Cariani - A Concert [c.1518-20]

Cariani - A Concert [c.1518-20], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Reproduced on the cover of the standard monograph on Cariani (Italian, 1485/90 - 1547 or after), A Concert is widely regarded as the artist's masterpiece. The painting first came to light in the 1960s, when it was attributed to Cariani with a dating of c.1519. Born c.1485 near Bergamo, the westernmost of the Venetian mainland territories, Cariani was trained in Venice, first in Giovanni Bellini's workshop and then among the circle of Giorgione. In Venice until 1517, he underwent further influences from Titian, Sebastiano del Piombo, and Palma Vecchio, the last of whom also came from Bergamo. Cariani returned to live in his native city twice, from 1517 to 1523 and again from 1528 to 1530; otherwise he was active in Venice until his death.

Cariani interpreted his Venetian models in a highly realistic Lombard manner. The musician accurately strums the six-stringed lute; near him are a white handkerchief with which to wipe his hands and a small box containing a spare string. Like the musical instruments, the costumes, especially the fur-lined cloaks, are treated with the utmost attention to texture and detail. All three figures, to judge from their individualized features, must be portraits, although the sitters have yet to be identified. Most impressive is the corpulent musician. He bursts onto the scene, separating the tutor, who is shown holding a book on the left, from his aristocratic young pupil, who looks out at the viewer from the right. Cariani's earthy realism gives the musician a humorous air: with his head cocked as if seeking inspiration, he is one of the great comic inventions of Italian Renaissance painting.

[Oil on canvas, 92 x 130 cm]

Jean François de Troy - Pan and Syrinx [1722-24]

Jean François de Troy - Pan and Syrinx [1722-24], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

As told by the Roman poet Ovid in the Metamorphoses, the lusty satyr Pan eagerly pursued the wood nymph Syrinx. Guarding her virtue, she ran until she reached a river and desperately begged her sisters of the stream to transform her. Just as Pan was about to embrace her, Syrinx changed into cattail reeds. When Pan discovered that he was holding nothing but marsh reeds, he sighed in disappointment, causing the wind to blow through the reeds. He was enchanted by the sound, believing it to be the mournful cry of his beloved Syrinx; from the reeds he fashioned a set of pipes so that he could have her with him always.

In this pendant to Diana and her Nymphs Bathing, Jean-François de Troy represented the climax of the narrative. Syrinx, who is seen both before and after the transformation, looks fearfully at Pan as she falls into the arms of Ladon, the river god. Half in shadow, the river nymphs watch apprehensively and huddle together protectively. As he grasps the clump of cattails, Pan seems near ecstasy. The women's soft, creamy skin contrasts with Pan's dark, muscular torso and the autumnal foliage in the background. 

[Oil on canvas, 29.25 x 36.125 inches]

Dosso Dossi - A Mythological Scene [c.1524]

Dosso Dossi - A Mythological Scene [c.1524], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

An array of enticing visual clues has given rise to many theories about Dosso Dossi's Mythological Scene, but no one has determined the painting's precise meaning. The cupids in the sky, the lush setting, and the sensuous nude lying on a bed of flowers indicate that the subject is love. The male figure on the right is the Greek god Pan, a satyr. In Renaissance allegories he personifies lust, since he seduced the nymphs with the music of the pipes held in his left hand. The sleeping nude in the foreground may be the nymph Echo, who spurned Pan for Narcissus. The old woman at the center of the group could be Echo's protector Terra, who sits above her and shields her from harm. Next to the old woman and dressed in a green gown, billowing red cape, and armor is a mysterious and yet to be identified woman. Her costume indicates that she is likely a goddess. Dossi painted this figure and then changed his mind and covered her up with a landscape. She was uncovered again during a restoration in the 1800s. 

Additional clues also tell scholars that the painting was cut down by about six inches on the left side at some point. The arm of another cupid can be seen at the painting's upper left edge, and a x-radiograph reveals the partially cut-off figure of a man under the lower part of the landscape. X-ray photographs also display various pentimenti, or alterations made by the artist. Initially, Dossi included a suit of armour and a sword hanging from the lemon tree, a cello held by the woman in the red cape, and a downward gaze for the old woman.

[Oil on canvas, 64.5 x 57.25 inches]

Petrus van Schendel - Buying Fruit and Vegetables at the Night Market[1863]

Petrus van Schendel - Buying Fruit and Vegetables at the Night Market [1863], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Petrus van Schendel (1806 - 1870) specialised in nocturnal Dutch market scenes, exploring the effects the soft light had upon his subjects, as a result he was named Monsieur Chandelle by the French. Born at Terheyden near Breda in 1806, he studied at the Antwerp Academy under Mathieu-Ignace van Breen (1773-1839), a painter of historical subjects. He then worked in Amsterdam for two years before moving to Rotterdam in 1832 where he remained until 1838. He resided in The Hague until his death in Brussels in 1870.

[Oil on panel, 25.5 X 19.75 inches]

Caspar David Friedrich - A Walk at Dusk [c.1830-35]

Caspar David Friedrich - A Walk at Dusk [c.1830-35], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

His head bowed, a man walks alone in the silvery, cold moonlit night while contemplating a megalithic tomb and its implicit message of death. It is winter, and all around him nature is dying. Leafless trees loom behind like specters, but a grove of verdant oaks rises through the mist in the background with the promise of life. The waxing moon, high in the sky, also acts as a counterbalance to death, symbolising Christ and the promise of rebirth for the artist Caspar David Friedrich. 

Friedrich (Greifswald, 1774 - Dresden, 1840) was part of the German Romantic movement; his deeply personal and introspective vision addressed Christian themes through analogies based on the cycles of nature. A Walk at Dusk was among a small group of works Friedrich completed before he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1835. The painting embodies both the melancholy he experienced during this period and the consolation he found in the Christian faith.

[Oil on canvas, 13.125 x 17.1875 inches]

Jens Juel - Niels Ryberg with his Son Johan Christian and hisDaughter-in-Law Engelke [1797]

Jens Juel - Niels Ryberg with his Son Johan Christian and his Daughter-in-Law Engelke [1797], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The merchant Niels Ryberg is shown sitting on a bench in the parklands of the manor house Frederiksgave on Funen, with his son Johan Christian and his daughter-in-law Engelke in front of him. The son makes a gesture with his hand, as though to show off the family estate. There is a strong feeling of harmony between the people and the countryside in which they are placed, and the picture reflects the new interest in nature that emerged all over Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It also, however, demonstrates how Denmark’s new rich of the time wished to carry themselves on a par with the dominant social group, the aristocracy. Ryberg and his son appear as distinguished as the many aristocrats that Juel (1745 - 1802) also portrayed.

Albert Edelfelt - Girl from Porvoo

Albert Edelfelt - Girl from Porvoo, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This is a brilliant example of Edelfelt's use of the clear palette. The model is thought to be Tilda Klang, a local crofter's daughter and one of Edelfelt's favourite models. Described as having unusually large, glittering blue eyes, she is here depicted simply as a smiling young girl from Borgå out enjoying the beautiful birch forest. Edelfelt's work, however, draws mainly on the themes and palettes of the Glasgow Boys, at the time considered avant-garde by the Scottish and English art academies and whose style Edelfelt (1845 - 1905) greatly admired.

[Oil on canvas, 37.5 x 36 cm]

Ditlev Blunck - Childhood [1840-45]

Ditlev Blunck - Childhood [1840-45], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Ditlev Blunck (1798 - 1854) belonged to a group of Danish Golden Age painters that looked towards contemporary German Romantic painting for inspiration. He came from Schleswig-Holstein, meaning that he was, as it were, born occupying a position between the Danish and the German. It is likely that Childhood was created with inspiration from Romantic works that Blunck saw in Dresden. The picture formed part of a series of four symbolic representations of the stages of life, where a recurring boat motif is used to relate the story of life as a voyage from cradle to grave across changeable waters. 

When the painting was exhibited in 1845 the artist offered his own interpretation: ”[The mother] carries [the child] in her arms, and carefree it floats down the brooklet of life that slowly meanders through blossoming meadows. The good and evil spirits are still deep in sleep. Psyche remains in embryo, like the butterfly in its chrysalis. The sails are rolled up tight on the mast, still coiled up and waiting like the future ahead of the child, like the world of ideas it will contain. Its world is small.”

Jacques-Louis David - The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis [1818]

Jacques-Louis David - The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis [1818], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Fixing the viewer with a dreamy gaze, the fair-haired Telemachus grasps Eucharis's thigh with his right hand while holding his sword upright with the other. In the 1699 French novel Les Aventures de Télémaque, loosely based on characters from the Odyssey, the author Fénelon describes how Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, fell passionately in love with the beautiful nymph Eucharis. His duty as a son, however, required that he end their romance and depart in search of his missing father.

The ill-fated lovers say farewell in a grotto on Calypso's island. Facing towards us, Telemachus's blue tunic falls open to reveal his naked torso. Eucharis, seen in profile, encircles Telemachus's neck and gently rests her head upon his shoulder in resignation. In this way, Jacques-Louis David contrasts masculine rectitude with female emotion. 

David (Paris, 1748 - Brussels, 1825) painted The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis during his exile in Brussels. The use of saturated reds and blues contrasted with flesh-tones and combined with a clarity of line and form typifies the Neoclassical style, which is characteristic of David's late history paintings.

[Oil on canvas, 34.5 x 40.5 inches]

Francois Flameng - Napoleon I and the King of Rome at Saint-Cloud [1896]

Francois Flameng - Napoleon I and the King of Rome at Saint-Cloud [1896], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

François Flameng (1856 - 1923) was a very successful French painter during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th. He was the son of a celebrated engraver and received a first-rate education in his craft. Flameng initially received renown for his history painting and portraiture, and became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts. He decorated such important civic buildings as the Sorbonne and the Opera Comique, and also produced advertising work work. Flameng was granted France's highest civilian honour, the Legion d'Honneur, and designed France's first bank notes.

[Oil on panel, 105 x 138 cm]

Jacob van Oost, the Elder - Portrait of a Boy Aged Eleven [1650]

Jacob van Oost, the Elder - Portrait of a Boy Aged Eleven [1650], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This portrait is signed with the painter's monogram and dated 1650; the age of the boy is recorded as eleven. The boy is turned away from the spectator, looking to the left. The design is concentrated upon the face and its expression, and the colouring is muted, enlivened only by the fur of the muff and the hat.

Jacob van Oost, the Elder was the leading artist of 17th-century Bruges. He painted many altarpieces in the churches of his native city; he was also exceptionally gifted as a portrait painter. He entered the Guild of Saint Luke in 1619, becoming a master two years later. He visited Rome some time in the 1620s. In addition to Caravaggio, Van Oost was influenced by recent developments in painting in Antwerp, notably the work of Rubens and Van Dyck. He served as an officer in the Guild of Saint Luke in Bruges on a number of occasions.

[Oil on canvas, 80.5 x 63 cm]

Unknown Artist - Saint Simeone Piccolo, Venice [c.1738]

Unknown Artist - Saint Simeone Piccolo, Venice [c.1738], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This view across the Grand Canal shows the façade of St. Simeone Piccolo (the church was completed in 1738). The painting is a pendant (the name given to one of two paintings conceived as a pair) to the Grand Canal Facing Santa Croce, Venice. In spite of their inscriptions the two paintings are considered to be pastiches in the manner of Canaletto.

[Oil on canvas, 38.8 x 47 cm]

Antonello da Messina - Portrait of a Young Man [1478]

Antonello da Messina - Portrait of a Young Man [1478], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Antonello da Messina (Messina, 1430 - Messina, February, 1479) was an Italian painter of the Italian Renaissance. He was deeply influenced by Early Netherlandish and Venetian painting. He served as apprentice in Messina and in Palermo before studying under Niccolò Colantonio in Naples, one of the most lively centres of Renaissance art. In 1457, he received his first commission as an independent painter, a banner for the Confraternità di San Michele dei Gerbini in Reggio Calabria. The first work to be signed and dated by him, the Salvator Mundi, was created in 1470. Among his most famous paintings are the Annunciation and Saint Jerome in His Study, which he painted in 1474.

Antonello's style is remarkable for its fusion of Italian simplicity with a Flemish concern for detail. He exercised an important influence on Italian painting due to his introduction and dissemination of Flemish painterly styles. His portraits are characterised by their modulation of light and shadow, as seen in this painting.

[Oil on walnut, 20.4 x 14.5 cm]

Jean Edouard Vuillard - Children in a Room [c.1909]

Jean Edouard Vuillard - Children in a Room [c.1909], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Vuillard is the last Impressionist of the 20th century. He was interested in the light and colour interaction within the intimate space of a room, while his predecessors were engaged in representing this interaction in the open air. In the artist's works interiors are rather an emotional medium penetrated with comfort and tranquillity than a background for his characters . A balcony or a window depicted in the background is one of his most important devices: the diffused light flowing from the outside fills the interior, absorbing bright colours and transforming the shapes into a decorative patch; and only the contours of the carpet, screen and balcony railings, which form the structural basis of the composition, are left well defined.

[Gouache on paper pasted on canvas, 84.5 x 77.7 cm]

William Merritt Chase - Modern Magdalen [c.1888]

William Merritt Chase - Modern Magdalen [c.1888], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 48.3 x 39.4 cm]

Rembrandt - Marten Looten [1632]

Rembrandt - Marten Looten [1632], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Interrupted from reading a document, his lips slightly parted as if speaking, Marten Looten (1586–1649) turns to address a visitor. Looten, a prosperous grain merchant in Amsterdam, wears the conservative black clothing favoured by members of the Mennonite Church. Rembrandt positioned Looten’s arms, cape, and hat to enhance the impression of three-dimensional form. Painted shortly after his arrival in Amsterdam, Portrait of Marten Looten marks Rembrandt’s introduction of a new, dynamic approach to portraiture, in which the subject interacts with the viewer.

[Oil on panel, 92.71 x 76.2 cm]

Claude Monet - Haystacks, Snow Effect, Morning [1891]

Claude Monet - Haystacks, Snow Effect, Morning [1891], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In the autumn of 1890, Impressionist Claude Monet arranged to have the haystacks near his home left out over the winter. By the following summer he had painted them at least thirty times, at different times throughout the seasons. Haystacks was Monet's first series and the first in which he concentrated on a single subject, differentiating pictures only by colour, touch, composition, and lighting and weather conditions. He said, "For me a landscape hardly exists at all as a landscape, because its appearance is constantly changing; but it lives by virtue of its surroundings, the air and the light which vary continually." 

After beginning outdoors, Monet reworked each painting in his studio to create the colour harmonies that unify each canvas. The pinks in the sky echo the snow's reflections, and the blues of the haystacks' shadows are found in the wintry light shining on the stacks, in the houses' roofs, and in the snowy earth. With raised, broken brushstrokes, Monet captured nuances of light and created a solid, geometric structure that prevents the surface from simply melting into blobs. The haystacks are solid forms, and, while the outlying houses are indecipherable close-up, they are clear from a distance. 

[Oil on canvas, 25.5 x 39.25 inches]

Nikolai Nikanorovivh Dubovsky - Stooks

Nikolai Nikanorovivh Dubovsky - Stooks, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Dubovsky’s artistic talent was apparent from an early age, when he would copy pictures from illustrated magazines. At the age of seventeen, he was sent to St. Petersburg to the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied under one of the fathers of Russian landscape painting. Having graduated in 1881, Dubovsky (1859 - 1918) decided to travel throughout Europe and the Middle East before returning to Russia, where he forged a reputation as one of the country’s greatest landscape painters. However, his reputation was not confined to Russia and his work was exhibited throughout Europe. He was a prolific painter and Stooks stands as a fine demonstration of why he achieved such popularity and success.

[Oil on panel, 28 x 37 cm]

Benjamin West - The Golden Age [1776]

Benjamin West - The Golden Age [1776], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Although the young mother seems to be modelled on the artist's wife, this is not a West (1738 - 1820) family portrait, but an allegorical scene. The Golden Age of the title, given in an engraving of the picture published in 1778, is the state of Infancy. The peacefully sleeping child knows nothing of the worries and poverty of its mother, indicated by the ragged hem of her dress and bare feet, or of the hard labour of the father, seen in the distance ploughing with a team of oxen. Neither is it aware of the cares and feebleness of old age, represented by the grandparents trying to catch the warmth of the sun in the doorway.

[Oil on canvas, 654 x 765 mm]

Andrea Mantegna - Christ as the Suffering Redeemer [1495-1500]

Andrea Mantegna - Christ as the Suffering Redeemer [1495-1500], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Half shrouded in his cerements, the risen Christ displays his five wounds. Joined by two angels supporting him, he appears to be praising the Lord with a hymn of thanksgiving. In other words, Mantegna has created a painting that merges two picture types with its foreground and background. The background refers to the story related in St. Luke, whereas the image of Christ is a so-called devotional picture, a type of image that condenses a biblical event (here the Passion) into a single intense close-up. Mantegna was one of the most prominent artists of 15th century Italy and is known for his interest in the civilisation of ancient Rome. This interest is evident in the porphyry sarcophagus on which Christ and the angels rest.

Vilhelm Hammershøi - Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor [1901]

Vilhelm Hammershøi - Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor [1901], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Much of Hammershøi’s work shows interiors from his homes. Over the years he would use his changing homes as studio and subject matter. He did not choose his flats at random. In an interview with the magazine Hjemmet (The Home) in 1909 Hammershøi said: "I personally prefer the Old; old buildings, old furniture, the unique and distinct atmosphere that such things possess."

His homes were chosen because they provided a sensuous space for his paintings. The rooms constitute the main setting, and in this setting the figures interact with their surroundings as if taking part in an intimate chamber play. Hammershøi (1864 - 1916) did not just paint interiors; he also ventured outdoors to depict a number of buildings and places in the city. These were always carefully selected, and frequently viewed through a characteristic misty haze.

Peder Severin Krøyer - Boys Bathing at Skagen, Summer Evening [1899]

Peder Severin Krøyer - Boys Bathing at Skagen, Summer Evening [1899], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Among all the Skagen painters, Krøyer (1851 - 1909) was the most brilliant and also the most celebrated in his own day. He would make any composition work as perfectly as could be using only a few simple devices. Here he creates a diagonal movement from the boys in the foreground to the ships by the horizon. The ships, and our gaze, moves to the right, meeting the white moonbeam that takes us back to the boy and the beach of Skagen. In this simple, yet grandiose composition Krøyer reinforced his narrative of the light summer nights of Skagen. A narrative that effortlessly slides into its slot among the many paintings of the period that address the relationship between man, the sea, and light. A theme that was of particular interest to devotees of vitalism within literature and art. 

Krøyer submitted the painting for the World Exhibition held in Paris in 1900. Painted on the threshold of a new century, the children and young people represent renewal and confidence in the future. To Krøyer, whose own life was clouded by long episodes of deep depression, the all dominating, liquid and dreamy blue is not the colour of melancholy, but the blue colour of hope.

Edward Savage - The Washington Family [1789-96]

Edward Savage - The Washington Family [1789-96], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

From 1791 to 1794 Savage (American, 1761 - 1817) lived in London and did not resume work on the huge oil painting until he returned to the United States. On 20 February 1796 he advertised The Washington Family as the main attraction at the Columbian Gallery, his private museum in Philadelphia, where visitors could see "The President and Family, the full size of life." Engravings after this image earned the artist a fortune, as did the entrance fees collected from his frequent exhibitions of the canvas.

Savage's catalogue states that Washington's uniform and the papers beneath his hand allude to his Military Character and Presidentship. With a map of the new District of Columbia in front of her, Martha is "pointing with her fan to the grand avenue," now known as Pennsylvania Avenue. Because Savage had never seen Mount Vernon, he added imaginary elements such as marble columns and a liveried servant. The formal symmetry derives from British portraits in the Grand Manner, but the stiff postures and awkward anatomy reveal Savage's limited experience.

[Oil on canvas, 213.6 x 284.2 cm]

Paul Cezanne - The Battle of Love [c.1880]

Paul Cezanne - The Battle of Love [c.1880], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm]

Camille Pissarro - The Artist’s Garden at Eragny [1898]

Camille Pissarro - The Artist’s Garden at Eragny [1898], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 73.4 x 92.1 cm]

Johannes Verspronck - Andries Stilte as a Standard Bearer [1640]

Johannes Verspronck - Andries Stilte as a Standard Bearer [1640], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Johannes Verspronck's image of Andries Stilte is one of the most colourful and flamboyant Dutch portraits of the seventeenth century. Documentary sources tell us little about Stilte, but his unusual portrait offers many clues to his personality. Andries Stilte's brilliant blue sash and flag mark his recent election to the position of ensign, or standard-bearer, in Haarlem's Kloveniersdoelen, a civic militia company. A klovenier was a type of simple firearm. Portraits of individual ensigns are virtually unheard of in Dutch art, suggesting that this role held special significance for Stilte.

[Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 76.2 cm]

Claude Monet - The Artist’s Garden in Argenteuil

Claude Monet - The Artist’s Garden in Argenteuil, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

During the 1870s and 1880s Argenteuil became an important source of inspiration for the impressionist artists, who immortalized its river views, bridges, streets, and factories in their groundbreaking paintings. Argenteuil retained much of its rustic charm and during the 1850s became a popular destination for day-trippers from Paris, drawn there by the pleasant riverside promenades and boating activities. This spectacular stretch of the Seine, where the river reached its widest and deepest points, hosted a great variety of events, from sailing and steamboat races to water jousts and recreational boating. Argenteuil was therefore a town with many facets, a place that combined leisure and labour, fields and factories, rural beauty and urban life.

Camille Pissarro - Houses at Bougival (Autumn) [1870]

Camille Pissarro - Houses at Bougival (Autumn) [1870], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Within a few hundred yards of his home, Camille Pissarro (Charlotte Amalie, 1831 - Paris, 1903) painted a view of peasants working in a shady, wooded garden alongside a group of village houses. In the foreground, a woman carrying a bucket pauses to talk with a young boy carrying his school satchel over his shoulder. The gray sky and the trees losing their leaves indicate autumn. 

Painting in the open air alongside Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pissarro followed a new practice of breaking up surfaces with loosely placed brushstrokes. This revolutionary technique, the cornerstone of Impressionism, helps to reveal how light and movement affect the perception of objects. Pissarro made the canvas a field of textures and movement; the character of the brushstroke varies according to the texture and form of the object it describes. For example, the haystack is painted with straw-shaped brushstrokes, the leaves are suggested by jagged daubs of paint, and the stucco walls are depicted with broad, smooth strokes. [Oil on canvas, 35 x 45.625 inches]

After Jean-Francois Detroy - The Game of Pied de Boeuf [after 1725]

After Jean-Francois Detroy - The Game of Pied de Boeuf [after 1725], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The game was originally a children's game, in which the players put their hands one on top of another, counting upwards from one; whoever had nine seized a hand not on the pile, saying 'Je tiens mon pied de boeuf.' The painting is a copy of an original exhibited at the Salon in 1725; the composition has been inverted and a different background has been added.

[Oil on wood, 33.7 x 27.6 cm]

Hendrick ter Brugghen - Bagpipe Player [1624]

Hendrick her Brugghen - Bagpipe Player [1624], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The way Ter Brugghen imparts a sense of dignity to his figures is particularly evident in this famous painting, even though the bag-pipes played by the man were associated with the lower class. The silhouetted profile of the figure, his larger-than-life scale, and the broad patterns created by his instrument and clothing are all important components that make this such a powerful and memorable image.

[Oil on canvas, 39.75 x 32.62 inches]

Joachim Beucklear - The Miraculous Draught of Fishes [1563]

Joachim Beucklear - The Miraculous Draught of Fishes [1563], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

At the left, Saint Peter and other disciples of Christ pull their teeming nets of fish aboard a boat. After an unsuccessful night of fishing on the Sea of Tiberius, the tired and hungry disciples had seen a man standing on the shore and followed his advice to cast their nets over the boat's right side. Their miraculous catch inspired Peter to recognise Christ, appearing after his death and Resurrection; in the middle scene, Peter enters the water to meet him. On the right, Christ and the disciples share a meal around a fire. The foreground depicts peasants hauling in baskets of fish to take to the market, forming a contemporary parallel to the biblical scene. 

Joachim Beuckelaer (c.1533 - 1574) specialised in combining genre subjects with religious scenes. In The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, he contrasted the spiritual world of the Bible with the materialism of the contemporary world. [Oil on panel, 43.5 x 83 inches]

Hendrick Ter Brugghen - Bacchante with an Ape [1627]

Hendrick Ter Brugghen - Bacchante with an Ape [1627], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A bacchante, follower of Bacchus, the god of wine, leans forward and grins at the viewer while squeezing a bunch of grapes into a golden drinking vessel. Her posture, exposed breasts, flushed cheeks, and inviting smile allude to her drunken state. There is something disturbing, however, in the way she provocatively confronts the viewer, leaning into the spectator's space and smiling broadly. In the lower left corner an ape mimics the woman's gesture, holding a smaller bunch of grapes in his right paw. The ape may serve a moralising purpose, condemning excessive drinking. 

While visiting Rome from about 1604 to 1614, Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588 - 1629) saw the famous Bacchus by Caravaggio from which this classical painting of Bacchus's female follower derives. 

[Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 35.5 inches]

Pieter de Hooch - A Woman and her Maid in a Courtyard [c.1660-61]

Pieter de Hooch - A Woman and her Maid in a Courtyard [c.1660-61], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The view is almost certainly imaginary, but made up of elements well known to de Hooch. The wall at the end of the garden is the old town wall of Delft, which bounded the gardens on the west side of Oude Delft canal. The last digit of the date is illegible, but the picture was probably painted at the end of De Hooch's years in Delft in 1660 or 1661.

[Oil on canvas, 73.7 x 62.6 cm]

William Bouguereau - Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros [c.1880]

William Bouguereau - Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros [c.1880], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A young nude woman sits with her arms outstretched, pushing away a winged boy. He is Cupid, the god of love, holding up an arrow to pierce her. The title suggests that the young woman is trying to defend herself, yet she smiles and struggles unconvincingly against the mischievous little god. 

Visitors to the Paris exhibitions of the 1870s and 1880s loved Adolphe Bougereau's paintings. The Getty Museum's painting repeats a larger composition that Bougereau made for the Paris Salon in 1880; a viewer probably saw the larger version there and requested a smaller one for private viewing. 

Bougereau placed his mythological fantasy in an idyllic, Arcadia-like landscape. In fact, he made this composition in his studio, copying the landscape from the neighbouring French countryside and using one of his favourite models.

[Oil on canvas, 31.25 x 21.625 inches]

Sassoferrato - The Virgin in Prayer [1640-50]

Sassoferrato - The Virgin in Prayer [1640-50], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This mature work is a version of a popular design known in at least two other paintings by Sassoferrato (1609 - 1685). This particular design showing the Virgin at prayer is one of at least four evolved by the artist. Sassoferrato places emphasis on the softly modelled draperies, the white veil and brilliant blue cloak, painted in ultramarine. The face remains largely in shadow, the eyes downcast, and this has the effect of highlighting the hands joined in prayer. 

Giovanni Battista Salvi was born at Sassoferrato in the Marches, from where he took his name. His work, which was consciously anachronistic in 17th-century Rome, looked back to the 15th-century manner. Sassoferrato's paintings consist for the most part of immaculately painted devotional images of the Virgin and Holy Family, usually repeated in several versions

[Oil on canvas, 73 x 57.7 cm]

Camillo Miola - The Oracle [1880]

Camillo Miola - The Oracle [1880], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The Pythia, a virgin from the local village selected in ceremonies that established her as Apollo's choice, sits atop the sacred tripod as the Delphic oracle. To the left is the omphalos, the most sacred object at Delphi, regarded as the center of the earth. A plinth on the right bears an inscription describing Apollo's conquest of Delphi with the Cretans, who became his first priests. 

The prophetess went to the tripod on the sacred seventh day of each month, the day of Apollo's birth, nine months of the year, to await the god's inspiration; her inspired utterances were later interpreted by a priest. The ancient Greeks considered the Delphic oracle, both Apollo's divine prophecy and the prophetess through whom it was spoken, the final authority on almost any matter, whether religious, political, or social. 

Camillo Miola (Italain, Biacca, 1840 - Naples, 1919) merged academic and classical traditions to construct his view of the classical past. He filled the canvas with seemingly archaeologically accurate costume, architecture, and furnishings and painted in a highly detailed style to create an ancient world that appears fully real. 

[Oil on canvas, 42.5 x 56.25 inches]

Auguste Renoir - A Young Girl with Daisies [1889]

Auguste Renoir - A Young Girl with Daisies [1889], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

"I have taken up again, never to abandon it, my old style, soft and light of touch," Renoir announced to his dealer Durand-Ruel in 1888. Turning to the idle pastimes of young, middle-class girls, Renoir gave inimitable expression to his feeling that a picture, above all, "should be something likeable, joyous and pretty - yes, pretty. There are enough ugly things in life not to add to them." These paintings, which incline toward the graceful informality of Fragonard's work and the demure naturalism of Corot's, found a ready market in the early 1890s.

[Oil on canvas, 65.1 x 54 cm]

Carl Holsoe - At the Breakfast Table

Carl Holsoe - At the Breakfast Table, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Carl Holsoe (1863 - 1935) was a respected artist of the Danish school. He painted landscapes, genre scenes and interiors and in this respect is very similar to Vilhelm Hammershøi. He studied at the academy in Copenhagen from 1882 to 1884 and then under Peder Severin Krøyer (1851-1909). His first exhibition was at Charlottenborg, a prestigious gallery in Copenhagen and after that he received grants from the academy to travel to exhibit his works. He received accolades for his work in Paris at the Exposition Universelle and in Munich. Holsoe was well known in his day and his popularity has continued to this day, resulting in high auction prices for his work.

[Oil on canvas, 82 x 67.5 cm]

Sanford Robinson Gifford - The Artist Sketching at Mount Desert, Maine

Sanford Robinson Gifford - The Artist Sketching at Mount Desert, Maine, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Born and raised in the center of the Hudson River Valley, Sanford Gifford (1823 - 1880) came from a family that supported and encouraged his artistic leanings, and whose prosperity meant he could pursue painting without financial worries. Gifford began training in New York City to be a portrait painter, but, inspired by the work of the American landscapist Thomas Cole, turned to landscape painting. After his death in 1880, he was honoured with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first monographic retrospective and a memorial catalogue of his known pictures.

Cornelis Bega - The Alchemist [1663]

Cornelis Bega - The Alchemist [1663], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Oblivious to his cluttered surroundings, the unkempt figure of an alchemist sits among a chaotic jumble of paraphernalia. He holds a scale while weighing out a substance for one of his experiments in making gold. By the seventeenth century, alchemy was no longer considered to be a respectable science, and its practitioners were often the subject of ridicule. 

In this genre scene, Cornelis Bega (Dutch, c.1631 - 1664) commented on time wasted on materialistic and futile pursuits. Like other Dutch artists of his time, Bega was a close observer of natural appearances. Textures and surfaces of the assorted cracked clay and glass vessels are accurately described. Light pouring in through the open window and the harmonious tones of brown, gray, and blue give the painting a cozy warmth.

[Oil on panel, 14 x 12.5 inches]

Bartolomeo Veneto and Workshop - Lady Playing a Lute [c.1530]

Bartolomeo Veneto and Workshop - Lady Playing a Lute [c.1530], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Once thought to be a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, this painting is now associated with Bartolomeo Veneto (Italian, active 1502 - died Turin, 1531). Head tilted to the side and wearing an enigmatic expression, a young woman plays the lute. Instead of consulting the open book of music at the bottom of the painting, the lutist faces the viewer. A sheer veil covers her wavy hair, and embroidered and jeweled trimming lines the bodice and sleeves of her green velvet gown. A fur piece is draped over her left arm. Worn by high-ranking women in the 1500s, such furs were thought to keep away fleas. 

The many versions and derivations of this portrait made by different artists indicate that the subject enjoyed great popularity in Milan in the first half of the 1500s.

[Oil on panel, 22 x 16.25 inches]

Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville - The Spy [1880]

Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville - The Spy [1880], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The Spy was exhibited at the Salon of 1881 where it was titled The Dispatch Bearer. As de Neuville (French, Saint-Omer, 1835 - Paris, 1885) explained in the exhibition catalogue, this painting depicts an incident from the Franco-Prussian War, 1870–71. A French soldier, disguised as a peasant, was caught during an attempt to pass through the German lines surrounding the French city of Metz. He knew that when the German officers finished their search and interrogation he would be shot. Metz capitulated after a fifty-four day siege, and after the war the city was ceded to the Germans. 

The present painting, extolling the courage and bravery of the captured Frenchman, is an example of the numerous paintings with patriotic and nationalistic themes that appeared in the Salons during the seventies and eighties. As one critic wrote, "This dark haired man with his fine proud features, and strong agile body, and solid lively elegance, this man carries in his face the authentic mark of the race. Who could fail to recognise in him a son of France?"

[Oil on canvas, 130.2 x 213.4 cm]

Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson - Madame Jacques-Louis-Étienne Reizet [1823]

Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson - Madame Jacques-Louis-Étienne Reizet [1823], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Returning to France after his years of study in Italy, Girodet (French, 1767 - 1824) broke with his master, Jacques-Louis David, to create a personal style that treated fanciful subjects with imaginative pictorial effects. In portraiture, however, Girodet remained true to the precepts he had learned in David's studio. 

Madame Reizet's husband was a prominent government official, and their son, Marie-Frédéric de Reiset, was curator of drawings and, later, of paintings at the Musée du Louvre. He ended his career as director of the French National Museums. Until recently, this canvas remained with the family. It is remarkably well preserved.

[Oil on canvas, 60.3 x 49.5 cm]

Abraham Solomon - Not Guilty [1859]

Abraham Solomon - Not Guilty [1859], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 25 x 35 inches]

Abraham Solomon - Waiting for the Verdict [1859]

Abraham Solomon - Waiting for the Verdict [1859], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Abraham Solomon, the son of a hat manufacturer, was born in Bishopsgate, London, in August 1823. His father, Michael Solomon, was the first Jewish person to be admitted to the freedom of the city of London. Abraham Solomon continued to be a popular artist until his death from heart disease in 1862. His brother and sister were also artists. Rebecca Solomon exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1851 and 1875. She died in 1886 after been knocked down by a Hanson cab in the Euston Road. Simeon Solomon had considerable success as an artist until he was arrested and convicted of buggery in 1873. Excluded from society, he became an alcoholic and spent the last twenty-one years of his life in St. Giles Workhouse before his death from "bronchitis and alcoholism" in 1905.

[Oil on canvas, 25 x 35 inches]

Vincent van Gogh - The Yellow House [1888]

Vincent van Gogh - The Yellow House [1888], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In May 1888, Van Gogh rented four rooms on the right-hand side of a house on the Place Lamartine in Arles. His living quarters were the ones with the green shutters. His bedroom lay beyond. Vincent had finally found a place where he could not only paint but also welcome his friends. His goal was to establish a Studio of the South, where he and like-minded artists could work together.

Just as he did in Nuenen and Paris, Van Gogh here depicts his own surroundings. To the left we see the restaurant where he usually took his meals. His friend, the postman Joseph Roulin, lived to the right, behind the first railroad bridge.The view is also an exploration of colour contrast: “What a powerful sight, those yellow houses in the sun and then the unforgettable clarity of the blue [sky],” he wrote to Theo in the letter that accompanied a drawing he had made after the painting.[Oil on canvas, 72 x 91.5 cm]

Wilhelm Bendz - A Young Artist (Ditlev Blunck) Examining a Sketch in a Mirror [1826]

Wilhelm Bendz - A Young Artist (Ditlev Blunck) Examining a Sketch in a Mirror [1826], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A young artist is taking a break from his work, holding up a study in front of a mirror to see how the composition would look in reverse. The picture gives an impression of how the painters of the time saw themselves: As serious, self-aware artists. The particular painter in this picture is standing in a crowded room surrounded by his tools and paraphernalia: a paintbox, palette, and easel as well as a skull and a sketchbook suggesting that careful studies precede the final painting. A zigzagging motion leads up through the lower half of the picture to the painting held in the artist’s hands. Only the back of the painting is shown directly, with the front seen only in the mirror. This alludes to the era’s view of art as a mirror held up to life.

Wilhelm Bendz (1804 - 1828) was keenly interested in the new role emerging for artists in the early 19th century; they were no longer regarded as specialist craftsmen, but as intellectual workers, as artists in the modern sense. In the 1820s, he painted a number of pictures of artists at work. The artist in this picture is Bendz’s fellow student Ditlev Blunck engaged in painting a portrait of Jørgen Sonne, a painter of battle scenes.

Anders Zorn - Portrait of Franz Heiss [1902]

Anders Zorn - Portrait of Franz Heiss [1902], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 81 x 61.5 cm]

Niels Larsen Stevns - Wedding at Cana

Niels Larsen Stevns - Wedding at Cana, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Niels Larsen Stevns (Gevno, July 9, 1864 - Copenhagen, September 27, 1941) was a Danish painter and sculptor.

Camille Corot - View of Lormes Early [1840s]

Camille Corot - View of Lormes Early [1840s], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This rapidly executed sketch, made outdoors, is one of several views of the countryside and villages in the Morvan, a mountainous region south of Paris, that Corot painted in the early 1840s.

[Oil on canvas, 16.5 x 54.9 cm]