Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Femme tahitienne (Tahitian Woman) c.1894 Charcoal and pastel on paper, mounted on millboard, 54.9 x 49.5 cm Brooklyn Museum, New York In 1890 Paul Gauguin wrote of his attraction to the French colony of Tahiti in a manner…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) Baigneuse blonde (Blonde Bather) 1881 Oil on canvas, 81.6 x 65.4 cm Clark Art Institute, Williamstown Compare: Renoir, Auguste (1841-1919) La Baigneuse blonde c.1880–1881 Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Renoir, Auguste (1841-1919) La Baigneuse blonde 1882 Pinacoteca…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) Bacco (Bacchus) c.1598 Oil on canvas, 95 x 85 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze This painting is part of the author’s early series of half-length portraits painted ‘in chiaro’, which includes works such as the ‘Fruttaiolo’ (Boy with a…
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo (1598-1680) Corpus (The Crucified Christ) c.1650 Bronze, 174 cm Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
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…
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…
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…
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…