Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905) Dante et Virgile (Dante and Virgil) 1850 Oil on canvas, 280.5 x 225.3 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris Having failed on two occasions to win the Prix de Rome (1848 and 1849), Bouguereau was hungry for revenge. His…
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905) Les Nymphes et le Satyre (Nymphs and Satyr) 1873 Oil on canvas, 260.4 x 182.9 cm Clark Art Institute, Williamstown Three nymphs playfully drag a Satyr into a woodland pond, while a fourth calls to her companions…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) Madame Pierre Henri Renoir 1870 Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 64.8 cm Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA This is one of two pendant portraits that Renoir painted of his elder brother, Pierre Henri, and his wife, Blanche-Marie Blanc…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) Baigneuse assise (Seated Bather) c.1883–1884 Oil on canvas, 119.7 x 93 cm Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA Following a trip to Italy in 1881–82 to study the masterpieces of ancient Roman and Renaissance painting, Renoir embarked on one…
Degas, Edgar (1834-1917) Chanteuse de Café / Chanteuse au Gant (Café Singer / Singer with a Glove) c.1878 Pastel on canvas, 53.2 x 41 cm Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA Because pastel paints can fade, this extraordinary work can be exhibited only…
Degas, Edgar (1834-1917) La chanteuse en vert (Singer in Green) c.1884 Pastel on light blue laid paper, 60.3 x 46.4 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York A sale catalogue of 1898 evocatively described the performer pictured in this pastel: “Skinny…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Danae 1560–1565 Oil on canvas, 129.8 x 181.2 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid The first Poesie presented to Prince Philip were Danaë (1553, The Wellington Collection) and Venus and Adonis (1554, Museo del Prado, P422), versions of other…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Salomè con la testa del Battista (Salome with the Head of John the Baptist) 1515 Oil on canvas, 90 x 72 cm Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Roma This early masterpiece by Titian, which illustrates the terrible biblical episode in a dark…
Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510) San Sebastiano (St. Sebastian) 1474 Tempera on poplar panel, 195 x 75 cm Gemäldegalerie, Berlin The Roman officer Sebastian was supposed to renounce his Christian faith in order to serve as the bodyguard of the Emperor Diocletian. When he…