(November 30, 1825 - August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter. William Bouguereau was a traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects with a heavy emphasis on the female human body. William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France on November 30, 1825, into a family of wine and olive oil merchants. He seemed destined to join the family business but for the intervention of his uncle Eugene, a Roman Catholic priest, who taught him classical and Biblical subjects, and arranged for Bouguereau to go to high school. Bouguereau showed artistic talent early on and his father was convinced by a client to send him to the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, where he won first prize in figure painting for a depiction of Saint Roch. To earn extra money, he designed labels for jams and preserves  Related Paintings of William-Adolphe Bouguereau :. | Modestie | The Elder Sister | Depiction of a soul being carried to heaven by two angels. | Spring Breeze | Urban landscape |
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Giovanni Bellini
Italian High Renaissance Painter, ca.1430-1516 (b ?1431-6; d Venice, 29 Nov 1516). Painter and draughtsman, son of (1) Jacopo Bellini. Although the professional needs of his family background may have encouraged him to specialize at an early date in devotional painting, by the 1480s he had become a leading master in all types of painting practised in 15th-century Venice. Later, towards the end of his long life, he added the new genres of mythological painting and secular allegory to his repertory of subject-matter. His increasing dominance of Venetian art led to an enormous expansion of his workshop after c. 1490; and this provided the training-ground not only for his numerous shop-hands and imitators (generically known as Belliniani) but probably also for a number of major Venetian painters of the next generation. Throughout his career, Giovanni showed an extraordinary capacity for absorbing a wide range of artistic influences, both from within Venetian tradition and from outside. He also oversaw a technical revolution in the art of painting, involving the gradual abandonment of the traditional Italian use of egg tempera in favour of the technique of oil painting pioneered in the Netherlands. It was thanks to Giovanni Bellini that the Venetian school of painting was transformed during the later 15th century from one mainly of local significance to one with an international reputation. He thus set the stage for the triumphs of Venetian painting in the 16th century and for the central contribution that Venice was to make to the history of European art.
Konstantin Korovin
1861-1932 Russian Konstantin Korovin Galleries Konstantin was born in Moscow to a merchant family officially registered as peasants of Vladimir gubernia. His father, Aleksey Mikhailovich Korovin, earned a University degree and was more interested in arts and music than in the family business established by Konstantin's grandfather. Konstantin's older brother Sergey Korovin was a notable realist painter. Konstantin's relative Illarion Pryanishnikov was also a prominent painter of the time and a teacher at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1875 Konstantin entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpturing and Architecture, where he learned from Vasily Perov and Alexei Savrasov. His brother, Sergey was already a student of the School. During their scholar years Korovins became friends with their fellow students Valentin Serov and Isaac Levitan, Kontantin kept these friendship through the whole of his life. In 1881-1882, Korovin spent a year at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, but returned disappointed to the Moscow School of painting, sculpturing and architecture. He studied at the school under the new teacher Vasily Polenov until 1886. In 1885, Korovin made traveled to Paris and Spain. Paris was a shock for me?? Impressionists?? in them I found everything for what I was scolded back at home, in Moscow, he later wrote. Korovin. On the balcony, Spanish women Leonora and Ampara. 1897-1898.Polenov introduced Korovin to Savva Mamontov's Abramtsevo circle: Viktor Vasnetsov, Apollinary Vasnetsov, Ilya Repin, Mark Antokolsky and others. The Abramtsevo circle's love for stilized Russian themes is reflected in Korovin's picture A Northern Idyll. In 1885 Korovin works for Mamontov's Opera house. He designed the stage decor for Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, L??o Delibes' Lakme and Georges Bizet's Carmen. St. Triphon's Brook in Pechenga. 1894.In 1888, Korovin traveled with Mamontov to Italy and Spain, where he produced painting On the balcony, Spanish women Leonora and Ampara. Konstantin traveled within Russia, Caucasus and Central Asia, exhibited with Peredvizhniki. He was painting in the Impressionist and later in the Art Nouveau style. In the 1890s, Korovin became a member of the Mir iskusstva art group. Korovin's subsequent works was strongly influenced by his travel to the North. In 1888 he was captivated by the stern northern landscapes, as seen in The Coast of Norway and The Northern Sea. His second trip to the North, with Valentin Serov in 1894, coincided with the construction of the Northern Railway. Korovin painted a large number of landscapes: Norwegian Port, Saint Trifon's Brook in Pechenega, Hammerfest: Aurora Borealis, The Coast at Murmansk and others. The paintings are built on a delicate web of shades of grey. The etude style of these works was typical for the Korovin's art of the 1890s. Using material from his northern trip, Korovin designed the Northern Railway pavilion at the All Russia Exhibition of 1896 at Nizhny Novgorod. In 1900, Korovin designed the Central Asia section of the Russian Empire pavilion on the Paris World Fair; and was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government. Spring, 1917In the beginning of the 20th century Korovin focused his attention on the theatre. He moved from Mamontov's opera to Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Departing from the tradition of the stage decor, which only indicated the place of action, Korovin produced a mood decor, which conveyed the general emotions of the performance. Korovin designed sets for Constantin Stanislavski's dramatic productions, as well as Mariinsky's operas and ballets. He did the stage design for such Mariinsky's productions as Faust (1899), The Little Humpbacked Horse (1901) and Sadko (1906) that became famous for their expressiveness. Pier in Gurzuf, 1914In 1905, Korovin became an Academician of Painting, and in 1909-1913 he was a professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. One of the artist's favourite themes was Paris. He painted A Paris Cafe (1890s'), Cafe de la Paix (1905'), La Place de la Bastille (1906), Paris at Night; Le Boulevard Italien (1908'), Night Carnival (1901), Paris in the Evening (1907) and others. During the World War I Korovin worked as a camouflage consultant at the headquarters of one of the Russian armies and was often seen at the front line. After the October Revolution Korovin continued to work in the theatre, designing stage for Richard Wagner's Die Walk??re and Siegfried as well as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker (1918-1920). In 1923 Korovin moved to Paris by the advice of the Commissar of Enlightenment, Anatoliy Vasilievich Lunacharsky, to cure his heart condition and help Korovin's handicapped son. There was supposed to be a large exhibition of Korovin's works but the works were stolen and Korovin was left penniless. For years he produced the numerous Russian winters and Paris boulevards just to make ends meet. In the last years of his life he produced stage designs for many of the major theatres of Europe, America, Asia and Australia, the most famous of which is his scenery for a production by the Turin Opera House of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel. Korovin died in Paris on September 11, 1939. Konstantin's son Alexey Korovin (1897-1950) was a notable Russian-French painter. Because of an accident during his childhood he had both feet amputated. Alexey committed suicide in 1950.
Harry Morley
1881-1943