William-Adolphe Bouguereau | Idylle: famille antique, 1860

At the time that Bouguereau painted Idylle: famille antique he was a rising star on the Paris art scene. After studying with the esteemed French Academic master François Picot, Bouguereau gained admittance to the hallowed halls of Paris' École des Beaux-Arts.
In 1849, he exhibited for the first time in the Paris Salon and the following year won the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome.

During his time in Italy, Bouguereau traveled extensively, studying the Renaissance masters** who inspired his early fascination with classical antiquity, as demonstrated by the present painting.

Alfred Henry Maurer | The Rendezvous, 1904-05

Diego Velázquez | An Old Woman Cooking Eggs, 1618

Old Woman Frying Eggs is a genre painting by Diego Velázquez, produced during his Seville period.

The date is not precisely known but is thought to be around the turn of 1618 before his definitive move to Madrid in 1623.

The painting is in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.

Velázquez frequently used working-class characters in early paintings like this one, in many cases using his family as models; the old woman here also appears in his Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (1618).

Van Gogh | Outskirts of Paris, 1886

L'alfabeto di Erté (Romain de Tirtoff)

Romain de Tirtoff / Роман Петрович Тыртов (1892-1990), noto con lo pseudonimo di Erté, è stato un artista e designer Francese di origine russa.

Era un artista e designer del XX secolo in una serie di campi, tra cui moda, gioielleria, arti grafiche, costumi e scenografie per film, teatro ed opera e arredamento d'interni.

nato come Roman Petrov de Tyrtov a San Pietroburgo, Impero russo in una famiglia molto illustre con radici che risalgono al 1548.

Suo padre Pyotr Ivanovich de Tyrtov era un ammiraglio della flotta.

Nel 1910-1912 Romain si trasferì a Parigi per intraprendere la carriera di designer.

Margarita Georgiadis (Australian painter, 1968)

Internationally renowned Australian artist, Margarita Georgiadis studied both printmaking and painting at the National Art School and Sydney College of the Arts.

She has held many solo exhibitions, participates in regular group and solo shows, has won and been short listed for numerous prestigious National art prizes including: The Archibald, The Mosman Art Prize, The Paddington Art Prize. Awarded The Veolia Mulwaree Trust Scholarship in 2017 to undertake an artists residency in France.

Margarita's work is included in private and corporate collections world wide. Margarita's career as an artist spans over twenty years.

She lives and works in an old and much loved theatre in a small country town and teaches regularly at The Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. Margarita is founder and Principal Tutor at Gunning Fine Art Classes.

Albert Lynch | Pittore della Belle Époque

Albert Lynch è stato un pittore Peruviano, nato in Germania ma sempre vissuto in Francia. È considerato, pertanto, un pittore Francese.

Albert Lynch era figlio di Diego Lynch, di famiglia peruviana, e di Adele Bertha Emma Koeffler, di famiglia tedesca (suo padre era il pittore paesaggista Thomas Koeffler).

Non è chiaro se Lynch sia nato a Lima o a Gleisweiler, in Renania (Germania). Sul sito "Benezit Dictionary of Artist" del 2011 (ed anche altri siti), Lynch nacque a Lima (o Trujillo) nel 1851 e morì nel 1912.

Alcuni ipotizzano che, a causa della disfatta di Sedan del 1870 ed il conseguente astio dei francesi per i prussiani, Lynch preferì dichiararsi nato in Perù e non in Germania, anche se la documentazione indica che fu battezzato a Gleisweiler. Ma la sua totale permanenza in Francia e la sua cultura prettamente francese ne fanno, in realtà, un artista decisamente francese.