Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Woman with a fan. 1879

The actress Jeanne Samary may have posed for this painting in her cheerfully decorated dressing room at the Comédie-Française, a theater in Paris. Yet the image, as indicated by its title, was not intended as a portrait.

The informal subject freed Renoir to experiment with composition - the figure occupies a compressed space, a vibrant bouquet competing with her features.

She holds an uchiwa fan, reflecting a fascination with all things Japanese in late nineteenth-century France. | © The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA.

Tomasz Rut, 1961

Tomasz Rut è nato e cresciuto a Varsavia, in Polonia, figlio di un atleta olimpico padre e madre artista che insieme gli ha hanno incoraggiato l'amore per l'arte ed i classici.

Nominato uno degli artisti viventi più collezionati, Tomasz Rut continua ad espandere il regno della pittura figurativa contemporanea fino ai limiti artistici raggiunti solo dai Grandi Maestri del passato.

Spesso paragonato alle opere epiche dell'Antichità, del Rinascimento e del Barocco, la sua opera d'arte classica, introdotta nella Collezione Vaticana da Papa Benedetto XVI, resuscita la tradizione assopita della pittura figurativa, emulando lo stile, l'armoniosa eleganza e la passione nello spirito di Michelangelo, Raffaello o Caravaggio, ma lo fa in un eloquente, moderno adattamento, accomodante lo spettatore contemporaneo. Ispirato alle origini mitologiche greco-romane della nostra cultura occidentale, il contenuto dell'opera di Rut è allo stesso tempo onirico e tangibile.

Mario Mariotti (1936-1997)

Mario Mariotti è stato un artista Italiano.

Biografia

Cresciuto nel popolare quartiere di Santo Spirito a Firenze, a contatto con le botteghe artigiane che lo animano, alla fine degli anni sessanta fonda, con alcuni artisti sperimentali, lo spazio autogestito “Zona”. Sensibile ai temi politici e civili, in occasione del referendum sul divorzio (1974) proietta un grande “No” sulla cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Non sarà l'unica performance urbana di Mario Mariotti: per tutti gli anni ottanta e novanta animerà le piazze d'Oltrarno e il fiume con alcune delle operazioni artistiche e culturali più suggestive della seconda metà del XX secolo, cui chiama a partecipare gli artisti amici, gli studenti, i residenti del quartiere.

Saranno Piazza della Palla, dedicata alle mostre dei Medici (1980) con le famose proiezioni sulla facciata brunelleschiana di Santo Spirito, Firenze (1985), Il Polittico di San Giovanni (1991).

Diego Rivera | Il pittore anticapitalista

Diego Rivera, all'anagrafe Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez (Guanajuato, 8 dicembre 1886 - Città del Messico, 24 novembre 1957), è stato un pittore e muralista Messicano di ideologia comunista, famoso per la tematica politica e sociale delle sue opere realizzate in gran parte in edifici pubblici, soprattutto nel centro storico di Città del Messico (Epopea del popolo messicano, 1929).

Renoir | Bay of Naples, Evening, 1881

Bay of Naples, Evening
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French painter🎨, 1841-1919)
Date: 1881
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 22 13/16 x 31 13/16 in. (57.9 x 80.8 cm)
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark, 1933

Renoir's painting of Naples focuses on the bustle of daily life near the harbor.

The scene is full of local flavor - characteristic Neapolitan boats, donkeys loaded with supplies, a woman carrying a burden on her head.

In the distance, smoke issues from the mouth of the Mount Vesuvius, a volcano. Parallel strokes of paint structure the composition, with reds and oranges contrasting the purple and blue shadows and yellow and white buildings across the bay. | © The Clark Art Institute

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Onions, 1881

Artist: Auguste Renoir (French, Limoges 1841–1919 Cagnes-sur-Mer);

Date: 1881;

Medium: Oil on canvas;

Dimensions: 15 3/8 x 23 7/8 in. (39.1 x 60.6 cm);

Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark, 1922.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Bouquet of Chrysanthemums, 1881

Renoir felt that he had greater freedom to experiment in still lifes than in figure paintings.

"When I paint flowers, I feel free to try out tones and values and worry less about destroying the canvas", he told the writer Georges Rivière.

"I would not do this with a figure painting since there I would care about destroying the work". | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Renoir | Les Grands Boulevards, 1875

Philadelphia Museum of Art | Perhaps Renoir's most famous view of Paris is this archetypal image of its newest and most fashionable district in the 1870s.

The Grands Boulevards is full of the pigment daubs and bright colors that are characteristic of Impressionism.

The modern life in the city is transmitted through visible strokes of paint, which operate as immediate sensory cues that allow the viewer to perceive this world as though it is passing by. This is the magic of Renoir's Paris.

The world of the painting is truly historical--the modern city emerging--even though his translation of this place is a subjective and fleeting impression.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Two Vases of Chrysanthemums, 1884

• "If you paint the leaf on a tree without using a model, your imagination will only supply you with a few leaves; but Nature offers you millions, all on the same tree. No two leaves are exactly the same. The artist who paints only what is in his mind must very soon repeat himself".


• "Se dipingi una foglia su un albero senza usare un modello, la tua immaginazione potrà' fornirti solo alcuni tipi di foglie; ma la natura ti offre milioni di foglie, tutte sullo stesso albero. Non ci sono due foglie esattamente uguali. L'artista che dipinge solo ciò che nella sua mente molto presto ripeterà se stesso".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir🎨

Sir George Clausen RA | A gleaner, 1901

Sir George Clausen RA (b London, 18 Apr. 1852; d Cold Ash, nr. Newbury, Berkshire, 22 Nov. 1944). British painter (mainly of landscapes and scenes of rural life), the son of a decorative painter of Danish descent.

His training included a few months at the Académie Julian, Paris, in 1883 and his work was influenced by French plein-air painting. He was particularly interested in effects of light, often showing figures set against the sun, but he always retained a sense of solidity of form.

Gustave Caillebotte | Laundry drying, 1892

Gustave Caillebotte🎨 (August 19, 1848, Paris, France - February 21, 1894, Gennevilliers), 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 was noted for his early interest in photography as an art form.

Caillebotte created more than 500 works during his lifetime.

Leopold Schmutzler | Lady with flowers

Leopold Schmutzler (1864-1940) was a Bohemian-born German painter, specialized in portraits, figures and Rococo-style genre scenes.

His style was generally realistic with Art-Deco elements.

John Singer Sargent | Girl reading by a stream, 1888

• "Non si fanno mai abbastanza schizzi. Fai uno schizzo su qualsiasi cosa e mantieni attiva la tua curiosità".
• "Impressionismo è il nome che è stato dato ad una certa forma di osservazione quando Monet, non contento di usare gli occhi per vedere le cose o il loro aspetto come tutti gli altri avevano fatto prima di lui, ha posto la sua attenzione su ciò che accadeva nella sua retina (così come un oculista avrebbe esaminato la propria vista)".
• Impressionism was the name given to a certain form of observation when Monet, not content with using his eyes to see what things were or what they looked like as everybody had done before him, turned his attention to noting what took place on his own retina (as an oculist would test his own vision)".

John Singer Sargent🎨 (American painter🎨, 12 January 1856 - 14 April 1925)

Alfred H. Maurer | Young Woman in Kimono, 1901

Title: Young Woman in Kimono
Artist: Alfred Henry Maurer⏩ (New York City, 1868 - 1932)
Date: 1901
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: Height: 76.2 cm (30 in.), Width: 73.2 cm (28.82 in.)
Current location: National Gallery of Art - Washington DC

Claude Monet | Le Dam à Zaandam le soir, 1871