Peder Severin Krøyer | Midsummer Eve bonfire on Skagen's beach, 1906

The painting includes many of the Skagen Painters: Krøyer's daughter Vibeke, mayor Otto Schwartz and his wife Alba Schwartz, Michael Ancher, Degn Brøndum, Anna Ancher, Holger Drachmann and his 3rd wife Soffi, the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén and Marie Krøyer.

This picture was Krøyer’s last large figure painting.

Peder Severin Krøyer (1851-1909) gathers all the representatives of the artist colony, members of the town’s bourgeoisie, as well as some of the residents of Skagen, in a large circle around the Midsummer eve bonfire on Skagen Sønderstrand.

William Merritt Chase (1849-1916)

William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849 - October 25, 1916) was an American painter**, known as an exponent of Impressionism** and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.

Chase won many honors** at home and abroad, was a member of the National Academy of Design, New York, and from 1885-1895 was president of the Society of American Artists.

He became a member of the Ten American Painters after John Henry Twachtman died.

Édouard Manet: "I need to work to feel well"

⦁ There is only one true thing: instantly paint what you see. When you've got it, you've got it. When you haven't, you begin again. All the rest is humbug.

⦁ No one can be a painter unless he cares for painting above all else.

⦁ Color is a matter of taste and of sensitivity.

Frank Duveneck (1848-1919) Siesta

Frank Duveneck (October 9, 1848 - January 3, 1919) was born in Covington, Kentucky, outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1848. He received his formal training in Munich at the Bavarian Royal Academy during the early 1870s, and established his own school there in 1878. The following year, Lizzie Boott and her father Francis, both expatriate artists from Boston, were among Duveneck’s students. Through the early 1880s Duveneck courted Miss Boott, who lived with her father at the Villa Castellani in Bellosguardo, outside of Florence.

He also traveled extensively during this period, from Munich to Florence, England and possibly the United States.

Édouard Manet: "Color is a matter of taste and sensitivity"

• "Color is a matter of taste and sensitivity".

• "Every new painting is like throwing myself into the water without knowing how to swim.".

• "I paint as I feel like painting; to hell with all their studies".

Camille Corot (1796-1875) | Lo stile

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot Corot è una delle figure più significative della pittura di paesaggio. Le sue opere, infatti, attingono a piene mani dalla tradizione neoclassica e, al contempo, anticipano le innovazioni en plein air dell'Impressionismo.

Claude Monet, nel 1897, avrebbe detto di lui: «Qui c'è un solo grande maestro: Corot. Non siamo nulla nei suoi confronti, nulla».

Né il suo contributo nella pittura di figura è meno importante: Edgar Degas, altro noto pittore impressionista, preferiva le sue figure rispetto ai suoi paesaggi, e in tal senso Corot esercitò un'influenza che traspare persino nelle tele di Pablo Picasso. Nella sua vita eseguì più di tremila dipinti ed era considerato dai contemporanei come uno dei massimi paesaggisti mai esistiti, a lato di nomi illustri come Claude Lorrain, John Constable e J. M. W. Turner.

Padovanino, Alessandro Varotari | The Archangel Michael

Padovanino or Varotari Alessandro Leone (4 April 1588 - 20 July 1649), also commonly known as Il Padovanino, was an Italian painter** of the late-Mannerist and early-Baroque** Venetian school, best known for having mentored Pietro Liberi, Giulio Carpioni, and Bartolommeo Scaligero.

William Bouguereau | The Water Girl, 1885

One of Bouguereau’s favorite motifs was the idealized peasant girl dreamily engaged in rustic activities.

The innocence and simple grace of this subject (cleaner than her real-life counterparts would have been) epitomize the sentimental, non-threatening peasant archetype especially preferred by Bouguereau’s upper-class and American patrons.

Viktor Sheleg (Russian, 1962)

Viktor Sheleg was born in Lomonosov, near Saint-Petersberg, Russia. His family moved to Latvia when he was three.

Viktor has been drawing since early childhood and started painting at the age of twelve. Self-taught, his creativity is based on his personal worldview, which earned him a solid reputation of an independent artist.

Sheleg developed his style and aesthetic preference in a country isolated from the rest of the world and known for its climate of conformity.

The artist himself says that his work is inspired by chaos and that his painting is guided by emotions and energy. He lives and works in Riga, Latvia.