

Together with his fellow pupils Frédéric Bazille, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley, he belonged to the nucleus of the group that would become known as Impressionists in the mid-1870s.

Renoir’s early experiments with painting in the open air were decisive for the development of his visual language. In a departure from traditional methods, he worked en plein air not merely for studies, but also, like Monet, in order to create independent, finished works.

Childe Hassam | Geraniums, 1888-1889

From: Christie's

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Following a successful career in Boston, in 1886 the celebrated American Impressionist Childe Hassam (1859-1935) journeyed to Paris with his wife Maud where he would remain until 1889.

During this time in the summer months, the Hassams visited the country home of German businessman Ernest Blumenthal and his wife, who was friends with Mrs. Hassam, in Villiers-Le-Bel, a small town ten miles northeast of Paris in the Val d’Oise.

Vincent van Gogh | Edge of a Wheat Field with Poppies, 1887

From: Denver Art Museum

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Edge of a Wheat Field with Poppies, made in the summer of 1887, gives a sense of the many influences van Gogh was exposed to during his first year in the "hotbed of ideas" [as he called Paris in a letter to his sister].

The small painting captivates us with its bright contrast between the orange yellow of the field and the complementary radiant blue of the sky, the dark green of the new shoots coming up and the vivid vermillion of the poppies, sprinkled across the canvas in free dashes.

The vertical space is evenly divided between earth and sky. The vantage point is surprisingly low to the ground; we look at the scene as though up a hill.

This is not the vast expanse of field shown in Caillebotte’s painting or van Gogh’s later landscapes, but a detail - a highly fragmented view. A slender poplar arcs along the left edge of the painting, and clusters of budding stalks seem to dance on the horizon line.

Vincent van Gogh | Edge of a Wheat Field with Poppies, 1887 | Denver Art Museum

Camille Pissarro at the Museum Barberini

Camille Pissarro | Boulevard Montmartre, Twilight, 1897

In a series of fourteen paintings Camille Pissarro focused on the Boulevard Montmartre in the center of Paris.

From his room in the Grand Hôtel de Russie, with the opera building behind him, he had a view of the busy street on which twenty thousand carriages rattled by every day, past the expensive shops and the popular Café Tortoni.

This picture shows the boulevard with fresh green trees in springtime. | Source: © Museum Barberini

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Champ de bananiers, 1881

Starting in 1881 the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel regularly bought paintings from Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

The painter then undertook all the trips he had previously been unable to afford and which would complete his artistic training.

His first trip took him to Algeria, in the footsteps of Delacroix whom he admired. Renoir's visual experience there was as intense as it had been for the older artist.

Seduced by the colours and the "incredible wealth" of nature here, he produced several pure landscapes, quite rare in his oeuvre. This field of banana trees is in the Essai garden in Hamma, created in 1832 in Algiers.

Vincent van Gogh | The Poor and Money, 1882

'Drawing For National Lottery Today' - says the sign on the wall.

Many people have showed up for the event. Vincent wrote to his brother Theo that he saw this scene on a rainy day in The Hague.

He was moved by the vain hope of these shabbily dressed 'poor souls'. Would the hard-earned money they spent on lottery tickets gain them anything at all?

This thought inspired the title The Poor and Money.

Vincent had commented on portraying groups in an earlier letter: 'how hard it is to get life and movement into it, and to get the figures in place and separate from each other'. | Source: © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Vincent van Gogh | The Poor and Money, 1882 (chalk, watercolour, pen and ink, on paper) | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Francis Sydney Muschamp | Pittore di genere

Francis Sydney Muschamp was an British painter, the son of the landscape painter, Francis Muschamp (active 1865-1881).

The family moved to London in 1865, the year that Muschamp Sr. began to exhibit at the Royal Society of British Artists.

The younger Muschamp began to exhibit at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1870 and continued to exhibit his paintings at the major halls until 1903.

Maximilian Lenz | Pittore della Secessione Viennese

Maximilian Lenz (Vienna, 1860-1948) è stato un pittore, grafico e scultore Austriaco. Fu membro fondatore della Secessione di Vienna; durante il periodo più importante della sua carriera fu simbolista, ma in seguito il suo lavoro divenne sempre più naturalistico.

Ha lavorato in una varietà di media, inclusi oli, acquerelli, litografia e rilievi in metallo.

Vita

Lenz ha studiato alla Kunstgewerbeschule di Vienna, poi all'Accademia di Belle Arti di Vienna con Carl Wurzinger e Christian Griepenkerl. Membro della Vienna Künstlerhaus trascorse i primi anni 1890 in Sud America, disegnando banconote a Buenos Aires.

Thomas Dewing | Lady in Yellow, 1888

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) created a striking contrast between the precisely modeled face and arms, and the very free, feathery brushstrokes of the dress.

The painting was exhibited in 1888 at the Boston Art Club, where it was purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner with the help of Dennis Miller Bunker.

The painting was then exhibited to considerable acclaim at the National Academy of Design and at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889.

Stanford White designed the frame, which is original to the painting. Mrs. Gardner hung the painting in the Yellow Room, a setting perfectly attuned to the hue of the woman’s dress. | Source: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Thomas Wilmer Dewing | Lady in Yellow, 1888 | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Alfred Sisley at the Museum Barberini

Located in Potsdam’s historic center (Germany), the Museum Barberini is an art museum that was initiated by Hasso Plattner, the founder of the German software company SAP and a patron of the arts.

Since its opening in 2017, the Barberini has established itself as one of the most popular museums in Germany with international exhibitions and an extraordinary collection of Impressionist paintings.

From Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Gerhard Richter to ancient sculpture, French Impressionism and Baroque painting, the Museum Barberini embraces all styles and eras, and aims to continually offer new perspectives on art.

Alfred Sisley | Near Moret-sur-Loing, 1881 | Museum Barberini

In 1882 Alfred Sisley moved to Moret-sur-Loing, a town to the south of Paris, where he explored the landscape that was crisscrossed by rivers and canals.

The wooden construction in the foreground likely belongs to one of the boatyards that dotted the Loing Canal, which was used for industrial purposes.

The detail of this construction adds a modern element to the timeless scenery.

Élisabeth Sonrel | Art Nouveau painter

Elisabeth Sonrel (1874-1953) was a French painter and illustrator in the Art Nouveau style.

Her works included allegorical subjects, mysticism, symbolism, portraits and landscapes.

She was the daughter of Nicolas Stéphane Sonrel, a painter from Tours, and received her early training from him.

For further study she went on to Paris as a student of Jules Lefebvre at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

Herbert Arnould Olivier (British, 1861-1952)

Herbert Arnould Olivier, R.I. was a British artist, best known for his portrait and landscape paintings. He was an uncle of Laurence Olivier.

Olivier was born in Battle, East Sussex, England, where his father Henry Arnould Olivier was a clergyman. His brothers were Henry (1850–1935), who had a military career, ending as a colonel; Sydney (the father of Noël and Daphne), who became Governor of Jamaica and later Secretary of State for India; and Gerard (1869-1939), a clergyman (the father of Laurence Olivier). He also had four sisters.

Olivier was educated between 1875-1877 at Sherborne School, a public school in Dorset and in 1922 gave his painting Easter Morn to the school.

Gottfrid Kallstenius (1861-1943)

Gottfrid Samuel Nikolaus Kallstenius (Nacka, 13 luglio 1861 - Nacka, 26 maggio 1943) è stato un pittore Svedese.

Gottfrid Kallstenius è nato a Västervik, in Svezia. Suo fratello Evald Gustaf Götrik Kallstenius (nato nel 1868) era un zoologo e membro della sfortunata spedizione Björling–Kallstenius.

Dopo gli studi preparatori con Edvard Perséus, fu ammesso alla Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts nel 1884 e si laureò nel 1888, dopo aver ricevuto due medaglie per il suo lavoro.

Nel 1891 sposò la pittrice Gerda Roosval. Poco dopo gli fu assegnata una borsa di studio di viaggio e trascorsero un'estate a Parigi, completando i loro studi.

Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (1876-1966)

Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (31 October 1876 - 9 August 1966) was a Lithuanian painter and art collector.

Educated at the Veiveriai Teachers' Seminary, Žmuidzinavičius worked as a teacher while pursuing art education in the evenings in Warsaw.

He further studied at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Vitti in Paris.

In 1906, he returned to Lithuania and organized the First Exhibition of Lithuanian Art and the Lithuanian Art Society which he chaired.

He also established the Vilnius Art Society which united artists of different nationalities.

In 1908-1909 and 1921-1924, he toured western Europe and the United States.

Claude Debussy: "Music is the space between the notes"!

(Achille) Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term.

He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at the age of ten to France's leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris.

He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire's conservative professors.

He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande.

Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942) | Claude Debussy, 1902

Wassily Kandinsky: "Il colore è un potere che influenza direttamente l'anima"!

• "Il colore è il tasto, l'occhio il martelletto, l'anima il pianoforte dalle molte corde.

L'artista è una mano che toccando questo o quel tasto mette in vibrazione l'anima umana".

• "Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings.

The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrations in the soul".

• "A parallel between color and music can only be relative - just as a violin can give warm shades of tone, so yellow has shades, which can be expressed by various instruments".

• "In generale il colore è un mezzo che consente di esercitare un influsso diretto sull'anima".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Terrace at Cagnes, 1905

Suffering from severe rheumatism late in life, Renoir often visited Cagnes, a town in southern France. He rented an apartment in the Maison de La Poste (post office building) and lived there from 1903 to 1907.

We see that building on the right side of this painting. Renoir could view the streets of Cagnes and its orchards from a window in his apartment.

This painting presents, in limpid brushwork, the houses and orchards arranged stepwise on the hill.

The woman seated on the wall is wearing a white hat and a red jacket.

Beside her is a child in a straw hat. | Source: © Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Terrace at Cagnes, 1905 | Bridgestone Museum of Art

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Lise - La femme a l'ombrelle, 1867

Lise, also known as Lise - La femme à l'ombrelle, or Lise with a Parasol, is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, created in 1867 during his early Salon period.

The full-length painting depicts model Lise Tréhot posing in a forest.

She wears a white muslin dress and holds a black lace parasol to shade her from the sunlight, which filters down through the leaves, contrasting her face in the shadow and her body in the light, highlighting her dress rather than her face.

George Sand’s letter to Alfred de Musset

George Sand (Scrittrice e drammaturga Francese, 1804-1876) ed Alfred de Musset (Poeta, scrittore romantico e drammaturgo Francese, 1810-1857) si erano conosciuti nel giugno del 1833 presso amici comuni quando Musset, dopo aver letto Lélia, le scrisse di essere innamorato di lei.

Vivono una passione tormentata con picchi estremi di creatività che scandalizza le loro famiglie, gli amici e quanti sono loro accanto, costringendoli a lasciare Parigi per fare approdo in Italia, alla ricerca di un’impossibile felicità.

A dicembre partirono insieme per l'Italia: a Genova George Sand si ammalò di una malattia che trascinò fino a Venezia, dove alloggiarono dal 1º gennaio 1834: George passava a letto le sue giornate, curata dal giovane medico veneziano Pietro Pagello, mentre Musset passava le notti con alcune prostitute.

Tuttavia anche il poeta contrasse il tifo, che gli procurò febbre altissima ed allucinazioni e venne assistito da George e da Pagello, che intanto era divenuto amante della scrittrice.

George Sand and Alfred de Musset