"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 -

In “Self-portrait with Model” by Lovis Corinth, the artist is making a statement about his painting process and the subtle relationship between model and artist. Corinth is showing us a painted model representing the artist, while an artist in the painting is likewise the model. The female nude is facing the canvas as the artist himself would have done to paint it. Her right-hand flat on the “canvas” is touching it as the artist would have done, representing the artist’s own hand painting.

Yet on the left-hand side of this picture, the two are interwound. Corinth was highlighting the complicated relationship between the artist and his subject. The model is Charlotte, who became Corinth’s muse and preferred model, as she was to stay for the rest of his life. They married in 1903; he was 44; she was only 22.

This painting was the couple’s second joint portrait, and the first after their marriage. Charlotte’s pose refers to the classic images of muses by Rubens and Ingres, alluding to the story of Pygmalion.

Self-portrait with Model, 1903 by Lovis Corinth.

 In “Self-portrait with Model” by Lovis Corinth, the artist

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

“Sebastià Junyent i Sans was born in Barcelona in 1865. He was the son of an manufacturer from the carrer del Rec that each year organised the carnival of the Born with the cultural society Societat del Born.⁣

Sebastià Junyent was one of the representatives of the first generation of modernist painters and led the Association of Catalan Painters and Sculptors of 1904, that grouped together the names of major post modernist artists —Mir, Nonell, Picasso, Junyer i Vidal, Gargallo, Fontbona, Nogués, Pidelaserra, Ysern, and the Oslé brothers, amongst others.⁣

Junyent was friend and protector of the young Picasso, showing special esteem for him during his stay in Barcelona, but his relationship also continued when Picasso had settled in Paris.  In 1903 Junyent helped him with the debts of his studio in Barcelona and subsequently he lent him a studio that he had in carrer Bonavista. He was also responsible for the fact that the magazine Joventut (with which he collaborated) published some of Picasso’s drawings during 1904 and 1905.⁣

Currently, the Portrait of Sebastià Junyent is conserved in the Museu Picasso.”⁣

 Pablo Picasso⁣ Portrait of Sebastià Junyent Sans⁣ 1904⁣

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was one of the most striking artists of the second half of the 19th century in Europe, known equally in the United States, due to his activities in the fields of composition, forms and monumental painting.

Completed for and exhibited at the Salon of 1879, "Young Women at the Seaside" must be one of the palest and plainest paintings of any visit to the beach. Only one of the three young women faces the viewer, and she looks as if she’s about to die of ennui. Even the sea looks cold and distant.

The aesthetics and the way the subject is tackled in this piece belong neither to "academicism" nor to Impressionism.

The simplicity of the composition, the schematic drawing of the silhouettes, the small number of colours, the scarce relief, the lack of depth, the mat aspect of the surface, the general simplification and the neutrality of the subject inspired from antiquity with the incredible motif of the figure shown from the back all testify to a completely original poetic vision.

This deeply marked contemporaries and following generations down to Matisse and Picasso who drew direct inspiration from it.

Jeunes filles au bord de la mer. (Young Girls by the Seaside), 1879 by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898)

 Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was one of the most striking

Trophime Bigot’s 'Judith Cutting Off the Head of Holofernes' shows a dark scene, lit only by a bundle of candles held by the maid. Composed in a triangle, Judith (left) is seen using both hands to force the sword through Holofernes’ neck, which is probably the most realistic of the versions seen here, although it would not have been possible with a conventional double-edged sword. Most of the blood and gore is obscured in the blackness, apart from a runnel of blood just under the blade.

Judith’s face is surprisingly neutral, almost inquisitive, and her older maid also looks to be studying Holofernes’ neck with interest. Holofernes’ face is similarly contorted as shown by Gentileschi and Caravaggio before.

An obvious problem in this painting is the arms. The maid’s are well clear of the action, her right hand clutching the candles, her left Holofernes’ right wrist. That leaves three arms unaccounted for: Judith’s are both holding the sword, her left arm crossing Holofernes’ right shoulder, making it appear dislocated. His left hand, clenched into a fist, appears from nowhere at Judith’s left shoulder, and seems disembodied.

Although Bigot’s subtlety in dealing with the blood and gore is very effective, and his light even more dramatic, the facial expressions of the women, and the problem with arms and hands, lessen its impact.

Judith Cutting Off the Head of Holofernes, c.1640 by Trophime Bigot (1579–1650). Oil on panel, 125.7 x 196.8 cm.

🏛️: Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.

 Trophime Bigot’s 'Judith Cutting Off the Head of

Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95-46 BCE) was a politician and statesman in the Republic of Rome, a noted Stoic and orator. In an era when corruption in public office was rife, he was one of the few with moral integrity, and championed it openly. When appointed a quaestor (public auditor), one of his first tasks was to prosecute his predecessors for their dishonesty and misappropriation of public funds.

A longstanding critic and opponent of Julius Caesar, he was among those defeated by Caesar in the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BCE and the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BCE, but escaped to Utica in Africa. Unwilling to live in a Rome led by Caesar, Cato committed suicide in April 46 BCE. He attempted to disembowel himself with his sword, but because of a hand injury, failed to inflict a fatal wound. He struggled and fell off the bed, which woke the servants.

As a result, his son, friends, and servants entered the room, and stood in horror at the sight. A physician wished to repair his wounds, but Cato thrust him aside, and tore his abdomen open, dying immediately. This act was seen as a great victory over Caesar’s tyranny, and a symbol for those trying to defend the Republic.

It took the young Jean-Paul Laurens to try a novel approach in 1863 to this notoriously difficult motif. He chose an early moment in the story, as Cato first tries to sink his sword into his belly, when he is quite alone

The Death of Cato the Younger (of Utica), 1863 by Jean-Paul Laurens. Oil on canvas, 158 x 204 cm.

🏛️: Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France.

 Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95-46 BCE) was a politician

Traditionally known as 'The Bell of Huesca', this painting depicts one of the most terrifying events in the history of Medieval Spain.

It is a large painting nearly six feet (2m) tall, also an example of history painting, which was very popular in the 19th century.

Ramiro II of Aragon decapitated all the noblemen who had dared to challenge his royal power, one by one. As he had promised to make a bell that would ring to reaffirm his power, he did so with the heads of the rebel noblemen. For the clapper, he used the head of the Archbishop responsible for the failed conspiracy.

This painting shows the exact moment when the monarch shows his work to the rest of the court. Casado acheives a work whose monumental architecture and dimly lit basement setting help to create a very dramatic sensation. His realistic approach to the figures —stemming from a great capacity for observation— and the clarity of the ideas he develops in this composition, make it one of the finest history paintings of nineteenth-century Spain.

The Bell of Huesca/The Legend of the Monk King, 1880 by José Casado del Alisal.

 Traditionally known as 'The Bell of Huesca', this painting

One of the finest paintings by Luc-Olivier Merson is 'The Wolf of Agubbio' (1877), in which he tells one of the legends associated with Saint Francis of Assisi.

Set in the town’s central piazza, it’s a bitter winter’s day, so cold that the waters of its grand fountain are frozen as they cascade over its stonework. As the townspeople go about their business, there’s a large wolf with a prominent halo standing at the door of the butcher’s shop. Leaning out from that door, the butcher is handing a piece of meat to the wolf.

A young girl smiles open-mouthed as she strokes the wolf’s back. Her mother holds her other hand, as she walks back clutching a loaf of bread and other provisions.

The wolf appears lean but far from starving. Around its neck, worn like a collar, are various metallic charms and coins. A black dog nearby keeps a watchful eye on the wolf, but remains resting on its snow-free patch of ground.

In the details are a menagerie of creatures: five pigeons, a magpie in the entrance to the butcher’s, a donkey, horse, the black dog, and a cat. There are also more than a dozen people, carrying firewood, watching the flying pigeons, and so on. Merson dedicated this superb painting to his friend, collaborator, and former pupil, Adolphe-Paul Giraldon.

The Wolf of Agubbio, 1877 by Luc-Olivier Merson (1846–1920). oil on canvas, 88 x 133 cm

🏛️: Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille, France.

 One of the finest paintings by Luc-Olivier Merson is 'The

The sun casts an ominous radiance over the distant pyramids as a caravan meanders onwards. In the foreground a group of armed brigands creep out from a shadowed niche in the rocks, and take stock of the approaching group. This combination of exotic landscape and adventure may have been especially intriguing to Corrodi or his clientele, as the artist produced several variants of the painting.

But commercial gain does not appear to have been his sole motivation, indeed the artist’s interest in light seems to have been just as important. Each variant of The Ambush near Giza is marked by changes in the time of day, making them a series of explorations into light and its colorful effects. Critics were attentive to this aspect of Corrodi’s work, with one journalist for The Magazine of Art noting that in his paintings “just as in nature we never see two sunsets alike.”

The Ambush Near Giza by Hermann David Solomon Corrodi (Swiss-Italian, 1844–1905)

 The sun casts an ominous radiance over the distant pyramids

Anguish,(1876-1878). By August Friedrich Schenk ,German-French painter, (1828–1901).

_art.  Oil on canvas, 1,510 mm × 2,512 mm.📍 National Gallery of Victoria .

In this painting, Schenck has given his distraught ewe an expression suggestive of despair mingled with stoic determination. Recognising these decidedly human responses, the viewer might be expected to identify immediately with the animal's grim predicament. The ewe's bravery in the face of the threat posed by the murderous circle of crows is perhaps, however, somewhat overstated in her defiant stance above the bleeding lamb. There is little subtlety evident in this work.

 Anguish,(1876-1878). By August Friedrich

The Flood, By Paul Merwart ,(1855-1902). 📍Lviv National Art Gallery

 The Flood, By Paul Merwart ,(1855-1902). 📍Lviv National Art

Do you know the story of Tristan and Isolde?

A wonderful Medieval story about a king, a heroic knight, and a beautiful princess.

Tristan and Isolde (1901) by Herbert James Draper shows how the knight and princess fall in love with each other.

There are many different versions of this story, primarily because the story was first shared orally (probably already in the 7th or 8th century) and only 500 years later some people started to write down their version of the story.

I can recommend you to look into the story more if you are not familiar.

 Do you know the story of Tristan and Isolde? A wonderful

Portrait of a woman with guitar . By Petrus van Schendel,(1806 -1870).

 Portrait of a woman with guitar . By Petrus van

The Blind Leading the Blind. By Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Oil on canvas.

The Blind Leading the Blind reveals Pieter Bruegel the Elder as a master of observation. Each figure has a different eye affliction, including corneal leukaemia, atrophy of globe and removed eyes. The figures hold their heads up so as to make better use of their other senses. The diagonal composition reinforces the off-kilter motion of the six figures falling in progression, a concern with motion that has been seen as prefiguring the advent of film. The Blind Leading the Blind is considered one of the masterworks of painting for its fine, accurate detail and dynamic composition. Copies include a larger version by Bruegel's son Pieter Brueghel the Younger.

 The Blind Leading the Blind. By Pieter Brueghel the Elder

A Turkish Beauty (1868) By Hugues Merle (1822–1881) Oil on canvas 100.9 x 77.7 cm.

 A Turkish Beauty (1868) By Hugues Merle (1822–1881) Oil on

By  Marie  Wunsch (Austrian , 1862 - 1898) - Little Girl with Meadow Flower Bouquet. oil on canva (55.5 x 40 cm).

 By  Marie  Wunsch (Austrian , 1862 - 1898) - Little Girl

(1852–1926). Oil on panel. 📍Maison de Victor Hugo.

 Esmeralda, (1889-1902). By Lionel Royer (1852–1926). Oil on

The Village Tailor (1894). By Albert Anker . Oil on canvas, 53.1 x 41.9 cm

 The Village Tailor (1894). By Albert Anker . Oil on canvas

Feeding pigeons, 1887.By Henry Thomas Schafer (British, 1854–1915).

 Feeding pigeons, 1887.By Henry Thomas Schafer (British

Prayer in the Mosque.(1875). By Jean-Léon Gérôme.( French , 1824-1904). Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 33 cm.

 Prayer in the Mosque.(1875). By Jean-Léon Gérôme.( French 

Charity, (1878). By William-Adolphe Bouguereau ,(1825–1905).

_art ,📍Private Collection . Oil on canvas 196 cm × 117 cm.

 Charity, (1878). By William-Adolphe

Portrait of a girl, (1880). By Pierre Auguste Cot, (1837–1883). Oil on canvas, 53 cm x 44 cm.

 Portrait of a girl, (1880). By Pierre Auguste

Venice, the Molo, with the Doge’s Palace, the Piazzetta and the Libreria,looking west.  By Bernardo Bellotto,(Italian,1721–1780).

 Venice, the Molo, with the Doge’s Palace, the Piazzetta and

Samson's youth, (1891). By Léon Bonnat, (1833 –1922), Oil on board, 210.8 x 252.7 cm.

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat was born in Bayonne in 1833 and lived for many years in Madrid where his father owned a bookshop. Under the tutelage of Charles Sarvy, the artist's maternal uncle, he developed an appreciation for the Spanish Old Master paintings by Velázquez, Murillo and Zurbarán, making numerous sketches and copies of their work. He attended classes at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid for a short time before ultimately relocating to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.