René Magritte | L'utopie (Utopia), 1945

Painted in June 1945, René Magritte (Belgian surrealist artist, 1898-1967) himself described the scene in L'utopie in his publication, Dix tableaux de Magritte précédes de descriptions, published the following year.

There, he explained that, 'The rose is alone on an island'..

This sense of the solitude of the flower, already emphasised by the span of the distant horizon and the vastness of the ocean, is thus reinforced by Magritte's statement and his own declared intention.

How did the rose reach this island?

René Magritte | L'utopie (Utopia), 1945

René Magritte | Le Préméditation, 1943

"Before the war, my paintings expressed anxiety", René Magritte explained, "but the experiences of war have taught me that what matters in art is to express charm.

"I live in a very disagreeable world, and my work is meant as a counter-offensive".

Painted during the final months of 1943, Le Préméditation is one of the earliest in a series known as Le Surréalisme en plein soleil (Surrealism in sunshine), created by Belgian Surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967) during the turbulent years of the Second World War in the hope of re-enchanting daily life.

A radiant bouquet of springtime flowers all improbably sprouting from the same plant, Le Préméditation captures a magnificent vision of optimism and hope.

René Magritte | Premeditation, 1943 | Christie’s

Happy birthday to Théo van Rysselberghe, born on this day in 1862

Happy birthday to Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 - 13 December 1926), a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century.

Van Rysselberghe discovered the pointillist technique when he saw Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte at the eighth impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1886.

Together with Henry Van de Velde, Georges Lemmen, Xavier Mellery, Willy Schlobach and Alfred William Finch and Anna Boch he "imported" this style to Belgium.

Jean-Baptiste Madou | Genre painter

Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796-1877) was a Belgian painter and lithographer.

He created the Société Royale Belge des Aquarellistes.

Madou was born in Brussels.

He studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts and was a pupil of Pierre Joseph Célestin François.

Alda Merini: "Tra le tue braccia"

C'è un posto nel mondo

dove il cuore batte forte,

dove rimani senza fiato,

per quanta emozione provi,

dove il tempo si ferma

e non hai più l'età;

Gis De Maeyer

Andrea Otte: "I Hope You Still Believe In Magic.."

"I am Andrea Otte a freelance photographer situated in Antwerp, Belgium, a dreamer and the creator of my own little world.

Just a little lady on a tiny planet, a positive thinker, a seeker of beauty and magic in everything.

I believe life is all about passion and finding your own kind of magic.

My eye for all the beauty around me, big and small, has always been active, but only the last four years I have been trying to capture the wonders of the world, accompanied by my Nikon D5300".

Jacques François Carabain (1834-1933)

Pittore di paesaggi ed architettura, Jacques François Carabain fu allievo dei maestri olandesi Jacobus Schoemaker Doyer e Valentijn Bing all'Accademia di Amsterdam.

I suoi viaggi lo portarono in Francia, Germania, Italia ed Austria, ma si stabilì in Belgio.

Era particolarmente interessato alle strutture medievali e barocche ed era spesso attratto dalle affollate piazze del mercato.

Le sue opere sono conservate nel Museo di Ypres e nel Museo Rudolfinum di Praga.

Vera Kober, 1986 | Abstract painter

Vera Kober was born and raised up in difficult periods of collapse during the former USSR in family of musicians.

She studied fine art in school in Ukraine and end it in 1999 but her wish to pursue art education in college was not possible due to challenges of moving to another country with the family.

But Kober continued painting where her soul breathes and love flourishes in the face of difficulties.