Officer Paying a Woman in a Stable is a 1670 scene of an encounter between a traveler and a country inn host painted by Pieter de Hooch. The Dutch artist’s attention to the incidental details are notable, such as the dog investigating the transaction, the servant gathering the hay for the officer’s journey and the …
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Rooftops in the Snow is an 1878 scene of Montmartre in Paris, depicted from a high viewpoint by French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The Impressionist cityscape is notable for its architectural details and the restricted color palette – other than the snow, the painting is largely black and grey. The picture, titled “Vue de toits” in …
British artist Edward Poynter’s style here for his 1890 painting Pea Blossoms is highly academic, as befitting a President of the Royal Academy, and Realist. It is a nostalgic portrayal and a hymn to the seeming eternity but tragically short-lived nature of youth. Edward Poynter’s Pea Blossoms is in a private collection
French artist Paul Cézanne spent a lot of time in Provence, the setting of his 1887 painting Mont Sainte-Victoire with a Large Pine. The picture is part of an artistically revolutionary oeuvre that shows signs of development beyond Impressionism and looks forward to Cubism with individual elements standing out independently. However, the fracturing of the …
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This 1880 painting of Madame Renoir with a Dog shows Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s wife seated with her pet in a setting of lush vegetation. Thick brushwork and use of the palette knife all over the canvas embeds the woman and dog in the landscape, a point emphasized by the flowers in Madame’s hat. They are only distinguishable …
Portrait of the Bronte Sisters is an 1834 painting by their brother Branwell Bronte who was an amateur painter. Portrait of the Bronte Sisters Analysis This is the only known portrait of the famous novelist Bronte Sisters, from left to right Anne, Emily, and Charlotte which was painted by their Brother Branwell Bronte. Created in …
Melancholy is a painting of a female figure here slumped over in a depressive state by French painter Constance Marie Charpentier. Finished in 1801 at age 34, it is painted exquisitely and with classical decorum. The expressive melancholy in the face is true to life. The position of her figure in the picture also recalls …
Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbour is an 1888 view of the port in Normandy and is painted in Georges Seurat’s signature style of pointillism. This technique entailed the application of dots of differing colours side-by-side and resulted in a more energised and vibrant painting. It seems in this picture that the painted scene and the …
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Russian painter Boris Kustodiev’s Bathing here shows a family holiday spent swimming in the fine summer weather. The bright colours used enhance the mood of carefree gaiety. The swimmer making her way back to the cabin that is surmounted by the royal Russian flag could relate the desire of a return to the tsarist regime …
The Road from Versailles to Louveciennes between town and country is a social document by the French Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley. A worker draws a cart after him, symbolizing rural life. Preceding him, perhaps rushing ahead, is a bourgeois gentleman in a top hat. Sisley regularly painted Roads, bridges, and Waterways. The image shows a …
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The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon has as its inspiration the biblical story of the queen’s visit to the Israelite King Solomon’s court. The purpose of the visit was to prove or test the legendary wisdom of the king through the queen’s posing of several riddles to him. Englishman Edward Poynter’s …
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The Print Lover Honore Daumier shows a potential member of his target market examining prints, a medium for which Daumier was famous. Painted loosely with rasping technique, the image captures an essence rather than a realistic likeness. This was painted in 1860 at a time when Daumier was well renowned for his cartoons, paintings, sculptures …
Youth Making a Face by Adriaen Brouwer, a noted portrait specialist during the Dutch Golden Age, paints a boy making a teasing face towards the viewer. These studies in exaggerated facial expressions were called tronies (from the French ‘trogne’ for ‘mug’). The highlights on the jug on the table effortlessly relate the cool daylight. Brouwer …
In this portrait of Countess Anna Vorontsova from Russia, Dimitry Levitzky expertly portrays the active and happy intelligence of the child. Countess Vorontsova would go on to display, by all accounts an able mind that was admired. The good-humoured curiosity painted here would be applied to her work as an artist in later life, especially …
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Wheatfield at Auvers with White House is an 1890 Post-Impressionist painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. Analysis of Wheatfield at Auvers with White House Wheatfield at Auvers with White House is a simple painting of a field of wheat with a country house in the background painted by Vincent Van Gogh. The color and composition …
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Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise is an 1875 painting in the Impressionist style by the leading French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The painting depicts three diners, a woman and two men, in varying states of consciousness on the Seine’s Ile de Grand Jatte. The man on the right is smoking, and he is in the middle …
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Portrait of Paganini is an 1832 painting by French Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix. Analysis of the Portrait of Paganini Eugene Delacroix limits the use of colour in this 1832 portrait of Paganini, the world-famous Italian violinist. French Romantic artist Delacroix heard him play in Paris a year before this tribute. We have black centred on …
The Ham is an 1889 still life picture by French Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin and is about as dull as a painting like this can be. Painted in the year of the Exposition Universelle in Paris when the Eiffel Tower was unveiled as a symbol of modernity, Gauguin’s The Ham is distinctly unfashionable. The prevalent subject …
A Couple Making Music at a Table, with a Serving Girl depicts a clearly wealthy merchant couple playing music. Pieter de Hooch was a genre painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of prosperity and excellence in the arts in the Netherlands. He was also a contemporary, and fellow member of the Guild of …
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The Road Menders is an 1889 Post-Impressionist painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. Analysis of The Road Menders The Road Menders is a street scene showing figures on the left going about their day and on the right a number of workers attending to construction works. Dutch Post-Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh painted this work …
