Mikhail Vrubel was a Russian artist of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, who worked in virtually all types and genres of fine art: painting, graphics, decorative sculpture and theatrical art. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Vrubel’s paintings became an organic part of Russian Art Nouveau. On November 28, 1905 he was awarded the title of academician of painting.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel was born on March 17, 1856 in Omsk, Russian Empire. His younger brother and sister, Ekaterina and Alexander, did not live to adolescence. His mother died of consumption in 1859, when Mikhail was three years old. Mikhail was a weak child and he began to walk only at the age of three.
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Bartolome Murillo was the leading Spanish painter of the Golden Age, the head of the Seville school.
Bartolome Esteban Murillo was born in Seville and was baptized on January 1, 1618. At the age of 11 the boy orphaned and lived with his relative, the painter Juan del Castillo.
At 17 Murillo was painting small, religious compositions for the Latin American market.
The desire to improve led him to Madrid, where his countryman, Velazquez, gave him the opportunity to study and copy the works of Titian, Rubens, van Dyck and Ribera in the royal palaces. 1642-1645 remain the most mysterious years in the life of Murillo.
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Rene Magritte was a Belgian artist, Surrealist painter. He is famous for bizarre images depicted in a realistic manner.
Rene Francois Chislain Magritte was born on November 21, 1890 in Lessines, Belgium. At the age of 12 he began drawing and painting. Rene attended informal art classes in Chatelet. In 1912 Magritte’s mother drowned herself, and the family moved to Charleroi.
At age 15, at the local fair, he met a girl named Georgette Berger. They married in 1922.
From 1916 to 1918 Magritte studied at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. In 1919, he exhibited his first canvas, Three Women, a Cubistic picture.
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Viktor Vasnetsov was a Russian painter and architect, master of historical and folk painting. Artist Apollinary Vasnetsov was his younger brother.
Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov was born on May 15, 1848 in Vyatka province into the family of a village priest. When he was 10 years old, he was sent to Vyatka theological school and then he moved to the seminary. But it was very boring for him at school and seminary. He loved his native nature, the forests in which he grew up, loved to listen to the bylinas and ancient legends about the struggle of the people with the enemies, the stories of fellow countrymen who had visited large cities. From an early age, the future artist tried to sketch what he saw around.
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The creative work of Ivan Aivazovsky is a remarkable phenomenon. He was a romantic who sharply felt the beauty of the sea, and was able to convey it in bright pictorial images. He had painted about 6000 pictures. He is the most outstanding artist of Armenian origin of the XIX century. His brother Gabriel Aivazovsky was an Armenian historian and archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (his real name was Hovhannes Ayvazyan) was born on July 17 (29), 1817 in Feodosia. Since childhood he had artistic and musical abilities; in particular, he independently learned to draw and play the violin. Theodosius architect Yakov Khristianovich Koch, who first drew attention to the artistic abilities of the boy, gave him the first lessons.
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Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch artist. In his paintings he created a highly original world with a moral message. His works are often based on Christian writings. Bosch used his works to present his views on human sin and its consequences.
Hieronymus Bosch (his real name was Jeroen Anthoniszoon) was born in 1450 in Hertogenbosch, where he spent most of his life. Both his grandfather and father were painters.
Sometime before 1481 he married Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meervenne.
In 1504 Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria, commissioned him to paint a Last Judgment, which has not survived.
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Abram Arkhipov was a Russian painter, peredvizhnik. He entered the history of Russian art of the late XIX-early XX century as an artist of subtle and poetic talent, who dedicated his work to the Russian countryside, the peasant theme.
Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov was born on August 27, 1862 in one of the villages of the Ryazan province into a poor peasant family. Since childhood he was fond of drawing. Parents encouraged the son in every possible way and in 1876 they sent him to study in Moscow.
From 1877 to 1883 and from 1886 to 1888 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under the leadership of V.G. Perov, V.D. Polenov, I.M. Pryanishnikov, A.K. Savrasov and V.E. Makovsky. In addition, from 1884 to 1886 he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.
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