Sophia, By ~ Sir Samuel Luke Fildes ~ 1844 - 1927.

Samuel Luke Fildes was born in Liverpool in 1843. When he was a child he was adopted by his grandmother, Mary Fildes, a political activist who was one of the speakers at the Manchester meeting that ended in the Peterloo Massacre. In the 1840s Mary Fildes ran the Shrewsbury Arms in Chester and was a leading figure in the Female Chartist movement.

Pleasure By ~ Anton Raphael Mengs ~ 1728 - 1779.

Anton Raphael Mengs, born in Bohemia (in what is now the Czech Republic), spent his childhood in Dresden, where his father, Ismael Mengs (1688–1764), was court painter to Friedrich August II (1696–1763) of Saxony, king of Poland. The aptly named youth was schooled principally in Rome, where he spent the greater part of his life from 1740 onward. Mengs was well known to his contemporaries as a practitioner and theorist of Neoclassicism; he has been less admired since, and it could perhaps even be argued that he was too much influenced by Raphael (1483–1520). Among Mengs' most famous works are the ballroom ceiling depicting Parnassus in Cardinal Albani's villa in Rome, completed in 1761, and the fresco decorations undertaken immediately thereafter in the royal palace in Madrid.

The Admirer, By ~ Cleto Lozzi ~ 1884 - 1952.

Cleto Luzzi

Cleto Luzzi came from a wealthy Roman aristocratic family. His relatives included lawyers, cardinals and politicans which enabled Luzzi to pursue his talent securely. Flourishing around the turn of the century, he often painted genre scenes depicting lavish aristocratic gatherings in the style of fellow Italian Vittorio Reggianini. His artistic pursuits took him to Thailand for a period of his life. In 1949, late in his painting career, Luzzi was comissioned to paint the interior scenes within the newly rebuilt 'Parrocchia Santa Maria del Porto'. Located in the Marina de San Vito, Abruzzi on the east coast of Italy, the parish was destroyed during World War II, and Luzzi's major painting work became one of the primary attractions of the new parish. .

Contessa Nerina Pisani, By ~ Vittorio Matteo Corcos ~ 1859 - 1933.

Vittorio Matteo Corcos

(Leghorn 1859 - Florence 1933)

Born in Leghorn on 4 October 1859, in the 1870's Corcos studied at the "Accademia delle Belle Arti di Firenze" under Enrico Pollastrini. Between 1878 and 1879 he was in Naples at Domenico Morelli's studio whose work, rich in literary associations and formal ideas made a great impression on him. A work that illustrates Morelli's influence, "Arabo in preghiera" (The Praying Arab), dates from this period.

In 1880 Corcos moved to Paris where he signed a two-week contract with the Goupil Art Gallery. From time to time he went to the studio of Léon Bonnat, portrait painter to the Parisian upper middle class and he successfully became part of elite art circles. For his own paintings he chose fashionable themes: female portraits, scenes of modern life, sophisticated interiors painted in vibrant colours and fluid brushstrokes, works in the style of Boldini and De Nittis. Between 1881 and 1886, the year when he returned to Italy, he frequently exhibited at the Salon.