today, 1840, claude monet is born in paris, gasping for plein-air, it’s said yeah, i could live there, far from the madding crowd…

but this no accident (with apologies to dario fo), but camille pissarro dead today, 1903 (winter comes aged 73) apart from being the daddy of impressionism, he was my favourite anarchist more pissarro images, here, and pissarro at wikipedia, here

paul signac born today, in paris, 1863 – and then just a few years later he’s off sailing around the coasts of europe, painting his pointillism pics more signac pics, here, and paul signac at wikipedia, here

william hogarth born today, 1697 (his death, here) more hogarth images, here, and hogarth at wikipedia, here and mine’s a pint of bass, cheers

and into the world comes jean-baptiste-simeon chardin (who, it may be said, wasn’t much interested in the world, really) born today, 1699 perfect if you’ve got a country farmhouse (though chardin didn’t much care for the country, preferring to stay...