"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 -

Medium: watercolor, pen and ink, gouache, collage and pencil⁣

“This costume study was carried out for the ballet "Tristan Fou", libretto, curtain, sets and costumes by Salvador Dali, choreography by Léonide Massine, music by Wagner, 1st in New York on December 15, 1944.”⁣

 Salvador Dali⁣ Costume Pisentlit pour Tristan Fou⁣ 1944⁣

“Big Self-Portrait is a watershed painting that virtually showcases Close's unique method. Abandoning the full-body view, Close turned to one of the oldest traditions anywhere in art history, the self-portrait. Close had partially set out to refute the critic Clement Greenberg's claim that it was impossible for an "advanced" artist to work in portraiture. Closes's untraditional approach involved conceiving of and creating a unique kind of "mug shot," a black-and-white idiom that exacerbated the subject's blemishes and the original photographic distortion caused by the camera. The devotion to the idea of an unsparing, head-on view led him to refuse all commissions, as Close used only his own "mug" and that of close friends for his subjects.”⁣

 Chuck Close⁣ Big Self-Portrait⁣ 1967-68⁣ “Big Self-Portrait

“From 1871, when he returned from England, until 1878, Monet lived in the commune of Argenteuil near Paris. During this period he often featured his wife Camille in his paintings, with their eldest son Jean, born in 1867. He is pictured here, inside the second house that Monet lived in in Argenteuil, with a figure, probably Camille, in shadow in the background.⁣⁣⁣

The foreground here consists of a symmetrical décor: hangings with coloured motifs, green plants, and decorative vases, seen in other paintings by Monet. This composition gives the impression of a curtain opening on to a stage. The viewer's eye is drawn towards the back of the room, towards the illuminated area near the window. In the very centre of the picture, the herringbone pattern of the parquet reinforces the symmetry of the overall view, whilst emphasising the perspective. Then, one after another, one can make out Jean standing slightly to the right, the lamp and the table in the centre, and Camille sitting on the left.⁣⁣⁣

The child's silhouette is reflected on the parquet floor, lit by the daylight from the window.⁣⁣⁣

In this interior, "there is a serious attempt to introduce air and light", as the art critic Gustave Geffroy pointed out in 1894.This silent, intimate scene, an image of everyday family life in Argenteuil, is recreated in a blue-tinted space. This range of colour evokes an atmosphere of tranquillity and poetry, reminiscent of the childhood world of the author Marcel Proust, as he would later describe it in In Search of Lost Time (1913).”⁣⁣⁣

 Claude Monet⁣⁣⁣ A Corner of the Apartment⁣⁣⁣ 1875⁣⁣⁣ “From

The Gallery of H.M.S. Calcutta (Portsmouth)⁣

“Tissot often painted a man with two women in order to explore the subtle nuances of flirtation and attraction through body language and facial expression. Here a chaperone separates the young naval officer from the object of his attentions, the woman hiding her enjoyment of his flirtation behind her fan. Tissot focuses here on the boundaries of Victorian propriety and social convention, and their transgression. The languid pose of the nearest woman, and Tissot’s frank concentration on her fashionable hour-glass figure, inevitably led to the picture being criticised when it was first exhibited. The author Henry James dismissed it as ‘hard, vulgar and banal’.⁣

 James Tissot⁣ The Gallery of H.M.S. Calcutta (Portsmouth)⁣

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

 (born 1998) is an American poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. In 2021, she delivered her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden. Her inauguration poem generated international acclaim, stimulated her two books to reach best-seller status, and earned her a professional management contract.”⁣⁣

You can find the artist using the following:⁣⁣

 Kofi Ofosu⁣⁣ @braku _star Amanda Gorman⁣⁣ 2021⁣⁣ “Amanda S

The Stone of Hope at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial⁣

“The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is located in West Potomac Park next to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It covers four acres and includes the Stone of Hope, a granite statue of Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. carved by sculptor Lei Yixin. The inspiration for the memorial design is a line from King's "I Have A Dream" speech: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." The memorial opened to the public on August 22, 2011, after more than two decades of planning, fund-raising, and construction.⁣

The centerpiece for the memorial is based on a line from King's "I Have A Dream" speech: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." A 30-foot (9.1 m)-high relief of King named the Stone of Hope stands past two other pieces of granite that symbolize the "mountain of despair." Pale pink granite was used to create the Stone of Hope to ensure that the carving's details would be visible at night, and to contrast with the Mountain of Despair. Visitors figuratively "pass through" the Mountain of Despair on the way to the Stone of Hope, symbolically "moving through the struggle as Dr. King did during his life."⁣

The relief of King is intended to give the impression that he is looking over the Tidal Basin toward the horizon, and that the cherry trees that adorn the site will bloom every year during the anniversary of King's death.”⁣

 Lei Yixin⁣ The Stone of Hope at the Martin Luther King, Jr

Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587–1645), Count-Duke of Olivares⁣

“The Count-Duke of Olivares was Philip IV’s powerful prime minister between 1621 and 1643. Although of extremely fine quality and incorporating differences, this picture is probably a reduced variant of a life-size equestrian portrait of the count-duke in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. It may have been painted by his son-in-law, Juan Bautista del Mazo—possibly with Velazquez’s intervention. Olivares is shown in full armor and holding a baton, as a victorious commander. His horse holds a dressage position known as a levade. In the background smoke rises from the battlefield.”⁣

 Diego Velázquez ⁣ Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587–1645)

Le Verre de Porto (A Dinner Table at Night)⁣⁣

“This painting is an intimate scene in the dining room of a country house in England. Seated at the table are Albert and Edith Vickers. Sargent’s composition weds the informal portraiture of the conversation piece to the techniques of Impressionism. Mrs. Vickers occupies the center of the painting and looks directly at the viewer—her hand rests on a glass of claret, while Mr. Vickers’ crosses his legs as he puffs on an after-dinner cigar, imparting a casual freshness to the scene.”⁣⁣

 John Singer Sargent ⁣⁣ Le Verre de Porto (A Dinner Table at

“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

Klee likens the artist to a tree and writes:⁣

“The artist has studied this world of variety and has, we may suppose, unobtrusively found his way in it. His sense of direction has brought order into the passing stream of image and experience. This sense of direction in nature and life, this branching and spreading array, I shall compare with the root of the tree.⁣

From the root the sap flows to the artist, flows through him, flows to his eye. ⁣

Thus he stands as the trunk of the tree.⁣

Battered and stirred by the strength of the flow, he guides the vision on into his work.⁣

As, in full view of the world, the crown of the tree unfolds and spreads in time and space, so with his work.”⁣

 Paul Klee⁣ Little Painting of Fir Tree 1922⁣ Klee likens

“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

“Conceived on an epic scale akin to the grand tradition of history or myth painting, Untitled (Blanket Couple) speaks to Marshall’s self-identification as a history painter that imbues the seemingly straightforward scene of a couple taking a moment of respite from a bike ride. As he explained, “I’m acutely aware of and obsessively interested in how the narrative of art history is structured, and the burden that history imposes on artists ambitious enough to dream of being part of it. Black artists have not really been significant players in that narrative for very long…So the challenge is to gain an uncontestable place in the pantheon of art history without surrendering the desire to make pictures with black figures.”” ⁣

(Kerry James Marshall, quoted in Kerry James Marshall: Look See, exh. cat., David Zwirner Gallery, London, 2014, n.p.).⁣

 Kerry James Marshall⁣ @kerryjamesmarshs Untitled (Blanket

“An influential artist based in Chicago, Gertrude Abercrombie was largely self taught. She established her mature style, a haunting synthesis of American folk-art, surrealism, and sixteenth-century Flemish painting, by 1940. This enigmatic little painting includes many aspects of Abercrombie’s best narrative work of the 1940s and 1950s. Abercrombie has included herself in a spooky nocturnal landscape that was likely composed from a synthesis of memory and the imagination. She loved to invent mysterious and magical settings in which a few symbolically-charged objects or details interact in a provocative way. In a statement written for a 1945 exhibition catalogue, Abercrombie described this process. “I am not interested in complicated things nor in the commonplace,” she wrote. “I like and like to paint simple things that are a little strange. My work comes directly from my inner consciousness and it must come easily. It is a process of selection and reduction.”⁣

Many of her compositions feature a lone woman, often depicted with attributes of sorcery (an owl, or a broomstick). She painted many variations of her favored subjects (sparsely furnished interiors, self-portraits and still-lifes). She considered herself ugly, and sometimes she wore a pointed velvet hat to accentuate her witch-like appearance. You can see her works at the Illinois State Museum, Springfield.”⁣

 Gertrude Abercrombie ⁣ Girl Searching⁣ 1945⁣ “An

Twenty Views of Tokyo - Shiba ZojoTemple⁣

“Zojo Temple, Shiba does not show the temple itself, but the impressive red main gate. At the red temple, the Zojoji, a woman walks in the snow under an umbrella.⁣

Among the woodblock prints created by the great shin hanga artist Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) the design "Zojo Temple, Shiba" (Zojo-ji, Shiba) is regarded as outstanding. And among collectors of Japanese prints of the shin hanga movement, it is one of the most expensive designs.⁣

According to Narazaki, "... This is a masterpiece within Hasui's oeuvre, and no other by him received as much praise".”⁣

 Kawase Hasui ⁣ Twenty Views of Tokyo - Shiba ZojoTemple⁣

“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

Joséphine-Éléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn (1825–1860), Princesse de Broglie⁣

“Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the neo-classical French artist par excellence, painted this masterpiece toward the end of his life when his reputation as a portraitist to prominent citizens and Orléanist aristocrats had been long established. Pauline de Broglie sat for the artist’s final commission. Ingres captures the shy reserve of his subject while illuminating through seamless brushwork the material quality of her many fine attributes: her rich blue satin and lace ball gown, the gold embroidered shawl, and silk damask chair, together with finely tooled jewels of pearl, enamel, and gold. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter’s husband, Albert de Broglie, a few years after their ill-fated marriage. Pauline was stricken with tuberculosis soon after completion of the exquisite portrait, leaving five sons and a grieving husband. Through Albert’s lifetime, it was draped in fabric on the walls of the family residence. The portrait remained in the de Broglie family until shortly before Robert Lehman acquired it.”⁣

 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres⁣

“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.”⁣