George William Clark, Isabella Watling, Charles H. Cecil, Sam Good
Zoe by Charles H. Cecil
Charles H. Cecil
Since 1978 Charles H. Cecil has lived in Florence where he devotes his time to portraiture, landscape and figure painting. He began teaching in 1983 and has since trained an international body of students.
Cecil graduated with honours in Classics and Art History at Haverford College before further studies at Yale University. He then received grants from the Greenshields Foundation to train at the ateliers of R. H. Ives Gammell in Boston and Richard F. Lack in Minneapolis. A fellowship from the Stacey Foundation enabled Cecil to paint landscapes in Europe.
He has twice received major awards at the National Academy of Design in New York: The Hallgarten Prize for oil painting and the Altman Prize for landscape. In 2008, Charles H. Cecil Studios was awarded the Excellence in Art Education Award by the Portrait Society of America.
His portrait work is represented in international collections, including the American Philosophical Society and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Charles H. Cecil is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Art.
Francesco by Sam Good
Sam Good 
Sam Good was born in London in 1987 and raised in Oxford. He early evidenced a talent for drawing and a keen eye for portraiture.
Van Dyck, Velázquez and Sargent are the portrait painters he emulated as he sought to acquire a training. Dissatisfied with art education in the UK, Sam came to Florence in 2012 to study with Charles H. Cecil. He soon showed exceptional promise as painter and teacher.
Now based in Florence, Sam is assistant director of the Studio and principal drawing and painting instructor. His recent portrait work has been selected for the 2019 Royal Institute of Oil Painters exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London.
Nino by George William Clark
George William Clark
Born in Portsmouth in 1988, George William Clark began studying with Charles H. Cecil in 2009.
During his five years of training, he proved invaluable to the Studio as painter and teacher. In 2014 George returned to England to begin his professional career. He now divides his time between his studio in Kensington and the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence where he teaches every term.
George’s approach to oil painting is especially inspired by Van Dyck and Velázquez and their ability to capture the spirit of their sitters.
His portrait of Nino has been exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, The Mall Galleries, London.
Billy by Isabella Watling
Isabella Watling
Isabella Watling was born in London in 1990 and spent her formative years in the UK and Australia. From the age of 18 she trained at the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence where she returns periodically to teach portrait and figure painting. Isabella now lives and works in London.
In 2012 Isabella’s portrait of The Importance of Being Glenn was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London for the BP Portrait Award. Claudia Pritchard of The Independent concluded her review of the exhibition as follows:
“BP regulars like the annual game: choose your own winner. Here’s mine: for being not too proud, at only 21, to apprentice herself to Velázquez, Boldini and Singer Sargent, for her romantic, and, yes, painterly The Importance of Being Glenn, for daring to enjoy the dashing and romantic, my vote goes to Isabella Watling. If she can do this now, what a lot could follow.”
In 2014 Isabella’s full-length portrait of Gina and Cristiano was featured at the BP Portrait Award. Her portrait work has also been exhibited at the Royal Society of Oil Painters and the Society of Women Artists, The Mall Galleries, London.
In 2024 Isabella’s full-length portrait of Zizi was awarded Second Prize in the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award (formerly BP Portrait Award) at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Self portrait by Urban Larsson
Urban Larsson
Urban Larsson was born in 1966 in Stockholm and has lived and worked in Amsterdam for more than three decades. The artist studied History of Art at the University of Stockholm and one year of architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
Larsson then moved to Florence, Italy to train at Studio Cecil & Graves. He spent three years there, learning drawing and painting and being introduced to the visual language and techniques of the masters. After his studies in Florence, he moved to Amsterdam to settle as a painter.
Urban’s prestigious and numerous portrait commissions are international. He has for example painted the official portrait of HM Queen Silvia of Sweden and King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, but also the official portrait of Mr. W. Kok, Minster of State, Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands and the Honorable Matthew W. Barzun, the Ambassador for the United States to the United Kingdom. In 2018 he painted a ¾ length life-size portrait of HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.
He has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and USA. In 2017 he had two retrospective exhibitions in prominent museums in Sweden and the Netherlands. That same year a two part documentary on his work was broadcast on Dutch national television AVRO.
Since April 2007 he has painted in the former studio of G.H. Breitner (1857-1923) on Prinseneiland, Amsterdam. For more than 10 years Larsson regularly teaches portraiture to the the advanced students at Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. Urban Larsson is married to art restorer Lara van Wassenaer and they have three children.