Van Dyck, Anthony (1599-1641) The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem c.1617 Oil on canvas, 151 × 229.2 cm Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis In 1618, Peter Paul Rubens referred to the young Anthony van Dyck as “the best of my pupils.” This…
Boucher, François (1703-1770) La Fontaine de Vénus (Fountain of Venus) 1756 Oil on canvas, 233 x 215 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Lighthearted, erotic decorative schemes remained popular among the French aristocracy throughout the 1700s. In this painting, part of the…
Mantegna, Andrea (c.1431-1506) Ecce Homo c.1500 Oil on canvas, 54 x 42 cm Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris Although many representations of a suffering Christ have been produced since the medieval period, this painting is an exceptional work in the history of painting, due…
Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Te vaa (Canoe; Tahitian Family) 1896 Oil on canvas, 95.5 x 131.5 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg Gauguin moved to Tahiti (Polynesia) in 1891, seeking to find the simplicity lacking in the “civilised” life of Parisian society. Here he…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) Femme laçant sa chaussure (Woman Tying her Shoe) c.1918 Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 56.5 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London This is one of the final paintings Pierre-Auguste Renoir made before his death the following year. Having become…
Bramante (1444-1514) Cristo alla colonna (Christ Tied to the Column) 1487–1490 Oil on panel, 93.7 x 62.5 Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano Bramante was trained in Urbino, a center of mathematical studies where the use of perspective had been developed as a form…
Claudel, Camille (1864-1943) Femme accroupie (Crouching woman) c.1884–1885 Patinated plaster, 37.5 x 24.5 x 38.5 cm Musée Camille Claudel, Nogent-sur-Seine © Musée Camille Claudel, photo by Marco Illuminati Crouching Woman was created around 1884–1885 by Camille Claudel, then in her early twenties.…
Poussin, Nicolas (1594-1665) Le Baptême du Christ (The Baptism of Christ) 1641–1642 Oil on canvas, 95.5 x 121 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington Although Nicolas Poussin‘s work exerted an enormous influence on the development of French seventeenth-century painting, the artist perfected…
Rodin, Auguste (1840-1917) Pierre Puvis de Chavannes modeled c.1890, cast c.1910 Bronze, 53.3 × 50.8 × 31.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Cast by Alexis Rudier (French) Rodin neither selected his male and female sitters in the same way, nor…
Bacon, Francis (1909-1992) Study for a Portrait 1952 Oil paint and sand on canvas, 66.1 × 56.1 × 1.8 cm Tate Britain, London © Estate of Francis Bacon. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2025 Francis Bacon painted directly onto the raw, unprimed side of the…