Gerrit van Honthorst - Childhood of Christ [c.1620]

The subject of this canvas is thought to be an apocryphal story from the childhood of Christ: Jesus helps the carpenter Joseph, his foster-father, with advice. Gerrit van Honthorst (November 4, 1592 - April 27, 1656) was one of the leading Dutch followers of Caravaggio. The influence of the great Italian master is clear in the down-to-earth nature of the scene, in the half-figures shown close to, and in the powerful contrasts of light and shade. Here a candle as a strong source of light may refer to Christ's words: "I am the light of the world."

[Oil on canvas, 137 x 185 cm]

Werner Groshans - Lake Erie Shore [1961]

Werner Groshans was born in Eutingen, Germany in 1913 and died in Catskill, New York in 1986.

[Oil on canvas, 43.6 x 58.6 cm]

Leon Jean Basile Perrault - Maternity [1873]

Though little known abroad, Perrault (French, 1832 – 1908) enjoyed a considerable following in France as a painter of genre subjects and portraits. A student of Picot and Bouguereau, he made his first appearance in the Paris Salon in 1861. In addition to easel paintings he also produced some decorative works, including a ceiling decoration for the Marriage Chamber of the city hall of his native Poitiers.

In this interior scene that was first exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1873, Perrault shows a pretty young mother holding her young son. The child is nude and the mother wears a kimono, with her left shoulder and breast exposed. Perrault has excelled in achieving a remarkable richness of colours and textures: the embroidered saffron-coloured silk of the mother's kimono contrasts with the rich purple velvet upholstery of the chair. The vibrantly coloured Oriental rug and Japanese carved teak bed, on which rests a punchinello doll, reflect the vogue for Japanese products in 1870s France.

[Oil on canvas, 170.3 x 111.4 cm]

Karel van Mander - Garden of Love [1602]

Karel van Mander (Meulebeke, May 1548 – Amsterdam, September 2, 1606) was a Flemish-born Dutch painter and poet. Karel van Mander is considered the founder of the Haarlem drawing academy, although it is very unclear what this involved at this period - it was certainly not a regular school offering classes, probably an informal discussion group which may have sat for life-drawing together. He was considered an established expert when he arrived in Haarlem.

He received budding artists in his home for evenings of communal drawing and study of classical mythology. His purpose was to educate young painters in the proper artistic techniques; he was a firm believer in the hierarchy of genres. It was his firm belief that only through proper study of existing works that true-to-life historical allegories could be achieved.

[Oil on canvas, 45 x 70 cm]

Hsin-Yao Tseng - A Glance

Hsin-Yao Tseng was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1986. He received his B.F.A of Fine Art Painting from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco in 2009. The subjects he chooses to explore include landscapes, the figure and still-life using bright colour and expressive brush-strokes.

See: http://hsinyaotseng.mosaicglobe.com

[Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 inches]

Camille Pissarro - The Rue de l’Hermitage, Pontoise [1873-75]

This watercolour is unique in Pissarro’s career, as it is the only watercolour depicting the rue de l'Hermitage, on which Pissarro lived with his family throughout much of the 1870s. Pissarro painted the street seven times, and one pencil drawing also survives. Neither the drawing nor the watercolour relates in any direct way to a painting, clearly indicating that for Pissarro in the early and mid-1870s each work of art was made independently, rather than in the traditional hierarchy of drawing, watercolour, oil sketch, and finished painting.

Stylistic evidence suggests that this watercolour was made in the early or mid-1870s, when Pissarro concentrated on street scenes with balanced architectural masses. The interplay of red, green, and blue and the contrast of large areas of white and dark give the work a visual strength that belies its small size. It was made in a medium that Pissarro used throughout his life but that, curiously, was without a particularly distinguished history in French art. The pencil initials at the lower right indicate that Pissarro himself considered this sheet to be finished.

[Watercolour, pencil, gouache on woven paper]

Jose Jimenez Aranda - Figaro’s Shop [1875]

In this scene set in Rome, a young gypsy strums a guitar while a priest and a couple of men in frock coats play a game of checkers. The barber pulls up a chair to join them. The artist has provided a wealth of descriptive details, including caged birds, a copper barber's bowl suspended over the door, and graffiti on the wall. Jiménez (Spanish, 1837 - 1903), an artist from Seville, joined Mariano Fortuny's circle of Spanish artists in Rome in 1871. Like them, he displayed remarkable technical skills in his humorous depictions of daily life.

[Oil on canvas, 44 x 57.4 cm]