"Evening atmosphere in front of the Park" (1881). By Ferdinand Knab (German, 1834 - 1902), Oil on canvas, 48,5 x 38,2 cm. 📍Private collection.

 "Evening atmosphere in front of the Park" (1881). By

Phosphorus and Hesperus,(1881). By Evelyn De Morgan, (1855–1919).

_Art . Oil on canvas, 59 cm x 75 cm. 📍De Morgan Centre

This painting inspired by Greek Mythology depicts the Morning star (Phosphorus) and the Evening star (Hesperus) and alludes to the circle of life. Phosphorus is rising, his torch held erect, heralding the morning which is lightening the sky behind him. In comparison Hesperus's evening starlight is fading, as his flame in its dark torch droops and gutters, his eyes are closing, his dark head anticipating the relaxation of sleep. The stylistically flattened figures and marble tones of the young men in the painting reference Evelyn's interest in classical sculpture and the unusual representation of two nude male figures with their phallic torches caused controversy when first exhibited. However, the female hand is apparent in the painting as the seashore backdrop allowed Evelyn to imbue the image with potent female symbolism in the form of sea shells which represent female fertility and sexual potency.

 Phosphorus and Hesperus,(1881). By Evelyn De Morgan

The Musician, (1884). By Rudolf Ernst, (1932 - 1854) . Oil on panel, 42 x 32 cm.

was an Austro-French painter, printmaker and ceramics painter who is best known for his orientalist motifs. He exhibited in Paris under the name "Rodolphe Ernst"

A Nubian or Sudanese street musician strums wistfully at his kissar, a type of Nubian plucked lyre. The rich layering of his robe and gown exhibit Ernst’s mastery at conveying textiles of different weights and textures. Indeed, the whole composition is a feast for the senses, convincingly conveying multiple tactile surfaces, from the player's gleaming skin and the geometric wood carving in the door panel on the left, to the mashrabiye lattice window overhanging the street, to the carved stonework. In fact, the musician's expression of concentration and unity with his instrument are so compelling that the tune he plays is almost audible.

 The Musician, (1884). By Rudolf Ernst, (1932 - 1854) . Oil

“Woman Walking down the Road through the Tree ” (1887), By Julius Sergius von Klever, (Russian,)

 “Woman Walking down the Road through the Tree ” (1887), By

The New Governess,(1894). By Edmund Blair Leighton, (English, 1852-1922).

_art . Oil on canvas, 57.7 cm x 39.6 cm. 📍Private Collection .

 The New Governess,(1894). By Edmund Blair Leighton

The Agony in the Garden, (1819). By Francisco Goya, (1746 - 1828). Oil on panel, 47 x 35 cm.

_art 📍Escuelas Pías de San Antón, Madrid.

As recorded in Luke 22:39-43: Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.

This dramatic painting is a pendant to the large altarpiece ‘The Last Communion of St Joseph of Calasanz’, a commission the artist received May 1819. When the altarpiece was finished Goya wrote to the Rector returning most of the payment he had received saying: 'D. Francisco Goya has to do something in homage to his countryman.” And a few days later presented the Pious School with a gift of ‘The Agony in the Garden’ depicting Christ alone and wracked with doubt shortly before his arrest. Both this small panel and the altarpiece are outstanding in Goya's oeuvre for the intensity of the religious devotion they reflect. Goya may well have felt a personal involvement with the saint who was the founder of the religious schools that are said to have given him his education in Saragossa.

 The Agony in the Garden, (1819). By Francisco Goya, (1746 -

Love's Messenger, (1885). By Marie Spartali Stillman, (1844–1927).

_art. watercolor basic, 81.3 cm × 66 cm. 📍Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware.

Look closely at this painting, it's simple but delightfully detailed!

in which a dove has just carried a love letter to a woman standing in front of an open window. She wears a red rose, and has just put down her embroidery of a blind-folded

 Love's Messenger, (1885). By Marie Spartali Stillman

Vale (farewell), (1913). By Arthur Hacker, (1858 - 1919), Oil on canvas,153 cm x 122.2 cm.

 Vale (farewell), (1913). By Arthur Hacker, (1858 - 1919)

Apolo and Daphne, sculpture by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, executed between 1622 and 1625. Housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, the work depicts the climax of the story of Apollo and Daphne (Phoebus and Daphne) in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

In this sculpture, Bernini depicts the mythological drama that occurs between Apollo, god of music and poetry, and Daphne, a virginal nymph. The artist was likely inspired by the classical sculpture Apollo Belvedere (circa 2nd century CE) as well as the ancient Roman poet Ovid’s rendition of the myth.

In Ovid’s telling, the story begins with a pissing contest between two male gods: After Apollo insults Eros (or Cupid), Eros takes revenge by orchestrating a scene of unrequited passion and possession. He shoots a golden arrow into Apollo, which makes him fall desperately in love with Daphne, then embeds a leaden arrow in her, enhancing the repulsion she feels towards her pursuer.

 Apolo and Daphne, sculpture by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo

“It is one of the most beautiful self-portraits that Frida ever created. It is a passionate expression of her deep love for nature and unending desire to sire children. The portrait shows Khalo nourishing the land by siring a vine, though it does not have any roots as it is rooted in her womb.⁣

Also, the stems of this vine do not have thorns. Rather, they have thirteen leafless stems to depict Kahlo’s losses. Kahlo had lost her father, experienced miscarriages and gone through many operations to repair different areas of her body after the severe accident she went through when she was 19 years. It explains why the vine grows from her womb-less body and moves toward the viewer as if we are the source of hope or light. Frida fixes an impassive gaze on the viewer in a bid to beckon the viewer to confront her predicament.⁣

Most of Frida's self-portraits are an expression of pain, emotional frustration and disappointment. In this painting, she uses an imaginative overtone of symbolism and visionary art to depict her losses, death of loved ones and her inability to sire children. Kahlo criticises her unfortunate state and portrays her sense of guilt in a rather bold way. During this time, Frida had taken to the Surrealist style, though she borrows a few ideas from the traditional Mexican art forms when creating this painting.”⁣

 Frida Kahlo⁣ Roots⁣ 1943⁣ “It is one of the most beautiful

“Botero is best known for painting exaggeratedly voluptuous figures and portraits that can be read as either comical or critical. Working in Paris since the late 1950s but regularly visiting his hometown of Medellín, Colombia, Botero is one of the most widely known artists from Latin America. His portrait La familia presidencial (The Presidential Family) combines all the trademarks of his best works and serves as a critique of civil society and state authority. It depicts the president of Colombia—the male figure in the back of the group to the left—his family, and those with whom he shares state power. The president, his wife, his daughter, and a grandmother can be seen on the left, while a general and a bishop appear on the right. Botero's depiction might be understood as a veiled critique but leaves his ultimate motives ambiguous.”⁣

 Fernando Botero⁣ The Presidential Family⁣ 1967⁣ “Botero is

The Ghost of Kohada Koheiji (from the series One Hundred Ghost Stories)⁣

“Katsushika Hokusai’s wood block print of a gigantic wave frothing before Mount Fuji, which he made in his seventies, is so beloved and influential that the scholar Christine Guth has devoted a whole book to it. Less attention has been paid to the beguiling illustrations he crafted, also while in his seventies, for the series Hyaku Monogatari [One Hundred Ghost Stories] (ca. 1830). We aren’t sure why the project never reached its probable goal of a century of pictures but the five that were completed are a dark delight. In the prints Hokusai directs his attention away from the Japanese landscapes he was most famous for depicting, inwards towards a realm of vengeful ghosts and demonic cannibals.

The series is fruit of the tradition Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai [A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales], where Japanese friends would meet to share fantastically frightening tales from folklore and their own experience. Having lit a hundred candles, they would give their blood-curdling accounts, one by one, blowing out a candle after each, plunging themselves deeper into darkness. Upon the last candle going out, a spirit was said to appear.

Based on a real event, the cuckold and murder victim Kohada Koheiji returns from the dead to torment his cheating wife and lover. Here he grins over the top of the mosquito netting that surrounds the bed of his killers.”⁣

 Katsushika Hokusai⁣ The Ghost of Kohada Koheiji (from the

“Joseph Pickett never ventured far from New Hope, Pennsylvania, a town on the banks of the Delaware River. Working for the local carnival, he traveled through his native Bucks County, yet for most of his life he was a fixture in New Hope, working there as a craftsman and storekeeper. When he came to painting in his later years, his ambition was to depict the history and landscape of the region he knew so well. Curator Holger Cahill encountered Pickett’s work in New Hope, and it was included in such MoMA exhibitions as American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America, 1750–1900 (1932) and Masters of Popular Painting (1938). Pickett’s aesthetic was a natural fit for the Whitney’s founding collection in 1931, since the museum’s first director, Juliana Force, also had roots in Bucks County and a special interest in folk art.⁣

Without formal training, Pickett improvised his materials and technique. He achieved textural effects approximating the objects he depicted by mixing house paint with sand, shell, and other gritty substances. Working slowly, he would spend years on each canvas (only four finished compositions are extant) and build up his surfaces in thick applications of paint. Despite the sculptural outer layer, which sometimes measured nearly a half-inch thick, the world represented by Pickett appears flat for its lack of shading. In works like MoMA’s Manchester Valley (1914–1918?), Pickett recognized the importance of the area as a transportation hub between Philadelphia and New York City, using a steam locomotive to divide two wooded landscapes with different spatial systems.⁣”

 Joseph Pickett⁣ Manchester Valley⁣ 1914-18?⁣ “Joseph

“Van Gogh is remarkable for how meticulously his life was recorded. “We know an amazing amount about him,” Bomford said. “He was writing letters almost every day, so we know what he was thinking almost every day of his life. We can trace his thought process, his passions, his agonies, his difficulties from day to day, which is astonishing. We can do that for hardly any other artist who has ever existed.”⁣

Van Gogh’s writing dovetailed with his work, as the catalogue for the exhibition extensively notes. Of the color yellow, a recurring and almost spiritual presence in his work, the artist wrote: “Sunshine, a light which, for want of a better word I can only call yellow—pale sulphur yellow, pale lemon, gold. How beautiful yellow is!””⁣

 Vincent Van Gogh Wheatfield with a Reaper⁣⁣ 1889⁣ “Van Gogh

“This is just on example of the stunning animal paintings produced by this Renaissance master at a time when this genre was rarely seen in the mainstream art scene. He would also famously depict a Young Hare, a Stag Beetle and also several depictions of a blue roller and its individual wing.⁣⁣

Whilst this was a predominantly watercolour painting, there was also use of gouache and pen in order to bring out certain details of the owl and add lighting effects. The sharp talons are similar to elements of his work with insects but the artist goes against the normal use of owls as symbols of the dangers of the night. He prefers an honest, somewhat charming portrait which communicates his respect for this creature's beauty.⁣⁣

Whilst the detail used here, particularly in the plumage of the bird, is not up to the same level as several of his other depictions of birds, there is still much to see and enjoy in this small watercolour. There is relatively little known about this individual piece but it receives exposure as part of his impressive series of animal watercolours.⁣⁣

Many artists would tackle individual plants, animals or insects as part of a study piece for a larger composition, but this was rarely the case with Albrecht Durer. He dated each and every one of the watercolours that you find in this website, underlining how he was treating each one as a significant painting in its own right. Whilst some may then be included in other paintings did not make these any less important.”⁣⁣

 Albrecht Dürer⁣⁣ The Little Owl⁣⁣ 1506⁣⁣ “This is just on

“The Quaker minister and painter Edward Hicks is best known for his Peaceable Kingdom pictures, of which sixty-two exist. The paintings represent a messianic prophecy in the book of Isaiah (11:6): “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” During the 1820s, a severe rift formed within the Society of Friends. In this version of Hicks’s favorite motif, the split is represented by the shattered tree trunk, and the desire for peace between the factions by the menagerie of discordant beasts lying down in perfect harmony. The lion and his companion, the ox, were, for Hicks, symbols of redemption.”⁣

 Edward Hicks⁣ Peaceable Kingdom⁣ ca. 1830–32⁣ “The Quaker

The World Stage: Africa, Lagos-Dakar (Men Greeting Entry into Lagos)⁣

“Growing up in Los Angeles, California to humble roots, artist Kehinde Wiley witnessed the devastating devaluing of the African-American male in culture and society. Personally having experienced abandonment at a young age by his Nigerian father, Wiley began to notice a crisis of identity and a lack of heroes amongst those in the African-American male community. At the age of twenty, the artist traveled to Africa to meet his father and discover his own heritage, a move that helped to shape his future style.⁣

Influenced by a talent that developed early in life, Wiley went on to study art at Yale University and the San Francisco Art Institute. He now lives in New York. By routinely referencing art history through his work and utilizing a (almost neoclassical) photorealist style of portraiture, Wiley evokes a sense of historical heroism and regality in his subjects who are typically black men. Through his portrayal of urban African-American men in historically powerful poses, Wiley brings to the foreground issues of identity, individual worth, culture, class, and racism.⁣

A beautiful example of the artist’s innovative style can be found in Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos (Oil on Canvas, 2008). Referencing the Lagos Three Elders statue, Wiley heroically portrays three young men (in traditional African cloth) in a pose of greeting.  The three young men look down on viewers with self-assuredness and confidence. Wiley’s skills, as well as his content are clear.”⁣

 Kehinde Wiley ⁣ The World Stage: Africa, Lagos-Dakar (Men

“In his Chadds Ford studio, Wyeth decided to paint Island Funeral in egg tempera on a gesso panel. Part of the process involved texturing the surface of the gesso, which Wyeth did with a sharp point, such as a stylus or the end of a brush. In some areas, the gouged lines enhance the painted image; in other areas, the gouged lines are more randomly applied. The overall surface texture energizes the image and adds visual interest.⁣

One of the most striking features of the painting is the intensity of the blues and greens Wyeth used. These colors were the result of an informal collaboration between the artist and the DuPont Company. Chemists employed at the company's Jackson Laboratory provided Wyeth with pigments made from "Monastral Fast Blue B" and "Monastral Fast Green G," two vibrant, light fast dyes that had been recently developed at DuPont.”⁣

 N. C. Wyeth⁣ Island Funeral⁣ 1939⁣ “In his Chadds Ford

“Kusama’s regular use of polka dots has made her name synonymous with this motif. They begin to appear in her earliest compositions, including Accumulation, an ink-on-paperboard field of black polka dots in empty space. This drawing is among the thousands of paintings and drawings on paper she began producing in 1951 in Japan. Though the scale of these compositions is intimate, for the artist they evoke a sense of vastness. She once described them as reflecting “the great depth of my inner heart.” Like much of her work to come, Accumulation is based on repetition—or as its title suggests, on the accumulation of her repeating marks—and stems largely from the aural and visual hallucinations Kusama had been experiencing since she was 10 years old. “I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings,” she once explained.”⁣

 Yayoi Kusama⁣ Accumulation⁣ 1952⁣ “Kusama’s regular use of

“In the summer of 1966, while still working on his Brushstrokes, Lichtenstein designed a poster for New York City's Lincoln Center, taking as his subject the architecture and design of the 1920s–30s. This initiated a series that parodied the style of Art Deco, which Lichtenstein ironically described as "Cubism for the Home." Like the Landscapes paintings that preceded them, the artist's Modern works are among the relatively rare pieces in his oeuvre without an anchoring reference to a specific artist or object. They are inventions based on one of his favored notions: impure style. Here he humorously stylized an already-stylized style.⁣

While attempting to summon the style of the period, Lichtenstein's foremost aims were, as always, form and composition. The Modern series strikes an extraordinary balance between verticals and diagonals, curves and straight edges, dynamic and static forms. In Modern Painting with Bolt (1967), the lightning strike both divides and unifies, becoming an Art Deco equivalent of a comic-book explosion. Works like Modern Painting Triptych (1967) explore a modular format of panels in various arrangements with the same image repeated sequentially on all panels, begging the semantic issue of whether the works represent one painting or multiple paintings.”⁣

 Roy Lichtenstein⁣ Modern Painting with Bolt⁣ 1967⁣ “In the

The First kiss of Adam and Eve (El primer beso de Adan y Eva)⁣⁣

“Born in Cádiz, Viniegra began studying law but soon decided to be a painter and entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Cádiz, where he was taught by Rámon Rodríguez Barcaza and José Pérez Jiménez. He concentrated initially on painting watercolors, and a series of works in that genre, which grew eventually into an album, earned him his first taste of public success, in 1877. In the following years, he won various painting prizes at regional exhibitions and traveled to Rome, where he devoted himself to the study of life drawing.”⁣⁣

 Salvador Viniegra⁣⁣ The First kiss of Adam and Eve (El

Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London⁣

“Monet’s London paintings are not so much views of the city through a veil of atmosphere as views of the veil itself, an “envelope” that is infinitely sensitive to changes of weather and light. To convey this, Monet painted the same subject repeatedly under different light and weather conditions. This work was one of 37 exhibited from Monet’s Views of the Thames series in 1904 at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris, a critical success for Monet. The series had three subjects: Waterloo Bridge, Charing Cross Bridge, and the Houses of Parliament. It defies the typical impressionist practice of painting outside directly from the subject. His last London trip to paint the Thames was in 1901. Monet completed numerous canvases over the course of three years in his Giverny studio in France, rather than in London.”⁣

 Claude Monet⁣ Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London⁣

The Tilled Field (La terre labourée)⁣⁣

“During the summer of 1923 Joan Miró began painting The Tilled Field, a view of his family’s farm in Montroig, Catalonia. Although thematically related to his earlier quasi-realistic, Fauvist-colored rural views, such as Prades, The Village, this painting is the first example of Miró’s Surrealist vision. Its fanciful juxtaposition of human, animal, and vegetal forms and its array of schematized creatures constitute a realm visible only to the mind’s eye, and reveal the great range of Miró’s imagination. While working on the painting he wrote, “I have managed to escape into the absolute of nature.” The Tilled Field is thus a poetic metaphor that expresses Miró’s idyllic conception of his homeland, where, he said, he could not “conceive of the wrongdoings of mankind.”⁣⁣

The complex iconography of The Tilled Field has myriad sources, and attests to Miró’s long-standing interest in his artistic heritage. The muted, contrasting tones of the painting recall the colors of Catalan Romanesque frescoes, while the overt flatness of the painting—space is suggested by three horizontal bands indicating sky, sea, and earth—and the decorative scattering of multicolored animals throughout were most likely inspired by medieval Spanish tapestries. These lively creatures are themselves derived from Catalan ceramics, which Miró collected and kept in his studio. The stylized figure with a plow has its source in the prehistoric cave paintings of Altamira, which Miró knew well. Even the enormous eye peering through the foliage of the pine tree, and the eye-covered pine cone beneath it, can be traced to examples of early Christian art, in which the wings of angels were bedecked with many tiny eyes. Miró found something alive and magical in all things: the gigantic ear affixed to the trunk of the tree, for example, reflects his belief that every object contains a living soul.”⁣⁣

 Joan Miró⁣⁣ The Tilled Field (La terre labourée)⁣⁣ 1924⁣⁣

“This painting depicts a scene in the village of Gennevilliers, just outside Paris, now a suburb of the French capital, where Morisot's husband's family, the Manets, owned property. The location is typical of that chosen by many Impressionist artists, such as Monet, both as a place to work and for their paintings' subject matter. The painting presents us with a comfortable visual composition of three horizontal zones of color, punctuated by the figure of the young boy to the right of center. The eponymous wheat hints at the traditional farming character of the area, and immediately catches one's attention as it occupies the prime central space on the canvas.⁣

The ears of wheat, however, remain rather indistinct in keeping with Morisot's loose brushwork. Instead, Morisot renders the buildings in the background in slightly sharper detail, revealing in particular the smokestacks of the dirty, sooty factories on the horizon. They act as a reminder of the changing nature of the landscape from agrarian to increasingly industrial, a reminder of the growing city and the disappearance of the virginal rural past in the face of an increasingly modern future. The homely figure with his belongings slung over his shoulder who is emerging in the foreground from the edge of the wheatfield, opposite the factories, arguably represents the archetypal rural villager attempting to escape this inevitable march of industrialization. We might therefore read Morisot's painting as a seductive representation of the countryside and a quiet protest against the transformation of modern life, a theme that is extremely popular among French painters from the Realists to the post-Impressionists.”⁣

 Berthe Morisot⁣ Dans le Blé (In the Wheatfield)⁣ 1875⁣

“The Creation of Adam (Italian: Creazione di Adamo) is a fresco painting by Italian artist Michelangelo, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, painted c. 1508–1512. It illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God gives life to Adam, the first man. The fresco is part of a complex iconographic scheme and is chronologically the fourth in the series of panels depicting episodes from Genesis.⁣

The image of the near-touching hands of God and Adam has become iconic of humanity. The painting has been reproduced in countless imitations and parodies. Michelangelo's Creation of Adam is one of the most replicated religious paintings of all time.⁣

Many hypotheses have been formulated regarding the identity and meaning of the twelve figures around God. According to an interpretation that was first proposed by the English art critic Walter Pater (1839–1894) and is now widely accepted, the person protected by God's left arm represents Eve, due to the figure's feminine appearance and gaze towards Adam, and the eleven other figures symbolically represent the souls of Adam and Eve's unborn progeny, the entire human race. This interpretation has been challenged, mainly on the grounds that the Catholic Church regards the teaching of the pre-existence of souls as heretical. Consequently, the figure behind God has also been suggested to be the Virgin Mary, Sophia (the personification of wisdom mentioned in the Book of Wisdom), the personified human soul, or "an angel of masculine build".”⁣

 Michelangelo⁣ The Creation of Adam⁣ c.1512⁣ “The Creation

“Prometheus, painted in 1919 and published the following year, visually translates a mythical tale of Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the Olympian gods and presented it to early man, thus allowing for the evolution of civilization and cultural progress. As a result of this act, Prometheus became the patron of all earthly artists and thinkers as he brought enlightenment to the world. Parrish emphasizes this heroic interpretation in the present work by depicting the subject in clear mythological glory. Bathed in a warm golden light, Prometheus is rendered in the classical Greek style, idealized and youthful, returning triumphantly to earth bearing the flame of the gods.⁣⁣

The preternatural landscape rendered behind the figure was likely conjured by Parrish’s fertile imagination; he created these make-believe “Parrishscapes” by synthesizing both real and imagined natural elements. Behind the protagonist, a distant view reveals a mysterious mountainous landscape. The artist’s dazzling gifts as a colorist reveal themselves as the dramatic moonlight beams down upon the crystal calm lake and the craggy outcroppings that surround it. The velvety, midnight blue was reportedly inspired by the effects of light filtering through the cloud layer that Parrish felt was specific to New England: “There is an intense blue in New England,” he once wrote. “Put a mountain here, against the east, in a clear sunset glow, and it would be more startling than in Arizona” (quoted in Alma Gilbert, The Masterworks, Berkeley, California, 1992, p. 103). The present work exhibits a remarkable luminosity and purity of colors that Parrish attained by painting with layers of transparent colored glazes, now considered a hallmark of his distinctive style. Displaying lush color effects and an extraordinary attention to detail, Prometheus impressively demonstrates the unique style and vivid imagination that has earned Parrish his place among the most celebrated and beloved of American illustrators.”⁣⁣

 Maxfield Parrish⁣⁣ Prometheus⁣⁣ 1919⁣⁣ “Prometheus, painted

“Miró painted this towering canvas in summer or fall of 1925 at his family’s farm in Montroig, a small village nestled between the mountains and coast of his native Catalonia. He was buoyed by the success of his recent exhibition in Paris, where he had been feted by many of the young poets and painters associated with the Surrealist movement. Their signatures emblazoned his exhibition’s invitation, claiming Miró as one of their own. The question after he returned to Spain was what he would do next. The Birth of the World is one of his answers.⁣

With this work, Miró went, to quote a favorite Surrealist dictum, “beyond painting,” with “painting” understood to be his own past work and Western artistic tradition. He jettisoned the rules of perspective that painters had used since the Renaissance to construct illusionistic pictorial space, and instead he covered the ground of his vast canvas with an astonishing variety of abstract painterly incidents: spatters, smears, stains, drips, cascades, bursts, smudges, explosions, spurts, and diaphanous washes vie for attention with a series of minimal motifs that are as much drawn as painted. The result was a new and radically unconstrained form of painting that Miró would later describe as “a sort of genesis,” and that his Surrealist poet friends titled The Birth of the World.”⁣

 Joan Miró⁣ The Birth of the World⁣ Montroig, late

“Judith Leyster’s Self-Portrait exudes self-confidence in her abilities, and it has become one of the National Gallery of Art’s most popular Dutch paintings. Leyster has depicted herself at her easel, briefly interrupting work on a painting of a violin player to interact with the viewer. The momentary quality of the portrait and the vigorous brushwork echo the work of Frans Hals (c. 1582/1583–1666), Haarlem’s most celebrated portrait painter and Leyster’s colleague. By juxtaposing her hand holding a brush with the hand and bow of the violin player, Leyster cleverly compares the art of creating ephemeral music with the art of creating timeless paintings. She holds the tools of her trade—a palette, a cloth, and no fewer than eighteen brushes. In reality she would not have worn the elegant dress and lace-trimmed collar while at work in her studio.⁣

Leyster entered into the Saint Luke’s Guild of Haarlem as an independent master in 1633. As a master in her own right, a rarity for a female artist at the time, Leyster established her own workshop and had paying students. Five years earlier, her proficiency and talent had already drawn public praise. A chronicler of Haarlem described Leyster, then only nineteen years old, as a painter of "good and keen insight." In the late 1640s, another city historian wrote that among the many women experienced in the field of painting, "one excels exceptionally, Judith Leyster, called ‘the true leading star’ in art." The compliment cleverly alludes to the artist’s family name, which means "lodestar." The artist herself incorporated a star in her professional signature, the monogram JL*. Following her marriage to fellow Haarlem artist Jan Miense Molenaer in 1636, Leyster stopped producing art in her own name but probably continued to paint in collaboration with, and in the workshop of, her husband.”⁣

 Judith Leyster⁣ Self-Portrait⁣ c. 1630⁣ “Judith Leyster’s

“Daniel Crommelin Verplanck (1762–1834) was born in New York and spent the early part of his life in the family home on lower Wall Street. He was the eldest son of Judith Crommelin and Samuel Verplanck (39.173). While attending Columbia College (formerly King's College), he married Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of the president of Columbia. They had two children. Following her death in 1789, Verplanck married Ann Walton, with whom he had seven children. They lived on Wall Street until 1803 and then moved to Fishkill-on-Hudson, New York. He represented Dutchess County in Congress from 1803 until 1809. The portrait was painted in 1771 when Daniel was nine years old. The background has traditionally been identified as a view from the Verplanck country house at Fishkill, looking toward Mount Gulian.”⁣

 John Singleton Copley ⁣ Daniel Crommelin Verplanck⁣ 1771⁣

“There is something unique and alluring in all of Degas's studies of ballerinas, of which there are many. In Foyer de la Danse he presents us with one of the unconventional perspectives that are so typical and distinctive in his work. Rather than evoke the light and atmosphere of the scene, as some of his Impressionist peers might have done, Degas has chosen to create a striking arrangement of space, one which echoes the experiences his contemporaries might have had throughout the new modern city. To achieve this, rather than compose the figures in a more orderly and centered fashion, he has dispersed them about the canvas, leaving a chair incongruously placed in the center foreground. Instead of viewing the room as a traditional box-like container for the figures, he paints it at an angle, suggesting multiple vantage points, almost as if this were an early blueprint for Cubism. The approach is characteristic of his modern, realist approach to composition. ⁣

The author Sebastian Smee wrote that Degas had the idea "that when people were listening to music, their habitual self-consciousness switched off. Their tendency to present themselves, and to respond defensively to their awareness of being watched, was no longer an impediment to truth-telling. They had lost the power to censor themselves. Something more essential, more truthful would emerge, and play across their faces. Degas wanted to capture that." Indeed, often in his works music is playing, or else, for example, a woman is bathing and similarly dropping her guard.”⁣

 Edgar Degas⁣ Foyer de la Danse ⁣ 1872⁣ “There is something

“Sharecropper reveals Elizabeth Catlett’s lifelong concern for the oppressed and the dignity of women. The print focuses on a female farm worker whose face, made rough and leathery by years of toil, is nonetheless determined and commanding.⁣

After the Civil War, many former slaves became sharecroppers, or farmers who worked on rented land and received an agreed share of the crop as payment. This economic system trapped many of these African Americans, as well as white workers, in a cycle of poverty. Set in the 1950s, Catlett’s Sharecropper refers to the injustices that this unfair system exerted on the poor. ⁣

Emphasizing the triumph of the worker over her harsh conditions, Catlett represented this poor, anonymous figure with the strength, dignity, and heroism generally reserved for individuals of power.”⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett ⁣ Sharecropper ⁣ 1952⁣ “Sharecropper

“Funerary reliefs in the shape of a circular tondo, depicting a man and a woman or, as in this case, the whole family, are known principally from Thrace, northern Greece, and the Danube provinces. Some are inscribed, but this example leaves the man, his wife, and his two sons unnamed.”⁣