Posts in Category: 20th Century
Ilya Repin
Ilya Yefimovich Repin, August 5, 1844 – September 29, 1930, was a Russian painter and draftsman associated with realism and the Peredvizhniki.
Repin studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg and worked with Ivan Kramskoi and other artists connected to the reformist Russian art movement. His subjects included portraits, historical scenes, genre paintings, literary subjects, and scenes of contemporary Russian life.
His work is held by the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; State Russian Museum, St Petersburg; Ateneum, Helsinki; and other public collections.
Alfred Pinkham Ryder
Albert Pinkham Ryder, American painter, March 19, 1847 – March 28, 1917
Dedicated to Thor Furulund, Norwegian painter, June 12, 1943 – January 16, 2016, who loved Pinkham Ryder
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, December 31, 1869–November 3, 1954, was a French artist known chiefly as a painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor and designer. He studied law before turning to art, attending the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied with Gustave Moreau.
Matisse exhibited with the artists called the Fauves and became one of the principal figures of early twentieth-century modern art. His work encompassed painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, book illustration, stage design, ceramics and, during his later years, compositions made from gouache-painted cut paper.
Major collections of his work are held by the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art, the State Hermitage Museum, the Barnes Foundation, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Musée Matisse in Nice.
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch, December 12, 1863–January 23, 1944, was a Norwegian painter, printmaker, and draftsman. Born at Ådalsbruk near Løten, he studied at the Royal School of Art and Design in Christiania and worked with Christian Krohg and the circle around Hans Jæger.
Munch lived and exhibited in Paris and Berlin, while returning frequently to Norway. He developed a substantial painted and graphic oeuvre, including lithographs, woodcuts, etchings, and paintings, and received major public commissions in Norway.
After 1916 Munch lived and worked largely at Ekely, outside Oslo. He bequeathed a large body of work to the City of Oslo; it forms the core of the Munch Museum’s collection. His works are also held by the National Museum, Oslo, KODE, and major museums internationally.
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel, Russian painter, March 17, [O.S. March 5] 1856 – April 14, [O.S. April 1] 1910
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov, January 24, 1848–March 19, 1916, was a Russian painter born in Krasnoyarsk to a family of Yenisey Cossack descent. He studied drawing with Nikolai Grebnev and attended the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, where he trained under Pavel Chistyakov.
Surikov moved to Moscow in 1877 and worked on murals for the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. He joined the Peredvizhniki in 1881 and produced large historical paintings including Morning of the Execution of the Streltsy, Boyarynya Morozova, and Yermak’s Conquest of Siberia.
He traveled in Russia and abroad, became a member of the Union of Russian Artists, and continued painting portraits, landscapes, and historical subjects. Surikov died in Moscow in 1916; major holdings of his work are in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, and the Vasily Surikov Estate Museum in Krasnoyarsk.
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Eakins, July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916, was an American painter, draftsman, photographer, and teacher. He is widely regarded as one of the most important artists in the history of American art. His work is associated with realism and is noted for its close observation of the human figure, scientific accuracy, and unsentimental depiction of contemporary life.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Eakins studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before continuing his training in Paris under Jean-Léon Gérôme. Returning to Philadelphia in 1870, he devoted his career to painting portraits, athletes, rowers, surgeons, musicians, scientists, and family members. His major works include The Gross Clinic, The Agnew Clinic, and Max Schmitt in a Single Scull. He also became an influential teacher, though controversy over his use of nude models led to his resignation from the Pennsylvania Academy in 1886.
During his lifetime Eakins achieved only limited commercial success, but his reputation grew steadily after his death. Today he is recognized as a central figure in American realism, admired for his technical skill, psychological insight, and commitment to depicting modern life with honesty and precision. His works are held by major institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art.
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani, July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920, was an Italian painter and sculptor associated with the School of Paris. Born in Livorno, Italy, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia before moving to Paris in 1906. There he came into contact with many of the leading figures of the modern avant-garde, including Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncuși, and Chaïm Soutine.
Modigliani initially devoted considerable attention to sculpture, particularly under the influence of Brâncuși, before returning primarily to painting after about 1914. He became known for portraits, caryatid studies, and reclining nudes characterized by elongated proportions and simplified forms. Many of his portraits depict artists, writers, dealers, and friends from the Parisian artistic community, including Picasso, Soutine, Juan Gris, and his companion Jeanne Hébuterne.
Although Modigliani did not establish a formal school and left no significant body of students, his work influenced later figurative painters and became widely collected after his death. Major holdings of his work are found in institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou.
