Happy birthday to Théo van Rysselberghe, born on this day in 1862

Happy birthday to Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 - 13 December 1926), a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century.

Van Rysselberghe discovered the pointillist technique when he saw Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte at the eighth impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1886.

Together with Henry Van de Velde, Georges Lemmen, Xavier Mellery, Willy Schlobach and Alfred William Finch and Anna Boch he "imported" this style to Belgium.

Metropolitan Museum of Art | Storia del Museo

Le prime radici del Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) risalgono al 1866 a Parigi, Francia, quando un gruppo di americani decise di creare una "istituzione nazionale e galleria d'arte" per portare l'arte e l'educazione artistica al popolo americano.

L'avvocato John Jay, che propose l'idea, portò avanti rapidamente il progetto al suo ritorno negli Stati Uniti dalla Francia.

Sotto la presidenza di Jay, l'Union League Club di New York radunò leader civici, uomini d'affari, artisti, collezionisti d'arte e filantropi alla causa.

Alaa Awad, 1981 | Neo-pharaonic style art

Dr. Alaa Awad is an Egyptian painter and muralist, known for his public murals in Cairo and Luxor, Egypt.

Inspired by ancient Egyptian heritage and contemporary society, some of Awad’s most popular work includes scenes of celebration, victory, Sufism, Egyptian social life and culture.

Currently, he serves as an assistant lecturer and PhD candidate at South Valley University (SVU), Faculty of Fine Arts.

His PhD working dissertation title is, "Artistic Vision Inspired by the Murals of War and Peace in Ancient Egyptian Art" and will be released in 2019.

Balbusso Twins, le gemelle dell'illustrazione

Anna ed Elena Balbusso, gemelle, vivono e lavorano a Milano.

Diplomate in pittura all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, dal 1994 operano come illustratrici freelance per la pubblicità e l’editoria sia in Italia che all’estero.

Dal 1998 illustrano libri per ragazzi e copertine con varie case editrici.

Dal 2003 lavorano con testate francesi nell’ambito della comunicazione e dei magazine.

Nel 2006 hanno iniziato nuove collaborazioni nell’editoria per ragazzi in Francia ed in Corea del Sud.

Charles Dickens: "Love is not a feeling to pass away"

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic.

He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius.

His novels and short stories are widely read today.

Charles Dickens | Love is not a feeling to pass away

Love is not a feeling to pass away,

Like the balmy breath of a summer day;

It is not - it cannot be - laid aside;

It is not a thing to forget or hide.

William Powell Frith | The Two Central Figures in "Derby Day" | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Happy birthday to Édouard Vuillard, born on this day, in 1868

Happy birthday to French Post-impressionist and Nabis painter Edouard Vuillard, born on this day in November 11, 1868.

From 1891 through 1900, Vuillard was a prominent member of the avant garde artistic group Les Nabis, creating paintings that assembled areas of pure color.

His interior scenes, influenced by Japanese prints, explored the spatial effects of flattened planes of color, pattern, and form.

The Prado Mona Lisa, 1507-1516

This version of the Mona Lisa (Louvre) was painted by one of Leonardo’s pupils.

The fact that each pentimento, or change, in Leonardo’s original (to the bust, outline of the veil and position of the fingers) is repeated here suggests that the two works were created simultaneously.

There are also differences with respect to the original, in the unfinished landscape and on the face.

Overall, the panel seems to reflect an intermediate stage in the creation of the Louvre painting.

Prado Mona Lisa, 1503-1516 | Museo Nacional del Prado