Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792) A Nymph and Cupid: ‘The Snake in the Grass’ exhibited 1784 Oil on canvas, 124.5 x 99.1 cm Tate Britain, London Compare: Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792) Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus 1788 Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792) Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus 1788 Oil on canvas, 127.5 x 101 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg This is an autograph version of Reynolds‘s famous picture of 1784, painted for Lord Carysfort (now Tate Gallery, London). Carysfort,…
Zurbarán, Francisco de (1598-1664) Santa Casilda (Saint Casilda) c.1630–1635 Oil on canvas, 171 x 107 cm Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Images of saints depicted alone, holding their attributes and looking out of the picture space were among the most popular compositions within…
Fragonard, Jean-Honoré (1732-1806) Le Colin-Maillard (Blind Man’s Buff) c.1750–1752 Oil on canvas, 116.8 x 91.4 cm Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo In the 18th century the game of blind man’s buff (or bluff) became the symbolic arena for courtship, chance, and the…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) Jean dessinant (The Artist’s Son, Jean, Drawing) 1901 Oil on canvas, 45.09 × 54.61 cm Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond The simplified palette of this portrait of Renoir’s second son, Jean, is limited to a range of…
Manet, Édouard (1832-1883) La Brioche (The Brioche) 1870 Oil on canvas, 65.1 x 81 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Manet reportedly called still life the “touchstone of the painter.” From 1862 to 1870 he executed several large-scale tabletop scenes…
Magritte, René (1898-1967) Le Dormeur téméraire (The Reckless Sleeper) 1928 Oil on canvas, 116 × 81 x 2 cm Tate Britain, London A figure sleeps in a wooden alcove above a dark cloudy sky. The way into this space is barred…
Laurencin, Marie (1883-1956) L’éventail (The Fan) c.1919 Oil on canvas, 30.5 × 30 cm Tate Britain, London The Fan is painted in Marie Laurencin’s typically restrained palette of blue, rose and grey. It depicts two women staring at the viewer from…
Gainsborough, Thomas (1727-1788) Portrait of Margaret Gainsborough holding a Theorbo c.1777 Oil on canvas, 90.2 × 69.9 cm National Gallery, London This unfinished portrait of Thomas Gainsborough’s youngest daughter, Margaret (1751–1820), playing a theorbo (a kind of lute) unites two particularly personal…
Gainsborough, Thomas (1727-1788) The Artist’s Daughter Margaret c.1772 Oil on canvas, 75.6 × 62.9 cm Tate Britain, London Gainsborough’s younger daughter, Margaret, was in her mid-twenties when her father painted this portrait. At the time she was still living with her elder…