Sir Frederic William Burton | Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs, 1864

The subject is taken from a medieval Danish ballad translated by Burton’s friend Whitley Stokes in 1855, which tells the story of Hellelil, who fell in love with her personal guard Hildebrand, Prince of Engelland.

Her father disapproved of the relationship and ordered her seven brothers to kill the young prince.

Rembrandt | Old Woman Cutting Her Nails,1655-60

Once well known as a Rembrandt🎨, this large canvas has also been attributed to the master's pupil, Nicolaes Maes (1643-1693), and to Abraham van Dijck (ca. 1635?-1680?).

The two artists were closely associated in Dordrecht, the southern Dutch city from which several Rembrandt🎨 followers came.

Whatever its authorship, the painting must date from about 1655-60.

Othello and Desdemona's painting

Desdemona (The Song of the Willow) is based on a print, part of a suite of etchings by Chassériau illustrating Shakespeare’s Othello, which was published in Paris in 1844.

It depicts act 4, scene 3 of the play, a final moment of calm preceding Desdemona’s murder by her husband, Othello.

Desdemona’s maid, Emilia, who was complicit in orchestrating the crime, shrinks away, cringing at the knowledge of what is about to occur.

The lyre Desdemona holds was not described by Shakespeare; Chassériau observed it in an 1836 production in which the role was performed by the celebrated singer Maria Malibran Garcia (1808–1836), called La Malibran. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Théodore Chassériau | Desdemona (The Song of the Willow) 1849 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Moise Kisling | Pittore post-impressionista

Moïse Kisling, nato Mojżesz Kisling (Cracovia, 22 gennaio 1891 - Sanary-sur-Mer, 29 aprile 1953), è stato un pittore Polacco naturalizzato francese. La più ampia raccolta delle opere di Kisling è esposta al Museo del Petit Palais di Ginevra.

Nato e cresciuto a Cracovia in una famiglia ebraica ashkenazita, studiò presso la Scuola delle Belle Arti, dove fattosi notare per il suo talento venne incoraggiato a trasferirsi a Parigi, il centro della creatività artistica dell'epoca. Nel 1910 dimorò nel quartiere di Montmartre per poi trasferirsi, qualche anno più tardi, a Montparnasse.

Allo scoppio della Prima guerra mondiale, si arruolò volontario nella Legione straniera, così come l'artista italiano Ugo Giannattasio, e nel 1915 rimase gravemente ferito al petto nella battaglia della Somme, motivo per il quale fu premiato con la cittadinanza francese.

Luigi Rossi | Symbolist / Genre painter

A Swiss painter Luigi Rossi (1853-1923) was born in Cassarate, Lugano. Having studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of Giuseppe Bertini, Rossi made his artistic debut in 1871, inaugurating a repertoire of Genre scenes🎨 with a subtle vein of social criticism that was to be a distinctive feature of his work.

Le Pho | Impressionist Still Lifes

The sensitive, subtle beautiful paintings by Vietnamese artist, Lê Phổ / 黎谱 (1907-2001) are a fascinating blending of Oriental artistry with influences of contemporary Western art.

For the most part this artist specialized in semi-Impressionist studies of flowers and figures and handled them with delicacy and an unusually fluid transparency of color.

Early Years of Le Pho’s Art Career

In his early years, Le Pho preferred painting on silk instead of canvas, and to do so, developed a technique all his own.

Johannes Rosierse | Genre painter

Johannes Rosierse (Dordrecht, 1818 - 1901) was a Dutch painter🎨 - from the Netherlands, who mostly painted portraits, genre scenes🎨 and candlelight-pieces.

His most important subject were interior images with staffage.

He focused on individual figures, or on groups arranged by candlelight in dark interiors.

He frequently painted kitchens, presenting a synopsis of food such as fruits and vegetables en passant.

Johannes Rosierse passed away in 1901.

Works of the artist can be seen in the museum of his hometown Dordrecht, as well as in Musée Fabre in the Southern French Montpellier.

Jacqueline Williams, 1962 | Impressionist painter

Born in Lincoln, Jacqueline Williams soon became interested in art at school and went on to attend the Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology. Her success at College earnt her a place at the prestigious Royal Academy School London.

Jacqueline's continued hard work and success meant that she was elected a member of the New English Art Club ( NEAC) in 1993.

She has won many awards including: The Antique Collectors prize, Antonio De Segonzac Travel Scholarship, Elizabeth Greenshields Award, Patterson Prize NEAC, Critics Prize NEAC, Patterson Memorial Prize.

Mario Henrique, 1983 | Ritrattista astratto

Affascinato dai significati sottili del linguaggio del corpo e delle espressioni facciali, Mario Henrique dipinge ritratti ravvicinati di una vasta gamma di persone.

Mario Henrique è un artista con sede a Cascais, in Portogallo.

Laureato in Design all'Università di Belle Arti di Lisbona, ha iniziato la sua carriera in agenzie di marketing online e sviluppo web.

In qualità di direttore creativo, ha reclutato e guidato team in Portogallo, Spagna e Brasile.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau | Italien à la mandoline

A consummate example of Bouguereau's ability to render tender portraits of children, Italien à la mandoline depicts a young peasant boy holding his elegant instrument.

Although images of boys are rare in Bouguereau's oeuvre, perhaps, as Damien Bartoli suggests, because of the artist's difficult relationship with his own father, this youth appears in three other works which date to this same period - Pifferaro (1870), Pifferaro (1874) and Enfant Italien tenant une croûte de pain (1874).

William-Adolphe Bouguereau | Italien a la mandoline

Cheri Blum (1969-2003)

An artist who celebrated beauty in imperfection. These kinds of simple contradictions were Cheri Blum’s trademarks and perhaps the key to her remarkable success.

Cheri Blum who was born in Maryland on 1969 and passed away at her home in Georgetown on November 4, 2003, at the age of 34. In her brilliant but brief career, Cheri Blum created more than 400 original paintings. Cheri Blum began her careeas an illustrator and muralist, creating trompe l’oeil, faux painting and decorative furniture finishes. This background not only provided her with the techniques she used to create her beautiful, unique backgrounds, but also a strong desire to bring art into everyday life. “We should be able to surround ourselves with beautiful art in our homes and offices, not just when we visit museums and galleries”.

Cheri’s approach was inspired by the past, but reflected today’s modern styles. She strove to create art that was peaceful, tranquil and edited of unnecessary detail. The simple, graceful shapes she painted have a timeless quality and restful feeling that make them easy to live with and enjoy.

Galina Chuvilyaeva, 1957 | Angels

Galina Chuvilyaeva / Галина Чувиляева is a famous St. Petersburg artist, jeweler, member of the Union of Designers and the Union of Artists of Russia, a participant in numerous exhibitions.

Galina Chuvilyaeva was born in 1957 on the Volga. Childhood and youth passed in Ukraine, where his father served.

The beauty of the Carpathians, mountains, rivers and gardens blooming twice a year - all this has left an indelible mark on the artist's soul.

Claude Monet | Figures / Portraits | Page 2

Vincent van Gogh | The Ravine of the Peyroulets, 1889

In the autumn of 1889, Van Gogh painted the ravine near the asylum in the southern French town of Saint‑Remy.

He wrote about it to his dear friend Emile Bernard:

"Such subjects certainly have a fine melancholy, but then it is fun to work in rather wild places, where one has to dig one’s easel in between the stones lest the wind should blow the whole caboodle over".

The following spring, Van Gogh sent this painting to Paris, where Paul Gauguin saw it and wrote to him:

Hans Dahl (1849-1937)

Hans Dahl (19 February 1849 - 27 July 1937) was a Norwegian painter.

Hans Dahl was famous for his paintings of Norwegian fjords and surrounding landscapes.

Dahl had his first exhibition in Düsseldorf in 1876. Dahl lived in Düsseldorf until 1888, when he moved to Berlin. Almost every summer, he was back to Norway. In 1893, he commissioned the firm of Jacob Digre in Trondheim to build his summer residence, Villa Strandheim.

It is located on the banks of the Sognefjord at Balestrand in the county of Sogn og Fjordane. Norwegian painter Adelsteen Normann had settled in Balestrand during 1891. Dahl's villa was of a similar design to the villa built for Normann.

James Smetham | The Mandolin, 1866

James Smetham (9 September 1821 - 5 February 1889) was an English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painter and engraver, a follower of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Smetham worked in a range of genres, including religious and literary themes as well as portraiture; but he is perhaps best known as a landscape painter.

His "landscapes have a visionary quality" reminiscent of the work of William Blake, John Linnell and Samuel Palmer.

Claude Monet | Rising Tide at Pourville, 1882

Throughout his career Claude Monet depicted France’s English Channel coastline.

In works such as Rising Tide at Porville / Marée montante à Pourville, he combined keen observation with Impressionism’s subjective use of color and light effects.

Henrik Willem Mesdag also painted churning waters, of the nearby North Sea.

Here, a small ship with wind-torn sails is tossed by massive, white-capped waves.

The broad expanse of water, almost matching the tone of the sky, dramatizes nature’s mighty power.

Claude Monet | Rising Tide at Pourville (Marée montante à Pourville), 1882 | Brooklyn Museum

Claude Monet | Boats below the Cliffs at Pourville, 1882

Bateaux devant les falaises de Pourville / Boats below the Cliffs at Pourville features a bold geometrically structured composition of diagonals and horizontals, reflective of the more simplified approach that Monet was then exploring.

The horizon line bisects the canvas into two parts of roughly equal size; two tranches of nearly identical size and shape form the sand and sea, whilst the diagonal line of the cliff runs to the very centre of the composition.

The slightly raised vantage point from which Monet has captured this view serves, in comparison with other views from this group, to considerably foreshorten the angle of the shoreline.

Edward William Cooke (1811-1880)

Edward William Cooke was an English🎨 landscape and marine painter and gardener.

Cooke was born in Pentonville, London, the son of well-known line engraver George Cooke; his uncle, William Bernard Cooke (1778-1855), was also a line engraver of note, and Edward was raised in the company of artists.

He was a precocious draughtsman and a skilled engraver from an early age, displayed an equal preference for marine subjects (in special in sailing ships) and published his "Shipping and Craft" - a series of accomplished engravings - when he was 18, in 1829.

Vladimir Kush, 1965 | Pillow Book

Il dipinto raffigura il momento del risveglio.

Quando la notte tiene ancora le redini nella parte oscura del letto-libro, e la luce dorata del mattino penetra attraverso le tende aperte dello spazio dell'abitazione.

I sogni guariscono la propria anima, bilanciando la realtà con elementi di magia ed il mondo intangibile della fantasia.

Morpheus sta ancora salvaguardando il sonno dorato che rimane sulle ciglia setose della ragazza.

Un segnalibro a forma di piuma d'uccello simboleggia il volo dell'immaginazione.