Vincent van Gogh - Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat [1887]

Vincent van Gogh - Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat [1887], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In 1886, at age thirty-two, Van Gogh arrived in Paris "not even know[ing] what the Impressionists were." By the time he left, two years later, he had cast off the muddy palette and coarse brushwork that had characterised his earlier efforts and embraced the latest developments in painting. Here he demonstrates his awareness of Neo-Impressionist technique and colour theory, using the back of a Dutch peasant study (The Potato Peeler) he had taken with him to Paris.

Van Gogh produced more than twenty self-portraits during his Parisian sojourn. Short of funds but determined nevertheless to hone his skills as a figure painter, he became his own best sitter: "I deliberately bought a good mirror so if I lacked a model I could work from my own likeness."

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 31.8 cm]

Pieter de Hooch - A Party [1675]

Pieter de Hooch - A Party [1675], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Philadelphia Museum of Art - Oil on canvas, 81.8 x 98.9 cm]

Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer [1885]

Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer [1885], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Here, a young poet crowned with a laurel wreath reads from Homer to an audience dressed for a festival. The setting is probably Greece toward the end of the seventh century BCE. The Greek letters in the upper right indicate that the place is dedicated to the poet. Through attention to details such as architecture and dress, Alma-Tadema evokes scenes of everyday life in ancient Greece and Rome. However, his pictures are rarely entirely archaeologically accurate. For example, while he accurately rendered the ancient musical instrument on the left, a cithara, he also included a type of rose that did not exist before the nineteenth century.

[Philadelphia Museum of Art - Oil on canvas, 91.8 x 183.5 cm]

John Singer Sargent - A Male Model Standing before a Stove [c.1875-80]

John Singer Sargent - A Male Model Standing before a Stove [c.1875-80], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 71.1 x 55.9 cm]

Goya - The Parasol [1777]

Goya - The Parasol [1777], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid - Oil on canvas, 104 x 152 cm]

Berthe Morisot - Young Woman Seated on a Sofa [c.1879]

Berthe Morisot - Young Woman Seated on a Sofa [c.1879], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Born to a French upper-middle-class family, Berthe Morisot diverged from societal norms when she established herself as a professional artist. She exhibited at the official Salons and in seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions. Morisot was at her apogee when she painted this model in her Paris apartment. By then she had melded the bravura brushwork adopted from her mentor and brother-in-law, Édouard Manet, with her own opalescent palette.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 80.6 x 99.7 cm]

Henry Herbert La Thangue - Winter in Liguria

Henry Herbert La Thangue - Winter in Liguria, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Henry Herbert La Thangue (Croydon, January 19, 1859 - London, December 21, 1929) was an English realist rural landscape painter associated with the Newlyn School.

[Christie’s Auctions - Oil on canvas, 41.75 X 35.25 inches]