Pierre Auguste Renoir | Woman playing a guitar, 1897

Woman Playing a Guitar / "Femme jouant de la guitare"/"Joueuse de guitare ou La Guitariste" is an 1897 painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, which bought it in 1901.

The work was one of the first paintings acquired by Paul Durand-Ruel.

Renoir painted several paintings of guitar-players and borrowing classical motifs - here, he is influenced by Camille Corot, Titian and Rubens.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) | Flowers and lovers

• "You could wonder for hours what flowers mean, but for me, they're life itself, in all its happy brilliance. We couldn't do with out flowers".
• "Potresti chiederti per ore cosa significano i fiori, ma per me sono la vita stessa, in tutto il suo felice splendore. Non potevamo fare a meno dei fiori".
• "Art is the increasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding".
• "L'arte è lo sforzo incessante di competere con la bellezza dei fiori - e non riuscirci mai".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | L'Église à Essoyes, 1890

The great impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir🎨 lived in the charming little village of Essoyes, in the Aube department of Champagne-Ardennes (in north-central France) from 1896-1907.

The village, hometown of his wife Aline and model and governess of his children Gabrielle Renard, is represented in many of his paintings.

Marc Chagall | Music and Colour

• "Mozart never composed anything, ever! He copied what was written on his soul".
• "Mozart non ha mai composto nulla, mai! Ha copiato ciò che è stato scritto sulla sua anima".
• "Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything, color is vibration like music; everything is vibration".
• "Il colore è tutto. Quando il colore è giusto, anche la forma è giusta. Il colore è tutto, il colore è vibrazione come la musica; tutto è vibrazione".

Francis Picabia | Paysages

Francis Picabia, born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia (1879-1953), was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist.

After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism.

His highly abstract planar compositions were colourful and rich in contrasts.

He was one of the early major figures of the Dada movement in the United States and in France.

He was later briefly associated with Surrealism, but would soon turn his back on the art establishment.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) | Les Amoureux

"When you did catch a glimpse of his eyes, they were as blue as if they’d fallen straight out of the sky. They were strange eyes.. ..long, almond-shaped.. ..and each seemed to sail along by itself, like a little boat"!

- Quote of Bella Chagall - her description of their first encounter in Vitebsk, 1909.

Michele Lehmann, 1940 | Abstract painter

Michele Lehmann was born in Switzerland but moved to Mijas in southern Spain over 30 years ago.

After arriving there, Michele opened an art gallery as an outlet for local artists.

Although not an artist herself she began sketching to pass the time.

It began with a sketch of an old woman in black who passed the gallery every day.

She moved too fast for Michele to draw so the image captured her from behind.