Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre (1824-1898) L’été (Summer) before 1873 Oil on canvas, 43.2 × 62.2 cm National Gallery, London The theme of Puvis de Chavannes’s painting is an old one. Images of summer and harvesting can be found in medieval illuminated manuscripts,…
Poussin, Nicolas (1594-1665) Le Triomphe de Silène (The Triumph of Silenus) c.1636 Oil on canvas, 142.9 × 120.5 cm National Gallery, London This playful scene celebrates Silenus, companion to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and drunkenness. Silenus, a naked old…
Morisot, Berthe (1841-1895) Jour d’été (Summer’s Day) c.1879 Oil on canvas, 45.7 × 75.2 cm National Gallery, London This painting was almost certainly exhibited with the title The Lake in the Bois de Boulogne at the Fifth Impressionist exhibition in April…
Ghirlandaio, Domenico (1448-1494) Madonna col Bambino (The Virgin and Child) c.1480–1490 Tempera on poplar, 88.9 × 57.8 cm National Gallery, London The Christ Child looks up at the Virgin Mary, raising the index finger of his right hand as though he…
Gainsborough, Thomas (1727-1788) Portrait of the Artist with his Wife and Daughter c.1748 Oil on canvas, 92.1 × 70.5 cm National Gallery, London This is the earliest known self portrait in oil by Gainsborough, and the only known one of him with…
Raffaello (1483-1520) La predicazione di San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist Preaching) 1505 Oil on poplar, 26.2 × 52 cm National Gallery, London This is the only surviving predella scene of Raphael’s Ansidei Altarpiece for the Ansidei chapel in S. Fiorenzo,…
Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille (1796-1875) Le chêne de la vallée (The Oak in the Valley) 1871 Oil on canvas, 39.8 × 52.8 cm National Gallery, London This view was one of several pictures that Corot painted in May 1871 while he was staying…
Constable, John (1776-1837) The Cornfield 1826 Oil on canvas, 143 × 122 cm National Gallery, London A boy has paused from the thirsty work of herding sheep at noon to lie flat on the bank of a pool and drink its…
Canaletto (1697-1768) Eton College c.1754 Oil on canvas, 61.6 × 107.7 cm National Gallery, London This view is from the bank of the River Thames, looking across a sprawling meadow towards Eton College on the horizon. A shady glade gives way to…
Botticini, Francesco (1446-1498) L’Assunzione della Vergine (The Assumption of the Virgin) c.1475–1476 Tempera on wood, 228.6 × 377.2 cm National Gallery, London Heaven and earth are united in this vast, dramatic scene. A dome-shaped vault has opened up in the sky to…