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 | Morning light

Born in Khabarovsk, Russia, Vladimir 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, Vladimir was admitted to the lvov polygraphic institute in the former soviet union.

Beginning in 1984 Vladimir began participating in, and winning, international competitions for poster art.

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