The life of Rembrandt van Rijn, born on 15 July 1606 in Leyden, is still shrouded in historical uncertainty. He did not write his memoirs, he kept no daily diaries, and the few surviving letters are pleas for patronage. Contemporary

Controversy frequently surrounded Gustav Klimt‘s paintings, but he was not a rebellious individual. He did cultivate a certain coarseness of manner primarily as a defense against unwanted curiosity, and he went to considerable lengths to protect his inner world from

The dashing American bad boy of music George Antheil (1900-1959) was a child prodigy. He dropped out of school and left for Europe. In no time he rubbed shoulders with Ezra Pound and James Joyce, made friends with Gertrude Stein

Alfons Karl Zwicker: Vom Klang der Bilder In his cycle for large orchestra and solo piano, Of the Sound of Pictures (Von Klang der Bilder), the Swiss composer, pianist, and painter Alfons Karl Zwicker (b. 1952) chose 5 modern artists:

Johannes Maria Staud: Sydenham Music Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter who was born on the island of Saint Thomas in the then Danish West Indies. He was sent for education in France at age 12,

Flor Alpaerts: James Ensor Suite The Belgian artist and printmaker James Baron Ensor (1860–1949) left school at age 15 to start his artistic training and two years later entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. His early work was

Geoffrey Poole: Crossing Ohashi Bridge The travellers on the bridge hunch down under their small straw coverings – the rain is pouring down, catching them on the exposed walkway. Part of Hiroshige’s series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, which

Benet Casablancas: Four Darks in Red, After Rothko Although normally on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Mark Rothko’s 1958 Four Darks in Red was on loan to the Tate Modern in London when Catalan