a Danish painter: Vilhelm Hammershøi

 

Portrait of Ida, the Artist’s Wife - 1898

Vilhelm Hammershøi, often anglicised as Vilhelm Hammershoi (15 May 1864 – 13 February 1916), was a Danish painter. He is known for his poetic, subdued portraits and interiors.

more on wiki/Vilhelm_Hammersh%C3%B8i

Antonello da Messina - Annunciata (detail)

Annunciata (detail)

André Derain, Portraits

Portrait of Matisse (1905)

Portrait of Lucien Gilbert (1906)

Portrait of Madame Guillaume with a Large Hat (c. 1928)

Portrait de femme au collier (1934-1939)

wiki/André_Derain

Casey Baugh

Casey Baugh

Casey Baugh is is one of those rare painters who can capture the realism of his subject without making it seem like he was trying to hard to replicate a photograph. One of his more recent work features a series of realistically rendered paintings of women. In this day and age where digital manipulation is norm, Casey’s work stands out as a fantastic throwback to a bygone era of oil and canvas. 

His background in web design may have inspired him to create these breathtaking portraits. He is a finalist in the many competitions he joined in America and currently teaches his unique painting techniques to students.

Marlene Dumas

Jule-Die Vrou (1985)

Jule-die Vrou is a disembodied portrait painting framed in extreme close-up; only the model's eyes and lips are fully rendered attributes of seduction and sexuality. The rest of the painting is obliterated by a corpulent fleshy pink, suggestive of femininity, sin, violence and womanhood. The contrast between representation, and abstraction suggests a psychological disparity, where morality, representation, and social convention are questioned. 

credits: saatchi

William Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825 - 1905)

Head study of a young girl (detail)

Madonna, the Infant Jesus, and St. John the Baptist detail, 1881

Wave, 1896

L’Aurore, Oil on canvas, c. 1881

Spring Breeze

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 – 1905) was a French academic painter and traditionalist.
In his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. Throughout the course of his life, Bouguereau executed 822 known finished paintings, although the whereabouts of many are still unknown.

more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adolphe_Bouguereau

Lucian Freud, apples and self portraits

Box of Apples in Wales, 1939

Boy’s Head, 1952

Woman in a white shirt (1957)

Reflection (self-portrait) (1985)

Self-portrait (2003)

Lucian Freud, photo-david-dawson

Portrait of Frank Auerbach

Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was a Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France.

The Jewess (c. 1908)

Bride and Groom (The Couple) 1915

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nu féminin assis (Seated female nude), 1916

Jeanne Hebuterne with Hat and Necklace, 1917

Elena Pavlowski, 1917. 

Oil on canvas, 64.8 x 48.9 cm.
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., USA

Nu assis sur un divan, 1917
 

Venus (also known as Standing Nude), 1917

Jeune Fille aux Cheveux Noirs

Woman With a Necklace, 1917

1917

Portrait of a woman with white collar, 1917

The Son of the Concierge, 1918

Standing Female Nude (Elvira), 1918 

Oil on Canvas (Donation Walter and Gertrud Hadorn) 

Musée des Beaux Art de Bern, Swithzerland

Two Girls (Les deux filles), 1918

Cypress Trees and House, 1919

Jeanne Hebuterne 1919

Jeanne Hebuterne

Reclining Nude, 1919

Ritratto di Lunia Czechowska, 1919

Madame G. Van Muyden

 Boy in Short Pants

Seated Nude

Ritratto di Bambina

"What I am searching for is neither the real nor the unreal, but the Subconscious, the mystery of what is Instinctive in the human Race"

Written by Amedeo Modigliani in a 1907 sketchbook

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style, characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form. He died at age 35 in Paris of tubercular meningitis, exacerbated by poverty, overwork and addiction to alcohol and narcotics

source: wikipedia