Cool Stories About Art

Cool Stories About Art

10 Artists you need to Know 👀 #5

Discover 10 hidden gems of the art world, including Georges Rochegrosse, Robert Salmon & Federico Calandria. Your next favorite artist is here.

Cool Stories About Art's avatar
Cool Stories About Art
Jan 01, 2026
∙ Paid

“Cool Stories About Art” is a newsletter to learn art the fun way. Subscribe for your weekly dose of culture.


1 | Georges Rochegrosse

Georges Rochegrosse (1859–1938) was a French historical painter who specialized in colossal, emotionally charged canvases depicting ancient violence and decadence.

His theatrical compositions combined meticulous academic technique with a reveling in brutal subjects that shocked and captivated Salon audiences, establishing him as a master of spectacular historical painting and influencing later Symbolist and fantasy aesthetics.

2 | Anders Zorn

Anders Zorn (1860–1920) was a Swedish painter who rivaled Sargent as the most sought-after portraitist of his era, painting three American presidents while pioneering a distinctive style using a limited palette of just four colors.

His virtuoso brushwork captured everything from Nordic folk traditions to American high society, earning him the Legion of Honor at age 29 and establishing him as Sweden’s most internationally celebrated artist.


Our paid subscription makes this newsletter possible and keeps it 100% ad-free. Thank you for supporting independent art storytelling.


3 | Guim Tió Zarraluki

Guim Tió Zarraluki (b. 1987) is a Barcelona based contemporary painter who transforms fashion magazine photographs into distorted portraits by obscuring faces with vivid paint while leaving fragments as traces of the original.

His work critiques contemporary beauty standards and explores memory’s distortion, gaining particular acclaim in Taiwan and circulating widely through Instagram’s global art community.

4 | Françoise Gilot

Françoise Gilot (1921–2023) was a French painter who built a seven decade career synthesizing Cubist structure with vibrant color, transcending her famous decade with Picasso to develop an independent vision exploring mythology, nature, and memory.

Her bestselling memoir publicly challenged his legacy while her paintings positioned her as a major voice of the School of Paris, creating over 1,500 works across painting and printmaking.


Learn more about art, the fun way. Unlock everything now. 📩


This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2026 Cool Stories About Art · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture