Good morning

Alfred John Billinghurst (1880-1963)
Girl among Hollyhocks

Johan Dijkstra (Dutch 1896-1978)
Eveningsight from the Boteringe-bridge at the Lopende Diep 1924-25

Felix Vallotton (1865-1925)
At The Dressing Table c.1911

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1865 and obtaining French citizenship in 1900, Vallotton drew his inspiration from this double culture. Following studies at the Académie Julian and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he strove to make his living by painting portraits. It was however in his portrayals of Parisian life that Vallotton developed an individual style, which he changed very little afterwards. Vallotton later tried his hand at engraving, a form he soon mastered and received widescale acclaim for, his prints used in many magazines and publications of the day. Vallotton’s engravings primarily consist of large areas of black and white and are characterised by their stark contrast and acute attention to detail.

"I dream of painting that is free from any literal following of nature. I would like to recreate landscapes only with the aid of the feeling which they evoked in me, a few basic big lines and one or two details selected without any precise connection with time or lighting."
Félix Vallotton

Frank Weston Benson (1862 - 1951)
Summer Day 1911

Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858 - 1925)
Captain Lord House, Kennebunkport, Maine c.1920

William Chadwick (1879-1962)
On the Porch 1908

Daniel Gerhartz Art

Daniel Gerhartz was born in Wisconsin in 1965 where he now lives with his wife Jennifer and their three young children. His interest in art piqued at an early age when a teenage friend suggested they spend one dreary afternoon drawing. It was at that moment that he discovered his lifework. Daniel began his art education at the American Academy of Art in Chicago where he studied in the classical tradition and immersed himself in applications of technique and design. After a brief stint in commercial art, he began pursuing fine art; visiting museums to study master works and painting alongside contemporary artists. Daniel found his passion in painting from life. This direct approach to working with the figure and landscape allowed him to see and attempt to capture the infinite nuances of light, color, and form. This continues to drive his enthusiasm today. Since then he has been featured in solo and group shows across the country and has won several awards at prominent national invitational exhibitions and his work has been collected both nationally and internationally.

Daniel Gerhartz has established himself as an important American painter among the leading talents of our time. About his work Dan has said, " My goal is to effectively record the richness of our human experience, the contrasts between life and death, the dance and dirge, the beautiful and common, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, while in the end, offering a message of hope and pointing the viewer to the eternal." and " As I paint my subjects from life and have the privilege of studying the awe inspiring breadth and depth of the beauty of the created world, it is humbling to ponder the greatness of our Creator." Johann Sebastian Bach said it well as he signed his work, ‘Soli Deo Gloria,’ to God alone be the glory."

Max Liebermann (1847 – 1935)
Terrasse des Restaurants Jacob in Nienstedten an der Elbe 1902

Augusto Lovati (1816-?)
Veduta con il convento dei Cappuccini

Ivan Kramskoy
June 8, 1837 – April 5, 1887

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy was a Russian painter and graphic artist, a master of genre, historic and portrait painting and an art critic.

He was born in the town of Ostrogozhsk in the Voronezh Region in southwestern Russia into a commoner’s family. He received a basic education in a district school. During his childhood Kramskoy independently studied drawing and later began working with aquarelles. When he was 16, he worked as a color correction artist for a Kharkov (Ukraine) photographer. In 1856 he moved to St. Petersburg and continued to work with the best of the capital’s photographers. The following year he entered the Arts Academy, where he soon showed great talent in drawing and painting. During his academy years, he gathered the progressive youth around him. He was the head of the protest against painting the far-fetched pieces ordered by the council (the so-called “programs”). The artists graduating from the Academy created the St. Petersburg Team, which owed its atmosphere of mutual help, co-operation and strong spirituality to Kramskoy.

Kramskoy began to mature as a portraitist. He often employed his favorite graphic technique, using sauce, bleach and Italian pencil. With this method, he drew portraits of the artists Morozov (1868), Shishkin (1869), Myasoedov (1861), Chistyakov (1861) and Koshelev (1866). His portraits were very accurate and without obliquities, but with reserved colors. His art technique corresponded well with the image of the intellectual democrat, a common character of his paintings such as “Self Portrait” (1867) and “The Portrait of the Agronome Vyunnikov” (1868). In 1863-1868 Kramskoy taught at the Drawing School of the Artist Encouraging Society. By the end of the decade, the St. Petersburg Team lost its unity and social status. Kramskoy quit it and became one of the founders of the Peredvizhniki Society (The Comradeship of Moving Arts Exhibitions). The first exhibition displayed his “Portrait of F. A. Vasilyev” and “Portrait of M. M. Antokolskiy.”