Pino Daeni (Italian painter, 1939-2010)

Pino was born in Bari where Pino began his studies at the city’s Art Institute. In 1960 entered Milan’s Academy of Brera where Pino perfected his talent and skill for painting figures.

In the two years Pino studied at the Academy, Pino came under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites and Macchiaioli.Pino also experimented with Expressionism of the late sixties during his stay in Milan.

From 1960-1979 Pino's work appeared in several major exhibitions throughout Italy and Europe.

At the same time, Pino was commissioned by Italy’s two largest publishers. Mondadori and Rizzoli, for book illustrations. However, Pino felt restricted in Milan.

Pino wanted more artistic freedom which he believed existed in the United States.

Carolus-Duran | View of Venice

Carolus-Duran was among the most celebrated portrait painters working in Paris in the 1870s.

With his casual pose and elegant clothing, he is presented as a dandy or fashionable man-about-town.

On his lapel he wears the red pin of the French Legion of Honour, awarded for his contribution to the arts. Sargent studied with Carolus-Duran, launching his own career by exhibiting this portrait to great acclaim.

Along the top, he added an inscription paying homage to his teacher and describing himself as an “affectionate pupil”.

Retro Atelier | Vintage photography

Retro Atelier reconstructs nineteenth-century imaging techniques, as well as elements of the then prevailing trends in dressing, uniforms, and the props used in that era for the purposes of removing images from nature.

He also makes prints from the obtained negatives, including the then fashionable toning, dyeing, overpainting and photo retouching.

Hugh Goldwin Rivière | The garden of Eden, 1901

Hugh Goldwin Rivière (British painter, 1869-1956) first exhibited The Garden of Eden at the Royal Academy in 1901.

Born in Bromley in Kent, Rivière was the son of Royal Academy member, Briton Rivière. H.G. Rivière’s paintings fall into two main subject categories: historical or legendary, and contemporary scenes of everyday life and portraits.

Best known as a portrait artist, the scene of Victorian sentimentality is somewhat unique although a watercolour replica does exist and is held in a private collection.

Jeffrey Batchelor (American painter, 1960)

Jeffrey Batchelor was born in North Carolina and studied at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, deferring in 1987 to pursue a career in theatrical scene painting.

Conceptually, his work ranges from straight realism to surrealism, and from rectangular canvases to shaped canvas panels.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century.

He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the inventionof constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.

Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" 1907, and "Guernica" 1937, a portrayal of the german bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

Ben Goossens | Surrealist photographer, 1945

Goossens worked for 35 years in his native Belgium as an ad agency art director. After retiring, Goossen's turned to creating photo montages with a distinctive Surrealism style reminiscent of his fellow countryman, René Magritte.

Goossens' images have received awards in a number of prestigious international photography competitions including Gold and Silver medals at the Trierenberg Super Circuit, the world's largest annual photography salon.

Goossens has also seen his work widely published, including an in-depth 10 page exposition in the March 2007 edition of Photo Art International. His composite photos are remarkable for their seamless yet painterly renderings of Surrealism dreamscapes.