10 Artists you need to Know 👀 #8
Discover 10 hidden gems of the art world, including Andrey Remnev, Anna Ancher, Mario Sironi & Pier Francesco Mola. Your next favorite artist is here.
130 000+ readers. Learn art the fun way.
This is a preview. Paid subscribers get the full story. You'll also get:
10 new stories every month
The full archive (120+ Art stories)
Your personal art guide. Comment, ask questions, DM me anytime
iPhone user? Subscribe at coolstoriesabout.art, not via the app. Apple adds 30% to the price.
1. Filipp Malyavin (1869–1940)
Picture a peasant kid from rural Russia so determined to study art that his entire village pooled money to send him to Mount Athos at sixteen. He ends up painting icons in a monastery until a visiting professor sees his work and gets him into the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg.
What makes him unforgettable are these massive, almost violent canvases of peasant women spinning in explosions of red fabric. Paris loved him, Russia called him vulgar, and he died in Nice after being arrested by the Gestapo.
2. Ernst Ferdinand Oehme (1797–1855)
German Romantic who painted Gothic cathedrals emerging from fog and mysterious figures disappearing into mist. He worked as a gate keeper before becoming an artist, then spent time hiking with Caspar David Friedrich through the Saxon countryside.
Think moody, atmospheric landscapes where the weather is almost the main character. His snowbound cathedral glowing from within made him court painter, though critics wished he'd paint something a bit cheerier.
3. Vasily Vereshchagin (1842–1904)
Russian war painter who actually went to the front lines with an easel and a pistol to paint what he saw. The result? Frozen corpses crushed into snow, pyramids of skulls, the brutal reality of war that made everyone uncomfortable.
The Tsar refused to buy his work, a German field marshal banned his soldiers from seeing it. He died aboard a battleship that hit a mine, reportedly painting calmly until the end. His anti-war paintings are still used on military history textbooks today.
4. Anna Ancher (1859–1935)
The only painter in the Skagen artist colony who was actually from Skagen. Her parents ran the town's hotel where all the visiting artists stayed, so she grew up surrounded by painters.
Women couldn't attend the Royal Academy then, but she studied privately and became obsessed with capturing how that unique Nordic light moves through everyday domestic scenes. First woman to win Denmark's top art honor. They put her on the 1000 krone note with her painter husband.
5. Andrey Remnev (b. 1962)
Contemporary Russian who spent eight years studying medieval icon painting in a monastery, then started creating these hypnotic canvases of women in traditional dress against flat, patterned backgrounds.
If you enjoyed this story, you'll also love: