Henri Matisse | Méditation - Après le bain, 1920

The painting dates from the 1920s, produced during one of the artist’s many stays in Nice, which became more frequent and prolonged over time.

The theme of the interior, with the female figure facing the window (here the model is not easy to identify), is present in several of the painter’s compositions from this period, as is the use of soft light and decorative elements that characterise the settings.

Van Gogh about Jean-François Millet

Vincent van Gogh in a letter to Theo, from The Hague, 5 Nov 1882 - original manuscript of letter no. 280 - at Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam:

"..I fear that in a few years there may be a kind of 'panic', in this form: 'since Millet' we have sunk very low - the word decadence, now whispered or pronounced in veiled terms (see Herkomer), will then sound like an alarm bell. Many, like I myself, now keep quiet, because they already have the reputation of being awkward customers, and talking about it doesn't help".

Giorgio De Chirico (1888-1978)

Giorgio de Chirico è stato un pittore e scrittore Italiano, principale esponente della corrente artistica della pittura Metafisica. De Chirico nasce da una famiglia nobile di lingua italiana, il padre Evaristo, ingegnere delle ferrovie, costruì la prima rete ferroviaria in Bulgaria ed in Grecia.

Nel 1891 nella stessa città nasce il fratello Andrea Alberto. Più tardi mentre Alberto studiava pianoforte, Giorgio si iscriveva al Politecnico di Atene per intraprendere lo studio della pittura. I due fratelli erano molto uniti e si scambiavano le proprie conoscenze.

Intorno al 1909 si comincia a delineare la poetica della metafisica: arte capace di governare le emozioni e trasformare l'inconscio.

Nel 1911 de Chirico raggiunge il fratello Alberto a Parigi dove conosce i principali artisti dell'epoca, comincia quindi a dipingere quadri con uno stile più sicuro. Subisce l’influenza di Gauguin da cui prendono forma le prime rappresentazioni delle piazze d’Italia.

Edward Portielje (1861-1949)

Edward Antoon Portielje (1861-1949) was born in Antwerp on 8 February 1861. He trained under Charles Verlat (1824-90), who had taught at the Antwerp Academy since 1877 and became director of it in 1885.

Like his father, Jan Frederik Pieter Portielje (1829-1908), a Dutchman, Edward Antoon Portielje devoted himself primarily to genre painting. His elder brother, Gerard Jozef Portielje, also made a name for himself as a painter.

Edward Antoon Portielje died in his native Antwerp in 1949.

Guido Reni | The Immaculate Conception, 1627

Guido Reni (Bologna, 1575-1642), the most celebrated painter of seventeenth-century Italy, was particularly famous for the elegance of his compositions and the beauty and grace of his female heads, earning him the epithet “Divine".

This altarpiece, with its otherworldly space shaped by clouds and putti in a high-keyed palette, was commissioned in about 1627 by the Spanish ambassador in Rome for the Infanta of Spain.

Guido Reni | The Immaculate Conception, 1627 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Robert Campin (1375-1444)

Robert Campin, now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle (earlier the Master of the Merode Triptych, before the discovery of three other similar panels), was the first great master of Flemish and Early Netherlandish painting. Campin's identity and the attribution of the paintings in both the "Campin" and "Master of Flémalle" groupings have been a matter of controversy for decades.

Campin was highly successful during his lifetime, and thus his activities are relatively well documented, but he did not sign or date his works, and none can be securely connected with him.

A corpus of work attached to the unidentified "Master of Flémalle", so named in the 19th century after three religious panels said to have come from a monastery in Flémalle.

Edmund Blair Leighton | Pre-Raphaelite painter