Rembrandt (detail,) Woman Bathing in a Stream, (Hendrickje Stoffels). The confidence of such powerfully direct paint handling really can take your breath away.

Charcoal on paper, George Seurat.

Francois auguste Ravier, 1814-1895, watercolor. He lived a solitary rural in the tiny villages of Cremieu and Morestal near Lyon, France. He painted on occasion beside Corot and Daubigny. He had a marvelous feeling for nature, light and sun. There is no record of him visiting Paris.

James Burke for Life Magazine, 1957. Milton Resnick's 10th street studio. Artists talking in morning light. Left to right, George Spaventa, Willem de Kooning, Milton Resnick, Pat Passlof, and Ludwig (Lutz) Sander.

Albert Marquet, 1902, Apse of Notre Dame

So may of Cezanne's self portraits are neutral as to his humanity. Finally a Cezanne self portrait that really captures the man. The fanatical eyes, the pursed lips, a single horizontal line, so minimal and so apt. This is the man who painted in a rainstorm and was carried home to die.