Johannes Vermeer’s fame did not blossom till nearly two hundred years after his death, when he was rediscovered by a French art critic in 1866. Since then, Vermeer has been considered one of the greatest Dutch painters, even though other artists from the Netherlands in Vermeer’s day were much...

Claude Monet is considered one of the great Impressionists, and the specific approach to painting developed in his native France in the latter half of the 19th century. The style draws its inspiration from the overall impression of a scene created by the interplay of light and color, attempting...

In her lifetime, Frida Kahlo was fêted by the French surrealists, a heroine of the Latin American left, and an integral part of the new wave of painters emerging in post-revolutionary Mexico.  Her life and works fell into obscurity after she died, but they wouldn't be forgotten.  In the...

Russian painter and art theorist Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866-1944) is known as the world’s first abstract artist and a leader in abstract art theory. With a previous and successful career in law and economics, he did not begin his pursuit of painting studies until the age of 30 years....

More than perhaps any other body of work, the contributions of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) represent an almost incalculable advancement to western society.  Although popularly remembered for his iconic works of art like the Last Supper and Mona Lisa, Da Vinci’s genius extended well beyond the realm of painting....

At the outset of the 20th century the art world was experiencing a monumental shift as the styles of Modernism were incorporated into culture. Picasso, Kandinsky and van Gogh paved the way for the abstract and representational style that would define half a century of art. One of the...