Heinrich Heine | Die Lorelei / Il canto di Lorelei, 1824

Il Lorelei è una roccia nel fiume Reno, oggetto di numerose leggende, poesie e canzoni.

Secondo la leggenda, Lorelei era una bellissima ondina del fiume Reno, che attirava a sé gli uomini col suo canto e con il suo aspetto, causando naufragi e sciagure.

Un giorno, per vendicare il figlio morto, un nobile inviò i suoi soldati ad uccidere la fanciulla, soldati che seppero resistere al suo incanto e che l'avrebbero uccisa, se lei non avesse chiamato suo padre in aiuto: egli mandò un cavallo di schiuma che condusse la ninfa nelle profondità del fiume, da cui ella non fece più ritorno.

Da allora, i marinai non dovettero più temere gli inganni di Lorelei.

Charles Edward Hallé (1846-1914) | Lorelei, the Nymph of the Rhine

Victor Prouvé | Art Nouveau painter

Victor Emile Prouvé, born 13 August 1858 in Nancy, dead 15 February 1943 at Sétif (Algeria), was a French painter, sculptor and engraver of the Art Nouveau École de Nancy.

He designed decors of glass works and furniture for Émile Gallé.

He worked for Eugène Vallin, Fernand Courteix, the Daum Brothers and Albert Heymann.

Pablo Neruda | Restare in silenzio / Keeping Quiet

Ora conteremo fino a dodici

e tutti resteremo fermi.

Una volta tanto sulla faccia della terra,

non parliamo in nessuna lingua;

fermiamoci un istante,

e non gesticoliamo tanto.

Rene Magritte

Vincent van Gogh | Vase with carnations, 1986

Vincent van Gogh | Vase with carnations, 1986 | Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

This floral still life arose in the period between July and September 1886, when Vincent van Gogh was staying in Paris.

He had moved into the apartment on the Rue Lepic belonging to his brother Theo. Theo worked for the art agency Goupil and Cie; he was in charge of the branch on the Boulevard Montmartre.

Vincent van Gogh | Vase with carnations, 1986 | Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Juana Romani in mostra a Sarasota, in Florida, fino il 22 gennaio 2023

Quest'estate (2022), The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art - il Museo d'arte statale della Florida, ha apportato un'importante aggiunta alla sua collezione di arte europea del XIX secolo, con l'acquisizione di un'opera straordinaria della pittrice italiana Juana Romani (1867-1924).

Si tratta del dipinto intitolato Femme au fond rouge (Donna su sfondo rosso) - eseguito dalla pittrice nel 1902, la quale viene presentata per la prima volta dalla Ringling Museum nell'ambito della mostra A Decade of Collecting, presso la galleria dell'Arthur F. and Ulla R. Searing Wing a Sarasota, in Florida.

Juana Roman | Woman on a Red Background, 1902 | The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

Gustave Flaubert | Il Dizionario dei luoghi comuni, 1911

Nella sua inesausta lotta contro la stupidità umana, lo scrittore Francese Gustave Flaubert compose il "Dizionario dei luoghi comuni", cioè delle opinioni che per la loro stessa banalità comportano l'adesione del maggior numero di persone.

"Vi si troverà, in ordine alfabetico, su tutti gli argomenti possibili, tutto ciò che bisogna dire in società per essere un uomo come si deve e amabile".

Rene Magritte

Gerard ter Borch | Pioneering Dutch genre painter

Gerard ter Borch (1617-1681), also known as Gerard Terburg, was an influential and pioneering Dutch genre painter who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.

He influenced fellow Dutch painters Gabriel Metsu, Gerrit Dou, Eglon van der Neer and Johannes Vermeer.

According to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Ter Borch "established a new framework for subject matter, taking people into the sanctum of the home", showing the figures' uncertainties and expertly hinting at their inner lives.

His influence as a painter, however, was later surpassed by Vermeer.

Gustave Flaubert | Citazioni sull'arte

• "Se c'è sulla terra e fra tutti i nulla qualcosa da adorare, se esiste qualcosa di santo, di puro, di sublime, qualcosa che assecondi questo smisurato desiderio dell'infinito e del vago che chiamano anima, questa è l'arte".

• "Se ho provato momenti di entusiasmo, li devo all'arte; eppure, quanta vanità in essa! voler raffigurare l'uomo in un blocco di pietra o l'anima attraverso le parole, i sentimenti con dei suoni e la natura su una tela verniciata".

Henri Chapu | Memorial to Gustave Flauberts

Archip Ivanovič Kuindži | Paesaggista

Nel 1913 Il’ja Repin disse su Archip Kuindži:

"L’illusione della luce era il suo dio, e non c’era artista capace di raggiungere questa meraviglia della pittura in egual misura".

Archip Ivanovič Kuindži (Архип Иванович Куинджи; Mariupol', 27 gennaio 1842 - San Pietroburgo, 24 luglio 1910) è stato un pittore Russo, specializzato in soggetti paesaggistici e di origine dai greci del Ponto, detti anche pontici o greci del Mar Nero.

Friedrich Kaulbach | Portrait / Historical scenes painter

Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Kaulbach (8 July 1822 - 17 September 1903) was a German painter from Bad Arolsen, Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont.

His father was Christian Kaulbach (1777-1847), a cabinet maker in Arolsen.

He was also the cousin and at one time the student of the painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach, son of Philipp Karl Friedrich v. Kaulbach (1775-1846), goldsmith and amateur painter.

Franz Xaver Petter | Still life of flowers

Franz Xaver Andreas Petter (23 October 1791 - 11 May 1866) was an Austrian artist.

Petter was born in Lichtental; his father was a painter of porcelain, and it was intended that he should follow in the same profession, but Petter developed an interest in oil painting.

He studied under Johann Baptist Drechsler at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

François Barraud | Figurative painter

François Barraud (24 November 1899 - 11 September 1934) was a Swiss painter.

Barraud was the second eldest of four brothers who all painted or sculpted at various points in their lives.

The brothers, François, Aimé, Aurèle and Charles, were largely self-taught artists having been raised as professional plasterers and house painters.

Barraud attended evening classes at the local art school in 1911 together with his brothers.

Georg Macco | Orientalist painter

Georg Macco (23 March 1863, Aachen - 20 April 1933, Genoa) was a German landscape painter and illustrator, associated with the Düsseldorfer Malerschule.

He is primarily known for his Orientalist works.

He was inspired by stories of his great-great-uncle, the history and portrait painter Alexander Macco, who painted a portrait of the Queen of Prussia and was a close friend of Beethoven and Goethe.

Adolf Dietrich | Naïve painter

Adolf Dietrich (November 9, 1877 - June 4, 1957) was one of the most renowned Naïve artists and Swiss painters of the 20th century.

Adolf Dietrich was born to poor farmers in the canton of Thurgau as the youngest of 7 children.

Upon discovering his exceptional graphical talents, his schoolteacher suggested that he become a lithographer.

His parents, however, refused since he was needed as a farmhand.

Ernst Samuel Geiger | Landscape painter

Ernst Samuel Geiger ((Turgi, 1876 - Villeneuve, 1965)) was a Swiss painter and woodcutter.

Geiger was the son of the wine merchant Ulrich and Sophie, née Schwarz. His sister Marie was the mother of Max Bill.

From 1892 to 1896 Geiger attended the Alte Kantonsschule Aarau, where he was a classmate of Albert Einstein and received drawing lessons from Max Wolfinger.

Josef Schuster (1873-1945) | Still Life painter

Josef Schuster (July 26, 1873 in Vienna-Heiligenstadt - February 8, 1945 in Vienna) was an Austrian painter.

He was the son of a railway official and painter and brother of the painter Karl Maria Schuster.

After a year of private lessons, Josef Schuster studied as a guest from 1895 to 1897, then as a regular student until 1904 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Christian Griepenkerl and Kazimierz Pochwalski.

Joseph Schuster | Still life of flowers

Joseph Schuster (June 17, 1812 in Grätz, Austrian Silesia - March 15, 1890 in Vienna) was an Austrian flower painter.

He is not to be confused with the painter Josef Schuster (1873-1945).

Joseph (Josef) Schuster moved to Vienna with his family when he was a child, where he attended the first two classes of high school.

Raymond Wintz (French, 1884-1956)

Raymond Wintz (Joseph Raimond Wintz) was a Paris-born painter and engraver whose most famous paintings were of marine and coastal views in Brittany.

He is best known for his painting The Blue Door, which is still widely available as a poster and print.

Life

Raymond Wintz was born on 25 March 1884.

He was the son of the painter Guillaume Wintz (1823-1899) and the husband of the painter Renée Carpentier-Wintz (1913-2003).

Raymond Wintz | The Blue Door, 1927

Pio Joris | Genre painter

Pio Joris (8 June 1843 - 6 March 1921) was an Italian painter, engraver and watercolorist.

Pio Joris was born in Rome and attended the Istituto di Belle Arti as a child.

In 1861, he enrolled at the Accademia di San Luca, where he remained for just a year.

On a visit to the 1st Esposizione Nazionale di Belle Arti of Florence in 1861, he was attracted by the naturalistic works from the Naples school.

Alexandra Savina, 1962 | Cubist painter

Alexandra Savina was born and brought up in Kiev, Ukraine and graduated from the Fine Art School and Teachers College (Department of Art).

She worked as an art teacher and designer.

In 2005, Aleksandra came to Canada and currently resides in Toronto.

She was mesmerized by the beautiful landscapes of her new country and home, and these landscapes have become her new source of inspiration.