Gerard de Lairesse - Diana [1677]

Gerard de Lairesse - Diana [1677], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Gerard de Lairesse (Liège, 1640 or 1641 – Amsterdam, 1711), also Gérard de Lairesse, was a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist. In the second half of the 17th Century, the pious austerity and embarrassment of riches of the Dutch in Rembrandt's age had given way to unbridled opulence, even decadence, and de Lairesse's classical French style fitted this age perfectly. It made him one of, if not the most popular painter in Amsterdam. He was frequently hired to adorn the interiors of government buildings and homes of wealthy Amsterdam businessmen with lavish trompe l'oeil ceiling and wall paintings.

[Oil on canvas, 177 x 118.5 cm]

Adam Styka - Desert Seduction

Adam Styka - Desert Seduction, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Adam Styka was born in Poland in 1890. He completed his formal education at the French Academy of Fine Arts, Academie de Beau Arts, and painted closely under the tutelage of his father, Jan Styka. His exquisite ability of captivating and conveying to his paintings faithfully the vibrating strong colours full of contrast of the hot Sahara Desert of Northern Africa, colours harmoniously blended together, made him a master without compare and earned him the appellation, The Master of Sunlight. He died on September 23, 1959 and was buried in the Alley of the Merit in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Bartolome Esteban Murillo - Christ Healing the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda [1667-70]

Bartolome Esteban Murillo - Christ Healing the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda [1667-70], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem was periodically visited by an angel, and whoever first stepped into the water after this visit would be cured of illness. Christ visited the pool and a sick man complained to him that he was never able to get to the pool first. When Christ said to him, 'Rise, take up thy bed, and walk', the man was miraculously cured. The painting was made for the church belonging to the hospital of the Caridad (Charity) in Seville. The Caridad was a charitable brotherhood dedicated to helping the poor and sick of the city. Murillo was himself a member of the brotherhood.

Murillo painted six large pictures for the church representing six of the seven acts of charity (the seventh is represented by a sculpture which remains in place on the high altar). Two of the paintings are still in the church, while the other four, including this one, are now in various museums. This picture represents the act of visiting the sick.

[Oil on canvas, 237 x 261 cm]

Claude-Oscar Monet - Bathers at La Grenouillere [1869]

Claude-Oscar Monet - Bathers at La Grenouillere [1869], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This painting depicts a popular boating and bathing establishment with an adjacent floating café, on the Seine near Bougival to the west of Paris. In the summer of 1869 Monet was living near La Grenouillère with his mistress, Camille, and their son. Working alongside Renoir, he painted sketches of the scene in a very fresh and direct manner, possibly in preparation for a slightly larger canvas, now lost. The exceptionally free handling of Monet's painting may in part be due to the canvas being a sketch for what was to be a more ambitious composition painted back in the studio. He uses broad areas of colour to indicate the boats moored in the shadows, while dots in the lighted water in the background represent a party of bathers in the river.

[Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm]

Imitator of David Teniers the Younger - A Doctor Tending a Patient's Foot in his Surgery [c.1600-99]

Imitator of David Teniers the Younger - A Doctor Tending a Patient's Foot in his Surgery [c.1600-99], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

An assistant warms a plaster at the right, while the patient is treated. Perhaps a copy after a lost original by Teniers. This composition was certainly designed by David Teniers the Younger but its execution is too weak to be by him, and the painting is probably the work of an imitator working after Teniers's death. The signature and date are probably both later additions.

[Oil on oak. 39 x 61.1 cm]

Michelangelo - The Manchester Madonna [c.1497]

Michelangelo - The Manchester Madonna [c.1497], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This painting is unfinished. Christ is seen indicating a passage in the book held by the Virgin which one pair of angels contemplates. The others study a scroll, perhaps given to them by John the Baptist. The book and scroll may carry prophecies of Christ's future sacrifice. The draperies and the rock plinth are very similar to Michelangelo's earliest sculptures.

[Tempera on wood, 104.5 x 77 cm]

Leo Putz - Portrait of a Young Woman

Leo Putz - Portrait of a Young Woman, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 74 x 68 cm]