Konstantin Korovin | Paris, Cafe de la Paix, 1906

Considered as one of the greatest Russian🎨 Impressionists, Konstantin Korovin / Константи́н Алексе́евич Коро́вин (Mosca, 5 dicembre 1861 - Parigi, 11 settembre 1939) was a man of many talents for not only was he a painter, but he was also a theater designer and writer.

As a painter, he was skilled in all genres:  landscape, still life and portraits.

The history of Russian impressionism is associated with Korovin’s paintings, which were characterized by their impulsive spontaneity.

Jean-François Millet (1814 -1875) | Lo stile

Dal punto di vista stilistico Millet fu assai sensibile all'offensiva realista di Gustave Courbet, dal quale prese ispirazione nel realizzare quadri diretti e privi di abbellimenti e dipingervi soggetti sino ad allora considerati triviali ed indegni di rappresentazione pittorica (in questo caso il lavoro quotidiano dei contadini).

A differenza degli altri pittori realisti, tuttavia, Millet non utilizzò i suoi dipinti come strumento di denuncia sociale e, anzi, spesso li ricolmò con intensi coinvolgimenti lirici e sentimentali: questo fu uno degli aspetti più criticati dagli altri artisti e critici, come Cézanne, che paragonava i dipinti di Millet ad una «vecchia ghiandola lacrimale».

Malgrado ciò, le opere millettiane si distinguono per l'essenzialità geometrica delle forme, la regolarità e armonia delle composizioni, il meditato equilibrio tra le luci e le ombre e per il bilanciamento tra macchie e tonalismi dei colori: sono tutte caratteristiche che rivelano un'impostazione classica, oltre che una ponderata riflessione compiuta sugli archetipi rinascimentali.

Demetre Chiparus (Romanian, 1886-1947)

Demetre Chiparus was a Romanian Art Deco era sculptor who lived and worked in Paris, France.

He was born in Romania, educated in Italy and took up residence in Paris in 1912.

Chiparus attended school at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1920s Demetre perfected the technique of combining bronze and ivory known as chryselephantine, his art flourished; he was considered by many to be one of the best sculptors of Art Déco Era.

However, due to the huge commercial success of his work, he exhibited only sporadically at the Salon des Artistes Français.

He rose to fame in the 1920s and 30s, perfecting the technique of chryselephantine, a way of forming sculptures from bronze and ivory.

Felix Vallotton | At the Cafe, 1909

Félix Edouard Vallotton (December 28, 1865 - December 29, 1925) was a Swiss/French painter and printmaker associated with the group of artists known as Les Nabis. He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut.

He painted portraits, landscapes, figures, still lifes, and other subjects in an unemotional, realistic style.

His earliest paintings were influenced by Holbein and Ingres. He developed a simpler style during his association with Les Nabis during the 1890s, and produced woodcuts which brought him international recognition.

Édouard Manet | Café-Concert, 1878

The Café-Concert is an 1879 painting by the French painter Édouard Manet, who often captured café scenes depicting social life at the end of the nineteenth century similar to those depicted in this painting.

The painting is in the collection of the The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

The setting has been identified as the Brasserie Reichshoffen on the Boulevard Rochechouart.

Manet shows us men and women in the new brasseries and cafes of Paris, which presents the viewer with an alternate view of new Parisian life.

Pierre Auguste Renoir | At the Cafe, 1877

Everyday life

Together with Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir is one of the central figures of impressionism.

But while Monet prefers to paint landscapes in the open air, Renoir takes everyday life as the theme for his paintings.

He frequently enjoys painting in cafés, which also brings him all kinds of commissions for portraits.

Edgar Degas | Women on a café terrace in the evening, 1877

Women in a Café or Women on a Café Terrace is a work by the French painter Edgar Degas, made in 1877 and preserved in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

In this pastel, Degas's curious gaze catches four women sitting on the terrace of a Parisian café talking (in the background there is a Parisian cityscape dotted with night lights).

Edgar Degas loved the evening hour in Montmartre.

As strong sunlight hurt his eyes he enjoyed wandering round Paris at night, picking up impressions, fixing indelibly on the plate of his memory certain scenes which he later developed with remarkable distinction in his studio.

Alphonse Mucha | The Abyss, c.1898

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)

Francesco Hayez nacque in una famiglia di condizioni modeste. Il padre Giovanni era di origini francesi; la madre, Chiara Torcella, veniva da Murano.

Il piccolo Francesco, ultimo di cinque figli, venne affidato ad una sorella della madre che aveva sposato Giovanni Binasco, armatore e mercante d'arte proprietario di una discreta collezione di dipinti.

Già da piccolo mostrò una predisposizione per il disegno e lo zio lo affidò ad un restauratore affinché ne imparasse il mestiere.

In seguito divenne allievo del pittore Francesco Magiotto presso il quale rimase per tre anni.

Frequentò il primo corso di nudo nel 1803 e nel 1806 venne ammesso ai corsi di pittura della Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti dove fu allievo di Teodoro Matteini.

Eugène Galien-Laloue | Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1941

Paul Cézanne | The Fishermen (Fantastic Scene) c.1875

Michael Parkes (American painter, 1944)

Michael Parkes is an American-born artist living in Spain who is best known for work in the areas of fantasy art and magic realism. He specializes in painting, stone lithography and sculpture.

Parkes studied graphic art and painting at the University of Kansas.

As a student, Parkes was fascinated by various graphic processes, and he later became proficient in the difficult medium of the colour stone lithograph.

Many of his recent works have been produced as Aurographics, limited edition giclée prints.

Istvan Sàndorfi (1948-2007)

István Sándorfi, noto anche come Étienne Sandorfi (Budapest, 12 giugno 1948 - Parigi, 26 dicembre 2007), è stato un pittore Ungherese naturalizzato Francese, appartenente alla corrente iperrealista

Nei suoi primi anni Sandorfi si dedicò soprattutto inizialmente agli autoritratti.

Nel 1973, un'esposizione al Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris contribuì a fare di Sandorfi un talento in ascesa dell'iperrealismo, anche se l'artista rifiutò sempre di riconoscersi in quel movimento e si definì «semplicemente realista».

Il suo stile pittorico, che inglobava sia la tecnica iperrealista della meticolosità "fotografica" sia elementi tipici del surrealismo, fu accolto favorevolmente dalla critica.

Plaza de España (Siviglia)

La Plaza de España di Siviglia è uno degli spazi architettonici più spettacolari della città e del Regionalismo Andaluso e dell'Architettura Neo-Moresca.

La piazza è situata all'interno del Parco di Maria Luisa, la sua entrata è molto vicina alla rotonda del Cid Campeador, esattamente di fronte all'antica Reale Fabbrica di Tabacco.

La progettazione della piazza venne affidata all'architetto Annibale González, che fu anche direttore dell'Esposizione Iberoamericana di Siviglia del 1929.

Durante la sua costruzione arrivarono a lavorare contemporaneamente più di mille operai.

La superficie totale della piazza è di 50.000 metri quadrati, 19.000 dei quali sono edificati e i restanti 31.000 sono area libera.

Il canale occupa 515 metri di longitudine.
La costruzione dell'opera iniziò nel 1914, e fu terminata nel 1928 sotto la direzione dell'architetto Vicente Traver che subentrò nel 1926 ad Annibale Gonzalez dopo le sue dimissioni.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)

Gustav Klimt was one of the most innovative and controversial artists of the early twentieth century.

The son of an engraver, he studied at the State School of Applied Arts in Vienna.

In the 1880s and 1890s he produced murals for public buildings - including Vienna's Burgtheater and new Kunsthistorisches Museum, in the prevailing classical-realist style.

Klimt's style grew increasingly experimental, however, and his murals for Vienna University, commissioned by the State in 1894, were roundly attacked by critics for their fantastical imagery and their bold, decorative style.

Partly in response to this reaction, in 1897 Klimt helped form the Secession, a group of artists dedicated to challenging the conservative Academy of Fine Arts.

Influenced by European avant-garde movements represented in the annual Secession exhibitions, Klimt's mature style combined richly decorative surface patterning with complex symbolism and allegory, often with overtly erotic content.

John Jude Palencar | Fairview Park, Ohio

Palencar was born in Fairview Park, Ohio.

He developed an interest in the subject matter of horror and science fiction early in life; dressing up as an alien with a homemade custom latex masks and exhibiting a fascination in both scaring others and being scared himself.

In the third grade, his family would move to Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

He would win his first award in art in fifth grade with a three-colour block print for the Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper calendar contest.

He went on to attended Midpark High School. It was in high school that the artist came under the art training of Frederick C. Graff, who up until today is a established award winning artist, primarily in watercolor.

Emily Dickinson | If you were coming in the Fall

If you were coming in the Fall,

I'd brush the Summer by

With half a smile, and half a spurn,

As Housewives do, a Fly.

If I could see you in a year,

I'd wind the months in balls

And put them each in separate Drawers,

For fear the numbers fuse -

Leonid Afremov | Lovers in the park

Vijender Sharma, 1962 | Delhi, India

Vijender Sharma è un pittore Indiano che ha ricevuto un MFA in Pittura dal College of Art, Nuova Delhi, nel 1990.

Fantasie, personaggi mitici ed epopee sacre hanno sempre fatto parte della sua ispirazione.

Le sue opere surrealiste raffiguranti uno scenario suggestivo ed espressivo sono come un velo trasparente tra la realtà umana e la fantasia spirituale.

Ha partecipato in numerose mostre artistiche tenute in paesi tra cui Malesia, Danimarca, Norvegia, Svezia, Turchia e Francia.

Le sue opere artistiche sono presenti in molte importanti collezioni tra cui quella del Presidente dell'India.

Vive e lavora a Delhi.

Jean-Claude Dresse, 1946

Il pittore Belga Jean-Claude Dresse è nato a Charleroi in una famiglia di artisti.

Suo nonno era un artista dilettante, suo padre - scultore e pittore, e suo cugino, primo violinista al Conservatorio.

Ha studiato all'Académie des Beaux-Arts di Charleroi dove ha lavorato principalmente Marcello Gibon.

Nel 1985 tiene la sua prima mostra personale a Bruxelles.

Da allora espone regolarmente in Belgio, in Francia e in Paesi Bassi.

Katia San Millan, 1952 | República Dominicana

L'artista Dominicana Katia San Millan è una pittrice visionaria spirituale la cui opera spazia dal realismo, l'impressionismo, il surrealismo all'astratto.

Artista di origine haitiana con oltre 37 anni di esperienza come artista visivo e insegnante d'arte.

"Sono la figlia del maestro artista, Roger San Millan, che ha toccato, plasmato e colorato la mia vita come se fosse stato uno dei tanti mezzi che ha usato per esprimere la sua passione per la riflessione profonda e la bellezza.

Jean de Gaigneron | La marchesa Casati, 1922

Benjamin Lacombe, 1982

Benjamin Lacombe è nato a Parigi. Nel 2001 ha frequentato la scole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs di Parigi dove ha proseguito la sua formazione artistica.

Oltre ai suoi studi, ha lavorato come artista pubblicitario e di film d'animazione prima di completare la sua prima serie di fumetti all'età di 19 anni, insieme ad alcuni altri libri illustrati.

William Bouguereau | Jeannie, 1868

"Jeannie" is an 1868 oil painting by French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905).

In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body.

As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde.

To many, he epitomized taste and refinement, and a respect for tradition.

Man Ray (1890-1976)

Emmanuel Rudnitzky, pseudonimo Man Ray, è stato un pittore, fotografo e regista statunitense, esponente del Dadaismo.

Ray rivoluzionò l'arte fotografica. Grandi artisti dell'epoca come James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau e molti altri posarono di fronte alla sua macchina fotografica.

Giovanni Dupré | Figurative sculptor

Giovanni Dupré (1 March 1817 - 10 January 1882) was an Italian sculptor, of distant French stock long settled in Tuscany, who developed a reputation second only to that of his contemporary Lorenzo Bartolini.

Biography

Born in Siena, Dupré began in his father's carving workshop and that of Paolo Sani, where he was occupied with producing fakes of Renaissance sculptures.

In an open contest run by the Accademia di Belle Arti, he won first prize with a Judgment of Paris and made his reputation with the life-size figure of the dead Abel, which was purchased for Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, Duchess of Leuchtenberg (now at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) and was replicated in bronze, c. 1839, (now in the Galleria d'arte moderna, Palazzo Pitti, Florence).

Albert Bierstadt | Boats Ashore at Sunset

"Boats Ashore at Sunset" was created by the American Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstadt in Luminism style.

Albert Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Prussia, on January 7, 1830, but he spent his early years in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where his parents settled two years after his birth. Henry Bierstadt, the artist's father, found work as a cooper in the capital of America's whaling industry.

Vincent van Gogh | Outskirts of Paris, 1886

Outskirts of Paris are paintings that Vincent van Gogh made in 1887, while he was living in Paris with his brother Theo.

Van Gogh liked to explore the outskirts of Paris, searching for pastoral settings in parks and the wooded areas of the suburbs.

His goal was to find scenes that would allow him to explore techniques he learned in Paris.

Jean-François Millet | Bird's Nesters, 1874

Known for his realistic portrayals of French peasants, Millet produced this painting at the very end of his life.

He based the scene on stories from his childhood that told of great flights of wild pigeons.

When the birds settled in trees at night, the peasants blinded them with light from torches and then clubbed hundreds to death.

Alfred Thompson Bricher | Sunset

Vyacheslav Khabirov | Kazakhstan

Khabirov Vyacheslav è nato nel 1967 in Kazakistan, nella città di Ust-Kamenogorsk.

L'amore per la pittura si è manifestato in Vyacheslav nella prima infanzia.

All'età di 13 anni iniziò a dipingere ad olio, poiché vedeva in esso il mezzo migliore per creare i suoi dipinti.

Mentre studiava alla scuola d'arte, ha preso parte a mostre tenutesi nella capitale del Kazakistan, Almaty.

Vladimir Volegov, 1957 | Morning light

Vladimir Volegov is a visual artist from Russia, who lives in Spain.

His early work centered on graphic art for music recordings, comics, and commercial posters.

He is known in the West for his oil paintings, which often depict outdoor family life scenes.

Born in Khabarovsk, Russia, Volegov began painting at the age of three and his talent would be noted repeatedly throughout his adolescence.

After having attended the art school, "Krivoj rog" and having served in the army, Volegov was admitted to the lvov polygraphic institute in the former soviet union.

Mihai Criste (Romanian, 1975)

Mihai Criste is a creative Romanian artist who is fascinated by abstration, mystery and surrealism. Mihai Criste was born in the Deva Hunedoara county in Romania.

A professional painter for more than 10 years, Mihai has participated in numerous contests and exhibitions.

His artworks combine several subjects in an attempt to confuse the viewer of what is reality.

Since 2001 Mihai has participated in various group exhibitions in Romania, the USA and England.

He furthermore collaborated with a number of Printing Houses to illustrate books, such as the children's book "The Wizard of Oz" and covers, such as for the book "About Clowns" by Norman Manea. Mihai's paintings strongly remind the onlooker of Magritte.

The oustanding precision with which Mihai paints his surealistic works is absolutely fascinating and immediately catches the recipients attention.

Dorina Costras (Romanian, 1967)

Dorina Costras è nata ad Iasi, in Romania.

Ha lavorato come designer e come insegnante di belle arti.

Ora collabora per la decorazione come designer di interni e dipinge.

I suoi dipinti sono in stile fantasy e il tema favorito è dei costumi e maschere di carnevale, ma anche un universo fantastico con l'atmosfera della storia lontana dai nostri giorni.

Lawrence Koe | Idyll, c. 1908-11

Lawrence E. Koe was a portrait painter and sculptor. He is listed as living in Brighton when he first exhibited at The Royal Academy in 1891, but by 1894 he had moved to London where he appears to have settled for the remainder of his life.

Carolyn Biggio, 1958

Nata a Columbus, nel Ohio, la pittrice Americana Carolyn Biggio è cresciuta a Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

La sua istruzione formale le è valsa una laurea in scienze; ma in seguito ha intrapreso gli studi artistici con Henry Hensche alla Cape School of Art.

Altre lezioni con i suoi seguaci hanno approfondito il suo impegno ed il suo percorso professionale si è spostato sulla pittura.

Edward Hopper | Pittore realista

Edward Hopper, considerato il migliore pittore realista Americano del XX secolo, è stato un pittore famoso soprattutto per i suoi ritratti della solitudine nella vita americana contemporanea.

Il successo ottenuto con una mostra di acquerelli 1923 e con un'altra di dipinti 1924 contribuiscono a fare di Hopper il caposcuola dei realisti che dipingevano la "scena americana".

La sua evocativa vocazione artistica si rivolge sempre più verso un forte realismo, che risulta la sintesi della visione figurativa combinata con il sentimento struggente e poetico che Hopper percepisce nei suoi soggetti.

Diceva: "non dipingo quello che vedo, ma quello che provo".

Edward Hopper: "Non dipingo quello che vedo, ma quello che provo"!

"Il mio scopo in pittura è sempre quello di usare la natura come mezzo, per cercare di fissare sulla tela le mie reazioni più intime di fronte al soggetto, così come mi appare quando lo amo di più: quando il mio interesse e il mio modo di vedere riescono a dare unità alle cose".

"L'opera è l'uomo. Una cosa non spunta dal nulla".

"La gente trova qualcosa nel tuo lavoro, la traduce in parole e poi va avanti per sempre. Del resto, perché non dovrebbe esserci nostalgia nell'arte?".

Edgar Degas | Ballet dancers | Part. 5

Edgar Degas | Ballet dancers | Part. 4

Edgar Degas | Ballet dancers

Among the supreme masterpieces of the century are Degas's pictures of the ballet and its dancers. The impulse towards painting the contemporary scene came to him not only from Gustave Courbet 1819-1877 and Manet 1832-1883 but from his friend, the critic Duranty, the exponent of the aesthetics of naturalism. Yet in the particular direction of his tastes and his conception of design he was entirely individual. To study and convey movement was a chosen task, first undertaken on the race course and then in his many pictures of the Opera, viewed from behind the scenes, in the wings, or from the orchestra stalls during a performance.

Edgar Degas | Ballet dancers | Part. 2

Alphonse Maria Mucha | Master of Art Nouveau

Alphonse Mucha was born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1860 and moved to Paris in 1890 where he became the star of the poster-art movement under the patronage of the Sarah Bernhardt. After World War I he returned to Czechoslovakia and became the father of a slavic arts and crafts movement which combined elements of art nouveau with classic national themes. In addition to commercial art, jewelry design, interior decoration, sculpture and stage design, Mucha experimented with lettering and calligraphy to produce excellent source material for unique typefaces. Mucha's style is virtually synonymous with French Art Nouveau and he is one of the most imitated artists and designers of all time.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: "It's with my brush that I make love"

"People love to be nice, but you must give them the chance".

"Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art".

"The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion".

Jerome G. Parker | Portrait painter

A Central California native, Jerome Garth Parker comes from a family of artists and musicians. A quiet and introspective figure, Jerome is active in galleries in this beautiful region of his home state.

Figurative compositions, closely observed from life, comprise many of this artists rich work in oils and charcoal.

Though clearly inspired by the masters, Jerome's intriguing subjects nevertheless capture a certain contemporary view of life in the moment.

Antonio Ermolao Paoletti | Venetian flower sellers

Antonio Ermolao Paoletti (Venice, 1834-1912) was an Italian painter, mainly of Venetian genre scenes, recalling Bamboccianti life of children and women, as well as sacred fresco work for churches in the Veneto.

Antonio's father, Ermolao Paoletti, was a well known scholar and writer of Venice.

He wrote a much cited expansive guide to its architecture, monuments, artistic works, and customs.

He also wrote a dictionary of Venetian dialect. He was an engraver and painter, and was a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice.

Pablo Picasso: "La pittura non è fatta per decorare gli appartamenti"

• "Quando uno inizia un ritratto e cerca per successive eliminazioni di trovare la forma pura... si finisce inevitabilmente con un uovo..."

• "Dipingere non è un'operazione estetica: è una forma di magia intesa a compiere un'opera di mediazione fra questo mondo estraneo ed ostile e noi."

• "Dipingo gli oggetti come li penso, non come li vedo."

• "I 40 anni sono quell'età in cui ci si sente finalmente giovani. Ma è troppo tardi."

Mary Jane Ansell, 1972

Mary Jane Ansell è stata finalista del prestigioso BP Portrait Award nel 2004, 2009, 2010 e 2012 e successivamente è stata incaricata dalla National Portrait Gallery di dipingere Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Espone regolarmente con la Royal Society of Portrait Painters, è membro del CBPP Contemporary British Portrait Painters, vive nel Regno Unito ed espone a livello internazionale con recenti mostre collettive e personali a Londra, New York e Los Angeles.

Rabindranath Tagore | At the end of the day

I know, this day will come to an end

At the end of the day

Wanly smiling

The dying sun will look at my face

Bidding me its last farewell.

The flute will play by the side of the way

The cattle will graze on the banks of the river

Louis Apol | Winter landscape with sunset

Giuseppe De Nittis | Figura di donna, 1880

Giuseppe De Nittis (February 25, 1846 - August 21, 1884) was one of the most important Italian painters of the 19th century, whose work merges the styles of Salon art and Impressionism.

De Nittis exhibited twelve paintings in the Exposition Universelle of 1878, and was awarded a gold medal.

In that same year he received the Légion d’honneur.