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

Tomaso Albinoni | Oboe concerto in D minor op. 9

"Oboe Concerto in D minor" has long been regarded as one of the finest concertos composed for the instrument.

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (1671-1751) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era.

His output includes operas, concertos, sonatas for one to six instruments, sinfonias, and solo cantatas.

While famous in his day as an opera composer, he is known today for his instrumental music, especially his concertos.

Samuel Scott | London, a view of the Thames and Old Westminster Bridge looking towards Westminster Abbey

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.

Eugenia Gapchinska, 1974 | Lisa and her Dreams

Evgeniya Hennadiyivna Haptschynska, internationally known as Eugenia Gapchinska / Євгенія Гапчинська, was born on November 15, 1974 in Kharkiv.

She is the fifth child in the family. At the age of five, she went to school.

At the age of 13, she became a student at Kharkiv Art College.

Graduate of the Institute of Industrial Arts in Kharkiv, Eugenia Gapchinska is doing her internship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg (Germany).

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

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

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.

Franz Liszt | Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S.244/2, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, published in 1851, and is by far the most famous of the set.

The Hungarian-born composer and pianist Franz Liszt was strongly influenced by the music heard in his youth, particularly Hungarian folk music, with its unique gypsy scale, rhythmic spontaneity and direct, seductive expression.

These elements would eventually play a significant role in Liszt's compositions.

Josef Nikolaus Kriehuber | Portrait of Franz Liszt, 1846

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.

Butterflies | Van Gogh series, 1889-1890

In May 1889, Van Gogh began work on Green Peacock Moth which he self-titled Death's Head Moth.

The moth, called death's head, is a rarely seen nocturnal moth.

He described the large moth's colors "of amazing distinction, black, grey, cloudy white tinged with carmine or vaguely shading off into olive green".

Behind the moth is a background of Lords-and-Ladies.

Vincent van Gogh | Emperor moth, 1889 (detail) | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

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

L'Educazione e le Arti nella "Repubblica" di Platone

La Repubblica (in greco antico: Πολιτεία, Politéia) è un dialogo socratico, scritto dal filosofo greco Platone intorno al 375 a.C., la quale ha avuto enorme influenza nel pensiero occidentale.

L'opera è strutturata in dieci libri e ha per protagonista Socrate, filosofo e maestro di Platone.

La Repubblica è l'opera più nota di Platone ed una delle opere di filosofia e teoria politica più influenti al mondo, sia dal punto di vista intellettuale che storico.

Nel dialogo, Socrate discute con vari ateniesi e stranieri sul significato della giustizia e se l'uomo giusto sia più felice dell'uomo ingiusto.

Leonidas Drosis | Statues of Plato (left) and Socrates (right) at the Academy of Athens

Adolph von Menzel | Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim in Concert, 1854

Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (1815-1905) was a German Realist artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings.

Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German painters of the 19th century, and was the most successful artist of his era in Germany.

First known as Adolph Menzel, he was knighted in 1898 and changed his name to Adolph von Menzel.

Patrice Murciano, 1969 | New Pop

Patrice Murciano è nato nel sud della Francia.

Affascinato dall'arte in tenera età, ha iniziato a copiare le figure dei cartoni animati all'età di 6 anni ed ha esposto il suo primo dipinto quando ne aveva 12.

Ha iniziato a dipingere le sue prime muse con il trucco di sua madre.

Affascinato dalla donna, rende omaggio ai vari movimenti artistici che lo accompagneranno durante la sua evoluzione: il "Courbisme" lusinga le curve della donna, il "Griboullisme" si insinua nei suoi quadri ed oggi si ritrovano in questa nuova flusso che è il New Pop.

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

Franz Liszt's Love Letter to Marie d'Agoult

"My heart overflows with emotion and joy!

I do not know what heavenly languor, what infinite pleasure permeates it and burns me up.

It is as if I had never loved!

Tell me whence these uncanny disturbances spring, these inexpressible foretastes of delight, these divine, tremors of love.

Oh! all this can only spring from you, sister, angel, woman, Marie!"

Henri Lehmann | Marie d'Agoult, 1843 | Petit Palais, Paris

Paganini non ripete!

La frase “Paganini non ripete” ha origine da un episodio risalente al 1825.

Al Teatro Falcone di Genova l'artista fu chiesto dal re Carlo Felice per il bis di un brano che gli era piaciuto; ma poiché Paganini aveva improvvisato, non è stato in grado di ripetere la performance e si dice che abbia dato questa come sua risposta.

Di conseguenza, è stato espulso dal Regno di Sardegna per due anni.

Niccolo Paganini by Sir Edwin Landseer, 1831-34

Robert Schumann: "Andare lento e correre sono errori di pari gravità!"

• "Quando avete studiato gli esercizi giornalieri e vi sentite stanchi, non continuate a suonare. Val meglio riposare, che lavorare senza piacere e senza freschezza di mente".

• "Andare lento e correre sono errori di pari gravità".

• "Il musicista colto potrà studiare una Madonna di Raffaello con la stessa utilità con cui il pittore studierà una sinfonia di Mozart... L'estetica di un'arte è quella delle altre, soltanto il materiale è diverso".

Johannes Hartmann (1869-1952) | Robert Schumann Monument, 1901 (detail)

Niccolò Paganini by Johann Peter Lyser

Johann Peter Lyser

(German engraver, journalist, critic, miscellaneous writer; caricaturist,1804-1870)

about Paganini from the magazine "Originalien", 1830

Niccolò Paganini | Cartoon Drawing by Johann Peter Lyser

"Paganini is an Italian artist, and an Italian artist will be never sad or misanthrope. If he become that, it is the end of the art. In the character of Paganini there is nothing exalted.

His heart bits with a strong joy of living, it is attached to this land and to all it has to offer. However great the passion for his art is, he does despise nothing, not even things of little importance if they offer enjoyment […].

Paganini is one of the strangest, indeed baroque and certainly greatest phenomena, that cross land for over a century, but there is nothing mysterious about him. He his not like the stormy sea, but he is like the quiet lake.

Anatoly Metlan, 1964 | Impressionist painter

Anatoly Metlan è nato a Yalta, in Ucraina, vicino al Mar Nero.

Crescendo, Metlan ha sviluppato la passione per le opere degli impressionisti.

Dopo il liceo ha frequentato la Krivoi Rog University, nel sud dell'Ucraina.

Mentre era all'università, Metlan espose le sue opere e pian piano si fece un nome.

Nel 1989, era stato accettato nella Guild Artist in Ucraina.