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

Carlotta Edwards | Le Cygne

Carlotta Edwards (1894-1977) era figlia dell'artista Francese Ferdinand Pourrier.

Studiò alla St. John's Wood Art School e si specializzò in soggetti di danza classica, assistendo alle prove per realizzare schizzi per i suoi dipinti.

Espose alla Royal Society of Portrait Painters ed al Salon di Parigi.

Le sue scene di balletto un tempo adornavano le camere da letto di bambine (e grandi) in tutta l'Inghilterra ma erano molto popolari in Australia e Nuova Zelanda.

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.

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.

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.

Marc Chagall | Flowers and lovers

"You could wonder for hours what flowers mean, but for me, they're life itself, in all its happy brilliance. We couldn't do with out flowers".

"Potresti chiederti per ore cosa significano i fiori, ma per me sono la vita stessa, in tutto il suo felice splendore. Non potevamo fare a meno dei fiori".

Musée des Beaux-Arts (Lione) | 5.000 anni di storia dell'arte

Il musée des Beaux-Arts di Lione è il principale museo della città ed uno dei più grandi musei d'arte in Francia.

Aperto dal 1801 - uno dei primi dopo il Louvre, il museo presenta collezioni di pittura, scultura, arte antica (egiziana, greca, romana, etrusca e orientale), oggetti d'arte, medaglie e monete, disegni e stampe.

James Pradier | Odalisque, 1841 | Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Louis Janmot | Fleur des champs, 1845

Flower of the Fields / Fleur des champs, is an 1845 painting on wood by Lyon artist, Louis Janmot (1814-1892).

It was acquired in 1893 by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon where it has been conserved.

Depiction of a young woman

The painting shows a young woman who is sitting in a nature scene, surrounded with flowers and butterflies.

She has two flower bouquets in her hands: one laid down on her knees, composed of buttercups, daisies and cornflowers, the other one held vertically is composed of poppies.

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon | 200 years of history

Thanks to its proximity to the Lyon city hall, the abbey was not sold or destroyed during the French Revolution.

In 1792, the Municipal Council designated the building as a place to conserve medals, bronzes and other artistic monuments.

On 14 Fructidor in the year IX (1801), the Chaptal decree to establish painting collections in fifteen French cities enabled the founding of the Lyon Museum of Fine Art.

Joseph Bail | Au Jardin, 1880 | Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Camille Pissarro | Hoarfrost, young peasant girl making fire, 1888

"Gelée blanche, jeune Paysanne faisant du feu" is one of Pissarro’s great masterpieces.

Painted in 1888 at the peak of the artist’s engagement with Neo-Impressionism and conceived on a grand scale, it is a brilliant rendering of light and atmosphere.

The subject is a cold winter’s morning, the low sun casts shadows across the meadow and in these shadows the night’s frost lingers; against this backdrop a young woman and a child build a fire, the smoke rising with a heat that shimmers and eddies across the frozen landscape.

Camille Pissarro | Hoarfrost, young peasant girl making fire / Gelée blanche, jeune Paysanne faisant du feu, 1888 | Museum Barberini