Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard - Burial of a Monk

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard - Burial of a Monk, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (Grasse, October 26, 1780 – Paris, November 10, 1850) was a french painter and sculptor in the troubadour style. He received his first training from his father and drew from him his piquant subjects and great facility, perfecting them under David.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 72.7 x 91.1 cm]

Peter Paul Rubens - Head of Medusa [c.1617]

Peter Paul Rubens - Head of Medusa [c.1617], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - Oil on canvas, 69 x 118 cm]

Paolo Uccello - Saint George and the Dragon [c.1470]

Paolo Uccello - Saint George and the Dragon [c.1470], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This picture shows two episodes from the story of Saint George: his defeat of a plague-bearing dragon that had been terrorising a city; and the rescued princess bringing the dragon to heel (with her belt as a leash). In the sky, a storm is gathering. The eye of the storm lines up with Saint George's lance, suggesting that divine intervention has helped him to victory. Uccello (c.1397-1475) uses the lance to emphasise the angle from which Saint George attacks the dragon, helping to establish a three-dimensional space. The strange patches of grass illustrate Uccello's obsessive concern with linear perspective and his tendency to create decorative pattern.

[National Gallery, London - Oil on canvas, 55.6 x 74.2 cm]

Salomon van Ruysdael - A View of Rhenen seen from the West [1648]

Salomon van Ruysdael - A View of Rhenen seen from the West [1648], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The river in the foreground is the Rhine. On the horizon is the town of Rhenen (Province of Utrecht) with the tower of Cunerakerk and the 'Koningshuis', the residence of Frederick V, King of Bohemia and Elector of the Palatinate and his wife, Maria Stuart. The diagonals formed by the river banks and the clouds are carefully balanced by the cattle and sail boat in the foreground. 

Van Ruysdael (1600/03 - 1670) painted Rhenen on two other occasions. The paintings are now in Los Angeles (Getty Museum) and Merion, Pennsylvania (Barnes Foundation Museum of Art). A prolific painter, Ruysdael specialised throughout his life in river and estuary scenes, of which the earliest dated example is of 1626. His earlier paintings, like van Goyen's, are modest in theme and restricted in colour, the later works becoming more elaborate.

[National Gallery, London - Oil on wood, 30.5 x 41.3 cm]

Amy Weiskopf - Still Life with a Clock [1986]

Amy Weiskopf - Still Life with a Clock [1986], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Amy Weiskopf was born in Chicago in 1957 and attended Washington University, St. Louis and Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia. She has been exhibiting her work regularly since 1978. Her meticulously crafted contemporary still lifes glow with energy and reflect her sound understanding of art history.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 49.8 x 69.9 cm]

Anne Goldthwaite - The Green Sofa [1930-40]

Anne Goldthwaite - The Green Sofa [1930-40], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Anne Goldthwaite (Montgomery, Alabama, 1869 - New York City, 1944) was an American artist and an advocate of women's rights and equal rights. From 1922 until 1944 she taught and took commissions from her residence in New York. Amongst her commissions was Woodrow Wilson. Every summer she would return to Montgomery where she was known for her pictures featuring African Americans.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 49.5 cm]

Pieter de Hooch - The Bedroom [1658-60]

Pieter de Hooch - The Bedroom [1658-60], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In the well-run Dutch household of the 17th century each day had its prescribed chore. Mondays and Tuesdays were for dusting the reception rooms and bedrooms, Wednesdays the entire house. On Thursdays floors were scrubbed and on Fridays the kitchen and cellar scoured. And every day first thing in the morning, before anyone was about, the entryway, the front stoop, and the street in front of the house were scrubbed until they were, in the words of one astonished English visitor, "clean as any chamber floor."

[Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - Oil on canvas, 51 x 60 cm]