Jacques-Émile Blanche | Debussy, Degas, Proust, Stravinsky, Frits Thaulow etc..

Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942) was a French artist, largely self-taught, who became a successful portrait painter, working in London and Paris.

Although Blanche received some instruction in painting from Henri Gervex, he may be regarded as self-taught.

He became a very successful portrait painter, with a style derived from 18th-century English painters such as Thomas Gainsborough as well as Édouard Manet and John Singer Sargent.

Jacques-Émile Blanche | Vaslav Nijinsky in 'Danse Siamoise' | Christie's

Artemisia Gentileschi | Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, 1620-25

Until its appearance on the art market in Paris in 2014, this picture was only known from a black-and-white photograph.

It has been hailed as one of the most significant rediscoveries of a work by Artemisia in recent years.

It depicts Mary Magdalene, a follower of Christ, who withdrew to a life of solitary penitence and prayer following his death.

Here the Magdalene, alone in a cave and bathed in light, is in the throes of an ecstatic vision.

Artemisia paints her in a way that suggests a real, physical presence.

Artemisia Gentileschi | Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, 1620-25 (detail) | The National Gallery, London

Hermann Hesse | Sull’Amore / The one who loves is happy!

"Quanto più invecchiavo, quanto più insipide mi parevano le piccole soddisfazioni che la vita mi dava, tanto più chiaramente comprendevo dove andasse cercata la fonte delle gioie della vita.

Imparai che essere amati non è niente, mentre amare è tutto, e sempre più mi parve di capire ciò che da valore e piacere alla nostra esistenza non è altro che la nostra capacità di sentire".

Marc Chagall | The Lovers, 1929

Giacomo Leopardi | Canto notturno di un pastore errante dell’Asia / Night-song of a wandering shepherd of Asia

Il Canto notturno di un pastore errante dell'Asia è una poesia di Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) composta a Recanati tra il 1829-1830.

Il poeta, nelle vesti di un pastore, interroga la luna sulla condizione umana, e sul suo incarico di governare il gregge, che non è a conoscenza del dolore dell'esistenza, in quanto di natura animale; il pastore interroga ancora la luna, senza ricevere risposta; sogna di viaggiare, di volare via dal mondo, ma non può, e così conclude che è tragico l'essere nati.

Che fai tu, luna, in ciel? dimmi, che fai,

silenziosa luna?

Sorgi la sera, e vai,

contemplando i deserti; indi ti posi.

Ancor non sei tu paga

di riandare i sempiterni calli?

Ancor non prendi a schivo, ancor sei vaga

di mirar queste valli?

Marc Chagall | Solitude, 1933 | Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Luisa Roldàn | Baroque sculptor

Luisa Roldàn | The Entombment of Christ, 1700-1701 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Entombment is one of the two "jewel-like sculptures" Luisa Roldán gave to the newly installed King Philip V of Spain in 1701, petitioning him to appoint her sculptor to the royal court.

In the previous decade she had pioneered a genre of sculpture - powerfully conceived and exquisitely modelled and painted figural groups, made on a deliberately intimate scale - of which this is perhaps the finest.

Luisa Roldàn | The Entombment of Christ, 1700-1701 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wisława Szymborska | Nulla due volte accade / Nothing Twice

Nulla due volte accade

nè accadrà. Per tal ragione

si nasce senza esperienza,

si muore senza assuefazione.

Anche agli alunni più ottusi

della scuola del pianeta

di ripeter non è dato

le stagioni del passato.

Marc Chagall | The window in the country, 1915

Maurice Ehlinger | Figurative painter

"I was just four years old and I said to myself: I too will paint!

I drew a lot and I escaped into nature where I was interested in everything.

I often skipped school, taking paper and colors with me".

- Maurice Ehlinger

Maurice Ambroise Ehlinger (1896-1981) was a French painter.

He joined the School of Fine Arts in Nancy.

Unfortunately, during the 1st World War, he was incorporated in 1916 and was not demobilized until 1919.

On his return, he went to Paris and joined the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts where he became a pupil of the French painter François Flameng (1856-1923).