Anton Mauve - Changing Pasture [c.1880s]

Anton Mauve - Changing Pasture [c.1880s], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, The Hague became the centre of a major school of landscape painting. Its principal members were the Maris brothers, Josef Israels, H. W. Mesdag, and Mauve (Dutch, 1838 - 1888), who settled in The Hague in 1874. Inspired by J. F. Millet and other members of the Barbizon School, whose work could be seen in the Goupil Gallery in The Hague and in Mesdag's personal collection, they shared a commitment to record the peasant life, gray skies, and flat terrain of their native country. Changing Pasture reflects these interests and is a characteristic work of the last decade of Mauve's life.

[Oil on canvas, 61 x 100.6 cm]

François Hubert Drouais - Madame Charles Simon Favart [1757]

François Hubert Drouais - Madame Charles Simon Favart [1757], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This picture, signed and dated 1757, has been said to represent Marie Justine Benoîte Cabaret Duronceray (1727–1772), who first appeared on the Paris stage at the Foire Saint-Germain in 1744 or 1745, and thereafter married Charles Simon Favart (1710–1792), writer, librettist, and director of the Opéra Comique and the Comédie Italienne. From 1751 until 1769 Madame Favart reigned supreme in Paris as a comic actress. She was also a singer and dancer and played the harp and harpsichord. Among her most famous roles was that of the peasant heroine in Bastien et Bastienne (1753), in which she effected a revolution in theatrical costume by wearing authentic peasant dress.

[Oil on canvas, 80 x 64.8 cm]

Edgar Degas - Convalescent [c.1872-87]

Edgar Degas - Convalescent [c.1872-87], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Although the identity of the sitter in this portrait is a mystery, Edgar Degas conveyed her character by capturing the overwhelming sorrow to which she has succumbed. Posed with her head tilted and leaning against the back of her left hand, she appears weary. Her languorous expression and red-rimmed eyes, together with the limp right arm hanging at her side, suggest a physical or emotional malady, though nothing in the painting confirms the cause of her affliction. Hidden beneath a brown robe and full white gown, her pose is ambiguous; it is unclear if she sits, stands, or leans. The Convalescent attests to Degas's interest in the world of women - their physical characteristics and surroundings, and their complex emotional and psychological conditions. 

Unlike traditional nineteenth-century portraits, which were commissioned and usually left the artist's studio upon completion, this depiction of an unidentified woman remained in Degas's studio for at least fifteen years. The painting is unconventional in other ways as well; The Convalescent is more psychologically suggestive and spatially ambiguous than typical portraits of the time, such as Franz Xaver Winterhalter's official portrait, Leonilla, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn. Degas's thick, unblended brushstrokes and flattened space bring the figure forward, conveying informality and intimacy.

[Oil on canvas, 25.625 x 18.5 inches]

William Hogarth - After [c.1730-31]

William Hogarth - After [c.1730-31], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In this companion piece to Before [the Seduction], a man stands and hurriedly pulls up his breeches after successfully seducing a young woman. Cap and clothing askew, the disheveled woman implores his discretion. The overturned table and broken mirror symbolise the woman's shattered life now that she has lost her virginity. The dog sleeping in the foreground refers to post-coital exhaustion. 

[Oil on canvas, 15.25 x 13.25 inches]

William Hogarth - Before [c.1730-31]

William Hogarth - Before [c.1730-31], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This narrative painting describes the moments before a seduction. A young man in red breeches attempts to pull a young woman onto a bed. Struggling, she tries to push him away, dragging her dressing table down with her. Ironically, an open drawer reveals a book on the rules of courtship. Below, a small dog barks, alarmed by the commotion. 

[Oil on canvas, 14.25 x 13.25 inches]

Eugène Boudin - On the Beach at Trouville [1863]

Eugène Boudin - On the Beach at Trouville [1863], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Boudin, a native of Honfleur, began painting scenes of fashionable beach resorts along the Normandy coast in the early 1860s. In a letter of 1863, the year in which this view of the beach at Trouville was painted, the artist acknowledged the popularity of his paintings of "little ladies on the beach," adding that "some people say that in them there lies a vein of gold to be exploited."

This painting reflects Boudin's interest in capturing the effects of light and atmosphere, from the flag and the crinoline fluttering in the stiff breeze to the cool gray light of the overcast sky. Painted in his studio, the work was likely based on studies made on-site. The artist often annotated such studies with the date, time of day, and wind conditions.

[Oil on wood, 25.4 x 45.7 cm]

Édouard Vuillard - The Album [1895]

Édouard Vuillard - The Album [1895], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In 1894–95, Thadée and Misia Natanson commissioned from Vuillard a series of five decorative panels known collectively as The Album. The unusual character of these works matched that of the Natansons' Paris apartment, a large open space adjoined by several small alcove areas. Its unconventional decor reflected Misia's taste, which was inspired by the English Arts and Crafts movement. The apartment often served as an alternative office for Thadée's lively avant-garde journal, La Revue Blanche. Among the contributors to this influential publication were Claude Debussy, Léon Blum, Stéphane Mallarmé, and André Gide. The evocative Symbolist qualities of Mallarmé's poetry and Debussy's music find echoes in Vuillard's five panels, which take their name from this painting.

[Oil on canvas, 67.9 x 204.5 cm]