John Singer Sargent 1856-1925 | American Impressionism

John Singer Sargent was an american artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian Era luxury.

The Edwardian Period corresponds to the French Belle Époque period. Despite its brief pre-eminence, the period is characterised by its own unique architectural style, fashion, and lifestyle. Art Nouveau had a particularly strong influence. Artists were influenced by the development of the automobile and electricity, and a greater awareness of human rights.

During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2.000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine and Florida.
Born in Florence in 1856 to expatriate American parents, John Singer Sargent received his first formal art instruction in Rome in 1868, and sporadically attended the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence between 1870-1873. In 1874 he was accepted at the Paris studio of the portraitist Emile-Auguste Carolus-Duran, and the next fall entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts to study drawing. He began to exhibit at the Salon in 1877. Over the next few years several experiences had a significant impact on Sargent's artistic development: during a trip to Spain in 1879 he copied paintings by Velázquez at the Prado; in 1880 he visited Belgium and Holland, where he copied works by Frans Hals; and in 1881 he met James McNeill Whistler in Venice.
During the 1870-1880, Sargent painted genre scenes, based in part on his travels to Spain and Venice, but it was his remarkable skills as a portraitist upon which his reputation rested. The scandal caused by Sargent's daring portrait of Madame Gautreau at the Salon of 1884 precipitated his departure to London the following year. In England, Sargent's style of working was seen as peculiarly French. In 1885 he joined Francis David Millet in the Worcestershire village of Broadway, where he began his masterpiece of english impressionism, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. By 1886, he had made London his permanent home. A year later, Sargent visited and worked with Monet at Giverny, and made his first professional trip to America, where the demand for his portraiture brought him considerable fame.

Jackie Morris 1961 | British Watercolour painter and Book Illustrator

I was born in Birmingham and lived there until at the age of four my parents moved away to Evesham. Here I grew up and remember little of those times. I do know that from at least the age of six I wanted to be an artist. I watched my dad drawing a picture of a lapwing, making a bird appear on a piece of paper using only a pencil, and I thought it was some magic that made this happen. So there and then I decided to learn how to conjure birds from paper and colour.

I went to school in Evesham to Prince Henry's High School and I remember walking to school past shop fronts above which elegant buildings grew. I used to get told off at school for drawing and dreaming. Now I get paid to do both.

Ottorino De Lucchi 1951 | Italian Hyperrealist painter

Ottorino De Lucchi è nato a Ferrara, l’8 novembre 1951. Si è laureato in Chimica 1975 e Farmacia 1977 presso l’Università di Padova. E’ membro della Società Chimica Italiana dal 1977, dove ha ricoperto la carica di Presidente della Divisione di Chimica Organica e dal 1979 è membro dell’American Chemical Society. Nel 1984 ha ricevuto la medaglia Ciamician dalla Società Chimica Italiana, nel 1993 il premio Federchimica e nel 1997 il prestigioso Zeneca lecture prize, presso Wilmington, USA. Durante la vita ha sempre svolto attività artistica, intercalandola con la sua professione di chimico universitario, soprattutto durante i lunghi soggiorni all’estero o lontano dalla famiglia. Ha avuto modo così di approfondire la conoscenza dei materiali e delle tecniche pittoriche su cui tiene attualmente un corso all’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia nel Corso di Laurea in Conservazione e Restauro.

Durante la permanenza negli Stati Uniti ha potuto conoscere e osservare da vicino l’opera di Andrew Wyeth, appassionandosi alla tecnica e al virtuosismo dei suoi dipinti, definiti come drybrush.

Pantelis Zografos 1949 | Watercolors of Greek Islands

Pantelis Zografos [Παντελής Ζωγράφος] was born in Athens, Greece, into a family with along tradition of producing fine artists. In greek language, the name of Zografos means artist: and following the Greek custom, Pantelis took the name of his paternal grandfather, a renowned iconographer. Both of his parents were professional artists, and he spent much of his youth in their studio in Athens.
In 1971, after serving the Greek Air Force, Pantelis moved to America. He studied at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and painted landscapes in his spare time. In 1979 Pantelis moved to Raleigh, North Carolina: nine years later he decided to pursue his love of art and paint professionally. He quickly found a favorable reception to his work which is now widely distributed throughout the U.S.A. Pantelis occasionally paints in oils but mainly uses watercolor to depict the colorful landscapes and seascapes of Greece. He also paints local scenes and accepts commissions. Recently he painted a Byzantine icon of Archangel Gabriel for the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.

Winslow Homer 1836-1910 | American maritime and landscape painter

Homer is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in american art. Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator. He subsequently took up oil painting and produced major studio works characterized by the weight and density he exploited from the medium. He also worked extensively in watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre, primarily chronicling his working vacations. Some major artists create popular stereotypes that last for decades; others never reach into popular culture at all.

Emil Nolde 1867-1956 | The Expressionist Garden

Born to a peasant family, Emil Nolde carved wood for a living and came late to painting. Though briefly a member of Die Brücke 1906-07, he was essentially a solitary painter. Fervently religious and racked by a sense of sin, he created such works as Dance Around the Golden Calf 1910, in which the figures' erotic frenzy and demonic faces are rendered with deliberately crude draftsmanship and dissonant colours. On an ethnological expedition to the East Indies 1913-14, he was impressed by the power of the art he saw there. Back in Europe, he produced brooding landscapes and colourful flowers. As a printmaker he was noted especially for the stark black-and-white effect of his crudely incised woodcuts.

Emil Nolde 1867-1956 | German expressionist painter | The Die Brücke Group

Born to a peasant family, he carved wood for a living and came late to painting. Though briefly a member of Die Brücke 1906-07, he was essentially a solitary painter. Fervently religious and racked by a sense of sin, he created such works as Dance Around the Golden Calf 1910, in which the figures' erotic frenzy and demonic faces are rendered with deliberately crude draftsmanship and dissonant colours. On an ethnological expedition to the East Indies 1913-14, he was impressed by the power of the art he saw there. Back in Europe, he produced brooding landscapes and colourful flowers. As a printmaker he was noted especially for the stark black-and-white effect of his crudely incised woodcuts.