(born Niko Pirosmanashvili; May 5, 1862-1918) was a Georgian primitivist painter. Pirosmani was born in the Georgian village of Mirzaani to a pleasant family in the Kakheti province. His family owned a small vineyard. He was later orphaned and put in the care of his two elder sisters. He moved with them to Tbilisi in 1870. In 1872 he worked as a servant for wealthy families and learned to read and write Russian and Georgian. In 1876 he returned to Mirzaani and worked as a herdsman. Pirosmani gradually taught himself to paint. One of his specialties was painting directly into black oilcloth. In 1882 he opened a workshop in Tbilisi which was unsuccessful. In 1890 he worked as a railroad conductor, and in 1895 worked creating signboards. In 1893 he co-founded a dairy farm in Tbilisi which he left in 1901. Throughout his life Pirosmani, who was always poor, was willing to take up ordinary jobs including housepainting and whitewashing buildings. Although his paintings had some local popularity (about 200 survive) his relationship with professional artists remained uneasy; making a living was always more important to him than abstract aesthetics.  Related Paintings of Niko Pirosmanashvili :. | Childless Millionaire and a Poor Woman Blessed with Children | A girl and a goose with goslings | The Russian-Japanese War | Shepherd in a Sheepskin Cloak on a Red Background | Nanny Goat |
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Alhed Larsen
Alhed Maria Larsen nee Warberg (7 April 1872, Heden near Faaborg - 31 August 1927, Odense), the wife of Johannes Larsen, was one of the Fynboerne or "Funen Artists" who lived and worked on the Danish island of Funen. Alhed Larsen was the daughter of Albrecht Christoffer Warberg, who managed the Erikshåb estate in the south of Funen. The estate became an early meeting place for the artists who later became known as the Fynboerne. As early as 1885, Larsen began to have painting lessons with Fritz Syberg and she became a friend of Johannes Larsen, whom she married in 1898, and of Peter Hansen. Anna Syberg, Hansen's sister, Marie Schou and Christine Swane, Johannes Larsen's sister, became lifelong companions. Ahled Larsen appears to have been a central figure for the Funen Painters, frequently acting as hostess. Alhed Larsen had also had drawing lessons from her uncle Ludvig Brandstrup with whom she stayed in Copenhagen where she worked as a porcelain decorator at the Royal Copenhagen factory from 1890 to 1893. When she finally married Johannes Larsen in 1898, the couple moved to Kerteminde in north-east Funen where they soon built their new home, Mollebakken, on the outskirts of the town. The house was extended on several occasions, becoming one of the most beautiful artists' homes in the country. With its 16 bedrooms, it served as a central meeting place for the Funen Painters and their friends, in the caring hands of Alhed Larsen.
CRANACH, Lucas the Elder
German painter (b. 1472, Kronach, d. 1553, Weimar). German painter and engraver. The son of a painter, he settled in Wittenberg c.1504 and was court painter successively under three electors of Saxony. There he maintained a flourishing workshop and was twice burgomaster. Cranach was a close friend of Martin Luther, whose doctrine he upheld in numerous paintings and woodcuts, and he has been called the painter of the Reformation. He was a rapid and prolific painter, and the work turned out by his studio is uneven in quality. Naïve and fanciful, often awkward in draftsmanship, it has, nonetheless, freshness and originality and a warm, rich palette. His portraits are particularly successful. Among his best-known works are Repose in Egypt (Gemäldgalerie, Staatliche Mus., Berlin-Dahlem); Judgment of Paris (Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe); Adam and Eve (Courtauld Inst., London); and Crucifixion (Weimar). The latter contains figures of Luther and Cranach. His many famous protraits include those of Elector John Frederick and Self-Portrait (Uffizi). Cranach was also an accomplished miniaturist. He produced a few copperplates and designs for woodcuts. His son and pupil Lucas Cranach, the Younger, 1515C86,
FIGINO, Giovanni Ambrogio
Italian painter, Lombard school (b. ca. 1551, Milano, d. 1608, Milano) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Milan. An important representative of the Lombard school of painting, he had been taught by Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo. Best known as a draftsman, he was also a skilled portrait painter. Among the few portraits that can be traced back to Figino, the portrait of Field Marshal Lucio Foppa is one of the best known. On January 25, 2001, his Portrait of Giovanni Angelo was auctioned at Sotheby's for US$ $1,435,750; after a high estimate of US$ 180,000[1]. The organ shutters for the Cathedral of Milan were painted after 1590 by Ambrogio, Camillo Procaccini, and Giuseppe Meda, depicting the Passage of the Red Sea and the Ascencion of Christ. In the Castello Sforcesco there is a painting of his of Saint Ambrose expelling the Arians. A still life painting, a thematic uncommon among Italians of his day, of peaches is attributed to him He also painted in Milan an Immaculate conception for Sant'Antonio,