Guercino (1591-1666) Il ritorno del figliol prodigo (The Return of the Prodigal Son) 1654–1655 Oil on canvas, 155.6 x 146.1 cm Timken Museum of Art, San Diego The parable depicted by Il Guercino (a nickname meaning “squint-eyed”) is the one most…
Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban (1617-1682) Cristo en la cruz (Christ on the Cross) 1660–1670 Oil on canvas, 208.9 x 113 cm Timken Museum of Art, San Diego In this late painting by Bartolomé Estebán Murillo, the luminous figure of Christ appears against…
Monet, Claude (1840-1926) Effet d’automne à Argenteuil (Autumn Effect at Argenteuil) 1873 Oil on canvas, 55 x 74.5 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London Claude Monet lived in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris, from 1871 to 1878. It was an affordable…
Pissarro, Camille (1830-1903) Place Lafayette, Rouen 1883 Oil on canvas, 46.3 x 55.7 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London This is one of 17 paintings produced by Camille Pissarro in 1883, during his first visit to the northern French city of…
Monet, Claude (1840-1926) Le Bateau-atelier (The Studio Boat) 1876 Oil on canvas, 72.7 x 60 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia The figure in the boat is the artist, Claude Monet, who outfitted this floating studio with all his supplies so that he…
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…
Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851) Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish 1837–1838 Oil on canvas, 174.5 × 224.9 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago In this massive painting, celebrated British landscape artist Joseph Mallord William Turner pursued a theme of…
Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903) Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water 1872 Oil on canvas, 51 × 76.7 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago In the early 1870s James McNeill Whistler took a radical step toward abstraction with his Nocturnes series. In…