Vincent van Gogh | Paintings of peasants

Van Gogh had a particular attachment and sympathy for peasants and other working class people that was fueled in several ways.

He was particularly fond of the peasant genre work of Jean-François Millet and others.

He found the subjects noble and important in the development of modern art.

Van Gogh had seen the changing landscape in the Netherlands as industrialization encroached on once pastoral settings and the livelihoods of the working poor with little opportunity to change vocation.

Paul Signac | Port-en-Bessin, the Outer Harbour, 1884

Paul Signac | Port-en-Bessin, the Outer Harbour, 1884 | Christie's

In his luminous seascape painting of 1884, Paul Signac (1863-1935) recorded his impressions of the outer harbour of Port-en-Bessin.

The scene is suffused with the golden afternoon sunlight, which casts a benevolent warmth over natural and manmade elements alike.

The choppy, dappled surface of the deep blue water reflects a myriad of other colours: the pale rocks and velvety-green grass of the surrounding cliffs, the colourful houses nestled in the crevice of the valley, and the brilliant blue of the sky above.

Paul Signac | Port-en-Bessin, the Outer Harbour, 1884 | Source: © Christie's

Vincent van Gogh | Country road in Provence by night, 1890

Symbol of Provence

For Van Gogh, the cypress is the ultimate symbol of Provence.

"The cypresses still preoccupy me", he writes to his brother Theo, "I'd like to do something with them like the canvases of the sunflowers, because it astonishes me that no one has yet done them as I see them.

It's beautiful as regards lines and proportions, like an Egyptian obelisk.

And the green has such a distinguished quality".

Vincent van Gogh | Country road in Provence by night, 1890 | The Kröller-Müller Museum

Christophe Giral, 1960 | A new art of color

"Studying light not in the representation of objects, but in the assembly of colors.

I feel like I'm putting my colors down on a score that the audience's eyes are going to let him or her sing.

To achieve this result, we must know the deep architecture of light, this is my discovery that could not be done without the technical means of the 21st century" - Christophe Giral.

Christophe Giral comes from a family of artists: painters, musician and architect.

Christophe Giral studied at the Beaux-arts in Toulouse in 1976, in 1981 he graduated in fine arts.

He worked in the Capitol's decoration workshop from 1984 to 1989 as a sculptor-moulder-painter.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Tamaris, France, 1885

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Tamaris, France, 1885 | Minneapolis Institute of Art

Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted Tamaris, France in 1885.

This art piece is located in Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN, USA.

Alberto Giacometti | Scultore surrealista

Giacométti, Alberto - Scultore e pittore svizzero (Stampa, Grigioni, 1901 - Coira 1966), figlio di Giovanni.

Frequentò la scuola d'arte di Ginevra; nel 1920-21 fu a Roma; nel 1922 si stabilì a Parigi, ove frequentò Bourdelle e s'iscrisse all'Académie de la Grande-Chaumière.

Dal 1925-1928 eseguiva sculture di carattere decisamente cubista.

Nel 1929 aderì al movimento Surrealista, realizzando degli objets e delle constructions-cages (Boccia sospesa, 1930, Zurigo, Kunsthaus) e dall'esperienza surrealista trasse un senso magico dello spazio, talvolta definito per mezzo di fragili strutture lineari (Palazzo alle 4 del mattino, 1932-33, New York, Museum of modern art).

John Everett Millais | La confraternita dei Preraffaelliti

Sir John Everett Millais, RA (Southampton, 8 giugno 1829 - Londra, 13 agosto 1896) è stato un pittore ed illustratore Inglese dell'Età Vittoriana, cofondatore della Confraternita dei Preraffaelliti.

John Everett Millais nacque a Southampton, in Inghilterra, figlio di John William e Emily Mary Millais, entrambi appartenenti a una ricca famiglia nativa del Jersey.

Fu proprio sull'isola di Jersey, d'altronde, che Millais trascorse la sua prima fanciullezza, maturando una vera e propria devozione per questo luogo: quando un giorno William Makepeace Thackeray, noto scrittore inglese dell'Ottocento, gli avrebbe chiesto "quando l'Inghilterra conquistò Jersey", egli avrebbe risposto con veemenza: "Giammai! Jersey conquistò l'Inghilterra".