Constant Troyon | Pittore della scuola di Barbizon

TROYON, Constant - Pittore, nato a Sèvres il 28 agosto 1810, morto a Parigi il 20 marzo 1865.

Figlio di un decoratore della manifattura di Sèvres, e desiderando entrarvi anch'egli come pittore di fiori, cominciò a dipingere bozzetti dal vero, prendendo gusto al paesaggio.

Nel 1833 espose opere ispirate ai sobborghi in cui viveva: La Fête de Sèvres; Un coin du Parc de St.-Cloud, rivelandosi ancora legato alla maniera classica, pesante nelle ombre ed analitico.

I consigli di C. Roqueplan gli schiusero orizzonti più vasti; il Limousin e la Creuse l'ispirarono.

Ne riportò diverse vedute, tra cui: Vues prises aux environs d'Argenton (1836) e Foire champêtre dans le Limousin, 1838.

Nel 1841 si recava in Bretagna, dove si fece sempre più libero ed eseguì Tobie avec l'Ange.

Ma la sua evoluzione fu definitiva quando, conosciuti Th. Rousseau e J. Dupré, entrò nella pleiade dei paesisti romantici, detta "scuola del 1830", e frequentò la foresta di Fontainebleau, culla del paesaggio francese moderno, nel quale aleggiava lo spirito del grande iniziatore Constable.

L'opera sua si trasfigura, come attestano i quadri del 1844: Paysage dans la forêt; Dessous de forêt; Vue prise à Fontainebleau, 1845.

Finalmente un viaggio nel Belgio e nell'Olanda completa la sua vocazione. Vi conosce gli animalisti, vi ammira A. Cuyp e Pol Potter, ma sopra tutti Rembrandt.

Imparò allora a rappresentare natura e animali in intimo accordo.

Nel 1849 espose il celebre Moulin, palesandovi l'influenza di Rembrandt.

Col 1850 si dedicò alla rappresentazione di greggi ed armenti nei campi.

Non ebbe come i pittori dei Paesi Bassi il senso dell'atmosfera, ma assai vivo in lui fu l'affetto per gli animali che aiutano l'uomo nel suo lavoro.

Ricordiamo: Boeufs se rendant au labour; Effet du matin, 1855; Le retour à la ferme; Le retour du marché; La vache Rousse, tutti al Louvre.

L'esposizione Universale del 1855 consacrò la sua fama.

Fu nominato Cavaliere della Legion d'Onore dopo il Salon del 1849.

Le opere del Troyon sono nei musei del Louvre, di Lilla, di Amiens, di Montpellier e di Bordeaux. | di Andrée R. Schneider, © Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana

Valentin De Boulogne | Allegoria dell'Italia, 1628-29

L'Allegoria d'Italia (olio su tela, 333 x 245 cm) fu dipinta per il nipote papale, il cardinale Francesco Barberini.

Come in un tableau vivant, personaggi riconoscibili hanno assunto ruoli emblematici: una giovane donna è vestita come l'Italia (indossa una corona merlata, regge uno scudo e sta in piedi su una cornucopia); due uomini dal petto villoso interpretano le parti di divinità fluviali (l'Arno, con un leone, ed il Tevere, con i gemelli Romolo e Remo e la lupa che li allattò).

In quest'opera, Valentin spinse la pratica della pittura da un modello in posa alle sue estreme conseguenze, creando un capolavoro unico, radicale quanto qualsiasi opera di Caravaggio.

Valentin de Boulogne | Allegory of Italy, 1628-29 | Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Rome

Odilon Redon | Still Life

Odilon Redon's still life paintings are known for their vibrant colors, dreamlike atmosphere, and Symbolist style.

Unlike traditional still lifes that seek realism, Redon's works are visual meditations that place the visible in the service of the invisible, evoking emotion and imagination.

Damian Tirado, 1960 | Belle Époque

Damian Tirado believes that color is a mode of expression in its own right and not simply a descriptive tool.

His paintings are often vivid and bright.

He is inspired by Latin art and classic European painters like Matisse and Renoir.

His work ranges from figurative urban landscapes to portraits.

Léon-Jean-Basile Perrault | Pittore accademico di genere

Léon-Jean-Basile Perrault (1832-1908) è stato un pittore Francese.

Nacque da una famiglia modesta: il padre, Henri, era sarto.

Entrò a 10 anni nella scuola di disegno di Poitiers, allora diretta dai fratelli Hivonnait, dove rimase fino a 14 anni quando, dovendo contribuire al mantenimento della famiglia, trovò un lavoro presso un decoratore, con il quale collaborò ai restauri degli affreschi della locale chiesa di Sainte Radegonde.

Annick Bouvattier, 1964 | Unspoken words

Annick Bouvattier primarily paints painting of modern women, using intricate plays of light and shadow.

These women embrace their femininity without false modesty, remaining indifferent to outside gazes.

Annick Bouvattier was born in Nevers. Her father, a pediatrician and art enthusiast, passed on to her a love for art and painting from a very young age.

Georges Maroniez | Fishing port at dusk

Georges Maroniez was born in Douai in 1865 and died in Paris in 1933, French painter.

Son of an industrialist, manufacturer of sugar in Montigny-en-Ostrevent, Georges Maroniez very early on showed a taste and gifts for drawing and painting.

His father encouraged him but also asked him to study law, the profession of artist being little considered at the time.

At the end of his studies, he began a career as a magistrate, successively in Boulogne-sur-Mer (1891), Avesnes-sur-Helpe (1894) and Cambrai (1897).

Anne Bachelier, 1949 | Surrealist painter

Metamorphosis, transition, and evolution provide the common threads of the art of Anne Bachelier.

The artist captivates her audience with compelling, highly imaginative images that are distinct, unique, inventive and immediately recognizable.

Her metaphysical, dream-like fantasies evoke feelings simultaneously powerful, peaceful, and protective.

This unique "other" world, untouched by time or place, reminds the viewer of the eternal dance of transformation and regeneration.

Claude Monet | Meules, 1890

The year 1890 was a watershed moment in Claude Monet’s life-he turned fifty, bought property for the first time and negotiated the purchase of Édouard Manet’s Olympia and its ensuing placement in the French national collection.

Any of these could have been the most notable occurrence of that period, but 1890 was also the year that Monet painted the most definitive artistic series of the nineteenth century - his Meules.

Claude Monet | Meules, 1890 | Sotheby's

Yarek Godfrey | Figurative painter

Yarek Godfrey (real name Jaroslaw Pawel Nowicki, 1957-2014) was a Polish artist of French, British and Austrian origins.

Godfrey received numerous awards for his work: The Gold Medal of the XXXVIII Salon of Young Artists, Grand Palais, Paris, 1987; Grand Prix of the XXVI International Salon of Art Côte d'Azur, Cannes, 1990.

He presented his works at numerous group and solo exhibitions, primarily in the United States and France, but also in Belgium, Monaco and Italy.

Paul Cézanne: "Esiste una sola maestra: la Natura!"

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), così come gli altri pittori vissuti durante gli ultimi decenni dell'Ottocento, all'inizio della sua carriera non esitò a far riferimento alla rivoluzione impressionista.

Gli alfieri dell'Impressionismo - pensiamo a Monet e al primo Renoir - per ritrarre la realtà in maniera più realistica, si affidavano ai fenomeni percettivi della luce e del colore, rapportandosi a quello che volevano dipingere in maniera soggettiva, ovvero basandosi esclusivamente sull'impressione fuggevolissima e irripetibile suscitata nei loro sensi.

Georges Rochegrosse | Pittore accademico orientalista

Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse (1859-1938) è stato un pittore ed illustratore Francese.

Studiò pittura con Alfred Dehodencq e poi entrò nell'Académie Julian, negli atelier di Jules Joseph Lefebvre e Gustave Boulanger, passando infine all'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

Chopin | Prelude in E minor, Op 28, No. 4

The Prelude Op. 28, No. 4 by Frédéric Chopin is one of the 24 Chopin preludes.

By Chopin's request, this piece was played at his funeral, along with Mozart's Requiem.

The piece is only a page long and uses a descending melody line.

The melody starts with the dominant B and works its way to the tonic E, but halfway through the piece the descending line is interrupted and the melody starts over again.

Only in the last bars does the melody dissolve in the tonic and go through a chord progression to the soothing and satisfying.

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.

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

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)

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.

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