Diego Rivera (1886-1957): Portrait of Two Women (wife Angelina Beloff and friend Dolores Bastian), 1914 (Oil on canvas, The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas) - In 1913, his first Cubist works were shown at the Salon, demonstrating a much brighter palette and bolder paintwork than that of…
John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925): The Garden Wall, 1910 (Translucent and opaque watercolor, with wax resist, over graphite on paper. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) - Evan Charteris wrote in 1927: To live with Sargent’s water-colours is to live with sunshine captured and held, with the luster…
Marc Chagall (1887-1985): The Blue Violinist 1947 (Oil on canvas) - Chagall incorporated a number of 20th century modern art movements into his work to give us a portrayal from multiple angles resulting in a personal symbolic synthesis that might best be described as “psychological cubism”… A…
Henri Manguin (French, 1874-1949): Model in a Painter’s Studio c.1900 - Regarded as one of the creators of the Fauve movement, Manguin was influenced by Cezanne: illogical construction, harmonious colour tones, and importance of ornament. Manguin had his own touches in the use of fiery and…
Giovanni Giacometti (Swiss, 1868-1933): Theodora, 1914 (Oil on canvas) - The young Theodora seems to be completely absorbed in the reading of the letter in her hand, unaware that she is being watched… Her full copper red hair plays around her shoulders and lit in a beautiful contrast to the bright…
Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883): Claude Monet Painting on His Studio Boat, 1874 (Oil on canvas) - Here Manet has captured Monet and his wife Camille in the boat which the painter used as a floating studio, rowing it up and down the Seine and stopping whenever he spotted a promising subject… Monet…
Leon Kroll (American, 1884-1974): Three Women - In Paris, Kroll enrolled at the Académie Julian under Laurens… Back in New York, Kroll met George Bellows at an artist’s studio party in 1910. Kroll’s popularity as a realist artist grew and his lush brushwork, exciting compositions, and Fauve palette…
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890): Oleanders, 1888 (Oil on canvas) - For Van Gogh, oleanders were joyous, life-affirming flowers that bloomed “inexhaustibly” and were always “putting out strong new shoots.” In this painting of August 1888 the flowers fill a majolica jug that the artist used for…
Félix Edouard Vallotton (Swiss-born French, 1865-1925): La Lecture Abandonnée, 1924 (Oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-Arts) - Although this work is an exception, in his last years Vallotton concentrated especially on still lifes and on “composite landscapes” which were landscapes composed in the…
Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954): Breakfast, 1920 (Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art) - Breakfast depicts 19-year-old model Antoinette Arnoux in the artist’s opulently furnished room at the Hôtel de la Méditerranée… Seated, with a book on her lap, Arnoux has a contemplative, self-absorbed…
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903): Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers, 1888 (Oil on jute, Van Gogh Museum) - Gauguin moved in with Van Gogh at the Yellow House in Arles in late October 1888... Van Gogh’s first impression on seeing the painting was that Gauguin had depicted him as a madman… He later softened his…
Ikenaga Yasunari (Japanese, b. 1965): Glamour Girl c.2004 (Mineral paint, Menso brush on linen) - Ikenaga creates his paintings utilizing Japanese paint and Menso brush on linen canvas with various mixed media that includes mineral pigments, gelatin glue, soot ink and occasionally gold leaf…
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510): Idealized Portrait of a Lady (Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as Nymph) c.1475 (Tempera on wood. Städel, Frankfurt) - Vespucci’s outfit is a nymph costume in the antique or classical-mythological style… The background contributes to Simonetta’s idealisation: it is as…
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973): Le Moulin de la Galette, 1900 (Oil on canvas, Guggenheim) - Le Moulin de la Galette, his first Parisian painting, reflects his fascination with the lusty decadence and gaudy glamour of the famous dance hall, where bourgeois patrons and prostitutes rubbed shoulders… Picasso…
Claude Monet (1840-1926): The Beach at Trouville, 1870 (Oil on canvas, The National Gallery, London) - The figure to the left is probably Monet’s wife Camille, and the woman reading may be the wife of Eugène Boudin… The painting is unusual in its composition - a close-up of symmetrically disposed…