Monet, Claude (1840-1926) Le Bateau-atelier (The Studio Boat) 1876 Oil on canvas, 72.7 x 60 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia The figure in the boat is the artist, Claude Monet, who outfitted this floating studio with all his supplies so that he…
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) 1901 Oil on canvas, 194.6 x 129.9 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…
Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Haere Pape 1892 Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 67.3 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Fed up with industrialized Europe, Paul Gauguin went to Tahiti in 1891 seeking a simpler, more “primitive” way of life, one uncorrupted by modern technology…
Matisse, Henri (1869-1954) Femme devant un aquarium (Woman before an Aquarium) 1921–1923 Oil on canvas, 81.2 × 100.2 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago In the first two decades of the 20th century, Henri Matisse visited exhibitions of Islamic art and…
Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903) Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water 1872 Oil on canvas, 51 × 76.7 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago In the early 1870s James McNeill Whistler took a radical step toward abstraction with his Nocturnes series. In…
Sargent, John Singer (1856-1925) The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy 1907 Oil on canvas, 71.4 × 56.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago The year 1907 was a turning point for John Singer Sargent, as he daringly stepped away from his successful…
Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906) La baie de Marseille, vue de l’Estaque (The Bay of Marseille, Seen from L’Estaque) c.1885 Oil on canvas, 80.2 × 100.6 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago In a letter to his friend and teacher Camille Pissarro, Paul…
Cassatt, Mary (1844-1926) The Child’s Bath 1893 Oil on canvas, 100.3 × 66.1 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago In this work, Mary Cassatt addressed the theme for which she is best known—women and children—while also experimenting with compositional elements of…
Monet, Claude (1840-1926) Les nymphéas (Water Lilies) 1906 Oil on canvas, 89.9 × 94.1 cm cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago “One instant, one aspect of nature contains it all,” said Claude Monet, referring to his late masterpieces, the water landscapes…