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.

Vincent van Gogh | Roses and Sunflowers, 1886

Van Gogh painted this still life during one of his crucial transitional phases.

Between 1886 and 1888 he spent two decisive years in Paris, which initiated a change in his working method, especially his understanding of color effect.

Schooled in the work of the French Romantic Eugène Delacroix, his colors lighten during this period and he begins to experiment with extreme contrasts.

In "Roses and Sunflowers", one of more than 30 still lifes he produced in Paris, this complementary contrast is created using red and green.

Vincent van Gogh | Roses and Sunflowers, 1886 |Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany

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.

Vincent van Gogh | Garden with Courting Couples, 1887

Van Gogh called this sunny park scene 'the painting of the garden with lovers'.

Couples in love are strolling under the young chestnut trees and sitting along the winding paths.

He used a free variation on the technique of the Pointillists.

Essential Facts:

Title: Garden with Courting Couples: Square Saint-Pierre

Date: Paris, May 1887

Artist: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 75.0 cm x 113.0 cm

Current location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Vincent van Gogh | Landscape under a stormy sky, 1889

Van Gogh's dramatically atmospheric Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé is one of the finest of the artist's Arles landscapes.

Painted amidst the most fruitful period of the artist's career, when his canvases were flooded with rich passages of densely-painted color, the composition depicts a verdant field under threat of an explosive rainstorm.

Van Gogh creates a scene of intense anticipation here, replete with psychological drama as the laborers hurry to finish their work before the heavens rain down upon them.

Vincent van Gogh | Landscape Under a Stormy Sky, 1889 | Sotheby's

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

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

Luigi Cima | Verist painter

Luigi Cima (1860-1944) was an Italian painter, considered one of the most fortunate and appreciated representatives of the “verism” of the late nineteenth century, and in any case an absolute protagonist of the artistic world of Belluno.

Luigi Cima was born in Villa di Villa, current municipality of Mel (Belluno) on January 5, 1860.

After completing his technical studies in Feltre, he moved to Venice to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he attended the courses of Eugenio De Blaas.