I often find myself really enjoying the work of relatively obscure figures. One such I ran into on the web is Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924). I see Wikipedia refers to him as impressionist, which he is and is not. His work is somewhat conservative in general appearance, his classical training apparent, but like the more famous impressionists, one can also see the loose, expressive brushwork and concern with light and shade.
I seem to have a great attraction to this kind of painterly realism. Lots of artists active around 1900 went in this direction, but most fell into obscurity in the shadow of the modernist revolutions taking place at the time. Today, when we think of that sort of style, we mostly think of Sargent and Zorn, but they were by no means the only ones doing it, and the style remains very popular today. Anyway, some samples of Kallmorgen's work:
Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - Holzsammlerin im Herbstwald, 1893, Öl auf Leinwand, 68 x 53 cm
Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - Summer afternoon 1893 Oil on canvas 84 x 109 cm
Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856 - 1924) - The Harvest Oil on canvas
EDIT: I see the software here automatically reduces the size of the images. I'm too lazy to upload details from the pictures, but I encourage those who like this sort of thing to go look up the pictures on the web and take a look at full size reproductions.