Reilee Bach - The Letter

See: http://www.reileebach.com/

[Oil on canvas, 25 x 26 inches]

Palmer Hayden - The Janitor Who Paints [c.1930]

Palmer C. Hayden (January 15, 1890 – February 18, 1973) was an American painter who depicted African American life. He painted in both oils and watercolours, and was a prolific artist of his era. Much of Hayden's influences came from the environment around him. He enjoyed painting, and used his time in Paris for inspiration. Over his next five years in Paris, Hayden was very productive, trying to capture elements of Parisian society. On his return to America, Hayden began working for the United States government. Much of Hayden’s work after Paris focused on the African American experience. He tried to capture both rural life in the, as well as urban backgrounds in New York City. Many of these urban paintings were centred in Harlem.

[Oil on canvas, 99.3 x 83.6 cm]

Jan Steen - Two Kinds Of Games [c.1636-79]

A group of men are having fun in a tavern. A young man is drinking beer, draining his tankard, while a couple of others are playing backgammon. Like cards, this popular game was associated with idleness and folly. On the left, another game is being played: an old man tries to pull a young woman (the landlady) onto his lap. The woman resists him half-heartedly. Her red stockings, however, suggest that she would not have been all that worried about her morals: red stockings often indicated the woman was a prostitute. Taverns were sometimes disguised brothels and this place certainly has a rather dubious air. The lute on the wall, the dog, the pipe on the firepan and the mussel and eggshells on the ground suggest debauchery, lust and idleness.

[Oil on canvas, 63 x 69.50 cm]

Juan Carlos Martinez - Lidia

Juan Carlos Martínez is an award-winning artist living in Toronto, Canada, whose work has been featured in various publications and exhibitions around the world. He was trained classical atelier and works in what is now considered the classical realist tradition. Juan studied in Toronto, Canada, and Florence, Italy, under the tutelage of master painter, M. John Angel. Prior to that period he had been, among other things, a lawyer, but gave up that life to pursue his vocation as a professional classical painter. Today, in addition to maintaining an award-winning portfolio and working on portrait commissions, Juan is usually busy writing and teaching.

See: http://www.juanmartinez.com/

[Oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches]

Jean-Leon Gérome - Slave Market in Ancient Rome [c.1884]

Thanks to an ability to combine romantic and realistic elements, and to the broad range of his subjects, Gérome made his name early in life and went on to enjoy a brilliant career. His works were regularly accepted for exhibitions at the Salon and he received many official commissions, being awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1898. A considerable place in his work was occupied by subjects from Ancient Rome, in the treatment of which we feel the hand of an experienced director who knew how to give each scene the necessary element of spectacle.

At the centre of a high dais are two naked women; the slave dealer is displaying them to the crowd, showing off the goods he has for sale. The smooth painterly style, the precise linear drawing and sculptural modelling of forms were the traditional academic principles taught at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where Gérome was on the staff for over 40 years.

Daniel Gerhartz - In Her Care

Born 1965 in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, where he now lives with his wife Jennifer, and their young children, Gerhartz 's interest in art emerged as a teenager. Studies at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Illinois and his voracious appetite for museums and the modern masters such as John Singer Sargent, Alphonse Mucha, Nicolai Fechin, Joaquin Sorolla, Carl von Marr as well as a host of other French and American impressionists have inspired him.

Gerhartz has a particular interest and appreciation for modern Russian art and the sumptuous canvases of the painters Nicolai Fechin, Isaac Levitan and Ilya Repin. As Dan says, their paintings are "completely loose yet deliberate and faithful, not at all flashy."

[Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches]

Albert Edelfelt - Good Friends, Portrait of the Artists Sister Bertha Edelfelt [1881]

Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt (July 21, 1854 – August 18, 1905) was a Finnish-Swedish painter. Albert Edelfelt was born in Porvoo , Finland. Edelfelt was one of the first Finnish artists to achieve international fame. He enjoyed considerable success in Paris and was one of the founders of the Realist art movement in Finland. He influenced several younger Finnish painters and helped fellow Finnish artists such as Akseli Gallen-Kallela to make their breakthrough in Paris.

[Oil on panel, 41 x 31.5 cm]