Giulio Aristide Sartorio (1860 – 1932) - Italian painter and film director

Found by Ognyan Hristov and posted on the Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

Born on 11th February 1860 in Rome, Italy, Sartorio attended the Rome Institute of Fine Arts and presented a Symbolist work at the 1883 International Exposition of Rome. He formed friendships with Nino Costa and Gabriele D’Annunzio, and associated with the painters and photographers of the Roman countryside. He won a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 and met the Pre-Raphaelites in England in 1893. His participation in the Venice Biennale began in 1895 with the 1st International Exposition of Art of Venice, after which he taught at the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts from 1896 to 1898.

Sartorio’s period of greatest renown came at the beginning of the century, when he produced decorative friezes for the 5th Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte of Venice (1903), the Mostra Nazionale of Fine Arts (Milan, Parco Sempione, 1906) and Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome (1908–12). 

Sartorio served during the First World War and was wounded. After the war he travelled extensively in the Middle East, Japan and Latin America during the 1920s and became a member of the Italian Royal Academy.

Sartorio dued on 3rd October 1932. 

Sources: Wikipedia and Ognyan Hristov

Michael Zeno Diemer (1867-1939) - German artist

Michael Zeno Diemer was a German artist. Now known primarily for his marine paintings and postcard designs, he was initially famous for his panoramic paintings of battles.

Michael was born on 8th February 1867 in Munich which was then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria.

In 1884, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where he studied with Gabriel Hackl and Alexander von Liezen-Mayer.

Diemer’s fame initially derived from his impressive battle paintings. In 1894, over the course of six months, he worked in Innsbruck, where he created a 1000 square meter (10,800 square feet) panoramic painting depicting the Battles of Bergisel (1809), in which forces led by Andreas Hofer defeated the armies of Napoleon and the Kingdom of Bavaria. It is currently on display at the Innsbrucker Riesenrundgemälde [de]; one of only thirty surviving panoramas from that period.

Another panorama from 1896 depicted the Battle of Bazeilles from the Franco-Prussian War. It was displayed at a specially constructed building in Mannheim and is now lost. He created several works for the Deutsches Museum in Munich; including a Roman aqueduct for the hydraulic engineering display, a Medieval herb garden and the flight of a zeppelin (1909). In Stuttgart, for the "Ketterer", a restaurant at a brewery, he produced a series of fourteen large paintings on the history of Swabian emigration.

As a watercolour artist, he produced numerous landscape paintings and maritime scenes, poster designs, and postcard motifs. He also worked as a musician and a composer.

Michael married Hermine, the eldest daughter of the actress and writer, Wilhelmine von Hillern. Their son, Franz-Zeno Diemer, became a pioneering test pilot and flight engineer.

Michael Zeno Diemer died on 28th February 1939 in Oberammergau.

"Luftkampf" by Michael Zeno Diemer, circa 1917. German Albatros C.III aircaft in combat with British Martinsydes.

Sources:  Wikipedia, 

Ognyan Hristov  - Artists of the First World War  Facebook page 19.9.2021

And Gregory VanWyngarden found a set of paintings by Diemer and posted them on Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 21st May 2025:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=1894059661338530

W.G. Thomas, MC (1883 - 1960) - British WW1 soldier poet who was also an artist

According to his Granddaughter, "W.G. Thomas was never known as William, always Geoff within the family, and it's Geoffry, not Geoffrey.  To his contemporaries he was often referred to simply as W.G. 

Geoff took up painting after the First World War ended – possibly as a healing therapy from war experiences. It is interesting to note that the WW1 soldier poets C.S. Lewis, A.A. Milne  and J.R.R. Tolkien all wrote stories for children following their wartime service in the Army.

Geoff supported other young artists at that time including the potter Basil Matthews. Most of his paintings are of North/mid Wales - as he returned there in his vacations - and some are of the industrial midlands, where he lived."

W.G.'s Granddaughter has sent me some photos of some of the works the family have which were done by him.

I have written a post about W.G. Thomas for my Weblog, Forgotten Poets of World War One:

https://forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.com/search?q=W+G+Thomas