January 20, 2017
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József Rippl - Rónai (May 23, 1861 – November 25, 1927) was a Hungarian painter.

He was born in Kaposvár. After his studies at the High School there, he went to study in Budapest, where he obtained a degree in pharmacology. In 1884 he traveled to Munich to study painting at the Academy. Two years later he obtained a grant which enabled him to move to Paris and study with Munkácsy. In 1888 he met the members of Les Nabis and under their influence he painted his first important work, The Inn at Pont - Aven, a deeply felt work notable for its dark atmosphere. His first big success was his painting My Grandmother (1894). He also painted a portrait of Hungarian pianist and composer Zdenka Ticharich (1921).

Later he returned to Hungary, where critical reception was at first lukewarm, but he eventually had a very successful exhibition entitled "Rippl - Rónai Impressions 1890 - 1900". He believed that for an artist not only is his body of work significant, but also his general modus vivendi, even including the clothes he wore. He thus became interested in design, which led to commissions such as the dining room and the entire furnishings of the Andrássy palace, and a stained glass window in the Ernst Museum (both in Budapest). Between 1911 and 1913 his exhibitions in Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna were highly successful. His last major work, a portrait of his friend Zorka, was painted in 1919, and in 1927 he died at his home, the Villa Roma in Kaposvár.
   
   
 


   
Johannes Sixtus Gerhardus (Jan) Verkade (18 September 1868 - 19 July 1946) was a Dutch Post - Impressionist artist. In the early 1890s, he frequented the circles of Paul Gauguin and of Les Nabis. Converted to Roman Catholicism, he entered the Benedictine Archabbey of Beuron and worked close to Desiderius Lenz, leader of the Beuron Art School; his name was changed to Father Willibrord.

Jan Verkade was born in Zaandam, the son of industrialist Ericus Verkade. For two and a half years, 1887 - 1889, he studied at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. In 1891, he moved to Paris, where he met Paul Gauguin, Meijer de Haan and Paul Sérusier, and frequented the circle of Les Nabis. After Gauguin's departure for the South Seas, Verkade traveled to Brittany, accompanied by Mogens Ballin.