Lucien Adrion was born May 25, 1889 in Strasbourg, France. He was  was a French Post-Impressionist painter, draftsman, and printmaker known for his depictions of the French countryside and beaches, as well as Parisian life including landscape, still life, figure and landmarks paintings. He began his initial studies in Strasbourg as a technical draughtsman. In 1907, at the age of 18, he left his hometown Strasbourg and traveled to Paris, where he found employment in a large drafting company to work as a fashion illustrator. Adrion changed his mind upon arrival and rather than working for a large company, he decided to peruse his artistic career by traveling to London, Munich and Frankfurt. As the World War broke out he had to go to Berlin, where he studied as an engraver with Hermann Struck, who was also the teacher of Marc Chagall. He remained in Berlin until the war ended and after the demobilization, Lucien would study engraving under Franz Ritter von Struck, who was Marc Chagall's teacher as well. Adrion returned to his home town in France in 1919, and then eventually moved to Paris, where he took a studio in Montparnasse of Paris and allied himself primarily with the young Eastern European painters such as Chaim Soutine, Pinchus Krémègne and Michel Kikoine to operate. In 1921 Adrion had his first solo exhibition at Galerie Chéron and then in 1926 at the age of 37, he had his first major exhibition in the Salon des Indépendants, where later on, he exhibited regularly. In 1940 he exhibited in the Salon d'Automme and the following year 1941 in the Salon des Tuileries where he exhibited several landscapes. As an engraver, watercolorist and painter from the French school, he took a variety of external scenes as subjects for his work, showing a particular fondness for the picturesque aspects of the Parisian landscape, beach scenes and horse races. Throughout his career, Adrion continued to exhibit his work at Salons in Paris, where his paintings were praised for their ability to capture the movement and transience of urban life. He eventually left Paris to settle in Normandy, where he began focusing on beach landscapes subject, with a great success because they became very popular as decorative paintings. He died on August 1953 in Cologne, France.

Martha Walter was born on March 19, 1875 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Walter is a well-known American Impressionist painter who benefitted from an excellent arts education. She attended Girls High School from 1895 to 1898, Walter studied at the Pennsylvania Museum & School of Industrial Art, now The University of the Arts College of Art and Design. Then she enrolled with William Merritt Chase at his summer school in Shinnecock, Long Island, followed by enrolling at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts studying under Chase’s wing. Showing on Walter's early work a very strong influence of Chase, translated in a use of rich saturated colors, combined with a very successful application of black paint. Since black was a pigment extraordinarily difficult to master and often omitted in the general course of American Impressionism. She was also one of the few American Impressionists who used black in her palette.

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts is where she was awarded the school's Toppan Prize and in 1903 she won a two-year traveling Cresson Scholarship that gave her the opportunity to go to France, where she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under the tuition from Rene Menard and Lucien Simon and the Académie Julian in Paris, she also visited, Spain, Italy, and Holland. In 1909 Walter also won the school’s Mary Smith Prize from the Academy for the best painting by a resident female artist of portrait she had painted in Europe. In 1922 she was given a solo show at the Galerie Georges Petit. Seeking to explore outside of the academic structure, she established a private studio in the Rue de Bagneaux along with several other American women artists. But at the outbreak of World War I, she returned to the United States and set up a studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She began painting charming beach scenes in New York and Massachusetts; the fishing village of Gloucester, Coney Island, Atlantic City, and from along the French Coast provided an ideal subject for her with its bright colors and scenes of cheerful children, which have brought her national acclaim.

Walter is also known for her depictions at Ellis Island of the immigrants as they arrived in their ethnic costumes from other countries, poor children in rural Tennessee, and later, orientalist compositions of market scenes from her travels in North African cities. Though influenced by the artists of both the European and American art worlds, it could be said that she developed a unique painting style. Her training with Chase is evident in the saturated colors and plein-air subject matter in her early Impressionist work with bold dashing brush strokes in conjunction with total color control and well-organized composition. Her painting captured the animation of the city and the light and color of seashore scenes.

Walter lived a charmed life keeping addresses in New York City, suburban Philadelphia, and Gloucester while continuing to visit Paris frequently traveling abroad, capturing in oil and watercolor a wealth of landscapes and cultures across the globe. Her outdoor scenes, both of city and country life, were vividly colored and somewhat abstracted. The palette changed according to the setting, but Walter’s strong, well-chosen colors were continually alluring. Her loose rendering of form gives the work an abstract quality, and the quick brushstrokes reinforce the sense of fun and vitality. Eventually, she took up a teaching position at the New York School of Art, run by her old teacher William Merritt Chase. After 1945, Martha spent most of her time in Huntingdon Valley and Glenside, Pennsylvania, where she enjoyed painting flowers from her garden.

Walter’s works can be found in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Detroit Institute of Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Woodmere Art Museum, the Cheekwood Museum in Tennessee, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, in France the Terra Museum at Giverny and the Musee d' Orsay in Paris, and the Musee Du Luxembourg, among others. She never married, and in her later years, she preferred not to be disturbed by galleries and museums. Although well advanced in years, Martha Walter lived to the age of one hundred and one and continued to paint until a few years before she died in January, 1976 in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Johann Berthelsen was born in Copenhagen in 1883, the 7th of seven children, to Conrad and Dorothea Karen Berthelsen. His parents were involved in artistic and professional circles. In 1890, his mother brought the children to America, settling in Manistee, Michigan, with her sister's family. They would eventually move to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a city on the shore of Lake Michigan. As a teenager, Johann was actively involved in choirs and singing groups. And he always loved to draw and paint, and while he was too impatient to take well to schoolwork, and never went beyond the 5th grade.

Although he worked in several trades, Johann's mind and heart were always with the arts. As his voice matured, he also always wanted to be an actor, and at the age of 18 moved to Chicago where he reconnected with an old friend who was studying voice at the Chicago Musical College. He was awarded the school's Gold Medal on two occasions, and after graduation, he earned a job as the lead baritone with the newly formed Standard Opera Company which was owned by the Schuberts. For the next five years, Johann Berthelsen enjoyed a rich and varied career, touring the U.S. and Canada in operas, concerts, Gilbert & Sullivan, and operettas.

Despite considerable success, the grueling pace of life on the road was difficult, and in 1910 he joined the voice faculty at Chicago Musical College. So he eventually had more time to pursue other personal interests, especially painting. He became friends with the artist, Svend Svendsen, a noted landscape painter whose snow scenes especially intrigued Berthelsen, which became a major influence in his choice of mood and treatment of light and shadow. In 1913, at the age of 30, he became the youngest-ever head of the voice department at the Indianapolis Conservatory of Music.

In Indianapolis, he began a friendship with the painter, Wayman Adams. A native of Muncie, Indiana, Adams had studied with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri in Spain and Italy and had already established a reputation as a portraitist. Adams and Berthelsen were to remain best friends for the remainder of their lives. Adams would paint many significant portraits of Berthelsen including a life-sized image of his friend preparing to go on stage.

In 1920, seeking to advance their careers, Berthelsen and Adams moved to New York, where both achieved rapid success. From 1920 through the late '50s, Wayman Adams painted some of his best-known works. Johann Berthelsen established a private school of singing instruction at the Rodin Studios and attracted a distinguished following, but in 1929, the heady prosperity of the Roaring '20s dissolved in the Stock Market crash, and the arts were among the hardest hit sectors.

With many Broadway theaters shuttered and the Metropolitan Opera cutting salaries, Johann's pupils disappeared. With the little money left, he purchased art supplies and canvases and began to refine his technique in oil painting. He painted quickly and prolifically, bringing his work to some of the leading galleries. Of the many subjects he painted, the one that he would become most identified with was the city itself. The New York snow scenes burst with movement; cars, trucks, taxis, and people seem to rejoice in the snow that turns the city into a wonderland. Though he was exclusively self-taught he owned his craft and technique.

As his paintings become more popular, his reputation increased. By 1940, his reputation had grown to the point where he was asked to join The Lecture Bureau of the Columbia Broadcasting System. In 1942 the family moved to rural New Milford, Connecticut, where Berthelsen painted many views of the surroundings.

With the end of the Second World War, the Depression finally ceased and in the first blush of post-war prosperity, the public again had the time and money to devote to the arts. As more prominent personalities began to collect his work, in 1950 the family moved back to New York City, in part because of the high demand for his work and easy access to galleries. He exhibited his work at the Barbizon-Plaza Galleries, the Allan Rich Gallery, and the Jean Bohne Gallery, among others. The 1960s proved to be an especially satisfying time for Johann and his family since the financial pressures lessened and his paintings started commanding better prices. In 1971 he was hit by a car, which led to a decline in health and ultimately his death the following year 1972.

Jules René Hervé was an Academic French painter, born in 1887. His was born in Langres, a town in the eastern part of France, where he began his art studies in an evening school. Known for his paintings of cityscapes and landscapes, Hervé painted in an impressionistic style that captured the shimmering texture of the city and the softer light of the countryside. When asked, the artist mentions that as far as he can remember, he always wanted to become an artist of talent to being able to express through color the beauty of everything he would see.

Hervé arrived in Paris in 1908 and first continued his studies at the School of Decorative Arts, and then at the Fine Art School. Having his first-time exhibition at the Salon des Artistes français in 1910, where he became a very important member. Hervé was also trained at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts Decoratifs of Paris and studied with Fernand Cormon (French 1845–1924) and Jules Adler (French, 1865-1952). From 1911 to 1943, he taught painting with many generations of artists. Hervé was awarded multiple honors during his lifetime, he received a silver medal in 1914 from the Association of French Artists, including a gold medal by the association of the French artists in 1925 and a gold medal for the World Fair of 1937.

Hervé is both a painter of daily countryside themes in which we find the characters performing the daily tasks and a painter of Parisian scenes. His artistic interpretation is filled with sensibility by the use of delightful strokes of light and color. The Paris seen through Hervé's eyes is a city of poetry, showing its most charming aspects, where the viewer becomes a part of the "City of Lights", with its sentimental life and feelings of that special atmosphere and all of her charm.

Indifferent to the current fashions of his time, and outside any trends, he never ceased to deepen the technical secrets of his art, and after more than 50 years of artistic experience, he achieved a complete mastery of his own style. No only Jules René Hervé is a painter of great talent, but he represents the purest tradition of French art. His works can be compared to the great impressionists of former times, playing with his palette as a musician does with a musical instrument, resulting for each of his works a marvelous symphony of color and light.

His paintings are in numerous museum collections in France and abroad, like in the Pads, Langares, Saint-Etienne, Annecy, and Tourcoing France; and also in institutions like the Chicago Art Institute, Musée d'art et d'histoire de Langres, Musée du Petit Palais in Paris, Casablanca Marocco, Dijon, Tourcoing, Musée des beaux-arts de Tourcoing, Musée des beaux-arts de Saint-Étienne, Musée des beaux-arts d'Annecy and the Dahesh Museum in New York City. Hervé died in 1981.

Born in 1952 in Newburgh, New York, George Nemethy finds his inspiration in moments of quiet and solitude. Where he finds himself, with his imagination, sailing away to this beautiful and colorful marine worlds. That could only be visited when the soul meets with the infinite feeling of the horizon line of the open seas. With an outstanding legacy of his father Albert Nemethy of marine art, George keeps this tradition in his own artistic way. Recreating this wonderful marine depictions in a much more abstract and whimsical way. His dedication to master a magical realism instantly takes the viewer, in each of his unique paintings, and transports to a point in time where all the senses meet and only one thought would exist. George’s peaceful "dream like qualities" miniature works allow us to take a deep breath and reach out to the beautiful vastness of the world in an unprecedented a magical relationship between man and nature.

The Nemethy family immigrated from Hungary and consisted of six artists, all pupils of their late father Albert Sz. Nemethy. The children Julien, Albert Jr., George, Veronica, and the twins Kristina and Georgina. All of them were taught and inspired by their respected father, an American traditional and well groomed marine painter of high regard. George, as a pupil of his late father, became an artist through his inspiration and teachings. George is known for his pastoral miniature sail boat oil paintings. As a 20th century artist he was greatly inspired when he was young by Persian miniatures. Out of this fondness and extensive studying of these models, a devotion to intimacy and solitude was born. Devoting extreme patience to detail, achieving mastery to each and every work with his use of color and size.

Creating pastel hues across the waters with shimmering highlights, and puffed clouds pulling down to the sea, there is a magic being created. In his pieces we can find all the qualities that so many are in love with, and the reason why his paintings are sought after by elite collectors, sailors, and curators. His dreamy puffed clouds that are so effortlessly contrasted with the majestic blues in his sky and water, piece together this absolutely breath taking works. What creates an even more shocking and delightful surprise is, in almost every sailboat painting, if you look closely enough you will find tiny people depicted in the sail boat. In this piece you will find two people sitting about. His extreme attention to detail, and his fixation on miniatures when he was a child is what establishes such a wonderful enchantment to every single one of his masterful sailboat paintings. When critics refer to his work, they write on his sincere ability to achieve pure tranquillity in his paintings.

A George Nemethy is hard to come by, largely because he is often traveling to pick up inspiration for his tranquil color pallet. An artist on the run, George's most sought after "colors on the sea" works are hard to find. Worldwide, sailors, curators and collectors have followed him from coast to coast to track down one of his precious paintings.

Nanno de Groot was born on March 23 of 1913, in Balkbrug, Holland. He started drawing at six years of age. Although his father prevented him to study art at an early age, he moved to the United States in the year of 1941, and in 1946 at age 33 he discovered Picasso and he dedicated the rest of his life to painting and drawing. He worked for a year as a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. After his marriage to the New York School artist Elise Asher in 1948 Nanno de Groot settled in New York on West 12th Street. He became connected to the pioneers of the New York School, where he came to identify with abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, and Joan Mitchell. Nanno de Groot considered himself an American artist and part of the abstract expressionist movement. His earlier works included a number of monotypes and the now famous "Linear Figures" series, skeletal characters delineated by evocative streaks of black oil paint. In the following series, "Women in Chairs", de Groot observed that features interfered with the expression of the painting.

Nanno de Groot exhibited at the Salon d'hiver in Paris in 1950, also at Saidenberg Gallery, New York in 1952, 54, 55, and Bertha Schaefer Gallery, NYC. His works were exhibited in Hansa Gallery, in 1953 and for the years of 1954-1955 in Tanager Gallery and Stable Gallery. He also participated from 1954 to 1957 in the invitational New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals. These Annuals were important because the participants were chosen by the artists themselves. In 1956, 59, 60, 61, 64 he exhibited with HCE Gallery, Provincetown, MA and 1957, 58, 59, 61 at Parma Gallery, NY. In October of 1960, his works were displayed in Stamford Museum & Nature Center, Stamford, Connecticut. In 1971 his works were exhibited at Jack Gregory Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, and in 1982 a Retrospective Exhibition at Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts.

From 1987 through 2003 his works were exhibited at Julie Heller Gallery, Provincetown, MA. For the years between 2004 and 2007, his works were selected for ACME Fine Art, Boston MA and there were presented in two exhibitions "Nanno de Groot: The New York Years” and "Nanno de Groot: Earth Sea and Sky” respectively. His works are a part of Museums and Public Collections like Everson Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, Massachusetts, Chrysler Museum of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Hebrew University at Jerusalem, Israel, Provincetown Art Association and Museum at Provincetown, Massachusetts, the Olson Institute at Guilford, Connecticut and the Kresge Art Museum, and of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Nanno de Groot died on December 26 of 1963 in Provincetown, MA.

Jacques Zucker was born in 1900 in Radom, Poland. He was a notably famous Jewish American artist mostly known for his expressionist figure paintings. In his young years he traveled to Palestine to study fine arts at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem. In 1917 he joined the British Royal Fuesiliers under the leadership of General Allenby to liberate Palestine from the Turks. After the first World War he settled in Paris, where he continued his studies at Académie Julian and Academie Colarossi. He then emigrated to the United States in 1922 and continued his art studies at the National Academy of Design. He supported himself by designing jewelry.

In 1925 he returned to Paris and studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumier et Colarossi. During the Depression he worked for the WPA. From 1928 he took part in the Paris Salons: Autumn and the Tuileries. His works are expressionistic variations in the type of the Ecole de Paris. As a protégé of both Chaim Soutine and Renoir, hints of their style can be observed in much of his own work. Zucker’s style, that may have been influenced from the art of artists such as Marc Chagall, took pride in being an “internationalist”, standing the art of painting in its highest expression is universal no matter where the canvas was created.

People who respond to quality in art will understand the beauty and meaning, in their own land or in a foreign land, this was his main idea behind his artworks that was exhibited in numerous solo show in leading galleries and museums in New York, Paris, Tel Aviv, and other art centers. Claude Roger-Marx of Figaro Litteraire, dean of French art critics, write a comprehensive study of Zucker’s illustrated with 135 color and black and white plates. He traveled widely, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Israel. From then on Zucker lived alternately in New York and Paris, maintaining homes in both places, and spent considerable time painting in Mexico, Portugal, Greece, and Israel.

Zucker's post-impressionist works including town and landscapes, still-lives, and portraits, are part of an array of permanent installments in numerous museums and private collections in Tel Aviv, including the Joseph Hirschorn collection in Washington, D. C., the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and the Bezalel Art Museum in Jerusalem. In 1947 he settled in Arcueil near Paris. Zucker died in 1981 in New York.

Albert Nemethy (Albert Szatmar Nemethy) was born on March 31, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary. As a young Jewish boy he realized a gift for art that animated his thoughts and artworks throughout his life. Largely self-taught, he sought inspiration in the old masters, yet always strove to express his own ideas. Even thought he was blind in his left eye since an early age, Nemethy was educated at the Academy of Art in Budapest. He and his wife Georgina and family, moved to Salzburg, Austria in 1948, and then to Munich, Germany, where they stayed for two and half years. There he was chosen the “First Artist” out of a group of 600 artists in 1950 and was given an opportunity to exhibit at the National Gallery at Munich, Germany.

In 1951 the Nemethy family of 6 children came to the United States, settling first in Montclair New Jersey. Nemethy was especially interested in the Hudson River Valley School, and he came to public attention primarily through his exquisitely detailed paintings of Hudson River steamboats depicting life during that time and modes of transportation for commerce and pleasure in the manner of James Bard. Out of homage to the Hudson River School artists, he also painted landscapes, then portraits, and genre scenes. Painting almost every day and far into the night, he produced thousands of paintings.

His work of art is unrivaled and unparalleled in subject, color, design and illustrative power. His art is traditional in technique and highly philosophical in aim. Much of his inspiration comes from the Old Testament once declaring "We are able to see the past much better than the present”. Nemethy had other talents besides painting. While in Germany he passed a test on organ building and for many years worked on designs for organs to be built along methods entirely unique in the musical world. He also had a working knowledge of woodworking and masonry.

Albert Nemethy specialized in painting murals for factories, churches, plant lobbies and various companies. Several were painted in New York City, including Worthington Corporation on Park Avenue, New York. These murals, although highly sophisticated, harmonize with their surroundings. In these delightful renderings, he usually depicted science, music, life, time, water, love and transformation of form in modern art. Besides murals, Nemethy also specializes in portraits and landscapes, with a distinct style all of his own and he refers to this style as “psychic realism”. While his works does not have any artistic kinship with one of the most celebrated painters, Salvador Dali, many of his admirers recall Dali’s art. However, he has nothing in common with Dali’s "bizarre weirdness". He is a painter of Life, Nature, Humanity, Love, Flowers, and Music.

In the more recent years his painting subjects widened considerably to include grand landscapes of the American west in the manner of Bierstadt and what he cared about most, his paintings of “moralism”. Where his fertile mind gave expression to a complex philosophy of the role of human life in the universe, a legacy he wished to present to the public and to be remembered by.

As an international artist he received membership in the Munich Academy of Art in Munich in 1950. Also his paintings were exhibited at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and at the Temple Hill Museum and Lodge in Vails Gate, New York. A piece painting depicting the Washington statue situated in Budapest's City Gardens decorates now the White House in Washington. With important international donations like the paintings “Chaikovsk’s Symphony” and portrait to “President Mihail Gorbachev” to the people of Russia. Nemethy painted and presented to President Richard Nixon several works, one of which was to commemorate the bi-centennial of the United States of America.

Given the vast quantity of works he produced, now residing in collections around the nation and abroad, many of them unsigned, his legacy will all be uncovered for years to come. Near to his last days, his enthusiasm for painting did not diminish, he died on September 3, 1998 and he was buried in his native Budapest, leaving us an extraordinary legacy of art.

- Artist’s Website -

- Artist’s Article -

- Artist’s Biography -

Georges d'Espagnat was born August 14, 1870 in Melun, France. He was a French Post-Impressionist painter, muralist, illustrator, and theater designer. His family moved to Paris when he was a young man in the 1880's and at the age of 18 he declined the academic training of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts spending only a few hours there and chose instead to independently study the works of the Old Masters in the Louvre and also attending classes at the free academy. By studying this painting, he became involved with prominent Impressionist painters of the time, exhibiting his work at the Salon des Refusés and the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. d’Espagnat’s depicted everyday Parisian life, female figures, landscapes, and still lifes, in a painterly style of additive brushstrokes with a unique treatment of color, resembling the Fauves. He also travelled to Italy where he particularly admired the work of the Venetians, Titian and Tintoretto.

In 1891 d'Espagnat began his public career at the Salon des Refusées, where he took part of an exhibition and in the following year exhibited four paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, later exhibited at the Salon of the Société Nationale. A strongly independent student, and having rejected the traditional places of artistic education available in the capital, he become one of the most individualistic of 20th century French painters. Although associated with many of the greatest names in 20th century art, and though his work has at various times been identified as Fauve, Nabis or just plain Impressionist, he retained his own individuality. He was influential in the art circles of his time like Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissaro and Marc Chagall. D'Espagnat also became closely acquainted with many of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists including Renoir, Vuillard, Andre, Bonnard and Denis. In 1895 he had his first solo show in Paris and three years after that a show of his work was held at Durand-Ruel Gallery. Later and with a close friendship with Renoir he was a part of a group exhibition of 1907 at the Marcel Bernheim Gallery along with Bonnard, Cézanne, Matisse, Pissarro, Rouault, Seurat and Toulouse-Lautrec while in 1926 his works were a part of another exhibition at the same gallery along with André, Bonnard, Braque, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso and Signac. In 1898 he traveled Morocco and worked along the Mediterranean coast near Toulon, capturing in his canvas the strong light and vivid colors of the region.

1903 d’Espagnat, along with the architect Frantz Jourdain and critic Ivanhoe Rambosson, was a founding member of the Salon d’Automne and, a year later, became the vice president. Then in 1906 he collaborated on the illustrations for Remy de Gourmont's Sixtine, and later worked with Alphonse Daudet on his book, L’Immortel. Traveling extensively throughout his lifetime, d’Espagnat visited Britain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Morroco, and Spain. Elected vice president of the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1935, d’Espagnat from 1936 he served as a Professor at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris until the 1940s. In 1945 d’Espagnat became the president of La Société des Amis d’Eugène Delacroix, that was a position that he held until his death. In the following years he painted La Rochelle and Concarneau, villages along the coast of France, with watercolors.

His work can be found in many of the world’s most important museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Art Institute, Chicago, Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée d’Art Moderne, Musée Eugène Delacroix, Bibliotheque Nationale and Palais de l’Institut, Paris Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint-Tropez, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, Musée Lambinet, Versailles, Mueso Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid and the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. As an artist that constantly strove for originality and independence d’Espagnat, marked a place for himself among the modern masters. He died on April 17, 1950 in Paris, France. In the following year he was honored with an exhibition at the same Salon d’Automne, of which he was Vice-President for several years showing a variety of his large body of work; also he has honored by Durand-Ruel Gallery shortly after with a retrospective exhibit as well.

André Hambourg was born in Paris on May 5, 1909. Entering the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in 1926, he studied sculpture under Paul Niclausse for four years. The young artist then entered the studio of Lucien Simon at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. While in the middle of his academic studies, Hambourg had his debut solo exhibition at the Galerie Taureau in Paris in 1928. He was only 19 years old at the time. Because of the early recognition of his talent, Hambourg became active in the important Paris salons in the first stages of his developing career. In 1931, he was made a member of the Salon de l’Art Français Indépendant and the Salon de l’Oeuvre Unique.

André Hamburg was demobilized in Casablanca in 1940, but then civilian by the regiment of engineers in 1943, then called by Raoul Salan and assigned to the 2nd Bureau where he became editor, draftsman, reporter of the newspaper "Combattant 1943" then "Combattant 1944 He was named in December 1944 war correspondent accredited to the US HQ (SHAPE), his military experience (being in the first to have reached the nest He wrote two books in 1947: "Berchtesgaden party" and "D'Alger à Berchtesgaden". In an interview he wrote an account of his experience in "La kermesse aux étoiles" in 1953 and 1954, of which he was the organizer, of cheap sales of works by renowned artists in front of the Kermesse public for 3 days and 3 nights. He wrote in the newspaper "Cols bleus" of the Navy souvenirs ("4 July 1943", whose oil on paper will be offered by President Mitterrand to President Reagan) or travel.  The entire work of the artist will be the subject of numerous books, publications, articles, interviews of José Arthur, Michel Law, Jacques Chancel and Micheline Sandrel.  In 1970 five hundred of his works formed a prestigious retrospective at the Maison de Culture in Bourges. Other notable shows include Drawings of Venice at Galerie Varine-Gincourt in Paris (1979), Bonjour New York at Wally Findlay Galleries in New York (1985), The Presence of André Hambourg at the Salon du Dessin (1986), André Hambourg in the Ivory Coast at Galerie Guigne in Paris (1987), and finally André Hambourg in Venice at Galerie Apesteguyin Deauville (1989).  Having past experience creating mural decorations for ships, Hambourg was asked to complete a 195 square foot mural, for the Audience Chamber of the new European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in 1972. One year later, this panoramic work was unveiled at an opening ceremony in the Hotel de Ville, attended by the President of Luxembourg, Robert Lecourt, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg.

On December 4, 1999 André Hambourg died in Paris after a long and prosperous career. Today his works can be found in the collections of museums such as the Musée National d'Art Moderne, the Musée national de la Marine, and the Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie.

Richard Hayley Lever (1875-1958) was an Australian-American painter, etcher, lecturer and art teacher. He studied under James Ashton at his Norwood art school and was a member of the Adelaide Easel Club before emigrating to New York and later settling in Massachusetts. Lever taught at the Art Students League of New York. He is recognized today as a significant figure in 20th century American Impressionism. His works are included in the White House collection, the Hirschorn Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and many other distinguished collections.

An outstanding oil painting executed with thick use of paint capturing a luminous sight of a train in motion under a bridge with heavy smoke trailing upward. We can feel that a mood is set, as the sky is a deep blue seemingly at twilight. The train tracks are depicted with trees in the upper left corner and snow traces on either side of the canvas. Overall, this painting glorifies American travel during the 20th Century in an impressionistic manor with beautiful brush work and strong contrasting colors. A most fine work done with rich colors of cobalt blue, mars black and pops of bright whites and raw umbers. Signed lower mid right with original plague placed bottom center and displayed in a wonderful carved frame. There is writing inscribed on verso with signature.

Niek van der Plas was born in Katwijk aan Zee, Netherlands in 1954. He was the oldest son in a family of four children. Growing up surrounded by historic areas from his hometown, he was inspired by many places which seemed to stay with him into his early adulthood. The old, white church, Holland’s beaches, and dunes, bulb fields, city scenes in Amsterdam and Maastricht, and other typically Dutch vistas such as harbors of old Dutch towns. We can admire these characteristics in much of his works throughout his career. Niek began painting from a very young age with signs, promoted and encouraged by his father. In 1966 he was proposed as a student to the Famous Artist School in the United States where he was awarded for his talents. Between 1973 and 1978 he studied at the School of Art in Frankfurt, and he has taken part in collective exhibitions, mainly in Germany and Belgium.

The drawings he showed at Appel & Fertsch in 1985 were rapidly executed sketches, with a very spare but supple line, sometimes indefinite, but in general, representing a manifestation of movement. A man apparently straying, a blurred structure, a strange small boat - signs of vague recognition that are ultimately less important than the way they take shape and the creative impulse they convey. What started in the early seventies with a romantic style of painting, developed through naturalism to a more impressionistic way of working; a style of painting that came to the surface clearly in the early 1980s.

Van Der Plas has become an artist of international renown and uses a wide variety of subjects as his palette. His paintings are still influenced by his love of water and the richness of the Dutch landscapes which one sees over and over in his work. His use of warm soft colors makes his paintings easy on the eye and delightful to behold. He is a colorist, exhibiting lush rich textures inspired by many post-impressionistic painters from France. Preferably he works with warm colors as he uses dashes of bold brushwork, which enhance the emotion of his composition resulting in beautiful and luminous paintings. He strives to create pieces that have a French feel-like environment. As well, as surrounding himself with the French Riviera, Cafes in the bustling city, and of course the majestic scenes in the Parc de Belleville.

Niek continues to enchant the viewer with his refined brushwork and subtle palette in keeping with the best of impressionist tradition. His works have been exhibited in the Art Museum of Rijnsburg and the Art Museum of Katwiijk in Holland and several major museums around the world, and his works of art are to be found in some of the most prestigious public and private collections worldwide. His works hang in two museums in the Netherlands and several books about him are available. He is one of the few contemporary artists listed in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists.

Edouard Febvre was born in 1885 in France. Febvre is a visual artist known for his city and streets scenes, pieces of the of suburbs under the snow, fairgrounds and Gypsies. As a painter, active in the 20th Century his work sometimes brings back an imaging of a picturesque, desperate and pessimistic scenario, but sometimes we can find some other works by him that glimmers more cheerful when he painted over the butte. Several of the works by the artist have been sold at auction, including: ’Carnival à Paris’ sold at Christie's New York, ‘The House Sale’ in 2007 and more recently ’Rue anime avec chopes et fiacres’ sold at Eric Pillon Encheres, Versailles in 2014, ‘L’accordoniste’ and ‘Paris, Montmartre’ sold at Eric Pillon Encheres, Versailles in 2014.

Febvre remains a painter to be rediscovered, and which deserves a better understanding of his prolific lifetime as being a true impressionistic painter of the early 20th Century. His works have been exhibited in the Salon d'Automne of 1941, in Galerie Roussard and in Workshop at 8 both in Paris. Febvre died in 1967.

Suzanne Demarest was born in 1900 in the United States. She studied in Nice and Cannes Southern France, as well as at the Royal Academy in England. Demarest lived and painted as well in France. She died in 1985. Demarest was known for her charming intimate figurative scenes portraying life in the North East. She was profoundly active, picking up her subjects from the beaches, parks, restaurants, cities, seasides, and much more. Under acknowledged as one of America's most active plein air artists, Demarest achieved excellence in her career, producing 100's of breathtaking works, now in many private collections and museums around the world.

Jean Salabet was a pseudonym used by the Spanish artist Juan Bayón Salado (1913-1995) in the mid-20th century. Juan Bayón Salado (Jean Salabet) was born in Bilbao Spain on June 24, 1913. He settled in Paris between 1950 and 1969 and when using the pseudonym Jean Salabet between 1950 and 1957 he was mainly selling his works through Mr. Reynald Forgeot's gallery initially, and Mr. André Roussard later. Faithful to the Post-Impressionism style, he exhibited in Montmartre in the gallery of rue Norvins, which would become that of Claude Bussière, then at André Roussard) during his long stay in Paris. As a Parisian painter he was mostly known for his colorful cityscapes depicting the times of his generation including the signatures “Bay Sala”, “Bayon” and “Jean Salabet” used by the artist.

His work is comparable to those of Jules Herve, Antoine Blanchard and Edouard Cortes. His paintings are a wonderful example of his dedication and passion throughout his of his career. Exemplary depictions of his pieces are city scenes of artist's vendors selling paintings along the view of Notre Dame de Paris, in Paris. People are scattered throughout between the tree-lined Parisian streets. Or like flower vendors walking down the street with a view from the Pont Neuf bridge, the oldest standing bridge crossing the river Seine, with people are scattered throughout with cars depicted in the background. As well wonderful examples of his works the street scenes with bustling cars and the traffic of the people walking along the sidewalks in front of the storefront view of Parisian cafe's as well as wonderful depictions of the most important Parisian monuments and iconic views of the city of Paris.

Including in each one of his works a diverse color palette with vibrant details that Juan Bayón Salado (Jean Salabet) captures in a magnificent way of the architecture of Paris so beautifully; you can feel the energy of the day and the excitement. In 1969 he returned to Bilbao and died in the spring of 1995 in his hometown with a career filled with honors and popular success.

Ben Benn was born with the name of Benjamin Rosenberg in 1884 in the town of Kamenets Podolsk, Ukraine. This town was the regional capital of an area in what is today, South West Ukraine, and was historically known as Podolia. His family chose to immigrate to the United States in c. 1894 to reside eventually in New York City. Between 1904 and 1908 he studied at the Arts Students League and at the National Academy of Design. He spent most of his career in New York City including memberships with the American Society of Painters and Sculptors, American Artists Congress and the Woodstock Artist Association.

Despite his excursions into Cubism and Abstract Expressionism, Benn seems always to have been a ‘subject’ painter. The Academy curriculum stressed portraiture built up with broad, painterly brushstrokes, a technique that remained the foundation of Benn’s style. By his mid teens Benn’s canvases were bolder in color and more decorative in style, the artist also depicted urban scenes, yet, unlike the Social Realists, his work was more an affirmation than a critical commentary on the human condition. Considering this, it is remarkable that he remained visible at all during the 50’s and early 60’s, when prejudice against the representational amounted nearly to a proscription of this kind of artwork. 

His first important participations were in the Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters in 1916 as well as the First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917. As a pioneer American modernist, with an independent style, was best known for his bold simplification. He exhibited extensively including his first solo exhibition which was held in 1925 at J.B. Newman’s New Art Circle Gallery and four at the Babcock Gallery between 1960 and 1970. He also exhibited at Columbia University in 1927, Whitney Museum of American Art from 1927 to 1950, the Corcoran Gallery in 1932 and 1957, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 1942 and 1952.

Benn participated in other important exhibitions of American Modernism included “The Decade of the Armory Show: New Directions” in American Art from 1910 to 1920, and the Whitney Museum of American Art's traveling exhibition from 1963 to 1964 and many more. Benn had many solo exhibitions during his lifetime, including one at the Jewish Museum of New York in 1965 and at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Also he was awarded a medal that year at the the Pennsylvania Academy's 147th Annual Exhibition. Today Benn’s works is part of many museums and permanent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, Newark Museum, Baltimore Museum, Albany Institute of Art in New York, Butler Art Institute in Youngstown Ohio, the Knoxville Art Center and the University of Minnesota. 

His prominence in the art world over 6 decades was reaffirmed at a 90th birthday show at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. in 1974. Between his most publicly recognized works are a portrait of ‘New York Judge J. Planken’ that has been at the New York City Courthouse, a ‘Still-Life Painting’ that forms a part of The Kröller Collection in The Hague, Holland, and the piece named ‘End of the Street’ that was exhibited at the Hammer galleries at a solo exhibition shortly after the artist’s death, with the number 36 in catalogue, which became also a part of the collection of the New Britain Art Museum. Benn died in 1983 in Bethel, Connecticut.

Richard 'Dick' Sargent, one of The Saturday Evening Post’s most prolific illustrators, was a Midwesterner born in Moline, Illinois, on March 26, 1911. His early career in art began just after his graduation from Moline High School when he went to work for a local printing and engraving plant. While there, Sargent attended night classes at the Moline Illinois Art School, the foundation for his future career as an artist. Sargent then studied at the Corcoran School of Art, and in 1951, he completed his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, “Truth About Santa,” for the December 15 Christmas issue. While Sargent’s popularity grew through the exposure he received with the Post, he also did illustration work for magazines such as Fortune, Woman’s Day, Photoplay, and American Magazine among others. Americans adored Sargent and his art for his ability to show relatable, pregnant scenes with open-ended conclusions that commented on the situational comedy of life. In the late 1960s he retired to the Andalusia region of Spain and died there in 1978.

Arie van Noort (Adrianus Cornelis van Noort) was born in Bennebroek, the Netherlands in 1914. He worked with his father who was a house painter and had the dreams of achieving much more as an artist. During the day he would work his day job, but in the evenings he studied and painted. He began his artistic career with studies under Henri Fréderic Boot, a famous artist from Haarlem and extensively studied the great masters of impressionism, a prominent force in all of his paintings. Being an on-sight painter, mostly executing works of the beaches of Holland nearby his house, we can admire the great use of light and contrast, always feeling the mood of the day from which he painted. This was his main objective, to gather the inspiration of the moment, and translate this into his canvases. We can feel this quality in his work effortlessly, as each piece vibrates with energy and movement.

Van Noort participated in several exhibitions organized at the end of the 40's in the Frans Halsmuseum, Het Huis van Looy in the Waaggebouw. He won the first prize even in a match. His teacher, H. F. Boot had a great deal of appreciation for Van Noort, admiring the structure in his pieces. Verwey bought a work from Van Noort to donate to Godfried Bomans. In 1942 he was accepted as a member of the society "Kunst zij ons Doel".

It did take the artist time to build his career as an artist, and in 1977 he grew to a status of having a constant demand for his work. He gained almost instant success. Exhibitions in Basel, Knokke, Geneva, and Paris were well received by the public. In addition, Van Noort gained much interest from the US. Van Noort is seen as the last representative of the Hague School. Beach views are the main subject of his body of work, but he also captures flower fields, cityscapes, and landscapes. The artist personality is best described as balanced and comfortable with an extremely positive life setting. At the same time, he was a humble and faithful man who, as he himself said, did not like to go into difficult situations. Van Nort was the last representative of The Hague School as an impressionist painter in the French line.

His work is admired all over the world having exhibitions from the Brès Gallery in Amsterdam to New York, Los Angeles, and Singapore. He died in 2003 at the age of 89. He was active and lived in Holland most of his life while preferring to go outside and use his paintbrush to capture “En plein air” his perception of the world.

Edna Marie Schmidt was born in Cincinnati Ohio in 1912 and was a lifelong resident there. Her art career began at the young age of nine when she entered the Art Academy of Cincinnati. After graduating from Withrow High School, she attended the Applied College of Arts at the University of Cincinnati. That education led to doing fashion artwork for Mabley-Carew and the Cincinnati Enquirer. Several years later she was offered a better job in Milwaukee doing fashion page work for the Milwaukee Sentinel. She married William C. Schmidt of Cincinnati in 1937. Her art studies continued around the U.S. at various workshops, although her principal influence was her instructor Carl Zimmerman and the weekly studio that she attended for more than a decade in the '70's and 80's in his Loveland, Ohio studio. She has participated in numerous shows, with several one woman shows featuring her work. Her commissioned portraits of industry and educational leaders hang in various public buildings of the Cincinnati area including her "Camargo Hunt" series of fox hunting oils. Edna Marie Schmidt was known for portrait and landscape painting, alongside with newspaper fashion illustration, she died in 1999 in her hometown.

This piece depicts a unique impressionistic landscape of the San Francisco Bay depicting the Golden Gate Bridge and all the beautiful details of the busy city of San Francisco. With much whimsey and atractive vibrant colors, we can feel the energy of the day and time in which it was executed. The sun is bright and the day is warm. A most charming piece comes ready to be displayed in a wonderful gold tone wood frame.

Robert Freiman, deaf from birth, was born in March 1917 in New York City. He attended an oral program near his home and later transferred to the Lexington School for the Deaf when he was six. Early in his childhood, his love for drawing, painting and studying became apparent, and as an adult, he continued his studies in New York at the National Academy of Design, Pratt Institute, the Art Students League and the Parsons School of Design. In Paris, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.   Freiman was especially focused on painting portraits and figures in motion in various mediums, especially the mixed-media combination of watercolor, acrylic and pen. Among his subjects were acrobats, ballet dancers, cyclists and other athletes. He as well focused on abstracts for a time, discovering new media in his works with quick brushwork and expressive movements.

Coulton Waugh was born in 1896 in Cornwall, England. He was an American visual artist, son of maritime painter Frederick Judd Waugh, and his grandfather was the Philadelphia portrait painter Samuel Waugh. In 1907 his family moved to the United States, he grew up in Provincetown, Massachusetts and later made his home in Newburgh, New York. Over there Waugh was enrolled at New York's Art Students League where he studied with George Bridgman, Frank Dumond and John Carlson. By 1916 Coulton was employed as a textile designer. In 1921 he moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts where he operated a model ship and hooked rug shop for 11 years.

As a part of an artistic family, Waugh was a painter, comic strip artist and author. As he lived in New York he is often known for the artistic work in marine scenes, still life compositions and cartoons. Also was one of the main artists who worked on the famous “Dickie Dare” comics, created by Milton Caniff. He was working on the strip for more than 20 years, from 1933 until 1957, and there is where Waugh met his future wife, Odin, after hiring her to work on the strip as an artist and letterer. In 1945, he created “Hank” which only ran a short time. From 1947 on, Waugh divided his time between painting, teaching art and writing a seminal history of cartooning called “The Comics” in 1947 as a reference on the history of comics, which became one of the first serious examinations of the medium, as well as instructional books on cartooning and palette-knife painting.

In Provincetown he created other pictorial maps or decorative maps, including ones of Provincetown of 1924, Cape Cod of 1926 and Newburgh, New York in 1958. His map of California of 1948 was a collaboration with his wife Odin Burvik (Mabel Burwick).

His paintings were displayed at New York's Hudson Walker Gallery, and he also was known for his pictorial maps and hand-colored lithographs, like the one exhibited of a Cape Cod map at the International Silk Show in the year 1918. Some other exhibitions where his artwork participated was at the National Academy of Design and the Provincetown Art Association. Among the Museum exhibitions that showcased his pieces are the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Institute (International), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Grand Central Art Galleries, New York City used to hold a notable representation of his artworks. Waugh died in 1973.

Marcel Dyf was born as Marcel Dreyfus on 7 October 1899 in Paris. He grew up in Normandy, in the towns of Ault, Deauville and Trouville. Dyf started a career as an engineer, but soon decided to become a painter. In 1922, he moved to Arles, where he was trained as a painter and set up a studio.

He painted frescoes in the cityhalls of Saint-Martin-de-Crau and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. He also painted frescoes in the Museon Arlaten and in the dining hall of the Collège Ampère, both of which are in Arles. He also designed windows inside the Église Saint-Louis in Marseille. In 1935, he moved to Maximilien Luce's old studio on the Avenue du Maine in Paris. By 1940, because of the German invasion of France during the Second World War, he returned to Arles. He quickly joined the French Resistance in Corrèze and the Dordogne.[2][3] He later moved back to Paris, and finally moved in Saint-Paul-de- Vence. However, in the 1950s, he started wintering in Paris and summering in Cannes, where he attracted the attention of American art collectors.

His work was exhibited and sold at the Petrides Gallery, the Salon d’Automne, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris as well as galleries in Cannes, Nice, Marseille and Strasbourg. Overseas, it was exhibited at the Frost & Reed Gallery in London.

In 1954, he married Claudine (Godat) Dyf in Cannes, when she was only nineteen years old. They purchased a sixteenth-century hunting lodge in Bois-d'Arcy near Versailles, and it became their primary residence. They also summered in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Eygalières. He died on 15 September 1985 in Bois-d'Arcy.

Jacques Bouyssou was a French expressionist artist born in 1926 near Honfleur Paris. He was influenced from an early age, as his father owned an art gallery in Paris representing some of the leading expressionists of his time including Friez, Dufy, Lagar, and Leprin. Bouyssou studied architecture at the Beaux Arts de Troyes, and drawing with the sculptor Janin. When he moved to Paris to study at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere in the studio of D'Othon Friez, he discovered his love for painting. He was tutored by Friez, and quickly became a master of the beach and port scenes of Normandy. His paintings remind the viewer of Marquet with their luminosity, and of Utrillo, particularly his street scenes. In 1950 he married.

Bouyssou's life was difficult for the young couple, but his desire to succeed as an artist was not diminished. After exhibiting a few paintings in many different galleries, he finally arranged a one-man show in Paris. That successful show led to one-man exhibitions in London and New York. In 1968 Bouyssou began exhibiting frequently in Paris and New York. His superb draftsmanship and composition are supported by clear, sensitive, and harmonious nuances of color. The paintings of this noted contemporary French artist have gained him international recognition as the official marine artist of France. Bouyssou's well-deserved reputation has grown at a rapid pace, as his works portraying ports, cities and beach scenes are appreciated by discerning collectors. His paintings are found in notable galleries, private collections and, museums throughout Europe and the United States. Not only is Bouyssou a painter of great talent, he represents the purest tradition of French art. He paints just like the great impressionists of former times, playing with his colors as a musician does with his musical instruments. He obtains in each of his works a marvelous harmony of color and light. His paintings are in numerous museums in France; in the Petit Palais in Pads, at Langres, and abroad, and at Casablanca.

Since his first exhibition at the Salon des Artistes Augerons in Paris, he has exhibited in all the major French Salons, as well as in the United States, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, England, Sweden, Taiwan, Japan, Brazil, and Venezuela. Exhibition Awards: 1er prix du Salon des Bas Normands, 1955; 1er prix de Deauville, 1965; Peintre Agree au Departement de la Marine, 1973; 1er prix de Maisons Laffitte, 1978; Medaille d’Or Salon de la Frette, 1978; Medaille de la Ville de Paris, 1978; Medaille du Salon des Bas Normands, 1979; Nomme peintre titulaire de la Marine, 1987; Nomme Chevalier dans l’Order National de la Legion d’Honneur, 1990. Museums: Honfleur; Rouen; Beyrouth; Montreal; Philadelphia; Art Moderne, Paris; Menton; Musee de la Marine, Paris; New York Public Library; Bibliotheque National, Paris; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England.

Luigi Cagliani was born in Milano in 1910. As an Italian Impressionist who worked in the first half of the 20th century, he was active in Lombardy, which helps explain his penchant for lakeside scenes and also his love to paint scenes set in Venice. In his earlier career, Cagliani appeared as a painter of a clear romantic taste, whom in some way saw himself discordant with the posthumous teachings of Mosè Bianchi.

With a modern accent of his own, and on the path of the 19th century modern European impressionists, Cagliani stands out as possessing a dexterous and acute style, softened by an intimate sentiment that envelops the figurative scenes by the use of a complex tonal values, with the prominent use of soft lilac and pink colors, then we find the figures executed with an agile move, as if the viewer was inside of a dream like pictorial composition accomplished with evident precision.

Dino Bonardi, a critic involved in the Society of Independent Art in Milan, wrote in 1944 that Cagliani's paintings were "delicate and moving" almost like the feeling of a 19th century romantic style sense. The world of Cagliani’s paintings is achieved in an agile and wavy design, as Bonardi explains: ‘the artist starts from a natural pictorial instinct, from which the dominion of the sign and color moves, but obeys a fantastic evocative power whereby the limits of reality immediately merge and transfigure into dream realities within which the evoked poetic motifs which circulate with sureness of hand and abandonment of vision.’

Cagliani, exhibited at the Ranzini Gallery in Milan, where he presented a collection of paintings that offered a set of visions in which reality was perceived transfigured in the light of an imaginative inspiration. While his form remained bound to the Lombard impressionism style, Cagliani accomplished, with a robust sense of intuition, to grasp the art of painting on a tonal bases substantiated in a refined taste for color. Luigi Cagliani died in 1987.

Cesar A. Villacres was born in Ecuador in 1880, and after leaving Ecuador he became a painter of the "School of Paris”. Villacres was best known for his moody impressionistic Parisian street scenes, with a keen sensitivity and quiet style, using silvery grey overtones to depict the formality of this city scene. The artist was truly a master of expressing the magic and nostalgia of the Parisian life of the "Belle Époque" in France.

In his artworks, Villacres mainly portrayed his style as a French impressionistic visual artist. And although there is not much information about him, the majority of his works were produced by capturing the Paris busy street scenes from the Early 20th Century, by mostly using subtle brush strokes of oil on canvas with a wide color pallet. The use of thick paint is frequently noted, with quick brushwork and precise attention to detail.

Villacres was a prolific artist in the first part of the 20th Century, having mostly worked in South America and Paris. His mountain landscapes paintings are tremendously vivid and alive, as well as the Impressionist Paris street scenes and figurative paintings. People going about their day; street vendors and flower sellers are alive as horses and carriages are wispily riding along. In the distance, the viewer will usually find some detailed elements like a tree-lined street with cars driving by, and the beautiful architecture of the city. Cesar A. Villacres died in 1941 and his works can be found in many collections worldwide.

Joachim Berthold, born 1917 in Eisenach, lived and worked until his death in 1990 in Oberaudorf am Inn. In 1936 he began his training at the renow­ ned Werkschule in Cologne. There he met his artist colleague and later wife Gisela Berthold­Sames and he continued his studies until 1941 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. From 1945 he worked as a freelance sculptor. This was followed by hard artist years in which the execution of any commissioned work to secure a livelihood left little time for free work. Gradually, the situation improved until, from the 1960s, it gained interna­tional renown through more and more numerous and important exhibitions at home and abroad, large orders from industry and cities as well as mu­seum acquisitions.

Berthold's appearance was striking. This corresponds to his figurative, mainly in bronze realized small to larger than life­sized sculptures. The to­pic of his work was the man. He was not concerned with the representation of individual, external manifestations. His sculptures are reduced to the essentials, re­ main in their economical movements, wi­thout facial expressions, anonymous and timeless. The essence of man and his development between becoming and decay were his concerns.

Through the mental processing of Greek me­taphors, he concentrated on the depiction of the human forms involved in a matter or in their own body form and dissolving out of it, as well as cast their own shadow. Berthold's typical formal idiom lives from the antago­nism of convex and concave, perfectly smoo­thed and rough, sometimes broken surfaces, exposing the underlying innermost amor­phous layers.

Michael Posner Baxte was born in 1890 in the small town of Staroselje Belarus, Russia. For the first half of the 19th century it was a center of the Chabad movement of Hasidic Jews, but this group was gone by the middle of the 19th century. By the time the Baxte family immigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish population numbered only on the hundreds. The native language of the Baxte family was Yiddish. It is likely that the death of Michael Baxte’s father triggered the family’s immigration. Three older brothers arrived in New York between 1903 and 1905. Michael and his mother, Rebecca, arrived in 1907. By 1910 Michael, his mother, and brother, Joseph, were living in New Orleans and may have spent some time on a Louisiana plantation. Around 1912, Michael Baxte returned to Europe to study the violin. In 1914 he, his mother, and Joseph moved to New York City.

Meanwhile, in Algeria, a talented young woman painter, Violette Mege, was making history. Since for the first time, a woman won the prestigious Beaux Art competition in Algeria. At first, the awards committee denied her the prize but, with French government intervention, Mege eventually prevailed. She won again 3 years later and, in 1916, used the scholarship to visit the United States of America. When Violette came to New York, she met Baxte, who was, by then, an accomplished violinist, teacher, and composer. Baxte’s compositions were performed at the Tokyo Imperial Theater, and in 1922 he was listed in the American Jewish Yearbook as one of the prominent members of the American Jewish community. As a music teacher he encouraged individual expression. Baxte stated, “No pupil should ever be forced into imitation of the teacher. Art is a personal experience, and the teacher’s truest aim must be to awaken this light of personality through the patient light of science.”

By 1920 Michael Baxte and Violette Mege were living together in Manhattan. Although they claimed to be living as husband and wife, it seems that their marriage did not become official until 1928. On their “unofficial” honeymoon around 1917, in Algiers, Baxte confided to her his ambition to paint. There and later in New Mexico where the wonderful steeped sunlight approximates the coloring of Algiers, she taught him his heart’s desire. He never had any other teacher. She never had any other pupil. For ten years she devoted all her time, energy, and ambition to teaching, encouraging, inspiring him. Then in 1928, their mutual strivings were rewarded, as his works were being chosen as one of the two winners in the Dudensing National Competition for American Painters. Out of 150 artists from across the country participated in the Dudensing, and Michael Posner Baxte and, Robert Fawcett, were the winners.

In his 1924 naturalization application, he indicated that he was sometimes known as “Michael Posner Baxte.” One of the witnesses to his application was Bernard Karfiol, a Jewish American artist. That’s when Michael may have decided to use the name Baxte for his art. Baxte, née Posner, received critical acclaim from art critics. In 1929, Lloyd Goodrich of The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Baxte has a way of choosing aspects of the world that are quite unhackneyed… He is an artist of considerable subtlety, not too strong perhaps, and sometimes a little uncertain, but always sensitive and interesting. One feels in each of his pictures an absorption in his subject and an individual manner of looking at it. He has a very attractive color sense, warm, sensuous, and unexpected, which seems natural and unforced.” A dozen years later another New York Times art critic, Howard Devree, commented, “Also at the Bonestell are paintings by Michael Baxte, who lays in his color with gusto and considerable acumen.”

During the 1930’s Baxte and his wife, Violet, lived in France and spent most of their time in Paris, where Baxte became part of the School of Paris and exhibited his artwork in government sponsored exhibitions including the Salon d' Automme, helping as well to organize an exhibition of American painters. When the World War II began, and Paris became unsafe Baxte and his wife relocated to Mexico where they continued to live and work. Baxte died in 1972 in Mexico.

Harry Leslie Hoffman was born in Cressona, a small community in Pennsylvania's Schuylkill Valley. His mother was an amateur artist who encouraged her son to pursue a career in the arts. In 1893, Hoffman entered the School of Art at Yale University and studied with John Ferguson Weir, the son of Robert Walter Weir. After graduation in 1897, Hoffman moved to New York to continue his studies at the Art Students League. He also traveled to Paris and took classes at the Académie Julien.

A man with strong academic art training, Harry Hoffman was judged by his peers to have done best with his landscapes when he painted what he saw and set aside the theories. He studied in Paris, worked at Yale University with John Ferguson Weir, and was a student at the Art Students League with Frank DuMond. But Willard Metcalf had the strongest influence, encouraging Hoffman to paint in the style of impressionism.

In the summer of 1902, Hoffman attended the Lyme Summer School of Art, in the town of Old Lyme on the Connecticut coast. He stayed at the Florence Griswold House, returning for many subsequent summers. At one point, when he was exceptionally low on money, he nearly became a professional baseball player, but was dissuaded by his painter friends.

In 1905, Hoffman settled in Old Lyme and worked as a full member of the artist colony. He was particularly influenced by Willard Leroy Metcalf, an Impressionist also working in Old Lyme. Fellow artists later fondly recalled Hoffman's antics at the Griswold house, which included playing the flute and banjo, tap-dancing, singing humorous songs, and performing magic tricks. In 1910 Hoffman married another Old Lyme artist named Beatrice Pope, and the couple had one child in 1921.

Hoffman and his wife often escaped New England during the harsh winter months. In the winters of 1914 and 1915 he traveled to Savannah, Georgia with fellow Old Lyme artist William Chadwick. Hoffman depicted urban genre scenes around the city and was inspired by the soft hazy light created by the tropical climate. Hoffman's Savannah paintings feature loose, Impressionistic brushwork and vibrant, saturated colors. In 1916, he visited the Bahamas and became interested in seascapes and underwater scenes. During the early twenties, Hoffman accompanied renowned naturalist William Beebe as a staff artist on expeditions to the Galapagos Islands, British Guiana, and Bermuda.

He married Beatrice Pope from East Orange, New Jersey, who was also staying at the Griswold House, and they lived in Old Lyme. In the 1920s, he had a reputation for his underwater life paintings, having made a bucket with a glass bottom that he floated on the water for special vantage points. Intrigued by the many colors he found in the ocean, he accompanied the naturalist William Beebe on research trips to the Galapagos Islands, Bermuda, and British Guiana.

He was awarded a gold medal at the Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915 and won the Eaton Prize, bestowed by the Lyme Art Association in 1924. His work is now located in private and permanent collections throughout the United States. In 1930, he was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design. He was also very helpful to Florence Griswold in her old age when she was about to lose her house. Successfully avoiding that loss, he served as the treasurer and fund raiser of monies to save it as a home during her lifetime and as a museum when she died.

In addition to his long painting career, Hoffman was a writer, actor, and musician. He was active in the historic preservation of the Florence Griswold House, the intellectual center of the Old Lyme Colony, as a museum. Hoffman lived to be ninety-two years old and died at Old Lyme, Connecticut, on March 1966.

Robert Philipp was born on February 2, 1895 in New York City.  He was an American painter influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and known for his nudes, still lifes, and portraits of attractive women and Hollywood stars. Moses Solomon Philipp showed early talent and grew up in a family atmosphere that fed and cultivated his creativity. At age of 15, he entered the Art Students League for four years and then continued his training at the National Academy of Design. His teachers at the League included George Bridgeman and Frank DuMond, and at the National Academy he studied with Douglas Volk and George Willoughby Maynard.

After the death of his father, Philipp turned away from painting for a time and joined his uncle's opera company as a tenor.  He eventually returned to painting and settled in Paris, living there in the 1920s. The exact date of Paris sojourn is not known, but he reportedly lived there for ten years, supporting himself through the sale of his paintings. Back in New York in the early 1930s, Philipp was gaining a reputation for his portraits and figure studies. His - Olympia - won the Logan prize at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1936 and was subsequently purchase by J. Paul Getty.  During the Depression, he worked for the Public Works of Arts Project. In 1934, he married artist Shelly (Rochelle) Post, who became his favorite model until her death in 1971. Critic Henry McBride called Philipp "One of the top ten painters in America."  It was during the 1930s that he began to paint landscapes, still lives and nudes evolving a distinctively lyric and modern style.

Philipp painted passionately and directly creating a synthesis of observation and poetic vision using high keyed colors and rhythmic treatment of form. Philipp's work, in his later years, began to increasingly resemble the Expressionist and emotional style of Chaim Soutine. He conveyed his subjects with a certain sensitivity and understanding that his viewers could relate to. Philipp, as a teacher at the Art Students League for over thirty years and at the National Academy for sixteen years, was an important influence on American art. As a teacher, he was well known for his attention to color and his constant emphasis on the importance of drawing.  He was a member of the Lotus Club, National Academy of Design and Royal Society of Arts.

Philipp taught at the High Museum of Art, 1946; University of Illinois, 1940; Art Students' League of New York and the National Academy of design. He was also elected an associate of the National Academy and later full Academician of the National Academy of Design. He won numerous awards during his life including the third Hallgarten Prize, 1922; prizes from the National Academy of Design, 1947 and 1951; Laguna Beach Art Association prize; medal prize, Art Institute of Chicago, 1936;  IBM, 1939; bronze medal, Allied Artists of America, 1958 and others. Robert Philipp passed away in 1981.

Kristina Nemethy is one of the twin sisters of Albert Nemethy and sibling of five. She was born in 1950, Germany and arrived to New York City at age one. In her later years, her father found that the town of Newburgh was where this family of artists can flourish. She was raised with strong influences and was inspired by the surrounding artistic values that reached all of the siblings; who all eventually became artists. Julien, Georgina, Albert, George and Veronica; whose paintings you may spot at auction halls upstate New York.

Kristina started to go her own way, trying different subjects of her skills. She paints still lifes, river boats, portraits, seascapes, landscapes, and emotionally strong depictions of subjects she feels connected to; creating intricately detailed modern subjects with rich colors and fine details. She often varies her media from oil to water colour and other techniques.

There is a spiritual connection that binds the Nemethy's, with the tradition of love towards fine art and the heritage of the Hudson Valley. Being inspired by a father of such talent; studying and experience directed her and made it so much easier to be self-taught. Kristina's work is vast, as she is inspired by many traditional values of painting. Always incorporating her fine art skills, her work is intricate with the finest details. Her work is expressive and bold; making it easier for her work to be distinguished from her other siblings.

As a traditional painter, she will always have that in her expressive nature, but there are moments where she chooses to paint off the path of her family. She opens a new tradition in her art style when experimenting in other subjects. A style that expresses a rich color pallet with subjects that are extravagant, and bold. As her work is always consistently detailed and this consistency will always follow her no matter what style she is experimenting with; creating paintings that are modern, elegant, sophisticated, and most of all expresses her love for fine art.

Bela de Tirefort was known for his stunning New York scenes, mostly painted on sight, leaving us with an enduring record of the metropolis between the 1930s and ’50s. This piece is an excellent example of his on sight paintings, an iconic scene with beautiful brushwork, thick use of paint and whimsical details. We can feel the atmosphere that the artist has created with many layers of paint and specks of light peaking through the fresh snow.

This work is a charming depiction of a snowy pathway in Central Park, New York City on a winter day with city buildings captured in the distance. A cozy impressionistic scene with colors of light cobalt, muted pinks, and purples. This painting captures the essence of Christmas in the 1930s in NYC. Signed lower left and it comes housed in its original frame, a beautiful museum quality gold tone frame, ready to be displayed with hanging wire on verso.

David Allen Moskovitz, was born in 1944 in Akron Ohio, and he was known for richly colored botanical and landscape paintings. As a psychiatrist, Moskovitz graduated from The University of Akron and from Case Western Reserve University Medical School. He did his residency in psychiatry at The Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn. He served in the U.S. Army as a psychiatrist at Ft. Bragg, N.C., earning the rank of Major.

As a self-taught artist, he found his inspiration in nature, rural scenery and travel, painting colorful scenes of his backyard garden in Shaker Heights and of travels in Ohio's Amish country, New England, New Mexico and Europe. Dr. Moskovitz believed in the healing power of art and encouraged others to explore their creativity. Former Plain Dealer art critic Helen Cullinan wrote that his paintings “are exuberantly affirmative ... unlike the florals with their impassioned brilliance, his landscapes project a sense of calm affection.”

David Moskovitz’s paintings have been shown in more than 40 solo and juried exhibitions and he was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts and The Temple-Tifereth Israel, Dr. Moskovitz enjoyed classical music, windsurfing, traveling, and looking for arrowheads. Dr. Moskovitz also exhibited his paintings at museums including the Bulter Institute of American Art in Ohio, the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts in Massachusetts, and the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. And his artwork was featured in New York; Connecticut; Massachusetts; Louisiana; Ohio; Washington, D.C.; and in Oslo, Norway. He’s works also appears in many private collections and died on October 7 in 2008 at age 63.

American artist Gordon Micunis was Born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1933. He Attended Lynn English High School, classes at The Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston and earned a BA in cum Laude, English and Fine Arts from Tufts College. He also earned an MFA in Scenic, Costume, Lighting Design from Yale University and a Graduate School of Drama.

Designer and manufacturer of Gorjayous Jewelry, Etsy Gorjayous; Wrote travel articles on India and Cuba for Times Mirror newspapers. Lecturer in Theater Design at Barnard College, Oberlin College and CW Post College. Designer at New Orleans Repertory Theater with Stuart Vaughan. Living in New York City. He also designed Subway prototype and 10,000 Subway stores worldwide. Also many unique McDonald's prototypes. Many one person and group shows of paintings and fiber works in Stamford CT. and in Santa Fe New Mexico.

Micunis served in the US Army in Europe for two years during the Korean War. Designed Scenery and Costumes for The Opera Society of Washington DC, New York City Opera with Beverly Sills, Baltimore Opera, San Francisco Opera, Many off-Broadway shows, The Ritz revival on Broadway with Calvin Culver.

Bruno-Émile Laurent, known as BEL, is a French painter born in 1928. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon des Artistes français, also the Montmartre museum exhibits several of his works, and the Moulin-Rouge, which considers him the last great painter of Montmartre, publishes lithographs of his works. Laurent in 1987, he decided to open his studio-gallery, which made him one of the personalities of the Butte. Located on the lower part of Montmartre, among his favorite subjects are views of Montmartre under the snow and the Lapin Agile, also BEL was inclined to specialize on painting of the Montmartre scene, although his subjects also range from flowers to views of Paris, New York street scenes, and landscapes of Provence or the interiors of cafés.

Considered one of the greatest painters of the "School of Montmartre", several retrospectives of his work have taken place, as the nostalgia is at the heart of his inspiration: sensitive to the Paris of yesteryear, that of "bougnats, sellers of coal, merchants of the four seasons who moved with their cart" in his youth, he readily integrates legendary characters such as the songwriter. Aristide Bruant, the dancers of the French cancan and views of the missing Montmartre. With a touch of humor and hedonism, he revisits film masterpieces such as Les Enfants du paradis, La Traversée de Paris. It pays tribute to Vincent van Gogh, to Auguste Renoir, to the Medrano circus. Enamored of freedom and anxious to make the spectator dream, Bruno-Émile Laurent goes against spectacular contemporary art, even nihilist and provocative, in favor of a conscientious and descriptive profession in the tradition of easel work, clean at the French fine arts.

Albert Munghard was born in 1919 and he was known for his charming intimate figurative scenes portraying life in Paris and Europe, and he was profoundly active, picking up subjects from the cities, parks, restaurants, cities, and much more. Under acknowledged as one of French-America's most active Plein air artists, Albert Munghard achieved excellence in his career, producing 100's of breathtaking works, now in many private collections and museums around the world. Munghard died in 1998.

Helen M. Butman was an active American impressionist painter in the 20th Century, creating wonderfully lush color pallets reminiscent of the great impressionists of our time, such as Renoir and Monet. She is known her garden landscapes and still life painting.

Constantin Kluge was born in Riga on January 29, 1912 then a large industrial port city in the Russian Empire. Of Russian parents, his father was a graduate of the Polytechnic Institute of Riga and his mother a Professor of Literature. Kluge's father was mobilized in the Czar's army in 1914 and during the subsequent civil war in Russia, the artist's childhood was spent in moving constantly from one end of Russia to the other. When Kluge was eight years old the family emigrated to North China, settling in Shanghai, where Kluge graduated from the French Municipal College. By the time he was seventeen, he was a very active member of the Shanghai Art Club. At this period of his life he also took up the violin and cello, and later in Paris gave music lessons to help him with his expenses. Meanwhile, his parents had decided that pure art was not a dependable career, and so in 1931 Kluge left Shanghai for Paris to study architecture. He spent six years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and in 1937 graduated with the title of French Government Architect.

T. E. Pencke is a Parisian painter born in 1929 also commonly known as "Pencke" & "T. Pencke”. He is a listed French Postwar & Contemporary artist and in his early life, he studied art in New York and Paris. His talent of an elegant impressionist oil painting style for his many French Street scenes, caught the attention of art critics early in his career and his work is now carried in numerous international galleries.

Pencke is well known for his colorful cityscapes depicting the times of the late 19th-century Parisian life, with French street scenes executed in an impressionist style as his work is comparable to those of Jules Herve, Antoine Blanchard, and Edouard Cortes. Even though his most popular subjects are Paris street scenes, Pencke’s works also feature some of his lovely beach scenes paintings of the Mediterranean coast of southeastern France resembling the works by the renowned artist Maurice Prendergast, as he executed stunning landscapes paintigns in an impressionistic manner.

Anatol Bouchet was born in Marseille, France in 1930 and he was the son of a well known artist. He was an impressionist painter primarily known for his vivid paintings of Parisian cityscapes and street scenes, as well as landscapes and marine scenes of the French Riviera in the Mediterranean coast of southeastern France. After finishing his elementary education in Marseille, he traveled to Paris to study and quickly became involved in the art societies of Parisian painters and contemporary fellow artists. And influenced by many of his well known artist friends, he quickly developed a special talent creating a unique aesthetic for his artworks and soon he began exhibiting his paintings in and around Paris, which garnered a lot of attention from the public art scene, becoming a very popular painter of the Parisian style.

Maryse Ducaire-Rogue was born in 1911. She was a pupil of Emmanuel Fougerat and a graduate of the National College of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a French impressionist artist she was best known for her paintings of female nudes and signed her name 'M. Ducaire'. She exhibited her work at numerous exhibitions in Paris, including the Salon des Artistes Indépendants where she became a member, the Salon des Artistes Français where she won a gold medal, the Salon d'Automne and the Salon Comparaisons. She also had solo exhibitions in Paris, Aurillac, Lyons, Grenoble and New York, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, one of France's highest honors for artists. Ducaire died in 1992.

Artist Maurice Legendre was born 1928 and he is known for his cityscapes and scenes of important landmarks of London, Paris, and the French Riviera. Legendre was a student of Robert Couturier and in 1954, he won the prestigious Blumenthal prize for art, and after studying under sculptor Marcel Grimond, received the Brantome prize for sculpture in 1965. Sculptures like his 'Sacre', made in the Pate-de-Verre method of glass casting, are representative of his work. Legendre's paintings of city scenes and landmarks, such as Notre Dame de Square Viviani and Eiffel Tower, are sought after examples of his work. His use of silver gray in his Paris winter scenes, vibrant colors in pieces such as 'La Madeline Flower Market' in Paris, and his work in sculpture, reflect the diversity of artwork produced by him. Legendre also depicted scenes of the French Riviera and North Africa.

Lucia Fortuny was a French impressionist painter born 1937. Creating a beautiful Mid-20th Century pointillist oil painting landscape depicting boats docked along a Marian in France with the town in the distance. This piece has a strong presence with bold brushwork and heavy use of paint and done in a Pointillistic style. A beautiful piece detailing the town and marina effortlessly. The piece is signed lower right by the artist and and comes housed in a gilt wood gold-toned frame with hanging wire on verso ready to be displayed.

Emile Thysebaert was a born in Gent, Belgium on 4 June 1873 and he was known for his impressionistic street scenes depicting popular locations in Europe. Thysebaert was a post-impressionist Belgian figurative painter and etcher whose theme was very diverse: marginals, alcoholics, folk people, workmen, market squares, horse markets, balls, processions, draft horses, fishermen. He found many of his subjects in the Marolles . In the later years he also painted images of Mechelen, the dunes in Oostduinkerke and Koksijde, the height of the Dudenpark, Neerpede, etc. He used powerful brush strokes and striking colors. If his colorite was rather gloomy in the beginning, it became more colorful after his trip to Italy. He was not influenced by the prevailing art movements, but always worked in his own realistic style and with a strong social commitment.

Thysebaert became a member of the artists' group “Le Sillon”, whose fellow members included Willem Paerels , Louis Thevenet , Georges Van Zevenberghen, Louise Brohée, Arthur Navez and J. Tordeur. He also became a member of "Labeur" and participated in the salons of "Labeur" among others in 1903 and 1904. His works were displayed in several exhibitions including: Brussels, hall of the University in 1901; Salon in Ghent in 1903; Brussels, Galerie Royale in 1917; Brussels, Galerie Kodak in 1927 and 1929 among many others.

In 1914, Thysebaert went to live in Schaerbeek. In 1921, the couple undertook a trip to southern France and Italy. During this trip he made many sketches. He was appointed Knight in the Order of Leopold in 1920 and finally as Officer in the Order of Leopold in 1961. Emile Thysebaert died in Anderlecht Belgium on 2 February 1963 and in 1964 was held a retrospective exhibition at the Maison des Arts in Schaerbeek with around 60 canvases of his works.

Andre Franchet was a french artist born in 1896. He was active in France and is known for his technique and colorful visions expressed with a bright colored pallet creating a very special Parisian atmosphere. His most iconic works are beautiful oil on canvas paintings of colorful cityscapes depicting the times of his generation. His work is comparable to in many ways of the impressionist masters of the 20th Century. Parisian street scenes with book sellers and figures, Notre Dame, and the Seine river are among the wonderful paintings examples of his work from the prime of his career, where the viewer can feel the energy of the day and the excitement of the times as he always captures so beautifully the architecture of Paris with magnificent details. Andre Franchet passed away in 1961.

Mario Passoni was born in Naples in 1929. Although he did not have any formal painting training, he was one of those fortunate enough artist to be born with the ability to paint and, as a self-taught artist, he painted just about any subject; from landscapes, street scenes, café scenes to figures and even sacred subjects. Using a pleasantly impressionist style were we can always find lively colors.

While growing up during the 1950s, Passoni was influenced by the artistic culture of the time. During the Post War period, New York City became the international focus for Modernism, and throughout the Second World War, many artists had made their way to the busy city after having fled in exile from Europe, resulting in a merging and amalgamation of talent and ideas. Whilst in New York, he was still influenced by Europeans painters such as Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers and Hans Hoffmann, providing inspiration for American artists, and influenced cultural development in the United States for many decades that followed.

In 1968, Passoni won a Gold Medal in Paris in a showing entitled “The Art of the Frame”. He was also involved in a collective exhibition in Rome in 1971 and a one-man show in Cagliari in 1975. These and many other exhibitions have established Passoni as a first-rate Italian artist.

Eugen Ankelen was born in 1858 Laupheim, Germany and was a well-known German painter and writer of the late 19th-early 20th century. He studied at the Academies of Stuttgart and Munich in 1879-81. His works are displayed in the museums of Munich and Ludwigshafen. He died in 1942 Munich, Germany.

Renee Theobald was a French Postwar & Contemporary painter who was born in 1926 in Paris, France. She studied at the Sorbonne and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. And in 1953 she won the first prize for Landscape at the Deauville International Competition, and in 1956 she also won an Art Scholarship in Paris. Later on she got the first prize for Composition, Cannes International Competition in 1957 and the Sociéte des Amateurs d’Art et Collectionneurs in 1962.

Theobald was known for Palette knife impressionist painting, landscape and coastal scenes. Through the years, she developed a style which is uniquely personal. Her paintings reveal the confidence of stroke only of years of evolution, from hard work and study, can produce. While her paintings are masterfully constructed, they are full of spontaneity, with which she paints and her rich and varied palette, produce not only the image of the subject but its very essence. Her works were a part of numerous group shows and special exhibitions like: the Museum of Modern Art: Selection of the Pacquement Prize; Musée Galleria, Paris, 1967; “Les Artiste Français” Montreal, Quebec; Tapestry design: Chartres 1971; “Les Peintres Temoins de leur Temps” Japan 1973 & 1974; Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, December 1975; “Five French Painters” Newman-Saunders Gallery, Philadelphia 1998; and the “Ecole de Paris – 50 Years” University Museum, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, August – October 1998 among others.

She also had a number of individual exhibitors starting early in her artistic career, in 1951 in Paris at the ‘Galerie Cardo Matignon’; and had her first solo show at the prestigious De Young Museum in San Francisco, CA. Renee Theobald's art has been exhibited in major museums and can be found in some of the most prestigious public and private collections worldwide like Paris and Saint-Maur in France, London in the United Kingdom, Bougie in Algeria, Ovar in Portugal, Museum of the Marine and the Museum of San Francisco. As well her pieces where a part of the Salon d’Automne, Salon de la Sociéte Natonale des Beaux-Arts, Salon des Independants, Salon de Courbevoie, Salon de la Marine and the Palais du Trocadero.

Renee’s joy of living, with a deep inner serenity become an intricate part of each canvas. All her travel experiences always added to her vast array of subjects. The viewer is always aware of her sensitivity to her surroundings and her ability to express her insights. Theobald died in 2014 in Paris, France leaving behind a vast number of works to be enjoyed by critics and collectors alike.

Johannes Schiefer was born in 1896 in the Netherlands, and quickly gained notoriety for his landscapes, still life’s and portraits. Schiefer won the Prix de Rome at the age of 19 and studied at the Düsseldorf Academy in Germany, and then moved to Paris where he continued his studies in art at the Beaux Arts, and later at the Villa Medici in Rome. He traveled to paint across Europe, primarily France and Italy and also Latin America.

When he married, he settled down in Nice France, and during the late thirties, he traveled and painted the coastline of the South of France, as well as Venice and the Adriatic. He remained in France until 1942, when he moved to New York with his family after the birth of their daughter, future actress Joanna Miles. Already an artist of stature when he arrived in New York, he settled with his family on Long Island, and for the next 30 years, Schiefer kept on painting and built a solid reputation as an important American artist. The Schiefers also had a son, Johannes Jr. After the war, Schiefer maintained a Paris studio and became a resident of Los Angeles for a time in the 1950s.

For the next 30 years Schiefer kept on painting and during his career had numerous one man shows, having exhibitions at: Gallery Zak in Paris; Kunsthaus in Hamburg; Kunsthalle in Munich; Stiebel Galleries in Paris; O'Connor Gallery in Ontario; Museum of Modern Art, Wildenstein & Co, Carol Carstairs Gallery and Schoeneman Galleries in New York City; Esther Robles Gallery, County Museum and Vigoveno Galleries in Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Museum.

Like Picasso, Schiefer never permitted himself to be “type-cast” in a single monotonous style. If there is anything that typifies his work, it is his versatility, his deft handling of subdued tones to create a unique brilliance of light and color that stamps every painting with his own individuality. In February 1964, Ethel Kennedy happened to meet the artist at Donald Patterson’s decorating establishment on Worth Avenue in New York City. Donald described the meeting saying that she “just looked in wonderment when Johannes came in with one of his paintings. The Kennedy family has collected Schiefer paintings for a long time, but Ethel Kennedy had never before come face to face with the painter.” After looking at a few of his works, she commissioned Schiefer to create a painting of Monaco for her. This was the beginning of a wonderful relationship and many more commissioned works followed.

As his work gained notoriety in New York, he eventually became curator at the Parrish Art Museum in Long Island, NY. His work is represented in museums and prominent private collections around the world. Johannes Schiefer passed away at his home in Manhattan in 1979 at the age of 83.

Gaston Sébire was born August 18, 1920, in Saint-Samson Calvados Normandy. He was known for his landscapes, seascapes, still lifes and flowers. Sebire was also an engraver, pastel artist and painter of theatre decorations. He settled in Paris in 1951 and in 1953 he created the costumes and decorations for l'Ange Gris, with music by Debussy, for the Ballets of the Marquis de Cuevas. He lived and worked in Normandy and participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Salon of Independents, Paris Salon of Tuileries, Paris Comparisons Salon since 1962, Paris Salon of French Artists since 1964, Paris. He appeared at other groupings in London with Lorjou and Clave, in Munich, Washington, Japan, and different exhibitions of the School of Paris at the Charpentier Gallery in Paris in 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1946, 1958 and 1962, at the Biennial of the Jeunes au Pavilon of Marsan in 1957. He received the Critic's Prize in 1953, the Greenshields Prize in 1957 and the Gold Medal at the Salon of French Artists in 1968.

His first major achievement was to design the costumes and sets for L'Ange gris, a ballet by Claude Debussy for the Marquis de Cuevas in 1953. That same year, he won the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, of which he was a member of the 24th artistic promotion, and leaves for Spain. And during the entire second half of the twentieth century, he exhibited in the main Parisian salons, and was notably part of Maurice Boitel's group at Comparisons show, for forty-five years.

Today his work can be seen in Museums around the world and among his shows and exhibitions include: 1944 Galerie Gosselin in Rouen, France; 1952 Galerie Visconti in Paris, France; 1956 Galerie Charpentier in Paris, France; 1961 Galerie Combes in Clermont-Ferrand, France; 1962 Galerie Drouant in Paris, France; 1964 "Exhibition" Musee de Rouen in Rouen, France; 1965 Wally Findlay Gallery in New York and Chicago; 1965 Galerie Drouant in Paris, France; 1965 Wally Findlay Gallery in Paris, France; 1968 Galerie Drouant in Paris, France; 1971 Wally Findlay Gallery in Paris, France; 1976 "Exhibitions" Cultural Center in Le Mesnil-Esnard, France; 1986 "Retrospective" Museum of Fine Art in Rouen, France; 1991 Roger Worms Association with "Cacheux" in Ville de Montfermeil, France and in 1992 Wally Findlay Gallery in Paris, France. Gaston Sébire was appointed painter of the Navy in 1973 and he became a member of the Rouen Academy in 1973. Sébire died in 2001.

Michel Adlen was born in Belarus on May 15, 1898. He received his artistic training in Vienna, where he exhibited for the first time and cooperated in the humorous magazine Die Muskete. From 1923 he was active in Berlin, where he participated in numerous graphic arts exhibitions. Adlen eventually moved to Paris, where he founded the Jewish Painters and Sculptors Association. He was also a member of several different groups of artists, such as the Union of Russian Artists in Paris and La Satire and Les Imagiers.

Initially, Adlen was heavily influenced by Cubist and Fauvist tendencies, around 1925, however, he took up the tradition of French landscape painting after Corot and Pissarro, but some of his works are also in reminiscence of Cézanne. As a representative of the École de Paris, Adlen also created landscapes and still life artworks, often with wild flowers and fruits, that have a melancholic mood due to the predominance of various grey tones.

And from 1929 to 1939 he worked as an illustrator for several major Parisian magazines and received numerous commissions. In addition to many paintings, he also created numerous graphic works such as lithographs, colored prints as well as etchings, and drawings. His works are part of several museum collections like the museums in Moscow and Kiev, and the Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris. Michel Adlen died 1980.

Charles Genge was born in 1874, and he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris. Genge is considered a leader of the British Post Impressionists, and in his early years, the artistic foundation was laid for the rest of Genge’s career, as an artist who rejected academic traditions and believed that art should be available to all. Charles Genge was a dedicated teacher and one of the founders of Bethnal Green Working Men’s Institute, where he offered tuition until 1925. During his earlier career, his works were exhibited at Goupils, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and the New English Art Club. And in 1927, Genge was appointed Curator at the RA Schools.

Genge’s success is due partly because his work displayed a real understanding of the power of colour and mark-making in the French artists – the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, the Fauves and the Cubists – whose work was still very influential in Britain. And also because his works were also infused with a love of the everyday life of the countryside and the suburbs, which he painted in both England and France. Through his paintings, he demonstrated spontaneity and enthusiasm for the plein-air technique of painting, with bold applications of paint laid on paint and the use of dense stripes of colour. His works are distinguished by the excitement, brilliance, and beauty of the ordinary and familiar, British or French landscape scenes. This ability to combine a radical technique with these familiar scenes is what ensured that Genge’s work appealed to many.

In 1930, his works were shown in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, next to many other interesting artists, from Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry to Emily Beatrice Bland, David Bomberg, Muirhead Bone, and Jacob Epstein. Genge died in 1958, and although he had instructed his nephew, William Genge, to clear his studio and burn his paintings upon his passing, instead Genge’s paintings were stored and left hidden for many years. And eventually, the entire studio collection was handed over to Campbell's of Walton Street Ltd., in Knightsbridge, to offer them to the public. From there, the first major exhibition of Genge’s work was in June 1985, which had great success. And subsequently, his works were included in other exhibitions throughout the 1980s, and the following decade. In 1997, a small number of watercolours on paper were exhibited and sold in New York. The remaining paintings by Charles Genge were bequeathed to Campbell’s, after William Genge’s death in 2002.

R. Champignon was born in Marseille in 1918. His studies of art took him to Paris and later to Florence. After completing his education in Italy, he returned to Paris, the city of lights and inspiration for many artists in the 20th Century. He was known for his colorful pallet and bold brushwork, his painting style also has a mystical quality about them which brings us to feel the atmosphere of his works effortlessly. We can feel that the artist was deeply in love with his city.

André Roubaud was born in France in 1929 and he began his artistic career as a painter from a very early age well before he attended art school, as he enjoyed painting the subjects that surrounded him like landscapes, flowers and people. After receiving his art education in Paris at "Art Libre", his work soon began to become recognized and also won prizes from his hometown region in France, and later in 1957, André began exhibiting in Paris and Marseille, then achieving international recognition having exhibited in New York, Chicago, Palm Beach, San Francisco and Montreal, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, and Canada while winning numerous honors during his career.

André Roubaud’s paintbrush is a reflection of his soul, as in each painting he pictorially describes the Provence he grew up in with the grace of its natural beauty, almost as he would like for the viewer to see into his soul when appreciating his work. As Jean-Claude Gaudin, Senator of the Bouches-du-Rhône expressed about André’s works “Reality and dreams, realism and poetry, combine in his eyes and by his hand to move us”.

John Clymer was born near Brighton, England in 1932. At a very early age, he exhibited definite artistic talents. His father immediately recognized his son's gift and enrolled him at the royal art academy. John was soon swept by the serenity and tranquility of the impressionists. His favorites ranged from Monet to Pissaro and Sisley; eventually leading to an awakening interest in the magnificent Turners at Tate galleries. Clymer's serene yet colorful canvasses ably depict his love for the southern english coastline. Demand for his canvasses is very high in the United States and the European continent while still relatively dormant in his home country.

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