Waterhouse, John William (1849-1917) The Lady of Shalott 1888 Oil on canvas, 153 x 200 cm Tate Britain, London English poet Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1833) describes a heroine confined to a tower and cursed to die…
Canaletto (1697-1768) Canal Grande e Santa Maria della Salute (Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice) c.1730 Oil on canvas, 49.53 x 73.66 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Painted views of towns and landscapes were enormously popular in the 18th…
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905) Dante et Virgile (Dante and Virgil) 1850 Oil on canvas, 280.5 x 225.3 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris Having failed on two occasions to win the Prix de Rome (1848 and 1849), Bouguereau was hungry for revenge. His…
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905) Les Nymphes et le Satyre (Nymphs and Satyr) 1873 Oil on canvas, 260.4 x 182.9 cm Clark Art Institute, Williamstown Three nymphs playfully drag a Satyr into a woodland pond, while a fourth calls to her companions…
Degas, Edgar (1834-1917) Aux Courses, Le Départ (At the Races: The Start) c.1860–1862 Oil on canvas, 33 x 47 cm Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA Degas often depicted horse racing, producing forty-five oil paintings featuring the subject. This early work, with…
Degas, Edgar (1834-1917) La répétition (The Rehearsal) c.1873–1878 Oil on canvas, 47.2 x 61.5 cm Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA This is one of Degas’s earliest paintings of dancers, a subject which he depicted in many media throughout his career. A close…
Degas, Edgar (1834-1917) Chanteuse de Café / Chanteuse au Gant (Café Singer / Singer with a Glove) c.1878 Pastel on canvas, 53.2 x 41 cm Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA Because pastel paints can fade, this extraordinary work can be exhibited only…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) La Grenouillère 1869 Oil on canvas, 66.5 x 81 cm Nationalmuseum, Stockholm In the short story, Paul’s mistress, the French author Guy de Maupassant describes the floating café La Grenouillère in a Paris suburb: “In the environs…
Monet, Claude (1840-1926) Intérieur après dîner (Interior, after Dinner) 1868–1869 Oil on canvas, 50.2 x 65.4 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington In a darkened room, two women sit at a round table near a man who stands leaning against…
Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906) Joueurs de cartes (The Card Players) 1890–1892 Oil on canvas, 65.4 x 81.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Cézanne was in his fifties when he undertook a painting campaign devoted to giving memorable form to a…