Claude Monet | The Bridge at Argenteuil, 1874

Claude Monet | The Bridge at Argenteuil, 1874 | National Gallery of Art, Washington-DC

From a distance of ten feet or so, Monet's brushstrokes blend to yield a convincing view of the Seine and the pleasure boats that drew tourists to Argenteuil.

Up close, however, each dab of paint is distinct, and the scene dissolves into a mosaic of paint-brilliant, unblended tones of blue, red, green, yellow.

In the water, quick, fluid skips of the brush mimic the lapping surface.

In the trees, thicker paint is applied with denser, stubbier strokes.

The figure in the sailboat is only a ghostly wash of dusty blue, the women rowing nearby are indicated by mere shorthand.

Claude Monet | Lilacs, grey weather, 1873

'Lilacs, Grey Weather' was created in c.1873 by Claude Monet in Impressionism style. It is kept in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

In Lilacs, Grey Weather, Monet used muted colors for the characters, merging them into the background. Where are the legs of the man leaning on the right ? The only thing that catches the eye is the white dress of a woman.

Then, a closer look enables to distinguish the three people thanks to the black and white contrast.

The process is different in Lilacs in the Sun. Spots of light play on the dresses of the two models. Monet applied this effect in several paintings (The Luncheon, Women in a Garden, the Reader...).

Camille Monet, la musa di Monet

Camille Doncieux (15 January 1847 - 5 September 1879) was the first wife of French painter Claude Monet.

She was the subject of a number of paintings by Monet, as well as Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Édouard Manet. She was mother to two sons with Monet.

She modeled for her husband on several occasions, including for the painting Camille (The Woman in the Green Dress), which received critical acclaim at the Paris salon and earned him 800 francs when sold to Arsène Houssaye.

In addition to being Monet's favoured model, she also modelled for Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Édouard Manet.

Claude Monet | Apples and Grapes, 1879-1880

This is one of three tabletop still lifes depicting a basket of apples and grapes that Monet painted in 1879-80, when a spell of bad weather forced him to retreat indoors.

In late November 1879, his future stepdaughter Marthe Hoschedé took note of a "painting of fruits" in progress, when she recorded that Monet was "working hard at his still lifes which are very pretty". | Source: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Claude Monet | Apples and Grapes, 1879-80 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Edward Hopper | Room in New York, 1932

Sheldon Museum of Art | Edward Hopper observed the everyday lives of city dwellers in much of his work.

In the important canvases painted between 1926 and 1932, he made use of single figures and couples to create a sense of thoughtful reticence and solitude.

Eschewing the picturesque and the literal, Hopper’s pictures remain unexplained, without narrative, instead invoking a hermetically sealed world of emotion.

In 1935 the artist remarked that the idea for Room in New York "was suggested by glimpses of lighted interiors seen as I walked along the city streets at night".

Edward Hopper | Room in New York, 1932 | Sheldon Museum of Art

Maria Jose Aguilar Gutierrez, 1964

Maria José Aguilar è nata nella città di Siviglia, nel quartiere centrale di San Lorenzo.

Ha trascorso la sua infanzia e la prima adolescenza tra la sua città natale, la baia di Cadice e le montagne di Jaén.

Fin dall'inizio ha mostrato inclinazioni artistiche e doti alimentate da un ambiente appropriato.

È cresciuta con la passione per i grandi maestri spagnoli, in particolare Velázquez, Murillo, Zurbarán e Valdés Leal, ecc.

Andrew Sterrett Conklin, 1961

Nativo di Chicago, Illinois Andrew Sterrett Conklin è un pittore figurativo.

Ha conseguito un BFA dalla American Academy of Art, ed è stato certificato in pittura presso la Scuola Nazionale Academy di New York City.

Conklin ha ricevuto ulteriori istruzioni dal ritrattista Aaron Shikler e dal pittore ed illustratore David Levine.