William Bouguereau | Tricoteuse Bretonne, 1871

Curious to experience the uniquely preserved language, religion, and traditions of Brittany’s sixth-century Celtic ancestors, crowds of cultural tourists travelled to this province in northwestern France in the late nineteenth century.

William Bouguereau made his first journey with his family in the summer of 1866 and found himself deeply moved by the region’s coastal landscape and distinctive people, leading him to return every summer until 1870, often vacationing in the small town of Douarnenez.

In July, their final visit was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War prompting Bouguereau’s return to Paris in July to enlist in the National Guard, putting his artistic career on hiatus.

William Bouguereau | Tricoteuse, 1873

Shortly after Adolphe William Bouguereau🎨 (French Academic painter, 1825-1905) completed Tricoteuse, in 1874, Goupil transferred the painting to their gallery in The Hague and sold it to the Poortman family. Tricoteuse has remained in The Netherlands ever since and with the same family for nearly a century.

No doubt with the help of his powerful dealer, Goupil, Bouguereau was being acquired by many collectors in The Netherlands at this time.

Louis Béroud | The Copyists in the Louvre, 1909

After visiting the Louvre, an American visitor noted that:

"along the galleries are numerous temporary stands, easels, etc., at which artists are constantly at work copying such paintings as they may have orders for, or hope to find purchasers for" (as quoted in Barbara Stern Shapiro, Pleasures of Paris: Daumier to Picasso, Boston, 1991, p. 108).

Vladimir Pervuninsky, 1957 | The Viennese Waltz

Vladimir Pervuninsky / Владимир Первунинский was born in the Russian town of Chelyabinsk. Recognized at an early age for his artistic talent, he went on to attend the Omsk Pedagogical Institute, where he majored in painting and graphics.

Vladimir, in search of a more focused and complete training, set off for Moscow, where he was accepted into the acclaimed V.I. Surikov Moscow State Art College. There, he studied under the tutelage of the well-known academician D.M. Mochalsky.

Vladimir, always, was fascinated by Impressionism and Belle Epoque painting, the strict curriculum of the Soviet Ministry of Culture allowed no latitude for students or instructors to stray from the state sanctioned style of Socialist Realism.

Leon Bazile Perrault | Rose Seller

Léon Bazile Perrault (Poitiers, 16 June 1832-1908, Royan) was a French academic painter.

He was born to a modest family.

A student of William Bouguereau and François-Edouard Picot, he exhibited at the Salon from 1863 onwards, producing many genre works which were immensely popular.

He was famous for his le petit naufragé (The little shipwrecked boy, 1874) and his paintings of children.

Michelle Seo | Pencil portraits of celebrities

Born in Los Angeles, California, Michelle Seo Hongmin is an self taught Pencil artist. Michelle attracts not only celebrities, she also makes portraits of ordinary people.

Her drawings made with ordinary pencil show surprising realism and precision in each of his works.

"I started the project Golden Era at the end of July 2009 with my past Hollywood actresses drawings and i'm so happy and excited to see all of 12 ladies right in front of me... there were some times i wanted to quit being tired and lazy".

Michelle Seo Hongmin | Merlyn Monroe

Paul Cézanne | Post-Impressionist painter

Cézanne's🎨 works were rejected numerous times by the official Salon in Paris and ridiculed by art critics when exhibited with the Impressionists.

Yet during his lifetime Cézanne was considered a master by younger artists who visited his studio in Aix.

Along with the work of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, the work of Cézanne, with its sense of immediacy and incompletion, critically influenced Matisse and others prior to Fauvism and Expressionism.

After Cézanne died in 1906, his paintings were exhibited in a large museum-like retrospective in Paris, September 1907.

The 1907 Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne greatly affected the direction that the avant-garde in Paris took, lending credence to his position as one of the most influential artists of the 19th century and to the advent of Cubism.