Modigliani, Amedeo (1884-1920) Nu féminin assis (Seated Female Nude) c.1916 Oil on canvas, 92.4 x 59.8 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London This is one of a series of celebrated female nudes which Modigliani painted in 1916 and 1917. His unusual…
Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Nevermore 1897 Oil paint on canvas, 60.5 x 116 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London Paul Gauguin painted Nevermore in February 1897, during his second and final stay in Tahiti, an island in the southern Pacific colonised by France. Intended…
Cranach, Lucas the Elder (1472-1553) Adam and Eve 1526 Oil on panel, 117 x 80 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London Adam and Eve are depicted at the fateful moment when they disobey God and commit the first sin. The story…
Courbet, Gustave (1819-1877) La Femme aux bas blancs (Woman with White Stockings) 1864 Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Traditionally, European painters made the nude subject decorous by presenting it as part of an edifying mythological narrative.…
Rousseau, Henri (1844-1910) Mauvaise surprise (Unpleasant Surprise) 1899–1901 Oil on canvas, 194.5 x 129.5 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia The large-scale jungle scenes of Henri Rousseau are rife with violent struggles between wild animals such as lions, tigers, and horses. Here, a…
Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Haere Pape 1892 Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 67.3 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Fed up with industrialized Europe, Paul Gauguin went to Tahiti in 1891 seeking a simpler, more “primitive” way of life, one uncorrupted by modern technology…
Matisse, Henri (1869-1954) Nu couché (Reclining Nude) 1923–1924 Oil on canvas, 60 x 92 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Matisse painted this work in Nice, a city in the South of France that he visited frequently in the 1920s. The canvas is…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) Avant le bain (Before the Bath) c.1875 Oil on canvas, 82 x 66.5 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia When Renoir first exhibited this painting publicly, at an 1875 auction in Paris, audiences were shocked by its naturalism. Rather than…
Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906) Léda au cygne (Leda and the Swan) c.1880 (possibly later) Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 74.9 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia This picture is unusual in Cézanne‘s oeuvre for its specific literary subject matter. It represents the story from Ovid‘s…
Léger, Fernand (1881-1955) Femme allongée (Reclining Woman) 1922 Oil on canvas, 64.5 × 92 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Fernand Léger first saw the work of the Cubists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso at the Paris gallery of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.…