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Here are 5 little-known facts about Van Gogh:

1. One of history’s favorite artists, the Dutch-born Van Gogh worked for a firm of art dealers until he was nearly 30. He began his career as an artist relatively late in life, starting at age 27.

2. Van Gogh painted with dark, somber colors to begin with, but after encountering the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists in Paris, he began to embrace color and developed his own unique, swirling and luminous style.

3. Vincent van Gogh was immensely prolific in an amazingly small space of time: he created all of his remarkable, 2,000-plus paintings during the last 10 years of his short life.

4. In the 2 months before his death, the artist painted 90 works of art. That’s more than 2 masterpieces per day!

5. While Van Gogh’s original paintings earned him nothing while he was alive, they garner extremely high prices today. Although he did not live to enjoy the widespread acclaim that his work so clearly deserved, the beauty of Van Gogh’s work lives on and is enjoyed by millions worldwide.

Color, beauty, intensity, imagination, tenderness -- these are all the hallmarks of Vincent van Gogh’s work. See for yourself why Van Gogh prevails as one of history’s most popular artists. Visit our online Van Gogh gallery now.

Be sure to stay tuned for information about our upcoming Birthday Sale for Van Gogh, from March 30 – April 1st!

Self-Portrait, 1889
Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890)
Birthday: March 30

“Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” – Vincent Van Gogh

Decorate Your Home -- and Walls -- with Love

Save 10% on All Van Gogh Art from March 30th to April 1st.

Want to breathe a little fresh life into your décor, but don’t know where to start? Just take the wise words of Vincent van Gogh as inspiration. Start with what you love.

From your bedding to your furniture, choose your home décor accents because they speak to you and reflect your signature style. Your unique personality manifests itself in your environment and the items you surround yourself with. So let your home — and your walls — speak volumes for you.

Van Gogh found much to love in his homeland, Holland—bright flowers, inviting cafes, farmlands, starry night skies and more. Each of his paintings reflects this love, tenderness and refinement of vision, which is why he remains one of history’s favorite artists today. A prolific talent, Van Gogh created a wide range of masterpieces in his day, from landscapes and still lifes to portraits and art with flowers.

If you love Van Gogh’s art, this weekend is the perfect chance to save during our Van Gogh Birthday Sale. From March 30 to April 1, you’ll save 10% on all our Van Gogh art prints, canvas and giclée. You’re sure to find plenty of frames that will suit your home décor in our online custom frame shop.

Don’t miss out! Shop our Van Gogh Birthday Sale today!

From your floor lamps to your furniture, you’ve handpicked every item in your home to ensure it speaks of your signature style -- and framed fine art is the finishing touch that ties it all together.

Is Your Décor Style Traditional?

Today, we’ll be highlighting framed fine art for the traditional home decorator.

• Do you love antiques and timeless home accents that never go out of style?
• Is your home décor inspired by the classic beauty of the past?
• Do you relish any occasion to bring out your vintage china for elegant dinners and afternoon tea?

If you answered yes to some or all of the questions above, your home décor style is likely traditional.

Themes in traditional art include museum masterpieces, still life florals, formal portraits and scenic landscapes -- all of which you’ll find in our Traditional Art Collection. You’ll also find a variety of famous works of art by many of history’s most famous artists, including Claude Monet, a popular choice for the traditional home decorator.

Haystacks at Giverny, by Claude Monet

Bring light, color and beauty into your traditional home decor with a classic work of art like Haystacks at Giverny, by Monet, a master Impressionist. One the most beloved artists of all time, Monet is celebrated worldwide for his unwavering devotion to painting the transient effects of light and color "en plein air" throughout his long career.

Other Décor Styles…

Whether your home décor style is traditional or contemporary, casual or global, you’ll find there’s a wide array of art that will beautifully complement your home. Find art that suits your distinct personality and decorating style today. Visit our Style Collection now!

Stay tuned for coming blogs where we will highlight more decorating styles and how to enhance your home decor with art!

You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life.

— Salvador Dali

Creative genius Salvador Dali (1904 – 1989) was a master of the unexpected. Wildly imaginative, the Spanish artist merged familiar imagery with the striking and the bizarre in his vivid, often highly controversial surrealist paintings. As eccentric in person as he was on canvas, Dali dressed in eccentric clothing and cultivated a signature flamboyant mustache. Without question, he was easily one of the most eclectic and influential artists of the 20th century.

Fittingly, Dali’s birthday is mid-May, right in the midst of spring’s most profusive displays. What better way to celebrate than to explore some of Dali’s most famous art?

The Persistence of Memory, 1931
by Salvador Dali

The Persistence of Memory, a quintessential Dali artwork, features soft, melting watches that symbolically represent Einstein’s Theory of Relativity: time is relative, not fixed. According to historians, inspiration for this painting struck when Dali was watching a runny piece of Camembert cheese melting on a hot August day.


The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937
by Salvador Dali

The Metamorphosis of Narcissus was inspired by the Greek mythological figure Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool and was immortalized into a flower by the gods. In this painting, Dali employs vivid colors, striking imagery and symbolism to innovatively depict Narcissus' dramatic transformation.

Today, as when Salvador Dali was alive, the artist’s legacy serves as an inspiration to embrace the creative spirit—and the unexplored.

Decorate with the unexpected! Shop all Dali Art.

Do you have a favorite Dali painting you'd like to know more about? Or share information about? Post your comments below!

At a time when art was largely the domain of men, American artist Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926) broke through traditional molds for women and rose to overwhelming artistic success.

Cassatt chose to immortalize the everyday lives of women and children in her paintings, going much against the advice of her American male contemporaries and teachers. Never one to follow convention, she gave herself over wholly to her artistic career. “I can live alone and I love to work,” she once said.

The only American to paint and exhibit with the original Impressionists in France, Cassatt was close friends with Edgar Degas. Standing before one of her canvases for the first time in 1874, he famously exclaimed, “It’s true. There is someone who feels as I do.”

Mary Cassatt is known for her paintings of women reading, sewing, knitting and doing everyday things—but her true passion was painting mothers and children. With a loving touch, Cassatt depicted tender, intimate scenes of 19th century motherhood.

While Cassatt never married nor had children of her own, she was pivotal in nurturing the Impressionist Art movement in its infancy. Devoted to her profession, she claimed, “A woman artist must be ... capable of making primary sacrifices.”

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

—Paul Gauguin

In his life as well as his art, Paul Gauguin chose the path less taken. One of the most influential and revolutionary French painters of the Post-Impressionist movement, Gauguin abandoned the imitative art popular in his era and instead favored expressiveness through color.

How do you see this tree? Is it really green? Use green, then, the most beautiful green on your palette. And that shadow, rather blue? Don't be afraid to paint it as blue as possible. —Paul Gauguin

Gauguin's artwork was strongly influenced by folk art and Japanese prints, although earlier in his career, he spent years studying, painting and exhibiting with Impressionist greats like Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne.

His most successful body of work was painted in Tahiti and the Pacific Southwest, where he lived from 1891 until his death. The paintings he produced in the tropics are characterized by their vivid colors, flat forms and nostalgic, "primitive" feel.

Gauguin's art and personal life showed many markings of a departure from society and, perhaps, a preference for a more simple life. The video montage below is a celebration of the colorful diversity of Gauguin's paintings, set to a backdrop of Tahitian choir music. Enjoy!

Take a tour through paradise -- custom frame a Gauguin art print today!

Have any Gauguin facts to share? Leave a comment!

My work is a game, a very serious game.
—M. C. Escher

One of the world's most famous graphic artists, Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was also one of history's most intriguing minds. The Dutch artist used the world of art as a playground in which to explore the architecture and mathematics of infinity.

Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?
—M. C. Escher

Forever questioning the parameters of existence, Escher created works of art that were both mathematical and philosophical in nature. The image above, for instance, employs complex geometry to portray men endlessly climbing up and down staircases -- symbolizing, perhaps, the onward march of time and humanity.

Escher's work was rich with geometric distortions, patterns and tessellations (repeating tilings). Surprisingly though, he had no formal mathematical training; his mathematical sense was largely intuitive. As a young boy, the artist was far from an A-student. While he always excelled in drawing, Escher's grades were generally poor and he failed all his high school exams.

Only those who attempt the absurd...will achieve the impossible.
—M. C. Escher

Nonetheless, without any formal background, Escher went on to devote himself to the study of mathematical principles, from which he devised his own unique mathematical approach to explorations of symmetry in art. In his lifetime, he amassed a huge body of work, including 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and more than 2000 drawings and sketches. He also authored and published papers that outlined his mathematical approach to art, such as Regular Division of the Plane with Asymmetric Congruent Polygons.

I am always wandering around in enigmas.
—M. C. Escher

Today, Escher's enigmatic, intriguing art continues to be enjoyed and celebrated by millions worldwide. Explore the edges of infinity -- visit our M. C. Escher art gallery now!

Have any Escher facts you’d like to share? Drop us a line!

What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist. —Pablo Picasso

Over the centuries, many famous artists have chosen the multifaceted beauty of women as their subject -- and their muse. The video montage below is an innovative celebration of the faces of some of art history's most famous leading ladies, each one carrying her own unique beauty.

In the video, you may have recognized some familiar images. For instance, there was Venus, Goddess of Beauty and Love, as interpreted by Sandro Botticelli in The Birth of Venus.

This famous work of art portrays the long-limbed goddess emerging from the sea on a shell. She is blown shoreward by two Zephyrs, symbolizing spiritual passions, and given a flowered cloak by Horae, Goddess of the Seasons. The original painting is currently in Florence, in the Uffizi Gallery.

You probably also recognized the eternally enigmatic Mona Lisa.

Widely considered to be Leonardo da Vinci’s magnum opus, or greatest work, the Mona Lisa is one of the most renowned paintings in history. Over the years, it has been scrutinized, studied, written about and parodied more than perhaps any other work of art in the world. Today, it hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

The charming redhead below was also one of the many female faces in the video montage.

Who was this nameless Venetian beauty, rendered immortal by Albrecht Durer’s meticulous brushstrokes? Her comportment and jewelry suggest that she comes from a family of means, yet her dress is not overly ornate. Whether an aristocrat or a commoner, her beauty certainly defies any social status.

Another mystery woman, this time by Henri Matisse:

As famous for his expressive line drawings as for his paintings and sculptures, Matisse was a master of evoking form with few lines. In this charming portrait, the artist likens his subject to a beautiful, blooming flower.

Without question, women have inspired countless works of art throughout the ages -- and certainly more than this short blog entry can cover. Do you have a favorite muse/portrait? Feel free to post a comment and some photos.

Famous artists Marc Chagall (1887-1985) and Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) share a surprising amount in common, beyond the mere fact that they both have birthdays in July. It's true, Chagall tends to be celebrated for his uplifting paintings, whereas Kahlo is renowned for her poignant imagery. Nonetheless, both artists created deeply personal works that were rich with color, symbolism and emotion.

Born in Mexico on July 6, 1907, Frida Kahlo was a famous painter, an active Communism supporter and the wife of Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Due to a debilitating spinal condition caused by a bus accident when she was a youth, Kahlo spent much of her time bedridden. Nonetheless, she churned out work after ingenious artwork, rich with feeling, detail and color. Her creations were often portraits, celebrations of the self. In Frida's own words:

I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.

Kahlo's illness brought her much pain, as did her tumultuous relationship with her philandering husband. She translated this pain, however, into the creation of beautiful works of art. In Diego En Mi Pensamiento, below, Kahlo uses symbolism to portray the power of her love for the wayward Rivera, and his constant presence in her thoughts.

Diego En Mi Pensamiento
By Frida Kahlo

By apparent contrast, artist Marc Chagall chose to convey happy themes and events in his deeply personal artwork. Born in Russia on July 7, 1887, Chagall was raised in a humble Jewish ghetto and went on to live in Nazi-occupied St. Petersburg. He later moved to France, where he would become celebrated for his playful, joyful works of art. Commenting on his lighthearted works, Chagall once said:

Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things that revolve around love.

Despite the turmoil he experienced in his early life, Chagall chose to fill his artwork with bright, vivid colors and many symbols of prosperity and happiness. Some of Chagall's favorite visual metaphors included the cow (life and abundance), tree (life), cock (fertility, often painted with lovers), the female bosom (fertility and eroticism) and horses (freedom).

I and My Village
By Marc Chagall

From different sides of the world, under different circumstances, Frida Kahlo and Marc Chagall painted rich, colorful, deeply felt expressions of their innermost emotions. And while both artists had adversities to overcome, both rose to the occasion and translated life experience into beautiful, emotionally moving works of art.

July being the birth month of both Kahlo and Chagall, what better time to explore the rich worlds of each artist's creations? We invite you to peruse the art of Frida Kahlo and Marc Chagall now.

Edgar Degas (July 19, 1834 - September 27, 1917) is widely considered the master of drawing the human figure in motion. His extraordinary draftsmanship, which stressed balance and clarity of outline, became a hallmark of his signature style.

Degas worked in many media, preferring pastel to all others. He is well known for his animated race horse paintings:

But most of all, Degas is celebrated for his intimate, immediate renderings of nudes and ballerinas:

Fascinated with the movement of forms through space, Degas often sketched dancers from the theater wings, capturing his subjects with an unrivaled poignancy and power.

Degas is often classified as an Impressionist artist, which is an understandable but not entirely accurate description. While he did, like Impressionists, favor off-center compositions and scenes from everyday Parisian life, Degas never adopted the signature Impressionist color-fleck technique, and he was a not a fan of painting en plein air.

Nonetheless, Degas' paintings greatly impacted the world of Impressionist art and he is inexorably linked with the genre. And while he never formally mentored any specific pupils, Degas strongly influenced many notable artists, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Mary Cassatt and Jean-Louis Forain.

Waverly Cycles
By Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha (July 24, 1860 – July 14, 1939) is considered one of the most influential artists from the Art Nouveau movement—if not its chief founder. Born in Ivancice, Moravia, Mucha took to painting and drawing at a very young age. As a youth, he was regularly commissioned to paint theatrical scenery and in 1879 moved to Vienna to work for a popular local theatrical design company.

He went on to study in at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts and then moved to Paris in 1887 to study at the Academies Juilian and Colarossi. While in Paris, he developed the unique, lush, stylized poster technique that quickly catapulted him into fame.

Ete (Summer) and Printemps (Spring), By Alphonse Mucha

A great admirer of the ornate, the feminine and the beautiful, Mucha's work typically featured beautiful, rosy-cheeked young women in flowing garments, with ornate, flowered backdrops. The prolific artist produced a vast array of art posters, advertisements and illustrations, along with intricate designs for wallpaper, jewelry, theater sets and more in the Art Nouveau style that he helped to pioneer. Famous painters who followed in his wake included Gustav Klimt and Theophile Alexandre Steinlen.

Bieres de la Meuse
By Alphonse Mucha

A Small Homage to One of My Artistic Heroes

My friend Christine just came back from a weekend visit to Chicago, where she spent a day at one of my favorite galleries: the Art Institute. What really struck her this time around, she said, was how unbelievably prolific and multifaceted an artist Pablo Picasso was.

That got me remembering how I studied him extensively during my BFA. He really was artistically adventurous, wasn’t he? Few famous artists have taken so many chances and successfully reinvented themselves so many times.

There was his Blue Period (1901–1904), where Picasso’s paintings were pretty austere and he stuck to a palette of blue and greenish-blue. During this time, his subjects were fairly somber characters.

The Old Guitarist
By Pablo Picasso

Then there was Picasso’s Rose Period (1905 –1907), which reflected a happier time for him. He used cheerful pinks and oranges and painted more uplifting and hopeful subject matter, like this portrait of a mother feeding her child.

Maternity
By Pablo Picasso

Not stopping there, Picasso moved on to an African Period, where his paintings were strongly influenced by African sculpture. You can also see the beginnings of Cubism in some of these works -- the one below, for example.

Les Demoiselles D'Avignon
By Pablo Picasso

Here’s where, for me, things get really interesting: Picasso’s Analytic Cubism (1909–1912) period. Analytic Cubism, which Picasso developed along with fellow artist Georges Braque, is a monochromatic style of painting where subject matter is analyzed and reduced into basic geometric shapes on a two-dimensional plane. It’s a much more abstract genre, but I think it’s fascinating!

Violin and Guitar
By Pablo Picasso

From there, Picasso moved into Synthetic Cubism, which is a lot like Analytic Cubism, except artists use cut paper fragments instead of paints. What you end up with is a fine art collage, like Guernica, the original image featured in the print below.

Guernica
By Pablo Picasso

If that weren’t enough, Picasso was very experimental with sculpture of all kinds. Probably the most notable (or at least the largest) work he ever did was a gigantic 50-foot-tall public sculpture in Chicago. The “Chicago Picasso,” as it’s commonly known, is one of the more famous landmarks of the city. You’ve probably walked by it if you’ve ever been in the Loop district.

The Chicago Picasso
(image from Wikipedia article)

And here's one of his later works that I love:

Girl Before a Mirror
By Pablo Picasso

So that’s a brief sweep of Picasso’s artistic forays. His finished artwork numbers in the thousands and also includes line drawings, ceramics, murals, and even costumes and theater sets. For me, that vast legacy of creative experimentation serves as a reminder to keep pushing my own artistic boundaries. Who inspires you, artistically? Let me know!

Convergence
By Jackson Pollock

Have you ever strolled through an art gallery and wondered about the artists’ creative process? Take, for instance, the work of the late American Abstract Expressionist artist Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956). Pollock’s famous “drip paintings” (created from 1947 – 1950) featured artful, evocative smatterings of paint that might, at first glance, appear random. However, Pollock’s works were anything but accidental. He generally painted with a vision of the outcome, and his finished pieces were always compositionally balanced.

Untitled, 1946
By Jackson Pollock

Deeply influenced by the “pouring” style of Indian sandpainting, Pollock worked with large canvases on the floor. Walking around and often on the canvas -- as though in a meditative trance -- he energetically flung, dripped, spattered and poured paint until he was satisfied with the end product.

Would you like to see Jackson Pollock in action? Below, you’ll find fascinating video footage of the artist painting, narrated by Pollock himself.

This video also offers a rare glimpse into Pollock’s creative process:

Interestingly, research on Pollock’s drip paintings (by physicist and art historian Richard Taylor, for one) has indicated that some of his pieces actually display properties of mathematical fractals. Moreover, this tendency became further pronounced as the artist progressed in his career.

Pollock’s critics dismissed his works as simplistic and messy, but there was clearly more to it than the simple splattering of paint. Through moving meditations, the artist created ingenious Abstract Expressionist artworks infused with primordial patterns. Which is more than just great art; it’s good math, too.

Have a favorite artist-in-action clip? Feel free to share.

A Set of Six Self Portraits
By Andy Warhol

It seems just about everyone knows the basic facts on Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987). One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Warhol is renowned worldwide for his successful and controversial career as an avant-garde painter, film maker, author, record producer and wild socialite.

But beyond those basic facts, how much do you know about the life and work of the Pop Art King? Ready to test your knowledge? Take our quiz below and see how you fare!

Pop Art Pop Quiz

Q: What classic American food did Warhol turn into a pop art icon?

A: The Campbell's Soup tomato soup can.

Campbell's Soup I (Tomato)
By Andy Warhol

Warhol first took to making large paintings of soup cans in the early '60s and went on to use the motif throughout his career. Doing so, he ingeniously borrowed the fame of the Campbell's brand to cultivate his own. The event of Warhol's soup can paintings marked the beginning of the Pop Art revolution, which highlighted instantly recognizable images and icons from American Pop (Popular) Culture.

Q: Did Warhol have any appreciation for classic art from museum masters?

A: Absolutely! But being the iconoclast that he was, Warhol paid homage to the classics by lending them his own personal avant-garde flair, as he did with Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Boticelli's Birth of Venus.

Double Mona Lisa
By Andy Warhol

Details of Renaissance Painting (Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482)
By Andy Warhol

Q: What sort of people did Warhol most love to create portraits of?

A: The rich, famous, fabulous and -- most of all -- the beautiful. From Jackie O to Elvis, Warhol's vivid, often fluorescent portraits featured all of the day's most popular celebrities. He is quoted as once having said, "My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person."

Elvis, 1963
By Andy Warhol

Q: How did Warhol create his famous portraits?

A: Via silkscreen. Of his silkscreen paintings, Warhol said, "In August 62 I started doing silkscreens. I wanted something stronger that gave more of an assembly line effect. With silkscreening you pick a photograph, blow it up, transfer it in glue onto silk, and then roll ink across it so the ink goes through the silk but not through the glue. That way you get the same image, slightly different each time. It was all so simple, quick and chancy. I was thrilled with it."

Through a silkscreening process, Warhol turned the original black & white photography Marilyn Monroe Portrait (above) by Corbis into his famous Shot Blue Marilyn.

Q: What was the name of Warhol's art studio?

A: The Factory. The legendary studio was, from 1963 – 1968, the home of New York City's most groundbreaking parties. In this hip hangout, Warhol surrounded himself with rock stars, Hollywood celebrities, beautiful bohemians and the intellectually elite.

Q: Was Warhol's artwork all avant-garde?

A: Not entirely. Warhol also created works of art with simple, subtle beauty, like this black & white photography print:

Bridge
By Andy Warhol

So, how did you do? If you have any additional Warhol facts or Q&As to share, by all means, be our guest...

French painter Jean-Francois Millet (October 4, 1814 -- January 20, 1875) has been much celebrated for his realistic yet poetic renderings of 1800s rural France and the peasants who worked the land. But in many cases, there is more to Millet’s tranquil paintings than first meets the eye.

The Gleaners
By Jean-Francois Millet

The Gleaners, for instance, one of Millet’s best-known paintings, depicts several women peacefully working a field. At first glance, it’s a simple enough scene -- but the painting actually makes a powerful, universal statement about the working class. In the 1800s, gleaning (gathering leftovers from a harvest) was deemed a lowly activity. But here, Millet touches his subjects' shoulders with a golden, almost angelic light, rendering them heroines, rather than lower-class citizens.

Political agendas aside, Millet's scenes are easy to enjoy and appreciate for their aesthetic beauty alone. They also suit a wide range of decor styles, from Traditional to Casual. And October being the month of Millet's birth, what better time to explore the work of this historic artist?

Georgia O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 -- March 6, 1986)

This week marks the birthday of one of my favorite American female artists: Georgia O'Keeffe. She needs almost no introduction -- nearly everybody knows and loves Georgia's bright, poetic flowers and southwestern landscapes.

Aside from the obvious brilliance of her work, Georgia was also a fiercely independent woman in her day. She loved to travel and see new places, and while she was married to photographer Alfred Stieglitz, she spent her summers in New Mexico, kicking around in a Model A Ford and exploring the terrain for artistic inspiration. After Stieglitz's death, she settled in Ghost Ranch, an area north of Abiquiu, where this great video footage was taken:

Much of Georgia O'Keeffe's greatest work came from her time in New Mexico. One of my favorites is this piece, entitled "From the Lake No. 1:"

From the Lake No. 1
By Georgia O'Keeffe

I just love the colors in this image, and the way the shapes seem to swirl, almost like smoke. It's really quite visually complex, and yet there's a simplicity to it. Also, the piece is clearly an abstract, yet it feels very nature-inspired.

Here's one of O'Keeffe's classic flowers:

Jimson Weed
By Georgia O'Keeffe

The colors are so lush in this piece. And there's a certain element of mystery to Georgia's flower paintings, wouldn't you say? To me, the start contrast between the white of the flower and the deep green of the leaves creates an otherworldly feeling, almost like sneaking a glimpse into your own secret garden.

In my eyes, Georgia's skull and bone imagery is just as beautiful as her flowers. Case in point, this striking painting:

Pelvis with the Distance
By Georgia O'Keeffe

See how she treats the bone as though it's an abstract form? It's ingenious! And I love the way the little shapes of blue sky peek through the stark, white bone. Words really don't do Georgia's work justice, as she herself once expressed: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way.. things I had no words for."

Well said -- and painted. Happy birthday, Georgia!

Haystacks at Giverny
By Claude Monet

The world of 19th Century art -- and certainly Impressionism -- would have been an entirely different landscape if Oscar-Claude Monet had become the grocer his father had originally wished him to be. Born to second-generation Parisians in the city's 9th arrondissement, Monet had a future as a family grocer carved out for him -- but his prodigious talent led him down other paths.

When he was 11 years old, Monet entered the Le Havre secondary school of the arts, where his charcoal caricatures quickly became popular. Several years later, on the beaches of Normandy, he met artist Eugène Boudin, who mentored the young Monet in the art of oil painting and working "en plein air," or outdoors.

Waterlilies II
By Claude Monet

In his adult life, Monet and his friends and fellow artists Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley pioneered the Impressionist Art movement, which was characterized by the use of quickly executed, visible brushstrokes; the mutable effects of light; everyday scenes and subject matter. Impressionist artists often worked outdoors, and the movement took its name from this painting of Monet's entitled Impression, Sunrise.

Impression: Sunrise (The Outer Harbor of Le Havre Facing Southeast)
By Claude Monet

Ironically, when art critic Louis Leroy inadvertently coined the term Impressionism, he meant it in a dismissive way. Yet the term endures today, along with the universally loved work of Monet and his Impressionist contemporaries.