Individual artists, art monographs

At a time when the dominant mode of painting, Abstract Expressionism, emphasised expressive drama through bold brushwork and largely abstract compositions, Johns' paintings of the American flag, targets, numbers and the alphabet demonstrated a decided departure from convention.

Without a doubt, Katsushika Hokusai is the most famous Japanese artist since the middle of the nineteenth century whose art is known to the Western world.

Through his eclecticism, William Morris (1834-1896) was one of the most emblematic personalities of the nineteenth century.

Pieter Brueghel was the first important member of a family of artists who were active for four generations.

He was the son of a citizen in comfortable circumstances, and had been, in Vasari's words, "e;instructed in all such things as children are usually taught before they choose a calling.

Ornans, Courbet's birthplace, is near the beautiful valley of the Doubs River, and it was here as a boy, and later as a man, that he absorbed the love of landscape.

Little is known of Memling's life.

In his works, Hopper poetically expressed the solitude of man confronted with the American way of life as it developed in the 1920s.

After staying in Milan for his apprenticeship, Michelangelo da Caravaggio arrived in Rome in 1592.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (June 1599 - August 6 1660), known as Diego Velasquez, was a painter of the Spanish Golden Age who had considerable influence at the court of King Philip IV.

Mantegna; humanist, geometrist, archaeologist, of great scholastic and imaginative intelligence, dominated the whole of northern Italy by virtue of his imperious personality.

Secluded within cloister walls, a painter and a monk, and brother of the order of the Dominicans, Angelico devoted his life to religious paintings.

An emblematic figure of the early 20th century, Paul Klee participated in the expansive Avant-Garde movements in Germany and Switzerland.

Born in 1912, in a small town in Wyoming, Jackson Pollock embodied the American dream as the country found itself confronted with the realities of a modern era replacing the fading nineteenth century.

In 1905 Georgia travelled to Chicago to study painting at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Michelangelo, like Leonardo, was a man of many talents; sculptor, architect, painter and poet, he made the apotheosis of muscular movement, which to him was the physical manifestation of passion.

The smoothly metallic portraits, nudes and still lifes of Tamara de Lempicka encapsulate the spirit of Art Deco and the Jazz Age, and reflect the elegant and hedonistic life-style of a wealthy, glamorous and privileged elite in Paris between the two World Wars.

Behind Frida Kahlo's portraits, lies the story of both her life and work.

Spanish architect and designer, Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) was an important and influential figure in the history of contemporary Spanish art.

Pierre Bonnard was the leader of a group of post-impressionist painters who called themselves the Nabis, from the Hebrew word meaning 'prophet'.

At fifteen, Turner was already exhibiting View of Lambeth.

John Constable was the first English landscape painter to take no lessons from the Dutch.

Hieronymus Bosch was painting frightening, yet vaguely likable monsters long before computer games were ever invented, often including a touch of humour.

Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) was a painter and a great art theorist, but first and foremost he was the founder of Suprematism, a style seeking pure abstraction based on geometrical forms.

Canaletto began his career as a theatrical scene painter, like his father, in the Baroque tradition.

Paul Klee gehört zu den Künstlern, die sich nur schwerlich einer bestimmten kunstgeschichtlichen Bewegung zuordnen lassen.

Painter, designer, creator of bizarre objects, author and film maker, Dali became the most famous of the Surrealists.

Poet, draughtsman, engraver and painter, William Blake's work is made up of several elements - Gothic art, Germanic reverie, the Bible, Milton and Shakespeare - to which were added Dante and a certain taste for linear designs, resembling geometric diagrams, and relates him to the great classical movement inspired by Winckelmann and propagated by David.

They met in 1928, Frida Kahlo was then 21 years old and Diego Rivera was twice her age.

Kasimir Malevitch (Kiev, 1878 — Saint-Pétersbourg, 1935) était un peintre, un grand théoricien d’art, et surtout le père fondateur du suprématisme, style basé sur les formes géométriques et la recherche de l’abstraction pure.

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) (Venise, 1697 – 1768) Comme son père, il commença sa carrière comme peintre de décors de théâtre.

William Morris (1834-1896), par son éclectisme, fut l’une des personnalités emblématiques du XIXe siècle.

Memling (Hans Memling) (Seligenstadt, 1433 – Bruges, 1494)On sait très peu de choses sur la vie de Memling.

Gustave Courbet(Ornans, 1819 – La Tour de Peilz, Suisse, 1877)Ornans, sa ville natale, se situe près la ravissante vallée du Doubs, et c'est là que jeune garçon, et plus tard en tant qu'homme, il acquit l'amour du paysage.

Pieter Bruegel, l'Ancien (près de Breda, 1525 – Bruxelles, 1569)Pieter Bruegel fut le premier membre important d'une famille d'artistes, actifs durant quatre générations.

Le Caravage (Michelangelo Merisi) (Caravaggio, 1571 – Porto Ercole, 1610)Après avoir séjourné à Milan durant son apprentissage, Michelangelo Merisi arriva à Rome en 1592.

Edward Hopper exprime avec poésie la solitude de l’homme face à cet american way of life qui se développe dans les années 1920.

Diego Velázquez (Séville, 1599 – Madrid, 1660)Diego Velázquez était un artiste anticonformiste de l'ère baroque.

Andrea Mantegna (1431 Isola di Carturo – 1506 Mantoue)Mantegna, humaniste, géomètre, archéologue, homme d'une grande intelligence et d'une puissante imagination, domina la scène de l'Italie septentrionale grâce à sa personnalité impérieuse.

Fra Angelico (Fra Giovanni da Fiesole) (Vicchio di Mugello,1387 – Rome,1455)Isolé du monde par les murs d'un cloître, ce moine peintre, appartenant à l'ordre des dominicains, voua son existence à la peinture religieuse.

Jackson Pollock(Cody, Wyoming, 1912 – New York, 1956) Pollock fut le représentant le plus important et le plus influent de l’expressionnisme abstrait.

Georgia O’Keeffe (Sun Prarie, Wisconsin, 1887 – Santa Fe, 1986)En 1905, Georgia O’Keeffe suivit des cours à l’ Art Institute de Chicago et débuta sérieusement sa carrière artistique.

Les portraits, les nus et les natures mortes de Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) résument l’esprit Art déco et Jazz Age.

Frida Kahlo est devenue plus familière aux amateurs d’art après la sortie d’un film sur sa vie.

Architecte et designer barcelonais, Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) occupe une large place dans l’histoire de l’art espagnol.

Michel-Ange (Michelangelo Buonarroti) (Caprese, 1475 – Rome, 1564)Michel-Ange, comme Léonard de Vinci, avait plusieurs cordes à son arc et était à la fois sculpteur, architecte, peintre et poète.

Pierre Bonnard était le chef d’un groupe de peintres post-impressionnistes.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (Londres, 1775 – 1851)A 15 ans, Turner exposait déjà une Vue de Lambeth.

Wenn das Land der aufgehenden Sonne in einem der häufigen Erdbeben für immer im Meer versinken sollte, würde es durch den magischen Pinsel Hiroshiges für uns dennoch fortleben.

Katsushika Hokusai ist ohne Zweifel der seit der Mitte des 19.