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,…
Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) Ovide chez les Scythes (Ovid among the Scythians) 1862 Oil on paper, laid down on wood, 32.1 x 50.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York This is the final work Delacroix devoted to a theme that had first…
Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) Ovide chez les Scythes (Ovid among the Scythians) 1859 Oil on canvas, 87.6 × 130.2 cm National Gallery, London In AD 8 the Roman poet Ovid, author of The Art Of Love and the epic poem Metamorphoses, was banished…
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…
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) La crocifissione (The Crucifixion) c.1471 Tempera on wood, 28.5 × 35 cm National Gallery, London Christ is shown nailed to the Cross at his crucifixion, flanked by the two thieves who were crucified alongside him. His mother, the Virgin…
Botticini, Francesco (1446-1498) Scene della vita di san Girolamo (Scenes from the Life of Saint Jerome) c.1490 Tempera on poplar, 235 × 258 cm National Gallery, London Francesco Botticini’s S. Gerolamo Altarpiece is named after Saint Jerome (who appears at its centre) and…
Bellotto, Bernardo (1721-1780) La fortezza di Königstein vista da Nord (The Fortress of Königstein from the North) 1756–1758 Oil on canvas, 132.1 × 236.2 cm National Gallery, London Sharp and angular, the Saxon fortress of Königstein, about 25 miles southeast of…
Rousseau, Henri (1844-1910) La cascade (The Waterfall) 1910 Oil on canvas, 116.2 × 150.2 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Among the very last compositions Henri Rousseau painted, The Waterfall is typical of the large-scale jungle scenes for which he gained…